The Clinic: A Series on the Endicott Gulls Defence - Defensive Front

Coach Jason Scott returns with part 2 in his series looking at the Endicott Gulls defence. This week he talks about how the Gulls set their front.

The Endicott Gulls Defensive Front

I’ve been very fortunate to have had the opportunity to work for the Endicott College Gulls (Beverly, Ma) as their Defensive Line Coach this past season. One of our key objectives this year was to improve our rush defense, so naturally we work very hard at each practice to prepare to stop the run, and set very high standards for ourselves every game – after all, no-one rises to low standards...

The Clinic: A Series on the Endicott Gulls Defence - DL Skills and Drills

Jason Scott has just completed his first season as the Defensive Line coach for the Endicott College Gulls, during which the Blue and Green finished 10-1 and won the program's first ECAC Bowl. The Gulls had the best rushing defense in the conference, and 10th best in the nation, surrendering - on average - only 87 rushing yards per game. They were also the the only team in the NEFC who kept opposition offenses to under 1000 total yards for the season.

Before heading to Massachussetts, Coach Scott was the Head Coach of the Loughborough University Aces, who he led to a 46-6-1 regular season record over his six years in charge. Those seasons also included three conference titles, and four divisional championships.

He also was instrumental in the rise of the Tamworth Phoenix, as he masterminded their defense for four years - from their inaugral season in 2007 to their 2010 Division 1 championship. Over the course of their first three seasons in the league, he helped coordinate a stifling defense which was responsible for over 50 turnovers, and shut-out offenses in 14 of their 39 fixtures.

Scott was born and raised in Preston, Lancashire. He studied for a year in Canada, before moving onto Loughborough University where he attained a degree in Sports and Exercise Science and a masters in Coaching Studies.

The Clinic: Effective Coaching

Todays article is written by GB Lions Sneior Head Coach Mike Callan and based on the presentation he gave at the North West Coaching clinic:

I have been coaching for what in the game probably wouldn’t consider a long time.  I have been doing it for only just over a decade.  There are quite a few aspects of coaching that get me excited, but none so much as going to or speaking at Clinics.  There is just something exciting about going to talk about football for a day with other coaches and the likely possibility that you will come away a better football coach that is exciting.

For the last three years I have been lucky enough to be asked to speak at the BAFCA NW Clinic that is run by a good friend of mine, Simon Purcell.  And I have to say, it is one weekend on the calendar that I truly look forward to.  The previous years I have talked about scheme on Offense, Defence and Special Teams.  I have gone over fundamentals with defensive backs and special teams players.  These are the bread and butter of football coaches.

Photo courtesy of Graham Beardsley

However, this year, Simon threw me a bit of a curveball.  He wanted me to speak on how to be an effective coach.  It took me a bit out of my comfort zone, I will not lie, because I think to myself that there are so many coaches out there who I have learned from and I aspire to.  I wondered if I was of calibre to be delivering this type of talk.  I decided that I was going to deliver it, but at the same time speak on how to be ‘more’ effective as a coach.  As coaches we can always do something better each time we step on the field and that is what I hope to get across in this piece.  These are just a few guidelines and there are probably hundreds more out there to be debated, but in the interest of time and space, I believed these were important to touch on.

The Clinic: Choice/Naked Concept from the Gun

The second in our new Clinic articles features our first guest writer, with Coach Rich Worsell from the University of La Verne talking to us about his Choice-Naked concept.

Coach Worsell, making the Choice not to be Naked...

Rich Worsell has just completed his first season at the University of La Verne, serving as Offensive Coordinator for the Leopards. The Leos finished tied for the 3rd in the SCIAC and had three different All Conference players and one national player of the week in his first year directing the offense. 

Prior to his arrival, Worsell spent three seasons as Offensive Coordinator at Illinois College.  During his first season at Illinois College, the Blueboy squad set 14 school records and five Midwest Conference Records.

He previously spent three seasons as the pass game coordinator at Millikin University and during the three years he produced three different All Conference receivers.  

Prior to coaching at Millikin, Worsell spent two years at Lakeland College in Wisconsin. During this time Lakeland won a share of the IBFC Championship and was ranked #8 nationally in scoring Offense (2003) scoring 40.1 points per game.

Born and raised in England, Worsell is a 2003 graduate of Aberystwyth University during which time he served as the Head Coach for three years, in addition to serving as the Great Britain Bulldogs Offensive Line coach. In 2003 he was the Head Coach and Offensive Coordinator for the Sussex Thunder.

Quick Passing Game made easy – The 3 step boot game

Introduction

In writing this article I wanted to put together something that has been proven at multiple levels of football. The 3 step boot game currently has been a staple of offenses I have been a part of since 2003 and has spread through the ranks in the US. I learnt the play from Jim Zebrowski when we coached together at Lakeland College (Zebrowski is currently the Quarterback coach at Minnesota).

Choice Naked from 3x1 in the gun

The basic concept of the play is to have two pass plays in one. Lining up in a 3x1 formation with a tight end to the three receiver side you have the single receiver run a choice route into the boundary. The QB (positioned in the gun) catches the snap, sets his feet to throw the boundary pass, if he doesn’t like it then nakeds out of the pocket to the field with another route concept going on.

The pass protection scheme is simple as the offensive line slides to the boundary, with each man blocking the gap to the side, the running back aligns to the field, on the snap of the ball he steps for the width and pins the outside shoulder of the defensive end.

The reason for it being a great play for most offenses is that you can isolate your best receiver and give him great freedom. It was a big part of our passing game when at Illinois College and we were a top ten passing team in the nation. 

The Clinic: Double Wing Offence

Well done to those of you that haven't closed the blog after seeing the subject of this article! There are many formations to choose from when looking to install a playbook, but none are so polarising as the Double Wing we are now seeing spread across the BUAFL.


One of the assumptions when facing a Double Wing team is that they don't know anything about football. The majority of teams we that write Double Wing teams off as bad football teams tend to get a bit of a surprise and those who respect the formation are those who are successful against it.


Why choose the Double Wing?
The Double Wing is a simple system in comparison to the plays you see on Saturdays and Sundays in the NFL and College ball. It is widely used in youth and high school football in the US due to this simplicity. It is good for players with little football experience to learn the game and get involved early and Double Wing teams often have rookies participating in the walk through after only 1 session of football.


It also teaches good blocking fundamentals, as the line will learn to execute head up drive blocking, double teams, chip blocking, pulling, trapping and cutting all as part of the blocking system. The RBs learn shifting and motioning pre snap, as well as running in traffic and reading their blockers.