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Sark after dark COACHING STAFF thread


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4 minutes ago, Harvdog said:

Worked with a guy who played at UW.  He actually played in Major’s last game in the Holiday Bowl.  I asked him about Coach K. Here is his response:

“Yeah I mean obviously we aren’t happy. The guy is an absolute pro and a stud and our d was number one in the pac for the last 5 years. With that said.... sometimes it felt like we couldn’t get off the field on 3rd down or stop the run to a frustrating degree.  Y'all will like him in the Big 12.”

It might have felt that way I guess, but those numbers don't lie.

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9 minutes ago, General Specific said:


Wouldn’t this 2-4-5 alignment also lead to more man / press coverage for the DBs?

Also, if Surly bitched about 4 vs. 3 man front, wait till they hear about 2!

Not necessarily. It frees up a lot of zone coverages with the ability to disguise pressure. It allows the defense to get pressure with 4 (or even 3) because you never know where the pressure is coming from or who’s dropping into coverage. 

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54 minutes ago, conVINCEd said:

Why do we need 2 LB coaches when we are only gonna have 2 of them on the field most of the time?  

Coach K- DC/LB

Bo Davis-DL

Retain Giles at his current salary to help with the DL  as an analyst or whatever the fuck he would like to be called

Joseph-Safeties

Raymond-CB/AHC

Gideon-ST/asst. DB coach

 

"You're so drunk you're probably seeing double"

"I've got two LB coaches. One for the each if ya."

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1 minute ago, Chili dog said:

Not necessarily. It frees up a lot of zone coverages with the ability to disguise pressure. It allows the defense to get pressure with 4 (or even 3) because you never know where the pressure is coming from or who’s dropping into coverage. 

As long as the pressure isn't coming from 20 yards deep and the person dropping into coverage on their slot WR isn't our best pass rusher.

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17 minutes ago, UncleSonny said:

Haha, pour one out for Arnett today. Dude thought he had positioned himself as the subject of a bidding war between Texas, Notre Dame, LSU, and Oregon. Carousel spins around and he ends up without an offer from any of them. First team meeting back at MSU may be a bit awkward after publicly taking all those interviews.

He needs to make a video of what not to do on an interview.  

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12 minutes ago, perfectchaos007 said:

I think I like this Kwiatkowski hire more than I would have Muschamp anyways 

I probably agree. He should be hungrier and more focused than Muschamp. I don't doubt Boom is still a great DC but he's coming off of some flameouts and hasn't been a DC under someone else in awhile. 

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Someone like Overshown will thrive in that D right?  He’s gonna be able to cover like a safety and be free to run around in blitz situations.  Watching that video, I’d imagine he’d be a ILB.  Gotta think he looks at Owens as a spin down guy too. Overshown, Mitchell, Ford and Gbenda is a solid group for those 2 inside spots. Dorbah and Thornton will fit that OLB role.  Gotta think Sanders looks good there as well. 
 

I’m also going to be curious on where/how guys like Collins/Broughton are gonna play. Coburn, Sweat, Ojomo are gonna be inside guys obviously.  Sad that Ossai isn’t coming back. He’d be a monster in this set up I think. 
 

Anyone with more knowledge, educate me. Just watching that video and seeing what kind of guys are in those spots, that’s what I’m envisioning. 

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16 minutes ago, Bill Lumbergh said:

Interesting that those themes haven't shown up anywhere else from uw fans. Not doubting your buddy, that just hasn't been a common complaint that I've seen so far.

That said, I bet if you ask any fanbase what frustrates them most about their dc, you probably get some flavor of this answer. No matter how good you are at those areas, the fans probably always want them to be better. It's the defensive equivalent of wanting the offense to run the touchdown play.

About the only comment I could find on it:  Sark wants Kwat - pg. 2

Quote

8 and 5. Already there. We lose the guy who let's Stanford hold the ball for 40 minutes and kick our ass. The guy who loses the 4th quarter to Oregon

We'll live - RaceBannon on hardcorehusky.com

 

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My only concern with this Kwat guy is his success as a DC will have to be pointed out to recruits and their families. I mean theres a reason his name wasnt mentioned until fairly recently, West coast CFB has fallen off the map in recent years.

Otherwise, solid if not out of the park homerun hire.

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15 minutes ago, TheBryMan81 said:

As long as the pressure isn't coming from 20 yards deep and the person dropping into coverage on their slot WR isn't our best pass rusher.

Coach K talks about how his formula in putting so many guys into the NFL is by teaching fundamentals. It seems he believes in fundamentals over scheme. So spitballing here I assume that by building a solid base he is able to apply complicated schemes that brings pressure from many places with success due to developing disciplined well taught players. Unlike Orlando where his guys could not tackle or figure out were they should be.

Edited by DanTheHorn
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1 minute ago, DanTheHorn said:

Coach K talks about how his formula in putting so many guys into the NFL is by teaching fundamentals. It seems he believes in fundamentals over scheme. So spit balling here I assume that by building a solid base he is able to apply complicated schemes that brings pressure from many places with success due to developing disciplined well taught players. Unlike Orlando where his guys could not tackle or figure out were they should be.

This is exactly what Sark said they were going to emphasize. 

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20 minutes ago, 83Horn said:

Not to pick nits, but Bevo is not a cow.  Regardless, what a great hire.  This is going to be one looooooong off season.  September can't get here fast enough.

 

Yeah this will be a very long offseason, especially if Longhorn baseball sucks -- #FireDavidPierce!

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2 minutes ago, DanTheHorn said:

Coach K talks about how his formula in putting so many guys into the NFL is by teaching fundamentals. It seems he believes in fundamentals over scheme. So spit balling here I assume that by building a solid base he is able to apply complicated schemes that brings pressure from many places with success due to developing disciplined well taught players. Unlike Orlando where his guys could not tackle or figure out were they should be.

Yeah I wouldn't be worried about 2-4-5 vs. 3-3-5 vs. 4-2-5. I think the dude will come up with the best base formation based on the available talent on campus while working on fundamental 1st and foremost. Texas really doesn't have the depth to play a 2-4-5 right now. Really the only hybrid DE/LBs are Bimage, Leitao, Bush, Dorbah, and Harris. You aren't basing out of the 2-4-5 when those dude are your pass rushers and you have Coburn, Sweat, Collins, Ojomo, and Broughton at DL.

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My only concern with this Kwat guy is his success as a DC will have to be pointed out to recruits and their families. I mean theres a reason his name wasnt mentioned until fairly recently, West coast CFB has fallen off the map in recent years.

Otherwise, solid if not out of the park homerun hire.

Hum, not sure if serious...

He has his own list of NFL guys to point to. And it’s not like he is hitting the recruiting trail all by himself either. Win win in my book.
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giphy.gif?cid=ecf05e47wlur7uylyh28nar6yc

So we now have a DC and are down to looking at ILB coaches or what?

I have been conditioned through both the Urban Meyer and this thread to constantly be scouring the interwebs for hints and clues and now I feel an emptiness inside.

2x2jm9.jpg

I am fucking stoked and amazed at the quality of staff Sark has put together, but what are we supposed to do now? How can we shitpost if we dont have an ongoing reason to be actively roving the message boards, twitter feeds, and the like?

 

Alas, I am at a loss and must find peace...

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(Ian Boyd) Quick thoughts on Pete Kwiatkowski

Spoiler

Pete Kwiatkowski has caught my eye many times over the years for what he's done as a defensive coordinator out west. One of his initial wins was serving as the D-line coach for the 2006 Boise State Broncos when they stopped the Adrian Peterson Oklahoma Sooners in the Fiesta Bowl. Everyone remembers those dominant Boise State teams that followed in the late 2000s and early 2010s for the dynamic offenses, particularly the Kellen Moore units (Titus Young and Austin Pettis never got their due, those teams had NFL-verified space forces), but the defenses were choking offenses out. The 2009 Broncos, arguably their finest team, sandwiched their season by shutting down Oregon 19-8 in the season opener and stuffing the Andy-Dalton TCU Frogs 17-10 in the Fiesta Bowl to conclude the season.

Kwiatkowski took over as Chris Petersen's defensive coordinator the following year and posted this resume in the seasons since:

image.png

What about Jimmy Lake?

This is a great time to discuss the dynamic between Jimmy Lake and Pete Kwiatkowski up in Seattle. Jimmy Lake could easily be perceived to have been the mastermind behind the Washington defense given:

A) Lake took over as coordinator and play-caller (unless Mike Leach is to be believed) after the 2017 season. The reason coming out of the program was they desired to keep Lake and not allow him to be poached so Kwiatkowski offered to be demoted to non-playcaller in order to give Lake a reason to stay. Obviously Lake was later made head coach when Chris Petersen retired.

B) The defense technically slipped in 2020 after Lake moved up to head coach and Kwiatkowski became sole DC. I'll note here that Washington got hit by COVID and volunteered their place in the Pac-12 Championship game because they couldn't field a team.

C) Lake is an unmistakable witch when it comes to identifying, recruiting, and developing defensive backs. A fair number of the 17 players drafted above were his defensive backs.

Here's the counter.

A) The Washington defense was very effective under Kwiatkowski before Lake was promoted and didn't really change in structure or tendency after Lake was promoted.

B) 10 of the defenders drafted from our table above were defensive linemen coached by Kwiatkowski. Those players include some Boise State defensive lines with absolutely unreal talent along with a host of really good defensive tackles and outside linebackers from Washington such as Danny Shelton, Vita Vea, Greg Gaines, and Travis Feeney.

Check out this 2011 Boise State starting defensive line:
Defensive end: Shea McClellin. 2-star Idaohan turned 1st round draft pick.
Defensive tackle: Chase Baker. 2-star Californian turned UDFA.
Nose tackle: Billy Winn. 3-star Nevadan turned 6th round pick.
Defensive end: Tyrone Crawford: 3-star Californian turned 3rd round pick.

After losing those guys, Kwiatkowski reloaded with a 3-star Kansan named DeMarcus Lawrence he helped mold into a 2nd round pick and eventual Hall of Famer.

All that to say, it wasn't just Lake doing work in the eval and development game up in Washington. There's a reason he was going to make $1.1 million to coordinate the Huskies this season.

Lake was beloved for his recruiting chops and masterful coaching but the schematic heavy lifting appears to have been done by Kwiatkowski, who is obviously no slouch as an evaluator and coach in his own right. We'll see how things shake out but it's reasonable to suppose he'll continue to coach the EDGE positions, let Bo Davis handle the tackles and the recruiting, and likely bring a linebacker coach while leaving Blake Gideon and Terry Joseph to handle the secondary.

The Pete Kwiatkowski approach

The reason I've known about Kwiatkowski for some time now is due to his approach in defending the spread. He's been good at it, to say the least. He was ahead of the curve in Boise State running quarters from the 4-2-5 and at Washington was using multiple fronts, including 2-4-5 looks and 3-down tite fronts while they played just a few single-high coverages on the back end.

This raises the big question for a Kwiatkowski defense at Texas. Is he married to the single-high defensive approach or to what Washington was doing up front? As it happens, I think what the Huskies were doing up front was the most impressive component to their approach, on the back end they "just" executed really well and relied on deep safeties playing 15 yards off the ball at the snap to erase mistakes.

image.png

My man is already backpedaling from 15-deep at the snap. Elsewhere, they're matching up pretty tight. #WeUseDeepSafetyLikeNFL

So at Texas, will Blake Gideon be charged with explaining to the Texas safeties the art of staying on top of everything? Or will they mix things up with more quarters?

Speaking of deep safeties, here's what I've loved about the Kwiatkowski defenses I've watched over the years. First, they defer stress to the box and prioritize coverage. When they were locking up the Gardner Minshew/Mike Leach Cougars they did so without playing anyone heavier than 221 pounds off the ball: https://www.footballstudyhall.com/2019/5/16/18627777/master-class-chess-games-of-2018-mike-leach-vs-jimmy-lake-pete-kwiatkowski-washington-state-air-raid

They used a 3-2-6 in that game and based year to year from a multiple 3-3-5/4-2-5 approach with a hybrid jack linebacker who could be a defensive end or outside linebacker. At nickel? They played a cornerback. At middle linebacker, that position I've been noting gets put through the ringer every year in the Big 12? They essentially played a box safety. The best middle linebacker they've fielded was unquestionably Ben Burr-Kirven, a 220 pounder who logged 176 freaking tackles as a senior in 2018. BBK had the athleticism to drop, cover, and then close and tackle guys around the line of scrimmage.

There are defensive coordinators who want to design the defense to orient around their unit and there are those who ask their unit to shoulder the heavier loads, Kwiatkowski is the latter. Washington was flooding their defensive backfield with speed and versatility at the expense of having loads of big guys up front to help his defensive line.

The other aspect of his defenses I love is how they pressure. With disguise, multiplicity, and MINIMAL numbers. Here's a typical Kwiatkowski zone blitz:

At the snap they have a 46 front with the inside linebackers mugged up on the line to hold the attention of offensive linemen. After the snap? They rush three, get immediate pressure, and then the quarterback has to make something throwing against a drop eight coverage with those linebackers in position to spy and shadow his movements.

Before any of you recruitniks panic, yes they do get sacks and some numbers for their good edge rushers. Also remember what I said above about Kwiatkowski putting multiple NFL D-linemen in the league. You won't watch Husky film and come away thinking they aren't a team that pressures the quarterback much or effectively. In fact, you'll watch the film and be shocked to learn they usually rush the passer in groups of three or four only. It doesn't look that way.

Kwiatkowski understands how you beat the spread and how to do so from a school with good players. You flood the backfield with speed, defer stress to your defensive line, and then you make sure you field some war daddies who can be Atlas up front.

Yellow light

Here's the part where I give you reasons to slow down in believing Steve Sarkisian's just landed the ultimate hiring coup. I mean, he might be, I hope that's clear. This was a fantastic hire. Still, you never know for sure.

Here are the issues I see coming out of the gate.

The first is that while I'd downplay the notion Jimmy Lake was responsible for the success of Washington's defenses, it's not like he wasn't a factor. To go from having Jimmy Lake overseeing defensive back recruiting and development to relying on Terry Joseph and Blake Gideon isn't an obvious home run. Texas theoretically shouldn't have any trouble recruiting elite athletes to fill out the secondary and I'd say Joseph and Gideon are highly unlikely to be total duds, Notre Dame played good football last year. However, it could be a downgrade from what Kwiatkowski is accustomed to.

The second is the fit to the roster. Kwiatkowski is going to have to do some serious thinking about whether he wants to maintain the single-high coverage approach they utilized at Washington, which can be RPO'd to some extent, in order to make it easy to play 4-man fronts. Or if they want to move to 3-down fronts more akin to what Iowa State or (occasionally) TCU utilizes.

If you ran back the recent Washington Husky schemes with Texas' current personnel you'd likely land on a configuration like this:

image.png

D'Shawn Jamison is baby shark over there at left cornerback, Darion Dunn from McNeese State would be the call at right cornerback in my estimation with physical Josh Thompson playing the nickel. Ideally they could move those guys around and just match Thompson on the biggest receiver whether that's inside or outside. Chris Adimora slides inside to strong safety and spends his time either shadowing tight ends around the box or dropping deep, ditto B.J. Foster at free safety. DeMarvion Overshown slides to middle linebacker and Juwan Mitchell is covered up more playing in the box and with edge Ray Thornton helping drop now and again to eliminate how much space he needs to cover.

You know, now that I look at this..the fit looks pretty good. Don't sweat too much, Pete, but be wary, there are some in your profession who have referred to the Big 12 as "the defensive coordinator graveyard."

 

 

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13 minutes ago, ousux said:

My only concern with this Kwat guy is his success as a DC will have to be pointed out to recruits and their families. I mean theres a reason his name wasnt mentioned until fairly recently, West coast CFB has fallen off the map in recent years.

Otherwise, solid if not out of the park homerun hire.

All they have to mention is how many guys he puts in the NFL compared to our prior regimes.

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10 minutes ago, BachelorTrek said:

Yeah this will be a very long offseason, especially if Longhorn baseball sucks -- #FireDavidPierce!

Off topic I know, but why on earth are you concerned about baseball? Starting in the Top 10 after what was looking like a great season last year before it got cut short. 

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