SB Nation User Blog: gahnki

Shaquille O'Neal to Cavaliers

gahnki — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 05:08:46 -0000

The Cleveland Cavaliers and the Phoenix Suns have come to an agreement on a blockbuster trade that sends Shaquille O'Neal to Cleveland to team with LeBron James, according to sources.

The deal has been agreed to in principle and is expected to be finalized Thursday, according to sources.

Cleveland will send Ben Wallace and Sasha Pavlovic to Phoenix for the future Hall of Famer. Sources said the Suns will also receive the 46th pick in Thursday's NBA draft and $500,000.

Various links after the jump.

Sporting News:

The deal is expected to be finalized and announced Thursday morning.

The Suns and Cavs had first talked about a deal before last February’s trade deadline. The deal will help the Suns financially, as they can save around $9 million in salary and luxury taxes. The Suns could save even more if Wallace accepts a retirement buyout.

O'Neal is coming off an All-Star season in which he averaged 17.8 points and played 75 games. He’ll give Cleveland, which was eliminated in the conference finals after posting the best regular-season record, an inside force to help LeBron James. He’s also in the last year of his deal, so the Cavs still will have financial flexibility heading into the big free agent summer of 2010, when James can become a free agent.

Yahoo!:

Cleveland and Phoenix were both juggling multiple trade possibilities with other teams, with the Cavs involved with as many as six trade scenarios.

Yet the disappointing Eastern Conference finals loss to the Orlando Magic left Cavs GM Danny Ferry with incredible pressure to accumulate talent around James in the final season prior to his 2010 free agency. James has blessed the O’Neal trade, especially because it should give his overmatched frontline a chance to compete with Dwight Howard in the playoffs. Ferry and Phoenix GM Steve Kerr are close friends and had talked off and on about a Shaq deal since the February trade deadline.

O’Neal, 37, makes $21 million next season, and the Suns were determined to move him in a package that would save them money. Wallace made $14 million and could take a buyout to retire, and only $1.5 million of Pavlovic’s $4.9 million salary is guaranteed.

Plain Dealer- Windhorst:

Shaquille O'Neal is going to be a Cavalier.

According to multiple team executives, the Cavs have agreed in principle to a trade with the Phoenix Suns to bring the four-time champion and future Hall of Famer to Cleveland. The team is hoping he is the biggest missing piece alongside LeBron James in a quest to win their first NBA Championship....

O'Neal is coming off an excellent season in which he averaged 17.8 points, shot 61 percent and played 75 games. He was an All-Star and was named Third Team All-NBA after dealing with an injury-plagued season in 2007-08.

Picking him up now would serve a couple purposes for the Cavs. First it would give them the massive inside presence they have been lacking and proved to be a stumbling block against the Los Angeles Lakers and Orlando Magic this season.

I tried extracting the best parts from each source to avoid redundancy and add relevant information. Exciting deal for sure.

Steve Miller, DE, Canton McKinley, Ohio Possibly the best defensive linemen in the nation for...

gahnki — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 17:49:29 -0000

Steve Miller, DE, Canton McKinley, Ohio

Possibly the best defensive linemen in the nation for 2011.

Game Theory: Playcalling (Updated)

gahnki — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 01:50:00 -0000

A good play is easy to spot on game day. It’s the decision to go for it on fourth-and-one that yields a fresh set of downs, a blitz-beating touchdown toss, or even a basic trap play, executed perfectly a handful of times, that marches your offense down the field. But while these plays unfold in the moment, it’s the weeks and even months of preparation that ultimately make them work. Good play calling is the result of repetition and trial and error without the glare of the lights or the eyes of the crowd. It’s the tweaking and the teaching and the implementation of concepts that were rolled out in spring practices or honed on hot summer days.

For some, it’s a near exact science. For others, it’s an innate feel when they are in the flow of the game. And for others still, it’s a bit of both. Play calling can be as unique as the person calling the game.”

-American Football Monthly.

This quote perfectly explains the thought process behind play calling. Some call it an art, some a science. The truth is really a combination of the two. There is a definite science portion to calling plays. Coaches (good ones) will not just go out there and wing it. They study opponents tape, tendency charts, and personnel. Every team has a procedure they follow when determining what to call. Most NFL/College teams will have multiple people in a booth charting what they see out of a defense. One person may be assigned to write down every coverage they see on a corresponding down and distance. Another may be keeping track of every blitz an opponent uses. All of that information is factored into a play caller’s decision making.

The "art" portion of play calling comes from a playcaller "feeling out the game." This statement is probably greatly overused, but every playcaller has a comfort zone. When they get a feel for the flow of the game, they generally settle into some sort of rhythm.

Now that the basics are out of the way let’s take a deeper look into play calling. There are two different types of play calling; series based and concept based.

Series Based:

A series based offensive philosophy begins with one play, the defining play for the offense, and a play which they run to perfection against a "base" defense. It’s the one play that will ALWAYS work against, for example, a 4-3 alignment. They run this play until the defense changes their alignment to stop it. Then they run the corresponding play to take advantage of the change. After the defense adjusts again, they run another play designed to hurt the new alignment.

A typical sequence would take place like this:

Offense runs ISO 32 for a moderate gain.

Defense responds by moving their Strong Safety into the box.

Offense calls ISO PA Fake. Receivers either have one on one with no safety over top against man, or the ability to settle into zones without the fear of being popped by a safety. This play is run to look exactly like the ISO run.

After being hurt by a long pass, the defense draws their safety back again , but they have their WIL (Weakside) and Mike (Middle) linebackers blitz. The idea is to shut down an ISO run or hit the QB before he can complete the PA fake.

Knowing the likelihood of a blitz, the play caller runs an isolation draw. In this diagram, the call looks like ISO Draw 34. The linemen set pass protection and then fire out. If executed correctly, the RB will slip behind the fullback taking out the blitzing linebacker and run until the SS tackles him.

I could go on with this as the series can continue with a power play, a counter, and numerous others. I hope this demonstrated the idea behind series play calling, albeit in a simplistic manner.

Credit for the pictures goes to ESPN although I did edit them to show what I wanted.

Concept Based:

Differs from series based play calling as the offense can move from many different formations/personnel groupings in order to give defenses many different "looks." This style is not predicated on forcing a defense to over adjust or change their alignment. It quite simply attacks defenses conceptually where a series based offense would stick with similar formations/personnel and run corresponding plays.

A typical concept based drive could look like this:

Offense runs the Double Slant concept in order to attack from the short passing game. QB has a three step drop and hits the correct man based on coverage.

The offense then runs a zone stretch play from an Ace set.

An offense may then run an entire different concept, Sprint Draw Pass from I-Formation. The quarterback fakes the draw and then hits the skinny post, deep in, or tight end shallow cross underneath.

An offense can continue with many different concepts based on what they run well, what the defense is doing, or even a playcaller's pure whim.

In the NFL, offenses are concept based, but almost all of these offenses have series based "packages" in their playbook.

Series based playcalling works best at the youth and high school levels as there is limited time to practice, and it is prudent to run an offense that can be run with varying talent levels.

The NFL's talent level makes running series based playcalling hard to do as defense's don't always need to adjust to stop a play. The ISO series posted above can be stopped without drawing a safety into a box, linemen don't adjust their techniques, coaches play similar coverage, etc. However, there is still value to having it as part of your playbook. For instance, the Browns "Flash" package is probably series based.

Thank You! From: The Ohio State University

gahnki — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 04:53:12 -0000

Thank You!

From:

The Ohio State University

Teddy Ginn's Return TD vs KC

gahnki — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 04:21:51 -0000

Teddy Ginn's Return TD vs KC

The Coaches Poll

gahnki — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 19:01:12 -0000

	Team (first-place votes)	Record	Points	Final 2007 rankings
1.	Georgia (22)	11-2	1,438	3
2.	Southern California (14)	11-2	1,430	2
3.	Ohio State (14)	11-2	1,392	4
4.	Oklahoma (3)	11-3	1,329	8
5.	Florida (5)	9-4	1,293	16
6.	LSU (3)	12-2	1,163	1
7.	Missouri	12-2	1,143	5
8.	West Virginia	11-2	1,008	6
9.	Clemson	9-4	999	22
10.	Texas	10-3	979	10
11.	Auburn	9-4	888	14t
12.	Wisconsin	9-4	747	21
13.	Kansas	12-1	714	7
14.	Texas Tech	9-4	644	23
15.	Virginia Tech	11-3	568	9
16.	Arizona State	10-3	560	13
17.	Brigham Young	11-2	547	14t
18.	Tennessee	10-4	506	12
19.	Illinois	9-4	422	18
20.	Oregon	9-4	399	24
21.	South Florida	9-4	350	NR
22.	Penn State	9-4	313	25
23.	Wake Forest	9-4	203	NR
24.	Michigan	9-4	112	19
25.	Fresno State	9-4	91	NR

Others receiving votes
Alabama (7-6) 83; South Carolina (6-6) 64; Utah (9-4) 60; Florida State (7-6) 53; Rutgers (8-5) 53; Boston College (11-3) 47; California (7-6) 41; Pittsburgh (5-7) 34; Boise State (10-3) 25; Oregon State (9-4) 23; Nebraska (5-7) 17; Cincinnati (10-3) 13; Virginia (9-4) 12; Connecticut (9-4) 9; Michigan State (7-6) 9; Mississippi State (8-5) 6; Kentucky (8-5) 5; Notre Dame (3-9) 5; TCU (8-5) 5; Maryland (6-7) 4; North Carolina (4-8) 3; Texas A&M (7-6) 3; UCLA (6-7) 3; Central Florida (10-4) 2; Georgia Tech (7-6) 2; Louisville (6-6) 2; Arizona (5-7) 1; Colorado (6-7) 1; Oklahoma State (7-6) 1; Tulsa (10-4) 1.

The USA TODAY Board of Coaches is made up of 61 head coaches at Division I-A institutions. All are members of the American Football Coaches Association. This season's board: Frank Beamer, Virginia Tech; Mike Bellotti, Oregon; Bret Bielema, Wisconsin; Bobby Bowden, Florida State; Tommy Bowden, Clemson; Art Briles, Baylor; Mack Brown, Texas; Neil Callaway, Alabama-Birmingham; Gene Chizik, Iowa State; Mario Cristobal, Florida International; Sylvester Croom, Mississippi State; Mark Dantonio, Michigan State; Butch Davis, North Carolina; Todd Dodge, North Texas; Randy Edsall, Connecticut; Phillip Fulmer, Tennessee; Jeff Genyk, Eastern Michigan; Turner Gill, Buffalo; Joe Glenn, Wyoming; Todd Graham, Tulsa; Jim Grobe, Wake Forest; Dan Hawkins, Colorado; Pat Hill, Fresno State; Butch Jones, Central Michigan; Steve Kragthorpe, Louisville; Mike Leach, Texas Tech; Jim Leavitt, South Florida; Rocky Long, New Mexico; Bill Lynch, Indiana; Doug Martin, Kent State; Urban Meyer, Florida; Les Miles, LSU; Shane Montgomery, Miami (Ohio); Hal Mumme, New Mexico State; Rick Neuheisel, UCLA; Tom O'Brien, North Carolina State; George O'Leary, Central Florida; Gary Patterson, TCU; Bo Pelini, Nebraska; Chris Petersen, Boise State; Gary Pinkel, Missouri; Mike Price, Texas-El Paso; Mark Richt, Georgia; Mike Riley, Oregon State; Rich Rodriguez, Michigan; Greg Schiano, Rutgers; Howard Schnellenberger, Florida Atlantic; Mark Snyder, Marshall; Frank Solich, Ohio; Steve Spurrier, South Carolina; Rick Stockstill, Middle Tennessee; Jeff Tedford, California; Joe Tiller, Purdue; Bob Toledo, Tulane; Dick Tomey, San Jose State; Jim Tressel, Ohio State; Tommy Tuberville, Auburn; Charlie Weis, Notre Dame; Kyle Whittingham, Utah; Tyrone Willingham, Washington; Ron Zook, Illinois. The AFCA prohibits coaches from voting for schools on major NCAA probation.

Justin Boren- SN Article

gahnki — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 18:38:20 -0000

Justin Boren- SN Article

"I laugh at it," he says of the abuse he has received. "It never wore on me. Those guys are a bunch of idiots."

Oh, boy. Here we go.

If you're a Wolverines fan, Boren has breached a sacred trust.

"Let's just say it's a little unorthodox," says Dan Dierdorf, a former Michigan All-American lineman, Pro Football Hall of Famer and Bo Schembechler loyalist.

The trick, then, to understanding Boren's decision is to separate the young man from the institutions involved.

An epic video.

gahnki — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 00:35:21 -0000

An epic video.

Someone has an entertaining take on Carson Palmer.

gahnki — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 02:44:41 -0000

Someone has an entertaining take on Carson Palmer.