GRADING THE GAME FILM
Grading the game film is a very definite part of our planning. If we do not know who is doing what during a game, we can’t do an intelligent job of planning and coaching. I am sold on our grading system, and we feel that through the study of films we can determine who to play, and also who not to play, in critical situations. Knowing this information in advance has won a number of football games for us.
Our procedure for grading films is for one coach to take one position and grade every player in that position offensively and defensively. It is possible for a player to get one of three possible scores, plus (+), minus (-), or ungradable (U), on each play. Our criteria is as follows:
Plus (+)—If the boy carries out his assignment and gets his job done properly, his coach will give him a plus. His technique of execution might not be the way he was taught, but we are concerned with the fact either he did or did not do his job.
Minus (-)—If the player failed to carry out his assignment and/or his man “whipped” him, then he is graded minus (for the particular play).
Ungradable (U)—If a player is not shown in the picture or he does not have the opportunity to help out on the play, he is ungradable and would receive (U). An example would be the defensive right end when the play goes away from him and in all probability he will not have an opportunity to take part in the play.
After getting a grade for each play, like symbols are added together, and the total number of offensive (or defensive) plays participated in to determine percentages. Divide the sum total of plus and minus signs into the total number of plus signs in order to arrive at the percentage of plays that got the job done. We have found that a player must grade at least 61% on offense and on defense in order to be a winning football player.
We grade the offense and defense separately. If a player consistently makes a good grade on defense and a poor grade on offense, we know either we have to play him only on defense or we must give him more offensive work.
We have several other expressions, which we have borrowed from baseball terminology, that we use in our grading system. They are as follows:
RBI—Stands for runs batted in, and means something extra good, such as intercepting a pass, causing or recovering a fumble, blocking a punt, throwing a key block—a real clutch play. These are what we call the “big plays” and they are the ones that win the tough games for you. If your team does not make many big plays, you will not win many tough games. We place a great deal of emphasis on the big play. Frankly, we would rather have a boy make three or four RBI’s, even though his grade is only 50-55%, rather than have a boy get 65-68% and never make any big plays.
Errors—If a player busts an assignment, gets a penalty, misses a tackle in open field, permits a receiver to get behind him, fumbles the ball, or commits some act of a similar negative nature, we consider this bad and he is given an error. A player who consistently makes two or three errors per game simply cannot play for us. His play will cost you more ball games than you will ever win with him. Consequently, we watch the errors column very closely when we are grading film.