Leeland Hamilton, an offensive coordinator and quarterback coach at Ford Bend High School in KDISD, gave a presentation on coaching quarterbacks, with a focus on building relationships and running a comprehensive quarterback school. The speaker thanked Coach Muh, Coach Edgar Vasquez, and Drew for getting him to the event.

Quarterback Relationships and Philosophy

The speaker emphasizes that relationships with the quarterback are important. He stresses the importance of knowing the player outside of football, such as bringing a PlayStation to the fieldhouse or going bowling, to show that he cares. He also notes that the quarterback is the "end all be all" because he has the ball in his hands every play, but advises against putting too much pressure on the player.

Key coaching philosophies include:

• Never addressing the quarterback negatively in front of the whole team, as this opens the door for others to critique him negatively.
• Standing behind the quarterback at practice to see what he sees, whether it's a progression or a read.
• Knowing the quarterback's strengths and weaknesses and tailoring the offense to him, especially when dealing with shorter high school quarterbacks.

Quarterback School

The speaker runs a mandatory quarterback school, which is an intense program for players from sixth grade through eleventh grade. The school meets in the morning before school starts, from 5:45 a.m. until 8:35 a.m. for the middle school kids.

The general overview of the quarterback school schedule is:

• Before Christmas Break: Season evaluation and grading players on how they handled things.
• January: Focus on expectations and goals, both the player's and the coach's, to hold the player accountable in the offseason. This is also a time to understand the player's aspirations, such as if he only wants to be a good high school quarterback and not play at the next level.
• February: Baseline testing on mechanics, teaching them the right way to throw the football, starting with sixth graders.
• March: Continue focusing on mechanics.
• April (Pro Day): A scripted 25-to-30-play session filmed with receivers, similar to an NFL pro day, to set a baseline for spring ball and highlight areas for improvement.
• May: Continue quarterback school and evaluate offseason performance.
• June and July: Conclude the offseason program by focusing on mechanics and running a "Rod of the Air" concept of the day to work on eye control.

Quarterback School Curriculum

The curriculum is designed to get all players and the offensive staff on the same page with language and terminology.

• Defensive Identification and Terminology: The speaker teaches defensive concepts like defensive lines, equal/over/under/odd fronts, linebacker levels, and secondary positions. Players are tested on this before moving on.
• Defensive Techniques: The instruction focuses on techniques relevant to their team, such as A-gap, B-gap, C-gap, D-gap, playside, and backside gaps, as well as the numbers for defensive linemen.
• Coverage: The focus is on the general purpose of each coverage, not all the rules. The speaker uses a trick he learned in college: two safeties mean likely even number coverage (2, 4, 6), and one high safety means an odd number (1, 3, 7). They cover zero-safety, one-high, and two-high safety looks and the benefits of each.
• "Clean and Dirty" Concept (Alley): This is a way to determine if a defender has a direct relationship to the path of the throw. The alley is "clean" if no defender is in the window, and "dirty" if a defender is present. The coach prefers to call a pass play like a hitch rather than rely on RPOs to avoid putting the tough decision on the quarterback.
• Reads vs. Progressions: The coaches must understand the difference.
  • Read: Reading a specific defender, like a smash concept, where the defender is wrong regardless of his decision. During practice, the quarterback must verbally say the read (e.g., "dip" or "whip") to confirm he is seeing the defender and getting to the throwing window.
  • Progression: Dependent on looking at their guys, regardless of the defense, such as a typical Air Raid progression (go, out, cross, dig back). The quarterback is taught to say the progression (e.g., "middle curl, outside curl, flat") and end with "me" if everyone is covered, meaning he needs to make a play with his feet.
• Pass Protection and Blitz ID: The quarterback is taught general protection rules for even (slide three) and odd (slide four) fronts