From this week forward our facebook page will be publishing a link each Saturday ahead of the action so that you can watch the Diplomat’s games as they happen! With kick-off due to happen at 6pm in the UK, we hope to bring you the link at around 1pm so keep an eye out for it and tune in!
Now 2 weeks into a 10 game regular season schedule, the Diplomats - being marshalled by our very own Head Coach, Bryce Stevenson - are 2-0 having seen off the Lebanon Valley Dutchmen and Juniata Eagles in convincing fashion. Due to popular demand he will be chronicling his time with at the Pennsylvania college, one weekday at a time.
But first, here’s a quick catch up on how the Diplomat’s season has gone so far:
The Centennial Conference schedule sees each team play each other once, and one team out-with the conference. The diplomats get their out of conference game out of the way early this year, taking to the road for their season opener to see off Lebanon Valley with 5 rushing touchdowns enough in a 35 - 20 win. The defence would do their part too with 3 interceptions teeing up 21 points to help the Diplomats secure that they would win their season opener for the 6th straight year.
Disappointed though by conceding 20 points in the win, Bryce was back to work through the week with a visit from the Juniata Eagles on Saturday past:
This time 7 touchdowns (with 6/7 PAT), and two field goals saw the Diplomats put up a 50-burger on the Eagles, as the game finished 54-0 with six rushing TDs and one through the air (on a Philly Special style play!). Happier to have held their opposition to no points scored, Bryce will again be back to work to prepare for the visit of the McDaniel Green Terror - the birth place of the shovel pass.
Both teams come into Saturday’s clash at 2-0 with The Green Terror edging out Misericordia and Moravian so far this season, however the Diplomats will be hoping to make it to 3-0 having beaten McDaniel by a single score, 21-14, last September. This should prove to be F&M’s biggest test of the season so far and with a road trip to face the Susquehanna River Hawks the week after the challenges just keep on coming for Bryce and the Diplomats.
And now, the real reason you’re here; The Big Man:
“So I decided after requests from people back in the UK to look at doing some kinda blog to chronicle my time here in the US with the Diplomats. I’ve decided to make each entry - at least to start - a one day a week focus on what it is I do whilst I am here at Franklin and Marshall College as a defensive assistant coach. So without further ado, here’s Monday’s schedule.
I arrive at the office at 0645HRS looking forward to getting fired into another full week of work ahead of our game against the 2-0 McDaniel Green Terrors. Monday is a day we do as much of our office based work as we can so I got straight into providing the Defensive Coordinator with the scouting report for this week. This includes breaking down McDaniel’s game film and providing him with scouting information such as 3rd down analysis, personnel tendencies and top plays based on down and distance. After this has been completed I break down the oppositions stats from their previous games and highlight any tendencies and playmakers as well as any possible weaknesses we can take advantage of. Then we sit for around 3 hours compiling this information and cutting up opposition film and categorising it into positional groups to show us what they are likely to do in any given situation. It is paramount that we do this as quickly as possible as it holds the stats for the scouting report and we base our game plan around their tendencies of all downs with all distances.
We do not practise on a Monday but the players have their weigh-ins and we give them their scouting reports we have made for all positional groups on the defence. The Head Coach addresses the team and announces the 2 best scout players from the previous week and also names a captain for the upcoming game along with the 3 full time captains based on their performance and behaviour the previous week. This week’s captain went to OL #56 Philip Weiser who had a perfect score on game film the previous game as well as contributing to a 244 yard day on the ground.
After the team completed their weigh ins and received their scouting reports for the game against McDaniel we went back to the office and continued working on the game plan for McDaniel and consequently mapped out our practise content for the week. I personally got ahead on drawing scout cards for the week as this is the most time consuming activity of the week due to the sheer amount of plays that we have to draw out. These drawings start with nothing more than the opposition offensive line on the paper, and then develops into having what route each receiver runs, what blocking scheme is being used, and what we should be doing to perfectly counter what it is we have seen in that play. Due to it being early in the week we usually get finished for around 7pm so its not that long of a day compared to others. Home now to watch Monday Night Football while continuing to breakdown the game film from last weekend v Juniata so that it is done for next year.”
