Football: Jeff Hafley takes Ryan Day’s defensive dream to heart
Coming into his third season, Ohio State junior cornerback Jeffrey Okudah will have his third different cornerbacks coach, working under Greg Schiano and Taver Johnson in his first and second year, respectively. As one of the older guys in the cornerback room, he said not having that level of consistency with his position coach has been “unfortunate.”
But that did not stop head coach Ryan Day from talking up the new secondary coach and co-defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley, a defensive backs specialist, who has spent his past six seasons in the NFL.
“Coach Day told us, when he hired him, that he’d be one of the best coaches we have ever had,” Okudah said. “So far, it seems like it’s been the case.”
In his first spring with the Buckeyes, Hafley has taken to heart the goals Day set for the defense in his introductory press conference: creating a high-energy, yet simple defense.
With that in mind, Hafley combined the cornerbacks and safeties into one cohesive room, a room that would speak the same language, and one that would more effectively communicate and understand what is going on in the pass defense.
Instead of mastering one single position, Hafley aims for his players to understand the bigger picture.
“I want to teach these guys how to play the game,” Hafley said. “I don’t want them to just be pigeonholed into one position. I want them to play football and learn different positions because I think it will help us and I think it will help them in the future.”
This is something Hafley has been integrating with Matt Barnes, the assistant secondary coach, neither of whom focuses on a single position.
“From one individual period to the next, I have the corners, then I have the safeties, and I’m back with the corners,” Barnes said. “We are just bouncing around, it’s really by drill how we want to set it up.”
So far, Hafley said this is something that his position group has bought into. He said the focus during the spring has primarily been on technique, learning the basics of the positions to create a fast yet sound secondary once fall comes.
Hafley feels as though the training and the drills now, even if defensive scheme is not the major part of it, help define the ceiling of his position group later.
“Spring is about creating a culture, playing with a great energy, and getting better at fundamentals and technique, which ultimately will win and lose you games,” Hafley said.
Entire article:
https://www.thelantern.com/2019/04/football-jeff-hafley-takes-ryan-days-defensive-dream-to-heart/