Re: Robinson Football Struggling Is This the New Norm
Posted by:
Woodson Parent
()
Date: November 01, 2011 08:43AM
I happened upon this string and am very intrigued at the insight Robinson fans have already gleaned about this coach. Coach Taylor seems to be a good guy, but in my opinion, is in way over his head as a head coach. He was the beneficiary of a class of real top quality athletes during the middle of his "reign" at Woodson. The years Reilly (QB now at Temple) was at Woodson, a bunch of D-1 and D-1AA players also happened to be there. As a players parent I watched as lousy decision after lousy decision was overcome by players who are right now scattered in college programs all over the mid-atlantic region.
Here are some things to be concerned about, Robinson parents: While at Woodson, Coach Taylor ("CT") never put a "don't hit" practice jersey on his QB's. One practice a couple of years ago, he lost his 2nd and 3rd string QB's in two successive plays because the green light was always on as far as hitting the QB in practice. Never heard of such a thing.
The poster who talked about backups never playing hit the nail on the head. My son was a second string player - not a great HS football player, but a number 2. He never played the two years he was a number two. He did not get any game experience in a varsity game. He fought for the number one position his senior year, but lost out to another kid who also had never played a varsity down.
I am not a complaining parent about my kid not playing - we all recognized he had limited skills. However, we'll never know if one of those kids just needed a chance in a game to find themselves.
This was a consistent puzzle to me - even when winning by several touchdowns, or being blown out last year, CT never put in the 2's. Woodson went 3-7 last season and was blown out in almost all the losses, but neither my son or any of the other 2's ever got in a game unless the guy ahead of them was injured.
The result was when Reilly and all the talent graduated, the cupboard was empty - very few experienced players. Here is the dirty little secret only Woodson parents know - the 2's barely even got to practice. CT would have the first team O versus the first team D and they got most of the sessions during the scrimmage portions of practice. The 2's and 3's would get thrown in for a few plays against each other, but almost never against the 1's. How does a player get better when he never gets challenged beyond his level of ability? He doesn't. That is one of the reasons Woodson is so bad this year. It is a team of almost no experience - even in practice. I suggest some Robinson parents going out to practice and see if the backups are even getting reps in practice. Remember, this means that next year, your new starters hardly have even practiced before - and never against the starters. So, your new starters have no game experience and almost no practice experience, and what they have is against other guys with no game or practice experience. This is a recipe for a lot of future blow-outs.
At Robinson here is what you can expect: since backups don't play, you will have only those returning starters with any experience. By the way, this no backup plays rule also applies to JV - so there is never a chance a young player who is not a star from day one will ever get the opportunity to develop.
CT does not develop players - he simply uses what he knows, and he only knows those who start. The new fill-in replacements each year may or may not be "gamers" they are simply those guys who make a good first impression on a coach who doesn't want to bother building a program - just playing the next game.
Another thing to expect is very little creativity in game planning. I used to observe other parents a Woodson games playing a little game of whether the next play would be a run to the left or to the right. Even with Reilly, the system was mostly run/pitch option left or right. The fact that Reilly would hit long passes when given a chance kind of hid the fact that CT rarely really let Reilly just go fling the football. One game a couple of years ago against stone bridge, Reilly (junior year I think) got a chance to pass (because Stone Bridge was unstoppable), Woodson lost, but scored about 50-60 points on Stone Bridge - who had a very good team. Reilly was unbelievable. Who knows what would have happened if CT had taken the reigns off Reilly. a good coach sees something special when it is right in front of him and adapts a little to take advantage of that player's skill. CT adapted just a tiny bit. It was always run, run, run then maybe pass. Reilly could throw 65 yards to a spot and did so whenever allowed, but was only allowed to do so about half as often as he should have been. That is why he is at Temple and not a BIG 10, ACC, or other higher level Conference.
Game decisions use to drive the parents nuts - CT would go for it on 4th and a few yards, no matter where the team was on the field. I remember one time he did this when the ball was on the Woodson 22 or 23 yard line, and they needed to get 4 or 5 yards. What!? He used to do this all the time. Sometimes they would succeed, and many times they failed and gave the ball up. Never figured that one out.
Another thing I cannot understand, CT is a great coach from the perspective of weight training. His players all improve strength and size significantly over their time under him (this is probably his greatest attribute). His players must all come in early twice a week to lift. Those who don't want to go to school at 6 am, can take an elective "Personal Fitness" class and get their lifting in during the school day.
Here is the weird part. On Fridays, if you had Personal Fitness, you still had to lift. This sounds like no big thing - but these players would be sore after these classes. CT really worked the kids. Then on game day, he'd work them just as hard just a few hours before the games. A significant number of his players took this class. And they would even have "Max days" just a few hours before a game.
As an experienced weight lifter, I know that it is less than intelligent to ask a player to do a full weight-lifting workout which requires 24-48 hours of recovery, then ask the player to play a football game 8-10 hours later. Makes no sense. Not sure if this "tradition" continues at Robinson - but parents need to be aware of this. Your best running back could be wobbly from a heavy squat day, then have to run and make cuts at full speed? Anyone who has ever done squat workouts knows what I am talking about. CT also knows as he was a competitive lifter. Why he has his kids do this makes no sense. Check it out.
Sorry to ramble, but after three years of frustration as seeing what I saw at Woodson (not just on behalf of my own son, but for all players and parents), I wanted to give you some things to think about and look for. Bottom line, Coach taylor is a decent man who is a great position coach and weight training coach, but to this point not fulfilled expectations as a head coach. He has been the beneficiary of some great players while at Woodson, but observers of his coaching there would question whether he got the best out of that great group of players who came through for those 2 successful years.
Hope things improve for you.