Before the Whistle: Football Coaching 101

By Matt Kunz

How do you know if your football team has what it takes to win the game?  Because the Coach is more prepared than his competition!

In Before the Whistle: Football Coaching 101 you’ll learn…

• how to prepare your parents and family before the season even begins

• how to establish a quality team and culture during the pre-season

• game preparation and game management principles that give your players an edge

• how to finish the season so the memories last a lifetime

Matt Kunz is the son of former NFL All-Pro offensive tackle George Kunz.  He walked-on and played football for Coaches Lou Holtz and Bob Davie at the University of Notre Dame as both an inside linebacker and special teams player.  He coached football at the youth, high school, and semi-pro levels for five years before he ran a small business doing private football instruction and football camps for athletes.  He later authored Triumph! An Athlete’s Guide to Winning On and Off the Field which contains forewords from National Championship Coaches Lou Holtz and Ara Parseghian.  Most importantly, Matt Kunz has used the game of football to make a difference in the lives of those he played with, and those he coached.  May you, too, Play with Confidence!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Matt Kunz
• Release date: Mar 29, 2017
• ISBN: 9781386868842

Book preview

Foreword

IT’S AMAZING HOW THE TIME FLIES.  Over a decade has passed since I first wrote Before the Whistle: Football Coaching 101.  I remember how nervous I was as I was writing it.  I had just decided to begin a business doing private football instruction for athletes.  While many were offering private lessons for other sports, I knew of no one who was doing it for the game of football.  Still, I had thought there was a need.  But would it be accepted?  Could an athlete develop more quickly with specialized attention?  How would coaches, who are ever territorial, accept me as a private influencer of their athletes?  All these questions and more ran through my thoughts as I handed out fliers based on my knowledge of football.

I came by it honestly, though.  My father, George Kunz, was an eight-time Pro-Bowl Offensive Tackle and was twice selected by offensive line coaches as being the best offensive lineman in the NFL.  If he had played in a Super Bowl, the Hall of Fame voters would have inducted him to the Hall of Fame years ago.  It was a privilege to learn from my father, who was at one point the best in the world at his position on the football field.

But my education did not end there.  I walked-on at the University of Notre Dame and played football for Coach Lou Holtz and Bob Davie.  At the time I was there, future head coaches Urban Meyer and Charlie Strong were assistants.  Many other assistants were also there who had an impact on me.

But it wasn’t until I began to coach that I learned many of the ins and outs of the sport, especially as it pertained to a coach’s struggle off the field.  As I thought about my experiences, I wrote Before the Whistle: Football Coaching 101.  Then I went to a printer and had some copies printed.

I never formally published it.

Instead, I went to work.  I began doing private training for athletes with the question of whether my ideas would find success.

And did they ever!

After over four-hundred hours of individual one-on-one lessons, and running several football camps, I began to see how my methodology would help athletes beyond their expectations.  The conclusion of that experience was my book Triumph! An Athlete’s Guide to Winning On and Off the Field.  I’ve gone into detail in that book how so many players achieved success because of the gifts they possessed within.  My job was to simply make those gifts visible so that athletes could demonstrate them on the field.  Those athletes passed with flying colors, and the memories they created on the playing field will stay with them for their entire lives.  I can’t help but smile when I think about them.

Before the Whistle started it all.  As you read it, whether you are a coach, a parent, or an athlete, remember that what really matters is how we work together as a team.  At the end of the day, we all experience wins and losses.  But we have only our present moment to build teams that last a lifetime.

Please enjoy Before the Whistle, and may you and your family Play with Confidence!

Matt Kunz

Introduction

WELL, YOU FINALLY DID IT.  You could not resist the urge, maybe because it has been calling you ever since you took that last snap on the gridiron and took off the pads for the last time.  Or maybe you’ve watched enough games on TV that you have decided it could not be that hard.  After all, you went to college and majored in something much harder than physical education, and yet these college football coaches are making more money than you are.  Or maybe you just happen to be a proud dad, and your son decided to don the helmet and gear because his friends were talking about doing it.  Perhaps your wife suggested it would be a nice way for you to make some memories together.

Congratulations!  You are now known as Coach.  Perhaps you are going to represent the Eagles, Packers, Lions, Tigers, Hornets, or Devils.  Before you put on that whistle, you are going to need to know some things before you take to the field for the very first time.  After all, if you are going to be spending the next four to five months teaching some basic football knowledge to a bunch of wild kids, as well as some dads, who are dreaming of football stardom, you had better know what you are talking about.  If you choose to learn, you will have an opportunity to experience an incredibly rewarding time in your life along with those members of your new community.  If you choose not to, it could mean sleepless nights for everyone in your household.

This book is designed to give you many of the tips I’ve learned while coaching in the world of youth football.  I have decided that an X’s and O’s book on plays can be found in many books at the bookstore, or could be freely drawn up on a paper napkin.  However, X’s and O’s will not guarantee a successful season.  If they could, there would be no reason to understand motivation, technique, fundamentals, emotion, preparation, and organization.  Any person who has been coaching for a while can attest to the fact that any poorly drawn play run perfectly might gain more yards than a perfectly drawn play the offense cannot execute.

What I hope to instill in you as Coach is an appreciation for the intangibles that can often be found in a successful football team of all levels.  I feel that communication, organization, and teaching of fundamentals and concepts will yield a more rewarding season than just X’s and O’s.  If you were out on the field with the game on the line trying to get in the end zone before time expired, then I might be talking about X’s and O’s.  However, as Coach, you are your team’s number one spectator.  You even get a sideline pass, but you cannot earn that first down.  Only the players’ beliefs in your system and the confidence they have in their own abilities can save you at that critical point when the game is most intense.

If this is your first time coaching, or if you have had frustrating seasons coaching in the past, or if you are sitting on a fence trying to decide if you should undertake this emotionally taxing yet rewarding experience, read this book.  Even if you are a player, or a parent, this book will give you further insights into the challenges your coach will experience, challenges which will directly affect you.

For you coaches, it is my desire that you will gain the confidence necessary to mentor young men through a game called football, a game that teaches lessons of life.  Because you have chosen to volunteer your time for the sake of these boys*, you will have the privilege of shaping them into the heroes of tomorrow.  This is the honor that distinguishes upon you the title of Coach.

*Please understand that I realize there are some girls who play organized tackle football.  However, considering that 99% of football participants in America are of the male gender, I have chosen to use masculine pronouns and terms throughout this book.  If you are coaching a girl who has chosen to play football, you will have the same opportunity to teach her the same lessons that the game has to offer.

Part I

Gearing Up

Chapter 1

Before You Begin

The Game

YOU MAY FEEL YOU UNDERSTAND the concept of football.  In case there are any doubts, football is about territory.  You possess a ball.  Through a systematic series of what’s known as plays, you attempt to move the football into your opponent’s territory.  Move it far enough to kick it through a couple of posts and over a crossbar and you get three points.  Move it all the way to the end of the field for a touchdown and you score six points.  Kick an extra point after that and you get one point or two depending on the league rules.  Or try to run or throw it in one more time and you get two or one points depending again on league rules.

You gain territory by advancing the ball at least ten yards every time you get what’s known as a first down.  You have four chances to get a first down.  If you don’t get another first down to move the ball, you give the ball back to your opponent.  If you lose so much territory that the defense tackles your offense in your end zone, the opponent gets two points.  If you fumble the ball or throw the ball into the hands of one of your opponents, your opponent gets the ball.

Football is played during four time periods known as quarters, with a halftime between the second and third quarter.  The team at the end of the four quarters with the most points wins the game.  If the game is tied, the league may or may not allow an overtime period to establish the winner.

What You Don’t Know Can Hurt You

The rules of football are many, and one can study them by acquiring a rule book from the league athletic director or local official’s association.  I won’t touch on all of them here, but I will cover two of the more misunderstood rules.

First, offensively, seven out of your eleven players must be on the line of scrimmage.  The other four must be off the line.  In most cases, the five players in the middle of the seven consist of the offensive line.  The other two could be any combination of two wide receivers, two tight ends, or one receiver and one tight end.  The key is that if the offense intends to pass the ball, it cannot pass the ball to any of the five middle players on the line of scrimmage.  The two