Joe Daniel Football Quick Clinic

Offensive Line Love

Winning Isn't Everything

Is Your Offense A System?

Are You Hurt Or Injured?

Weekly Staff Meeting Organization

Scripting Offensive Play Calls

How Many Pass Protections?

Route Concepts or Numbered Routes?

Challenging Your Offense

Coaching Overwhelm

One Word Calls for Stemming Defense

Cover 3 for Low Football IQ

Practice Done In Less Time

Defensive Drills for Split Field Coverage

Pistol vs Gun QB Alignment

Educating Your Coaching Staff

Too Complicated to Be Simple

Mirror Defensive Positions

Playbooks for Players

This Kid Can't Hit

Specificity vs Multiplicity

When all your players are about the same, it is hard to know who should play what positions. And at a smaller school, it is likely some guys will have to move around during the season.  Today's JDFB Quick Clinic answers a listener question from Twitter. Should you focus on teaching general football skills so that your players can play multiple positions? Or put more energy into teaching position specific skills for players who do not really fit into those positions? 

Block Destruct | JDFB QC 252

Football is a game of blocking and tackling. If your defenders cannot block destruct, you have a hard time winning that game. Here's how to coach it.

Red Zone Efficiency

Getting to the red zone is one thing, but your red zone efficiency determines how good your offense is. Nothing is more frustrating than turning the ball over on 4th down when you are knocking on the door. Do not let your offense chew up yards between the 20s then stall out when it counts. This week's JDFB Quick Clinic answers a listener question on Red Zone Efficiency.

Plan Your Purpose

Recruit The Building

Offense For The Average

Coaching Philosophy

Getting Players to Work Harder

Coaching Without Teaching

Coaching The Free Safety

Best RPOs to Attack the 33 Stack Defense

Answering a listener question on the best run play and RPO combinations to run against the 3-3-5 Defense.

The Wrong Reason to Study Game Film

Linebacker Strength Calls

This is an alternate method of making linebacker strength calls for your defense. Find out what you should never do with your linebackers on defense.

First Coaching Job

Moving Up to High School Coaching | QC 239

Discipline Problems and Punishment

How to Defend Counter Read

Offenses are always looking for a new way to attack your defense. Today's listener question looks at a one of those new ways and how we have adjusted with the 4-2-5 Defense. We'll take a look at defending the Counter Read play out of a spread 2x2 formation against a 1-high Cover 3 4-2-5 Defense.

Motivating Athletes for Football

A big source of frustration for football coaches is keeping your athletes motivated during a long season. Or worse, during an exceptionally long off-season like many have had in 2020. This episode takes a look at the source of motivation for athletes. Find out how coaches can create a more successful environment for your football team using success oriented goals.

Changing Defensive Fronts Every Week

This week's listener question asks what the best defensive front to run against a run-heavy schedule would be. Then we look at whether you should have multiple fronts in the plan, or changing the defensive front every week to match the opponent. To hear your question on the JDFB Quick Clinic, send a DM to @footballinfo on Twitter, or email [email protected].

Screen Pass Defense

Defending screen passes is tough. Good offensive coordinators are setting you up all game long to hit a big screen play. It's a great way for them to get an athlete in space who's hard to bring down, too. The secret to defending screen passes starts with removing that word. Stop thinking about a screen pass as a pass. Screen plays are an extension of the run game. They are used as a constraint play for the passing game. Specifically, screen plays are a constraint against your aggressive p...

Offensive Playbook: Is This Too Much?

How Much Man Coverage?

No matter how good your athletes are, playing a great man coverage package takes a lot of work. Just like any other coverage you’re going to have to put in a lot of time getting the technique just right. And if you have great athletes running man coverage with poor technique, you might really be taking away from their ability. In this episode, we take a look at how much man coverage to run when you have a great set of Defensive Backs.

3 Huge Linebacker Stance Mistakes

Coaching the linebacker stance for your defense seems like such a simple thing. Feet apart, squat down, eyes up, back flat… you know the basic coaching cues. But I see a lot of coaches making just a handful of mistakes that really cost your defense. You may not even know it. The cost of mistakes in stance isn’t as obvious as bad tackling or poor key reads. But the cost to fix these stance problems is cheap. You need to do it.

Half-Slide Pass Protection Adjustments for Trips Formations

I've done a lot of experimenting with different schemes, but half-slide pass protection has been the primary protection scheme in the Pistol Power Offense for several years. It just makes sense with what we do. That's the critical key. It makes sense with what we do. The protection scheme is intricately tied into the entire passing scheme. The check release by the back is critical to the Quarterback's trigger reads.

5-3 Defense for Defending the Run

We usually only hear the 5-3 Defense associated with youth football defense today. For coaches trying to learn the defense, it’s hard to find as much information as you might find about a 4-4 Defense. There’s great news though. This is a great defense for stopping the run at the youth level. But it’s actually being run at High School and College programs across the country. Just by a different name. This episode takes a look at the basics of the 5-3 Defense, and how you can learn more ab...

5 Tips for Defending RPOs

When they hit the football coaching scene a few years ago, defensive coordinators were scratching their heads defending RPOs. But while it's a great tool for offenses to attack, run pass options are not as mystical as they may seem. If you've got a good RPO team on your schedule this season, you don't need to panic and change your whole defense. Follow the 5 tips for defending RPO's in this podcast to shut 'em down.

Force Player in Football | Quick Clinic 227

The force player in football is responsible for turning run plays back to the spill defenders. In this episode we define the role of the force defender and how to identify who he is in your defense. I'm also answering a listener question on the force player in the 4-3 Defense with 2-high safeties.

Nickel Defense | Quick Clinic 226

My favorite comment when we post a new 4-2-5 Defense article or podcast to the Joe Daniel Football Facebook Page has got to be, “So it’s a nickel defense ”. You got me, dude. There seems to be a small counsel of football terminology gatekeepers out there. No one knows who appointed them, or what authority they have. But they’re pretty sure they have it. Today’s episode of the JDFB Quick Clinic isn’t to fight those guys. After all, they’re right! The 4-2-5 Defense and the 3-3-5 Defense ar...

Defending a Running Quarterback | Quick Clinic 225

When you look at that exchange film and find out you’ll be defending a running quarterback this week, it gives you the chills. The best athlete on the field is going to have the ball in his hands on every single snap. But don’t worry. There is hope. Check out this week’s JDFB Quick Clinic for a few simple tips to prepare your defense for that tough assignment. You can listen to the episode using the player at the bottom of this post or wherever podcasts are available. Game Planning for D...

Simple Football Plays That Work | Quick Clinic 224

Drawing up complex X's and O's on a napkin can be a lot of fun, but the best offenses often rely on very simple football plays that just plain work. Not always sexy, but they get the job done. The inspiration for this episode was a conversation on our private Chalk Board Forum for JDFB Coaching Systems clients about some simple football plays for a youth football team. Then the topic of the Wedge Play came up. That got my thinking. The Best Simple Football Plays At JDFB it's always abo...