Old Man Mike
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EDIT from NDinL.A.: ND has officially hired Tennessee OL coach Harry Hiestand. This is deserving of its own thread, so we'll pick it up with OMM's post:
The hire interests me, so I've looked a little more.
A). Dooley has lost 5 assistant coaches already down there, I think even not counting Coach Hiestand. One poster said in a nutshell: who in their right mind wouldn't want to get out of this toxic environment?
B). Even the Hiestand haters admit reluctantly that the line pass blocked very well this past season. All the griping is about run blocking.
C). The offensive coordinator employs an offense which requires the O-Line to flip flop depending upon which is the short and wide side of the field. All linemen must learn the subtleties of being both "left-handed" and "right-handed" at any given moment. While maybe not the greatest problem, this is not always a snap for younger linemen, and Hiestand said once that the line was having some trouble with it. This could be an example of the OC shoving something down his throat that he disagreed with. Needless to say, he'd have no such flip-flop problem here.
D). Coach Kelly's offense employs a spread running concept rather than a man-up-and-blast concept. My guess is that Hiestand can coach either, but if his guys pass block well, they surely will be able to spread-run block well. And we know that our guys are already darn good roadgraders when they have to be.
E). regarding recruiting O-Line. Tennessee has 6 freshmen O-Linemen and 4 sophomore O-Linemen. They probably began their recruiting war-room board saying that they had other priorities. This makes sense if the OC has a strong personality and can insist on pouring resources into "skill" players. As the season has gone on, maybe they think that they're in line for two OL [the have 17 verbals now] and are riding content. You guys know me, and that I'd think that their priorities stink, and maybe Coach Hiestand does too.
Add to that a pure guess: Not all programs run recruiting like ND, and I'll bet most don't. Since we recruit nationally, our guys are spread all over the place into different regions. My understanding is that programs with narrower geographic foci don't do it that way. They employ only a fraction of the staff as first contact specialists in recruiting and other coaches lay back for second wave, higher selling opportunity, close-the-deal operatives. This is like we usually do with Coach Kelly and often Diaco. Again, I don't know how Tennessee does it, but it may send out its younger guys first and bring a guy like Hiestand into the fray later. The relevance of this might be that you'd read other names as primary recruiters, but the O-Line coach might still close the deal once called upon. Whether that would be a good or bad sign for us, who knows, but my guess is that Hiestand is an authentic and civil man and can do either.
The hire interests me, so I've looked a little more.
A). Dooley has lost 5 assistant coaches already down there, I think even not counting Coach Hiestand. One poster said in a nutshell: who in their right mind wouldn't want to get out of this toxic environment?
B). Even the Hiestand haters admit reluctantly that the line pass blocked very well this past season. All the griping is about run blocking.
C). The offensive coordinator employs an offense which requires the O-Line to flip flop depending upon which is the short and wide side of the field. All linemen must learn the subtleties of being both "left-handed" and "right-handed" at any given moment. While maybe not the greatest problem, this is not always a snap for younger linemen, and Hiestand said once that the line was having some trouble with it. This could be an example of the OC shoving something down his throat that he disagreed with. Needless to say, he'd have no such flip-flop problem here.
D). Coach Kelly's offense employs a spread running concept rather than a man-up-and-blast concept. My guess is that Hiestand can coach either, but if his guys pass block well, they surely will be able to spread-run block well. And we know that our guys are already darn good roadgraders when they have to be.
E). regarding recruiting O-Line. Tennessee has 6 freshmen O-Linemen and 4 sophomore O-Linemen. They probably began their recruiting war-room board saying that they had other priorities. This makes sense if the OC has a strong personality and can insist on pouring resources into "skill" players. As the season has gone on, maybe they think that they're in line for two OL [the have 17 verbals now] and are riding content. You guys know me, and that I'd think that their priorities stink, and maybe Coach Hiestand does too.
Add to that a pure guess: Not all programs run recruiting like ND, and I'll bet most don't. Since we recruit nationally, our guys are spread all over the place into different regions. My understanding is that programs with narrower geographic foci don't do it that way. They employ only a fraction of the staff as first contact specialists in recruiting and other coaches lay back for second wave, higher selling opportunity, close-the-deal operatives. This is like we usually do with Coach Kelly and often Diaco. Again, I don't know how Tennessee does it, but it may send out its younger guys first and bring a guy like Hiestand into the fray later. The relevance of this might be that you'd read other names as primary recruiters, but the O-Line coach might still close the deal once called upon. Whether that would be a good or bad sign for us, who knows, but my guess is that Hiestand is an authentic and civil man and can do either.
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