Something became somewhat obvious in Oregon’s first two games. Then it became crystal clear against Wyoming: Coach Taggart is going to utilize Justin Herbert’s running ability, no matter how some think the quarterback should and should not be used. Honestly, it’s a smart move. When I say that Taggart is going to use Herbert in the run game, I don’t mean this …
Welcome to the third installment of X’s vs. O’s. In this series, we will analyze how Oregon utilizes different schemes and techniques to attack and defend the opposition. Today, we will discuss how the Cover 5 defense matches up against the 4 Verticals (so called because it involves four vertical receivers) passing concept. These common enemies clashed in a third-and-long …
The wait was finally over. It was time to see what these Ducks had, after grinding through the rigors of the offseason under the command of new head coach Willie Taggart. Ducks football had arrived at Autzen, and so had the Counter Trey. The Counter Trey is something we have touched on here at FishDuck, with Coach Morris leading us through …
Welcome back to X’s vs. O’s! In this series, we will analyze how Oregon utilizes different schemes and techniques to attack and defend the opposition. Today, we will examine a play from the 2017 Oregon spring game. Before we begin, let’s review the basics of the Cover 1 defense. A Cover 1 is a man coverage based defense that includes …
“My friends, I wish to introduce you to Zach Pierson, a new analyst who employs a much different style than we have had from our analysis articles in the past. If you are willing to put in the time — you will learn an enormous amount, even if you do not understand all that is in the article. His writing …
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 …