{"id":3137,"date":"2022-09-08T19:53:00","date_gmt":"2022-09-08T19:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coachandcoordinator.com\/?p=3137"},"modified":"2023-07-20T20:43:47","modified_gmt":"2023-07-20T20:43:47","slug":"phil-longo-on-instinctiveness-play-the-best-eleven","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coachandcoordinator.com\/?p=3137","title":{"rendered":"Phil Longo on Instinctiveness: Play the Best Eleven"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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A coach\u2019s job is to get the best eleven on the field. But who are the best eleven? North Carolina Offensive Coordinator Phil Longo says it\u2019s the guys who can play fast and instinctively.<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBy Keith Grabowski
keith@coachandcoordinator.com
September 8, 2022\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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All coaches talk about wanting players to play fast. The idea being that a well-trained player plays fast without having to think much.<\/p>

Phil Longo calls it \u201cplaying instinctually.\u201d On Coach and Coordinator Podcast, Coach Longo shared that he and his staff place a huge emphasis on the belief that getting every player to contribute on Saturdays is to get them to play instinctively without thinking. So far this season, it looks like there are a lot of Tar Heels playing instinctually.<\/p>

Coach Longo believes a player that has to think about things becomes limited. Therefore, the emphasis lies in teaching players how to be successful, beginning with keeping the offensive scheme simple enough that the player can learn and have the freedom to play instinctively.<\/p>

The key to having instinctive players is starting with a system of plays that fit together, and then spending the necessary time teaching it. Coach Longo does it by keeping the play menu to 26 plays.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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How Many Plays Can You Install and Still Play Fast?<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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When asked about the philosophy behind the 26 plays, Longo said,<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t be instinctive in running 145 plays. You just can\u2019t do it. All 145 might be the best plays in all of college football, but we can\u2019t be good at all of them, and all of them don\u2019t mesh together. You know they don\u2019t fit in and jive with each other. It\u2019s just a hodgepodge of different plays that work, and a lot of times those plays work because they are packaged with other plays. We aren\u2019t going to put anything in the offense unless it fits the package and system we are running, and it complements it. We cut it off at 26, and that\u2019s just over the years what we feel is the saturation point.\u201d<\/p>\n

His Flood Concept is an example. In the following video, Coach Longo makes the point that they want to teach it in a way the quarterback doesn\u2019t have a lot of learning to do (which allows him to play instinctively), yet they can present multiple pictures to the defense:<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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