By Keith Grabowski
What is the attention to detail that your staff and team believe and buy-in to?
Does it show you care?
Allen Rudolph, offensive line coach at Ohio University believes you can learn a lot about a team by the way your PAT/FG team operates. It speaks volumes about the team and coaching.
Coach Rudolph says, “Great teams and great coaches care at a very high level about all things that can win games and I believe that shows up tremendously on the PAT/FG unit.”
He goes to the extent that it is a resume for the coach responsible, which in many cases is the offensive line coach.
He makes some very good points because this unit is the unit that should score points every time that it comes out onto the field...but does it? Can you get better?
As an example of the detail that should be going into this, Coach Rudolph shared his operations for the unit which include 1.25 second operations time which begins with what is built into the cadence and the cues given by the holder which get everything moving. He shares it in this free video (click on image for video):
I know we have all been there. We look right away to the snapper, holder, and kicker for the reasons why the unit is successful or not successful. But as in any play, we have 11 players on the field that must understand the details of their role and execute them on game day.
Be sure that you are doing more than lining this unit up and getting a few reps each day. Is that the work and attention to detail that you want to rely on in a big game?
Put time into the planning, depth chart, techniques, and operations to be sure that, as Coach Rudolph put it, “You are showing your team that you care about winning.
The clip above was taken from Coach Rudolph’s video course. To learn more about that course click the link PAT & FG Protection