I'm going to try and keep this from being a dissertation, but it may get long.
Let's start with this picture that Bone Buff uploaded:
You've got two choices:
A. The defense was designed to look like that
-or-
B. The players were in the wrong place
Brown may be in over his head, but even a GA wouldn't design a defense to line up like that. So, I really doubt "A" is correct; it's more likely that one or more players were lined up wrong.
That doesn't mean this disaster was the players' fault. It means that the coaches' failure happened well before the play was called. Again, we have two choices:
A. They failed to prepare the players to play the defense
-or-
B. They designed a defense that their players are incapable of playing
Either way, this is a disaster of a coaching effort. But, I suspect that there may be a third option, and that is:
C. They designed a defense that their players are incapable of playing yet, and they have decided the best/only/fastest way to get them to being capable of playing it is to implement it as fast as they can.
Basically, think of it this way: if you have a big pile of knowledge and skills that you're supposed to teach someone, one option available to you is the "fire hose" method. Just blast all of it at them as fast as you can, and keep on going until it "clicks." For some skills, for some people, this method actually works well. The students feel lost for weeks, even months, and then all the sudden, everything comes together and they actually "get it." In other situations, with other skills and other people, you have to take the incremental approach, and use building blocks. First master addition, then subtraction, then multiplication, then division, then algebra and on up to n-dimensional fractal geometry.
There is of course a hybrid: use basic building blocks to a point, and then turn on the fire hose. Which is what I think this staff did/is trying to do. Last year, they tried to get the entire team to the same basic level of competency, fitness and attitude. And this year, they turned on the fire hose. It is entirely possible that this method could still work - if it's going to work, it will be obvious when it happens: over the course of 2-3 games, everything will all at once be different.
I still sort of hope that it works. But I really doubt that it will. The fire hose method of teaching usually only works well when the students can be focused almost entirely on the subject at hand. In this case, the "students" can really only focus on the subject for 20 hours a week, and they have all sorts of other things interfering with life - classes, girlfriends, just plain getting used to college, and growing up in general.
Long story short: I think coaches tried a short-cut; I don't think it's going to work.
Let's start with this picture that Bone Buff uploaded:
You've got two choices:
A. The defense was designed to look like that
-or-
B. The players were in the wrong place
Brown may be in over his head, but even a GA wouldn't design a defense to line up like that. So, I really doubt "A" is correct; it's more likely that one or more players were lined up wrong.
That doesn't mean this disaster was the players' fault. It means that the coaches' failure happened well before the play was called. Again, we have two choices:
A. They failed to prepare the players to play the defense
-or-
B. They designed a defense that their players are incapable of playing
Either way, this is a disaster of a coaching effort. But, I suspect that there may be a third option, and that is:
C. They designed a defense that their players are incapable of playing yet, and they have decided the best/only/fastest way to get them to being capable of playing it is to implement it as fast as they can.
Basically, think of it this way: if you have a big pile of knowledge and skills that you're supposed to teach someone, one option available to you is the "fire hose" method. Just blast all of it at them as fast as you can, and keep on going until it "clicks." For some skills, for some people, this method actually works well. The students feel lost for weeks, even months, and then all the sudden, everything comes together and they actually "get it." In other situations, with other skills and other people, you have to take the incremental approach, and use building blocks. First master addition, then subtraction, then multiplication, then division, then algebra and on up to n-dimensional fractal geometry.
There is of course a hybrid: use basic building blocks to a point, and then turn on the fire hose. Which is what I think this staff did/is trying to do. Last year, they tried to get the entire team to the same basic level of competency, fitness and attitude. And this year, they turned on the fire hose. It is entirely possible that this method could still work - if it's going to work, it will be obvious when it happens: over the course of 2-3 games, everything will all at once be different.
I still sort of hope that it works. But I really doubt that it will. The fire hose method of teaching usually only works well when the students can be focused almost entirely on the subject at hand. In this case, the "students" can really only focus on the subject for 20 hours a week, and they have all sorts of other things interfering with life - classes, girlfriends, just plain getting used to college, and growing up in general.
Long story short: I think coaches tried a short-cut; I don't think it's going to work.
