The "missed assignments" issue

[Yaller Jacket]

There has not been a coach's call in show or a press conference this year when Paul Johnson didn't say something about the unusually high number of missed assignments. From my memory, this has never been a big issue in past years, not even the first year when it was all new. PJ has stated that some of it has to do with players who have barely practiced at the position being in games. But he's also said it was across the board this year.

So are there any theories as to why? Could it be that defenses threw different looks at us this year so that getting the right assignment was more complicated than in past years? I can't believe our coaches have forgotten how to teach, and I can't believe our players have suddenly become more forgetful than usual. There must have been more going on.

 

[B Lifsey]

This has been a very frustrating thing to watch this year - unblocked rushers just running by OL, AB going wrong way, BB hitting wrong side of line. No theory on why but hope coaches find a solution!

 

[Techster]

Guys who were slated to play other positons but had to move:
MLD to AB (was a BB)
Lynn Griffin to AB (was a DB)
Qua Searcy to AB (was originally a WR, moved to AB during spring)
Marcus Allen to BB (was originally a LB, moved to BB last week of spring)

Guys who had to play in their first year due to certain factors (excluding redshirts):
Brad Stewart
Taquan Marshall
Marcus Marshall
Patrick Skov (transfer)
Will Bryan

Guys who have been in the system 1 year redshirting, but first year playing:
Clinton Lynch
Trey Klock
Matthew Jordan (Miami Game)

All guys who were "forced" to play a lot of minutes due to injuries and graduation of players. That's a lot of guys running around with their heads cut off going every which way but the right way.

 

[takethepoints]

And, as Coach said after the Miami game, just because a freshman has played in 7 or 8 games doesn't mean he isn't still a freshman.

I've felt really bad for Coach during the whole season. He's been like the Dalai Lama was when the Chinese invaded Tibet; he has an army, but nobody in it knows how to fight. It's no wonder we lost so many close games. The wonder is that we had so many close games, given the structure of the team once the season got going. That, to me, is encouraging for our future.

 

[AE 87]

Fwiw, Qua was moved to A-Back last Fall.

Anyway, I don't think the missed assignments from the Fr in skill positions came as a surprise. I think the missed assignments on the OL were the biggest and most perplexing issue. Furthermore, these were issues of not just failure to execute well, i.e. getting beat by a better defender, but not running the right play.

I suspect, can't know for sure, that one or more of our OL has a hearing problem causing him to not hear line calls well and/or closes his eyes after he lines up causing him not to adjust to defensive line shifts. At times, it seemed to me to be that bad and inexplicable.

I thought about the closed eyes thing after recalling the video of two UF guys trying to block each other for a whle a couple of years ago.

 

[bke1984]

I understand they were young, but they got worse as the season went along, not better. That's pretty scary...

I'm hopeful we'll get better next year, but I'm actually very worried, as well. That team should not have been that bad in the last three to four games.

 

[iceeater1969]

The defenses have adjusted.
With our final 3 games in 14, it was obvious during that off season that the plain old " each player must do his assignment" defense was a failure. The decision to be very aggressive was a natural evolution to get the ball out of JT s hands at any cost. By crowding the line they are also in position to disrupt passing . All of this was in hopes of getting us in long down and distance situations. Adding the injuries that forced less prepared players to step up against forcing defenses and you have "missed assignments."

We can hope the more experienced players will do better next year. Their play in final game against a less agressive defense does not give me a lot of confidence. ( The uga team almost lost to gsu )

Our offense will take FIXING to beat the 2015 defenses , but will we see 2015 defenses or new 2016 defenses next year?

In 2016?I think they will bringing a lot more blitzes. There will be LOTS of folks near the line . More will be trying to force turn overs and not just make tackles. For example : When Ab goes in motion the safety will step up to line and at full speed chase play - trying to hit qb and bb at point of mesh or chase down ab or participate in the midline. Also the standard lb will be replaced with a much smaller and much faster safety because they want to cover the edge. They will accept larger yards after contact with bb or qb to eliminate the big gains. Should we pass they will have 6 db.

Using hyper agressive defense that limits big gains, gets us behind schedule, and causes turn overs is the next step up in the defense.

Besides the magical thinking "our guys will get a lot better so we just run the base offense " it is my opinion we need to run exotic plays (reverses, counters, naked bootlegs , and NEW pass routes) BEFORE we get behind on down and distance.

When we are far behind schedule it is lame to call an exotic play. This years entire backfield has experience at the TO so teach them the exotic plays while the returning and new guys learn the TO.

Yes I know the ol must block.

 

[bke1984]

I'm not so sure the defenses changed all that much. I think it looks like they were doing something different because the offense was being executed so much slower in '15. Put the tape side by side...it was scary slow in '15 compare to '14.

 

[alagold]

This is a VERY VERY complicated precision offense---that's why, when its working,it is hell to stop.The DEf don't know where it strikes next.But like precision equipment ,a little sand gunks things up quickly. No WR threat starts the difficulty and it spirals from there with safeties playing up like LBs,so the blitzing possibilities are endless.Add in bad blocking and things go south fast.PJ had better figure this out fast or he will get another piddling season.

 

[JorgeJonas]

The defenses have adjusted.

Oh? Elaborate, please.

 

[OldJacketFan]

It's simply amazing how many folks on here have figured out and come up what had eluded some of the most experienced, best paid, most talented defensive minds in the game. How is that all this defensive wizardry isn't coaching at the D1 or NFL level making high 6 or low 7 incomes?

 

[00Burdell]

I think the real problem is the gaping hole in our roster where the signing class of 2013 should be.

 

[JorgeJonas]

I think the real problem is the gaping hole in our roster where the signing class of 2013 should be.

Well now you're just talking sense. This is the internet, goddamnit!

 

[iceeater1969]

It's simply amazing how many folks on here have figured out and come up what had eluded some of the most experienced, best paid, most talented defensive minds in the game. How is that all this defensive wizardry isn't coaching at the D1 or NFL level making high 6 or low 7 incomes?

You can't seem to grasp
We won one non high school game by a miracle.

I will not try to type up all the ways the defense is moving people around to confuse the blocking.

Its obvious

Watch gt bob 2013,2024,2015



I posted last spring that they would be aggressive NOW I SAY THEY WILL BE MORE AGGRESSIVE.

 

[OldJacketFan]

Let's see Saban and the new coach at GA had to game plan Ga Southern in '11 when Monken was still running a HS offense. That D has 4 1st round picks and the 7 remaining defenders all played in the NFL as well. As Nicky said, they ran though us like s**t though a tin horn. Point being when ANY O doesn't execute, doesn't follow their assignments and generally screws up most D are going to look pretty good. If the O is being run as it should be AGGRESSIVE will get your a** beat. AGGRESSIVE D against an option based attack is meat on the bone for this O when it's run cleanly.

 

[takethepoints]

I think this is right. I'm a big fan of LongestDay's O breakdown films. As he keeps saying - and he's right - when we executed this year, we did fine. Our problem was that execution, as was pointed out above, tended to decline as the season went on. I think this was because the cast of characters kept changing, we played a lot of games (5) in bad weather which made things even more difficult with unexperienced players, and the general speed of the O decreased. By the Ugag game some of these problems looked to be on the way to solution, but only that. (As I said to my son in the first half, "If I'm not mistaken, I just saw something resembling an edge block!") I don't have any doubt that the O will run better next year and, when it does, I sure do hope that opposing DCs use the tactics the Iceman describes above. We'll kill 'em.

 

[Whiskey_Clear]

Sigh....Defenses havent "figured it out". But DCs did what they are paid to do. They recognized that this year's team couldn't handle blitzes and make Ds pay for it. So we saw more blitzes. And we rarely made em pay for it.

 

[Boomergump]

What defenses did was shift around late a little more, presumedly after our line calls, and bring more bodies forward and blitz certain areas of the field. It is not that we haven't seen it before, but we just saw more of it because, like Whiskey says, it was working. Just like CPJ does as an OC, he keeps going with something until you show you can stop it. Well......DCs do the same thing on their end. Getting burned tends to change one's tactics. We didn't do a lot of burning so we had to deal with more bodies up close.

The reasons why we didn't do as much burning? Inexperience has been talked about a lot and deservedly so, but we were also slower as a team. We were physical enough up front, but we were slower. There is no denying that. I cued up some old film from last year and watched the OL play closely just trying to look for differences. Shamire is slower than Mason. He just is. He will move you, but if you shift against him and make his angle more difficult, you can beat him sometimes. Errin Joe played a lot slower this year than last year. He just didn't get people cut off with angles and he was slower coming off the ball. It was quite noticeable. I think he looks more fat this year, to be truthful. Then you factor in the rookies and their mistakes and you get what we got. The skill position blocking? Night and day different, although it was improving somewhat as the year went on.

 

[Essobee]

I posted last spring that they would be aggressive NOW I SAY THEY WILL BE MORE AGGRESSIVE.

Tenuta on steroids.

 

[1979jacket]

Fwiw, Qua was moved to A-Back last Fall.

Anyway, I don't think the missed assignments from the Fr in skill positions came as a surprise. I think the missed assignments on the OL were the biggest and most perplexing issue. Furthermore, these were issues of not just failure to execute well, i.e. getting beat by a better defender, but not running the right play.

I suspect, can't know for sure, that one or more of our OL has a hearing problem causing him to not hear line calls well and/or closes his eyes after he lines up causing him not to adjust to defensive line shifts. At times, it seemed to me to be that bad and inexplicable.

I thought about the closed eyes thing after recalling the video of two UF guys trying to block each other for a whle a couple of years ago.

I agree. Letting guys just fire through gaps in the line was unreal. It was not freshmen doing that. Don't know why but my guess is - Some of it was some defenses scheming to take advantage of wide gaps and we need to make some adjustments scheme wise- I think. Some of it just guys just getting beat. But most of it appeared to be a real problem with communication. I'm expecting some shake-ups across the oline and lets find a leader to probably play center to call the blocking and play guys who understand you have to make those pickups.