Hoov50
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I know you have all been holding your breath waiting for my opinion on things, so here it is!
I haven’t been on the board lately and even though the season is over and we are looking at another coaching change, I wanted to point out some of the things that have bothered me the past few years. Some of these things have been going on from well before Coach Shafer took over and some from even before Coach Marrone, but in my mind these are some things that our new coaches NEED to address in order for us to be successful, what “successful” is at this time is up for debate.
A few of these things I have posted about in the past, so feel free to skim or ignore this post completely…
Defending spread offenses is something we have not done effectively. This hasn’t always translated to a loss, but it has translated to some wins where mediocre teams push us to the limits and mediocre players have All-American performances! We need a defensive coordinator who understands the spread offense and has multiple techniques to try and stop it, or at least slow it down. From coaching myself I can tell you defending the spread offense is difficult. It takes a good defensive coordinator to defend the spread. On the other hand it only takes an average defensive coordinator to defend the pro-style offense. Without really analyzing our schedule the past three years, I would venture to guess 8-10 of our opponents each year have run some variation of the spread offense. Let’s get a guy who knows how to defend it!
Getting into more specifics with our defense, our zone technique has been pathetic. To me it looks like our defenders are taught to get to a “landmark” when in zone defense. This is a common technique that many defenses use. However, most defenses then ask the defender to do something when they get to the landmark, read the quarterback, read the patterns being run, read a specific receiver, SOMETHING! Our defenders get the landmark and stand! I can’t even begin to count the number of times our defenders are standing at their landmark without a single offensive player within fifteen yards! “Find work” is a phrase I use and have heard many excellent coaches use when coaching the zone. Defensive players playing a zone should be aware of the patterns being run and the offensive players around or not around them and react accordingly. There have been almost as many times when receivers have snuck by our zone defenders. Our defenders are standing at their landmark while a wide open receiver is 3-4 yards away completely uncovered. Imagine if our 2-3 zone in basketball involved our guys standing still at their spot, regardless of what the opponents were doing. That’s what our football zone defenders seem to be doing on a regular basis.
Stupid penalties have killed us for the past 10 years! For me the straw that broke the camel's back was when Coach Shafer started picking up stupid penalties. I can tell you from my time as both an assistant and head coach that officials put up with a lot. Even the most temperamental ones give you a “one more word…” warning before throwing the flag. At that point most coaches regardless of how awful the call was know that they need to shut up. Football isn’t like basketball, in basketball sometimes a technical foul can get a team fired up and provide motivation. In football a fifteen yard unsportsmanlike penalty on the coach rarely has the same effect. Let me be clear, the vast majority of our stupid penalties have been on our players. Late hits, little shoves after the whistle, false starts, and delay of game penalties are all things that can be controlled. They are also all things our players have been guilty of on numerous occasions for what seems like forever.
Defense and lack of discipline weren’t our only problems. This past season we have gone back to the Coach DeLeone and Coach Pasqualoni days of the run, run, pass offense. The only difference was that with Coach D and Coach P we were winning 8-9 games consistently and going to bowls. I will admit our offense schemes and plays this season were much improved from the Coach McDonald experience of last year, but we still rarely unexpectedly stretched the field.
Coach Shafer and his staff did a good job of bringing in athletes. Given the right coaching choice we have the pieces to win 7-8 games next year in my opinion. I have confidence that AD Coyle knows what he is looking for and am hopeful that he can get his choice to come to SU.
For me we can’t be looking too far in the future when choosing a head coach. This time if we can get a Scott Frost, who may only be here until the Nebraska job opens, I say we should do it! If we get someone who has success, but leaves after 3-4 years we can use that success to help us find the next coach. Ideally, I would love to find a coach who does a great job and wants to stay at SU. With that being said, how do we know that is the case, we thought Doug Marrone fit that description.
I haven’t been on the board lately and even though the season is over and we are looking at another coaching change, I wanted to point out some of the things that have bothered me the past few years. Some of these things have been going on from well before Coach Shafer took over and some from even before Coach Marrone, but in my mind these are some things that our new coaches NEED to address in order for us to be successful, what “successful” is at this time is up for debate.
A few of these things I have posted about in the past, so feel free to skim or ignore this post completely…
Defending spread offenses is something we have not done effectively. This hasn’t always translated to a loss, but it has translated to some wins where mediocre teams push us to the limits and mediocre players have All-American performances! We need a defensive coordinator who understands the spread offense and has multiple techniques to try and stop it, or at least slow it down. From coaching myself I can tell you defending the spread offense is difficult. It takes a good defensive coordinator to defend the spread. On the other hand it only takes an average defensive coordinator to defend the pro-style offense. Without really analyzing our schedule the past three years, I would venture to guess 8-10 of our opponents each year have run some variation of the spread offense. Let’s get a guy who knows how to defend it!
Getting into more specifics with our defense, our zone technique has been pathetic. To me it looks like our defenders are taught to get to a “landmark” when in zone defense. This is a common technique that many defenses use. However, most defenses then ask the defender to do something when they get to the landmark, read the quarterback, read the patterns being run, read a specific receiver, SOMETHING! Our defenders get the landmark and stand! I can’t even begin to count the number of times our defenders are standing at their landmark without a single offensive player within fifteen yards! “Find work” is a phrase I use and have heard many excellent coaches use when coaching the zone. Defensive players playing a zone should be aware of the patterns being run and the offensive players around or not around them and react accordingly. There have been almost as many times when receivers have snuck by our zone defenders. Our defenders are standing at their landmark while a wide open receiver is 3-4 yards away completely uncovered. Imagine if our 2-3 zone in basketball involved our guys standing still at their spot, regardless of what the opponents were doing. That’s what our football zone defenders seem to be doing on a regular basis.
Stupid penalties have killed us for the past 10 years! For me the straw that broke the camel's back was when Coach Shafer started picking up stupid penalties. I can tell you from my time as both an assistant and head coach that officials put up with a lot. Even the most temperamental ones give you a “one more word…” warning before throwing the flag. At that point most coaches regardless of how awful the call was know that they need to shut up. Football isn’t like basketball, in basketball sometimes a technical foul can get a team fired up and provide motivation. In football a fifteen yard unsportsmanlike penalty on the coach rarely has the same effect. Let me be clear, the vast majority of our stupid penalties have been on our players. Late hits, little shoves after the whistle, false starts, and delay of game penalties are all things that can be controlled. They are also all things our players have been guilty of on numerous occasions for what seems like forever.
Defense and lack of discipline weren’t our only problems. This past season we have gone back to the Coach DeLeone and Coach Pasqualoni days of the run, run, pass offense. The only difference was that with Coach D and Coach P we were winning 8-9 games consistently and going to bowls. I will admit our offense schemes and plays this season were much improved from the Coach McDonald experience of last year, but we still rarely unexpectedly stretched the field.
Coach Shafer and his staff did a good job of bringing in athletes. Given the right coaching choice we have the pieces to win 7-8 games next year in my opinion. I have confidence that AD Coyle knows what he is looking for and am hopeful that he can get his choice to come to SU.
For me we can’t be looking too far in the future when choosing a head coach. This time if we can get a Scott Frost, who may only be here until the Nebraska job opens, I say we should do it! If we get someone who has success, but leaves after 3-4 years we can use that success to help us find the next coach. Ideally, I would love to find a coach who does a great job and wants to stay at SU. With that being said, how do we know that is the case, we thought Doug Marrone fit that description.
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