John Bond on Developing QB's

Well, I'm writing from Chi-town, the windy city....................

For those of you wanting a good dose of what new offensive coordinator John Bond is all about, someone on the Hive ran across this article that Coach Bond penned himself on his philosophy for developing quarterbacks. It's a good read and worth the time.

To summarize, here are the salient points:

1. Starts with evaluation - the #1 key for Bond is toughness followed by competitiveness. As far as physical tools, there are "many ways to skin a cat", although he realizes that dual-threat guys give DC's nightmares............ field vision is a key trait. He believes great field vision by the QB is a necessary trait to win championships. However, he doesn't believe this can be taught. You either have it or you don't - and it's not really height related either................. Lastly he looks for a quick release.................... Coach Bond believes all these traits can be detected during the evaluation and recruiting process.
2. Coach Bond does not care much about 40 times or height - he focuses on the items in #1 above.
3. Once they get a kid to campus, here are the key points they hammer home:
1. 1. We tell them to never take a sack.
   2. Never say: “Don’t throw an interception.”
   3. Scramble to throw.
   4. Throw against the blitz every day.
   5. Protect your quarterback inside out.
   6. Know who to throw to on the blitz.
   7. Teach the quarterback to deceive with his eyes and actions.
   8. Demand that your quarterback coach the wide receivers.
   9. Put him in adverse situations in practice.
   10. Force him to make throws in practice.
4. He likes to script scramble plays at least once during 7-on-7 drills.
5. He does not like to be the OC and the special teams coach, because he wants to spend that extra time with the QB's.
6. He strongly believes in developing a close relationship with his QB's both on and off the field. It's all about building trust during the developmental process.

Honestly, I read that and like what it says. As has been documented, John Bond seems to have a much stronger hands-on approach with this players versus Patrick Nix. While Miami fans seems to have guarded optimism with Patrick Nix, they are really putting their stock into Randy Shannon, who seems to be putting some discipline back into that program. Rivals did a pretty in-depth piece on Nix with a lot of quotes, including this Gailey-ism:

"Our offense has to understand what our role is," Nix said. "We're not going out and trying to break records. You want to score and do those things, but you've got to be smart sometimes so you don't put yourselves in bad situations that give other teams a chance to (score).''

In addition, he had this to say about Calvin Johnson / Reggie Ball:

Georgia Tech had received plenty of criticism before last season for not using All-America receiver Calvin Johnson often enough. Johnson caught 76 passes for 1,202 yards and 15 touchdowns last season to shatter his previous career highs in all three categories. However, Johnson was held without a catch against Clemson and had only one reception against Georgia.

"The biggest thing I learned is the game doesn't revolve around one person," Nix said. "Last year at times we got ourselves into trouble trying to force it in to him too much when they double- and triple-teamed him. There were other opportunities and other things open, and we were sitting there thinking we've got to get the ball to Calvin. It put him in bad situations and put (quarterback) Reggie (Ball) in a bad position.

"You have to use everybody. It's not just a one-man show. But at the same time, you do have to understand and realize how important it is to use the guys you do have."

By the way, did you happen to catch the "Georgia Tech Sports Today" program about a month ago where Wes spent the entire program with John Bond. Great show and I liked what Coach Bond had to say there as well. Good stuff. September cannot get here fast enough..........

........... well, since I will be vacationing in Hilton Head next week, let me say that next week cannot get here fast enough.