Tim Riggins
April 5th, 2009, 08:38 AM
ones that I've seen on Grid in quite awhile. Normally have to wade through too much BS to find much that is informative.
Posted: Yesterday 9:03 PM
Impressions of UT staff...
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Very Impressed with the new staff...let me tell you why:
1. Lane preached of a change in the culture that included:
--Accountability (on the grass, weightroom, classroom and basically everything they do),
--High Energy w/all workouts and practices. All coaches even talked about the importance of managers being high energy also. Liked how they played music during warm-ups and let the offense or defense that won the practice before, pick the music. Coaches even beat the players to each drill to set the tone.
--Stressed Competition in everything (includes keeping score in most all they do). Importance of Posting all results and individual grade-outs.
--Corrections of flaws and identify loafing, Immediately. Staff films ALL practices and all Drills, sometimes from several angles reviews with the players that night or next morning. They also film the warm-ups in which they critique loafs, and even Monte commented on how a few managers during clip were not clapping hard enough and not leaning toward the drill, and were talked to about loafing.
--Creating turnover and ball protection. Said while he was at USC they had a plus 106 turnover margin. Wow!
2. All coaches were high motivation and high energy; esp. Monte, Orgeron (goes without saying), Lane, Gran and Wilson
3. Monte talked about his defensive philosophy and the fundamentals of the Tampa 2. Talk about creating a culture of Competition. Importance of staff and players talking only football when they enter the football complex. Leave all personal matters and school related stuff at the door—that’s what the academic support bldgs were for. Not wasting time during drills or at practice, period. High tempo!
4. Spoke to strength coach, who was all business. Ask him about how some local kids were doing and the first thing out of his mouth was, “they all have to learn to be accountable in everything they do. That is the key, in the weight room and everywhere else.” Man would make a good drill sergeant in the Marines. During warm-ups, Garza was talking to Berry about something and he told Garza that Berry needed to pay attention and keep up with the stretching exercises
5. Many of the coaches, esp. WR, DL and DB coach, spoke of a big need for fundamentals improvement and how many players were struggling with basic drills for their position (esp WRs—getting off ball, blocking—could tell a huge difference in aggressiveness and effectiveness of blocking in scrimmages over lat year). Showed cut-ups of our veterans struggling with certain drills that all players at their position should have mastered the first few months of college practice.
6. Notables from scrimmage:
· Tomlin was on our defensive sidelines and was getting pumped and helped inspire the team.
· Morley was said to be AWOL.
· Warren forgot/missed big assignments twice, was yanked and heard about it.
· Defense dominated most of the scrimmage, offense gained momentum via the run game and scored a few TDs at the end of the first part and during the second part of the scrimmage.
· Running backs looked good. T Williams looked quicker than you would expect and strong/tough and Poole had great cuts and elusive moves. RB screens looked good, esp the pulling of the OL this early in the year.
· Montori Hughes was a beast, esp versus the seconds, whom could not even slow him down.
· Lane called all plays. Chaney role appears to be as a mentor to Lane. He also gets pretty animated after screw-ups and seemed extremely brilliant during his presentation.
· Lane rarely checked on the defense during practice or the scrimmage. Felt like there were two practice head coaches (Lane just lets Monte do his thing). This is really nothing ground shaking.
· Passing game was really focusing on short drags, flat and underneath routes. Appeared to struggle, esp. Crompton, who made several bad reads and threw some bad balls, usually low.
· Offense used some empty sets…but Monte made them pay by bringing 2 LBs through both A gaps to wreck things. Still good to see them opening it up though.
· This team still has a lot of work to do before they will compete with the SEC big boys. But when they get things right, they will be scary dominant!
Posted: Yesterday 9:03 PM
Impressions of UT staff...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Very Impressed with the new staff...let me tell you why:
1. Lane preached of a change in the culture that included:
--Accountability (on the grass, weightroom, classroom and basically everything they do),
--High Energy w/all workouts and practices. All coaches even talked about the importance of managers being high energy also. Liked how they played music during warm-ups and let the offense or defense that won the practice before, pick the music. Coaches even beat the players to each drill to set the tone.
--Stressed Competition in everything (includes keeping score in most all they do). Importance of Posting all results and individual grade-outs.
--Corrections of flaws and identify loafing, Immediately. Staff films ALL practices and all Drills, sometimes from several angles reviews with the players that night or next morning. They also film the warm-ups in which they critique loafs, and even Monte commented on how a few managers during clip were not clapping hard enough and not leaning toward the drill, and were talked to about loafing.
--Creating turnover and ball protection. Said while he was at USC they had a plus 106 turnover margin. Wow!
2. All coaches were high motivation and high energy; esp. Monte, Orgeron (goes without saying), Lane, Gran and Wilson
3. Monte talked about his defensive philosophy and the fundamentals of the Tampa 2. Talk about creating a culture of Competition. Importance of staff and players talking only football when they enter the football complex. Leave all personal matters and school related stuff at the door—that’s what the academic support bldgs were for. Not wasting time during drills or at practice, period. High tempo!
4. Spoke to strength coach, who was all business. Ask him about how some local kids were doing and the first thing out of his mouth was, “they all have to learn to be accountable in everything they do. That is the key, in the weight room and everywhere else.” Man would make a good drill sergeant in the Marines. During warm-ups, Garza was talking to Berry about something and he told Garza that Berry needed to pay attention and keep up with the stretching exercises
5. Many of the coaches, esp. WR, DL and DB coach, spoke of a big need for fundamentals improvement and how many players were struggling with basic drills for their position (esp WRs—getting off ball, blocking—could tell a huge difference in aggressiveness and effectiveness of blocking in scrimmages over lat year). Showed cut-ups of our veterans struggling with certain drills that all players at their position should have mastered the first few months of college practice.
6. Notables from scrimmage:
· Tomlin was on our defensive sidelines and was getting pumped and helped inspire the team.
· Morley was said to be AWOL.
· Warren forgot/missed big assignments twice, was yanked and heard about it.
· Defense dominated most of the scrimmage, offense gained momentum via the run game and scored a few TDs at the end of the first part and during the second part of the scrimmage.
· Running backs looked good. T Williams looked quicker than you would expect and strong/tough and Poole had great cuts and elusive moves. RB screens looked good, esp the pulling of the OL this early in the year.
· Montori Hughes was a beast, esp versus the seconds, whom could not even slow him down.
· Lane called all plays. Chaney role appears to be as a mentor to Lane. He also gets pretty animated after screw-ups and seemed extremely brilliant during his presentation.
· Lane rarely checked on the defense during practice or the scrimmage. Felt like there were two practice head coaches (Lane just lets Monte do his thing). This is really nothing ground shaking.
· Passing game was really focusing on short drags, flat and underneath routes. Appeared to struggle, esp. Crompton, who made several bad reads and threw some bad balls, usually low.
· Offense used some empty sets…but Monte made them pay by bringing 2 LBs through both A gaps to wreck things. Still good to see them opening it up though.
· This team still has a lot of work to do before they will compete with the SEC big boys. But when they get things right, they will be scary dominant!