What GT does - Pass Blocking

g0lftime

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Techster said:
Great stuff as always, @ilovetheoption . Always dropping knowledge on us GT heathens!

I read a while ago about David Cutcliffe's training QBs. He spends the first month (roughly) with QBs just going over coverages and protections. QBs don't touch the ball or go over the offensive playbook. Just strictly how to read/recognize defenses. Obviously it works because a high percentage of his QBs go on to the NFL and play multiple years, and his QBs always play well.

I wonder if we do something similar with our players. Get them versed in reading defenses, and with the OL, recognizing how defenses can attack our protections and how our OL can neutralize them. I can't fathom why our OLs, with someone coaching them with Key's reputation, are still constantly befuddled by stunts and twists.
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Both Peyton and Ely came to Durham in the off season to work with Cutcliffe.
 

SWATlien

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@ilovetheoption Great stuff. It’s unfortunate but sometimes guys are thrown into the fire and get burned. I think that’s kind of what is happening with the Oline. Hopefully some guys will be healthy against Duke.
 

SOWEGA Jacket

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What does that matter? These players like Paula played in high school and he has been here for over a year now. No one is expecting these younger guys to be All Americans but by god it’s not ridiculous to expect them to make every day blocks. That’s like saying Sims last year shouldn’t have even been able to catch a snap. These guys are not babies who have never played a football game before. I get it, Pitt has bigger, stronger players than they saw in high school but they are not supermen. When you get your chance to get off the bench at least do the bare minimum. And what does that say about our defense if they haven’t prepared these OLinemen in practice? I’m just tired of guys not battling and the coaches giving excuses, aka they are young. Thats not an excuse for scholarship athletes. Man up and play ball.
 

bke1984

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ilovetheoption said:
The QB tries to get rid of the ball just as the LG figures out what's going on
View attachment 11344
The result? Interception, Pitt:
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Great breakdown. But the one thing left out (and glossed over by others who have pointed this out) is that the QB doesn’t HAVE to throw the ball there. The LG screwed the pooch, but Sims made matters worse by throwing her ball right at an unblocked defender. I know it’s game speed and it’s easier said than done, but he’s either got to eat that or try to scramble. Pick (or fumble) is the one thing that absolutely cannot happen. I’m guessing the claim is he didn’t see him, but the fact that he tried to ditch the ball so quickly makes me think he did.
 
roadkill

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Just want to echo @Yaller Jacket's post above - it seems in the "interception plays", the play blows up not because we are being manhandled, or had a bad scheme, it's because one guy failed to block the right opponent. This should be readily correctable via coaching and reps, and I remain hopeful that with experience (and our normal starters back) we will see less of this problem. One can hope.
 

JacketOff

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SOWEGA Jacket said:
What does that matter? These players like Paula played in high school and he has been here for over a year now. No one is expecting these younger guys to be All Americans but by god it’s not ridiculous to expect them to make every day blocks. That’s like saying Sims last year shouldn’t have even been able to catch a snap. These guys are not babies who have never played a football game before. I get it, Pitt has bigger, stronger players than they saw in high school but they are not supermen. When you get your chance to get off the bench at least do the bare minimum. And what does that say about our defense if they haven’t prepared these OLinemen in practice? I’m just tired of guys not battling and the coaches giving excuses, aka they are young. Thats not an excuse for scholarship athletes. Man up and play ball.
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How long have you been following college football? How many underclassmen start for even average teams? How many on ranked teams? How many on elite teams?

  • Alabama has 2 freshmen in their 2 deep and doesn’t start any.
  • Georgia has 2 freshmen in their 2 deep, and starts 1 (the #1 center and #60 ranked player overall in the 2020 class)
  • Pitt has 2 freshmen in their 2 deep and doesn’t start any
  • UNC has no freshmen in their 2 deep and only 2 sophomores (both have been there for 3 years)
  • Boston College has 3 freshmen in their 2 deep and doesn’t start any
  • Georgia Tech has 4 freshmen in our 2 deep, and starts at least 1. 3 got heavy playing time in the game against Pitt.
Successful teams almost always have experienced and older offensive lines. Why? Because it’s a very hard position to play. It’s essentially like having 5 extra QBs in the game with their responsibilities. They have to understand their blocking assignment. Know who their primary and secondary reads are, as well as the primary and secondary reads for everyone else on the line. They have to know the play call and which direction the play is supposed to go. They have to do all of that and still have to be physically strong and tough enough to block a (or multiple) 300lb dudes who are trying to run through them 70 times a game.

Underclassmen who start or even play significant snaps on the OL for any team are anomalies. They are either filling in for injuries, or they are legitimately one of the best players in the country at their position. Or a worst case scenario is the upperclassmen ahead of them are underdeveloped and lacking in talent and skill. OL play has been underwhelming and little disappointing to date under Brent Key, but there’s absolutely no reason to expect or call for freshmen and sophomores to start playing above and beyond expectations.
 

Yaller Jacket

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ILTOption, this may be beyond what you want to do with this thread, but I'm gonna ask anyway. How do opponents sort out our 3 man front? In addition to the three down linemen, we have three others who might or might not rush on passing downs. It would seem to an amateur a confusing situation for the offense to figure out who blocks whom. And yet it often isn't, since they all get blocked all too often.
 
stech81

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I'm not as good as ILTOption but this was more like how I thought we did on pass blocking

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OIP.RKz0TwmX6N96vpv_ZkUioAAAAA
 
ilovetheoption

ilovetheoption

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Yaller Jacket said:
ILTOption, this may be beyond what you want to do with this thread, but I'm gonna ask anyway. How do opponents sort out our 3 man front? In addition to the three down linemen, we have three others who might or might not rush on passing downs. It would seem to an amateur a confusing situation for the offense to figure out who blocks whom. And yet it often isn't, since they all get blocked all too often.
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Are you asking for like examples, and like X's and O's of what teams do differently? Or are you asking the larger question of "why do GT's opponents seem to get more pressure than GT does?"
 

SOWEGA Jacket

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JacketOff said:
How long have you been following college football? How many underclassmen start for even average teams? How many on ranked teams? How many on elite teams?

  • Alabama has 2 freshmen in their 2 deep and doesn’t start any.
  • Georgia has 2 freshmen in their 2 deep, and starts 1 (the #1 center and #60 ranked player overall in the 2020 class)
  • Pitt has 2 freshmen in their 2 deep and doesn’t start any
  • UNC has no freshmen in their 2 deep and only 2 sophomores (both have been there for 3 years)
  • Boston College has 3 freshmen in their 2 deep and doesn’t start any
  • Georgia Tech has 4 freshmen in our 2 deep, and starts at least 1. 3 got heavy playing time in the game against Pitt.
Successful teams almost always have experienced and older offensive lines. Why? Because it’s a very hard position to play. It’s essentially like having 5 extra QBs in the game with their responsibilities. They have to understand their blocking assignment. Know who their primary and secondary reads are, as well as the primary and secondary reads for everyone else on the line. They have to know the play call and which direction the play is supposed to go. They have to do all of that and still have to be physically strong and tough enough to block a (or multiple) 300lb dudes who are trying to run through them 70 times a game.

Underclassmen who start or even play significant snaps on the OL for any team are anomalies. They are either filling in for injuries, or they are legitimately one of the best players in the country at their position. Or a worst case scenario is the upperclassmen ahead of them are underdeveloped and lacking in talent and skill. OL play has been underwhelming and little disappointing to date under Brent Key, but there’s absolutely no reason to expect or call for freshmen and sophomores to start playing above and beyond expectations.
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I hear you and agree. All you posted is true. I’m not expecting a freshman or in Paula’s case a redshirt freshman to be a star or even average. But, what we see on video is ineptitude. I don’t think it’s wrong of me to ask why can’t he simply slow down the guy right in front of him. Is it really too much to ask? And the same thing can be asked even of our older guys. I just think guys are too easily given passes for poor performance by saying they are young. We are never going to have a team of all seniors. Sims and Gibbs will be gone by the time these young OLinmen are ready to roll. Then we’ll have the excuse of another young QB.

Listen, I posted when we signed Wing Green that a lot of folks down my way were surprised that GT offered. Why? Because they saw him play and had direct comparisons of him with other players. Collins made it clear he was going after ”bigger” bodies to look good getting of the bus. I totally agree with that strategy but I’m starting to worry that we got measurables but did we get players?
 
ilovetheoption

ilovetheoption

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jackets55 said:
If this was slide (right) blocking, shouldn't 95 be the left guard's responsibility once he stunts to the right. Not sure the Center erred on this one.
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So, there are two things going on here.

1) Good catch, I made a typo :) I typed Right guard when I meant Left guard. :)

2) Remember that slide blocking is zone blocking. Your assignment is whoever shows up in your face. He ended up in the Center and Left Guard's face, so it was the Center and Left Guard's job to get him blocked, however they worked it out between them. Another good rule of thumb for OL is "blocking nobody is never the right answer". The Center initially engages him, and then passes him off to...nobody, and then goes on to block...nobody. So, you can assign more blame to the LG that the C if you want, and maybe you're entirely correct, but those two have got to figure it out between them, so that's why I mentioned both (even though I mixed up right and left, LOL)
 
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g0lftime

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Tenuta would have probably brought at least one of the backers or nickel on a blitz almost every down or at least faked it. I don't think we did much of that against Pitt but we were able to get pressure with our DL against UNC without having to blitz. Disclaimer: I have not rewatched the games.
 
Fatmike91

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Great thread, thank you ilovetheoption to bringing us back to football discussion.

I wonder what fun stunts Duke has up their sleeve for Saturday? After looking at this there is no doubt they are on the white board drawing some curvy lines...

/
 
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