Coaches Corner: 04/06/25

Morning Coach!

Welcome back to FCL’s Coaches Corner. As coaches ourselves, we are obsessed with learning and growing in our professions. Every other Sunday, we distill concepts and share the resources we find interesting to 415 like minded coaches. It is our goal to share nuggets and insights that we’ve been able to gather over the years from great coaches in all sports. At the end of the day, we all want to have the greatest positive impact possible on our athletes.

In case you missed our email from the other week, check it out here.

Matt Dunn & Deemer Class

Today’s Menu Includes:

• 🚨 Quick Survey: please help us understand you better with this quick survey.

• 🔦 Coach Spotlight: a quote from 29x national champion rugby coach, Jack Clark.

• 🧠 Some Outside Inspiration: a video on building high-performing teams.

• 🤓 A Trip to the Principles Office: an offensive breakdown on stepping into gaps.

• 🔥 A Webinar Freebie: a clip from John Galloway, HC of Jacksonville, on gameday analysis.

FCL PODCAST & COACH COMMUNITY 🎙️

Want to keep sharpening your coaching toolbox?

🎧 Podcast – Check out our free podcast on Spotify, YouTube and Apple podcast.

🔥 Online Community – For coaches who want to level up. Join our men’s and women’s coaching communities for in-depth webinars, drills, and strategy sessions with top college coaches.

🔦 Coach Spotlight: Teams vs Families…?

This might read a bit harsh, but it’s true. Teams often brand themselves as “families,” but that can be misleading. Being part of a team—especially a high-performing one—is a privilege. It’s conditional.

High standards, accountability, and shared goals define great teams. If someone consistently falls short, they may be removed. That’s not turning your back on someone; but rather, that’s maintaining the integrity of the group.

Family is unconditional. Teams are not. But here’s the beautiful part: when you get a group fully bought into the standards and committed to each other, the bond can feel like family earned through trust, effort, and shared struggle.

Not everyone gets to experience that. But when you do, it’s special.

🧠 Outside Inspiration: a video on high-performing teams 📺

We usually don’t pull from the same source for quote and outside inspiration, but this video below is too good not to share. It’s 12 minutes long and worth every second.

🤓 The Principles Office: Attacking Gaps vs Zone

Welcome back to The Principles Office, where we break down essential concepts we believe in and find interesting. Today’s focus is on attacking gaps, in particular for a zone offense.

Defining Gaps

A “gap,” for today’s purposes, is the space between defenders in a zone defense. In zone, defenders are responsible for areas, not specific players. They react to whoever enters their zone, aiming to keep that space covered.

Offenses take advantage of this by overloading specific areas with multiple players. This can force defenders to have to share offensive players or get drawn to the perimeters of their zone, thus creating gaps. 

There will always be gaps in a zone. That’s part of how zones are designed. Because defenders are responsible for space, they eventually have to pass off offensive players as they move between zones. During that pass-off phase, two defenders often get drawn to the ball, which leaves another area momentarily undermanned.

Thus, an advantage is born.

Exploiting Gaps

If an offense never threatens the gaps, the defense will never have to commit or rotate. If the defense never has to commit or rotate, then they will always be able to scrape back and hold their shape.

The pass-off point—the handoff between zones—is a moment of vulnerability. Great zone offenses identify these spots and attack them.

The better your timing and spacing, the more likely you are to draw two defenders to one offensive player. That’s what forces rotation and unlocks opportunity.

Be a Threat

When stepping into a gap, your posture matters. The more we can use shooting position to windup and threaten the defense, the better. This influences them to commit to you. This position allows us the ability to feed as well.

Reminder: defenders react to posture and body language. If you look like a threat, they’ll respond to you as a threat. Even if you would never actually pull a shot from that range, you can deceive them.

Izzy Scane and Erin Coykendall are two of the best at this—attacking gaps with a shot-ready posture, probing the defense, always looking to feed or fire.

Don’t Mind the Dodge

Zone offenses often focus on ball movement, spacing, and keeping sticks free. But one underused tactic is the dodge.

When done in moderation, dodging into a gap can create exactly what you want: two defenders playing one.

If we only move the ball around the perimeter, and don’t threaten the gaps, defenses can scrape and snap back.

The risk is dodging to the point of no return. There are times when a player can shoot a gap and still get the shot off.

There are also times where the defense collapses and now they are stuck with limited options. The more you rep, the more you find the sweet spot.

What are the Reads?

The decision once you step into the gap is everything. We’ve discussed being a threat. Assess the range, and look for your shot. If nobody is fully committing to you, step in and make them pay.

Once we do get two to commit, the next decisions are key. You typically will have options in front, throwing back, or even inside based on which defenders step to you.

In this next clip, note how the Maryland player reads the Penn State defender scraping back after they attack the gap. Once he winds up, he throws back to where the ball came from, putting pressure on Penn State.

We mentioned Izzy Scane’s ability to windup and attack gaps. Here is a nice example of a look inside after stepping into a gap and drawing the defense.

Keep your decision tree simple: read the defense, take what’s given, and react with intent.

While certain sets can be helpful in beating a zone, the ability to create and exploit the gaps in a zone is a critical skill that must be drilled and developed.

Bonus🚨: Seal the Gap

I loved this quick hitting seal look from Michigan. You can observe their gap play, and then a beautiful seal prevents the defender from scraping back and forces a rotation.

Thanks for taking a trip down the hallway. If you are looking for a deeper dive, both Sean Kirwan (Dartmouth) and Mike Lamonica (Virginia) gave great presentations on Zone Offense in our online community.

Stay tuned for more content all spring and email us at [email protected] with any questions and let us know your thoughts.

🚨 Webinar Freebie 🚨

We believe our coaching community is the best resource on the market for any men’s or women’s coaching staff to continue developing through new drills and strategies. It includes over 30 college coach webinars, 100+ drills for offense, defense and full team compete.

As a perk of this newsletter, you get a free clip from one of the webinars. Today’s clip is from Jacksonville Head Coach, John Galloway.

• 📺 FREEBIE: John Galloway on Gameday Analysis stats.

• 🔦 COMMUNITY TOUR: Watch Community Tour Here.

D3 Showcase

Men’s coaches: if you have uncommitted 26s and 27s interested in playing at the D3 level, we strongly recommend checking out our D3 showcase this June led by top D3 coaches.