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Different Perspectives

RedSquare said:
Lance, you are spot on!!

I remember talking to my head coach, Carm Cozza, when I played for him about organizations and philosophy around the coaching staff, the "team within a team"

He was very focused on three things for staff: character, loyalty to the program/system/head man, and confidence to learn new things and challenge the status quo.

He believed that you should always be testing your best practices to make them better.

If he ha dever heard mark richt say: "but these same plays have worked for 30 years!," he might have punched someone in the face.
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In college football you need to look for plays that will work THIS WEEK. ***** 30 years ago. It's good to have old plays in your back pocket, but you need to be finding new ways to beat opponents and make them very uncomfortable. Richt couldn't do that. Old dog, new tricks, I'm afraid.
 
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Good **** Lu.

Part of why I don't like this "has to be a Miami guy" crap.

Fedora intrigues me in particular because he's seen us up close many times. Knowing him you don't think he's thought about what he would do with access to our players? I like it.
 
LuCane said:
I'm waiting on official word for the Coordinator and position coach hirings. Regardless of who's brought in, one thing I want to emphasize is the importance of bringing in guys who have different perspectives. If anyone studies team dynamics and high performance, it almost invariably involves complementary teams or what are called "heterogenous teams."

That may sound nerdy, but it's as simple as having people who will see things differently, perhaps because of varying experiences and previous exposure(s), and all join together toward a common goal. It's why I think the defensive staff is alright, but could be even better with a Defensive Coordinator. Ideally, someone who's seen different offenses or been exposed to some different problems. Apart from the obvious of having someone who's called plays before, we need more eyes.

As it relates to offense, if we really hire a guy like Fedora, with virtually the same team/players, I think we can see a leap similar to what players looked like post-D'Onofrio. That's partly commentary on philosophy, scheme and execution. But, it's emphatically commentary on having different eyes working toward a common goal. These last few seasons, problems would be identified late, corrected on a lag and overall adjustments made incrementally. On gamedays, it felt like we had limited eyes and perspectives.

This goes for everything and it's why coaching is trending toward analytical people. Because they tend to better understand the root of problems or at least try to measure and adjust accordingly. One of the biggest problems in football coaching staffs are groups of professionals who are all "friends" (friends tend to see things the same way and/or agree) and "get along."

F that. Embrace debate, conflict, work toward a common goal and watch the results come in.
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This sounds like, dare I say it, diversity?
 
LuCane said:
This goes for everything and it's why coaching is trending toward analytical people. Because they tend to better understand the root of problems or at least try to measure and adjust accordingly. One of the biggest problems in football coaching staffs are groups of professionals who are all "friends" (friends tend to see things the same way and/or agree) and "get along."

F that. Embrace debate, conflict, work toward a common goal and watch the results come in.
Click to expand...

Wow, you a boss at Amazon in your spare time? Sounds very Bezosish:

From the Amazon Leadership Principles List:
Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit
Leaders are obligated to respectfully challenge decisions when they disagree, even when doing so is uncomfortable or exhausting. Leaders have conviction and are tenacious. They do not compromise for the sake of social cohesion. Once a decision is determined, they commit wholly.
 
LuCane said:
I'm waiting on official word for the Coordinator and position coach hirings. Regardless of who's brought in, one thing I want to emphasize is the importance of bringing in guys who have different perspectives. If anyone studies team dynamics and high performance, it almost invariably involves complementary teams or what are called "heterogenous teams."

That may sound nerdy, but it's as simple as having people who will see things differently, perhaps because of varying experiences and previous exposure(s), and all join together toward a common goal. It's why I think the defensive staff is alright, but could be even better with a Defensive Coordinator. Ideally, someone who's seen different offenses or been exposed to some different problems. Apart from the obvious of having someone who's called plays before, we need more eyes.

As it relates to offense, if we really hire a guy like Fedora, with virtually the same team/players, I think we can see a leap similar to what players looked like post-D'Onofrio. That's partly commentary on philosophy, scheme and execution. But, it's emphatically commentary on having different eyes working toward a common goal. These last few seasons, problems would be identified late, corrected on a lag and overall adjustments made incrementally. On gamedays, it felt like we had limited eyes and perspectives.

This goes for everything and it's why coaching is trending toward analytical people. Because they tend to better understand the root of problems or at least try to measure and adjust accordingly. One of the biggest problems in football coaching staffs are groups of professionals who are all "friends" (friends tend to see things the same way and/or agree) and "get along."

F that. Embrace debate, conflict, work toward a common goal and watch the results come in.
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So the polar opposite of Mork
 
CaneFan79 said:
Wow, you a boss at Amazon in your spare time? Sounds very Bezosish:

From the Amazon Leadership Principles List:
Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit
Leaders are obligated to respectfully challenge decisions when they disagree, even when doing so is uncomfortable or exhausting. Leaders have conviction and are tenacious. They do not compromise for the sake of social cohesion. Once a decision is determined, they commit wholly.
Click to expand...
LOL. I'm in the tech industry.
 
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ThomasM said:
In college football you need to look for plays that will work THIS WEEK. ***** 30 years ago. It's good to have old plays in your back pocket, but you need to be finding new ways to beat opponents and make them very uncomfortable. Richt couldn't do that. Old dog, new tricks, I'm afraid.
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****, this half or this quarter.
 
A couple have asked my opinion on the various candidates (which is humbling in and of itself). My response is that I'm going to wait for the decision to come down the pike and actually make an informed opinion based on research and circumstances.

At first glance, there are things to like and dislike about both candidates. With Fedora, he actually needed a top-shelf QB to succeed. Once he didn't have that (Marquise Williams, Mitch Trubisky) his offenses really didn't perform that well. I made a post about the UNC offense in a film review back when people were interested in those pre-game and I felt like it was fairly simple. It was pretty much what Fedora said it was; you had a pretty good idea what was going to happen on each down and distance formation-wise and then they had a couple of plays they'd run out of the same formation based on what the defense was doing. I like that he used tempo, formations, motions to identify what the defense was doing and then used check-with-me's to get into a different play if need be.

As for Applewhite, I like that his offense is multiple. I like that spreads you out to outside of the hash marks and opens up the middle of the field with his formations. I like that he uses the pass as the basis of his offense (which is truly the most efficient way to run an offense). I like that he has learned under a couple of motherbleepers. Downside is he has only a decent reputation within the industry and within people that I know from my days in sports management circles. Whereas I couldn't find anything but love for Diaz, there was some trepidation on Applewhite as a HC (I realize he'd be an OC here).

Without a ton more research done on the two, I'd prefer Fedora at first glance, but there is definitely excitement found within both. Applewhite has probably even more successful than Fedora on the whole, if you're going strictly on offense rankings.
 
brock said:
I like Fedora for sure but schematically you can make the case of Applewhite being not too far off if not having a more advanced offensive scheme since he would be running an O really similar to what tom Herman had at Ohio state and running exactly what Houston did on offense when they went on that run in 2015 and 2016. Which is when they were exciting and running that offense that always seemed to work. I have Really warmed up to potentially applewhite coming here to call plays honestly. I forgot How well he did at Houston in tom Herman’s first 2 years coaching there. They were pretty gutsy with applewhite as the OC and played a lot of teams really well including FSU and Oklahoma
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The difference between Applewhite and Fedora is Fedora is (or appears to be) smarter and is almost certain to never shy away from saying EXACLTY what he thinks. No BS is capable of coming out of his mouth.

Exactly what we need. Bring me Fedora shy of a program on our level offering a HC job.

Pay that man his money.
 
hiphopanimal said:
Lance - what's your view on Applewhite? Board seems to be already against him.

I'm not sure - I think I'm in the middle.

Definitely don't want anything to do with Coley though.
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I wouldn’t say so much as against, but don’t tell me I can have a Coke and then come back and say the only option is RC Cola.

He’s not the top choice.
 
Lance Roffers said:
@LuCane I said something similar in the DC thread and I am absolutely in lock-step with you here. I actually want as many people challenging suggestions as possible. Once suggestions become decisions, everyone should be together, but there is a diminishing returns impact if everyone comes from the same background.

Often times when I was hiring for my teams I would assess what my team currently did well and what they didn't do well and tried to find candidates who filled those gaps. At times there would be certain candidates that I might've hired for another team, but went a different direction for diversity in thought/backgrounds.

Richt's group was basically a Facebook friends list.
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Look no further than that D'No Youtube in the "war room" talking about that S who many said was Robert Knowles. The only person challenging this perspective was Hurley. Everyone else was straight yes men. Results? Well, we all know.
 
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LuCane said:
Two things:

1. It happens all the time, even in the NFL, but certainly everywhere in College football
2. One step further: I encourage open challenges and wildly varying perspectives across both sides of the ball
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Bill Parcells and Bill Belichek come to mind when they were with the Giants. They fought constantly
 
LuCane said:
I'm waiting on official word for the Coordinator and position coach hirings. Regardless of who's brought in, one thing I want to emphasize is the importance of bringing in guys who have different perspectives. If anyone studies team dynamics and high performance, it almost invariably involves complementary teams or what are called "heterogenous teams."

That may sound nerdy, but it's as simple as having people who will see things differently, perhaps because of varying experiences and previous exposure(s), and all join together toward a common goal. It's why I think the defensive staff is alright, but could be even better with a Defensive Coordinator. Ideally, someone who's seen different offenses or been exposed to some different problems. Apart from the obvious of having someone who's called plays before, we need more eyes.

As it relates to offense, if we really hire a guy like Fedora, with virtually the same team/players, I think we can see a leap similar to what players looked like post-D'Onofrio. That's partly commentary on philosophy, scheme and execution. But, it's emphatically commentary on having different eyes working toward a common goal. These last few seasons, problems would be identified late, corrected on a lag and overall adjustments made incrementally. On gamedays, it felt like we had limited eyes and perspectives.

This goes for everything and it's why coaching is trending toward analytical people. Because they tend to better understand the root of problems or at least try to measure and adjust accordingly. One of the biggest problems in football coaching staffs are groups of professionals who are all "friends" (friends tend to see things the same way and/or agree) and "get along."

F that. Embrace debate, conflict, work toward a common goal and watch the results come in.
Click to expand...


Lu, when Schnellenberger took over - we weren't part of any conference - and I seem to recall we went on a major road show. We seemingly played teams in every region of the US - many big, slow, run heavy teams - some still running the wishbone - multiple different looks.

We'd lose, then we'd win some. But each time, we were introduced to other styles of football. We'd learn from those, make adjustments, and look at our games with different eyes.

This went on and on.

Finally, the stars lined up - and we found ourselves facing the super powerful, smash-style Nebraska team. We couldn't match them strength for strength - but over the past few years - we'd learned how we could compete against teams like this.

And we actually - WON. Our first National Championship. That road experience - playing many different teams with different styles - and examining them with different eyes - led us to whip the faster Oklahoma's, the powerful Nebraska's, the SEC defense minded Alabama's.

It's the opposite ends of the same principle.

When everyone's thinking alike - no one's thinking.
 
LuCane said:
I'm waiting on official word for the Coordinator and position coach hirings. Regardless of who's brought in, one thing I want to emphasize is the importance of bringing in guys who have different perspectives. If anyone studies team dynamics and high performance, it almost invariably involves complementary teams or what are called "heterogenous teams."

That may sound nerdy, but it's as simple as having people who will see things differently, perhaps because of varying experiences and previous exposure(s), and all join together toward a common goal. It's why I think the defensive staff is alright, but could be even better with a Defensive Coordinator. Ideally, someone who's seen different offenses or been exposed to some different problems. Apart from the obvious of having someone who's called plays before, we need more eyes.

As it relates to offense, if we really hire a guy like Fedora, with virtually the same team/players, I think we can see a leap similar to what players looked like post-D'Onofrio. That's partly commentary on philosophy, scheme and execution. But, it's emphatically commentary on having different eyes working toward a common goal. These last few seasons, problems would be identified late, corrected on a lag and overall adjustments made incrementally. On gamedays, it felt like we had limited eyes and perspectives.

This goes for everything and it's why coaching is trending toward analytical people. Because they tend to better understand the root of problems or at least try to measure and adjust accordingly. One of the biggest problems in football coaching staffs are groups of professionals who are all "friends" (friends tend to see things the same way and/or agree) and "get along."

F that. Embrace debate, conflict, work toward a common goal and watch the results come in.
Click to expand...
Thank you but some how I get down voted expresing the same concern
 
Are we missing alternative perspectives on D with the hire of a Diaz protege in Baker? It's one of the reasons I think keeping Simpson is so important for sure.
 
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