Josh Floyd, head coach at Hewitt-Trussville in Alabama and the Coach and Coordinator Network’s National Coach of the Week presented by Modern Football, tells Keith Grabowski how his young Huskies upset a top-five Auburn team, from tempo control and team-only goals to why his defense barely tackles to the ground in practice.
Nearly four hours, three lightning delays, and a scoreboard that read Hewitt-Trussville 56, Auburn 42. The Huskies had been left out of the preseason top ten despite consistently ranking among the state’s top teams, and they answered by putting up 607 yards of offense in one of the toughest environments in Alabama.
How Did Hewitt-Trussville Beat Auburn 56-42?
Sophomore quarterback Jack Floyd, the head coach’s son, went 22 of 26 for 339 yards and three touchdowns through the air, then added 193 rushing yards and four more scores on the ground, 532 total yards and seven touchdowns in a single game. That performance made Josh Floyd the Coach and Coordinator Network’s National Coach of the Week, presented by Modern Football.
How Did Preseason Rankings Motivate Hewitt-Trussville’s Young Team?
Floyd didn’t have to manufacture motivation. His players, a young roster with a long history of pride in the program, took the preseason snub personally on their own. He’s careful to note the win doesn’t come at Auburn’s expense in terms of respect, Auburn is a perennial top-five program in the state and reached the semifinals the year before. As Floyd puts it, it’s one game, and there’s a long way to go and a lot to get better at from here.
How Does Josh Floyd Build Culture and Mindset With a Young Team?
Hewitt-Trussville’s program runs on five core pillars that have stayed the same for years, not because the staff hasn’t considered changing them, but because they keep fitting. Character development gets dedicated time on a weekly basis. Floyd, now in his 13th season at the school, has also worked to align the varsity program with the middle school and youth levels feeding into it. Several of the sophomores who started against Auburn have been running the same offensive system since third or fourth grade under a youth coach connected to the program, meaning their mindset and scheme familiarity predate high school entirely.
That continuity matters given the region Hewitt-Trussville plays in, one Floyd considers among the toughest in the country, naming Hoover, Thompson, Vestavia, and Prattville among the programs they face regularly. The team also carried forward a lesson from a prior season: after starting 6-0 and being ranked number one in the state, they lost a game and then lost the following game too, because they hadn’t processed the first loss well. This year’s team has explicitly talked about sticking together and moving on to the next week regardless of outcome, a point Floyd underscores by noting both teams that played in last year’s state title game finished with three losses apiece.
How Does Floyd Use Tempo, Including the “Sugar Huddle,” to Control a Game?
Hewitt-Trussville runs one-word play calls sorted into categories for runs, RPOs, and pass concepts, leaning on more RPOs than in past seasons given Jack Floyd’s ability as a dual-threat quarterback. Floyd believes in pace, but not simply going fast on every snap. Changing pace matters just as much, which is where the team’s sugar huddle comes in: getting three yards behind the line of scrimmage, huddling briefly, then breaking out fast. It preserves the tempo effect on a defense while still giving the offense a measure of clock control.
That ability to change pace showed up late in the Auburn game. With the score 49-35 and about eight minutes left, the offense strung together a 14-play drive that ate up roughly six minutes of clock, a deliberate shift in tempo that isn’t the norm for this team, but one the players handled well under pressure.
Grabowski connects the sugar huddle to the tempo concept popularized by Gus Malzahn, sharing his own research finding that a standard no-huddle snap takes roughly 11 to 12 seconds between the officials spotting the ball and the offense being able to go, depending on the officiating crew, while a sugar huddle lets an offense snap in about three and a half seconds after breaking the huddle, even with pre-snap motion, denying a defense meaningful time to communicate.
How Does Floyd Decide Which Plays Actually Make the Call Sheet Each Year?
Floyd believes everything starts with the quarterback, so the system gets tailored to whoever is playing that role in a given year, even when the core plays carry over. The process runs the full playbook through spring practice, tests it further in summer seven-on-seven, and then narrows down to the specific calls, currently around 50, that make the actual season plan. Floyd is direct that overcomplicating an offense erodes player confidence, and players only play fast when they’re confident, so the staff commits fully to a curated set of calls rather than trying to run everything that’s been installed over the years.
How Does Hewitt-Trussville Practice Third- and Fourth-Down Situations?
Third down, sometimes phrased around the building as third down, play fourth, gets dedicated weekly practice attention as a team mindset, not just a game-day stat to chase. The staff works it two ways: best-on-best periods at various distances, third-and-10, third-and-6, third-and-3, where neither coordinator knows what the other side is calling, and separate scout-look periods built specifically around that week’s actual opponent. Floyd’s underlying belief is that what a team practices is what it will actually value on Friday night, regardless of what gets said or posted as a goal.
Why Did Hewitt-Trussville Switch to Team-Only Goals Instead of Separate Offense and Defense Goals?
The program made this change last year after Floyd reviewed roughly five or six years of Hewitt-Trussville’s own game data, not NFL or college benchmarks, to identify which specific stats actually correlated with wins and losses for this program. Total yardage and rushing yardage alone didn’t guarantee it; the team has had games where it out-rushed an opponent but still lost because of a gap in the passing game.
Turnover margin was a highlighted goal against Auburn. The Huskies forced four turnovers against three of their own, technically winning that goal, even though Floyd wasn’t satisfied giving the ball away three times, including twice in the red zone. Explosive plays and winning the first drive of the second half are also tracked team goals, and last year’s data showed a strong correlation between winning that first second-half drive and winning the game overall, regardless of the halftime score.
Grabowski ties this to his own experience under head coach John Snell at Baldwin Wallace, who also used only team-wide goals instead of splitting them by offense and defense, specifically to avoid a “we did our job” mentality that can unintentionally divide a team.
Why Does Josh Floyd Use Good-on-Good Practice Periods?
Hewitt-Trussville started incorporating heavier best-on-best work about three or four years ago. The defense, in particular, would reportedly run it every period if allowed, valuing exposure to real game speed as much as the scheme itself. Floyd points to his own sons as proof: his oldest, a former quarterback at the school, loved the team’s two-minute drill period, while his middle son, a linebacker, took pride needling teammates because the defense usually won that same period.
The weekly structure looks like this: Monday combines a perimeter drill with some best-on-best work. Tuesday opens practice with a fully unscripted best-on-best period the staff calls Play Fast, running 8 to 14 plays, meant to get live reps, including situational or trick plays, without necessarily being schemed against that week’s actual opponent. Wednesday covers two-minute and red zone work, with the red zone period alternating between best-on-best and more standard reps depending on what the offense needs to see structurally that week. In total, the team runs roughly two to three best-on-best periods a day, about 10 to 15 minutes depending on the week. Floyd believes coaches can overcomplicate football, and that a defense which plays fast and flies to the ball takes care of most other problems on its own.
How Does Hewitt-Trussville Approach Tackling in Practice?
The team mostly uses thud periods, wrapping up and staying high, rather than tackling players to the ground, with slightly more live tackling worked in during spring practice and the preseason. Despite that limited live tackling, Hewitt-Trussville’s defense finished first and second in the state in Class 7A over the two seasons before this one, something Floyd credits partly to the mindset and speed built through good-on-good competition rather than live contact volume.
How Does Hewitt-Trussville Use Modern Football for In-Game Decisions?
Hewitt-Trussville is a first-year user of Modern Football. The program nearly adopted the platform the year before, but it didn’t come together, so implementation only really happened in August of this season. Coach Stowe, a freshman coach who also assists with the varsity offensive line, runs the platform from the box on a headset during games.
The biggest value for Floyd is getting exact, immediate answers at halftime, and during the three lightning delays in the Auburn game, instead of relying on a coach charting by hand on paper. He points to pulling up a precise yards-per-carry figure, 3.7 that night, instantly rather than estimating from memory. Floyd is direct that he trusts hard numbers over gut feeling, and believes clearer real-time information can be the difference in close games. The platform also automatically tags formation, motion, and pre-snap shifts or movement tied to the team’s one-word play calls, giving richer context than manual charting alone, for example showing that a call worked especially well with a specific pre-snap wrinkle attached, useful information for in-game adjustments.
Grabowski connects this to his own experience charting games with multiple people by hand, noting that a digital chart helps prevent gut instinct from misleading a game plan, like overvaluing an early explosive play that never hits again, or undervaluing a genuinely consistent play that simply didn’t produce a big gain early in the game.
Quick Answers About Tempo, Practice, and In-Game Decision-Making
What is a sugar huddle and why do coaches use it? A sugar huddle has the offense gather briefly a few yards behind the line of scrimmage before breaking quickly to the line, preserving the communication pressure of up-tempo football while giving the offense more control over pace and the clock.
Why would a coach use only team goals instead of separate offense and defense goals? Splitting goals by side of the ball can unintentionally create a “we did our job” mentality that divides a team when the other unit struggles. Team-only goals, built from a program’s own historical data on what actually correlates with winning, keep everyone focused on the same outcome.
How can coaches train fourth-down execution before it matters in a game? Dedicating regular practice time to third-and-fourth-down situations, both in best-on-best competition and in scout-team looks built around a specific opponent, builds the execution and confidence a team needs when a real fourth-down decision arrives in a game.
What is the benefit of good-on-good or best-on-best practice periods? Running the ones against the ones at full speed exposes both sides of the ball to real game speed rather than just scheme recognition, which players often respond to competitively and which can simplify coaching by rewarding effort and speed over complexity.
How can real-time analytics change in-game coaching decisions? Pulling exact figures like yards per carry or play efficiency instantly, rather than relying on memory or hand-charted notes, helps coaches avoid being misled by a single early highlight play and instead make halftime and in-game adjustments based on what’s actually working.
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Related:
Breaking the Huddle to Breaking Records: Why Details and Tempo Trump the Spread Offense
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Keith Grabowski (00:01.486)
Rain, lightning, nearly four hours of football under the lights at Duck Sanford Stadium. And by the time the final Hornet sounded, the bleachers were half empty, but the scoreboard read Hewitt Trustville fifty-six, Auburn forty-two. They were a team left out of the class six A preseason top ten after consistently being a top five team in the state, and walked into one of the toughest environments in Alabama, put up six hundred and seven yards of offense.
At the center of it all was a sophomore quarterback who went 22 of 26 for 339 yards, three touchdowns, and then added 193 yards rushing and four more scores. Four five hundred and thirty-two total yards, seven touchdowns. His name, Jack Floyd. His coach is his father, head coach Josh Floyd. And on a wet Friday night in Auburn, the Huskies sent a clear message. We’re not going anywhere.
That performance makes Josh Floyd, our Hewitt Trustville, National Coach of the Week, presented by Modern Football. Modern Football is the real-time analytics platform built for coaches who want to live, who want live tendencies, faster self-scout, and actionable insights without the endless hours of work. Top programs across the country are already using it to make smarter and faster adjustments on game day. Want to see how it works? Visit modernfootball.com or click
The link in the show notes to request a demo. So, Coach Floyd, it’s great to have you back on the podcast. Before we had you on here, I had to go back and look when was the first time you were on the podcast? And that was 2017, only about three months into this podcast. It’s brand new at the time. So it’s great to have you back here. And congratulations on a great week one.
JOSH FLOYD (01:51.188)
thanks so much, Keith. I appreciate you having me, man. Appreciate all that you guys do for for the game and and for coaches. And like we were talking about, it’s it’s been a long time, man. So so so so it’s good to be back on here. And it was we had a fun Friday night, man. So, you know, the more the more I do this thing, the more I appreciate the the good the good times and the good moments. So it was a fun night for us.
Keith Grabowski (02:11.253)
I I know as a coach you always love those little bits of thing, you know, especially heading into a season, those things that provide some fuel, right? Getting counted out, you know, not getting maybe the mention that you guys are used to. Consistently a top five team in in your state and, you know, no mention in the top ten. So a little bit of I guess chip on the shoulder, something to prove as you went into Auburn. You guys play an incredibly difficult schedule every year, so it’s not like
you know, this this was environment was anything out of the ordinary, but definitely something to prove there.
JOSH FLOYD (02:42.369)
Yeah, I mean our our kids, they they had a chip on their shoulder and and you know, we’re we’re a young football team this year and I think I think that’s a big part of it, you know. So they just felt a little bit disrespected. I mean obviously rankings are rankings. I mean the goal is to be ranked at number one at the end. I mean that that’s never gonna be the it’s never gonna change the goal, but but but I think it just you know, i i it was a little bit of motivation and I
Keith Grabowski (02:57.655)
Sure.
JOSH FLOYD (03:05.267)
I didn’t really even have to use it as the coach. I mean, our kids, I mean, they’re proud of our program and so they were, you know, they they took it personal. and so, you know, but it whatever, you know, as a coach, I mean, if you can use it for motivation then then you use it. and I I think a lot of people are counting them out and you know, at the end of day it’s one game, so we we got a long way to go and we got a long way to get better. but
It definitely was a statement and a lot of that’s just out of respect for Auburn. I mean, Auburn’s just like us. I mean, they’re they’re a top five team every single year. Went to the state semis last year. I think they were third in the state this year, you know. I mean, us and them have consistently been in the top, you know, top one hundred, two hundred teams in the in the country. And so, they do a great job and you know, we just you know, but we happen to play really well in some areas on Friday night and so it’s a great way to start the year.
Keith Grabowski (03:53.817)
Yeah, y you mentioned to me before we got going a lot of sophomores out there and including your son who’s the quarterback. and you said that, you know, you didn’t have to do anything, your players picked up on it. But mindset isn’t something that just happens. Mindset set is something that is trained, that is coached. What are what are some of the things that you guys do, especially with a young team like this, to train that mindset, to have them ready for, you know, Friday night going into Auburn to start the season?
JOSH FLOYD (04:21.91)
Sure, well I I think it’ll it I it always starts with the you know, whatever your pillars or your pro we call pillars in our program. I mean, it th that’s always a big thing for us, is is is that’s something that we have five that we really believe in. And so I mean, we really base everything off that. the last couple of years I’ve even we’ve looked at trying to change, you know, ’cause I don’t everyone be stagnant and, you know, should we change it? But I mean
The words just fit every year. So we really don’t you know, we end up not doing all that. So we just don’t change it. So, you I it starts with that, just trying to do on a weekly basis, you know, trying to spend time with, you know, different character development things. And you know, as far as, you know, just something to prove, I mean, I again I I think our guys just just took all that took all that personal. and and I think our guys but believe in what we do. and I think we have a
We have a great program from from the ground up. And I think that’s one thing that when I came here, it’s on my thirteenth season now at Hewitt was feel like we had to do a better job the way we’re on the same school with the middle same page as the middle school and even new fleet football. I the one thing I’ll say like you look at we do have several sophomores. We had probably s five, six six sophomores played a lot Friday night. You know, four or five of are starters. and
Yeah, they’re sophomores, but they’ve literally been running this stuff. Some of these some of their from an officer standpoint, like since they were like in the th third and fourth grade. I mean, they they had a youth coach that I that I know real well and he’d come meet with me in my office in the fourth grade. And so, you know, I think from a schematic standpoint, you know, those guys been they their mindset’s been there. But you know, s b again, that we play in a really tough region, man. I mean, I I I think it’s one of the toughest ones in the in the entire country. I know I know it is. I mean I I’d
I don’t think there’s a tougher one anywhere because I mean it’s us and Hoover and Thompson and Vestavia and Prattville. I mean, as you just keep going down the list. I mean, there’s just so many good teams. So we had the mindset, what what you know, whatever happens, it’s a long season. and we’ve talked about that this year. You know, last year we lost a game earlier, you we we were six and ranked number one in the state, and then we lost a game and I feel like we lost the next game because we
Keith Grabowski (06:21.454)
Mm-hmm.
JOSH FLOYD (06:29.076)
had you know we knit we didn’t get over the first loss very well and so that’s something we’ve talked about in the offseason. I mean because the two teams that played in our state title game last year both had three losses. And so I hope we go 14 and that’s the point. but that doesn’t happen a lot in our league either. So you know we gotta do a better job of just whatever happens, sticking together, moving on to next week. And and but again I I I thought our guys played at a high level on Friday night. And that’s hard to do week one. So
Keith Grabowski (06:57.538)
Yeah, yeah. Well, you guys had that offense rolling over six hundred yards. Young man in your house accounting for a lot of that. you know, you you mentioned to me too that you guys have always been a fast paced offense, but you feel like this is the fastest pace you guys have ever been able to do it. What are some of the things that have have helped, I guess, shave off that time in between snaps for you guys?
JOSH FLOYD (07:06.783)
Mm-hmm.
JOSH FLOYD (07:23.764)
Well, I mean w we do a lot of one word play calls. and w and we have, you know, different really different categories that we use. you know, some of those are runs, some of those are RPOs, some of and then some of those are pass game. we’re not a huge, huge RPO team, but probably probably a little bit more now than we have been in the next few years. with a lot of QB RPO run game. I I like that a lot. if you have a Q B that’s a that’s a dual threat, which we do right now with Jack.
You know, and he he had a great you know, he had a great ball game the other night. but I I think I mean th that we just believe in that that pace helps you a lot in a lot of areas and you know, it’s it’s hard and it’s again it’s not always just about going fast. I mean sometimes it’s changing the pace. I mean w we we love doing our little sugar huddle where we get three yards behind line of scrimmage and then we break out real fast, you know, j just those type of things. We just try to keep defenses off balance as much as we can.
I’ll say this, you know, one of the things I was really proud on Friday night was it was a 14-point game, and again it was a shootout, man. You know, so both teams are scoring. it was, I think it was 40, it was 49 to 35 at this point. There’s about eight minutes left in the game, and we took a 14-play drive, ate up about six minutes of the clock, and we did a great job. Our guys, because that’s not normal for us.
You know what I mean? So, you know, you know, some people call it a four minute offense, you know, w whatever you want to call it. We don’t necessarily call it that, but just, you know, our guys had to change that mindset a little bit. but sometimes we’ll we’ll huddle more those situations because I think when you break the huddle fast like we do, then it’s that’s still pace. You know, it’s different, but it’s still pace. So I think believing in our in our fire calls is what we call fire calls, really. I mean, I think believing in them. like we don’t here’s what we do an in spring ball
Keith Grabowski (08:45.688)
Mm-hmm.
Keith Grabowski (09:01.378)
It is.
JOSH FLOYD (09:13.28)
We just run our plays. We run our plays and then we try to figure out who we are. ’cause I think you have to adjust your personnel every year. As you well know, quarterback’s a huge part of me, it all starts with the quarterback. So whatever he is, you have to tailor your system to that. in my opinion, anyway. And I I think that that’s the key to the whole thing. And so we went through the entire spring ball and then sat down then did some of seven on seven this summer and then like, okay, these are gonna be our calls.
‘Cause and ’cause they change from year to year, I think, you know, f maybe the same plays, but it’s a different formation, you know, it’s a different look, different presentation to a defense. So I think we really sold out to those. We’ve got about I think fifty something of them right now, and that’s you know, and last
Sunday when we were meeting as a staff, I mean, we didn’t really do much more than that. I mean, we we worked on those and said this is the ones we like the most. We had a few things schemed up that we thought would, you know, maybe get an explosive here or there. like you do every week. I mean you always try to, you know, scheme up a few things there. But I think the fact that we just sold out to it and said this is this is who we are, man, and we’re not ’cause much as we all love the X’s and O’s and game planning. I mean we we love all that stuff and that that never ends, but
Keith Grabowski (10:13.518)
Mm-hmm.
JOSH FLOYD (10:28.192)
But I think sometimes we get you know, coaches we we can definitely get too much going, to where the kids don’t have confidence. They they’re only gonna play fast if they’re confident, so
Keith Grabowski (10:38.05)
Yeah. Yeah. I I love you mentioned, you know, being a fast paced team, you run it faster than ever, but then you have that drive fourteen plays, six minutes and sugar huddle I imagine being a big part of it. I I love that sugar huddle. you know, we use it ourselves here, something we’ve incorporated, you know, we’re a young team, we don’t have a lot of numbers. We need to chew the clock, but what I like about the sugar huddle is it gives you the effect of up tempo while at the same time
being able to control that clock, because you control when you break it, but when you can snap the ball, and when I first studied this, I was watching, you know, I think Gus Melzon made this famous. There’s been a lot of guys who have done this, but being able to to snap that ball even with motion at about three and a half seconds after you break it just does not give the defense a lot of time to communicate. And in in in some ways, you know, you think about the teams that get up to the ball and and run. I mean you’re still slowed down by the pace of the
The official. So if you’re lined up ready to go, I did a study once. It’s about it’s between eleven and twelve seconds, you know, depending on the crew and how fast they move. But eleven to twelve seconds on a regular no huddle play between when they spot it and and when you can go, and then or I should say whistle to when it’s spotted again. Now it’s three and a half, you control that, I think still has huge effects as far as that feel of what it’s doing to the defense.
JOSH FLOYD (12:00.758)
Yeah, d definitely. I mean, I I think it’s just there there’s so many different ways to to say, you know, pace is a big word, but what but what does that mean? And so I I I think defenses are s man, they’re so much better than they were ten, fifteen years ago, I think, just as far as scheming things up. So I I think w you know, we always have to be changing that up a as an offense. And again, I think that allows like you said, it allows you to still be in a pace mindset ’cause that’s what your kids are trained to do. So it’s hard. It’s hard to go slow.
when you’re trained. I mean if you and we again we did it some Friday night, but when they just sit there and look at the waiting for the signal, man, that’s that’s not normal for them. So I I don’t and and I would I mean I c I can’t really take credit or say we worked on it a lot last we really didn’t I but I think our guys did a good job of just understanding the moment, you know. So
Keith Grabowski (12:36.238)
Yeah.
Keith Grabowski (12:49.846)
You you guys are an aggressive team and you mentioned to me a team that does go on fourth down a lot and that was a a big factor in this game. I think that along with the explosives, you guys were eleven out of eleven on your your third and in fourth down go for it situations. being able to convert like that obviously is huge, especially when you’re in a game that does become a shootout, right? You need to stay on the field. What are some of the things I guess, you know, looking at that, how do you
How do you practice that? I think, you know, going back to our original idea, this is a mindset too for players to understand like this is how we operate. so how does that I guess get ingrained? How do you practice it so that you do have results like this eleven eleven on a Friday night?
JOSH FLOYD (13:35.861)
Yeah, well I it’s it’s one of our goals every week, third down. I mean w third we we call it third down play fourth. some people say second down play third. We’ll we’ll we’ll say that. We’ll do that as well. But we we just try to work on third down a lot. It’s a it’s a mindset with our team. We’ll do it two different ways. I mean we’ll do it somewhere. It’s just against it’s our best on best. It’s ones versus ones, you know, I don’t know what the defense coordinator’s gonna call. He doesn’t know what we’re gonna call an offense. It’s just hey, we’re
We’re trying to get third and ten. We usually go third and ten, third and six, third and three. And so, then we’ll all there the other way to do it obviously is hey, we’re we’re scheming up the other team we’re playing. You know what I mean? So so if you’re trying to get a true scout look of who you’re gonna play, then then then we’ll do it that way as well. But but I it It’s just a mindset, I think that the the kids I mean, they they’re gonna think what’s important is how you pr what you practice. I mean, that it doesn’t matter
what we say. It doesn’t matter what you put as a goal. I don’t think If if if you don’t do it in practice, then they’re not gonna really think it’s that important. So I will say one thing we changed last year. I really like this a lot. and this is broader than just third downs, but we changed to having team goals only. We don’t have any offense and defensive goals. and
You know, that’s been different because every I mean, again, we still kinda we still kinda do a little bit as coaches, you know, you kinda have hey you want to get this many yards or you wanna we’re not gonna give up more than seven, you whatever the number is. but we just looked at what what I did, you know, what we looked back over about five or six years of numbers and analytics, not not what NFL says, not what college, but what the Hewitt Trustville Huskies for about five or six years there. What was the
What was the what were the numbers when we won and lost games? And see like like for example, I’ll say like like one has turned in it’s it’s total yards. ‘Cause I mean, there is ’cause there there’s been games where I mean, typically I think in football, if if you run for more yards than your team, if you have more yards rushing, I mean you win a lot of the times. You know, I mean, you can go down analytics and and all that with with the you know, with college and all that. I mean, that’s pretty that’s a normal thing. but we had situations where
Keith Grabowski (15:21.336)
Mm-hmm.
JOSH FLOYD (15:44.481)
We just again looking at our wins and losses over the years, we’re like, we might run for a hundred yards or more, but somebody else they beat us because they threw for so many. So so just simple things like that. like turnovers, like hit turnovers a good example Friday. So as good as we did offensively Friday, we honestly should have scored seventy. Like we had two we had two turnovers in the red zone. Okay. and then we had another turnover fumble like the third or fourth possession of the game. So we have three turnovers. Well
we caused four turnovers. Okay. And so like we won that goal. And so, you know, yesterday I’m meeting with the team and I’m like, you know, it’s the only thing with this goal is kind of weird. Like like we won the turnover goal, but it’s not okay to have three turnovers either. So but again, at the end of the day, the point is to win the the game on Friday night. So if we won that that that game, you know, so explosives is one of our goals, total yards, the first drive of the second half is a is is a goal that’s huge.
When you look our correlation last year, like every game, if we won the first half the first drive, second half, we won we won the game. And so we like a goal like that, for example. Obviously if it’s close game, it’s it matters. But e even if you’re up, let’s say you’re up thirty five nothing or something, you hate going out there on the field and and starting out terrible and then it ends up being sloppy you know, and everybody’s mad at the end the game ’cause it’s you know, it won it wasn’t a good look in the second half. So, you know, th th there’s a lot of different things there. But again, I I’m sorry, I I kinda went off your
Keith Grabowski (16:49.55)
Mm.
JOSH FLOYD (17:12.406)
question there, but the the main thing is just practicing those things and and showing those importance. I I think that that made it made it work Friday night.
Keith Grabowski (17:22.092)
Yeah, no, I’m I’m glad you brought those up, those team goals. I think that is an important thing. And, you know, it it it avoids those situations where unintentionally you you cause some division in the team, right? I mean, you want guys to take pride in their performance and everything, but then when that becomes the focus, it’s like, well, s said or not, there could be that attitude of well, we did our job, right? And I I learned this when I went to Baldwin Wallace, our head coach.
JOSH FLOYD (17:36.908)
Sure.
JOSH FLOYD (17:47.227)
Right. Definitely.
Keith Grabowski (17:50.915)
John Snell had only team goals like that. And I thought that was that was a really good idea. And I think, yes, you still have them as coaches. You could still look at those things. you could even talk to your your players about the ones that matter, but to the team, I think that’s so important. The the other thing you brought up that I wanted to get into, because this is something I’ve heard I think it’s trending a lot more. The the good on good, the best on best types of of practice periods. I’ve seen
guys at every level really go into this a little bit more. I know this is something this particular weekend we we discussed. Like w I mean there is a clear drop-off between, you know, our varsity guys and our our scout team. and we’re all young to start with, right? So it doesn’t help them on a Friday night. I’ve seen more and more teams go to those good on good periods just to train the speed of the game, just to get that competitiveness.
How long you guys been doing that and and what do you feel makes that work for you? I guess how long a practice, you know, how much over the course of the week, et cetera.
JOSH FLOYD (18:53.612)
Sure. I mean, we we end up going really probably we three or four years ago is probably when we started doing a little bit more of it. and you know, our our defense, I mean, I think they’d probably do it every single day. Like they’d be fine doing every period. You know what I mean? I I think they just I think it’s so important to them to see the speed. obviously the the scheme matters, but but but I think the speed’s the biggest thing that they get to see. and our kids, they just they love it.
I mean I I remember my oldest son played quarterback here. he graduated his last season was twentieth twenty, twenty three. And he absolutely loved two minute drill. Like that was h he they he they’d get I mean, that was he looked forward to it all week, you know what I mean? ‘Cause we’d go again, we’d go best on best. And then my middle son, he played linebacker last three years, had a great career here as well. And, you know, same thing, you know, he was talking junk all last year ’cause defense won two minute drill about every dad gum
week. You know what I mean? So I I think it it’s a lot of healthy competition. They know it’s coming. Like like for example, last week when we first met, you know, our first game week, I went over, hey, this is what we’re doing on and they and they know it pretty much by now, but I just hey this is the focus Monday, this is the focus Tuesday, it’s focus Wednesday, you know, so like Monday, like Monday practice, we’re gonna do P and ten. we’re gonna do a perimeter drill.
And then we’re gonna do a BPU and best on best. Like we’re gonna do that every single week. and so you know, P and tens of something that we talk about, and so that’s a team goal. The the on on a Tuesday, we start every Tuesday with what we call it play fast, and it is completely unscripted. Best on best. offensively, we’ll probably throw a few things in there that we’re working on that week. and just
You know, you have to be okay. And I always tell the quarterbacks, I I I still coach quarterbacks and I just have to like look if if it done work, don’t freak out like it’s not gonna work on Friday because we’re not really scheming our defense up right here. Just but I wanna get a live rep, you know, if it’s a special play, you know, strict play or like that. so we’ll do what we call play fast and it goes eight plays, twelve plays, fourteen w whatever it is. you know, and so we start practice that way on Tuesday, so the guys like that. and then a Wednesday is always
JOSH FLOYD (21:12.02)
two minute and and red zone. red zone’s gone back and forth honestly. That was a big discussion this past year is what ’cause we again I from a defensive standpoint, I I think they’d rather just every time go off, you know, full you know, full speed offense versus defense or whatever. But offensively we definitely need to see some different things, you know, schematically in the red zone. So that kind of goes back and forth between best on best and and the other. But so really, you know, we’re talking two or three periods a day.
Best on best, so that, you know, that’s ten, fifteen minutes just depending on the on the week. I think it just brings out the best in our kids, really. ‘Cause they get again, they talk junk about it and have fun with it and you know what I mean, all those kind of things. And so, you know, it is it does go that way sometimes with this the defense has your number, the offense has your number and you know, I mean, so it’s but I think it again it makes it important for for Friday nights when you can throw in third downs, those type of things.
Keith Grabowski (22:08.588)
Yeah, I I like I said, I see this being done at the college level. But I think with young kids too. Like there’s there’s just a ton of value in like competing. Like, you know, s our scout cards and all those periods are important, but what do they want to do? I mean, they love playing, like more than anything, right? So I think it’s it’s a tremendous tool.
JOSH FLOYD (22:19.606)
Yes.
JOSH FLOYD (22:26.294)
They they do. Well and and and again I I think as coaches we can definitely overcomplicate things too much at times. And in reality, how many different pass concepts can you draw up? How many different de how many different ways can someone really line up on defense? You know what I mean? So I I I think sometimes we can overcomplicate it and I think this helps simplify it a little bit more of me ’cause I mean, defensively speaking, if you if you can get your defense to play
Keith Grabowski (22:40.003)
Mm-hmm.
Keith Grabowski (22:44.813)
Right.
JOSH FLOYD (22:55.53)
you know, at a fast speed and everyone’s flying the ball. I mean, that th that’s always the number one thing, right? That’s more so than scheme or more so than being ready to ’cause if if you take care of that, a lot of things take care of themselves.
Keith Grabowski (23:01.858)
Mm-hmm.
Keith Grabowski (23:08.45)
Now imagine are you guys staying up off the ground on that? How how do you approach the tackling portion of this?
JOSH FLOYD (23:12.926)
Yeah, we we we it it’s normally just the a thud, thud period for us, which which you know basically just means we’re we’re wrapping up. We’re trying to stay high. you know, so we we we don’t really go low on that. We we really don’t go tackle periods full full speed of the ground very much at all. We really don’t. that that might be something we do in maybe a little bit for in in preseason. Yeah, but we will do a little bit more in spring football. but you know, defensively last two years in seven A we we we were number one and number two.
Keith Grabowski (23:24.035)
Mm-hmm.
JOSH FLOYD (23:42.9)
in in defense in the state. And so I mean and that was without going tackle on the ground. So I I think again, I think the mindset fixed that anyway. So
Keith Grabowski (23:52.579)
We were talking to our our sponsor for the National Coach of the Week is modern football. You guys are first year users of modern football and and as you pointed out with three lightning delays, you have plenty of time to look at it. So so tell us a little bit about, you know, your experience with with modern football so far here in this first game of the season.
JOSH FLOYD (24:09.524)
It was great. Again, it’s i it’s really our first time to use it. We almost ended up using it last year, but it didn’t work out. So So we we went there, really just all got it done and and and rolling really here in the last few weeks. So we we kinda waited till the last second. But even that tells you how good it is. I mean, ’cause it’s not like it was something we were doing. We literally did it in August. And so our our our coaches, we got a couple of great coaches that that that got it figured out. We have a guy in the box that’s on the headset here in all the plays. And so
I just, you know, we’re looking for any advantage like anybody is. and you know, the main thing again, and there’s there’s things you can do throughout the season. So again, we’ve done it one week, so we’re we’re gonna keep learning throughout the year. The main, My main purpose as head, I wanted to know exactly at halftime where we were at on specific things and and and where you could actually see it and it makes sense. We’ve always had somebody charting plays for us. We’ve vo you know, But it’s just, it’s different when it’s charted on a sheet of paper, you know, and it’s all these things you’re having to look through and whereas we literally could pull it up
in one click. You know, I I have, you know, Coach Stowe is our guy up in the box. He’s one of our freshman coaches. He He assists with our offensive line as well in varsity. And he’s sitting there sh at at halftime or one of our three lightning delays. You know, we’re we’re in there. So we worked Austin this week because of that. I mean, he could literally pull it up right there on counter. Boom, we’re averaging 3.7 yards of carry, you know, right there. You know, and so I just I think that’s a huge advantage because so many times we think we’re
something’s not hitting or or, you know, I everything is better, well, either way. So I’m big on just like I’m big on stats and numbers because I don’t, and not more so than how we feel about it. You know what I mean? I just I just want to see it. I wanna see proof and so maybe that helps us, you know, win win a game this year because we’re we know a little bit more of what we’re getting into. So again we’re we’re still b beginning in the users, but it it was definitely something that I
Keith Grabowski (25:51.758)
Yeah, yeah.
Keith Grabowski (26:00.267)
sure.
JOSH FLOYD (26:08.8)
That I’ve thought brought a lot of value this Friday night.
Keith Grabowski (26:11.362)
Yeah, I mean the the information we chart is obviously important, but the the challenge has always been, I mean, I thought thought about this college level, I have two guys charting. One’s charting what we’re doing, result, all those kinds of things. The other guy’s getting down some things on the defense, you know, and I had I have one guy on the iPad this week doing it all, tapping through. I showed him really the three thing key things we’re looking for on defense and you know, it it it’s helpful. It’s it takes what
JOSH FLOYD (26:22.58)
Mm-hmm.
Keith Grabowski (26:40.682)
Someone would have to, like you said, I mean, halftime is when really we could spend some time putting those charts together. But now when the the digital chart does the work for ya, you know, that that’s that’s where you start to your gut sometimes lie to you, lies to you, right? You have that big explosive play in the first quarter and you think it’s a good play the whole game and you keep going back to it, and maybe it doesn’t hit again and then there’s a there’s another one maybe you thought was a dog because it didn’t hurt hit early, but it was your most consistent play. So
JOSH FLOYD (26:49.928)
Mm-hmm. Right.
JOSH FLOYD (26:57.164)
Right.
Keith Grabowski (27:09.777)
definitely surfaces those insights for you as well as is looking at s maybe some of the tendencies you could pick up from the opponent too.
JOSH FLOYD (27:16.704)
Yeah, definitely. And and again, I I think another thing, it’s just pretty easy to I think it’s pretty user friendly. You know, and and and we liked how we could tailor we could tailor all that stuff to our you know, to to our to our system. And you know, I think it make it easy. And again, we mentioned our one-word play calls. Well, you know,
All we had to do was punch in that one-word play call and it you know, it calculates every single thing that’s on there. Formation, motion, pre-snap shift, movement, all that. And so, you know, it automatically plugs it in there. And that so again we can, because you don’t get that as much when you’re just charting. Like it might just be, hey, this is a play, but like when I can see it, alright, when we did, yeah, it worked, but when we did this, this, and this pre-snap, it was even better. You know, and so that’s great information to have when you’re trying to make an adjustment halftime.
Keith Grabowski (27:38.893)
Exactly.
Keith Grabowski (27:44.845)
Yeah.
Keith Grabowski (27:57.826)
Mm-hmm. Right.
Keith Grabowski (28:05.164)
Yeah, well coach, it it’s been great to catch up with you here. Excited to see what you’re doing and and man, I’m trying to even think. Like so your son ten years ago was was what four, five when we first met?
JOSH FLOYD (28:13.59)
Yeah.
Yeah. Probably something like that, yeah. Yeah. He d when we moved to Alabama, Jack was three years old. So this is definitely his home, man. It’s all is all he’s ever known, man. So it’s it’s it’s been pretty fun. He kinda got thrown in the fire last year as a freshman. had to start five games ’cause our starter got hurt and so, you know, first game last this this week wasn’t the first game he’d ever played, but first time really to be kinda his you know, as a s full time starter head in the season. So
Keith Grabowski (28:23.233)
Okay.
JOSH FLOYD (28:45.13)
It was fun, man. We you like I said we had a good it’s one game, but hey, like I said, en enjoy the good moments, man. I you know, we sh should try to enjoy the the fun times ’cause like every coach, man, we we we put a lot of time, a lot of hours into it. So, you know, en enjoy the enjoy the good moments, man. But I I’ve loved coaching my kids, man. It’s been one of the joys of my life for sure. It’s been a lot of fun.
Keith Grabowski (29:05.326)
Yeah, definitely. Coach, king congratulations to you and the Huskies. Congratulations on being our our national coach of the week. We know that that obviously that’s a an honor for the program too. All your coaches, all your players obviously contributing to that. And and best of luck to you and and your son and the huskies here the rest of the way.
JOSH FLOYD (29:21.037)
Yeah, thanks so much, man. Thanks for having me. And then like you said, man, it’s huge credit to our entire team, our kids, but also our staff, man. I I love those guys and they they pour into these kids on and off the field. And so yeah, I really want to recognize them. They they do a heck of a job here. And I mean they they made this, you know, they they they made the game plan and and did a heck of a job.