Win the Line, Win the Edge: A Blueprint for Coaching Football’s Offensive Line

By Cory S. Volk

Football is a microcosm of the world. A varsity football game may seem like a high-pressure situation, but when you compare it to the life experiences, these young men will need to navigate their way through; football is an excellent tool to learn skills like perseverance, hard work, integrity, teamwork, and being counted on. You get a chance in a football game, and through a football season as a player, to learn all the lessons you need as an adult in the world. The football coach is simply there to help the boys find their way through the season so that on their own, they can find their way through life. The football coach has an important responsibility to impact on those young men the life lessons that will serve them throughout their entire lives. Being an organized and enthusiastic coach of young men, not just of football, gives the coach an opportunity to make an impact on individuals. Those individuals will finish their playing careers when they graduate and positively impact the world. This book is designed specifically to assist an offensive line coach design and build instruction to best serve the team and the players of the line. The program of instruction is applicable to all positions in football and really all sports. Any coach can pick up the book and understand the concepts of teaching and instructional design and make them applicable to their position and to their sport.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Hawes & Jenkins Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Aug 19, 2023
• ISBN: 9781637841402

Book preview

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Win the Line, Win the Edge

A Blueprint for Coaching FootballaEUR(tm)s Offensive Line

Cory S. Volk

ISBN 978-1-63784-139-6 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-63784-140-2 (digital)

Copyright © 2023 by Cory S. Volk

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Hawes & Jenkins Publishing

16427 N Scottsdale Road Suite 410

Scottsdale, AZ 85254

www.hawesjenkins.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter 1

The Summer Camp Season

Planning the Season

Preparing the Practice Area

Football Camp and Drill Work

Plays on Cans

Defining a Mission Statement and Offensive Line Philosophy

Chapter 2

August Preseason

Blocking Techniques

Teaching Progression and Drill Organization

Teaching and Practicing Play Assignments

Chapter 3

Sundays

Film Work: Reviewing the Last Game

Player Grading

Film Work: Previewing the Next Opponent

Opponent Scout Organization

Sunday Coaches Meeting

Player/Coach Contacts

Chapter 4

Mondays

Coach's Preparations

Film Notes

Grade Awards Sheet

Scout Blocking Sheets

Offensive Installation Page

Blitz Sheets

Coaches Assignment Organization

Junior Varsity Work

Chapter 5

Tuesdays and Wednesdays

Coach's Preparations

Practice Playscripts

Offensive Installation Record Keeping

Blitz Sheet Review

Practice Organization: Skills Development

Practice Organization: Pass Protection

Practice Organization: The Run Game

Filming Practice and Review

Chapter 6

Thursdays

Coach's Preparations

Starting on the Next Opponent: Paper-Scouting Reports

Sideline Pages

Finishing the Practice Playscripts

Thursday Offensive Review

Cookies After Practice

Catching the Vibe of the Team

Chapter 7

Fridays: Game Day

Coach's Preparations

Next Week's Scout Prep

Game Assignments

Chapter 8

Postseason Wrap

Finalize Grade Sheets

Post-Scout Opponents

Build Base-Scouting Reports for Next Season

Make and Edit Play Tutorials

Attend Clinics and Get Better

Setting a Theme for the Next Season

Writing and Revisiting a Personal Philosophy

The Work Is Never Done

Conclusion

About the Author

For my dad who loved kids,

loved to teach,

loved to write,

and always tolerated athletics.

Acknowledgments

A great deal of gratitude and appreciation is felt by me to three head coaches. It has been my pleasure to work for Ron Wingenbach, Dan Smrekar, and Loy Ham. From them, I have learned almost everything I know about this great game.

I am grateful to the many fellow assistant coaches I have worked with over the years. They have been colleagues and mentors and sources of support throughout my career. Through mentoring, through collaboration, and through healthy competition, they have pushed me to be better than I ever thought I could be.

I would like to thank the hundreds of boys I have had the opportunity to coach over the years. I hope I have done just a tiny bit to help each one to grow a little on their journey from young boys to young men. I know I too have benefited from our player-coach relationships. I have found the relationships to be the most rewarding part of the job.

Most especially, I owe so much to my wife. She has been my editor, and she is my motivator, and, Annie, she is always my biggest fan. Her encouragement and support to me is what has made this book possible.

Introduction

I have always loved reading books about football. For some time now, I have felt that I am at a place in my life to sit down and to write my own football book. My intent in the following pages is to write a book I want to read. The book I want to read, and have always wanted to read, is a detailed description of all the tasks performed by a successful position coach. So here we go with an in-depth examination of what I do as an offensive line coach, how I do it, and an explanation of why I do it.

If you came to a practice and watched me coach football, you would hear me say the phrase Win it multiple times. This two-word phrase has become my personal mantra on the practice field and during games. I kind of lucked into the phrase, coaching tight ends on the outside zone concept several years ago. I was always trying to find a way to communicate to the tight ends what the team needed from them on the play. I found myself consistently telling the tight ends to try to win the line and win the edge, to give the tailback a chance to run the play properly. The more I said the phrase, the more I liked it. I found out quickly Win the… could be a phrase that would be applicable in many areas of communication, not just with the tight ends, but with everyone on the offensive line.

Since that time, I have found myself using the phrase Win the… often on the football field. I use the phrase for snap count by saying Win the count. Win the line is said to ensure the boys get off the line and engage their blocking assignment in a forward attack. I say Win the edge to remind the boys to open gaps for the running backs. It works for the entire position group. Win the play is our offensive refrain on each play of the game as the boys try to focus in on winning one play at a time. The phrase even works as a personal motivator for myself: Win the preparation I now say in my mind's voice as a way to motivate myself to watch film, to make a scouting report, or to do one of the many tasks needed to be done during the season.

What I have always liked best about the phrase Win the… is how it puts a positive spin to any and all coaching situations. Rather than yelling at a tackle to stop jumping offside, I simply remind him to Win the snap count. Instead of barking at a center to stop snapping the ball over the quarterback's head, I merely remind him to adjust his stance and win the snap. When I need the tight end to seal the edge on a toss play, I tell him to win the edge. As I began using the phrase more often in practice, I was amazed at the difference it made to my relationship with the players. The boys took the instruction as it was intended: as coaching for correction, not a criticism of them and their effort. I was also surprised at how effective the phrase was at accomplishing what I wanted it to do: to get the players to execute without error.

The phrase Win the line, win the edge is not just a teaching tool but also a refrain for the way I carry out all my duties as an assistant coach. I use the idea of winning as a personal motivation tool for every facet of my job as the offensive line coach of the Century Patriots. I want to win the scouting, the evaluation, the implementation, the teaching, the motivation, the adjustments, and every interaction with my players each day.

This book is organized to share with you, the reader, the way I structure my daily activities as I prepare my offensive line to help our team win football games. For organizational purposes, I have divided the calendar year into eight phases of football. Each chapter has been prepared as a presentation of the things I do in each main phase of the year. The ideas presented in this book are all things that I use and do in my everyday practice as an offensive line coach. These concepts are applicable to not only the high-school coach but are appropriate to middle school, youth, and even college coaches.

In this book, I start with the basics involved in summer work and preseason duties to prepare for the upcoming football season. I then examine the work done in August as the team goes through preseason training camp. Following the preseason, I break things up by the day for all the daily in-season tasks. The repetitive nature of the season makes it possible for me to outline all the main jobs of each day and to devote a full chapter to the explanation of those duties. I try to share the responsibilities I carry out in each phase as they pertain to winning, what I feel, are the most important aspects of the football season.

Chapter 1

The Summer Camp Season

In July, I start thinking seriously about the next football season. The month of July has always been my first phase of every football season. For the purpose of this book, I call this time The Summer Camp Season. The Summer Camp Season is, therefore, the time frame I have defined as the first chapter of this book. As a coach, I try to start this phase immediately after the Independence Day holiday. Currently, I organize and prepare myself to be best prepared to win the upcoming season. All football coaches do summer work to prepare themselves for the season. In chapter 1, I describe the tasks I feel are the most impactful on my position group toward their on-field success during the season. My number 1 priority in the summer is to work in a deliberate and organized manner so that I can outperform my opposing coaches in the planning phase of the football season.

Planning the Season

Early in the summer, I start by going through the roster of players I will have available for the upcoming season on the offensive line. I also go through the player list of boys I will have available for the tight-end group. In my mind, I try to imagine how these boys will fit our team's offensive scheme and how they will fit together to execute the plays we have in the playbook. I visualize who will play well in which positions, and I try different combinations of boys in different spots in my head. Our boys at Century High School spend a lot of time lifting and running at the school in the summer. I try to take note of how they look physically when I see them throughout this time. In the previous off-season, I will have gone through a thorough evaluation of the varsity and JV game films. This film study will give me a good background to the capabilities of the younger lineman. I will have a good idea from the previous season's film evaluations as to which underclassmen can play at the varsity level. It is important, however, to monitor how the boys are improving physically throughout the summer months. The combination of my film evaluations and the boy's summer progress will help me build a first draft of the OL/TE depth chart.

I also spend some time in the summer thinking about the plays in our offensive playbook. I consider the plays we have run in the past, and I try to think about how different plays have worked before with boys that are similar to our new group. I attempt to imagine how those plays and schemes will work with this season's group of boys. When it comes time to brainstorm ideas with the offensive staff, I want to have a list of ideas prepared so I can best contribute these personnel and programing ideas with the offensive staff.

In July, it is a good idea for the offensive line coach to sit down with the offensive coordinator and the head coach (provided there are different people in each role). The offensive coaches at Century High School try to get together several times in the summer to talk about our plans for the upcoming season. As an OL/TE coach, I have my opinions as to who should play, where on the line, and when they should play in different situations. It is important, however, to get input from the offensive coordinator and the head coach. Often, they may have different perspectives and new ideas. Occasionally, there are considerations to make concerning players playing one-way or players playing both ways. There may be plans for certain players changing positions to best help the team, and those changes need to be discussed by the group. There may also be team-based concerns that a position coach does not know about this early in the off-season, regarding the direction the team will be taking in the future plans of the head coach. This summer meeting provides the perfect opportunity for the head coach to share his vision for the season with the offensive line coach and for the offensive line coach to give feedback and share his own