State of Ohio Hall-of-Famer Coach Thom McDaniels joins Pro Mindset and shares with host Craig Domann his philosophy on coaching football, developing young men and his family journey of raising two sons who are currently coaching in the NFL. McDaniels had a 26-year head coaching career that included head coaching stops at Warren G. Harding High School, Canton McKinley High School and Massillon Jackson High School. McDaniels was twice a finalist for NFL High School Coach of the Year in 2004 and 2010.
McDaniels is the father of New England Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels
and Texans assistant quarterbacks coach Ben McDaniels. McDaniels reminisces about two of his three sons, Josh and Ben, catching the football bug, being gym rats and always hanging around his high school teams, going to practices and running the controller when he was watching film at home. Josh and Ben also started as quarterbacks in high school playing for their father and winning state championships together.
In 1997, McDaniels was named national high school football coach of the year by USA Today while leading his Canton McKinley team to state and national titles. However, McDaniels has a rich coaching philosophy that goes much more meaningful than winning championships, but rather, emphasizes the growth, development and discipline of his players in football and long thereafter.
Coach McDaniels mentions the following as cornerstones of his coaching philosophy:
•Expect the most from the best – Coach the most talented players the hardest
•Never wanted to be scheme-rich and execution-poor
•Nothing about football is unimportant (everything matters)
•Some of us can’t win it for all of us (takes the entire team)
•Self-scouting and scrutiny is more important than scouting the opponent
•It doesn’t take any athleticism to line up in the right place
•Eyes in the right place can tell you a lot
Coach McDaniels also shares a few thoughts about winning:
•Can’t win a game by yourself
•Winning = cumulative result of a whole bunch of guys doing the right thing
•It’s amazing how many games you can win when you do the easy things well
Coach McDaniels talks about his son Josh when he was the head coach of the Denver Broncos, watching Josh coach Tom Brady in six Super Bowl victories, and attending practices in New England and getting to know the Patriot Way.
