By Keith Grabowski
Teams that create explosive plays late in the season usually share one trait: they have built a strong foundation early and know how to layer small additions onto what their players already understand. Delaware Valley football coach Mike Isgro takes this approach each week, adding only what fits the identity of the offense and what his players can execute confidently.
His philosophy is simple:
“Explosive plays come from details, not volume.”
These weekly add-ons give Coach Mike Isgro and the DelVal head coach staff the flexibility to attack defensive tendencies while keeping the system clear and teachable.
1. Build the Offense Around Core Concepts
Explosive plays start with what players already know. Mike Isgro Delaware Valley’s base concepts stay consistent from Week 1 through Week 10. Formations, motions, and tags are layered onto these plays, but the structure remains the same. This gives players confidence, especially the quarterback, because each new variation feels familiar.
2. Identify What the Defense Is Giving You
Weekly changes come from film, not from expanding the playbook. The staff looks for patterns across the season — a safety that fits too fast, a corner that chases motion, or a linebacker who overplays the flow. Add-ons target these behaviors with minor adjustments rather than entirely new plays. This approach is a trademark of Isgro DelVal football offense.
3. Add One or Two Variations, Not Five or Six
Small, intentional changes can yield significant results. DelVal may add a motion, a shift, a formation change, or a simple tag to window-dress a concept they already trust. The goal is to achieve clarity for the players and create hesitation for the defense. A familiar play presented differently becomes difficult to defend without adding new teaching on offense.
4. Rep the Add-Ons Early in the Week
Repetition builds confidence and timing. New variations are introduced on Monday and Tuesday, then sharpened during situational periods later in the week. Because players already know the core play, the teaching load stays manageable and execution improves quickly. This is part of Mike Isgro Delaware Valley’s emphasis on mastering fundamentals before adding complexity.
5. Call Them When the Defense Is Most Vulnerable
Explosive plays depend on timing and understanding the flow of the game. Isgro saves specific add-ons for the right moment. When the defense adjusts to the base concept, the variation is ready. This patience helps create the explosive plays that shift momentum for the DelVal football team.
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About Mike Isgro
Mike Isgro Delaware Valley’s head football coach, Mike Isgro, previously served in multiple roles on the Aggies’ staff, including special teams coordinator, recruiting coordinator, and running backs coach. Before returning to his alma mater, Isgro spent five seasons at Cedar Creek High School, helping the program capture multiple conference championships and a state title. A former DelVal quarterback and MAC Offensive Player of the Year, Coach Mike Isgro brings the perspective of both a standout player and an experienced teacher to the development of his teams.
Related:
Preparing for Big Games and Rare Situations: Lessons from Gary Swenson
Terence Archer, Establishing an Identity and Explosives- Offensive Coordinator, Delaware
More on Coach Mike Isgro
Podcast transcript
Michael Isgro (00:00)
I think for us offensively, ⁓ there’s a lot of core concepts. Obviously when it comes to, we’re gonna try to, I don’t like the word balanced as much. I think it’s whatever’s gonna help you win football games. But if we need to run the football, throwing the football, whatever it takes to score touchdowns, to score points, to get inside the red zone and come away with points is always ⁓ the main goal for us.
Gotcha.
John Snell (00:28)
We opened this week on the offensive side of the ball where Del Valle continued its dominance with a 51 to 20 win over Marisa Cordia. The Aggies offense was relentless, balanced, efficient, and explosive, scrolling on nearly every opportunity and keeping the pressure on from start to finish. Coach, congratulations on the win and being named our offensive coordinator of the week. Before we get into the details, tell us about your staff and
and recognizing them.
Michael Isgro (00:59)
Yeah, thank you. Yeah, staff was here. We got a lot of guys that have been here ⁓ for a bit. Also, you know, obviously our offensive line coach Greg Phoenix been here. This is year 26 for him. So just having him around his experience and you know, keeping the yolo line guys ready to go. So and how much he does for our program behind the scenes as well with things like that. You know, why receivers coach has been here. Coach Ralph Carter.
You know, for this would be year seven for him. Another guy coach for us on the O-line, retired teacher, Coach Bonds. have tight ends, Coach, Coach Siboda. and then for us also, offensively is a huge plus, is Coach Fontana. He’s a former player here, played quarterback for us back in 2019. We went out to, to Sweet 16 and lost to North Central out there. He was the quarterback there. So,
To have another quarterback guy coaching different position, doing a lot, a huge plus for us and for our guys. brings the young energy, which is always a good thing. So offensively on that staff, it’s a great group. Obviously, we all kind of trust each other, take care of your position, make sure we’re all ready to go, meet game plan-wise. And then it’s just about the trust that we’re all kind of on the same page. We’ve kind of all been around each other, so that’s a huge.
huge plus to our offense when it comes to that.
John Snell (02:32)
Coach, you know, Mike, that as part of the program, we asked that our coaches share some coaching thoughts or coaching thought with our listeners. You mentioned the idea of maybe your core thoughts on offense. How about you share a little bit of that with our listeners? And obviously, what you guys are doing offensively has been pretty successful. So I’m sure you’ve got some great thoughts to share.
Michael Isgro (03:00)
Yeah, I think for us offensively, ⁓ there’s a lot of core concepts. Obviously when it comes to, we’re gonna try to, I don’t like the word balanced as much. I think it’s whatever’s gonna help you win football games. But if we need to run the football, throwing the football, whatever it takes to score touchdowns, to score points, to get inside the red zone and come away with points is always ⁓ the main goal for us.
But some of those core things obviously from a run game standpoint, we do a lot of, just like everybody else, you’re run power zone, do different things. It’s a matter of how you get to those, how you get to those different looks versus some of the stuff that we do. And then from a pass game scheme, a lot of the stuff that you’ll see on tape, it’s no secret. You’re gonna get 10 games of us, nine games of us, so.
We have no hidden tricks, ⁓ but it’s a lot of concepts that we’ll run each week, ⁓ but showing a different look, getting there a different way, ⁓ tries to help. I think that benefits our guys. It’s lot of same concepts, but how are gonna get there this week? ⁓ How does it tie into what they’re giving us from a scheme side of it from the back end or even in the box? ⁓ Can we fit it up? Does it make sense from a pass pro standpoint?
So using a lot of motions to help also identify different things on the back end to help quarterbacks and runbacks and also help O’leimman when it comes to the pass pro. And then also utilizing those motions in different run game variations to set it up to put us in a better situation to scheme it up to block it better to where it fits up. And then we like to use some formation of boundary and different things like that to. ⁓
to utilize some things to the field, but then also utilize some things into the boundaries as well. So we try to, it’s always funny. We sit down, we talk, we talk, you Wednesday, we do a lot of our red zone stuff. We’ll have a lot of concepts, a lot of plays that, you know, we’ll run from August all the way up and we will rep those plays. ⁓ And some of them don’t get called until you get to week six, week seven, you know, even, you know, last week we, not this past two weeks ago, really at this point, we ran a couple of different plays.
And we ran them every Wednesday. And it’s always reminding the guys, don’t get bored of it. When it comes to time it’s gonna be called, we need to be able to execute that play to a high level. And then we were able to run two of those plays two weeks ago and connect it on. So that, and then, sometimes those plays once you use them once they’re kinda out, different looks, different variations of it. and then each.
Obviously every week you’re going to add some wrinkles, add some different things in there that are just going to match up well and look good on tape. ⁓ And it’s about just trying to get it to our guys ⁓ in a way where it can make sense to them and they can see it. Whether that’s the O-line, whether that’s the running backs, whether that’s the quarterback, because he needs to understand where we’re trying to go with it and what he’s looking for. And I think just keeping it consistent with lot of those core concepts, core plays, and then building off of those to get us to a
to a better situation to make it a little bit simple on that end. So we can play fast. Always talk about you’re gonna play a lot better, you’re gonna play a lot faster when you’re not thinking, when you’re just playing football. And if you know what you’re doing, you’re confident in what you’re doing, guys are gonna play free, they’re gonna play a lot better. So that’s kinda what we try to do offensively, try to run the football, try to throw the ball. At the end of it all, just.
try to score points because that’s what it’s about. That’s our job ⁓ to score and put, you know, and sometimes it’s just getting out of a bad situation too.
John Snell (06:59)
We used to do the same thing, Mike. We’d run the same plays in certain situations all season long, but maybe not run them until, you know, God only knows what week. ⁓ My question to you would be, you running those plays every week in practice, not using some of them until mid-season or late in the season? But were you, are you adding things on to those plays so you’re running it even more?
than what you would have been at the start of the season. Does that make sense?
Michael Isgro (07:33)
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, we’re always going to add things to the to the weekly plan, like, whether it’s a run play, whether it’s a different scheme, how we’re going to block it up to fit it ⁓ or even just a pass play. We’re going to add plays in there. And then sometimes it’s, you know, you’re running that play to add on to the ⁓ later on in season when that time comes up. You know, are we going to be able to use that to where, hey, we practice these other ones. They’re really good to us. The guys get it. We understand. We know that they know it.
they’re going to be comfortable doing it. Now we just added on two, three more plays ⁓ to build off of that to where, hey, now we can start practicing these for two, three weeks. So once we, you you burn one or two or you have those in your, in your back pocket as well. And then, you know, don’t get me wrong this week, ⁓ you know, we did, we were, hit two plays ⁓ for big, for big yardage ⁓ that weren’t on tape, ⁓ you know, it’s something different, ⁓ you know, and one of those we put in on, on Tuesday.
just because it kind of fit up. ⁓ every week you’re going to add, you’re to do different things, but try to keep it in the grand scheme of what you have, what your base stuff is to try to build off of it to where it does make sense. ⁓ It can make sense to me, it can make sense to Coach Fiedek, but we’re not running the play. It’s got to make sense to our guys. They got to operate it at a high level. And I always say to the quarterbacks, if it doesn’t make sense to you, I’ll cross it off.
You know, can get it could be Friday. It just doesn’t make sense. You’re confused on it. We’ll get rid of that play because it’s important to make sense to them. ⁓ You know, I just got to call it. They executed. ⁓ you know, so yeah, we’ll build off of that each week. ⁓ You know, different things and add stuff every week to, ⁓ you know, steal some things. You see something on Saturday or Sunday. Obviously, that’s it’s everybody stealing from everybody.
Football is football, always mess around. It’s how you can get that point across and do it and call it at the right time, but then the guys executing at the right time too. And this week our guys made some plays, stepped up in some big moments, and they capitalized on some opportunities. So it was great to see that come to effect. We’ve had some games where some things didn’t go that way. We missed an opportunity here or there, could have been early in the game.
But this week, guys played really well. They were ready, they were focused, so it was good.
John Snell (10:06)
Well, obviously your choices have been pretty successful, Mike. And again, we want to congratulate you on a great win. Wish you the best for the last week of the regular season. And we appreciate your time. And thanks again for being on. And good luck this last week.
Michael Isgro (10:26)
Thank you, appreciate it. Thank you again for everything you guys do for the game and the promoting of the programs and everything. And obviously, selecting Del Viles is big for our program and our guys as well. So thank you.