Offensive Coordinator Peoria Notre Dame – Merging Coaching strengths into the Wing T offense. Pro’s and Cons of play calling from the box. Offensive Coordinator Matt Garnett m.garnett@pndhs.org Head Coach Joe Walters j.walters@pndhs.org

Team accomplishments: Peoria Notre Dame reached the Quarter finals for the first time in 13 years. 3rd Time in school history. Season had 3288 yards of total offense, 2914 yards were rushing yards. In the Playoffs averaged 306 rushing yards per game and 6.7yard/carry (33.3 pt/game)Vs. #10,#5,and#1 ranked 4A teams in state. Had 6 players with over 200 yards rushing, 2 of them had over 450, and one had over 1100.

Background Played at Princeville High School ran I and Power I. Merged into a Double Wing (1-8 and 3-6) with inexperience. Loras College ran I. With Zone and Iso Sophomore head coach for PND coached the I the first year and double wing the second year. 2012 PND offensive coordinator ran Wing-T for about 90 percent of the snaps. With a bit of spread, Power I, and I Depending on situation or plan.

Decision Was given freedom to choose what I felt was best for the team. From lots of clinics, found the blocking we were using was already what old school wing t teams were using. Our position coach with the most coaching experience was the line coach Great coaches are hard to come by let them coach what they know Head Coach came from a double wing offense at previous school Qb coach had been working a double wing offense and had all the footwork down.

Other influences Watching the state championship games and in 1-6A one if not both of the teams ran some form of Wing T or Double Wing. Felt had a lot of backs (short and fast) not real tall, returning Qb was a runner, also short. Find a way to get as much talent on the field as possible The offense can start out very simple and with motions can look extremely complex. Can run plays without motion to either side (giving it and I like quality with a lot of misdirection) Great for Option Can make the blocking simple for the line (toughest job) Can make things complex for the backs which have the easier job

Bill Walsh “In Walsh’s game, as in business, winning requires keeping your cool in stressful situations, the worst time for make decisions. Walsh tried to minimize stress with scrupulous planning”

Play Calling from the box Calling plays from the box minimizes stress. Minimizes crown noise Keeps me separated from emotional players Sideline can be chaos at times Allows me to focus on two things: what the defense is trying to do and call plays

Head coach On headset Substitutions Making sure play is in on time 8 He’ll usually let me know on 2nd or 3rd down so that I can plan accordingly or take a shot. Head coach On headset Substitutions Making sure play is in on time Keeps me focused on offense He also makes the call whether we are going four it on Fourth down or not. Head coach is in the huddle during timeouts and quarter changes He will also remind me periodically that we do have some passing plays in our play book

Issues Have to put players on the head set to talk to them. Can turn into a game of telephone if calling a play not on the wrist band. Substitutions, sometimes the personnel I intend is not what goes in. Solution is depending on game plan substitute different personnel. We began subbing TE/SE’s instead of backs. Not all teams have boxes for opponents. Be prepared for the worst. IVC, Prairie Central.

More advantages Forces you to prepare. I update the wristband throughout the week based on game plan and what is running clean in practice With these updates I’m constantly focusing on what to run and also helps when needed to get the number of the play we are running.

Wristband I color code a call sheet. By where I want to attack. Section by Outside 8/9, Off tackle 4/5, inside2/3, and middle0/1. I also keep an enlarged version of the actual wristband to make sure there are no errors. Its best to have the wristband finalized by Thursday walk through Show wristband

Coaches I watch point of attack (in box) Qb coach watches the secondary, and adjustments defense is making to motion (in Box) Line coach is watching line stunts (far sideline) Freshman HC is writing the call number with Down Distance. He will then watch the backside. (in box) Freshman DC watches who makes the tackle. (going to document by jersey number this year). (in box) Head Coach is in charge of getting the play relayed and also the backside(no one is very good at watching the backside) I have the head coach and line coach on head set and the rest are in the box so I’m in constant communication with everyone watching the field

Other Notes If you want to run a wing-t offense the ability to sustain drives is important but more important is finishing them. Its extremely important early, when your taking these drives and finishing them it gives the opposing team a sense that you are unstoppable. As the game goes on it will be a huge advantage. If your making long drives and not finishing them it gives the opposite effect. With the long drives the most devastating outcome is a turnovers. We work drills everyday to help with ball control. Have a good defense. Our defense was able to bail us out of games. With the time of possession usually being in our favor it also makes things easier on them as well. The Wing T is not good for large comebacks

Ball Drills Step overs 1 and 2 feet per bag Zig zags switching balls hands emphasizing dragging the ball across chest (coaches try to knock ball loose) Lateral step overs with ball thrown/pitched Blaster Zizag with cones (higher speed at the cuts) One arm jump switches Circle drill Bear crawls with ball Tripping drill

Lessons learned Being an ex-power full back believed I needed a bruiser for a fullback. The offense didn’t pull together until we were forced due to injury to go to a quicker fullback (averaged 103 yards over the last 4 games). Need to have the Qb practice at full speed. He had a practice speed and a game speed (both were fast) the difference threw off our pitch relation in our option game. Need to spend more time studying previous weeks game before practice next week. I went through all our games in depth during the offseason. I could of fixed a lot more mistakes if taken 2 more hours a week going through the game. Left tackle quit playing should of replaced him earlier in the season.

Lessons Learned Keep things simple. Need to work on passing more also need to find a way to simulate game speed better vs. pass. Be prepared for anything. Teams would come up with interesting defenses to defend us. Usually an advantage for us. Get the players to buy into the offense.