Customer Reviews

Developing an Offensive Game Plan (The Art & Science of Coaching Series)

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Coach Billick's book does not tell you what the best offense is. He shows you how to best implement your offensive philosophy so you can practice what you are going to use in a game. His percentage charts are very valuble, explaining everything from the importance of positive yardage on first down to the need to create explosive plays. Great for offensive coordinators and helpful for those that coach defense.

A word of warning: This is not the best place to start for beginning coaches looking to plan and organize an offense. A youth football coach just starting out should probably look to other sources of information, notably Derek Wade and other youth football coaching guide authors.

On the other hand, anyone coaching high school or higher levels MUST have this book. This is how to build an offense from the ground floor up, written by someone at the top of the game's very highest level.

Coach Billick shows you how to determine how much offense (i.e., how many plays and of what type) you will need to achieve offensive excellence during a football season. Then he "deconstructs" that season, taking it apart level by level until you can see how much offense you will need PER QUARTER.

Billick provides a masterly explanation of "situational" coaching. He shows how to take the plays you have determined are necessary, and practice them against the exact situations and defenses that you will actually need them for in games.

You end up with a "3rd and short" offense, a "coming-out zone" offense -- in short, with the entire contents of the "call sheet" you will use during a game, all constructed in a precise and logical manner. This will save you from the greatest sin a coach can commit during your precious few hours of practice -- wasting time.

Again, this isn't for everyone, and probably not for most beginners, but it is utterly essential.

Highest recommendation.

Coach Billick has done a strong job of putting together information on the organization and structure of an offense. While much of the info may not seem revolutionary, it will likely help any coach crystalize some of his thinking and organize what he does on a week-by-week basis in a MUCH more efficient manner. He deals with everything from the size and scope your offense should encompass to installation to weekly schedules to staff organization. You're sure to pick up some pretty solid ideas..

Brian Billick did the research and wrote this back in the mid to late 1990's. Now he is viewed as more of a defensive genius by some fans due to his tenure with the Baltimore Ravens. Those with longer memories however will remember in the 1990's he was viewed as an offensive genius while he was offensive coordinator for the Vikings. During his years there they put up team record numbers between 1994-1998 on offense and were a consistent winning team going 15-1 one year.

Billick apparently was among the first in the NFL to embrace computers and the use of more statistical information to help plan games. This is noted in John Feinstein's excellent book Next Man Up.

In "Developing an Offensive Game Plan" Billick statistically breaks down the average number of plays in an NFL game (64 for example). Then he further breaks them down into situational categories such as 1st and 10, 2nd and long, 2nd and medium, 3rd and long, 3rd and medium, 3rd and short, etc. and determines how many plays fall into each category. This helps determine how much offense and play types you need for each situational category in order to have a healthy run pass balance and not have too many tendencies.

I thought the book was a little dry and hard to read in places but I will still give it 5 stars for breaking new ground. It shows how coaches approach the game which is quite different from the average fans view. It would have been better with some more concrete play type examples and not just data...but I still got a lot out of the book.

Football fans might not get much out of it. I suspect the book is written for coaches and that seems to be the target audience. Even judging by one of the comments below it is more for advanced high school programs, college programs, and up.

This book should be read after Coach Walsh's latest book. This should be a book on all coaches book shelves. Simple and Easy to understand!

Part of an ongoing technical series that breaks down specific facets of the game, coach Brian Billick masterfully explains the vital aspects in developing and implementing offensive strategies.

This is about as close as one can get to the game within the game without attending clinics that have NFL coaches as speakers. Though some fans - not a water-cooler quarterback, though - may enjoy the material, it is designed for coaches, with an emphasis on those who run more advanced schemes (college, semi-pro).

Elements could be used by coaches at other levels - high school, middle school, etc. - and it would probably be extremely beneficial to "feeder" programs, where players receive instruction within the same system over a number of years.

Coach Billick assisted the legendary Bill Walsh in his classic book on all facets of the game - Finding the Winning Edge - and his solo opportunity greatly adds to the teaching tools that are indispensable for coaches.

Billick does a great job hear of showing the reader how to organize an offense. It is useful for ANY system and ANY run/pass ratio desired as he explains ways to script your entire game so that you can get your players prepared for the game-time situation. The organization is exceptional and if you can suck it up and deal with his sometimes length jargon, you will be happy with the product.

This inside look at developing an offensive game plan revealed some statistical analysis that I had never considered.

Excellent book. A must have for any offensive coach. Tremendous

This book had a lot of good ideas which my staff tried to implement last season. Worth reading.