Warning - very long.
Disclaimer: As always, I hope a coach will take a useful nugget here and there from this post or at least find it entertaining to read.
So that happened. Three National Championships in a row. That allows me to stand in the same group as pete and orangepace as the only coaches to have 3 NC's in a row in Wilkinson IAA. I will take that. The TSU team is set up for at least two more deep runs, although it will take good coaching to continue the streak.
Preseason Analysis:
Here are some interesting data points:
Season Pre-Season Rank Avg Player Rating End Result
132 2 71.94 NC
131 1 73.48 NC
130 2 72.95 NC
129 3 71.82 1st Round
I was asked how I ranked my last three NC teams and my answer was:
129
131
130
132
I still think my best team was 129 and was knocked out of the playoffs by Caly in the first round in Season 129. Hats off to caly in that game (which I mention often). Great gameplan he had and I think his game plan is still the blueprint on how to beat my scheme.
For this particular season, I viewed my team as follows:
Elite QB - #3 QB
Elite WRs - #2 and #20 WRs
Elite OL - (4 in top 85)
Below AVG RB - #41 RB
AVG DL
Below AVG LB (although, did have #10 LB)
Good DB (#20, #41 and #42 DBs)
Summary: It did not take a brain surgeon to figure out that I needed to pass the ball with my elite QB to my elite WR. The challenge is how much run do you mix in so that you have your QB fresh enough to deliver to a fresh WR at a critical junction in the game?
I believed that 70% pass was as high as I could go without diluting my skill positions with fatigue to a point where I was negatively impacting my team.
End of season stats:
Pass - 9269 - 71%
Rush - 3652 -29%
Total - 12,921
Overall, I think I did a good job of sticking with my thesis for this year.
Recruiting:
I really did not do that great recruiting this year. In fact, I went into signing day with 5 players not even yellow. Although I ended up with the 11th GD ranked class and a top 5 media guide class, it was a real struggle. TSU added 2 1A coaches in its region and NatiDawg decided to recruit Texas from Washington...that makes for an interesting 1AA recruiting season.
ProTip: Do not forget about the end-game. Try to keep some money in your hip pocket (I allocate at least $10,000 for end-game). You can snag some decent players if you are patient.
Regular Season.
The great joy of this game (at least for me) is being in an active conference with great coaches. Once again, I have to shout out to my great conference coaches: dachmann, bubba, mdodge, panthsho, and 1LM. The SWAC is an amazingly competitive conference that placed 3 teams in the playoffs and had the #2, #6 and #12 preseason ranked teams.
1. The second hardest game this year for TSU was the Grambling Game. Panthsho did an amazing job game-planning against TSU. The score was 7-6 at halftime. He is getting really good at stopping my WR ISO plays (more on this later). I should also note that panthsho has back-to-back 2nd round playoff appearances.
2. Huge props to dachmann, his AAM team made the conference championship game again this year. He had a tough draw in Round (Marist) and would have made a deep run but for running into orangepace.
Playoffs:
Round #1 - Savannah St. (rusti) #26 Rated GD Team
This is (I think) the third year in a row TSU played rusti in the playoffs. TSU had a clear talent advantage and rusti was starting a SO QB which tends to have challenges. What I found impressive was rusti's ability to limit my QB to 57.1% completion percentage.
I had to change my gameplan at half-time to throw more to my RB on ISO plays. This resulted in 8 receptions for 176 yards (108 YAC) to my RB isolating on rusti's LB's/S.
ProTip: LB/S match up against RB/TE. If you have a talent advantage in that area, you can isolate your RB or TE against a favorable matchup. Depending on the pre-snap alignment, you can sometimes isolate only on LB's. If the defense is lining up cover middle/long, and you ISO one step below...then you will have a matchup on the LB's.
Win 49-7
Round #2 - Jacksonville (wareagle) #5 Rated GD Team
This Jacksonville Team was absolutely loaded on offense in my opinion. I could not believe this was the second round game for TSU. Jacksonville sported the #11 QB, #16 RB, OL (#16, 33 and 59). The weakness for Jacksonville was the DL. This game got away from wareeagle. His #16 QB only threw 1/2 of the passes in the game and this resulted in 3 INT's.
Turnovers will kill a team:TSU win 87-10
Round #3 - Maine (chetty) #7 GD Rated Team
Are you kidding me? I get to face chetty in Round #3? TSU was a 4.5 point underdog and for good reason. This was not a good matchup for TSU because chetty has an elite set of DB's. This game was crazy difficult. Chetty threw 25 times to his LB/RB (isolating on my weak LB's) and ran the ball 18 times for basically 100 yards.
Frankly, I am not sure how I won this game. Ultimately, by #2 WR went off in the second half catching 14 for 264 (150 YAC). I ran WR ISO the entire second half mainly because I did not have a better option. It happened to work.
Interesting fact - The only team to beat TSU in the last four season - Maine. The only team to lead against TSU in the last four seasons - Maine (3 times). Chetty is a heck of a coach IMO.
TSU Win 41-27
Round #4 - Drake (PSC43) #23 GD Rated Team
Drake has some serious talent, but had a SIM season and different coaches. So, its front-line talent was excellent but no skilled depth. This game was a FIQ game. Take a look at these numbers:
Drake penalties 5-66 yards
Time of Possession TSU 35:46 to DU 24:14
TSU Win - 66-31
ProTip: FIQ plays the major role in determining penalties.
Round #5 - Dayton (paul) #21 GD Ranked Team
Personally, I think Dayton had a better team last year. I believe the difference this year was the improvement in paul's game planning. Outstanding job by paul in this game in my opinion. The half-time score was 21-14 and I did not feel too comfortable with the score. TSU defense stopped Dayton for 3 3-and-outs to start the game and only led by 7 points. The end result was a win, but a darn good game plan.
So, what did Paul do?
He focused his entire game on attacking my weak LBs. I had one really good LB, but the rest were average (at best). And, he ran the ball. Same thing chetty and panthsho did in the other close games. However, Paul added another twist. He isolated his RB pass on my weak(er) tackling CB's (vs. S). I thought it was a brilliant approach.
I knew I could not stop this attack (I did not have better players to throw into the defense), so I made the following adjustments:
1. Move my better tackling DB's to the CB slots. This is probably the biggest adjustment I made that made the most difference.
2. I pushed my passes to focus on his CB's. This resulted in 5 successful WR ISO plays against CBs. The yardage gained on these five plays (42, 9, 42, 11, and 28).
TSU Win - 55-39.
Lessons Learned:
1. I am still convinced YAC is the key to pass defense. This means high TKL DB's.
2. The question I received most from other coaches is how to isolate on a CB. Several coaches do not believe this is possible...that you can only influence depth (short, middle and so forth). I disagree. The idea on how to do this was given to me by Lyonz, and I think it is his idea to share or not. However, I will say there is at least one method that works with a high level of success (although I do not use it) is the very short pass to a WR in I Form or Pro Set. It does not always work, but it is the easiest pass to test to determine how to make it work more often. I use a different method which has a lower probability of success, but leads to a deeper pass on a CB which results in more yards.
3. I think every coach should understand how to plan and execute an isolation (ISO) play and how to defend it if you see it being used against you. This is fairly straight forward and I walk any coach through the process that sitemails me. I am sure most (if not all of you) know how to do it, but if you don't...feel free to sitemail me.
4. Remember, the entire key to matchups in this game boils down to what offensive players vs. defensive players are in the computer formula for any given play. The fewer defensive players you have in the formula, the more likely you are to have a successful matchup and visa versa if you are defensive game planning.
Finally, I am really enjoying playing the game with all you great coaches. A special thanks to TD, Husker, JAG and CJ for bringing such amazing content to the game. Also, thanks to awags for sponsoring various shows and speaking on the shows.
Good luck next season coaches.
nitros (James)