Team Strengths and Weaknesses Exposed in Films

The local high school football team has just been upset in a tense game and the losing coach is surrounded by reporters.

It is a familiar scene. The reporters, in search of some explanation for the loss, quiz the coach. “What about that game-winning touchdown run by No. 47 in the fourth quarter?” one asks.

“I’m not sure what happened,” the coach replies. “I can’t comment on that until I see the films.”

“What happened to your quarterback tonight?,” another asks. “He passed for 240 yards last week but had only 39 yards tonight.”

Coach: “Ah, I really can’t say anything until I see the films.”

I’ll have to wait until I see the films.

For prep football coaches, it has become the cliche of the ‘80s.

But what do they actually do when they look at the films? More than it seems.

Coaches spend more hours in the dark than vampires. They see more film than Siskel and Ebert.

They rely on films for everything from grading a running back’s performance to determining an opponent’s favorite play on third down and six from the right hash mark on their half of the field.

Coaches sometimes scout their own game films, but they spend most of the time with films of upcoming opponents. Their main objective in breaking down an opponent’s film is to extract a team’s tendencies, both offensive and defensive. From that, they can devise a game plan.

Films are first broken down to offensive and defensive reels. At Fountain Valley High School, offensive coaches study the opponent’s defensive film, and the defensive coaches study the offensive film.

After the player’s numbers and positions are labeled, each play is charted, noting the down and the yardage situation. Blocking schemes and passing routes are diagrammed. The offensive staff charts defensive alignments such as the drops of linebackers and defensive backs and blitzing patterns.

Some questions the Barons’ staff looks to answer with films: What is opponent’s basic defensive structure? What are their favorite stunts and when do they use them? What is their short-yardage defense? What is their prevent defense? How will they play screens? How will they play draws? How do they adjust to motion? How do they adjust to shifts? Which defensive backs drop back the most? What do they do on first and long, or third and short?

The list seems endless.

Plays are run over and over again through the Kodak Analyst 16-mm projector until the staff can gather the information it needs. It usually takes about an hour to break down one reel.

“The best thing about film is you have that little clicker in your hands and you can stop and go backward as you please,” said Mike Milner, Baron coach. “You can’t do that in a game. They run a play and it’s over.

“With film, we can determine every formation, what the down is, the distance to a first down and where they are on the field.”

Preferably, Milner likes to begin his film work Saturday morning and finish on Sunday. But Saturday night games can pose a real burden.

“You’ve got to get all your work done on Sunday, so you’re in there from 6 a.m. until midnight,” Milner said. “You can’t do it Monday because you’ve got to teach five classes. I hate Saturday games.”

Although coaches rely heavily on films, some problems still arise.

One of the biggest occurs when the camera is not high enough to get the entire defense in the picture. At Los Alamitos’ opener at Cerritos’ Gahr High, the camera was set up on the walkway at the top of the stands instead at the top of the press box. Fans walked in front of the camera throughout the game.

A film taken from a field without yard markers makes it difficult to determine where the teams are. Sometimes, it’s difficult to determine the time on the scoreboard clock.

While viewing El Toro’s season-opener against Estancia, Fountain Valley assistant Hank Cochrane asked fellow assistant Dave Penhall, “Where are we in the game?”

Penhall replied, “Since the drill team is coming to the sideline, it must be near the end of the half.”