Let's continue to look at this team heading into fall camp and couple of things on both sides of the ball. Last time I looked at 2 qtr. woes on the offense side and 3rd down problems on defense. So, this week I'll take the car down the road and look at 2 more fixable issues in camp.
Let's crank it up on Offense first, last year this team really struggled on short yardage plays of 2 yards or less. To me the first issue is that it's a little deceiving to call 3rd and 1 or 2 short yardage for UT. In an Offense that runs out of the shotgun , it's never really a short yardage play, because being 6 yards deep for the snap makes it these plays 3rd and long. I'll will admit I'm old school and believe the best formation for 3rd and less than 2 is always under center to give the defense less time to react to the play or read O-Line movements. In the shogun formation there are just to many variables that can disrupt a play and cause it to fail to make the line of gain. They can have a bad snap, a Blitzer has time to shoot a gap, bad exchanged between QB and RB on read options , line just gets out numbered in the box and the QB for a moment loses sight of defense as he focusing on catching the snap.
Defenses last year to often sent pressure off the running back side of the play keying the QB to stuff him in the backfield or chase the RB down. They often used D-Line slants to play side causing more difficult blocking angles for our O-Line, while causing gaps for LBs to penetrate for tackles for loss. These adjustments to UT's offense by defenses will continue if they continue to be in shotgun in short yardage.
This issue can very easily improved this camp by putting the QB under center more and finding that big bruiser back to attack the line of scrimmage and not dance in the backfield. The percentage of success for offenses under center on 2 or less are far greater than those in shot gun. Also, be creative in formations under center, use on off set "I", so you can have that big push back to open the hole or push the QB forward and maybe even bring back those backs that could leap the line for those 1 or 2 yards needed. I really miss the James "Little Man" Stewart days off him leaping over for first downs or touch downs. Finally, O-Linemen are not taught a lot of short yardage blocking techniques anymore because of today's game is so spread based. Linemen use to do a drill they all hated and never really understood till a short yardage run play. The old "bear crawl" , yep the drill where linemen got in a 4 point stance, got low and crawled forward. Little did they understand that drill was preparing them for short yardage getting lower than the D-Linemen and cutting his knees out from under them gaining the necessary room to get the first down.
Now the Defense, one of the biggest issues last year and could be again this year is a lack of depth. The Mods here are right , coaches love those security blankets of Vets and usually trend that way when making depth charts. Last year teams attacked UT's lack of depth on defense spreading them out and running them side line to side line. Then, when gassed they would bring out the run game to finish them off to the point of exhaustion.
Rolling into fall camp UT has to let vets watch more and practice less, yes that sounds odd, but it has it's advantages in many respects. It allows vets to lessen reps on their bodies, give them opportunities to teach the young guys and give the young guys valuable experience that they won't get in season. As a coach we had a session every practice that allowed the 2's and 3's to go against the 1's for about 15 minutes straight both on offense and defense. Did they most of the time take their lumps, absolutely, but by the end of camp you would see a growth in them and it also gave our coaches the opportunity to build confidence in the young player by letting them know we were not afraid to put them out there.
Lastly, One pet peeve I've always had as a coach was how teams would be up 3 to 4 touchdowns at halftime and then play their starters for the whole 3rd quarter. I'm all for giving your starters a series each to start the second half, but if you are in complete control, get those young guys out their against the other teams starters. Let them play nearly a whole half against the Ball States and Akron's of the world, at the end of the day. It doesn't matter if you win those games 56 to 10 or 56 to 28, but what does matter in building a team or depth of a team is the experience those young guys get in those situations are much more valuable. If you want young guys to play like 1's, you have to coach them that way and put them in situations that will push them to be better.
Let's crank it up on Offense first, last year this team really struggled on short yardage plays of 2 yards or less. To me the first issue is that it's a little deceiving to call 3rd and 1 or 2 short yardage for UT. In an Offense that runs out of the shotgun , it's never really a short yardage play, because being 6 yards deep for the snap makes it these plays 3rd and long. I'll will admit I'm old school and believe the best formation for 3rd and less than 2 is always under center to give the defense less time to react to the play or read O-Line movements. In the shogun formation there are just to many variables that can disrupt a play and cause it to fail to make the line of gain. They can have a bad snap, a Blitzer has time to shoot a gap, bad exchanged between QB and RB on read options , line just gets out numbered in the box and the QB for a moment loses sight of defense as he focusing on catching the snap.
Defenses last year to often sent pressure off the running back side of the play keying the QB to stuff him in the backfield or chase the RB down. They often used D-Line slants to play side causing more difficult blocking angles for our O-Line, while causing gaps for LBs to penetrate for tackles for loss. These adjustments to UT's offense by defenses will continue if they continue to be in shotgun in short yardage.
This issue can very easily improved this camp by putting the QB under center more and finding that big bruiser back to attack the line of scrimmage and not dance in the backfield. The percentage of success for offenses under center on 2 or less are far greater than those in shot gun. Also, be creative in formations under center, use on off set "I", so you can have that big push back to open the hole or push the QB forward and maybe even bring back those backs that could leap the line for those 1 or 2 yards needed. I really miss the James "Little Man" Stewart days off him leaping over for first downs or touch downs. Finally, O-Linemen are not taught a lot of short yardage blocking techniques anymore because of today's game is so spread based. Linemen use to do a drill they all hated and never really understood till a short yardage run play. The old "bear crawl" , yep the drill where linemen got in a 4 point stance, got low and crawled forward. Little did they understand that drill was preparing them for short yardage getting lower than the D-Linemen and cutting his knees out from under them gaining the necessary room to get the first down.
Now the Defense, one of the biggest issues last year and could be again this year is a lack of depth. The Mods here are right , coaches love those security blankets of Vets and usually trend that way when making depth charts. Last year teams attacked UT's lack of depth on defense spreading them out and running them side line to side line. Then, when gassed they would bring out the run game to finish them off to the point of exhaustion.
Rolling into fall camp UT has to let vets watch more and practice less, yes that sounds odd, but it has it's advantages in many respects. It allows vets to lessen reps on their bodies, give them opportunities to teach the young guys and give the young guys valuable experience that they won't get in season. As a coach we had a session every practice that allowed the 2's and 3's to go against the 1's for about 15 minutes straight both on offense and defense. Did they most of the time take their lumps, absolutely, but by the end of camp you would see a growth in them and it also gave our coaches the opportunity to build confidence in the young player by letting them know we were not afraid to put them out there.
Lastly, One pet peeve I've always had as a coach was how teams would be up 3 to 4 touchdowns at halftime and then play their starters for the whole 3rd quarter. I'm all for giving your starters a series each to start the second half, but if you are in complete control, get those young guys out their against the other teams starters. Let them play nearly a whole half against the Ball States and Akron's of the world, at the end of the day. It doesn't matter if you win those games 56 to 10 or 56 to 28, but what does matter in building a team or depth of a team is the experience those young guys get in those situations are much more valuable. If you want young guys to play like 1's, you have to coach them that way and put them in situations that will push them to be better.
