In what has to have been the worst exhibition of tackling I've ever witnessed, Texas Tech managed to outscore Texas. It appeared that each teams' half time speech included, "Oh yeah, and don't worry about tackling this half."

Using the word pathetic to describe the tackling is insufficient to express the total lack of ability to stop runners.

Louisville has had that non tackle disease all season long.

Players seem to want to hit instead of tackle.

But Tech over the last few years has been one of the worst tackling teams in the country. Under Charlie Strong (and the year before when Diaz was D coordinator-before he got fired) Texas has frequently displayed symptoms of Alzheimer's when it came to tackling technique.

In fairness to the players, the QBs and running backs have gotten a lot bigger, often bigger than the LBs and DBs.

(11-27-2015 11:31 AM)bullet Wrote:  In fairness to the players, the QBs and running backs have gotten a lot bigger, often bigger than the LBs and DBs.

True. Tackling will also improve if the refs would start calling holding more. I see unbelievable holding on nearly every play which goes uncalled. They should at least disallow wrapping arms around defensive players. Seems to me that most officiating changes lately favor offense.

They tackle a lot less in practice these days. The worries over injuries, specifically head injuries have hamstrung coaches in their abilities to coach to the fullest. The sad thing is that without that kind of intense training and practice, tackling actually becomes more dangerous during the games.

(11-27-2015 11:39 AM)Gray Avenger Wrote:  

(11-27-2015 11:31 AM)bullet Wrote:  In fairness to the players, the QBs and running backs have gotten a lot bigger, often bigger than the LBs and DBs.

True. Tackling will also improve if the refs would start calling holding more. I see unbelievable holding on nearly every play which goes uncalled. They should at least disallow wrapping arms around defensive players. Seems to me that most officiating changes lately favor offense.

Even more than holding, they need to get some consistency on pass interference.

They are afraid to get the "targeting" penalty and get thrown out of the game.

In fairness, it is the Big12 where defense takes a back seat of offense. In my experience they tend to stack talent on the offensive side of the ball to the detriment of the defense.

(11-27-2015 11:30 AM)bullet Wrote:  Players seem to want to hit instead of tackle.

... because a solid wrap-up tackle won't get replayed on TV, but Clowney's monster hit on that Michigan player in their bowl game was shown on SportsCenter about a million times.

Sadly when I tried out for my high school football team as a freshman, we were taught not to lead with our heads. It was a way to avoid serious injuries. I am seeing kids being paralyzed because they are being taught the wrong way to tackle. Some wind up dying.

Yep.

It's a classic Catch-22 where if you try to tackle, you could easily wind up with a targeting penalty or even paralysis but if you don't try, you could let the offensive player have a sizable advantage and look bad or as if you aren't trying hard enough.