(S28) PT 4 - Back to School

[Troen]

You have been contacted by your old high school, who have just had their head coach resign. They have asked you to come back and coach a game for their football team, while they look for a new coach. What ends up happening during the game? How are you able to inspire the players? Do you end up taking a permanent job at the school?

The first concern I would have in these circumstances is scheduling. I went to high school in Barstow which, for those of you unfamiliar (and I wouldn't blame you), happens to be about a 2 hour drive north-east of LA (or way more during rush hour). Getting there from Austin in time for a game and then making it back to Austin for our game while not missing the Copperheads' walkthroughs and position meetings will be quite difficult.
Assuming that can be worked around somehow - maybe it's before our season starts, or they're playing spring season, or whatever - then my next issue would be that I've never really coached and I've pretty much only ever focused on the defensive side of things. Sure, I have a sense of offensive plays, but it's much more about diagnosing them from the defensive side and identifying likely calls given the down and distance situation. I could probably use that in conjunction with the team's playbook to have some sense of a reactive game plan, but without getting to see a practice or some footage of past games, I don't know that I'd really be in position to set them up to win. Sure, I could encourage the team and maybe help the defense figure out some tells of the offense, but I honestly haven't really looked into the coaching side of things in the future. If there was an assistant coach who I could lean on for the offensive playcalling then maybe I could give them a chance, but honestly it'd probably be better to give that coach the position in the first place, and maybe call me in for a pep talk instead.
And then as far as an ongoing job - like I said, it's not really something I've prepared for. If they did want to have me back and I had a few months to plan more holistically, I might be interested if I was in the area, but for as long as I'm in Austin I don't think it would work well.