Oregon’s defensive performance against Arizona in the Pac-12 Championship ranks as one of the best ever at Oregon for a game of such importance. The majority of the credit goes to the Duck defensive line which shut down the inside running game of Arizona using techniques that we have barely covered before at FishDuck.com. Let’s take a look at the …
Time heals all wounds. That and good coaching. Philadelphia Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie’s decision to hire Chip Kelly as his team’s head coach was a blessing for linebacker Casey Matthews, one of Kelly’s former Oregon players who had struggled in limited game day action during his first two NFL seasons. Despite Matthews’s struggles in his early professional career, Kelly had …
Head Coach Mark Helfrich has brought new life to older plays in the Oregon playbook, but few are as odd as the Mid-Line Zone Read play. It seems to violate what we have learned about the Zone Read at Oregon, and it is a play that we rarely see. Readers of these Tuesday analyses are becoming as amused as I …
The coaches and fans are buzzing about Oregon’s new play unveiled against Oregon State last Saturday night. I was on the phone with one coach that evening and with three coaches the next morning from across the nation as we were all fascinated with Oregon’s new Wildcat Power Zone Read. Now that is a mouthful, but the good news is …
When people talk about Chip Kelly’s offense, one of the most common buzz words they use is mobility. Although mobility helps running back LeSean McCoy burst through the line of scrimmage or receiver Jeremy Maclin get wide open, it is arguably more important for the offensive linemen who keep defenses out of the backfield. Kelly has been fortunate to have …
Fans will not find football players listed on official rosters as gunners, wings or kick return blockers, but Chip Kelly went out of his way to ensure the Philadelphia Eagles have quality players at those positions. Newcomers Chris Maragos, Bryan Braman, Trey Burton and Darren Sproles are just a few of the players behind the transformation of the Eagles’ special teams …
Athletic directors at major schools all over the country are paid handsomely to know what makes a great college football coach, yet time and time again we see coaches fail — sometimes spectacularly — to bring success and a winning attitude to campus. So what’s the answer? Is it recruiting ability, X’s and O’s, enthusiasm, or something else? Some coaches …
A pickup basketball game between the football coaches of the University of New Hampshire and Brown University in the 1990s was the first of many meetings between two future NFL head coaches. Then-New Hampshire running backs coach Chip Kelly and a Brown assistant coach named Bill O’Brien exchanged ideas about X’s and O’s on the first of many occasions. O’Brien was …
Conditioning. Tempo. Team Speed. Everyone knows of these components that the Oregon Spread Offense attacks the defenses with, and it is assumed that process can be confusing for defenses in lining up during the haste before the play begins. What about the other elements of the attack that create confusion? Today we look at how one facet of the Oregon Football …
There is a reason why defensive line guru Jerry Azzinaro was the one Oregon position coach who joined Chip Kelly on the Philadelphia Eagles’ coaching staff. The 3-4 defensive scheme and two-gap technique are just as important to Kelly as the fast-tempo, zone-blocking, and packaged plays. Azzinaro was Kelly’s right-hand man in installing the 3-4 as the base defense at …
How fun is it to see a new variation of a foundation play of the Oregon offense! The Sweep Read is one of those plays of the Oregon offense that has been unchanged since FishDuck.com introduced the play to football fans more than three years ago. Now we are beginning to see new wrinkles that Oregon head coach Mark Helfrich is adding to …
Oregon getting physical? We all know that the national narrative referred to the Ducks as soft and this game went a long way to refuting it, but how? What was the game plan that Coach Helfrich used to defeat the Spartans? There is an enormous amount to cover, but today lets look at one of the staples of the Oregon …