Lucas at Large: Flipping staff offers new perspectives
April 21, 2016 | Football, Mike Lucas
Badgers switch up position meetings to give offense and defense insight into what the other side sees
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BY MIKE LUCAS
UWBadgers.com Senior Writer
MADISON, Wis. — Imagine wide receivers Rob Wheelwright, Jazz Peavy, Reggie Love and George Rushing sitting in a meeting room with defensive backs coach Jim Leonhard, who's telling them, "This is what hurts us and gives our guys trouble."
Imagine defensive backs Sojourn Shelton, Derrick Tindal, Leo Musso and Arrington Farrar sitting in a meeting room with wide receivers coach Ted Gilmore, who's telling them, "This is what we're trying to accomplish if we take this certain split."
Imagine offensive linemen Ryan Ramczyk, Jon Dietzen, Michael Deiter, Beau Benzschawel and Jacob Maxwell sitting in a meeting room with defensive line coach Inoke Breckterfield, who's telling them, "This is how we're trying to defeat a down block."
Imagine defensive linemen Chikwe Obasih, Conor Sheehy, Olive Sagapolu, Alec James and Jeremy Patterson sitting in a meeting room with offensive line coach Joe Rudolph, who's telling them, "This is what we're trying to do with this combo."
Imagine that? Offensive players meeting with defensive coaches. Defensive players meeting with offensive coaches. Wisconsin head coach Paul Chryst imagined "flipping" his staff for a day — "I always wanted to do that" — and acted on that desire prior to the midway point in spring practice.
"One of your goals is to grow your football knowledge," he directly said of March-April football. "I started going to different meetings and I was picking up stuff (from his assistants) and I thought, 'That's a great way to teach.' So I had the coaches flip and they got some good energy."
That led Rudolph to taking a seat with the D-line in Breckterfield's room.
"When Joe was in my meeting," Breckterfield said, "I'd referenced him, showed a play and turned to him, 'Joe, what are you telling this guy …"
Breckterfield returned the favor by sitting in with the O-line.
"And when Nokes was in my meeting," said Rudolph, "I'd ask him, 'Can you talk about these two-on-two games and what you're trying to do.' And he got up and spoke about that."
That got Chryst to thinking, "Maybe we should do this with the players?"
And so it came about that the receivers met with Leonhard, the DBs with Gilmore, the O-line with Breckterfield, the D-line with Rudolph, the running backs with Justin Wilcox, the linebackers with John Settle and so forth and so on — exposing the position groups to a different perspective and voice.
"Coach's whole theory is that it's good for them to hear what we're teaching on the other side of the ball," Gilmore said. "We tell our guys to have a plan. So if you understand what they're trying to do, what they're trying to take away, you have a better understanding of what you need to do.
"For example, those guys (the defensive backs) were curious about what I was teaching from a release standpoint; 'If you run this route, what are you trying to accomplish?' They had some great questions and all of them stem from releases. Why is he releasing this way to get here?"
Shelton, the most experienced player in the secondary, had a specific inquiry for Gilmore.
"There was one route that I was struggling with," Shelton said. "We call it a 'Hero' — it's an in-and-out route. He (Gilmore) showed us what the quarterback and receiver are thinking when they're going against us and it kind of changed my perspective a little bit on how I have to play it."
The quarterbacks also sat in with the wide receivers and had questions for Leonhard, too.
"They (QBs) asked about depth and how important it is," Wheelwright said. "He (Leonhard) touched on getting that extra few steps. If the route is 16 yards, make sure you get 16, because an extra two steps can change the whole defense. If you cut things short, it's easier for the defensive player."
Wheelwright loved the interaction. So did Peavy, who listened intently to Leonhard breaking down coverages and leverages predicated on down-and-distance. In this case, Peavy was schooled on how the corner might shade a receiver inside or outside depending on the third-down situation.
"In our receiver room, we're always talking about what the DBs are doing — how they're trying to attack this and that," Peavy said. "To be in their position room and have their position coach telling us what they're doing in certain situations, it just gives you a chance to play a little faster."
Wheelwright and Peavy were well-versed on Leonhard's 10-year playing career in the NFL, so they were especially attentive when Leonhard talked about some of the elite receivers that he had faced during games or practices while toiling for the Bills, the Ravens, the Jets, the Broncos and the Browns.
"There's an illusion of what makes a guy (wide receiver) special as far as what you see on TV," Leonhard told them. "But when you're competing against them, day-in and day-out, year-in and year-out, you get a better sense of why a guy was at a top level and why he was able to stay there."
Steve Smith, a 15-year veteran and three-time All-Pro, was one of Leonhard's examples.
"He's so competitive and he's going to find a way," Leonhard said. "Whether it was in the run game or the pass game, he was going to fight you — literally sometimes — but he had that edge to him and when you have that as a player you're going to succeed … you're not backing down."
Gilmore was an assistant for three seasons with the Oakland Raiders, so he could also draw from his pro experience on how receivers set up DBs. "He showed us some film of NFL guys," Shelton said, "and their tendencies with arm or shoulder movements when they're about to break their route off."
The insider access was priceless, tailback Dare Ogunbowale confirmed.
"It was awesome," he said. "We learned how to play running back through the eyes of a linebacker. We learned their technique and what they want to do.
"It was real beneficial actually having Coach Wilcox make an outline for us and go through it point by point on what the linebackers are looking at pre-snap — whether it's our eyes or it's our posture or it's our stance, if we're stacked over the tackle or more over the guard, a lot of stuff like that."
Linebacker T.J. Edwards, by the same token, picked up tips from Settle, an ex-NFL assistant.
"I thought it was cool just to see what the running backs were looking for," Edwards said. "We, as linebackers, have a general idea of what they're trying to do. But it was really good to hear it straight from Coach Settle. It just gave us a better understanding of what they're trying to accomplish."
Every player seemed to come away from the experience more in tune with their teammates.
"It was really insightful," said linebacker Jack Cichy. "The running backs are kind of like our arch-nemesis. We're trying to read what they're doing and they're doing the same exact thing to us. So it's funny to see how they take their progressions and definitely helpful to kind of get inside their mind."
The matchups on the line of scrimmage are no different than anywhere else. "It's a chess match," said Obasih. "I liked hearing how he (Rudolph) motivated his guys and what their mindset is before they go into every single play. Hearing it from his point of view is pretty beneficial."
After Breckterfield's presentation, Benzschawel said, "It gives you a whole better understanding of what the defense is doing and what they're going to bring as far as pressures. It helps us pick up on those little keys that can get us better. You know why they're doing it."
That hit on a bigger picture. Why are they doing this?
"If the guys know that we're all in it for their development and their growth, no matter which side of the ball they're on," Rudolph said, "it shows what a team and a program is all about. If they know that — this is what we're teaching — it brings them back to, 'What do I need to do to be successful?'"
This informational exchange opened some eyes and minds — along with the dialogue.
Between coach and coach. Between coach and player. Between player and player.
"If Jimmy (Leonhard) can open up the lines of communication," Chryst said, "and, all of a sudden, Rob Wheelwright or Jazz Peavy are going up and talking to him — or the 'backers are talking to Set (Settle) — it just helps you as a team.
"It's not why we did it, but it's a good residual. You're spending time with people that you don't normally spend as much time with. You love the competition part (offense vs. defense). But, in the end, we all want the same thing — we want to get better. I'd absolutely do this again."
