268. Situations - When to go for it on 4th Down: Larry Harold

Situational Football Series. Different guests talking about situational football.  

Today's Guest: Larry Harold, Head Coach, Central Gwinnett (GA)

Topic: When to go for it on 4th down

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 Pacific situation ahead of the twenty twenty
four football season. But if youpick up some great tips that can help
make your team better, enjoy today'sguests. Joining this time by coach Larry
Harold. Coach, thanks for joiningme, yes, sir, glad you
inviting me back? Chris, Yeah, man, always great to talk to

(01:34):
you, coach. So we gota great topic today. When to go
for it on fourth down? It'schanged over the years, right, but
you're the head coach. You makethe final call. It's fourth down.
What are you thinking? So obviouslywhen I started thinking about this question,
I thought about when I was anassistant. Obviously, you go for it

(01:56):
when the head When I was inthe head man, the head man said
go for it. That's definitely whatyou want to go for it. So
you learned that pretty quickly. Iwould say, Chris, when you know
that your offense is maybe a littlebit more superior than your defense, I
think you definitely look at the situationtime of the game. Do you have

(02:21):
a play or definitely a player thatyou know can get those amount of yards
that you need. I think alot of different scenarios going to when to
go for it, but the biggestthing is that do you I think play?
I think I heard singer saying youthink players not plays? Do you
have that guy that can get thenecessary yardage to get it done? So

(02:46):
one scenario is one of my firstjobs as a head coach. My second
year, I'm at Macon County.We had just lost to Tail Accountings.
Now, when a three way tiethat following Monday, you know, you
do the three team playoffs because it'sthree way time of the last playoffs.
See, so it's US, it'sTaylor County, and it's Northeast out of

(03:08):
mack It. So we play Northeast. When we played Taylor first and basically
they were banged up and we knockedthat quarterback out. So we're on the
second half of the five minute quarterand we're on the minus twenty yard line.

(03:29):
Chris the minus twenty and it's fourthand two and my DC walks and
to you said, coach, gofor it. I was like, are
you crazy? Because you keep punting? You know what I'm saying to get
the phiel. He'say, look,they don't have a kicker, they can't
kick, and that quarterback is outthere. They can't move the ball on
us. I'm telling you, gofor it. We got it. So

(03:50):
I had a junior named Rokwan Smithand it's fourth and too, Chris and
I said, all right. Ilooked, I said what y'all want to
do? And they said, let'slet's do it cool to go for it.
And so we had a special wildcatplay, snap the ball to him,
Chris, and he goes fourth andtwo and he gets stoned and my

(04:10):
dog go my heart lily drops inmy throat. Chris, I don't know
what happened. All I see thatkid spin and then dove and got the
necessary yardage and we got the firstthat we went on down the score and
we won the game. We getthe field goal, we won the game
three zero to make it the Pleasathe first time in like I don't know,

(04:32):
ten plus years, but that stickouts for me because one of the
first things I learned is again,do you have that guy that can get
it done, that can no matterwhat the circumstances are, if you call
the wrong play, you know theycan make a play out of no play.
So do you have that guy anddo the coaches and everybody in the

(04:53):
agreement of, hey, let's gofor it. Have you found and you've
been at small schools, you've beenat that county, you've been to college
level. You've seen a lot ofdifferent types of football. Is it fair
to say the most one of themost important things in four towns and in
two point conversions. It's just confidence. Make the decision quickly. Let's show

(05:15):
our guys we got confidence. Ifyou're having to sit there stammering around thinking
if you're going to go for itor not, let's maybe punt is that.
That's what I say, And youcan argue with me because that's what
this is fun sometimes to do.But what do you think about that?
A lot of times, Chris,the big moments, especially for me,
now, I need to, like, I think I do a good job

(05:39):
of not burning time out, andso I have a lot of them.
So I'll burn the time out.Say hey, let's talk about this guy,
and let's you know, it's notnecessarily a I know it right now,
but it's like, hey, let'stalk about it. So another scenario,
my first year, we're playing MiddleGirl with four and old, best
start since nineteen eighty is Central andthey came all the way back, they

(06:01):
tied it up, We're all overtime. I kept asking, because say,
hey, we're gonna score it,and we scored, We're gonna go
for They kept saying, no,Coach, let's go to kick the field.
Go there. Over time, I'mlike, hey, guys, y'all
store y'all sure, and I wantedto go for it, but my coaches
were like, no. Coach like, let's that's our last and they're gonna
get tired, and they were right. We kick the field goal. With

(06:23):
the second overtime, we scored,kick another field goal, and then they
on fourth down they fumbled and werecover the ball. We won. So
I think it's good at time totake your time, Chris, to get
some good feed back because all thetime, I know me as a play
calling I could be emotional and youget caught up in the game. But
somebody, especially is up in thebox that's away from it, can kind

(06:45):
of see more than you can,I guess, to get that input.
I like the idea to time out. I like that if you got us.
I guess what I'm thinking too issometimes you got people in your ear,
you're trying to thing and you're kindof stammering through it. If you've
got a player or a play andthen you send it in there and we're

(07:08):
halfway through the play clock, youknow, and we've kind of kind of
not shown we had confidence in thisplay. I think if you're not sure,
call the time out or don't goright. Yeah, I mean I
think that's maybe a better way toput it. But I think the game
gets so exciting that you can letyour emotions get the best of you.
But you being a form of playcaller, this is how I am.

(07:31):
Don't nobody talk. There's a lotof talk to me. It's about don't
nobody else talk? If you're gonnatalk once you know, we put on
the side. But why I'm takingplaces on the one person that has died?
A lot of that confusion these youfind it? Well? Yeah,
absolutely. I mean I know we'reoff topic a little bit with this,

(07:55):
but I could go off of this. I'm not gonna know. A mistake
a lot of people make is lettinga bunch of people talk. Yeah,
there should be nobody talking except playcaller, and he might designate one person.
But I'll tell you what I didcoach. I say, you you
know you answer questions. Yeah,nobody talking, let's the answering questions.

(08:15):
So and I did have to makea few examples. You know, you
hate to be like that, butyou did. But sometimes you ask,
okay, give me the hash,you know, or what we got to
go here? Or what's the safetydoing or you know you're answering a question.
That's fine, yammering on your opinion. We don't have time for that.
And I do hear and I don'tmean that, maybe even as ugly

(08:35):
as it sounds, but I dohear a lot of guys that are struggling
nowadays more than ever, with likea lot of chaos on that headset.
And that is something if a headcoach and you're struggling with that, this
is a great time of year toreset that, sit the guys down.
Nobody's doing it on purpose, likelook, guys, turn your mic off
or whatever you got to do,but let's be quiet on this head.

(08:58):
It needs to be calm. Andif you want to designate one person can
talk to you, or if youwant to say, don't speak unless spoken
to, I think that's really important. It's otherwise very difficult to get the
hash, the yard line that downin distance, the right personnel, the
right formation, the right play inabout ten seconds so we can run it.

(09:22):
And it's a huge it's a verydifficult thing to do, even for
people who've done a long time.And another thing people don't realize Christmas me
being a fore offers the line Ibeen calling and played now for over twenty
plus years. My first thing isprotection. Okay, I know all we
we ain't block power right, thatleft tackle of not going block and right

(09:43):
even though their worst defender might beover there, we just can't run.
So you know, people always yougot those arm Church quarterbacks in the stand?
Why did you run this way?Because you're thinking about Okay, I
do look at my quarterbacks eyes.I see shuck Chris, you know what
I'm saying, he's rattled. Wegot to on the ball a little bit,
or you know what I'm saying.So it's a lot of that goes
into play taller and then when youadd on the chaos of this situation you

(10:05):
call it whether go for it ornot like it. We're talking about it
now, Chris on a podcast.But it happens. Twenty goes by so
fast, brother, Like people don'tunderstand the pressures takes, you know what
I'm saying, or the preparation,and it doesn't It's awesome. I actually
miss calling plays maybe as much asanything coach. I don't know if that's

(10:26):
I miss the kids. You missa lot of things, but I do
miss that part. I thought itwas great. I don't want to sound
like it, but it is hard. It's like it's like playing it.
It's like playing chess or something,you know, and all this chaos is
going around you, the band andthe cheerleaders, and we don't need to
add to that as a coaching staff. And that's what and fourth down.
Deciding to go for on fourth down, which is our main topic, here

(10:48):
is a great chance to reflect onthat. Yeah, because everybody wants to
win and everybody's trying to be helpful. I'm not saying they're not what we
need some of y'all to do.Let's teach that left tackle how to block
power these serieses, get it somethingfixed, so we can think about if
we call power versus look, it'sgonna work, you know. And that

(11:11):
that there's just so different. There'sdifferent between tactical football and technical football.
Tactical football can only happen with oneto two people per side of the ball.
Yeah, now during the week,everybody can participate, but at that
moment, technical football, which wouldbe the blocking and tackling and the techniques
of the positions. Everybody can contributeto that if their focus is on that.

(11:35):
But I found a lot of guysmaybe probably not at Central on that,
but a lot of guys other placesthey ought to be working on technical
football and they're trying to help outwith the tactical football. Yeah. That
makes yah. Yeah, and fourthdown is a great time where you're gonna
see that magnified, right. Yeah. And I learned a big lesson all
at the University Tennessee with Cheney.Uh he's at Georgia State now, will

(11:58):
see just real quick, but hewould bring us in on Fridays and he
would do a play cast you okayfirst and in ten second and long second
and medium third and long third andshort like okay, what are we calling?
And everybody will have a chance toget input. Like you said,
during the week you have input,I try to incorporate it to what I
do, like okay, what arey'all thinking during the week, But then

(12:18):
on game that like you said,we made the menu stick with what we
call and it's only one guide that'sallowed to talk to me and maybe because
we've been with me so honest ableto talk to me and maybe geting a
different insight on what he sees orwhatever. Like everything else you know needs
to be the main solid because it'sa lot of thinking to do with thoms.

(12:39):
Yeah, that's right. Cook,tell me real quick, I get
you out of here, tell meabout since gette what we got looked for
this year? Man, we're young. Man. I just told coaches that
it came through. We got agood twenty six twenty seven class. Uh,
you know, just just really young. Thought we had a pretty good
spring played. Uh, he'll grow. Came on a short end, but

(13:03):
I just was really proud of myguys pushing through and hopefully we'll have a
good nineth grade group coming up.So we as always in sec Chris's gonna
be tough. But I kind oflike our preseason schedule start off with Meadow
Creek, Stone Mountain and then we'rewe'll take a trip back down south to
Lounge and then play Chapel Hill,so real good non region. Then we

(13:24):
jump into our reschedule. So butlike I said, we got that's a
good young kid that over the nexttwo years you'll be hearing about more and
more. Yeah, awesome, coach, appreciate you guys. I know that
sometimes it's tough over there. You'rein a you're in a tough area now,
and you know, I know that. I know most people in football

(13:45):
know that, but you know,I got a ton of respect for you
guys, trying to highlight your programevery chance I can, and so look
forward to following you this year.Man. If I can help you in
any way, you know, letme know. Oh, no doubt,
no doubt, I appreciate Keep doingwhat you know. Over Parking Resource Man,
Nominate those coaches, Yes, sir, take care of Thank you.

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