Tough Topics & Listener Questions: The Coaches Office: Behind the Scenes of HS Football w/ Chuck Smith & David Buchanan

[ChiefSmoke]

We will be working ahead to prep for 2024 (season #3) of the podcast.

We have used several questions from BGPreps the last two seasons. Those questions have been very good and have added significantly to the quality of our podcast. 

If you have listener questions or tough topics for the 2024 season, please list them here in this thread.

Have a great week and THANK YOU to our listeners for making us #6 among HS Football podcasts in the USA!

 

[Purple88]

Chief, I have a question for you.  

How do you deal with kids competing for the same starting spot?  I'm specifically speaking about QB but applies to any position really.  If you have a SO say who will have played in your program for a couple years behind a proven SR Varsity QB.  When that SR graduates the rising JR will likely be asked to be the guy.  But what about when there is a very talented FR on your roster, and he gets a year of FR ball in?

Do you simply have a competition between the two or do you automatically give the spot to the older player who has played in your program longer?  And how do you handle the parents?

[TCR]

Getting the community to buy in to turning a program around. Both Coach Buchanan (Currently in the process at Anderson County) and Coach Smith have had success with that. It takes so much to get the players to believe and then the parents, administration, and fans to buy in to the commitment the program is taking to achieve new heights and I'm curious how the coaches go about doing that.

[BEChargers]

26 minutes ago, TCR said:

Getting the community to buy in to turning a program around. Both Coach Buchanan (Currently in the process at Anderson County) and Coach Smith have had success with that. It takes so much to get the players to believe and then the parents, administration, and fans to buy in to the commitment the program is taking to achieve new heights and I'm curious how the coaches go about doing that.

Chief will certainly know better than I do, but I think at least as far as the admin goes, they had better be bought in already to a large degree.  

[TCR]

1 hour ago, BEChargers said:

Chief will certainly know better than I do, but I think at least as far as the admin goes, they had better be bought in already to a large degree.  

I would agree, and certainly hope the administration would be behind the efforts. That's a fair point, and coaches like Buchanan or Smith would likely have a better handle on navigating the administrative buy-in piece.

I was just speculating a bit there based on my understanding of the challenges involved in getting a whole community to buy into a turnaround effort. Sometimes when you get a highly ambitious coach like Buchanan or Smith (especially if it's a program not used to winning) the administration may not be as willing to be on board when they want to make an effort to advance the program. Then on the other end it may take a few years to get the program to a high level. I think of Evan Ferguson at Boyd County in this situation as he struggled in his first three seasons before taking Boyd to their best season in two decades in 2022. Boyd County remained committed to him even after the early struggles and it is paying off for them now as they are competitive with almost anybody on their schedule. However, I feel like some administrations would grow impatient after a 1-9 season to start followed by two seasons (20 and 21) where they jumped to a 3-1 start before struggling the rest of the way as Evan Ferguson had when he first started.

[ChiefSmoke]

Please help us... and enjoy your 4th of July!

[ChiefSmoke]