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 …
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; …
Remember all the screaming at former defensive coordinator Nick Aliotti about the three-man rush? How it drove fans crazy, and how the message boards would lampoon Nick on a regular basis about this defense? Well my friends, the defense where the Ducks rush three and drop eight defenders into coverage is back under defensive coordinator Jim Leavitt. Let’s take a look at why Oregon …
What is the “Two-fer” defense? It is simply looking at what everyone else calls a 4-2-5 defensive alignment, and truly following the textbook definition of how to define an alignment. Most coaches would state that the first number indicates how many defensive linemen have a hand-down, and that would mean that the defense that Coach Boles is going to review …
The beginning of the new year is always a great opportunity for sitting down and setting goals for the year. As a head football coach, I met with every player on the team for 30 to 45 minutes to discuss their goals. This took basically the whole month of January to complete, but it was time well invested. Most young …
In my last article, Oregon’s New Edge on Defense, we went over the importance of setting the edge in run defense. Building on that, I am creating a mini-series on how to improve run defense, to give people a look at the fundamentals necessary to play the run well, and at the same time, examine the fundamentals missing from the …
Regardless of what scheme you run, the greatest way to improve your team is in practice. The more productive the practices, the more productive your offense will be. One of the most important jobs a head coach has is to make practices as productive as possible. This doesn’t happen without carefully planning your scheme. When putting together your offense, you …
Football is the ultimate team sport. Even so, the quarterback position has a far greater impact on a team’s fortunes than any other single position. A quarterback injury can ruin an entire football season, as Ducks fans witnessed in 1987, 1991, 1993, 2007 and 2015. The reason is the extreme talent needed to play the position. Let’s see some instruction …
It has been an exciting ride ever since Oregon hired Coach Willie Taggart back in December. We’ve seen Coach Taggart put together a top notch coaching staff, and then upgrade it, pull a top 20 recruiting class with only a month on the trail, and install awesome offensive and defensive schemes. Today we’re going to focus on another play that …
The Ducks have to get better on defense. Coach Willie Taggart knows this, Coach Jim Leavitt knows this and the fans know this. Besides getting better players how do you do this? Good defense starts with taking away or limiting the opponent’s run game. The easiest offensive play is to snap the ball and hand it off. If an offense …
Earlier, we, at FishDuck.com, showed examples of Colorado’s 2016 corners using the “shadow technique” to effectively neutralize the Washington Huskies’ great WR, John Ross. Remember, this pass defense technique will now be taught by the Oregon Ducks’ new, outstanding corners’ coach, Charles Clark. Today, we’ll look at what a defensive back must do if he fails to execute the shadow …
My friends … we have some tremendous new techniques to learn from our new coaching staff, and this article begins a crucial area for us as fans to understand. One-on-one coverage or “man” is the most difficult for us fans to know whether if the form or technique is correct, and Coach Morris is going to help us again learn …