Just a quick thought for all of you to ponder as you contemplate firing our OC after one loss. Our players have had 4 years of poor coaching, ingraining poor techniques, and poor habits. If any of you have ever been through any sort of intense training, you'd understand that you practice over and over until it becomes muscle memory. Football is a sport where if you need time to think about your technique or your responsibilities, it's too late, you are beat. All these techniques need to be like breathing, they need to just happen.
Now, every week you hear Pelini harping on executing during practice and games. Our players have to get to the point where the new techniques take over for the poor, and that's when you'll see marked improvement in the O-line, D-line, LB's and DB's. You just watch, by the mid way point of the season, you'll be seeing vastly improved blocking, better gap responsibility, and more pass deflections and less big plays. It won't be in time for Missouri, but by the time we play OU, I see us being able to run more effectively and playing better defense just because of the extra practice time.
I've read on other boards about getting on Watson for not running the ball enough, and that is a perfectly fine gripe, but in order to move the ball, we need balance and some outside the box thinking. I think the running game would vastly improve by adding a FB to the equation. I don't think Lawson or Mackovicka have seen the field yet this year. Throw in some counters and FB dive to the mix, that shakes it up a bit on O and will free up some toss sweeps, options, and draws. Sprinkle in some play action and some deep crossing patterns, and voila, your moving the ball again. (at least in my own theory!)
Let me know what you think. I do think we need to give some time for our players to get to the point where they lose these bad habits, hopefully sooner rather then later.
