Coaching Staff update

i am not a fan of cut blocking. just seemed kinda weak and cheap, diving at a guys legs the second the ball is snapped.

Well the term "Cut Blocking" is illegal in the NFL. No OL player can dive at the knees. They are supposed to aim for the hips, but if players are moving around it's possible someone might get caught in the knees. Plus they are not supposed to "cut block" at the hip if the defender is being hit high also.

I found this article when Rick Trickett worked for WV.

Football: Offensive line coach admits WVU uses same zone-blocking schemes as Denver Broncos. (http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06302/733956-144.stm)

Well the term "Cut Blocking" is illegal in the NFL. No OL player can dive at the knees. They are supposed to aim for the hips, but if players are moving around it's possible someone might get caught in the knees. Plus they are not supposed to "cut block" at the hip if the defender is being hit high also.

i didnt know cut blocking was illegal, i think it should be. the bolded part i thought was termed "chop blocking" which i am very strongly against.

On a side note I could have been wrong about Grimm teaching man-to-man blocking scheme. I found an article about the Cards and in the end it says only time will tell if the scheme works for them. I think they are refering to zone blocking. Also if I'm not mistaken I think I keep seeing the Steelers used some type of zone blocking.

Zone Blocking Versus Man Blocking & What it Means for the Arizona Cardinals - Revenge Of The Birds (http://www.revengeofthebirds.com/2008/8/4/586288/zone-blocking-versus-man-b)

i didnt know cut blocking was illegal, i think it should be. the bolded part i thought was termed "chop blocking" which i am very strongly against.

You are correct. I termed it wrong. Chop blocking is illegal. Cut blocking if done correctly the OL aims for the hips. Still can't hit high/low. Plus in cut blocking you can't hit from behind. They have to hit almost head on.

I doubt we pick up Paul Johnson. He's the head coach with GT, and he recently picked up a DC:

On January 15th, 2010, former Virginia Head Coach Al Groh accepted Paul Johnson's offer to become defensive coordinator for the Yellow Jackets in 2010. The acceptance came with other offers pending on the table, particulary an offer from Bill Parcells and the Miami Dolphins to run Groh's highly regarded 3-4 defense in the NFL. Ultimately, Groh accepted Paul Johnson & Georgia Tech's offer.

Redskins, Chris Meidt part ways

Two years ago at this time, Chris Meidt was an obscure Division III head coach at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn. When Jim Zorn, then the new coach of the Washington Redskins and a man whom Meidt had met at several coaching clinics, called to offer him an assistant's job in the NFL, Meidt jumped.

"I loved everything about the last two years," Meidt said Tuesday. "We absolutely loved it. I would not trade the last two years for anything."

Meidt, 40, was informed Tuesday morning by new Redskins coach Mike Shanahan that he would not be on the staff. Matt LaFleur, an offensive assistant with the Houston Texans, is expected to be named to the Redskins' staff within the next couple of days. LaFleur's relationship with the incoming offensive coordinator, former Texans' coordinator Kyle Shanahan, meant Meidt understood the decision.

"Kyle has to be comfortable with a person he's worked with, someone he already has a relationship with," Meidt said. "I've been a head coach. I understand the staff dynamics."

Meidt worked closely with quarterback Jason Campbell over the past two years, and he helped devise the intricate play-calling system - which involved a color-coded system on Campbell's wrist - when Zorn lost his play-calling duties in October and was replaced by consultant Sherman Lewis. Meidt felt his interviews with both Shanahans went well - "I think if he was starting a staff from scratch, I'd have a great chance," he said - and he leaves believing Shanahan will recommend him for jobs elsewhere.

"I'm wide open," Meidt said. "We're ready for everything. The Lord led us here, and He'll lead us to the next step. If it's a college coordinator's job, that'd be great. If it's a quarterbacks job in the NFL, I would love it. I know I'm a better coach because of this whole experience."

Good luck to Meidt.

Wouldn't have minded seeing Meidt stick around as an asst and having Wachenheim stick around either, especially Wach.. I think I might be his only homer on here.

So it looks like Steve Jackson our secondary coach has been retained by Shanny.

He along with Danny Smith where 2 I wanted gone. I wanted Smith gone due to keeping ARE in as punt returner for the last 2 years. Even if he had been making a case for using another player for punt returns he never got his way against Zorn so my thought is he will never be able to persuade a established coach like Shanny. My thought is that he is at best a pushover, or even worse a really bad special teams coach.

Ive been skeptical of Steve Jackson ever since reading the Tom Friend article a few years ago (Damn 2006!). Minus Gregg William’s ego he was the other coach that was “blamed” for the poor defense. I honestly think that when this article was written it was dead on about the Gregg Williams “its not the players its my genius scheme” attitude. I think he has changed his tune a little bit, but back then I think there was truth to it.

I really wanted Danny Smith and Steve Jackson gone this season. I also really wanted to keep Jerry Gray (who knows if he would have stayed if not for the “attempt” to satisfy the Rooney Rule)

What do you guys think? Did anyone want to retain either of these guys?

Remember these words:





"A lot of Taylor's woes can be traced a lot to the hiring of Steve Jackson as Redskins safety coach. Jackson came with Williams from Buffalo, where he was a lower-level defensive coach, and Jackson supposedly was hurt when Williams chose DeWayne Walker as his main secondary coach in 2003 and 2004. He wanted the job himself, and when Walker left after the 2005 season, he assumed he'd get it. But Williams' old defensive coordinator in Buffalo, Jerry Gray, had just become available, and Williams hired him. Jackson was ticked.
So Williams threw him a bone, a bone which has literally torn up the secondary. He made Jackson safeties coach and Gray cornerbacks coach and allowed Jackson to run his own meetings. That means that the Redskins' safeties and corners do not meet together, which is practically unheard of.
"Talk to any coach in the league, and ask them, 'Have you ever heard of corners and safeties not meeting together?'" the Redskins player says. "They'd say, 'What are you talking about?' That's crazy. But ever since minicamps, OTAs, training camp, we hadn't met as a secondary. On the field, the corners will start making a call or doing something, and the safeties will be, 'What are you talking about? We didn't go over that.' So now the corners are expecting help in certain situations, and the safeties aren't getting there in time. And people got beat in the secondary.
"Everybody was saying they had to start meeting together. So the last three weeks they have. But 40 percent of the time Steven Jackson's not in the meeting. Because he pouts, because Jerry's running the meeting."
On the field, Jackson's (and presumably Williams') techniques aren't working, either. The innovators of Cover 2, such as Monte Kiffin and Tony Dungy, want their safeties staying deep, 2 yards inside the numbers and staying squared up. They want them reading the quarterback and breaking downhill on everything.
But Jackson began teaching Taylor and Co. not to read the quarterback, but to read the receivers' breaks and releases and react accordingly. He wanted them to be aggressive out of Cover 2, to help on the run, even though Cover 2 is not known to be a run-stopping defense. Williams wants to call it a lot because, ideally, if you can stop the run with a Cover 2, you have the best of both worlds, because it's specifically designed to prevent the deep ball. But Jackson kept exhorting Taylor and his early-season safety mate, Adam Archuleta, to be aggressive playing the run out of the Cover 2, and they began to get beat on the play-action pass repeatedly. According to the Redskins player, Jackson then began berating his players profanely -- although he tends to go lighter on Taylor -- and they reached bottom in Philadelphia, when Donte' Stallworth beat Taylor deep for an 84-yard touchdown. Witnesses say that at that point, the other defensive coaches became officially peeved at Jackson for making Taylor "play like a robot," and for turning him into a confused, regressing player who now tunes out coaches and teammates. "And then Steve Jackson began pouting at practice," the player said. "He pouts at practice. He'll stand by himself and won't coach anybody. This last game in Tampa, we had a player at halftime go up to him and say, 'Are you going to just sit there and pout, or are you gonna f------ coach your guys up?'" "