Not a student, but always studying

Think about the last time you spent 32 hours in a week doing one thing. Next, think about how many weeks you maintained that regimen. 

In an average week, Head Football Coach Mike Leach spends about that much time watching film just to prepare for the team’s next opponent. 

Between meetings and practices, Leach finds time to do what he can to get even more of a competitive advantage. 

“We’re just looking at how our stuff matches up with how they play and what their players are like,” Leach said. “Like how good their various guys are: What their skills are, what their strengths are, what their weaknesses are and then how we like our stuff against it.”

The coaches analyze the film in terms of sets, downs and distance situations, Leach said. The players will also look at film with the coaches and individually, looking at what needs to happen against certain formations. 

When the players and coaches have finished watching all of the film, they have a meeting to discuss the plays they like against the specific team they are going to play, Leach said. Then they put the plays in the order they like and decide where they should run those plays on the field.

“The hard thing isn’t thinking of plays,” he said. “The hard thing is selecting which plays. So when we have the meeting, it has more to do with cutting plays than it does adding plays.”

Leach said sometimes they will adjust base plays in order to combat what a specific team does. He said teams will never get good at anything if they change their playbook completely for each game, and therefore, he only makes slight adjustments to the plays the Cougars already have. 

Watching film seems routine now because of the technology available today; however, it wasn’t always so easy. Leach said when he first started coaching; projectors were being used to watch film. He said watching film has always been an important part of the game, but the process has just changed over the years. 

“With the projectors, there were less copies of the film,” he said. “Then cutting up the film was brutal. Cutting it up by set, you’d still do that, but it was literally cutting the film and then splicing it back together, which was a real nuisance. It was very difficult, it takes forever.”

Once the plays were cut up, he would hang up the plays on the wall in categories until they were in the right order. Now, it is easier to distribute the film and to cut it faster; however, Leach said no time is really saved because coaches can do more with the film. 

If anything, the time Leach spends each week watching film shows that the product on the field does not happen overnight. So the next time you’re studying for a test, imagine having to do it for 32 hours. 

Watching film, plus the time in practice and meetings, is how long Coach Leach prepares for the test the Cougars face every time they step out on the field.