267. Situations - 3rd & Long Offense: Brad Smith

Situational Football Series. Different guests talking about situational football.  

Today's Guest: Brad Smith, Head Coach, Allatoona (GA)

Topic: 3rd & Long Offense

Episode Transcript

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Hey everybody, Welcome to the ParkerResources Situational Football series. But this offseason

(01:11):
we have one hundred guests talking abouta situation ahead of the twenty twenty four
football season. Hope you pick upsome great tips that can help make your
team better. Enjoy today's guests,all right, Please be joined this time
by Coach Brad Smith, the headcoach at alatun and coach thanks for joining
me. Hey man, thanks forhaving me. I'm always excited to get

(01:33):
to talk to you a little bit. Yeah, man, Unfortunately this is
how we have to talk a lotof times now, staying so busy,
coach Man, excited to see whatyou guys can do at Alatuna this year
and leading up to the season.We've got one hundred different people coming on
talking about a situation with me.Today, we're going to talk about third
and long. Got to get theball, we got to keep the ball.

(01:53):
So it's third and long. Imean, you know, it could
be fourth a long, I guess, but either way, somebody is about
to get the ball one way orthe other. We need to keep it
instead of giving it to them.So what are you thinking? And so
it's you know, well, firstoff, I'm thinking about it on Wednesday
because we have a third and thirddown period Wednesday. Whether it's third short,

(02:15):
third and long, and just tireda new defensive coordinator who gave us
an idea of the other day thatI'm extremely looking forward to it. It's
first down to third down, sowe're gonna do some competitive periods and spring
and so it's first and ten andwhatever you get turns into either third and
short, third and long and thentry to work on those situations. I

(02:38):
thought that was a really cool wayto do that. So we're looking forward
to doing stuff like that. Butit's also when we can talk about third
and long, A lot of timeand preparation is going into what players do
they have and we got a defensiveend bearing down on us and then we're
looking at a screen or if they'rea heavy blitz team. So based on
what we work on indo preparation onSunday, hopefully that makes those decisions a

(03:00):
lot easier when we get to Fridaynight. Yeah, I think scouting,
Yeah, scouting comes in more inthis down and distance than that, I
think most of them because you know, shortyarded you don't always have enough data,
and medium yardage you're gonna see allkind of things. People have a
tendency maybe, but you can seea lot of things. Long yarded you're

(03:21):
gonna you're gonna get. You know, those two or three things you're gonna
get, but you need to beready for all of them. And people
have a tendency to run one ofthem more than the other. And so
what do you what are you lookingat as you as you go through that.
I mean, so a lot ofit goes back to I'm a I
try to I guess I would saya nerd when it comes to I try
to go back and look as faras I can at the personality of the

(03:44):
defensive coordinator. I think that kindof goes back to what you're talking about.
Does he have a history of blitzingheavy on those downs and play a
man behind it, or if youwant to sit back and coverage. But
that's also very dependent on what you'vegot a quarterback. I think it starts
and ends with the trigger man.So if we got a kid that we
feel real comfortable with, you know, we're going to air it out third
and long, or if we feellike they're going to sit back at a

(04:08):
draw, that's a you know,whether it be a quarterback draw and have
a back, be a league buckerin there, or we feel like we
can hand it off to our bestplayer let him go. So I think
that's the biggest thing with all thisstuff is just what is the tendency of
the defensive coordinator, you know?And I think that goes if you want
to little tidbit, you young headcoaches, go back and see what that

(04:30):
if this is his first year atthis program. We all have a history,
we all have tendencies that we've done. And you can do enough digging
now on the internet and find apattern with these guys. Uh. It
doesn't mean that it always works,obviously, but you can have a pretty
good understanding and an idea what you'rewhat you're getting in the times. But
I think you're exactly right, Thirdand medium, third and short. It's

(04:51):
kind of a crab shoot. Uh. The third and long that's really heavy
dependent on what you're studying, whatyou're bearing for, and how you work
them. Offensive line guys, what'sthe front, what's the time? Give
me the top three blitzes? Whatcoverage are they playing behind it? Uh?
And then we're going to break thatdown how often do they send it?

(05:12):
And try to use as much analyticsto make our decision on Friday night
instead of just being But sometimes yougot to go from the hip. But
we want to try to take eliminatesome of that to put ourselves in the
best graduation well, and you wantto give yourself an opportunity to be ready
for whatever. But I'll tell youyou're right in that the quarterback on your
team has way more to do withit than scouting the other team, while

(05:35):
both are If your quarterback is notcapable of making those down the field throws
in the pocket, let's just bereal, some people don't have one in
posile, Then what are we doing? You know, I mean run sprint
out, run the ball. Idon't know, find something creative to do.
Then what kind of game? Whatkind of game has he had right

(05:57):
comfortable right now? Is? Yeah, if you're seeing ghosts, I think
that's a big deal. You know, Yeah, that does change. You
know with a sixteen or seventeen yearold, that can change game to game.
So also can he processed throwing hotor whatever you call it, because
let's be real, you know,one of the things you're gonna get is
the heavy blitz right bringing more thanyou walk one of the defensive moves here.

(06:23):
So of course you probably wouldn't callsome kind of curl flat combo if
you thought they were going to bringsix. But you're wrong sometimes, So
can this guy get us out ofsomething? Can he create? Because if
he can't, now you better beright on that call. You know,
you better be going screen. Youbetter go on screen if you think you're

(06:43):
going to get that blitz, andyou better be you know, taking your
time when you only know they're goingto rush three or four. You know.
So I think all that factors inpretty Yeah, that their ability to
read the hot and throw the hotalways mattered more to me than even if
they were good enough thought down thefield, because you know, we put
them at quarterback. We hope theywere get enough thought down the field.
But you know, I think,how so how much work are you going

(07:05):
into that specific thing? Like wewere wrong on this. We're gonna call
this concept play. We're gonna letthem bring one more. We cauld block
quarterbacks. Cant get this out ofYeah, as you know, once again,
like how do we feel comfortable aboutthe game, Like do we feel
like it's a game that we're gonnabe in a lot of third and longs,
Then we're gonna spend more time onit. Last year we spend a

(07:27):
ton of time versus room because wefelt like there's a great chance we're gonna
be in a lot of third andlonger and so, uh we you you
break down how much time you wantto divvy out to certain moments. There's
not enough time in the day towork all scenarios and all situations. But
uh yeah, so I think that'skind of also dependent we there's no set

(07:49):
standard that we have or that Ihave, or that we're gonna work this
amount of time. Wednesday is oursituational day, and how we work that
is dependent on who we're playing,what our coaching staff wants to see.
And as you go back to thequarterback, how many times has he seen
that pressure when you're getting fixed fivesixth pressures? Like, yeah, he's
seen it in practice, but it'sbeen to walk through how many times have

(08:11):
the bullets been flying and he's beenable to rip that thing off and throw
it on time and on rhythm andstanding in the pocket. I think it's
a really hard thing to do forhigh school kids. I haven't been around
too many of them that can dothat. So you're very much right,
whether it's quick game or whether it'sa screen, or whether it's something you

(08:33):
try to catch them off guard.And I mean, people miss some great
opportunities to sprint out in the situation. I guess they just said the other
team knows is coming or something,or it cuts off the field. But
hell, your kid can't throw itall over the field anyway, most likely,
so and it's a two way go, right, Like if it's not

(08:54):
there running take off. Yeah,I mean people are missing opportunity. But
I think it's really you know,self awareness is lacking in a lot of
ways being talked about past third andlongs. But I think one of the
way to be successful is be selfaware. And sometimes self awareness is Look
that looked good at the Glazier clinic. We tried it in spring football.
We better just sprint out him,or were just hand off or we you

(09:16):
know, we give ourselves a chance. Well, the guys up front protecting
that look much different than what youwatch at a Glacier clinic, right.
Well, and that guy was talkinga lot of times for a reason.
It's either a guy like me withno job, or or it was somebody
that had some dudes. Man,that's why they ask They don't ask a
lot of two and eight guys tocome talk at a Yeah, clinics,

(09:37):
coach, you know, the lastthing I bring up is pretty obvious,
but you got to have that ideaif they're going for all fourth down,
right, So, like you're thehead coach. You know, it's a
little easier when you're the head coach, but if you're if you're a coordinator
and you're not the head coach,you're calling the plays. The head coach
a doesn't bother you very much.Lets you do your thing or whatever.

(09:58):
How important is it that we're onthe same page before this third day,
because now people may be going forit, right, you call us play
a little differently if it's you know, you got two plays right. Yeah,
it's extremely important. So I makesure that, like being in that
role for so many years, Itry to make sure that I can communicate
that with our coordinators, both offensivedefensively. Right. You know, Uh,

(10:22):
if it's a really really pressure downwhere we've got to give it to
either ice a game or to continueto keep playing, and I got a
time out, I'd like to youknow, bank some timeouts. I'm gonna
call a time out and I'm gonnatalk to both of them. Uh.
You know, hey, thinking aboutgoing for it on fourth You know I
would feel about that. Defensively,Hey do a coach offensively? Hey,

(10:43):
you got to take some pressure offthe coordinator, allow him some opportunity to
you know, maybe hit our bestrun, what our bread and butter is,
and come back and give him sometime to think about what he wants
to come back with with that secondplay. I think that's crucial. Uh.
I think you do a guy toservice offensively and defensively if you just
make judgment calls and say hey,we're going for it, and you haven't

(11:05):
had a real discussion. So ifI feel like it's you know, if
it's second and eleven, maybe wehad a penalty, we got a couple
of yards back, I'm gonna starthaving that conversation with our DC and we'll
flip over there and be like,hey, you know, we're across the
forty, we're third and seven.I'm probably going to go for it if
we get any positive yardage on thirddown right. And I think those are

(11:30):
I've been on I've been on staffswhere that's haad, those conversations are having.
I've been on stats when they're notwhere it's hey, I make the
call, we're going for it.Give me a play up, give me
a play, give me a play. And it's and you're you're past third
and seven and you're on fourth andfour right, and you're trying to try
to just pick a pretty one andto the point, you know, to

(11:52):
that example, if I knew wewere going I'm the play caller and you're
the head coach. I'm just goingto tell you, if if I knew
we were going for it on fourthand four, I might not would have
called that play I called on thirdand seven, right, no doubt.
So that's where that's imperative. It'snot. It's just a communication. Fell
of course, nowadays you're sitting bythe way. This used to be a

(12:15):
really this was something we were reallygood at. We kind of were in
the minority of understanding when to gofor it on fourth down and having a
plan and calling third down like seconddown. This is not earth shattering stuff
now, man, a lot ofpeople are going for it more and more,
and you might have you might havea head coach that tells you,
hey, once we crossed the fortyor forty five or whatever it is,

(12:35):
you just assume we're going for it, man, unless it's fourth and forever.
That's okay too. It doesn't haveto be a thing that takes place
every single time in some depth,you know, but you need to just
all right, I mean, hell, I'm the one that fourth down,
threw it over his head throw firstdown. So yeah, yeah, I'm

(12:56):
a big proponent of going for iton fourth down. The analytics say so
yeah, And that's what I mean. Most people are doing it. You're
seeing it more and more acceptable thanit used to be. Yeah, go
for it. I can't give.I lose my temper when I watch either
college football or NFL football. Andthese guys are getting paid way more than
we we are as high school coaches, and they're across the forty and these

(13:20):
are professionals or guys that were selectedto come play on their team and we're
trying to develop the plumber son tokick a ball and they punted in the
end zone and it's you know,they get that nothing. Yeah, it's
so ball is imperative in these highschool more high scoring games, and that's
a fact. It's not. Butif you look at game from thirty years

(13:41):
ago, fifteen years agoing today,the games overall are much more higher score.
So even in a game that's thirtyfour to twenty eight versus the old
days of seventeen to ten, everypossession just matters a little more. When
there's a lot more you would thinkit mattered more back when it was seventy
three. But it's actually not true. You know, if you if you
struggle on third or fourth days,just punt it, get it back later.

(14:03):
Now, if you're down four,you punt it to somebody, you
libably be down eleven and that changesthings. You have so many opportunities now
with the way the game has changedas far as physicality of getting I firmly
believe that they're taught to throw waymore passing appearances than I can remember in
the early stages of my career.There's a great I think it's just more,

(14:26):
you know, just think about that, and just the sheer number of
passes are up, so obviously passingappearances will be up, you know,
I mean, And so it's moreof an emphasis. When I was playing
football, Hell we see. Imean, I'm telling you somebody through ten
passes in a game they were likebig time, and it was more like
four or five. So why wouldthe referees be coaching up on how to

(14:48):
measure you know what I mean?Even if you're being objective and taking up
for the refs, I'm telling you, when they know they're going to see
half passes in a lot of games. They've got to be better at their
pass officiating, and so they're gonnabe more nitpickyither and call some of the
stuff they used to not call,including holding, past interference and things like
that. So you just those penaltiesare way up in high school because they're

(15:09):
more emphasized now, just more.You know, when they ran the Barber
play, we're working for offensive holdinglike that past pro holding that never came
up, but now it does.You know, that's actually a really good
point. Well, man, Ican't keep you because I got a bunch
of these, but if if Ican get up there, I'm gonna come
see you sometime. Looking forward toseeing what Alatuona can do this year.

(15:31):
Man, excited for you again.You always great. You're great. You're
a great friend. And I appreciatethe apprenticeship to the felt and I love
some time with you, and Iappreciate her being too. Parcade. Yeah,
man, take care of coach.Hey, good luck to you.
Man. Really you know where tofind me? Yes, sure, see
you, buddy. The Parker Resourcespodcast provides information to coaches, athletic directors,

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