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Chris Ash (Secondary Coach Jacksonville Jaguars)

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If anything else, the DBs improved by leaps and bounds...I have a feeling Ash had a lot to do with that. And he and LJ Sr. were the only new staff members. LJ did a great job but the DL was already stacked and operating at a fairly high level under Vrabel to be honest. So I would have to think he was integral to turning this defense around.
 
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RB07OSU said:
If anything else, the DBs improved by leaps and bounds...I have a feeling Ash had a lot to do with that. And he and LJ Sr. were the only new staff members. LJ did a great job but the DL was already stacked and operating at a fairly high level under Vrabel to be honest. So I would have to think he was integral to turning this defense around.
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Agree 100%. Last year we made Roby look like a fool and he went on to start as a rookie in the NFL. This year we had Frosh look like All Pros. What gives?
 
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http://ohiostate.scout.com/story/1533943-new-tackling-method-paying-dividends-at-osu?s=145

NEW TACKLING METHOD PAYING DIVIDENDS AT OSU
Marcus Hartman
BuckeyeSports.com

After an offseason full of talk about playing better defense, Ohio State delivered in 2014.

The Buckeyes showed improvement almost across the board after an abysmal finish to the 2013 campaign, and though co-defensive coordinator Chris Ash was widely praised for his influence in helping install a new attack based on quarters coverage, he pointed to something else being key to the unit's success.

That would be tackling. And how did the Buckeyes improve their tackling? Well it was much more than a matter of simply trying harder or even refining their methods. They had to start over from square one, as Ash explained Thursday.

"The No. 1 thing I'll tell you is we've become a rugby tackling team," Ash said, explaining he was inspired to learn more about such a method after seeing an instructional video from Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll last summer. The video has become very popular over the past couple of years within football circles.

Cont'd ...
 
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woofermazing said:
Being able to run tackling drills all season is a huge boon, especially for a young teams.

Pretty anecdotal, but it felt like our defense was unusually healthy at the end of the year.
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I lean towards thinking that if you teach head-behind rugby tackling with no pads for nine months of the off season, then once you put the kids in shells and turn them loose, they're going to feel like they're invincible now that they're wearing body armor. Confidence and ferocity go way, way up.
 
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No substitute for actually tackling and the only way to get better at it is to do more of it. Not mentioned in the discussion of "rugby tackling" is that you are more likely to give up an additional couple of yards on any given tackle but MUCH less likely to give up the big plays where multiple players miss tackles like the 2012 team made a habit of doing.
 
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RugbyBuck said:
No substitute for actually tackling and the only way to get better at it is to do more of it. Not mentioned in the discussion of "rugby tackling" is that you are more likely to give up an additional couple of yards on any given tackle but MUCH less likely to give up the big plays where multiple players miss tackles like the 2012 team made a habit of doing.
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Would you mind explaining why?
 
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Sorry, just seeing this MD. Because instead of an "impact-only" open-field tackle, the priority is on making the hit with the shoulder and then wrapping up the ball carrier. The priority on wrapping (in rugby it's required; you have to at least make it look like you've attempted to wrap up) takes some of the speed out of the tackle. You can still hit as hard as you can but you can't hit quite as hard as you could if you were just a missile so you may not immediately stop the ball carrier. That's ok though (more ok in rugby because you don't have the down and distance concerns) because as long as you wrap after contact you can usually drag him down. That may take a yard or two but it's better than whiffing on the kill-shot highlight tackle and giving up a touchdown.
 
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Wadc45 can give a much more technical explanation, I'm sure, but that's essentially the guts of it. The other advantage I left out is that assuming that you don't make the solo tackle but don't completely lose contact because of the wrap, you buy time for support from other players. We saw a fair amount of that with our DBs last season. Nothing wrong with two or three guys participating as long as the tackle gets made.
 
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