Bobby Dodd Coaching Philosophy

Vespidae

Vespidae

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Does anyone remember Dodd's somewhat unique approach to the game? I recall that he published a Coaching Philosophy Handbook which is in the GT archives, but haven't seen it for years.

Dodd was schooled by Bob Neyland and his Seven Maxims of Football are still recited by UT players before every game. Most fans who follow UT can recite them too.

What I remember about Dodd was his belief that in the first half, you should always go for a TD in the red zone and never try a field goal. He said football is a game of percentages and since it's 50/50 that you'll get the TD, you should take it because with the extra point, you'll end up with 7 in two tries vs. 6.

His other philosophy was to always play for field position.

Any way, if anyone recalls any of his maxims, I'd like to organize them and analyze games from his period. I have a theory that is different than the Five Factors in Study Hall and want to test it.
 

MWBATL

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Vespidae said:
He said football is a game of percentages and since it's 50/50 that you'll get the TD, you should take it because with the extra point, you'll end up with 7 in two tries vs. 6.
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Umm, that assumes that, you know, you actually MAKE the field goal kicks. We haven't exactly been reliable in that area either....
 
Old South Stands

Old South Stands

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Even back in Dodd's day, we had less raw talent or size than some of the other SEC teams. But Dodd believed that having smarter players was an equalizer when you didn't have the size advantage. And like Bryant, he believed that you could coach an average player up and turn him into a great player. Both were very good at that. The big difference in philosophy between the two is that Dodd din't believe in hard practices. Too easy to get your players banged up and injured. Coach Bryant, on the other hand, ran his players ragged in practice. Coach Dodd's players knew their routes and where they were supposed to be, but were much fresher on game day. One interesting thing about Dodd was that he wasn't a big sideline presence during games and was never in his players' faces. From what I hear, he sat at a card table making game-time adjustments. Don't know if this is just lore... I was in the womb when he coached his final game.
 
Vespidae

Vespidae

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MWBATL said:
Umm, that assumes that, you know, you actually MAKE the field goal kicks. We haven't exactly been reliable in that area either....
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I'm not worried about that. Dodd had a very clear set of coaching guidelines as did Bear Bryant. I'm trying just to codify those. I'll worry about making comparisons later.
 
Coloradojacket

Coloradojacket

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BD.jpg
I actually have the book.
 

TheSilasSonRising

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Old South Stands said:
Even back in Dodd's day, we had less raw talent or size than some of the other SEC teams. But Dodd believed that having smarter players was an equalizer when you didn't have the size advantage. And like Bryant, he believed that you could coach an average player up and turn him into a great player. Both were very good at that. The big difference in philosophy between the two is that Dodd din't believe in hard practices. Too easy to get your players banged up and injured. Coach Bryant, on the other hand, ran his players ragged in practice. Coach Dodd's players knew their routes and where they were supposed to be, but were much fresher on game day. One interesting thing about Dodd was that he wasn't a big sideline presence during games and was never in his players' faces. From what I hear, he sat at a card table making game-time adjustments. Don't know if this is just lore... I was in the womb when he coached his final game.
Click to expand...


Sorry but that is way off. Dodd was LOADED with talent.

He ran Georgia, got a lot of good kids from out of state due to being in ATL (yep even back then), had one of the largest stadiums in the South ( if not THE largest at one time).

An example- the 1962 GT vs bama game. GT had, I believe, at least 5 guys from that team go to the NFL and bama had 2. In the gloriest of days in the early 50s he had one team with 5 A-A.

Coach had some of the biggest and fastest LB’s in college football. George Morris, Larry Morris, Larry Stallings, Maxie Baughan. His kids loved playing for him and obviously that attracted talent. And he knew how to recruit the Moms.
 

stinger 1957

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In the early and mid fifties Dodd's DLs were quick, quick. They played mistake free FB, at least more mistake free than you, smart is what I remember also. Field position and outstanding kicking game were really important.
 

Heisman's Ghost

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Poodlehead said:
Field position - I seem to recall stories of Dodd often punting on 3rd down.
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Yep. He learned that from General Neyland who was his college coach. Dodd believed in putting his 11 best athletes on defense and keeping the game close with superior kicking and field position. The Jackets never beat themselves and were supremely confident in themselves and their coach. One player was quoted in a book about Dodd "We always thought we were going to win and were shocked if we lost". Someone posted that Tech during his time sometimes had inferior talent. That was true in the late 1950s when recruiting fell off but the rest of the time he could get good players out of every state in the South. He got good players from Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, and Tennessee. He also would occasionally get a good player from South and North Carolina. One of his best guards was Dave Simmons a native of El Paso Texas. The hardest thing for Dodd was the rise of Bear Bryant because suddenly the pipeline of good players from Alabama and Mississippi was cut off. UGA started to dominate in state recruiting in the mid 1960s but that was not as big a factor as it became later because Georgia did not produce nearly the quantity or quality of players it would in years to come.

In answer to the original poster's question, Dodd developed an option play series called the "belly series" that was productive in the split T era of the early and mid 1950s. It was great for Tech because it did not require a great running quarterback and magnified Tech's advantage in small, speedy backs on the outside. Most of all, Tech was fast everywhere. They had speed in the line and the skill positions and sooner or later Dodd would figure out a match up that he wanted and it was over. He abhorred unnecessary penalties as illustrated in this story. All American linebacker George Morris was running down Florida running back great Buford Long and was determined to throw him into the chicken wire fence where the athletes from other sports sat. In doing so he incurred a 15 yard penalty. Dodd called him into his office Monday morning and told him "You are a great player but you are not good enough to make up for 15 yards in lost field position" Morris took his punishment in stride and the next week he lowered the boom on an opposing player to prevent a first down. Coach Dodd congratulated him saying "That is the way I want to see you play" Morris later said that Dodd understood the controlled violence of the game and appreciated a good lick as much as any coach but mental mistakes were anathema to him
 

Heisman's Ghost

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TheSilasSonRising said:
Sorry but that is way off. Dodd was LOADED with talent.

He ran Georgia, got a lot of good kids from out of state due to being in ATL (yep even back then), had one of the largest stadiums in the South ( if not THE largest at one time).

An example- the 1962 GT vs bama game. GT had, I believe, at least 5 guys from that team go to the NFL and bama had 2. In the gloriest of days in the early 50s he had one team with 5 A-A.

Coach had some of the biggest and fastest LB’s in college football. George Morris, Larry Morris, Larry Stallings, Maxie Baughan. His kids loved playing for him and obviously that attracted talent. And he knew how to recruit the Moms.
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I would not call it always "way off" but yes he could and did get outstanding players. All four of those linebackers could really bring the lumber. You are absolutely correct that he could sell Tech and Atlanta to small town boys in Valdosta, Montgomery, Kingsport Tennessee, Vicksburg Mississippi, and countless other places where the bright lights of Atlanta beckoned as a way out of chopping cotton and loading watermelons. In the late 1950s recruiting did fall off for a while for a number of reasons and Dodd entertained the entreaties of well heeled Texas alumni but ultimately they went with Darryl Royal and Coach Dodd righted the ship soon enough. He could be ruthless in making changes to reflect rule changes such as the back and forth one platoon nonsense. He also had outstanding assistants like Frank Broyles and Ray Graves.
 
Jacketsfan99

Jacketsfan99

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Vespidae said:
I'm not worried about that. Dodd had a very clear set of coaching guidelines as did Bear Bryant. I'm trying just to codify those. I'll worry about making comparisons later.
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What I remember about Bobby Dodd most was that when he got a lead , he was happy to ‘flip the field’ and trust the defense to hold . I was too young for analytics
 
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