Talking points: did Urban Meyer learn the spread from silly Jim Chaney?

by Joel Hollingsworth on May 4, 2009 7:31 AM EDT in Rocky Top Talking Points

Tennessee football

GVX's Drew Edwards has an excellent in-depth article on new offensive coordinator Jim Chaney. A particularly interesting bit is that while at Purdue, he served as the Boilermakers "levity coach," meaning he was responsible for making sure the guys didn't get too wound up and tight before games. Also, according to former Purdue QB coach Greg Olson, none other than Urban Meyer learned the spread offense from Chaney. And no, Chaney's not running the spread -- he's running Kiffin's pro-style USC offense -- but might he prove useful to the defense in preparations against Florida? One thing's for sure, Meyer most certainly did not learn levity from Chaney. Or from anyone else for that matter.
Tennessee is in play with Cody Riggs, a 5'10", 165-pound CB from St. Thomas Aquinas in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. He's Gerald Riggs's younger brother.
We've heard this before, but expect more catches for the tight ends this year ($). I know it's a different coaching staff now, but I am almost incapable of even hearing those words anymore.
Where's Chris Donald? The highly-touted recruit redshirted, then switched from LB to DE and back to LB. He did get some looks this spring, though, and although he's currently listed as No. 3 at strongside LB, he'll challenge LaMarcus Thompson and Shane Reveiz for the spot.

Lady Vols

Tennessee devoted yesterday afternoon to honoring Pat Summitt for her 1,000th career coaching victory.

SEC

Roll Bama Roll on Coach Saban on Crimson Tide Fans.

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Urban Meyer has said pretty consistently that he learned the spread from Rich Rodriguez while at Bowling Green. Obviously their incarnations aren’t quite the same anymore, but…

by sullivti on May 4, 2009 10:11 AM EDT reply actions

It's more than that

Meyer’s first exposure to spread philosophy came from John L. Smith’s offensive coordinator Scott Linehan (the former Rams coach) while those two were at Louisville. Linehan got a lot of his stuff from Dennis Erickson at Idaho, so you can put him on the list of influencers too. Meyer also picked up bits and pieces from Kevin Wilson when he was at Northwestern (he’s now the OU offensive coordinator) and the Purdue staff late during Meyer’s time at Notre Dame. While at Bowling Green he got more from Rodriguez and others.

Meyer’s pretty upfront about it – he didn’t so much invent his offense as he took what he thought was the best of other people’s schemes and put it all together. So yeah, he got some things from Chaney, but there’s a lot more to it than that. Smart Football goes over it very well. Honestly, if you’re looking for a way to stop Florida’s offense, I’d recommend learning more about Will Muschamp’s defense because of anyone who’s seen Meyer at least twice, he’s done the best overall job at stopping it.

by Year2 on May 4, 2009 5:31 PM EDT up reply actions

That's a really good point

Is it safe to say that Auburn’s defense — whatever it is — has done better than anyone else at stopping Meyer’s offense?

Rocky Top Talk

by Joel Hollingsworth on May 4, 2009 9:47 PM EDT up reply actions

Miami's did a darn good job last year.

by rblakeh on May 5, 2009 12:34 AM EDT up reply actions

True

I’d forgotten about that. If I remember correctly, it was all about getting into the backfield early to disrupt timing.

Rocky Top Talk

by Joel Hollingsworth on May 5, 2009 7:05 AM EDT up reply actions

Miami did a lot of stunting, and that confused an offensive line that hadn’t played together much before. It was the second game back for a guy who missed all of ’07 to injury (Trautwein) and a guy who played defense in ’07 (Mike Pouncey). Plus you had a sophomore (Gilbert) playing LG who was not ready for prime time but who had to thanks to injury, and the other Pouncey was at a new position (center, after being a guard in ’07).

Ole Miss did a good job too and even Arkansas did for three quarters. It wasn’t until the fourth quarter of the Arkansas game that the line finally gelled, and at that point, things took off.

With two new starters and two more guys playing different positions than they did last year, there’s opportunity to get at them early in the season. As with any quarterback, the key to disrupting Tebow is to get in his face often. Tebow also had some problems with Oklahoma’s zone blitz, and you know Monte knows him some zone blitzing (and stunting, for that matter) from being in the NFL so long. There are definitely opportunities for disrupting what Florida wants to do, if it’s done right.

by Year2 on May 5, 2009 10:12 AM EDT up reply actions

And, as always, there are opportunities to get killed by Florida’s offense if you try to get too fancy against them. It’ll be a fun matchup.

I don’t mean this in any way against Chavis (who did an absolutely terrific job last year), but a part of me wishes that Monte were here last year so the defense could have had a full season to settle in. I’d love to see what a prime Monte defense could do against a prime Florida offense with Tebow.

by David Hooper on May 5, 2009 10:26 AM EDT up reply actions

I went to HS with Gerald Riggs.

I was a few years younger than him, but I remember him saying that Cody was a better athlete than he was at that age. Although at the time he must have been in peewee leagues.

It could be a different brother, I’m not sure, cause Gerald’s mom lived in Atlanta and his dad in Chattanooga.

by Prometheus1185 on May 5, 2009 10:57 AM EDT reply actions