CFR: Peter Carroll is a "physical genius"!

by Nestor on Apr 17, 2006 9:10 AM PDT in Football Comment 3 comments

Again, I wish I could make this stuff. But according to CFR - a good college football blog that may start to rapidly lose its credibility - as the sane/impartial observer of the world of college football - Peter Carroll is a "physical genius":

Onward to Pete Carroll.

Because he's not an athlete, I won't bother to show highlights documenting his physical gifts. That's alright, because his mental gifts make a strong case for his status as a physical genius.

I've already discussed his practice demands, but there's more to the man than the practice field. Carroll has a very active imagination. Few football fans realize that he helped develop the modern Tampa/cover-two defense while serving as Monte Kiffin's defensive coordinator at North Carolina State from 1980-1982. It is now one of the NFL's two most prolific and dominant defenses, making a home most notably in Tampa Bay and Indianapolis.

And you wonder why we cringed at CFR when it concluded that Dorrell is a good football coach.

CFR mentions Carroll's NFL ties to Tampa Bay defense, but conveniently leaves out the giant eggs Pom Pom laid with his HC stints with the New England Patriots and New York Jets. I wonder how a Patriots' fans would react if that post was brought to their attention. I lived in Boston from 1996 to 1999 when Carroll the "physical genius" was coaching the hapless Patsies. It was his genius defense that was regularly getting torched in the NFL. Yes, it was Carroll's "active imagination" that earned him a swift kick in the ass from Foxborough (not to mention the clown got fired by the New York Jets after one season).

Carroll the physical genius made a money move in hiring Norm Chow when he got hired by Southern Cal as Mike Garrett's third choice. It was Chow, not Carroll, who installed the current Southern Cal offensive system, and turned it into a point-scoring machine using the talents of Carson Palmer and then effortlessly transitioning into Matt Leinart and Reggie Bush.

Bush is a freak. No denying that. And kudos to him for the great college career he put together in South Central. He alone was responsible for that lucky (and questionable) win against ND. But to label Carroll as some kind of "physical genius" has to be one of the more delusional observation someone has ever written up over the internets. Yes ... Peter Carroll is such a physical genius that his team almost choked away a win against Dorrell's football team in 2004. If not for Dorrell's pathetic game mismanagement, Bruins would have been able to pull out a win against Carroll the physical genius in just two years even with Leinart and Bush's freak show.

Carroll is a "physical genius"!

Anyways, we cannot wait to see how this genius does this year without the Ball Room Dance and without Bush and Lendale White. One of the reasons SC game has become a MUST WIN game for Dorrell is precisely because we don't have to read this kind of unbearable rubbish online.

GO BRUINS.

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CFR = ManPundit groupie*

by bluestreet on Apr 17, 2006 8:57 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Carroll

Calling him a "physical genius" is laughable. The concept is an interesting one (and I regard Malcolm Gladwell highly, and heartily recommend his book), but I hardly think Carroll qualifies. For one (rather significant) thing, Carroll isn't an athlete, and the concept doesn't, by definition, apply to people not pursing physical pursuits. This statement by CFR, for example, makes no sense at all:

Because he's not an athlete, I won't bother to show highlights documenting his physical gifts. That's alright, because his mental gifts make a strong case for his status as a physical genius.

Furthermore, even if the concept did apply, Carroll is no genius. If anything, Carroll is a good college coach. He's full of shit, and talks a good game, which has helped in recruiting. He's smart enough to know he's not that smart, so he hired Chow to run the offense. He's dumb enough to think his questionable discipline and other practices won't catch up with him, at least as long as SC's ESPN contract is still good and the 5-star recruits keep rolling in.

That all said, he's likely to continue being successful, and is a perfect fit at USC (who says stereotypes aren't useful predictors?).

But a "genius" of any sorts, he's not.

Post-script: If Gladwell's "physical genius" concept intrigues you, and you're interested in a somewhat more highbrow book on a related topic, I'd also recommend this book.

by Cocoman25 on Apr 17, 2006 11:14 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Gladwell ...

I have read "The Tipping Point," but have not read "Blink." I am planning to read "Blink."

You have pretty much hit the nail on the head on re. Pom Pom, who is a good college coach, but to call him "physical genius," is about one of most laughable assertions I have read in blogs covering college football.

Interestingly though speaking of being a defensive whiz in college football, EDSBS has a great post on 4-3 defense which is the backbone of Pom Pom's defense at USC:

What makes it work? First off, gap control and ability to cover the entire line of scrimmage with a good blend of speed and power. With four linemen, the scheme has enough brawn to work the control of the gaps in the line and allow linebackers (who tend to be lighter and faster) to fly to the ball and do nasty damage to ball carriers. Assignments become key here; most teams still number the gaps in the line and refer to specific techniques by those numbers, rather than just telling them "um, yeah, go block that guy." (Michigan fans might disagree with this point, having had Jim Herrmann as their DC for an unfortunate span of years.) The systems vary, but all you need to know is that each defensive player in the 4-3 has a specific gap to cover and should know their assignment. When they don't know them, bad things happen and running backs usually end up scaring the daylights out of lightish defensive backs on busted assignments.

Second, the scheme gets a third linebacker on the field, which ups the athleticism factor for a defense by a significant quotient and forces the game into the balanced dynamic most people call optimal football today. The 5-2's weakness came against teams with lateral speed and the ability to pass, a weakness that became more and more apparent with each passing year as offenses opened up and began using the whole field. Adding a linebacker allowed not only for more defensive speed to counter the sweep, but also improved pass coverage and took away whole swaths of the field from the offense.

[...]

Simplicity in the 4-3 can kill, but so can complexity: Pete Carroll's mixes at USC have been the backbone of the Trojans' resurgence as a national power, byzantine arrangements mixing coverages, blitzes, alignments, assignments, and on occasion, interpretive dance numbers to distract opponents. Charlie Strong's 4-3 scheme at Florida relies on similar intrigues, though Greg Mattison's elder statesmanship has toned down some of Strong's more reckless tendencies. In either case and in countless others, the basic set can be tweaked into whatever the defensive coordinator wants, whether it's Miami's bump and run man-to-man coverage, Gene Chizik's anaconda zones at Texas, or Jon Tenuta's blitz-freaky schemes at Georgia Tech.

I highly recommend reading the post to get a good basic understanding of 4-3/5-2 defense. Kerr by the way was mainly implementing the standard 4-3 at UCLA. The last time we saw something different in Westwood was when Coach Rocky Long was the DC for Toledo and gave us an interesting 4-2-5 look (featuring a hybrid safety/LB position) from 96 to 99. It will be interesting to see what much hyped DC DeWayne Walker brings to the table this year in Westwood.

by Nestor on Apr 17, 2006 11:31 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs