Intro.
Sean Desai is the only defensive coordinator in the sport with this in his Wikipedia page:
…received his undergraduate degree in philosophy and political science, with a minor in biology, from Boston University in 2004. Desai earned a master’s degree in higher and postsecondary education from Columbia University in 2005. Desai earned his doctorate in educational administration in 2008 at Temple University, and was an adjunct professor for two years.
Now, that passage would not exactly qualify him to be the defensive coordinator of a professional football team. But Desai has been praised for his schematic acumen, has earned the love of the guys in the locker room, and comes with a resounding endorsement from Vic Fangio. From a piece quoting Vic in USA Today:
“Right off the bat, his work ethic was really good and he quickly learned our system that we were putting in and grew with it over the four years that I was there,” Fangio said, “and I when I say grew with it, he was there with the logical progression that we went through with the players we had from the start to the players we ended up with… He’s had a good mix of coaching an up-front position and a secondary position which gave him a good understanding and a good overall view of our system and our defense at that time. That should give him a good head start on all that and that is a big part of it. The front has to marry with the back end and vice versa.”
Analysis.
Brandon Robinson is someone I had never communicated with until very recently but his thread breaking down the Fangio/Brandon Staley defensive concepts – and projecting those concepts for Desai – is about as informative a collection of Tweets as you’ll ever find on that public toilet of a website. I’m stringing out those Tweets here, in column form, and posting video/imagery when necessary. (Thanks to Brandon for approving this and be sure to give him a follow.)
Read More …
