Building a College-Style Workflow in High School Football

Keith Grabowski (00:00)
Okay, so we’ll take it from there, Keshe.

Kevin Wright (00:04)
Yeah, I mean, it go routes been just a big part of what we’re able to do. And had I not just heard those numbers come out of your mouth, I would have said no way we run in that many plays. But, you know, it’s one of those things where we always talk to our kids that we want the game to be easier than practice. And, you know, we have been able to play at a high tempo offensively and defensively. And again, it all goes back to, you know, how you prepare your kids. And some of that gets down to

what are you able to do in the amount of time that you have to do it in during the course of the week? And so practice for us ⁓ is highly important. As we talked a little bit earlier off the air, mean, we start on Monday and Monday’s our full padded day and kind of go from there. But it’s been a lot of fun so far and we’ve got one more regular season game and then we’ll start to play off in a couple of weeks.

Keith Grabowski (00:58)
Yeah, I think the biggest thing when you look at well-run practices, I mean, you have to find ways to be efficient. you know, I talked with Casey Teegarden, who you work with back at Indiana earlier this year on the podcast, and, you he explained, you know, using it there and it’s something that he would never do without, you know, that it’s just become such a big part of the workflow and how you’re able to create.

practices that serve your team best. mean, ultimately you want guys moving, you want to be efficient with their time, your time. And the numbers obviously speak for themselves. You guys are running an insane amount of practice reps. Now we will point out, you told me you have 25 of the go route sets and that’s so that you guys run it like a college practice. You’re fortunate enough to have a lot of guys and run an offense on one side of the field and defense and their scout team on the other side of the field.

Kevin Wright (01:54)
Correct. and really, like I said earlier, that we don’t, we’d actually have a period at the end of the practice, a good on good period where we get another 24 to 30 reps, which we don’t use go routes in. But it’s been a game changer and not just for our kids, but also for our coaches. And I was trying to explain this to them, how it worked, how it would make things almost, the seamless transition from what you do preparing during the weekend.

And how that would help us once we got the cards done, got things ready that we could upload, how that made practice on a daily basis just go really quick. So it’s been one of those things that, yes, when I was in Indiana, we used it. And I saw how it was done. I was just really impressed with how quickly we were able to run plays and ⁓ without any issues from the scout team on the offensive side and defensive side.

It’s been a blessing that we were able to our administration to buy into it and make the investment and it’s paid off.

Keith Grabowski (03:02)
So you guys are heading into the final week of your regular season in Indiana. ⁓ There’s a bye week and then you start your playoffs. In looking at how things have adjusted as you’ve hit this later part of the season, what things are different in your practice? What things are adjusted to just pay attention to? You’ve got kids who have been out there since ⁓ August, really even before that in the summer.

Kevin Wright (03:29)
Yeah, I mean, and we talked about this as a staff, you how do you really adjust practice as you get a little bit closer, you know, to ⁓ playoff and really the one thing that we’ve done and there’s two major things, but the one thing that we’ve done is, you know, we’ve cut that good on good period that we’ve had at end of the practice where we’ve got our, you know, our one offense against our two defense or our two defense against our one offense. So kind of eliminated those 24 reps to take.

not just the workload, but just the physicality and the beating ⁓ that you get ⁓ over the course of a three-month season, which is kind of where we’re at. And so I think that’s probably the one thing that we’ve done. The scout reps are the same, but just taking that physical load off them, which I think internally probably takes a mental load off when they know that there’s a little bit less that they’re going to have to get after at the end of practice.

You know, the other thing and we’re really fortunate, you we have a brand new indoor complex ⁓ that we’ve done is Monday. You know, we’re going in the indoor regardless and the indoor gives us the ability just to focus a lot of lot less distractions. You know, we’ve got two hours and 15 minutes that we’re going to get things done. And the kids know it, you know, we’re not worried about anything other than just football. And I think that’s huge. And then.

We go out Tuesday and Wednesday, just like we always have. then Thursday is basically our walk through, jog through. It’s an hour deal with helmets. And we go back in the indoor on Thursday. So it’s something we don’t do till the end of the year till we get ready for prep for the playoffs. ⁓ And it’s something that the kids actually enjoy. It’s a change of pace. ⁓ We can play music if we want to, if the head coach is in that mode and kind of get the vibe.

But I think just kind of those two change ups really help us just in regards to it is a grind. And we always talk about football is a grind. It’s the one sporting more where you practice about 10 times more than you ever play games. So you gotta do some things a little bit differently. And ⁓ I think you gotta take care of their bodies and their minds as well.

Keith Grabowski (05:45)
Coach, I think the other aspect of all the reps that you guys are able to get in, not just the preparation of the guys who are gonna be out under the lights on the Friday night, but the scout team, those are developmental reps. Your guys are out there playing football. It’s not under the lights like the varsity guys, but they’re getting those reps. And again, it’s become exponential. And you think about how these reps stack up over the course of the season compared to…

when you had to go stand in the huddle with a scout card, bring everybody in, where now it’s just bang, bang. Now they’re getting better at playing football.

Kevin Wright (06:23)
100%. I mean, and we’ve seen that and how well our JV team has played, you know, and, you know, the amount of reps that they’re getting in practice because, you know, at the end of the day, the card just help you expedite the scheme, you know, and, you know, whether the, you know, most teams that we’re going to play are going to run some type of zone concept, which are offensive linemen, you know, from our seniors to our younger kids, they understand that, you know, they look at the card, Hey, it’s inside zone. So

It’s just really expediting some of the things that they’ve been taught. But I think the fact that we are able to get those reps in and we tape everything. so, one thing that we do and I don’t know if this is unique or not, but when we go into our meetings before practice and after practice, we’re going into our offensive meeting is the first two offenses and the scout team defense. So they get to watch themselves too, and they’re critiquing themselves, their coaches are back there with the scope.

We do that on both sides of football. So again, it’s multiplying the opportunities to improve. And now it’s not just the 22 guys, the first offense, the first defense. It’s the first three or four offenses and defenses. So the top 66 to 80 kids in your program, they’re getting reps on a daily basis that are meaningful reps.

they’re getting taped and then they can go back and evaluate themselves on the tape as well after practice. So it’s been a huge win-win.

Keith Grabowski (07:57)
Yeah, I like how you said you have your coaches in there too. And I think that is somewhat unique. I we talked to a lot of coaches on the podcast and I don’t think I’ve heard anybody talk about that part of it of having those guys coached up in those meetings as well. Obviously our attention is always for what’s going on under the lights on Friday night. But, you know, think about having those guys and being able to pay attention to what they’re doing as well. It just goes to their development because someday that’s going to be them, right? A couple of years down the road.

those guys get the opportunity.

Kevin Wright (08:30)
100%. I mean, I just, for example, we’re sitting in the meeting last night after practice because we go straight from the practice field into the locker room and our tape is already uploaded within 10 minutes of any practice and we’re watching tape. And I think the really neat thing about it is I’m able to praise some of those, I’m usually in the offensive meeting, so I’m able to praise some of those scout team defensive linemen for what they’re doing. And I think that goes a long way when you’re a sophomore.

defensive lineman and the head coach is sitting in a meeting with the first team offense, first team defense, excuse me, first team, second team offense, and he’s praising you for your effort. so it’s one of those things I catch myself a lot of times, getting excited for those guys as much as I am maybe getting upset because we didn’t come off on a combo to the second level linebacker. ⁓ So that’s something that’s been really good for us and something that I’ve done for years and I do think it pays.

huge dividends because yes, so those guys that are playing scout team a lot of time, they’re younger guys. And at some point, maybe it even next year, maybe it’s the following year, maybe it’s their senior year, ⁓ it becomes a program thing. ⁓ And the other thing that we do, it’s cool, our scout team players of the week, they wear the black jerseys, they get these special jerseys. So when you go watch those films, they’re standing out as well. So.

All that’s important, I think, when you’re trying to build a culture and ⁓ a family atmosphere.

Keith Grabowski (10:03)
Definitely coach the third phase is obviously important. And like you said, you have enough kids, you can run it college style. You have both ends of the field. What is, what does a special teams period look like for you guys? And are you using the technology there as well?

Kevin Wright (10:19)
Yeah, I mean, we have not got to the point yet. We’re good. We’re going to, but special teams is again, it’s very, it’s just like we did, you know, at the collegiate level, you know, I mean, we’re, we’re, have four different special teams periods. You know, we have, you know, a drill period we’re doing two, we’re emphasizing on Monday and Tuesday, you know, we’re, doing a punt team on Monday. We’re doing kickoff team on Monday, you know, and then we’re doing, we’re doing kickoff team drill work.

of punt team drill work, know, and so we’re basically utilizing four different periods. And then every day of the week, we’re doing ⁓ field goal, extra point, field goal block every day. I mean, that’s a five minute period for us. It’s that important. And then on Thursday, Wednesday and Thursday, we do a comprehensive. So we haven’t got to that point where we’re doing that. You know, I think if we had, you know, we really need after this.

maybe we can get our admin to buy us some more go routes because that would enable us to have a set that’s just designated for those scout team players and they’re ready to go as opposed to trying to get in and change them in and out like we do when we’re in our scout periods offensively and defensively.

Keith Grabowski (11:34)
Coach, as your team gets into the playoffs and you’ve had a lot of teams that have made deep playoff runs, what do you feel are the most important things to keep these younger guys engaged? For them now, in the regular season, there’s a game at the end of the week that they could play in. There’s no JV games in the playoffs, so how do you keep those guys engaged and make sure they understand how important they are to the program? You don’t want that situation where…

Kevin Wright (11:50)
Yeah.

Keith Grabowski (12:01)
you see their performance in practice, which you said is important, dropping off.

Kevin Wright (12:02)
Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, we are able to when we get to the playoffs, we’re able to address 85 players, which for us, ⁓ that still means that we’ve got another 50 that don’t get addressed upperclassmen. So what we do is that we reward those guys. again, most people aren’t going to do this, but like I spent a lot of times going back and watching our tape and studying our scout team players.

Who’s doing a great job? Who’s there every day? ⁓ Who’s getting after it? So the reward is those guys that might not usually get on the bus, they get on the bus. Or they might not usually get to run through the tunnel in a home game, they get to run through the tunnel. And that’s a big deal at our place, and we make it a big deal. So the fact that there’s always that last 10 to 12 guys who get to make the travel list, home and away.

that that’s an open-ended deal that I could make that. think that ⁓ really helps motivate kids to go out and practice hard. And again, I think the other thing is that peer-to-peer relationship that our offensive guys have with our scout team defense and our defensive guys have with our scout team offense.

Keith Grabowski (13:22)
Yeah, how important is the back and forth between the players to make sure that especially those older guys are communicating that are showing them that you’re appreciated for what you do.

Kevin Wright (13:33)
It’s huge. mean, you I don’t know. And I know you’ve been coaching for a long time as well. mean, you know, have you ever had a great team that wasn’t connected? You know, the answer is no. mean, great teams are always connected. It doesn’t matter the sport. You know, they’re connected and they communicate, you know, and that’s on the field and off the field. And, you know, when you got a big program and big is always relative, you know, but we count freshmen.

We have 220 some players in our program. You know, it’s important that seniors know the younger kids names and you know, one of the easiest ways to get to know someone’s name is to stand out, right? I mean, it’s for those younger kids that stand out when they hear that the head coach either announced their name as a scout team player of the week or are in a film session as we’ve alluded to. ⁓ But I think it’s, you you’re always trying to develop next year’s team while you’re trying to win with this year’s team. And, you know, it’s just a

The little things that you can do and nothing’s original, everything’s stolen. So you’re always trying to figure out when you go to clinics, you talk to coaches, what can I do? And really, the go route has been huge. The fact that we have the actually we have ⁓ huddle sideline which uploads things automatically. So we get to go straight from the practice field into the meeting room and watch an intercut.

inside drill or seven on seven or team period. The efficiency of practice and parents appreciate that as well. I there’s efficiency in all that we do and that’s I think has played a major role in our success this year.

Keith Grabowski (15:13)
Well, coach, I appreciate you taking time with us here during game week and certainly we’ll be following you. Best of luck to you and the Panthers here in the playoffs and maybe we’ll get you back here postseason to talk a little ball.

Kevin Wright (15:29)
That’d be great, Keith. Great to talk with you. again, Go Rats been awesome for me, but at the end of the day, you know, we’re all trying to find ways to do things better. you know, hopefully some people and really, and I think we may be one of the only schools in the state of Indiana. Ohio has a ton of them Texas. I hope that people catch on, you know, because I think this technology at some point is probably going to be implemented on game days. I think they might even be doing that in Texas at this point. So, but appreciate it. Yeah.

Keith Grabowski (15:57)
They are,

Kevin Wright (15:58)
Appreciate the time.