Garrison’s Road to Redemption: From Player Agony to Coaching Ecstasy

[n.e.husker]

John Garrison has experienced Nebraska football from one side up and another side down. As a true freshman in 1999, he was the starting long snapper and lettered for a Husker team that finished 12-1. Nebraska's only loss that season was 24-20 at Texas - a result that was avenged with a 22-6 win over the Longhorns in the Big 12 Championship game in San Antonio. The '99 team went on to beat Tennessee, 31-21, in the Fiesta Bowl. As a senior captain three years later, Garrison endured the agony of losing four of his final five games in a Husker uniform, including a 27-23 setback to Eli Manning-led Mississippi in the Independence Bowl. Garrison has waited to replace that memory with new ones in his first season as an official full-time member of the Nebraska coaching staff. He will join fellow first-year Nebraska football staffer Ross Els as a presenter at the Nebraska Coaches Association's annual clinic in Lincoln on Wednesday, July 27.
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[n.e.husker]

I think we're a lot alike. When you look at it, oftentimes coaches will coach how they were coached. Milt coached Barney and brought him up in his Nebraska ways, and so was I. The only difference is the years between us. What we have is someone who has been in the game a long time, is extremely intelligent and has been an offensive coordinator here before and sees the big picture extremely well. Barney does a great job communicating with our guys, too. I come in as a younger coach who can relate to guys from a recruiting and coaching standpoint as well. I think having two sets of eyes is good. We're alike but we're different. We may not walk into a room with the same idea, but we'll walk out of it on the same page. We iron things out and will do whatever we need to do to succeed. Vince Morrow will help me with the tight ends, and Barney and I will combine to coach the offensive line. Whenever we have two tight ends, that means seven of the 11 guys out there can be primary blockers. That is a lot of responsibility, and last year we had one full-time guy coaching the line and one coaching tight ends. It's hard to coach center, guards and tackles by yourself. I don't care how good you are at it - and Barney is really good at it - getting seven together in the same blocking scheme is difficult. If anybody could do it he could. But Bo's idea behind all of this change is you need more attention when 65 percent of your offense is trying to block together. Having more eyes really helps. In practice situations, we can have three groups getting reps rather than just one group and a bunch of other guys watching. That's one of the biggest things in all of this change. We're getting really close to the days where a lot of guys are getting a lot of reps in practice, and that helps create a lot of depth.

 

[bshirt]

I think we're a lot alike. When you look at it, oftentimes coaches will coach how they were coached. Milt coached Barney and brought him up in his Nebraska ways, and so was I. The only difference is the years between us. What we have is someone who has been in the game a long time, is extremely intelligent and has been an offensive coordinator here before and sees the big picture extremely well. Barney does a great job communicating with our guys, too. I come in as a younger coach who can relate to guys from a recruiting and coaching standpoint as well. I think having two sets of eyes is good. We're alike but we're different. We may not walk into a room with the same idea, but we'll walk out of it on the same page. We iron things out and will do whatever we need to do to succeed. Vince Morrow will help me with the tight ends, and Barney and I will combine to coach the offensive line. Whenever we have two tight ends, that means seven of the 11 guys out there can be primary blockers. That is a lot of responsibility, and last year we had one full-time guy coaching the line and one coaching tight ends. It's hard to coach center, guards and tackles by yourself. I don't care how good you are at it - and Barney is really good at it - getting seven together in the same blocking scheme is difficult. If anybody could do it he could. But Bo's idea behind all of this change is you need more attention when 65 percent of your offense is trying to block together. Having more eyes really helps. In practice situations, we can have three groups getting reps rather than just one group and a bunch of other guys watching. That's one of the biggest things in all of this change. We're getting really close to the days where a lot of guys are getting a lot of reps in practice, and that helps create a lot of depth.

Well maybe that's just coach-speak but it sure makes sense to me. Uncle Milt had help too as coaching five positions isn't easy.

Damn, I can't wait!

 

[talaricohusker]

I know everyone is giving cotton crap for not being a good o line coach but i have a feeling with these extra eyes our o line will be alot better they might even be the best o line in the big ten at the end of the year. you never know

 

[BIGREDFAN_in_OMAHA]

It was a good Q&A and I think it showed some good insights that the team continues to head in the right direction. It gives hope that the O-Line might finally step up this season!

 

[da skers]

I know everyone is giving cotton crap for not being a good o line coach but i have a feeling with these extra eyes our o line will be alot better they might even be the best o line in the big ten at the end of the year. you never know

That will belong to Iowa or Wisconsin. Cotton has failed to develope guys real well and its a poor excuse to say he had too many guys to watch. They are also are very poor at maintaining plays for the actual length of the play on a consistent basis. Its starting to happen but I want to see it in a game and every game. When the RB or QB rips off a big run the O line should be knocking people to the ground 30 yards down field next to the runner when the guy is in traffic. Our guys are still too worried about looking at the husker vision to see if they are on TV or if the rb has scored. It will take a while to break those habits.

 

[Hercules]

I know everyone is giving cotton crap for not being a good o line coach but i have a feeling with these extra eyes our o line will be alot better they might even be the best o line in the big ten at the end of the year. you never know

That will belong to Iowa or Wisconsin. Cotton has failed to develope guys real well and its a poor excuse to say he had too many guys to watch. They are also are very poor at maintaining plays for the actual length of the play on a consistent basis. Its starting to happen but I want to see it in a game and every game. When the RB or QB rips off a big run the O line should be knocking people to the ground 30 yards down field next to the runner when the guy is in traffic. Our guys are still too worried about looking at the husker vision to see if they are on TV or if the rb has scored. It will take a while to break those habits.

I understand the criticism of Cotton, but I don't think it's a poor excuse to say he had too many guys to watch. If you're going to give a player specific feedback, that's the guy you're going to watch on that play, and only that guy. That means there are 4 other guys who just did a rep and didn't get any feedback. Then the next play you have to watch the same guy again to make sure that he actually took to the feedback you gave him, and if he did then you might move on to the next guy.

It'd be a poor excuse if people said that the RB or QB coach had too many guys on the field. But Milt Tenopir didn't coach the offensive line by himself (he had Dan Young), and the standard you're holding Cotton by himself to is the one that Tenopir and Young were held to together. That's how it should be at Nebraska, but you have to realize that Tenopir and Young had more talent and better depth, and that came from the entire staff recruiting, and from years and years of perfecting the system as much as anything. Not to mention it was before the 85 scholly rule.

Our offensive line is never going to be "The Pipeline" again, those days are just as long gone as having a team dominate everyone on its schedule the way the 1995 team did. Now, we should expect to see our offensive lineman blocking downfield - that's what Nebraska football is all about. But you're talking about having guys 30 yards downfield like it's a bare minimum, when really it's on par with the kind of freakish offensive performance we had in the 90's. If we get that happening, then that's great, but it'll be the best offensive line in the country. I have a hard time getting down on a guy (Cotton) just because he didn't by himself produce the best offensive line in the country in his first year in a new system.

What I want to see is for the offensive line be consistent - they showed last year that they could blow open holes just as well as Oregon or Wisconsin. They just didn't do it consistently - no different from the rest of the offense. I don't think it's about effort, I think it's about execution, understanding the game, and technique. If the coaches can get them comfortable within the scheme to the point where it's second nature, then they can focus on their technique, the game will slow down, they'll become more physical, and the penalties will decrease.

 

[Danimal]

I think we're a lot alike. When you look at it, oftentimes coaches will coach how they were coached. Milt coached Barney and brought him up in his Nebraska ways, and so was I. The only difference is the years between us. What we have is someone who has been in the game a long time, is extremely intelligent and has been an offensive coordinator here before and sees the big picture extremely well. Barney does a great job communicating with our guys, too. I come in as a younger coach who can relate to guys from a recruiting and coaching standpoint as well. I think having two sets of eyes is good. We're alike but we're different. We may not walk into a room with the same idea, but we'll walk out of it on the same page. We iron things out and will do whatever we need to do to succeed. Vince Morrow will help me with the tight ends, and Barney and I will combine to coach the offensive line. Whenever we have two tight ends, that means seven of the 11 guys out there can be primary blockers. That is a lot of responsibility, and last year we had one full-time guy coaching the line and one coaching tight ends. It's hard to coach center, guards and tackles by yourself. I don't care how good you are at it - and Barney is really good at it - getting seven together in the same blocking scheme is difficult. If anybody could do it he could. But Bo's idea behind all of this change is you need more attention when 65 percent of your offense is trying to block together. Having more eyes really helps. In practice situations, we can have three groups getting reps rather than just one group and a bunch of other guys watching. That's one of the biggest things in all of this change. We're getting really close to the days where a lot of guys are getting a lot of reps in practice, and that helps create a lot of depth.

Well maybe that's just coach-speak but it sure makes sense to me. Uncle Milt had help too as coaching five positions isn't easy.

Damn, I can't wait!

I think we'll see a considerable O-line coaching upgrade this year. I think having two full-time coaches on the field for the O-line should help considerably. Plus we got a couple steals in Marrow and Stai. Marrow basically being the TE-coach is what really frees-up Garrison to focus mainly on the line. Stai can't coach on the field but is still supposed to be having a significant impact in terms of technique. Interested to see the new O-line scheme at-work.

 

[da skers]

I know everyone is giving cotton crap for not being a good o line coach but i have a feeling with these extra eyes our o line will be alot better they might even be the best o line in the big ten at the end of the year. you never know

That will belong to Iowa or Wisconsin. Cotton has failed to develope guys real well and its a poor excuse to say he had too many guys to watch. They are also are very poor at maintaining plays for the actual length of the play on a consistent basis. Its starting to happen but I want to see it in a game and every game. When the RB or QB rips off a big run the O line should be knocking people to the ground 30 yards down field next to the runner when the guy is in traffic. Our guys are still too worried about looking at the husker vision to see if they are on TV or if the rb has scored. It will take a while to break those habits.

I understand the criticism of Cotton, but I don't think it's a poor excuse to say he had too many guys to watch. If you're going to give a player specific feedback, that's the guy you're going to watch on that play, and only that guy. That means there are 4 other guys who just did a rep and didn't get any feedback. Then the next play you have to watch the same guy again to make sure that he actually took to the feedback you gave him, and if he did then you might move on to the next guy.

It'd be a poor excuse if people said that the RB or QB coach had too many guys on the field. But Milt Tenopir didn't coach the offensive line by himself (he had Dan Young), and the standard you're holding Cotton by himself to is the one that Tenopir and Young were held to together. That's how it should be at Nebraska, but you have to realize that Tenopir and Young had more talent and better depth, and that came from the entire staff recruiting, and from years and years of perfecting the system as much as anything. Not to mention it was before the 85 scholly rule.

Our offensive line is never going to be "The Pipeline" again, those days are just as long gone as having a team dominate everyone on its schedule the way the 1995 team did. Now, we should expect to see our offensive lineman blocking downfield - that's what Nebraska football is all about. But you're talking about having guys 30 yards downfield like it's a bare minimum, when really it's on par with the kind of freakish offensive performance we had in the 90's. If we get that happening, then that's great, but it'll be the best offensive line in the country. I have a hard time getting down on a guy (Cotton) just because he didn't by himself produce the best offensive line in the country in his first year in a new system.

What I want to see is for the offensive line be consistent - they showed last year that they could blow open holes just as well as Oregon or Wisconsin. They just didn't do it consistently - no different from the rest of the offense. I don't think it's about effort, I think it's about execution, understanding the game, and technique. If the coaches can get them comfortable within the scheme to the point where it's second nature, then they can focus on their technique, the game will slow down, they'll become more physical, and the penalties will decrease.

Its quite comical to hear them talk about Barney not getting any help when the fact of the matter is he refused it, insulted it and was offered and basically a pompous a$$ when beginning criticized for not doing his job the best he could. The guy found lots of excuses for poor performance and development of his position. One practice his guys jumped offsides several times including 3 times in a row (we were working specifically to correct that problem in that practice and you could see the frustration in Bo's face). Instead of getting on his guys to concentrate and focus he yelled at the QBs and started to tear them down and blamed it on their cadence which was BS.

This year the help is forced on Barney. It was accept that or leave.

 

[Bradr]

...As time has gone on since joining the Nebraska staff - from my first year here to what's now going to be my fourth year - I really started seeing a changeover in that second and third year. The change was so drastic that I almost felt like, this is the way it used to be here. They're starting to get this mentality of policing one another and then taking care of business amongst the team, so to speak, and that's what we had. When I was here and when Stai was here, the Unity Council took care of any problems that came up. Coaches very rarely heard about anything because the seniors - the guys who had been there - policed the team. There was an order that you had to eventually graduate through. Expectations were set, and everybody had to follow. It really kicked in last summer. Guys were doing things afterwards. We didn't ask them to do anything. They were doing things on their own. They're running drills. They're coaching each other. They're taking control of themselves. That's how summers were at Nebraska. Our strength staff would work us out and as soon as conditioning was over, we took it on ourselves. The first and second groups were running plays, and it was all policed just with players. There was no strength staff or anything. You know what? The first two years, it wasn't that way here. But now, guys are working on pass sets by themselves. They're asking defensive linemen if they can work on this or that. They're not doing it just to do it or get through it. When the whistle blows and James Dobson addresses them, you don't see 150 guys out the door. They're sticking around to work on certain things. I think that's the big difference. When the guys start policing themselves and taking on extra work themselves, that's when you know you have a team

:thumbs