The fact that Cincinnati head coach Mark Dantonio spent time under Jim Tressel will impact this weekend’s game between the Buckeyes and Bearcats, but not in the way many people believe.
Coach Dantonio has an edge when compared to other coaches the Buckeyes play this year because he learned from a terrific coach at OSU. This has nothing to do with “he has old copies of our playbook” or “he will be stealing the signals from the sideline.” He has an edge because he saw the organization and structure that Tressel uses. He saw how Tressel recruits. He saw how Tressel travels his team. He saw how he worked with his assistants. He saw what he emphasized with his players
It is always over-hyped when you hear about people spying on practices or stealing playbooks. Think about it…”Gee, I see how they run a power play.” They should have learned that in their first ever coaching meeting or clinic they attended.
Also, there is this thing called game film. “Yep, they run the post pattern like the other 100+ teams in Division 1A college football.” That is why Woody’s thinking made so much sense. He felt you should be able to tell the opponent’s defense the play and the snap count and still gain yards. It’s about execution. Do you block the guy out of the A gap or does the defender take over the A gap?
Dantonio is mentioning new looks and a revised OSU offense. I don’t buy into that. Dantonio saw the large majority of our stuff on the practice field. Sure we have some new wrinkles, but the offense looks different because we have the personnel to pull things off. Executable plays in 2006 are different than executable plays in 2003 - at least from a consistency standpoint.
I am not saying you want an open door to your practices. I do contend though that practices are closed mainly to eliminate the circus-like atmosphere as opposed to eliminating the fact that someone witnessed OSU running a reverse and giving the ball to Ted Ginn Jr. on Tuesday. You want to hide your personnel formations. We don’t want people to know Ted Ginn gets the ball on the reverse when he is lined up a with a certain split distance with a certain depth and with a certain guy at tailback to hand off the ball to him. That is what an opposing coach would want to know. He can’t get much out of a pre-season playbook.
I recall practicing in the Superdome immediately after the Florida State Seminoles practiced there in January 1997. There were still some strangers inside the Dome when practice began so before we took the field, the coaches had us switch up some jerseys. I think I was No. 42 instead of No. 35 and Andy Katzenmoyer might have been No. 31 instead of No. 45. Any sneak peaks would have been almost useless when they can’t identify personnel and predict what might come out of certain packages. Is that a defensive back or a linebacker because he is wearing a defensive lineman’s number? (By the way, trust me we lost the game because of their speed…not because they caught a glimpse of five minutes of practice).
So Dantonio has the advantage over other coaches because of his OSU years. But that advantage stems from his education under Tressel, not because he witnessed where our tackle blocks on an option play.