At Under Armour All-America game, focus is just on basics

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Deion Sanders runs the defensive backs practicing for the Under Armour All-America Game through a series of drills. Though he’s 43, shows a little gray in his stubble and is nearly a decade removed from playing in the NFL, he’s lost none of his swagger.

He first shows the defensive backs what he wants them to do, then exhorts them as they try to mimic him.

“If it’s up in the air, it’s meant for you,” Sanders says. “Stay low 17, stay low,” he tells Marcus Roberson of St. Thomas Aquinas High in Fort Lauderdale as Roberson pivots while backpedaling.

“I’m a demonstrative type coach, meaning I demonstrate instead of just talking to them,” Sanders says. “I try to give them little tricks of the trade.”

Coaching for televised high school all-star football games, such as Wednesday night’s Under Armour All-America Game on ESPN or Saturday’s U.S. Army All-American Bowl (1 p.m. ET, NBC), is limited.

Instead of having weeks or months to put in offenses and defenses like high school and college teams, it’s a matter of days for all-star games. Everything is simplified. At the Under Armour Game, the rules include no blitzes, no no-huddle offenses, no motion on offense and no fakes on point-after kicks. The U.S. Army All-American Bowl bans blitzes, limits the number of no-huddle situations and has limits on offensive formations.

Robert Ford, who has been an NFL assistant with the Cowboys, Dolphins, Cardinals and Raiders, brought a package of only 27 plays as a coordinator for the Under Armour Red team.

“We kept it simple, so they at least learn some of the offense,” Ford says. “It’s not about the system. It’s about them and trying to display their athletic ability and hoping they can enjoy themselves at practice and allow their athletic ability to show on game day. I was very impressed with the intelligence of the players, but it is really amazing how big some of these young men are. Some of these young men are bigger now than some NFL football players.”

Many of the players at these games are, for the first time, facing players as big and talented. That’s why the emphasis on the basics is still needed.

“We work on fundamentals and try to teach them the defensive and offensive schemes,” said Red team assistant Bobby Carroll of South Pointe High in Rock Hill, S.C. “A lot of them haven’t played since early November. The big thing is honing skills they already have.”

“You work on little things, like bending your knees,” said Red assistant John Sanders of Saguaro High in Scottsdale, Ariz. “A lot of them haven’t played for state championship teams, and not all of them have been extremely well coached. They’ve been able to get by strictly on athletic ability, until now.”

Xzavier Dickson, a defensive end from Griffin, Ga., who was on the White team for the Under Armour game, said he picked up something he’ll be able to use at the next level

“I learned how to open up my stride when I’m pass rushing,” Dickson said. “They told me I was making little, short strides and I had to open up my stride. I did that, and I started getting to the quarterback more.”

Though the Under Armour Game has high-profile coaches in White head coach Mike Ditka and Red head coach Steve Mariucci, sometimes the big names are lost on the players, even if the lessons aren’t. Ford, who worked in the NFL from 1991 to 2006, mentioned Pro Football Hall of Fame wide receiver Raymond Berry of the 1950s and 1960s Colts and got a lot of blank stares from players.

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