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Former DC Kerry Coombs (Cincy Bearcats Interim Head Coach)

No...It's not execution. It's absolutely preparation and scheme.

I mean, Ohio State is 112th in the country in 13th in the BigTen in total defense right now.
Scheme isn't lining up right.

That's preperation and execution. It's preparation if they are seeing weird looks and don't know what to do. It's execution if they have been prepared for said looks and are still doing it wrong. If I was the defense I'd spend at least 25% of my practice this week making sure people know how line up against looks.
 
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Scheme isn't lining up right.

That's preperation and execution. It's preparation if they are seeing weird looks and don't know what to do. It's execution if they have been prepared for said looks and are still doing it wrong. If I was the defense I'd spend at least 25% of my practice this week making sure people know how line up against looks.


If you have a secondary full of guys who don't seem to know where to line up multiple times in the game and you still insist on running man every single play and rotating a ton of people, that's absolutely scheming. You coach to your players.

Obviously there are deficiencies in the players knowing where to be or what to do. Whether that's on Coombs or the players, who knows. But it's Coombs' job to put them in the best position to win and that position was obviously not man defense with a rotating cast of like 30 people.

They look like a defense full of guys who are scared to do the wrong thing and that just turns into allowing huge plays over and over again. He needs to put the best guys on the field and leave them on the field and let them learn instead of trying 8 million combinations and confusing the shit out of everyone. If someone makes a mistake, coach them. Don't yank them and put another inexperienced guy out there to make the same mistake.

The defense this year is a masterclass in letting perfect be the enemy of good.
 
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I feel like this needs a disclaimer because I'm not a huge Coombs-as-DC fan. The scheme is obviously too simple and easy to manipulate, but I also think it's really easy to make Combs a scapegoat for current issues at DL, LB, and safety.

I'm not saying that Johnson, Washington and Barnes are a problem, but just watching highlights I see
  • 2 LBs following a TE into the flat and leaving another guy wide open up the hash
  • Shaw routinely biting on play fakes and taking poor angles
  • Antwuan Jackson often getting blown up and being pushed back 5 yards on run plays
  • DEs taking too wide a rush and getting run out of plays or easily hooked by OTs. Not many counter moves to the inside.
  • Oregon doubling Garrett and putting in a TE and RB to chip the DEs while leaving a guard to handle the other DT without paying consequences.
  • No one is setting an edge
  • This comes with the caveat of playing two teams without great WRs, but the DBs look good. Brown was in tight coverage when I saw him and the young guys make mistakes but have a lot of fight and potential.
That's a lot. And talent is obviously still an issue. JTT will start by the middle of the year and is already more disruptive than all but one of the DEs. The DT opposite Garrett gets blown up so badly the LBs are caught in the wash and can't move laterally to the ball. Safety is a complete unknown right now. Shaw could work there eventually, but it might be worth moving one of the versatile freshman back there and see what they can do.

It's a mess. It's obviously on the coaches to fix, but I can see why they don't have many different looks. Man is easiest to coach initially and when they went to zone, it immediately got shredded. Part of this is to be expected with new starters, but it shouldn't be this bad with juniors and seniors playing.

Things can only improve though. They're going to be forced to adjust and do things they can't do well in games and learn from mistakes. I'm hoping that means we'll see some big jumps from guys as they get reps and see looks over and over. The ceiling of this defense is not a lockdown unit. Statistically they're going to have a rough year with how many holes they have at key positions. But they can get to a point where they know their assignments, cause confusion, and create negative plays and turnovers. That can be enough if the offense reaches its potential.
 
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Scheme isn't lining up right.

That's preperation and execution. It's preparation if they are seeing weird looks and don't know what to do. It's execution if they have been prepared for said looks and are still doing it wrong. If I was the defense I'd spend at least 25% of my practice this week making sure people know how line up against looks.
I think we are pretty much saying the same thing.
 
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If you have a secondary full of guys who don't seem to know where to line up multiple times in the game and you still insist on running man every single play and rotating a ton of people, that's absolutely scheming. You coach to your players.

Obviously there are deficiencies in the players knowing where to be or what to do. Whether that's on Coombs or the players, who knows. But it's Coombs' job to put them in the best position to win and that position was obviously not man defense with a rotating cast of like 30 people.

They look like a defense full of guys who are scared to do the wrong thing and that just turns into allowing huge plays over and over again. He needs to put the best guys on the field and leave them on the field and let them learn instead of trying 8 million combinations and confusing the shit out of everyone. If someone makes a mistake, coach them. Don't yank them and put another inexperienced guy out there to make the same mistake.

The defense this year is a masterclass in letting perfect be the enemy of good.
I think they are trying to avoid what they ran into last yer which is no one got experience and now they are hurting for it this year but instead went too hard the other way.

Also we see how much trouble they are having lining up and running a simple defense. How much of the lack of variety is they can't even do the basics right right now. That doesn't absolve the coaches though. If they can't get the basics right now. What the hell were they teaching them in the offseason.
 
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Scheme isn't lining up right.

That's preperation and execution. It's preparation if they are seeing weird looks and don't know what to do. It's execution if they have been prepared for said looks and are still doing it wrong. If I was the defense I'd spend at least 25% of my practice this week making sure people know how line up against looks.
Man 2019 was so nice because I don’t remember once hearing anyone on the defensive side of the ball saying “They gave us looks we weren’t prepared for”. Only time I remember it happening was the Nebraska game and that lasted for a single drive before they shut that shit down.
 
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As annually as advertised I had my yearly meltdown fueled by way too much to drink. I should be able to handle myself better like an adult but here I am apologizing once again. Should have stuck to the plan which was to avoid posting during the game but that lasted all but 1 quarter or so.

Many here will eye roll this since there's a high probability it happens again and I don't blame you. I again apologize for ruining yet another game day thread and probably making it not an enjoyable day of posting.

I do believe in my overall thought but just not how vitriolic the comments were and the language that was used. I could've simply left it at that I don't think this is the right scheme and I don't think this is the correct coordinator. We will see I suppose.

Again I'm sorry and it's not lost on me how embarrassing I was on Saturday.

To be honest -- giving you shit on Saturday afternoon was probably the highlight of my day. :lol:
 
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