Welcome to the Friday Feedback, which does this because you like it. Can’t say that Keith Patterson has the same M.O.
But that’s good news for you and for WVU’s defense.
In some 30 minutes of conversation yesterday evening, Patterson answered some questions and then later shared some details about the particulars of his defense. He was eventually drawn out of his seat to act out certain defensive line alignments and defensive back tactics. Coaches aren’t prone to demonstrate things like this too often and, to be honest, my impression of Patterson in the still brief time I’ve known him is that he’d be reluctant to say too much — and we would all understand that.
This is not to say he told us everything, but it was more than the handful of us could have expected. It was great, to be perfectly honest. I might write a new book. I wrote a little about it today, but I have plenty more to share.
What stuck with me was how one seemingly logical and certainly useful way Patterson has developed his defense through the years, beginning in 2000 when Clemson’s young offensive coordinator visited Texas’s Allen High, where Patterson as an assistant. Would you believe The Product was making a deposit in WVU’s future?
“He absolutely changed the way I coached,” Patterson said. “He changed the way I played defense.”
Patterson believed what others still do, that what Rodriguez got going at Glenville State and brought to Tulane and Clemson revolutionized college football offenses. This was option football with wing-T principles and just enough misdirection to screw up every defense.
“We brought him in for three days and I just listened to him,” Patterson said. “I sat there and just took notes.”
If Rodriguez was going to change offense, he was going to make a defensive coach’s life miserable. Right there, Patterson began to understand that to flip the script he needed to know what made Rodriguez miserable.
Patterson climbed the proverbial professional ladder, reaching Tulsa and then Pitt before a brief stop at Arkansas State preceded his job at WVU. He remembered the Rodriguez offense and when he was building game plans for the opponent, he would focus not on what the offense liked, but on what the offense didn’t like or sought to avoid.
On and on it went and Patterson was successful, but also fortunate. While he was with the Golden Hurricane, he witnessed some other dynamic minds up close and worked with offensive coordinators Gus Malzahn and Chad Morris. They were, in essence, Rodriguez in different times, innovators who were going to affect college offense. That meant Patterson would again find the things they didn’t like and he’d accomplish that by just listening.
“I’d sit there and listen to those guys and listen to them talk about what they tell their quarterback,” Patterson said. “Whatever they’d tell their quarterback, I’d say, ‘OK, I’m going to do the opposite.’ Over the course of time, a long period of time, I’ve tried to develop everything they don’t want.”
What strikes me most is that while I was impressed by Patterson’s ingenuity, it seems pretty obvious. How does a defense disturb an offense? Discover what disturbs the offense. Brilliant! Brilliant?
Onto the Feedback? Onto the Feedback! As always, comments appear as posted. In other words, if you don’t read the label, you might get poisoned. (Anybody grasp that one?)
(Also, thanks for the submission tips for the “Greatest Blog Ever” award. I found five and now we’re going to win. Then we’ll have subs. It’ll be crazy. And, I promise, that’s as Beilein as I’ll get. Go Blue.)
Mack said:
Mike, in the video blog, how about you give some dap to a guy who accurately predicted three of the four Final Four teams… including two of which that were 4 seeds that very few people were talking about pre-tournament. On top of that, said person’s fourth Final Four team was eliminated in the Elite 8. That’s about as good as it gets.
Oh no … Mackstradamus!
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