From FlyRy4's "Chalk Talk With Coach Mattison"
FlyRy4 - This was such a good post that I hope you don't mind I copy/pasted it for you.....Great nuggets below....Enjoy
I know this is different than the title, however, I do not have enough points for my own post. Maybe someone else can start a new post and copy/paste.
I thought this was great stuff.
Best part was that I was able to spend about 90 minutes with Coach Mattison. What a great guy, plus he gave some great insight for the upcoming year. Here is a breakdown of the conversations that I and about 4 other HS coaches had with him.
Things we aleady knew... Michigan will employ a 4-3 under look. This will look like a 5-2 to many, however, the Sam linebacker will be on the line (TE side) with LB responsibilities.
Things we may not have known....paraphrasing Mattison the best I can from memory.
1. M. Martin will love this defense, as opposed to getting doubled all the time last year.
2. Not sure what the deal with Will Campbell last year, but he should fit perfect in the 3 tech. He is winning most group competitions. Apparently was not skinny enough to play in last year's scheme. Tried to make move him to OL last year, but reminds Mattison of Haloti Ngata (sp?) 6'5" 345 lbs WC that is.
3. Roh is perfect fit for rush end. (We already knew this)
4. Cameron Gordon looks like a good fit at SLB instead of safety. Perfect body type and athleticism for this spot.
Couple other little nuggets.
1. Will hit more than they've ever hit. Not necessarily tackling to the ground every day, but will hit everyday.
2. Will run pursuit drills everyday until perfected.
3. Shocked in first few film sessions by the inability of players to watch film correctly. (got banned from Scout this morning for film comment)
Spent time talking about other things as well, but this post is long enough as it is.
Thank you for posting. I read enough, but I guess I need to comment a lot more.
I am really shocked at the comments Mattison made about BWC and the Defense/film sessions. If Big Will is dominating the group competitions as mentioned, then maybe we will be pleasantly surprised by his play next year.
Did he say anything about Q.Wash moving back to the offensive side of the ball or is he going to stay on defense?
Sorry no mention of QW. Roh, BWC, MM, and Cam Gordon were the only ones mentioned by name.
Being a huge fan at a coaching clinic makes it kind of hard to ask fan-like questions. Most of the conversations were about the scheme. EG, alignment (under defense) and Fire Zone Concepts.
that QW is going to be on defense for good. QW is Schofield's roommate.
the lack of true DL, this is probably a good idea.
This is wonderful information, thanks a lot. Maybe if votes meant anything we could get you up enough to post.. This is going to be the longest offseason yet.. These next 180 days (I only know that thanks to Denarded) are going to go by so slowly...
Definitely excited about this defense, though
Thank you for this information. Good stuff.
to spend with a BCS d-coordinator when you're not a player or other coach or MSM member. Not doubting you, just wondering how you swung that.
Interesting that the players, "Didn't know how to watch film." Somehow, that doesn't surprise me. I felt like players were just not developing like they should the past few years. Some regression, even. I wonder if the coaches weren't doing enough classroom work and were focusing too hard on athleticism and S&C stuff.
Here is a link to the day's schedule. The Blackboard session is what I am referring to.
http://www.nikecoyfootball.com/Mt-Pleasant/Mt-Pleasant-schedule.aspx
The setup is great and was the same with the old staff.
Michigan Coaches spread around the room with large rip of sheets of paper and pretty much answer any questions the coaches have. MSU, CMU, WMU, and EMU also had their own rooms.
I decided to spend my time with Mattison (good decision on my part).
Typically, we get 2 hours but the Minnesota head coach (Jerry Kill), had his time moved later due to travel issues.
March 11th, 2011 at 11:51 AM ^
What did you think of LaDoucer? (By the way, When The Game Stands Tall is a good read for the football fan.)
It seemed obvious to us fans that GERG was incompetent, but it's reassuring to hear from Mattison that his teaching methods were poor. Gives hope that we'll see big improvement next season.
Certainly gives me some hope for the next season and forseable future. Got a lot of time before we see the finished product on the field, but these comments are certainly good news. And on the same token, make me think even less than the last defensive staff, if that's possible.
How is it possible that the former D staff could be so bad? GERG has been doing this for a few decades and the asst. coaches were all associated with somewhat successful defenses in their former jobs. I get the whole "D staff chemistry" thing, but that has nothing to do with teaching kids how to watch film or recognizing where kids' obvious strengths are."
The more I hear, it almost makes me think that the previous staff was sabotaging things. Whether against the University or RR, it sounds like more than just simple incompetence was the cause.
Hard to believe they were really doing that bad a job if you didn't see the team they put on the field.
These past two years have been the perfect example of how much of a difference bad coaching can make versus good coaching. I'm looking forward to seeing what the improvements are under Mattison. Based on his resume and immediately prior performance, I'm expecting significant improvement.
Great info...Thanks for posting this
I have such a good feeling about Hoke & Mattison really turning around our defense. If nothing less, our defensive front 7 will be a lot to deal with in the years to come. The thought of Mike Martin getting 1 on 1 match ups must terrify other coaches, because he was beasting people while getting triple teamed.
Can we get this season started already!?!?
Great info and great repost
You mean to tell me Jim Bob Tressel was in my hometown and know one let me know?
Would have been a perfect opportunity to ask him for a 2011 automobile or I mean an autograph.....
As fans, it is our job to sit on our couches and question just about every move that the coaches make. Admit it, whether you love or hate the coach, you cannot watch a FB game without saying something like "why the hell would you run on 3rd and 8?!?!" or "OMG it's 4th and inches in their territory - why the F are we punting??"
But, while we usually don't admit it, the coaches almost always know more than we, the casual fans, do.
Except in this case. From what Mattison is saying, it sounds like he agrees with just about everything that the MGoBoard was saying about the D. He agrees with abandoning the 3-3-5 in favor of a 4-3. He agrees with keeping BWC on the D line. He agrees that Roh needs to be on the D line. Hell, with the comment about film watching, he even agrees that the former D staff simply didn't know how to coach D.
Yep, it surprises me that some people tow the "Trust The Coaches" philosophy so ardently. Coaches are just people: they miss things, exercise poor judgment, get bored, lazy, distracted. They obviously know more about football than the typical fan, but that doesn't mean they always get it right. And then once in a while they get it awfully awfully wrong.
Marty Morninwheg and Rod Marinelli both have forgotten more about football than all but a tiny number of Lions fans will ever know, but that doesn't mean they weren't just horrible head coaches with the Lions. Expertise is not the same thing as judgement and the ability to lead.
Everyone knows is just the Bobby Layne curse that had the Lions down.
"How can we be this bad on D?" I mean, I know we were very young and the depth was poor, but I always thought there was something else. His comment about film study speaks volumes.
Perhaps my biggest problems with the D (aside from the whole worst D in Michigan history thing) was their complete lack of improvement and lack of fundamentals.
With a team as young as ours, the one positive should have been improvement from weeks 1-3 to weeks 9-12, and certainly in the bowl. Not only did this not happen, but as the season went on, it looked like we got worse. Something other than youth was going on here, and these comments by Mattison make it plain that this "something" was the D coaching.
Watching film is one of the most basic and fundamental things that a player in any sport can do. Not only does watching film allow a player / unit to improve their own performance by zeroing in on mistakes, but it also allows a team to scout opposing players for every possible advantage. To hear that our players didn't know how to do this was really disconcerting.
I said this a multitude of times through the season last year. The reason I lost faith in the defensive staff was the lack of improvement. They improved from one season to the next (slightly), but didn't improve one bit throughout the seasons. This is an issue in my mind.
I look back at Auburn who started the season very shakey and ended up winning the NC. Their first few games they looked like a middle of the pack team but continued to improve every week. It was even thought that they had a weak defense which turned out to be far from the trutth. We, on the other hand, started the season poorly and showed no improvement throughout the course of an entire season. That is purely coaching.
I only disagree with you insinuation that the team got worse on defense. I agree the stats got worse but believe that was simply a product of the schedule getting far tougher as the year wore on and not the fact that the got worse. Anyway, it seems we (and most in the fan base) are on the same wave length.
You are dead on. And the Gator Bowl only magnified the situation. Our secondary was running around totally confused from the beginning of a game they had a month to prepare for. I was holding on as a RR supporter until this happened. It proved beyond a doubt that the defensive coaching staff was a huge part of the problem.
As corroborating testimony, I talked to a guy who had frequent access to practices last year and he commented that the defense looked disorganized even in practice. That is, of course, completely unverifiable, but it fits the consistent pattern.
Welcome, Coach Mattison, thank the Lord!
It really makes one wonder how Rich could let it get to that. I mean, other than his most frothing at the mouth detractors, we all basically think he's at least a hood coach. How someone who's had so much success could put together such a disaster of a defense/staff...
I couldn't have put it better, I felt the same way that you did about the Gator Bowl.
So maybe my perspective is wrong - neg me if need be. But I think a valid point perhaps countering your argument is that the 2nd half of our schedule was much more difficult than the 1st half. Granted, we should be able to improve from week 1 to week 12, but the fact of the matter is, between weeks 1and 6 we played a bunch of lay down competition and MSU. ND could be considered a tough game but really they were still working out their new offensive kinks too.
On the other side of the coin you've got weeks 7-13 (including the bowl game) where we played Iowa (ranked 15 at the time), Wisconsin (#6), OSU (#8) and Mississippi State (#21).
I'm not saying we shouldn't have been more competitive in those games or that strange furry stuffed animals shouldn't have been removed from the sideline and burned because both are true, but the fact that our defense looked worse against tough competition shouldn't be startling to anyone who knew how weak our defense was against the likes of UMASS and Indiana.
thanks much. If I had the ability to upvote I would!
Thanks for this post. I have visions of defensive competency running through my head.
What do you mean by "I got banned from Scout for the film comment?"
His follow up comment in the other thread sums it up pretty well.
http://mgoblog.com/mgoboard/spring-game-football#comment-997024
Basically, it's just Tom Beaver being Tom Beaver.
Last night, when I returned home, I posted this exact info last night. The moderator, Tom Beaver, blocks everything that talks negatively about the old coaching staff.
When it was blocked I reposted and edited out the film part with "EDITED OUT Thanks to TomB."
Apparently this ticked him off and started a sparring over email between the two of us.
End of the day...I am banned from posting. I can still Read though, however, I already canceled my subscription.
Rivals does some of the same s***. That's why I like posting here more. At least the mods on this site aren't extremely overaggressive and defensive.
But MGo has a high tolerance for disagreement and contrary opinion. It may get negged to hell, but there's very little censorship for opinion (as opposed to crass stupidity). It's part Brian's belief in freedom of speech, combined with a dose of not really giving a crap what we say/think of him, but it makes this site as enjoyable as it is.
The fact that almost no censorship exists here is what truly makes this site great. We're lucky that the average poster is mature enough to handle it.
Disagree. The best part about the board is that the ratio of good stuff (info, funny, stuff to think about) to crap is very high. Lack of censorship may be the cause, though. As for the original post above, the only problem I have with it is that it isn't long enough. Man, this day is getting better and better.
Are you afraid to say the word shit? This is a blog magnus, your allowed to swear.
I'm not big into swearing.
I hope "your" not offended.
is such a douche bag. At some point, that crap is going to bite him in the arse, if it hasn't begun already. This is the only site you should be posting on.
Anybody know if Mattison could have a film session with the team? I thought the coaches could not have organized contact with the team until spring.
Lying? Possible violation? Rule clarification I'm not aware of?
Someone else will know more than me, but I believe the coaches are allowed to have various meetings with the players individually. Perhaps that is when they watched some film.
I would actually like to know this too. The only thing I can think of is that there are so many loop holes and ways around the letter of the word that it is not actually "official", and thus a violation. I would have to imagine that our complinence people would be all over this considering the probation.
I kind of took the "not sure if some even know how to turn on a projector" as stuff they should be doing on their own.
I could be totally off base, but why would a player need to know how to turn on a projector if coaches were there to do it?
Because the coaches want the players to be able to study film any time, not just when the coaches are there. And by "anytime," i most especially mean during restricted contact times.
Yeah Ziff, the story here isn't that we finally have competent coaches, but that our current staff is a bunch of NCAA-violating liars.
Just pointing out that 1 of the 2 is wrong. You can't have team organized film sessions in the offseason. So either the info is wrong or we are in violation.
I'm positive we are not in violation. My guess is a little case of telephone was transcribed to make the previous staff look stupid. It's all fun, but I hate when false info is spread.
Most likely case is GMat met with a soph or 2 that didn't know shit and than the story branches from there.
To see this defense take the field...I never want to think about the 2nd half of this year's Wisconsin game ever again. Roh and MM must be so excited.
It's good to know that a competent defensive staff will be playing these kids at positions that they should have been playing all along.
Some of this stuff is just evolution and not a plus or minus on either staff.
1 MM-4 man line get less doubles than a 3 man line...not better or worse just different. Good for Mike but it doesn't prove we'll be better or worse.
2 WC-No idea what's going on here. Hopefully Hoke and Mattison can relate to him. Good News if true.
3 He was already moved back.
4 He was already moved up to the los last year. Many people forget he was most likely moved due to a lack of bodies to practice with and thay just wanted to get the best 11 on the field.
5 I like hitting so that's good news, but RR was limited in how much hitting he could do due to the lack of bodies. Can't hit when you have no backups. I'm sure they would have hit more this year, but maybe not.
6 duh everyone says that
7 If true you could see some of the younger kids on d not knowing what they are looking at. It takes players a long time to figure out what they are looking at on film. Jonas and Troy both admitted to not knowing what the hell was going on in film when Lloyd was here and then getting it as they matured.
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