The Football Coaching Podcast With Joe Daniel

Giving your linebackers the perfect gameplan for Friday nights is difficult. We've simplified it to nearly elementary coaching points, but the pressures of the game can take a toll on a young player's mind to the point of failure. In this episode Joe Daniel and Daniel Chamberlain discuss the ASKA principle for your linebackers, what makes it operate, how you can use it with your current playbook, and how it's a gameplanning tool in hiding!  

Building a practice schedule doesn't have to be a big complex thing. Sure, you make a ridiculously nice one on a spreadsheet, add photos, some color… or just scribble it on paper (don't do this, you coaches deserve better)… but the most important thing is the content. To decide what goes into your practice, you need to compartmentalize your coaching.  On this episode, Joe and Daniel discuss how to use the containers principle, how staying focused leads to faster development, and how to get more done in less time.

On The Football Coaching Podcast, hosts Daniel Chamberlain and Joe Daniel record live at Milton Academy in Massachusetts with guests Brady Bradbury and Kahn Chace, discussing what they wish they'd known before becoming head coaches. Bradbury says he initially assumed he'd run a complex 4-2-5 college system, but learned to tailor schemes to players and staff capabilities, simplify to help coaches teach, and manage constant daily "fires" unrelated to football. The group emphasizes that coaches often overestimate staff buy-in, must intentionally schedule time to educate coaches, and should delegate without trying to control everything. Chace advises not to pursue the title alone, to find and stay with good people and loyal administrators, and to know your "why," sharing that his is watching players improve. Chamberlain adds that persistence through rejections can lead to the right job, and notes head coaching requires year-round time and planning.

"Nothing new under the sun," is a statement that's truer than we like to admit. It also gives you the "okay," to stop pretending you're going to do anything different than any other coach out there. You don't have to build a brand new football idea from the ground up. In this episode Joe Daniel and Daniel Chamberlain jump into system stealing, system matching, and system evolution. Learn how to find proven systems, find the right system for your team, and how to evolve the system year after year.  

As Spring Ball gets closer, 7-on-7 is looming, and season seems just around the corner, you're probably looking through your defensive install plan, scratching your head, wondering how to get it all in the most efficient way this season. In this episode Joe Daniel and Daniel Chamberlain talk through the best defensive install plan for the 425 defense, and likely any defense, for this upcoming season. They talk planning what you need to install, how to get it all installed in 5 days, and how to ensure you have enough ready for week 1.

Calling plays for your team's offense on game day doesn't have to be super complicated, but it does need to be methodical. Your plan to take advantage of the defense has to involve finding their weaknesses and exploiting them. In this episode Joe Daniel and Daniel Chamberlain discuss the four weaknesses of a Defense, how to build your playbook to attack those weaknesses, and how to identify the weaknesses during a game.

Building your playbook from year to year is one of the most important things you do to ensure success for that season. It is also important to remember that no two years are going to be the exact same.  In this episode Joe and Daniel discuss how many plays to carry, how to build around your best play, how to execute that play at the highest level, and how to attack your opponents weaknesses.

As long as football has been around, there have been winners and there have been losers. Some teams find a way to win more than lose… and some teams get stuck in the losing column. It becomes their culture.  In this episode Joe and Daniel discuss how to break out of that losing cycle by building confidence, getting your players to buy-in, and setting expectations that you already understand will have some adversity.

Being a teacher doesn't stop when the last bell rings and you don your whistle. ""You're not so different, you and I." - Austin Powers" - Football Coaches to teachers everywhere. The skills you master to be a great teacher in the classroom can help your players on the field as well. In this episode Joe and Daniel are joined by Ryan Moshak, a former Army Officer, athlete at Army at Westpoint, and current Football Coach. They discuss the use of traditional pedagogy, forced recall, formative assessments and more in teaching football to get kids to better understand your system.

Coach, you really don't need to recreate the wheel every season. There is a whole world of guys who are using the same plays recycled in a new playbook from year to year. We live in an amazing of SYSTEMS. In this episode, Joe and Daniel discuss what a system is, why you need to build one you can believe in, and how to adapt it year after year to fit your personnel.

"There's levels to this, man." That is true, there are levels to calling a defense. Every play in your playbook fits a certain level of play calling, and has a specific task. Calling defense isn't hard, if you have an understanding to your system, and use the tools to solve problems. In this episode Joe Daniel and Daniel Chamberlain discuss the finer details to defensive play calling. They talk about the Three Levels of play calling, how you can always know what play to call, and how to use your own weakness to stay a step ahead. 

Simple doesn't mean Elementary… but it does mean reducing the clutter and eliminating inefficiencies. Everything about your program can improve with the Coach Simple Philosophy. In this episode Joe and Daniel jump feet first into Season 20 with a deep dive into the Coach Simple Philosophy. What it is, how it can help you reduce, and how it can set you up for future evolutions of your program.

Daniel Chamberlain and Joe Daniel discuss the significant changes in college football due to NIL (Name, Image, Likeness) deals and the transfer portal. They reflect on the challenges and pressures faced by athletes and coaches under the new system, the destabilizing impact on smaller programs, and the evolving landscape of college athletics. Key topics include the history of athlete compensation, potential future regulations, and the shifting dynamics between traditional fans and modern expectations.

The 4-2-5 has a lot of answers to common problems in high school football. If you're team is struggling to stop the opposition, you'll likely find the answer somewhere within this playbook and scheme. In this episode, the guys are doing a crossover episode on the Coaching 101 Podcast with Kenny Simpson. Check it out to find the basics of installing and running the most hybrid defense in football.

3rd downs on defense are the magic number. This one play, especially if it's the first 3rd down of the drive, can add or subtract several percentage points from the offenses' chances to score. So, how can we get better at stopping our opponent on these critical downs? In this episode, Joe and Daniel discuss situational practice planning to better prepare your players for 3rd down, how you can call your defense to be in better position to stop your opponent, and what we're doing to motivate our players during crucial downs.

3rd and Long is the ultimate, we don't have a great play here, offensive situation. The deep pass is already covered, the run hasn't been great or you likely wouldn't have been in this mess to begin with. So, what are your options? In this episode Joe and Daniel discuss the reality of 3rd & Long, what your real options are to convert, and how you can use situational practice plans to better prepare your players for the tough down and distance.

We've hit that time of year that guys go back "into the lab." This year you've diagnosed some other needs for your team, and the lab is changing from just being the weight room, to needing some speed development. In this episode, Joe and Daniel discuss the benefits of Athletic Speed and Movement to get your team faster and more explosive this offseason. They talk through Football Speed Training Progressions, how to coach speed without being a guru, and dveloping the correct skills for football speed.  

The screen game is a mighty weapon wielded by offensive coordinators across the land. But, it doesn't have to be your demise anymore. In this episode Joe and Daniel discuss the ways to counter screen plays next season by practicing the screen retrace drill, using the system you're already in, and reading and reacting to any and every screen with your fundamentals.

In football, the run game is the foundation of MOST offensive schemes… and rightly so. Ball control, time control, game tempo control all belong to those who can run the ball. So much so that if it isn't working for you, you may find yourself in the losing column more often than you'd like. In this episode Joe Daniel and Daniel Chamberlain discuss the importance of the timing of your run plays, how you can work within your playbook and get plays to break out, and finding ways to increase your yards per carry without adding talent to your team.