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Compton and Lewan Interview Arthur Smith


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The most telling thing about this interview to me is Smith's trepidation and hesitation when asked about how much he learned from LaFleur. He started talking about how LaFleur has been in the same sys

Lol here is a great quote from Smith, talking about coaches that don't "understand or remember what plays look like through a facemask":    "Some coaches are so hard headed and fixed. One th

This podcast is already pretty amazing. Compton and Lewan are great at this. I'm actually surprised the Titans PR department is even allowing it, tbh.     

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They spent a good portion also talking about Russ Grimm and Arthur Smith was gushing about him. 

 

Smith also talked about how he thought coaching in college was "turning him into an asshole" because of how those coaches are. Said he never understands how some coaches feel like - "Oh wow I've arrived, I'm awesome because I got this new job and this big fancy title"

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25 minutes ago, tgo said:

The most telling thing about this interview to me is Smith's trepidation and hesitation when asked about how much he learned from LaFleur. He started talking about how LaFleur has been in the same system his whole career and wanted things done a certain way, basically danced around the fact that he wasn't open minded - "he had strong opinions because he had been in one system, but he would at least hear you out"

 

He talked about how LaFleur is a good person but added "we have completely different personalities."

 

I almost guarantee that he and Vrabel butted heads a lot, and that regarding some of the conflict we saw on the surface throughout the season, there was a lot more fire behind the scenes producing that smoke. 

You can tell within the first couple of minutes how different Smith is from LaFleur.

 

I guess being hardheaded and stuck in your ways isn't limited to just country bumpkin types like Robiskie. Educated, articulate-sounding folks can be just as stuck. Good luck with that in Green Bay, Matt.

 

Hopefully Smith will turn out to be a good cross between "bumpkin" and "educated".

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Most teams hire a coordinator or HC to implement their system/vision.  It's not uncommon for these leaders to be firm in their system.  That doesn't mean things don't evolve because teams constantly copy what other teams are doing successfully.

 

LaFleur seemed to adapt his play calling based upon a better feel for the talent he had to work with.  As poor as the offense was, there's no question it was better after the bye week in terms of efficiency (it had to be).

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6 minutes ago, BudAdams said:

Most teams hire a coordinator or HC to implement their system/vision.  It's not uncommon for these leaders to be firm in their system.  That doesn't mean things don't evolve because teams constantly copy what other teams are doing successfully.

 

LaFleur seemed to adapt his play calling based upon a better feel for the talent he had to work with.  As poor as the offense was, there's no question it was better after the bye week in terms of efficiency (it had to be).

LaFleur adapted his play calling partly because Vrabel forced him to.

 

From the beginning, Vrabel made him implement a lot of different things, particularly wild cat and more screens - this is well documented, as well as being a running offense. (Obviously LaFleur's scheme is predicated on the marriage of the run-pass game and requires running, but Vrabel smartly mandated that we be a run-first team considering our personnel. He talked about this every single week - "We're going to run the ball") 

 

But specifically after the bye, there was a mandate to run the ball more and do more high percentage throws. We all saw Vrabel yelling into the headset at LaFleur to run the ball. 

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I liked a lot of MLF’s ideas and concepts....but developing ideas and drawing up a blueprint is one thing;  implemention and execution is a different matter entirely.  Considering the wholesale struggles we saw with every aspect of the offense,   I’m not at all convinced LaFleur was up to the task.  

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1 hour ago, tgo said:

Lol here is a great quote from Smith, talking about coaches that don't "understand or remember what plays look like through a facemask": 

 

"Some coaches are so hard headed and fixed. One thing that makes my skin crawl is these little quarterback guys that say 'this guy's soft, he's so soft' and I just roll my eyes like - 'I'd *love* to see you get in a stance, come across on one of those sift blocks and see how soft you'd look' - it'd probably make him cry, you know what I'm saying? That gets my skin crawling and sadly I've seen that happen at every level"

 

Lewan was like "that just made me so happy" earlier when Smith was expounding about how it's important to remember what things look like behind a face-mask and to not tell guys how something is "so simple" when it isn't and when you're asking a guy to make 3 different decisions between the snap and contact. 

 

These guys are going to be ready to run through a wall for Smith. I bet with Smith's background and personality, the offense is going to restore that physical element that was lost under LaFleur. 

 

Side note too: Bill O'Brien tried to recruit Arthur Smith to Georgia Tech before he went to North Carolina, so that's another Vrabel/Patriots connection there. And Dennis Kelly's borther Tim Kelly is the OC for O'Brien there in Houston, so there's a LOT of connection to that team with all the assistant coaches we brought over from Houston. 

 

Compton also talked about how the way Vrabel ties things in on defense makes complex concepts he's heard at other places make so much more sense. 

Fans who have actually played the game will take more from this than those who haven't, by far.

I see this all the time in punditry too.

Too many people often think this game, and especially certain aspects or components of the game, are simple.  And they're not, at all.  Good-great coaches know this.

 

The change from power scheme to the zone scheme is a good example of that.  Running behind one or the other isn't nearly the same for the RBs either. 

Fans seemed to think switching should/would be simple.  But it's not at all.  Arthur obviously gets that.

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