Project 3 FEA Plan

0 | P a g e

FEA Plan

Eliminating Dropped Footballs

Bart Tanski

IDE 712

Dr. Rob Pusch

1 | P a g e

Table of Contents Identifying the Problem .................................................................................................................2

Clarifying the problem ..................................................................................................................2

Short Term .........................................................................................................................3

Long Term ..........................................................................................................................4

Potential Causes .............................................................................................................................5

Environmental Factors ......................................................................................................5

Motivational Factors ..........................................................................................................6

Skills/Knowledge Factors ..................................................................................................7

Data Collection ...............................................................................................................................8

Potential Solutions .........................................................................................................................9

The Model .....................................................................................................................................10

Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................13

2 | P a g e

Identifying the Problem

College football has always been known to be one of Americas bigger past times. With

its recent popularity and high pay for coaches it has become more of a business than a sport. In

this paper we are going to go into further detail about the game of football and discuss a potential

problem that could greatly affect many. In today’s game of football, you can break it up into

three different sections. These sections are identified as offense, defense, and special teams

which are the basis of the game. In this current problem we are going to be focusing on the

offensive side of the ball and more specifically with the skill positions (Quarterbacks, Wide

Receivers, Tight Ends, and Running Backs). In this specific grouping of players, they all share

one thing in common and that is being involved in the pass game. The issue at hand is that these

players are consistently dropping passes thrown by the Quarterbacks and that is resulting in a

losing performance that cannot be tolerated. Just as we broke the game of football down, we can

do the same for the offensive side of the ball. On this side of the ball there are two different play

types they can do, a run or a pass. The key to being successful on offense is having the ability to

keep your opponents on their toes. Having a balanced run and pass game is something that will

make sure that happens. This is why the issue of dropped balls is so important too. By not being

able to successfully complete a pass gives the defense the upper hand and puts our team at a

serious disadvantage. So as we clearly can see the gap that is being identified is the low level of

performance in catching the ball from the skill positions at Syracuse University.

Clarifying the Problem - Context

Syracuse University is a competitive school in the Atlantic Coast Conference. In this

conference we have had National Champions, Heisman trophy winners, and multiple bowl and

3 | P a g e

playoff appearances. This league has been argued as one of the toughest leagues to play in

across college football and if you want to compete you have to limit the errors you make on

Saturdays. In this league the southern schools have a high advantage in recruiting based off of

their location. This already puts Syracuse at a disadvantage and makes things a little more

difficult on the coaching staff. Overcoming the obstacles is never an easy thing but it is

something that needs to be done. As stated earlier, dropping the ball is known as a huge red flag

and something that can lose you games as a team. In the wide receiver job description, one of

the main things they are expected to do is catch the ball. Every time a drop occurs it puts our

offense and our play calling in a jam and can mess up the flow of the game. This isn’t an issue

that the players are trying to do but it is something that can and needs to be fixed. This problem

not only effects the players but also the rest of the team and coaching staff. This can happen

every game and multiple times as well. wz

Short Term:

• This will affect the team in the current game they are playing. Watching one of your

teammates struggle to do their job can be demoralizing for a team and cause panic on the

sidelines if they do not have good leadership.

• The next person it will affect is the Offensive Coordinator. Being an offensive

coordinator at the Power 5 level can be hard enough as it is. Everyone always has a

critique for how you called the game and if you don’t put up at least 40 points people are

calling for your head. It doesn’t get easier when one of your players drops a ball they

were supposed to catch. As a play caller you anticipate a gain every play but always have

back up calls ready in case that doesn’t happen. When you see the ball hit the players

hands you are ready to make your new first down call and when it drops to the ground

4 | P a g e

you feel a sense of being down. This can really test the play caller as well, and as a team

you need to make sure you have someone in the box who can handle some adversity.

• The third person it affects is the player dropping the balls. Of course no one goes out

there saying they are going to purposely screw up. So when it does happen this could

mentally challenge the player and affect their confidence. In any sport you want your

athletes to play as fast as possible and if they are second guessing their ability they will

not be able to perform at a top level for you.

Long Term:

• As described earlier, the Atlantic Coast Conference or the ACC is known as one of

the toughest conferences in the country. As the dropped footballs increase over the

year, the less likely hood that your team will be winning games. In this sense having

a losing record will result in no bowl or post season appearance. This has a chance to

then hurt your recruiting numbers for the next class. It makes it that much tougher to

sell to the top athletes across the country a team or university that is producing a

losing football team.

• The second-long term issue which goes back to the business side of college football is

that the coaching staff could lose their jobs. When losing seasons pile up the blame

does not go on the players but instead on the head coach and his assistant coaches.

Too much money is being invested in for them to not be successful. So if a head

coach ends up getting fired that means everybody else on staff loses their job too.

This affects the players because these are the coaches that recruited and liked them

off of their skill. The new coaching staff could implement a different system and

some players might not fit it. But besides the players this really affects the coaches

5 | P a g e

and their families. Most of these coaches are the sole source of income for their

family and when you get cut off like that it can really hurt your living situation.

As you can see the issue of dropping footballs stems really deep and can affect numerous

people because of it.

Potential Causes

As discussed in class, there are three potential causes to a problem. These three causes

are: Environmental Factors, Motivational Factors, and Skills/Knowledge Factors. Each of these

three factors are different in their own way and that is key to helping out a football coach. One

of the big aspects in understanding your team is understanding each player has a different

background. What makes one guy do something can make a different guy do something else.

Being able to identify everyone as individuals and look deeper into the roots of the issue can be

greatly beneficial for all parties involved. As we look deeper into the different factors we have

broken down a chart below that list some of the potential causes to dropping a football in a game

setting:

Environmental Factors:

• Accessibility to Football Equipment. This Factor can be having footballs available or a

jugs machine (equipment that shoots footballs out) to use.

• An available partner to throw the ball with. This one is very important because unlike

basketball or some other sports, you need at least two people to practice most of your

football drills

• Right equipment to help catch the ball. This issue works with the equipment staff. Are

they providing the right hand towels or gloves to each player?

6 | P a g e

• Admittance to practice field/indoor. If the coaches and players are not on the same page

with the facility people, then the nice practice fields could go to waste

• Do they have the proper eye wear to see the ball coming at them?

Motivational Factors:

• Interest in starting for the team. This issue can be a real big one for any team. If a player

is just comfortable being a guy on the team, then you got the wrong player.

• Interest in winning. Some athletes are motivated by self-success over what the team

does. This is another instances of someone who is a bad get for a football team.

• Attitude towards the idea of team effort. This is very similar to the point above. If a

player can be a cancer to your program and affect others on the team, then you should try

and get rid of them as fast as you can. They will do more harm than good for you in the

long run.

• Interest in doing extra work to perfect the craft. This is a tricky situation but this player

is identified as someone who does just enough to get by. If they aren’t overly athletic

then they will get beat out but this player could help you win some games.

• Lack of confidence. This is a big issue with players dropping footballs. If it starts to pile

up on them and they hear critiques from outside sources, then they will judge themselves

as players and not play to their capabilities. This will not only affect them but will hurt

the team as well.

Skills/Knowledge Factors:

7 | P a g e

• Knowledge of catching techniques. Do the players know the specific way we are

teaching them to catch or are they going out there already expected to know something

like that?

• Previous skills from the high school level. High schools with good football coaches will

likely teach their players the techniques and fundamentals well. This gives these players

a head start in the college game. The question is how far behind will the kids be that do

not come from well coached high school teams?

• Knowledge of expectations. Do the players understand their role on this team and are

they bought in to what we are teaching as a staff? If they disagree with us and try and go

against our teachings, then this will only cause problems for them and the rest of the

team.

• Other techniques that pertain to the receiver position are mastered. This issue would be

the players doing things their own way. If it is not what we are teaching, then we do not

want to see that technique used on the field. If you have a good explanation for why it

would work a coach would consider it.

• Do they have an understanding of the playbook and where they are supposed to be each

play? This is a lot more important than most people think. If a player does not

understand the playbook, then they will eventually not be in the right place. The art of a

good pass game is timing and having your Receivers and Quarterbacks on the same page.

Most passes in college football need to be made before a receiver is out of his break and

if he is going to the wrong spot this could affect the outcome of the catch and result in a

dropped football.

8 | P a g e

As you can see from the graphics above there are many different things that could be holding

player back from being successful. Now that all these have been identified it is the job of the

coaching staff to further pursue this and solve the issue.

Data Collection

To solve an issue like dropped footballs, a staff is going to have to dig deep and do some

data collecting to pinpoint the issue. The first way they are going to start the data collection

process off is by Observation. This will start at the end of the season by reviewing game tape of

each offensive play that year. As the tape goes on a graduate assistant will be in charge of

charting how many dropped balls each player has had over the course of that year. By being able

to do this it will give an idea of what kids are having the biggest issues with catching the

football. Another thing the observation can do for a coaching staff is it can show the technique

that is being used by each player. The more you have the ability to break down the film, the

more you can get out of it. A coach will be able to see if the player is running the right play, if

they have their hands in the proper position, if they keep their eye on the ball, if the player

attacks the ball in the air and also if the player tucks the ball away. If none of these things are

done, then it is likely they are doing their own thing out there and that is why their success rate is

not very high. Data collection is not just a thing that can be done at the end of the season.

Observation through film study occurs every day and players should be getting coached on the

little things every day. This will also take place on the practice field in such activities as

individual and team periods.

9 | P a g e

The next way the coaches will extract data from the current situation will be in an

“Interview” process. The quotation marks are around the word interview because it loosely

describes what is going on. In this process the coaches will have a meeting with each individual

1 on 1. This way they can find the root of the problem from the athlete’s aspect of it. By doing

it this way it gives the player the freedom to be open and really speak their mind. The goal of

having these meetings is to fully understand what things are holding each individual back and

coming up with a plan to help fix them.

Potential Solutions

If we look back earlier, we identify that each individual is different. You cannot treat one

player one way and expect another player to respond the same way to it. Unfortunately, that

isn’t how the world works and the ability of being a great coach or teacher is figuring out the

learners and their different styles. After identifying problems through observation and

interviews, the coaching staff should have an idea of what is holding each kid back. Potential

solutions for these earlier stated problems can be viewed below in this list:

• Eye check with the doctors and trainers.

• Breakdown of their lifting numbers with the Strength coach.

• Implement a plan to increase grip work in the weight room.

• Implement plan to work on hand eye coordination through trainers and weight

room staffs.

• Talk with equipment guy about getting multiple pairs of gloves for the players.

• Order a Jugs machine (one that shoots passes to the receivers).

10 | P a g e

• Compile drills that could be done during the offseason that will increase catching

ability.

• Set up mandatory days for Quarterbacks and Receivers to throw so they can get

practice catching the ball from a live arm.

• Design a route tree test so that they will be able to demonstrate and test their

catching ability as the training continues.

• Work to motivate the players on doing extra and working to be the best (if this

doesn’t work, then you have the wrong guys and you messed up in recruiting

somewhere).

• Have meetings to go over the offense so they know where they will be on every

play.

• Design written tests that challenge each player on plays run during the season.

• Assign leadership to the top people in your position and encourage them to take

control of “THEIR” team

The Model

When problems like this occur it is important to take a step back and work to break it

down into individual phases. As football coaches we can get caught up in the hype of what we

are doing and forget the little things that are important. That’s why I feel to keep everyone

organized and on the same page it is important to have something written on paper that will help

the process go smoothly. Below you can see the model that is designed to help Offensive skill

position players do a better job at catching the football.

11 | P a g e

Figure 1: This is the model dedicated to helping offensive skill position players have a higher

success rate in catching the football.

As we look to break down the different phases of the model we can see the Front End

Analysis part as the first two blocks. We will start the model off with our observation of the

players through extensive film studies in the offseason. This is where we will collect our hard

numbers of how many dropped balls we had but also make observational points of which players

are doing the right technique and which players were unsuccessful because they were doing a

12 | P a g e

different technique. Once that phase is finished we will move onto the player coach “Interview.”

In this section the coach will have expectations mapped out for each player and this is where the

player can open up about things they think are holding them back. The purpose of this interview

is to identify each players needs moving forward.

Once each player’s needs are identified, the coach will break them into certain groups

based off of the solutions that will help their catching ability. By having them break into groups

will help each player stay committed to the process. This way individuals can hold their

teammates accountable and have them push each other through the tough times.

The next two things needed are for the coaches and equipment and training staff to make

sure that all the equipment needed to help the players out is readily available. There should be

no excuses as to why a player cannot do extra work based off the support staffs lack of

availability. Once all the equipment is in place and ordered, then each position coach will break

the plan down even deeper for each player. This will consist of drills and tasks that need to be

accomplished in order for that player to better themselves for next year’s season.

The final thing that the coach must do is to check up periodically on each player. One

thing we need to remember at the college level is that we are dealing with 18-22 year old men

who are going away from home for the first time. Some players adjust to this freedom

differently and need a lot of attention while others can fight through the temptation and push

through to the task at hand. Regardless of what type of players you have it is still nice to check

up on them as a coach to see how they are doing. In this instance you can gain the feedback

from each player to see how their plan is working for them. Here you can also adjust a players

plan if it is currently unsuccessful and you can implement a new one based off their new needs.

13 | P a g e

This model ends in a big cycle and can be one that is not used just at the end of the season. This

could be a daily or weekly model depending on when the coach decides it is needed.

Conclusion

As discussed throughout the model and plan needed for eliminating dropped footballs is

not a difficult one but definitely one that is needed. With the different types of student athletes

walking on to the team each year comes different sets of problems. The key in this model is to

treat everyone based off of their learning ability and find the root cause to their problems. The

faster a coaching staff can pinpoint these solutions the faster they can come up with ways to help

solve them. The final and most important thing is to always check up on the progress of the

plan. This is important to make sure the athletes are doing it but it is also very important because

this can be the step where you alter your plan. If things aren’t working the way they are

supposed to be, it is ok to swallow your pride and find a new method to help out.