We have a stubbornness problem on offense. We've seen this for long enough where I'm not breaking any news or making any hot takes here. But I have been through this personally, albeit on a much lower level of competition.
STORYTIME (I'll try to be brief, hopefully someone enjoys reading it. If not, that's ok.)
3A football 15 ish years ago. Our head coach was the brother of an all time Iowa HS legend. By some stroke of cosmic luck, we happened to be about as loaded as any 3A school can be, and it was at one of the smaller schools in 3A at the time. We had no business being this talented, but we were. (No, I was NOT one of those that I'm referring to lol. I was ok. Just fortunate to be along for the ride really.)
We used the same playbook that our HC's brother used to win multiple state titles. It was a solid system that he and his brother, respectively, had lots of success with at other schools. we had plenty of success with it, too, but it was predictable and limited creatively. It was regimented and well thought out, but it wasn't really designed for the kind of talent we had at the time. A lot of thought and effort went into 3 yards and a cloud of dust, phone booth football kind of thing. Ball control etc.
It was a NICE looking playbook too, guys. Professionally printed, indexed, laminated, everything was clearly explained down to the most minute detail.
Ranked #2 at home in game 2, we lost 20-0 in game to a more traditional 3A power. However, it was to a team our group of players had beaten every year in Junior High, freshman football, etc. This was following the season opener in which we struggled to beat an inferior, but very solid, team in 2OT.
It really looked like we were going to squander our once in a generation chance to do something special with this group. Everyone was low as low can be.
So, decision time. Coach swallowed his pride and consulted others who might know more than he thought he did. One of whom was a former NFL pro, who luckily happened to be a volunteer assistant. It was a good staff who knew this group of kids inside and out. They felt we were doing them a disservice trying to force them into a mold they had outgrown or was holding them back.
What did he do? He scrapped the entire offense. On Monday, he handed out new playbooks consisting of manic scribbles drawn in pen. The offense was completely different. Formations, philosophy, alignments, responsibilities, blocking schemes, route trees, terminology... Everything.
It was simple, out of necessity time-wise more than anything, but it was also very open ended and freeing. And its simplicity actually made us more unpredictable. It allowed our guys to just go play ball, and see where the chips fell.
11 wins in a row later, including a 31-7 state title game win over that same team that had beaten us on our home field in week 2. I learned a lot about a lot of things because of that experience. Mainly, stubbornness can rob you of your potential. It's not a good thing.
