A couple of random things I learned at Football 101

[BrentVU]

1. Drew Birchmeier is not coming back for Year No. 6; he called Coach Lea to let him know just last month. He had participated in spring practices, but just got married, life was going well for him, and he decided to get on with his life. Hey, he gave the program five great seasons, so there's not much anyone can say.
2. Coach Lea told a story about his first meeting with the team. He said he had a speech written down on paper, which was going to be "the greatest introductory speech any head coach ever gave." The players were seated at tables, with chairs not facing the front, and he noticed many players weren't even making eye contact with him. He said he slowly folded up his speech and put it in his back pocket. It dawned on him that this was a "damaged" team after all that happened last season, and he really needed to burn everything down and start over. Players needed to learn proper respect and appreciation for where they were; nothing here is automatic; you earn your right to stay here with hard work. Hence, the thing about earning your jersey number.
3. B.J. Anderson is back and ready to compete again for his position as a starting corner, and that's huge; he started a lot in 2019. (His absence in 2020 was never publicly explained, but evidently it was an injury.) If he starts, it will likely be across from his cousin and teammate from Andalusia, Allan George. I figured depth would be an issue at corner, but in George, Anderson, Mahoney and Jeudy-Lally, you've got four experienced corners coming back.
4. There are evidently more commitments right now than the ones who have committed publicly, according to Barton Simmons. "You'll find out," he said cagily with a smile. Someone asked him how things were going with getting marginal kids admitted, and he replied, "We're still finding our rhythm with admissions."
5. The new defensive scheme under Jesse Minter will utilize an "Anchor" position, a super-athletic LB/DB hybrid. This scheme is similar to what Lea ran at Notre Dame; the guy who played this position last year (Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah) just went to the Browns in the second round. You might see De'Rickey Wright or Michael Owusu playing this position. As for the D-line, you'll probably see three linemen with hands on the ground and a fourth (the "Star" position) who will rush from the outside; last year that would have been Dayo Odeyingbo. Coach Minter uses one-word names for all his defensive calls in order to get them in quickly.
6. Jovan Haye talked about the experience of getting Covid in the middle of the season last year (something that was not talked about). He's a big dude, and it absolutely sapped him of all energy for four days and kept him away from practice for two weeks. He lost sense of taste and smell for a long time, but it finally came back. Fortunately, this was during the three-week period during which the Missouri game got canceled and there were no games. But who knows how many other unrevealed stories like this there were last season?
7. Barton Simmons showed a film clip of Larry Fitzgerald testifying about how he had learned more from David Raih than any other position coach he'd had in his entire career... now that was impressive. I can't tell you how impressed I am with Raih... would be surprised if he's not a head coach somewhere soon, if he wants to be.

[BrentVU]

8. What was also impressive was Barton Simmons talking about what the assistants gave up in order to join Coach Lea's staff. Simmons himself was king of the hill at 247Sports, a very stable job with normal hours... he gave it all up because he believed in Coach Lea. Coaches Raih, Minter, and Egorugwu all gave up positions in the pros. Inoke Breckterfield left Wisconsin; another film clip had the Rams' superstar DT Aaron Donald testifying about how at Pitt Coach Nokes "helped me take my game to another level." All of these guys came here, Simmons said, because they believed in what Coach Lea was building at Vanderbilt.

[commadore]

1. Drew Birchmeier is not coming back for Year No. 6; he called Coach Lea to let him know just last month. He had participated in spring practices, but just got married, life was going well for him, and he decided to get on with his life. Hey, he gave the program five great seasons, so there's not much anyone can say.
2. Coach Lea told a story about his first meeting with the team. He said he had a speech written down on paper, which was going to be "the greatest introductory speech any head coach ever gave." The players were seated at tables, with chairs not facing the front, and he noticed many players weren't even making eye contact with him. He said he slowly folded up his speech and put it in his back pocket. It dawned on him that this was a "damaged" team after all that happened last season, and he really needed to burn everything down and start over. Players needed to learn proper respect and appreciation for where they were; nothing here is automatic; you earn your right to stay here with hard work. Hence, the thing about earning your jersey number.
3. B.J. Anderson is back and ready to compete again for his position as a starting corner, and that's huge; he started a lot in 2019. (His absence in 2020 was never publicly explained, but evidently it was an injury.) If he starts, it will likely be across from his cousin and teammate from Andalusia, Allan George. I figured depth would be an issue at corner, but in George, Anderson, Mahoney and Jeudy-Lally, you've got four experienced corners coming back.
4. There are evidently more commitments right now than the ones who have committed publicly, according to Barton Simmons. "You'll find out," he said cagily with a smile. Someone asked him how things were going with getting marginal kids admitted, and he replied, "We're still finding our rhythm with admissions."
5. The new defensive scheme under Jesse Minter will utilize an "Anchor" position, a super-athletic LB/DB hybrid. This scheme is similar to what Lea ran at Notre Dame; the guy who played this position last year (Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah) just went to the Browns in the second round. You might see De'Rickey Wright or Michael Owusu playing this position. As for the D-line, you'll probably see three linemen with hands on the ground and a fourth (the "Star" position) who will rush from the outside; last year that would have been Dayo Odeyingbo. Coach Minter uses one-word names for all his defensive calls in order to get them in quickly.
6. Jovan Haye talked about the experience of getting Covid in the middle of the season last year (something that was not talked about). He's a big dude, and it absolutely sapped him of all energy for four days and kept him away from practice for two weeks. He lost sense of taste and smell for a long time, but it finally came back. Fortunately, this was during the three-week period during which the Missouri game got canceled and there were no games. But who knows how many other unrevealed stories like this there were last season?
7. Barton Simmons showed a film clip of Larry Fitzgerald testifying about how he had learned more from David Raih than any other position coach he'd had in his entire career... now that was impressive. I can't tell you how impressed I am with Raih... would be surprised if he's not a head coach somewhere soon, if he wants to be.

Isn't this kind of like the "monster man" position that was used in the '70s and '80s? I played the monster my senior year in high school and was the most fun I ever had. Last 5 games of the year I had over 60 tackles because that position keyed on the key players. Whoever gets that position will have a total blast playing, because they will be in the middle of everything.

[EagleDore]

Great notes. Thanks for sharing. I particularly like the insights on Coach Lea and him noticing he had to burn it to the ground and start over. The belief in him by others and his assistants also speaks well. I'd say this is a good start and he shows a lot of promise as a leader and thinker.

[commadore]

Despite what he said, I think the prior coach burned it to the ground. He just needed to sweep up the ashes and mop the floor. Clean slate.

[MikenNashville]

4. There are evidently more commitments right now than the ones who have committed publicly, according to Barton Simmons. "You'll find out," he said cagily with a smile.

247 is showing some recruits trending “highly” our way including a 3 star RB, a WR and a CB.

[cc11316]

That is excellent information and it should be well received in these very slow times of getting news. I have to admit, I'm still stuck on Barton Simmons' statement:

We're still finding our rhythm with admissions.

I know all of the attention is on facility upgrades, new coaches and news schemes but this appears to be potentially the item that can really propel this program forward quickly. I love that Simmons made that statement because it shows kind of a full transparency attitude that hasn't previously been there and it also shows they are going after some big-time recruits.