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Coach's Corner: Building A Winning Football Program

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  • Coach's Corner: Building A Winning Football Program

    Posted at 7:00am — 4/12/2015

    This is Not An Accidental Synthesis of Luck

    The typical and fervent college football (and professional) fan is lifted a little off the ground and filled with some artificial, but noticeable, swagger when a chosen team is on a winning tear. Some teams almost always win, and so the fan base of those storied programs swells past the collective alumni and state of residence loyalists, who by common circumstance are simply willing loyal patrons and supporters.

    Programs who have had the fortune of multiple championships through the decades have a fan base affiliation that spreads out beyond local to regional, and indeed throughout the nation. Merchandisers and universities have swept up huge profits from program supporters displaying their choice of favoritism through hats, shirts, sweatshirts, blankets, overpriced cushion seats, and well overpriced pieces of mere thin plastic that serve as rainwear. Trash cans, grills, chairs, and toilet seats are also in abundance for sale, at least in the region of one Big Ten school known nationally.

    So, the point is that psychologically the usual fan highly values a winner and suffers from an attachment to a losing team. And so, one’s perception of a program is based on, perhaps too much so, the simple win loss record that goes neatly into the record book at the conclusion of each season.

    This simplicity of so defining success is normal, maybe unfortunately so for the true analytical purist. Each program has program objectives put forth that are noble, but become superseded and forgotten by numerical scores and perception of program control. Lose games or lose control and a coach will move on, whether by resignation or non-renewal of contract.

    Some of the noble goals and objectives include player development, grade point average, player conduct, coaching conduct, service to the community, and one not emphasized enough: rapport with and treatment of the student athlete, an attribute that best serves the interests of the true stakeholder, the athlete.

    Coach Jim Harbaugh is not a win only philosophical type of coach, but he certainly is a win first type. To explain, Coach Harbaugh is not against good treatment, good grades, or good behavior, but his key focus is winning. That is how Mechanists work; there is a central goal with precise end objectives, and an easily identified desired outcome that is not simplistically stated for mere convenience. To make the Mechanist formula work, there must be machine like planning, execution, and the results must match the machine’s intent.

    Jim Harbaugh and Brady Hoke are similar in more ways than people may concede. As mentioned on this site previously (see Peppered Football Series in the archive section), Hoke remains a strong Formist who had bottom line underlying beliefs that simply were foundational and as such unchangeable as long as they supported the underpinning belief system. Such belief is good for a Formist, otherwise mass confusion results. Hoke’s underlying belief in the positive and supportive treatment of his players started to come under fire as a negative only as the losses mounted. If Coach Hoke had achieved more wins, then likely the detractors would have lauded Michigan as a model of how players should be treated within a large program.

    The mechanistic part of Coach Hoke’s tenure, including management situations on and off the field, did not yield certain needed ingredients for accruing wins. Such a conclusion was obvious and Coach Hoke with dignity and proud of his Formist philosophy and actions exited the leadership of the Michigan program. Hoke should resurface; with lessons learn, with more intensity, but still with his basic belief system intact, one that is honorable and sound, in place. Many successful coaches modify and excel after the darkest hour. In contrast, Coach Harbaugh gives quick acknowledgement of underlying Formist concerns and beliefs but has gone straight into the machine work he envisions for winning football games.

    This series about building a winning football program focuses on Jim Harbaugh, newly appointed Head Coach of The University of Michigan.

    Building A Winning Football Program — Talent The Bloodlines

    Like so much in sports, the saying talent is the lifeline of a program may be a generalized cliché, however, the saying is accurate.

    Talent is what most new coaches hunt for first upon being hired. Talent is a primary ingredient in the formula of winning: it is not the only ingredient, but is prominent if not foremost. Talent needs to be placed first since most coaching contracts stipulate between four and five years, with extensions for early success.

    Still, success is not a guarantee to long-term tenure as most schools have financial resources to simply buy out any coach. Strange things happen quickly in the landscape of perceived job longevity. Just two years ago, Jim Harbaugh was considered a shoo-in for the next several years at San Francisco. Now he has set up his professional shingle at Stadium and Main.

    Recruiting has no one strategy, albeit the common fan believes the matter is simple: simply go out, throw the best pitch to the consensus best athletes and let the talent level be the difference between wins and losses. That has happened at several places, and in many college games teams with better talent levels simply beat a team with lesser talent. But the difference in program components, other than pure athletic talent, can certainly swing the final result. Such components may include, but are not be limited to, talent identification, talent development, coaching methodology, player management, and game management.

    Regardless of worldview, a coach must start with the basics of Formism. There are philosophies, goals, objectives, program procedures, and everyday routine that must be established to initiate order. Coach Harbaugh’s necessary voyage into creating the underlying Formism of his program was short. His focus is in getting winning parts and making a successful machine.

    As inferred above, coaches are different in what is desired in recruiting. Some simply send out tons of offers and see what sticks to the wall. Some programs are very selective and downright stingy with offers. This is a luxury derived from the popular vibes winning provides. Some coaches seek very specific parts with precise attributes.

    Coach Harbaugh hunts attributes. He did so at Stanford and to some degree at San Francisco. He really has no choice but to find the right parts for his system to advance Michigan past the .500 benchmark.
    The attributes Harbaugh seeks are clear. He wants size. This choice cannot be argued, as even though Michigan is bigger than four years ago, the team is far from physically impressive. Any 165-pound player coming to Michigan will likely be a playmaker, such as a Steve Breaston. Harbaugh wants toughness and the associated physicality.

    His early choice of running back recruits indicates he wants substance more than the wow factor guy that looks and dances pretty. He wants a guy that makes three yards on third and two, not a guy who is a yard short, or even an inch short. Harbaugh wants a strong listener who will use coaching and personal motivation to get better, not just tolerate coaching as a means to playing time.

    Harbaugh wants, make that clearly demands, hard workers. Performance will count more than any other characteristic. The way to better performance will be defined as working to the maximum fore the eventual aim of improvement, and be willing to accept the why. Stagnation will not be welcome with new or veteran talent. A mantra in such programs may become- soon you will enjoy hard work and become better, or you will be gone.

    Harbaugh has long accepted that quarterback play is critical to the success of any college team. His background and his experience merge together in the acceptance of the importance of this position. This was his first true mission in securing Michigan talent. One would think with all the possibilities over the next four years that good results will shake out from this effort.

    Other schools have current recruiting advantages over Michigan, in the ebb and flow of historic program success. But Michigan has its old aces in the hole: high character program, renowned degree value, a superior mid-sized city, and a high-level staff.

    The mission is to increase Michigan’s reach and success in grabbing players like Jabrill Peppers, those who are supreme workers seeking to be supreme players. Harbaugh is well known, generates excitement and knows what he wants to create a winning team. Many places are not so fortunate.

    Building A Winning Football Program — Execution, The Ingredient Talent Needs

    Last time out, this series examined the ingredient of talent, the lifeline of every big time football program. The clear conclusion is that Coach Jim Harbaugh is aggressively seeking talent for the 2016 and 2017 recruiting classes. Early returns indicate that size, physical play, and overall toughness will be important factors in the pursuit of the new world of Michigan football.

    After the talent comes to Ann Arbor, the program must undergo planned strategies that increase team success. Delineating the planned strategies collectively is not that simple. Creating a list that neatly packages every program’s needs or objectives is too rigid. There simply is a range of program characteristics, talent types, and methodology that prohibits such an attempt.

    Program management and execution strategy is a collective term that may best suit the quest discussed above. Management and execution (combined) becomes a program element that is perhaps more difficult to excel at and certainly more important in obtaining final triumph than even talent searching.

    Some old school bosses use a common expression that goes like this- “The secret to anything is management.” Now some on the worker side may have other thoughts, but the simplistic notion that resources must be procured, developed, and used properly is difficult to ague. The process is management and the desired result is execution.

    Execution runs a gamut of preliminary steps, including some preliminary Formist related tasks such as getting the supporting staff in order, getting the playbook in order, and early on implementing result-oriented philosophical directives or overtones.

    Then, the grand effort gears to the maximum as the execution function goes all out to create a team that can win on game days. Execution here is well known: teaching and correction, preliminary drills, skill practice, individual work, group work, and scrimmage work. Each program is a little different in how each execution element is approached and emphasized.

    Regardless of a coach’s worldview, football is a Mechanist endeavor. Woody Hayes and Vince Lombardi were consummate and successful mechanists. Bo was a Mechanist, but the underlying foundation that became the stated virtues of the Michigan machine were always paramount to him and emphasized.

    Parts make machines, and better functioning parts equal a better machine. Jim Harbaugh has an ability to adjust and seek what works, state beliefs, but at heart he is a clear Mechanist.

    Judgment about the success of Harbaugh’s execution of football elements is most premature. There are comments that can be presented about Harbaugh’s preliminary machine building.

    As mentioned initial recruiting has focused on bad or missing parts. Besides certain positions of need being quickly addressed in initial recruiting, commits have demonstrated traits (as mentioned toughness and physical play) important to the head coach, not so much to fit his scheme philosophy (although they seem to meet that criteria), but to provide preferred parts to feed the machine.

    Jim Harbaugh has to gain high marks for obtaining his initial supporting staff. Paragraphs could be written about their accomplishments. And Coach Harbaugh has an added advantage: much of the staff has worked with Harbaugh before; familiarity means ready to use coaching parts, valuable time will not be spent on the process of familiarization or even negotiation or compromise. The program was delivered in a box with a contents list that indicate all the parts are present and in working order.

    The defensive playbook will be different than that of the previous years. However, what was taught in the 4-3 over and under schemes will not be totally thrown away but added to in an attempt to literally use the defense in the best manner. There will be some experimentation and organic flux, but sooner and not later Coach D.J. Durkin wants to settle on schemes that win.

    Coach Harbaugh addressed his initial foray into team philosophy quickly, with simple and clear basics. As the program progresses through his first year of leadership, he will reset as necessary, but execution concerns will far outweigh philosophy.

    And so the daily grind of repetition and grueling physical output will continue. Next up is the mundane extraneous muddle that coaches must tolerate and even overcome to advance a program.

    Building A Winning Football Program — Extraneous Garbage- Where’s The Dump?

    Every coach hates the reality that extraneous garbage can soil the fine linen of a program, big or small. The bigger the program, the more garbage-hunters seek the miniscule to make news, web hits, serve fodder for opponent recruiting strategy, and in some cases drive a personal agenda. The bigger the program, the greater the number of garbage- seekers who put an ear on the ground. Some seekers do not interpret well what is heard, but instead hear what is wanted. And this is just the media’s end of the garbage pit.

    The age-old formula for such extraneous garbage is local control. A program can control who gets preferential treatment among the media. But excluding the clear enemies of the state has one inherent risk: said folks may become even more defiant and agenda ridden. Local control has two parts: first, those within the program and second, those who are complicit within the media. Between the two entities, deals can be made, information can be withheld from general knowledge, and no information about concerns or difficulties equals less damage.

    Local damage control from the media is not near as effective as in the past since the big media players can put a really big ear to the ground and just one peep of a problem can lead to an almost instant landslide of information that flows public: some accurate and some not so accurate. Most sought after info is of course negative, a state that seems to draw more attention, more so than players raising money for charity, being named to Phi Beta Kappa, or visiting those in need.

    Coaches and programs have different approaches to dealing with the media waiting to pounce on a single word that can be transformed into news. There is probably not one guaranteed better method, but one piece of advice- be on the same page. Sometimes calm is mandated, sometimes standing ground and firing back may be the best strategy. Sometimes playing politician and giving little information to a stated question or blabbering on with minutes of dialogue that does not remotely answer a question, in short, the old sidestep.

    A strong personality seems to deter little stuff because the risk falls to the questioner, such as asking a guy like Harbaugh if he can win this year. But those interviewing Bob Knight would intentionally ask a bona fide dumb-dumb to get a story from a felsic magma type like Robert Montgomery. The interviewer had no idea what treasure would come forward, but time after time, a story germinated out of nothing. There is always the risk of getting a dismissal of a question or a mocking from a personality type like Bill Belichick, one who would love to nuke extraneous garbage into oblivion.

    Sooner or later, in a moment that is usually when a down event occurs, the garbage hunters pounce. Again, there is no one sure strategy to best suite the circumstances.

    There is other extraneous garbage that coaches deal with everyday, including player difficulties, campaigning for player admission, dealing with rumors, shaping or even eliminating attitudes, and defending program players and coaches.

    Building a winning program means preventing, eliminating, or circumventing garbage. Perception formation moves at a much faster pace than in previous times. Having a coach that has some rock star traits can help build positive perception, right or wrong that happens. The media can even invigorate the rock star status, but the slope can change. Win and gain meaningful perception and the talent will come. And back to stage one of building a winning program we go, gather up the talent.

    So, coaches avoid the garbage collectors when possible, and react when conditions dictate. Garbage, dealing with it is part of the coaching profession’s job description. Still, it is usually irritation and more so than irritating it takes up time.

    Written by GBMWolverine Message Board Staff — CoachBT, Doc4Blu, and ErocWolverine

    Go Blue — Wear Maize!


    Twitter: @ErocWolverine
    Message Board: GBMW Message Board
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