Tiger football blog: Sept. 21
By Alex Oey
aoey@marshallindependent.com
I was out at the Marshall football practice on Wednesday and saw some things that looked real positive to me.
The Tigers were running first team offense and defense to finish up Wednesday’s practice and when I was in high school, a lot of the first team players would take this time to beat up on the scout team.
But not the Tigers.
One thing I kept hearing from the coaches was that while there was hitting, they didn’t want anyone getting tackled to the ground, no matter who it was.
When the first team defense was taking their reps, they would come at the scout team hard, but tried to make sure that they didn’t lay them out. It was much the same when they were on offense, but there are always some hits, no matter how live practice is.
Why do I think this is important?
In football, the team drills are always building camaraderie and when the first team beats up on the scout team, that camaraderie is broken down just a bit each time it happens.
It made me think back to my high school career when I was a freshman. A group of us were brought up to practice with the varsity squad the final week of the regular season and I couldn’t believe the disdain that the first team had for the scout team.
The linemen would try their hardest not to make their blocks, but to put the scout linemen on their backs and then laugh at them. In fact, a few players got into it and one ended up injured, not something a coach wants to see.
This was not the case with the Tigers. If someone got knocked down, he was helped right back up, no matter which team he was on.
The coaches also recognized when a player made a good play; again, no matter which team he was on.
I heard the coaches compliment several of the scout team players on solid plays. This not only makes the player feel good, but makes him want to try that much harder the next time.
There were a few hard hits that sent players to the ground, but there was no ill will.
That’s always a good thing.
Another thing I saw was that every player wanted to make sure he knew what was going on and that he was making the correct play.
Instead of getting mad at the players when they had a question, the coaches would either talk to that player or the whole group to make sure that they understood what was going on.
A lot of the questions on defense were what to do against certain plays and formations. This is important because when the game is on the line, you want your players to know exactly what they should do.
You always hear that the little things can make or break a team’s success. It seemed that on Wednesday the Tigers were doing those little things that could help them keep their unbeaten streak going.
aoey@marshallindependent.com
I was out at the Marshall football practice on Wednesday and saw some things that looked real positive to me.
The Tigers were running first team offense and defense to finish up Wednesday’s practice and when I was in high school, a lot of the first team players would take this time to beat up on the scout team.
But not the Tigers.
One thing I kept hearing from the coaches was that while there was hitting, they didn’t want anyone getting tackled to the ground, no matter who it was.
When the first team defense was taking their reps, they would come at the scout team hard, but tried to make sure that they didn’t lay them out. It was much the same when they were on offense, but there are always some hits, no matter how live practice is.
Why do I think this is important?
In football, the team drills are always building camaraderie and when the first team beats up on the scout team, that camaraderie is broken down just a bit each time it happens.
It made me think back to my high school career when I was a freshman. A group of us were brought up to practice with the varsity squad the final week of the regular season and I couldn’t believe the disdain that the first team had for the scout team.
The linemen would try their hardest not to make their blocks, but to put the scout linemen on their backs and then laugh at them. In fact, a few players got into it and one ended up injured, not something a coach wants to see.
This was not the case with the Tigers. If someone got knocked down, he was helped right back up, no matter which team he was on.
The coaches also recognized when a player made a good play; again, no matter which team he was on.
I heard the coaches compliment several of the scout team players on solid plays. This not only makes the player feel good, but makes him want to try that much harder the next time.
There were a few hard hits that sent players to the ground, but there was no ill will.
That’s always a good thing.
Another thing I saw was that every player wanted to make sure he knew what was going on and that he was making the correct play.
Instead of getting mad at the players when they had a question, the coaches would either talk to that player or the whole group to make sure that they understood what was going on.
A lot of the questions on defense were what to do against certain plays and formations. This is important because when the game is on the line, you want your players to know exactly what they should do.
You always hear that the little things can make or break a team’s success. It seemed that on Wednesday the Tigers were doing those little things that could help them keep their unbeaten streak going.
posted by Alex Oey at 9:51 PM
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