Kollar hired to coach D-line

[OzzO]

OP - He may have addressed some of your questions in this thread (others asked), starting around post 47 or so.

 

[GP]

I hope I am wrong.

Like I said, I want nothing but the best for the Texans. If that means the coaching staff turns it up next season and turns us into winners, then GREAT.

I would be a ****ing i d i o t, full of hubris, if I only cared about being right instead of wanting to see this team in the playoffs and beyond.

I can sympathize. I've been a rut, in the past, where I can go several months just seething about some aspect of the team. I might not have the answer, or the name of "a guy," in order to back up what I feel...but it's the situation itself and the idea that even if I "trust" the direction of the team, I'm still not sure it's going to work out well.

People need to realize that just the pure and simple act of firing Richard Smith is like gobbling up a power pill in PacMan. It's going to do wonders, especially in the first half of the season (the spot we have typically seen a dropoff in defensive ability and skill).

Is our defensive staff a bunch of world beaters? Probably not, but they could become a good unit if things come together. And maybe Richard Smith was the thing that held back the maturation of the defense.

I am just glad Richard Smith is gone. Wish him well, and all that, but the time was two years past due, IMO. Now let's see what 2009 holds.

 

[Errant Hothy]

Some nice quotes from the local fish wrap"
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/6222073.html

Kollar was asked about defensive end Mario Williams, who is starting in the Pro Bowl.

“Obviously, Mario’s a heck of a player,” he said. “He’s got unlimited ability. We’re hoping to really end up getting him to playing at his max.”

Kollar was asked what he could do to turn around defensive tackle Amobi Okoye, whose performance dropped from his rookie season. Okoye is best suited for the style the Texans will play under Bush and Kollar.

“(I’ll) stay on him and keep working on technique and get him to play,” Kollar said. “Really, everybody’s the same. You have to play full speed every play.”

Bills defensive linemen said Kollar was fanatical about his linemen running full speed to the ball - no matter where it was.

“That’s the way we’re going to end up working them here,” Kollar said. “The thing is, you have to do it in practice, also. You just can’t say, ‘Well, I’m going to do it in the game,’ and that’s it.”

I think I love the idea that Kollar does not think Mario is at his max yet!

 

[dalemurphy]

The entire mini-press conference of Kollar and Gibbs is at houstontexans.com:
here's the link: houstontexans.com/index2.html

Kollar is an impressive man, IMO. I loved what he said about effort.

"If you're on the field, you must go 100% every play. If you're tired, get off the field and we'll get someone else in there. We won't have guys playing 50-60 plays if they get tired and can't give 100% on all of them."- a bit of a paraphrase

He'll get you excited about football. Go watch it!

 

[BigBull17]

Some nice quotes from the local fish wrap"
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/6222073.html



I think I love the idea that Kollar does not think Mario is at his max yet!

That was one of my reasons for wanting Franklin fired. Mario was good, but he hasnt really learned anything in the NFL. He didnt develope much, IMO.

 

[TexanSam]

I wonder how his hiring will affect the defensive line rotation. It was a little weird and frustating seeing the Texans rotate so many D-linemen this season. Mario was the only constant on the line. Bulman, Nading, Weaver, Cochran, and Deljuan Robinson were constantly running back and forth from the sideline to the playing field. I wonder if that had anything to do with Jethro Franklin being fired?

 

[Errant Hothy]

I wonder how his hiring will affect the defensive line rotation. It was a little weird and frustating seeing the Texans rotate so many D-linemen this season. Mario was the only constant on the line. Bulman, Nading, Weaver, Cochran, and Deljuan Robinson were constantly running back and forth from the sideline to the playing field. I wonder if that had anything to do with Jethro Franklin being fired?

D-line rotate more then any positon in football. They do it to keep fresh guys attacking on the line.

Why is seeing the rotation frustrating?

 

[Wolf]

"Coach Jauron had said when we first got there that he wouldn't hold anybody back if it was a move that you really wanted to mak, and it was nice of him to give me that opportunity. They had to square it with the GM, Russ Brandon, and Ralph Wilson, and it went on for quite a while. It wasn't like it was a one-day deal. The Texans had been working on it for over a week and it finally came to be the other day."

Asked why he wanted to leave, Kollar said, "I just thought it was a great opportunity to come down to be with an offense like they’ve got here. Hopefully—it’s always the same thing—you always want to get to the playoffs and hopefully end up making it to the Super Bowl, and I thought this would be a great opportunity."

http://blogs.buffalonews.com/billboard/2009/01/kollar-quotes.html

Gotta love Kollar's quote about wanting to work with an offense like that! (He was referring to the Texans who noone will ever misstake for the Pats with Brady or the Colts......) That really tells you how bad he thinks the Bills' O really is! No worries, Mauron will fix it by getting more involved in calling plays in 2009 since he did so well in 2008 at calling plays!
In reality, I am sure Kollar wanted to go and work with some real talented D Lineman in Houston rather than the 3 farmboy ends he had in Buffalo who don't scare anyone!

Posted by: matt | January 20, 2009 at 09:10 PM

 

[TimeKiller]

I think I love the idea that Kollar does not think Mario is at his max yet!

That was one of my reasons for wanting Franklin fired. Mario was good, but he hasnt really learned anything in the NFL. He didnt develope much, IMO.

Or Okoye....

Or Johnson...

Weaver got worse....

Pretty much the only people who "improved" were the 100% effort all the time guys. Cochran, Bulman, Robinson.

 

[barrett]

The entire mini-press conference of Kollar and Gibbs is at houstontexans.com:
here's the link: houstontexans.com/index2.html

Kollar is an impressive man, IMO. I loved what he said about effort.

"If you're on the field, you must go 100% every play. If you're tired, get off the field and we'll get someone else in there. We won't have guys playing 50-60 plays if they get tired and can't give 100% on all of them."- a bit of a paraphrase

He'll get you excited about football. Go watch it!

... and stuff.

First nickname: Bill "n' stuff" Kollar

the "SACK THE G0DDAMNED QB N' STUFF!! DEFENSE"

go Texans.

 

[barrett]

I hate that our guys seem to not be prepared for the teams we play. They don't seem to understand tendencies.... they don't sniff out screens... they get pushed inside on runs to the outside, and outside on runs to the inside, running backs run past them, as they try to get to the QB.

If Koller can teach our boys how to prepare for games, I'll be happy.

no doubt. excellent point. i totally agree.

 

[mexican_texan]

That was one of my reasons for wanting Franklin fired. Mario was good, but he hasnt really learned anything in the NFL. He didnt develope much, IMO.

I agree with you to a certain extent, Mario picked up a lot of techniques, but he maxed out under Franklin, it seemed. I didn't see much of a difference from his 2nd year to his 3rd, other than consistency. Amobi's been regressing, hopefully Kollar will fix that right up.

 

[D-ReK]

I've been trying to figure out how exactly our defense is going to look this coming season and it seems schematically, we're going to have a huge deficiency against the run. Kollar and Bush seem to want our DL to focus on rushing the passer which is fine and dandy, but with Okoye and Travis Johnson not being strong at the point of attack and both getting pushed around too easily and the advent of a scheme that may preclude us from getting a new DT who can hold up blockers and maybe push some interior OL back, are we destined to maintain, or even worsen, our 23rd ranked rush D?

Furthermore, given the scheme, what can we do to improve our rush D? Since we're going for the undersized, speedy route in our front 7, are we going to require our safeties to play closer to the line, which will leave our CBs on an island with little to no deep help? Isn't this part of the problem that led to us giving up so many big plays this past season, or were our safeties just missing assignments? Will the plan be to simply build up a big early lead and force the opponent to abandon the run? Just curious. It is the offseason after all...

 

[Brandon420tx]

Well, Okam has quicker feet than alot of people on here give him credit for. I was under the impression that we drafted him for his ability to take out ball carriers behind the line and I expect him to go for that at the NT spot this year. I think he'll get an increased role about halfway through the season as he's coached up and I think we spend the 1st pick on a LB (or hopefully a tradeback)

 

[InterestedJeff]

I'm on board with the hire. I never heard of him untill he landed here but after hearing his interview I liked what he had to say. Hopefully he is able to translate his obvious passion to onfield production for us. One thing I love is that he seems to piss fire and eat nails. Thats the kind of coach our youngins on the DLine need.

 

[painekiller]

I've been trying to figure out how exactly our defense is going to look this coming season and it seems schematically, we're going to have a huge deficiency against the run. Kollar and Bush seem to want our DL to focus on rushing the passer which is fine and dandy, but with Okoye and Travis Johnson not being strong at the point of attack and both getting pushed around too easily and the advent of a scheme that may preclude us from getting a new DT who can hold up blockers and maybe push some interior OL back, are we destined to maintain, or even worsen, our 23rd ranked rush D?

Furthermore, given the scheme, what can we do to improve our rush D? Since we're going for the undersized, speedy route in our front 7, are we going to require our safeties to play closer to the line, which will leave our CBs on an island with little to no deep help? Isn't this part of the problem that led to us giving up so many big plays this past season, or were our safeties just missing assignments? Will the plan be to simply build up a big early lead and force the opponent to abandon the run? Just curious. It is the offseason after all...

IMO you have that wrong. Penetration is the #1 enemy of the running game. It disrupts the play before it gets started. When you are undersized you have to use your speed/quickness to get to the runner before he gets started. I think it is the guys on the 4 letter network who preach penetration as the best weapon to all offensive plays.

 

[D-ReK]

IMO you have that wrong. Penetration is the #1 enemy of the running game. It disrupts the play before it gets started. When you are undersized you have to use your speed/quickness to get to the runner before he gets started. I think it is the guys on the 4 letter network who preach penetration as the best weapon to all offensive plays.

I understand that, and probably should have included that in my original post. The more I think about it, the more I believe I am jaded to this system since we haven't really been able to get much penetration from our DL in the past and we're largely going to have the same cast of characters going into next year. Hopefully Bush and Kollar are able to collaborate and give birth to a scheme that maximizes the talents of our players.

 

[Polo]

I've been trying to figure out how exactly our defense is going to look this coming season and it seems schematically, we're going to have a huge deficiency against the run. Kollar and Bush seem to want our DL to focus on rushing the passer which is fine and dandy, but with Okoye and Travis Johnson not being strong at the point of attack and both getting pushed around too easily and the advent of a scheme that may preclude us from getting a new DT who can hold up blockers and maybe push some interior OL back, are we destined to maintain, or even worsen, our 23rd ranked rush D?

Furthermore, given the scheme, what can we do to improve our rush D? Since we're going for the undersized, speedy route in our front 7, are we going to require our safeties to play closer to the line, which will leave our CBs on an island with little to no deep help? Isn't this part of the problem that led to us giving up so many big plays this past season, or were our safeties just missing assignments? Will the plan be to simply build up a big early lead and force the opponent to abandon the run? Just curious. It is the offseason after all...

Well need better play from the LB's...

At the same time though if we get good penetration it should disrupt a lot of run plays...Misdirections and slower developing run plays will probably hurt us more though

 

[The Pencil Neck]

I understand that, and probably should have included that in my original post. The more I think about it, the more I believe I am jaded to this system since we haven't really been able to get much penetration from our DL in the past and we're largely going to have the same cast of characters going into next year. Hopefully Bush and Kollar are able to collaborate and give birth to a scheme that maximizes the talents of our players.

In the game against the Bears, Amobi got some nice penetration.

I think the problem with our guys is that Smith wanted them to pursue from sideline to sideline and play AT the line of scrimmage. When Jethro was on the radio last year before the draft, he said that. He said that TJ was doing a good job because he moved well from sideline to sideline. Smith wanted our Dline to mostly just hold position, identify the play, and then pursue.

And I think that's why Bush went out of his way to say that we weren't doing that any more. He said that he wants our guys to get penetration and he brought in a line coach who apparently believes the same thing.

Now, can they make it work? Dunno. Hope so.

 

[GP]

If Kollar is our DL coach, then our DLinemen need to be called the Junk Yard Dogs.

Only the Kollar can contain them.

 

[bckey]

I'm on board with the hire. I never heard of him untill he landed here but after hearing his interview I liked what he had to say. Hopefully he is able to translate his obvious passion to onfield production for us. One thing I love is that he seems to piss fire and eat nails. Thats the kind of coach our youngins on the DLine need.

This pretty much sums up how I feel about the hiring of Bill Kollar.

 

[painekiller]

IMO you have that wrong. Penetration is the #1 enemy of the running game. It disrupts the play before it gets started. When you are undersized you have to use your speed/quickness to get to the runner before he gets started. I think it is the guys on the 4 letter network who preach penetration as the best weapon to all offensive plays.

The elephant in the room is not the DTs, or Mario. The DL we have is all better when shooting a gap. The thing we lack is LBs that can maintain their lanes. For the penetration to work every lane has to be covered and the guy has to tackle. We need to have athletic LB that can tackle at each LB position.

 

[dalemurphy]

The elephant in the room is not the DTs, or Mario. The DL we have is all better when shooting a gap. The thing we lack is LBs that can maintain their lanes. For the penetration to work every lane has to be covered and the guy has to tackle. We need to have athletic LB that can tackle at each LB position.

I think our LB corp is potentially pretty good and quite deep. IMO, we have 5 LBs that are at least decent: Ryans, Adibi, Diles, Bentley, Thompson. There are plenty of athletes in that group and I don't think any of them are a detriment to the team if they're in the game.

I was very pleased with Bentley when he played on defense.

 

[TexansSeminole]

I think our LB corp is potentially pretty good and quite deep. IMO, we have 5 LBs that are at least decent: Ryans, Adibi, Diles, Bentley, Thompson. There are plenty of athletes in that group and I don't think any of them are a detriment to the team if they're in the game.

I was very pleased with Bentley when he played on defense.

Bentley exceeded my expectations and he should most definitely be retained for next season. He is a good backup to have on this team, I like him at MLB.

Thompson is a hard player to judge because he simply didn't see the field hardly at all. Hopefully he learned something about playing linebacker in the 4-3 last year, because the concern with him when he first came here was that he played in a 3-4 in Cleveland.

I'd like for the Texans to explore the idea of taking a LB in this draft high and using him at SLB. We need a pass rusher at LB as well as DE. Other than DeMeco, nobody at LB has proven to be able to get at the QB on this team. Adibi got to the QB a few times when he saw PT but he missed the tackles both times I saw him close to a sack. Blitzing isn't his Adibi's strength, his strength is coverage and overall speed.