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Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Darryl Richard sings — but not blues — in Macon
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Time moves so slowly at this time of year, and after little sleep last night and more driving today than I felt reasonable, I’m in the mood to beat a dead horse some more. So … not for the first time will I invoke and marvel over Tech’s refusal to adequately adjust defensively last season (and beyond). Can we make a song of this?
A look back still boggles my mind, much as nuclear fusion scrambles my gray matter (does it yours?), or the way it baffles to see an extra large, morbidly obese person stuff his/her face in public with no regard for appearance let alone effect.
Twas satisfying this morning when I was at the Peachstate Pigskin Preview in Macon, speaking with Tech DT Darryl Richard — a wizened young man — about upcoming changes to the Jackets’ defense. It was glorious, in fact, when he circled round to my favorite example of this problem without my even asking about it. He was smiling and smiling, clearly delighted at the prospect of what lies ahead, the realization before even playing a game that Tech will be more multiple defensively than in years.
Richard will tell you he loves music nearly as he does football. Tuesday, he seemed at times to sing.
Read on, and you’ll see:
The Jackets haven’t practiced for two months, but forget the layoff and believe me when I say that while the offense may have a way to go before players comfortably grasp what will be expected of them (does that make them comfortably numb?), the defense has a good grip on what’s going on in the mind of new coordinator Dave Wommack. Especially the D-line.
And they like it.
If you were there — and you didn’t expire in frustration — last fall when Boston College and QB Matt Ryan melted Tech’s defense like butter that defensive coordinator Jon Tenuta refused to take out of the sun, then you remember.
As usual, Tech blitzed, and blitzed, and blitzed. And Ryan kept completing pass after pass after pass. He got knocked around a little, but when he didn’t, he just speared the Jackets. It was a clinic. But on what? What to do offensively, or not to do defensively? On pass protection? How to pass your way to being a top 5 pick in the NFL draft? Or sheer bullheadedness? (Multiple choice; pick two)
Two ways generally, in my opinion, to slow a passing attack: throw the quarterback out of rhythm or defend the ball at the target. That night, Tenuta kept throwing the kitchen sink, and BC kept shutting them off, completing passes even though the Eagles were only sending two or three out per play in most instances.
It blew my mind last fall when I asked coach Gailey if he ever would call upstairs to his coordinator and insist on a philosophical change defensively in a game going poorly. He said no because Tenuta had too much experience and he didn’t want to meddle with his DC.
I’ve asked Johnson about this, and he has answered differently, as you know if you read some of the interview I did a couple months ago. In sum, he doesn’t want to meddle either, but if the defense is wetting the bed and it’s obvious part of the problem is schematic, somebody’s going to get an earful on the headphones.
So Richard is talking about the pure joy of change, the unburdening of souls (I’ve heard of similar sentiments in coaches’ offices), etc. “Our front four has been freed up to make plays,” he said, almost singing. “In the past, we pressured by scheme, not by winning personal battles.”
So he’s tickled at the prospect of challenge, apparently relieved that the new schemes count on d-linemen to do more than chew up blockers and space: “I think when you have a unit that has three seniors who have played a lot of football (Michael Johnson, Darryl and Vance Walker), you can show these younger guys how to play the game. It’s almost an expectation. It’s not, can you get it done?”
And then it just came out:
“In the past, you had teams that set up their blocking schemes for that [hells bells pressure, non-stop]. When you have a Boston College — and we took a lot of criticism for this — that said, ‘Let’s do some max protection, and hold in seven or eight guys, and run two-man or three-man routes … that doesn’t happen a lot in college football.’ Now, we’re going to tell a team if you do that to us, we’re going to have five or six guys back there waiting on you to throw the ball.”
Ah, the summation, the freeing of a songbird: “Now, instead of only offenses attacking us different ways, changing to see what works or doesn’t, we’re going to change what we do, change the way we attack you as we go.”
Tech’s linebackers will be OK. The secondary has questions I can’t answer, but I bet they double their interceptions. And the D-line is going to rock.
Bet they all have more fun, too, freebirds of a sort.
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