The OLine and the three Ws

[Carl Spackler]

Here is a decent article on zone blocking from 09, Its not too bad on the tech stuff not too long and tells the goals, reasons why...what type of player best fit ect.

http://www.tomahawknation.com/2009/6/9/900288/understanding-zone-blocking-and

Nice article. Alex Gibbs is not a well liked man among defensive lineman and defensive line coaches, as well as many offensive line coaches. Very polarizing guy. It's not because he's some sort of phenom NFL coach. Alex Gibbs pushes the envelope of cut blocking. A legal blocking technique. The running offenses he's installed, all revolve around zone blocking by the line, and the creation of wide cut back lanes as a back moves laterally, and then picks a lane. Offensive lineman on Gibbs coached teams are taught to go for the legs. The way those lanes are created to be so wide open is by chopping down the backside pursuit by cut blocking the defensive line/LB pursuit.

(i.e. in the Gibbs coached systems, it's very simple - not much thinking. A run play to say, the right side, involves the line moving as a unit to the right togehter, in a way that starts out very much like photo I posted before, with every lineman moving exactly the same way and takign the same steps to get moving like unit..... and then engaging block with the DL, or moving through space to the LB's.....but on that run play to the right...... the left side of the OL is going to go low when going for contact, shoulder pad to thigh pad (but most often heading toward the knees) and take out the legs of the backside of the D, while the play side OL are going chest to chest. THe backside DL's and LB's are going to be visually focused on the OL rather than looking for the ball, and driving their hands down to push those blockers to the ground and try to hurdle them, if they're still on their feet. It's more than enough time for a RB with good patience and vision to find a lane and get through and over scrimmage.

Principle is simple. A defender that is on the ground, can't pursue the play.

But the zone blocking schemes can be very effective, even if you're not cutting down the backside pursuit like a lumberjack.

http://www.chron.com/sports/solomon...ocking-is-legal-but-is-it-ethical-2254311.php

 

[Carl Spackler]

FYI: Cut blocking techniques, when done correctly are not dangerous. It's something that can't really be taken out of the game, because it's the only way that say a guy like a 170lb Lyle McCombs can shuffle his footwork in the backfield on a pass play and move laterally to effectively block - say a 235lb LB that has had a 5-10 yard+ head of steam to get moving in rushing the passer on a blitz....and not get flattened by that LB on his way to the QB.

 

[Duncan Idaho]

Nice article. Alex Gibbs is not a well liked man among defensive lineman and defensive line coaches, as well as many offensive line coaches. Very polarizing guy. It's not because he's some sort of phenom NFL coach. Alex Gibbs pushes the envelope of cut blocking. A legal blocking technique. The running offenses he's installed, all revolve around zone blocking by the line, and the creation of wide cut back lanes as a back moves laterally, and then picks a lane. Offensive lineman on Gibbs coached teams are taught to go for the legs. The way those lanes are created to be so wide open is by chopping down the backside pursuit by cut blocking the defensive line/LB pursuit.

(i.e. in the Gibbs coached systems, it's very simple - not much thinking. A run play to say, the right side, involves the line moving as a unit to the right togehter, in a way that starts out very much like photo I posted before, with every lineman moving exactly the same way and takign the same steps to get moving like unit..... and then engaging block with the DL, or moving through space to the LB's.....but on that run play to the right...... the left side of the OL is going to go low when going for contact, shoulder pad to thigh pad (but most often heading toward the knees) and take out the legs of the backside of the D, while the play side OL are going chest to chest. THe backside DL's and LB's are going to be visually focused on the OL rather than looking for the ball, and driving their hands down to push those blockers to the ground and try to hurdle them, if they're still on their feet. It's more than enough time for a RB with good patience and vision to find a lane and get through and over scrimmage.

Principle is simple. A defender that is on the ground, can't pursue the play.

But the zone blocking schemes can be very effective, even if you're not cutting down the backside pursuit like a lumberjack.

http://www.chron.com/sports/solomon...ocking-is-legal-but-is-it-ethical-2254311.php

Yeah, I think that was the isuue with Johnson's teams at Navy, cut blocking. It was referenced more for definitions and principles i.e. double teaming. Chip Kelly at Oregon has another but its the last i will reference, promise.

http://www.trojanfootballanalysis.com/pdfdocs/oregonruns.pdf

 

[FAIRTIDES]

I think the debate is more focused around the word "slight". I'm guessing that this is a situation where, not unlike the Moorhead situation, Coach P has a different philosophy that he wants to use in his offensive scheme. I think the reason why he has kept Foley on the staff, rather than to remove him, is likely due to honoring his dedication to UConn after Edsall bolted (much like the Moorhead situation). Coach P probably wants Foley to land another job (1-AA head coach, etc.) rather than to get rid of him first, and will likely keep a position for him in the meantime (like TE's). That doesn't sound like a slight to me, and it certainly doesn't sound like pissing on a man's boots...

I actually thought (unusual and, typically, problematic ) about this when the change was announced. I never thought "demotion" was the correct definition, nor do I think the word "slight" is appropriate. "It," to me, is a lateral move. Coach Foley was and remains a position coach who, like other PC's, reports to a Coordinator. In fact, Foley is now responsible for an element that PP has, on occasion, stressed as being of primary importance to his offensive philosophy. I don't think PP is the kind of leader that "demotes" people to important jobs.

Just a lateral move that allows a very talented coach to concentrate on a truly important position.

 

[Palatine]

I actually thought (unusual and, typically, problematic ) about this when the change was announced. I never thought "demotion" was the correct definition, nor do I think the word "slight" is appropriate. "It," to me, is a lateral move. Coach Foley was and remains a position coach who, like other PC's, reports to a Coordinator. In fact, Foley is now responsible for an element that PP has, on occasion, stressed as being of primary importance to his offensive philosophy. I don't think PP is the kind of leader that "demotes" people to important jobs.

Just a lateral move that allows a very talented coach to concentrate on a truly important position.

The last sentence is wrong. Foley wasn't moved because they wanted him to coach TEs. Foley was moved because they wanted Deleone to coach offensive line.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Yeah, I think that was the isuue with Johnson's teams at Navy, cut blocking. It was referenced more for definitions and principles i.e. double teaming. Chip Kelly at Oregon has another but its the last i will reference, promise.

http://www.trojanfootballanalysis.com/pdfdocs/oregonruns.pdf

Everything in that article - is in the snapshot pic I put up of our UConn interior 8 offensive men in 2010 against Vanderbilt, and been discussed here in this thread.

Nice find. That's what college football offense has evolved into, the zone read option.

If you were to talk to say - Gunther Cunningham and Jim Schwartz, you'd get a two hour tirade full of f-bombs and dodging dip spit, about how spread offense/ zone read option, is destroying professional football from both the offensive and defensive side, and it would be hard to argue otherwise once you hear it.

I'm very happy we're going to the NFL style of play on both offense and defense. It's most certainly going to help with recruiting, and NFL scouts are going to pay even more attention to players being coached and developed at UConn.

We'll also be in great position to win a lot of games because of it too.

 

[businesslawyer]

If you were to talk to say - Gunther Cunningham and Jim Schwartz, you'd get a two hour tirade.

So what you're saying is, compared to you, they are models of brevity?

 

[Carl Spackler]

So what you're saying is, compared to you, they are models of brevity?

Nope, just a lot more swearing and dip spit.

 

[Carl Spackler]

FWIW - I knew I read this somewhere before. Found it. Chip Kelly. UNH '90.

A little yankee conference ingenuity out there in the division 1-A landscape.

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/news?slug=ga-kelly010711















John Perry, who worked with Kelly as receivers coach at UNH, said his colleague always had his eyes open and freely experimented with different sets and plays. If it was out there and effective for someone else, Kelly had no problem incorporating it immediately to keep an opponent off-balance. The two still text on a regular basis to swap ideas and congratulations.

“We might come out one week in five wides virtually the whole game,” said Perry, now the head coach at Division II Merrimack College in North Andover, Mass. “The next week, we might be in a double-wing, looking like Navy.

“Against Villanova, we used 36 different formations and 28 shifts in a 70-play game. That’s what’s kept him on the cutting edge. He’s fearless when it comes to that stuff. He’s got a great deal of confidence that things can work and will work.

“He’s always thinking the game. We could be watching a recruit on TV and the joke was always, ‘Wow, that’s a neat play. That’s in this week.’ He just always wants to give the defense new things to think about.”

Kelly’s UNH offense in 2005 averaged 493.5 yards and 41.7 points per game. It built off a 2004 group that set 29 school records, rang up 5,446 yards and scored at least 40 points seven times.

Still, such feats flew mostly under the radar until former Oregon coach Mike Bellotti gave Kelly his big break. Kelly had visited Oregon in 2005 to pick the brain of then-offensive coordinator Gary Crowton. When Crowton left the Ducks to take the same job at LSU two years later, he recommended the relatively unknown Kelly for the Oregon post. Kelly came to Eugene to run the offense in 2007.

“I’m very proud of Chip and what he’s done,” Bellotti, now an ESPN broadcaster, told the Eugene (Ore.) Register-Guard.

Kelly’s calling card is a dizzying attack that plays at a fast pace. The ’07 Ducks set school standards for scoring and total offense. A year later, they were even better, second nationally in rushing and seventh in total offense and scoring.

In 2009, Oregon elevated Kelly to his first head-coaching job at any level. The Ducks ended USC’s run of seven consecutive Pac-10 titles, going 10-3 with their first Rose Bowl appearance since 1995. Kelly became the first coach in conference history to win an outright title in his first season. The Ducks were sixth nationally in rushing, eighth in scoring and showing no signs of stalling.

Quarterback development has been key. First Dennis Dixon, then Jeremiah Masoli, now Darron Thomas. Kelly just keeps churning them out.

“He has taught me a lot,” said Thomas, a third-year sophomore. “At first, he was my offensive coordinator. I was in the room learning from him in the quarterback meetings. Coach Kelly is one of those guys who just wants to score, and that’s what an offense wants to do.

“He is a football guy to the heart. He watches every game, any game. If we are having meetings, he pushes them up so we can go watch a game. Each game he sees as a teachable moment.”

So fast are the Ducks that one opponent this season, California, resorted to feigning injury to try and slow them. So staggering are the numbers, you need a calculator to keep up.

• 537.2 yards per game.
• 303.5 yards rushing per game
• 233.7 yards passing per game.
• 49.3 points per game.

The only number that matters now is one: Kelly has the school a win away from its first national championship.

Like many coaches, Kelly, 47, lives and breathes the game 24-7. He’s a bachelor with a focused football mind. Still, Perry said Kelly’s value for friendships and relationships is the thing that separates him from others.

“The No. 1 thing is he is very loyal person,” Perry said. “He stayed at New Hampshire 15 years. He’s engrained in Oregon now, where I’m sure he’ll be for a long, long time.

“He told me before my wedding he couldn’t make it because he was out of town at a camp. He showed up in the last hour because he knew it was important to me. So he made it important to him. He cares.”

Kelly comes across as all business all the time. He has become known for his ever-present backpack and sometimes sports glasses, looking more the part of campus nerd than big-time football coach. What does he do for fun? Perry said Kelly’s an avid golfer, long off the tee though prone to struggles with the putter. He surprised his staffmates at UNH with his crafty play on the basketball court.

“I don’t know how much he plays now, but he was good,” Perry said. “We would play at lunchtime. He’s an avid runner. He’d be up every morning when we were roommates and go for a run. He used to talk about those moments being times when he’d be able to free think and do his own thing.”

Just three days before playing for college football’s Holy Grail – the BCS crystal ball – Kelly reflected on how far he has come.


Darron Thomas is the third QB Kelly has groomed into a star for the Ducks.
(Jason O. Watson / US Presswire)

The biggest difference between New Hampshire and Oregon?

“They drive too slow [in Oregon],” Kelly said.

Did he ever think he’d have a team on this stage, playing for it all?

“I had no idea,” he said. “I don’t think any coach does. You each have different paths and you end up taking them. An opportunity comes and you just weigh is it better than the situation you’re in. To me, it doesn’t mean anything different. You just want to win.”

In contrast to other coaches who spend much of their careers trying to climb the ladder, Perry said Kelly would have been content to continue beating the likes of Rhode Island, Maine and Massachusetts at UNH. Scheming and victories, not status, is all that has ever mattered.

“I think being a great football coach is the only thing that’s driven him,” Perry said. “I think if he was the offensive coordinator at UNH right now and he was part of teams that were winning championships and having great players, he would be perfectly happy.

“The rest of the world should be grateful that we see him at this level because now everyone gets to see how good he is.”

With so much focus on what Oregon will need to do to counter Heisman winner Cameron Newton and the Tigers’ offense, Perry said Auburn should be wary of what Kelly might have tucked under his visor.

“I know a lot of people are talking about Cam Newton, but I’m wondering how Auburn is going to stop them,” Perry said. “The thing that’s fun about watching them is you can see that moment in the game when everything turns Oregon’s way. At that point, it’s just like, ‘Look out.’ “

In an interesting twist, Kelly and Auburn defensive coordinator Ted Roof have matched wits twice before, when Kelly was at UNH and Roof was coordinator at Massachusetts. In 1995, UNH edged UMass 32-29, and in ’96, UNH rolled 40-7.

Kelly doesn’t read much into that.

“Did I look at the tape, no,” Kelly said, laughing. “Because I think the UMass defense is a little different than Auburn’s, and I know that the New Hampshire offense is a little different than Oregon’s.”

The SEC has claimed four consecutive national championship rings, and Auburn is seeking one for the thumb. It may just take a guy with roots in the former Yankee Conference to stem the South.

Chip Kelly could be that guy.

 

[businesslawyer]

FWIW - I knew I read this somewhere before. Found it. Chip Kelly. UNH '90.

A little yankee conference ingenuity out there in the division 1-A landscape.

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/news?slug=ga-kelly010711















John Perry, who worked with Kelly as receivers coach at UNH, said his colleague always had his eyes open and freely experimented with different sets and plays. If it was out there and effective for someone else, Kelly had no problem incorporating it immediately to keep an opponent off-balance. The two still text on a regular basis to swap ideas and congratulations.

“We might come out one week in five wides virtually the whole game,” said Perry, now the head coach at Division II Merrimack College in North Andover, Mass. “The next week, we might be in a double-wing, looking like Navy.

“Against Villanova, we used 36 different formations and 28 shifts in a 70-play game. That’s what’s kept him on the cutting edge. He’s fearless when it comes to that stuff. He’s got a great deal of confidence that things can work and will work.

“He’s always thinking the game. We could be watching a recruit on TV and the joke was always, ‘Wow, that’s a neat play. That’s in this week.’ He just always wants to give the defense new things to think about.”

Kelly’s UNH offense in 2005 averaged 493.5 yards and 41.7 points per game. It built off a 2004 group that set 29 school records, rang up 5,446 yards and scored at least 40 points seven times.

Still, such feats flew mostly under the radar until former Oregon coach Mike Bellotti gave Kelly his big break. Kelly had visited Oregon in 2005 to pick the brain of then-offensive coordinator Gary Crowton. When Crowton left the Ducks to take the same job at LSU two years later, he recommended the relatively unknown Kelly for the Oregon post. Kelly came to Eugene to run the offense in 2007.

“I’m very proud of Chip and what he’s done,” Bellotti, now an ESPN broadcaster, told the Eugene (Ore.) Register-Guard.

Kelly’s calling card is a dizzying attack that plays at a fast pace. The ’07 Ducks set school standards for scoring and total offense. A year later, they were even better, second nationally in rushing and seventh in total offense and scoring.

In 2009, Oregon elevated Kelly to his first head-coaching job at any level. The Ducks ended USC’s run of seven consecutive Pac-10 titles, going 10-3 with their first Rose Bowl appearance since 1995. Kelly became the first coach in conference history to win an outright title in his first season. The Ducks were sixth nationally in rushing, eighth in scoring and showing no signs of stalling.

Quarterback development has been key. First Dennis Dixon, then Jeremiah Masoli, now Darron Thomas. Kelly just keeps churning them out.

“He has taught me a lot,” said Thomas, a third-year sophomore. “At first, he was my offensive coordinator. I was in the room learning from him in the quarterback meetings. Coach Kelly is one of those guys who just wants to score, and that’s what an offense wants to do.

“He is a football guy to the heart. He watches every game, any game. If we are having meetings, he pushes them up so we can go watch a game. Each game he sees as a teachable moment.”

So fast are the Ducks that one opponent this season, California, resorted to feigning injury to try and slow them. So staggering are the numbers, you need a calculator to keep up.

• 537.2 yards per game.
• 303.5 yards rushing per game
• 233.7 yards passing per game.
• 49.3 points per game.

The only number that matters now is one: Kelly has the school a win away from its first national championship.

Like many coaches, Kelly, 47, lives and breathes the game 24-7. He’s a bachelor with a focused football mind. Still, Perry said Kelly’s value for friendships and relationships is the thing that separates him from others.

“The No. 1 thing is he is very loyal person,” Perry said. “He stayed at New Hampshire 15 years. He’s engrained in Oregon now, where I’m sure he’ll be for a long, long time.

“He told me before my wedding he couldn’t make it because he was out of town at a camp. He showed up in the last hour because he knew it was important to me. So he made it important to him. He cares.”

Kelly comes across as all business all the time. He has become known for his ever-present backpack and sometimes sports glasses, looking more the part of campus nerd than big-time football coach. What does he do for fun? Perry said Kelly’s an avid golfer, long off the tee though prone to struggles with the putter. He surprised his staffmates at UNH with his crafty play on the basketball court.

“I don’t know how much he plays now, but he was good,” Perry said. “We would play at lunchtime. He’s an avid runner. He’d be up every morning when we were roommates and go for a run. He used to talk about those moments being times when he’d be able to free think and do his own thing.”

Just three days before playing for college football’s Holy Grail – the BCS crystal ball – Kelly reflected on how far he has come.


Darron Thomas is the third QB Kelly has groomed into a star for the Ducks.
(Jason O. Watson / US Presswire)

The biggest difference between New Hampshire and Oregon?

“They drive too slow [in Oregon],” Kelly said.

Did he ever think he’d have a team on this stage, playing for it all?

“I had no idea,” he said. “I don’t think any coach does. You each have different paths and you end up taking them. An opportunity comes and you just weigh is it better than the situation you’re in. To me, it doesn’t mean anything different. You just want to win.”

In contrast to other coaches who spend much of their careers trying to climb the ladder, Perry said Kelly would have been content to continue beating the likes of Rhode Island, Maine and Massachusetts at UNH. Scheming and victories, not status, is all that has ever mattered.

“I think being a great football coach is the only thing that’s driven him,” Perry said. “I think if he was the offensive coordinator at UNH right now and he was part of teams that were winning championships and having great players, he would be perfectly happy.

“The rest of the world should be grateful that we see him at this level because now everyone gets to see how good he is.”

With so much focus on what Oregon will need to do to counter Heisman winner Cameron Newton and the Tigers’ offense, Perry said Auburn should be wary of what Kelly might have tucked under his visor.

“I know a lot of people are talking about Cam Newton, but I’m wondering how Auburn is going to stop them,” Perry said. “The thing that’s fun about watching them is you can see that moment in the game when everything turns Oregon’s way. At that point, it’s just like, ‘Look out.’ “

In an interesting twist, Kelly and Auburn defensive coordinator Ted Roof have matched wits twice before, when Kelly was at UNH and Roof was coordinator at Massachusetts. In 1995, UNH edged UMass 32-29, and in ’96, UNH rolled 40-7.

Kelly doesn’t read much into that.

“Did I look at the tape, no,” Kelly said, laughing. “Because I think the UMass defense is a little different than Auburn’s, and I know that the New Hampshire offense is a little different than Oregon’s.”

The SEC has claimed four consecutive national championship rings, and Auburn is seeking one for the thumb. It may just take a guy with roots in the former Yankee Conference to stem the South.

Chip Kelly could be that guy.

I need a second opinion from the board on this. When he posts something like this, which goes on and on and on with no real contribution or relevance to the discussion, is he just playing with us? And I'm to curmudgonly to get that it's all a joke?

That must be what it is.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Connect the dots BL. It makes a pretty picture. LOL.

 

[uconnbaseball]

Connect the dots isn't supposed to take four hours.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Connect the dots isn't supposed to take four hours.

Only if you can't count to 6 very well.

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

I need a second opinion from the board on this. When he posts something like this, which goes on and on and on with no real contribution or relevance to the discussion, is he just playing with us? And I'm to curmudgonly to get that it's all a joke?

That must be what it is.

No. I think he's saying we should dump P and hire Chip Kelly, but only if Gary Crowton isn't available.

 

[Carl Spackler]

No - before some nitwit takes this discussion and puts in major media.....the connect the dots thing is a frigging joke. The article is not - it was published last year in january.

I posted that article b/c Duncan's link, made me think of it, and I looked for it. I wonder how many people actually read that article and then went back and looked at the photo I put up. Anyway in response, to something that clearly looks like an exceprt from a Chip Kelly coaching clinic on the zone-read, I posted an article on said coach, that is related to UConn football, in that same coach - who's argueably THE guy responsible for the offensive system that dominates the football world right now, and was our bread and butter play for several years, was developed by a guy that coached offense in teh Yankee conference for 15 years, and stood on the same sidelines, at Memorial stadium, while at least a few people around here, were there.

Is it relevant to the topic? SInce when does that matter around here? This discussion started out as a discussion about the direction of our offensive line, and a bunch of questions about how and why lineman could possibly having trouble with their blocking assignments......and BL turned it into a personal testimony for Coach Foley and lament on the offensive line move in the coachign staff.

The concept that a guy like P, would run a football organization, that has a guy like Coach F involved, in the northeast US, in college football, and not treat him with complete and utter respect and value with what he's done and is capable of doing, is well frankly....as foolish as thinking that a division 1-A football player is going to intentionally waive themselves off the field on game day becuase they feel tired....or as ridiculous as a saying that a division 1-A football player doesn't like 'contact'......

It's somethign to read in the spring, while football is being practiced.

 

[Palatine]

I need a second opinion from the board on this. When he posts something like this, which goes on and on and on with no real contribution or relevance to the discussion, is he just playing with us? And I'm to curmudgonly to get that it's all a joke?

That must be what it is.

It is simply the quantity over quality ploy. If you can't blind them with your brilliance, baffle 'em with your bullshit. If Carl were writing this post, it would go on for five more paragraphs and contain equal parts of convention wisdom and condescension.

 

[businesslawyer]

No - before some nitwit takes this discussion and puts in major media.....the connect the dots thing is a frigging joke. The article is not - it was published last year in january.

I posted that article b/c Duncan's link, made me think of it, and I looked for it. I wonder how many people actually read that article and then went back and looked at the photo I put up. Anyway in response, to something that clearly looks like an exceprt from a Chip Kelly coaching clinic on the zone-read, I posted an article on said coach, that is related to UConn football, in that same coach - who's argueably THE guy responsible for the offensive system that dominates the football world right now, and was our bread and butter play for several years, was developed by a guy that coached offense in teh Yankee conference for 15 years, and stood on the same sidelines, at Memorial stadium, while at least a few people around here, were there.

Is it relevant to the topic? SInce when does that matter around here? This discussion started out as a discussion about the direction of our offensive line, and a bunch of questions about how and why lineman could possibly having trouble with their blocking assignments......and BL turned it into a personal testimony for Coach Foley and lament on the offensive line move in the coachign staff.

The concept that a guy like P, would run a football organization, that has a guy like Coach F involved, in the northeast US, in college football, and not treat him with complete and utter respect and value with what he's done and is capable of doing, is well frankly....as foolish as thinking that a division 1-A football player is going to intentionally waive themselves off the field on game day becuase they feel tired....or as ridiculous as a saying that a division 1-A football player doesn't like 'contact'......

It's somethign to read in the spring, while football is being practiced.

I don't understand why you get yourself agitated about things that no one (or, in some cases, almost no one) disagrees with you about. The stupid line about DeLorenzo was made by one person. No one is saying P treated Foley with disrespect, animosity or anything else. I do lament the change because I think Foley's track record on coaching OL is better than Deleone's and I think Foley can't help but see it as a demotion, but that has zippo to do with a lack of respect). And no one is saying that zone blocking schemes can't work.

 

[Carl Spackler]

For those that might think I'm talking ancient history and Model T cars parked around the old Dow field.....

In 1999 Chip Kelly's UNH offense put up 48 points on Randy Edsall's UConn team in Storrs right there across the street from Burton and the Shenk.

I want an offense that can put points on the board. The last thing I want, is Chip Kelly's zone-read though. I want a pro-set offense that keeps a defense on it's heels and makes them pay for getting unbalanced, and that offense, from everything I can gather, is getting trained right now against a pretty powerful defense that is willing to get unbalanced and go for knocking the QB into the dirt, and is not playing their heels. If our offense can force our defense to pay a little bit...things are going to be really good next year.

Looking forward to teh spring game.

The quality of player changes at different levels of football, and what you can do with those players changes - but football is still football at whatever level it's played.

Blocking and tackling.

Have a nice weekend everybody.

 

[Carl Spackler]

I don't understand why you get yourself agitated about things that no one (or, in some cases, almost no one) disagrees with you about. The stupid line about DeLorenzo was made by one person. No one is saying P treated Foley with disrespect, animosity or anything else. I do lament the change because I think Foley's track record on coaching OL is better than Deleone's and I think Foley can't help but see it as a demotion, but that has zippo to do with a lack of respect). And no one is saying that zone blocking schemes can't work.

I've come to realize in 2 years, that it takes one person to write something anywhere on the internet, and it can end up on national news.

It matters. UConn football matters to me. I take it personal.

 

[CTMike]

It wouldn't be The Boneyard any other way.

 

[businesslawyer]

I've come to realize in 2 years, that it takes one person to write something anywhere on the internet, and it can end up on national news.

It matters. UConn football matters to me. I take it personal.

You know what -- I will apologize for being annoyed that you feel the need to beat up on the old and out of date, but totally dumb, statement about DeLorenzo. I think your brief statement above makes sense.

However, the rest of what I stated stands.

 

[Johnbuoy]

Mainly for my own benefit, I thought it'd be a good idea to try and recap what's been "discussed" (and I use the word loosely) so far in this thread.

The thread started with reference to the Courant article that says UConn's O line is the key to it's success this year, which also discussed is Foley's move to TE coach, and who is responsible for identifying the 'Mike' LB. (BTW Master's did use "we" when describing that responsibility.)

1. Was Foley's move to TE coach a demotion or not? Everyone seems to have an opinion, but I think 'pj' presented the most cogent discussion of why that isn't necessarily the case, and that he'll probably be back in charge of the O line next season. Carl S's also had much to say on this topic, but believes Foley's move to TE was probably considered by him (Foley) to be an exciting oppotunity. I think he may be somewhat right, because really, how many people really like doing the same job over, and over, and over, and over... Change is good.
2. Sacks were caused by a) immobile QB's or b) poor O line play.
3. A few opinions were given on who should make the O line this year.
4. On the third page of the thread, HuskyfanDan said he's done reading it. I thought that was kind of funny, but then again I haven't seen his name show up again. Do you think he really hasn't read any more of this thread? Do you think he may have another sign in name?
5. If you didn't know what a cut block was before, you should now.
6. I found the reference to Chip Kelly being at UNH and the Yankee Conference was very interesting.

Although the bulk of this thread has been occupied by Carl S, and those few who seem to really enjoy challenging his opinions, it's been a fun read. On a final note, how come I have seen Edsall's name mentioned yet...OOOPS!

 

[businesslawyer]

On a final note, how come I have seen Edsall's name mentioned yet...OOOPS!

Thank you for pointing out that we should all be thankful for small favors.

 

[Johnbuoy]

I meant to reference one other Courant article that might change people's perception that Foley's move to TE coach was a demotion. It doesn't sound like he sees it that way. Straight from the new coach: “I’m excited about it,” he said. “It’s a new challenge doing it and getting back involved with the pass game. Sometimes with the offensive line you get locked in a little bit. I’m looking forward to it. It’s a good group of guys that works hard. I’m up for the challenge and if Coach P feels this is the best thing for the football team that’s fine with me because all I want to do is win and be the best we can be. If this is making our football team better? That’s what it’s all about. You know, we ask our players to be team players and it’s no different as coaches.”
http://courantblogs.com/uconn-football/uconn-football-news-and-notes-from-spring-practice-no-7/
Good luck Coach Foley! I for one look forward to your continued coaching success.

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

Instead of arguing over semantics, here is what I think happened.

DeLeone is installing his offense.
DeLeone feels more comfortable teaching the blocking schemes that is required for his offense.
DeLeone asks P to add OL to his duties in addition to OC.
DeLeone, being P's guy, is granted his wish.
Foley is moved to coach the TE's and will continue to work with the OT's.

Is that a demotion? Not sure. Doesn't matter.

But you cannot take Foley's quotes there and blindly assume that they are, at face value, true. What is he supposed to say there? I have no idea if Foley is happy with the move or not. None of us do. I just hope he's here next year, because I have my doubts.