Georgia Bulldogs: Who Is Kirk Olivadotti?

Late yesterday evening, the news broke that coach Grantham was set to name his newest assistant—Kirk Olivadotti will be that guy. Olivadotti is a well-respected assistant in the NFL ranks, but isn't quite as well known to the avid college football fan. 

Even still, as news of his impending hire hit Twitter, several respected sports figures chimed in on exactly what Georgia would have in Olivadotti. Phillip Daniels—a former Georgia Bulldog—was one of those voices, said Daniels via his Twitter account, 

For those who may not have already checked Olivadotti's bio, here's the short and sweet of it: he's been a defensive assistant for the Washington Redskins for 11-years. He was promoted to linebackers coach in 2007 and has served in that capacity for the past three seasons. When Mike Shanahan was introduced as the head coach in 2010, Olivadotti was briefly considered as a candidate to take over as the Skins' defensive coordinator before being maintained as an assistant on the staff. He's had experience in the college ranks as both a tight ends and wide receivers coach, but has spent the majority of his career at the NFL level.

I was a bit more curious so I dug a little deeper to see what else could be found out about the new guy. It wasn't long before I ran across this one-on-one interview Olivadotti did with Matt Terl of the Official Redskins Blog that gave a bit more insight into Olivadotti's coaching philosophy.

Here are a few of the highlights:

On coaching linebackers:

"...everybody needs to know where they fit, coaches and players included. And, in a defense I think it helps that I know where everybody fits, and as a group we need to know where we fit as linebackers, and that's kind of what we talk about: where do we fit in this defense, where do we fit in this group, where do we fit in the form of leadership. All those kinds of things and you have to have a pulse of what that is, and it's an ever-evolving process."

On evaluating players:

"Really, to be honest with you, you look at what you got, and who your best eleven are, and you make your defense fit your best eleven, to be perfectly honest. And I know that's not the sexy answer that everyone wants, but that's what we need to do as coaches is, 'Okay, here is our best eleven, and that's who we are going to get on the field. This is what they're good at, these are their limitations,' and you go from there. What each guy can do differs from week to week. You just try to put guys in the best positions to be able to be productive."

His coaching philosophy:

"...you start from square one. You know, you can only eat the elephant one bite at a time; some guys are at a different level than other guys are. But every year you have to start like you are starting brand new, and you start with the fundamentals of how to do things, and the basics to be able to at least put a Redskins jersey where a Redskins jersey is supposed to be.

"Start there, and then teach them how to go from point A to point B, physically, and then start getting into C, D, E, and F, as opposed to trying to get all that stuff done. Alignment, assignment, you hear coaches say that stuff all the time, but to get aligned, you've got to know what to look at, and then you've got to know how to move. We try not to overcomplicate it, because if you are moving fast, you are moving better."

You have to love the feel of this hire, Olivadotti appears to be a solid addition to the staff and, given the improvement the Redskins have seen at the linebacker position over the last few years, it has to be exciting to think what he might be able to do with the young talent currently on Georgia's roster.

His players have had nothing but great things to say about his coaching/teaching ability and it's clear that he was a coach on the rise in the NFL. In fact, current Alabama coach, Nick Saban, tried to hire him away from the Skins' twice when he was the head coach for the Miami Dolphins—he was denied the opportunity of even speaking to him.

As for players, they love him. London Fletcher, had this to say about the man they called 'KO' in Washington,

In linebacker meetings, Olivadotti gives each player a review sheet of the unit's performance from the previous day's practice. How well, or poorly, the unit fared is explained in detail, and that's a new one for Fletcher. 

"This is my 10th year in the league, and in terms of where a coach does that, I haven't really seen that," he said. "He actually gives you something where you have it in your possession; you can look at it and visualize it. With other coaches, you only watch it on film. It makes a difference to have it in your hand." (Washington Post, 2007)

If Olivadotti turns out to be the find that he appears to be on paper, Georgia should see much better production from it's linebackers in 2011.

What say you?