Oregon Pass Defense “Coachable Moments”

Coach Morris Analysis, Learning the Jim Leavitt 3-4 Hybrid Defense

This article by the Grizzled Ol’ Coach, Mike Morris, has been edited to conform to our protocol on the site. Words and punctuation have been added or changed to match other articles, hence not all of what you read below are precisely his words, but match his intent.  Charles Fischer The Oregon defense showed excellent improvement defending the run in …

3-4? 3-3-5? 4-2-5? Understanding Oregon’s Defensive Fronts

Coach Morris Analysis, Learning the Jim Leavitt 3-4 Hybrid Defense

Charles Fischer [the head man at FishDuck.com] keeps telling me that many fans, and he, are confused about the configuration of the Oregon front 7: the defensive linemen and linebackers [LBs]. So let’s have a look. At first glance, Coach Jim Leavitt’s most used/base front, appears to be a typical 3 [linemen]-4 [LBs] defense. But the devil’s in the details; …

The Improved Oregon Defense: Defending the Counter Trey

Coach Morris Analysis, Fish Reports, Learning the Jim Leavitt 3-4 Hybrid Defense

For the past two weeks, we, at FishDuck.com, have shown examples of good-to-very-good Oregon defense, taken from the Oregon Spring Game.  Last week we looked at the Ducks defending their own Inside Zone Read [IZR], and prior to that we saw good examples of Oregon’s defense containing and stopping the Jet and Pistol Sweeps by their offense. Today we’ll look at …

The “404” Defensive Scheme is BACK with DC Jim Leavitt

Coach Morris Analysis, Fish Reports, Learning the Jim Leavitt 3-4 Hybrid Defense

My friends, we are fortunate again to have an Analysis from our own Grizzled Ol’ Coach, Mike Morris, as he will be slowly releasing information about the new Oregon Offense and Defense over the next couple of months along with our other superb coaches aligned with FishDuck.com. Do know that the defense that our beloved Ducks will be running is …

Get Ready for Oregon’s New Pass Defense

Coach Morris Coach's Opinion, Learning the Jim Leavitt 3-4 Hybrid Defense

Ever have one of those moments when you highly praise someone or something to a lot of people – and then when they see that someone or something, it’s, admittedly, pretty awful?  As a highly opinionated [about most everything] old man, it’s happened lots of times to me.  My most recent humbling experience came Dec. 29 in the Alamo Bowl [What …

Coach’s Comments: “Oregon will have TWO New Defenses….”

Coach Morris Analysis, Fish Reports, Learning the Jim Leavitt 3-4 Hybrid Defense

In the past I’ve frequently criticized peoples’ attaching far too much importance to the defensive front used by a team — and several other schematic suggestions. “It’s not important WHAT you do, but HOW well you do it” has been my standard axiom. Well … that’s not always true. An offense could run nothing but “perfect” QB Sneaks for the …