Missouri Football Example Of Good Backup Preparation
Anyone who settled in to watch the Missouri vs Vanderbilt football game on Saturday got to witness a very good football game. Not only because the score was close but also there was a lot of great football coaching going on for both SEC teams.
Anyone who watched obviously knows that Vanderbilt ultimately won the football game 17-10. This is a testimony to both defenses. Going into the game, most of the chatter was about how explosive both offenses would be. The majority of this focus was justifiably on Vanderbilt’s Diego Pavia.
However; it was the Missouri offense and their coaches who stood out to me in this game. Football coaches tend to watch games differently. As hard as both teams were playing and as close as the game was, it was a huge blow for Mizzou when their starting quarterback, Beau Pribula, went down. He suffered a leg injury in the third quarter with the score tied 3-3.
Keep in mind that Pribula has been the Mizzou starter at quarterback since he replaced first game starter Sam Horn. So essentially, the Missouri offensive coaches were now playing with their third string quarterback. They had to throw true freshman, Matt Zollers into this defensive slugfest on national TV.
Hats Off To The Missouri Football Coaches For Having Their Backups Ready
Who could blame Head Coach Eliah Drinkwitz for shaking his head and wondering “What next?” when the TV cameras focused on him as they were carting Pribula off of the field. However; for the remainder of the football game, the freshman, Matt Zollers played pretty well and once again, this was against a good Vanderbilt defense.
PHOTO CREDIT: Xiaoman An: The Columbia Missourian
Zollers ended up completing 14-23 passes for 138 yards. He did have one critical turnover on what looked to be an RPO misread. Overall though, he competed and gave the Missouri a chance to win. I don’t want to take anything away from Zollers but I immediately thought of his position coach.
I began looking up the Missouri offensive staff. Why? Because if you want to see the result of good position coaching, look at how that coach’s backups play when the starter (or two) go down in a game. It can be total exposure of a position coach who only coaches the starters. Yet this happens at every level, including the NFL.
Good Position Coaches Have Their Backups Ready For The Worst Case Scenario
It’s hard to spend time with your two’s and three’s as a position coach, but the good ones do it. A good position coach understands the value of extra reps after practice, mental reps during practice and even coaching mechanics as your backup takes scout team reps.
The hardest part is that when it comes to preparing for that specific upcoming game, odds are that time is invested in something you hope does not happen. As a position coach, you are preparing for the worst case scenario. Your best player gets injured and now you have to play with a less talented or younger player.
Once again, Matt Zollers was a highly recruited quarterback out of high school and is a very good player. Having said that, I do want to acknowledge a great job on the part of the Missouri football offensive coaches for having their third string quarterback coached up well enough to have a chance to win the game against a good Vanderbilt defense on the road in Nashville.
