Dave Fipp, the coordinator of the Detroit Lions special team, is a gifted storyteller. If you ask him any subject, there’s a 20% chance he’ll stray from the topic and contradict anything he’s learned in life or remembered from twenty years ago.
For Fipp, Sunday’s matchup with the San Francisco 49ers will serve as a kind of homecoming. Fipp was born and raised in California. He also attended Cal Poly and San Jose State for coaching. In 2008, Fipp made his NFL debut as an assistant special teams coach for the 49ers.
In response to a question about going “home,” Fipp launched into a narrative of how he was hired by the 49ers and the crucial lesson he took away that he carried with him for the next fifteen years.
Fipp was a graduate assistant at the University of Arizona when it all started. Fipp was hoped to move into the defensive assistant role following a change in the program’s head coach, but Jeff Rodgers, the new coach’s favorite, took over.
Fipp eventually went to Cal Poly with a peer, and it was there that he received an arbitrary phone call. Rodgers was the one who replaced him at Arizona. For advice on a project that Fipp had, Rodgers turned to Fipp.
“I’m thinking, ‘Can I help you? You just stole my job.” on Thursday, Fipp said to the press.
But in the end, he set aside his disagreements and assisted him. Ultimately, Rodgers wasn’t at blame for being assigned to the project.
That kind deed would come back to bless you. In the end, Rodgers was hired by the 49ers to serve as assistant special teams coach. Rodgers gave Fipp one last call before departing in 2008 to take a position as special teams coach at Kansas State.
“Hey, man, I just wanted to give you a heads up, I gave your name to the head coach and the special teams coordinator,” he adds over the phone. Fipp remembered
Mike Nolan, the head coach of the 49ers, only needed that endorsement. Fipp was brought on board right away to fill Rodgers’ gap, and he hasn’t left the NFL since. After spending the next three years in San Francisco, two years with the Dolphins, and eight years with the Eagles, he finally moved to Detroit for the final three seasons.
Fipp has shared this tale with his children as a valuable life and career lesson.
“Avoid burning bridges. You simply never know when it will reappear.
Although Chris Foerster and Klint Kubiak are the 49ers’ designated co-offensive coordinators, head coach Kyle Shanahan is in charge of this offense. The great coach Mike Shanahan’s son, Kyle, has built one of the NFL’s most explosive attacks by incorporating many of his father’s offensive concepts, such as an outside zone rushing assault and West Coast influences.
Shanahan’s approach, like the majority of West Coast offenses, draws the defense’s attention and exposes their coverage with play-action, shifts, and pre-snap motion. Once play is initiated, strong outside zone rushing ideas and quarterback rollouts/sprints are used to create confusion.
The skill players on San Francisco’s team enable them to employ an odd balance of personnel groupings, which is another distinctive feature of their offense. The most popular configuration is still 11 personnel (1 running back, 1 tight end, and 3 wide receivers), but they also use higher than usual levels of 21 personnel and 12 personnel.
