Coaching Running Backs, Recruiting, and Developing High School Football Talent w/ Morgan Cruce

This comprehensive episode of the Coaching 101 podcast, hosted by Daniel Chamberlain and Kenny Simpson, features an insightful discussion Coach Morgan Cruz on the multifaceted challenges of high school football coaching, development, and recruitment. The conversation highlights the importance of spring football, strategies for player development, and the crucial role of high school coaches in navigating the recruiting process to maximize athletes' potential. Coach Cruz shares his experience in running back coaching, emphasizing the need for effective drills, skills evaluation, and the pivotal role of communication and networking. The episode also addresses the importance of leveraging social media, creating highlight tapes, and fostering transparent relationships between coaches, athletes, and parents to secure promising college opportunities. A special note underscores the value of high school coaches' efforts in the recruiting landscape, inviting open communication and offering resources for coaching insights through the 'Coaching 101 Podcast,' while encouraging perseverance among listeners.

00:00 Welcome to the Coaching 101 Podcast

00:14 Spring Ball Insights and Personal Updates from Coach Simpson

00:57 The Challenges and Strategies of Spring Football

03:44 Coach Morgan Cruz's Football Journey and Philosophy

10:21 The Art of Selecting and Coaching Running Backs

26:30 Drill Selection and Techniques for Running Backs

28:43 Unlocking Running Back Potential: Drills and Techniques

28:59 Evolving Practice Drills: Maximizing Efficiency

29:51 Pass Protection: A Critical Skill for Running Backs

31:00 Adapting Drills for Specific Needs and Progression

32:06 The Importance of Ball Security in Every Drill

39:10 Scheme-Specific Drills: Zone vs. Gap

45:19 Recruiting Insights: Getting Athletes Noticed

57:43 The Role of Relationships in Recruiting and Coaching

• Social Media
  • Morgan Cruce:
    • @coachcruce
  • Daniel
    • @CoachChamboOK
    • ChamberlainFootballConsulting@gmail.com
  • Kenny
    • @FBCoachSimpson
    • FBCoachSimpson@gmail.com
  • Podcast
    • @Coaching101Pod

Transcript

0:04

What's up coaches, I'm coach Daniel Chamberlain. This is the coaching one on one podcast. I'm here with Kenny Simpson, coach. How's things over there in little Arkansas? it's spring ball time. It's getting closer. You know, we, I just got back from Wisconsin. So my last clinic, so clinic season is kind of behind us for most coaches probably. And now you're looking at, if you have the, if you're blessed to do spring ball, I know we've, I talked to a lot of guys, they get Wisconsin guys get five days. That's it. So it's, we're blessed in the South. It's a whole different world down here. It's funny about spring football. And then, you know, we've got a daughter who will be graduating. So I'll probably be Three weeks worth of mourning until she graduates. Cause our first one, you know, leaving the nest and, you know, right now I'm handling it well, but I think it'll be tough at the end. So that's going to be tough for coach Simpson. I, you know, I don't know how those coaches without spring ball do it. I'm like chomping at the bit right now to get back on the football field and do some coaching. And I know that I'm just young in my career and I've got the bugs still. And, and, you know, you're trying to keep that fire, but I can't imagine one, not having spring ball. Here's, what's even worse. Is the coaches in Oklahoma that have ball spring ball and they don't use it. They just get one more team camp in the fall. Like, what do you do in all spring, man? Like go coach ball. I don't, I don't get it. Especially cause we have to teach and all that. I use small schools. I mean, like in Arkansas, we run into the problem of. Yeah, I can have spring ball, but I won't have my starting quarterback, running back, safety. So, we're still gonna try to do it, but I mean, we know with reality, we could be missing multiple key players. So, you have to almost water it down a lot, you know. or okay. I'm just real. I'm obviously first year install. So we're going to be teaching every player, but even next year, like did just getting them young kids that maybe don't know and aren't as comfortable, any move ins, any add in kids that we're going to pick up from it, like, you know, It's just, man, I just I want to get on the field coach. So anyway, enough about spring ball. Hope you guys, you know, we're about a month out here in Oklahoma, maybe just a little bit more and, and, uh, hope you guys have a, have a blast. I know I've already have mine scripted out by play for each drill because. Maybe I ain't trying to waste no time. Let's go. I know what I want to think Daniel's the guy, he was like me. I'd write it in pen, it was ready to go. Thirteen kids didn't show up, and man, you'd just go, you know, because you had, because I would have, not just the plays, I'd have the rotation. You know, Johnny rotates in on this play and gets these plays and then Johnny had a haircut for prom or something, you know, it's, you know, I'm getting real mad about it. It's didn't get that in depth. We'll, we'll see how it turns out. You're right. I might be just winded up throwing it away, but you know, I just typed it in an Excel sheet on Google so I can go back and delete it. I guess it'll break my heart if I have to do that, but it's nice to look at right now. It looks like a nice, you know, a Friday night script. good. We're going to sub in our guest tonight too, man. I know him. I know you're going to get to meet him tonight, Daniel, but he's, he's a good one. Absolutely. We do have. Now, look, I'm a screwed up coach, and I should have asked. I never ask, ever. It's Morgan Cruz, That's it, that's exactly what I always tell people, it's like Bruce, but change it to C. There we go. Well, I'm real bad about mispronouncing and I should have just asked before hit record, but I guess that would take the fun out of the podcast. I don't know. Well, Coach Cruz, we're, uh, new pump. Go ahead. My bad, I, it's a, it's a usual question because I get a bunch of people that'll spell it like Tom Cruise, uh, CRUZ, CRUSE is a unique question for sure, There we go. Uh, man, I don't want to butcher your introduction. So I'm just gonna let you talk about yourself for a minute or so. Um, just tell us about your football journey, kind of where you're at and how you got there. most definitely. So, uh, right now I'm the running base coach and a director of football ops at the University of North Alabama, um, or SCS, uh, division one. program here in Florence, Alabama. Um, I've had a, like most coaches, a unique journey. Um, I got started in high school ball after I played college ball, a small in a high school in Jackson, Tennessee, which is now the University of Memphis at Lambeth. But it was Lambeth University at the time. But, uh, I started high school ball. There is an assistant was blessed to be able to coach there for four years. So I was able to win a state championship there within my four years there at Union City is actually the rival of my high school where I graduated from. Um, so that left a little bit of my Former alumni bitter, but at the day, it was, it was a blessing for me. And then from there I was able to take my first head job, uh, probably one of the, uh, bitter blessing, bittersweet blessings, you could say, because I was not ready to be a head coach at the age of 25 going up to 26. But, uh, uh, I took a job there, was there for four years, um, and probably took, as coach Simpson's probably alluded to before we've talked about it. But. Um, they were on a 47 game losing streak when I took the program over. Um, so, uh, one, I guess you could say what will be written on my tombstone is this man knows how to take tough jobs. So, uh, uh, took that job and, um, Was there for four years and I transitioned them into being able to be a playoff contended team. Um, and then I was, uh, went over into Arkansas, spent two years at a small private school there in Little Rock, Arkansas, where I met Coach Simpson and coached against him. He beat my brains in a little bit. Um, but, uh, it was, it was good stuff. Good times there. Um, it was there where I kind of got. My back in touch with Coach Dierman, who's the head coach here at U. N. A. Um, and from there, Coach Dierman took the head job at Bethel University, which is the N. A. High School in West Tennessee College football program there. Um, I joined him, uh, at Bethel as the running backs coach. I spent three years there. My last year there I was a quarterback's coach, O. C. Um, and then, um, get back into the high school realm, um, at a powerhouse in Henry County, Tennessee. There, uh, five a school there. And, uh, then took another head high school job. As you can see, my journey is still going. Uh, but, uh, at Brighton, which is about, uh, 45 minutes north of Memphis and west Tennessee. And then, this past year, in the dead, um, I just completed my first full season here at UNA. So, definitely been around the world. Uh, loving it up, but, uh, it's been a unique and, uh, and blessed journey for sure. Yes, Hey, I know that networking is key in football and you know, I've, I've only got, I've, I've yet to be able to speak with coach Dierman. I'm, I can't wait to get him on the podcast. I'm going to need your help. Cause I just, I can't seem to wrangle him in my, in my, network, but having somebody like that, that's like top tier coach that knows what the heck they're talking about, but also believes in you and doesn't mind bringing you along. That's just like Bill Blankenship did that for me this year and brought me to a and let me go see what success looks like. You talk about taking that first head job and it wasn't a very good job. Look, I've, I've been told good jobs don't come open. Right. And I saw that a wassail was a fantastic job. And you know what he did? He handed the keys of the Porsche to the next man. There was no, Hey, let's fly this and interview 25 guys. And good jobs don't come open. So God bless you for taking it. But I think every first time head coach, or at least a very high percentage, you're probably in that same boat, like. Look, if I don't take this job, nobody's going to, so might as well go get, you know, learned by fire here, I'm stoked to, you know, coach's background too is going to be good for tonight. I know we're doing running back stuff, but. You guys that are listening, you've got a guy that's coached at a small school in Arkansas, he's coached NAIA football, where you're kind of having to deal with what you get, you know, he's coached at a high level. And then of course, now he's coaching where you can recruit. We're going to talk recruiting at the end, but what I like is, you know, coaches had to be with what all of us are like, sometimes when you do running backs, they're all cut different. And if you don't get to pick the one you want, that's what I'm curious to kind of hear your theory on. As we. Kind of dive into this. I'm sure Daniel will lead us into all the questions and stuff, but, you know, when you're at Arkansas Baptist, that running back looked a little different, probably than the guy at UNA looks. And so curious to hear how you handle that stuff. So. Most definitely. Well, man, we're super glad to have you on. I've been waiting on this episode for, it seems like we talked six years ago, but I think it was probably about two months ago when we said, hey, let's, we all have interests, let's do this thing. But I've been, I've been head in a circle since we finally got her scheduled, but, um, before we get going here, Coach Simpson, why don't you tell us how to simplify football for our staff and our athletes? Thanks. Um, do you want to talk hat when we come out of this? Are you still pushing the Yeah, might as well. Might as well. I'm gonna jump right in the code. talk to that. Awesome. All right, here we go. I appreciate that coach. It's awesome stuff. Um, once again, we'll say it every time, reach out to those guys. You know, the people that we bring on the podcast to sponsors are not just the guy who's willing to give us money to be a sponsor, right? It is people we believe in. Coach Simpson uses them all. I'm trying to bring those guys to the school I'm at now. Well, Coach Chris, you'll appreciate one of those guys, Zach Welchman, who's now selling headsets. So you know Zach and he can vouch for that. So that dude has three kids and they don't pay him enough. So buy some headsets from that guy so he One hundred percent. Um, Coach Simpson, real quick, I want to talk about the coach's cap. I know, look, the sun's out. It was 75 degrees today or something. It's stinking hot. I didn't even want to be in the sun today and it's just going to get Yeah, man, I'm about out of them. You know, that first batch is kind of going quick. You know, I don't know if y'all know this. When you order crap from China, uh, You got to order like massive amounts of stuff. And I was like, I'm never going to sell all these hats. And so bought the coach's cap and I'm, I'm selling quite a few of them. They're going pretty quick. And so if you want one, I would recommend you get one before the summer. Cause I'll probably be out by that time. We did them in gray, you know, so guys could put their logo on them, but, uh, just go over to. Uh, coaches, C O A C H S, CAP, C A P dot com. And we've got a bunch, you know, hopefully we've got enough to fulfill your order. There you go. Perfect. All right. Bills are paid there. Uh, we'll jump into question one and, and coach Cruz, we'll start with you. Since you're the guest, you get to answer all the big questions. Um, what are the most important things? When it comes to running back, I know coach Simpson just said they're all cut different. So if you're just evaluating on the team, you got, cause our, our listeners are high school coaches mainly. So the kids that all walk out of the hallways onto the football field, what am I looking forward to ensure? I'm getting the right guys in the running back room. Most definitely. Well, you know, we can flesh it out a lot of different ways, but I would say, um, to me, the most important thing about a that guy in that position is can he make, Somebody in space miss. Um, because to me at the end of the day, um, coach Simpson, um, Daniel, you too, um, being offensive guys and scheming up people, you're going to find a way to get somebody one on one. Like if you don't do that in your job as an OC, as a schemer, then you really haven't come up with a really good scheme or the defense got you on that time. But majority of the plays are drawn for that one on one battle. And so that. That running back has got to be athletic enough to make somebody miss in space. And so when, when we talk about like, even at our level and going down into the high school level, like you're like, you want to make sure that guy has the mentality and the skillset to be able to do that. And it can come in different ways. It could come in elusiveness. I mean, that guy could just have enough quick twitch, um, to be able to set up a block or set up a defender to be able to make that guy miss. It could look in just an explosive burst out of a cut a one step cutter. That guy being able to stick his foot in the ground and make that change of direction. Um, it could look in the in the form of physicality. I mean, you know, one thing we chart and I picked it up from, um, coach Dierman, who picked it up from Tim Horton. Arkansas guy, but of course, uh, well renowned running back coach, um, the idea of bull yards and, uh, it's one thing we chart our guys on is bull yards. And that is, at that point, was that guy, that defender able to make a tackle? It could have been behind the line of scrimmage. It could have been an open field. It could have been anywhere. If he was in a position to make a tackle, did that running back make that guy miss? And at that point, Did he end up? How many yards did he get after that point of contact? And so it's not necessarily a sense that the running back necessarily bulls over somebody, but it didn't make that person miss. And so, like I said, it could be elusivity. It could be a burst out of a cut with a one step cutter. It could be in the terms of physicality, just being able to run somebody over and run through a tackle right there. Awesome coach Simpson. What, what are your thoughts on Yeah. I mean, coaching on the head. I mean, ultimately the job of the running back is to make you look good as an OC. You know, and that's, he hit it. I was going to, I was going to say, depending on the school yard, cause they're all different, you know, like at my school. You know, we're looking for speed. We just don't have a lot of it. So we can find that guy that's got speed. Like coach said, that'd be my number one thing we're looking for is a guy that he, you know, when he breaks tackle, he can go, uh, if he can't do that, then what, what does he bring? Can he, can he run a guy over? I like how he said, bull yards, whatever he said. And to me, it's. You know, yards after contact is obviously an obvious stat. Everyone kind of charts that, and I like how Coach kind of put it. I'm looking at like, when the tackle takes place, do we fall forward or do we fall backward? You know, if you're not elusive, you better at least fall forward. And in our offense, you know, we're only one, four, five yards. You may not be really elusive, but maybe when you get tackled, you fall forward for two yards. Those add up, you know, and then I would put down vision is big, you know, depending on what scheme you run. Um, it's hard for us to find that natural vision type kid. And when you find them, you know, those kids, they may not be the fastest. They may not be really elusive. They might be really big, whatever, man, they see it and they hit it quick. You know, and that's something Emmett Smith, I think, is the ultimate guy in that one. Never the fastest, never the biggest. He was going to take whatever was there. And we are always looking for that guy. Like that guy that's not going to miss the hole. And then the last one I would put down was, I think in today's game, I know with coach, I know they got to be able to catch the ball. So I would say you either need to be able to catch the football out of the backfield, or be a great blocker. One or the other. Like, you either needed a block for someone else, or catch the ball, because I gotta be able to pick up blitzes and handle that, and I can do that by pick up the blitz, or leak you out and make them, you know, make them pay for blitzing you. Yes. I think, uh, you know, this year, obviously my first year as an OC, and so it's a little different for me. I know what has given me problems in the past, so I can kind of reverse engineer, like, what running back picked on me as a DC, right? What, what made me look a fool? Because as an OC, that kid's going to make me look good. Um, I'm kind of going to lean this year on the old, you know, the first fastest kid on the team is your running back. The second fastest team kid on the team is your quarterback kind of mentality. Like, let's just get athletes on the field and just kind of get them into space. I know that a lot of what I've got in my system, uh, and a lot of it, I've stolen from Kenny and other places too, but it's just about getting, uh, the defense to hesitate for a split second. And so if I've got a big power back, it doesn't really help me, right? Because the gaps are still going to close before he can get there. So I kind of need that, that speed. Like let's get to the line. Vision's a great way to think about it too. Look, I'm going to, I'm going to make them hesitate. I'm going to slow them down for a split second. It's up to you to get in there and make things happen. Right. Um, you know, I look back at film from last year's games and we've got a slew of athletes at the school. Um, but the kid who played running back last year, I saw him practice already and he's probably gonna be an H back, you know, stocky, real big build and maybe a third down back or something. But. Uh, we know we haven't talked here yet about scheme can dictate this too. If you're running a wing T, you probably truly don't care about speed, right? We're just trying to be patient, hand on the guard. Let's go. Uh, I guess speed always matters, but maybe it's not quite your priority. Vision I would, even say this, I think your scheme needs to be dictated by your running back. Like, I think, the other way, like, Yeah, like when we had Cersei, I had, I finally had a D1 kid. I finally could have called coach. Hey, come recruit this guy. He could play for you and we could run zone because that guy would, there he'd go and I've not had those guys. So now we have to run Gab. I was, I know coach, you probably got more, but I was going to also ask you this. And I know it's not on our agenda, Daniel. So we're kind of ad libbing here, but. I think in today's game, unless you just have a freak. So if you're at a high school level, you got a freak, don't overthink this. Just give that kid the ball 25 times and win the game. But if you're not in that world, I think running back by committee is even catching on at the high school level. Like last year for us. We had three very different types of backs and man, that, that kind of helped us off as we had to kind of the bull in the China shop back, the real elusive guy that could catch it and then we had that real patient kid. And so for a defense, I would imagine that's like seeing three pitchers throwing three different pitches at you. So I would be careful like to kind of say all our running backs need to be this, that, or this. Sometimes it's good to have kind of an eclectic mix. Like different kinds of guys and you're at a place where obviously you can pick that. So what are your thoughts, you know, on that? Well, man, I totally agree with you in the sense of this. I mean, even, even at this level, like, we, we, we want to recruit the guys that fit certain areas, but at the same time, we're trying to, I'll put it like this, um, if you're in Alabama, If you're an SEC West, if you're a BitPower14, you can go get the guy that's a freak. You can go get the guy that can pretty much do all three of what you want to do at Run it Back. Block, catch, and run. For us, we've got to find the guy that can Excel and vision that can excel in that third down run that can excel in inside zone or whatever the scheme it is that you're going to run. And so, um, I think that, um, the ability to pinpoint what guys do well, and that guy is, uh, you know, one thing that we didn't mention that I feel like is a total intangible characteristic, but that guy's got to be. physically tough. He's got to be mentally tough. I mean, because running back position it, it's not just something that you just get to throw somebody out on the field. I mean, it is, it's a position that is in the day, like if you're in a scheme that you try to Ground, ground on somebody that you're trying to run the ball, even if you're trying to use the guy in the passing game side of it, whether it be with pass pro or routes, like that guy has got to be able to, um, be able to take a hit. Um, and he's got to be mentally tough enough to know what his job is, knowing that it's going to be physical contact in that, in that play. So just being able to find those guys, like you said, that, you know, What can they do? What do they do? Well, um, I think committee running back is definitely becoming, especially in the majority of high school level ball. And even like with us, I mean, you know, last year we ended up having three guys that could kind of do three different things that we scheme them up that way so that we could get the best guys on the field for what we wanted to do. And hang on, we'll go off script here again, because I think we're answering question two. I just looked at the charts. Yeah, we, I did too. And I was like, Oh, that one's So I'm gonna give coach a different one here. So here's what I, when we had a kid last year, unbelievable athlete, unbelievable, great runner, but it was like, he didn't know when the ride was over and he didn't know how to protect himself. Like he ran so stinking hard. I would cap him at 15 carries. At 15 carries, he was done until we got to the playoffs. At the playoffs, I'd turn him loose a little bit. I mean, do you, when you get a kid like that, do you try to coach that out of him? Or do you just kind of know, well, we just better limit his carries, because, like, I felt for his safety, because I'm talking like he was seeking it out and delivering it. Unbelievable running back, but I felt like if he could have kind of figured that part out, he could have maybe carried the ball 20 times. Or 25 times and been even more effective, but I don't know. I don't want to take away what makes them good because sometimes what makes it good is that fearless, that toughness you're talking about, but you can be as mentally tough as you want. If you go into 25 car wrecks, you know, you're not going to really finish the game, you know, so how do you handle that stuff? I know you're level. I mean, those guys have got to be taking some massive shots. Like how do y'all handle that? Yes, sir. So, I mean, of course, the biggest thing, like you said, is, um, you definitely want to make sure you limit reps with that guy, um, but I think at the same sense, it's teaching that guy when to do that. Like, because that's a, that's a mentality that, at the day, I learned this early in my coaching career, is that sometimes you just can't teach a dog to bite. Like, if a dog ain't gonna bite, he ain't gonna bite. And, but when you got a kid that is Going to buy, you know, then teaching him when to buy, you know, teaching him when to use that because, because in order to, and it'll get to kind of our last, our last question is since recruiting, but to get that guy to be his ultimate potential is being able to let him know when that tool needs to be used. You don't have to bring out a hammer when you need to screw that, pull out a Phillips head screwdriver. Gotcha. That's what I was curious about. I think the next one you got is going to lead into drills that may help with that too. So, yeah, just going back on what we're just talking about that ultra aggressive. It reminds me of Devante Freeman, right? From the Falcons. And I think he ended up going somewhere. Look, I was a fantasy football player for many years, like probably 15 straight. I finally had to quit because it's just so time consuming, but I don't know how many years I drafted him in my fancy football team and he gets like five to eight games and he's done for the year concussion or he got some kind of injury. And I look, kids are all getting bigger, faster, stronger. It don't matter what level of football you're at. We've all just about got weight rooms now or some way to exercise our kids and football is getting faster. It's getting stronger I'm kind of okay with the NFL getting rid of kickoffs this year because dude you talk about that's a You you said it best kid is a car crash we get to get rid of and it's kind of fun watching this new one right kind of see what what happens but You know, those guys are taking shots. So in this era of like concussions are an all time high and Yes, the Devante Freeman type. We've got to find a way to calm that down. I just talked about, you know, just take what the defense gives you this rep. We don't, we get it. It's third and five, baby. We got to go extend this drive or maybe it's fourth and whatever to, to, to go win the game. Yeah. We need that to kick on, but every single down, that would be tough. And that would be. It'd be really tough to tell him to stop, uh, cause you never know when they turn that switch off the last time, and they're like, well, coach told me not to do it anymore, you know? yeah, it's Well, it's kind of like when, I'm sorry, Coach Simpson, I was just going to say, it's kind of like when you have a kid, and like when you're got a kid, a son or a daughter, you don't want to add that element of fear to them if they've got a fearlessness about them, but at the same time, you want to cultivate that and you want to let that be a sense of, of how to use that fearlessness. I mean, that, um, anyway, I totally I've got a two year old that'll jump off the Empire State Building today. you. know what I mean? He does not care. He's looking for the tallest thing to climb and jump off of, and I love it, uh, but I understand that there has to be boundaries, right? So, same thing in football. Yeah, you need that kid. Alright, man, so we'll, Last thing before we get moving into drills, I know we got that coming up. A lot of guys will be like, hey, you know, how do we know which back is the back? I used to think about the game we played as a kid. And again, it's a different, you're going to call it a different name, but essentially like you had the ball and everyone was trying to tackle you. You know what I'm talking about? Where y'all might be too old enough. Y'all know. Okay. Yes, sir. The guy that was good at that, that's the running back. Like in my belief is you can make a guy better. Like you can make a guy better. Like you can make, I got better at avoiding tackles. Like I got better at kind of making a move and avoiding a tackle, but. Out of the birth canal, I was not a running back. So I think there's sometimes you, you can kind of overthink it a little bit. Like which guy is the hardest counter team to tackle? That guy's the running back. And I think at high school level sometimes we go, well, he's got to play guard or tackle for us because he's 230 pounds. Well, he's hard to tackle. So hand him the ball. I mean, like, I think sometimes you've got to think of which guy do I not want to tackle the most either as I can't. Or I really just don't want to. That guy's your running back. You know, and then you got to, and these drills, Coach is going to help us out here in a minute. You're going to use those drills to make whichever kid you picked better. Yeah, I know we, we went up to Kingfisher, Oklahoma and played a couple of playoff games and Curtis Lofton was their fullback. And let me just tell you that nobody in our locker room was like, I can't wait to go hit Curtis Lofton. No, no, we did not. He should have probably been a right guard or right and just blowing people. No, hand him the football and watch him get 50 yards each play because no one can take him down. I don't care how bad you are. That's a man. So, uh, yeah, give, give the big kid the ball and let him work. Uh, next question here. You know, we're just talking about everyday drills or whatever you're, we want to talk about your favorite drills coach for your running back group specifically, um, which ones have you had the most success with, which are situational, just, just kind of go through your drill selection. Most definitely. So, you know, one thing that I try to do every day, and we'll just talk everyday drills first. One thing that I try to do with my running backs every day, um, I do some sort of footwork drill. Um, I'll get cones out, one of the, I've developed a drill. I mean, I'm sure everybody's probably done it. You always think as a coach that you're that you're just on the leading edge of stuff. But I'll just be honest with you. At the day, I could probably say this and somebody's gonna say, Hey, I do that drill all the time. Well, at the end of the day, it's phenomenal. But What I do is I set up four different cones. I call it my four cone drill, but I don't make it in a box. I put it at different angles. Uh, so our first cut is a 90 degree cut. My second cut is 135 degree cut. And my fourth, my third, my technically my third cut is a 45 degree cut. And so I set it up, and it actually looks like the number four. So you put one, one, then a four, and then the point of the four, and then the top of the four. And the reason I start that, the day out every day with that, is because at the day, running back's got to have footwork. Um, and they got to be able to make cuts and, um, that drill incorporates three different angles and it makes them react and make those cuts in a natural way, in a sense of me just saying, all right, we're going to work 90 degree cuts right here. All right, we're going to work being able to stick that foot in the ground and 145 it. I'm teaching them to accelerate to a cone. Get in and out of the cut as fast as possible, not taking as many steps as possible, but take getting the least amount of steps to get in and out of my break, gaining ground out of my break, and then being able to, um, really that 135 teaches that back that has to make that cut back has to make that when you're, you know, we've, um, We've started incorporating a little bit more stretch outside zone stuff into our thing. Um, it could be a situation that you just got a guy that's running a tall sweep. It could be a guy that's running buck sweep or whatever. But anyway, it ends up going all the way back against the grain. And he has to stick that foot and open that hip and get back. So it really helps that guy with that. That's one of my first footwork drills that I do every day with my guys. Um, another thing that I feel like I have to do with my guys every day is catch. They've got to catch the ball in some form or fashion. And so, uh, I'm a, I'm a type of guy that as a high school guy that didn't have a lot of Indy. And so I try to incorporate as much stuff in one drill as I can to maximize that drill. And so in my four cut drill, once they make that 90 degree cut, I'm throwing them a ball. So they have to snap their head out and catch the ball and look it into the tuck. And now they've got a ball in their hand that they can make the cut on as they normally would with a, as a running back running in, in a, In a game situation type mentality. So they've got to catch, they've got to do footwork. And then at the end of the day, they've got to do pass pro because to me, those three things are the things that make up a running back. Um, and so, um, one of my. Initial pass pro drills that I love is just a sense that we're going to take a med ball And we're gonna i'm gonna stand about two feet in front of them They're gonna take i'm going to give them a cadence and they're going to take their initial pass pro steps Which is going to eat up grass in front of the queue or towards the line of scrimmage because i'm going to teach them to Attack the line of scrimmage at the day Um, because what you don't want to see is you don't want to see that blitzing inside linebacker Come to an inside gap and then be standing in the quarterback And try to take on that block, try to take on that blitzer of teaching them to eat up grass. And then I'm going to toss the med ball to them and then strike them with their hands. I treat it, I treat my pass pro just like an O lineman in a sense. I mean, the day, they're an extension of the O line. They're the sixth O lineman in pass pro in that sense. So, um, to me, those three, those three things, A running back's got to get every day. He's got to get footwork. He's got to get catching the ball in some form or fashion. He's got to get past pro. Those are the things that are going to help develop him every day. And those things can be changed. I mean, I'll change my footwork drill into just a fast feet cone drill. I won't do the four cone that day. Um, And how, uh, how, uh, I guess you could say progress. My everyday drills is what do we really, what are we not good at in footwork area? What are we not good in past pro area? And so we're going to make sure that we end up, uh, uh, formulate or restructure that drill to help ourselves out in that sense. Um, so at the end of the day, those are my, And I'll kind of break it up and let y'all ask questions or get clarification on everyday drills before I go into any kind of more scheme specific drills or technique specific drills, I was going to say the thing I like the most that you said, coach, was you recognize being a high school coach that you're limited on your time. And so sometimes those grills will become one drill, like a footwork drill and a ball drill. Or we've done a thing where it's, you know, catch a ball and it's a ball security drill, you know, where we're ripping at the ball and they got to spin with the ball. And so being comfortable with the football. The only thing I would add in there that we try to do, we do probably at least twice a week and we do it with every skilled kids. It's not just running backs, but there's some kind of ball security. Like we, I'm sure you do too, coach. I was, I was going to tell you this, kind of as we got into, as we finished this, was that I firmly believe, um, from, as a, as an offensive guy, especially in the running back room, whatever, that I believe that an, Every form of anything, there's got to be a ball security aspect to it. Like you have to coach ball security at every point. Cause I can tell you, even at our level, like there's guys that just don't understand ball security. And me as a, as a college coach watching kids on tape, I look at it and say, which at the end of the day, it doesn't, it's not a knock on us. Cause that's what we're supposed to do is teach, help guys teach ball security when we get them here. That's something that can be trained, but I watch film on a recruit and I'm like, Security, you know, cause it's just something that's got to be coached every day and it's got to be trained in every drill. So I agree with you coach. Yeah, I figured you, and the other thing I put, I wanted to ask you was this, like your footwork drills I'll just say my opinion, but you may have a completely different opinion and that's fine. Cause you know, that's what we're on here for. Uh, like I'm not a big fan. I love the footwork stuff you're doing. I love the cone or the footwork. I hate when they put something, they got to step over. Like they got stuff over this, they got, you know, like those big half round dummies or things like that. And so curious, you're the guy that works in that. I mean, I'm sure at some point they may have to step over a defense lineman once a year, probably. You know, so how do you, or do you, do you incorporate that kind of stuff, man? You know, how do you kind of, I do you think is more important than that? That And the reason I do is because it teaches them knee drive. That's the only purpose that I would, would, would teach them. is because I want them to be able to move with knee drive because at the day, they never know when a tackler is going to be coming. And so when they're made, I usually use my bag drills as a lateral change of direction. And so they're stepping over that bag laterally and making quick lateral changes. And so I want them to be able to be able to have knee drive so that when that contact comes, they can be able to drive through it. So it's really just training body demeanor more than anything it, because at the day, most running backs. They don't, I mean, they're gonna, uh, on a third and one, they may step over somebody that's laying down on the ground to go get the first down, but for the most part, they're just normal running, so I'm really just trying to teach knee drive and, and, uh, hip activation in that sense. makes sense. I've always kind of wondered. I see him on Twitter and I always kind of roll my eyes. Now at least I have an explanation. You know, so. I was going to say, you mentioned it, they got to catch the ball. High school level, I would say this, if you're listening to this, like, don't throw the ball to guys in practice. You're not going to throw the ball to in a game. I don't waste that time. I, I got, I fell into that where like all running backs went over here and they all were working our wheel route. And then I got a 220 pound fullback that we're never going to throw a wheel around. Like he's better off going the old line and working blocking during that period of time. So I would say probably specialize your kids if you. You know, you would love for them all to catch the ball, but at least maybe run the route they're actually going to run. We might run check down or a shoot route with that big old kid. He's not running the wheel or an option route or whatever. So that'd be my caveat to high school guys, but That's it. As far as questions and everything I had on everyday drills, that's all I had. Dan, you may have some more before we get to scheme stuff. So, Yeah, my question is just how much time are you prioritizing working with the old line? So I've, I've kind of hit that point defensively a lot, but I need these kids to, Indy's great. And I understand that you need Indy to work on little, little things, but these guys are going to be on a football field together. So it won't be some trash cans. There's going to be players that might go the wrong way or, or might get blown up. Right. I'm thinking linebacker side. So going back to the offensive side, like. Same thing, that O Lineman Nate may just get blown up this play and I got to work around him. So how much are you really prioritizing working running backs with O Line? Pulling follow, uh, following pullers, stuff like that. So good question because it's actually going to go into some scheme stuff. So we'll actually lead into that also. Um, so, uh, I tried, I tried to my line coach and I actually share the same office, so we've got a really good relationship. We worked together in Bethel for three years, so we've got a really good relationship and what we try to do is we try to steal time during Ralph on air. There are routes on there, um, we'll, we'll throw a few routes on there with just the quarterbacks, just the specific routes that the running backs might have in that install or that need to work with the quarterbacks, but when they go routes on there with the receivers, we go with O line and we'll still that's pretty cool. Run scheme run fits as well as pass pro stuff So I try to steal as much time with the o line as I can that doesn't get into their steps That doesn't really hinder their time because the o line coaches are really uh particular about their indie time So I try not to steal as too much of his time But I do try to steal roughly five to ten minutes every day with him during practice time just to be able to get My running backs to get the feel for what it is to how the double teams are working on zone, how, uh, pull, how they're seeing pullers pull, because going into some scheme specific stuff, I mean, I do, whenever we install a gap scheme stuff, I, I give them the look of pulling. I, I will be the pulling guard. Um, I'll have a student assistant. There'll be the pull and tackle when we get into GT stuff. So that way they get the feel of what it looks like. To get inside the hip of a puller and be able to get vertical off that block right there. So, um, uh, and then they can translate that into actually what the O linemen are doing when we steal those 5 10 minutes. So, I totally agree with you. I think it's important. Look, I, look, I've kind of started with my past concepts and just like you said earlier, my past pro, the running back is involved, right? He's gonna go A Gap to C Gap, making sure there's nobody, before he goes out into his route, which is almost always in the flat. But I also know that that's the fifth progression and in high school Maybe you get three and then you better just take off running right if three ain't open Four and five is a that might be a mystery to you, especially in this first year Unless you got a dude at often are we really going to throw to that running back? So why would I waste those reps of him faking a bit and going to the flat? No sitting with the old line during routes on air like you just said coach And go let that guy work with the guys he's going to work with 35 times a game or whatever, you know, whatever his reps count is going to be. So great point. I appreciate question I got for you on schemes. I don't, I know we're running lower on time. I want to make sure I hit this because you guys run gap scheme and zone scheme. So we've, you know, we've had this conversation on this podcast before with a couple of guys. How are you coaching the running backs up differently on zone than you are on gap? I'll try to hit it as quickly as possible. And if there's any questions later on, then people can definitely reach out to me or whatever. But, uh, when we teach our zone, uh, I'm coaching up, uh, and I'll just do inside zone. I won't worry about outside zone. I'll just do inside zone necessarily because it's the same concept. It's just a different aim and point with a little tweak. Inside zone, I'm teaching my running back to chase the center's butt. He's going to chase his center's butt, and that's going to be him pushing vertical. And then from there, it becomes a sense of, is a hat in the gap? If not, I know I'm working all the, all runner backs have the ability to go from backside A all the way to backside C, because of the way we block inside zone. All runner backs have that ability to go to frontside A to frontside C. So technically they have C to C ability on inside zone. But that center's butt. is the is the key for them and being able to really determine what's my initial trigger point. So when I coached when I drill it up in my drills, my my baby that I have adapted and tweaked and made better through the years. But my baby that started out when I was a Bethel was just my initial three bag drill that you see everybody doing right now. Um, And I'll take my three running backs, and it's a great way to get everybody involved and get multiple rips. I take my three running backs, they'll each hold a bag, and the middle running back will be the center. And then I'll have my line of running backs ready to roll in through there, and they just roll through to the running back position. The, I set up two, I set up two cones that are roughly a yard and a half to two yards from that, that middle bag. And they take their inside zone step. And they don't move their bag until they cross that, those two cones because I want them to make that last, I want them to feel getting vertical and pressing it vertical. Um, and so that is how I'll train my, that's how I'll start. Um, We I've adapted it where I've added a linebacker fitting into it where they can make that second level cut But doing them, but it all is the brainchild is just that three bag drill. I feel like it's a phenomenal zone teaching reactionary drill because at the day it's a zone and zone stuff is reactionary and Like you talked about that back has got to be able to have that reactionary vision when we go into Gap scheme stuff whether it be power counter G8 g y or gt counter i'm teaching my backs. We're trying to hit downhill a gap now So we're going to slide and dive and we're going downhill now if a gap's open i'm gonna hit it I'm, even I even allow my back sometimes you'll see the backside backer Scrape hard over but with the pulling guard you'll see them take the backside nose and he'll try to You Cross face right there. If he sees a backside A gap cut, he's gone now. Like, if it's, if it's open, he can get there. We're trying to hit it downhill now. And then if not, he's getting on the inside hip of that second puller, whether it's the Y or the T. And then he's just reading that butt. Um, and, and my coaching point is this. If the hip's to me, I'm vertical. If the hip's away from me, I'm circling it. And so, I, I just try to make sure that they, I've, I've been a big guy, the more I've gotten into it, as far as coaching and trying to help guys out, I'm trying to get guys to see little target points. I go back to the, um, the quote Aim small, miss small, baby. from the Patriots, that's exactly right, aim small, miss small, and so I'm wanting to see that inside hip and where it goes. And it's gonna allow them to be more vertical, more confident when they make those cuts. And Dane, what we got coach on here, guys that are listening, I've already sent a text to Emory coach. So you're on that group text. We're going to bring coach back on the OC academy. I'm not doing this as a sales pitch, but clearly coach could go on and on and on on this stuff. And I think it's better to see it. See him actually do it. So we are going to have coach in our OC Academy doing some running back drills. And I'm sure he'll give us contact information here for those of you who are listening and going, think I have an idea, but maybe not quite, you know, where they're going to have them in the OC Academy, which you can go watch that or just reach out to coach Daniel. We'll make sure we've, we're getting all the contact info. I, I don't want to cut it off, but I want to hear some recruiting stuff. Cause I know Yes, sir. have some coaches that are going to, I got, I know we're, we're pressed for time and coach, I got one more question. So you're RPO heavy at Northern Alabama, because that's what coach Deremon's. You're also talking about physicality and slide and dive and all that. So how are you teaching that mesh point? Because if the ball ends on the ground, who's at fault, right? When this is supposed to be RPO world. So it's got to be able to grab it and go, but also if the quarterback wants to pull it, so how are you teaching that mesh point? Are we just clamping and make the quarterback pull it out? Or how do we do that? So, it's, uh, it, there's two people that get mad, the quarterback coach and myself. It's always both of their fault. But at the end of the day, um, I'm an old option guy. Coach Simpson coached against me and he knew that I was running a triple, flex bone, midline beer stuff. So, I'm an option guy. So, uh, my mentality is this. I tell my running backs this. They get their belly over the ball. They're, they're responsible for the mesh point, their belly buttons over the ball, because the quarterback has to be able to see down the field. He can't worry about the mesh point, runner backs, possible mesh point. And then he is 90%. Clamping down on that ball and it is his ball. If the quarterback wants to be a man, he's got to take it. That's the mentality that I tell my running backs. Because at the day, like, we call an RPO to run the ball. Like, the whole purpose of the run pass option is to run the ball, but you throw the pass if they've got too many guys in the run fit. So, at the end of the day, we're wanting to run the ball. Now what I say this, it requires that runner back and that quarterback to have multiple, multiple, multiple reps of just getting the feel for it 100%. So you got to know each other, that, that relationship. Awesome. We'll, we'll jump out of drills real quick. This last question is one that we've been trying to get coaches on and talk all the time, and that's recruiting. Um, so what is like, if I'm a, I kind of want to attack it as a coach and as a parent and just where do we go to get our kids seen? Look, I grew up in Long Grove, Oklahoma, Long Grove, Longhorns. Uh, at the time we're not getting kids recruited, right? It wasn't anything about the coaches. We just didn't have a lot of talent. And so we finally got a D1 kid and senior year, he disappears and goes to the town over to Ardmore to get eyes on. So what can kids do that are in these podunk towns that aren't getting eyes? What can they do to get recruited? Most definitely. I will say this, um, which everybody knows Twitter is a huge, huge social media, um, aspect that is a huge recruiting tool. Um, kids have to be trained on how to make, how to make Twitter, how to make a Twitter account. I'm sorry, Elon Musk, my bad, X account, and be able to, uh, be able to create that in a way that it is easily recognizable in the bio of what the kid's tangibles are. But I think things that get missed out on are this. Uh, one thing is when kids create highlight tapes, don't make a highlight tape that is over 3. 5 minutes long. It's unnecessary. At the end of the day, if the kid can play ball in 3. 5 minutes, the kids should be able to put on what he can do. Second thing is, is as coaches and his parents as conversations have got to be had with that The player as well as the coaches and parents and like what does the kid want to be recruited as because that's what the kid needs to be putting as the majority of his highlights on film. Small house school ball kids like they play both ways but if in those At the end of the day, um, in those three and a half minutes that a college coach has the time to just get that first impression. Remember, those highlight tapes are the first impression that we get from a kid, in a sense. And then that allows us to say, uh, we need to start doing more digging on this kid, because this kid can show us that he can play on film. And so on that first impression, if it's hard to, for us to either project or see that kid play that position, then it's going to leave a question mark, which, you know, Isn't going to want us to follow up in that sense. So it's got to be clear what that kid wants to play. I've even told coaches, make two different highlights. If the kid is a heck of a linebacker and a heck of an H back, make two different highlights. Um, I saw this from one kid too. And I thought, and I've been telling coaches this all the time, on that highlight tape, Make a specific highlight that is literally just 50 seconds of the best stinking clips he's got, and that's what you promote. And that's the first impression you get, and coaches will salivate at it, and then they'll start firing out more. Now, from that side of it, what do high school coaches and what do parents need to do? The biggest thing that high school coaches need to do is just continue to, um, network with the GAs, the student assistants, and the recruiting personnels within colleges. Because at the end of the day, those are the guys that are going to be gathering the majority of the information. Position coaches, they're taking a lot of information from recruiting departments, student assistants, and GAs. And so being able to be able to get in touch with those guys and build networks with those guys, um, is a, is a big aspect of it. But at the same, at the same scene, um, I can tell you this just from my, my, my talks and conversation with coach Simpson, like being able to just say, Hey, coach, what is this kid able to do? Have that open conversation with the college coach, um, because then the day like, um, You'll be able to tell, and Coach Simpson can tell you this too. You'll be able to tell from that coach whether that coach is going to be honest with you or not. If he's just going to feed you a load, then at the day, you don't want your kid to go there because it's not going to be a position, it's not going to be a place that your kid is going to feel successful. Um, or even be, be valued in that sense. So you want to be able to have that kind of relationship with a college coach to be able to know that, that guy's going to give me honest evaluation whether this kid can play at the Power four, FCS, group of five, whatever it may be, D2 and AI level. And then between coaches and high school parents, like be able to have those just hard conversations at the end of the day, like freshmen, sophomores, you really don't know what they're going to project. If they're going to be a powerful guy, you'll know by the end of their freshman year, because they're just either freak athletically, they've got size out of this world, like, and they're already getting just the attention because of the tangibles, but have those hard conversations with parents and just say, listen, like, this is something that we've got to be able to, um, Like your kid, Johnny right here. He's a phenomenal high school football player, but his size is going to limit him on the height, the level that he may end up going. And so we need to be able to talk about possibilities of division two or NAI football. And then. With that in that conversation, start setting up camps because, um, kids have to be able to go to camps for coaches to truly be able to evaluate their athleticism. I like take to the first impression. Camps are the things that are going to help seal the deal for guys. And, um, As a high school coach, I always told my kids this, that, um, between your freshman, sophomore year, go to as many, go to as many, like, not as many, but, um, go to the camps that have a ton of coaches there. The, the, in Arkansas, the all Arkansas camp has a, has a humongous amount of coaches that are there, so they're going to be seen. So, the mega camp. After their sophomore year, they need to start, they're starting to kind of pick out which level, you know, they may want to go to a power four just to get a competition level since they're, they may go to an FCS camp just to be able to get their name on there. But they're between going into their junior year, they need to start dialing down the mega camp and start picking out those specific camps of schools that they really fit into. Whether it be height wise, speed wise, athleticism wise. And then between their junior and senior year, it's a situation that I'm going where coaches have started talking to me. Uh, or have had conversations with my head coach. Because, um, and I'm giving you a lot of information in a little bit of time, but at the day, um, good thing is guys can rewind and go back to it. Um, for high school coaches, just know this, that At the end of the day, like, um, we, and I can speak for us, I can't speak for every program in the country, but I can speak from us, and I think we do a phenomenal job here at North Alabama, just being able to build relationships with high school coaches and be able to, um, truly ask what guys they have, because, um, not every guy can play Division I football. Not every guy can play at the highest level, but there are plenty of opportunities for guys to be able to play football if that is something that they want to do. And so high school coaches being able to just have those hard conversations with kids that sometimes Kids may leave, um, with a reality check, but at the day, they're going to appreciate high school coaches more because they were real with them. I got kind of a follow up question here and that's, uh, my first year in, you know, we had some kids that probably could have went D2, D3 as linebackers. And I was scorned by the school I was at for just using any recruiting tool whatsoever to talk to coaches, to get eyes on these kids, because the school didn't want to get a bad name for sending a kid who might not work out. Yeah. I'm more of the mentality of like any kid can play college ball. It depends on where that school is, right? Like you got to send almost any kid, which we all know there's kids that don't even belong in shoulder pads. But so should I, as a coach, be worried about soiling my name? If some kid goes and quits after a year and just doesn't work out, or I mean, I just feel like. I want to help all my kids, but am I going to become kind of blackballed in the community? If some kids don't work out it's a great question. And I'll tell you this, um, at the end of the day, it all boils down to, um, Why did the kid not work out? Because it may have been a situation. The kid had something bad happen at home, and it just didn't work out like it wasn't a great fit. He got homesick, something high school coach would have never dreamed would have happened, and it just was life. And so I can tell you this. As long as as long as high school coaches are honest with with those college coaches that talked to him at the end of the day, like, College coaches understand that life happens and some kids just don't make it. Like they just, whether it's the course load, whether it's the, um, the time management side of it, whether it's just playing college football just wasn't something for them. That's not, from my standpoint and for the majority of college coaches, that's not going to be a knock on a, on a high school coach in that sense. Because, um, like I said at the day, man, I don't know. We're all, we should all be in this business to help young men achieve whatever dreams and goals and aspirations that they have at our level, it's to get them a college degree and hopefully provide them with opportunity if they want to try to play the NFL professionally, then develop them in a way to help them out with that, but at the end of the day, it's to get a college degree and in high school, it's to be able to get their high school diploma and give them the opportunity to do what they want to do as a career. awesome, that's, that's kind of the answer I was hoping for. I've really bought into this relationships over everything with all aspects of all. And I hate It matters too, you know. You know, coach is good, does a good job recruiting, but a lot of times, you know, I think a high school coach, I'm going to talk directly to high school coaches here. So, you know, cause most of the guys that are listening, you can't say if you're good enough, they'll find you. That doesn't work anymore. Like it would be nice. It'd be nice if I could just sit back in my office and coach called me and asked me who I had, but if I've not had traditional success. I'm not winning state championships. It's not going to happen. So I do think that coaches owe it to their kids to at least make phone calls that are realistic. You don't know what your kid to call Arkansas or Alabama or whatever, if they can't play there. But you know, I had coach evaluate a couple of ours and be honest. And one of them, he said, maybe, and the other two, he said, probably not. And at least we have a starting point now. Now, now I have a point where I can say, Okay. So this kid needs to go here. These two kids, we need to focus there. And those are the conversations. I don't know who listens to our podcast, but I wish more college coaches would have with me and guys like Daniel, just tell us. No, like you're not going to hurt our feelings. Like that helped me a ton. Coach Cruz saying, Hey, those two kids you sent me great high school players, probably NAIA or D2 kids. And so, you know, not someone else might have a different opinion, but at least I have an idea. You know, that's where a lot of high school coaches struggle is it's hard to know where to start, right? If you've never seen a D one player, you don't know what that looks like, right? And then sometimes coach, you talk, it could be the athleticism that may, it ain't the size. It ain't, you know, their hand size and all that crazy. And it's just, this kid just has that it factor. So I. Before this year, I'd never seen a real D1 athlete, and I sure thought that some of mine could maybe go play some D1. Now I know better. So, that's a different animal. Sweet. Coach, we're going to run a little low on time here, so we want to go ahead and start closing out, and we'll give you a chance to pitch your social media stuff so that people can reach out to you. Coach Simpson, real fast, the what not to do as a coach section. I hate to leave it out because it's a fan favorite. So, what is our lesson for this evening? Our lesson tonight, you kind of hit on it a little bit, is uh, this is what to do, so not what not to do, but Uh, I guess what not to do would be to think relationships don't matter like to think that you know If your kids are good enough, they're good enough Specifically on this recruiting in I think relationships matter a ton. You know, we've got we've got high school coaches They don't even have twitter or have a guy on twitter or have anybody representing They're players and you've got coaches that, you know, they don't really want to talk to grad assistants. Like I prefer to, I really talk to you coach. I like you. Like, I don't really want to talk to the 25 year old grad assist wherever, but if I don't have that relationship, that might cost my kid a college education. So I think relationships become super, super important. And then the second point you brought on there is. As hard as it is, the conversation with the athletes and the parents needs to happen. Like, when coach tells me, we think this kid could play D2 and AIA, whatever, you gotta have that conversation with the parents. Like, that has to happen. Otherwise they're going to pour crazy amounts of money because they're just trying to help their kid. You can't blame parents for that. They're trying to help their kid. And you've got sharks that swim around in those waters that just manipulate those poor parents and take them for all they're worth and then don't help them get recruited. And so, you know, for me, you've got to be honest with those kids, help them, but be honest with those kids. That was my, what not to do as a coach slash parent slash whatever their coach. Kitty, I just saw your, uh, some goofy My son, that's my 11 year old. I see four double move, triple move routes Hold on, there you and I'm about that life. Let's go. Hey, on one of them he wrote Uh, this is on my whiteboard in the office. It was one of these plays. This is my 11 year old. And he wrote, this is not a great play against the Blitz. And so I said, buddy, if they'll tell me they're Blitz and I won't call it, but that's how it works, you know? I see a curl and go times four and I'm here for it, I'm he saw it on the Dolphins Chargers playbook on Madden. It's going to work. Guys, don't forget to reach out and see the Offensive Coordinator Academy, Defensive Coordinator Academy. Kenny has a ton of things out there. You're not going to hear them all this And we're going to add coach. We're definitely going to add coach in the OC Academy. There you go. Uh, O Line Academy is on its way out. If it's not out yet, uh, it should be. Go check that out. Listen to Bo Gould. Oh, Gun Show Bo and, uh, and the other guys, um, you know, kind of help you out with the O Line. Social media real quick. Uh, Coach Cruz, where can we reach out to you? If someone wanted to ask you about my running back keeps fumbling RPO, uh, mesh points and it's always his fault. Of course. Uh, where can they reach out to you and talk some ball? Yes, so, uh, my Twitter handle is at Coach Cruz and that's C-R-U-C-E. So, uh, and it easy, it's got a picture of me and my family on there, so There we go. DM's open coach. I get to dms are open. Don't have, don't have to be verified Well, you're gonna get a lot. You're gonna get an addition for me to follow here. Just a minute. I'm at Coach Chambo. Okay. On twitter slash X machine, reach out there anytime. I guess anytime you reach out, I'll get back to you at some point. You also email me at Chamberlain football consulting at gmail dot com. Um, there is a coach's fitness connection is a new community on twitter slash X that I've started. Um, I really just want to get You guys that maybe don't prioritize fitness, at least get it into your brain, talking, running, talking workouts. Uh, I need to find a good routine for the gym. So I'm looking for somebody to come in and be my, um, you know, somebody just make sure that I'm doing accountability partner, if you will. So reach out to me, uh, check out Twitter that, that little community's built into my profile now or some crap. I don't know how it works. Kenny, where can we find you at social media, I'm in all things FB Coach Simpson. So add FB Coach Simpson, FBCoachSimpson. com, FBCoachSimpsonatGmail. com. And. Again, be sure to check out, you know, Daniel's doing that series on headsets. So go over to fbcoachsimpson. com. It's all free and go to headsets and read that. And then coach, I'm going to get you to write some articles here. Um, I just transcribe what you just said and stick that in an article because I thought that was gold. And that's just, that's a misunderstood world. Like we just don't understand the recruiting world. it is. And guys, I appreciate y'all so much for having me, man. And, uh, any, I'll say this, any high school coaches that have any further questions recruiting wise, man, don't hesitate to reach out because at the day, like, um, our lifeblood is you guys. You guys prepare players. You guys do the things that at the day that, um, I know from a high school coach, I wouldn't, I, I, I, I would not be able to do my job without you guys. So, uh, uh, definitely reach out, ask whatever questions, and I appreciate being on here, guys. Well, man, we're, we're glad you joined us, coach. Like I said, I've been looking forward to this one for a while since we, that very first group text, I've been pumped about this one. So, uh, podcast is at coaching one on one pod on Twitter slash X and jump over and say, hi there guys. Uh, we just share little questions and stuff about the episodes. I want to thank you for being a listener of the coaching one on one podcast. We'll hope you join us next week as we continue to make the complex more simple. Please consider subscribing to the show. So you'll always know when the new episodes are out. We'll leave you with this. It's hard to beat someone who never gives up no matter the situation, find a way.