Coaching Priorities: Recipes for Improvement At UCLA
by CPOBruin on Sep 13, 2010 8:22 AM PDT
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PrintBumped. GO BRUINS. -N
After watching these two games, I've tempered my expectations for the season to be one of continued growth rather than raw breakout. It's going to be a climb, but there is still much to look forward to as the season progresses. Below are the things I will be looking for as the season continues, in terms of actual measurable success.
1. Focus on the run, and lean heavier on Malcolm Jones. 50 carries a game in our Pistol offense is what I’m looking for. Jones needs at least 20 carries a game. Period. He is too good to not be getting more touches. 20 for Franklin, 20 for Jones, and the rest for the QB options/H-backs/reverses/etc. Let our big (and somewhat slow) O-Line do what they do best, bust out of the gates and smash some fools in the mouth.
2. Belliotti said it best – “You don’t practice, you don’t play.” We don’t have a Favre out there who has 20+ years of seasoning under his belt to lean on when practice can’t happen. I understand Brehaut’s lack of mobility in the Pistol is an issue, but Prince is being put in a position to fail. Our kids need quality solid practices to get their timing down and be able to succeed out there on Saturdays. If they’re too banged up to go, it’s unfortunate, but the consequence is the coaches need to turn to the backups who can and will practice.
3. Tackling drills, tackling drills, tackling drills. Wrap the arms first, drive with the shoulders second. This is basic fundamentals that we’re not seeing out there.
4. Give Owa increased playing time, and ask the D-Line to focus on clogging holes rather than overplaying the pass rush. Multiple times there were WIDE open lanes to run up the middle on QB scrambles or draws because the D-Line didn’t stay disciplined in rushing the pass. This can’t happen anymore, it’s discipline. Also, Akeem Ayers is not gonna look as good as he did last season because without a dominant presence like Brian Price jamming up the line, Ayers will not be able to roam around as much.
5. No more “stupid penalties.” There are some penalties you can live with – holding, pass interference, face mask — these are penalties that happen when kids are playing hard, need to do damage control, or are a bit too hyped. But the false starts, the illegal formation, the delays of game, and especially especially the late hit PERSONAL FOULS are inexcusable. These are discipline issues, and things that coaches need to drill into the team during practice.
6.Make conditioning a priority. I was concerned when Gold reported that practice last Wednesday was not at the intensity needed for a Pac-10 opening game. No excuses for that, and it shows on Saturday when the kids are wheezing and vomiting out there because they’re not used to the pace of play. This is inexcusable, and for all the talk about getting stronger and faster over the off-season, someone forgot to mention that stamina is a priority when it comes to conditioning.
These 6 points are things I will be looking for in the next few games. The scoreboard at Texas is not where I’ll be gauging improvement, it’ll be in the way the game is played, the way the coaches correct these mistakes, and the discipline and execution that is seen out on the field. I think we have some special talent on this team, it’s just a matter of coaches doing their part.
This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of BruinsNation's (BN) editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of BN's editors.
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Thanks Nestor
I figured that with all of the great content that I’ve been sponging up for this year, I needed to sit down and put my thoughts down on paper in an organized way. Thanks for bumping to the front. Here’s hoping that in 6 weeks, we can look back and take note of solid adjustments being made by our coaching staff.
Our running game has been effective
but for it to continue to be effective, we need much more production out of our QB, otherwise, we become one-dimensional and easy for opposing defenses to scheme for. I think putting more emphasis on the running game at this point is way too predictable.
Our offensive line and running backs have done relatively well the 1st 2 games, but this isn’t Nebraska of the mid ‘90s. We aren’t good enough to say “We’re going to run the ball, just try and stop us.” We still need to keep defenses honest.
"I don't forget very much" Rick Neuheisel, 11/28/09
yup
our running game isn’t us pounding it with a superior OL, it’s based on keeping the defense off-balance. If we can’t pass – and if our QB stops being a run threat, as he seemed to vs Stanford – then stopping the rest won’t be too hard.
I think we’re still working it out in the run game – looked on Saturday like they had told Prince he had kept it too much in the K-state game. Maybe overcompensated vs Stanford.
by britishbruin on Sep 13, 2010 9:08 AM PDT up reply actions
Dead on....
The next two weeks we need to really focus on the run on both sides of the ball. Houston is a great passing team but their run game can gash u to death. Texas has stuggled running despite that being a major emphasis here in the offseason. Their QB hasn’t really lit it up against two inferior opponents so making him beat us will be key to our game here in Austin.
Ball control, Ball control, Ball control!!!! If we can run it and keep running, it will give us doable 3rd down situations where we don’t have to throw it all the time.
I think this has been tough for the coaching staff to gauge what type of team we are, but with two games under our belt and the improvement they hoped for in the running game we need to shift our thinking and give into what the Revolver truly is, a running offense with a well timed passes to keep the opposing D’s honest..
GO BRUINS!!!!
Six suggestions for the coaches
Two for the Offense, Two for the Defense and Two for both.
The question I have is, with the likes of Norm Chow in this coaching
staff, why do we have to have this conversation?
All of these points seem as basic and obvious as they are spot-on.
We could see signs of them during the KSU game but they were
not addressed for Stanford.
Coaching Is the Issue
An excellent post and spot on in my opinion. From what I’ve seen in the first two games, the Bruins are not getting physically out-matched as much as they are getting out coached.
It starts with the inexcusible decision to start an injured and rusty Kevin Prince at quarterback. He’s far from a superstar when healthy; at 80-90 percent he’s barely average.
Poor tackling and undiscipline penalties are also a failure of the coaches. Ditto for conditioning.
The Bruins have the raw talent. It’s time for the staff to prepare them to be successful.
Rich Ramus
50 rushes a game is not unreasonable
I understand we are not at the level of a smashmouth type team where we can just run it and force the opposition to adjust. I’m not asking for a 90%-10% split in the offense, but a 50rush/25pass split is reasonable to me, at least when playing on the road where you need to focus on ball control and field position. In addition, there are certain key benefits that have been pointed out already for why the rush is so important:
1. It plays to our O-Lines strengths. These backup guys are big and play with heart and passion, I honestly have been very proud of them thus far. However, as expected from backups, they are not the most nimble guys and have been getting beat on the pass rush. Letting them jump off the line and run block is playing to their strength.
2. Makeable 3rd downs. It’s asking too much of our QB’s to constantly try and convert 3rd and 9’s, 3rd and 10’s. Take the 3-4 yard gain per attempt and put your QB in a position where they have options.
3. Ball control. Our Defense has been getting extremely winded by all the quick 3 and outs. Getting momentum going through a 6 minute drive, even if it results in only a FG is huge for our defense in that it allows them to rest and forces the opposing team to use more substitutes on Defense.
Now why has the rush not been emphasized as much? Well obviously in Stanford, the scoreboard has a lot to do with it. The reason why I thought Stanford’s 3rd quarter near 10-minute drive was so utterly game changing was for two reasons: 1) it’s demoralizing to have the other team jam it down your throat on 5 straight 3rd downs like that, but more importantly 2) it put UCLA down by 3 TD’s with a little more than a quarter to play. That forces UCLA to go pass-happy and go away from the kind of “balanced” offense we’re looking for.
All this being said, we have one of the best Offensive minds in college football, and a head coach who ain’t too bad on that side of the ball as well. I’m fully expecting that the proper adjustments will be made.
This is well done, CPO --
especially the point about gap control. Bulllough mentioned this after K-State, but it hasn’t been fixed. I suppose over-eagerness is to blame, but we can’t be such slow learners. And we really have no alternative but to try to become a ball-control offense, with emphasis on the run. Then maybe we can make some effective throws at the right times.
Conditioning not as bad, maybe
Those tv shots of a couple of your players being winded sure made an impact. I was not there at the rose bowl so I could not see all the players, but did the team really look tired as the tv shots led us to believe?
Eliminate those stupid errors and we are looking at a pretty good team. Those errors have plagued CRN’s tenure, all climaxing this past Saturday, and account for most of everybody’s frustration.
Good points CPO
status update after Houston game
thought I’d do a quick re-cap of how the team performed in Houston, based on the points outlined above:
Point #1 – CHECK!. UCLA ran the ball 51 times for a dominant 266 yards rushing. Translated into a +5 minute in the time of possession. Were it not for the fumbles/picks, we’d have dominated the time of possession even more.
Point #2 – CHECK! Prince had a full week of practice and it showed.
Point #3 – Check, mostly. Apart from a lazy 4th quarter, the tackling was solid and technically sound, with Larimore leading the charge here.
Point #4 – still off. The Houston QB’s had some wide open lanes to scramble at times, including some long runs late in the game as the UCLA D-Line started to lose discipline. This is going to be a huge area of improvement for Texas.
Point #5 – still way off. Late hits and other personal fouls are still plaguing us. Luckily those 15 yard penalties didn’t kill us too badly, but it’s a huge area of concern.
Point #6 – check by default. The running game gave our Defense a breather, although it’s hard to gauge whether the 4th quarter drop off was the result of fatigue or mental lack of focus. It’s most likely lack of focus, so hopefully the conditioning issues are over with.
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