Joining the USA Football Coach and Coordinator podcast today is Kirk Fridrich, head coach of Tulsa's Union High School (Okla.). Fridrich has guided Union to five state titles during his tenure as head coach, including a 57-43 win over Norman North in the 2016 state championship game. Fridrich, who still calls the team's defensive plays, dives into the value of involving the whole community in the football program, how he defends the RPO and why the situation is never more important than the relationship.

Show notes

• 1:01   Start as a football coach
• 2:07   Lessons learned as a young coach
• 3:22   Maintaining a winning culture at Union
• 7:28   Establishing culture in a large school/district
• 9:20   Determining a yearly theme
• 11:07   The "gamechanger" in Fridrich's program
• 14:28   Creating fundamentals lists by position
• 16:07   When the head coach should consider calling plays on offense or defense
• 18:51   Defending the RPO
• 20:49   Weekly defensive gameplanning
• 22:46   Communicating the game plan to players
• 24:22   Advantage of drone view
• 25:24   Mistakes made as young coach
• 27:11   Best advice received
• 28:22   Creating balance
• 30:14   The development pathway
• 32:25   Importance of training youth coaches
• 34:57   The winning edge

Coach Grabowski’s 3 takeaways

1. Creating culture throughout the community
2. Stop RPO by changing up looks vs the QB
3. As a young coach, working to not be the weak link

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