Post by GordonG on Jan 7, 2020 16:25:55 GMT -5
The following was written by Stonedinvestor as part of the thread announcing the hiring of Joe Judge. I think it is so informative that I want to make sure that everyone gets a chance to read it as opposed to getting missed in the aforementioned thread.
Quotes:
Welcome Joe Judge. Like many men (myself included Joe looks better with a visor on)
Well Giant fans it's done. Change has been made and change for the better. What we have here in a Joe Judge signing is a good thing, it's an admission that the head coach shouldn't also be doing other stuff. So gone are the days of wacky play calling. A professional will call the plays and a professional will run the defense another the offense; a professional will run special teams and Joe Judge will be a people person and get the team riled up.
Special teams will no longer be an afterthought here in NY.
Part of me feels set up.. Bill made this move to advance Joe into wide receivers just for this reason to advance his chances as a head coach.
Belichick's development of coaches: Judge's unusual title also is an example of how Belichick aids in the development of young coaches, as it helps Judge branch out and potentially open up greater opportunities for him. After working under Nick Saban at Alabama, Judge joined the Patriots in 2012 as an assistant special-teams coach under Scott O'Brien, before taking over for O'Brien in 2015. Special-teams coaches can become pigeonholed in the NFL, as John Harbaugh (Ravens, 2008) is the last special-teams coach to be hired as a head coach (he moved to defensive backs his final season as an assistant). But Belichick has long talked about how his experience as a special-teams coach early in his career best prepared him to be a head coach because he was managing players from the entire roster in that role.
One of the greatest head coaches in sports history, Belichick served as an assistant special teams coach in Detroit and Denver in the 1970s before taking the special teams coordinator role with the Giants from 1979-84. His affinity for special teams play is obvious in his press conferences over the years.
Oct. 28, 2013
“The wind conditions are always a factor in the kicking game first and then in the passing game. I’d say one of the biggest decisions and most critical decisions that I’ve ever been a part of on that was in the 1986 NFC championship game against the Redskins. It was a windy day in Giants Stadium. We’ve had many of those and we won the toss and Coach [Bill] Parcells elected to take the wind, which wasn’t very common. It wasn’t a very common decision because, let’s face it, you take it in the first quarter you’re not going to have it in the second quarter. That was what he decided to do and we were able to really take advantage of that situation against the Redskins. We got three stops and 17 points and we had a 17-0 lead at the end of the first quarter in part due to the wind, good defense and good offense helped of course. But the field position was huge and that ended up being the final score of the game. That decision, the initial points and the way that the game started really was a huge part of what was reflected in a huge degree to that decision that Bill made. That was a good lesson for me to learn in my career. It was a great decision by Coach Parcells.”
Nov. 4, 2014
“That’s a good question. There’s definitely something—a left-footed punter, right-footed punter, the ball spins opposite and what you get used to when you go to the other foot it’s reversed. I think there’s definitely something to be said for that, practicing that way. I know going back to when we were at the Giants and I was the special teams coach there, we had a right-footed punter obviously with [Dave] Jennings and then with [Sean] Landeta and when we would face a left-footed punter, we always kind of just wanted to get the returner to handle those balls, which was [Phil] McConkey. I definitely remember McConkey talk about how that would [spin], even though he’d done it before, it was just good to get familiar with it prior to doing it in the upcoming game. [Phil] Simms would punt to him. Even though Phil [Simms] does a lot of things right-handed, he punts left-footed, believe it or not, and actually punts pretty well. So, we would do that.
Dec. 4, 2009
“Well, one of the worst [gadget] ones I’d say that I ever ran was in ’79 against the Rams, when I was the special teams coach on the Giants. We had run five or six fake punts that year, and hit all of them and so we went out to play L.A. in the Coliseum and we didn't have a real good team. [Dave] Jennings was our best . . . It was [Phil] Simms’ rookie year and Jennings was one of our best players, All-Pro punter. I mean, he was great, and he could throw. He was a very athletic guy, so we had several fake punts that we hit. And unfortunately we were punting a lot, so that gave us more opportunities than we needed. We went out to the Rams and Brian Kelley was a fullback, so we snapped the ball to Kelley and he ran a sweep. And kind of once he was about to get tackled, he stopped, turned, and lateraled it back to Jennings on the other side of the field.
“It wasn’t very well executed and then when Jennings caught the ball, he thought he had a chance to get the first down, but he really didn’t. But he thought he did, so he ran for the sticks there on the sideline and then about three guys hit him about four yards short of the first down, knocked him out of bounds. I mean, he got knocked over by the cheerleaders. His helmet was on sideways, he’s looking out through the ear hole. The ball is out there on the track somewhere and [Head Coach Ray] Perkins looks over at me with that look of, What are we doing? This is our best player. And he looked like he got run over by two Mack trucks. So we go all the way over to the other side of the field and get him off the track and put him back together again. He got killed and then Ray said—which I would have done the same thing [but] I wouldn’t have done it as nicely as he did—he said, “Look, we’re not running any more fakes like that again. Just forget that.” He didn’t quite put it that way, but you get the idea. So that was one that didn’t work that luckily Dave and I can still smile about.
For his first full-time NFL coaching job, Belichick served as the New York Giants' special teams coach. He credits those years with shaping his coaching outlook. He has multiple players whose only role is playing on coverage and return units. He treats special teams not as something that happens between offense and defense, but as a full third of the game.
So I think that basic point. Specials is now a full third of our team-- That's our mantra heading into 2020.
Most everything about Belichick's operation can be gleaned through how he approaches special teams. He uses them to promote solidarity. He demands correct execution down to excruciating detail. He mines opponents for weaknesses and exploits them ruthlessly. He devotes roster space to smart, tough players who understand their roles.
"Because of the way he came up in this game, he understands hidden yardage and field position and the value of the third phase of the game," said Matthew Slater, a Patriots captain who for 11 years has served as New England's special teams ace. "A lot of coaches say it's important, but they don't really show it by how they build their roster. He reflects that every year in how he builds his roster."
When the Giants do film review expect everyone to be paying attention and to be attending the special team session.
Every week, Belichick gathers the Patriots in a meeting room for a full-team film study session. He reviews all three phases in front of everybody. The entire team, without exceptions, watches clips of special teams plays.
"Even Tom (Brady) has to listen to how we have to cover on kickoff," Slater said. "I think that sends a message to the entire organization that, hey, this is something that's important to us, and this is something that's going to help us win football games. It kind of gets that buy-in."
Before their season debut in 1979, Belichick spotted a flaw in the Philadelphia Eagles' kick return formation. As a 25-year-old assistant in his first real job, Belichick convinced Perkins the Giants should begin the year with an onside kick. The Giants recovered it, then scored a field goal.
"You got assignment coaching, and then you've got coaching," Perkins said. "Assignment coaching, anybody can do. Anybody can learn assignments. The guy that goes a step, or maybe two or three steps further, and beyond the assignment - how can that player from a mental standpoint and physical standpoint perform his duty on that particular play? That was him."
In 2012, when Steve Spagnuolo was the Saints' defensive coordinator, New England and New Orleans held joint training camp practices for several days. Given an opportunity to talk with Belichick, Spagnuolo asked Belichick what in his coaching career had been most beneficial to him.
"Without hesitating, he said, 'I coached special team for three years,' " Spagnuolo said.
With the Giants, Belichick used stars such as Lawrence Taylor and Carl Banks as wings on their field goal block unit. He doesn't view starters as too important for special teams; he views special teams as too important not to use his best players.
Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski once broke his arm blocking on an extra point. Wide receiver Julian Edelman returns punts. Van Noy, a starting linebacker, scored a touchdown this season after Dont'a Hightower, another starting linebacker, blocked a punt.
When Judge was asked how detailed Belichick can be as a head coach studying opposing special teams units, Judge laughed.
"As detailed as you can imagine," Judge said. "Our job is to find some piece of information that can help our players execute better on the field. It may not be there at first when you look at it. But you got to keep rewatching, re-digging. There's always something. You got to find it."
So it's all about attention to detail and attitude. Bout Time! Welcome to 2020 NY Giant Football. ~stoney
End of Quotes
Quotes:
Welcome Joe Judge. Like many men (myself included Joe looks better with a visor on)
Well Giant fans it's done. Change has been made and change for the better. What we have here in a Joe Judge signing is a good thing, it's an admission that the head coach shouldn't also be doing other stuff. So gone are the days of wacky play calling. A professional will call the plays and a professional will run the defense another the offense; a professional will run special teams and Joe Judge will be a people person and get the team riled up.
Special teams will no longer be an afterthought here in NY.
Part of me feels set up.. Bill made this move to advance Joe into wide receivers just for this reason to advance his chances as a head coach.
Belichick's development of coaches: Judge's unusual title also is an example of how Belichick aids in the development of young coaches, as it helps Judge branch out and potentially open up greater opportunities for him. After working under Nick Saban at Alabama, Judge joined the Patriots in 2012 as an assistant special-teams coach under Scott O'Brien, before taking over for O'Brien in 2015. Special-teams coaches can become pigeonholed in the NFL, as John Harbaugh (Ravens, 2008) is the last special-teams coach to be hired as a head coach (he moved to defensive backs his final season as an assistant). But Belichick has long talked about how his experience as a special-teams coach early in his career best prepared him to be a head coach because he was managing players from the entire roster in that role.
One of the greatest head coaches in sports history, Belichick served as an assistant special teams coach in Detroit and Denver in the 1970s before taking the special teams coordinator role with the Giants from 1979-84. His affinity for special teams play is obvious in his press conferences over the years.
Oct. 28, 2013
“The wind conditions are always a factor in the kicking game first and then in the passing game. I’d say one of the biggest decisions and most critical decisions that I’ve ever been a part of on that was in the 1986 NFC championship game against the Redskins. It was a windy day in Giants Stadium. We’ve had many of those and we won the toss and Coach [Bill] Parcells elected to take the wind, which wasn’t very common. It wasn’t a very common decision because, let’s face it, you take it in the first quarter you’re not going to have it in the second quarter. That was what he decided to do and we were able to really take advantage of that situation against the Redskins. We got three stops and 17 points and we had a 17-0 lead at the end of the first quarter in part due to the wind, good defense and good offense helped of course. But the field position was huge and that ended up being the final score of the game. That decision, the initial points and the way that the game started really was a huge part of what was reflected in a huge degree to that decision that Bill made. That was a good lesson for me to learn in my career. It was a great decision by Coach Parcells.”
Nov. 4, 2014
“That’s a good question. There’s definitely something—a left-footed punter, right-footed punter, the ball spins opposite and what you get used to when you go to the other foot it’s reversed. I think there’s definitely something to be said for that, practicing that way. I know going back to when we were at the Giants and I was the special teams coach there, we had a right-footed punter obviously with [Dave] Jennings and then with [Sean] Landeta and when we would face a left-footed punter, we always kind of just wanted to get the returner to handle those balls, which was [Phil] McConkey. I definitely remember McConkey talk about how that would [spin], even though he’d done it before, it was just good to get familiar with it prior to doing it in the upcoming game. [Phil] Simms would punt to him. Even though Phil [Simms] does a lot of things right-handed, he punts left-footed, believe it or not, and actually punts pretty well. So, we would do that.
Dec. 4, 2009
“Well, one of the worst [gadget] ones I’d say that I ever ran was in ’79 against the Rams, when I was the special teams coach on the Giants. We had run five or six fake punts that year, and hit all of them and so we went out to play L.A. in the Coliseum and we didn't have a real good team. [Dave] Jennings was our best . . . It was [Phil] Simms’ rookie year and Jennings was one of our best players, All-Pro punter. I mean, he was great, and he could throw. He was a very athletic guy, so we had several fake punts that we hit. And unfortunately we were punting a lot, so that gave us more opportunities than we needed. We went out to the Rams and Brian Kelley was a fullback, so we snapped the ball to Kelley and he ran a sweep. And kind of once he was about to get tackled, he stopped, turned, and lateraled it back to Jennings on the other side of the field.
“It wasn’t very well executed and then when Jennings caught the ball, he thought he had a chance to get the first down, but he really didn’t. But he thought he did, so he ran for the sticks there on the sideline and then about three guys hit him about four yards short of the first down, knocked him out of bounds. I mean, he got knocked over by the cheerleaders. His helmet was on sideways, he’s looking out through the ear hole. The ball is out there on the track somewhere and [Head Coach Ray] Perkins looks over at me with that look of, What are we doing? This is our best player. And he looked like he got run over by two Mack trucks. So we go all the way over to the other side of the field and get him off the track and put him back together again. He got killed and then Ray said—which I would have done the same thing [but] I wouldn’t have done it as nicely as he did—he said, “Look, we’re not running any more fakes like that again. Just forget that.” He didn’t quite put it that way, but you get the idea. So that was one that didn’t work that luckily Dave and I can still smile about.
For his first full-time NFL coaching job, Belichick served as the New York Giants' special teams coach. He credits those years with shaping his coaching outlook. He has multiple players whose only role is playing on coverage and return units. He treats special teams not as something that happens between offense and defense, but as a full third of the game.
So I think that basic point. Specials is now a full third of our team-- That's our mantra heading into 2020.
Most everything about Belichick's operation can be gleaned through how he approaches special teams. He uses them to promote solidarity. He demands correct execution down to excruciating detail. He mines opponents for weaknesses and exploits them ruthlessly. He devotes roster space to smart, tough players who understand their roles.
"Because of the way he came up in this game, he understands hidden yardage and field position and the value of the third phase of the game," said Matthew Slater, a Patriots captain who for 11 years has served as New England's special teams ace. "A lot of coaches say it's important, but they don't really show it by how they build their roster. He reflects that every year in how he builds his roster."
When the Giants do film review expect everyone to be paying attention and to be attending the special team session.
Every week, Belichick gathers the Patriots in a meeting room for a full-team film study session. He reviews all three phases in front of everybody. The entire team, without exceptions, watches clips of special teams plays.
"Even Tom (Brady) has to listen to how we have to cover on kickoff," Slater said. "I think that sends a message to the entire organization that, hey, this is something that's important to us, and this is something that's going to help us win football games. It kind of gets that buy-in."
Before their season debut in 1979, Belichick spotted a flaw in the Philadelphia Eagles' kick return formation. As a 25-year-old assistant in his first real job, Belichick convinced Perkins the Giants should begin the year with an onside kick. The Giants recovered it, then scored a field goal.
"You got assignment coaching, and then you've got coaching," Perkins said. "Assignment coaching, anybody can do. Anybody can learn assignments. The guy that goes a step, or maybe two or three steps further, and beyond the assignment - how can that player from a mental standpoint and physical standpoint perform his duty on that particular play? That was him."
In 2012, when Steve Spagnuolo was the Saints' defensive coordinator, New England and New Orleans held joint training camp practices for several days. Given an opportunity to talk with Belichick, Spagnuolo asked Belichick what in his coaching career had been most beneficial to him.
"Without hesitating, he said, 'I coached special team for three years,' " Spagnuolo said.
With the Giants, Belichick used stars such as Lawrence Taylor and Carl Banks as wings on their field goal block unit. He doesn't view starters as too important for special teams; he views special teams as too important not to use his best players.
Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski once broke his arm blocking on an extra point. Wide receiver Julian Edelman returns punts. Van Noy, a starting linebacker, scored a touchdown this season after Dont'a Hightower, another starting linebacker, blocked a punt.
When Judge was asked how detailed Belichick can be as a head coach studying opposing special teams units, Judge laughed.
"As detailed as you can imagine," Judge said. "Our job is to find some piece of information that can help our players execute better on the field. It may not be there at first when you look at it. But you got to keep rewatching, re-digging. There's always something. You got to find it."
So it's all about attention to detail and attitude. Bout Time! Welcome to 2020 NY Giant Football. ~stoney
End of Quotes