Change is Inevitable - Previews & Coaching Points Today's from Bowl Games
Dec 27, 2023 7:00 pm
Coach ,
Probably like you, as I’ve sat down to watch these games, it’s felt like a completely different season than when these teams earned bowl eligibility. Rosters and coaching staffs in most situations are vaguely recognizable at best…there’s plenty of off season conversation to be had about how this gets fixed OR how we embrace this new reality and make it work.
Hopefully the majority of that is left to football coaches to decide and not administrators because as we know, coaches are the best at soving problems.
Coach Kauffman brings you today’s capsules and coaching points.
Enjoy the games!
Coach Grabowski
Game Previews:
Military Bowl - Tulane Green Wave vs Virginia Tech Hokies
After a 5-3 finish to the season to gain bowl eligibility, Virginia Tech enters the Military Bowl looking to show no mercy against a Tulane team likely feeling a bit raw after the events of the last month.
The Green Wave are down their coach, starting quarterback, a chunk of their coaching staff, and several key contributors. The Hokies retained almost every key contributor and will be ready to rumble.
VT is in such a different place right now that almost everything we know about Tulane from the 13 games they played this year should be considered untrustworthy at best.
Against a team like Virginia Tech that has established a successful identity and a lot of momentum this December, this feels like what would be a difficult matchup for the Hokies has instead become a difficult matchup for the Green Wave. With all these changes I would suspect a defensive mind like Brent Pry will attack this offense with pressure. Lets explore some of those principles.
Brent Pry - 5 Man Pressure
Ramping up the pressure is one way to continually disrupt the offense especially if you are consistent in getting to the QB. QB hits are something that is missed statistically but has a major impact on the play of the game. Incorporating successful early 5 man pressures provides a situation where the use of 6 and 7 man pressures become that much more effective. It then allows the sim pressure expansion and ultimate influence over the game to rise.
If you aren’t applying pressure to the QB you probably aren’t doing very well in general. Straight rushes with DL stunts struggle to get it done in a lot of ways anymore. Incorporating a variety of rush tactics can cause fits for the opposing offense. Accompany your 5 man pressures with both man and zone pressures.
The ability to blitz and do it well as well as disguise it can be one of the most impacting items in a game. The mere perception that a pressure may be coming affects the nature of the QB and the timing of the play. Coach Brent Pry highlights how to utilize zone and man pressures out of a variety of looks to attack the opposing offense and take the fight to them.
Other Clinics from These Staffs:
Shawn Quinn- Attacking Spread Offenses
Josh Christian-Young - DB Drills & Match Coverage
Duke’s Mayo Bowl - UNC Tar Heels vs West Virginia Mountaineers
Everyone is missing someone this bowl season, but this is one of the first bowls in the run that’s hammered big by personnel losses.
North Carolina’s absences are much worse. This is where there has to be a bit of a pivot - time of possession matters here.
The Tar Heel offensive line should be okay despite the loss of C Corey Gaynor. Run, keep running, and take the pressure off the passing game. West Virginia is 3-4 when allowing more than 135 yards on the ground, 5-0 when giving up that many or fewer.
But West Virginia’s running game will be fine.
There won’t be anything flashy about this game. North Carolina will try to come out fast, but the Mountaineers will go on enough long, sustained drives to control the narrative.
Head coach Neal Brown was great at Troy in bowls, is 1-1 at West Virginia, and he’ll have his team prepared to make this a grind. For the Tar Heels it’s time to get gritty and what they have been building as a program will be tested. Check out the foundation for this with Brian Hess
Brian Hess - Make Gains In-Season
Alternate your lifting blocks! Have a plan but, have things changing. Utilizing the entire year to get into speed, power, and agility training is great but where is the application in season?
Think of it as a time when your guys are not putting on much mass but you are in a situation to maintain or increase marginal gains. On the flip side, we want to decrease the workload on the body so we utilize this time to increase our speed and power output.
Utilizing lower volumes and intensity creates less stress on the body by varying the weights, reps, sets, and intensity that are being placed on the athlete. This can drive the body to have favorable outcomes toward on-the-field production.
While it isn't as cut and dry as weight, also understand that you can drive competition and production during in-season lifting. You may not be trying to increase the weight anymore during the year but utilizing tempo and measurements of bar speed and the idea of beating that each week can pay dividends.
Want to know how the Tarheels structure their strength and conditioning week? Coach Hess explains it in this video:
Other Clinics from These Staffs:
Tony Thompson- West Virginia Special Teams
Tony Thompson - Mountaineer Techniques - Return Units
Andrew Jackson - DL Run Game Progression
Texas Bowl - Oklahoma State Cowboys vs Texas A&M Aggies
The Oklahoma State Cowboys (9-4) are heading to the 2023 TaxAct Texas Bowl to take on the Texas A&M Aggies (7-5) for the last matchup of the season on Dec. 27.
The Cowboys had a disappointing loss against the Texas Longhorns in the Big 12 championship title game. The Longhorns earned a berth in the College Football Playoff four-team matchups as a result of this victory.
Oklahoma State’s star running back Ollie Gordon II, who led the nation in rushing yards with 1,614, won the Doak Walker Award and was recently named a unanimous All-American. Despite entering the transfer portal, Gordon II plans to play in the Texas Bowl and has not announced his future with the Cowboys.
After Jimbo Fisher was fired during the season, Texas A&M appointed Elijah Robinson as the interim head coach who will lead the Aggies in the Texas Bowl. Once the bowl game is over, Robinson will leave the team to join Syracuse’s football program, and former Duke head coach Mike Elko will take over as the new coach for Texas A&M.
One program seems to be a model of consistency while another is waiting for a wholesale change from top to bottom. These former Big 12 foes will provide an interesting matchup. Can Oklahoma State use matchups, personnel changes and other nuances to their advantage? We will see, but in the meantime let's look at how they prepare some of those positions to play.
Jason McEndoo - Tight End and Fullback Training
Coach McEndoo shows the drill and gives the coaching points on practice film, and then illustrates how the scheme and technique work by analyzing game film. Today these positions have evolved to points where they need to be somewhat of an ultimate athlete and versatile in all facets. Advancing these positions should allow you offensive expansion and matchup problems.
Because the TE/FB position has a lot to work on, Coach McEndoo wants to be efficient with his drills and ensure that the time he spends in practice directly translates to game day. He shares his entire run progression in this course.
Other Clinics from The New Staffs:
Jason McEndoo - Oklahoma State You Want To Run The Outside Zone?
Developing A Championship Defense - Mike Elko
Adam Cushing - Creating a Consistent Offensive Lineman
Adam Cushing-Creating Culture:Clarify,Simplify,What Does This Make Possible
Culture and Leadership with Adam Cushing
Holiday Bowl - Louisville Cardinals vs Southern California Trojans
Two-thirds of the Pac-12 teams are bowl-eligible in 2023, including the USC Trojans (7-5). A year after losing the Cotton Bowl to Tulane, the Trojans won their first six games in a row to earn bowl eligibility as early as possible and will play in the Holiday Bowl this season.
The Trojans' 6-0 start preceded a rough second half of the regular season. USC's 48-20 loss on the road to No. 16 Notre Dame in Week 7 was the first tough loss for the Trojans. Subsequent losses to Utah on a last-second field goal, Pac-12 championship game teams No. 2 Washington and No. 8 Oregon, and a 38-20 loss to rival UCLA in the regular season finale made for a disappointing second year under coach Lincoln Riley.
On the other side of the Holiday Bowl, Louisville was one of the surprises of the 2023 season. The No. 15 Cardinals (10-3) won five straight to open the season and then knocked off Notre Dame in Week 6 for one of the most impressive wins of the season. A surprise loss to Pitt a week later put a big damper on the Cardinals' playoff hopes but Louisville responded with four straight wins.
A loss to Kentucky in the Governor's Cup all but ended the Cardinals' College Football Playoff hopes. A 16-6 loss to No. 4 Florida State in the ACC title game and the Seminoles being kept out of the playoff ensured Louisville wouldn't make the Orange Bowl. Instead, they're heading to San Diego for the Holiday Bowl.
Everyone thinks of USC and the prolific passing offense that Coach Riley brings but let's take a glimpse into the OZ adjustments that Coach Henson brings to the table.
Video: Josh Henson- Outside Zone - Adjustments & Techniques for Movement
Normally talking about flexibility with the offensive - line, everyone wants to talk about an athlete's ability to bend. Here I mean it in a different manner. I’ve said before that offense has the advantage in many cases today in football and I do stand by that. But, within an offensive perspective the way offense has evolved it has forced the hand of intricate defenses to increase movement and stray largely from base play. With this we need our lines to be flexible and ready to see any kind of stunt, having a box of tools for your offensive line to use at their disposal and be ready to have the ability to attack these different situations will aid your offense greatly. See how Coach Henson drills movement to give his O-Line the tools to work in these situations.
Other Clinics from These Staffs:
Offense Weekly Practice Plan - Lincoln Riley, USC
Lincoln Riley- Y Cross, Trail and QB Run Game
Enjoy the games!
Coach Kauffman