http://www.goviks.com/release.asp?RELEASE_ID=2915
8/13/2007
Breakfast With Jerry: Not Your Average Coaching Plan
The hat and the sunglasses were also the same on Monday morning.
The Portland State Vikings began their second week of preseason practice at 7 a.m. on Monday morning. As has been the case all along in the new Jerry Glanville era, the Vikings are doing things a little different.
The Vikings don't tackle and don't scrimmage in practice.... wait a minute, this is football right?
"We don't want to lose anybody that can play by scrimmaging in practice," said Glanville. "But, we want to run 100 miles an hour, chase every play, get into position to hit and act like you are going to tackle. It's a little bit spooky for your first couple of games when you are new."
Spooky maybe, but Glanville has done it that way everywhere he has been. And everywhere he has been, from college to NFL and back again, his teams have been known for hard-hitting defense.
Glanville recounts the start of the 2006 season when he was the defensive coordinator at Hawai'i: "When we played Alabama last year, I had to go tell every kid in the locker room before the game, 'the quarterback is live,' because I realized, we hadn't hit a quarterback since the last season. We don't hit 'em in the spring either. You should have seen the kids."
"That'll be the first time when the quarterback is live for us (at Portland State), is when we are at McNeese (Sept. 1) in Lake Charles, Louisiana."
Did the "no-go-to-full-go" style work at Hawai'i? The statistics bear it out from the 2005 to 2006 seasons. The Warriors' record improved from 5-7 to 11-3, and the defense allowed 61 fewer yards and 11 fewer points per game to opponents.
More Glanville-style coaching is revealed in his emphasis for week two: It's actually still week one.
"We came right back today and it was first day of practice. Our insertion calendar, our call sheet, everything," he said. "Tonight in the meetings, we'll prepare for our second day of practice. Insertion takes six days. So for every six days we go back and start over. Today's practice was identical to the first practice. By your third insertion, you hope everybody has got it."
Doubles begin on Tuesday for the Vikings, which means there's now an extra practice. What will the Vikings do? "The first practice in doubles is 90 minutes of kicking." Why? "Because it's that important," says Glanville.
So, would Glanville consider his coaching style unconventional?
"A lot of people think it's crazy! But, I've been coaching like that since the sixth-grade picnic."
Portland State practices 7-9 a.m. and 1:30 to 4 p.m. on Tuesday and Thursday and Saturday this week. Wednesday and Friday practices are singles from 7-9 a.m. All practices take place at Stott Community Field on the PSU campus.