Schlereth: I completely concur. You know, I have a tough time watching college football because the position I played is played so poorly. Um, and there’s not a whole lot of requirements. I was talking to a college coach just yesterday who talked about trying to do virtual walkthroughs. You know, creating virtual walkthroughs – it’s like putting guys in a video game. And I’m like, ‘Honestly, on the surface it sounds really cool, but the bottom line is – you’re not gonna have – you don’t get the feel of the game until you’re practicing at a speed that replicates the feel of the game.’ So, it’s really a hard thing and nowadays with all the spread offense, you see guys who don’t work – a couple of things. ONE, you don’t see guys who work in combination well together – and that’s a huge part of the next level when you’re transitioning to the National Football League. College football’s such a 1:1 game where the NFL is such a concept - all 5 guys working as one. So, you see guys fundamentally who don’t know how to do that coming out of college. And then the other thing is, with the spread offense – nobody hits anybody anymore. I mean, I’ll tell you what – I had a coach tell me, who went to an Oregon practice, and the practice, the Spring Ball practice, sounded like they broke out a pillow fight. They’re just running around – nobody hits anybody anymore. So, it’s just a really tough transition when you get to the next level , you know, and it’s just hard because the 2 games are just so different from one another. And it’s really harder to develop (in my mind) running backs, harder to develop offensive line, harder to develop in line tight ends, harder to develop quarterbacks when (basically) the fundamentals of football are lost because it’s all about speed, how many reps we can get, and kind of one-read, ‘Hey we’re going to throw the slant’ if we got press, we’re going to throw the fade. And, you know, you’re reading one guy. And that’s what college football has kind of become in many instances.”
Wyman: “Yeah, you know Mark I agree with you man that it’s become more about scheme. And, you know, there’s some coaches that, ‘Yeah, I’m going to scheme you to death”. The Seahawks, I think, are – they have a little bit of an advantage over other teams and I think this is something that is going to really start to become more – I don’t want to say fashionable – of getting coached in technique in all of the things that help you win games. I mean, those are the things that win games – is, the lower guy wins, the hand placement – all those kinds of things. And that’s what Cable’s teaching. They had Dan Quinn as D Line coach here. I mean, those are the things that they really concentrate [on] here and I think there’s a little bit of a battle shaping up between the scheme coaches and then the coaches that put guys in the best position and teach them – give them the tools to win battles.”
Schlereth: “Right. I think what happens often times is – and, you know, I always say this and I say it kind of tongue in cheek (but it’s real), um, you know football and genius are mutually exclusive events. Um, you’re not playing in the league or coaching in the league if you’re a genius. I mean, bottom line is – I gorged myself from the time I was 15 to be heavy enough by the time I reached the NFL to play offensive line. And then I strapped a thin piece of plastic on my head and rammed it into other 300 pound mens’ heads. That doesn’t take genius. That’s actually stupid. And you know what, I did it willingly. And here’s the deal – things that don’t go in and out of vogue – you know, we’ll have different systems. It’s the West Coast Systems. It’s this system. You know what, blocking guys … tackling guys. That never goes in and out. You’re always going to have to be able to do that. Moving a guy from Point A to Point B against his will is the essence of football and Seattle – the Seahawks – do it better than anybody else in the league and that’s why they’re better. That’s why they can make up for – we can talk all day long – they have injuries up front. They still find a way to win ball games and to run the ball. They have a receiving corps that a lot of people say, ‘Ah, they don’t have that #1 Dynamic Guy’ but you know what, they still find ways to throw the football because you have to be so on your game as far as defending the run and the physical aggressive style that you’re going to have guys bite on the play action, going to have guys get wide open, because of their physicality. So, there’s no question I think teams all over the league are looking at Seattle going, ‘We need to be more like that and less like what we did.”
