Pelini's Core Philosophies

[hack]

not a bad article...

 

link

 

Steven M. Sipple: Core philosophies guide Pelini

Tuesday, Dec 25, 2007 - 12:24:08 am CST

 

Bo Pelini’s three-year tenure as Louisiana State’s defensive coordinator began rather inauspiciously.

 

In the Tigers’ 2005 season opener, Sam Keller — yes, that Sam Keller — torched Pelini’s defense for 461 passing yards as Arizona State accumulated 560 total yards in a 35-31 loss to LSU. In LSU’s next game, the Tigers fell 30-27 in overtime to Tennessee.

 

“Believe me, everybody in the state of Louisiana was ready to hang Bo Pelini,” says Bo Pelini.

 

At that point, it might have been tempting for Pelini to make significant changes to his defense. But he declined to deviate from his core philosophies. The result: Louisiana State ended the 2005 season with an 11-2 record and ranked No. 3 nationally in total defense — the ranking it also holds this week as it prepares to play Ohio State in the BCS national title game Jan. 7 in New Orleans.

 

Pelini’s core philosophies? Well, the new Nebraska head coach (he was hired Dec. 2, but is coaching Louisiana State’s defense in the championship game) addressed them last spring in a presentation to Louisiana high school coaches. A kind reader e-mailed me the presentation in the form of an audio link from fastandfuriousfootball.com, which provides a variety of learning resources for coaches.

 

It’s informative listening material, another chance to get to know Bo, and a nice Christmas surprise for sure. Some highlights from the 60-minute presentation:

• Pelini tells the coaches his goal always is to field “the best-effort defense” in the nation.
  

“Our philosophy is to create a culture of swarming to the football — that’s the first thing we do,” he says. “I want opposing teams, when they’re watching film of us, to say, ‘Wow, how do they get those guys to play so hard?’”

 

To that end, Pelini grades defenders’ effort on every play in practice, always looking for “11 guys playing in one continuous motion from the time the ball is snapped to the time the ballcarrier is on the ground.”

• Pelini avoids “beating guys down” with negative tones and harsh language.
  

“I take this philosophy: There hasn’t been a player ever that has tried to make a mistake out on the field,” Pelini says. “If he made a mistake, he made it for a reason. Well, as a coach, you need to search for that reason — search for a way to get through to that kid. Ultimately, when you coach that way, the players are going to believe in you. And at the end of the day, they’re going to want to run through a wall for you.”

 

Pelini tells a story from 2003 when he served as Nebraska’s defensive coordinator. A defender made a mistake in practice, and one of the Husker assistant coaches castigated the player. The assistant ranted and raved and even ran from the sideline into the defensive huddle to get in the player’s face.

 

“I called the assistant coach over to me and said, ‘All that stuff you just did: Was that for you or for the player? Because I heard you yelling at that kid and not one time did you tell him what he did wrong,’” Pelini says. “I told the coach, ‘So, the next time, it’s on you.’”

 

The key, Pelini says, is “getting kids to understand what they’re doing so they can do it fast.”

 

“If I get after a kid, (later) I’ll walk up and put my arm around him and say, ‘You’re better than that, right? You know you’re better than that, right?’”

• Pelini says a lot of coaches get too caught up in X’s and O’s and fail to get to know players on a personal level. He says it’s important to spend time with players away from the football setting, “so you know what makes them click.” He says he wants players to have fun. “Don’t make it doom and gloom for them,” he says.
  

• One of his main objectives is to take the opposing offense out of its comfort zone and disrupt the quarterback’s play-calling rhythm. To that end, Pelini says, he’s somewhat rare among defensive coordinators in that he scripts his calls early in games. In scripting his calls, he says, he tries to gives the offense “multiple, multiple looks” early on. He uses this tactic “to get in the heads” of offensive coordinators while simultaneously trying to dissuade the offense from using certain plays later in the game.
  

“If an offense has a couple of plays I know I don’t want to see, I’m going to run some blitzes and pressures and things that say, ‘OK, those things aren’t going to be there for you this week,’” Pelini says. “Because later in the game, when I get into my game plan, I don’t want to see a couple plays (from the offense). If I can put in their heads, ‘OK, let’s go away from that stuff,’ we’re going to be in a better situation as a defense.”

• “I know this: The great defensive football players play with very little or no wasted movement,” Pelini says. “They’re very efficient.”
  

• He says a prime objective for a defense should be putting itself in “winnable third-down situations,” such as third-and-6-or-more yards.
  

• He says defensive coordinators shouldn’t show panic, because their players will sense it and react accordingly.
  

For instance, “I’ve been around coaches who act like the world came to an end if the offense got a 3-yard gain on first down,” Pelini says. “What happens is, you act like that toward your players, they get in there and get more aggressive and boom — you start getting beat on play-action (passes) and ultimately you get beat over the top, and that’s how you lose games.”

• The most important statistic a staff charts during a game is an offense’s “explosive gains,” or passes that gain more than 16 yards and runs that cover more than 12. “If offenses don’t get explosive gains and have to execute all the way down the field, we’re going to win.”
  

Pelini, of course, speaks with his usual confidence and conviction. In 2005, as his LSU defense struggled early in the season, he held firm to his beliefs. You have to figure he’ll use the same approach in 2008 as he guides a Nebraska defense that finished this season ranked 112th nationally in yards allowed.

 

“It’s not about what offenses are doing — it’s about us,” Pelini told the coaches in his spring speech. “If we execute down after down after down, we’re going to be fine. That’s the key to playing great defense.”

 

Reach Steven M. Sipple at 473-7440 or ssipple@journalstar.com.

[Dundermifflinite]

pretty good article Hack...in fact...I could almost read it twice...

[DJR313]

Sounds like a remedy for everything that was wrong with the 2007 defense.

[Bleeding Husker Red]

Makes ya think the guy just might know something about coaching defense, doesn't it?

[BIGREDIOWAN]

I'm interested not only in what our defense is going to do next season, because that was obviously our weakness in 2007, but what our offense is going to be capable of as well.

[Hunter94]

well, remember, you can't go from 112th to top 20, at least not usually, but the guy makes lot of sense. we should be improved on D this next season.

[Overland Park Husker]

well, remember, you can't go from 112th to top 20, at least not usually, but the guy makes lot of sense. we should be improved on D this next season.

It's also hard to go from 112th to 119th. We have no where to go but up.

[sarge87]

not a bad article...

 

link

 

Steven M. Sipple: Core philosophies guide Pelini

Tuesday, Dec 25, 2007 - 12:24:08 am CST

 

Bo Pelini’s three-year tenure as Louisiana State’s defensive coordinator began rather inauspiciously.

 

In the Tigers’ 2005 season opener, Sam Keller — yes, that Sam Keller — torched Pelini’s defense for 461 passing yards as Arizona State accumulated 560 total yards in a 35-31 loss to LSU. In LSU’s next game, the Tigers fell 30-27 in overtime to Tennessee.

 

“Believe me, everybody in the state of Louisiana was ready to hang Bo Pelini,” says Bo Pelini.

 

At that point, it might have been tempting for Pelini to make significant changes to his defense. But he declined to deviate from his core philosophies. The result: Louisiana State ended the 2005 season with an 11-2 record and ranked No. 3 nationally in total defense — the ranking it also holds this week as it prepares to play Ohio State in the BCS national title game Jan. 7 in New Orleans.

 

Pelini’s core philosophies? Well, the new Nebraska head coach (he was hired Dec. 2, but is coaching Louisiana State’s defense in the championship game) addressed them last spring in a presentation to Louisiana high school coaches. A kind reader e-mailed me the presentation in the form of an audio link from fastandfuriousfootball.com, which provides a variety of learning resources for coaches.

 

It’s informative listening material, another chance to get to know Bo, and a nice Christmas surprise for sure. Some highlights from the 60-minute presentation:

• Pelini tells the coaches his goal always is to field “the best-effort defense” in the nation.
  

“Our philosophy is to create a culture of swarming to the football — that’s the first thing we do,” he says. “I want opposing teams, when they’re watching film of us, to say, ‘Wow, how do they get those guys to play so hard?’”

 

To that end, Pelini grades defenders’ effort on every play in practice, always looking for “11 guys playing in one continuous motion from the time the ball is snapped to the time the ballcarrier is on the ground.”

• Pelini avoids “beating guys down” with negative tones and harsh language.
  

“I take this philosophy: There hasn’t been a player ever that has tried to make a mistake out on the field,” Pelini says. “If he made a mistake, he made it for a reason. Well, as a coach, you need to search for that reason — search for a way to get through to that kid. Ultimately, when you coach that way, the players are going to believe in you. And at the end of the day, they’re going to want to run through a wall for you.”

 

Pelini tells a story from 2003 when he served as Nebraska’s defensive coordinator. A defender made a mistake in practice, and one of the Husker assistant coaches castigated the player. The assistant ranted and raved and even ran from the sideline into the defensive huddle to get in the player’s face.

 

“I called the assistant coach over to me and said, ‘All that stuff you just did: Was that for you or for the player? Because I heard you yelling at that kid and not one time did you tell him what he did wrong,’” Pelini says. “I told the coach, ‘So, the next time, it’s on you.’”

 

The key, Pelini says, is “getting kids to understand what they’re doing so they can do it fast.”

 

“If I get after a kid, (later) I’ll walk up and put my arm around him and say, ‘You’re better than that, right? You know you’re better than that, right?’”

• Pelini says a lot of coaches get too caught up in X’s and O’s and fail to get to know players on a personal level. He says it’s important to spend time with players away from the football setting, “so you know what makes them click.” He says he wants players to have fun. “Don’t make it doom and gloom for them,” he says.
  

• One of his main objectives is to take the opposing offense out of its comfort zone and disrupt the quarterback’s play-calling rhythm. To that end, Pelini says, he’s somewhat rare among defensive coordinators in that he scripts his calls early in games. In scripting his calls, he says, he tries to gives the offense “multiple, multiple looks” early on. He uses this tactic “to get in the heads” of offensive coordinators while simultaneously trying to dissuade the offense from using certain plays later in the game.
  

“If an offense has a couple of plays I know I don’t want to see, I’m going to run some blitzes and pressures and things that say, ‘OK, those things aren’t going to be there for you this week,’” Pelini says. “Because later in the game, when I get into my game plan, I don’t want to see a couple plays (from the offense). If I can put in their heads, ‘OK, let’s go away from that stuff,’ we’re going to be in a better situation as a defense.”

• “I know this: The great defensive football players play with very little or no wasted movement,” Pelini says. “They’re very efficient.”
  

• He says a prime objective for a defense should be putting itself in “winnable third-down situations,” such as third-and-6-or-more yards.
  

• He says defensive coordinators shouldn’t show panic, because their players will sense it and react accordingly.
  

For instance, “I’ve been around coaches who act like the world came to an end if the offense got a 3-yard gain on first down,” Pelini says. “What happens is, you act like that toward your players, they get in there and get more aggressive and boom — you start getting beat on play-action (passes) and ultimately you get beat over the top, and that’s how you lose games.”

• The most important statistic a staff charts during a game is an offense’s “explosive gains,” or passes that gain more than 16 yards and runs that cover more than 12. “If offenses don’t get explosive gains and have to execute all the way down the field, we’re going to win.”
  

Pelini, of course, speaks with his usual confidence and conviction. In 2005, as his LSU defense struggled early in the season, he held firm to his beliefs. You have to figure he’ll use the same approach in 2008 as he guides a Nebraska defense that finished this season ranked 112th nationally in yards allowed.

 

“It’s not about what offenses are doing — it’s about us,” Pelini told the coaches in his spring speech. “If we execute down after down after down, we’re going to be fine. That’s the key to playing great defense.”

 

Reach Steven M. Sipple at 473-7440 or ssipple@journalstar.com.

Here is an audio file from fastandfuriousfootball.com of Coach Pelini. (Interesting to listen to...)

http://fastandfuriousfootball.com/CollegeD...U%20defense.wav

[DJR313]

well, remember, you can't go from 112th to top 20, at least not usually, but the guy makes lot of sense. we should be improved on D this next season.

 

If the Huskers are not a top 30 defense next year, I will be surprised. Talent is there and there is a lot to work with, provided the players come in with the right attitude. The D-line does not lose anyone, there are several guys that could step up and make an impact at linebacker, and the secondary has tons of raw talent. The defense was clueless this year and gave up after a certain point. Getting humiliated on the national stage against USC was probably what did it. The defense in 2003 was probably equally as talented as the guys coming back for 2008 will be. If Pelini turned it around with what he had to work with then, hopefully he can do the same next year.

[HUSKER 37]

So...

 

Any idea what the offseason workouts will be like?

 

Building Strength vs. speed???

[DJR313]

So...

 

Any idea what the offseason workouts will be like?

 

Building Strength vs. speed???

 

I imagine speed. Some of the guys look like they got too big and lost a step or 2(Barry Turner).

[MCAT800]

Defense is about discipline and attitude, something Pelini will beat into these kids for the next 9 months.

Not sure if he can turn the "D" around this time as fast as he did in 03 but I would bet my life on the fact that you won't see 11 lost and scared defenders ducking from tackles next year.

[I See Red People]

I don't know what 2008 will be like come early winter for the team, but I know our coach sounds like just that, OUR COACH. A guy that has a mindset for NU football, and one that shapes these student atheletes into quality individuals.

[TarheelTrojan]

So...

 

Any idea what the offseason workouts will be like?

 

Building Strength vs. speed???

 

It has to be both if you want to compete on the highest level. That's what you're going to see. I would be interested in seeing your new strength coach's drills. Fortunately this is the one thing you can work on immediately without waiting for spring and little NCAA restrictions. You can get a lot of "voluntary" work in by the players.

[walksalone]

The one thing that I noticed was the fact that Coach will adjust to situations, unlike the previous individuals, he'll make adjustments as the game progresses