Thursday, October 18, 2007

Why Cal is Great

Here is why I think Cal is the best program in College Football right now.  It is the system.  And it is not what you are thinking.

Everyone thinks that JT is an offensive genius.  I guess he is.  But it is not because he is running this spread offense with a lot of gimmicks.  He is running a very traditional, pro-style offense that runs the ball right up the middle.  With a spread offense.  With a west coast offense.  With a single or double wing, options, etc.  He has taken all of the innovation in all of the different programs, and has done what he should do.  He has become the Microsoft of the football world (this is from a Mac guy) - he takes everyone else's innovations and he puts it in place, and jumbles it around, and confuses the hell out of defenses.  And all he is doing is looking for a small weakness that they can exploit.  If you look at the spread of the ball around the field over the course of the season, I bet it is all over the field, and totally balanced between run and pass.  There is no way for a defense to play it except for straight up.  And the same types of clowns who are looking for a more gambling style defense on our boards are coaching other teams, and so we score.

But it is not just the scheme.  He needs variable players.  By that I mean, he needs fast linemen who are also big, strong and athletic, and who are also very smart.  He needs speed at the edge, with a lot of brains.  He needs a QB who is very intelligent, who can run, who can think, who can throw the hell out of the ball, and be the type of player that is all things to all people.

He also is smart on defense.  He needs a bit of the same on defense that he gets offensively - smart players who play their position, who are capable enough to make the stop, who are smart enough to be where they are supposed to be, and who can be efficient.

What I mean is that unlike some swarming defenses, his is a position defense that relies on each person playing and making the plays, but he has additional protection.  They run a cover 2, they rarely stunt, they almost always keep their lanes.

Just like offensively, where he is trying to make the defense make a mistake, and find the edge, he does the same on the defense.  He is waiting for the offense to make a mistake.

The difference now is that he now has the players to be play his game.  It is a tough game.  Players need to be able to produce, or the whole thing can collapse.  Speed is critical.  There is a reason why JT loves Forsett.  He hits the hole fast, right where it is meant to be hit.  He gets through there.  Because Forsett relies on the linemen to do their jobs.  They are good at what they do - they have zone blocking schemes that minimize the reliance on hitting "your" guy and instead they play space protection.  It helps with getting Justin though the hole.  I am not saying that Marshawn was not good, but the fact is that Justin is more of a JT style back - fast to the assignment and lets get the 6 yards.  And every once in a while you get the 45 yards when the defense was blitzing or stunting.

If you saw Kevin Riley play last week, you know he is the prototypical JT quarterback.  Like Aaron Rodgers.  He is mobile, big and strong (can run the option), and has a rocket for an arm. 

It is nice to get big time plays from big time players.  What I love about JT is that he gets big time plays from guys who you did not think would be big time players.  Forsett, for example.  JJ Arrington.  Adimchinobe Echemandu.  Matt Giordano.  Burl Toler.    With Tedford, it is all about discipline, doing your job, and getting it done efficiently. 

When we do not play efficiently, that is the worst thing you can do.  If you fumble the ball, if you miss your assignments, if you miss tackles, you will be sitting.  But after 5 years, we are at the point where we have the players on the team who buy in, who are disciplined, and who are talented enough to get it done.

There are a few other programs where I think this is the case.  Perhaps LSU, West Virginia and Boise State.  I think we actually have better players than those teams.  Certainly West Virginia and Boise.  But you can see how the concept works well in both those teams.  Boise is, in it's league, the same type of team, and almost good enough to get to the next level, but just will never have the players.  West Virginia is also very good but does not have all of the better players that it needs.  LSU is more of a gambling defense, but they are all about speed.  Their offense is not as balanced - they rely more on the run game because their offensive linemen are not as athletic.  But they are a very good team.

USC is a team that is also very balanced, but gambles too much and relies on talent more than discipline.  It is a balance, but overall, I think Tedford's method will stand the test of time better.  Because talent does not always translate into upper division success.  You may have some great games from some talented people, but unless you get everyone working together, there are going to be some problems on the team from a performance perspective.  This year is a case in point.  They have a huge supposed talent advantage.  However, we know we are going to kick their ass, since out guys play like a team.  

With JT, I think it is clear that we are past the hurdle where we need to rely on JC transfers to help out with the QB slot - it takes too long to learn the offense for that to work.  We were lucky with Aaron Rodgers, but Joe A was not such a good deal.  We now have a great pool of talent to draw on for the future.

GO BEARS!!

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