Matt Jones, offensive line coach at Texas Southern University, recently joined USA Football’s Coach and Coordinator podcast to discuss his philosophy coaching the offensive line and #LinemanLunch, a digital platform he created for the offensive line community.

Jones is entering his second year coaching the offensive line at Texas Southern. He’s also previously coached the offensive line at Jackson State University (Mississippi) and Tulane University.

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In the podcast, Jones starts by introducing how #LinemanLunch was created and its purpose as a visual tool for players.

“I was at Tulane, I was a graduate assistant. We had a little lunchtime meeting with the Tulane linemen and we’d pick a topic of the day and I’d show team clips and the guys would be magnetized to it,” Jones said. “I eventually in our group chat just started sending it to them and started posts and it kind of went from there.”

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Host Keith Grabowski points out the expansion in coaching education of having a 30-second clip as a visual tool as opposed to a 45-minute to an hourlong coaching DVD. Jones says it’s easy to pick a technique and find a clip of it.

 “The biggest thing I wanted to do was make it a small, digestible clip. Just, ‘here’s a visual key on a small coaching point,’” Jones said. “Just like what you tell your kids, anything you post is on there forever. When you’re posting that stuff, it becomes a library that you can resource.”

Jones reflects on his experience working with Scott Peters at the Coaches of Offensive Line clinic in Cincinnati using the Tip of the Spear Contact System. He says the offensive line plays are changing, making the game safer with better techniques.

“What Scott’s doing is fighting good cause in terms of trying to keep this game safe,” Jones said. “The old school just blunt trauma of ‘I’m going to hit you harder than you can hit me and we’re going to see who falls down first’ ... those days are done.”

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Jones explains some coaching points he teaches his offensive line.

“You want your center of gravity lower than the guy you’re going against. You want your hands lower and tighter than the defender,” Jones said. “In terms of the defender, if we can unlock his ankles, knees and hips, he can’t fight a force driving at him. He can only fight a force coming down on him.”

Talking on his teaching progression, Jones says there’s a lot to be learned from other disciplines, much like Scott Peters learned from mixed martial arts.

“I learned day one of playing rugby that you can’t go in there leading with your head. The helmet gives you a false sense of security,” Jones said. “We try to take the helmets off just as much as we have them on. Anytime we’re in shoulder pads we’re going to try and put those hands on the shoulder pads.

To conclude the podcast, Jones says trust is what makes the most difference in making his team successful.

“They have to trust you. You have to trust them. No one’s bigger than the brotherhood.”

Before arriving at Texas Southern, Jones was a tight ends coach at University of Saint Francis (Illinois) before moving on to coach tight ends at Villanova. After graduating from Eastern Illinois University, where he began coaching as a student assistant, Jones coached at Lincoln-Way Central High School.To here the full podcast, click here.

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