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Leatherneck Offense Looks to Pick up the Pace

| By: WIU ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS

Taking care of the ball a focus this spring

MACOMB – With a new coaching staff comes new schemes and new philosophies. Head coach Joe Davis is no different when it comes to schemes, but when it comes to philosophy, coaching does not change.

With spring camp less than a week old Davis, who is known for his high-powered offenses, is stressing to his group how he wants to play on the offensive side of the ball.

"We continue to get across to the players, the value of protecting the football, we have a philosophy on offense here of no balls on the ground, whether it's a drill, a group period, a team period, we don't want footballs on the ground," the coach said. "When you watch a great offense practice, balls don't hit the ground and that's going to be a big emphasis from us as a staff."

As to what his offense will look like, aside from protecting the ball, Coach Davis wants to pass on a simple, but effective message.

"From a philosophical standpoint, it's running the ball, it's creating mismatches and it's controlling the tempo of the game and those three pillars are what we'll be about on offense," he said.

With mostly an entirely new staff, Davis knows the beginning of spring may be a 'getting to know you,' period, whether it is coaches learning players or players learning coaches. For Davis, that process has its advantages, as everyone, new and old, experienced and inexperienced, gets a new start.

"I would hope it works two-fold, the guys who have not played a ton here or guys who are new understand they have a fresh slate to work with and new sets of eyes watching them," he said. "Also, the guys who have played here understand they have to prove themselves all over again. Hopefully two things combine to create that competitive spirit we are looking for this spring."

That not only goes for the players but extends to the staff. While Davis put together his staff and knows what they can do, blending everything and everyone together is a process, a process that has run pretty smoothly since bringing everyone to campus.

"The staff has exceeded my expectations  thus far, we have a lot of humble, servant-leader type individuals that we brought here, now we're still in a little bit of a honeymoon-phase, everything is still sunshine and rainbows on the front end but I think we accomplished our goal of bringing good people here first and good football coaches second and those guys have bought in so far and excited to work with their specific unit or group on the team," the coach said.

And when it comes to his team, it is much the same. Over the past eight weeks, Davis and his staff have put the team through the paces, setting the stage for what they hope is a spring that can see gains on the field.

"I've been impressed with the resilience and buy in that we've had here," the coach said. "I think the kids ultimately want the discipline and the structure and we've demanded a lot from them when it comes to a time-management standpoint, study halls, lifting four times a week, when we're out on the stadium running at 5 a.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays and that's a lot on a team, a college students  but to have 80-plus guys here do that over eight weeks says a lot about this group."
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