Half Time Adjustments - MYTH (according to the Mannings)
I often have thought that our celebration of Michigan bing the best "half time adjustments" team in the universe had more to do with mental fortitude and performance improvement rather than any actual adjustments by the staff in 15 minutes.
At least one credible source (Peyton Manning) seems to validate that.
per Awful Announcing Twitter:
January 17th, 2023 at 9:57 AM ^
That jives closely with what was said in-season about adjusting at the half.. after the HC interviews on his way in, the guys go to the bathroom, eat etc... how much can really be done. If anything, I think the half-time adjustments are really just how the coaches decide to call plays on O and D. Maybe an adjustment to what's working vs what is not and doing more of that.
January 17th, 2023 at 10:00 AM ^
Well yeah, it's the coaches that make the adjustments. The players just do as their told.
January 17th, 2023 at 10:06 AM ^
Exactly what I was going to post. It's not like we thought Peyton was drawing up plays on a whiteboard during halftime.
January 17th, 2023 at 12:02 PM ^
Maybe Peyton was too busy tea-bagging a trainer to make any real halftime adjustments.
January 18th, 2023 at 7:54 AM ^
Or he was too busy looking in the mirror screaming "OMAHA!"
January 17th, 2023 at 10:16 AM ^
i wouldn't think this would be hard to comprehend
January 17th, 2023 at 11:27 AM ^
Makes sense, I've also heard coaches specifically talk about their process for halftime adjustments.
January 17th, 2023 at 1:22 PM ^
Good coaches are making adjustments all game long. The cumulative effect of all the tweaks becomes obvious the further the game progresses. It's not a moment-in-time thing.
January 17th, 2023 at 1:35 PM ^
And the players are brought along continuously. Now, I can see how coaches might confer during the halftime break and consolidate in-game adjustments into changes in play-calling, but it’s probably no big surprise to the team.
January 17th, 2023 at 4:39 PM ^
"Broncos quarterback Brock Osweiler told Sal Paolantonio of ESPN that the Broncos made halftime adjustments based on Manning’s observations of the first half. Manning was watching from inside and went into the locker room to tell Osweiler what he saw.
“Peyton was fantastic at halftime. He came up to me and — you know Peyton — of course, he had a list of things ready to talk about that he saw out there. I’m not going to go into specifics, but he certainly did help me, and he helped this football team get a win today,” Osweiler said."
January 17th, 2023 at 5:28 PM ^
And this is why Payton’s career has ended up in a meaningless job sitting on a couch making worthless points and stupid jokes to say anything to attract viewers away from the game.
Harsh but true!
January 17th, 2023 at 10:02 AM ^
When I got into coaching HS football. I wondered if I was not making enough halftime adjustments. That being said, there are some games we do make some, especially since we have players that play both ways and don't have a ton of time together on the sideline.
January 17th, 2023 at 10:06 AM ^
It makes sense, maybe the coaches can switch to a backup game plan or identify a couple things on video to exploit but it takes five minutes to get everyone into the locker room and they have to come back out to get warmed up 5 minutes before the half starts up and the team is split up with some guys getting medical treatment, some guys going to the bathroom, etc. There is no real way you can make meaningful shifts and communicate to the players. There are probably drives that give the offense or defense more time together on the sideline than halftime gives them to make adjustments
January 17th, 2023 at 10:07 AM ^
ah, peyton might not have but we sure do. we ask questions of the players, we have a quick coaches meeting about what's working/not working on either side of the ball and then we make adjustments, throw out some plays and emphasize others, etc.
January 17th, 2023 at 11:02 AM ^
I got a laugh at Peyton's "oranges" comment. I picture little kids at half time of a rec soccer league game sitting criss-cross on the sideline eating orange slices.
I never played/coached football, so I have no clue what actually goes on. I imagine guys are getting taped up and chillin while coaches are in the office with their laptops.
I do see in-game adjustments with guys looking pictures of plays taken overhead. Guessing the coach says: "Next time you see that, do this".
January 17th, 2023 at 11:16 AM ^
i wonder if his comment is a bit out of context or was made at an unserious moment.
January 17th, 2023 at 12:01 PM ^
I know the Manning's are jokesters, so I'm guessing the orange slices was a bit tongue-in-cheek on Peyton's part.
January 17th, 2023 at 12:15 PM ^
Oh, you don’t want to see Peyton Manning without his halftime oranges…
January 17th, 2023 at 12:18 PM ^
Ok, now I'm picturing Peyton manning with an orange peel stuck across his smile like little kids do with orange slices ( if you don't know what I'm talking about go to any 8 and under soccer halftime)
January 17th, 2023 at 10:08 AM ^
He's mostly accurate. Adjustments (if they happen) usually take place throughout the game and are coached into the players in real time.
January 17th, 2023 at 10:08 AM ^
Halftime adjustments are definitely an overrated concept. I think some people believe teams go out there and run brand new plays, coverages, etc. in the second half.
I have been on staffs before that tried to draw up a new play or two for the second half, and let me tell you:
They have failed 100% of the time.
High school kids can't execute plays that they haven't run several times during the week. (Maybe college or pro guys can, but they're probably not run very well.)
What you CAN do at halftime is give little tips on how to do something better. (For example, we were gashing a team with the run in the first half but the safety was coming up to make a tackle at like 8-10 yards. I reminded the RB of a drill we do, and when we ran it the first play in the second half, he high-stepped through the attempted tackle and took it 80 yards for a touchdown.)
And you CAN trim down the playbook to the stuff that's working or might work. (For example, if you've insisted on running an outside zone play but the defense is stopping it with their alignment or penetration, you can focus in on running play action from the same look or sticking to a gap run scheme or running a formation with a tight end to get an extra blocker on the front side.)
These are certainly adjustments, so the term works. But it's not as large scale as a lot of people think.
January 17th, 2023 at 11:40 AM ^
Michigan tends to run the same plays over and over, first and second half, but disguises the look of the plays by formation so they seem different or blocking scheme, so that they are taking advantage of whatever the defensive looks are applied against them. From that standpoint, adjustments are made in the type of run or pass plays, down and distance..
And like Magnus said, the adjustments counter tendencies by the opposition, not so much new plays but to counter certain ways the defense is attacking the LOS, pass protection, shoring up weak spots in the lineup, or simply going back to failed first half plays that were botched by execution rather than adequately defended.
A coach has to adjust for issues that occur in the first half. But not alter a specific gameplan that was particularly designed for that opponent. You might simplify play calls. In that case, you are correcting issues rather than shifting strategy.
January 17th, 2023 at 11:51 AM ^
Exactly. It's more along the lines of "damn, they are really crashing down hard on our hitch routes.... let's call the hitch n go once or twice"
Coaches are mostly just refining what worked and what didn't, and how to counter what the other team is doing succesfully, or taking advantage of what they aren't
Players aren't doing much, if any adjustments
January 17th, 2023 at 12:56 PM ^
Coaches are adjusting all game long to things the other team is doing. Some things are a surprise, ie a team comes out cut blocking on a series and they never run that. On the sidelines coaches are talking to players we repped cut blocks, .. do this.
Lbers out of position on a series, we repped, these calls, get here, hold this shoulder, fill ... what ever the communication is it's constant
Staff's use game plans to do different things 1st and 2nd half, hold coverages till the 2nd half, run this the first half and if it's successful, that sets up this series and that sets up... which is constant for all staffs.
The myth comes from halftime interviews as coaches are asked, what's happening or are you going to do something different and the common answer is, we'll make adjustments.
January 17th, 2023 at 1:44 PM ^
I have been on staffs before that tried to draw up a new play or two for the second half, and let me tell you:
They have failed 100% of the time.
This is one of the hardest things for a layperson like me to wrap my head around. To my armchair QB mind (I never played past grade school), it doesn't seem like it should be that big of a deal to draw up a new play, at least if you're building it from concepts already in place. Yeah, good luck getting a pro-style team to execute a triple option on the fly, but saying "use this blocking scheme and run these routes" doesn't seem like that big of a deal, practice or not. But coaches are almost uniformly in the camp that it doesn't work without practice. One more reminder that I would fall flat on my face if I ever tried to be a coach...
January 17th, 2023 at 2:52 PM ^
Because you need all 11 players to know what they're doing. That's tough to do without practice.
January 17th, 2023 at 10:08 AM ^
What a liar, or he's had too many hits to the head to remember. Besides, he didn't play defense.
January 17th, 2023 at 10:25 AM ^
Hits to the head of Peyton Manning have no effect. You could project a drive-through movie on his forehead alone!
January 17th, 2023 at 10:17 AM ^
I've always wondered why coaching adjustments (play calls) need to wait until halftime to occur. No better time than the present, right? Do the coaches have ultra fast film sessions at halftime or something?
January 17th, 2023 at 10:25 AM ^
I'm not a coach, but it seems to me that at least in part it's about focus. During live action, you have to devote a great deal of focus to the action on the field, even if your unit is not on the field (e.g. if you are the DC and the defense is on the sidelines). Can't be caught not paying attention if there is a sudden change situation. At the half, you have a few minutes where you know you can talk with the other coaches about what you're seeing, share ideas, etc. without running the risk of missing something on the field.
January 17th, 2023 at 10:31 AM ^
Jesse Minter spoke specifically about this late in the season. I dislike DiNardo and Meyer, but they did a whole segment on this as well. Whether players get it and can execute the adjustments is one thing. It sure seems like coaches think they're making them.
Obviously, teams adjust. They adjust in-game on the sidelines and at halftime. What they define as adjustments and what Peyton is talking about here may be different, but they're being made.
January 17th, 2023 at 10:32 AM ^
We like to think that changes to the game plan are made based on what the opponent is doing, and it's all drawn out on the whiteboard. Nah... But I do think there are times when the HC can get the entire teams attention and get everyone back in sync.
'Hey, they're more aggressive on D than we'd thought they'd be, so we're going to go deep a little more this half. Defensively, lets just keep doing what we're doing, it's working pretty well.'
'Okay, our run D is getting toasted so we're going to be more aggressive bringing up the safeties and run blitzing, so be aware of that.'
I noticed they're spying the RB, lets use a little more PA.'
That sort of thing. Certainly no diagraming, but having a minute to get the whole team back on the same page can sometimes be pretty useful.
January 17th, 2023 at 1:30 PM ^
Yes, the game plan doesn't change, it just shifts to what's working, what isn't. They could be adjusting live as the other team brought a package that wasn't expected or a player is just eating them up somewhere and they have to shift to cover or protect a player that is getting whooped.
New plays, nope. Call a separate route on a play because they run this coverage and this route would kill it, sure. Adjustments, not new game plan, x's and o's.
January 17th, 2023 at 10:36 AM ^
I am certainly no expert on any of this, but I did recently read Pat Kirwin's Take Your Eye Off the Ball 2.0: How to Watch Football by Knowing Where to Look (which was excellent, by the way) and he talks about this in the second chapter:
I should mention that his book is written entirely from the perspective of the NFL (where he had all of his experience), so take this FWIW.
January 17th, 2023 at 10:53 AM ^
Thanks for the link! Something to add to the reading list...
January 17th, 2023 at 10:38 AM ^
An important note: NFL halftimes are just 12 minutes while in CFB it’s 20 minutes (due to marching band performances). But yeah, it’s coaches who are making the adjustments in their play calling. See Urban Meyer below who walks thru what halftime looks like for a CFB coaching staff. And for fun, below that is Will Muschamp’s famous “do your job” halftime speech where he’s clearly trying to drill thru his players’ assignments based on what’s been killing their defense in the first half.
January 17th, 2023 at 3:21 PM ^
Logged in to upvote this because I remembered the Urban segment. It makes sense how the coaches approach halftime while players are taking a leak and eating oranges.
January 17th, 2023 at 10:38 AM ^
I would bet that's another reason why he couldn't win a Heisman. The first being, of course, Charles.
January 17th, 2023 at 10:44 AM ^
i would only suggest that peyton was...oh...let's just say peyton wasn't exactly known for adjusting to anyone but peyton manning.
that's not a critisicm, by the way (not really, anyway) - the point being that he was a smart enough player to constantly adjust during play, long before halftime. he didn't need to wait to hear from the coaches.
and honestly - the adjustments go both ways. i'm sure peyton would've been telling his coaches that this works, that doesn't, let's try this. he was mostly his own offensive coordinator, but he didn't call every play or make substitutions, either...
January 17th, 2023 at 11:18 AM ^
As a coach and a player, the best teams I was on always made adjustments. Yes at half time, but also in between drives. Coaches in the booth would hop on the headset with guys on the sideline, we'd diagram plays from the opposing team we hadn't seen on film before and address how we'd attack it. At half time, we'd get or provide the full the picture for the players and roll.
Adjustments are real and can be a positive resource for your team but you have to prepare a week before to be able to make those adjustments. I believe at the NFL level there is not very much that you can do to scheme up wins on plays, the talent differential is minute.
January 17th, 2023 at 11:54 AM ^
Peyton was typically far enough ahead at halftime that no adjustments were necessary. Just take a piss and get back to killing fools.
January 17th, 2023 at 12:02 PM ^
Reason #6485 not to listen to Peyton Manning.
January 17th, 2023 at 12:38 PM ^
Maybe we are so dominant in second half because it takes a full half to fully see the weakness in the defense, and then exploit it..but can't this be done by better scouting ? I'm confused a bit by the vast difference in first half vs second half play of our team.
January 17th, 2023 at 12:46 PM ^
The biggest flaw I see in our team is preparing for unfamiliar opponents - meh, what do I know. But our brilliance in halftime adjustments does back up that theory for me.
Maybe JH will get someone on staff who is really good at preparing for unfamiliar opponents thru this new media of tape - I donno, I'm just guessing. :/
January 17th, 2023 at 1:15 PM ^
I agree, it takes us far too long to adjust our game plan to what the defense is doing. Even against OSU: we spent the first quarter & a half with RBs slamming into OSU’s defense before we finally started to throw the ball and use JJ’s legs. Against TCU, we slammed into their run defense for the entire 1st half before we started to sling the ball in the 2nd half and call some designed QB runs.
January 17th, 2023 at 12:42 PM ^
I watched the Peyton & Eli show for the first time in my life last night. I started in with them some time after I heard Troy "Mr. Cowpie" Aikman or his partner jinx the GOAT in the first red zone trip. They were fun and a huge break from the constant stream of Aikman, Collinsworth and Herbstreit we are normally subjected to.
I love how they glibly entertain opposing POV's - like they did with Teddy Bruschi and the MCDC segment was absolutely priceless - I mean I can never get enough Dan Campbell & just a still of him in a Tiger cap is better than listening to Aikman FFS. But those questions they asked him ... Good God Almighty those southern boys got some good producers or sumthin.
When good ol' Teabag Peyton started in on his notions of the importance of halftime adjustments - I took it in the spirit it was given - lighthearted good ol' boys sharing a little down home wisdom that may or may not have real value. But the more I hear coaches here and even Oscar with DiNardo in that BTN clip - I think good ol' Peyton is probably just living his most entitled life and talking about what was real for him - which probably has not a whole lot in common with most football players. Or maybe i need to watch a few more hours of the tea-bagger and his little brother before most of my resentment of them wears off. I really liked their dad - seeing him run around in circles back in the day at Ole miss was some of my favorite QB memories of my youth.
January 17th, 2023 at 12:57 PM ^
M had unprecedented success in the second half vis-a-vis the first half throughout the season, so obviously we have some recency bias. But, whether or not half-time adjustments are overrated, the second half went better.
Maybe all this can be explained with a probability analysis, but prima facie points to taking a break and then returning to the playing field being a positive thing for the players and/or coaches wearing the maize and blue in 2022.
January 17th, 2023 at 12:58 PM ^
AS a HS coach with over 30 years experience halftime adjustments may come down to looking over the call sheet and eliminating plays not working or running a play from a different formation to try to remove a defender.Some of the best adjustments are to" get your pads down and get off your rear ends and go strike somebody".It ain't rocket science.
January 17th, 2023 at 1:03 PM ^
Side note...these alternate telecasts are the best thing to happen to football in I don't know how long. Hard to state how much more I enjoyed the telecast from former players shooting from the hip (Mannings last night, Lewan et al during UM playoff) rather than buttoned up commentator teams with ultra vanilla commentary. This has to be something that continues with more frequency.