COACH ELLERSON Head Football Coach—West Point REFLECTIONS ON 2011:

COACH ELLERSON
Head Football Coach—West Point
REFLECTIONS ON 2011:
FRUSTRATING! There were several factors that when taken together made the challenge especially steep. The quality of the schedule, youth, physical immaturity at key positions and of course our health worked against us. Having said all that, if we are good with the ball, even average, we likely win six or seven games. There are some rational “reasons” for this. We started three different centers (one freshman), three different QBs (one fresh-man) and over the course of the season we started four different freshmen in the backfield. However as coaches we must be determined that if/when faced with these same challenges we will be fundamentally RIGHT with the ball. There are a thousand things we can and WILL do better as we mature this young team. It will make many of my critics crazy when I say this but we must not get distracted by the play/defense design or the play/defense calling. We will continue to evolve and improve but I am absolutely convinced we are on the right path in this regard. Being GREAT with the ball (possessing it on offense and attacking it on defense) is absolutely job one. It will be the first consideration when deciding on personnel, package, and practice organization go-ing forward.
I am determined that we USE the experience of last season to our advantage. There is much to be encouraged about but we just shared something extraordinarily painful and we can’t be in a hurry to get it behind us. There are too many lessons to be learned and the “pain” creates a sense of urgency to get smart.
CAPTAINS:
The “Legacy Captain” is an underclassman, usually a Cow, chosen by the graduating seniors prior to the Navy game. It is their final opportunity to directly influence the team dynamic going forward. They have a unique per-spective on the rising seniors and the challenges facing the organization. Pragmatically there are administrative responsibilities in the spring that require a day to day presence with the team and an open line of communica-tion with the graduating senior leadership in the Corps. This year the seniors have elected Jarrett Mackey to serve as the Legacy Captain.
Throughout the spring, summer and into the season every rising senior is expected to fulfill leadership roles both formal and informal. Typically midway through the schedule we elect permanent captains who are recog-nized by their teammates to lead the effort down the stretch.
SOMETHING NEW:
We are training in the morning for the first time this spring. Rather than keeping the last class period open EVERY day to create a larger afternoon time block for practice (which is SOP for most Corps Squad teams) we are keeping open the first two periods on “1 days” or EVERY OTHER day. This means we will train/practice on Monday, Wednesday, Friday one week and Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday the next. A work out day looks like this:
0630: Last bus leaves the Superintendent’s box
0655: Begin training session
0835: End training, hygiene and dress
0900: Breakfast (Kimsey Center 4th Floor), work academic planner
0930: Last bus leaves for Thayer Hall
0950: First class begins
1720: Position meetings in Washington Hall (only when we are in spring ball)
1800: Mandatory team dinner in the mess hall (every night M-F)
The benefits:
1. This is what the “BIG ARMY” does. Get used to it.
2. We have 100% attendance as nothing else has had a chance to “come up”.
3. NUTRITION! Breakfast after the workout is a GREAT meal and dinner is what a “family” meal should look like.
4. REST/RECOVERY! Guys are getting their work done and to sleep by 2200+/-. Most have found they can sleep until 0610 and make the last bus (training room guys can go on an early bus).
5. “Additional instruction” opportunities in the afternoon do not conflict with practice.
6. The men are creating the “habit” of eating breakfast and going to bed that is carrying over to the non-practice days.
7. Having practice behind them, players find it easier to focus on academics. Early progress reports suggest grades are improving and they were already good.
8. When we are in Spring Ball we’ll bring the meetings to the men at the end of the academic day. Coaches have had all day to organize and cut practice tape making this time especially efficient.
9. The Players are more visible to their company and classmates (the Plebes are not sure this is a “benefit”).
10. The Kimsey Weight Room and Foley Center are available for other teams in the afternoon, the most im-pacted part of the day.
The challenges:
1. The training room after practice is rushed. In most cases we just have time to grab a bag of ice. We miti-gate this by our medical staff having an afternoon presence in the Arvin Gym training room EVERY day.
2. Every other week we will use up our Cadet’s Saturday morning and during spring ball we will use both Saturday and Sunday to do some of the more time intensive things (team/special teams meetings, scrim-mages…..).
3. There are significant additional costs associated with transportation and the mess hall.
4. The registrar had to move mountains to make some schedules fit and in a few cases men had to change elective courses.
We are just five weeks in and haven’t started spring practice, but this is the first time it’s looked and felt RIGHT to me. To export this model to the fall we would need the first two class blocks free every day and that is prob-lematic. We are looking into trading most of our “PIAD” and some leave for additional summer school opportu-nities and standardizing the football team’s sequence of summer training to help create the necessary flexibility. We have good people from every department watching to see how this spring goes. Say a prayer for the regis-trar, Dr. Dalton. I have been making his life VERY interesting lately.
We are taking our spring game on the road to FT Benning, GA March 9. We have an NCAA exception and the enthusiastic support of the Army leadership. MG Bob Brown, CG of The Maneuver Center for Excellence, and COL Sam Johnson, ODIA COS, have been the driving force behind This event. NIKE and CBS College Sports are going to make it another opportunity to show case the program and institutions we represent to a national au-dience. Along with the Showtime special “Game of Honor” we are getting our story out there. Now we need to feed the growing enthusiasm with WINS!
RECRUITING: THEY ALL CAME HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
Our unique methodology for culling large swaths of the population to produce talented and qualified “prospects” WORKS. Focusing on “DESTINSTION” at the outset of the recruiting process focuses the effort on the men who are likely to embrace the challenges of West Point and subsequently prosper here. The process is producing only a dozen or so multiple academy recruits and we don’t do especially well with that cohort. This year we got three that received real interest from Navy or USAFA. The more encouraging trend is the number of recruits with Division one scholarship opportunities that are choosing to come and attend US-MAPS. It is a spectacular facility and having it here at West Point is a GAME CHANGER!
Thank you for your continued support of Army Football in general and on a personal level for myself and the coaching staff. After a season when the scoreboard was upside down most weeks you expect some harsh criticism from the faithful in our business. The notes of encouragement and your observations focusing on the positives drowned out the others and speak volumes for the character of the Army Football Brotherhood. I know how much you care and how hard some of those Saturdays were. I also know what you thought at times and largely kept to yourselves. I promise we shared all the same observations with one another and more. You can be proud of the CDT players especially the graduating seniors. They stayed together and came out swinging each week.