Coach's Corner
Five Questions with Tyler Schneider
Each month we’ll be using this newsletter to spotlight featured speakers presenting at Blitz ‘22. Today we’re asking a few questions to Bixby High School (Okla.) offensive coordinator Tyler Schneider, who’ll be presenting on the characteristics that make his offense so explosive. Since Schneider began coaching at Bixby 11 seasons ago, the Spartans have appeared in eight consecutive state championship games and won seven. The Spartans currently hold a state-best 49-game winning streak, over which they’ve won four straight Oklahoma 6AII titles. During this eight-season run, Bixby’s offense has averaged 46.5 points per game, including a blistering 61.1 points per game clip in 2021.
What inspired you to run your offenses the way you do? To begin with, I grew up playing quarterback, so naturally I like throwing the football. However, because I was a quarterback I really prefer QB-friendly passes. We try to throw as many easy completions as possible in our offense.
After my first season coordinating our offense, the feedback I received from our head coach was that he didn't feel that we ever established an identity. So from that season on, we determined to build our identity in "packaged plays" (better known as RPOs now). Since then, we have built our offense around the ability to run/throw or throw/screen on 65-70 percent of our play calls.
Being at a high school, our personnel changes yearly, and therefore the formations and plays we run also change. But we keep our identity in packaged plays. At the end of the day, I always want our offense to be something that our kids enjoy being a part of, and are able to take ownership in.
What do you think is most misunderstood about designing offense?
I think at times we get caught up in all the good plays that are out there. There are, without a doubt, a great number of ways to attack a defense. If you are on social media for any length of time, you are bound to see clips of "cool" plays everywhere.
When designing an offense, you have to have a base identity. Running plays is hard. Running an offense is easier. It's not easy, but I think as an offensive coach there are times you just have to say, hey, that is a really cool play that is very well designed, but it just doesn't fit what we do within our system. We always strive to execute the common schemes uncommonly well.
“Keeping it simple” can sometimes be tricky. How do you separate signal from noise with your research and game-planning?
We try to use a common language when teaching our athletes. That goes from how we identify defenses, what we name routes or addressing skills needed at certain positions. When researching opponents, we always work to identify the opponent's defense using our defense's terminology. This helps our kids hear the same message from coaches on both sides of the ball. There is no need to have multiple ways to communicate a 3-4 cover 2 defense to our kids.
For the last five years or so, we have used a game-planning system that has really helped get everyone from our coaches to players on the same page. It has been a simplification of our previous game-planning practices. In using it, we are able to include all of our coaches in the process of planning, and finish with a gameplan that clearly depicts our plan for the upcoming opponent to our athletes.
When it comes to communicating our play calls to our kids, we try to use as few words as possible. We use a one-word package that helps with this, and if a play call becomes too wordy with shifts, motions, tags, etc., we will give it a one-word name that tells all of the information.
You have some great methods of communicating things clearly with your players. What advice do you have for coaches struggling to connect with their athletes?
When communicating with our players, we always try to use as few words and signals as possible. Our staff does a great job of helping me stay on track with this. We are always asking, "How can we more easily communicate that concept to the kids?"
We try to build our offense in "families", because random words that have no connection to one another are hard to remember. Some examples could be:
I know this is likely how most teams operate. But we have found that by using families, it helps our kids quickly remember what each word of the play call is telling them.
I also think something that always helps the kids connect is allowing them to name the formations, plays, gadgets, and so forth. Something we do often is allow the kids to come up with the signals we use. They are more creative than we are, and when they come up with the signal, it builds a better connection to the formation or play that we are communicating to them.
What do you want coaches to know about you headed into your presentation at Blitz?
I think the biggest thing I would want anyone to know is that I am only a small part of what we have going at Bixby. We have a tremendous coaching staff that has had great continuity during my 11 seasons. We have a strong group of guys that enjoy working hard for a common goal, put egos to the side, and are all pulling in the same direction for the success of the Spartans.
Probably more important than the coaches I have been able to work with are the athletes we have been fortunate enough to coach. In Bixby we take great pride in developing our athletes from a young age through their entire experience in our program. When that combines with highly talented players, it becomes a really fun environment to be a part of.