Marble Falls DC Wolfe defines complimentary football

CAPTION: Burnet football head coach Ben Speer (left) and Marble Falls defensive coordinator watch their players during a 7-on-7 contest in June. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro

One of the best parts about watching the Marble Falls High School 7-on-7 team during May and June was witnessing what coaches on all levels of the sport call complimentary football.

Simply complimentary football is all three phases on a team are working together in sync: the defense gets a stop, the special team has a solid return, and the offense drives the ball for a touchdown.

In 7 on 7, the Mustang defense forced turnovers on downs or didn’t allow a touchdown, while the offense was able to complete drives with touchdowns.

An individual who had a great view of what was happening was newly hired defensive coordinator Taylor Wolfe.

“You get momentum, right, and I think football is such a game of momentum,” he said in mid June. “One of the things we’ve been saying is ‘every snap is a game. Whether you win or lose it, you have to flush that play really quickly and go on to the next one.’ That’s what you look at. I think year to year is ‘hey, what type of offense are we going to have? What type of defense are we going to have?’ And then you go forth and you play complimentary football.”

Wolfe, who worked for Carlos Lynn at Cedar Hill for two years and for Tyler Beatty at China Spring for two years before coming to Marble Falls, noted that the coordinators met with the head coach each Monday to “talk our thoughts” about what they believed their units could do against the opponent that week.

“You have an idea week by week on how you want to attack your opponent, and then you just kind of counter off of that and just continue to do what you’re doing,” he said. “You prepare yourself for ‘hey, we’re gonna throw it around a lot,’ which could be a fast touchdown, and then off of that defensively, now I know, ‘Hey, we could be playing a bunch of snaps that game.’ So you just adjust and you call things a little bit differently.”

Early in his career, Wolfe said the position he wanted the most out of was safety because “I was lucky enough to play safety at (Southwestern College in Winfield, Kan.) and play some football.”

As he’s progressed in his career, he has evolved and now believes that every position must perform at a high level for the defense to get the results they all want.

“I’ve had multiple years of coaching every position,” he said. “So I know what everything needs to look like. To be honest with you, I’m tough and hard on all of them.”

And that goes back to why head coach Keri Timmerman offered Wolfe the position.

“Stopping the run well is all about fitting,” the coordinator said. “As a linebacker, I need to trust that the defensive line is going to fit it correctly, so that I can fit fast.”

He described the same trust the defensive backs must have in the front seven.

“For it to work successfully, they all have to be executed at a high level and they all have to play fast, they all have to play hard,” Wolfe said. “Year to year, you have your veteran group so to speak and then you have your younger group that maybe we graduated a lot at whatever position. It may be my eyes are there a little bit more, but really overall, whoever’s on the field, all 11 and then in practice — we’re coaching seniors, the freshmen — the standards in this are the same, no matter what. I want them all fitting, I want them all talking, communicating pre-snap and then when that ball is snapped, playing really fast and really hard.”