Homer Smith on Scouting

After all the discussion of the Sharpe ratio I'll finish for now with this article from Coach Smith. He's right that it isn't all about the percentages and whatnot.

Link

Misconception #42

by Homer Smith October 8, 2002

You scout an opponent’s defense to find out what it has done.

I suppose. But what you need to figure out is how a defense is coached, how it can be played against you.

To scout, you take everything you already know, then you watch tape hour after hour. You hope that gradually their scheme will come into focus and you can begin to piece together a game plan.

As an example, you want to know how you can go through the top of their pass defense. You analyze how they coach the “lid.” You watch the feet, the turns, the positions on receivers. If you are fortunate, you find a young player who is vulnerable if you go around him to his inside and then run on his toes; or, a leading backfield tackler who can be sucked up by a TE’s block and who won’t be close to a post route.

These examples are not of what defenses they have played in certain positions or situations. They are of specific ways to beat specific defenses. When you have the specifics, you do not want to take a 60 percent chance that your play will face the defense it will beat. You want a 100 percent chance that the play you practiced against a defense will be run against that defense.

Scouting? It is a whole lot more than naming defenses and listing when they have been played.