re: New OL coach “one of the best offensive line coaches in football”

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Ummmmm, what Joe Barksdale said mixed with the amazingly low amount of sacks his lines have given up at Tennessee, USC, and Denver.....I mean, stop asking questions when the answers are there for you to find

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He's done pretty well in the NFL and very well in CFB regarding sacks. It's not blind luck.

One of his strengths, and the NFL experience is very valuable in this, is teaching his OL to recognize what the defense can do from a certain alignment, teach his guys how to communicate that, and protect accordingly with 'triage' (e.g., if you have to choose between a LB coming up the middle or letting the DE around the outside on a straight drop back pass- chip the DE, stop the LB, QB steps up).

Coaching based on what the D 'can do', as opposed to what we all know as 'recognizing blitzs', limits the effectiveness of stunts, loops, and twists. In the NFL, and increasingly in CFB, what you see is NOT what you are going to get.

To be honest, Cregg's USC teams had issues with missed assignments and they were notorious for simply making bad first steps trying to get the perfect angle. One of his adjustments was that above. However, at one point Kiffin hired Mike Summers and basically demoted Cregg to his assistant. It seems Cregg learned that adjustment from Summers.

Also worth noting:

-that while he probably isn't as 'high character' as Grimes (who is about as classy as a nasty OL can get), he is very personable and players do like him.

- he does not believe in walk-throughs. Sees no point in doing it. If you think about above and diagnosing triage style, a walk-through is pointless. So he prefers to run play call repetition full speed (not full contact though). Orgeron did same with DL while they were at USC together. It was quite efficient.