Assorted links

1. How would Malcolm Gladwell describe the 2008 Texas Longhorns' season?

2. How much is Jay Cutler, the commodity, worth? (I like Cutler more than Cassel, but it's too early to tell.)

3. I want to gradulate corch urban meyers and percy harvey.

4. Travis Henry: "A near perfect example of an infinite discount rate."

5. Is Jim Schwartz thinking lineman or quarterback for the Lions' pick? (Based on what I've written previously about picking quarterbacks and on Jim Schwartz, I'd be surprised if he went with a quarterback, but who knows. More on this topic later.)

6. Want to work for Chip Kelly at Oregon? Fill out the application. (And give yourself awhile to do it. And make sure you have experience coaching offense at the college level. And only need two hours of sleep per night.)

Texas Tech - First-Year QB Comparisons

From Double-T Nation:

For the first time in two seasons, Texas Tech has a brand quarterback and although we're accustomed and grateful for what Graham Harrell did, it's time to look a bit forward and wonder what Taylor Potts might bring to the Red Raiders as a first year starter under Mike Leach's system.

Going into Graham's second year, I asked how much he could improve from one year to the other, but this time I thought that it might be a good idea to take a look at Symons, Cumbie, Hodges and Harrell's first (and sometimes only) year. The nice part about this is that it's a nice mix of players. It's not just one type of quarterback, which means that perhaps there's actually something to gain from looking at what we can expect.

. . .

Playing It Safe

What's the one thing that jumps out at Harrell's 2006 season? For me it's the fact that he had over 50 attempts for every interception. Contrast that with the touchdowns per attempt? Now, contrast that with Symons and what does that tell you? For me, it tells me that Symons was a guy that was going to take chances, while in Harrell's first year, he was dead set on playing it safe, evidenced by the lowest yards per attempt of any of the four, although he only beat out Cumbie in that category by one-one-hundredth of a point. There's got to be some middle ground here, and taking a look at Cumbie's 2004 season, his touchdown to attempt ration is far and away better than his partners in crime. Statistically, he's really not much better than his fellow quarterbacks and lost in all of this, sometimes is that Cumbie was just damned good at putting the ball in the endzone.

My Favorite QB Stat

I've probably beaten everyone over the head about yards per attempt and it's a really bad habit, but if you'll indulge me here, I'll try to make this quick. In the Air Raid offense, there may not be a more telling statistic about the success of a quarterback than yards per attempt. Every offense is better when the team is moving the ball vertically, rather than horizontally. That's probably one of the real misconceptions about Leach's offense, is that the intent may be to make it a dink-and-dump offense, but I think this is more than likely a product of the quarterback rather than the offense itself. Exhibits "A" and "B" are Symons and Hodges. Granted, the Air Raid is not as vertical as many other offenses, but taking last year as an example, Texas Tech ranked 20th in the nation at 8.11 yards per attempt. The offense bogs and becomes not as effective if the pass is going sideline to sideline.

While I completely agree that yards per pass attempt is the most valuable passing statistic, I also think it can be adjusted slightly to better capture the issue Seth is looking at here. Specifically, you can factor in interceptions using a simple rule of thumb. This is relevant here particularly for the raw numbers between Graham Harrell's first season, in 2006, and B.J. Symons's first and only season, in 2003.

- With raw numbers, Symons threw for 5336 yards on 666 attempts, for a yards per attempt of 8.01. He also threw 21 interceptions.

- For Harrell in 2006, he threw for 4555 yards on 617 attempts, along with only 11 interceptions.

What the stat guys are doing now is subtracting 45 yards for every INT thrown: they've crunched the numbers, and this is about what it takes away from you in terms of field position, scoring probability, etc.

If you did that for Harrell in 2006 (multiplying 11 times 45 yards and subtracting that from his raw passing yards) you get him 4060 adjusted total yards. Compare that with Symons' 21 INTs, which brings his total down to 4391. This makes their adjusted yards per attempt stats now 6.58 (Harrell) and 6.59 (Symons) -- nearly the same, though by different roads. Interesting, no?

The other X factor is QB sacks/runs. College stats make this hard of course: in the NFL, sacks are counted against passing yards and thus factored into yards per attempt. For Texas Tech QBs I think the safest thing is to just count the rushing attempts and yards all as part of the adjusted yards per attempt. (If this was Oregon or Tebow at Florida it'd be very difficult to do this without completely going back to the raw data and recreating the "sacks" and "yards lost by sack" statistics.)

Harrell's rushing stats in 2006 were 32 rushing attempts for -66 yards. Throwing that with the above adjusted numbers makes his new adjusted-adjusted total yards 3994, his total adjusted-adjusted attempts 649, and his adjusted-adjusted yards per pass attempt 6.15.

For Symons, in 2003 he rushed 74 times for 140 yards. Adding this to his passing attempts/yards we get 740 attempts and 4531 adjusted-adjusted yards. (I know that this number, unlike Harrell's, is actually positive, but I think it defensible to add it all back in because few Tech QB runs -- other than sneaks -- are called run plays.) So the adjusted yards per attempt is 6.12.

So Harrell actually beats out Symons in adjusted-adjusted yards per attempt, 6.15 to 6.12, though that's basically too close to make a call. I think it reinforces Seth's point that Leach has gotten it done with QBs of vastly different styles, especially considering these two guys were (probably) the best of that run by Leach where each first-year QB excelled that Harrell broke by starting more than one season.

In any event, the real point of this is to show how you might compare apples to oranges for any system or QB, with a guy like Symons who was acting as more of a gunslinger and Harrell who -- within the confines of Leach's wide-open offense -- was operating slightly more conservatively.

(I don't have exact cites but credit must be due to Advanced NFL Stats and the Pro Football Reference Blog, both of whom have undertaken similar analyses.)

Texas Tech run game cutups

For a team that throws it as much as Texas Tech does with Mike Leach, I get a surprising number of questions about the Airraid run game. The reason, I suppose, is that if you throw the ball a lot you need a good complementary run game that will take advantage of the defense when it overreacts to your passing game but also doesn't require too much practice time.

This topic deserves a fuller discussion later, but I was sparked when I saw these clips of Texas Tech's spring football. Video below (hat tip Tortilla Report via Double-T Nation):



Okay, you might be saying, I see some guys running around, but what does it mean? Again, this topic deserves a fuller treatment, but here's some diagrams and quick explanations of Leach and Texas Tech's main run plays.

Base



Base is essentially a "man" blocking run play that has each lineman block the man over them, and if uncovered, they head up to the linebackers. (The "fold" technique comes into play where there is a sort of "shaded" nose -- a defensive tackle who would be too difficult to "reach" for the guard -- so they can make a "fold" call at the line.) The play is easy to teach because it uses largely the same scheme as their main pass protection (big on big; back on backer) but uses drive blocking. Finally, this play is often mistaken for a "draw" -- it just looks like one when run from the shotgun.

Lead



"Lead" is your basic "isolation" play: all the linemen block "man on" or "down" and the lead blocker bursts into the hole and blocks the first man that shows; the ball carrier then cuts off the lead back's block. Tech uses this a lot when they get into any two-back set (whether from gun or those rare times under center). From shotgun this too looks a lot like a "lead draw," but it is really just one of the oldest plays in football run from Tech's funky wide line splits and shotgun.

Stretch



The "stretch" has increasingly been a weapon for Leach over the past few years. A big reason is that Leach is now fully committed to the wide line splits, so at some point in the game the defensive ends tend to stop lining up so far outside the offensive tackles and instead line up heads up or inside them, thus giving the offensive guy an easy "reach" block to hook the defender inside. As a result the runningback has an easy spring to the outside.

Conclusion

Leach's run game is not complicated and no one will confuse Tech with Paul Johnson's flexbone option teams, but they have had decentbalance (depending how you define it) over the years and the run plays are some of the most tried and true schemes around. He just uses them from his spread sets, and only when the defense is completely stretched out.

The Angel Inside #II

By Chris Widener
Well u hv to be in a situation where u are desperately seeking for answers to all your questions...otherwise this book will only be a waste of time...

Take a journey to a modern day Florence, Italy where a despondent thirty year old American, Tom Cook, goes to "find himself." On the last day of his trip, a mysterious old man approaches Tom on a park bench and begins to lead Tom on a tour of Art, the life of Michelangelo, the history of David, and a deeper look at Tom's own life. This book will inspire you to take your life to the next level and beyond. It will encourage you and challenge you to create a life of power and beauty.

***

*The importance of planning and preparation
"Planning helps you do it right the first time."
"You can always erase and start over a drawings. Once you separate a piece of marble you can't go back. You need to do it right the first time. Sometimes in life you can go back, but it is better to get it rigt the first time because of good planning and preparation . Always do the the sketching and drawing first."
"Your mind and heart will be free to pursue whatever you desire. You will want to move very fast because of the excitement you feel. This is all very well and good. Yet the lesson is to not move too fast. Fast enough to get where you want to be, but slow enough so as to do it right the first time.

*All accomplishment starts with one swift action
Why most people dont start?

"They never give it enough thought to actually bring themselves to a place of action."
"They do not plan and lay out a strategy."

"They are engrossed or tied into what they are currently doing that they cannot start on their dreams."
"Fear, fear of anything.Fear of everything."

*Embracing the stages of chipping, sculpting, sanding and polishing
"Supreme artist chips away at us, other times when he is sculpting us, other times when he is sanding, and then times when he is polishing. All of these are needed to create a beautiful life, just as they are needed to create a beautiful sculptures."

The thing is whethere you can accept it and embrace it.

C H I P P I N G
"Every person has parts of them that simply must go. If those part stay, you might never see the Angel Inside. If we are going to create a life of power and beauty, we must allow ourselves to go through the processes that chip away at all of the peripheral parts of us that hide our true selves."
S C U L P T I N G
"The fine art of slowly and delicately revealing the form and beauty of the piece."

S A N D I N G
"represent those times in our lives when seemingly -ve circumstances surround us. It is when things grate against us. They can be irritable if we let them. Ppl...circumstancess...they all perform the act of sanding."
"Trials, adversity and suffering, sanding--are all significant process of shaping our lives...if we handle them correctly.

P O L I S H I N G "Final Step"
"represents the part of life that everyone wants to skip to."

*Being content: Sometimes success takes years
"You place too much pressure on yourself to succeed. You are telling yourself that you should be far more ahead of where you are. This just isn't true."

"The earlier we are in our lives the more we hope for the latter stages, and the later we get in life, the more we long for earlier times. The key is to enjoy each stage and understand that success takes time."

" If we focus on being grateful for our lives and what we have, our thoughts will tend to be thoughts of gratitude."



*No one starts with the Sistine chapel
"Many young people, and even anyone at the beginning stages of a new venture for that matter, pressure themselves to produce tremendous work as soon as they start."

"Most people cannot accomplish the great work that will be lasting until they have gone through the process of growing and learning from their experience."

Closing:

"Enjoy yourself now. Live your life with excellence. Become a person that others will be proud to know. Do the best you can at your work. And everything that is destined to come to pass will indeed come to pass."

Run and Shoot Series Part 3 - The "Choice" Concept

[This is Part 3 of a multi-part series on a "Simple Approach to the Run and Shoot." In one sense I mean "simplified," but the series is, more than anything else, intended to both diagnose and explicate some of the fundamental concepts behind the shoot as well as discuss how I might marry them with some passing modern ideas, all in an effort to just understand passing offense generally. You can see the full series here. Also check out Parts 1 and 2.]

The previous posts have cleared away much of the heavy lifting: we know about the basic principles behind the offense, and we know about that most important of routes, the seam read.

But the route that maybe most exemplifies the offense's variable, adapting approach to attack defenses, is probably the Choice route. And it is a concept that is used by many, many teams -- in one form or another -- across the football spectrum.

It is another trips play, and is intended to be used as a counter to the Go when the defense overplays to the three-receiver side. The "choice" in the route belongs to the singled up backside receiver -- often the "X" receiver. The idea is that you put your stud there and make the defense wrong every time, until they overshift to that side, thus opening up the three receiver side for easy plays or big ones. The base form of the route is shown below.



To the three receiver side, it is simple and familiar to what was done with the Go: the outside receiver runs a "streak read" (burst on a vertical route, but if you can't beat the defender, break down at 14-15 yards and come back down towards the line of scrimmage); the middle slot runs the seam read (attack the near safety and then have a multiple way go depending on the coverage -- explained in depth here); and the inside slot runs a five-yard drag route (explode to five yards, then drumroll the feet and head across the field; may settle down in a hole in the zone once on the opposite side of the field).

The single-side "choice" receiver, typically, has three options: run an out at 10-12 yards (or a comeback at 15); run a glance or skinny post (cut on the seventh step at a skinny angle, never crossing the near hashmark); or run a vertical go route. How does he know what to run? And how does the quarterback know what he's running?

The Choice Route Itself

So how do you handle the choice route itself? The R&S guys themselves -- Mouse Davis, Jones, Jenkins, and all the rest -- typically taught this as a true "read" route: it was all done on the fly. The QB and receiver simply had to be on the same page, and they were confident that they could complete this pass whenever they wanted.

To run this route I don't think you have to commit to this; admittedly it takes a great deal of practice time and young quarterbacks and receivers have plenty else to work on. But, in brief, the R&S guys did this about how you'd expect:

The base route in the choice concept is the out -- the receiver wants to sell that he is going deep and then to break to the sideline. If done correctly, it is difficult to defend this route. For the speed out, the receiver would burst upfield for six steps and then roll on his seventh and eighth steps to the sideline, driving his outside elbow to turn his body around. He then would flatten to the sideline and expect the ball at about twelve yards. (The comeback works how you'd expect -- sell deep then break down at fourteen to fifteen yards to the sideline to a depth of about twelve.)

But that's not the only option. If the receiver go to the top of his route and the defender pressed him, he could either run a skinny post (glance) or go route. If the defender sat on the out or generally tried to play any outside leverage, the receiver would break for the skinny post on his seventh step.

If the defender pressed and took away the post with inside leverage then (and only then) would the receiver continue to streak up the sideline.

Below is a clip from Mike Drake from Longmont High (CO), where they throw the choice route backside against Cover 1 (man-to-man with one deep safety). (They keep some extra protection in on this play so it is a three-man route, but it's the same concept except without the drag.)

Against Cover Two this worked a bit different, because the rolled up corner would play a type of press coverage, but with outside leverage (trying to force the receiver into the safety) and would release the receiver up to the safety. As a result neither the out or glance are good looks, but the streak is good, because it is either open on the sideline before the safety can get over or he has opened up the middle. This wasn't too difficult of a read because the receiver would quickly realize that the corner wasn't playing him anymore, so his read became the near safety.

But, as observed above, the quarterback and receiver both had to read all this on the fly -- not always easy, and it certainly requires a lot of practice. As a result, what most teams do (and I recommend) is to handle all of these "choices" as a pre-snap adjustment between the quarterback and receiver by hand-signal.

The rules basically work the same as before, though since it is predetermined you can expand the options to include corner routes or anything else. Specifically (thanks to Ted Seay for these):

If the corner plays inside leverage, run a speed out at 10-12 yards;

if the corner presses, run the go/fade route; and

if the corner plays outside leverage, run the skinny post/glance route.

Voila. But how do they communicate this? Well, it ain't rocket surgery, but it can be done either verbally or by hand signal. One way is to use very specific ones, just with the quarterback making his signal behind his back. The other is to do something as follows:

The quarterback, before the snap, will hold his hands in the usual ready position, but with subtle variations:

Outside hand slightly higher than inside hand = Speed out

Inside hand slightly higher = post glance (in breaking route)

Hands slightly higher than normal = go/fade

There's tons of other variations. If you (for some reason) keep the choice between one of two routes, then the "signal" can just be eye contact between the quarterback and receiver pre-snap. Finally, another twist is to let the receiver make the decision, and signal the route by switching his feet in his stance and then back, or by where he places his hands -- the list goes on.

The obvious downside, however, with doing it all pre-snap is that the defense can sometimes fake you out: the corner can play way off and then come up at the snap to play a press technique, or vice versa. But those kinds of fears vary depending what level you're at. If you're in the pros, where they do all that stuff on every play and Ed Reed will play the deep half of the field while lining up in the guard-tackle gap faking a blitz, then you ought to be able to teach people to read on the fly. If you're in high school (or college really too), then the pre-snap stuff should be more than sufficient.

So that's the Choice. It's a great route, especially if you put your best receiver there, as most teams do. Yet, if you're too much of a wuss to do even the pre-snap decisions, you can always "lock" the route and just signal it in from the sideline. That's permissible too, because you still get a one-on-one with great backside capabilities. Let's turn to the backside now.

Backside and variations



As we can see, the backside has lots of options. The two most important are the drag and the seam-read.

First, if the weakside linebacker or flat defender tries to widen out to stop either the speed out or glance, then the drag route should come wide open in that voided territory. See below.



Similarly, in the above diagram, if both the choice route and the drag are taken away, the quarterback will look to the free safety -- he is probably cheating too far to the single receiver side and therefore the backside seam should be open. As an example, see the below clip from Mike Drake again, this time against Cover 3. The defense brings the ever popular "Magic Blitz" or overload zone-blitz with three-deep behind it. They don't block it quite right, but the quarterback moves his feet. (They also put their TE on a kind of "climb" route to help draw the free-safety, which is exactly what he does below.)



To better clarify, here is a diagram of what the receivers were doing and the free-safety's movement where his taking the tight-end opened up the seam reader.



Against a cover two, the calculus changes slightly but the basic progression and read is the same. See below, and then watch the clip again just paying attention (as best you can) to the free-safety.



To stop both the go route by the single receiver and the drag by the slot, the linebackers, corner, and safety have to overreact to the single-receiver side. As a result, the quarterback should be able to work the deep hash safety to the three-receiver side, who has a two-on-one with the seam-read (now running a post) and the backside streak. If the middle linebacker tries to retreat to take away the post (common with the so-called "Tampa Two" defense) the quarterback still has both the drag runner who has settled into an open spot and the running back that he can drop the ball to underneath for a catch and run. (Keep throwing those check-downs until the defense comes up for them; that's when you gash them for the big play.)

Again, another clip from Mike Drake. Here it is against Cover-2: the deep hash safety plays very deep, however, so the seam-reader throttles it down a bit into the void for a nice completion. See below.



So that's the basic framework. Really, you can just teach the quarterback to read: (1) choice, (2) drag, (3) seam-read, (4) backside streak-read, and (5) (outlet) the runningback on a "leak-out" route.

Below are a few variations to the backside. The two most common just switch assignments. In the first, we switch the two-slots so you can get a "rub" for the drag receiver's man.



In the next, the two outside receivers switch assignments. I will discuss the true run and shoot "switch route" in a later part in this series, but this illustrates the basic gist. Again, all you're doing is changing assignments.



The next is a slight variant on the traditional run and shoot formation because it uses the "bunch formation," where the three receivers tighten their splits so that they line up no more than one-yard apart.



This set lets the receivers get more rubs against man coverage -- you can see from the image that now the outside receiver runs the drag and any defender playing man to man on him will have a difficult time covering. This is a great response to teams who think the way to play you on choice is to go to man coverage. And if they stay in zone, well you have all the good zone-stretches I outlined above.

The final variant is the most different, but also the one most increasingly popular: "levels." I have described previously how the Indianapolis Colts use this concept, but June Jones has really used this route ever since he got to Hawaii. (Note they will do all the same switching of receiver assignments I outlined above in it.)



Here you get both a rub and a high/low type stretch on the inside defenders, typically linebackers. Jones has liked this because it is easy for the quarterback to read, he really just must progression sequentially from the single-receiver and scan across the field. It's not a perfect visual, but below is a version of "levels" with from trips #1 running the deep-in and #2 and #3 running the quick ins.



And, although not quite the same, below is an example of the Green Bay Packers running a version of levels to the three receiver side:




Conclusion

And that's the choice concept. It highlights much of what drives the run and shoot: a well-designed route intended to set up a receiver with many options, combined with a great basic combination with equally as many options.

As a final note, the run and shoot is a four wide-receiver offense. That is how it was designed, and how it is run when one commits to it fully. If you don't use four wides -- for example, by substituting in a tight-end -- many of the purists would say you aren't a run and shoot team anymore. I will leave that debate for a later day. I just want to point out that it wouldn't be too difficult to imagine the Choice where the drag runner is actually a tight-end instead of a slot receiver. Indeed, many pro teams would agree with you.

Tebow's new QB coach: Scott Loeffler

USA Today:

When it came time for Urban Meyer, head coach of the defending national champion Florida Gators, to offer some advice to his new quarterbacks coach on how to handle Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Tim Tebow, the message was pretty simple.

"Coach Meyer said just don't screw him up," Scot Loeffler said.

All well and good. But we know the real reason that Meyer brought in Loeffler: to help Tebow become more "NFL Ready." And Loeffler has some serious bona fides, including his years doing wonderful work with quarterbacks at the University of Michigan (like Chad Henne, Tom Brady, and Brian Griese), though his encore was spent this past season with the Detroit Lions just trying to teach his quarterbacks the simple things, like, you know, not running out of the back of the end zone for a safety to seal a loss.

As I have previously written, Tebow needed to put "becoming a better pro prospect" at the head of his "To Do" list. And many -- including Tebow in the USA Today piece -- cited Loeffler's hiring as a reason he came back. But I'm not so sure that this is the perfect marriage. I mean, I think for Florida Gator fans even a slightly confused or tinkered with Tebow is better than the next guy, but what about for Tebow?

Loeffler can definitely help in a few major areas: footwork (avoiding the famed and slightly ridiculous "spread quarterback" label); reading coverages; accuracy; and the ability to make a wider variety of throws than Florida asks him to. But again, as I said before, I'm not so sure that he wouldn't get all this and more actually in the pros. All he turns down is a set amount of money (but not a "fixed" amount because an increase in Tebow's draft stock is purely speculative), aside from of course, more college glory and the "college experience," which did not serve people like Matt Leinert all that well and Tebow has achieved all that is humanly possible in college.

And I still think it ignores a big drawback for Tebow: all the hits he takes. He essentially takes hits like a runningback does, and the studies are voluminous showing that runners deteriorate, not so much over the course of a season, but at some point in their careers.

So the real parties in interest, Florida and Urban Meyer, now must try to satisfy two masters: win games but also make Tebow more of a "pro-guy." Do you try to call fewer runs for him? Do you emphasize different points of the game? Do you take some of the (limited) time Loeffler gets to spend with him and dedicate that to pro-style stuff rather than the immediate gameplan?

Don't get me wrong, Tebow becoming a better dropback passer can only help Florida, and Loeffler is a very good coach and is a great addition no matter what. But for Florida's sake I hope they don't fixate on this too much, and for Tebow's sake I hope he isn't expecting more focus on his pro prospects than might be appropriate. Time will tell.

(Hat tip: Dr Saturday)

~My Diaries~

Found my long abandoned diaries on my bookshelf...and read them page to page...=b & decided to blog about them...Ive chosen a few to display here =b...

enjoy...=)

*Click on picture to enlarge*

My 1st diary...1995-96...=b

Inden's

Idel's

J.Kay's...apparently the other sis never write my diary...*sigh*

Ojoy's


Debra's



My 2nd Diary, 1997...=b

Lum Kok Leong's


Nickey's

Frankie's


Cynthiana's


Tompok's


Clarice's


Jezz's


Ninewjo's and Andy's


Evendy's


Gerard's

I kinda miss the old times...makes me ponder and smile at those funny and precious moments that we can never get back...Life is indeed imponderable, strange...I wonder whats going on in their lives...they have their own path to follow now...

What might the University of Tennessee's new offense look like?

Among the reasons that Lane Kiffin was hired at Tennessee -- other than to stir up various controversies and to publicly go after both Steve Spurrier and Urban Meyer of course -- was to revitalize a stagnant Volunteer offense. And, other than his stint in Oakland (where offense goes to die, just ask Randy Moss) Kiffin sports some some fairly impressive offensive credentials, i.e. his years at Southern Cal first under Norm Chow and later as co-offensive coordinator with Steve Sarkisian. To aid him in bringing potency to the offense is the Vols' new OC, Jim Chaney, who is best known as the offensive whiz who brought basketball-on-grass to Purdue (along with Joe Tiller and Drew Brees). Chaney is most recently of the St. Louis Rams with Scott Linehan, but, much like Kiffin's time in Oakland, the less said about that the better.

So what will the UT offense look like in 2009? Hard to say, but it is likely to be a blend of the USC offense and what Jim Chaney did in college and the pros.

Since Pete Carroll and Norm Chow put together the USC offense and it took off (there is some minor controversy about who should receive most of the credit), Southern Cal's offense has been built around a few basic features:

1. It is pro-style in the sense of formation and personnel: They use a tight-end, they keep the quarterback under center most of the time, and use a variety of formations.

2. The running game is based around zone blocking, which focuses on double-teams at the point of attack and gives the runningback freedom to hit it playside or cutback; wherever the crease is. This kind of running works well from one-back sets and multiple formations, since it doesn't require (though it can use) a lead-blocker and the rules for the linemen stay the same regardless of whether there are two tight-ends or four receivers in the game.

3. The passing game is a steady dose of simple dropbacks and quick, three-step passes, but with plenty of play-action is thrown into the mix for the purpose of striking for big plays. Think Indianapolis Colts in terms of play-selection, though with more quick, three-step passes, like the "spacing" concept:



Also, you can get a flavor of the old USC offense by watching the below highlight video of Palmer:



What Chaney has historically done is actually quite similar: He too has long utilized one-back sets, five-step and three-step passes, and the run-game is all zone blocking based. So it's a good fit, which is one of the things that Kiffin had long made clear: he wanted to find someone to call the plays but run his system.

The biggest differences between Chaney's system and Kiffin's -- at least as highlighted during Chaney's time at Purdue -- was Purdue's total commitment to the spread, including the shotgun and lots of five-wide sets, and their receivers' heavy dose of "option routes," which give the receiver the freedom to cut in or out (or curl up) depending how the defense plays them. That said, Norm Chow had these routes in his arsenal too, so it isn't like Kiffin is unfamiliar with them. Diagram of Chow's version below (hat tip Bruce Eien).



Compare the Drew Brees highlights with the Carson Palmer ones from above.



Bottom line

The upshot is that it's still too early to tell -- and I will have to wait until closer to the season to give the Vols' offense a fuller analysis -- but don't expect an Urban Meyer or Rich Rodriguez style spread offense, but neither should you expect the old West Coast Offense either. The formations will likely be basic one-back ones with a mixture of three-, four- and five-wide receivers, but with the ability to "get big" with tight-ends and fullbacks when the situation requires. In other words, they will be multiple. Below is a clip of Jim Chaney answering tentative questions about the offense.



If you want more specifics on the dropback game, check out this post from Trojan Football Analysis on Norm Chow's passing offense. (And see my Airraid post that includes routes and reads from Norm Chow, whose offense Mike Leach's Airraid is a steroid-infused and mutated version.)

And for run game specifics, might as well get them from the horse's mouth: Alex Gibbs, run-game guru of the Denver Broncos and Atlanta Falcons, who taught Chow, Carroll, Sarkisian, Kiffin, et al. how to properly run the zone run game.



UPDATE: In response to an email, I thought I'd mention that Jim Chaney helped orchestrate the the single worst whipping of a Nick Saban defense I've ever seen (and I have watched this tape a bunch of times): Purdue's 52 to 28 victory of Saban's then #7 ranked Michigan State Spartans. Michigan State had no answer for Brees: Purdue took a 28-6 lead on four first-half Brees TD passes, and for the game he was 40 of 57 (!) for 509 yards and 5 touchdowns. As Saban said, they were "humbled." As I said, I can't think of any other game where a Saban defense just got destroyed in that way, and it was Chaney there calling the plays.

The bad news? The next season (when Purdue went to the Rose Bowl), Michigan State beat Purdue 30-10. Saban's pretty good at making adjustments.

UPDATE 2: The good Senator over at Get the Picture chimes in with good thoughts. He accurately notes that many observers noticed that playcalling under Kiffin and Sarkisian at USC was more erratic than Norm Chow's "surgical precision." Then again, it's supposed to be Chaney doing the actual play-calling, so as long as Kiffin's scheme is sound, all should be well, right? We'll see.

The Insider: Meet Bahia Akerele

Bahia Akerele 

is an independent consultant based in the Washington, D.C. area who works with national and international foundations as a strategic planner and project manager. As a West African (half Liberian and half Nigerian), she has a particular interest with philanthropy in Africa.

She’s pictured above with children in a Liberian refugee camp in Ghana. Read on to learn more about Bahia, including how she got started in philanthropy, her plans to promote African philanthropy, and her advice for those interested in a career in philanthropy.

Education: 

Double major, Africana Studies and Sociology, Connecticut College; Masters in Social Work, University of Connecticut School of Social Work; Graduate Certificate in Public Relations and Marketing, Goucher College

Current Position: Lead Consultant and Principal, Akerele Consultants

Bahia’s current and previous experience includes projects with the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Africa program, and Associated Black Charities in Baltimore, MD. In 2008, Bahia completed a fellowship at the City University of New York Graduate School, Center of Philanthropy and Civil Society, where she was selected as an emerging leader in philanthropy.

How did you get started in philanthropy?

“I really just stumbled upon it…literally. I was at a job fair hosted by Idealist and applied for an internship to work at the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Although my background at the time was in direct service, I was always a policy person and had an interest in who designed the programs we got to implement on the ground and who funded what and how much….all determinants to the services my families in direct services received. Finally, I come from a family where philanthropy was always practiced and was part of our contribution to the country and to our society. So the concept was very real to me as I had seen my mother and grandmother practice this in their lives.”

How prevalent is philanthropy in Africa?

 “The concept of giving is strong in Africa and central to the African sense of self…which is really a sense of community. The concept of philanthropy in Africa or rather the African Philanthropist may at first seem like an oxymoron because we, that is Africans, are often painted in a negative and depressed light. Now I am not being romantic and trying to suggest that Africa does not have its issues. What I do want to share is that with all its problems, Africa is rich with human capacity and natural resources, not to mention new and emerging markets.”

As your goal is to promote African philanthropy, how do you plan to accomplish this?

“There are many Africans and friends of Africa, who have directed their funds, resources and talents to Africa whose stories need to be told…. from the local women in the Sandaga market, who contribute to the education of orphans in Dakar, Senegal, to the Ghanaian orthopedic surgeon Dr. Oheneba Boachie-Adjei who conducts medical mission trips to Ghana peforming complex spinal surgeries on children - these are only a very small example of the philanthropic giving that Africans at home and abroad are engaged in. These stories and activities are worth sharing with the world and those who want to join in and help. The vehicles I will use are through my consultant work and my blog.” (Bahia has launched the blog, The African Philanthropist, to share these stories of giving. Visit ithere.)

What advice do you have for those interested in a career in philanthropy?

“Before working for a philanthropic organization, I believe you have to have “on the ground” training. One has to work ‘one on one’ with families, what we call direct services, to see the impact of policies, often well meaning policies and programs, on families, children and communities before being placed in a position that funds and supports these programs.

Be a part of the non profit sector in your area by joining list serves and groups on line, and on Facebook. Connect with others in the field. Read, read, read and keep informed of the trends that are happening in the non profit sector and philanthropy. Go to conferences, volunteer if you can’t pay to go, and look for free or reduced rate ones. Internships are also a very good way to be exposed to philanthropy. The value of a mentor is also very critical in all professions but especially in philanthropy where the network is very very close..and opportunities are first shared through the network.”