by After a fall in which the defensive line accumulated approximately 47 personal foul calls, the coaching staff has announced a substantially revised tackling philosophy whose specific characteristics opposing teams are still working out
By the Mavericks Press sports desk. With editorial credits to Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat.
The Memorial Mavericks football coaching staff announced Friday afternoon a substantially revised tackling philosophy that the staff is calling, in its public communications, the “Texas Friendly” approach. The announcement comes after a fall season in which the defensive line accumulated approximately 47 personal foul calls across nine games, a figure that puts the Mavericks in approximately the 99th percentile for in-state penalty accumulation among programs of comparable enrollment.
The revised philosophy was, on the staff’s account, developed in consultation with what defensive coordinator Coach Whitmore characterised as, quote, “a panel of advisors that included two retired Texas Friday-night-lights officials, a sports psychologist from the University of North Texas, and a Wichita Falls dental practice that specialises in football-related injuries.” The consultation produced, in operational terms, a tackling approach that the staff believes will substantially reduce penalty accumulation while preserving what Coach Whitmore described as, quote, “the broader competitive disposition that Maverick football is known for.”
What The New Approach Looks Like
The new approach involves, in operational practice, several specific modifications to the standard tackling form. The first modification is the addition of a brief verbal greeting at the moment of initial contact, with the greeting selected from an approved list that includes, among other phrases, “howdy,” “appreciate ya,” and “how’s the season treating ya.” The second modification is the substitution of what the staff is calling, quote, “the Texas Friendly hand placement,” which involves a specific hand position that the staff believes will reduce the appearance of unnecessary roughness while preserving the tackle’s operational effectiveness.
The third modification is the post-tackle protocol, which now requires the tackling defender to, in operational practice, help the tackled offensive player to his feet, exchange a brief expression of mutual professional respect, and what the staff characterised as, quote, “the broader gesture of acknowledgment that we are, after all, all just trying to get through the season.”
For ongoing coverage of Texas high school football, see Dallas Morning News.
What The Opposing Coaches Have Said
The opposing coaches’ responses have, across the four days since the announcement, been substantially uniform in their bewilderment. The coaches’ statements have included, among other expressions, the observation that the new approach is, quote, “not exactly what we were preparing our offensive line for,” the observation that the verbal greeting requirement is, quote, “going to take some getting used to from a defensive perspective,” and what one opposing coach described as, quote, “the broader question of whether what Memorial is doing is technically still football or whether it has become some kind of related but distinct competitive activity.”
The University Interscholastic League has, in its official response, indicated that the Texas Friendly approach does not, on its current configuration, violate any specific UIL bylaw. The UIL did note, however, that the question of whether the verbal greeting requirements constitute what one official described as, quote, “an unsporting form of psychological warfare,” is being referred to a procedural review committee.
Player Reception
The Mavericks defensive players themselves have, in conversations with the Mavericks Press, expressed substantially mixed views about the new approach. Senior defensive end Junior Pemberton, who accumulated approximately 14 of the team’s penalty calls last season, told the Press that the verbal greeting requirement is, quote, “going to take some adjustment, but I am willing to give it a fair shot.” Junior linebacker Caleb Ortiz, who accumulated only two penalty calls last season, told the Press that the new approach, quote, “feels like it is asking me to do something I was already kind of doing, but with more paperwork.”
The team captain, senior cornerback Marcus Sullivan, summarised what he characterised as the broader team consensus: quote, “We are willing to try the Texas Friendly approach because Coach Whitmore has, across the four years I have been on the team, generally had reasonable instincts about what works. We are also, in some honest accounting, hoping that the new approach will get the officiating crews to ease up on us, because the calls last season were, in some cases, getting kind of personal.”
The Practical Note
The practical note is that the Mavericks open their spring football evaluation period in two weeks, with the first scrimmage scheduled against Hirschi on the Memorial practice field. The scrimmage will be, on the available planning, the first operational test of the Texas Friendly approach in something approximating game conditions. The scrimmage will also be, on present plans, attended by representatives from approximately 14 other Texas programs whose coaching staffs are interested in observing whether the approach is, quote, “actually a thing that works, or whether it is one of those Memorial-specific innovations that other programs should not, in operational terms, attempt to replicate.”
An ongoing analysis at KVUE Austin Sports has covered comparable revisions in other Texas high school programs. None of the documented cases has, on careful comparison, attempted the specific modifications that Memorial is now implementing.
What Comes Next
What comes next, on the basis of the past four days of developments, is the spring scrimmage and what Coach Whitmore characterised in his Friday statement as, quote, “the broader rollout of the Texas Friendly approach across the full Memorial defensive program.” The rollout will, on present plans, include modifications to the JV and freshman team tackling philosophies, with corresponding implications for what the Mavericks defensive program will look like across the next several years. The rollout will also, in operational terms, be a substantial test of whether Texas high school football culture has the capacity to accommodate the kind of programmatic innovation that the Texas Friendly approach represents. More school sports coverage at the Prat archive.
Related at The Daily Mash.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/mavericks-texas-friendly-tackling/
