Evolving Coaching Techniques

I could have sworn I remember reading that, upon arriving at Michigan, RR removed the sleds from the practice field. Maybe I am wrong, but I think Brian was referring to that.

Admimttedly there are sleds in the video, but I am pretty sure that happened.

A lot of Chris Brown/Chip Kelly comments today

Must be some Hollywood CGI Magic.  I don't believe it!

I don't think Gerg was very good, but I don't know why people act like he was the sole problem.  We also had a terrible defense in 2008 when Scott Shafer was the DC, and Arizona's defense is awful now with Jeff Casteel.  The common denominator is the head coach (and a couple position coaches).

It DOES matter...if that's what works for you.

"Success" is defined differently by everyone.  Your definition doesn't really work if you're losing football games, at least not how I see it.  I think being successful in terms of football is winning (without cheating).  All that other stuff you mentioned is secondary.

A good friend's boyfriend played baseball for a smaller DI school, and when one of the players said something to someone in the AD about practice time, they were all required to sign incorrect time logs for the prior week before being allowed to practice again. After that, they were all in the same boat, to use his words, since they knowingly signed incorrect forms.

Also (at another school, in another sport) when a couple friends went to their coach about countable hours for the week, their coach used some..."creative accounting" to take the hours down enough to fit in another practice and scheduled a several hour long seminar with someone from compliance to go over time accounting for the NCAA. They got that message pretty quickly, as well.

Personally, I'd be pretty surprised if any coach was always able to keep their hours in line every single week. And in football, there's a multi-million dollar salary dependent on beating Team X next week, so the temptation is definitely around to shave fifteen minutes here or there, or not be totally honest with regards to what you supervised.

I would think a much larger part to why we sucked is youth. I am still baffled that Hoke is still coaching RichRod's first recruiting class in his 2nd year as our coach. It is probably a little easier to teach upperclassmen and have them apply it on the field than freshmen and sophomores

There is no problem with the "maximizing reps" philosophy, because the philosophy works (if implemented correctly).

There are various philosophies, systems, etc. that CAN and DO work on the high school, college, and NFL levels.  It's just a matter of the coaches and players being on the same page.

No. I mean, I'm sure Kobe said it. I just don't believe it to be true. Would mean that he diametrically changed the coaching habits he (Jackson) had exhibited in multiple places and over more than a decade at multiple stops before L.A. 

Seems a hell of a lot more like Kobe PRspeak to make people (fans) feel less crappy about the recent hiring of D'Antonio over Jackson. 

Couldn't agree more. The whole point of the spread-- at least, the philosophy employed by RR, Meyer, and Kelly-- is to run the football. It isn't "basketball on grass," and it is logically sound and, in some cases, can be philosophically superior to typical under center, 1 TE 2 RB 2 WR sets. A good contrast is Borges/Hoke's view that you block the LOS defender and leave the LB as the player you are optioning on certain zone read/inverted veer play sets, which is based on philosophy. RR had a different one (option the guy on the LOS/leave him unblocked), as does Kelly, et al.. I'm with Brian on who's got the better philosophy, at least on those plays (hint: not the current staff). 

A few retorts, because I think you're burning a ton of straw men here.

I don't think many argue that running the spread makes you weak on defense or hurt TOP. The argument is that running an offense predicated on PACE, no matter the formation, hurts TOP, and especially your defense. Florida and Urban don't run pace to the degree Rodriguez and Kelly do. Interestingly, Oregon has never had a great D. I do think that running pace doesn't preclude you from winning, but it can snowball things if you take a three and out or two. Oregon, these days, doesn't much have these problems. We will see what happens when they play a non-PAC 10 D. Traditionally it hasn't gone well.

Finally, the last point regarding recruits: how many times did this blog and board say: WELL ODOMS AND GALLON AND SMITH ARE GREAT FOR US, IF THEY WERE BIGGER THEY'D BE FOUR STARS. Almost every time we took a midget, right? How many times, in their recruitment, did we or Brian say they'd be rated better if they were bigger, but for us, it's fine they're not?

I theorize (so far unsubstantiated AFAIK), the more inclement the weather, the less effective a spread offense is. The advantage of the high tempo spread attack in 80+ degree, humid weather, is far greater than a crisp 35-45 degree November day. I am hoping it is about 30 degrees in Columbus when the Wolverines head there on November 24

Coldest November 24 in Columbus history is 1950 at a cool 8 degrees, the next day, November 25, 1950 was date of the infamous Snow Bowl between M and OSU.

As a side bar: I think Oregon's most vulnerable game of the year will be vs Oregon State this Nov. 24. Likely to be cool and rainy in Corvallis, Oregon State is a quality team, and it is a rivalry game.