“We Analyzed the Data and the Kids Won the Game”

 

By: Warren Craney (York University Lions)
& Ryan Clutterbuck (Ontario Football Alliance)

FULL ARTICLE: CLICK HERE
 
Introduction
For nine years I was either the defensive coordinator or the head coach of the U19 Canadian national team (2007-2016). And, let me tell you, I think it’s the best kept secret in this country. Look at the Vanier Cup rosters today or the 2017 U Sports All-Canadians. The 2017 U Sports rookie of the year, Nick Cross, won a gold medal on this team in 2016. Mathieu Betts, the Metras Trophy winner as the top down lineman in the country, played for this team twice.

If you look throughout U Sports, the number of elite players that came through the Canadian national team program is incredible. Five national team alumni, including Western’s middle linebacker Jean-Gabriel Poulin, who was on this team in 2012 when we won in Austin, Texas, are playing in the Vanier Cup. And then there’s the competition. In 2007, a young man named Jason Pierre Paul played for the U.S. In 2009, David Wilson, who became a first-round draft choice of the New York Giants, and left tackle Jack Mewhort, who now protects Andrew Luck’s blind side, were outstanding for the U.S. In 2011, on one of the greatest teams the U.S. has ever assembled, Jameis Winston was the quarterback, Todd Gurley was the running back and Jerome Brown was the defensive tackle. I swear, the only time we stopped Jerome Brown was when he got ejected for celebrating sacking our quarterback. For me, those are great memories. And as a team, we’ve been fortunate – we’ve put some great teams on the field that have had tremendous success over the years.

Now, I’ve been fortunate to speak at coaching clinics for 15 years, and one of the things we never get enough of are the details. Have you ever been to clinics where coaches say: keep it simple stupid? I’m the opposite of that. Let’s make it more complicated. That’s what I like.

So I’m going to get into the details, including our strategies and tactics, and our decision-making process as we prepared to play Team USA in the gold medal game. I’m not saying this’ what you should do. I’m sharing with you what we did. And I’m very proud of our kids. Going into that game, the betting line was probably set at 30 points for the USA to beat Canada, because earlier in that tournament, in a condensed round robin game, they beat us  32-6. That’s what we were up against.

FULL ARTICLE: CLICK HERE