BLACK

Don't tell no one, but here are two draft guides (680 pages of profiles) that NFL scouts are using for this weekend's 2010 draft.



defense
http://sitekreator.com/brophyfootball13/main_page.html
offense
http://sitekreator.com/brophyfootball14/main_page.html

UPDATE

Sacrilege, I know, but I absolutely love the new format. I was skeptical at first, being a long-time weekend draft party afficianado, but this Thursday - Saturday event generates some serious league buzz and excitement as compared to the Saturday endless seiges inciting mid-afternoon blood sugar comas, reclineritis, or alcohol blackouts. My only question is how will this affect subsequent drafts with enough PRESS time (leading into Friday's headline) to belly ache or opine about the first round or speculate on the second round leading into the weekend's media coverage? Will it pressure front offices to be influenced on making rash decisions (cough...cough...endless Claussen hype...cough) or entertain ridiculous trade scenarios they wouldn't have had the time to make in years prior? Who knows, but this more inclusive process is a welcome addition to help promote fan participation.

After my previous post about new and interesting challenges i got a response from David at Beardedman.co.uk about the Blackmountain 3 day mountain bike challenge.

I've checked out the site and the event looks right up my street, so much so i have decided to give something back and do some volunteering.

I asked David to give me a press release as i feel that this kind of event is the direction in which i would like to see the endurance scene in the UK going, this is what David gave me;

Black Mountains 3 Day Mountain Bike Stage Event

How does three days of testing yourself in the saddle with rocky descents, huge climbs and Welsh forest riding sound? Well it’s going to exceed all expectations, so clear some space in your summer diary for the Black Mountains 3 Day.

Black Mountains 3 Day is a 3 day mountain bike stage endurance event running from 30 July – 1 August 2010. Set in the stunning Brecon Beacons National Park of South Wales, it will be a tough but rewarding ride through unforgiving terrains and tough technical trails.

To reward all your hard work during the day everything else is going to be as comfortable as possible. The Black Mountains 3 Day is a fully serviced event providing hot showers, massages, tailored nutrition and lovely tented villages to rest your exhausted body. There’ll also be mechanics and bike wash facilities on hand so your bike's as well cared for as you.

Brecon Beacons National Park is renowned for its incredible scenery and amazing sense of remoteness and it's popular with walkers and riders. Over the 3 days you'll be experiencing all the best aspects of riding in the National Park, and will be passing through a number of friendly local communities.

So get involved with this incredible experience, whether you are riding alone or with a buddy and whether you are a seasoned stage racer or a first timer. We've also got packages for family and friends to come along and support the riders, so you don't have to suffer alone.

Official registration is now open on a first come first served basis and you can register at http://booking.blackmountains3day.co.uk/registration/ .

Be part of a mountain biking event that is bound to become legendary. Visit www.blackmountains3day.co.uk for more information. Or check out http://blog.beardedman.co.uk for updated news about routes, suppliers and the website.

General information about the event

• Day 1 - 101kms, day 2 - 91kms and day 3 - 88kms

• More than 8,000 metres climbing over the three days!

• Very challenging terrain in the dry – if its wet then quadruple the challenge

• Expect to carry your bike up very steep ascents and unbelievably on a descent or two

• Expect a mix of single track, jeep track, fire road, natural tracks and a tiny bit of farm road (this is needed to link sections together)

• All routes will be marked and signed. There will also be .GPX files available a week before the event.

• All routes will be marshalled and there will be full medical support pre, during and post each day's ride

• Feed stations stocking Torq products will be available on each stage
General information about the tented village

• Tents will be supplied and erected by Bearded Man on a shared basis (3 man tents for 2 people) – there is a single supplement available

• Food (breakfasts and dinners) will be supplied by the legendary Drop Off Café. Lunches will be available to buy at the tented village after the day's riding. Lunch will be supplied by the local communities and will include food such as BBQ, sandwiches, cakes etc.

• Optional extras will be available including massages and there will be a bike maintenance team that charge standard rates to fix bikes.

• To get the most out of the day 2 route, the tented village will remain in the same place for the second and third evening.


I'm hoping this event is gonna be a great success and look forward to getting involved.

I want to start my treatment of the Run-N-Shoot by discussing the offense's diachronic (read: historical) development. (Please pardon some of my jargon. Much of my academic research focuses on historical writing as a type of literary event, thus I loath how "history" as a term is conventionally used) Here, in Part I of this section, I will talk a bit about Tiger Ellison's version of the offense. My purpose in doing so is not to provide an in depth account of his offense, but rather to demonstrate why it is really no longer relevant to the Run-N-Shoot as it is currently employed at the major college level.

Without question, Tiger Ellison's Run-n-Shoot was an innovative and dynamic offensive system, especially for its time (although, in some ways, especially in terms of innovation, I would say that what Dutch Meyer did was perhaps even more so). Tiger's version of the offense is predicated upon a four hot environment. And yes, much like what Mouse would later do, Tiger's offense utilized option routes that he packaged into series that would in time provide a very rough template of sorts for Mouse's system. Tiger also used motion, but not really as a means of decoding coverage, but rather because so much of what he created derived from the Wing-T. In many ways, if we were today to compare Tiger's Shoot to one of Tubby Raymond's later Wing-T teams we would find the resemblances striking. The reason for this is that Tiger still wanted to run the football, just not into an 8 man front. He also wanted take full advantage of the misdirection potential that his double-wing formation afforded him, something that Mouse would use only as a way of controlling the edge and preventing a hard end from crashing his protection from the backside.

Tiger's version of the Run-N-Shoot is still an effective offense at certain levels. In this regard, his offense really is like the Wing-T, an offense that is still very effective at the high school and small college level, but whose trap and cross buck run game is no longer feasible at the higher levels due not only to increased speed, but schematic evolution as well.

Clearly, some Run-N-Shoot purists will not be happy with these comments; especially my equating Tiger's offense to the Wing T. But I wish to stress that these comments are not intended to be dismissive; rather, they are simply predicated upon a close analysis of the deep grammar of Tiger's system.

Tomorrow night I will discuss how Mouse modified Tiger's basic structures and how in so doing he laid the foundation for the modern Run-N-Shoot offense.

The dust has now settled.. Two of the Three challenges i have set for this year have already been completed and we are only in April..

The year so far has been pretty full on.. i have spent half this year away from home but now with a break until later in the year when i tackle the hottest race in the world i have time to sit and look for another challenge to bridge the gap.

I have found a few events but all are towards the end of the year.. that said this year may see my debut on the ultra endurance road scene... we will see how i feel.

So what next?? Any ideas??

For scoring tonight against the Gunners when Harry really needed you.

For keeping your head down when the media vultures pulled you apart, highlighting the unfortunate coincidence between your appearances and Premier League failure.

Having the best left foot at Tottenham Hotspur football club.

Not going on loan to a crap team.

....what a superb evening for the lily whites - unlucky Wenger's boys - great derby tonight.

I, like you, am anxiously awaiting hemlock's dissertation on Run & Shoot (and you may not find a more qualified authority), and to kill time, I will share the recent developments of our spring program. Trust me, once Hemlock gets going, I'll do my best to STFU.

This post may be interesting to those without 6th period football and/or spring football (or program development, in general).

We have been using 6th period (final period of the day) for the last 5 months for lifting. The past month or so (since the weather has been gorgeous) we have been taking the kids out to run through skelly sessions twice a week. This certainly helps and gives a jump start on what spring football will actually be in the coming weeks.

We have one bonafide offensive player (our Y) returning from last season, who was our leading yardage gainer. We have our starting quarterback, and one developing split receiver, and a bevy of young sophomore skill and lineman talent. This largely would not be the case, had interim HC (now official HC) not pressed for a full-time freshman squad. Had he not been so adamant about the freshmen, we wouldn’t have much to be optimistic about this year. I preface that, because as we move forward making plans for spring ball, we are faced with a dilemma of what to do with this talent on offense. How does it define what we do? Do we change from what we attempted last year after losing a once-in-a-lifetime “do-everything” stud (Jacoby Moseley) and a DI skill position player (Jarrett Fobbs)? Losing two game-changing talents may significantly affect the direction we move towards, especially when both were the sole contributors to our run game.

TREME
Completely unrelated, but be sure to check out David Simon's new series, Treme, on HBO - a certifiable winner.

http://backoftown.wordpress.com/2010/04/12/thatll-work/

BRAZIL

Even more unrelated, but something I found interesting, especially considering some of the recent Kabuki politics in America (not that I have one iota of thought regarding the matter, nor a desire to pursue one) - this is an interesting story and perspective.

http://www.fdasbo.org.br/

Entirely unrelated to this event, but I have been exploring expating to South America in another decade or two, so if there are football opportunities let me know....

Much to my chagrin I've been mostly silent since joining this blog. This is about to change. Starting sometime next week I will begin a series that I suspect will run for about six months or so on the Run-N-Shoot offense. The Run-N-Shoot has been around for a long time, but it's still one of the least understood offenses in football today. There is a certain mystery that to this day enshrouds the offense. The one thing that is certain is that it remains a source of anxiety within the football community. Defensive coordinators from time to time will dismiss the offense publicly, but if you speak to them privately they will tell you that the Run-N-Shoot unnerves them to the same extent that the triple option does. By the same token, the Run-N-Shoot is also a source of anxiety for those coaches who wish to practice it, that is, those who are enamored by the offense, but still cannot find the will to commit to it all the way.

I've been around the Run-N-Shoot in one form or another for about 20 years. I learned the offense from its founding architects and I now believe the time is right to share what I know.

As suggested above, this series will be extensive. I will treat the following topics in detail:

1. Origins and Evolution
2. Problems and Responses
3. The Culture of the Run-N-Shoot
4. Structural Mechanics
5. Teaching Route Coversions Today
6. Protection
7. Route Concepts
a. Streak
b. Read
c. Switch
d. Divide
e. Rails
f. Banjo
g. Go
h. Slide
i. Choice
j. Hook
k.Side
l. Levels
m. Quicks and Adaptations

8. Screens
9. Run Game

Each topic will be treated globally as a concept; individual plays will be discussed only within the context of specific examples.

10. Conclusions: Dealing with Challenges and Problems.

to jump on the stimulus money chase for fully integrated EMRs and CPOE compliance.

http://www.epocrates.com/company/news/020410.html

http://geekdoctor.blogspot.com/2010/04/ipad-goes-live-at-bidmc.html

http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2010/04/ipad-er-hands-physician-review.html

http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2010/02/10-ways-apple-ipad-doctors-improve-patient-care.html

http://blogs.ubc.ca/dean/2010/04/apples-ipad-arrives-for-doctors/

http://labs.eweek.com/review/review-ipad-has-some-quirks-but-mostly-meets-high-expectations/

Being a third of the cost of the standard Windows Tablet and worlds more intuitive (without many of the quirks of its OS), Steve Jobs' main consumer of these devices will likely come from Health System Networks across the country.

A missed opportunity for Manchester United tonight to make the semis of the Champions League. They looked pretty good prior to half time, leading 3-0 but Bayern managed to scrape one back just before the break. Ironically, it was ex Chelsea wing man Arjen Robben who made it 3-2, who was then briskly substituted in the 75th minute having secured the second vital away goal dumping Man Utd out of the Champions League 2010.

I am nearing completion on this spring football's video handout/playbook.
Once I get this completed, then all I have to do is show up and sip margaritas at practice for three weeks.



I hope this ends up even better than previous handouts .

[Powerpoint animation captures courtesy of Camtasia ]

The only thing left is to add the important narration and some Easter eggs for the players (incentivizing watching the material). We will likely have no returning players to the secondary, so getting this new (sophomore-heavy) group ready (and avoid many of the unnecessary mistakes) right away will be a welcome challenge.


Introduction of alignment, assignment, keys, and leverage. Then followed up by pattern matching examples of common concepts we will face. The DVD will also feature the C1 and C3 video clips of NCAA teams, as well. I intentionally included clips of when a DB was 'wrong', followed up with a clip of correctly playing a route, so they could see what kind of common mistakes to avoid.


UPDATE:
Here is the 10 minute overview with narration. Yahoo couldn't take the entire clip, so I had to break it into thirds. The audio was forced and I tried cramming a lot into short amount of time, but this is something the players can review again and again (ala a crash course in 'whats important').

Champions League Result 6th April 2010: Barca 4: Arsenal 1

Last night Arsenal were absolutely battered by a team that Wenger readily admitted is "better than us [Arsenal] and that has the best player in the world". He described Messi as "unstoppable" and "the only player who can change direction at such a pace."

As well as all the accolades from players and commentators alike, there is little argument that Messi's form for Barca this year has been outstanding. Having already hit three hat-tricks in Barca colours in 2010, he upped his game even further against Arsenal and scored four goals in a match for the first time in his career. However Messi refused to bask in his own personal glory and praised the rest of his team.

So given his unquestionable talent and a penchant for modesty and teamwork, is this 22 year old Argentinian the perfect player? Some critics point out than in 18 matches for Argentina, Messi has only managed 4 goals, although those close to the South American game say this is due to weaknesses in the squad as a whole. Gooners currently licking their wounds might point out that he failed to score at the Emirates last week, which is certainly true. These points aside, after tonight's performance, is there a manager in the world who wouldn't pick Messi?

There is no doubt that Messi is an all-time great and fantastic for the neutral to watch. However even a player of his quality needs a good team around him to really shine. Just to rub salt in the Gooner wounds, their all time top scorer and darling of North London, Thierry Henry, didn't even get off the bench in this encounter. That's how strong Barca is.

a great article out of Monroe (near Ruston) explaining how simple Louisiana Tech's Air Raid has become.....

by Ethan Conley

Talk to a few players and you’ll get the impression that Louisiana Tech’s old playbook was the college football equivalent of War and Peace. The new playbook? It’s more like a pamphlet.

That’s if you could even call it a playbook. The players don’t necessarily refer to what they’re running as plays, but “concepts.” Change a few details and a single concept grows into an offensive attack that looks overwhelming to opposing defenses, but could be executed by the Bulldogs with their eyes closed. Eventually, anyway.“Last year we had a lot on our plate with that offense,” quarterback Steven Ensminger said. “We had to learn a lot, we had to know a lot. This year it’s real simple. Everybody works together, everybody knows their assignment, and it’s working real well.”

Tech’s new philosophy is simple: If an offense practices a play 1,000 times that play is going to be very difficult for a defense to stop, even if it knows exactly what is coming. Execution beats variety. And if variety is needed, a little window dressing — different formations, sending a man in motion — can turn a single play into multiple plays.“You want it to look complicated, but to really be simple,” Dykes said. “What offense is all about is that it doesn’t really matter what kind of offense you run. It’s all about execution and having something to hang your hat on.”

Dykes left Texas Tech to be Arizona’s offensive coordinator in 2007, and stuck to the basic principles from the offenses at Kentucky and Texas Tech. He kept it simple. His offense at Arizona was built on just 23 basic plays: five run plays, seven intermediate passes, five quick passes, three play-action passes, and three screen passes.Now that philosophy is at Louisiana Tech.“It’s way less (plays),” running back Roosevelt Falls said. “It’s only a few. It’s only the details that you’ve got to remember in the plays. Little things change about the plays. It’s the same plays, but little things change about them — the formation, where you’re running your route from, who they’re tagging.”Another key concept in the offense is speed — and not just when the ball is in play. The Bulldogs rarely huddle, and instead make their calls at the line of scrimmage. They minimize the time between snaps and keep the defense on its heels. It’s essentially a two-minute offense for all 60 minutes.And it’s only going to get faster.

Dykes said he’d like to run 85 offensive plays each game. How fast is that? Only two teams in the Football Bowl Subdivision averaged more than 80 per game last season: Houston at 82, and Texas A&M at 81. Dykes’ offense at Arizona averaged 70 plays per game, and Franklin’s offense at Middle Tennessee State averaged 73.