HOLGORSEN KEEPS IT SIMPLE
August 04, 2011 10:55 AM | General
Dana Holgorsen’s playbook will never be confused with Bill Walsh’s or Mike Martz’s, even though the three have attacked defenses in a very similar and a very successful fashion – through the air.
One of the late Walsh’s 1985 San Francisco 49ers playbooks turned up on the Internet a few years ago and had 356 pages; Martz’s 2001 St. Louis Rams playbook was even more expansive with 414 pages.
I haven’t seen Holgorsen’s, but I have a strong suspicion his is much, much more condensed. In fact, the guy Holgorsen once played and worked for, Mike Leach, said he had only seven plays he used at Texas Tech, but employed 200 different formations around those seven basic plays.
Holgorsen was asked about that at Tuesday’s Big East media day in Newport, R.I.
“I think that’s always been an exaggeration because I know damn well we had more than seven plays. We always have,” Holgorsen said. “I know what he’s trying to get at, though, and I agree with it. It’s all about getting to where it makes sense.”
The object, according to Holgorsen, is to confuse the defense, not your own players.
“You don’t want to have too much and (Leach) has always been real, real good about this as far as we have a collection of plays that we already know that we are going to run, whether it’s seven or 17 or whatever, and then we go out and meet with a bunch of people and come up with a couple of good ideas on how you make what you’ve got a little bit better.”
Holgorsen said whenever someone on the staff came back with a good idea there was always some give and take with Leach to get him to put it into the game plan.
“Every now and then we will come back with a play that we think is really good and we’d always give it to him and he’d say, ‘Ok, which play do you want to cut in order to put it in there?’ I agree with that,” Holgorsen said. “I think with our stuff, we work each year on making it just a little bit simpler for the players.
“If you ever get to the point where you’ve got too many plays, and they are confused with what to do, then you’re not going to get out of them what you want to get out of them.”
And that’s where multiple formations come in, says Holgorsen, to keep it simple enough for his guys to run but confusing enough for the guys trying to defend it.
“Formations are important,” Holgorsen admitted. “It just makes them cover the whole field. The more formations they are in the more field they’ve got to cover. Back in the old pro-style days with the I-formation you’ve got to stack the box to cover the run and figure out who their best receiver is and make sure he doesn’t beat you deep.
“It’s easy to play defense like that,” he added. “When you are in all of these different formations they’ve got to cover the whole field.”
One of the late Walsh’s 1985 San Francisco 49ers playbooks turned up on the Internet a few years ago and had 356 pages; Martz’s 2001 St. Louis Rams playbook was even more expansive with 414 pages.
I haven’t seen Holgorsen’s, but I have a strong suspicion his is much, much more condensed. In fact, the guy Holgorsen once played and worked for, Mike Leach, said he had only seven plays he used at Texas Tech, but employed 200 different formations around those seven basic plays.
Holgorsen was asked about that at Tuesday’s Big East media day in Newport, R.I.
“I think that’s always been an exaggeration because I know damn well we had more than seven plays. We always have,” Holgorsen said. “I know what he’s trying to get at, though, and I agree with it. It’s all about getting to where it makes sense.”
The object, according to Holgorsen, is to confuse the defense, not your own players.
“You don’t want to have too much and (Leach) has always been real, real good about this as far as we have a collection of plays that we already know that we are going to run, whether it’s seven or 17 or whatever, and then we go out and meet with a bunch of people and come up with a couple of good ideas on how you make what you’ve got a little bit better.”
Holgorsen said whenever someone on the staff came back with a good idea there was always some give and take with Leach to get him to put it into the game plan.
“Every now and then we will come back with a play that we think is really good and we’d always give it to him and he’d say, ‘Ok, which play do you want to cut in order to put it in there?’ I agree with that,” Holgorsen said. “I think with our stuff, we work each year on making it just a little bit simpler for the players.
“If you ever get to the point where you’ve got too many plays, and they are confused with what to do, then you’re not going to get out of them what you want to get out of them.”
And that’s where multiple formations come in, says Holgorsen, to keep it simple enough for his guys to run but confusing enough for the guys trying to defend it.
“Formations are important,” Holgorsen admitted. “It just makes them cover the whole field. The more formations they are in the more field they’ve got to cover. Back in the old pro-style days with the I-formation you’ve got to stack the box to cover the run and figure out who their best receiver is and make sure he doesn’t beat you deep.
“It’s easy to play defense like that,” he added. “When you are in all of these different formations they’ve got to cover the whole field.”
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