Former Michigan offensive line coach Greg Frey
FORMER PLAYERS
CB Blake Countess, Auburn: Countess made 7 tackles in a 20-13 loss to the Georgia Bulldogs.
TE/DE Keith Heitzman, Ohio: Heitzman had 1 catch for 2 yards in a 27-0 win over Kent State.
LB Kaleb Ringer, Georgia State: Ringer made 9 tackles in a 41-19 win over Texas State.
Hit the jump for updates on former coaches and commits.
FORMER COACHES
Offensive line coach Greg Frey, Indiana: As you well know, Indiana lost to Michigan by a score of 48-41 in double overtime. However, Frey’s unit helped running back Jordan Howard run for a career-high 238 yards and Indiana ran for a season-high 307 yards at 5.6 yards/carry. They also allowed just 1 sack of quarterback Nate Sudfeld.
Head coach Rich Rodriguez, Arizona: Arizona pulled off the upset with a 37-30 win over Utah in double overtime. Quarterback Anu Solomon had a standout game as he was 17/27 for 277 yards, 2 touchdowns, and 1 interception; he also ran 10 times for 86 yards and 1 touchdown. The game was won in the second overtime when backup QB Jerrard Randall threw a 25-yard touchdown pass to Nate Phillips. Arizona is now bowl-eligible at 6-5 after it looked like they might skid down the stretch and fall short of a bowl.
FORMER COMMITS
CB Gareon Conley, Ohio State: Conley made 2 tackles and .5 tackles for loss in a 28-3 win over Illinois.
RB Damien Harris, Alabama: Harris had 3 carries for 4 yards and 1 catch for 5 yards in a 31-6 victory over Mississippi State.
LB Darrin Kirkland, Jr., Tennessee: Kirkland made 8 tackles and 1 tackle for loss in a 28-0 win over North Texas.
DE Darian Roseboro, North Carolina State: Roseboro batted down a pass in a 34-17 loss to Florida State.
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How likely is it that an O line coach would be better at teaching one blocking scheme/system than he would another?
Put more directly, is Frey better at teaching the zone scheme that Rodriguez ran with his spread, than the power and the pulling schemes that Borges wanted to run for Hoke? I’m thinking that this is almost a certainty to be the case.
I’ve yet to sit down with this game, but my opinion is that Indiana isn’t running a radically different blocking scheme than Rich Rod ran here.
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I think it’s very possible that an OL coach could be better at teaching one system than another. It’s like any position or head coaching gig. Jeff Casteel is probably better at coaching the 3-3-5 than he would be running a 4-3. Art Briles is probably better at coaching spread quarterbacks at Baylor than he would be coaching triple-option quarterbacks at Georgia Tech.
No, Indiana isn’t running a different system at Indiana than Rich Rodriguez was at Michigan. It’s basically the same stuff. Inside zone, outside zone, pin-and-pull, etc. The great thing for Indiana at this point is that it’s Wilson/Frey’s fifth year at Indiana, so all those guys up front are guys they recruited and have coached for their system.
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Damien Harris is one ex-commit I’ve been kinda-sorta keeping an eye on. He’s been in 7 games, made 34 attempts for 109 yards for a 3.21 yards/carry average.
Is it just my imagination, or are those numbers just not that splashy for an Alabama phenom RB? I recall when TJ Yeldon hit the scene back in 2012, and he lit it up — 175 carries for 1108 yards, 6.33/carry … and that was behind Eddie Lacy.
What might account for this? It can’t be a poor OL because, well, Alabama *never* has a bad OL. And besides, Derrick Henry is having a fine season behind that same OL.
Maybe Damien Harris came out a lower-competition HS environment and he’s not yet become acclimated to the game? The coaches there at Alabama must see something, for he’s the 4th rusher in terms of attempts.
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Damien Harris is mostly getting late minutes and may not be running behind the same offensive line that Henry is.
Berea is a very small school in a conference of small schools, Harris did not play top competition. Alabama has a raft of real nice backs with age, hours in a college S&C program and both game and practice reps in front of him.
I had some doubts about Harris coming out of HS because a lot of his yards came on long runs, pulling away from small, slow kids. But, while I’m sure Alabama has had the occasional miss, you mostly have to think if they wanted him, he has to have game.
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And if his game doesn’t show itself, there’s always someone else. Talent they are not short on, that’s for sure.
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