“IN ORDER TO WIN a football game, you have to first avoid losing the football game.”
This classic coaching quote continues to ring true. Take this quote and use it with your team by establishing goals and working through the TNTs (the things that take no talent).
setting goals

While many coaches believe in developing elaborate statistical goals for the upcoming season, as well as for each individual game in the areas of offense, defense and special teams, we go by a simpler goal — find a way to score one more point than the opponent.

This goal clearly defines what all of the other goals eventually would get to, which is trying to win the game.

With the simple goal in mind, we have moved away from statistical goals for five reasons.

1. It is possible to achieve all or most of your statistical goals in a game and still lose the game.

2. It is possible not to achieve any or very few of your statistical goals in a game and still win the game.

3. By focusing on statistical goals, certain coaches or players whose goals were accomplished may feel good after a loss, which takes away from the team concept.

4. Each game is different in terms of what it takes to win that game. For example, controlling the football and time of possession to keep an explosive opponent’s offense off the field may be more important to winning the game than trying to gain a certain number of yards passing for that week.

5. Many statistical goals focus on certain down and distance situations such as a certain percentage success on third and long or in the red zone. We prefer not to emphasize certain downs and distances but every down and distance because each impacts the next.

mastering the tnts
By taking care of the things that take no talent (TNTs), then you have done all you can to give yourself the best chance to win.

While TNTs easily are developed for all aspects of the game, the following addresses four TNTs for your offensive group.

 Play hard and physical until the whistle blows. A player never should be walking, jogging or where he remains on the ground during the course of a play.

 Play smart and disciplined. Every player needs to know all of his mental assignments. No one commits a stupid penalty, such as offsides, dead-ball fouls or a split end holding at the end of a play where we already have gained good yardage.

 Play unselfish. Play hard without the football. There is only one football on the field, which means the other 10 players on offense must be blocking and/or faking in order to help the play.

 Protect the football. Don’t turn it over. Anyone can protect the football, regardless of skill. It doesn’t take ability to hang onto the football.

Studying and following the TNTs help less-talented teams upset better teams all the time. Nothing pleases a coach more than a team overachieving and exceeding expectations. The key is not to encourage your team to play above its abilities but to play within itself and do all the TNTs well.

If your team doesn’t come through and win, it’s not a total loss. Many coaches believe you learn more from a loss than from a win. When looking back at a loss, it’s safe to say more times than not your team did not do the TNTs well.