This is an article titled “Necessary Roughness” I have kept on hand since late 2002. It was from Southwest Airlines Spirit Magazine, which I borrowed from one of my flights when I was doing camp.
With Coach Jon Gruden back with the Raiders, it a perfect time to re-evaluate his approach to the game.
The first question and answer from the interview portion of the article is all you need to know about Coach Gruden.
Follow Bert DeSalvo on Twitter @CoachDeSalvo
I had conversation with a VP of Sales for an prestigious New England company this morning.
The individual cited the following reasons for not retaining or hiring individuals in the company:
This is something to think about when hiring an assistant or if you are looking for your next coaching position/career…do you fit the culture?
Follow Bert DeSalvo on Twitter @CoachDeSalvo
Charlie Kim’s article “9 Differences Between Selfish and Selfless Leaders,” is a good cheat sheet you can use to identify which type of leader you are.
What was interesting to me was the notion of “instead of interviewing and evaluating the company, evaluate the manager who will be your leader.”
This is so critical in order for you program to be successful. A coach or business manager without the support of administration or ownership is doomed to fail.
Follow Bert DeSalvo on Twitter @CoachDeSalvo
This recent Sports Illustrated article by Melissa Jacobs, makes a case for Chip Kelly being the right hire for the San Francisco 49ers. I think it is at least a logical argument for hiring a coach who seemed to not have the necessary personality to connect with his players during his time with the Philadelphia Eagles.
Although having the necessary tactical skills are very important, nothing is as important as treating players with respect and getting to know them on a personal level, in my opinion. X’s and O’s can be learned, personality and caring can not.
Although the 49ers do need a whole system transformation in order to get the necessary production out of Colin Kaepernick, it will be interesting to see if Kelly can make the changes necessary or if the 49ers should have went with an “Unusual Hire” (see “Taking a (Calculated) Risk in Hiring”) to fill its head coaching vacancy
The Case for…Chip Kelly- Sports Illustrated – Jan. 25, 2016 – Melissa Jacobs
Follow Bert DeSalvo on Twitter @CoachDeSalvo
Tonight’s College Football Playoff National Championship features three college football head coaches: Alabama’s Nick Saban, Clemson’s Dabo Swinney and Georgia’s Kirby Smart.
Smart is currently the Alabama Defensive Coordinator who was recently named Head Coach at the University of Georgia.
Due to college football’s schedule, Smart has had to assume both roles, as Saban has allowed him to remain on staff and finish Alabama’s run at their fourth national championship in seven years.
Clearly, Saban feels comfortable that Kirby will be ultra focused on getting his defense ready to the best of his ability, even though Saban knows Kirby will be dedicating some of his time to putting a staff together at Georgia and recruiting against Alabama and other SEC rivals.
Here are a few articles that give some perspective on Kirby’s unique situation:
http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/14414965/what-kirby-smart-learn-dan-mullen-tom-herman
This dual role is interesting for me to fathom as a college basketball coach.
Due to the calendar/schedule, this is much more of a possibly in college football than college basketball. As a matter of fact, I have never heard of a team making a Final Four run with an Associate Head Coach/Assistant Coach who was already hired in another program, have you?
I think the sheer logistics on the coaching staff allow college football staff members to share some of the load of losing a coordinator or position coach. This would be much more difficult in my opinion on a college basketball staff because of 1) a small staff size and 2) the fact that in the tournament teams play Thursday/Saturday or Friday/Sunday on the first two weeks of the tournament. These back to back games would severely limit a coaches ability to do both jobs to the best of their ability.
Either way, the fact that Saban is allowing this shows the confidence he has in himself, his culture and Alabama as a brand.
Follow Bert DeSalvo on Twitter @CoachDeSalvo
Thank you for all of your clicks today and throughout the year! Without further ado, here is the last post for this evening:
BIG leadership ideas for 2016
http://www.inc.com/ilan-mochari/what-to-watch-2016-leadership-ideas-you-need-to-know.html
Follow Bert DeSalvo on Twitter @CoachDeSalvo
Here are some leadership helpful hints from Alan Stein, one of the best in the business!
5-Traits-of-Effective-Leadership
Follow Bert DeSalvo on Twitter @CoachDeSalvo
Attached is an article from Coach & Athletic Director in Jeff Janssen, from the Janssen Sports Leadership Center.
Janssen’s article focuses on Getting the Most from Your Assistants ( Getting the Most from Your Assistants – Jeff Janssen ) and he ranks his top categories.
The categories are as follows (in order of importance):
Are there any categories that need to be added, subtracted or revised?
The only thing I would mention is that assistant must be able to cross between all of these categories. For instance, having a compatible philosophy (#12) and having people skills/communicator are important when recruiting because assistant must be able to get the head coach’s vision for the program out to families, etc.
Head coaches should remember that their program will only be as strong as your assistants. While assistant must remember to make the head coaches life easier.
Follow Bert DeSalvo on Twitter @CoachDeSalvo
On December 1st, I wrote a piece about Clay Helton, the newly appointed USC Head Football Coach, and how Pat Haden, USC Athletic Director, chose to retain the interim head coach. (See previous Blog post: “After Further Review…”)
Now less than 24 hours after USC’s embarrassing 41-22 loss to Stanford, it is reported by ESPN Staff Writer, Kyle Bonagura, that Helton has “fired defensive coordinator Justin Wilcox, defensive line coach Chris Wilson, defensive backs coach Keith Heyward and offensive line coach Bob Connelly. They will not remain with the program in the lead up to the Holiday Bowl against Wisconsin on Dec. 30.”(See Bonagura article)
Although this is devastating news for the fired coaches and their families, this was the right move for Helton and for USC Football.
I say this was the right move for Helton because he did not merely “clean house”. Instead, Helton did it the right way by making value judgments based on who and what was best for his program.
As Helton makes the program his, one of his top priorities is to build a coaching staff that he feels will help USC get back to a championship level. Therefore, Helton retained four of the coaches from former head coach Steve Sarkisian’s staff and fired the four previously mentioned coaches as well.
One can only speculate, but the coaches that Helton fired most likely were Sarkisian loyalists and/or had philosophical conflicts with Helton and/or X’s and O’s differences so therefore Helton needed to act quickly make the change. Communication, listening and decisiveness are key leadership qualities that coaches going through this sort of chaos must exhibit.
As Helton noted, “You get the opportunity to be the coach at USC one time, and I’m going to bring in the coaches that I feel can help us toward a championship.”
Helton added, “This was entirely my decision and one thing I appreciate about Mr. Haden is he’s given me the right to run this football team exactly with the vision that I see, and I really appreciate that as a head coach. This is my decision as we move forward.”
Haden’s support is crucial to Helton’s success. All any coach can ask for is the support of his/her athletic director and to have the ability to build their program in the manner in which they see fit.
Anything less than full support will surely lead to a compromised execution of the head coach’s vision.
With full support of their administration, head coaches have a greater chance of long-term success and can truly build a program where trust, family values and accountability are core values instead of deception, gossip and cliques.
If Haden and USC truly believe in Helton, this was the only way to move forward with the football program: Do it Helton’s way.
Follow Bert DeSalvo on Twitter @CoachDeSalvo
This recent article ( Dabo Swinney – Sports Illustrated 11-16-15, Brian Hamilton ) by Sports Illustrated’s Brian Hamilton sheds some light on Clemson Football Head Coach, Dabo Swinney, and how he has built the #1 ranked Clemson Tigers.
Swinney amongst other things uses some clever acronyms to get the attention of his players (i.e. “P.A.W.” – Passionate About Winning, “A.L.L.I.N.” – Attitude, Leadership, Legacy, Improvement, New Beginnings, “B.Y.O.E.” – Bring Your Own Energy) and to emphasize certain aspects of his program.
Just like Swinney, most high school, college and professional coaches have used key words, acronyms or sayings to spark emotion in their team.
What slogans/sayings have you used? Please comment below and share what has worked for you and your program.
Follow Bert DeSalvo on Twitter @CoachDeSalvo
Expressions from the Hardwood 