Creating a Collaborative and Efficient Defensive Gameplan

Each month we spotlight a coach leveraging Hudl products in unique ways. This month we feature St. Charles (Ill.) North High School head coach Robert Pomazak, who’s spent more than two decades as a physical education teacher and coach in Illinois. Since he became North’s head coach in 2013, the North Stars have racked up more than 65 wins, seven state playoff appearances, and a Class 7A State Championship appearance in 2020. You can follow Pomazak on Twitter at @robertpomazak and on his CoachTube channel.

Twenty years ago, the laborious and time-consuming process of padding games was the norm in game-planning. Staff would painstakingly and meticulously write down every formation, down, distance, and play by hand. But getting the data down was only half the battle. The real challenge came after the padding. That is when forensics began. 

Coaches would share the role of looking for tendencies, takeaways, and telltale signs of the scouted team. No stone was left unturned, but in its wake were countless wasted man-hours and, of course, many yellow legal pads. 

Football has come a long way, and the advent of Hudl has given coaches and players across the country film review, gameplans, and presentations at their fingertips. Now, new Hudl has taken the evolution of the game one step further and given us user-friendly, real-time results that allow the entire offensive or defensive staff to break apart opposing teams in a fraction of the time. 

Here’s how you can utilize new Hudl to create a collaborative, effective, and efficient game-planning model that all programs can implement immediately. 

New Hudl Field Set Details 

The field set columns you create for your program can be unique to your desired results for the game-planning model. This is what we look for, and how we assemble our differentiated game-planning field sets. Please note that some are found in the “My Columns”, while others are custom. 

• Formations
  • Establish common vernacular/abbreviations etc: 
  • Back sets
  • Personnel groupings
  • Sets: 2x1/2x2/3x1, FIB, etc.
  • Movements: Motions/shifts 
  • Notes: Overall Tendencies
• Pass/Run Game Reports 
  • Down and distance 
  • Formation tendency
  • Movements used 
  • Personnel: Who are the studs? 
  • Targets: Who is getting the ball where and when
  • Scheme 
  • Routes
  • Pass zones
  • Personnel: Who to exploit, who to avoid
• Pass Protection
  • Pass pro: Identification of different types of pass protections
  • Pass scheme: What scheme is associated with each pass protection?
  • Down and distance tendencies 
  • Personnel: Who to exploit, who to avoid
• Situations
  • Opening offense (both first and second half) 
  • Four-minute offense report and cut-ups 
  • Two-minute offense report and cut-ups 
  • Sudden change  
• Field Zones 
  • Reports for typical zone
  • Down and sitance
  • Field or boundary tendency 
  • Hash tendency 
  • Separate red zone report 
• Down and Distance 
  • Overall tendency by distance 
  • Formation tendency 
  • Top runs and top passes 
  • Hash/field/boundary tendency
  • Personnel
  • Best calls based on opponent success rate analytics 

Data Entry 

Once the field sets are created, the next step is to input all the necessary data. In a collaborative game-planning environment, your data input is minimal and allows each coach to become the “expert” in their particular field. In new Hudl, the turnover of usable tendencies is completed in real time. Taking the data from new Hudl to the gameplan is a streamlined and seamless process.

In our program, we’ve created a shared google sheet that allows each team member to input their field set data into only their area of expertise. The information populates into the defensive gameplan that is then shared with the team and other coaches.In our experience, this workflow creates a more in-depth, collaborative, and comprehensive game plan experience that increases usable data while decreasing hours spent in the office.