18 Keys to Being a Great Assistant Football Coach

You’re climbing your ladder. Serving your time is as the low man on the totem pole.

Or the middle man. Or the next man up.

You are an Assistant Coach. Possibly one of many on your current coaching staff.

Everyone is so anxious to move up. To become a head coach.

Easy, grasshopper. You won’t make a great Head Coach until you learn to be a great Assistant.

When you’re in charge, your assistants will make or break you. They can make your job easy, or make your life a living hell.

You better pay attention to the job you’re doing for the man who’s in charge right now. Here are 15 tips to help you be a great Assistant Football Coach right now.

1) Keep Everything in House. Your coaching staff is a family. Even if you hate each other. Don’t air your dirty laundry out in the community. People will talk.

2) Be a Self-Starter. Don’t wait for instructions. Take the bull by the horns. Get out and make some changes.

If you see something that you know needs to be done, go ahead and do it. This is the fastest way to get promoted, too.

Do make sure it needs to be done, and that you’re the one to do it. If you aren’t sure, ask your Head Coach first.

3) Follow the Plan. Being a self-motivated go-getter is great. Just make sure you are doing it as part of the Team Effort.

The way your Head Coach wants to do things, is the way it gets done. Period. You can suggest. You can argue in the office. At the end of the day, this is his time to shine.

If you are undermining the authority of the Head Coach or the other Assistant Coaches by doing your own thing, or teaching it your own way – no matter how right you may think it is – you are wrong.

4) Try New Things. Within your coaching system, of course. You’ve got to learn what your boundaries are. Then excel within them.

This means if you’re the Defensive Line Coach, and you have some flexibility in your drills – look for new drills to solve problems your players are having.

That’s part of your development as a coach, too. Again, just make sure you aren’t stepping on any toes.

5) Speak Up in Meetings. Only bad coaches like a bunch of “Yes Men” surrounding them. It is frustrating for a Head Coach to hear a bunch of guys tell him how great his ideas are.

If you have ideas, speak up during meetings. If your Head Coach doesn’t allow that, speak to him privately. But find a way to share your ideas. Don’t be a “Yes Man.”

6) Don’t Take It Personally. When your idea gets shot down. When your superior barks at you. When your position group isn’t performing well.

It’s not personal. None of this is personal. It’s not about you.

Take criticism. Seek out criticism! And remember that this is a violent game coached by a bunch of passionate guys who used to play a violent game. In other words, we don’t always tread lightly.

If someone truly hurts your feelings, be an adult. Talk to them. Let them know how you feel. Don’t just bottle it up. This is big boy time.

But remember, it probably wasn’t about you. (these kids drive you nuts sometimes)

7) Don’t Limit Yourself. Lots of Assistant Coaches pigeon hole themselves. As an ‘Offense’ guy or as a ‘Linebackers Coach’ or some other nonsense.

If you intend to be a Head Football Coach, you better become a Football Guy. Learn to coach every position.

8) Ask Questions. Seek to understand everything you can about the game.

If you’re struggling with your position group, ask your Coordinator or Head Coach. Talk to other coaches any chance you get.

Coaching on a 2-platoon team? You should be asking the coordinator or the other coaches about what they’re doing, too.

And don’t just run to message boards or some fool who runs a website (sup fool!). Talk to the humans on your coaching staff first. Again, this is adult stuff.

9) Don’t Expect to Be Taught. Demand it. Everyone’s busy. Sometimes the first thought on your coordinator or Head Coach’s mind isn’t, “Let me go talk to this young buck. See how he’s getting along.”

Need advice? Clarification? Ideas? Ask for it.

The best time to do this is before or after practice. If you sit down with an experienced coach on your staff for 15 minutes a day, you will grow by leaps and bounds.

Spread it around, too. Talk to all of them.

10) Show Up When You’re Supposed To. Be reliable and dependable.

This is a no brainer for practice, right? You have a position group. Be there or they don’t get coached.

Then you miss a staff meeting. No big deal, you’re not a coordinator. Except, now you’re just nothing. You have no contribution.

Staff Meeting means you. Weight Room means you. Conditioning means you. Unless you specifically make arrangements to not be there, you are expected to be there. So show up!

11) Be a Coach First, Not a Friend. Coaching staffs need good guy’s and bad guy’s. But they don’t need that guy who tells all the players how awesome they are.

You’re a coach. You set an example. You take the hard road. The players have plenty of friends.

12) Be Where You Are At. I don’t know why this is at #12. It’s the single most important piece of advice I ever received.

In college, the coaches sit and clicks on Football Scoop all day. They’re always looking for the next job. It’s self-preservation, because you never know when you’re going to be sent down the road.

But you won’t get that next job if you don’t perform in this one. And you’ll be neglecting a group of young men who depend on you.

I haven’t loved every job I’ve ever had, and sometimes it’s a struggle to finish a season that’s going nowhere. But you learn to do it. Be where you are at, and give it your all while you are there.

13) Recognize Who’s in Charge. It is always the Head Coach’s time to shine. It’s his turn.

One day it will be your turn. You will expect the same out of your Assistants.

The success of the team will ride on how much support the Head Coach gets. It starts with his Assistant Coaches.

14) Take the Jobs No One Else Wants. Be the guy who takes the trash out at night. Be the guy who tags the film.

There’s always jobs that need to be done, that completely suck.

Here’s a neat trick for you guys desperate to climb the ladder. Your Head Coach is doing some job that he should not be doing, because he doesn’t want to ask anyone else to do it.

Either he doesn’t trust anyone else to do it right, or he puts it on himself because he thinks it sucks and he’s giving you guys a break.

Whatever the reason. Identify that task. Then take it over. If you put even a few minutes back into your Head Coach’s day, you’re setting yourself up for some positive rewards down the road.

15) Don’t Make Excuses. If your guys aren’t playing well, own up to it. Work to fix it.

If you missed a meeting, do the same. Then don’t let it happen again.

Football Coaches deal with excuses from players all day long. It drives you insane. Your Head Coach sure doesn’t want to hear it from an adult on his coaching staff.

16) Build Relationships with Other Coaches. Don’t do it for networking purposes, though those are beneficial.

But when you get to know the other coaches in your area, you can take on a lot of jobs for the Head Coach. You can request a film exchange, or call up another coach and discuss a common opponent.

For one reason or another, we have to get in touch with the other coaches on the schedule all the time. It’s good for you to get to know them now.

And of course, there are benefits in the future.

17) Don’t Be In A Hurry. Maybe I’m the wrong guy to talk to, because after 15 years I don’t even want a Head Coaching Job right now.

But I was real close about 8 years ago. I can tell you, I wasn’t read then. Maybe it would have worked out fine, but I’m glad I did not end up going down that road. Working as an Assistant Football Coach has been a great experience.

And I hardly ever have to deal with parents.

18) Be Honest With Your Head Coach. Don’t go behind the guy’s back when it is time to interview for another job.

I know that some Head Coaches don’t like this. They see it as disloyal. I want that guy to fire me. If he believes that, you shouldn’t be working for him.

Be up front and honest with your Head Coach about your goals from the start. If you’re working for the right guy, he will work to help you achieve them.