Hi Coach,
This week Coach Brad Underwood's Fighting Illini pulled off a huge win upsetting # 9 Penn State and moved a little closer to earning an NCAA Tournament invite.
For Coach Underwood, the resurgence of the Illini didn't come without some deep soul searching and the willingness to make some changes.
He had experienced incredible success. He won 89 games in his first 3 seasons at SFA (tying him with Brad Stevens for the best first 3 yr start to a career) and took the Lumber Jacks to 3 straight NCAA Tournaments.
He left for Oklahoma State and in his only season there the Cowboys had the No.1 rated offense in the nation. and he led them to the NCAA Tournament.
Why would he even think about changing?
His spread offense and pressure defense had served him quite well thus far in his career.
However, in his first two years at Illinois his schemes did not produce the same results.
He went 26-39.
What he did next...is not something every coach is willing to do.
He took a hard look at his team..he had experts look at the data and he made some big changes.
His team was fouling too much and not getting to the line enough and that was impacting winning.
So he adapted and made adjustments to both his successful spread offense and pressure defense.
The end result is the Illini are better this year...much better.
So what is Coach Underwood doing differently?
We broke it all down for you here in our latest playbook.
We have put together 73 entries, sets and out of bounds plays that the Illini are now using on offense.
The playbook also contains 40 pages detailing the defensive changes he has made to switch from a pressure defense to more pack-line principles
Coach Underwood is a perfect example of why it is so important to be willing to change and adapt.
If you need a blueprint for change, here is a good place to start.