5 Things I Like About New LSU WR Coach Tony Ball
By Scotty Nola
Les Miles finished filling out his coaching staff with former Virginia Tech and Georgia WR coach Tony Ball and I’m pretty happy with the hire.
I know a lot of people were hoping Miles would offer the job to former NFL WR Keenan McCardell, but the Tony Ball hiring should pay a lot of dividends.
Here are some of the things I like about new LSU Coach Tony Ball.
1) He Puts Players In The NFL: Look, we all want to win games, beat Alabama, win the conference, beat Alabama, play in big time bowl games, beat Alabama, compete for the National Championship, and beat Alabama.
I understand the priorities here.
All of these wonders are made possible because LSU puts more players into the NFL than any other college program, and Tony Ball has a track record of putting his players into the NFL.
Nov 8, 2014; Lexington, KY, USA; Georgia Bulldogs wide receivers coach Tony Ball before the game against the Kentucky Wildcats at Commonwealth Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark Zerof-USA TODAY Sports
He did it when he was at Virginia Tech, and when he was at Georgia. He started at Georgia as RB coach to a guy named Knowshon Moreno, and after Moreno was drafted in the first round Georgia moved him to WR to prep a guy named AJ Green for the pros.
This guy knows what it takes to prepare a player for the combine and to earn a spot on an NFL roster. Our players should trust him immediately, and they will know that NFL scouts already know and trust their man.
I’m sure returning stars like Travin Dural and John Diarse and incoming prospects like Tyron Johnson and Derrick Dillon are already excited about this hire.
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2) Tony Ball is a Great Technical Coach: If you look at what Georgia has done on offense during Tony Ball’s tenure, there is one thing stands out. They have run an NFL style offense with an NFL style passing game.
Partly this is because of their track record of developing excellent quarterbacks. Running an NFL style attack only works because they have the receivers to pull it off.
Coach Ball was moved over to WR coach because Georgia receivers were dropping too many passes. He fixed that and turned them into efficient pass catchers.
He also has a track record of turning his receivers into highly proficient route runners. This is exactly what Cam Cameron needs to fully implement his NFL style system year in and year out.
3) Georgia Can Run the Dang Ball, Man: Georgia has a reputation for consistently producing one of the SEC’s top passing games under Coach Mark Richt, that is certain.
But you can’t forget the other thing they do on offense. Georgia runs the ball. They have always run the ball, and I mean run it on everyone.
Herschel Walker might be the best back to come out of that school but he certainly isn’t the only one. Everyone knows that to run like they do takes a great back with a great line blocking for him.
People often forget that breaking big plays in the running game requires outstanding run blocking by the receivers as well.
Receivers allow backs to turn the corner by boxing DB’s out and creating a lane between the tackle box and the sideline, and they give the running back something to work with when they hit the second level by eliminating would be tacklers along the way.
Virtually every big running play involves a WR blowing up a DB 8-10 yards off the line of scrimmage to clear the road for the runner.
Under Tony Ball Georgia’s receivers have approached the running game with a rare combination of commitment and execution.
LSU’s receiving corps will like working with Coach Ball, but his biggest fan in next years huddle may be a guy named Fournette.
4) He’s A Football Lifer: You can’t overstate the importance here. I know a lot of people were excited when they heard Keenan McCardell was up for the job based on his NFL resume.
McCardell has only coached for 3 years though, and that just isn’t much of a track record when it comes to developing talent.
Coach Ball has been at this for a long time, and he came up the hard way. He was a special teams star at UT Chattanooga as a player.
He didn’t have the kind of connections that get your foot in the door at big time programs so he spent over a decade paying his dues at small schools.
Coach Ball was able to build enough of a reputation with small schools to get noticed by Frank Beamer at Virginia Tech. He was at Virginia Tech when that program rose to national prominence.
From there the next step up was the SEC. He has worked his way up the ladder one step at a time, he has a tremendous wealth of experience gained on the way and he knows SEC football inside and out.
This is the kind of background LSU needs on its coaching staff.
5) Recruiting, Recruiting, Recruiting: We all know that talent wins. You either get better talent than the other guy or you will get walked over by the other guy.
West Coast and Midwest teams have learned this painful lesson in bowl games against the SEC many times: Talent wins.
Now, if you look at a list of Coach Ball’s recruits, the players he singed personally at Georgia, you probably aren’t going to be very impressed.
You can check it out right here: the first thing you will notice, is that there are very few “name” type signings here. This is not another Ed Orgeron type hire.
You should look past the names Coach Ball has signed though, and I mean that literally. Right after the names of these players is the school where they played high school ball. You will see a lot of Virginia, Maryland and Georgia there.
That makes sense, snce Coach Ball came to Georgia from Virginia Tech, and they kept him on his former recruiting ground. This means Coach Ball has been recruiting Virginia and Maryland for the better part of two decades.
He knows the schools, he knows the coaches, he knows the locals. He’s been recruiting many of these schools longer than their coaches have been there.
Coach Ball might not sign a lot of 5 star recruits but that is fine. Les Miles didn’t become the top recruiter of NFL talent in the country by being dumb.
LSU Football Players Celebrating
He knows not every coach is a great recruiter so he pairs his ace recruiters with the other coaches on priority signings. Virginia and Maryland produce their share of future NFL players, and Georgia is a great recruiting ground.
By adding a coach to the staff with great connections and a long track record in those areas he will open doors for Frank Wilson and Ed Orgeron early in the recruiting cycle of future 4 and 5 star athletes. This will pay dividends over time.
Coach Ball is an experienced coach with a long track record of producing technically sound receivers for his college system, and putting them in place to succeed on the next level.
He has SEC experience, which is always at a premium, and he will open up new recruiting ground for LSU in the mid Atlantic. All in all I think that this is a solid hire, and one that LSU fans should be excited about.