Practicing What You Preach

Too many times, we as coaches are guilty of talking out of both sides of our mouths. We stand before our players in meetings or in front of our peers at coaching clinics and expound on our philosophies, values and beliefs about the keys to winning football games. Yet, when we go out to the practice field, our practice structure does not mirror these beliefs. Instead, we spent too little time on what we say are the important things and get caught in the trap of using our limited practice time on \"our scheme\" and the opponent\'s scheme. Don\'t misunderstand me. These things are important. Everything is important. But some things are real important. We must prioritize. At Tulane, the defensive staff builds the schedule to fit our needs. Our schedule is built to emphasize those things that we feel (or, as the coordinator, I feel) are the keys to winning every week, regardless of schemes,