SB Nation - Noris Malele

Is the Cal Offensive Line Failing Due to Talent or Coaching?

Avinash — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 20:00:41 -0000

by Ben Margot - AP

Missing: Cal Offensive linemen. If you find them, please call Jeff T. at...

Although the postgame article about our offensive line was meant in jest, some people like Cali49a took what I was saying seriously.

Let’s look across the line at what we have. LT Tepper is a good guy, but he’s not nearly as good as he’s been made out to be. LG was a RS Frosh starting who got injured and his replacements are a former walk-on in Fisher and a current walk-on in Boskovitch, who spends more time whiffing on blocks and losing his feet of any OL I’ve seen in the Tedford era. Our Center is an undersized RS-JR taking his first meaningful snaps at C but who has no business playing that position, especially against top notch DTs. The RG is a RS-So who has the size to play the position but has lapses. The RT is a RS-So who has been pretty reliable. The TEs cannot reliably block and are all young. Just looking at our starters, they are a recipe for inconsistency. As much as size of OL is important, mentally they need to know their assignments and how to adjust on the fly when blocking, which comes from repetition.

In a sense, the line is still young with 3 underclassmen starters. The interior of the OL is the biggest issue right now, and quite frankly, the reason why we absolutely stink running between the tackles.

While this post was funny to read because it pokes fun at a glaring weakness on our O, this post really does not look at the root of the problem: recruiting. There have been too many scholarship busts and/or misses on the OL front in 05-06 and we are really feeling it now. There is exactly ONE starter on the OL from those classes. Guys from those 2 classes are who should be starting right now unless there were some super sensational underclassmen who could beat them out. That is not the case.

To clarify, no, I don't think Steve Marshall should be fired. In general, with college coaches, I don't think you fire people who've been here one year unless they totally faceplant (and in any case with Marshall, given his previous track record, he'll probably leave of his own accord). However, I do feel that he and Andy Ludwig have missed some crucial elements in developing their guys, some controllable, some not. And those struggles have resulted in these offensive stinkbombs we've seen against good defenses.

How much of Cal's O-line struggles have been due to talent, and how much has been due to coaching?

After the jump, I look at both sides.

So one possibility is talent. It's been argued by many people, especially Hydro, that maybe these guys just aren't who we thought they were.

In the podcast, CBKWit makes the argument that this is one of our highest star rated offensive lines perhaps ever during the Tedford era. CBKWit made this comment in response to my remark suggesting that the OL's poor performance could be a talent issue. It seems that CBKWit might have been disagreeing with me. If that is so, CBKWit is clearly making the assumption that the higher the star rating of the player, the more talented they are. Such a notion is generally true, but not always. CBKWit seems to make it a forgone conclusion that is always true and thus this year's highly rated OL suckage cannot be due to lack of talent; hence obviously a coaching problem. I disagree. I think it's possible that there is a talent issue here, perhaps as well as a coaching issue. I have not discounted the talent issue, whereas CBKWit seems to have done so. CBKWit points to last year's OL which started Guarnero (prior to injury), Cheadle, and Boskovich (after Guarnero's injury) as evidence that this OL shouldn't be this bad due to the fact that so many of this year's starters saw playing time last year and were fairly productive. Last year, I personally thought Guarnero was doing fine at guard. However, I was not that impressed with Cheadle or Boskovich. Thus, I am not convinced that just because he have players from last year's OL, which performed decently well although not great, means that this year's OL cannot be suffering from lack of talent.

Here's been our starting depth chart the past few seasons, starting with 2006 as the first season our entire O-line was ranked by Rivals (some of these guys could be wrong from 2006, let me know). Thanks to AERose for gathering this data up.

2006

Mike Tepper (2 stars/2 stars)--2
Erik Robertson (2 stars/1 star)-1.5
Alex Mack (2 stars/2 stars)--2
Norris Malele (3 stars/3)--3
Scott Smith (2 stars)--2

Average rating: 2.11

2007

Mike Tepper (2 stars/2 stars)--2
MIke Gibson (4 stars/4 stars)--4
Brian De La Puente (???)
Noris Malele (3 stars/3 stars)-3
Alex Mack (2 stars/2 stars)-2

Average rating: 2.75

2008

Mark Boskovich (???)
Noris Malele (3 stars/3 stars)-3
Alex Mack (2 stars/2 stars)-2
Chet Teofilo (2 stars/2 stars)-2
Mitchell Schwartz (3 stars/3 stars)-3
Justin Cheadle (3 stars/4 stars)-3.5

Average rating: 2.75

2009

Mike Tepper (2 stars/2 stars)-2
Mitchell Schwartz (3 stars /3 stars)-3
Matt Summers-Gavin (4 stars/4 stars)-4
Justin Cheadle (3 stars/4 stars)-3.5
Chris Guarnero (4 stars/3 stars)-3.5
Mark Boskovich (???)

Average rating: 3.2

Of course the star rating only tells so much, but as you can see on average Cal's recruiting star ratings are better than the last few years, and there seems to be no correlation with star rating and rushing success (hell, you could say the relation's nearly INVERSE; the lower the star rating, the better Cal's O-line has done.) This could probably lead you to think that recruiting stars are bunk.

So while I agree with Cali49a, that yes, the offensive line has had depth problems and too many walk-ons coming in to fill crucial roles, I also feel that the Bears talent is still comparable to those of previous seasons. Although a lot of the guys we recruited haven't been up to snuff, they still shouldn't be struggling this much, especially with almost all of them except Summers-Gavin seeing action last season. This should be a line that dropped off a little, not a lot, even with Mack and Malele gone.

So let's assume these guys aren't terrible o-linemen. That leads us to coaching. If the problem isn't talent, What are the problems that could be going on here?

1) The offensive coordinator turnover. Hydro mentioned in the podcast how O-linemen were having difficulty adapting to Cignetti's new pass blocking schemes (explaining the struggles in protecting Longshore and Riley). You can only imagine how difficult the Bears O-linemen are doing with all the different looks they've run in the run blocking game with Ludwig's offense installed. Perhaps we'll see drastic improvement next season when these guys have had time to run through the system, but right now it just isn't there.

2) Fullback and tight end blocking dropoff. This is where I do agree with Cali49a. In terms of tight ends, the Bears really haven't had great tight end blocking since Craig Stevens was lining up. But Brian Holley? Nice enough guy, but big big downgrade from Ta'ufo'ou in terms of blocking awareness. Who exactly Cal's fullback will be next year (Kapp?) will need to show better than Holley has this year. And Anthony Miller will hopefully become as good a blocker as he is a receiver.

3) The complexity of the offense. This might be the biggest issue for me. We've talked over and over how the Bears offense has gotten more sophisticated as time has gone by (and that in turn has led to the quarterback struggles). While that might give us all sorts of delight as fans to watch, the fact is the players aren't getting older with them. So the learning curve has grown steeper for new players, like a sadistic professor who decides to add three hundred more pages of reading each year for the same class, with an occasional extra midterm thrown in there. You can only imagine how difficult it is for offensive linemen to struggle to do so much.

4) Failure to adapt. The fact is these players are not going to grow old with us. They're going to leave for other places and that means Cal's coaching staff have to adapt to the situation. We have to recognize that our offensive linemen might not be as experienced or as gifted as previous guys like Mack and Ta'ufo'ou. So instead of throwing so many different looks in our playcalling perhaps we should return to the more stodgy but effective type of play that defined early Tedford football, especially in the run game.

One of the beautiful things about Coach M's style of line coaching is that we ran the same two plays almost every time in the run game, and defenses were lost trying to stop them. As Hydro described it, "Defenses knew what was coming, and they could almost never stop it from going." (Now on the flip side, defenses WERE catching up to Cal's offense as the years went by (the Bears running game dipped in production every year since 2004), so there might be the need to evolve as time goes by. But hey, sometimes it's best not to fix things that aren't broken.)

5) Coaching development. This is where I attribute blame to the coaches directly. I don't think we need to bring Coach M back to recognize those issues, nor even make Marshall the scapegoat for our failings. But it's clear that Alex Mack, Mike Tepper and many others from our more successful squads were not highly sought-after talents, yet they evolved into O-line forces of nature in their collegiate primes. Although Michalziak might not have been the greatest recruiter, he did a great job making these guys execute on Saturdays. How much of this had to do with the simplicity of the offense might be difficult to say, but I've always found simple works best with young offensive lines. Just look at how Oregon has recovered from the Boise fiasco, when their line couldn't block stationary objects. Simple effective blocking techniques set loose their offensive players.

6) Recognizing the big picture. As the guy now overseeing the program, Tedford should try and recognize that players, based on their individual experience level and their collective experience as a unit, need to be treated differently on a year-by-year basis. He, like many fans, incorrectly assessed the losses of our top three blockers and assumed we'd get by with the experience the returning starters had managed. That's clearly not been the case. Now that he's no longer playcalling, his job in the games is to manage and see what's going on beyond the Xs and Os. I'd say he hasn't done a very good job of that this season, especially with regards to the offensive line (and of course there are other issues, but that's for another day). Running the same set of plays and schemes (inside zone run) over and over again seems like a peculiar type of madness.

Whatever's going on, coaching or talentwise, with only three games left, it's probably too late to fix these deficiencies until the bowl game, and we've got to ride the ship the end and hope somehow we can pull some wins out before we reach port. And then hope everything gets back together for next year's cruise.

Poll

Cal's O-line struggles are due to...

coaching issues more than talent issues.

53 votes

talent issues more than coaching issues.

16 votes

coaching and talent issues about the same.

57 votes

something else entirely.

7 votes

133 votes | Poll has closed

Emerald Bowl Review: Part VII: Blitzing the A-Gap & Fan Notification

HydroTech — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 11:00:10 -0000

In this seventh part of a twelve post analysis, we're going to look at how the Miami Hurricane defense blitzes Cal's A-Gap again to get quick pressure on the quarterback, and how Cal attempts to notify the quarterback. In case you missed the previous installments, here is Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V, and Part VI.

In the first part of this series I showed how Miami was quickly blitzing the A-Gap of Cal's offense line to get quick pressure on the quarterback. I suggested that this was something that was going to occur again throughout the game and may be indicative of Miami's defense strategy. On the following play, we'll see the defensive tactic in use again, and we'll also see how Cal's offensive line is ready for it.

Here is the pre-snap look below:

Cal has 11 personnel on the field (3 WRs, 1 TE, 1 RB). This should not be confused with 11 players on the field. Cal's quarterback, Longshore, is in shotgun and there is a bunch formation on the left side of the offense. The offense is facing a 3rd and 4 in their own territory.

Cal moves wide receiver, Ross, in motion to the offense's left (indicated by the blue arrow).

Prior to the snap, a Miami linebacker attempts to "jump" the snap on his blitz - in other words he attempts to get a head start on the offense by moving towards the offense prior to the snap to quickly get by the offensive linemen or surprise the offensive linemen. The linebacker's foot comes forward (indicated by the red arrow), and he leans forward. You can compare the picture above with the other pre-snap picture (the 2nd picture in the post). The linebacker's change in stature and stance makes it quite obvious that he was attempting to jump the snap. It's even more obvious on video.

Once the Miami linebacker realizes he attempted to jump the snap too early, he steps back and attempts to hide his blitz. I've shown his foot stepping back with the red arrow. However, the Cal offensive line saw this. Specifically, Cal right guard, Malele, saw the attempted jump and has given Longshore a signal. If you look closely (and I know it's very hard to see) Malele's left arm is out back behind him. He is giving Longshore a hand signal. This signal is the fan signal, meaning that another defender other than the defensive lineman is going to be pass-rushing, and that it's the responsibility of the runningback to pick up that defender. The offensive lineman giving the fan signal will not be picking up the additional pass-rusher. So on this play, it is now Cal's runningback's job to pick up the blitz.

Here is the post-snap picture. The Miami linebacker, predictably, comes on his blitz down the A-Gap. The A-gap is the space between the center and the guards. On this particular play, the Miami linebacker is attacking the right A-gap. I've shown the A-gap with a green line between the Cal center and the Cal right guard.

As I said earlier, it's the responsibility of the runningback to pick up the additional pass rusher - that is if the runningback isn't running a route. Unfortunately, on this play, Jahvid Best is running a route and releases. Longshore already knew this, and presuming he saw the fan signal from Malele, he knows he has to get the ball out fast.

Longshore evades the Miami linebacker just long enough for a receiver to get open.

Unfortunately, because Longshore was in the process of being tackled, he is unable to accurately get the ball to Jahvid Best and the pass is an incompletion (ball is highlighted yellow).

Here is the Youtube video of the play. (Special thanks to Ken Crawford from Excuse Me For My Voice, for volunteering to create youtube videos for the plays I am dissecting.)

Conclusion:

The purpose of this post was to show Miami's defensive tendencies and how Cal would notify other players of the impending defensive movement. When the defense uses one particular formation or special movement, the offense is instantly aware of such tendencies and knows to look for them again. Although the Miami linebacker on this play tipped off his blitz by prematurely attempting to jump the snap, Cal right guard Malele, probably was aware that it was a very likely possibility that the linebacker would be blitzing anyways and would have been prepared for it. Offensive linemen are always told to be aware of delayed blitzers - defenders who pretend to not blitz to lull a blocker into a false sense of security and to take attention away from themselves but then later blitz.

So the product of this play is an incompletion and a three and out by the offense. While this play will go down in the history books as another error on the part of Longshore (for throwing the incompletion), it's really just one of those bad luck plays where your offensive playcall doesn't matchup well with what the defense called. If the defensive playcall didn't call for a blitz, Longshore would probably have had more time to pass and might have completed a pass. If the offensive playcall involved keeping the runningback in to pass block or on a read, then the Miami linebacker might have been picked up.

In football, sometimes the plays don't work not because of player error, but just because the product of the offensive and defensive playcalls plays heavily in the advantage of one team but not the other. On this play, the product of the offensive and defensive playcalls played to the advantage of the defense.

Cal Numbers & Notes: Matchup v Bear Offense & Special Teams

Nestor — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 10:00:08 -0000

Let’s follow up with our notes on Cal’s defense with a look at the Bear’s offense, which is one of the most explosive in the conference. Although they are coming into this game on a down note, they might be well set up for a potential explosion against the Bruin defense. Here are the three story lines I am picking up heading into this weekend’s game: 1) the status of Jahvid Best, 2) the ongoing QB drama involving Longshore and Riley, and 3) Walker’s ability to scheme against Tedford.

Before we get into those issues here are the numbers matching up Bruin’s defense v. Bear offense including conference rankings.

Bruin Defense	08 Rank	Per Game	Bear Offense	08 Rank	Per Game
Rushing Defense	8	182.57	Rushing Offense	5	168.33
Pass Defense	3	175.43	Pass Offense	5	245.50
Pass Eff. Defense	6	120.97	Pass Eff. Offense	5	125.91
Total Defense	6	358.00	Total Offense	4	413.83
Scoring Defense	8	29.14	Scoring Offense	4	37.33

Right now the biggest concern for the Bruin defense is how it will stack up against Cal’s rushing attack. Given what we have seen from last two games, we have reasons to be concerned about our rush defense. The situation could go to bad from worse depending on the status of Jahvid Best, who might be the most explosive running back the Pac-10 has since Reggie Bush. Best dislocated his elbow earlier in the season. He played last weekend and sat out the second half, but according to Miller’s latest report he is feeling "really good":

"It's been positive the last couple of days," Tedford said. "I think it was more muscle issues. His elbow felt pretty good on Sunday and [Monday] he came in and said it felt really good."

Even if Best is not in 100 percent, Cal can still field a devastating big play ground game thanks to his backup Shane Vereen. Jonathan Okanes noted in MercuryNews.com earlier this month how the freshman from Valencia had stepped up in Best’s absence:

Vereen has been consistently productive and occasionally brilliant in his second-string role this season. The 5-foot-10, 192-pound Vereen is averaging 69.8 yards per game and eight yards per carry. He also has 10 catches for 44 yards.

His 81-yard touchdown run helped seal the Bears' season-opening win over Michigan State. And after Best reeled off an 80-yard touchdown run on the first play against Washington State, Vereen later scored on an impressive 39-yard touchdown run in which he spun out of a tackle by a defensive back.

"He really has it all," Cal Coach Jeff Tedford said. "He can run between the tackles, and he has some speed when he gets into the open area. He catches the ball as well as receivers catch the ball. He's a great all-around back."

Here are Vereen’s latest stats. He is averaging 6.0 yards per carry. He is also a threat (like Best) as a receiver out of the backfield as he has caught 16 passes for almost 100 yards. Tedford loves to get these guys in open spaces and kill opposing defenses with mismatches. And considering the lack of experience in our back-7, it’s not good new for DeWayne Walker. Here is what Walker had to say wrt to containing Best and Vareen:

"We can't let them out of the cage," UCLA defensive coordinator DeWayne Walker said. "They get out and they're gone. This is different than any backs we've seen. These are speed guys. They can hit it and get it."

Our defense can’t let Best or Vareen get in open spaces. Walker sounded off the same note:

No matter who runs the ball for Cal, Walker expects the game plan to be the same.

"They are going to try to catch us in space and we have to keep them as confined as possible," Walker said. "If we let them out, we could have some problems

Big trouble would be an understatement.

Best and Vereen also get to run behind an OL, which was expected to be one of the best if not the best in the conference. From Rivals.com’s season preview:

STRONGEST AREA: Mack leads a line that returns three starters and was among the most productive in the league. Cal allowed the fewest sacks in the Pac-10 last season and blocked for 1,500-yard back Justin Forsett. Gaurd Noris Malele is a three-year starter, and senior Mike Tepper moves to left tackle after starting on the right side last season.

The question mark around Cal right now is which QB this line will be blocking for on Saturday. Per Miller’s report earlier this week both Longshore and Riley were going to get equal reps in practices:

"Our quarterback situation will be the same as last week as far as they will get equal reps during the week and we'll see how the week goes to see who's going to start," Tedford said.

Their numbers are about the same. However, the sentiment around Bay Area seems to be in favor of Riley (or against Longshore):

The time has come for Tedford to bench Longshore and commit to Riley as the starter, for this week and for the rest of the season. No more week-to-week decisions.

Longshore’s erratic, shrinking performance in the 42-27 loss at Arizona was the final piece of evidence, and it was overwhelming.

How much more does Tedford need to see? How many more second-half meltdowns does Cal need to experience? How many more game-changing interceptions does Longshore need to throw?

He’s making the same mistakes — the exact same mistakes, in the same stadium, against the same team, on the same kind of throws — that he made two years ago. He has not learned; he has not gotten better; and the results are the same.

This is no knock on Longshore personally. It’s a football assessment and a football assessment only. His numbers, his performances and the losses under his command speak for themselves.

Tedford has to commit to Riley and live through the inevitable ups and downs that come with playing a sophomore quarterback.

That was from Jon Wilner, who laid out a strong case for why Riley should be Tedford’s starting QB for rest of the season.

From Bruin’s pov it doesn’t matter as much. If Longshore is in rhythm he will be able to pick apart to Bruin defense. I’d feel better about Longshore starting if the game was at the Rose Bowl, however, I think since this will be a home game, it won’t matter who starts (from UCLA’s pov) for California. Riley though could present extra headache for Walker, since our defense has had tough time with mobile QBs during Walker’s tenure at UCLA.

As for Cal’s receiving corps, they don’t have a go to guy like DeSean Jackson this season. Right now Jahvid Best is their team’s leading receiver with 18 catches (tied with Cameron Morrah who leads the team with 5 receiving TDs). I mentioned above about Vereen’s ability to catch it out of the backfield as well. LaReylle Cunningham and Nyan Boateng are capable of having big games (although they haven’t done it on a consistent basis to date). Last week it was Verran Tucker who stepped up out of nowhere, before Cal imploded in the third quarter. Given the issues Bruin secondary has had with Lockett and Norris’s tackling problems and Moore’s experience, tomorrow could be a perfect set up for the Cal receivers to have a huge game. That takes me to the third story line in this matchup.

I think Walker has done a pretty solid job of in game adjustments last two games against Oregon and Stanford. However, for us to have any chance in this game, our defense will have to come out in an aggressive mode from the get go. Cal’s offense is light years ahead of Stanford in terms of its explosiveness and is more dangerous than Oregon’s given that it presents multi dimensional threat no matter who is at QB.

The goals for Bruin defense in this game is pretty simply (well at least on paper). They will need to come out and tackle. They will need to stay patient ands stay with their assignments. Lastly, they will have to find a way to generate pressure on the Cal QB. If they allow the Cal QB to get in rhythm and let him pick apart the defense methodically, there is a good chance they will get BYUed tomorrow afternoon.

I wanted to finish up with a quick note on our special teams. Even though I am not doing a separate post, it can’t be emphasize enough how crucial the special teams role could be tomorrow afternoon in the game of field position. Bruins cannot allow Cal to work with short field. And once again we will point to Best:

The Bears might need Jahvid Best on kickoff returns as much as they need him in the backfield. KORs determine field position, and the Bears repeatedly started at their 25 or so. (Jeremy Ross returned four kicks for a total of 86 yards.)

Best was averaging 31.6 yards per return before his elbow injury.

In addition to being worried about Best's ability to take it to the house during returns, I'd also be worry about Syd'Quan Thompson. He can burn opposing special teams as well. And, the Bruin special team has been a point of concern all season, particularly when it comes to giving up huge returns on kickoff. For them to pull off an upset against the Bears tomorrow, they will have to minimize the sloppy job they have been doing on special teams this season covering kick returns.

I think the Bruins will have a shot tomorrow afternoon if they can replicate their Oregon performance without all those mistakes and good start from our offense. Expect Cal to come out fired up and ready to blow out Bruins out of Memorial Stadium in first few series. If the Bruins lose their composure like they did in their first road trip, it will get ugly. If they can keep this game close in the fourth quarter, I like our chances.

GO BRUINS.