Jeff Grimes' Impact on Pass Protection

The players are learning technique for the first time under Grimes.

We taught it before here, it was primarily hat on hat blocking. He's doing an infinitely better job of teaching footwork (6 inch step vs. 1 foot) and hand placement.

The only caveat is, you won't really see the full results for another year or two, when you've had guys getting this stuff drilled into them for 3-4 years.

Go watch Wisconsin and then go to the Ole Miss/Bama games. The level of improvement is astronomical. Everyone was hating on Grimes, but I'm betting these are the guys that don't realize how hard it is to play on the line. Once our guys started to understand the scheme and know their assignments, you could see Grimes affect. I am really interested to see Vadal and Hawkins this year as they are both extremely talented, big guys who with great technique could give us a devastating Tackle combination.

Also I noticed last year vs the 3 years before, our O Line was actually able to pull and able to get off of the blocks and get over for screen plays to the RBs. We missed that for a while...

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or that Bama game for that matter

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That was such an embarrassment in the second half of that game. Stud had no answer for Bama's blitzes & stunt twist. It got Mett absolutely killed & made our lineman seem to give up.

It was the same issues early in the GOTC where Lee was getting tremendous pressure in his face early & often. They only answer Stud had that game was to bring in Jefferson & the threat of the option. I'm not sure many realize just how bad Stud was for us from a preparation & ability to make in game adjustments standpoint.

I remember going into last year a few comments from one or more linemen that Grimes was making all of the OL put in more work with understanding defensive schemes. I don't remember exactly, but it had something to do with each player moving beyond just understanding their basic role on a given play to understanding what everyone on defense was trying to do in certain alignments, etc., as well as how their fellow oline would be responding in such situations.

In theory, that top level view should give each player a greater ability to anticipate when defenders are setting up to run stunts, help with communication across the line, etc.

I don't know if that sort of teaching was lacking or not under Stud (that a player commented it became a greater point of emphasis with Grimes may have as much to do with that player as it did to Stud/Grimes). And I don't know how much of a role something like this may have attributed to improvement over the course of last season, but this thread reminded me of that.

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Also I noticed last year vs the 3 years before, our O Line was actually able to pull and able to get off of the blocks and get over for screen plays to the RBs. We missed that for a while...

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Bring back the JAILBREAK!

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Part of our early difficulties on the line last year was due to the fact that we transitioned from a man blocking scheme to a zone blocking scheme. It does take a little while to learn the differences.

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100% correct

They clearly improved thru the season. Another year in the new scheme can only help.

Imagine what will happen when LSU can actually throw the ball with consistency and teams cant stack the box.

I still wasn't crazy about pass protection last year, but I agree with you it was improved. Although our QBs were very inconsistent in passing, protection, subjectively looked better.

On the other hand, we really didn't pass very much in the grand scheme of things. I don't know if that helps or hurts a pass-blocking scheme, to be honest with you.