Well said Charlie but how do you cue an athlete who is clearly not lacking in strength or power but continues to shorten extension on the backside at the start? I’ve played with a lot of guys who are incredibly strong and powerful but chopped their strides coming out of the start in effort to be quick or perhaps they were uncomfortable with spending any amount of time in the air. I would think that proper therapy to restore mobility and range of motion would go a long way to fixing this issue but I also believe that being patient at the start and executing each step is the fastest way to the finish. As an aside, many have observed that 4.2-4.4 guys tend to finish in around 19-20.5 steps (except for Calvin Johnson who did it in 17 or 18!)
I understand your point of view that what works on the track works on the gridiron but outside of your coaching methods their are quite a few coaches who set up their acceleration pattern and start around NOT getting to 40-50 meters in the fastest manner possible. Tellez comes to mind from his recent lecture, he mentioned various positions and acceleration curves that may get you to 40-60 faster but not necessarily 100m.
1: Relaxation is paramount in getting performance and chopping is often a result of tightness.