Texas Football: New DC Chris Ash Part of the New Guard in Football Tackling
Before he went on to become a head coach at Rutgers, new Texas defensive coordinator Chris Ash was a pioneer when it comes to teaching tackling.
The longtime defensive coach had been teaching players how to tackle since he was a graduate assistant at Drake College in 1997, but after watching Pete Carrol's video on rugby-style tackling he made an abrupt change to his fundamental philosophy on the subject.
For as long as players wore helmets with facemasks they had been taught to approach a ball-carrier with their head out in front and lead with their facemask on the football.
Carrol (and now Ash's) tackling style took the head out of the tackling process, teaching a shoulder-first technique that is considerably safer as concern about head trauma has grown over the years.
If you're a coach, it's been doing the same thing for 30 years and felt like you've had success doing it your thought,' Well, why am I going to change I'm doing?'" Ash said in an interview with SB Nation. "I look at it differently as there is always a way to do stuff better."
Ash's shoulder-first technique turned out to not only be safer, but extremely effective in his first season at Ohio State. The Buckeyes - aided in part by Tom Herman's offensive playcalling - went on to win the College Football Playoff National Title in 2014.
Football is and always has been a copycat game and sure enough, once the rugby-style tackling found success at the college level, coaches from all over the country were sniffing around Ohio State's practices to learn the technique from a program that was doing it well.
Fast forward a few years and the rugby style has gone on to more prominence at every level of football from Pop Warner to the NFL. While its spread was likely inevitable, Ash's early adoption of the method shows his ability to think outside the box. That's something that Texas fans will certainly welcome this season on the Forty Acres.
