More coaching news: Nick Rolovich to become next WSU football head coach

2,997 Views | 12 Replies | Last: 4 yr ago by NVBear78
85Bear
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KoreAmBear
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I was hoping for a crappy coach. Unfortunately he's a good coach and Wazzu is a good fit for him.
killa22
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Not like Wilcox hasn't seen the R&S before from his time @ Boise. But that scheme does present a unique set of challenges the fact that it's not the air raid (which this staff has schemed effectively for) is intriguing.
hanky1
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damnit. he's good
KoreAmBear
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killa22 said:

Not like Wilcox hasn't seen the R&S before from his time @ Boise. But that scheme does present a unique set of challenges the fact that it's not the air raid (which this staff has schemed effectively for) is intriguing.


Tru dat and Boise is the one team Rolo could not beat.
killa22
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KoreAmBear said:

killa22 said:

Not like Wilcox hasn't seen the R&S before from his time @ Boise. But that scheme does present a unique set of challenges the fact that it's not the air raid (which this staff has schemed effectively for) is intriguing.


Tru dat and Boise is the one team Rolo could not beat.



Should be noted that 2007 Colt Brennan led team dropped the hammer on Boise's defense. But that was June Jones Hawaii, not Rolovich.
NVBear78
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killa22 said:

Not like Wilcox hasn't seen the R&S before from his time @ Boise. But that scheme does present a unique set of challenges the fact that it's not the air raid (which this staff has schemed effectively for) is intriguing.


Killa, any comments to share on the Musgrave offense and hire??? Love your analysis.
westcoast101
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I like the hire. Rolovich is a local Bay Area guy too.
FloriDreaming
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Very good hire. So much for WSU becoming irrelevant.
bear2034
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Rolovich's teams have yet to show they can play quality defense. Maybe it was the defensive coordinator or the offensive system that contributed to this so I'll wait and see.



Golden One
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oskirules said:

Rolovich's teams have yet to show they can play quality defense. Maybe it was the defensive coordinator or the offensive system that contributed to this so I'll wait and see.




WSU is accustomed to not playing defense.
killa22
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oskirules said:

Rolovich's teams have yet to show they can play quality defense. Maybe it was the defensive coordinator or the offensive system that contributed to this so I'll wait and see.





He went through several DCs -- but I would venture to say that Hawaii level defensive talent may have been an issue.

Aranda was the best that Hawaii had from a scheme standpoint and even his defenses there were not the statistical performers that his USU or Wiscy or LSU defenses were.

Now, it's not like he will have access to top-level (conference) defensive talent at Wazzu either, so the success of that team will still be largely driven by how well the offense performs.

There's a number of pros and a number of cons to the scheme that he uses.

The past two years @ Hawaii were a mix of pure Run and Shoot, with some Nevada-esque QB Run stuff, with some Run and Shoot adapted RPO concepts (whereas most spread teams run Slot Fade / Glance patterns, Hawaii would use Seam Read / Choice type route adjustments for their RPO). Good mix of Gap & Zone run concepts that utilized the QB as a runner.

The RB was not a significant threat in the passing game outside of the function of constraint screens (slip screens, and their patented shovel screens) -- the RB is critically involved in protection -- since the majority of their dropback passing game is executed off a half-roll.

The Dropback RNS stuff is largely centered on leveraged based adjustments on vertical stemming routes -- take the RNS's version of Four verticals -- 80/81 Divide:

On divide, typically for the single side X rec in a 3x1 vs a one high shell with inside shade, that vertical would adjust to a post, outside shade -> Speed or Deep Out, Tight/Press -> Fade, Off -> Curl / Sit. Man? Takeoff of backshoulder -- the adjustments are similar for quarters, but totally different for hard 2 shell.

Now to the fieldside, you would be looking at the same streak read to the #1, with the #2 running some form of a seam read, and the #3 running an adjusting over route.

All receivers are taught to recognize and adjust to the blitz on hot routes -- single side would slant, the two slots would slant at various depths, and the outside to trips would run a quick in.

Very similar in a sense to the way we would run Six or Streaks in the old Bear Raid.

Where the RNS gets a little more unique is with various route concepts like Choice / Go / Switch / Hook/ Slide.

The idea is that it kind of doesn't matter what a defense is running, because the routes will adjust accordingly, the RNS pass game is the antithesis to the pattern match principals that a lot of modern defenses are built on.

Saban hates that stuff.

I would not necessarily worry about it too much, since we will matchup well in terms of DB vs Receiver -- but as alluded to earlier, the fact that so much of that scheme is dependent upon a 6 man protection scheme leaves it vulnerable. You could see Hawaii try to adapt and run more empty sets, and involve the QB run, but I get the sense that our defensive staff should be able to handle it.

Nonetheless, Wazzu made a hire that fits their current personnel very well -- much more impressed by what they should do offensively vs. what Jimmy Lake picked up @ UW...

killa22
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NVBear78 said:

killa22 said:

Not like Wilcox hasn't seen the R&S before from his time @ Boise. But that scheme does present a unique set of challenges the fact that it's not the air raid (which this staff has schemed effectively for) is intriguing.


Killa, any comments to share on the Musgrave offense and hire??? Love your analysis.
Okay, onto our new OC Bill Musgrave...

Legend @ Oregon (predating their spread renaissance), long career as a player and coach in the NFL. One of the more intriguing footnotes in his career was his work under Chip w/ the Eagles -- which brought him into a spread oriented system. You could see elements of this influence at later stops with Oakland and then with Denver.

Reputation around coaching circles is that he has a talent for adapting his scheme to the personnel he has -- gifted teacher, and is able to simplify & distill concepts that can be packaged and executed at a high level.

My sense is that Wilcox favors a multiple-approach to offense (which makes sense given his background coming from the Chris Petersen tree @ Boise) -- Musgrave brings that to the table.

As far as what we will look like next year, that's a huge question mark -- I think Musgrave pares down the package (Baldwin was running virtually every permutation of offensive scheme, whether it be in the run or pass game at times -- chalk it up to him borrowing from what worked well against common opponents, you could see them do this very well at times over the past three years -- concepts that other conference teams ran that worked against our opponent of the week showed up on gameday, and those worked, but then disappeared for the rest of the year).

I think what Musgrave does is attempt to build an identity on offense -- Wilcox clearly wants to be able to play a balanced, but physical style of football, that also leverages the intelligence and football acumen/iq of our personnel.

Musgrave schemes the screen game well, which is great to see, and will also utilize elements of the spread, as well as those of the pro-style game. He has, in the past, utilized unbalanced, and extra OL formations to run the ball (particularly with Oakland).

Im totally curious to see what the draft product looks like in spring, and then what we end up running at the start of the season in the fall.

NVBear78
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Awesome report Killa and very encouraging! Thanks very much for sharing your thoughts.
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