Competitive Freshness: Why Coaches Need It as Much as Players

John Snell (00:00)
Our next honoree is Matt Chetter, defensive coordinator at Wartburg. Name the Hanson ratings, defensive coordinator of the week presented by Tully. Coach, congrats on a great win this past weekend over one of your conference foes and really your defense did a phenomenal job. So congrats.

Matt Tschetter (00:20)
Yeah, thanks, John. Really appreciate that. And certainly, most of the credit’s going to go to the guys, for sure. So they did an excellent job of getting themselves ready to play in a game like that. They prepared themselves really well throughout the week. ⁓ So again, really proud of their effort, ⁓ not just on game day, but throughout the week, too. So really happy about that. And then certainly, our coaching staff.

for sure, obviously starting with our head football coach, Chris Winner is obviously the guy that’s got this thing rolling for sure. So ⁓ nice having a guy like that ⁓ leading the charge for us. So he’s a guy that he was the defensive coordinator at Warburg for a long time before taking the head coach role. So having a guy like that to be able to help keep me in line for sure and help me organize some things and.

He’s also our defensive backs coach. So that’s another nice boost for sure. So, and obviously our defensive line coach, Coach Lape, man, he’s got those guys rolling for sure. So we’re getting a lot of really good pressure upfront with those guys. Those guys are playing physical. Those guys are playing hard and makes everybody else’s jobs a lot easier having those guys ready to roll up front. So Coach Lape is doing an excellent job with those guys for sure. then.

We’ve got an assistant linebacker coach helping me out, Coach Pollack. ⁓ Does an awesome job helping just kind of behind the scenes a little bit. He’s kind of, he’s the guy that we have in the booth. I have the eyes in the sky and giving us some great information on game day, helping us in terms of breakdowns throughout the week and does an excellent job. We can kind of break up our linebacker group a little bit and kind of focus on some more individual stuff with those guys and really help those guys develop throughout the week too. So.

That’s really nice to have as well. And then we have coach back, Jeff Beck, been involved in our program for a really long time. Assists coach winner with the DBs as well and does an excellent job of, and like I he’s been around all over the place and he’s been experienced. He’s bounced back and forth between offense, defense. So he’s got a really unique style to be able to bring to the table in terms of teaching and getting those guys prepared as well too. So obviously we’re just really proud with the total effort.

Again, starting with the guys, ⁓ having a mature approach with those guys is huge for sure. guys with some experience, guys that are going to be leaders, guys that going kind of help the younger guys with less experience, understand what it’s about to be successful. That makes our jobs as coaches that much easier. So like I said, most credit go into those guys for sure.

John Snell (03:05)
Matt, you guys have had tremendous success there and obviously you do a great job. ⁓ In terms of what you want to share with coaches, you mentioned your weekly game plan structure. ⁓ How about sharing that with the coaches out there? And I’m sure people will be interested in knowing some of the things that you guys do, because again, you’ve had great success there.

Matt Tschetter (03:30)
Yeah, for sure. And that’s something that we certainly don’t take lightly. That’s very, very regimented, structured, and how we approach that. And ⁓ certainly we want to try to streamline as much of that as we can. As much as possible, we don’t want to stay in the office until midnight every night or anything like that too. So like I said, we feel really good about our structure and how we’re handling that.

Dividing responsibilities throughout the week to be able to come together and put together a good plan for our guys to go compete So so yeah, just kind of starting off. Well, you know start off on Sunday. So So Sunday obviously we do spend a lot of time reviewing the previous kind of game the day before Really reviewing that and even the whole week leading up to that too So I’m just having that you know We have a team meeting and everything like that reviewing some of the special teams some of the things that went well some of the things we need to do better

Then we break off into our position groups and review the entire game. So and that’s something that can kind of be a challenge sometimes when you are having success and you are winning a lot of games. It’s easy to sit back and almost watch it from an entertainment value. But being able to get the guys to focus and hey, let’s use this to get better. Let’s use this to be able to help us win next week. And so that’s really important to us that we’re gonna watch things with a critical eye. We tell our guys.

No matter what, never as good as it seems and it’s never as bad as it seems. So there’s something that we can always take away from that to improve how we’re doing things and get better the next week. So we do spend a lot of time on that on Sunday. However, once we break from that, we move into the next week’s opponents. Now at that point, what we try to do is we try to get ahead to the point where on Sunday, we’ve got one game left to break down.

Okay, so throughout the week and as I kind of go through this, I’ll explain that. But when we get to Sunday, we break with our players. Okay, we’ve got one game left to be able to break down the information that we need to help us put together the game plan. Okay, so we’re gonna finish that. We may put together a hit chart at that point in time in terms of personnel formation, backfield, the top plays of it, like to run in each personnel group, each formation. And just really kind of have a pretty good understanding of kind of what we’re looking at.

for next week anyway. So we’ll finish all that stuff up on Sunday. Obviously, once we break down the information, we’re going to QC that ourselves in terms of, let’s make sure, you know, as one guy was breaking something down, somebody else is maybe breaking down a different game, making sure that we’re calling all this, know, IDing the stuff all the same and being able to collect all that information to put it all into, like I said, one solid ⁓ hit chart more or less. Okay, so.

Then going into going into ⁓ Monday. So the first thing we’re gonna do Monday morning is we’re all individually responsible for Looking at a different aspects of the game. Okay, so so for example ⁓ Coach winner our head football coach our defensive backs coach. He’s really going to dive into okay I’m gonna go through my I’m watch watch more of the passing game. Okay, I’m gonna really look into What what what are their favorite concepts when it’s three by one when it’s two by two?

Okay, what are the splits of the receiver? Are there bunch sets or they squeeze sets? And what are the things that we’re really going to like in terms of our coverage aspect of things that we’re really going to like to be able to call in more of a base scenario. So ⁓ I’m gonna look a little bit more at the run game is a little bit more of what I’m focused on. So I’m going through the run game. And like I said, I’m using that hit chart information in terms of not just obviously, hey, they their top run plays, but we play a little bit of a unique style of defense where. ⁓

John Snell (07:05)
Thank you.

Matt Tschetter (07:17)
The things that we’re going to see against opponents is probably going to be a little bit different than what they run against other opponents. Okay, so we are a four down team, but the way that we align and the way that we play our fronts and our box structure is a little bit unique. So trying to get an idea of what they prefer against similar type of looks is one thing, but also just, okay, know, tight end on, know, tight end off, where’s the back at relative to where the tight end is? Do they like to run the ball and, you know,

John Snell (07:42)
But.

Matt Tschetter (07:47)
11 personnel sets or they try to heavy it up a little bit, 12 personnel sets. ⁓ What’s their go-to in terms of down and distance, that sort of thing. So really looking at the run game aspect of it and all the angles that we can take as much as possible. Obviously when you’re playing an opponent that you’ve played, like a conference point, you get in conference play, that sort of thing. Usually you have a little bit more of an idea. It’s always a little bit more of a challenge when you’re playing somebody new and you don’t have a lot of great looks to go from in terms of different.

different defensive looks, that sort of thing is always a little bit more of a challenge. But usually we get a pretty good grasp of, like I said, the information that we collect throughout the week. So ⁓ our D-line coach is going to really look at more of the protection aspect of things. So he’s really breaking down, OK, how do they protect against a four down, a three down? Have we shaded a certain direction? Have we widened anybody out? What kind of protections are we seeing from those guys? How can we?

⁓ implement some of our stunts, some of our pressures, ⁓ and what do we really like that we already have in our defense? And that’s one thing that we really try to stray away from is not trying to come up with a lot of just new things all of the time. We don’t want to have a, get into that element of having a defense of the week, so to speak. We really want to, okay, what are the things that we have in our defense, in our playbook already that’s going to work well against ⁓ what we’re seeing?

So he’s really looking at that. So, and then from there, like I said, mentioned Coach Pollack is another guy that’s going to kind of get ahead a little bit on some of the breakdown information as well as we’re rolling through that. ⁓ We may have, you know, already start to draw some cards for Tuesday’s practice and really kind of get ourselves ready to go, you know, throughout the week on Monday. So.

So after we all individually look at those different aspects of the game, then we’re gonna come together ⁓ as a defensive staff and we’re gonna really start with just our base game plan. So when we start with our base game plan on Monday, we’re going just personnel group by personnel group. Again, some offenses we see maybe, hey, maybe they run their entire offense out of one personnel group. Okay, then we have to to look at a little bit differently in how we’re going to ⁓ call the game on Saturday.

But anyways, like I said, we go through, I said, usually the base way to do it, go through each personnel group. Okay, let’s put together a menu of ideas that we really like. Okay, what are our base fronts? What are our base coverages that we like? If it’s three by one, if it’s two by two, you know, where’s the tight end at? Where’s the back at? What are our base stunts that we really like? And really go through kind of each personnel group and just build more or less just a menu of, here’s the things that we really like in each personnel group.

and go from there. So that’s the majority of Monday and what we want to get done. That’s going to take some time. We’ve done a really good job here this year of really staying ahead of the game. We can really kind of get that going fairly early Monday morning just because we get so far ahead on our breakdowns to give us more time to be able to really discuss ideas, what we really like, what we want to maybe stay away from in our calls.

So those are all things that we’re really looking at on Monday anyways, and then Monday kind of takes us through we’re gonna obviously you know spend a good amount of time on some special teams we each We don’t have a special teams coordinator. So each one of our coaches is responsible for a different special team So we’re gonna a lot a little bit of time for us to be able to each individually go through Okay, know what for example the know the punts or the you know kickoff and each coach is gonna get a little bit of time to be able to look at that a little bit we’re gonna come together as a full staff and

and watch all the special teams together too. And it’s always a good time to be able to throw some ideas out there. Maybe it’s not your special team that we’re focusing on at the time, but you can kind of use some of the stuff that you’ve learned and maybe things that other opponents have done against you in the past to make it tough on you. So we do that all together ⁓ as a full staff. ⁓ then from there, once that special teams meeting is done. ⁓

we really go into getting Tuesday’s practice ready. So at that point in time, ⁓ we are scripting the practice, we are ⁓ drawing the cards, a lot of times we’re already done with Tuesday’s practice in terms of our script, our cards, and how we’re going to operate that on Monday night. So we’ve been able to get ahead to that point and speed things along that much further.

Then going into Tuesday, ⁓ we spend a lot of time in terms of Tuesday, like I said, whatever we need to wrap up for that practice is always the first priority. But we’ve been able to actually start to game plan in the day, in the morning on Tuesdays, continue our game plan and getting to more of the situational stuff. Okay, so that’s where we’re going to look a little bit more at, okay, what’s the red zone look like or the scoring zone look like? Okay, what are some of their favorite plays? are some of their top plays there?

Okay, let’s move the ball down even further. Okay, now we’re inside the eight, inside the seven yard line. What are their goal line plays? What are their goal line personnel look like? Do they have different goal line personnel that they put out there? Is there anything substitution wise that we need to do to match up with what we’re potentially going to see? So we’re going to spend a lot of time on that. And then we’re going to look at third down specifically. Okay, so we look obviously third and long is kind of where we start and then same thing third down. That’s a really important down for us, right?

That’s our opportunity to be able to get that stop, be able to get that ball back to our offense. So we are going to really spend a lot of time just, hey, looking at third down and what are the best ways for us to be able to get a stop on third down given the down and distance situation. So we’re going to spend a lot of time on Tuesday wrapping that up. And again, even before we start practice on Tuesday, a lot of times we already have that ready to go. So again, Tuesday’s practice is going to be a little bit more

of the base kind of situations, right? That’s going to be a little bit more, let’s, hey, what are the top run plays we’re going to expect? What are the top pass concepts we’re going to expect? And really just trying to hammer out a fair amount of plays there, okay? Here’s the things we’re looking to expect, okay? And then when we practice those things, that’s kind of the situation we’re practicing. Okay, hey, here’s a run period. Here’s a team run period. Here’s a team pass period, okay? And here’s just a mix of team.

Okay, like yours, you run pass, you got to be able to react either way. Okay, so we really focus on that on Tuesday. And then going into Wednesday, that’s where we bring in our game plan information from Tuesday where we’re looking at more of those situations. Okay, we’re looking at the red zone goal line. We’re looking at, you know, the third down periods and getting some of those calls ready to go. So we’re getting that ready to go.

for Wednesday and then when Wednesday does roll around, those are the situations that we’re practicing. So we put the ball, okay, we have a period, we’re gonna put the ball in the 30 and we’re just gonna move it in, okay? From the 30, we’re gonna go from the 30 to 25, run a couple of plays from the 20, the 15, and keep moving the ball down into the goal line, all the way down to the two yard line, the one yard line, and keep running those situations. And then we’re gonna have a third down period, okay? And we’re gonna tell you what the downing distance is. It’s third and long, it’s…

John Snell (14:53)
Thank

Matt Tschetter (15:06)
It’s third medium and run some of those calls that we really liked from our game plan meeting and get those reps. So ⁓ then from there, so like I said, the rest of Wednesday is continuing to finish Thursday’s practice. ⁓ So we’re kind of at the point where we can really stay a day ahead, kind of evaluate the things that we did during that practice that day. But. ⁓

But like I said, really trying to stay that day ahead as much as we possibly can ⁓ to be able to, like I said, kind of keep things moving. So that way when we get to Thursday, at that point Thursday’s practice is already completed. It’s already done, cards are drawn, we’re good to go, and we’re already breaking down the next opponent. So ⁓ our defensive line coach does a great job as he’s looking at it in terms of

of getting ahead, okay? myself and Coach Winner, we’re kind of getting the final touches on our game plan put together. So again, we have kind of that menu of all those different calls, all those different personnel groups, all those situations. And then we’re really trying to get, all right, let’s get into the call sheet side of our game plan now, okay? If it’s P and 10, if it’s first and 10 within the series.

John Snell (16:06)
Thank

Matt Tschetter (16:27)
What were the kind of okay? What’s kind of the order of stuff that we want to be able to call things in and where do we want to start at and each one of those personnel groups each one of those situations Okay, then what are our wrinkles that we have from there? So I mean you really each each situation down a distance situation and each personnel group We’re going to have a our base kind of menu of you know, just our base calls then from there Okay, what kind of stones what kind of blitzes do we want to have is there anything extra that we want to put into that and we’re really gonna have

know, 10 to 12 calls for each one of those situations that we can just kind of roll off of right away. Okay, so we’re really kind of starting to work on that. On Thursdays, we’re spending a lot of that time as Coach Lape or defensive line coach, Coach Pollack, are really kind of working ahead in the breakdowns for the next opponent. So, and that kind of takes us into, like I said, obviously that finishes up the rest of Thursday, takes us into Friday.

Friday we like hey, we you know defensive staff meeting we’re gonna hey Here’s the final touches on our game plan to the point where hey not only what calls do we like all right? But even the formatting of how how it looks all right our actual game plan sheet. does this look does it look good? Can we read it all right? Is there any any errors in that and really is putting a lot of detail? Into that when we put our final final touches on it that way so and then and then obviously the rest of Friday

And if there’s anything left that we need to be able to break down, if there’s anything left that we need to get ready for the next opponent, that’s usually going to be finished up on Friday. So then that obviously leads us into the end of game day anyways. So like I said, it’s just really nice. We’re able to kind of divide and conquer. For the most part, each member of our staff really has a valuable aspect of our game plan in terms of, here’s the things that I like. Here’s the things that I’m concerned about.

And everybody’s got a voice. It’s not just one guy just, hey, here’s what I like. Here’s what we’re going to do. It’s everybody, hey, here’s what I like, but here’s my concerns. And we put our heads together. And really, like I said, each personnel group, each situation, everybody has an impact on that. So like I said, that’s real nice for us. And like I said, that’s why a lot of the credit, it’s not just one guy. It’s not.

just the coaches, but the players and their involvement and even asking those guys, hey, what are the things that you like? Do you feel comfortable in a call like this as we go throughout the week? so we’re constantly taking input from everybody. Everybody’s got their own fingerprints on our game plan and what everybody feels comfortable with doing. and like I said, by the time Saturday rolls around, we’re confident for sure. So.

John Snell (19:07)
It’s great that you value your staff enough to allow them to give input. think that’s important that you are taking input from your staff. And obviously it’s working, Matt, because you guys again are having, have had great success. Couple of short questions and then we’ll wrap up. Monday, I’m assuming that Monday you give the players off that day so you guys can spend your time game planning.

Matt Tschetter (19:32)
Absolutely, yep. So yeah, it’s certainly a lot of different ways to do it. Certainly a lot of different ways to be successful doing that. But for us, Monday is the day off for the players. So there’s no meetings or practice or anything like that for the players. Good way for those guys to be able to just really be where their feet are and that’s going to be in class, right? Getting off to a good start academically throughout the week. And like I said, Monday giving them that time ⁓ on their own and giving us time to be able to really get ahead on our game plan that way.

So it’s good good starts of week that way.

John Snell (20:04)
And what time as a staff, Matt, do you guys typically get wrap things up on Monday night? Is it early?

Matt Tschetter (20:12)
Yeah, so Monday

night. after our special teams, we’re going to try to meet as you know, as a full staff for that special teams meeting usually around 530 6 o’clock or so that special teams meeting maybe about an hour and a half or so. And we may discuss other, you know, topics and things along those lines in that meeting, not just special teams, but you know, what are some of the things that maybe, you know, maybe that somebody’s ⁓ maybe got a little banged up in the in previous week. Maybe there’s an injury. Maybe we need to adjust some of the.

the depth chart a little bit. So we’ll discuss a little bit about that.

meeting as well on Monday. But that meeting will wrap up usually around, maybe at eight o’clock is probably about the latest from there. So ⁓ from that standpoint, if there’s anything else left for us to do, sometimes we’ll go into that meeting. We might have everything done from a defensive side. Maybe there’s a couple things that we just want to kind of sure up or maybe even ourselves get ahead for our game plan meeting the next day. But at that point, hey, there’s been times where we’ve been out of the office right there. ⁓

Maybe there’s some times that we need to wrap up and we need to finish some things up for Tuesday’s practice. ⁓ Okay, then maybe it’s nine o’clock, okay? But yeah, we’re certainly not trying to stay into the office by midnight every night. If ⁓ we have more of a structured time, right, we’re going to be able to really focus on here’s what we’re gonna get done at that specific time. You know that’s when it’s gonna get done.

And then that, like I said, really helps you as opposed to, well, okay, whatever, we got this left, we got that left, what do we have left? Everybody knows everybody else’s responsibilities. Everybody knows when everybody else is getting stuff done. So having that kind of schedule like that just really helps everybody to stay on task and get stuff done. There’s no question whether or not this got done or that got done. Everybody knows what we needed to get done to move our game week along, so yeah.

John Snell (22:06)
It’s good that you guys aren’t there till midnight, Matt. That’s not good for anybody. And it’s good to know that you can have things structured enough that you can be efficient. ⁓

Matt Tschetter (22:08)
Yeah. No.

Absolutely, absolutely.

I think, yeah, that’s something where we’ve spent a lot of time on our players in terms of their competitive freshness as well. And for them to feel good throughout the week and not, whatever it is, taking 80 plays in each practice, almost playing a game’s worth of plays in each practice. The coaches need to have that too, right? If you’re…

in the office until 11 o’clock midnight every night, you’re not going to be fresh. When we meet together as a defensive staff, you’re going to be a little bogged down, you’re going to be little tired. You’re probably not going to be able to do your job as best as possible. When you do get out to practice, to implement all the stuff that we’re talking about, you’re not going to be at your best either. obviously the players having competitive freshness, but the coaches need to have competitive freshness along with that too.

John Snell (23:05)
Well, Matt, congratulations again on being recognized as this week’s defensive coordinator of the week. We wish you the best in the rest of the season and good luck and thanks again.

Matt Tschetter (23:19)
Thanks, John, really appreciate it. And again, hey, really thanks to the players. They’re making this thing run and really proud of their efforts so far.