Really can't get over how the defense has cratered. There was a time when Pete's tackling technique was being copied around football. Now his players are using matador capes.
Back in 2014, Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll, with the help of former assistant Rocky Seto, did something that professional coaches would rarely ever do: Release an instructional video that would help teach other teams, coaches, and players replicate what the Seahawks do so well. That thing that they do so well is tackling, but Carroll felt an obligation to try and help others have the same level of success and technique as Seattle has in that regard because it seemed so beneficial to the safety of the game and long-term health of the players.
In the video, Carroll lays out six types of tackling techniques, including “Hawk Tackle,” “Tracking,” and “Compression Tackle,” all of which are meant to improve how a defender approaches and makes contact with the ball-carrier by taking the head out of the action. The shoulder-level, “rugby style” tackling techniques, which the Seahawks have been using every year under Carroll as he started coaching this as far back as his USC days, helped Seattle’s defense reach historical levels from 2012-2015; in their Super Bowl win over the Denver Broncos, the Seahawks had just two missed tackles in the 43-8 win, their second-best game of that season in that category. The success that their defensive backs have with tackling continues to this day:
Chris Ash, former co-defensive coordinator for the Buckeyes, said he watched the video at least 20 times when it came out in 2014.
“The Pete Carroll video really got a lot of people to go back and evaluate what they’re doing, but not a lot of people necessarily bought into it because it’s different,” Ash said. “ If you get out of your comfort zone, people are willing to do that. We did, and it paid off. … If you’re a coach that’s been doing the same thing for 30 years and felt like you’ve had success doing it, why am I going to change what I’m doing? I1 look at it differently. There’s always a way to do stuff better. You’ve got to at least evaluate it.”
Ash said it wasn’t exactly easy, but eventually convinced head coach Urban Meyer and Ohio State’s defensive assistants, to go along with Carroll’s technique. That takes some guts for a guy who was in his first season as the Buckeyes’ co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach. It’s a risk to just start changing how you teach players to do the one thing that happens on almost every play, which is tackling.
Ohio State won the national championship that following season
What happened?
