We caught up with offensive line coach Bob Connelly this week to discuss multiple topics, including USC's run game, the performance of the line and penalties.
Coach Sarkisian said the Sun Devils were selling out against the run. What exactly were they doing?
BC: “A lot of zone pressure, max in the box, having one more defender in than we can block or account for. So our objective there would be to get the ball started and lose to the widest guy. Never did we want to lose to a second level defender and always the widest guy away from the play. But they were bringing, I’ve never been blitzed as much as we were blitzed in that game, in 21 years of college coaching. I mean, It’s amazing how much, he was methodical and kept coming, kept coming, kept going. So a lot, a lot, a lot of zone pressures, brought some man pressures but more zone pressures. And they were committing seven or eight man boxes based on our personnel. If we had a tight end in, we had five guys plus a tight end at six, well they’d have seven defenders coming when we had six offenders blocking. And anytime we had a tight end, fullback which gives us seven blockers now, they had an eight man box.
"But again, as a result, as you guys saw, we were very effective throwing the football. Pass protection was pretty good all night, so we had really, really good numbers. Because when you do that as a play caller, defensively, you’re expecting the defense to hold up, secondary wise. And obviously our receivers were making plays, quarterback and receivers were making plays based on them putting a lot of stress on the back end, forcing all those, committing that many defenders to the run.”
How much did they blitz?
BC: “I think they were a 58 percent or 62 percent blitz team coming into our game on normal downs. And they were very high percentage on third downs. But I just felt like they were blitzing every down. It was very, very few plays were non blitz.”
How would you assess the O-line's progress?
BC: “I think we’re a lot better. We’re continuing to progress. Obviously we’re nowhere where we need to be, tons of room for improvement. Again, it was a great challenge this last week because of all the pressures they were bringing. They put a lot of stress on both the offensive line and running backs and tight ends for that point in the pass protection game. I thought we had a great plan. We had one bust upfront, including the running backs. We turned a linebacker free on one blitz that should have been picked up. And then we had a physical defeat in the red zone for that sack fumble. Outside of that, I thought we held up pretty well versus all the pressures. Multiple, multiple, multiple, they’re a big linebacker and secondary pressure team and they brought a lot of secondary blitzes as well as crossing and mixing their linebackers. So a lot of stress.
"What happens is, the reality is this: on the defensive side of the ball, if you rush five or you rush six and you have five blockers or six blockers, they’re counting on one guy to win. One guy on their side wins, they all win. We got to have five guys do their job on every play or six guys do their job on every play. If one guy, four guys do a great job and one guy gets beat, we all look like a mess. And that’s what we as spectators don’t understand in this game. So when there’s a physical defeat on one guy, on one given play, we all want to ridicule the whole group and that’s not fair to them. But that’s the reality, that’s the nature of the beast, that’s the game. So that’s why you have a mentality like Todd Graham, doing what he does. Because he’s counting on one guy to win their one-on-one. We have to have five or six guys every snap when they’re bringing pressure, running backs included, tight ends, included, to do their job in order to hold up and be successful. That’s the philosophy of where he’s coming from and why he does that. And as a whole I thought we held up pretty well.”
What do you make of all the penalties?
BC: “There’s no excuse, there’s no excuse, I don’t have anything, it’s unacceptable. I call them stupid penalties. A penalty before the snap is absolutely unacceptable. We got to clean that up, it’s the first road game, obviously. I would expect vast improvement as we move forward going into more hostile environments and going on the road. So there’s no excuse for that. We got to be better, there’s no excuse for it.”
How confident would you say you guys are running between tackles right now?
BC: “I think we’re confident. Again, Graham did a great job of trying to move, he was bringing double edge pressure and moving the front every snap. So they would long stick, they’d go across two gaps, they’d go across one gap and two or three guys coming off the edge. So they were trying to void that area. We hit a couple big plays on them. We didn’t take advantage of some things and I’m not going to say exactly what because we’re going to play them again and again and again. But we will have a better answer in certain situations for what they were doing. But I think we’re very confident, I think we’re very multiple.
"We’ve had a lot of success running outside, we’ve had a lot of success running inside. We had a concept in this game that we had a couple errors mentally, assignment wise, again, not speaking on who, but assignment wise, that we could have had some really big plays that we didn’t take advantage of versus those pressures. So, we got it coached up, we tried to correct on the sideline, we walked through on Sunday and again I continue to impress on them, we got to continue to get better each and everyday. It’s about doing the little things, fundamentals, assignments. Our communication as a group wasn’t very good. We have to do a better job communicating what we’re seeing.”
How much did previously coaching at ASU help you prepare for that game?
BC: “I don’t know. I like to think it helps obviously because I know the philosophy both offensively and defensively, being a part of that system and being in the organization. I know Todd Graham, it goes way back. I was at UTEP for four years and he was at Tulsa so I played a lot of football against his defenses. So I know those guys very well. And I’m certainly not crediting myself to the success we had, that’s not the point, but I feel like I know his philosophy is defensively.”
Coach Sarkisian said the Sun Devils were selling out against the run. What exactly were they doing?
BC: “A lot of zone pressure, max in the box, having one more defender in than we can block or account for. So our objective there would be to get the ball started and lose to the widest guy. Never did we want to lose to a second level defender and always the widest guy away from the play. But they were bringing, I’ve never been blitzed as much as we were blitzed in that game, in 21 years of college coaching. I mean, It’s amazing how much, he was methodical and kept coming, kept coming, kept going. So a lot, a lot, a lot of zone pressures, brought some man pressures but more zone pressures. And they were committing seven or eight man boxes based on our personnel. If we had a tight end in, we had five guys plus a tight end at six, well they’d have seven defenders coming when we had six offenders blocking. And anytime we had a tight end, fullback which gives us seven blockers now, they had an eight man box.
"But again, as a result, as you guys saw, we were very effective throwing the football. Pass protection was pretty good all night, so we had really, really good numbers. Because when you do that as a play caller, defensively, you’re expecting the defense to hold up, secondary wise. And obviously our receivers were making plays, quarterback and receivers were making plays based on them putting a lot of stress on the back end, forcing all those, committing that many defenders to the run.”
How much did they blitz?
BC: “I think they were a 58 percent or 62 percent blitz team coming into our game on normal downs. And they were very high percentage on third downs. But I just felt like they were blitzing every down. It was very, very few plays were non blitz.”
How would you assess the O-line's progress?
BC: “I think we’re a lot better. We’re continuing to progress. Obviously we’re nowhere where we need to be, tons of room for improvement. Again, it was a great challenge this last week because of all the pressures they were bringing. They put a lot of stress on both the offensive line and running backs and tight ends for that point in the pass protection game. I thought we had a great plan. We had one bust upfront, including the running backs. We turned a linebacker free on one blitz that should have been picked up. And then we had a physical defeat in the red zone for that sack fumble. Outside of that, I thought we held up pretty well versus all the pressures. Multiple, multiple, multiple, they’re a big linebacker and secondary pressure team and they brought a lot of secondary blitzes as well as crossing and mixing their linebackers. So a lot of stress.
"What happens is, the reality is this: on the defensive side of the ball, if you rush five or you rush six and you have five blockers or six blockers, they’re counting on one guy to win. One guy on their side wins, they all win. We got to have five guys do their job on every play or six guys do their job on every play. If one guy, four guys do a great job and one guy gets beat, we all look like a mess. And that’s what we as spectators don’t understand in this game. So when there’s a physical defeat on one guy, on one given play, we all want to ridicule the whole group and that’s not fair to them. But that’s the reality, that’s the nature of the beast, that’s the game. So that’s why you have a mentality like Todd Graham, doing what he does. Because he’s counting on one guy to win their one-on-one. We have to have five or six guys every snap when they’re bringing pressure, running backs included, tight ends, included, to do their job in order to hold up and be successful. That’s the philosophy of where he’s coming from and why he does that. And as a whole I thought we held up pretty well.”
What do you make of all the penalties?
BC: “There’s no excuse, there’s no excuse, I don’t have anything, it’s unacceptable. I call them stupid penalties. A penalty before the snap is absolutely unacceptable. We got to clean that up, it’s the first road game, obviously. I would expect vast improvement as we move forward going into more hostile environments and going on the road. So there’s no excuse for that. We got to be better, there’s no excuse for it.”
How confident would you say you guys are running between tackles right now?
BC: “I think we’re confident. Again, Graham did a great job of trying to move, he was bringing double edge pressure and moving the front every snap. So they would long stick, they’d go across two gaps, they’d go across one gap and two or three guys coming off the edge. So they were trying to void that area. We hit a couple big plays on them. We didn’t take advantage of some things and I’m not going to say exactly what because we’re going to play them again and again and again. But we will have a better answer in certain situations for what they were doing. But I think we’re very confident, I think we’re very multiple.
"We’ve had a lot of success running outside, we’ve had a lot of success running inside. We had a concept in this game that we had a couple errors mentally, assignment wise, again, not speaking on who, but assignment wise, that we could have had some really big plays that we didn’t take advantage of versus those pressures. So, we got it coached up, we tried to correct on the sideline, we walked through on Sunday and again I continue to impress on them, we got to continue to get better each and everyday. It’s about doing the little things, fundamentals, assignments. Our communication as a group wasn’t very good. We have to do a better job communicating what we’re seeing.”
How much did previously coaching at ASU help you prepare for that game?
BC: “I don’t know. I like to think it helps obviously because I know the philosophy both offensively and defensively, being a part of that system and being in the organization. I know Todd Graham, it goes way back. I was at UTEP for four years and he was at Tulsa so I played a lot of football against his defenses. So I know those guys very well. And I’m certainly not crediting myself to the success we had, that’s not the point, but I feel like I know his philosophy is defensively.”
