Last week we looked at how teams scout their opponents. Now, let’s look at how coaches put this information to use, with Justin Fuente, a young co-offensive coordinator for TCU presenting at a Glazier clinic, as our guide.

Specific to scouting, Fuente and TCU hewed closely to many of the generalities we looked at last week. Ball location was a big point of emphasis. Fuente broke the field down into five areas:

• Coming Off: From TCU’s 1 to the 15
• Open Field: From TCU’s 16 to the opponent’s 26
• Red Zone: From the opponent’s 25 to the 11
• Red Zone Tite: From the opponent’s 10 to the 4
• Goal Line: From the opponent’s 3 to the end zone

The other variable he looked at for scouting defenses and putting together his own call sheet was down and distance, which he broke into the following groups:

• 1^st and 10/2^nd and less than 7
• 2^nd and 7+
• 3^rd or 4^th and inches
• 3^rd and 1-2
• 3^rd and 3-6
• 3^rd and 7+

One of the interesting things to come from this talk was just how much emphasis Fuente put on first-down play-calling and execution. Normally, third down is what you hear coaches talk about, but Fuente hammered on first down. Interestingly, TCU’s practice schedule built around whatever their scouting uncovered, as the Horned Frogs did very little 1v1 work, and instead focused on repping against the scout team.

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