From California to Texas to everywhere in between, he has coached football for nearly 50 years, and he's written 47 books about the sport; he is Jerry Campbell.
Show Highlights
- He has spent nearly five decades as an educator and football coach, won numerous awards, written 47 books on various aspects of football, spent eleven years teaching football class in the Master’s in Coaching and Athletic Administration program at Concordia University Irvine, and another eleven years teaching and coaching the Junior Varsity at Clovis West High School, and every year speaks at clinics and conferences all over the country
- How after coaching for nearly 50 years, football practices have changed from three-a-day to one a day and limited contact for each week
- How growing up and attending high school in Willows, California, pushed him to play football at Butte College for two years and then at California State University, Chico, for another two years
- How his career started as a local high school coach and then a GA at CSUC
- How he enjoyed coaching coaches and young men on the JV football team at Clovis West High School for around eleven years
- How during his master’s study in 1992, he wrote a thesis on the evolution of football, from 1610 to 1869, by taking every rule in football and applying it to the way the game is coached
- How the rule for using hands and body extension for the offensive line was allowed for the first time in 1985 and zone schemes inspired him to start writing
- Why it is important to think about the worst-case scenario in writing and coaching
- Why he wrote “Implementing a Year-Round Football Program, From Resume to Championship”
- How he divided his year-long MCAA program into four different phases and experiences a coach would go through in a year to best prepare his students for their coaching careers
- How his experience with coaching for 15 years at the high school and college level as a head coach in Texas differs from his time at Victoria Memorial High School in California
- Why he compares his coaching experiences in Texas as a full-time coach and California’s method of preparing their athletes
- How his high school JV football coach influenced him to become a coach and love the sport as a linebacker
- How his mentors Bob Burt at California State University, Northridge, and the assistant coaches impacted his career path while he coached as a defensive line coach
- Why in 1993, he took a full-time job at Texas A&M University as a defensive line coach after Ron Harms, the legend of the NCAA Division II level, contacted him to become a coach
- How he took a lot of time observing coaches around the country that invented the game of football, from the wishbone method by Emory Bellard to several other coaches
- How he adapted to today’s athletes by “coaching up”
- Why his coaching methods include being upfront with the athletes, pushing them to be their best, and building supportive relationships with them
- Why he is currently using the run past options offensive play, but it changes depending on the head coach
- How his gameplay has changed since his time coaching at CSUC in 1973 playing against Portland State University’s coach Mouse Davis, the guru of the run and shoot offense, and athlete June Jones
- What he loves most about teaching for the MCAA program at Concordia is that its online, and coaches come from all over the country, bringing different aspects of coaching to the table from their different influences
- His website Jerry Campbell Football includes 12,000 various links on football and his books about life and the game
Tags: Masters in Coaching, Coaching, MCAA Podcast, Football, Administrator, Teaching, NCAA