Steven M. Sipple: Watson teaching players and coaches
digg it!
Facebook
del.icio.us
Seed Newsvine
Fark It
Reddit
Class is in session.
It’s the spring session on offense, with professor Shawn Watson in charge.
As Nebraska’s offensive coordinator, Watson obviously teaches players. But here’s an overlooked part of his current duties: Coaching the coaches. It’s actually among Husker football’s most intriguing spring storylines: Professor Watson explaining the intricacies and overriding concepts of the West Coast system to new NU offensive assistants Barney Cotton, Tim Beck and Ron Brown.
Related Media
Spring Football '08 Central
Everything you need to know about the next month's worth of Nebraska spring pigskin drills can be found in the interactive Spring Football '08 Central...
“Every night I have my playbook and I’m studying it,” said Brown, the tight ends coach. “Before practice, and when we get out of meetings, I’m going over things and writing things down. It’s a high-volume offense. You go through installation for a couple of days, and you feel like you’re getting it. And then you get so much more new stuff that you kind of forget the old stuff.
“It’ll come in time.”
Brown’s not there yet.
“I’m confident, but I still go to my tight ends and say, ‘Hey, what do we do on this play?’” Brown said. “The worst thing in the world is for a coach to act like he knows it when he doesn’t. You’re not fooling anybody.”
So, it’s another interesting spring at Nebraska. Remember the days of coaching continuity in Huskerville? For years and years, it almost seemed the program ran itself. The Big Red engine almost always started on the first try. Staff continuity became a program staple. In recent years, however, a primary constant has been change. Bill Callahan, Randy Jordan and Joe Rudolph, we hardly knew ye.
Now, Watson and Ted Gilmore, as holdovers from Nebraska’s 2007 offensive staff, represent stability. Don’t underestimate the importance of Watson and Gilmore schooling Beck, Brown and Cotton on the WCO’s key elements. Make no mistake, though, Watson leads the way. On offense, the buck stops with him.
Watson’s role this spring is especially critical because Nebraska head coach Bo Pelini must concentrate on resuscitating the defense. Pelini attends offensive installation meetings, but he works primarily with the defense in practices, at least he has so far (four spring practices down, 11 to go).
Watson, meanwhile, basically coaches both offensive players and coaches.
“A lot of the blocking schemes are very familiar to me,” said Cotton, the line coach. “But a lot of the verbiage — the way you talk it — is really what’s different. This offensive scheme has a lot of components to it. But most of them, I’m pretty familiar with.
“I take my (play) book home at night just like a player and make sure I’m staying one day ahead of the game. Hopefully, I’m beyond that point. But I bring my book home every night and make sure I’m prepared for that 6:30 (a.m.) meeting.”
If Watson or Gilmore aren’t available, Cotton can always seek out Joe Ganz, Nebraska’s senior quarterback. Don’t underestimate the importance of Ganz knowing Watson’s system inside-out.
“Oh, that’s huge,” Watson said. “If I had to teach a new quarterback and new staff members, it’d be a big, big bunch.”
It’s a formidable bunch as it is. Learning Nebraska’s offense isn’t about memorization. That alone won’t cut it. You have to understand the offense conceptually. You have to know why things are done. Yes, it’s a high-volume system. Some say it’s too complicated for college players who are limited in the amount of time they can spend learning. But Ganz told me last season that that’s hogwash, that he’s had no problem picking it up.
And the professor? Well, he bristles at the “too-complicated” notion.
“It’s so easy. So easy,” Watson said. “If you can count, you can play in it. You know, Paul Brown is the guy who put this offense together way back when. And he was a teacher first, and he taught from a conceptual standpoint.”
The bottom line: “We can be so diverse,” Watson said. “You can start moving players around, and you have so much multiplicity that the defense spends all of its time trying to figure out what you’re doing, and your kids are doing the same things week in and week out.”
Alas, the WCO isn’t foolproof. Watson experienced mixed results in six seasons as Colorado’s offensive coordinator (2000-05). He clearly established himself as a coach who could adapt to personnel on hand. His flexibility may be his strong suit. But here’s another bottom line to ponder: Watson’s last four offenses at CU finished 58th, 66th, 85th and 87th nationally in total yards.
Nebraska in 2007 wound up ninth nationally in the same category, with Callahan calling the shots. Watson said he learned from Callahan how to combat ever-changing defensive schemes — zone pressure packages, for instance.
“Bill was always ahead of the game,” Watson said. “In two years, I feel like I got 10 years of education. I have a bigger background in terms of answers.”
As for Pelini, “Bo’s been great because he and I have been able to share information,” Watson said. “He’ll see something and say, ‘If you did this, it could really hurt a defense in this way.’ We’ve had a good back and forth.”
Watson paused.
“You know, it’s not like I’m doing this by myself,” he said. “I’ve got a good staff around me. As a leader you’ve got to listen. But in the end, I’ve got to make the decisions, and we’ve got to move forward.”
No time to waste. He has coaches to coach.
Reach Steven M. Sipple at 473-7440 or ssipple@journalstar.com.
