Realizing scheme/coaching changes early means a lot to me in regards to gambing. Look at what Charlie Weis, Jeff Tedford and Ralph Friedgen could do for your bankroll in the early part of the season-
This was from Bruce Feldman's blog a while back from ESPN.com about all the coaching and scheme changes. I thought this would be helpful to you all-
<<<This week's list was born out of the visit last week to see West Virginia, where so many coaches have trekked to in hopes of learning something about the dynamic attack coach Rich Rodriguez has developed in Morgantown. Today's list is an offshoot of that. Here's a look at the most intriguing system shifts as new coordinators come in trying to rescue some floundering offense or defense. In many cases it could also serve as a de facto hot seat list for their bosses, although that would be something only a real cynic would point out.
1. Texas A&M defense: The Wrecking Crew is officially back. Or so says new D-coordinator Gary Darnell. "We aren't running from it," Darnell said Tuesday about the famed moniker that A&M had recently shied away from. "Now we've got to live up to it."
To try and do that, coach Dennis Franchione has gone back to his roots and brought in Darnell to direct a 4-2-5 scheme, which is the same thing Fran turned loose at TCU. The hope is that it combats the spread schemes A&M faces so much, which in part led to the Aggies surrendering over 31 points per game the past three seasons. In '05, A&M -- a team some in the media (especially some beach-loving writers) picked as a pre-season Big 12 titleist -- was actually last in the nation in pass defense.
Franchione is banking on the scheme to fix that. Having the additional DB on the field will match up better against four- and five-receiver sets, but also Darnell said because it's easier to dial up run blitzes out of the 4-2-5. I ran into Fran at West Virginia and he sounded very pleased with what he saw this spring, especially from JC transfer Mark Dodge, a 25-year-old who landed the linebacker job opposite incumbent Justin Warren. "A natural" is how Darnell described Dodge.
The big X-factor at A&M is who takes over the "whip" position as the big, physical safety who sets the tempo for the scheme. Darnell concedes they're still looking. Perhaps the answer will come when JC transfer Jarius Neal, a 6-foot-3, 218-pounder with 4.6-speed, arrives in the fall. Darnell was quick to point out another big plus with this defense: "There's not quite as steep a learning curve," he said. "The complexity is kept to a minimum." That's because it is supposedly very segmented in teaching principles.
2. Arkansas offense: Houston Nutt turned to an unlikely source to try and revive the Razorbacks offense: a high school coach. But Gus Malzahn does have a certain mystique to him. The 40-year-old is a big hit as a speaker at coaches' conventions and is the author of a book about the hurry-up, no-huddle offense.
After his high-scoring team went undefeated and won the state championship at Springdale, Ark., Malzahn was hired to overhaul a Razorback offense that had become very predictable last season. Oh, and by the way, he was the coach of blue-chip QB prospect Mitch Mustain who arrives at UA this fall. Nutt also brought on new quarterbacks coach Alex Wood, an NFL coaching veteran.
The buzz on Malzahn is that he strives to attack vertically, but loves to set things up with a variety of bubble screens, draws, reverses and slant patterns. The early showings indicate the backs will be utilized as down-field targets. In the first two scrimmages this spring, rugged Peyton Hillis had touchdown receptions of 25 and 19 yards. He also had a 26-yard reception in last week's scrimmage.
Just how well the high school guy has been received by the rest of the staff has been the source of some pretty juicy rumors. O-line coach Mike Markuson doesn't like the blocking schemes for the spread offense, so he supposedly kept going back to his zone blocking ways. The second rumor was that defensive coordinator Reggie Herring, despite Malzahn's pleas to the contrary, kept blitzing regardless if the offense was trying to learn a certain thing. Wally Hall of the Arkansas Democrat says the rumor mill notwithstanding, this staff knows their jobs are on the line and they have too much at stake to sabotage the new guy.
Hopefully, for Nutt's sake, he's right.
3. Miami offense: Cane fans finally got their wish, their favorite whipping boy, offensive coordinator Dan Werner (off to Ole Miss) is gone. Right or wrong, Werner took the brunt of the blame for an offense that, despite having a handful of first-day picks (most notably speedsters Roscoe Parrish and Sinorice Moss), failed to produce many big plays the last two seasons. In 2005, the Hurricanes were held to their lowest per-game scoring average (27.1) since 1995. They also surrendered the most sacks in the ACC, and that was in spite of an O-line that featured four seniors. One rival defensive coach I spoke with called UM the most vanilla passing game he'd seen in years.
Enter Rich Olson, a former UM coordinator from the Dennis Erickson era, who's spent much of the last decade in the NFL with the Redskins, Cardinals, Seahawks and Vikings. Exactly what Olson will unveil in '06 is still a bit murky. UM didn't want to show anything in its spring game, and that produced a pretty dismal showing, although half of Miami's top skill players sat out the game.
Look for the Canes to incorporate some slants, more of a quick, three-step drop passing game, and also rely on the backs more as receivers -- all things that might have alleviated some of the heat on the QBs last season. Olson said he was pleased with Kyle Wright and his backup Kirby Freeman from a technical standpoint, but the big challenge will be improving their decision-making. Hot reads will be crucial. There will be much more freedom for the QBs to aubible.
"The biggest thing is getting the ball out of his hand faster," Olson said of Wright. "We'll have more three-step and five-step drops with quick decisions. We don't want them burdened to make a play."
Prediction: You'll see Wright, a sub 4.6 40 guy, moving a little more and the tight ends and H-backs (Greg Olsen, Richard Gordon and Chris Zellner) will catch a lot more passes.
4. Tennessee offense: Hard to find a bigger flop than the 2005 Vols. In fact, I'm not sure how far you'd have to go back to find a bigger debacle in college football.
A 5-6 season was plagued by coach Phil Fulmer's yo-yoing of QBs Erik Ainge and Rick Clausen and the 101st ranked offense that culminated by Big Phil dumping Randy Sanders for former UT offensive coordinator David Cutcliffe, the groomer of Peyton Manning and Tee Martin. The Cutcliffe name carries a lot of weight around Knoxville. If he can get the Vols back in the top 15, the guy probably will be in line for another head coaching spot by season's end.
Ainge's evolution will be the litmus test. He has a strong arm and decent mobility, but his confidence was shattered and his teammates knew it. Cutcliffe has drilled him on how to regain that by re-focusing him. The buzzword here is tempo.
5. Michigan defense: My hunch is that Wolverine fans didn't shed a tear to see Jim Herrmann, a former Michigan player and a guy who had been the longest-tenured assistant on the staff depart after 20 seasons. In truth, I get more e-mails from frustrated Michigan fans than any other. I can understand it to some degree. The program cranks out quality football players, many of whom seem to be more productive in the NFL than they actually were in college. That's a pretty rare turn for football players, but for whatever reason not with the Maize and Blue. "Consistently, this is the most underachieving program in the country," says one NFL scout. "Although FSU seems to be closing the gap a little."
The Wolverines have been loaded with talent (Gabe Watson, budding star Alan Branch, LaMarr Woodley among others), yet the defense allowed a school-record 279 points in 2004. On paper, you would've expected them to dominate up front last season. Instead, it ranked 36th in the nation in total defense (345.2) and 41st in run defense (137.3) in '05. Worse still, despite those kinds of studs up front, eight running backs gained 100 or more yards against the Wolverines last season and four games were lost when the opposing team scored on its last drive.
The new man running the show is former DB coach Ron English, a guy who previously had been best known for being an energetic recruiter. (I'll have more from English in Friday's entry. We're supposed to chat Thursday morning.)
6. Cal offense: Jeff Tedford has been considered one of college football's sharper offensive minds. I think he could probably turn Steve Levy (the SportsCenter host, not the one-time Cal fullback) into a winning QB. However, Tedford is tinkering with his system. He hired Northwestern assistant Mike Dunbar to incorporate more principles of the spread offense into his attack, which the new OC reasons should help the Bear QBs see the field better while operating out of the shotgun. It also will open up wider lanes for star TBs Marshawn Lynch and Justin Forsett. After all, it sure made unheralded freshman Tyrell Sutton look great. Dunbar's offense led the Big Ten in total offense last season and was fourth in the nation in total yardage and seventh in passing.
To spice things up even more, Tedford visited West Virginia's Rich Rodriguez for a better handle on the evolution of the spread and all that it can do with formations and disguising things. This should be fun. The Bears have a ton of firepower, although their O-line won't be as experienced as last year's unit.
This was from Bruce Feldman's blog a while back from ESPN.com about all the coaching and scheme changes. I thought this would be helpful to you all-
<<<This week's list was born out of the visit last week to see West Virginia, where so many coaches have trekked to in hopes of learning something about the dynamic attack coach Rich Rodriguez has developed in Morgantown. Today's list is an offshoot of that. Here's a look at the most intriguing system shifts as new coordinators come in trying to rescue some floundering offense or defense. In many cases it could also serve as a de facto hot seat list for their bosses, although that would be something only a real cynic would point out.
1. Texas A&M defense: The Wrecking Crew is officially back. Or so says new D-coordinator Gary Darnell. "We aren't running from it," Darnell said Tuesday about the famed moniker that A&M had recently shied away from. "Now we've got to live up to it."
To try and do that, coach Dennis Franchione has gone back to his roots and brought in Darnell to direct a 4-2-5 scheme, which is the same thing Fran turned loose at TCU. The hope is that it combats the spread schemes A&M faces so much, which in part led to the Aggies surrendering over 31 points per game the past three seasons. In '05, A&M -- a team some in the media (especially some beach-loving writers) picked as a pre-season Big 12 titleist -- was actually last in the nation in pass defense.
Franchione is banking on the scheme to fix that. Having the additional DB on the field will match up better against four- and five-receiver sets, but also Darnell said because it's easier to dial up run blitzes out of the 4-2-5. I ran into Fran at West Virginia and he sounded very pleased with what he saw this spring, especially from JC transfer Mark Dodge, a 25-year-old who landed the linebacker job opposite incumbent Justin Warren. "A natural" is how Darnell described Dodge.
The big X-factor at A&M is who takes over the "whip" position as the big, physical safety who sets the tempo for the scheme. Darnell concedes they're still looking. Perhaps the answer will come when JC transfer Jarius Neal, a 6-foot-3, 218-pounder with 4.6-speed, arrives in the fall. Darnell was quick to point out another big plus with this defense: "There's not quite as steep a learning curve," he said. "The complexity is kept to a minimum." That's because it is supposedly very segmented in teaching principles.
2. Arkansas offense: Houston Nutt turned to an unlikely source to try and revive the Razorbacks offense: a high school coach. But Gus Malzahn does have a certain mystique to him. The 40-year-old is a big hit as a speaker at coaches' conventions and is the author of a book about the hurry-up, no-huddle offense.
After his high-scoring team went undefeated and won the state championship at Springdale, Ark., Malzahn was hired to overhaul a Razorback offense that had become very predictable last season. Oh, and by the way, he was the coach of blue-chip QB prospect Mitch Mustain who arrives at UA this fall. Nutt also brought on new quarterbacks coach Alex Wood, an NFL coaching veteran.
The buzz on Malzahn is that he strives to attack vertically, but loves to set things up with a variety of bubble screens, draws, reverses and slant patterns. The early showings indicate the backs will be utilized as down-field targets. In the first two scrimmages this spring, rugged Peyton Hillis had touchdown receptions of 25 and 19 yards. He also had a 26-yard reception in last week's scrimmage.
Just how well the high school guy has been received by the rest of the staff has been the source of some pretty juicy rumors. O-line coach Mike Markuson doesn't like the blocking schemes for the spread offense, so he supposedly kept going back to his zone blocking ways. The second rumor was that defensive coordinator Reggie Herring, despite Malzahn's pleas to the contrary, kept blitzing regardless if the offense was trying to learn a certain thing. Wally Hall of the Arkansas Democrat says the rumor mill notwithstanding, this staff knows their jobs are on the line and they have too much at stake to sabotage the new guy.
Hopefully, for Nutt's sake, he's right.
3. Miami offense: Cane fans finally got their wish, their favorite whipping boy, offensive coordinator Dan Werner (off to Ole Miss) is gone. Right or wrong, Werner took the brunt of the blame for an offense that, despite having a handful of first-day picks (most notably speedsters Roscoe Parrish and Sinorice Moss), failed to produce many big plays the last two seasons. In 2005, the Hurricanes were held to their lowest per-game scoring average (27.1) since 1995. They also surrendered the most sacks in the ACC, and that was in spite of an O-line that featured four seniors. One rival defensive coach I spoke with called UM the most vanilla passing game he'd seen in years.
Enter Rich Olson, a former UM coordinator from the Dennis Erickson era, who's spent much of the last decade in the NFL with the Redskins, Cardinals, Seahawks and Vikings. Exactly what Olson will unveil in '06 is still a bit murky. UM didn't want to show anything in its spring game, and that produced a pretty dismal showing, although half of Miami's top skill players sat out the game.
Look for the Canes to incorporate some slants, more of a quick, three-step drop passing game, and also rely on the backs more as receivers -- all things that might have alleviated some of the heat on the QBs last season. Olson said he was pleased with Kyle Wright and his backup Kirby Freeman from a technical standpoint, but the big challenge will be improving their decision-making. Hot reads will be crucial. There will be much more freedom for the QBs to aubible.
"The biggest thing is getting the ball out of his hand faster," Olson said of Wright. "We'll have more three-step and five-step drops with quick decisions. We don't want them burdened to make a play."
Prediction: You'll see Wright, a sub 4.6 40 guy, moving a little more and the tight ends and H-backs (Greg Olsen, Richard Gordon and Chris Zellner) will catch a lot more passes.
4. Tennessee offense: Hard to find a bigger flop than the 2005 Vols. In fact, I'm not sure how far you'd have to go back to find a bigger debacle in college football.
A 5-6 season was plagued by coach Phil Fulmer's yo-yoing of QBs Erik Ainge and Rick Clausen and the 101st ranked offense that culminated by Big Phil dumping Randy Sanders for former UT offensive coordinator David Cutcliffe, the groomer of Peyton Manning and Tee Martin. The Cutcliffe name carries a lot of weight around Knoxville. If he can get the Vols back in the top 15, the guy probably will be in line for another head coaching spot by season's end.
Ainge's evolution will be the litmus test. He has a strong arm and decent mobility, but his confidence was shattered and his teammates knew it. Cutcliffe has drilled him on how to regain that by re-focusing him. The buzzword here is tempo.
5. Michigan defense: My hunch is that Wolverine fans didn't shed a tear to see Jim Herrmann, a former Michigan player and a guy who had been the longest-tenured assistant on the staff depart after 20 seasons. In truth, I get more e-mails from frustrated Michigan fans than any other. I can understand it to some degree. The program cranks out quality football players, many of whom seem to be more productive in the NFL than they actually were in college. That's a pretty rare turn for football players, but for whatever reason not with the Maize and Blue. "Consistently, this is the most underachieving program in the country," says one NFL scout. "Although FSU seems to be closing the gap a little."
The Wolverines have been loaded with talent (Gabe Watson, budding star Alan Branch, LaMarr Woodley among others), yet the defense allowed a school-record 279 points in 2004. On paper, you would've expected them to dominate up front last season. Instead, it ranked 36th in the nation in total defense (345.2) and 41st in run defense (137.3) in '05. Worse still, despite those kinds of studs up front, eight running backs gained 100 or more yards against the Wolverines last season and four games were lost when the opposing team scored on its last drive.
The new man running the show is former DB coach Ron English, a guy who previously had been best known for being an energetic recruiter. (I'll have more from English in Friday's entry. We're supposed to chat Thursday morning.)
6. Cal offense: Jeff Tedford has been considered one of college football's sharper offensive minds. I think he could probably turn Steve Levy (the SportsCenter host, not the one-time Cal fullback) into a winning QB. However, Tedford is tinkering with his system. He hired Northwestern assistant Mike Dunbar to incorporate more principles of the spread offense into his attack, which the new OC reasons should help the Bear QBs see the field better while operating out of the shotgun. It also will open up wider lanes for star TBs Marshawn Lynch and Justin Forsett. After all, it sure made unheralded freshman Tyrell Sutton look great. Dunbar's offense led the Big Ten in total offense last season and was fourth in the nation in total yardage and seventh in passing.
To spice things up even more, Tedford visited West Virginia's Rich Rodriguez for a better handle on the evolution of the spread and all that it can do with formations and disguising things. This should be fun. The Bears have a ton of firepower, although their O-line won't be as experienced as last year's unit.