College Football Terminology

College football teams across the country speak their own language, often referred to as their terminology.  Teams have terminology to identify everything including position titles, alignment, formations, scheme, pass routes, movement, pass coverage and more.1  Considering the average annual rate of attrition in a college football program is around 25%, a coaching staff is teaching up to a quarter of its team their unique terminology every year. This blog covers suggestions for developing terminology as well as suggestions on how to teach or install the terminology.  

Teaching and learning terminology is a high priority in any college football program, it certainly was at the University of Wisconsin (currently ranked 11th in the Associated Press poll) last off-season with the acquisition of a new defensive coordinator.2  So how can a college football program develop their vast terminology in a manner that will lend to simple teaching, proficient retention and most importantly highly dependable game-day recall? One thing programs can do is build their terminology around simple naming conventions. For example, defensive terminology may include NFL teams to name their different defensive fronts, opposed to using random names.  In doing so anytime the defense hears Chargers or Raiders or Broncos they know this is referring to a specific defensive line alignment making learning and recalling the calls a bit simpler.  Another example would be using colors to name secondary coverage's.  Here again, the defense would recognize the use of any color in a call as a secondary coverage making learning, retention and recall far more simple than using random terms.

University of Mississippi sideline communicating with their team on the field during the 2014 Egg Bowl, their annual rivalry game against Mississippi State University.

Once a college football program agrees on its naming conventions and specific terminology it must determine how to teach or install the terminology in the most efficient manner possible, keeping in mind retention and recall are the most important elements of the installation.  While terminology is often published in dictionary type form for study purposes, one of the simplest approaches to efficient installation is to teach as you go. In other words, instead of teaching all the terminology up front, teach only the terminology associated with the particular piece of scheme being installed.  This bite size approach allows installation to proceed at an acceptable rate without overloading the players with terms not relevant at that particular time.

It is imperative that a college football team execute in unison.  All eleven players on the field must understand their assignment and execute it in order for the team to be successful on any given play.  Key to the team’s ability to do this is effective communication based on a common language referred to a terminology. Designing terminology around easily recalled naming conventions and teaching the terminology in small increments associated with scheme installation are ways to improve communication and ultimately enjoy greater success.

References

1Reed, J (2015, September 14). American Football Terminology Dictionary. Retrieved from http://www.johntreed.net/fbdictionary.html

2Worgull, B (2016, March 17). Wisconsin defensive coordinator Justin Wilcox spending first three practices installing terminology. Retrieved from http://www.scout.com/college/wisconsin/story/1652738-wilcox-building-his-defense