STARKVILLE – Mike Leach arrived on the podium at the Mississippi State’s Wingo Auditorium in a pink floral shirt and took his place to converse about the war.
The lesson taught by Mississippi Leach football coach and former Washington state senator Michael Baumgarner on Friday was about football, the rebel war, and how they intersect.
They discussed how resources could shape strategy, thought about what position Geronimo would play in football, and handed out homework to give them a chance to win passes at the start of the Bulldogs’ season against Memphis.
Mississippi defender Will Rodgers even showed up to discuss what it’s like to organize a comeback under pressure.
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Here are five lessons from the class:
An insurgent is usually a loser
By definition, an insurgent is a person who rebels against a government or civil authority.
From a football standpoint, this makes them weak, a team struggling in hopes of surpassing traditional favorites.
“Insurgents are fighting differently than conventional fighters because they are usually unlucky,” Baumgartner said. They usually have to go slower. And they are trying to overthrow an existing conventional fighter, so they will fight differently. The insurgents are volunteers. “
Resources can shape strategy in football and war
Insurgent tactics differ from traditional military tactics, in part because of the resource gap between the authority and the group that fights it.
Similarly, there are football programs that can load more five-star and four-star recruits than other programs.
“If you have the most resources, you can beat some of your competition,” Leach said. “Maybe everything. But if you don’t have the most resources, then you have to find a way to keep your opponent off balance and stretch those resources.”
Insult is about creating space
Leach posted a clip of last year’s match against Kentucky. On the outside was a receiver with one-on-one coverage. He explained looking for a piece of field where there was a lot of green grass he could use.
“The attack is trying to create space. That’s what the crime is trying to create space,” Leach said. “If you can create space, you can do a lot of good things. Defense tries to limit space … everything you do in an attack should be designed to create space.”
The only knowledge that has value is “doable knowledge
Leach was asked how today’s analyst is affecting his Air-Raid offense. He said there were more numbers today than ever before and mentioned that he would talk about them at the Sloan MIT Sports Analytics conference.
However, he said that no matter how much we can measure in terms of analytics, the only thing that is really useful is the kind that others can understand and use.
“I think it’s useful,” Leach said. “And it’s illustrative for some things, and we’re constantly looking at it to see what we can sift through and learn … but you have to be very selective first about what you give players and secondly about what you I will sit down and confuse my mind. “
You can never score too soon
Leach said he heard people arguing that violations score too early. He said there was no such thing in football.
“The most important points are,” Leach said.