Age: 58
College Experience: 32 years (4 West Coast at Oregon; 9 more years Power 5 at Syracuse, BC and Duke)
Has been at the pro level last few years with Chip, was let go when the Niners nuked the Kelly administration, obviously.
Quotes:
http://www.sacbee.com/sports/nfl/san-francisco-49ers/article82661152.html
Heavy metal workouts: 49ers assistant teaching young pupils how to strike
The 34-year coaching veteran doesn’t like interviews – all the 49ers assistants are available to the media this week per league mandate – and he comes off as crusty, gruff and a bit profane when he does them.
“If you try to be phony or try to be full of (profanity), it presents problems,” he said of his approach. “I just try to do what I do.”
Like longtime 49ers defensive-line coach Jim Tomsula before him, Azzinaro is in constant motion on the practice field, barking out instructions as his players go through their sled routine.
“He’s the reason why I committed to Oregon,” said first-round draft pick DeForest Buckner, who played under Azzinaro and 49ers coach Chip Kelly for one season with the Ducks. “He likes to make a personal connection with everybody. He likes to know his players and help them build as a man off the field and a man on the field.”
Buckner said the various types of sleds are designed to sharpen different techniques when it comes to striking an opponent. A defensive linemen must strike one way on a running play, another when pass rushing. There are wide strikes and tight strikes, strikes meant to defeat a single blocker and strikes for double teams.
Kelly, who also had Azzinaro on his Philadelphia Eagles staff, said he’s watched the spring sled work have an effect in the fall.
“Wherever he’s been, I think his D-line is known for technique and how well they use their hands,” Kelly said. “To me, there’s a direct correlation between how much they use the sled. You obviously can’t do it against other bodies because of the injury factor, but you can do it on a sled. I think there’s a direct correlation, and you see it with how good our guys have been in their hand placement.”
http://www.phillymag.com/birds247/2015/10/22/the-teachings-of-professor-azzinaro/
With the Azzinaro hire, the Bears are now down to two open spots: RB and LB, with the tenth assistant looming after that. My guess is that Ron Gould is no longer coming, because if he was, it probably would have gotten done by now. He's been out of a job for longer than Azzinaro has.
This does only little to quell my worries about the defensive recruiting, because while he looks solid overall, the rest of the spots are manned by an unknown in Alexander (a high ceiling unknown, but an unknown nonetheless), and DeRuyter, who has a mixed track record. They could still use a Tui on that side of the ball.
That being said, Azzinaro appears to be a really great coach saddled with some tough circumstances between the Eagles and Niners, and has raised some notable defensive linemen over the years -- we know Armstead and Buckner well, but he was also at Syracuse during Dwight Freeney's heyday, and coached up Fletcher Cox and Vinny Curry to some degree, too. You can't stumble into that much talent over two decades without some degree of skill, and the quotes all suggest a strong history of being a technician, particularly at hand fighting, which we'll be able to see immediately (I thought Cam Saffle was really good at this in high school, and will be interested to see how that skill develops going forward from him particularly).
Will that be enough to revive a pass rush that has been dead all decade alone? We'll see. There's a lot of development to be done at that group, since the recruiting at this position has been lackluster, and JUCO/tweener heavy. [It's sad to say this but he might really be the best coach at that position since the end of the Tedford days -- we rolled through Sacks, Cachere, Tate, and Todd Howard out there.]
College Experience: 32 years (4 West Coast at Oregon; 9 more years Power 5 at Syracuse, BC and Duke)
Has been at the pro level last few years with Chip, was let go when the Niners nuked the Kelly administration, obviously.
Partial look at Azzinaro's recruiting chops here. Not bad, but not a star, either. Notable: did bring in DeForest Buckner. Appears to target the Hawaiian islands, as of late.Quotes:
http://www.sacbee.com/sports/nfl/san-francisco-49ers/article82661152.html
Heavy metal workouts: 49ers assistant teaching young pupils how to strike
The 34-year coaching veteran doesn’t like interviews – all the 49ers assistants are available to the media this week per league mandate – and he comes off as crusty, gruff and a bit profane when he does them.
“If you try to be phony or try to be full of (profanity), it presents problems,” he said of his approach. “I just try to do what I do.”
Like longtime 49ers defensive-line coach Jim Tomsula before him, Azzinaro is in constant motion on the practice field, barking out instructions as his players go through their sled routine.
“He’s the reason why I committed to Oregon,” said first-round draft pick DeForest Buckner, who played under Azzinaro and 49ers coach Chip Kelly for one season with the Ducks. “He likes to make a personal connection with everybody. He likes to know his players and help them build as a man off the field and a man on the field.”
Buckner said the various types of sleds are designed to sharpen different techniques when it comes to striking an opponent. A defensive linemen must strike one way on a running play, another when pass rushing. There are wide strikes and tight strikes, strikes meant to defeat a single blocker and strikes for double teams.
Kelly, who also had Azzinaro on his Philadelphia Eagles staff, said he’s watched the spring sled work have an effect in the fall.
“Wherever he’s been, I think his D-line is known for technique and how well they use their hands,” Kelly said. “To me, there’s a direct correlation between how much they use the sled. You obviously can’t do it against other bodies because of the injury factor, but you can do it on a sled. I think there’s a direct correlation, and you see it with how good our guys have been in their hand placement.”
Azzinaro had just been hired as Syracuse’s defensive line coach at the time. Thurmond Moore, who worked side-by-side Azzinaro as the defensive tackles coach for the Orange, couldn’t believe what he was seeing out of his new colleague given his health situation.
“When he got hired he had just come off heart surgery, and when you flip the lights on in the morning, he’s there and working his ass off,” said Moore. “And when you go home he’s still working his butt off. Motor. You know, motor. I think players [mirror] their coach. And I think that’s what is going on.
“He’s a tireless worker. The guy will watch film forever and ever and study opponents and what I like to call ‘crack the code’, find a way to crack the code of offensive linemen or something that he catches – a lean or a tilt or something like that,” said former Oregon defensive coordinator Nick Aliotti. “Azz is a fantastic coach in all aspects. A lot of d-line coaches don’t know coverages and schemes; I hate to pigeon-hole them but a lot of them don’t, they just know their own little world. Azz has a great grasp of all of it – the back end as well as the linebackers as well as the d-line.”
Implications of hire:“When he got hired he had just come off heart surgery, and when you flip the lights on in the morning, he’s there and working his ass off,” said Moore. “And when you go home he’s still working his butt off. Motor. You know, motor. I think players [mirror] their coach. And I think that’s what is going on.
“He’s a tireless worker. The guy will watch film forever and ever and study opponents and what I like to call ‘crack the code’, find a way to crack the code of offensive linemen or something that he catches – a lean or a tilt or something like that,” said former Oregon defensive coordinator Nick Aliotti. “Azz is a fantastic coach in all aspects. A lot of d-line coaches don’t know coverages and schemes; I hate to pigeon-hole them but a lot of them don’t, they just know their own little world. Azz has a great grasp of all of it – the back end as well as the linebackers as well as the d-line.”
With the Azzinaro hire, the Bears are now down to two open spots: RB and LB, with the tenth assistant looming after that. My guess is that Ron Gould is no longer coming, because if he was, it probably would have gotten done by now. He's been out of a job for longer than Azzinaro has.
This does only little to quell my worries about the defensive recruiting, because while he looks solid overall, the rest of the spots are manned by an unknown in Alexander (a high ceiling unknown, but an unknown nonetheless), and DeRuyter, who has a mixed track record. They could still use a Tui on that side of the ball.
That being said, Azzinaro appears to be a really great coach saddled with some tough circumstances between the Eagles and Niners, and has raised some notable defensive linemen over the years -- we know Armstead and Buckner well, but he was also at Syracuse during Dwight Freeney's heyday, and coached up Fletcher Cox and Vinny Curry to some degree, too. You can't stumble into that much talent over two decades without some degree of skill, and the quotes all suggest a strong history of being a technician, particularly at hand fighting, which we'll be able to see immediately (I thought Cam Saffle was really good at this in high school, and will be interested to see how that skill develops going forward from him particularly).
Will that be enough to revive a pass rush that has been dead all decade alone? We'll see. There's a lot of development to be done at that group, since the recruiting at this position has been lackluster, and JUCO/tweener heavy. [It's sad to say this but he might really be the best coach at that position since the end of the Tedford days -- we rolled through Sacks, Cachere, Tate, and Todd Howard out there.]
