Let’s talk tackling and wrasslin brother

[Zbrod95]

So what’s different? What changed? We haven’t been a great tackling team, but nothing like this. Not even close. It’s the same dude who coached the defense in 2016 - 2018. What’s different today than what we did in those years? He forgot how to teach it? Can anyone confirm that the practices are genuinely different today than they were in the past?

Simple. Talent dropped off. As we’ve gotten smaller and slower our weaknesses have gotten bigger. Talent and coaching go hand in hand.

 

[OrangeBowlMagic]

Simple. Talent dropped off. As we’ve gotten smaller and slower our weaknesses have gotten bigger. Talent and coaching go hand in hand.

Has it? Gil Frierson isn’t any smaller or slower, and I don’t remember him whiffing nearly as much as he is. Is he that much smaller and slower than Romeo Finley? Is Amari Carter? Or he just sucks? I just can’t wrap my mind around a hypothesis that every single coach on the staff forgot how to coach. And they just go to Monty’s instead of practice every day. None of this makes sense. I know it’s easy to just blame everything on the coaching staff, and maybe they do deserve all the blame. But a kid who started at Wake Forest was running circles around our players. A big fat white linebacker was gaining ground on Mike Harley to the edge. Doesn’t he run 4.4? What happened to these kids?

 

[Rellyrell]

I have friends who’s had kids play big boy ball and they tackle. Theres not as much tackling as the old days but it still happens .
Also if they have a bad game they increase contact. Btw if you really want safety teaching how to tackle without using your head is another area drills would help. I mean it would‘ve helped Amari a lot.

As I said you cant learn to tackle a man by tackling a tire , dummy or sled. We need more live reps. Or this will continue.

Thank u; I can unequivocally back this up. It’s it the old Oklahoma drills, or Big Cat drills? No. But they still tackle & practice different angles of tackling at these institutions.

 

[filmcane]

So what’s different? What changed? We haven’t been a great tackling team, but nothing like this. Not even close. It’s the same dude who coached the defense in 2016 - 2018. What’s different today than what we did in those years? He forgot how to teach it? Can anyone confirm that the practices are genuinely different today than they were in the past?

We're bringing in plenty of talent - that's not it. The team follows the HC. Richt was the HC during Manny's "glory years" therefore overall toughness and leadership was with Mark, a former Cane and SEC coach. Manny is soft, therefore the entire team is soft. Our secondary is soft because T-Rob can't change the culture of the team as a position coach.

For some strange reason, people keep deluding themselves into thinking that we don't have enough talent and that's the real problem. It's truly a mind scrambler after we got trounced at home with a team who doesn't have close to our talent.

Why people continue to resist the idea that coaching is the most important thing followed by recruiting (which is important too) is beyond me.

We need a jerk as coach. We need someone who is only loved by the fans of that team and even some of them are turned off by him.

Mario and Kiffin would get this done. Heck, I'm ready to bring in Schiano if we can't get someone better. At least with Schiano, we'd have a jerk who is hard nosed. Whatever....

 

[Zbrod95]

Has it? Gil Frierson isn’t any smaller or slower, and I don’t remember him whiffing nearly as much as he is. Is he that much smaller and slower than Romeo Finley? Is Amari Carter? Or he just sucks? I just can’t wrap my mind around a hypothesis that every single coach on the staff forgot how to coach. And they just go to Monty’s instead of practice every day. None of this makes sense. I know it’s easy to just blame everything on the coaching staff, and maybe they do deserve all the blame. But a kid who started at Wake Forest was running circles around our players. A big fat white linebacker was gaining ground on Mike Harley to the edge. Doesn’t he run 4.4? What happened to these kids?

Yea. Romeo played here at 215. Romeo btw is playing the NFL. Do you think Gil is making the league?

Mike has never been a reliable hands guy or even super fast. His game is all effort.

 

[OrangeBowlMagic]

We're bringing in plenty of talent - that's not it. The team follows the HC. Richt was the HC during Manny's "glory years" therefore overall toughness and leadership was with Mark, a former Cane and SEC coach. Manny is soft, therefore the entire team is soft. Our secondary is soft because T-Rob can't change the culture of the team as a position coach.

For some strange reason, people keep deluding themselves into thinking that we don't have enough talent and that's the real problem. It's truly a mind scrambler after we got trounced at home with a team who doesn't have close to our talent.

Why people continue to resist the idea that coaching is the most important thing followed by recruiting (which is important too) is beyond me.

We need a jerk as coach. We need someone who is only loved by the fans of that team and even some of them are turned off by him.

Mario and Kiffin would get this done. Heck, I'm ready to bring in Schiano if we can't get someone better. At least with Schiano, we'd have a jerk who is hard nosed. Whatever....

Is Dabo a jerk? Is Kiffin? Is Ryan Day? I don't think these guys are jerks. There are many ways to skin a cat, for every Saban you have a Lincoln Riley.

 

[datcaneguy]

Throughout high school and college we practiced tackling so much that it was easy in the game. Almost felt like our own teammates were harder to tackle than the actual opponent. That's why when we missed them as a defense it one half field over and back per tackle missed. The latter built leadership amongst the defense as you did not want to run for another person missing a tackle. I cant imagine anything close to this going on a Greentree from what we see watching the games.

 

[Zbrod95]

We're bringing in plenty of talent - that's not it. The team follows the HC. Richt was the HC during Manny's "glory years" therefore overall toughness and leadership was with Mark, a former Cane and SEC coach. Manny is soft, therefore the entire team is soft. Our secondary is soft because T-Rob can't change the culture of the team as a position coach.

For some strange reason, people keep deluding themselves into thinking that we don't have enough talent and that's the real problem. It's truly a mind scrambler after we got trounced at home with a team who doesn't have close to our talent.

Why people continue to resist the idea that coaching is the most important thing followed by recruiting (which is important too) is beyond me.

We need a jerk as coach. We need someone who is only loved by the fans of that team and even some of them are turned off by him.

Mario and Kiffin would get this done. Heck, I'm ready to bring in Schiano if we can't get someone better. At least with Schiano, we'd have a jerk who is hard nosed. Whatever....

Really? We’re “bringing in” plenty of talent? Have you seen our LBer room? Our D-Line room? Our CB room? That’s talent to you? Having one or 2 players that have to make plays but everybody else is useless is “bringing in plenty of talent”?

 

[OrangeBowlMagic]

Really? We’re “bringing in” plenty of talent? Have you seen our LBer room? Our D-Line room? Our CB room? That’s talent to you? Having one or 2 players that have to make plays but everybody else is useless is “bringing in plenty of talent”?

We have like the 13th highest blue-chip ratio in the country. Consistently the #2 program in the ACC behind Clemson. So what's the issue? Is it evals? **** near every kid on our team had offers from programs who are beating us. Is it development? I have to coach Will Mallory to catch a football in the endzone? Cam Harris was a Top 10 or 15 back in the country, he can't break a tackle if his life depended on it. Is that Manny's fault? Hickson's fault? Did we ***** up in bringing him in?

 

[Rellyrell]

I was around some old school guys in my years at ETSU (Carl Torbush and Randy Sanders) and they made sure to tackle as much as the NCAA would allow. We lost a few players as a result. It did lead to more injuries… but they took a jump start program to the FCS playoff semi’s in year 3 and we sure as **** didn’t miss tackles and we played with UT for 2.5 quarters.

I was also around Drinkwitz a lot in his year at App State and he had the same mentality. One of the smartest guys I’ve been around.

I accidentally hit a neg react, when I tried to hit the “love” react.

Injuries r going to happen, it’s a contact sport. However, those pale in comparison to the injuries that can occur during the season when U’re not mentally or physically prepared.

 

[rok]

So what’s different? What changed? We haven’t been a great tackling team, but nothing like this. Not even close. It’s the same dude who coached the defense in 2016 - 2018. What’s different today than what we did in those years? He forgot how to teach it? Can anyone confirm that the practices are genuinely different today than they were in the past?

Hot take: It might be as simple as Golden's players leaving a talent void. Jaquan, Redwine, Shaq, Pinckney, Willis, Norton, McIntosh, Thomas, Mike Jackson....those kids were capable of winning 1v1 matchups on a given Saturday. Diaz recruits kids like with no FBI and then refuses to sit them when they continually make errors that cost the team.

 

[Zbrod95]

We have like the 13th highest blue-chip ratio in the country. Consistently the #2 program in the ACC behind Clemson. So what's the issue? Is it evals? **** near every kid on our team had offers from programs who are beating us. Is it development? I have to coach Will Mallory to catch a football in the endzone? Cam Harris was a Top 10 or 15 back in the country, he can't break a tackle if his life depended on it. Is that Manny's fault? Hickson's fault? Did we ***** up in bringing him in?

Yes. Look how small we are. We’re taking SFL edge rusher and asking them to be 4-3 backers that drop in coverage. We’re asking traditional SDE’s to become DTs(see Quentin Williams). We have our best box safety right now penciled in as a OLB. Then on top of that the guys who show talent but are young(Chantz, Elijah, Don, Jaylen, Keyshawn, etc) sit behind guys that aren’t doing their jobs week after week. ****, Zion is far and ahead the best lineman we have and they didn’t even star him until 3 games into the season. This whole depth chart ranger it be from recruiting or who should start is filled with bad evals.

 

[RightSaidFred]

Yep. Practice makes perfect. How ANY coach in any sport doesn't understand this is beyond me... it's the most obvious and basic **** I can imagine.

If you practice tackling tires and dummies, that only means you'll be good at tackling tires and dummies. There's no carryover to actual tackling in game.

And if "practice makes perfect" is too old-school and cliche for you, then look up the Principle of Specificity... this has actually been studied and is established sports science.

If it were me, we would be hitting every practice, and at full speed. And not just against the scout team. If it were my call, I would bring in FIU and FAU every week of the summer and spring, and do live scrimmages against them weekly. They're local to us, why not use the resources we got? In fact, there are a lot of ways we could partner with them to make all 3 schools better, if we were willing to think outside the box for once.

But anyway... **** yes we should be tackling in practice. It's a complete no-brainer.

 

[filmcane]

Really? We’re “bringing in” plenty of talent? Have you seen our LBer room? Our D-Line room? Our CB room? That’s talent to you? Having one or 2 players that have to make plays but everybody else is useless is “bringing in plenty of talent”?

LB recruiting has been terrible, but everything else has been more than good enough to beat MSU and most of everyone else on our schedule. The coaching and leadership has to get better if we're going to get back to where we should be. I grant you the linebacker position, but the other 20 positions have plenty of talent to run the Coastal.

 

[OrangeBowlMagic]

Yes. Look how small we are. We’re taking SFL edge rusher and asking them to be 4-3 backers that drop in coverage. We’re asking traditional SDE’s to become DTs(see Quentin Williams). We have our best box safety right now penciled in as a OLB. Then on top of that the guys who show talent but are young(Chantz, Elijah, Don, Jaylen, Keyshawn, etc) sit behind guys that aren’t doing their jobs week after week. ****, Zion is far and ahead the best lineman we have and they didn’t even star him until 3 games into the season. This whole depth chart ranger it be from recruiting or who should start is filled with bad evals.

I see your point but come on. Quentin Williams is the root of your point? He's not even playing. Nesta was a borderline 5-star kid, he's playing his natural position. So is Harvey. So is just about every kid on the defense. We are very small though, especially at backer. Could it be that the backers are so terrible that they're essentially the root for all of this? But nobody else can tackle either. Amari Carter used to be able to tackle someone, at least occasionally. Deandre Johnson had multiple sacks in the SEC, has anyone even heard his name called? He's being coached by a legit NFL DL coach in a scheme that has had how many NFL picks the past 5 years? None of this makes any sense to me. What I've watched the past 3 weeks is so foreign, so different than what I could have possibly dreamed I'd see that I'm having a hard time even computing it. Last in the country in missed tackles? LAST?!

 

[Handsome Squidbum]

Does anyone know what style of tackling the staff teaches? (Yes, make all your jokes now). What I mean is are they proponents of the rugby-style tackling that Pete Carroll popularized (Rocky Seto was the architect) or do they teach traditional tackling techniques?

 

[hiphopanimal]

Yea. Romeo played here at 215. Romeo btw is playing the NFL. Do you think Gil is making the league?

Mike has never been a reliable hands guy or even super fast. His game is all effort.

Romeo is in the league? Where?

 

[OrangeBowlMagic]

Romeo is in the league? Where?

No. He was a UDFA for a cup of coffee with the Chargers in camp last year and was cut pretty quickly. I believe he's playing in the CFL, not sure though. He has definitely never made an NFL roster.

 

[Handsome Squidbum]

Yep. Practice makes perfect. How ANY coach in any sport doesn't understand this is beyond me... it's the most obvious and basic **** I can imagine.

If you practice tackling tires and dummies, that only means you'll be good at tackling tires and dummies. There's no carryover to actual tackling in game.

And if "practice makes perfect" is too old-school and cliche for you, then look up the Principle of Specificity... this has actually been studied and is established sports science.

If it were me, we would be hitting every practice, and at full speed. And not just against the scout team. If it were my call, I would bring in FIU and FAU every week of the summer and spring, and do live scrimmages against them weekly. They're local to us, why not use the resources we got? In fact, there are a lot of ways we could partner with them to make all 3 schools better, if we were willing to think outside the box for once.

But anyway... **** yes we should be tackling in practice. It's a complete no-brainer.

To quote Bruce Lee: "Boards don't hit back."

 

[Ironmanfootball]

I was listening to a Manny Diaz interview where he said it’s hard to practice tackling because of possible injuries and depth at rb. Which made me think of an old wrasslin reference that kinda connects with tackling. Growing up I was a big wrestling fan, I was a smart mark before that was a term.

I listen to a lot of podcast’s by former wrestlers that talk about their days on the road. they always mention that taking a bump isn’t natural to your body , kinda like tackling They also say the less bumps you take the worse your body reacts when do take them. Your body eventually gets used to the contact with the mat , the more reps the better your can handle it , It’s like your body gets callused / hardened by the constant bumping and the reps become second nature with how you fall.


Which brings me back to tackling . Tackling is like anything else , you need reps. Just like a jump shot or taking swings in the batting cage. Using a tire , a sled or thud isn’t tackling another man. Injuries are part of the game but you have to take that chance with something as big as tackling. It’s the most important part of the game.

Back when I started playing ball I was very tentative and intimidated by tackling and tackling drills. But one thing our coaches did was have multiple tackling days , different drills that challenged you from different angles and different positions to help with reaction. I ended up one of our better tacklers and tbh we were a really good tackling team. Thats a far lower level but I know for a fact it’s necessary, practice makes perfect.

I also believe like taking a bump tacking and being tackled trains both parties on how to handle the contact and how to go to the ground. I don’t recall one injury in our tackling drills , in the three years I played. I’m not saying you should have physical war daily but the results match what I’ve always heard about our practices , they lack physicality versus other programs.

The proof is in the pudding , Miami is the worst tackling team in the country. We have a minimum of 20 every game and 30 last game. If that doesn’t tell Manny about his practice habits nothing will.

This is why I’m so pro Mario and Alonzo. Smart people that are competitive , believe in physicality , toughness and knows what Miami is supposed to look like.

Also a big old school rasslin fan. Nothing is real but the money and the miles, brother.
They also take bumps for each other which is the way I teach tackling.
Rasslers also say your body has only so many miles on it (tackles, being tackles as a RB)

Tackling is like anything else, it comes from self-efficacy.
Do it well before? Now you'll be fine. Just do the same thing or do it a little better.
Be taught how to do it and rep it 10,000x THE RIGHT WAY (do not see: Carter, Amari).
Being told it ain't that hard, just try _____ next time / being held accountable but with correctives and drills that correspond to issues
Seeing your boys do it and copying them (Don't watch Bubba Bolden take angles, y'all!)

Confidence is key. Intrinsic motivation to improve is key. Being coached by someone with a clue is a MAJOR key