Contemplation on Coaching and Things of This Nature
Here are some key points to take from the article.
- With a documented weakness for mobile quarterbacks, the coaching staff never once called for a zone-read play. I seem to recall there being at least one, thought that was likely a designed hand-off.
- Bootleg plays were few and far between. I’ve wondered about bootleg plays privately for some time, and why we don’t do it more. I seem to remember there being at least one on the goal-line, where Pryor bootlegged out and missed Jake Ballard in the end zone. Absent the threat of a bootleg with a mobile QB, the backside defensive end was able to collapse on Herron every time on the Dave play. This, along with the zone-read, are crucial in keeping backside defenders second-guessing.
- When putting 8 men in the box, Tressel seemed to not have instructed Pryor that an uncovered slot receiver is an automatic bubble screen and 8 to 10 yards. Take what the defense gives you, right?
- The aggregate of telegraphing play calls to a defense results in USC being able to bring more guys at rushing plays than Ohio State can effectively block. As a result, linemen look slow and incompetent, running backs have no holes to run through and the quarterback looks overwhelmed.
Chris concludes that the situation is hopeless in Columbus. God forbid, but the forecast isn’t sunny by any means. What kind of on-the-fly adjustments can be made to a game plan that the coaching staff should’ve already made by now? I know I’m not the first person to note that the game plan on Saturday night made Terrelle Pryor look like a square peg that Jim Tressel is furiously trying to hammer into a round hole. So how can we adjust to better our chances for a Big Ten championship in 2009? I don’t pretend to know definitively, but I’ve said for some time that I’d like to retire the dave play1 from Ohio State’s arsenal for this season. Ohio State, regrettably, ran it frequently against USC. It was not a positive play in the first quarter; it wasn’t getting any yardage by the second half and, by the fourth quarter, it was getting negative yardage. I thought we knew that the power play was going to be of limited use this year with freshman fullbacks and absent the real power runner that Beanie was. I think we saw part of that on the FG drive at the end of the first quarter. We should not kid ourselves: Terrelle Pryor is a true sophomore; Troy Smith was a redshirt senior by time we figuratively cut his legs out from underneath him (that is: made him a pure pocket passer). Let him run.
The aforementioned post on Tressel’s playcalling against USC takes a very microscopic look at the limited offense generated by Ohio State in this game. When looked at a larger scale of abstraction, it’s worth wondering whether or not most evenly-matched elite contests typically result in low(er)-scoring affairs. Should we panic because Ohio State managed only 15 total points? USC was held well below their production against San Jose State. They may not be held to just 18 points again through the rest of the season. It’s not just this one instance as well. Oklahoma and Ohio State held Florida and Texas well below their per game averages in their respective bowl matchups, though both did so in a losing effort. The SEC title game featured both Florida and Alabama being held two scores below their season average. It’d be nice to do to someone what Florida did to us in that thing in 2007, but these probably don’t happen much… anywhere.
The other topic involves Ohio State getting a new offensive coordinator. Some people hope that, after this result, Tressel will have lost any bargaining advantage that would allow him to retain playcalling duties. Beyond the vanity of the “spread option” offenses becoming vogue in college football now, new input on the offensive side of the ball may prove helpful. The coaching staff on the offensive side of the ball has been in its current form since 2004, ignoring the recent matriculation of Nick Siciliano to QB coach for the ailing Joe Daniels. It’s fair to wonder if the consistency over this period of time has led to a series of stale offensive gameplanning.
I already see problems that I think will prohibit this from happening under Tressel’s watch.
- Tressel calls the plays now because he feels he’s more adroit at doing that than anyone on his roster. Indeed, Tressel follows Earle Bruce when he says that if you’re not calling plays, “you might as well go behind the bench and smoke cigarettes“. The thought of Tressel doing this during a game merits a Photoshop image, but nevertheless: getting Tressel to hand over playcalling, when he’s clearly an offensively-minded coach, will require Tressel yield to something that he would only do if forced.
- It’s not just a simple task to hire a new offensive coordinator. If Ohio State hires a new offensive coordinator, as some want, it means someone on the staff now is getting fired. The NCAA allows: 9 assistant coaches, 2 GAs. We already have 9 assistant coaches. I can already see your eyes looking in the direction of Jim Bollman, but I just don’t see push coming to shove. Nor should it for Bollman.
- I’m not sure if there’s a real bargaining advantage in the athletic department right now. There’d have to be a credible signal delivered to Jim Tressel: “make these changes to revamp the offense, or ______”. It’s not clear what follows “or”. If it’s “be fired”, I think Tressel calls that bluff and nothing ultimately materializes. Remember: in spite of any misgivings about offensive gameplanning and execution, Tressel is still an excellent face for the program and all calls for him to be fired are premature. We’re still fortunate to have him, if unfortunate to be having this discussion.
- pulling guard play with lead block from fullback out of the I [↩]
I’ve been e-mailing that guest post @ Dr. Saturday to everyone I know since I read it a few minutes after it dropped. The only – repeat ONLY – quibble I have with it is the thing at the end about Pryor transferring; that’s just not gonna happen.
BUT: If we combine your bullet points, Vico, I’m not so sure there’s no leverage at all to be exerted on Tressel by the alumni and Gene Smith – I mean, is Bollman’s (just as an example) contract with Tressel, or with the University? I think the current outcry among the fanbase and local media, along with things like a telephone-book-thick file of newspaper clippings and printouts of Internet postings the likes of Chris Brown’s, a “lowlights” reel from Florida/LSU/Penn St./USC/USC of some sort, a PowerPoint presentation that demonstrates our offensive shittiness relative to Division 1-A the last two seasons (plus whatever else is to come this year), etc., might put the AD in a position to say: “Coach Tressel, you need to terminate one of your current assistants and hire an Offensive Coordinator, and give that person the duties and responsibilities commensurate with that title. If you don’t, we will terminate Jim Bollman’s employment with the University – we are not interested anymore in paying an Offensive Coordinator’s salary to a person even you do not entrust with the duties and responsibilities of virtually every other assistant coach in the NCAA who holds that title. Of course, we will not do anything so crass or undermining as to comment publicly that we’ve put this ultimatum to you, but the between-the-lines message will undoubtedly be clear to all.”
What could The Senator do, then? I doubt that the politician that lives inside of him would either fail to see the writing on the wall or have the balls to resign in protest. That smoke-behind-the-bench thing is more properly viewed as a politician’s non-sequitur deflection of an uncomfortable question than as an insight into how he thinks – unless he ACTUALLY means that if he can’t call the plays he’s not really coaching, in which case he really OUGHT to be fired; it’s not Earle Bruce’s era anymore.
Lest we forget that Pryor is: a) a sophomore and b) more athlete than quarterback. Yes, he’s a development project, yes, there is a good upside to him, and yes, I think the Troy Smith analogy is appropriate. Recognizing this, the coaches need to use his athleticism and out him in situations for success. Which brings me to:
Sprintouts with pass-run option, zone reads and bottlegs; which I believe he has run with some success at OSU.
I realize that a lot of post-facto criticism can be off base, but; the screen shots from ‘Smart Football’ are pretty damning. Granted, Chris Brown had the luxury of scrolling through recording to grab these shots, and wasn’t actually “in the booth”; but what were the OSU coaches who were upstairs looking at? Did they not see uncovered slot receivers? If not, what were they looking at? If they did see the uncovered receivers, then.. ???
I look forward to see The O-Zones’s ‘By the Numbers’ article this week. My guess is that we’ll see some strong tendencies, such as “I-formation, tailback offtackle poweplay 80% of time”, or something to that effect. Look, in the end of 1st qtr goal line fiasco, we’ve got an offensive line trying to come together after a couple of lackluster seasons. They need some coaching help to make their jobs easier. Why in God’s name telegraph the play to the defense and then be disappointed when we don’t blow them off the line, allow penetration, other bad things, etc.?
ECdS makes a good point with his “smoking behind the bench” comments. If Tressel truly believes that his contribution as HC is to call plays during a game, then he has sorely missed the point of coaching duties and responsibilities. At that point, JT is so immersed in the detail of being a coordinator, that I’m afraid he is missing the overall ebbs and flows of game situations. Maybe that helps explain why we can’t make halftime adjustments worth a shit.
Finally, for now, I have a question. Let’s say we can finagle a way to get a real offensive coordinator on staff; how independent of Tressel will he be? I’m asking becasue I don’t know.
Head coaches at major programs are more like CEOs of large corporations, than real hands-on managers. So many distractions. Unfortunately, CEOs can become insulated from the very business they are supposed to be leading. An “involved” CEO would also be accused of micromanaging.
Probably, during the course of any day, a major head coach would spend 10-20% of his time on the game of football, and the other 80-90% on the distractions: budget, discipline, staff, alumni, media, recruiting, public relations, legal, books, etc… all the more impetus to hire more help for the core business: football. Of course, the NCAA has limits to prevent this from becoming an advantage for big budget programs. Other programs, Florida, Texas, USC, etc… seem to have found a way to focus the football staff on football. If at all possible, any responsibility that a head coach assumes, that doesn’t fall directly in the NCAA category of “coaching” should be delegated to the general athletic department, and on their budget and resources. Things like fund raising, of which Tressel has been significantly distracted, should be given to others (nice library, now can we play ball?)
I guess I’m proposing, with little in the way of facts, an administrative solution. Football resources/manpower are devoted to football, administrative/miscellaneous tasks should be delegated to the athletic department. A more efficient utilization of NCAA regulated resources may just be what we need.
Having worked in large corporations for my entire career, it’s painfully clear to me that the work I was hired to do is actually the least important thing I can do during the course of any given day. The distractions dominate.
I do not know whether you have seen this, but someone calling himself “OSU Insider” posted a response defending Tressel at
http://smartfootball.com/grab-bag/nfl-hits-the-oregon-trail#comments
I do not know whether this guy really is an OSU insider, but he does sound like he knows what he is talking about.
“I do not know whether this guy really is an OSU insider, but he does sound like he knows what he is talking about.”
That could very well be, but it looks like he’s getting his ass handed to him in the comments.
re: “I’d love to read someone as astute as Chris actually try to defend Tressel and his game plan for this game since I figure it would add to the debate going on right now among Buckeye fans.”
http://cfn.scout.com/2/557921.html FWIW
I’d also take a wander over the the forums at Buckeye Planet- while many there agree that a philosophical change is needed, some also point out that attempts to do so this year are being thwarted by poor performance.
Dos centavos..
FIrst, while many of the comments are correct in theory, like many academic theories, they fall apart in the real world. The problem is that while Terrell Pryor is our QB this year and a better passer when staying in the pocket, when he is running for his life, particularly to his left, he loses many of his fundamentals. But more importantly, as I said in another post, his presnap reads are beyond horrible. You can’t run a read option effectively unless you can preread the defense to protect yourself froma blow up by the defense. Its not Tressel’s fault that Terrell wouldn’t look to his right at Dane and see that he was uncovered. Although, I’m not sure if he was uncovered that much. The OLB actually had coverage there and unless its a longer pattern, likely could’ve gone all Rolle on a pass. (Pick-six) But be that as it may, his prereads are terrible and aren’t going to get better with anything other than experience. Woody used to say that for every freshman you start, you can lose one game. I contend that at qb, for every sophmore as well. We just need to grit our teeth and wait for the light bulb to go off. Remember, there was a point in time that many people wanted Justin Zwick ahead of the Wolverweasel killa. Troy didn’t exactly step into the situation at QB looking like Roger Staubach. he had to grow into the role.
Its two games into his sophomore ear…patience. people, patience.
good post Todd…while I have issues with Tressel’s playcalling the fans forget TP is a soph. Remember PSU 2005 and Troy..hmmm…..our how about UM 1996 and our two qb’s with the guru, Walt Harris.
Remember in 2007 Tebow as a soph never beat a quality opponent, never brought a team from behind to win, led his team to 5 losses and a bowl game defeat to a truly sorry UM team. Pryor will grow.
Agree with the Pryor/TSmith analogy. But what did JT do in 2005 after we lost to Penn St? We got behind against Sparty, John L blew his lid, JT opened up the playbook!
I agree with the writer on most of his points. JT does need to bring in a OCoordinator. However, the situation is not hopeless.
I contend that what he needs more than a OCoord is a very accomplished QB coach. Now is not the time for Nick Sciciliano to be cutting his teeth. Unfortunatley, its all we got now.
I just wrote this letter to Matt Hinton, of “Dr Saturday” fame, over his most recent column about the Buckeyes . . . http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/blog/dr_saturday/post/Good-morning-Buckeyes-You-got-jobbed-and-prob?urn=ncaaf,189880
“Matt,
Your blog used to be a shining light. A fan of a small, irrelevant school who wrote about everything. That is why I knew you could be trusted. That is why I knew your columns could be relied on. That is why I knew you weren’t full of shit. And your great writing and analysis backed that up. Like I said in my comment, I have read your various blogs for around 5 years. I’ve always appreciated your point of view until now. I’ve been a loyal reader; check your logs, it was me who tipped you about Maurice Clarett’s blog.
That aside, I am extremely upset that you would write that Ohio State should have been “demoralized . . . and lost by thirty.” I won’t lie. I am one of the biggest OSU fans you will ever meet. But really, they lost a hard fought game by 3 points. Not by thirty. They held “4 first round draft choices” on USC’s line to 3 ypc. The Buckeye offense didn’t get it done. But our defense played lights out for 3.5 quarters, and our fans and band showed the country what CFB is all about. I am proud of my team, and for you to denigrate them by saying that we should have lost by thirty is unconscionable.
This has been a pattern. You have been riding up OSU’s ass for a few weeks now. No one in the Ohio State community has been bitching about the goal line call. And yet you pretend that we have by writing about statutes of limitations and whining. We’re not whining. But we also won’t take your bullshit. That’s why I, and hopefully other OSU fans, won’t read your site anymore.
You are a hack. Your site has been on the decline for awhile now, and I certainly won’t be reading you again. What happened to the non-partisan, evenhanded writer you used to be? Working on the big stage too much for you? Had to cave to that MSM pressure of hating on the Buckeyes?
A former supporter signs off. Later, Hinton.
-Scott Baez”
I encourage all Buckeyes fans to tell him the same. The most prominent college football blogger does not deserve our page views.
I do not know whether you have seen this, but someone calling himself “OSU Insider” posted a response defending Tressel at
http://smartfootball.com/grab-bag/nfl-hits-the-oregon-trail#comments
I do not know whether this guy really is an OSU insider, but he does sound like he knows what he is talking about.
……….I love the comment ” I am no chef, but I know when someone has F’d up my food .” Thats FUNNNY!!!!