Texas LBs Coach Brian Jean-Mary on Gap Responsibility
“It was the number one thing we struggled with,” Jean-Mary said of the Louisville defense while recounting points of the Cardinals’ 2012 season at the 2013 Louisville Nike Coach of the Year Clinic. Jean-Mary’s presentation (recorded then by Championship Productions and since released for sale in 2016) is called Brian Jean-Mary: Zone Blitz Scheme vs. Spread Offense.
It’s a very applicable production for Texas fans, as it outlines the staff’s core ideologies for zone pressure (against the type of offense the Longhorns face most often) and also gives a unique glimpse into the very basics of the defensive scheme.
The one-hour clinic in its entirety is packed with useful information. It can be purchased here and is certainly recommended. I’ll have some features through the summer detailing parts of the clinic and going over a few football terms and Longhorns-centric thoughts about the content, but for now, we’ll start at the beginning.
One of the first things that comes up is the gaps. It comes up first because it’s prerequisite to understanding defensive responsibility. Jean-Mary says, though, that this simplest of items — knowing what the gaps are called and learning alignments — is the first thing that is taught to new players when they get on to campus, as you must always expect they know nothing.
Gaps are labeled by letter moving out from the center position A, B, C, D, etc.
Alignments are labeled by number moving out from the center position. This is how a player knows where to line up to start the play.
Gap responsibility was also discussed early on because it was — at the time — the same sort of bugaboo Texas fans know all too well by now.
Even back at Louisville, the current Texas staff was dealing with the same issue that surely continues to frustrate the group to no end. The defense, at times, gets gashed up the middle in the run game and the culprit remains gap responsibility. If you listen to the coaches, it’s “execution,” and that execution has everything to do with the gaps.
“The reason for most of the big plays against us was from people not knowing what their gap responsibilities were (when bringing zone pressure),” Jean-Mary said at the clinic.
FORCE RULES: It goes hand-in-hand with gap-responsibility.
What is a force player on defense? Quite simply, it is the player charged with outside contain of the run play should it come to his side. Every defensive football play must identify the force player then work inward to identify schematic gap responsibility. When you are the force player in any football situation, the most important thing in the world is not letting any run outside of you.
This necessity is the reason for teaching dozens of drills at practice involving the force player taking on blocks with the inside-half of his body and drilling in other, similar techniques that, in one way or another, always aim to funnel the play back inside if no tackle can be made.
Here’s some force-player terminology used by the Texas staff…
“Sky” Force - Safety
“Cloud” Force - Cornerback
“Backer” Force - Outside Linebacker
(An interesting note about backer force is that when Coach BJ talks about it in the video, he makes mention that the FOX, a weak-side DE in the system is, to him, “a glorified outside linebacker.”)
“Buzz” Force - OLB and Safety combo; safety becomes fill defender while OLB scrapes outside and becomes force defender.
“Bronco” Force - OLB and Mike combo; OLB becomes fill defender while mike scrapes outside and becomes force defender.
“Easy” Force - Defensive End
“We’re always going to go 'as we go' as far as a game plan. We’re always going to have a philosophy where the first thing we’re going to do is stop the run,” Jean-Mary said.
One thing a defender always needs to remember, according to Coach BJ or anyone who’s played football at any competitive level, is that the gaps move once the play starts. “Offensive linemen don’t come straight out at you in three yards and a cloud of dust,” he said.
So as a bit of Football 101, when people talk about “run-fits” in football/scouting, or someone getting their “fits” right, what they are talking about is understanding where they fit into this moving design of bodies with the proper technique and leverage to their gap-responsibility.
It seems so elementary, but it’s going to be one of the single biggest keys to the success of the 2016 Texas football team.
. . .
I Still Can’t Believe Baylor Fired Art Briles
I was in a meeting with a pastor about a funeral service when my phone blew up. Enough text messages and calls came from across the room for the pastor to prompt me to go see what all the fuss was about.
“Maybe it’s family who need directions,” he said, seemingly concerned by the volume of buzzing activity.
And it wasn’t family who needed directions, it was everyone in the world telling me that Briles had been canned. One friend texted ‘Briles even deleted his Twitter account,’ which, to me, was oddly the bit of communication that made it hit home most.
#TruthDontLie, right?
Ever since uncovering proof-positive evidence that Briles met with the victim of a 2013 domestic violence attack — completely circumventing non-existent Title IX proceedings and taking the process into his own hands — I had a horrible feeling in my stomach.
I was absolutely sure he was going to get away with it. We could scream and scream all we wanted, we could rally for justice, but something just told me we would fail. Maybe it’s human nature to believe that the little guy can’t take out the big guy and that where there’s power, evil can realistically prevail.
These women have been treated like pieces of human garbage by a megalomaniac posing behind a good-old-ball-coach “aww-shucks” facade. I thought I was going to have to spend the next 15 years slowly turning into a salty old man with the oddest and most tragic of conspiracy theories teeming inside of me as Briles continued roaming the sidelines in Waco unchecked.
I can’t say I was happy when I got the news, but I can say that the wave of relief that washed over me felt about as close to happiness as one could imagine.
. . .
Baylor Doesn’t Deserve Football in 2016
As I’m writing this “column,” Ken Starr has stepped down at Baylor the latest in a series of moves that fictional, salty-old-inner-conspiracy-theorist in me thinks stinks.
Let’s examine the timeline of what’s happened with the Baylor Board of Regents and stakeholders since Pepper Hamilton’s release of its overview of findings in the Baylor Scandal:
- The BOR initially leaks news that Starr would be fired in the wake of the scandal, intimating in some reports that Briles would be safe.
- Starr makes a power-play on the BOR by telling Joe Schad that Baylor should release all the documents in the Pepper Hamilton report. Starr’s releasing that statement to Schad was one I read as a combination of “F— You” and “I’ve been a federal judge and U.S. Solicitor General for god’s sake and I’m not taking the fall for some hick named Art Briles.”
- In the face of public outcry, the BOR fires Art Briles (rightfully), reassigns Ken Starr and puts Athletic Director Ian McCaw on suspension.
- In the same idiotic way they tested the firing of Starr coupled with the retention of Briles, someone within the BOR leaks to the media that current Baylor DC Phil Bennett will be named interim HC; presumably to test public response. Ian McCaw remains employed at this point, but technically suspended. You know, the person who can make a coaching hire.
- Public response to the Phil Bennett idea was predictably horrible as Bennett was the coach of the three players most notoriously associated with the Baylor rape scandal. The internet detectives of 2016 predictably stepped in. Interviews were brought back to light in which Bennett openly advocated and spoke publicly about the return of Sam Ukwuachu to his team. These quotes coming at a time when Ukwuachu awaited indictment on a sexual assault charge.
- Baylor hires a goody-two-shoes head coach in Jim Grobe to serve as babysitter of the program through this time in hopes of preventing the wheels from coming off entirely.
- McCaw resigns in disgrace (after prayer).
- Starr resigns in disgrace (out of “conscience”).
So, what it all means is that football has been at the forefront through the whole handling of the scandal from the Baylor side. Not the victims, not their families, not really anything strategically to get them help the same way football has been maniacally cared for and worried about. Baylor regents were wringing their hands over the future of the football program and not the collective futures of the women this scandal left utterly wrecked.
First, there was a weak attempt to actually float the idea of keeping Art Briles while making Ken Starr and the Title IX failings of the University as a whole the scapegoat. Truly unbelievable in the face of the facts laid out by Pepper Hamilton's 13-page overview.
After Starr’s power play, Briles must be fired, but the powers at Baylor are already thinking about how to conduct damage control. A retention of the football staff sans Briles would offer a small semblance of continuity and mitigate at least some damage in recruiting and player development. Briles has brought high-level athletes on campus. They’ve been taught to produce in a system the current coaches all know. Baylor can still possibly win against all odds like this and return to recruiting prominence even without Briles.
The public realized at about the same time it seems the power-brokers at Baylor did that it’s fairly likely that the whole football staff may have to be fired at some point prior to or during the 2016 season. At the very least, they came to understand it’s going to be next-to-impossible to have a right-hand man to Briles like Phil Bennett take over. It’s going to be next-to-impossible to keep Art Briles’ son Kendal around, either.
Who knows what the NCAA will say, who knows what the entirety of the Pepper Hamilton report will say? Around the time they realized all options had been exhausted to keep football off the ventilator in the wake of the scandal, the powers at Baylor told lame-duck McCaw to go get Grobe.
McCaw did, and then quickly resigned, knowing he’d done his last bit of dirty work for the almighty Baylor football program. Even if every damn coach on that staff got fired, Grobe’s hands would be clean at least. There could still be a season.
Baylor doesn’t deserve that football season in 2016. In fact, it deserves the death penalty.
. . .
DFS Trouble in Illinois
As lawmakers across the country take focus away from important issues and dig their greedy, agenda-laden claws into the harmless industry of fantasy sports, we as players suffered another loss this week.
Illinois, the state with the third-most daily fantasy sports players per the Fantasy Sports Trade Association, came to a standstill in efforts to regulate the young and burgeoning DFS (daily fantasy sports) industry this week, thanks to political cronyism.
There was reason for great optimism in Illinois coming into the week, as the state senate had recently passed a bill outlining the basics of regulation, and following in the footsteps of states like Florida and Tennessee that are now enjoying a new stream of tax revenue while ensuring a more protected experience for daily fantasy players of all skill levels.
The bill then made it through the House Rules Committee before going to the House for vote, where another victory for the industry and its community of players was expected.
But, allegations levied by Representative Rita Mayfield of late-breaking impropriety by lobbyists from the DFS industry took everything off the tracks. Mayfield has yet to provide proof of an alleged email sent by a representative of the fantasy sports lobby. This email reportedly promising considerations and donations in return for guaranteed votes to pass the regulatory bill. Even without evidence, though, the seed was planted and enough members of the House were spooked.
The bill has now been tabled until the next legislative session, and has essentially lost all momentum gained by the bill’s sponsor, Representative Michael Zalewski, this spring following an initial negative opinion from the state’s AG on the DFS’ legality according to Illinois law.
The most ironic part of the whole thing is that the real lobby in everyone’s pockets is the casino lobby, which in Illinois is Midwest Gaming and Entertainment, operators of Illinois’ River Casinos. Who do you think was front and center to spearhead opposition to the bill at every step?
You want to know where 99% of politicians are? Follow the money and you’ll find them, sniveling and two-faced with their collective hands out. It’s why 69 people were shot in Chicago over Memorial Day weekend while tempers flared in the State House of Representatives over fantasy football.
. . .
Quick Question About the Astros
I’m no baseball expert and I don’t pretend to be one, so I’ll ask the OB community in all its wisdom; what on earth is wrong with the Houston Astros?
The team has amazing young players in Jose Altuve and Carlos Correa along with powerful hitters like George Springer (who's been on fire recently) and Colby Rasmus, yet it can’t get any consistent offensive output with the bats to save its life. Some days, they’ll catch fire but a lot of days they won’t hit a thing and rack up strikeout after strikeout.
Second, and more importantly, what is wrong with Dallas Kuechel? Around this time last season, I remember thinking that the Astros could have not one, but two future aces on their hands in Kuechel and Lance McCullers.
As things stand now, do fans hold out hope that either could be a true “ace” SP in the future?
Is Dallas Kuechel broken?
. . .
Thoughts on Patrick Hudson
I remember thinking of 2016 OL prospect Patrick Hudson as a player who was already 6-5 and 320 pounds without looking fully maxed-out, at least in person. As for evaluative purposes, that’s the sort of thing that sticks with you and reminds you that he could turn into an absolute physical beast.
At the time, though, and all factors considered, I had Hudson ranked at No. 12 in the state, one spot ahead of Texas true-freshman Jean Delance in my personal recruiting rankings system. The main reason for having Hudson graded slightly lower than some others (he was No. 6 in Ketchum’s final LSR rankings) is that while he was above-average in the traits of agility, quickness and balance for a player his size, he wasn’t really close in these attributes to what I had seen out of fellow 2016 OL Greg Little.
Plus, to be completely honest, around the time Hudson flipped from A&M to Baylor, I had moved on within OB into a role covering the football team first and Texas recruiting in a distant second. And, considering it’s fairly rare for a player to pull a double-flip (unless his name is Jordan Elliott), Hudson wasn’t a player I watched much senior film on. I try and reserve focus in recruiting coverage for players with Texas in legitimate consideration.
Now, in the wake of the Baylor scandal, one surprise result for Texas is Hudson’s recruitment possibly being opened back up and the Longhorns being squarely in the mix should he be released from scholarship. Upon recent review of Hudson’s senior highlights, it’s easy to tell Hudson put on more weight in the rump and upper-leg area while surpassing Jean Delance in the area of feet. Having “good feet” is something I didn’t necessarily say about Hudson in his junior season that highlights from his senior season distinctly show — at least as a run-blocker.
I’m not sure how he’d hold up on the outside at tackle being thrown in the fire as a true freshman (and I’m not sure he’d even get that opportunity in Austin), but I can say with confidence that Hudson would represent an immediate better option at the left guard position than junior Brandon Hodges, who will come into summer having been the starter at LG through spring.
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