Post-game presser

Can't an OL just jump if he sees a DL in the neutral zone? I feel like I've seen other teams do that. Not nearly as risky as just snapping it when the QB may or may not be ready.
 
johncu said:
Can't an OL just jump if he sees a DL in the neutral zone? I feel like I've seen other teams do that. Not nearly as risky as just snapping it when the QB may or may not be ready.
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Yes. If he reacts to a player in the neutral zone it is offsides on the defense.
 
GoGATech said:
Yes. If he reacts to a player in the neutral zone it is offsides on the defense.
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Seems like our players have missed opportunities to do this. Of course, I have no idea how OL coaching works, so I'd love to hear an explanation of why we aren't doing this.
 
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I watched a couple NFL games yesterday and every time a DL jumped in the neutral zone his OLine counterpart reached out and grabbed him. Penalty on defense with no snapping of the ball. Our guys never react to a free five yards. That’s something that is taught in high school. If our recruited OLine don’t know to do that then we are lost. It’s not a coaching issue it’s an athlete issue. WR’s don’t need a coach to tell them to jump for a high throw or a basketball player doesn’t need a coach to tell him to jump high for rebounds. Good athletes react to in game situations.
 
cbee said:
So, do I detect that you too, see our coaching deficiencies?
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Yes. I believe I pointed out somewhere in the mess of posts from Saturday that I wish Collins had picked up GOL's penchants for strict organization, player accountability, and punctuality in addition to being just a damn good football coach. ND would have won several Natty's with him as coach. When they announced GOL's hiring, I was picturing another ND dynasty starting.
I've made the comment before to my daughter and some who didn't experience GOL as a coach that it was like this. If GOL told you the team was arriving at noon, set your watch. They are arriving at noon on the dot. His practices, the few I got to see, were wonders of organization and maximizing available time and focusing on deficiencies.
I hope the program becomes that again.
 
I have to admit the Defense jumping offsides and we do nothing drives me crazy. It happened last season also.

I can understand not snapping the ball because of the risk but do not understand why we don’t try something to get the easy 5 yards.
 
Walton said:
I have to admit the Defense jumping offsides and we do nothing drives me crazy. It happened last season also.

I can understand not snapping the ball because of the risk but do not understand why we don’t try something to get the easy 5 yards.
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I never understood why some plays like this that are 100% objective are not reviewable. Our center should be able to snap the ball when a guy is in the neutral zone without fear of his QB not being ready and then the penalty not being called. There is no judgement to be made here. They make judgement calls all the time on things like targeting, then review them to objectively confirm or overturn them. Just don't see why there are so many easy calls that could be made by replay that aren't.
 
OptionJacket said:
I watched a couple NFL games yesterday and every time a DL jumped in the neutral zone his OLine counterpart reached out and grabbed him. Penalty on defense with no snapping of the ball. Our guys never react to a free five yards. That’s something that is taught in high school. If our recruited OLine don’t know to do that then we are lost. It’s not a coaching issue it’s an athlete issue. WR’s don’t need a coach to tell them to jump for a high throw or a basketball player doesn’t need a coach to tell him to jump high for rebounds. Good athletes react to in game situations.
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The key difference is that NFL has a single basket of refs that are supposed to call things consistently across all games. Maybe also have more actual consequences for consistently sucking, but not sure if that's true.

For the overall point, I also imagine that our coaches are telling our offensive linemen to focus on getting their reads and other pre-snap öööö right before thinking about anything else. In an article on post-game comments from this week, one player said the opposing defense was moving things around a lot pre-snap, so they're prolly thinking hard on sorting that out instead of looking to jump when a defensive player goes offsides.
 
GoGATech said:
I never understood why some plays like this that are 100% objective are not reviewable. Our center should be able to snap the ball when a guy is in the neutral zone without fear of his QB not being ready and then the penalty not being called. There is no judgement to be made here. They make judgement calls all the time on things like targeting, then review them to objectively confirm or overturn them. Just don't see why there are so many easy calls that could be made by replay that aren't.
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I think the risk is if the center is wrong: he see movement but the DL isn't actually offsides, then the result is likely a free ball 10 yards behind the LOS. Why the OL in front of the DL doesn't respond is what I don't understand.
 
Walton said:
I think the risk is if the center is wrong: he see movement but the DL isn't actually offsides, then the result is likely a free ball 10 yards behind the LOS. Why the OL in front of the DL doesn't respond is what I don't understand.
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Yes. And the reward is also directly proportional to the quality of officiating, which i am still waiting on.
 
OptionJacket said:
I watched a couple NFL games yesterday and every time a DL jumped in the neutral zone his OLine counterpart reached out and grabbed him. Penalty on defense with no snapping of the ball. Our guys never react to a free five yards. That’s something that is taught in high school. If our recruited OLine don’t know to do that then we are lost. It’s not a coaching issue it’s an athlete issue. WR’s don’t need a coach to tell them to jump for a high throw or a basketball player doesn’t need a coach to tell him to jump high for rebounds. Good athletes react to in game situations.
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I don't think that's the same thing at all. WRs jumping for a high ball is an intuitive athletic move. OLs moving when a DL jumps offsides is a strategic coached move. I don't care if their HS coach taught them or not - they're in college now and it's 100% CGC and staff's responsibility to make sure they know what to do. Either we haven't taught them properly, or for some reason we've coached them NOT to react to a DL in the neutral zone.
 
Walton said:
I have to admit the Defense jumping offsides and we do nothing drives me crazy. It happened last season also.

I can understand not snapping the ball because of the risk but do not understand why we don’t try something to get the easy 5 yards.
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I concur that this is a problem. But our list of problems is immense and this one is WAY down the list.
 
johncu said:
I don't think that's the same thing at all. WRs jumping for a high ball is an intuitive athletic move. OLs moving when a DL jumps offsides is a strategic coached move. I don't care if their HS coach taught them or not - they're in college now and it's 100% CGC and staff's responsibility to make sure they know what to do. Either we haven't taught them properly, or for some reason we've coached them NOT to react to a DL in the neutral zone.
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I disagree. An athlete should be able to make a play. If you can’t get your assignment and also be an athlete then we need better players. I guarantee you that if our OLinemen did that then the coaches would have clapped. Do you think Gibbs needs to be told how to play his position at this point in his life? Athletes make plays. I seriously doubt Key has instructed them not to react.
 
gtgtgt1 said:
His comments about the pregame speech stood out to me and he seems to lack confidence in this area. Doesn't directly translate to success on the field but that seemed odd. Deer in headlights moment?
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Yeah, that was odd.
 
We need to vary the snapcount more too so the DL isn't anticipating the snap... correctly over and over.
 
OptionJacket said:
I disagree. An athlete should be able to make a play. If you can’t get your assignment and also be an athlete then we need better players. I guarantee you that if our OLinemen did that then the coaches would have clapped. Do you think Gibbs needs to be told how to play his position at this point in his life? Athletes make plays. I seriously doubt Key has instructed them not to react.
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It has nothing to do with athleticism. I couldn’t hold a block to save my life, but I could recognize a blitz or jump to catch a DL offside if a coach taught me how. Either they haven’t been taught, or they’ve been taught not to do it.

And yes, Gibbs absolutely needs to be told how to play his position. That is literally the job of our coaches. If our coaches went out there and said “hey you’re an athlete, just go make a play” instead of teaching technique, they should be fired on the spot.
 
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