1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - Coach Barry Thompson / X's & O's of QB Coaching - June 10th, 2024

Episode Date: June 11, 2024

Coach Barry Thompson / X's & O's of QB Coaching - June 10th, 2024Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Coming at you live from the couple Chevrolet GMC studios. Here is your host, Derek Pearson. Brought you by Mary Ellen's Food for the Soul. On 937, the ticket and the ticket FM.com. In this space, that can only mean one thing. Get your fingers ready. 402, 464, 56685. Sorry to him and tax line if you want to be a part of what we're doing.

If you have questions, you have a young quarterback in your space. You have a young receiver in your space, young football player, you're a coach, and you got, get your pad and pan. We'll go through some things. But in this space, you can follow one of the video streams, Facebook, YouTube, X, Allo Channel 961, because that music, that wonderful sound can only mean that we're joined by the coach, QB coach extraordinaire at BT. Brad Thompson, what's happening, brother? Hey, man, I need to learn about that testicle festival. You got to tell me about that thing, man. It is.

I got all the, listen, I got all of it that you want because they try to get me on board. And you know me well enough, my friend, that the things that I'm for, I am for. And the things that I am not for, there's not an army, there's not an army of military leaders who would get me to the door. And I have a real thing that I'm not putting testicles in my mouth, man. I don't care what kind of seasoning you got. I don't care what kind of blend you got. I don't really happen. So it's the 31st annual testicle festival.

It's June 15th here in Nebraska. And, I mean, listen, they've got DJs. There's merchandise, fireworks. They've got all the treats you can possibly stand. I'm usually shaved ice and that sort of thing. And then they've got, of course, you the bull rides, the mechanical bull rides. Theirs is Buster the Bull. So you can, yeah, it's a whole thing.

And apparently every kind of testicle you could possibly imagine. Listen, so I'm a recent menu, Barry. You ready for this? I'm ready. Hey, listen, I got my slap your mama spice. There you go. There you go. There you go.

I can see you in engaging. It's just not for me. But they have, you know, cheese curds, Midwest, if you're going to do, you know, corn husker nuggets, right? Which is sweet corn and a crispy batter, right? You put a little Franks Red Hot and little mayo on it and off you go. I put that it's on everything. Right. Pub pickles.

Pub pickles. Cowboy bites, which is certified Angus beef bites. they make their own cowboy butter, right? It's a thing, right? Okay, all right. And then, you know, then, then it's a full range. And, you know, they've got all sorts of, everything, everything's available, right? Yeah.

Everything's available. You can get chicken, you can get wings, you can get, you know, chicken strip dinner. You can get sandwiches, your hamburgers and all that sort of stuff. But the testicle festival now menu and the quote on the, the website. Here we go, Barry. The dad used to tell me, don't let your head beat your stomach out of something good to eat. Well, there's the, there's, and I'm reading this off the menu, so nobody can get offended. But for, for, for, wow. The one nut wonder. There we go. You're scared all the way. Just try one nut. There we go. Hey, listen, as we say,

Do you be true, treat your star player the way you need to treat them? I love it. 31st festival. I love it. You get the half sack? Listen, Barry Tyson, look, only you could get me to talk about it because they've been trying since I got here and I'm undefeated. Gidey up.

Let's go, baby. I am undefeated. There is no, listen, there is a statement that I can. that will never be said about me. It's like, hey, Barry. I don't know what happened to DP since he got Nebraska, but he was out there talking about eating testicles, man. All right, listen, you keep trying that mess.

They're going to send you a sass, and next year we'll see you on the float, waving like to see that. Hey, hey, listen, you know this about me. One of my favorite things is that I do not have a number. I do not have, look, there's no number to get me to do a thing that I don't want to do. There's just, like, I love it.

We sponsor, we will sponsor the festival. I love it. It doesn't, I, look, I can support Nebraska things without indulging into all Nebraska things. Agreed. We're going to support this festival. I love it. I know you are, man. Yeah.

Of course, the text line, yeah, tastes like chicken. I hear you. I hear you. I'm never going to know. I'm going to take all of your, listen, the tech business is on fire, Barry. They really are great. Yeah. I believe you.

I believe you. I'm going to take your word for it. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. As we talk about it, right, kind sir. That a big part of recent discussion, we'll get into some real quarterback talk, but at the end of this show, I'd like to ask you about Team USA and the idea behind Olympics and Team USA as an organization and what we should be trying to do with it.

Yeah. Because I know. You're talking about CC? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it blends into football. Right. And that is the space that we're familiar.

Right. So I think we need to figure out and land on what the priority should be. if it has the brand Team USA, whether, and I don't know that this is a difference between Team USA and USA Olympics. Right. Because I think one leads to the other. But we'll talk about that later. Let's first get into this thing that you and I have talked about,

and you've mentioned in several ways, I talk about it a little bit differently than you do. But for quarterbacks and armed talent, and being able to identify that you're getting, quarterbacks. What are the youngest quarterbacks that you work with? Nine. Nine. All the way up until you've got pro quarterbacks that work out with you.

So they sign. Right? Yeah. So they're amazing how that works. Actually, they stay with me through signing. Yeah. Yeah. Like, it's amazing the insecurity of professional coaches. Like, oh, you built this and got it here. You're done. Yeah. Hey, hey, by the way, just a shout out to Guy Myers. He's in the Indoor League. He's finished

the season. First year as a start in Indoor League, 41 touchdowns, total touchdowns for the season, got his team within one game of the championship game. They actually lost to the Omaha beef and the slaughterhouse there, but had a great season. And shout out to Guy Myers. Yeah, he should have, like his surprise. His mom. didn't tell me that he was going to be playing in Omaha. I would have found my way to that when I've had quite a few professional battles with the beef myself. So I understand what that is. But yeah, I mean, the full range of it.

And then I was explaining to folks that you have kind of somebody that's in the same vacuum that's working with receivers. Yes. He's kind of a dude. No, he's not kind of a dude. He is a dude. And his brother's a dude. We call him King David. Jordan Reed, eight-year NFL vet, seven years with the Redskins.

It was the Redskins, three-time all-pro. And at the time that Jordan was doing this, he was arguably the best route runner. George is going to say he going to cuff me after that, but arguably the best right runner in the NFL at the time. Went to University of Florida as a four-star quarterback. I was down with Urban Myers, Tim Tebow, got there just after Cam Newton left. Redshirted, had some decisions to make, had some great people to learn from. I was just talking about him the other day, the watching part of it, and learning and watching and watching.

He had some great people to watch. And then, you know, he got in the NFL and did his thing. And his brother David, who played with the Ravens and was on that Super Bowl crew, they are both working with me in our small group format. So it's kind of like a mini practice. The reads take the receivers for an indie, maybe 20, 25 minutes. I take the quarterbacks similar, and then we put them together in a group just like a practice. We're working on the indie period, what we're going to apply in the group period.

And it's a tremendous add to what we're doing. And I'm telling you right now, Jordan and the work that he and David are doing is really going to have the potential to change some lives because of the, the general lack of coaching, technical coaching at the receiver position. He's going to raise a young wave of receivers who know a lot. And they're going to make a lot of quarterbacks around here a lot better. It is that thing, right, Barry, that a part of, like I like where I am in life. But I do miss working with you directly. with receivers and

and quarterbacks. Right. Because we could get, I mean, you and I could create a plan in a living room. Yep, yeah. And then go put it into play for, for, you know,

50 young men at the same time and we would see immediate result, immediate change. And yeah, it's a long process, but it's good to know that Jordan Reed and his brother are there in that space changing the game because

I have Nebraska coaches asking me about DC receivers. And to be able to say, hey, I know a place. I know the guy. Right. I know where some dudes are. If you need some pass catchers, what are the big things that have to be developed there? What does Jordan bring to the table when it comes to knowledge and what he's teaching? Well, the first thing, he brings a standard.

You know, Jordan is a no-nonsense guy. He's like, okay, we're going to start with A. And we're going to get A right. And if you'll get A right, then we're not going to be. So they quickly understand that this is a standard. We were talking last time about adults who mean what they say. Jordan's one of those grown men that when he's working with a young player, hey, I mean what I say.

And that has a compounding effect on learning. And you go through the receiver positions. I think a lot of receivers run around. and they catch the ball and they're fast, but they don't understand any of the technical parts of what they need to do. I've worked so many combines where they'll have against defensive backs. They'll do one-on-ones in its own. And then they'll get to the man part,

and the receivers have no idea what to do. And they have no idea how fast they have eliminated themselves because they can't get off the line of scrimmage. The basics, I only know the basics. You know, you should understand how to run. a single route three different ways and when to apply that you need to learn how to use stems and what's the purpose of them you need to understand what safeties means and what space and time you need to understand that they may draw up a slant but you may get knocked off course but as long as

you get to the spot you need to be that's fine they some of them learn need to learn how to catch dp i mean i'm actually like you think that's a thing but i was talking to some of my uh college guys before our passing camp, and they were talking about a particular player that came from a specific school, and the exact phrase they used, they said, he doesn't know how to catch.

It is a drop sometimes. They said he doesn't know how to catch. So receivers can learn a lot from Jordan, people like him, and I really think we're on the verge of getting a wave of receivers who are going to understand the value of what he's delivering.

And he really has the ability team's lives. Now, you've got two-thirds of the passing game that has the potential get better. You can't do anything without pass pro, but you're improving two-thirds of your passing game. I mean, that alone moves your team forward when it comes to throwing the ball. Through all of that. You and I used to joke, well, it's in the job description. You're a past catcher. Right, right. Right. As a part of it, and how much of that isn't there. And then the other part of how we set development was it's not it's one thing to get open right but my responsibility as a receiver and a receiver coach is to get open or get the receivers open on time right and at

the right place so that my quarterback can get him the ball yes how much of that is missed or And how do you bridge that? Like, how do you fix? You bridge it with people like Jordan who can explain the receivers. I've been on too many high school fields with receivers who are well-meaning, good effort. But just explaining a simple concept to them is difficult because they just have no foundational knowledge, right? You think about just if you, as a receiver, if you just knew at the high school level, how to get off press, how to avoid a reroute, and how to get in and out of your route.

Like if you just understood those three things, you would be a better receiver. Now, there's a whole laundry list of things after that, but just those things. And so many receivers that I've been around high school, unfortunately, don't know those things. And, you know, nothing against it, but they're running around.

They're playing flag. They get thrown into contact. And it's different. And sometimes there's not the coaching there to at the high school level, sometimes you get kids who don't know the route tree. So you say a curl, and they'll ask you, does it turn away from the receiver or to the quarterbacker end? Right. And so you have to start there.

And unfortunately, sometimes they don't start there. They just say, hey, we're running North Dakota. And they start telling them where to go, and there you go. Yeah, that part, I mean, and again, I think sometimes the conversation is, between coaches before the season starts, before training starts, before camps start, before development starts is getting the same language and getting on the same page because you and I had a conversation where we had to determine, you know what, for every route that can be run, I'm going to teach them how to run that route.

Right. And that we needed to be able to communicate with a crowd of people around, with defenders standing in between you and them what route we needed and why. Yes. And you're getting to the point about teaching depth and sort of width, right? And when you teach depth, that's where development comes from. Too often people rush ahead and they want to teach with. I want to install an offense.

I want to do this thing. And that's great that you want to do that. But the players need an opportunity to develop the skills. that they're going to need to execute what you want them to do. And that's the step that gets missed a lot, a lot when it comes to the skill positions. You know, even go far to running backs. I've been around coaches and, you know, you have good running back, but really good coaches, and they will actually coach the running back to understand the blocking scheme in front of them

and understand that, you know, against an odd front, this is going to break this way, and it's going to break that way, not telling him where to run, but educating him about what's going on in front of him, educating about why this step, not just a counterstep, we're asking to take a counterstep because the tackle's pulling from here, and you need to get on his hip, right? Those types of things are missed when you go to the skill position, sometimes a quarterback and a lot of it receive it.

Barry, how much more advantage does it give for coaches like yourself who will teach you how to play? rather than teaching plays? I guess it makes me valuable. You know, I had a coach recently. He has a new quarterback, and he says, I don't think this quarterback can make this type of throw. It's a further throw.

And he says, do you think he can make? And I said, yes, by August he will. And he said, okay. But I took the kid out, and instead of asking to make the furthest throw, First, I had them, I asked him, I said, do you know what this throw is, a cover two hole throw? I said, do you know what it is? He said, yeah.

I said, where is it? And he gave me the wrong yard. I said, no, it's exactly 18 to 22. It's exactly 18 to 22. I said, that's where the ball needs to get. Not only does it have to be thrown in that area, it has to finish with high, with enough energy that it would carry the receiver out of bounds. So now I've explained everything to him. Now, do I put him at 18 to 22?

No. I pulled the guy down who was catching to like 12 yards. And I made sure we were using the exact right footwork so that we could consistently throw the ball in the way that the stationary guy caught like this. Now, once we get some of those short throws in and I can get him to temper the ball correctly, then now I'll move back a couple yards and say to him, it's only two yards of difference. And we'll kind of baby step it up to there. Now, I know that when you're in August practice, you don't have that time.

And that's why the development is so important to be able, like in these next six weeks, with those sets of quarterbacks, to baby step them up, to being able to make the throw with confidence, make it accurately, then introduce the variable that would cause them to throw the ball. And once we get all that down, now we can start worrying about making the big throw. But they'll be able to do it by August. And that's why I tend to chuckle when I hear about long-term development for quarterbacks because I know that base-level things can be put into play

to guarantee that the young person can make the base-level throws consistently. Right? We know that we don't control the windows that they're going to throw to because that's linemen conversation. that's past pickup, past pro there. But being able, from a timing standpoint, and then to be able to get their eyes to the exact window, and you're really good at giving them the proper windows

to throw into rather than trying to go, okay, I need to throw this guy open, no, throw it where you've agreed to throw it. And that's the receiver's job to get to that spot and make the play. Yep. We talk to their corebacks a lot. When they're younger, they have a tendency to watch the receiver. And I have to coach him off that.

I said, you have to watch the route space. The receiver is a big boy. He'll get to where he needs to be. You need to understand is the route space clean enough for you to throw to, right? And that's an idea of time, your feet and your eyes together. Your feet says time to throw. Your eyes say it's okay to throw, let the ball go. And that becomes – and as they get older in high school,

they got to learn to process the defender. Now, it's a little throw that I was talking about. There's a short side, two-man route. You have a vertical and you have a quick out. Well, you have these corners that play this zone technique where their eyes are in, and they'll kind of bait you or kind of try to muddle the read by playing, causing you to hesitate on the vertical, and then maybe hesitating on the out.

Well, after they can make the throw consistently, then it's their read of that corner and their understanding pre-snap where the safety, is. If he's on the hash, you know, we might want to go work the other side on the short side. If he's inside the hash toward the field, okay, now we can go play with the corner. So you're giving them the tools. They know how to execute it. And then you slowly start introducing the live variables that they're going to face to execute it. And then does the side, no, I shouldn't do it. I think with quarterbacks, another thing that's really important is

defining for them what is open. What's good? What is it? What's not good? So, you know, So that safety on the short side of the field and the high school field on the hash, if you want to go get that guy, you better have a laser, right? Because he doesn't have much to cover. But if for some reason he's shading toward the field, then, okay, we got a good look over here. We essentially have a two on one. Let's go get it. There's so much of that, Barry.

And then with the, and again, the tease was that there are 15 areas that can be attacked and quarterbacks and receivers have to have some understanding. that we will get into that when we come back from break on the brick and mortar we're going to jump over to the royals but everywhere else with all the streams barry thompson will return to one-on-one here on 93-7 the ticket you're listening to one-on-one with dppsponsored by mary ellen's food for the soul on 93-7 the ticket and the ticket fm dot com welcome back to one-on-one on a monday coach mary thompson perfect football academy uh joining us He's the QB that breaks it down for us.

A couple of things. Shout out from all over the place from Averty, Maryland. Coach Thompson, here's a text for you. Shout out to Barry Thompson. He's a wealth of knowledge and is a class act. I'd like to know the best high school game he's been a part of. Wow.

It was all respect to our time together, but the best one that I was part of was Woodbury versus Bullis. It was at Bullis. It had Lindel Stone who was on the field and Duane Haskins. And both teams were loaded with guys. I know off of our squad, there were three guys that went to UVA. A guy that went to Fordham now is at Indiana, just got invited to rookie camp.

There were guys that went to Harvard. We had three, 1,000-yard, pass catchers and a running back that ran for 1,500. We had a left tackle who went to Stanford. We had a right tackle that went to Towson. And they had equally number of dudes. We had guys with the arm. It was over there, Bullis.

And the final was 6665. And I think it was a, oh, you can look it up on YouTube. I think there was over a thousand yards of offense. And there were two really significant plays in that game. Coach Alexander, at one point, there was a down and distance where we wanted to go for it, and he brought the punt team. And our staff was very respectful, but on the headphones, everybody groan, everybody groan. They were like, no, coach. And he ran a think.

And we got the first down, and we proceeded to keep up with the scoring. The next significant play, with all the balls going in the air, was we got down the goal line, on the goal line, and ran a draw play. ran a draw, play for a touchdown, and then kicked the extra point and won an overtime. So after all the theatrics are throwing the ball all over the place, nobody being able to stop anybody, the game came down to the running game and the kicking game. And that was the most exciting game that I've been a part of. And you guys can look that up, Woodbury versus Bullets.

It's on YouTube. You also have shoutouts out from Aberdeen. Of course, you have... Aberdeen. That's cousin Kevin. Yeah, that's it. Yeah, yeah. He said, shout out to the Cuzzle.

John and Cortland out here is just saying, hey, is there any way to get you to work with Nebraska folks? But yeah, that's a whole different conversation. Texas says, Coach Thompson is awesome, full of wisdom, transformative. Really enjoying this segment, yeah, I 100%. And another one from Nova, built by North Virginia. Billy E. says, what's up? Billy Edwards University of Maryland.

Let's go, Terps. There you go, man. Bring them in the spot. I'll read this one because I think it's worthy of and kind of explaining to people why Barry Thompson is. My son was ridiculously passionate playing and being a receiver. As a kid, he really busted his tail overnight. Everything changed.

He was diagnosed with a hip condition that no longer, where he can no longer run full speed. Thank God. Your orthopedic said he will grow out of it. But which kid has years to waste? what a blessing from the sky when we met Coach Thompson. He literally turned my son from a receiver to a QB in less than a half a year. When I say quarterback, I'm talking that all the high school coaches keep asking when he will be medically cleared and he's just 13.

Coach T is a godsend. My kid is so passionate about the game of football and Coach T gave the game back to him. Coach Thompson. Let me tell you about that. That comes from a former Pennsylvania 33 guy who played football at Ohio State. and has a very talented, hardworking son named Armand. Shout out to Armand and Sulton. Yeah, it's, I mean, it's what I know to be true.

And it's great to hear other folks reaffirming and shouting out loud. And you know how I am about love out loud that oftentimes we don't celebrate the things out loud. And it ends in regret because we have the opportunity to say, hey, Barry, what you're doing for young people, And then almost as importantly, and not to bury the lead, but what you're doing for families and community, because you're bidding, you're adding to. And I've used this phrase with you, adding to, that there are very few people in our vacuum who constantly, consistently and purposefully take anything, situation, circumstance, person, and add to it and try to elevate it and make it go forward. and up. So that's why we celebrate you, Barry Thompson, because... Well, thank you. Thank you. You know, that's what this is. Let's get into the nuts and

bolts of it, because we talk about this quarterback position, and you've heard the phrase armed talent. You talk about skill, touch, timing, windows, etc. But you work from a base core that there are different areas on the field that can be attacked via the air. Right. And that helps you manage your young people and what you're trying to teach them. Break that down for folks who may not be familiar. Well, it's an offensive game in that there are 15 areas of the field that have to be

defended every snap. And defense only has 11 players. It's not new to any defensive coordinator out there. And when you think about it, they do a heck of a job because every snap, no matter how they line up, the defensive coordinators know that there's something that they're giving up. There are seven run gaps if you play with the tight end that have to be defended. Right behind that line, the first level of defense, right behind the first level of defense, there are five underneath passing zones.

You have the middle, the two hook, curls, slant hitched on the seams, and then the two flats. That's five. And you can divide the back end up any way you want to, but for simple math, divided up into the thirds. Now, defensive guys will tell you, well, it's not just 11. It's 13 because we have a sideline. I play defense in college. The only time the sideline comes into play is if you've got a guy pinched up against the sideline and you can kind of angle to take things away from him. But when you're out in the field and someone stretches you horizontally, somebody stretches you vertically, it's tough to defend an offense that's smart, a quarterback who's accurate,

a quarterback who is on time. It's a tough, it's a tough game. You only have a couple tactics, which is you try to rotate and maybe confuse what he's looking at, or you're going to apply pressure. And it's gotten to the point where most quarterbacks at the upper level,

they kind of like it when you apply pressure because they have an answer for that too. Through all of this, right? You and I used to talk about that from the receiver side, I always felt like if I could threaten a defender vertically and sell the vert, that everything else was easier off of that. Is that true or can we work from another space?

No, we were just talking about this Sunday with the group receivers. And Jordan was kind enough let me speak. And I talked, I went to, not that he cuts me off, but he allows me a little grace there on the field. And I was talking to him about a stem or something. And I said, listen, I said, one of the basic things about running routes that I know is everything is vertical until it's not. And among those catalog of things that receivers have to learn is how to make everything look vertical. Because there are few individuals who can run at a top-in speed and stop at a dime.

So a receiver has to learn how to make it look like he's going vertical, but operate at a speed that he can control and get in and out of his brakes. I once heard this jump of field when the Land of Braves had that Glavin and Maddox and all those guys and one way back, and Maddox was considered a guy who didn't throw the ball particularly hard. But what he said one time, he says, look, if you stand on the highway and a car passes you at 57 miles an hour, and another car passes you at 53 miles an hour, you can't really tell the difference. and that's some things that receivers have to learn in terms of pacing and stride.

Everything's vertical till it's not, but you have to do it in a way that sells the vertical, but you still can control your speed. Controlling speed is a big thing in a lot of respects. I'm going off to baseball, but baseball they can measure bat speed. Well, the maximum bat speed isn't what a guy swings with because he can't always control the bat head at maximum bat speed, but he has another speed in which he can drop the barrelhead and do what he needs to do. It's similar with receivers and it's similar with quarterbacks, by the way. Through all of that, right? In selling the vert, it allows a quarterback a clear vision of how

they're being defended, right? Because of the response to vertical threat. So it is important for the quarterback to know. One, it validates what he thinks he sees, right? Because he's got his keys that he's looking at. But Vertzel helps the quarterback identify what he's actually throwing against. It does. It gets into that area that as they get older, you have to process defenders.

So let's say that you're running some vertical stem. And the guy gets long in his strides and he closes up that cushion in three or four steps. Well, at that point, the defensive back has to come out of, of his back pedal and he has to pick. Now, if the receiver is really good, he's kind of dictated which way he's going to open his hips according to the route that he's in. And when you have a receiver that can do all that, man, you can really trust what you see, right?

Yeah. And it just helps because throwing the ball on time is one thing. Throwing the ball on time and locating it is another thing. And then the last thing, doing all of those things with confidence and you let it out of your hand because you're not guessing, you're not webly about it. A good receiver can do that for them. Through all of that, right, the 15 areas that can be attacked, is there, is there a pyramid or a hierarchy to areas that are easier to defend of those 15 or more difficult? Well, if you look at any high school, even the NFL, 75% of the passes completing the NFL are

12 yards or less. The NFL measures. Completions under 15 years. yards and completions over 15 yards. And I believe the last thing I saw is that the completions under 15 yards, they were at 69%. That's the thing that moves change. The completion rate above 15 yards league-wide was about 30, 40%, right? So it is really a 53 and a third game. It's a horizontal game that has some vertical stretches in it. But you're sticking with the high percentage thing.

The pros are so off the chart accurate in terms of decision making and timing and that underneath game. And that helps everything else as they go along. And high school quarterbacks have to understand. Yes, you can go down field. Here's the thing. Young guys always want to say, hey, I need to work on my deep ball. As soon as they tell me they want to work on the – no, as soon as they tell me that, I know that they have problem completing passes underneath.

So here's what I say to them. I say, I may have said this before on the air. I said, I'm going to give you a receiver that hasn't been born yet. Nobody's ever seen him. In August heat and full gear in the fourth quarter, he can run a four flat 40. I said, you're lucky to have two seconds to throw the ball. So where will he be in two seconds? They say 20 yards.

I said, okay, if you throw the ball and it hangs in the air more than two seconds, would that be bad? They go, yeah. I said, so at two seconds, where would he be? 40 yards. I go, that's the game. can you control the ball at 40 to 45 yards can you process the defender and make the correct throw to your receiver can you throw him from the top of the numbers to the bottom of the numbers or if he smoked his guy can you give him air to grass to let him keep going or if he's pinched up against the sideline can you put enough air on it so he can kind of position himself if you still like the matchup those are the things that are really important about going down the field Barry one of my favorite phrases is is quarterbacks who throw a receiver open.

Throw him open. But I don't think most people really understand that that still has boundary. Like that has a finite clock. It has finite space. And the more athletic and the more talented those defenders, the tighter those windows and tighter, shorter that clock gets. Yeah. I think like armed talent, that's a mischief.

I'll tell you what, just throwing on time, right, is something that young quarterbacks have to get used to. We were doing a drill the other day where I was putting a receiver at the top of a three-step slant stem, right? And I told the receiver, don't move until you see the quarterback hit his third step. Now, as we were doing this, the quarterbacks were having a hard time understanding where to throw the ball. So I had to walk them out and say, there's the route space for the route.

And if you're throwing on time, this is what it will look like. It should look like this. You should see a lot of green grass. You shouldn't see the receiver, right? And it takes a while to kind of develop that. And some people may see that's throwing them open. To me, that's thrown on time. And that's thrown into a space where you're going to catch the ball.

Because it takes time to get the ball from his hand to the route space. And it takes time for the receiver to get in there. But, you know, it's part of the things that they learn. Barry, what's the thing? How do you work with receivers? And seven on seven creates some bad habits. Let's be honest. There's some things that happen at, at,

at mid-level seven-on-seven. Some. Yeah. I'm trying to be nice. I'm trying to be nice. Everybody, you have all the time in the world seven-on-seven. Like,

it's like, wait a minute. Getting open and getting open on time. Yeah. And then getting open where you need for them to be. Yeah. Listen. Go ahead.

Sorry. How do you talk that through? How is that a thing that, that for a high school quarterback and a high school receiver to get on the same page about listen, man, I understand you have great feet and you're quite the dancer, but at some point I need for you to show up. Well, it's only that. The quarterback's just standing there, so there's no footwork tied with the routes or anything that's off,

and they have four seconds to throw. Listen, I don't want to hate on anybody who, like there's people out there could put together a long list of all the enjoyable and fun things there are about seven on seven. And I would not argue with any of them. I would say all those things are true. But if you were to ask me how that relates to playing in the fall, I'm going to say not very much. Just start with the fact that when you play seven on seven, there are two defenses that you're going to face primarily that you won't face in the fall. You're going to face man free or two man under.

Now, if you go to the fall and somebody wants to play two, two man under, I'm telling you, you're going to run the receivers off and run the ball all day. So there's just not much. And folks need to understand, 7-on-7 comes from an old practice segment, like inside, perimeter drill. There was 7-0-7, routes on air, 7-on-7. It got extrapolated, and it's fine. But it's getting to the point when I'm on a high school field the last couple of years, we don't do much 7-on-7 because it doesn't really relate to.

to the decisions, the pocket, the feel, the randomness of what the quarterback has to react to and then make a decision. So we went at Westfield last couple of years. We did more 11-on-11 passing. So there was a pocket around them. You know, it was kind of hands off of the quarterback. But he could feel, right, and have to just to find a window, make decisions, and it's more realistic. I don't want anybody to think I hate 707.

I don't. It's just that from a development standpoint, I don't see a lot of carryover from that to what was required in the fall. I'll put it this way. Of all my college guys who come home in May to work with me, none of them asked, hey, coach, can we get a 7-on-7? Billy Edwards and Noah Kim and Grant,

they don't call me on the phone say, hey, coach, I'm coming home. Can we get a 7-on-7? they say hey coach can we get on the field and work on some things that's the best way I can explain it and what are those things Barry before we go to break what are those things that they want to work on they want to work on mastering their skills there's certain routes to sum it up just to put in the box before we go to break there's a old basketball player named larry bird and larry bird said that most times you're better off practicing than you are playing and he said most people don't understand that.

And just real quickly, when you practice, you could practice something you need to work on 100 times. If you're playing, it may only come up once. So which one's going to make you better? Yep, it is the simplicity behind it. Coach Barry Thompson, Fairfax Football Academy, we'll be right back and we'll close out the hour with the coach. You're listening to One-on-One with DP,

sponsored by Mary Ellen's Food for the Soul on 93-7 the ticket and the ticket FM.com. Final segment with Coach Barry Thompson. I see the Savage family. Man, man, what a family. Oh, my gosh. Hey, hi, Miss Kenya. Hi, Mr. Savage. And shout out to Tyler and his brother.

Tyler's down at ECU. You know, we mentioned tight-ins earlier. I've been blessed to have a couple of high school quarterbacks that have converted to tight ends, Brian Courtney down to Florida State, Rye Yates at Yale, Tyler Redco at Campbell, and then Tyler Savage, who was briefly a quarterback, but I claim him, and he's now at the tight end position down to East Carolina. And am I forgetting anybody? And then I have a guy that we had to college with Thomas Burke, who's at the college in New Jersey, All-American, and it's probably going to get a pro try out here pretty soon.

And so we have we have tight ends too. Yeah, how about that? That whole development of Texanans, like, did you shout out Miles Thompson? We always shout up, Miles. Yes, Miles. Yes. We always, we always shout out. Look, when you win multiple state titles at quarterback, yeah, yeah, yeah, go ahead.

Yeah. Yeah, let me embarrass him. Mr. 22 and O, back-to-back state champion, Miles Thompson. Yes, we'll shout him out. Yeah, that dude. That dude. And my only regret in basketball was taking the ball out of his hands

in an important moment. One flaw, Miles, I apologize, even to this day. It made it, DP, it made him stronger. Hey, it may be smarter. It may be smarter. We'll never do that again. You get an elite athlete, give him a ball, man.

Let him figure it out. Jesus. Coaches have to learn, too. Hey, before we get out of here, we got about three minutes. I do want to ask this question. Do you talk much with your young people about NIL? Is that a part of those Division I quarterback's life?

Is that a focus? Is that a thing that comes later? It's tangential. It's come up before, but they're all in very different situations. Most of them have little small things, not very big things. So I think they more accurately, my guys currently more accurately paint the of most of the athletes. You hear these numbers thrown around.

But, you know, I'll ask my guys, and they're like, coach, it's not like that. They're doing okay, but it's not like they're driving. Bentley's or they're Lamborghinis and Baybox. Yeah, but that's why I ask, like, people think that everybody is just bathing in cash. It's, you know, like Dom Deloese from history of the world. It doesn't work that way. It doesn't. It's 1%.

And most of the young people are so focused on the work. They're so focused on the process. Look, for those that are getting rich off of it, cool. But for most of the student athletes that you're training, most of them are working, one, humbly. Yes. Two, purposefully, they're honoring the game and whatever happens from it happens.

Yeah, and let me say something about my guys. Billy Edwards graduated three years. Noah Kim graduated early. Tony Musket, I believe he's gotten his degree. He graduated early. I know Grant Wilson has done a heck of a job with his degree. No, they are exactly what you said. These are guys that have really put their nose to the grindstone,

and they're really focused on how I can get better than next day. Shout out to Coach Boyle talking about can't wait. Can't wait. Coach Boyle. Hey, that's W&L, Chris Boyle. Hey, man, listen. Yeah. You know we don't need an excuse to shout out the fighting generals of W&L.

I'm telling you. I'm telling you. It's so nice to be surrounded by it. I've loved all the schools I've worked at, but I can't tell you how comfortable it is to get dressed in those colors every day. Yeah, the wear the blue and gray. And listen, I have one issue with W&L. I haven't gotten a package in Lincoln, Nebraska,

from the fighting generals long overdue. Let's go. I'll talk to Coach Shapiro about that. We'll get something coming your way. Hey, BT. We'll do it again next week, brother. Appreciate you, love you to pieces and continue doing what you do. There is, Barry Thompson.

Fairfax Football Academy. You can find him that way. Barry Thompson, Fairfax Football Academy, if you want to find a follow on social media as well. Don't go anywhere. Another cat from Northern Virginia. DeMorne Pearson L will hold down the microphone here on the ticket FM ticket weeknights.