Mark Helfrich isn't the type of person to become complacent after an outstanding season, like the one that saw the Ducks lose to Ohio State in the national title game after a one-loss regular season. So, always looking for ways to improve, he and his staff decided to make some minor changes to their practice routine, starting with their first spring practice yesterday.
When asked about changes to the practice organization, Helfrich explained that they have made a minor change in how coaches interact with players. Starting yesterday, the new goal for the Oregon offensive and defensive staff is to have every coach interactwith every player (at least on their own respective side of the ball, from what I gather).
"We're doing a few things a differently, going back to the blocking and tackling emphasis of making sure that every coach touches every player, on both offense and defense. So if I'm the defensive backs coach, a couple times I'll be coaching the linebackers, or the front."
For example, if the defense is doing a tackling circuit, the players rotate from station to station and each coach takes a group to go through a tackling or turnover drill. For the offense, it could be stations focused on blocking. The goal being for each coach to interact with every player on their side of ball, while they send a unified, clear message on fundamental football skills.
"A lot of that is carried over, making sure everyone is hearing the same terminology and teaching the same thing the same way,. A lot of that carries over to special teams as well." Helfrich explained.