On the June 13 USA Football Coach and Coordinator podast, host Keith Grabowski talked with retired college head football coach Tony DeMeo on his “Disaster Plan” for coming back to win games.

DeMeo’s coaching career has spanned over 37 years and 12 college teams, most recently at the University of Charleston (West Virginia), where he coached for six seasons and compiled a 43-23 record. He’s worked as a head coach at four schools, including Charleston, Washburn University (Kansas), Mercyhurst University (Pennsylvania), and Iona College (New York), where he played running back and graduated  in 1971.

In the podcast, DeMeo talks about preparing for the worst and implementing his “Disaster Plan.”

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DeMeo recalls a game he was coaching Mercyhurst with a 21-0 deficit in the first half of the game. The foundation of his plan starts with the defense.

“If you’re down 21-0, you don’t have a play in your playbook that’s going to score 21 points. And you don’t have a play in your defensive playbook that’s going to all of sudden turn the ball over and get you the ball. You have to just to play sound and stop first down. The thing I realized is that comebacks don’t come on offense; they actually start on defense.” DeMeo said.

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During practices, DeMeo used the two-minute drill approach to practice a scenario in which the team was in a deficit and needed to make big plays.

“We’d say ‘OK, we’re down 21-0 and we have to come back and win. This is what we have to do.’ On defense, you have to get a stop; On offense, you have to get a first down. That’s the way we would do it,” DeMeo said.

DeMeo also shared his strategy for preventing the loss of team momentum when in the lead.

“The thing about football is it’s a finite game. It’s not like war when it goes on until somebody gives up,” DeMeo said, “We’re going to slow the clock to a crawl. We’re going to use all 25 seconds of the (play) clock and shorten the game and we’re going to score.”

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Click here to listen to the full podcast and hear more coaching tips from Tony DeMeo.

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