Is Thacker gone after the season?

[BainbridgeJacket]

At this point I kind of wonder if the coaches have just lost faith in blitzes working after past years and first couple games this season, cause we definitely used to be worse at it. Maybe over the offseason we came up with this to counter that, had some minor success against Clemson and UNC with it and are clinging to it and it just hasn't sunk in that our LBs can blitz now and our DE's are getting better.

We did blitz last game, though, so with all due respect wtf are you talking about?

 

[GTLiebs]

We did blitz last game, though, so with all due respect wtf are you talking about?

I'm talking trend-wise not in absolutes. Just trying to figure out a logical explanation for why we don't seem to blitz as much. Or maybe we still are and they just aren't working so I didn't notice, I'd have to rewatch.
If we aren't blitzing a lot, either there's some sort of reason behind it to explain or I feel like the implication is that our coaches are so dumb it would be impossible for them to of gotten the jobs they have had. Like I'm not talking bad coach, in over their head dumb; like fail out of high school dumb.

 

[BainbridgeJacket]

If the players are making mental mistakes, that is on the coaches. ESPECIALLY if those mistakes keep happening game after game. Some of y’all want to act like coaching is all about playcalling, but if you haven’t taught your players how to execute the plays and anticipate your opponent’s counter, it doesn’t matter what play you call or how many stars your players have.

It's like the FSU coaches continuing to play Blackman as long as they did. At a certain point, cut bait and bench the guy(s). You can be teaching all the right things, but being a good position coach is part technique, part teacher, part psychologist, and part scout. I do think it takes time to override the culture of having senior leaders in the program that have bad techniques and make mental mistakes. There's a lot of bad programs in the country that have been too impatient to wait for the culture change to take effect. Of course, the current coaching staff could also be bad.

 

[BainbridgeJacket]

I'm talking trend-wise not in absolutes. Just trying to figure out a logical explanation for why we don't seem to blitz as much. Or maybe we still are and they just aren't working so I didn't notice, I'd have to rewatch.
If we aren't blitzing a lot, either there's some sort of reason behind it to explain or I feel like the implication is that our coaches are so dumb it would be impossible for them to of gotten the jobs they have had. Like I'm not talking bad coach, in over their head dumb; like fail out of high school dumb.

We did blitz a lot... not every play, but a lot. We affected the pocket, throwing lanes, and forced him to change his arm angles many times. With anything resembling good coverage Saturday then we would've had multiple picks and/or 5+ sacks. Unfortunately we didn't cover well.

We might be more effective when we bring pressure by varying the pre snap fronts to confuse blocking assignments, but we're pretty varied in what pressures we were bringing and even in our coverages. We call a lot of zone defenses, but we are really bad at executing them. I wish we would call more @PressManCoverage but if I'm being honest, I'm not sure the play calls are the problem.

 

[aeromech]

We did blitz a lot... not every play, but a lot. We affected the pocket, throwing lanes, and forced him to change his arm angles many times. With anything resembling good coverage Saturday then we would've had multiple picks and/or 5+ sacks. Unfortunately we didn't cover well.

We might be more effective when we bring pressure by varying the pre snap fronts to confuse blocking assignments, but we're pretty varied in what pressures we were bringing and even in our coverages. We call a lot of zone defenses, but we are really bad at executing them. I wish we would call more @PressManCoverage but if I'm being honest, I'm not sure the play calls are the problem.

After re-watching the 2nd & 3rd quarters you are mostly correct. We did blitz quite a bit and sent 6 more times than I remembered; but we got gashed for big plays when we did it a lot. Sometimes they switched to run and still gashed our blitz. It looked like we were either telegraphing the blitz or they were reading our signals. I don't think we affected the pocket or throwing lanes much because it looked like they knew it was coming, it paid off a couple of times; but not enough.

Even when we rushed 3 we usually sent a 4th guy on a delay or had the 4th guy spying the QB. That 4th guy didn't seem to be effective, he either went after too long a delay, like he was waiting to see if the play was a pass or a run and by the time he decided to blitz the ball was coming out; or the play just went right by him.

 

[cincyjacket]

Yeah that delayed 4th guy was in no man's land all game. I'd rather he just blitzed or stunted with another defender.

 

[GTLiebs]

After re-watching the 2nd & 3rd quarters you are mostly correct. We did blitz quite a bit and sent 6 more times than I remembered; but we got gashed for big plays when we did it a lot. Sometimes they switched to run and still gashed our blitz. It looked like we were either telegraphing the blitz or they were reading our signals. I don't think we affected the pocket or throwing lanes much because it looked like they knew it was coming, it paid off a couple of times; but not enough.

Even when we rushed 3 we usually sent a 4th guy on a delay or had the 4th guy spying the QB. That 4th guy didn't seem to be effective, he either went after too long a delay, like he was waiting to see if the play was a pass or a run and by the time he decided to blitz the ball was coming out; or the play just went right by him.

Total conjecture, but I wonder if the delayed blitz being late was partly from bad coverage giving opportunity for the ball to be out faster than expected.

 

[aeromech]

Total conjecture, but I wonder if the delayed blitz being late was partly from bad coverage giving opportunity for the ball to be out faster than expected.

I don't think so. The few plays I am referring to the 4th guy was coming from too far away on the delay to get to the QB in first 4-6 seconds of the play.