Breaking Down the Oregon Ducks Spring Football Practice

Last Friday, as part of the Oregon Football Coaches Clinic, I attended the first spring practice in pads. This site is focused on the Wing-T for youth football – what can we all learn from a spread D–1 FBS team practice? Well, there are elements of the practice structure that are very relevant to youth coaches. Hence, I provide you with this breakdown of their practice.

The weather was brisk but clear, so the team was practicing outdoors at their amazing side-by-side full football fields with field turf. We had the freedom to wander the sidelines and observe everything going on, with a few restrictions:

1. No photography or video
2. Visitors had to stay out of the sideline area between the two fields for safety reasons. Players are frequently running back and forth through that area between sessions.

My tiny notebook in hand, I observed and recorded as best I could. The timings I marked down for each session are not going to be 100% accurate but they will be close. I really wish I could have gotten my hands on one of the printed practice plans I saw floating around.

First, some general observations:

• There are about 18 coaches on the staff, including graduate assistants and interns
• I counted roughly 40 to 50 other helpers of some sort around the practice, including the best ball boy to ever set foot on a football field.
• I believe there were three different video cranes filming the practice. There might also be someone filming from the building that borders the east side of the fields.
• At opposite ends of the facility (east and west ends) there are large digital count-down clocks that show the time remaining in the current segment.
• There’s a, ahem, robust PA system that not only pipes music (I heard classic hip hop, Queen, heavy metal) but also announces in a computer-generated voice when a session is ending and the next session name. For example, “Next segment, 18, teaching”.
• Everybody, players included, seemed to always know where to go during the session transitions. Now this is a spring practice with returning players, so I guess everyone out there has experience in the environment. Would be interesting to see what summer camp looks like after the new arrivals show up.
• The practice lasted from 8:30am to 11:00am.
• I heard very little yelling or negative criticism during the practice. Certainly there were corrections being given; the players were always being coached. Mark Helfrich said in his talk (I’ll write that up later) that they “praise the name, criticize the position or number”. When they have positive feedback they make a point of yelling out the player’s name. When they have a criticism they will yell “hey, #63, were you aligned properly on that play?”
• Offense were in white jerseys, defense in green. QBs had red shirts with white numbers, and there were other players with red jerseys that I suspect might be red-shirt kids or those with duplicate numbers.
• There were never water breaks. Hydration was built into the practice periods. For example, when they would go team you might have 1st string on, backups off. Backups would have support staff giving them water while off the field, then when starters came off they would get water.
• Kickers were working off the main practice fields in the far west grass area.
• Very little on-field teaching going on, focus is on reps and pace. I get the sense the talking happens only during a few “teach” sessions below, plus in the classroom and before/after practice.

Here’s my breakdown of their practice. The times don’t exactly add up to 150 minutes, but I probably missed a segment or two and some of the 5 minute segments may have been 10 minutes.