How Coaching Clinics Pay Dividends
Back in the spring, the Michigan staff opened its doors to high school and college coaches from around the country, and conducted a coaching clinic. Near-legendary Mike Barwis gave presentations about strength training, and defensive and offensive techniques were taught to the attendees. However, the main event (if not Barwis, of course), was the presentation on how the Michigan offense will work, and the principles behind said offense.
Many Michigan fans were curious about why the staff would give away its secrets, especially when the enemies could so easily use this information against the Wolverines (several MSU coaches were rumored to be in attendance). Of course, the coaches wouldn't share all their secrets, nor does a knowledge of the system necessarily reveal the secrets to stopping it.
Instead of focusing on the possible negatives from spreading the... spread..., it is necessary to take note of the positives (and realize that they outweigh any potential negatives). I've brought this up before, but looking at future instate prospects, it really hit home to me how beneficial this sharing can be.
In 2010, the state of Michigan has a fairly strong recruiting class. Included in this class are two top dual-threat quarterbacks: Robert Bolden from Orchard Lake Saint Mary's and Devin Gardner from Inkster (more on them in the upcoming 2010 recruiting primer). OLSM already runs a form of the spread (though not, if I recall correctly, a read-option), but I'm not sure what type of scheme Inkster runs. The Michigan coaching staff, by teaching its system to high school coaches across the state and country, gives itself an advantage. First, the coaching staffs at the high schools have a familiarity with the Michigan staff, and will not hesitate to encourage a player to commit to the Wolverines in the future. Second, players will be comfortable going to a school with an offensive system they ran in high school, and will have a leg up on learning the system by the time they enroll in college.
By giving high school coaches in the state access to the Michigan coaching staff and their knowledge of the spread offense, it helps the high schools develop prospects speficially for Michigan's system, and also gives the Wolverines an upper hand in recruiting these youngsters.
Many Michigan fans were curious about why the staff would give away its secrets, especially when the enemies could so easily use this information against the Wolverines (several MSU coaches were rumored to be in attendance). Of course, the coaches wouldn't share all their secrets, nor does a knowledge of the system necessarily reveal the secrets to stopping it.
Instead of focusing on the possible negatives from spreading the... spread..., it is necessary to take note of the positives (and realize that they outweigh any potential negatives). I've brought this up before, but looking at future instate prospects, it really hit home to me how beneficial this sharing can be.
In 2010, the state of Michigan has a fairly strong recruiting class. Included in this class are two top dual-threat quarterbacks: Robert Bolden from Orchard Lake Saint Mary's and Devin Gardner from Inkster (more on them in the upcoming 2010 recruiting primer). OLSM already runs a form of the spread (though not, if I recall correctly, a read-option), but I'm not sure what type of scheme Inkster runs. The Michigan coaching staff, by teaching its system to high school coaches across the state and country, gives itself an advantage. First, the coaching staffs at the high schools have a familiarity with the Michigan staff, and will not hesitate to encourage a player to commit to the Wolverines in the future. Second, players will be comfortable going to a school with an offensive system they ran in high school, and will have a leg up on learning the system by the time they enroll in college.
By giving high school coaches in the state access to the Michigan coaching staff and their knowledge of the spread offense, it helps the high schools develop prospects speficially for Michigan's system, and also gives the Wolverines an upper hand in recruiting these youngsters.
Labels: boring offseason, coaching, football
This entry was posted by Tim, on
Wednesday, July 30, 2008.
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7/30/2008 05:22:00 PM
It certainly is paying dividends to Central Michigan. Sparty better watch out, or they may end up the third best team in the state!
7/30/2008 07:56:00 PM
this is true, if you remember the coach at central used to be one of RR's assistants