Pierre Ingram, currently offensive coordinator for the Fujitsu Footballers Pro American Football Team in Japan, has racked up a record of success as a coach and a recruiter.
The son of the late Lt. Colonel Sebastian Ortarry Ingram, a Division I football player and track athlete, Pierre Ingram is a veteran coach of 13 years’ experience, the last seven years in Japan.
In his short career, Pierre Ingram has coached two All-Americans and eight All-Conference players. He has coached 15 NFL players. Players on his teams include 2012 Capital One Academic All-American First Team Member Ray Holley and 2016 NFL #1 Draft Pick Jared Goff, who went to the LA Rams.
Ingram was the Footballscoop.com Final Four Running Back Coach of the Year and the ESPN.com Recruiter of the Year for the Western Athletic Conference, both in 2012. He was in Rivals.com Top 10 Recruiters of the Year for the PAC-12 two years later, in 2014.
After these accomplishments, Pierre Ingram took on the challenge of coaching professional football in Japan.
Pierre Ingram knows how to succeed under pressure. And as he tells it, his secret is very simple:
Give the game your best, but enjoy what you do.
Pierre Ingram has found one aspect of coaching pro football in Japan uniquely stressful. Players in Japan, Ingram says, do what you tell them to do.
“Japan has college and professional football like the United States does,” Ingram told Tony Franklin on The Coach Tony Franklin Podcast. “But some of the differences are mindblowing.”
“College kids in Japan are so proud of their football teams. They have chants and cheers and dynamics that we really don’t carry when it comes to football. The way they perceive it, the way they are so direct in what they do.”
“When you are coaching a Japanese player, he is going to execute a play exactly like you told him. So, I might tell a member of my team to run this play from your left foot and be sure you break and roll flat, and make sure your top shoulder is covered up just in case a DB tries to break through, and he is going to execute just like that.”
“Then it comes on me to coach him a little bit different, because the players are doing what I tell them.”
“You might have to tell Pierre 15 times to do something. You tell that kid in Japan one time and he will do exactly what you say.”
Many American coaches would like to have to deal with that source of pressure.
Pierre Ingram attributes his “do your best, but have fun” attitude to his late father. Growing up as a military kid, Ingram was separated from his father for long periods of time during the Iraq War. When Pierre Ingram did see his father, he paid attention.The elder Ingram advised his son, “Don’t bitch, don’t moan, do your best and have fun.” It is a mindset that is bringing Pierre Ingram success in his coaching career.