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Insider: Listen Buddy, this guy isn't a typical Ryan Link
Dec. 21, 2006
By Pete Prisco
CBS SportsLine.com Senior Writer
The father did it his way, an in-your-face approach that sometimes got under people's skin, including many of his own players. Buddy Ryan was brash, abrasive, rude and way too forthcoming with the media, but, man, could he coach defense.
Rex Ryan's defense holds opponents to an average of 13.8 ppg. (AP)
Ryan's "46 defense" dominated in the 1980s and early 1990s, both with the Chicago Bears as coordinator and with the Philadelphia Eagles as a head coach. The defensive style was a mirror of Ryan himself: Aggressive and loud -- and his teams backed down to nobody.
Rex Ryan, the son, is different. He still uses a lot of that same "46-defense" with the Baltimore Ravens, and, like his father, he's coaching the heck out of his unit. The Ravens are the top-ranked defense in the NFL, they back down to nobody, but Rex does it with a different approach than the old man.
"I'm completely different than that," Rex Ryan said. "I'm passionate about what I do, but he came from a different time, a different place. He was a master sergeant in the Korean War. He was leading 18-year-old kids into battle for their lives. That made him a little rougher than I am. I, fortunately, didn't have to grow up that way. I learned a lot from my dad's situation when he was a coach. I handle things differently. I'm proud of my father's accomplishments, but there are different ways of doing things."
Such as?
"I'm a little more tactful with the media," Rex Ryan said, laughing.
The Ryan name is synonymous with defense. In addition to Buddy and Rex, brother, Rob, is the defensive coordinator of the Oakland Raiders and his defense is ranked fourth in the league, a stat that far exceeds what many expected of that unit.
But it is Rex Ryan that is the hot name now. With the Ravens playoff bound, and the defense the main reason why, he could be the next in a line of Baltimore defensive coordinators to leave to become head coaches. First, it was Marvin Lewis leaving to go to the Cincinnati Bengals and then it was Mike Nolan to the San Francisco 49ers.
Rex Ryan followed Nolan as coordinator, moving up from defensive line coach, and the defense is playing as good as it has since the 2000 unit set a record for points allowed in a 16-game season.
The defense is playing so well that Ryan's name is now beginning to get circulated throughout the league as a potential head coach candidate. Now he'll face the tough question: Will he be helped or hurt by being Buddy Ryan's son? Will the name scare some owners off?
If it does, they're making a mistake. Rex Ryan knows defense.
"I think now it helps that I have the same name," Rex Ryan said. "In the past, it might have hurt some. They think I'm the same kind of guy. But I'm not. Now they might just think that I know defense because I'm his son. If they talk to people, they know we're different."
Plus, Rex Ryan wrote the book on the 46 defense. Really, he did.
When he was the defensive coordinator at Oklahoma in 1998, Ryan co-wrote a coaching book titled Coaching Football's 46 Defense. You can still get a copy from Amazon for $14.96.
The 46 defense is an aggressive approach to playing defense. The basic premise is to pressure the quarterback with many different players coming from many different angles, the idea being to hit the quarterback as much as possible and make him throw as quickly as possible.
"My dad told me that Y.A. Tittle once told him that no matter how many guys you dropped into coverage, if he had time he would find a spot to throw to and complete a pass," Rex Ryan said. "He also said if he didn't have a whole lot of time to throw it, he'd have trouble. That's where my father came up with the idea to attack."
Buddy Ryan's 1985 and 1986 Chicago Bears played the defense to perfection, literally scaring the heck out of quarterbacks. The Ravens don't use the 46 as much -- which leaves a lot of zero coverage -- but more than the other 31 teams.
With a speedy and talented defense, it makes coordinating a lot easier. Rex Ryan has so many different looks he can give a team based on the players he has to work with.
In outside linebackers Adalius Thomas and Terrell Suggs, he has speed off the edge. In inside linebackers Ray Lewis and Bart Scott, he has speed and toughness. Safety Ed Reed and corner Chris McAlister are on their way to the Pro Bowl, while defensive end Trevor Pryce was a legitimate Pro Bowl candidate with 12 sacks.
The Ravens lead the league in total defense, giving up 265.8 yards per game. They are also tops in scoring defense, giving up 13.8 points per game.
"What I have to do is give them the opportunity where they can be successful," Ryan said. "This is team effort. It's not just about Rex Ryan. It's our players and out coaches. I'm blessed with having great assistants with me. They handle their stuff so well that it allows me my creative time. I have the trust factor with all my assistants that I let them do their jobs and it allows me the time to be creative."
Creative like letting Scott play the dime back. He runs well for a linebacker, but he doesn’t run like a defensive back. That's where Ryan gets creative.
"We send him more than we drop him, that's for sure," Ryan said.
Coaching is something both Ryan sons wanted to do since they were kids. They hung around their father's teams and both became football junkies.
"We wanted to know everything about the defense," Rex Ryan said. "Then we'd get him to quiz us."
Rex tells a story from his college days at Southwestern Oklahoma State to illustrate his passion for the game.
"I always loved personnel, and that made me a draftnik before it was cool to be one," Ryan said. "But the draft was on ESPN and we didn't have it in college. So we drove three hours to some Sears store and they were kind enough to let us sit and watch the whole draft. I still love the personnel side of things. It really interests me."
That's a good thing for any perspective owner to hear. You want a coach who's involved in personnel. Ryan loves talking about players on his team and on others, and he's sharp in his assessments.
Father and son talk several times during the week. The son will ask the father for advice against a certain offensive look. The father, who is caring for a wife battling Alzheimer's disease -- she's the boys' stepmother -- will eventually get back to the son.
"I bounce things off of him," Rex Ryan said. "I'll present him a problem and he’ll call me back with a solution. The terminology is different, but I know what he's talking about."
Like the father, the sons want to be head coaches. But Rex is quick to say it's not his main priority right now.
"I want to win a Super Bowl," he said. "That's our focus. That's my focus."
If the Ravens do, he will be on the lists of the teams looking for a head coach, moving closer to another Ryan defensive whiz being given a chance to run his own team. Only this one is not his old man.
Sure, he's a chip off the block, but the edges have been smoothed over, making him a much different man than his father. But make no mistake about it, like Buddy Ryan, Rex Ryan knows defense.
Dec. 21, 2006
By Pete Prisco
CBS SportsLine.com Senior Writer
The father did it his way, an in-your-face approach that sometimes got under people's skin, including many of his own players. Buddy Ryan was brash, abrasive, rude and way too forthcoming with the media, but, man, could he coach defense.
Rex Ryan's defense holds opponents to an average of 13.8 ppg. (AP)
Ryan's "46 defense" dominated in the 1980s and early 1990s, both with the Chicago Bears as coordinator and with the Philadelphia Eagles as a head coach. The defensive style was a mirror of Ryan himself: Aggressive and loud -- and his teams backed down to nobody.
Rex Ryan, the son, is different. He still uses a lot of that same "46-defense" with the Baltimore Ravens, and, like his father, he's coaching the heck out of his unit. The Ravens are the top-ranked defense in the NFL, they back down to nobody, but Rex does it with a different approach than the old man.
"I'm completely different than that," Rex Ryan said. "I'm passionate about what I do, but he came from a different time, a different place. He was a master sergeant in the Korean War. He was leading 18-year-old kids into battle for their lives. That made him a little rougher than I am. I, fortunately, didn't have to grow up that way. I learned a lot from my dad's situation when he was a coach. I handle things differently. I'm proud of my father's accomplishments, but there are different ways of doing things."
Such as?
"I'm a little more tactful with the media," Rex Ryan said, laughing.
The Ryan name is synonymous with defense. In addition to Buddy and Rex, brother, Rob, is the defensive coordinator of the Oakland Raiders and his defense is ranked fourth in the league, a stat that far exceeds what many expected of that unit.
But it is Rex Ryan that is the hot name now. With the Ravens playoff bound, and the defense the main reason why, he could be the next in a line of Baltimore defensive coordinators to leave to become head coaches. First, it was Marvin Lewis leaving to go to the Cincinnati Bengals and then it was Mike Nolan to the San Francisco 49ers.
Rex Ryan followed Nolan as coordinator, moving up from defensive line coach, and the defense is playing as good as it has since the 2000 unit set a record for points allowed in a 16-game season.
The defense is playing so well that Ryan's name is now beginning to get circulated throughout the league as a potential head coach candidate. Now he'll face the tough question: Will he be helped or hurt by being Buddy Ryan's son? Will the name scare some owners off?
If it does, they're making a mistake. Rex Ryan knows defense.
"I think now it helps that I have the same name," Rex Ryan said. "In the past, it might have hurt some. They think I'm the same kind of guy. But I'm not. Now they might just think that I know defense because I'm his son. If they talk to people, they know we're different."
Plus, Rex Ryan wrote the book on the 46 defense. Really, he did.
When he was the defensive coordinator at Oklahoma in 1998, Ryan co-wrote a coaching book titled Coaching Football's 46 Defense. You can still get a copy from Amazon for $14.96.
The 46 defense is an aggressive approach to playing defense. The basic premise is to pressure the quarterback with many different players coming from many different angles, the idea being to hit the quarterback as much as possible and make him throw as quickly as possible.
"My dad told me that Y.A. Tittle once told him that no matter how many guys you dropped into coverage, if he had time he would find a spot to throw to and complete a pass," Rex Ryan said. "He also said if he didn't have a whole lot of time to throw it, he'd have trouble. That's where my father came up with the idea to attack."
Buddy Ryan's 1985 and 1986 Chicago Bears played the defense to perfection, literally scaring the heck out of quarterbacks. The Ravens don't use the 46 as much -- which leaves a lot of zero coverage -- but more than the other 31 teams.
With a speedy and talented defense, it makes coordinating a lot easier. Rex Ryan has so many different looks he can give a team based on the players he has to work with.
In outside linebackers Adalius Thomas and Terrell Suggs, he has speed off the edge. In inside linebackers Ray Lewis and Bart Scott, he has speed and toughness. Safety Ed Reed and corner Chris McAlister are on their way to the Pro Bowl, while defensive end Trevor Pryce was a legitimate Pro Bowl candidate with 12 sacks.
The Ravens lead the league in total defense, giving up 265.8 yards per game. They are also tops in scoring defense, giving up 13.8 points per game.
"What I have to do is give them the opportunity where they can be successful," Ryan said. "This is team effort. It's not just about Rex Ryan. It's our players and out coaches. I'm blessed with having great assistants with me. They handle their stuff so well that it allows me my creative time. I have the trust factor with all my assistants that I let them do their jobs and it allows me the time to be creative."
Creative like letting Scott play the dime back. He runs well for a linebacker, but he doesn’t run like a defensive back. That's where Ryan gets creative.
"We send him more than we drop him, that's for sure," Ryan said.
Coaching is something both Ryan sons wanted to do since they were kids. They hung around their father's teams and both became football junkies.
"We wanted to know everything about the defense," Rex Ryan said. "Then we'd get him to quiz us."
Rex tells a story from his college days at Southwestern Oklahoma State to illustrate his passion for the game.
"I always loved personnel, and that made me a draftnik before it was cool to be one," Ryan said. "But the draft was on ESPN and we didn't have it in college. So we drove three hours to some Sears store and they were kind enough to let us sit and watch the whole draft. I still love the personnel side of things. It really interests me."
That's a good thing for any perspective owner to hear. You want a coach who's involved in personnel. Ryan loves talking about players on his team and on others, and he's sharp in his assessments.
Father and son talk several times during the week. The son will ask the father for advice against a certain offensive look. The father, who is caring for a wife battling Alzheimer's disease -- she's the boys' stepmother -- will eventually get back to the son.
"I bounce things off of him," Rex Ryan said. "I'll present him a problem and he’ll call me back with a solution. The terminology is different, but I know what he's talking about."
Like the father, the sons want to be head coaches. But Rex is quick to say it's not his main priority right now.
"I want to win a Super Bowl," he said. "That's our focus. That's my focus."
If the Ravens do, he will be on the lists of the teams looking for a head coach, moving closer to another Ryan defensive whiz being given a chance to run his own team. Only this one is not his old man.
Sure, he's a chip off the block, but the edges have been smoothed over, making him a much different man than his father. But make no mistake about it, like Buddy Ryan, Rex Ryan knows defense.
