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Another Coaches Clinic Recap

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Fawk_U Haters said:
CUA Cardinals (bird or religious figure???)

We played them in the playoffs in '99 and then again in '04 when i was a GA. Good Program that fell on some hard times there in the early and mid 2000s. Good to hear you and your teammates were able to turn it around. Nice location in as DC is a great place to be.
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Yep. CUA Cardinals. It was a good time. By my Junior year in 07 we had a good team. In 08 we won a bowl game after blowing an easy playoff birth.
 
LuCane said:
You're a "WingT guy," eh? Ha. That narrows down your HS.

I'd love to read more about Sean McVay, if you're willing to share anything he might have shared about how he views the Xs and Os.

I'd love to read more about what you'd expect Steele to change about our approach to Safety play. I think many around here have understated how difficult it was to get left in no man's land as a Safety in Diaz's D. I expect almost the opposite from Steele.
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Regarding Steele, I need to do some more reading and investigation on this. I wasn't able to sit in on position meetings unfortunately.

Regarding McVay, here is my recollection:
- The guy spoke at very high speed while seamlessly working the video controller. He is obviously extremely intelligent and proficient at what he does. It was very apparent that he was on another level intellectually.
- That being said, he wasn't the most relatable guy compared to say Steele, Jimmy or Coach O. He took a more professional and matter of fact approach.
- He explained why he was able to have so much success at a young age--said his grandfather was the GM during San Francisco's glory days and was around the likes of Bill Walsh quite a bit.
- He stressed the importance of having great and unselfish players, and said Bill Walsh emphasized the necessity to converge the run and the pass.
- The then moved on to give a bunch of examples on film. Without giving too much coach jargon, he showed the same basic formation for the entirety of the film study--some form of an ace look with an open side and a closed side. He then went into examples of gap and zone runs showing motion from the closed side, with play action and other passing game stuff off that look; then he did the same from the open side. Basically, in any given look, you want to be able to attack all gaps on the ground, while having play action and drop back options from the same look. Its series football.
- That's what I took most from his presentation. He also went into a bit about his leadership ideas--it seemed pretty generic, nothing much different than what we had been hearing all weekend.

If anything else comes to mind, I'll add to this post.

** edited **

-In the process of showing the video examples he also sprinkled in quite a few examples of star WR Cooper Kupp doing a great job blocking linebackers and other front players, showing that their ~2000 yard receiver was still unselfish enough to mix it up with front defenders.
 
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WestEndzone said:
Regarding Steele, I need to do some more reading and investigation on this. I wasn't able to sit in on position meetings unfortunately.

Regarding McVay, here is my recollection:
- The guy spoke at very high speed while seamlessly working the video controller. He is obviously extremely intelligent and proficient at what he does. It was very apparent that he was on another level intellectually.
- That being said, he wasn't the most relatable guy compared to say Steele, Jimmy or Coach O. He took a more professional and matter of fact approach.
- He explained why he was able to have so much success at a young age--said his grandfather was the GM during San Francisco's glory days and was around the likes of Bill Walsh quite a bit.
- He stressed the importance of having great and unselfish players, and said Bill Walsh emphasized the necessity to converge the run and the pass.
- The then moved on to give a bunch of examples on film. Without giving too much coach jargon, he showed the same basic formation for the entirety of the film study--some form of an ace look with an open side and a closed side. He then went into examples of gap and zone runs showing motion from the closed side, with play action and other passing game stuff off that look; then he did the same from the open side. Basically, in any given look, you want to be able to attack all gaps on the ground, while having play action and drop back options from the same look. Its series football.
- That's what I took most from his presentation. He also went into a bit about his leadership ideas--it seemed pretty generic, nothing much different than what we had been hearing all weekend.

If anything else comes to mind, I'll add to this post.
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Really appreciate it.

I’ve read you note the ‘series’ football phrase a couple times now. Is that basically what you expect Gattis to head toward? A belly series. A buck sweep series. Etc. Running these out of the Gun, the Pistol, bunch formations, etc. Putting the different posts together, it seems we’re going to go ‘simpler’ and focus on execution from varying formations.
 
LuCane said:
Really appreciate it.

I’ve read you note the ‘series’ football phrase a couple times now. Is that basically what you expect Gattis to head toward? A belly series. A buck sweep series. Etc. Running these out of the Gun, the Pistol, bunch formations, etc. Putting the different posts together, it seems we’re going to go ‘simpler’ and focus on execution from varying formations.
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Someone earlier said something that I agree with. I just think we're going to get a more diverse run game than we have had here in a long time. We are going to use quick motion and formations to gain numbers and angles, and use misdirection etc. If the teaching is simple, and our line guys can cross train, I think we'll be able to create diverse schemes, while not having to teach too many concepts. Gattis said he wants to do everything and do everything well.

*Edited to give credit to @San Amaro Dr and @DTP *
 
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WestEndzone said:
Someone earlier said something that I agree with. I just think we're going to get a more diverse run game than we have had here in a long time. We are going to use quick motion and formations to gain numbers and angles, and use misdirection etc. If the teaching is simple, and our line guys can cross train, I think we'll be able to create diverse schemes, while not having to teach too many concepts. Gattis said he wants to do everything and do everything well.
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Hey world.... me again. Here is a perfect example of what you were getting at with the run game diversity.


 
@LuCane

That being said, I just think we will have gap and zone answers, with play action off all those looks. If it suits us best to run a buck sweep to attack the D gap, then we'll run it and we'll have other plays to run off that look; if suits us to power-g or bell down because of how an edge defender is playing us, then I assume we will have the available to us, with other looks off that action.
 
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WestEndzone said:
Malzahn was a WingT guy and I don’t think anyone here would be upset with his offense. Sounds like an education problem to me. We should get more informed as a fan base.
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I'm from the school of thought that fans should mostly care about results on the field on both sides of the ball. As fans we may like something that looks exciting at the beginning but then after seeing the long term result we start seeing the flaws and subsequently question it.

Many of us were excited with Diaz defense at the beginning until opposing teams started exploiting it.

By the way thank you very much for the detailed and comprehensive write up.
 
WestEndzone said:
Malzahn was a WingT guy and I don’t think anyone here would be upset with his offense. Sounds like an education problem to me. We should get more informed as a fan base.
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Malzahn is a Wing-t guy who adapted at every level. His offense last year at UCF is alot different than what he ran at Arkansas/Auburn in the earlier years. Once people caught up with the tempo, they kind of figured out his sequenced based playcalling. He runs alot less of the 1 back bucksweep he ran back then and the bunch toss/jet series out of the sugar huddle. To this day I still don't get how he's allowed to call plays from the numbers lol. Dude is left 5-10 yards on the field at times.


I'm old enough to remember running the spinner series at auburn when his personnel was down lol.
 
DTP said:
I read in another post that he wants his linemen to forearm the defensive lineman in the mid section on combo blocks before moving upfield to the second level. It’s legal and not technically dirty but d linemen hate that ****.
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In my opinion, that's just hand to hand combat. Just like a boxer going to the midsection to get his opponent to lower his hands. Instead of fists it's forearms. It's a forearm shiver. Perfectly legal.
 
COCane4Life said:
Watching this is giving me flashbacks to Malik Rosier. Their QB was so bad!

I’m so interested to see what this looks like with TVD. The variety in the run game is grueling on defenses. Guys pulling constantly, jet sweep option and play action you can run off of it. 3rd and short my man is lining up in 13 personnel lol some of the 11 sets are basically I-formation looks from the gun. In the passing game it’s clear there’s always a check down. The Michigan qb didn’t have the vision or arm to get to the routes behind the check down but TVD definitely can and will.

I’m intrigued but not sold yet. I gotta see it.
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Besides running into a brick wall on 3rd/4th and 1 about 10 times per game, I loved what we were doing offensively with Lashlee. He improved a lot with his pacing/calls as well with TVD vs King in year 2. I'm sad to see it go (year 3 in that system would have been epic I think).

I need to watch a little more film on Gattis. In the limited amount I watched he did mix it up vs his opponent which was nice to see. Some games you saw way more TE/H-Back hands in the dirt type slow developing misdirection power plays, others more straight up shotgun RPO quick slings.

But it's really great hearing from multiple people that the program is looking so much different under Cristobal, thanks for the write up WestEndzone!
 
This is my favorite kind of thread, so I’ll ask the few of you who’ve looked into Gattis more deeply than I have:

- PA passing game is often derived from the run game style. Have any of you looked into Gattis’ preferences here?

- the most annoying part of defending the wing-T concepts used to be the misdirections and the angles/kick outs created on defenders. As an analogy, the passing game mismatches often come from High-Lows and other space-based concepts. Can any of you comment on what you expect Gattis to do with passing game concepts?

- I don’t really put a ton of stock into his Michigan tendencies because of the QB situation, but working off the above information, any of you have opinions on what Gattis prefers in terms of early down passing concepts?

I promise I’ll watch all of Gattis’ games this summer, but seems like some of you have already followed him closely. Would appreciate your insight.

@San Amaro Dr @WestEndzone @Coach Macho @DTP
 
LuCane said:
This is my favorite kind of thread, so I’ll ask the few of you who’ve looked into Gattis more deeply than I have:

- PA passing game is often derived from the run game style. Have any of you looked into Gattis’ preferences here?

- the most annoying part of defending the wing-T concepts used to be the misdirections and the angles/kick outs created on defenders. As an analogy, the passing game mismatches often come from High-Lows and other space-based concepts. Can any of you comment on what you expect Gattis to do with passing game concepts?

- I don’t really put a ton of stock into his Michigan tendencies because of the QB situation, but working off the above information, any of you have opinions on what Gattis prefers in terms of early down passing concepts?

I promise I’ll watch all of Gattis’ games this summer, but seems like some of you have already followed him closely. Would appreciate your insight.

@San Amaro Dr @WestEndzone @Coach Macho @DTP
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Don't know much about that but...
One thing I saw in his clinic that I liked...

He manipulates DL techniques on running plays. For example...

If an Offensive Tackle blocks down, the DE is expected to SQUEEZE and SPILL, expecting Power or Counter.

Well Gattis will show Power/Counter action, then have his pulling Guard run by the squeezing DE and around the edge for an outside run.
He's manipulating the DE into taking himself right out of the play.
He showed film of DE's squeezing hard as ****, **** near about to dive face first into a wrong shoulder technique, while the Guard laughs at him on the way to the perimeter.
 
LuCane said:
This is my favorite kind of thread, so I’ll ask the few of you who’ve looked into Gattis more deeply than I have:

- PA passing game is often derived from the run game style. Have any of you looked into Gattis’ preferences here?

- the most annoying part of defending the wing-T concepts used to be the misdirections and the angles/kick outs created on defenders. As an analogy, the passing game mismatches often come from High-Lows and other space-based concepts. Can any of you comment on what you expect Gattis to do with passing game concepts?

- I don’t really put a ton of stock into his Michigan tendencies because of the QB situation, but working off the above information, any of you have opinions on what Gattis prefers in terms of early down passing concepts?

I promise I’ll watch all of Gattis’ games this summer, but seems like some of you have already followed him closely. Would appreciate your insight.

@San Amaro Dr @WestEndzone @Coach Macho @DTP
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I think we also need to consider this is a base installment and Gattis himself said in Fall, after a Spring analysis, the Offense may look completely different based on what we do well. So he is likely initially installing what worked at Michigan, absent having a good QB, to get the ball into playmakers hands as quickly as possible (sweeps, screens, lots of misdirection etc.)
 
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WestEndzone said:
Context and qualifications:

I've been relatively dormant for some years. For those of you who don't know me: I played at a local high school in the early-mid 2000's, played D3 college ball, then came back to coach at my alma mater for some years before deciding to pursue a career in law. I was on a staff that took down some of the top teams in Dade and I spent most of my time coaching defensive backs and linebackers. I have been out of the game since 2013 mainly because this career (and the firm I was at) absolutely consumes your life. Upon hearing about the coaches' clinic, I reached out to some old colleagues and they were cool enough to let me tag along the group for the weekend. The comments below are based on my own observations and opinions, and feedback from my colleagues.

*excuse the stream of conscious nature of my notes--if I don't make sense, let me know and I will explain*
*I will do my best to not overlap some of the notes from other people--I haven't read anything factually different from my memory/notes*

Day 1:
- Aside from parking, the whole registration process and general organization was great. The IPF is above average, but the facility could use some upgrades--this is not a secret. Overall, though, it seemed sufficient to run a top tier program. The registration period served as a mixer.
- The staff is enormous; they were everywhere, coming from all angles to chat it up. Of note, Kevin Steele was super cool and welcoming. Mario was happy and talking to everyone--it was a great vibe. Once the speakers started, it seems like the staff partially retreated to their offices to get some work done.
-- Kevin Steele: He was my favorite speaker of the night. Really focused on mentality, philosophy, game planning and how to coach tackling. A whole post could be dedicated to his presentation.
-- Jahmile Addae: focused on Press Man coverage. He has a very nice blend of intensity, professionalism and detail orientation. He was able to clearly present exactly what he is expecting from the guys. I was able to watch the DB drills on Day 2 and you could tell his classroom teaching was translating to the field. He ran drills specifically tailored for each phase of the technique.
-- Josh Gattis: I had a caffeine headache, so I couldn't stay for his whole presentation--went to get some coffee. What I caught in the beginning was all I needed to hear, however. He and I are of the school of thought that whatever you run on offense (scheme and philosophy) has the most effect on what becomes of your defense's mentality. In other words, if you're a finesse offense, your defense will be soft. This is where you see his defensive background coming through. Btw, our offense is essentially a modern WingT. I know because I'm a WingT guy. Its more of what I expected from Lashlee (less the pace) than what we actually got from Lashlee, which was air raid.
-- Alex Mirabal: this dude gets me fired up. He's the same guy from when he was at FIU--but interestingly enough, his teaching points have changed. I don't want to throw him under the bus, but he had some cutting edge techniques that had me upset hearing as defensive guy.
-- Coach O: Dude was an absolute trip. Shared the story of him coming to Miami; explained the importance of learning more than just your position group, but also staying in your lane and only coaching your own position; talked about the kind of dedication needed to be great; went into some technique stuff too. He presentation was kinda everywhere (like him) but made sense in a circular kind of way.
-- Jimmy Johnson: This was a dream come true for me. The whole thing didn't seem real. He spent most of his time talking about leadership and the importance of having good players and elevating your players and staff. If you watched the NFL films documentary on Jimmy, then you got the gist of his share. The thing I got most out of his share is the importance of investing in your people and keeping them on a sliding scale based on their value to the organization.
- I couldn't stick around for the position group breakout sessions. I regret taking my wife out to dinner instead of this. Lesson learned.

Day 2:
- I got in at 7 to make sure I got enough coffee to make it through the day. Breakfast was sufficient--just the standard continental breakfast items. Enough food for everyone and more.
-- Coach Feld: buddy came in like a bat out of **** around 7:45 to get his presentation going. I came away impressed. He spoke briefly about building mental toughness and how they define each of its aspects. One quote I liked was "You start to love the things that are hard once you get good at them." He said this in the context of coaching kids who don't necessarily love football and don't always want to participate in its rigors. It kind of gives them hope that pushing through the tough times will be worth it.
- Feld took us into the weight room and allowed his staff to present their training philosophy. They listed a hierarchy of 7 movements: neck strength>core strength>loaded hip hinge>leg strength>press strength>hamstrings>pullups (this is my recollection--might be wrong). They were super welcoming and cool. I am going to reach out to them to get some more info.
-- Darren Rizzi: took us outside and ran us through what felt like 50 special teams drills in like 5 minutes. It all made sense and it was all very fast--it was remarkable. What I got out of it is to avoid 11 on 11 special teams drilling and teaching. You should break special teams up into multiple individual units and specialize your teaching. The whole staff should be very involved in this. No one takes a break during special teams practice.
-- Sean McVey: Importance of having good players; philosophical stuff about blending the run and pass. I can expand this later if requested. This post is already too long.

[Practice]:
- We got a copy of the practice schedule and I did my best to follow along. Seems like we were either on time or early with the period schedule.
- Again, we have a million coaches. They were all fired up and they were all engaged. The player/coach(staff) ratio is clearly better than ever.
- I was able to watch DB and LB individual periods about 60/40 percent, respectively.
- Coach Strong is TOUGH on the guys. Sheesh. The kids were responding well, however. Their effort during individual period was outstanding. If there was a whiff of a player cutting a rep short or making a mental mistake, they were hearing about it in an uncomfortable way.
- There are probably 3-5 guys that all look roughly the same to me. No one really stood out other than 31. His twitch, bend and fluidity really stood out to me--seems to have wiry strength. I hope he doesn't have any setbacks--we need his help.
- The DB group was a little slower speed than the LBs. Their individual included brief teaching periods sprinkled throughout. Steele was working with the safeties, while Addae was working with the corners and vice versa. DVD was helping both groups where needed. Steele wasn't happy at all with one of the safeties for not paying attention and really let him know. Overall, the groups looked well organized.
- Check out my notes above on Addae's presentation regarding the corners. 7 looks surprisingly good and locked in. I'll be shocked if he doesn't help a lot this year. It looks like the staff is grooming him to be utility knife. His health will give us depth at safety, star and corner. 8 was doing 8 things like guessing on routes; 23 did a good job in coverage and gives consistent effort; 2 was back and looks head and shoulders better than the rest of them; no one else from that group got my attention. We need help here.
- Safety looked to have more serviceable guys. Seems like Steele himself will be the main one getting them coached up. I'm of the opinion that safeties should be an extension of the defensive coordinator. 0 looks fine in drills; he wants to be a leader. 3 is valuable; he's constantly coaching up the younger guys and was helping 7 learn star/safety; he looks just fine in drills. 15 is so twitchy and explosive that his footwork is a little awkward sometimes, but I don't think the coaches care too much. His physical talent is obvious and he gave good consistent effort during drills from what I saw. 27 looked ok. Steele chewed him out pretty good during drills for mentally busting a footwork drill. 15 made the same exact mistake and Steele was way more patient with him.
- Caught some QB drills right before the team periods started. 11 is freakish with his size and arm strength, but makes awful throws sometimes. Good thing he has plenty of time to work on his craft. We already know that 9 is in a league of his own. 13 looks good. I wouldn't be nervous to see him in the game.
--Team periods:
- Effort and energy was outstanding. Offensive ball carriers were running dudes over; tacklers were going beyond thud and knocking guys down.
- The offense looks good. 9 started off slow before eventually torching the defense repeatedly.
- OL will be a pleasant surprise I think.
- Defensive line is undersized and thin. Too many guys looking like 95 and not enough looking like 33. 12 seems to be a leader on the front; he is regularly getting guys lined up and helping with their assignments. 55 will help us quite a bit. 56 looks ok. 39 looks like he needs a red shirt year and a COVID year before he can help. This unit doesn't get me excited based on what I saw at practice. That being said, they did show good effort. Effort and tackling will go a long way on defense. I think Steele and Co. will squeeze the most out of them.
- On offense I felt like I was watching us run the WingT as times--it was great. We had quick motions on most plays, wingbacks (slot receivers) getting handoffs off misdirection, gap blocking, play action of the quick motion, toughness, etc. Things had rhyme and reason; I felt like I was watching series football.
- 15 and 22 are great fits for this offense. 15 would crush it as a WingT wingback and 22 would be a great WingT fullback.
- Our formations still allow us to run our regular passing game--TVD showed his regular timing and accuracy in the quick game.
- The offense excites me.


Summary:
I don't have the same points of reference as some other coaches who have been plugged into the game recently. However, based on the experience I do have, it was evident that the program is already being run at much higher level than in the past. If every practice is like what we saw, the aggregate needs to yield better results than the past administration (all things remaining equal, obviously). The roster needs a lot of work, but we have stud at QB, a few other very good players and we have the Avengers as a coaching staff. There is an sense importance in the building that I haven't witnessed during prior regimes (maybe that's just my perception). I'm really happy I got the opportunity to get out there.

Go Canes.
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Thanks coach
 
WestEndzone said:
Yep. CUA Cardinals. It was a good time. By my Junior year in 07 we had a good team. In 08 we won a bowl game after blowing an easy playoff birth.
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When i was in school and played the ODAC, Bridgewater was the team that rose up after CUA's run in the late '90s. We played them the first game of the year for like 10 years straight.

Who was the other good teams in the ODAC then? We'd played Randy Mac a couple of years. They were one of the first DIII schools to have a sponsorship by Nike. Nice unis but we waxxed that *** a couple years in a row.
 
LuCane said:
This is my favorite kind of thread, so I’ll ask the few of you who’ve looked into Gattis more deeply than I have:

- PA passing game is often derived from the run game style. Have any of you looked into Gattis’ preferences here?

- the most annoying part of defending the wing-T concepts used to be the misdirections and the angles/kick outs created on defenders. As an analogy, the passing game mismatches often come from High-Lows and other space-based concepts. Can any of you comment on what you expect Gattis to do with passing game concepts?

- I don’t really put a ton of stock into his Michigan tendencies because of the QB situation, but working off the above information, any of you have opinions on what Gattis prefers in terms of early down passing concepts?

I promise I’ll watch all of Gattis’ games this summer, but seems like some of you have already followed him closely. Would appreciate your insight.

@San Amaro Dr @WestEndzone @Coach Macho @DTP
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It's so hard because of the QB situation at Michigan and that's all we really have to go off. They didn't ask McNamara to do much at all besides hit wide open dump offs after play-action. I tired focusing on games where they struggled running the ball but even then they were incredibly hesitant to put the game in the quarterback's hands at all. They would prefer to run the ball for two yards over and over than trust him to throw a ton. I'll have to check out the Michigan State and Maryland games though because that's the games they passed the ball the most in.
 
San Amaro Dr said:
I think the Wing-t reference should be rebranded on this board to complexity in the run game. Gattis is not running lead, sweep, trap, down but we will see much more detail in our Inside Zone scheme, wham, pin and pull (modern day buck sweep), variations of G/F counter, etc.

I think what will bother some people is condensed formations on some of these runs. Football at its core is space and leverage. You can spread them out or bunch the defense up but getting the ball to a playmaker with grass in front of him is the end goal.
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If you noticed, Gattis was getting grass in front of his receiver in the MIDDLE OF THE FIELD. It literally won them the game.

I’ve been asking for this for years and Gattis does it very well. His route combinations put pressure on the line backers and gets guys open over the short middle for run after catch opportunities. The quarterback always has someone coming into his field of view for an easy throw.

Our previous coaches thought the only way to get receivers in space was to spam that sorry *** bubble screen. It is ok a few times a game, but it doesn’t replace good route design and rhythm.

The problem with this offense is he will face teams he can’t bully. After what they did to Ohio State, we are basically talking Georgia, Bama, and maybe Clemson.

Against those teams he needs to use 11 personnel more and get the slot on safeties and linebackers. The routes for everyone have to be shorter and faster except for the guy you got running a fly or fade. The quarterback’s drop has to be shortened too. Even three steps can take too long against the most elite teams.

I like this offense. If he somehow hooked up with Joe Brady or just studied his film, I would be overjoyed. The downfield shots will be there, especially when we have the run going.

X has been getting a ton of praise. I think our passing offense is going to be a bit different with more spread and 11 personnel. We can run the 12 stuff, but I think he likes the talent in the slot and wants to use it.
 
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