Before landing the head coaching job at New Mexico back in 2009, Mike Locksley had built a name for himself as an elite recruiter and one of the best offensive coordinators in college football while calling plays on Ron Zook's staff at Illinois.
We're all aware of how Locks' head coaching debut went from there - winning just two games in two seasons (2-22 overall) before being let go after an 0-4 start in 2011. Locks went on to become the offensive coordinator at Maryland under Randy Edsall for a few seasons, serving briefly as the interim head coach after Edsall's dismissal in 2015, before landing on Saban's staff as an offensive analyst.
Lane Kiffin's departure for FAU gave Locksley the opportunity to move into the offensive coordinator role and start to implement some of the things he'd learned behind the scenes of the Alabama program.
The Tide are heading into their semifinal game against Oklahoma averaging 48 points per game, and the Sooners are the only team in the country averaging more at 49.5 points per game.
At his Orange Bowl press conference earlier this week, Locksley explained that part of his challenge as a coordinator is making sure they're balanced in how they distribute the ball to different guys so that defenses have to account for everyone.
One of those the more simple things Locksley learned to do with the wealth of talent that the Tide have their disposal during his game planning process was to have a touch chart, according to AL.com.
“When you start game planning, at least for me, I have what I call a touch chart. There are certain guys I want to get the ball to a certain amount of times because of their ability to make big plays.”
Locksley also shared that he has his quarterbacks share 10-15 suggestions in their game plan so that he's informed of what they're most comfortable with so in key situations, Locks knows what calls the quarterbacks feel best about executing.
Hear Locksley share a bit about asking his quarterbacks for their input in the game plan in the clip, and head over to AL.com to read a bit more.
https://youtu.be/q-PtLjIdhOY?t=484