2020 Program Assessment Report See where you stand. Get your new gameplan. Own the next season. Prepared for Paul Hefty at State College 9th grade L E T T E R F R O M T H E C O - F O U N D E R The differences between wins and losses are often measured by yards. We all know this as coaches. A rst down conversion here, or a missed missed block there, can mean the difference between sub-.500 seasons and championships. Traditional coaching philosophies are full of passive rhetoric like, “If only we would have done this.” But the paradigm has shifted to data-driven decisions. Great coaches are recalibrating their mindset from reacting to anticipating. By using the data in this report, you'll be able to control these important game day circumstances. Thanks to Hudl’s national collection of data, we already know the main predictors that separates wins from losses. We're using the 16 most inuential to provide coaches insight on how to get, or stay, on the winning side next fall. The most important thing you can do this offseason is re-evaluate all your successes and failures. We hope our assessment will give you actionable steps to boost your eciency in all these areas. So dive in and get started. You may nd these results to be surprising—and enlightening. Mike Kuchar Senior Research Manager and Co-Founder, X&O Labs @MikeKKuchar 2 0 2 0 P R O G R A M A S S E S S M E N T R E P O R T Offense Q U E S T I O N 1 What was your pass completion rate in 2019? Y O U R AN S W E R LE S S TH AN 5 5 % You’re under the national threshold that marks the difference between winning and losing teams. Hudl’s latest data says you need to complete at least 59.8 percent of your passes in a high school game to win. Here’s how you can improve. Offseason Prep: Develop a Tag System in Your Pass Game The Air Raid has become a prevailing school of thought at every level of the game. You don’t even have to adopt the system full on. Its passing concepts are universal, tailored to attack almost any coverage from any offensive scheme. To take full advantage, we recommend implementing a tag system for your quarterback. Tags allow you to be multiple in your passing attack by adding extra players. They’re easy to install, let you snap the ball faster, and get the ball out of the quarterback’s hands quicker. And by attacking the whole eld—not just a half, as some quarterbacks are prone to do—you hold the defense in check. Archbishop McNicholas High School (Ohio) offensive coordinator Paul Romolo has shifted his mindset from mirrored pass structures to tagging routes off of defensive coverage. That in turn generates high-percentage passes. He’s taken the Air Raid philosophy and applied it to any pass game concept by building in pass tags to combat any coverage structure. In his clinic report, you’ll nd more insight into how you can build tags into your own system. Hudl Game Plan: Create Summary Reports for Passing Concepts Summaries of your entire volume of passing plays will give you an overview of what’s working and what’s not. You can use quick lters to easily make all these playlists at once. But taking it a step deeper will give you a better understanding of the why, not just the what, of your performance. Create custom columns for individual passing concepts to neatly compartmentalize the important stuff. Building playlists and running reports will give you a better idea of which concepts are hitting at a higher frequency than others. Q U E S T I O N 2 What was your average yards per rush in 2019? Y O U R AN S W E R LE S S TH AN 5 You’re under the national average that marks the difference between winning and losing teams. According to Hudl’s latest data, you need to average least 5.8 yards per rush to win in a high school game. Here’s a few tips on how to improve. Offseason Prep: Implement Smart Splits to Boost Your Run Game Of the key factors needed in ecient yards per rush, none are more important than understanding what your personnel does best. Sounds obvious, right? But the reality is, too many coaches try to force a variety of run concepts that might not t the skill set of their offensive line and ball carriers. Convention says to lean towards tighter zone schemes with bigger lines and backs with good vision, and to use gap-oriented runs such as pin-and-pulls or counters for smaller offensive lines and quicker backs. Berry College (Ga.) offensive coordinator Rich Duncan adjusts his splitting in ways that give his linemen the advantages of increased blocking angles, ecient double teams, and reducing gaps for penetration by the defense. He has a system that changes the split of his offensive line based on the scheme itself, whether it be gaps, tight zones or wide zones. These include big, interior, gap and zone splits (using an acronym BIG Z for his players). Duncan’s system has been in place for three full seasons. Along the way, he’s seen these unintended benets: Identifying and picking up twists Detecting pre-snap line movements Recognizing blitzes Additionally, running backs and quarterbacks are able to see blocking schematics and running lanes before the snap of the ball. All of these intangibles equate to a positive-yardage mindset before the ball is even snapped. Hudl Game Plan: Track Your Tendencies with Each Type of Split Varied splits can become easy tells for smart defenses. That's why it's important to mix it up. Creating a custom column for splits, and creating playlists with them, is a great rst step. Combine reports from those playlists with live replay during games, and you'll be able to correct your own tendencies more eciently. Since the end zone provides a far better angle of your line splits than the press box, be sure your lm is intercut when you’re tagging the plays. Q U E S T I O N 3 What was your third down conversion rate in 2019? Y O U R AN S W E R LE S S TH AN 4 0% You’re under the national average that marks the difference between winning and losing. Hudl’s latest data says you need to convert at least 46.5 percent of your third downs to win a high school game. Here’s what to do to improve. Offseason Prep: Give Autonomy to Your Quarterback A defense can provide a multitude of pre-snap looks when it comes to third down disguises. Your quarterback’s ability to identify and diagnose before the snap can make all the difference in converting. It’s crucial for you to give them the tools to identify and convert against anything a defense presents. Dakota Ridge High School (Colo.) offensive coordinator Jeremiah Behrendsen outlines how his quarterbacks drive the run and pass game to convert third downs. He’ll allow them to call the direction of nearly every run play based on his scouting report and rules. These decisions can be based on the defensive personnel, or specic techniques that he wants to run that week. Some of his examples: Running at or away from the one technique. Running at or away from specic linebacker alignments. Most commonly, this involves an overhang linebacker. This strategy has allowed him to call the type of play he wants (e.g., inside zone, outside zone, power, counter), and the quarterback to decide on the direction. The same can be done in the pass game. Dakota Ridge’s screens fall into two main categories: Ones where the quarterback calls the directions, such as bubbles and tunnels Double screens where the quarterback decides based on what a specic defender does (e.g., a tailback screen to one side, and a wide receiver screen to the other) This mindset of coaching the quarterback to make these types of decisions on their own ensures they’re running a play into a look that optimizes their chances of success. Hudl Game Plan: Build Bulk Playlists to Chart Third Downs Empowering your quarterback to attack an opportunity they see helps you be less predictable on this important down. Hudl has made that easier than ever with the ability to create bulk playlists of all your third down plays. Combine that with down-and-distance and play eciency reports in Assist, and you’ll have a better idea of how you can surprise opponents. You might also be surprised at the benets you see from lming practices. Being able to highlight your team’s mistakes and good decisions in training will make for a more engaging lm review. Q U E S T I O N 4 How many explosive plays (e.g., runs of 12+, passes of 20+) did you average per game? Y O U R AN S W E R LE S S TH AN 4 You’re under the national average that marks the difference between winning and losing. Hudl’s latest data says you need to complete at least 7 explosive plays to win a high school game. Here’s what you can work on.