One of the key points I’ve tried to make in regard to Bill Davis is that he now has a strong staff around him. Too often we see an offensive or defensive coordinator and judge them without looking at the assistants around them. When Jim Johnson had the Eagles defense playing great football, he had Ron Rivera, Steve Spagnuolo and Leslie Frazier helping him. Those coaches could help with schemes, gameplanning and also teaching the concepts to the players.

Kelly hired a strong group of defensive assistants to support Davis. Bill McGovern has been a terrific LB coach for years. You may have heard of some of his pupils, Luke Kuechly and Mark Herzlich. Rick Minter has been a positional assistant, coordinator and head coach at the college level. He has extensive experience with creative defenses. He was taught the Under defense by Monte Kiffin when they worked together at Arkansas and NC State. Minter ran the Notre Dame defense when they were competing for national titles in the early 90’s. He became the head coach at Cincinnati and hired guys like Rex Ryan, Mike Tomlin, John Harbaugh and Jimbo Fisher to work for him. John Lovett has been a defensive coordinator and DBs coach for 30 years.

And there is also Jerry Azzinaro.

Chris Brown of SmartFootball.com responded to yesterday’s column with some thoughts on Twitter.

@lawlornfl Good stuff, though can't overlook role of Azzinaro, who has Kelly's 100% total trust and is the Assistant Head Coach for a reason — Chris B. Brown (@smartfootball) July 16, 2014

@lawlornfl Eagles defense looks a lot like what Oregon went to after Kelly gave Azzinaro more autonomy at Oregon, where he similarly was not — Chris B. Brown (@smartfootball) July 16, 2014

@lawlornfl DC but the view was that behind the scenes he was dictating a lot more on defense than people realized. 2-gap/1-gap stuff all him — Chris B. Brown (@smartfootball) July 16, 2014

@lawlornfl I think Kelly wanted a "real" NFL DC in Davis, but Azzinaro is Kelly's eyes and ears in D meetings and reports directly to Chip — Chris B. Brown (@smartfootball) July 16, 2014

Azzinaro is a huge part of the defense. And he is Kelly’s right hand man on the Eagles. Check out these comments from last year.

“First and foremost, he’s really, really smart,” Kelly said. “He comes off as a gruff, get-after-you guy, but he’s extremely intelligent. He’s a great communicator. He can get his message across in terms of how he wants it done. He’s very detailed in his work, extremely meticulous in how he wants it done. But I think the guys gravitate to him.

“I was with him at Oregon, and it was really important for me to be with him here just because I think he’s a great teacher and great communicator.”

Kelly was asked what it means, that Azzinaro is the assistant head coach.

“[He] coaches me a lot. I mean, he’s a really special guy to be around,” Kelly said. “I think, again, he’s extremely intelligent. He’s got a great view and great mindset in terms of how he looks at not only the game, but looks at life. We all seek professor Azzinaro’s counsel a lot of times, to be honest with you.”

How many head coaches would refer to the DL coach as “professor” and make reference to “seeking his counsel”? Clearly they have a special relationship.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking Azzinaro is a “yes man” for Kelly. Azzinaro is quite the defensive guru. He made an instant impact when he joined the Oregon staff.

Kelly knew of Azzinaro’s accomplishments – most notably his work with Dwight Freeney at Syracuse – before he came to Oregon. And when Azzinaro joined New Hampshire in 2007, when Kelly came to the Ducks as offensive coordinator, he got more rave reviews.

So Kelly replaced Michael Gray with Azzinaro, and the ideas came together quickly.

“When we brought Jerry on and he brought those schemes, it didn’t take me long to go, ‘this is unbelievably good.’ ” secondary coach John Neal said. “It was better than anything I’d ever had, as a scheme, even before I walked out on the field.

“It’s fun to see it working so far. We have combined worlds. That meshing is why we’re doing well. There are no egos.”

Azzinaro, playfully gruff but as guarded as Kelly when it comes to sharing information, said it’s not really a scheme thing.

“It’s more how we operate within the scheme than the scheme itself,” Azzinaro said. “How does (undersized tackle) Brandon Bair get to function inside? How do we rotate the defensive linemen? These kinds of things.”

Azzinaro has brought the ability to play different defenses with the same personnel. When the Ducks bring in an extra defensive back, they don’t lose a pass rusher. Azzinaro’s zone blitzes have made a star out of Kenny Rowe, a hybrid end/linebacker who had seven sacks in his first seven games and six tackles Saturday against Arizona State.

By improving the linemen’s technique and bringing pressure from elsewhere, he has taken the pressure off the injury-ravaged secondary. The Ducks lead the Pac-10 in pass defense, a year after the D-Boyz – with current NFL performers Chung and Byrd – finished last.

“Instead of dropping into zones waiting for people to come to us, we’re attacking people,” linebacker Spencer Paysinger said.

Then there’s the enthusiasm that the screaming, leaping Azzinaro brings.

“Brandon Bair, Will Tukuafu, they come over and hit us in the chest if we’re tired, telling us to suck it up, give us a little chest pump,” Paysinger said. “I’d say coach Azzinaro has really planted seeds that are going to help us.”

Tukuafu, tackles Blake Ferras and Simi Toeaina and safety T.J. Ward are the only seniors on the defensive two-deep, so those seeds have time to grow. But it’s apparent the Ducks have a pretty good grasp of these schemes already.

“We’ve been able to modify our packages based on people, not zones or coverages,” Paysinger said. “We have fast (defensive ends), so we’re putting them in coverage – we know they can cover flats.

“We’re able to think on the fly – not, ‘what do we have to do here?’ or ‘this formation means we have to be here but in special cases here.’ It’s real simple: I’m going to have this person; if he motions, I’m going to have this person over here. It’s really simple for us, and it’s allowing us to play quicker because we know exactly what we’re doing.”

Aliotti gleefully explained how he can now use an odd package without having to put in an odd package, how he can make a dual call based on how the offense lines up. It’s “the best of both worlds,” he said, mixing Azzinaro’s schemes with what the Ducks had been running.

“The guy brings an amazing amount to the program, and he deserves a lot of credit,” Neal said. “But we’d like to hold the credit until the season’s over.”

There is a book called “Coaching the Under Defense” by Jerry Gordon. Where did Gordon learn the Under?

From my perspective, it’s something that we ran in college. When I was a player and then when I was coaching up at University of Massachusetts, I coached for two guys, Ted Roof who’s now Penn State’s defensive coordinator. I was also defensive line coach for Jerry Azzinaro, he’s at University of Oregon right now.

And so it’s been part of a package and it’s something that I really, really, liked. I always liked it. I put my own little flavor on it just from doing it all these years. But that’s the Genesis of it; Jim Reed, Ted Roof, and Jerry Azzinaro.

So Bill Davis has a staff full of veteran teachers. He also has smart, creative defensive coaches to help him scheme and make adjustments. This group knows how to come up with a good gameplan and then get the players to execute it.

Beyond that, there is good chemistry on the staff. Azzinaro worked with McGovern at UMass many years ago. Azzinaro worked with Minter at Marshall not too long ago. Lovett is an outsider, but has a background very similar to Azzinaro in that he’s from New York, played football at a small college, and then began coaching at small northeastern schools. These coaches get along. They work well together. Eagles fans only need to look back to 2012 to see that a dysfunctional coaching staff can kill a team.

Davis helps the situation by pointing out on a regular basis that this isn’t his scheme. The entire defensive staff had a hand in putting it together. Davis isn’t angling to be a head coach. He just wants to succeed as a defensive coordinator. The other coaches are older guys who aren’t as fixated on climbing the ladder as young coaches would be.

If the Eagles defense does ever become a really good unit, there will be a lot of people responsible for that success.

* * * * *

I mentioned time of possession in the previous post. This upset one reader. I am not an advocate of that stat. It has nothing to do with winning. That’s an old media talking point, but not something I subscribe to.

I do think time of possession can affect the defense of a team. If the opponent has fewer chances with the ball, that gives the defense an advantage. It does not guarantee success, but it can be helpful to the defense.

There was also mention that the Eagles defense can help themselves by getting more 3rd down stops. This is completely true. No one is saying any bad thing that happens on defense is the fault of Kelly and his offense. That would be silly.

That said, you’re being naive if you think Kelly’s system doesn’t affect the defense. Sometimes it helps them, sometimes it hurts them. It definitely affects them.

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