"The Turnaround": Sleepless in Lubbock

by Jason Strunk
Lubbock High School Head Coach

Coach Strunk's bedding for his office sleep

12:15 a.m. and I am sitting in my office working. Too much to do tonight. I need to finalize my game management sheet. Hydration station and breakfast needed to be prepped. 65 varsity players report at 7:30 a.m. Things need to be up-and-running for them. I cannot rest until I know they are taken care of. It's just how I am.

I am a firm believer in work smarter, not harder. If you can get things done in two hours, that is ideal. I am not from the school of thinking that states you must be in your office tweleve hours a day pretending to work all those hours. We focus on being efficient here. If you want to beat your staff down, keep them twelve hours a day. If you want an energized staff (like we have here) know when to call it a day and be EFFICIENT.

All that being said, here I sit. The bottom line is, sometimes you need to be crazy and get things done. That is the case tonight (or this morning, however you look at it). Too much to do and the day got away from me. I will make up the time now.

I never sleep the night before a game. Tonight is no different. I am "sleeping" at Chapman Fieldhouse tonight. I say "sleeping" because I will not sleep and I will be working. I will lay down when everything is done. I will get as much rest as I need. That is never an issue.

I feel good about what the offensive staff did this week in practice. Neal Tull and Jake Willingham put together a nice plan. Tull graduated and played at Purdue. Obviously, we have a connection. We both share the same run game philosophy. The exciting part now is we added Willingham, who happens to be a disciple of Mike Leach and Dana Holgorsen.  Jake worked with both of those guys. Our offense is a combination of the Purdue running attack and Texas Tech and West Virginia passing concepts. It is a wild and exciting thing for us. I cannot wait for it to take off. 

RB coach Adam Rosales has developed a solid stable of backs that fit our scheme. We can pound it and we can use speed. It is a nice combo. Jinks White has worked the WR's into darn good shape and they are catching the ball really well. In fact, it is the best I have seen us catch the ball! All everything coach Cory Kollister has been the calming force behind the development of QB Layven Armendariz. QB's take a lot of heat (from me) and Kollister does a good job deflecting the heat.

Over on defense, Duane Toliver and his wild bunch of all go, no quit coaches, had a solid week of practice. We are really moving to the football well. Toliver played at Texas Tech, where he was coached by the one-and-only David Moody. Now Toliver is the boss. Talk about turning the tables! All kidding aside, those guys work really well together. Add new DB coach Nathan Jephcott to the mix, and I am really pleased with where we are heading. Jepcott has taken Safeties coach Zach Jones under his wing. Safety Keefe Gallagher has flourished under these two guys. We need a big game from our linebackers. Assignment football is critical. LB coach Bryan Thomas has worked these guys well and I think he has them ready to go.

I am hoping for another solid Special Teams performance tonight. Bryan Roberts (full time SPT coach) has really got those units rolling. We had over 200 return yards last week and nailed every extra point. Very, very pleased.

Add all of this up and I still do not know how this game will turn out. Turn the lights on and let them play. KJ will have them ready. He is such a good coach. Maybe I can hire him away from Coronado before the game tomorrow night? Probably won't happen. I  might have his "daughter"bend his ear on this tomorrow. I will let you know how it turns out!

Let's see what tonight brings...