Over his 17 years as either an Offensive Coordinator or Passing Game Coordinator, Charlie Stubbs has been in the controls of some high-powered offenses. His stops have included Oregon State, Tennessee-Martin, Memphis, Alabama, Tulsa and Louisville. His Cardinal offense averaged 36 points per game last fall.

In his second year of coaching, as a member of LaVell Edwards’ BYU staff, the Cougars won the National Championship. Gridiron Strategies writer Mike Parker recently spoke to Coach Stubbs.

GS • What would your priorities be if you were a high school coach?

CS • Each year you’ve got to be open minded to evolve. One year you might have a great QB and be able to throw the ball down the field. The next year you might not have anybody that can hit the side of a wall.

The thing I would do first is make sure that I am fundamentally sound. You should work on some of those fundamentals year-round. And you can’t put scheme ahead of fundamentals because I really believe if you get the bases right, you can evolve as the season goes on. You can gradually add a little bit or a wrinkle or two and still execute at a high level.

The biggest thing I would do is minimize the number of plays but have multiple ways of doing them – with multiple formations and groupings. I also believe that you need to be successful and innovative enough to attract kids in the school to the program. Football is a really tough sport. But if you can make it fun you will get more kids out for the team.

The next thing I would do is get resources to be able to get some of the things like video equipment. That way the kids will be able to learn more about the game by watching the tapes. We assume that kids know a lot about football just because they watch it on TV but they really don’t know as much as we think. We even teach the college guys how to watch game tape so that they can learn more about how to play the game.

The days at BYU, when we were the best, we didn’t have a lot of running plays or passing plays. But we said we are going to run it better than you can defend it. Our success came because of execution. A lot of coaches are concerned with being cutting edge and as a result they do a lot of things really average. I think it is better to do a few things really well.

GS • How would you install a new offense with a new program?

CS • The first thing I would do, being the new guy to the program, is try and watch as much film of the previous year of the guys that did play and will be back. Also, you can go off the testing from the off-season workouts and get an idea of where your players are athletically. You can get an idea of what you have in the area of power, movement and speed.

Then, assuming I was coming in blind as a coach, it would probably take me a few days of practice sessions to see what the players can do. Because it wouldn’t just be practice…it would be fundamentals and all the drills that we would put them through. You will want to see how the players are in meetings to see as quick as you can who is able to assimilate all the information you give them. And some positions will require more of them mentally in making good decisions.

So, I would look at all that and ask all our offensive coaches – or even the whole staff if it was a veteran staff – to look at all these offensive players. Then we would sit down and rank them from number one all the way to the guys that need the most work. And we would come to a consensus as to who needs to be on the field. We could then say that certain personnel groupings would be best for us as an offense to feature what we have on this team right now. Then start building it from there.

The bottom line is that everywhere I go, I have to feature a somewhat different personnel grouping based on what the team has had in the past. I feel like I can function in any personnel grouping but I don’t want to limit myself by using the plays and schemes that worked with the players that I had at other schools in the past. I have to play with what is there. That is why I admire high school coaches. They have to play with what walks through that door each year. That is true coaching. What we can do in college is recruit towards what we want to be or do in the future. So that first year somewhere, you may have to be a little different than what you would really like to be.

GS • What do you do when you come to a new program and take over an offense that has had a different philosophy in the past to what you believe in personally?

CS • I have joined quite a few staffs where I was the new person. It happened at Louisville, it happened at Alabama, and at UNLV and Memphis. And the first thing that I have always tried to do was respect what has been going on before, especially if it was done at a high level.

I like to keep what they were doing well as much as possible so that I am not giving others the feeling that I think that my way is the only way. So one of the first keys is to not have too much offense. You can’t take everything that the team was doing before and add all the philosophical things that you believe in. It would be too much. There isn’t enough time to rep all the plays and schemes and you’ll end up being average everywhere. So you have to hold back on some things or definitely minimize so you can have a good offense.

Now the biggest challenge, as far as the players and coaching staff are concerned, is to make sure that you are all speaking the same language, terminology-wise. You have to be able to communicate with them. I would try and keep terminology and other things as much the same as possible as long as it didn’t contradict anything I would be teaching. And then, if there was something new to the team, I could call it what I’ve normally called it because they don’t have it already in their mind as something else.

GS • How do you prepare yourself through film study?

CS • For me personally, the very first thing that I look at is how they treat certain personnel groupings and how they treat formations. I always study that first because I really believe that a thorough study in that can help you figure out how to minimize what you will see defensively. For example, I may find that if I get into this formation, maybe they play only these two coverages. And if I get in this, they play this. All I am doing is finding out what I can do offensively to give myself the highest probability of predicting what they will do defensively. When I can do that, then I can match it with the best play call possible.

That is why we are such a multiple formation and motion team. I really believe that with all the things that we do offensively, a defensive coordinator as he is studying us will hopefully throw up his hands. He’ll say, ‘I can’t line up to all those things!’ They will minimize what they do so they don’t make mistakes and get out of position. If they minimize what they are doing defensively, that is half the battle right there. Now, during practice we are really preparing for what we will see in the game. There are some formations I will see on film that I will decide not to use because the defense puts us in a bad situation and it allows them to dictate to us. Sometimes I may not be able to use a formation I really like, but of course, our opponent doesn’t know that.

I really like all the technology being able to break things down into cut-ups today. But I still really like just sitting down and watching a regular game film. I have a yellow note pad like the old days and I can get real thorough myself. I can get all the statistical information a lot quicker the other way but I feel I can get a lot done the old way of doing things. I just think there is no substitute for that.

I also take the offensive staff and divide everything up in our film study. If we have five coaches, for example, each of them would have a specific study of the things that their players would normally be responsible for in the game. The reason I do that is if we split up for four hours and become experts in our particular area, that is the equivalent of twenty hours of film study with all of us together. Instead of me doing it all by myself, or having us all in the room together, we break it up. I really believe that input equals commitment. If all the assistants have some input, something invested, they will make sure that things will be done properly.

GS • Scripting the opening few plays of a game has become an industry standard. How do you go about selecting the plays you use in your script?

CS • If we are playing a game on Saturday, I will do the script on Thursday. Initially, what I am really looking for is a good cross section of our offense in the first 10-15 plays. That will include changing personnel groupings and using a lot of formations or pre-snap movements. I can learn a whole lot about our opponent and the adjustments they are going to make and that way I will have a good idea of what they will do for future calls.

I also am working hard to make sure that I can help our offensive players. For example, I want to make sure that I am getting the ball into our playmakers’ hands right off. I don’t really believe in experimenting too much with kids that might never have been in a big game. I’ve got to make sure that we get a good start. I always tell our guys that we need to get first downs so we can get some more snaps and learn something. We cannot go three and out.

I also make sure to get in there a good cross section of style of plays. Give that line a good hard run or use a protection where I know that we can get the ball out relatively quick. Or give the QB a confidence throw to get that first completion under his belt. And then I also like to jumpstart our offense, or try and strike with a big play early. It sends a message that we came to win this game.

When I think of all that as the week goes on and as we practice and meet as a staff, I begin to get in my mind an idea of what our philosophy needs to be. And that is when I pencil them all in.

Usually all those plays will be run during the week in practice. I will take the clips from the practice films to use in our walk-through film to show on Friday nights to our team. Players want to know what they will be doing to start the game.

The one thing I do differently than most coordinators is that right next to the game script, I have a column with the four or five best third and long calls. There are times when you will have an incompletion and you are knocked off your plan. This way you can call one of those plays and hopefully get right back on track.

GS • What advice would you give a young coach?

CS • First, when you get your first coaching job or assignment, try and be an expert in that area. Don’t get too wrapped up in things you can’t control or look to the next job or position. Don’t get too far ahead. People will recognize your abilities and your talents just by your actions. I see people worried about their next job and not worried about the job at hand.

Second, if you budget your time properly, you can be excellent as a father, and in the community and as a coach. You don’t have to sacrifice one for another.

Sometimes you will see coaches that think whoever spends the most hours is doing the best coaching job. I don’t believe that. Don’t mistake activity for achievement. I believe it is all about quality, not quantity.

Third, coaching is a great profession. But there are lots of ups and downs, and a lot of things that are out of your control. You should always take the high road on things. In my career, I have had some great times, and some not so great times. There will be adversity but you need to be able to stand tall and overcome it.

If you have any questions you can email Coach Stubbs at CharlieStubbs@GridironStrategies.com