Payback

[Carl Spackler]

I'm concerned about payback.

Payback for an education, on so many levels.

Football is a simple sport. Very simple. It's about simple leverage. The simplest of all human tools is a wedge.

Football is only as complex as you want to make it, because there are lots of people that make up football teams.

There are only two things. Blocking and tackling. That's it. The fight over possession of the ball, and scoring points? Secondary.

Blocking and tackling.

We suck at both.

It's not because the players don't want to - you look at the false starts tonight? It's because the players want to make the blocks. They just don't know how, when, where.....

Look at a guy like Junior.....had the opportunity to plant a player into that soggy turf - but knocked himself out. We have very few natural tacklers on this roster. It's a talent, that needs to be developed, very few have it naturally. Ashiru does. You come in head up, chest contact, low enough to have leverage, and wrap and drive your legs. You need to practice it.

Blocking? Do I need to write anything?

Coaching. Here's where I want payback. Coaching is getting an education, right now. I hope that when he's schooled, he stays and pays it back.

Tonight was a winnable game. Because through the first quarter of this season, and the approach we have taken, we are undisciplined in the basic fundamentals of football, blocking and tackling, we lost.

Going on the road, on a short week is tough on the most disciplined of teams, in fundamentals. Tonight was an exposition.

Where credit is due? This team, the players, did not fold. THey will compete, they want to win, they need to drill the fundamentals.

 

[Dooley]

Haven't we gone back to some variation of zone blocking on the OL? I think it's time to put zone blocking out to pasture forever at UCONN. Our guys will never get it, not even with Vince Lombardi coaching it. We've had success blocking with our OL with simple hat on hat man blocking schemes. Why change?

 

[J187Money]

Haven't we gone back to some variation of zone blocking on the OL? I think it's time to put zone blocking out to pasture forever at UCONN. Our guys will never get it, not even with Vince Lombardi coaching it. We've had success blocking with our OL with simple hat on hat man blocking schemes. Why change?

If that's the case then Foley needs to put his foot down or quit. This isn't working.

 

[Carl Spackler]

I'm not sure where to even begin talking about our ability to block, or lack thereof, right now. We don't seem to be able to consistently line up and get our assignments, and when we do seem to have assignments matched up, we get beat anyway. If things don't change quickly, it's possible that we will finish the season with the worst offensive line in division 1. That's figging hard to believe, given what we had the past few seasons. All you can do, really, is go back to fundamentals. Be able to count to 6, figure out who you are going to block, and then get into a good football blocking position, and do it.

As for tackling - through 3 games I have seen the worst body contact and fundamentals I care to see anymore. On kick coverages, on defense. Poor body position, poor leverage, and poor contact. Not everybody, but the majority. It's not only bad football, but it's dangerous football, because you can get hurt pretty easily, if you aren't trained on making good contact. I wonder how many stingers and shoulder, neck problems we've had, that we HAVEN"T seen happen live.

What this team needs, IMNSHO, is a weeks, and weeks, of practice, in nothing, but the fundamentals of football. I really think we have a young coach that is way overthinking his process, it was exposed bad, last night in the slop, wet, game where the winner would be decided by the fundamnetals. It's as old as dirt, and boring, but if you can't do it, you can't win. Blocking and tackling.

Here's some stuff on tackling. Watch this. Then go watch the game, again, from last night, if you can stomach it, and didn't delete it already.




It was a different era of pro football, but how does a 6'3' 220 pound middle linebacker soaking wet dominate the NFL? Because he was a football maniac, and his tackling technique was perfect, every time.

 

[zls44]

Carl, im glad you brought up tackling. It seems like our guys are content to run at people and bang into them, but don't have the foggiest idea how to get them to the ground. It's like watching a newborn try to walk.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Newborn trying to walk. I like that.

I've been thinking about this a while. I don't want it to seem like I'm really digging on the D. The defense has been stout, and has shown progress as a unit. But they lack the simple fundamentals, the entire team does. The easiest way to see a disciplined football team on defense, is to watch the arms on tackling. We don't wrap up, and lock with any consistency. That needs to be drilled, to perfection.

As for blocking - blocking is the more 'cerebral' I guess, civilized?, aspect of the yin/yang of blocking and tackling. Tackling is raw energy, with a singular purpose. Fighting through the blocking, weaving through the offense, taking away space and putting the ball carrier on the ground. The techniques don't change. Blocking? The techniques change, you need to be more skilled than a tackler. You need to be able to work angles, spacing - a much more indepth understanding of leverage and use of it, than tackling. THe interesting thing about really blocking, thought, being really good at blocking, is that the meanest and nastiest, attitude players, on the field, to get it done right, are going to be your offensive lineman, not some linebacker.

I don't even know where to begin with the blocking though. I'm at a loss for words, believe it or not. I have absolutely no possible explanation for what I'm seeing. The only thing I can think of that makes sense, is the single word - inconsistent, but that doesn't come anywhere near close to describing the level of sucktitude. The common theme for good OL's though, is the feet. Need feet like a boxer, to be able to move like that, then deliver a powerful blow with your upper body while moving. Skills that need to be trained.

There is a certain amount of talent, obviously, that needs to be there too.

I spent some time looking for good clips, but didn't find anything that I really liked. Erik Williams was the guy I was looking for. I don't recall, in my lifetime, ever personally seeing another offensive lineman like him. His off field crap, cut his career way short, but I think he could have dominated the NFL on the offensive side of line, like no one else. He is the only player I've ever seen, that was able to manhandle Reggie White. It all starts with moving the feet.

I settled on a Bill Curry clip, for blocking fundamentals, with an intro by BIll Parcells.

"You gotta suck it up, you gotta get ready to bend your knees, and have a flat back, and keep your head up, when it's a thousand degrees, and you feel like you're gonna die, and drive yourself so hard, that you knock that guy into the endzone."





Somewhere along the way, our young head coach, full of energy, ambition, and intellect, and grand vision, needs to realize that the true foundation of a successful football program, a winning football program, that will never crumble, under the most dire of circumstances on the football field, during a game, lies with the very simplest of human tools, and the most mundane and narrow minded small scale visions of skill development and rote memorization muscle memory of practice. The understanding of what a wedge is, and how it works. Leverage. Blocking and tackling. Everything else builds on that.