Some interesting quotes in Brian Kelly's Tuesday presser:
Q. Along those lines, you've had guys that are better against the options than others, and sometimes your team looks different. I remember Robert Blanton dropping down to linebacker level one year. How do you kind of test to see who's -- who are your best option guys? Is that something you do in the spring? Is that something you do in August? How does that process work?
COACH KELLY: Yeah, we kind of develop that in the off-season and have formulated some opinions as to where these guys best fit.
I will say that there are some differences, in terms of fronts and coverages, that we may play compared to what we did last year, but by and large, guys are asked to play some different roles. I think we've got a pretty good sense of, at this point, the kind of system of defense we want to play against Navy. I think we found a system that we feel is effective. There's no system that is going to cover everything.
But in answering your question, I think we've already defined the roles of the players, and now it's let's go practice them, and those are going to be the guys this week that we work with.
Q. You talked about developing basic concepts against triple option. What was Coach Elliott's role in formulating that plan? I think you started that a couple years ago with him.
COACH KELLY: Well, we did some studies from other programs that had success and just really wanted to see some thoughts that other programs had that had gone against Navy multiple times, not just one time, and we had seen them several times. So we kind of just wanted to visit some other schools that had gone against Navy and had a modicum of success.
So we kind of compiled all those thoughts and schemes, if you will, and then sat down and said, all right, what makes sense with what we do? And then went to work from there.
So Coach Elliott compiled all that information by sitting down firsthand with other coaches that had firsthand knowledge of what we were doing and came back here. We installed some things that have been really effective, fine tuned them a little bit, and then he's worked directly with the graduate assistants that are running the scout teams to help them run the offenses effectively for our defense.
Q. Is there a specific concept or two that you can name where you said, look, we've been doing this. We can't do that. We have to do this. Can you describe that?
COACH KELLY: Well, I would say, more than anything else, when it comes to defending Navy, they strike on such a broad front. In other words, you can't take away a particular play. I think there was some thought, take away the fullback. Well, they don't care if you take away the fullback. That's okay. They'll run, toss, sweep 47 times.
So I think it was more about there's not a specific thing that you take away as much as at times you're going to have to fight through a block-on-block situation to make a play. It never becomes a math equation, where in a lot of the football that's played, you can get an extra hat to a particular run play and outnumber them, you can't do it against this offense. So don't try. If you try to outnumber the dive or try to outnumber the quarterback in a particular defensive structure, they've got answers.
That's really the answer to how you defend this is that you can't have all the answers.
Q. Along those lines, you've had guys that are better against the options than others, and sometimes your team looks different. I remember Robert Blanton dropping down to linebacker level one year. How do you kind of test to see who's -- who are your best option guys? Is that something you do in the spring? Is that something you do in August? How does that process work?
COACH KELLY: Yeah, we kind of develop that in the off-season and have formulated some opinions as to where these guys best fit.
I will say that there are some differences, in terms of fronts and coverages, that we may play compared to what we did last year, but by and large, guys are asked to play some different roles. I think we've got a pretty good sense of, at this point, the kind of system of defense we want to play against Navy. I think we found a system that we feel is effective. There's no system that is going to cover everything.
But in answering your question, I think we've already defined the roles of the players, and now it's let's go practice them, and those are going to be the guys this week that we work with.
Q. You talked about developing basic concepts against triple option. What was Coach Elliott's role in formulating that plan? I think you started that a couple years ago with him.
COACH KELLY: Well, we did some studies from other programs that had success and just really wanted to see some thoughts that other programs had that had gone against Navy multiple times, not just one time, and we had seen them several times. So we kind of just wanted to visit some other schools that had gone against Navy and had a modicum of success.
So we kind of compiled all those thoughts and schemes, if you will, and then sat down and said, all right, what makes sense with what we do? And then went to work from there.
So Coach Elliott compiled all that information by sitting down firsthand with other coaches that had firsthand knowledge of what we were doing and came back here. We installed some things that have been really effective, fine tuned them a little bit, and then he's worked directly with the graduate assistants that are running the scout teams to help them run the offenses effectively for our defense.
Q. Is there a specific concept or two that you can name where you said, look, we've been doing this. We can't do that. We have to do this. Can you describe that?
COACH KELLY: Well, I would say, more than anything else, when it comes to defending Navy, they strike on such a broad front. In other words, you can't take away a particular play. I think there was some thought, take away the fullback. Well, they don't care if you take away the fullback. That's okay. They'll run, toss, sweep 47 times.
So I think it was more about there's not a specific thing that you take away as much as at times you're going to have to fight through a block-on-block situation to make a play. It never becomes a math equation, where in a lot of the football that's played, you can get an extra hat to a particular run play and outnumber them, you can't do it against this offense. So don't try. If you try to outnumber the dive or try to outnumber the quarterback in a particular defensive structure, they've got answers.
That's really the answer to how you defend this is that you can't have all the answers.
