Insight from Diaz on game planning

[Prediction? Pain.]

Interview with Diaz by Bill Connelly from SBNation:

http://www.sbnation.com/a/college-football-preview-2015/coaches-work-week#wednesday

(It's in a piece that's part of a larger 2015 college football preview (http://www.sbnation.com/a/college-football-preview-2015).)

Opening quote from Diaz:


"Most teams all meld into one. There's such a thing as a 'college football offense;' 90 percent of America runs 60 percent of the same plays. So we're going to say, 'What do they do that is unique, by play or formation? If you've got a kid that's been sick all week, and he shows up on Thursday and asks what this team does differently, we'll be able to tell them."

It's a worthwhile read if you've got a few minutes.

[CadaverDawg]

Awesome read. Thanks for sharing.

Hard not to be wooly after reading that. Looks like Bennie, Richie, Coman, and Market will be in the "thinking positions" for us....and I couldn't think of 4 better guys in terms of smarts and football instincts.

[Pollodawg]

So excited to have this guy back.

[Prediction? Pain.]

So excited to have this guy back.

I am too. The more I read and think about what he's done in his career as a whole, the more I think he's well on his way to being one of the best DC's around (if he isn't already). I've been working on a post for FWTCT about it, in fact. Just need to get some of my stats in order and sit down to write. Suffice it to say, though, that his results have been impressive. I'm really interested to see how he shapes our defense this year.

[TrapGame]

Diaz plays chess while most DCs are playing checkers. The defense will be the big surprise this season.

[Mjoelner34]

My favorite paragraph from that article:
Plenty of coaches have found success with a bend-don't-break style of defense. The idea of hoping that a college offense will eventually make a mistake is sound. Twenty-year old males don't tend to go long between mistakes. But Diaz has little interest in bending.

[starkvegasdawg]

I hate bend but don't break. You're just saying you plan on forcing your offense to drive the length of the field every time and by admission you don't think an offense can do that consistently. So you're putting your own offense in the same hole you want to put your opponent in. Glad to read we appear to be abandoning that philosophy.

[NCDawg]

I know a lot of people will disagree, but I think our success (or lack thereof) will depend on the play of our offensive line. I'm satisfied that Diaz will have the defense well prepared and it will be the strength of our team.

[BrunswickDawg]

I am really surprised at how few college DC's run an attacking style of D. Manny is really does seem to be JLD 2.0 for us in terms of "attacking style". He is on a whole other plain when it comes to schemes that disguise the blitz. The goal is still the same - use your strengths to create chaos and force mistakes. Dan likes unconventional, and Manny brings that. I really think that this what Dan thought we was getting with Collins. Collins talked the chaos game, but really he was just too conventional. I never saw a sack or INT from our D and thought "where the hell did THAT guy come from." We saw that all the time with Manny in 2011, and JLD back in the day. I can't wait. I really think our D is going to shock a lot of people

[Hypnodawg]

I would love to get excited about watching our defense again.

[Jarius]

It's pretty evident that Diaz is saying that Mack Brown and the strength coach fostered an environment for pussies while he was at Texas. He said it without throwing anyone under the bus, but he talked repeatedly about how tough we are here and FSU was while he was there and mentioned multiple times how soft Texas was without saying it.

[Dawgtini]

So excited to have this guy back.

Me too. I am also glad he got the "big time" move out of his system with the Texas gig. I think he will appreciate where he is and not look to jump unless he desires to be the head man somewhere. I think he may very well become Mullenz Bud Foster.

[PSYCHO(thesis)DEFENSE]

Looks like Bennie, Richie, Coman, and Market will be in the "thinking positions" for us....and I couldn't think of 4 better guys in terms of smarts and football instincts.

This is the biggest piece of info I gleaned from the article. If true sophomores were liabilities in the thinking positions at UT, does that suggest Gerri G, B Bryant, Peters, and Mclaurin will not be relied upon heavily as true & RS freshmen?

[maroonmania]

I hate bend but don't break. You're just saying you plan on forcing your offense to drive the length of the field every time and by admission you don't think an offense can do that consistently. So you're putting your own offense in the same hole you want to put your opponent in. Glad to read we appear to be abandoning that philosophy.

The thing about "bend but don't break" that never seems to get mentioned is all the field position lost to your offense while "bending". The longer it takes to get the other offense off the field the more plays your defense has to play and the worse field position your offense is going to get to start the next possession with.

[Johnson85]

I hate bend but don't break. You're just saying you plan on forcing your offense to drive the length of the field every time and by admission you don't think an offense can do that consistently. So you're putting your own offense in the same hole you want to put your opponent in. Glad to read we appear to be abandoning that philosophy.

I think people misuse/misinterpret the bend but don't break philosophy. You're not just voluntarily giving up yards. You're basically saying that my defense is good enough consistently enough that don't have to take any crazy risks to stop the other team; as long as we don't give up a big play, drives are going to stall out most of the time.

I think bend but don't break results in less volatile performance than other approaches, and that's what you want when you are confident in your teams abilities. REduce volatility and you'll end up ahead the vast majority of the time. Going for a high risk, high reward defense means you blow out a lot of teams even worse (or by the same amount, but using less of the game), win some otherwise close games because your risks paid off, and then do worse in or lose others because your risks didn't pay off.

[thf24]

This is the biggest piece of info I gleaned from the article. If true sophomores were liabilities in the thinking positions at UT, does that suggest Gerri G, B Bryant, Peters, and Mclaurin will not be relied upon heavily as true & RS freshmen?

Not necessarily, I wouldn't think. Age and experience aren't the only determining factors in football smarts. I'd wager that Jonthan Banks as a true freshman was "smarter" than Justin Cox as a senior.

[DancingRabbit]

The thing about "bend but don't break" that never seems to get mentioned is all the field position lost to your offense while "bending". The longer it takes to get the other offense off the field the more plays your defense has to play and the worse field position your offense is going to get to start the next possession with.

This. Give the ball back to Dak and wear out the opponent's defense.

I don't think the bend-but-don't-break defense meshes well with an up-tempo offense. Sounds like Dan wants to go even more up-tempo this year. Bear called it "NASCAR offense".

Dan's gonna find out if that opposing defense has depth and stamina. I think he's telling Manny, "go get me that ball back right now!"

[HoopsDawg]

That's cool, just don't put any LB's in coverage against Slot Receivers. I think we need to be 4-2-5 against spread teams and 4-3 versus traditional.

In other words, unless you have a Matt Wells, I don't see why you would use Hybrid LB.

My 3 LB's against LSU would be Green, Brown and Brown.

Against Ole Miss I would use a Peters/McLaurin in the Tony Conner role.

[Jack Lambert]

Diaz plays chess while most DCs are playing checkers. The defense will be the big surprise this season.

Dak made some of them look like they were playing tiddlywinks.

[DancingRabbit]

Not necessarily, I wouldn't think. Age and experience aren't the only determining factors in football smarts. I'd wager that Jonthan Banks as a true freshman was "smarter" than Justin Cox as a senior.

I would guess that he would prefer not to lean on true freshman too much in SEC games until he's seen them perform in OOC games.

Manny said he was particularly pleased with his guys from a mental game standpoint after spring practice, which would include the redshirts .

[Prediction? Pain.]

I think people misuse/misinterpret the bend but don't break philosophy. You're not just voluntarily giving up yards. You're basically saying that my defense is good enough consistently enough that don't have to take any crazy risks to stop the other team; as long as we don't give up a big play, drives are going to stall out most of the time.

I think this may point to differences in how people use the term "bend but don't break." If you google "Manny Diaz bend but don't break," you get links to dozens of articles, some of which attribute that style of defense to Diaz, and other that do not. For instance, here's an article (http://www.dailytexanonline.com/2011/12/02/texas-defensive-leaders-thrive-in-bend-dont-break-philosophy) from the Daily Texan in 2011 called "Texas' Defensive Leaders Thrive with Bend-But-Don't-Break Philosophy" that talks about Diaz' system as one focused first and foremost about preventing touchdowns regardless of yards given up. And here's one from Football Study Hall (http://www.footballstudyhall.com/2015/8/21/9172897/the-art-of-bending-without-breaking-Norm-Parker-Clemson-Tigers-Penn-State) about "bend but don't break" defenses schematically -- interesting article, by the way -- that lists Diaz' philosophy as an example of one that utilizes certain aspects of the bend-but-don't-break system.

I don't really know what to call Diaz' system, but I do know that both in 2010 and in the past six months, I've heard Diaz say that his two biggest concerns are these: (1) stopping big plays, and (2) eliminating TDs in the redzone. His justification for this is simple: If an opposing offense can't score TDs on big plays, and can't score TDs in the redzone, then it can't score TDs.

FWIW, Diaz' defense at La. Tech was 2nd in C-USA at total D (and 35th nationally). Schematic monikers aside, that's not a whole lot of bend.

[Mjoelner34]

The thing about "bend but don't break" that never seems to get mentioned is all the field position lost to your offense while "bending". The longer it takes to get the other offense off the field the more plays your defense has to play and the worse field position your offense is going to get to start the next possession with.

I seem to remember Dan touting the "bend but don't break" by saying that its hard for teams to drive 65 or 70 yards for a touchdown but yet, like you said, by the time your "bend but don't break" lets an offense shoot itself in the foot, YOU are now having to drive 65 or 70 yards for a TD which your coach just said is hard to do.

[LC Dawg]

I think Diaz is the key to our season.
Four teams in the West hired new defensive coordinators. Auburn will probably improve on D and their offense is going to be good but I don't think they will be as good as ours. LSU will have talent but they downgraded at D coordinator and their offense will be one dimensional. Chavis may turn things around defensively at A&M but it won't be in one year and its been seen that they can't win with no defense combined with no Manziel.
I think we have the biggest upside out of all the new hires. We've got more talent overall than we had during Diaz's first time with us.
Our offense is going to be phenomenal. If Diaz can produce the #3 or better defense in the West I think we have a good shot at winning the conference.

[KB21]

What's interesting is that the last time Manny coached Mississippi State's defense, the Bulldog Defense was 2nd in the SEC in "slow grind" defense, which is number of plays per touchdown. Manny's defense held opponents to 1 touchdown per 29 plays in 2010. Alabama was 1st with 1 touchdown per 31 plays.

[TrapGame]

I think Diaz is the key to our season.
Four teams in the West hired new defensive coordinators. Auburn will probably improve on D and their offense is going to be good but I don't think they will be as good as ours. LSU will have talent but they downgraded at D coordinator and their offense will be one dimensional. Chavis may turn things around defensively at A&M but it won't be in one year and its been seen that they can't win with no defense combined with no Manziel.
I think we have the biggest upside out of all the new hires. We've got more talent overall than we had during Diaz's first time with us.
Our offense is going to be phenomenal. If Diaz can produce the #3 or better defense in the West I think we have a good shot at winning the conference.

Getting Manny here and not at LSU or TA&M was huge for us. Chavis ain't got the horses at A&M. They are not built for the type of defense he wants to run. He's got to get two recruiting classes of guys for his style. I just don't see Kevin Steel as an elite DC at all. I think LSU struggles on both sides of the ball. Boom will probably be an improvement right out of the gate for AU.

[Todd4State]

The thing about "bend but don't break" that never seems to get mentioned is all the field position lost to your offense while "bending". The longer it takes to get the other offense off the field the more plays your defense has to play and the worse field position your offense is going to get to start the next possession with.

Imagine what our offensive numbers would have been had we created better field position with our defense and with sound special teams.

[Todd4State]

I think bend but don't break is great IF you have elite talent to pull it off. Every defensive coordinator in America would probably love to be able to get pressure with four guys and just be able to picket fence the secondary. But how realistic is it for someone to have that kind of talent even at a place like Alabama? Maybe every once in awhile but not every year.

To me, if I was an offensive coordinator, I would like to see what the defense is doing and exploit that. But if the defense is showing blitz and then some guys are dropping into zone, or vice versa and the QB can't even pick out who the Mike LB is- that has to not to be very fun. In theory, I think that alone would probably slow down some of these HUNH offenses. I'm sure the HUNH guys love to see "oh, they're playing cover 2, so we're just going to run this play over and over again real quick until they can maybe stop it."

However you want to say it, bend but don't break doesn't make a lot of sense to me. "Hey, let's wait until the other team screws up"? MAKE the other team screw up by confusing them and putting pressure on them.

[smootness]

Awesome read. Thanks for sharing.

Hard not to be wooly after reading that. Looks like Bennie, Richie, Coman, and Market will be in the "thinking positions" for us....and I couldn't think of 4 better guys in terms of smarts and football instincts.

I'm no football expert, but judging by my own eyes last year, Beniquez Brown is one of the smartest football players I've ever seen.

[ShotgunDawg]

It's pretty evident that Diaz is saying that Mack Brown and the strength coach fostered an environment for pussies while he was at Texas. He said it without throwing anyone under the bus, but he talked repeatedly about how tough we are here and FSU was while he was there and mentioned multiple times how soft Texas was without saying it.

I agree.

I think the same could be said for A&M & baylor as well.

Texas high school football produces excellent skill position players, but has become so over coached & offensive oriented that a culture of suburban Pu***** has emerged. There's just something about the culture that promotes finesse over physicality.