Schlarman as OL Coach?

[UKSanders_rivals37733]

I never played, so I don't understand the nuances of playing either OL or DL. So, my question is...is Schlarman a good/decent/poor OL coach? Was the incredibly awful play the last 2 seasons a function of poor talent? Poor schemes? Poor coaching within the scheme? All of the above?



Obviously, I know talent makes a huge difference. However, previous coaches (Summers, Heggins) seemed to get OL play that exceeded the physical abilities of the players. What about Schlarman?

 

[Rhavic]

Poor talent would be my best guess. Some players playing out of position, and as a result, being beat off the edges. I thought the line did a terrific job at blocking for runs in between the tackles. managed to generate more yards against that Tennesee defensive front right up the gut than any other team did, including Georgia, and Alabama. I'm not concerned about our center, or guard positions. Toth with be the center, GAA can move back to his natural position of OG, and we're solid there, but Leavitt and Young will have to come in and be better than our guys were last season, and provide an immediate impact on the edges. That alone will help our offense out tremendously.
The good news is, it won't be hard for those two to be better than our offensive tackles last season.

The offensive philosophy also didn't do our offense any favors. Dawson came in with the mentality that he wanted to lob it downfield constantly, and pick up huge yards. In theory, after watching Baylor and getting wide-eyed, that sounds nice. Baylor has athletes at their OT position though. They can hold off a pass rush long enough for receivers to get downfield. Dawson couldn't adapt, and he failed because of it.
I like Gran because he's going to get the ball to tight ends, and run the running backs effectively. Those are without a doubt our two most reliable positions on offense, and they take the least amount of time to execute plays to. That offensive philosophy alone should make our offense more effective.

I think 2016 is the appropriate year to judge Schlarman. He has the talent, he has an offensive philosophy that will help him out, and he's got some solid depth there now. It has to translate on the field next season.

 

[Phantom]

Poor talent would be my best guess. Some players playing out of position, and as a result, being beat off the edges. I thought the line did a terrific job at blocking for runs in between the tackles. managed to generate more yards against that Tennesee defensive front right up the gut than any other team did, including Georgia, and Alabama. I'm not concerned about our center, or guard positions. Toth with be the center, GAA can move back to his natural position of OG, and we're solid there, but Leavitt and Young will have to come in and be better than our guys were last season, and provide an immediate impact on the edges. That alone will help our offense out tremendously.
The good news is, it won't be hard for those two to be better than our offensive tackles last season.

The offensive philosophy also didn't do our offense any favors. Dawson came in with the mentality that he wanted to lob it downfield constantly, and pick up huge yards. In theory, after watching Baylor and getting wide-eyed, that sounds nice. Baylor has athletes at their OT position though. They can hold off a pass rush long enough for receivers to get downfield. Dawson couldn't adapt, and he failed because of it.
I like Gran because he's going to get the ball to tight ends, and run the running backs effectively. Those are without a doubt our two most reliable positions on offense, and they take the least amount of time to execute plays to. That offensive philosophy alone should make our offense more effective.

I think 2016 is the appropriate year to judge Schlarman. He has the talent, he has an offensive philosophy that will help him out, and he's got some solid depth there now. It has to translate on the field next season.

Good post.

 

[Levibooty]

Our most profound problem position last year was at OT and that was not unexpected. Jordan Swindle had to move to LT and RT was manned by committee. Both OT were being manned by players who were not athletic enough for the position and were injured for a big part of the season. With those conditions two of the worst thing a OC can do is leave the OT alone out on an island trying to move quick enough to stop SEC NFL type DE's from getting to the QB and calling slow developing pass plays that require the OT to hold the block even longer. Dawson was guilty of both especially at the beginning of the season. Brent Musberger was raving about it during the Mizzou game with his "Football 101" comment.

Our OT were limited to be sure but they were all but abandoned by Dawson against Florida and consequently the OL got blasted by fans. If you don't have the horses don't rely on your cavalry to win the battle.

 

[Rhavic]

Our most profound problem position last year was at OT and that was not unexpected. Jordan Swindle had to move to LT and RT was manned by committee. Both OT were being manned by players who were not athletic enough for the position and were injured for a big part of the season. With those conditions two of the worst thing a OC can do is leave the OT alone out on an island trying to move quick enough to stop SEC NFL type DE's from getting to the QB and calling slow developing pass plays that require the OT to hold the block even longer. Dawson was guilty of both especially at the beginning of the season. Brent Musberger was raving about it during the Mizzou game with his "Football 101" comment.

Our OT were limited to be sure but they were all but abandoned by Dawson against Florida and consequently the OL got blasted by fans. If you don't have the horses don't rely on your cavalry to win the battle.

Nailed it.
You look at Florida this season, when they struggled at stopping the pass rush, they used their tight ends in different ways. Had a formation where he put the tight ends in the backfield, in front of the B gap, spread out their offensive line a bit more. That helped Florida tremendously at slowing down, or even stopping defensive ends, despite them having a bad o-line last season. Dawson never tried anything like that, even though he rarely ever used TE's for anything other than blocking anyway.
I liked the diamond formation, but Dawson would have been better served if he took a page out of McElwain's playbook. Maybe that would have helped him get the ball downfield, but that ship has sailed.

 

[JPFisher]

I don't even know if 2016 will be a truly fair assessment. Our starting LT will likely be a JUCO. Depth at tackle is young/new and woefully thin... but at least they're true tackles, and GAA can finally move inside and help out there. Our starting OL could very well be Leavitt, Haynes, Toth, GAA, and Meadows. Not too bad, but the new faces will need to perform. Hopefully Leavitt is as good as advertised. Hopefully GAA makes strides.

 

[Comebakatz3]

I think we were most effective on offense when we were using the inverted wishbone in the pistol. In this we typically had Conrad to one side and Collins to the other (wish they would have taken him out for another tight end). Then we had Boom behind Towles. I think this formation really helped with blocking because you potentially had 3 different guys to help block. Had we put in another tight end instead of Taco Meat we would have also had 3 potential receivers out of the backfield, giving us 5 potential targets. It would also allow you to motion out one or both of the tight ends and move them to the line or to the slot. It has a lot of potential, but we seemed to go away from it a lot.

In terms of some things I want to see improved from the O-line... downfield blocking. Holy hell was it horrible. Many times you'd have an offensive lineman release upfield and they would not get a hand on a single person in the second level or they'd block the wrong person. This really killed some potential big gains because the offensive lineman basically didn't do anything at all on the play. Maybe that will change with an increase in athleticism, but it was really painful to see way too often last year. Seeing that makes you realize that it is pretty hard to pull a guard and to work the edges in that fashion because the guards aren't able to find a guy to hit in the open field in order to seal the edge.

 

[3kidsandme]

I think we were most effective on offense when we were using the inverted wishbone in the pistol. In this we typically had Conrad to one side and Collins to the other (wish they would have taken him out for another tight end). Then we had Boom behind Towles. I think this formation really helped with blocking because you potentially had 3 different guys to help block. Had we put in another tight end instead of Taco Meat we would have also had 3 potential receivers out of the backfield, giving us 5 potential targets. It would also allow you to motion out one or both of the tight ends and move them to the line or to the slot. It has a lot of potential, but we seemed to go away from it a lot.

In terms of some things I want to see improved from the O-line... downfield blocking. Holy hell was it horrible. Many times you'd have an offensive lineman release upfield and they would not get a hand on a single person in the second level or they'd block the wrong person. This really killed some potential big gains because the offensive lineman basically didn't do anything at all on the play. Maybe that will change with an increase in athleticism, but it was really painful to see way too often last year. Seeing that makes you realize that it is pretty hard to pull a guard and to work the edges in that fashion because the guards aren't able to find a guy to hit in the open field in order to seal the edge.

Dawson's scheme did the oline zero favors. Plus he ran the read option with no option lol. Dawson not letting towles run cost us about 50 ypg and first downs.

 

[seccats04]

The OL play has been atrocious since he's been here. And I keep hearing about a lack of depth to rotate. I've been following the Cats since '86 and I've always thought OL play was contingent on continuity (ie, playing the same 5 guys all year). I think these are just excuses. Unless they improve alot next year the O will probably suck again.

 

[Levibooty]

Think of it like reverse defense. The defense will if they cannot get pressure with four down linemen blitz a fifth. On offense if you can't block the DE's you keep somebody there to help the OT. Play calling does play into how effective the OL will be. If you don't have time for the WR's to run their routes call shorter routes, of course you have to teach the QB to anticipate and throw the ball quickly also.

 

[jauk11]

Leavitt has to make a positive impact, 5.9 with two years of JC experience enrolling early. Young may have to, rated even higher but a true freshman. Jackson will be good, but hopefully should redshirt since we have Toth returning (along with all the other guards) should be even more solid in the middle with AA moving inside.

One of the Redshirts could earn time, but in any case with 8 of 10 of the two deep returning we should be better on experience alone, and the competition should be fierce, we didn't lose anyone that is irrreplaceable.

Pretty big jump this year, 17 another big jump.

 

[blufvr4evr]

Morris can do it and has done it.....gitter done......just needs a shot......:boxing:

 

[jauk11]

I wonder who developed our two star Remington candidate, do you think Stoops is meddling with the OL also? LOL

 

[hmt5000]

calling slow developing plays when your o-line can't hold up and the sec has a future pro on every team at DE is a recipe for disaster. if your gonna do slow then it needs to have misdirection and movement. we never stunted our ol all year. no traps or cut blocking. i like zone blocking schemes but against the speed and athleticism we see you just cant have your oline be predictable by doing the exact same thing every play.

we only rolled pat out every now and then even when it was working. frustrating. roll him out and if he's got room, run it. if he's got time, look down field for an open man. smh. and im not a coach but if you watch football a lot and listen to the all the "coach" and "former players" on pregame shows or breakdown shows... you should be able to pick up enough to know that we did no favors to our undermanned OL.

 

[South1207]

1st Post...

2 things that stood out to me were #1 the extensive use of the inverted veer formation. I know some like it, but for our team it was largely ineffective. Here's why... We allowed defenses to continually play 7/8 in the box, but the formation itself didn't create any additional gaps to defend. IMO, this was very detrimental to our OL and offensive execution in general.

#2, it seemed as though we never called any underneath, quick hitting, easy throw concepts in the passing game. Again, asking our OL to 5 step protect much of the time...

JMO..

 

[yoshukai]

1st Post...

2 things that stood out to me were #1 the extensive use of the inverted veer formation. I know some like it, but for our team it was largely ineffective. Here's why... We allowed defenses to continually play 7/8 in the box, but the formation itself didn't create any additional gaps to defend. IMO, this was very detrimental to our OL and offensive execution in general.

#2, it seemed as though we never called any underneath, quick hitting, easy throw concepts in the passing game. Again, asking our OL to 5 step protect much of the time...

JMO..

Welcome. Keep posting.

 

[Comebakatz3]

Watching some of our film is just amazing to me. Checking out a little bit (not too much) of the second half of the Louisville game. At 6:30 in the third quarter UK has a first and 10 at their own 32. UK is in the inverted wishbone. Louisville has 10 defenders within 5-6 yards of the line of scrimmage. UL has 3 down linemen, two linebackers standing out wide and three backers standing 2 yards behind the d-line with 1 deep safety. UK runs a play action pass. Louisville brings everyone. Rather than recognize that the middle of the field is WIDE open on a short route like a slant we have Baker running deep up the seam. From the replay it looks like Bone isn't running much of a route, maybe just a go route if anything. One of the defenders gets loose right up the gut, Barker is flushed to his right and is taken down after barely getting rid of it. What could have been a pretty solid gain if we get rid of it quickly becomes a very busted play.

I don't know if this is a bad read or a bad play call, but whatever it is was terrible.

UK gets into the same formation on the next play. Louisville's defense looks much different. They have two safeties deep, same formation at the line, and two linebackers playing the middle. Still press coverage on the outside. UK runs the ball (as though you didn't see that coming on 2nd and 10) and Nick Haynes gets basically blown right by. Just a straight bull rush up field almost blows the play up. Haynes is called for a hold after taking the d-lineman to the ground.

2nd and 20. UK lines up in 4 wide with 1 back. Louisville has 2 down linemen and two standing at the line. They have two linebackers, two deep safeties, and they are giving about 6 yards of cushion on the edges. UK tries to run a WR tunnel screen to Baker. The play is down up by defensive linemen. Barker waited too long to get the ball out of his hands and that basically ran Baker right into the defensive line almost before he even got the ball. They also ran the play to the short side which gave them less room to work.

I had to stop watching.

 

[Rhavic]

Watching some of our film is just amazing to me. Checking out a little bit (not too much) of the second half of the Louisville game. At 6:30 in the third quarter UK has a first and 10 at their own 32. UK is in the inverted wishbone. Louisville has 10 defenders within 5-6 yards of the line of scrimmage. UL has 3 down linemen, two linebackers standing out wide and three backers standing 2 yards behind the d-line with 1 deep safety. UK runs a play action pass. Louisville brings everyone. Rather than recognize that the middle of the field is WIDE open on a short route like a slant we have Baker running deep up the seam. From the replay it looks like Bone isn't running much of a route, maybe just a go route if anything. One of the defenders gets loose right up the gut, Barker is flushed to his right and is taken down after barely getting rid of it. What could have been a pretty solid gain if we get rid of it quickly becomes a very busted play.

I don't know if this is a bad read or a bad play call, but whatever it is was terrible.

UK gets into the same formation on the next play. Louisville's defense looks much different. They have two safeties deep, same formation at the line, and two linebackers playing the middle. Still press coverage on the outside. UK runs the ball (as though you didn't see that coming on 2nd and 10) and Nick Haynes gets basically blown right by. Just a straight bull rush up field almost blows the play up. Haynes is called for a hold after taking the d-lineman to the ground.

2nd and 20. UK lines up in 4 wide with 1 back. Louisville has 2 down linemen and two standing at the line. They have two linebackers, two deep safeties, and they are giving about 6 yards of cushion on the edges. UK tries to run a WR tunnel screen to Baker. The play is down up by defensive linemen. Barker waited too long to get the ball out of his hands and that basically ran Baker right into the defensive line almost before he even got the ball. They also ran the play to the short side which gave them less room to work.

I had to stop watching.

This has more to do with playcalling than anything. Shannon Dawson's playcalling ability is s***

 

[Comebakatz3]

Well, the first play I could blame several places. First, the fact that you have two WRs and neither are running a short route over the middle is just stupid. Second, Barker has to find an outlet. His RB leaked out so Barker has to know that he is there to actually go to in case of an emergency. If he goes to the RB then this could have been a decent pickup.

Second down was on Haynes. You just cannot get beaten that badly. I don't like how predictable it is that we always run on 2nd and long, but the O-line still has to put up some sort of fight. Haynes doesn't just get beat off the snap, he then gets out-muscled and the UL player gets by him.

The last one is another predictable play call to the wrong side of the field, but Barker takes way way too long to get the ball out of his hands. it's a WR screen and doesn't need time to really develop too much. So, he needs to basically just take a step and get it out. Instead he takes a 3 step drop and then pauses before getting the ball out. Unless the o-line pancakes the defenders then Baker had no chance.

In this sequence I think there were some bad play calls, but the execution was just as bad. The first play was a huge example of a terrible play call. The others are poor play calls, but with some better execution they probably could have been decent plays. Instead, we had -12 yards for the drive. The last play was a deep throw over the middle. It was definitely a poorly designed play all around, especially considering that UK had two receivers in basically the same spot.

 

[Beatle Bum]

Drake loves Schlarman. Said he was like Drake's uncle.

 

[Poetax]

I never played, so I don't understand the nuances of playing either OL or DL. So, my question is...is Schlarman a good/decent/poor OL coach? Was the incredibly awful play the last 2 seasons a function of poor talent? Poor schemes? Poor coaching within the scheme? All of the above?



Obviously, I know talent makes a huge difference. However, previous coaches (Summers, Heggins) seemed to get OL play that exceeded the physical abilities of the players. What about Schlarman?

Never let it be said that Summers and Heggins weren't good coaches, they were good and experienced. As for Schlarman, with the way the players feel about him and the guys coming in this year, we have to give him a chance to have his guys play without having them to do it as freshmen. I think he will be like Stoops and get it together this year and next.

 

[Anjiejo]

Never let it be said that Summers and Heggins weren't good coaches, they were good and experienced. As for Schlarman, with the way the players feel about him and the guys coming in this year, we have to give him a chance to have his guys play without having them to do it as freshmen. I think he will be like Stoops and get it together this year and next.

Summers and heggins were very good in developing players no doubt.. Gran has coached running backs among a several other positions.. I believe schlarman will benifit from his experience and understanding how to block plays and different protections ect..

 

[Anjiejo]

Never let it be said that Summers and Heggins weren't good coaches, they were good and experienced. As for Schlarman, with the way the players feel about him and the guys coming in this year, we have to give him a chance to have his guys play without having them to do it as freshmen. I think he will be like Stoops and get it together this year and next.

Summers and heggins were very good in developing players no doubt.. Gran has coached running backs among a several other positions.. I believe schlarman will benifit from his experience and understanding how to block plays and different protections ect..

 

[CatsFanGG24]

Schlarman will look like a genius with Gran calling plays, Hinshaw taking care of the QBs and Toth, GAA, Leavitt, Jackson, Young etc...it will be crazy how much of a better coach he will become over the offseason.:sunglasses:

 

[1stkatman]

Some of our redshirt guys should surprise us with sturdy play too. They've had the conditioning year and now will get their experience in the proper order rather that having to produce as true freshmen.

 

[wildcatdon]

Bottom line is Dawson was in way over his head this year and made the oline look worse than they should have been. So glad he is gone.

 

[*Bleedingblue*]

The OL play has been atrocious since he's been here. And I keep hearing about a lack of depth to rotate. I've been following the Cats since '86 and I've always thought OL play was contingent on continuity (ie, playing the same 5 guys all year). I think these are just excuses. Unless they improve alot next year the O will probably suck again.

Gotta agree with this totally. He's coached 3 OL's while here and you would think with him being here that long some progress would have been made.
It wasn't like these guys were blocking for 3-4 seconds until the pocket broke down they were just getting blown by and many times not a hand at all on the guy they were supposed to block. Seems like somebody on the line was constantly getting a penalty on 1st down to kill the drive.
Seems like to me on day one he should have been bringing some tackles to shore up these spots where we had no one to play there. If WKU, Marshal, Cincy, etc etc can all bring in tackles who can produce surely after 3 years we can find some Juco guys or HS guys who can do it. Not just 2 recruits but bring in several in the first class Juco and HS.

 

[RR30]

calling slow developing plays when your o-line can't hold up and the sec has a future pro on every team at DE is a recipe for disaster. if your gonna do slow then it needs to have misdirection and movement. we never stunted our ol all year. no traps or cut blocking. i like zone blocking schemes but against the speed and athleticism we see you just cant have your oline be predictable by doing the exact same thing every play.

we only rolled pat out every now and then even when it was working. frustrating. roll him out and if he's got room, run it. if he's got time, look down field for an open man. smh. and im not a coach but if you watch football a lot and listen to the all the "coach" and "former players" on pregame shows or breakdown shows... you should be able to pick up enough to know that we did no favors to our undermanned OL.

Great post. I completely agree. My biggest issue with Dawson (and Eliot) is the lack of adjustments made to help the personnel of the team.

 

[BlueRaider22]

-Leavitt should be a plus 1 at the LT position
-whomever starts at RT can't get worse....especially when you add guys like Young to the mix
-Gran is experienced and proven. He will diagnose where the weaknesses are then move to counter.
-Better WR and QB coaching will likely lead to improved play. Better execution from the skill positions will help the line.
-large influx of young talent coming in.
-at some point our talent and depth will mature.
-Schlar probably is close to the end of his contract. Gran will evaluate, report to Stoops, and a decision will be made next off-season

 

[vhcat70]

Schlarman certainly knows technique, but whether he gets that across is the question given the results. Since he was an OG, perhaps his teaching works better with the interior rather than for the OT's?

 

[Beatle Bum]

He evidently is our main recruiter in Kentucky and had done well. Even Kash Daniel mentioned him recently. And Drake said he was like an uncle.

 

[UKWinsAgainYep]

This has more to do with playcalling than anything. Shannon Dawson's playcalling ability is s***

Not really. That's a simplistic answer. His play calling was pretty good. It's execution and not having any passblocking that was usually the problem.

In addition, I can't count how many times Dawson called a great play and the receiver dropped the pass. Dawson wasn't fired mainly because of play calling. He was fired for other reasons.

 

[Beatle Bum]

One could argue that Dawson did not play call by properly contemplating his strengths and weaknesses.