our neighbor is the HC at the small rural local HS. he had some D3 college coaching experience and was a GA at Iowa State, so good background. he hosts a fund raising breakfast we attended today, and had two interesting comments.
the team won (by 2 points) last night and beat a previously unbeaten team, although that team had really played a weak schedule. Coach's comment was beating a team who hasn't lost is always a heavy lift. Even if they haven't played a strong schedule, a win is a win, and that breeds confidence. We have heard him say this before, but it made me think of PSU. I thought of Penn State schedule this year and half the teams we play will likely be unbeaten when we play them. This makes a hard schedule harder. It is also the story of a team like UMich who played nobody and never played an away game. Their QB has confidence even if it is artificial.
the other think he said was as coaches go to bigger schools or coach college, they tend to see players as a position and not what they could be. This leads to players who are backups on the depth chart who might be able to fill a hole elsewhere not being considered. He noticed this as he has coached at all levels. Our team only dresses about 45-50 players, and 4-5 play two way. that would not happen in the big school class. However, last night we had an injured LB, and he moved a backup who had been playing RB and TE to LB. the kid looked better than any LB on the team. He was decent RB/TE and good sized kid and turned out to be even better at LB. The kid had never been in a game at LB, and was one of the reasons we won last night. Our team's best players are where the kid had been playing. He said that when you coach at higher levels you tend to forget to look at your entire team to fill holes. In the era of the transfer portal, you can see where this would be important. Nick Scott came to us a pretty good RB, but not compared to Saquon and Myles. In today's game if we let him sit behind them, he would transfer. Moving him to safety improved our team, and now he is in the NFL. Coach said that the concept of best available player to fill a hole tends to go away as you go to bigger programs, but it can still be effective even there.
the team won (by 2 points) last night and beat a previously unbeaten team, although that team had really played a weak schedule. Coach's comment was beating a team who hasn't lost is always a heavy lift. Even if they haven't played a strong schedule, a win is a win, and that breeds confidence. We have heard him say this before, but it made me think of PSU. I thought of Penn State schedule this year and half the teams we play will likely be unbeaten when we play them. This makes a hard schedule harder. It is also the story of a team like UMich who played nobody and never played an away game. Their QB has confidence even if it is artificial.
the other think he said was as coaches go to bigger schools or coach college, they tend to see players as a position and not what they could be. This leads to players who are backups on the depth chart who might be able to fill a hole elsewhere not being considered. He noticed this as he has coached at all levels. Our team only dresses about 45-50 players, and 4-5 play two way. that would not happen in the big school class. However, last night we had an injured LB, and he moved a backup who had been playing RB and TE to LB. the kid looked better than any LB on the team. He was decent RB/TE and good sized kid and turned out to be even better at LB. The kid had never been in a game at LB, and was one of the reasons we won last night. Our team's best players are where the kid had been playing. He said that when you coach at higher levels you tend to forget to look at your entire team to fill holes. In the era of the transfer portal, you can see where this would be important. Nick Scott came to us a pretty good RB, but not compared to Saquon and Myles. In today's game if we let him sit behind them, he would transfer. Moving him to safety improved our team, and now he is in the NFL. Coach said that the concept of best available player to fill a hole tends to go away as you go to bigger programs, but it can still be effective even there.
