Coach,

The pandemic allowed me to meet many coaches from across the country, and one coach who I have enjoyed watching climb the ranks is Patrick Toney.

Coach Toney made his move from being the defensive coordinator at Louisiana to the defensive coordinator of the Florida Gators to jump to the NFL for the Arizona Cardinals to coach the secondary.

He is a tremendous teacher of the games and in the clinics he has delieverd virtually he’s given a ton of detail in the coaching methodology, scheme and technique he believes in.

Let’s take a look at some examples:

Teaching Press Man Technique

Coach Toney used press man coverage with the Cajuns to disrupt the timing of routes, tighten up windows and limit the effectiveness of the RPO game.

He likes to use the inch back technique in press man. It allows his corners to stay in a good position and give ground grudgingly as they cover the receiver tightly.  He explains the drill here:

Video: Inch Back Technique

Creating Identity 

Creating an identity is an important part of developing a position, unit, or team.  We could do that with slogans, graphics, or branding, but that’s not where the heart of identity exists.  Identity is in actions; for a football player, that identity can be found in how well he executes fundamentally.  Coach Toney shows that framework for identity through fundamentals in this video:

Video: Identity through fundamentals

As I pointed out, Coach Toney is an outstanding teacher of the game.  I look forward to watching him continue his climb in the profession.

Enjoy the games today.

Always be growing!

Coach Grabowski

P.S. You can get all three of his talks which he delivered to help state coaching associations here for 58% off:

Patrick Toney 3-Pack