It came as a shock to me (as it did to many folks) last night when one of my “die-hard Bama” friends texted me (in shock!) to say that Nick Saban was retiring! Wow! The Bama haters immediately lined up at the door to take one more shot at, undoubtedly, the greatest college football coach in the history of the game. I mean his record earned him that title… right? All of the national championships. All of the 1st round NFL draft choices. All of the Coach of the Year awards. All of it because his won/loss record and the number of championships were the keys to being called The G.O.A.T. I say: “NO ..read more

Although I retired from being a high school Head Football Coach in 2015, I have continued to stay active in the game— both on the field and off. I have been a “consultant”, an analyst and have even been an assistant coach for 2 of my former players who took on head coaching jobs at area schools. Off the field, my greatest joy is helping coaches who approach me with questions about something that I’ve written or recorded (dvd’s) that has found its way onto the internet. These young coaches appreciate my knowledge and experience. And, I appreciate them! Helping others is simply part of my dna as ..read more

I apologize for not writing as frequently. My family covets your prayers. My sweet wife is battling cancer and I am her primary caregiver. It is a joy to serve her but it takes up a lot of time. She’s napping right now… so I thought I’d share something that’s been on my mind. As preseason practice will be starting up soon, I hope that those of you who are responsible for putting together practice plans for your team are using the Principles of Learning that (any of you who are teachers) were taught in basic Education classes in college. Just as you make up Lesson Plans for your students, you n ..read more

I just looked back on my posts from the last year or so and didn’t see anything on this subject. Sooooo…. here you go! If I have written about it previously, it’s important enough to talk about again!!! My focus will be on learning and the best way to coach during practice. It all gets back to one of my main coaching philosophies: do a FEW things realllllllllly well! The thickness of your playbook does not have a direct correlation to how many wins you’ll have during a season. In fact, it may be the exact opposite. Perhaps this (bad) philosophy began with high school coaches listening to colle ..read more

I have been mentoring a young coach who just got a head coaching job. We’ve been kicking around ideas about Offense and Defense a lot. However, he brought up something the other day that I want to comment on in this post. He was getting ready to lead his first (full) staff meeting this week. He’s a smart guy so he already had some ideas about what he wanted to cover. I appreciate him because he’s always got a “teachable spirit.” He wanted to know what I thought he should address. I told him that “what you emphasize, you will achieve! Sooooooo… make sure that the first subject you cover with yo ..read more

A friend of mine who sells and installs home security systems recently did some work for one of my former assistant coaches… who also happened to be a former player. Of course, they got to talking about our high school’s football program and what it was like to work for “Coach J.” I found it very enlightening to hear what my friend gleaned from their conversation. He said that “2 things stand out in my mind after having played for and coached with Lew.” First, he was very competitive. The guy just did not like to lose. I think that it was what drove him to have such a strong work ethic.” Never ..read more

Recently, I was talking with a coach about the benefits of instituting a helmet award sticker system for his program. He was very interested… seemingly unaware of some of the Principles of Conditioning that are taught in most Introductory Psychology classes. If YOU don’t know these principles, I encourage you to take some time to study them. It is a valuable lesson in effectively leading your program. Obviously, each player you coach has a different “hot button.” You have to learn what that hot button is to effectively motivate him. However, there are some universal principles of motivation th ..read more

Our church is very fortunate to have 4 or 5 really outstanding preacher/teachers. The message from our Campus Pastor yesterday was outstanding. Like any good message, it realllllllllllllly got me thinking about a number of things. Two points that he made, though, stood out to me. The first is the title of this post. It spoke to me about the situation for those who find themselves in a subordinate role in their organization. For football coaches, it’s the role of an assistant coach whose sole responsibility, for example, is coaching nothing more than a position. For someone in the business worl ..read more

This is about as close as I’ll get to talking “X’s and O’s” on this site. After watching the state championship games in Virginia last week, it became obvious to me that… even at THAT level, some coaches did not properly prepare their players on their kicking teams. It cost them. One team, for example, had the defending state champs on the ropes late in the 4th quarter. They were held deep in their own territory and had to punt. Their punter, in his own end zone, fielded a low snap. Rather than kick/throw/run the ball out of the back of the end zone, he tried to scoop up the ball; lost control ..read more

Interestingly, within the last few days I have had 2 young head coaches call me seeking advice… about the same subject! It seems that both of them had recently been hired by their respective school as the new head football coach. They were both happy where they were. However… head coaching jobs have just come open in their area of the country! Jobs that they are both interested in applying for. Thus the dilemma! “To go or not to go?” (as Bill Shakespeare would write) “THAT is the question!!!” Whenever I’m faced with a decision that carries as much import as this would, I do 3 things. First, I ..read more