Coach Delaney Explains 4th and 2 Play

[krammer]

i must say, that was no explanation at all,,if one were to go to any pee wee football game on a saturday morning and that same game situation, you would have heard the parent sidelines yelling " watch for the fake punt",,,why because you have to be aware of the one play that could end it and take it away before you do anything else...this was sad for the kids imo...take resposibilty for the call, as being a brain fart or something,,,,not, we must win all three aspects of the game....what a cop out....

 

[mtgriz]

I did some assistant high school football coaching at class B level in the early 90's, and we had punt block and punt return formations. In our punt return formations we always had guys designated to make sure the punter punted the ball. There was no one on that play that gave even token pressure. It was 10 men dropping off the ball. I am sorry, but it is the same thing that happens with every new coach we have had. Delaney, Pflugrad, Hauck, Glenn, Dennehy, and even Read. They try to put their own wrinkle in and re-invent the wheel and have to learn the hard way. Read did some crazy stuff. Some of it worked, and some of it didn't. He had the benefit of lower expectations and no internet message boards. I hope Mick figures it out quick.

Yeah I remember Hauck's Globe of Death kickoff return that resulted in a lost fumble the first time they ran it...I think he tried it one more time that season before retiring it for good.

 

[grizd]

I did some assistant high school football coaching at class B level in the early 90's, and we had punt block and punt return formations. In our punt return formations we always had guys designated to make sure the punter punted the ball. There was no one on that play that gave even token pressure. It was 10 men dropping off the ball. I am sorry, but it is the same thing that happens with every new coach we have had. Delaney, Pflugrad, Hauck, Glenn, Dennehy, and even Read. They try to put their own wrinkle in and re-invent the wheel and have to learn the hard way. Read did some crazy stuff. Some of it worked, and some of it didn't. He had the benefit of lower expectations and no internet message boards. I hope Mick figures it out quick.

Yeah I remember Hauck's Globe of Death kickoff return that resulted in a lost fumble the first time they ran it...I think he tried it one more time that season before retiring it for good.

Yes, it's true every staff tries their own wrinkles and the fans have been pretty forgiving up until this point but the coaches have not made second half adjustments all year. Also of note is their 2 minute drill. In this game, right before half we had a chance to call a timeout and save 40 seconds for what ended on a missed FG attempt. Mick chose to save the timeout and not all coaches agreed as witnessed by Gregorak and one other coach imploring him to take a TO. This is not about one play it's just the straw.

 

[garizzalies]

I did some assistant high school football coaching at class B level in the early 90's, and we had punt block and punt return formations. In our punt return formations we always had guys designated to make sure the punter punted the ball. There was no one on that play that gave even token pressure. It was 10 men dropping off the ball. I am sorry, but it is the same thing that happens with every new coach we have had. Delaney, Pflugrad, Hauck, Glenn, Dennehy, and even Read. They try to put their own wrinkle in and re-invent the wheel and have to learn the hard way. Read did some crazy stuff. Some of it worked, and some of it didn't. He had the benefit of lower expectations and no internet message boards. I hope Mick figures it out quick.

Yeah I remember Hauck's Globe of Death kickoff return that resulted in a lost fumble the first time they ran it...I think he tried it one more time that season before retiring it for good.

I've thought about this a lot lately: are Delaney's gaffes just because its his first year? I don't think so.

I remember Hauck's Globe of Death (which as i recall resulted in a penalty for illegal forward handoff). I also remember him running a draw in our own endzone. Similarly, Pflu's biggest complaints were mainly when they were dabbling with creative, yet overdone, trick plays, and not deferring when at home. As dumb as they were, none of those mistakes cost us any games as i recall.

Delaney's gaffes are on a whole 'nother level. I had a boss tell me once that when dealing with an employee, you can't fix or accomodate stupid, and you shouldn't have to.

 

[Hammer]

I did some assistant high school football coaching at class B level in the early 90's, and we had punt block and punt return formations. In our punt return formations we always had guys designated to make sure the punter punted the ball. There was no one on that play that gave even token pressure. It was 10 men dropping off the ball. I am sorry, but it is the same thing that happens with every new coach we have had. Delaney, Pflugrad, Hauck, Glenn, Dennehy, and even Read. They try to put their own wrinkle in and re-invent the wheel and have to learn the hard way. Read did some crazy stuff. Some of it worked, and some of it didn't. He had the benefit of lower expectations and no internet message boards. I hope Mick figures it out quick.

Yeah I remember Hauck's Globe of Death kickoff return that resulted in a lost fumble the first time they ran it...I think he tried it one more time that season before retiring it for good.

I remember it also, it was in the NEZ in front of me, LV was our returner. It was like "WTF is that"????? It was actually funny but I don't think the game was on the line.

 

[tgriz]

the Globe of Death. I remember that and remember everyone in my section going WTF??

 

[PolsonGrizFan]

The Globe of Death was run 1x, failed as to a questionable call concerning a forward hand off, even though no one could see inside the sacred Globe as the play unfolded, no one could see except for one referee with x-ray vision. The poor Globe was then placed carefully back on the shelf, where it sits today covered with a fine layer of dust, waiting to be called up once again. In comparison of the Shaw Shank Redemption, (SSR), was repeated over and over again until implosion. Warden Samuel Norton: [Addressing new prisoners] I believe in two things: discipline and the Bible. Here you'll receive both. Put your trust in the Lord. Your ass belongs to me. Welcome to Shawshank.

 

[bhwre]

I will not even listen to coach give an excuse for all the bad coaching. Started with the Shaw shank redemption, led to a score. The the Win fumble led to a score. Then the crazy begining of the second half, the coaches met in the MO club at half time. Even the refs got into it with two wrong as could be 15 yard calls. We then try to play offense with out any plan that procedes to tire out our defense. The famous 4th and 2 play is far to silly to even remember.

Not to mention our return game on kick off with Speedy Nacarato on the return. He is taught to run up the gut behind the wedge but the first man through the wedge always gets the tackle. I mean always!
Shaw needs to be taught to punt to his left sideline more often than no. In case of a shank he still gets 30 plus yards. But hell no, we keep doing the same dumb (coaching) mistakes over and over. It is called finding ways to lose.

I like Delaney but as the head coach he is in way over his head. No clock skill, no offensive skill, time out to make sure we kick a field goal? That is jr high stuff. Game plan Mick, it is called game planning. I am concerned we are falling down to the lower rungs of football with what we are watching. Time to step up for the head coach and get out of the way.

Shaw averaged 43 yards per punt during last game. With a 62, 50, 47, 40, 40, 15. Hardly can say he was part of the problem. He is ranked in the top 10 in the nation and is 20 spots ahead of the next freshman in the nation. He is doing a fine job. On the 15 yard punt it looked like the snap took him left and he tried to bring it back to the right to punt it. It just went off the outside of his foot.

 

[griz4life]

I think the real question is why introduce a gimmick formation when your rather young team is struggling with the basics? It's pretty deflating for the team when this stuff doesn't work, not to mention it rattles team confidence in your coaching ability. In the last two weeks special teams has chosen not to receive the ball at the beginning of either half, which cost the Griz. Then we used the gimmick return formation that failed twice, once when SUU blew by our line to rush Pete who muffed the return, and again at the end of the game.
I don't know what the players think about this stuff, but the player's parents who sit in my area were screaming at the coaches at the end of the game. It's never good when a bunch of family members wearing their kid's jersey number stand up and blast the coaches publicly. If their sons feel the same way, the Griz are in trouble.

 

[jakubusa]

I've been following the lively discussion. Real nice to be able to see the games finally without having to find a bar that shows them. Too bad for the timing though...

I have to agree with the criticism of the coaching. Not just in the SUU game, all season long pretty much. It's extremely subpar, even for a 'new' coaching team. The players sure are young as a whole and the injuries have not helped. However, the crucial breakdowns we're all complaining about go back to coaching decisions. Games have been lost because of these calls (or non-calls as in the case with timeouts). It's sad to see that the head coach doesn't see it that way and wants to put blame on the players. I hope there will be consequences unless this attitude changes in a hurry.

Those kids play hard and deserve better coaching. I'll be rooting for them into November.

 

[kemajic]

I will not even listen to coach give an excuse for all the bad coaching. Started with the Shaw shank redemption, led to a score. The the Win fumble led to a score. Then the crazy begining of the second half, the coaches met in the MO club at half time. Even the refs got into it with two wrong as could be 15 yard calls. We then try to play offense with out any plan that procedes to tire out our defense. The famous 4th and 2 play is far to silly to even remember.

Not to mention our return game on kick off with Speedy Nacarato on the return. He is taught to run up the gut behind the wedge but the first man through the wedge always gets the tackle. I mean always!
Shaw needs to be taught to punt to his left sideline more often than no. In case of a shank he still gets 30 plus yards. But hell no, we keep doing the same dumb (coaching) mistakes over and over. It is called finding ways to lose.

I like Delaney but as the head coach he is in way over his head. No clock skill, no offensive skill, time out to make sure we kick a field goal? That is jr high stuff. Game plan Mick, it is called game planning. I am concerned we are falling down to the lower rungs of football with what we are watching. Time to step up for the head coach and get out of the way.

Shaw averaged 43 yards per punt during last game. With a 62, 50, 47, 40, 40, 15. Hardly can say he was part of the problem. He is ranked in the top 10 in the nation and is 20 spots ahead of the next freshman in the nation. He is doing a fine job. On the 15 yard punt it looked like the snap took him left and he tried to bring it back to the right to punt it. It just went off the outside of his foot.

Thanks for that; you beat me to it. Throwing Shaw under the bus was bush; he is an outstanding punter. One shank and the jerk associates him the rest of his tirade. He hasn't had one blocked yet; surprised the tirade didn't go Lider's way.

 

[kemajic]

Those kids play hard and deserve better coaching.

You liked how hard they were playing on the last SUU TD when everyone quit and just let him walk in? I suppose there was coaching mistake on that play.

 

[Potomac Griz]

Those kids play hard and deserve better coaching.

You liked how hard they were playing on the last SUU TD when everyone quit and just let him walk in? I suppose there was coaching mistake on that play.

Without the coaching mistakes we aren't in that situation at the end of the game where the D is demoralized.

I'd have to guess there are quite a few players on this team that are really wondering WTF was with that punt defense too...and why our offense, which can look pretty good early in games, gets hand cuffed by the coaching whenever we get a lead.

Once we go in that shell offensively everything rests on the defense stopping the other team EVERY time the other team has the ball or we lose. That's not realistic against good offensive teams. It may work against UNC (unless we kick off to start both halves), but it didn't work against NAU, EWU, SUU and likely wont work against UND or MSU either.

So I can see why the defense might have been pretty demoralized at that point in the game. Not sure they "gave up" anyway... I'd have to look at that play again. They do play hard and deserve better coaching in my opinion. The talent on this team is much better than a 3-4 team with no quality wins.

 

[GrizMusician]

First sign of a shitty coach: Inability to take responsible for mistakes.

Leaders are supposed to take responsibility. I don't care if it is at work, sports, music, etc. Mistakes made by him, his staff, or his players is just as much his fault because he is the face of Montana Grizzly football & he is supposed to be the leader of this group.

Mick Delaney has lost my respect because he is disrespecting us by assuming we are a bunch of idiots that can't recognize his complete inability to coach this team to success & feeding us these bullshit excuses. This is about much more than his bad call on the 4th & short. This is more than deciding to kick off both halves the week previous. This is about his inability to effectively piece together a winning strategy & his inability to close out a good game with a win when he has the talent at his disposal.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S3 using Tapatalk 2

 

[cclarkblues]

I will not even listen to coach give an excuse for all the bad coaching. Started with the Shaw shank redemption, led to a score. The the Win fumble led to a score. Then the crazy begining of the second half, the coaches met in the MO club at half time. Even the refs got into it with two wrong as could be 15 yard calls. We then try to play offense with out any plan that procedes to tire out our defense. The famous 4th and 2 play is far to silly to even remember.

Not to mention our return game on kick off with Speedy Nacarato on the return. He is taught to run up the gut behind the wedge but the first man through the wedge always gets the tackle. I mean always!
Shaw needs to be taught to punt to his left sideline more often than no. In case of a shank he still gets 30 plus yards. But hell no, we keep doing the same dumb (coaching) mistakes over and over. It is called finding ways to lose.

I like Delaney but as the head coach he is in way over his head. No clock skill, no offensive skill, time out to make sure we kick a field goal? That is jr high stuff. Game plan Mick, it is called game planning. I am concerned we are falling down to the lower rungs of football with what we are watching. Time to step up for the head coach and get out of the way.

Shaw averaged 43 yards per punt during last game. With a 62, 50, 47, 40, 40, 15. Hardly can say he was part of the problem. He is ranked in the top 10 in the nation and is 20 spots ahead of the next freshman in the nation. He is doing a fine job. On the 15 yard punt it looked like the snap took him left and he tried to bring it back to the right to punt it. It just went off the outside of his foot.

I heard it was pretty windy.

 

[Cats2506]

I heard it was pretty windy.

that makes no sense, didnt you guys kick off at one of the halfs, if that is so then it must have been calm

 

[kemajic]

Those kids play hard and deserve better coaching.

You liked how hard they were playing on the last SUU TD when everyone quit and just let him walk in? I suppose there was coaching mistake on that play.

Without the coaching mistakes we aren't in that situation at the end of the game where the D is demoralized.

I'd have to guess there are quite a few players on this team that are really wondering WTF was with that punt defense too...and why our offense, which can look pretty good early in games, gets hand cuffed by the coaching whenever we get a lead.

Once we go in that shell offensively everything rests on the defense stopping the other team EVERY time the other team has the ball or we lose. That's not realistic against good offensive teams. It may work against UNC (unless we kick off to start both halves), but it didn't work against NAU, EWU, SUU and likely wont work against UND or MSU either.

So I can see why the defense might have been pretty demoralized at that point in the game. Not sure they "gave up" anyway... I'd have to look at that play again. They do play hard and deserve better coaching in my opinion. The talent on this team is much better than a 3-4 team with no quality wins.

Excuses. OK for you to give excuses but not the coaches. Playing hard means playing hard every down. SUU could not move the ball on the ground the whole game; they have a poor ground game. Suddenly, when the defense is "demoralized" they can't be touched. Sorry friend, that is not playing hard. It is not "We Are Montana."

 

[IdaGriz01]

... Excuses. OK for you to give excuses but not the coaches. Playing hard means playing hard every down. SUU could not move the ball on the ground the whole game; they have a poor ground game. Suddenly, when the defense is "demoralized" they can't be touched. Sorry friend, that is not playing hard. It is not "We Are Montana."

+1

 

[Potomac Griz]

Excuses. OK for you to give excuses but not the coaches. Playing hard means playing hard every down. SUU could not move the ball on the ground the whole game; they have a poor ground game. Suddenly, when the defense is "demoralized" they can't be touched. Sorry friend, that is not playing hard. It is not "We Are Montana."

I think you misunderstood what I was getting at. I don't think it's OK for the defense to have given up, and I'm not excusing it. I just stated that I understand why they could have been demoralized at that point. I also said that I wasn't sure if they HAD quit, I'd have to watch the play again...

You pick the one long run that SUU had against the Griz and beat it to death, yet seem to want to ignore the many big time coaching mistakes that plagued the Griz that entire game (and have done so this entire season). Or are you one of the few posters who think everything is fine and dandy when it comes to the coaching staff and it should all be put on the players?

 

[grizare#1]

As many have stated it was a dumb ass mistake by the coaches, 20+ thousand fans could see what was about to happen. As soon as I saw our line drop back you could see the punter start to smile, this is going to be a cake walk. I will never understand why the coaches did not keep at least a guy or two at home to if nothing else give the punter a moment of pause or maybe to force the punt. I guess we will never know. And even if we were going to set up for the return at least we could have had one guy there to block the kicker on the return. But then again since we cant seem to field punts real well it might have been a good choice to drop back so we would have a better chance at getting the fumble. To quote Sheldon from the Big Bang Theory " BAZZINGA"