bschoolprof

I meant to circle back to Scipio's PK stuff, but Bo Davis and Saban created a whirlwind. Anyway, he touches on many gameplanning concerns, including one play discussed in my previous post where we gifted Udub a first down on a critical 4th quarter drive before the ball was even snapped. This is why I think just upgrading secondary talent and getting an edge rush is papering over some serious issues with the drywall. We benefitted this year defensively by playing some really shitty offenses in the big 12. Are we gonna be able to go toe to toe with the best minds in CFB on the offensive side on a consistent basis, particularly in the passing game? I guess we will find out.

Live look at CDC's office

So what does Sark's salary go to now in light of this?

^new avatar time. we found out.

he's not going there to play school.

We can hire him back when Kelly is fired/leaves in a few years.

Pete Carrol.

the great enshittening.

Cross-posting Scipio's breakdown from the 9.95 thread. Thanks @satyanash Quote As I mentioned in my previews, Washington is the rare college offense that can execute like a well-orchestrated rhythm machine of football nerds while also doing YOLO “playmakers make plays” baller things. 99% of college passing offenses are predominantly one or the other and the opposing defense can attack either the offense’s lack of athleticism or indiscipline for stops. No easy day for Texas in that regard. Washington required Texas to be buttoned up to hold down (stopping was never a realistic premise) their offense. Texas was less than buttoned up. Their fly (and fly routes) were open all too often. When confronted with a high level passing offense, a defensive coaching staff can make a few choices in their month of bowl preparation. They can introduce novelty in scheme and/or personnel to disrupt or they can double down on what they usually do and try to clean up poor execution. Or some combo of both. The combo means rather than a total reimagining, which can be risky, you introduce a new coverage, intro a new blitz package or two, or roll out a different personnel group to steal a key possession while also making sure the defense doesn’t bust on core staples. Alternatively, pure reinforcement means not complicating things and really nailing down core teachings over 15 practices, geared specifically to the other team’s scouting report. Clear minds, play fast, bring it. You also have to call a good game and not lose many calls before the athletes even get their say. Unfortunately, Texas accomplished neither. No novelty. No improvement in its base schemes. A regular game plan that exhibited no accompanying benefit of clear assignments or hair-on-fire urgency. Texas chose to do what it do. Something you’d expect to see from an experienced NFL team that played on a Sunday evening and then had a quick Thursday turnaround. Dance with who brung us and make adjustments on the fly in-game. Unfortunately, the Texas pass defense didn’t brung us to the playoffs. So the “let’s just do what we do” game plan probably began with a fallacy at its inception. Doing what we do on the back end isn’t very good, though facing Behren Morton and Texas Tech’s backup receivers or Alan Bowman (3 passing touchdowns in a blowout) and an outgunned Oklahoma State may have created some illusion of competency for us all. Players missed assignments, Washington was able to scheme their good on our average repeatedly, there were some down and distance calls that didn’t match game situation – the battle was lost before the ball was even snapped – and Michael Penix Jr and his receivers played out of their minds. That last part didn’t help. Let’s not gloss that over. Washington has some absolute studs. Penix finished the game 29 of 38 for 430 yards with no forced turnovers, no sacks and a handful of pressures. Terrific pocket presence, accuracy, eyes downfield and an absolute dawg mentality. Allowing 11.3 yards every time he dropped back to pass and nearly 15 yards on every completion is poor, but perhaps there is some solace in the fact that he was more contained in the second half after a first half where he was 11 of 14 for 255 yards and a 18.2 yards per attempt average. Penix and his receivers exhibited plenty of play that should elicit a hat tip and a whistle of admiration. You shrug and play on. They were going to make plays. Criticizing that is like yelling at the tides. The key question was how many plays the Texas defense could afford to place on a tee and offer free swings? Those errors needed to fit on the fingers of one hand, not two hands and some toes. Plays like this: In Game 14, allowing an uncovered receiver to split safeties is not ideal and while Penix made some wonderful throws, the throw above happens every Friday night in Texas high school football. As for personnel usage, Texas ran its normal rotations and introduced no twists (literally) to the game plan. Byron Murphy and T’Vondre Sweat finished with their typical 41 snaps each, Washington ran in a touchdown with our mostly backup DL personnel in the game and Texas never really tried different front mixes to see if bigger edges (Broughton, Collins) or a three man covered G-C-G package with accompanying blitz or edge stunts could alter the pocket. It’s instructive that Washington’s two best defenders in the game – Bralen Trice and Jabar Muhammad – played every down they were healthy. Washington likely wished they could spell them 10-15 snaps, but they’d rather go out with their best firing the whole magazine in a survive and advance scenario rather than conserve ammo. It would be difficult for me not to have Murphy in the game 55+ snaps. Or find Collins and Broughton their snaps on the edges or as part of odd fronts rather than dutifully rotating in lesser players like we were playing Rice. In this type of game, I think you want as much good on the field as possible at all times. Also, disposition. I mean in both senses of the word. I mean orientation to the offense you’re facing and a general sense of emotional urgency. Texas defenders blitzed or rushed cautiously on way too many downs, we never attacked the interior with blitzers until late (and it was moderately effective in forcing resets or early balls – part of Penix’s first half drop off from extraordinary to the second half’s very good) and several times I saw us offering containment rushes on a pocket QB. Whether strategy or a player resigning to getting beaten by the OL across from him, that dog won’t hunt. Washington’s 280 pound center was uncovered on more than half of our downs. He became a quick-footed double teaming asset rather than a potential bull rush liability. There were also a handful of coverages unsuitable to down and distance. Like a 3rd and 2 off zone coverage with a vacating LB blitzer that allowed a wide open tight end to take three steps and move the chains during a critical late 4th quarter drive that ended in Washington points. Or asking Michael Taaffe to play a speed out on 3rd and long from an interior safety spot. Does Earl Thomas get to that? That wasn’t an expression of Husky ballerness. Just basic offensive execution vs. a bad call. We really needed to limit those. On the positive side, Texas predictably stoned the standard Washington run game (Dillon Johnson 21-49) and the defense held up well on money downs (Washington was 4 of 13), in no small part because Kalen DeBoer chose to run on 3rd and 4th and short rather than throw play action. I’m grateful for that. Overall, Texas bled 532 yards and 37 points. A ton of credit goes to the Huskies and a passing offense that lived up to every bit of hype, but if this defensive effort had been rolled out early in the year against a non-con opponent, the discussion would be how Texas didn’t want to show anything for a quality future opponent. So even while acknowledging Husky passing game excellence, we didn’t fire all of our bullets. I’m not sure we even brought them all to the fight. Defensive Line Byron Murphy had some success as a pass rusher and was terrific against the run. He had four hurries and if anyone else had also gotten push with him, they would’ve been sacks or fractional turnover opportunities. Sweat had some terrific moments in short yardage, including one big stop where he took on a double team without even getting down into his stance. Alfred Collins had some great snaps. Would have liked to have seen him paired more often with a big front or on the edge. Edge pass rush was non-existent. There were long periods where edges played the I’m-going-to-stand- here-praying-an-interior-player-flushes-Penix-to-me game, but that’s not what we needed or how Penix plays football. I mentioned in the pre-game that this was not a Justice Finkley game. On one possession I watched him get handled in pass protection by Washington’s former walk-on tight end. On the next play, a Husky offensive tackle big-brothered him flat footed and drove him into the ground. The lack of T/E stunts or twists was notable. Nor did Texas use immediate pressure blitzers to create 1 on 1s inside. If you want to play lots of guys, they should be playing like maniacs. Use depth and energy on games and stunts to force Washington’s OL to at least move their feet and pass off assignments. Watch Washington’s pass rush. Watch ours. Who is going harder? Yeah, surprised me too. I didn’t have that on my bingo card. Is that because Washington’s front was allowed to line up in different spots, stunt and attack more? Yeah, I think so. It created energy and attitude. Texas had no sacks and three tackles for loss. The least havoc-inducing effort of the year. Linebackers I’m not sure if our game plan or Washington’s made them more irrelevant for large stretches, but the net effect was the same. They weren’t attacked in the passing game so much as simply bypassed and ignored. PK didn’t use Hill’s quickness as a rusher and disruptor until late. Why? Blitzes came haltingly from distance, which even cursory scouting predicted would be ineffective. Gbenda played with energy. Defensive Backs Terrance Brooks was probably identified as the duck in the Texas secondary. Washington is pretty good at handling Ducks. He surrendered two big catches for over 100 yards total, including a 77 yarder in the 1st quarter in man coverage on the kind of no-man’s land blitz that I was worried about. Ryan Watts also gave up 100+ yards with too much Husky efficiency, but one of them was on an unreal sideline throw and catch that I can’t fault him for. The “going too low” penalty on him was utter nonsense. Muhammad played the best of the bunch, but that’s a relative statement. Tough play here. Holmes only logged 10 snaps. Jahdae Barron was stretched thin, resulting in a surprisingly efficient targeting of #23 for 9 of 11 for 104 yards. A lot of those successful short throws felt like an exploitation of our coverage more than Jahdae himself. Great tackle by #23 to prevent a first down on 3rd down late in the 2nd half. Prevented Washington points. Michael Taaffe played winning football. Other than one mental mistake (I think – sometimes when we blow a coverage badly enough, it’s hard to tell the culprit) he was active, engaged, dialed in and brought some pop. Jerrin Thompson in single high triggered an immediate deep route. Derek Williams played like a freshman thrown in cold after the first half. Special Teams Keilan Robinson was allowed to return kicks with an arm cast. Not sure about that. Blue was close to getting a big gain on one of his kick returns. Xavier Worthy was clearly at less than 100% laterally, so punt return impact potential was diminished. Auburn did his job. Coverage teams were fine. Texas had advantages here, but couldn’t bring them to bear. Final Thoughts Texas had a fatalistic game plan. It’s one thing to admire Washington’s passing game excellence, it’s another not to really compete on the white board with something that plays to Longhorn strengths. Or in the understandable absence of novelty, fail to demonstrate better proficiency in foundational principles with the benefit of extended prep time. None of this really matters, of course. The game was played, Texas lost a close one in which it brought its C+ game, there are no more opportunities left for the 2023 team, so any future key indicators are big picture. So here’s one to chew on: Texas probably needs to find an outside-the-box thinker, developer within scheme and general coverage mind to complement PK’s fundamental big picture approach in order to optimize. Now, an accompanying zoom out to an even bigger picture… Texas has a lot to be proud of and a good foundation for the future. The standard has been raised from exhibiting improvement to playoff contender in three years and that’s no small feat. Keep the big picture in mind, don’t be afraid to break things in the quest for excellence and trust that this program is getting much more right than wrong. Happy New Year and Hook ’em!

Just dropping in to say fuck Pat McAfee and ESPN. He's somehow made their CFB coverage even worse. What a total meathead shitbag. Even the barstool guys are better if you are into the whole sports bro thing. At least Portnoy's pizza reviews are sometimes entertaining.

The manual says the "check plug door to see if manufacturer put the fucking bolts in" procedure is not called for until after the 2nd oil change.

Bella!

Here's great breakdown of the (fairly) latest from a channel I follow. He's a pilot for one of the big airlines, but also flies general aviation for fun. I find his videos quite informative. SIAP.

Maybe it's time to arm yourself if you walk in that area regularly. Machete seems appropriate. Seriously, I feel like Tommy Lee Jones as Sheriff Bell.

Brave heart, kinda.

Yep - I'm betting they factored that in when setting the schedule. Lots of new faces this year - should be exciting. In the circle, we desperately need a swing and miss type. It's something key we lack . . . maybe the new Iowa chick can give us that. At the plate, we need some pop. We have some really good hitters, but we need someone like Shanon Rhoades or iokopa that can threaten to go yard. No Day this year. Maybe the ND chick can provide this. I expect the same shenanigans with base running and fielding - that's just what you get with a MW team. Keep Mia in the OF please!

It sucks they start off with so many road games, but with the weather we've had here recently in February, it makes sense to start in reliably sunny places to avoid cancellations.

9 of the top 10 are from the new SEC/Big 10. I don't love it tbh, but it's the future.

This is why you should be immediately suspicious of anyone that relies on advanced or "adjusted" stats to make a football argument.

This is correct. Washington was the worst possible matchup for us ex ante, and we would have had an easier go of it against Michigan and obviously Bama. But our secondary and pass rush are not very good, Penix et al played out of their minds, the refs never called them for anything, and Sark and PK chipped in with some brain farts and we got a close loss.

I am gruntled. Fuck washington and their shit talking players and bitch ass fans.

They are screwing in all the bolts for the engines and wings, right?

Agree. I'm all in on Sark. But, yes, he has a few flaws. He gets too cute at times.

The biggest difference between Sark and khakis when it comes to running the ball is Sark would never run on 2nd and 14, even against a shaky run D. We'd get two straight QE passes. Committing to the run means committing to the run.