Jamboree

Not a terrible performance beating crosstown rival, 5A Southwood, in a 10-0 jamboree, but there is still worlds of questions heading into our season opener against probably the toughest team on the schedule.

Overall, I was pleased with the JV and Varsity execution of the DBs and it would appear we are making progress. The following are clips I particularly enjoyed....

Jamboree @ Yahoo! Video

Play:

1. Fundamentally flawless hit and support from (Jr) #31 K.Pitre, who has really been impressive since Spring and in the weight room. Though not a flashy back, he is as solid of a contributor as we have on the team.
2. (Sr) #24 D.Thompson whom we have made the most progress with since Spring has a decent breakup to end a drive / quarter.
3. An aggressive breakup of a stick/spot route off of jet motion by our (Sr) #5 FS J.Fobbs. This play here helped eliminate this 'money' play for this offense. Considerable time was spent in practice recognizing the nuances of stems to see this develop
4. Not a great play as the Dig is wide open, but it highlights the dramatic improvement of #24 who lays a WOO! lick on the backside Post. This player was not known for his ability to be physical or 'tough' in the Spring, and to his credit, has come a long way in asserting his presence on the field. See the knockout he delivers backside in last week's opening clip.
5. Another eye-gouging gain on the defense as the QB keep gains big, I was pleased with the CB leverage in support and both corners making sure tackles here.
6. This is a great example (and improvement for this player) of (Sr) #1 C.Willis working his support leverage, escape on the stalk, and textbook tackle.
7. Against the Post/Curl, #24 breaks on the post after reading quarterback.
8. Same as #5 above, fundamentally sound leverage of support by the corners and no pussified/cocksucker tackles.
9. JV player (Jr) #82 T.Williams at FS breaks up the weak seam against 5 verticals. This is an eager player who is pressing for more Varsity time and has been eating up the handouts and understanding his role in coverage.
10. JV player (Jr) #30 K.Thomas at corner, keeps a disciplined slide, solid break on the hitch, perfect leverage of the ball carrier, and a sure tackle. This player has made considerable strides in the last three weeks to be recognized and has been diligent to work his fundamentals. This once timid, unconfident, and soft player is finding the joy of football (via technique and fundamentals).

I look forward to our matchup this week against a Texas powerhouse, and am gearing up to have a solid rotation of 7 different defensive backs in the game to contribute.

In other news....

After our jamboree, no joke, an assistant chimes up, "Coach, have you ever thought of running VEER out of empty?!"
(HolyS*#t silence)

Our JV TE kept lining up incorrectly on the wrong side, causing illegal formations (making the X think he should back off the LOS). Play after play, "I-Right" is called, and this player continued to break the huddle and line up on the left. When confronting the player after the series, the OC looks down and sees the player wearing 2 right-footed cleats....

Only had one off-sides penalty called on our defense all night. After a hard cadence, no one on the D even flinches.......except for our DEAF NOSE GUARD!

Notes on Compartmentalizing in Coaching

Musings on coaching methodology shared from two good coaching threads from CoachHuey.com
Coaching the Details
Comprehensive Skill Sheet (for player metrics)

I believe it is important to identify all the duties (and thus all the skills) required of the players of your defense.

Part of technique/fundamental responsibilities that is most important (IMO) is being clear about what NOT to do (what ISN'T important to the position).

It is one thing to say what to do, but defining the limits of that responsibility is just as valuable.
We call this, WIN (What's Important Now).

W.I.N.

What's
Important
Now

What is the most important thing for a specific position? What is the one thing that could make (this position) look bad?

The bubble LBs main job, his immediate threat is Iso. He should look for (expect) that FIRST on any play with 2-backs

And more importantly, what is NOT important.

A cover 3 corner really has no concern on immediate run (support), so throwing that into his logic-string on play keys is only going to slow him down.

Most of the time there is typically only 3 things a position really needs to worry about vs certain formations (understanding his role at a particular time).

Eliminate the fluff be elucidating the only thing that matters ("you can only be threatened by lead iso F on an inside angle") and nothing else matters until this threat is clearly eliminated. This creates a binary logic algorithym - very clear metrics on what is important (based on eliminating everything that isn't).

Ever see "Platoon" and Willem DaFoe's character starts stripping Charlie Sheen's character of superflous gear?

Yeah, that's what I'm talking about.

Don't give your players worthless shit to carry into a game/play.

Don't defend the planet....just concern yourself with your house first, your neighborhood second.
This comes by compartmentalizing the field with dividers for DBs, gap control based on back alignment with LBs, etc......reduce the amount of elements that a player can be forced to hesitate over.

How do you eat an elephant?

One piece at a time

Most textbook drills exist in a vaccuum environment with no context. They may enforce hip leverage but not ball leverage/fits. With linebackers, for example, you have to set the parameters of the scrape,"Here is 'power', on THIS key, you should push off the outside foot to shuffle twice into opposite B gap" (rather than just chase ball).

He should be in position (not out of his AO) and be ready for tackle or spilling.
I would look into the efficiency of the teaching methods and that the drills they are doing have real-world/ contextual applications. A kid may be a world beater in a drill, but have no idea how to apply that skill set to what he sees on the field.

How consistent is the "next play" concept with what (skill sets) you have already built. If a new defense has no connection with what was previously ran, the kids will be lost (ie; C3 is just like C1, except......C3 is just like C2, except.....)

TEAM DEFENSE

Personally, I would see EVERY defensive player as interchangeable parts. They ALL have to have certain skill sets to perform at a modicum of competency on defense.They all must be able toTackle, defeat blocks/escape(leverage), and hustle.Those tenets would be reinforced as the blessed trinity EVERYDAY, even if for only 5 minutes. It is a psychological ploy to get the players to believe in their ability to do these, as well as reinforce their importance.

GROUP DEFENSE

Once these 3 prerequisites are founded, you can move onto the minutiae of position skill set. Get-offs, drops, angles will be different for each group, but the basic LB technique of taking on a lead block would remain consistent.

INDY DEFENSE

The position-specific technique portion for a player is built upon the proceeding 2 elements. This is where you would concentrate on the double-teams a nose would face and which hand he should have down and what leverage he needs to maintain

I want to say that most of this stuff, I have personally outlined (for myself) and it is the 3 articles on my sitekreator page (spells out the how's and why's of what I have done)

North vs South Redux (Big Ten Image Problem)

I just wanted to throw a hat tip / nod to an interesting article written by Jason Lloyd of Lindy's regarding the disparity of the North vs South argument, specifically the Big Ten's trend against other NCAA conferences in big games.

The author showers the article with pertinent facts and statistics that support this case, and specifically ties the precipitating factor to athletic and explosive defensive linemen.

Unfortunately, I do not see the article available online (otherwise I'd link it), but it is available int he 2009 Lindy's College Football Preview magazine (who reads these anymore?). I really don't have any regard for sports writers and the hollow dogshit regurgitated sports cliches they attempt to provide (they call "analysis"), but this article in particular offered a rather cogent argument with supporting findings.

Nuggets worth repeating;

• Big Ten's bowl record over the past 6years is 15-28 (Big Ten was 1-6 in the 2008 post season)
• OSU has won 4 consecutive Big Ten Titles, but hasn't won a bowl game since 2005.
• Texas, LSU, and USC combined to have 7 defensive linemen drafted in the 2009. 5 were drafted from the entire Big Ten.
• In 2008, only 4 defensive linemen in the Big Ten were drafted
• Since 2004, 16 defensive tackles were drafted in the 1st round in the NFL. None has come from the Big Ten.
• The last Big Ten defensive tackle to be drafted in the 1st round was perennial turd, Jimmy Kennedy in 2003 (Penn State).

"Defensive tackle play is a battle of hands, and so many young high school guys have no clue how to use their hands as a defensive lineman, particularly a defensive tackle." - Tim Brewster, Minnesota Head Coach

Here's to looking forward to USC again dismantling the hype-machine known as OSU in the coming weeks. Tune in to Trojan Football Analysis for his breakdown of this matchup.

Believe the hype........(movie recommendation)

If this is any indication of how pedestrian my season is going right now, I'm in the theater on a Monday evening.......


In any event, "Inglourious Basterds" (nice excuse to use this word loudly in public) is a pretty awesome movie that you ought to go see.


This is the movie that "The Dirty Dozen" wanted to grow up to be but failed because it suffered from bed wetting and being picked on in school for smelling like pee. It has enough grit and edge to keep you excited, with just enough levity to relax and enjoy.

Joe Wladislaw has nothing on Hugo Stiglitz and the "Jew Bear"

The movie is driven by a dialogue-rich, quad-linguist antagonist, Christopher Waltz (though without the depth of say, "Deadwood"). Although relentlessly sinister, his witty retorts and meticulous logic draws the viewer in to connect with him. Being a multi-linguist myself (fluent in engrish, ass-kickery, and bullshit), I couldn't help but find this character as the reckoning focal point in the movie.

This historically accurate piece of pivotal 20th Century events, fleshes out the details of what caused the end of WWII and the Third Reich. This film will likely be a standard for high school history classes for generations to come.

The movie opens as the German Aryan Nation advances through Eastern Europe at the cusp of American involvement into this combat theatre. With civilization on the brink of collapse to Hitler's advancement of a consuming Rheinland ideology headed by Wagner and FOX News, the fate of the world lays in the hands of 7 Jews and an Appalachian hillbilly. What ensues next is an orgasmic diarrhea of violence and interlocution. Hang on to your popcorn!

Though clearly violent enough to satiate the blood lust of today's audiences, it isn't quite on par with the intensity of recent classics as "There Will Be Blood" and "No Country For Old Men", this movie holds its own and is truly the crown in cinematic fare for 2009.

Clearly fans of 42 Nickel

Scrimmage Results

Nothing really to add, just showing some clips from Friday's scrimmage.
Still have fundamental issues to iron out (support angle) with a few guys, but all-in-all, all 3 different groups of DBs were textbook in technique (can't speak for the front 7)

21 Aug @ Yahoo! Video