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Big XII Football Media Days - 07/15-07/16 - Jerry World

El Diablo

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closetojumping

closetojumping 62,888

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The harping on the TE position is great. I mean, I want to see a dominant guy there as well, and it is a fucking fact that a dominant TE makes an offense considerably more dynamic. OU and ISU this year are a couple of schools that will be playing a dynamic TE and we’ll see the impact. 

All of that is well and good. Cade Brewer is not that guy. Reese Leitao is clearly not that guy. Maybe on of the freshmen, or both, become(s) that guy, but likely not early this year. 

Given that, what the fuck is Herman doing coming out and preaching about the TE role and Brewer being the man? Given the suspect personnel choices from staff at times in the first two years, including forcing the GG guy from Marble Falls into the sets early in 2017 after Beck went down, this sentiment does not bode well. If Brewer’s mediocre ass is being forced into the game repeatedly while legitimately outstanding WR talent is benched accordingly, no fucking thank you. 

Just knowing what we’ve seen from Brewer up to now, this was a bizarre tangent for Herman. Why the fuck are we singling oit Brewer as someone the program is betting on in 2019 at this moment? 

Also, I assume we’re trolling ATM with his comments, but fuck him and anyone else that wants to play ATM in this lifetime. I’d much rather see Texas playing badass non-con games than playing the mediocrity that is ATM. 

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mulletpelini

mulletpelini 5,216

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8 hours ago, ztejas said:

Look at the 15 BXII CGs from '96-'10 and you get:

  • 12/15 ranked matchups
  • Just 3/12 ranked-upsets in those matchups
  • 2 ass-blastings of non-ranked CU teams in '04 and '05 (not OU and UT's fault that the North was dogshit those seasons)
  • Only ONE Cinderella upset that potentially cost the conference an MNC (ask @mulletpelini)
  • In the 4 upsets where the lower-ranked team won, using the AP Poll as a guideline for CFP:
    • Nebraska in 1996 fell to 6th in the AP - but was a 2 loss team ranked behind 2 undefeateds and 3 1 loss teams
    • CU gets in in 2001 after jumping to #4 in the AP after beating Texas, then #3 in the AP the following week
    • OU still gets in in 2003 as #3 in the AP despite getting ass-blasted by a 3 loss K-State team in the CCG
    • OU gets in in 2007 as #3 in the AP after beating #1 ranked Missouri in the CCG

Well, that one is way more questionable to me than '99.  If Nebraska had won in '96 they have a decent shot at Florida but not nearly the offense from the previous year.  I think Stoops was the DC at Florida that year and had them playing a lot better than the previous year.

No, the biggest disappoint was losing 103 fumbles inside the Texas 10 yard line in Austin in '99 (and yes I realize you're describing CCG, which that game was not.)  That one cost Nebraska for sure and if you asked me which Texas loss hurt the worst, this was it..  That team was loaded on both sides and beat the piss out of Tennessee a year after they had won the NC.  I think Nebraska had 3 90+ yard double digit play drives in the game for TD's....talk about dominating an opponent. 

'96 was a good team no doubt, but they did not have the leadership on offense that they had had the previous 3 years with Frazier.  Frost obviously had it going his senior season in '97 but he was still learning to be a leader in '96.

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Hornius Emeritus

Hornius Emeritus 12,491

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8 minutes ago, ClubWhatever said:

He also acted like a child over Hookfin


That is because Hookfin was grossly underrated. Matt Rhule is a very good coach. He KNEW how good Hookfin is going to to turn out to be and thought that he was getting away with stealing a player who is going to turn out to be a tremendous lineman. 

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ztejas

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1 hour ago, mulletpelini said:

Well, that one is way more questionable to me than '99.  If Nebraska had won in '96 they have a decent shot at Florida but not nearly the offense from the previous year.  I think Stoops was the DC at Florida that year and had them playing a lot better than the previous year.

No, the biggest disappoint was losing 103 fumbles inside the Texas 10 yard line in Austin in '99 (and yes I realize you're describing CCG, which that game was not.)  That one cost Nebraska for sure and if you asked me which Texas loss hurt the worst, this was it..  That team was loaded on both sides and beat the piss out of Tennessee a year after they had won the NC.  I think Nebraska had 3 90+ yard double digit play drives in the game for TD's....talk about dominating an opponent. 

'96 was a good team no doubt, but they did not have the leadership on offense that they had had the previous 3 years with Frazier.  Frost obviously had it going his senior season in '97 but he was still learning to be a leader in '96.

I'll have to look more into the 99 contest. Shit, may have been at the game. 

I also forgot to put aggys upset of K State on that list. K State remained in the top 4 of the AP despite that loss, however.

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Machinator

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2 minutes ago, Hornius Emeritus said:


That is because Hookfin was grossly underrated. Matt Rhule is a very good coach. He KNEW how good Hookfin is going to to turn out to be and thought that he was getting away with stealing a player who is going to turn out to be a tremendous lineman. 

Yes, and he was also acting like a little bitch over it.

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GRHorn

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2 hours ago, closetojumping said:

The harping on the TE position is great. I mean, I want to see a dominant guy there as well, and it is a fucking fact that a dominant TE makes an offense considerably more dynamic. OU and ISU this year are a couple of schools that will be playing a dynamic TE and we’ll see the impact. 

All of that is well and good. Cade Brewer is not that guy. Reese Leitao is clearly not that guy. Maybe on of the freshmen, or both, become(s) that guy, but likely not early this year. 

Given that, what the fuck is Herman doing coming out and preaching about the TE role and Brewer being the man? Given the suspect personnel choices from staff at times in the first two years, including forcing the GG guy from Marble Falls into the sets early in 2017 after Beck went down, this sentiment does not bode well. If Brewer’s mediocre ass is being forced into the game repeatedly while legitimately outstanding WR talent is benched accordingly, no fucking thank you. 

Just knowing what we’ve seen from Brewer up to now, this was a bizarre tangent for Herman. Why the fuck are we singling oit Brewer as someone the program is betting on in 2019 at this moment? 

Also, I assume we’re trolling ATM with his comments, but fuck him and anyone else that wants to play ATM in this lifetime. I’d much rather see Texas playing badass non-con games than playing the mediocrity that is ATM. 

I think you’ve had too much wine. When asked specifically about the TE position he says that Cade Brewer is “an excellent replacement” for Andrew Beck.

What’s the big deal? What is he supposed to say? I guess you have intel that Brewer sucks shit through a straw?  Time will tell I guess. 

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Spoetzl

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2 hours ago, GRHorn said:

I think you’ve had too much wine. When asked specifically about the TE position he says that Cade Brewer is “an excellent replacement” for Andrew Beck.

What’s the big deal? What is he supposed to say? I guess you have intel that Brewer sucks shit through a straw?  Time will tell I guess. 

Forget it, he’s rolling

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BrazilHorn

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3 hours ago, GRHorn said:

I think you’ve had too much wine. When asked specifically about the TE position he says that Cade Brewer is “an excellent replacement” for Andrew Beck.

What’s the big deal? What is he supposed to say? I guess you have intel that Brewer sucks shit through a straw?  Time will tell I guess. 

If Sam can hit the little TE seam route this year like 5 TDs are for the taking regardless of who plays TE. 

He overthrew Beck repeatedly on that route last season. 

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closetojumping

closetojumping 62,888

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5 hours ago, GRHorn said:

I think you’ve had too much wine. When asked specifically about the TE position he says that Cade Brewer is “an excellent replacement” for Andrew Beck.

What’s the big deal? What is he supposed to say? I guess you have intel that Brewer sucks shit through a straw?  Time will tell I guess. 

My intel is that my own eyes tell me Brewer looks like a mediocrity. Reports from people at practices have said the same to all of us on the boards. Have you seen something different? When people are still apologizing for a guy’s injury almost two years later as a reason towards his poor performance, it’s no longer the injury that’s an issue. Maybe he’s finally recovered and really looks like a player. I’ll be plenty happy if so, but that wasn’t the case in the spring.

Herman could have been dismissive of the question. He instead harped on it and used it as a means to tell everyone that they’ll be regularly benching better players at the WR position in order to run a pro spread offense. Did you read the transcripts? Or did you just lazily see a snippet in a tweet and see my response and decided I’d read too much into it? It isn’t like this is the first we’ll have seen of baffling personnel decisions coming from this staff.

For whatever reason, enjoy your faith that the same crew will make smarter decisions earlier than they did last year or the year before. Personnel match-ups have yet to be something that appears as a strength for this staff, IMO. Lining Kyle Porter and Andrew Beck up in an empty set is not strategic. It’s moronic. That happened in Maryland and it played a role in the loss. Beck lining up in an empty set throughout the season was dumb as shit. If that’s repeated with Brewer all year, it’s still dumb as shit. 

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ClubWhatever

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If we can get a TE like Ben Watson, a RB like Laurence Maroney, and a QB like Brady we are set.  I do think Brewer is more of a downfield threat than Beck, even though he hasn't shown it in a game.  The question is can he block the edge when he's in tight.

https://www.espn.com/boston/nfl/news/story?id=4622773

Spoiler

Pats' empty set full of opportunities

Nov 5, 2009

Mike ReissESPN Staff Writer

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- Coming up empty has a negative connotation, but it's been mostly positive for the Patriots' offense.

The "empty" set has been a significant part of the unit's success.

According to ESPN Stats & Information tracking, the Patriots have run 42 plays this season out of the empty set, in which there is no runner in the backfield and five pass-catchers are spread wide at the line of scrimmage. Only the Houston Texans have run more (43).

The league average is 17 empty-set plays per team, but there is a good reason the Patriots more than double that total: They have unshakable trust in quarterback Tom Brady's ability to make the right decisions quickly and deliver an accurate throw. Few quarterbacks have such a gift.

"That's just him doing what he does best," running back Kevin Faulk said. "It's not just his work on the field, but also off the field, studying film and how [defenders] play. That's what makes him who he is."

Brady's ability to execute out of the empty set helps the Patriots create favorable matchups by exploiting weaknesses in the defense. Tight end Benjamin Watson's 35-yard touchdown catch against the Buccaneers is the most recent clear-cut example of this.

At the snap, Brady was in the shotgun and motioned running back Laurence Maroney out of the backfield to the far right. Watson and fellow tight end Chris Baker also were split to that side, with receivers Randy Moss and Wes Welker on the left side.

Buccaneers defenders scrambled to cover up Maroney with safety Sabby Piscitelli, and linebacker Geno Hayes lined up over Watson. In all, there were 10 Buccaneers within 5 yards of the line of scrimmage, and a single high safety who shaded slightly to Moss and Welker's side.

That simplified Brady's read.

"It's nice for a quarterback to see the defense, to see them separate; then you're able to pick your best matchup," Brady said. "If you can find your matchup before the ball is snapped, then you can protect it and it's usually a pretty good play."

The Patriots have totaled 286 yards on those 42 plays out of the empty set this season (6.8-yard avgerage), according to ESPN Stats & Information. The league average is 5.5 yards per play.

"When you go empty, the majority of the pressure is in two areas: with the quarterback and offensive line," said Matt Millen, a studio analyst for "Monday Night Football." "The majority of it is on the quarterback because he has to make the read. It's how fast he sees things, his ability to make good decisions and how quickly he can get the ball out of his hands.

"On the flip side, going empty makes you show your hand as a defense. If you're going to blitz, you have to get in position. It's hard to disguise when the field is that spread out because all the people have to be covered. So you're pretty much locked into just a few coverages."

On Watson's touchdown catch, for example, the Buccaneers blitzed linebacker Barrett Ruud to create a five-man rush. The offensive line picked up the blitz, giving Brady the time to connect with Watson, who blazed past Hayes straight up the numbers.

If there is a danger for offenses that rely heavily on empty sets, it's protection.

"Any time you empty a backfield, they pretty much know what protection you are going to be in -- you have five blockers," Brady said. "So if they bring a sixth guy, you have to throw it quick. If they bring five guys, you have to sort the five that are coming, so it's always a protection issue when you're in an empty formation. If you can pick it up, you can really sort out the coverage pretty easily."

Brady is arguably the NFL's best at executing out of the empty set, as his command also helps the Patriots control the pace of the action. It also helps to have such explosive weapons as Moss, Welker & Co.

While there were some struggles earlier in the season, Brady has found his footing, and the empty set has once again emerged as a big part of the team's offense.

"The biggest advantage for them is having the quarterback," Millen said. "He sees the whole field and is really good at it."

Mike Reiss covers the Patriots for ESPN Boston. You can follow him on Twitter or leave a question for his weekly mailbag.

 

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GRHorn

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4 hours ago, closetojumping said:

 

Herman could have been dismissive of the question. He instead harped on it and used it as a means to tell everyone that they’ll be regularly benching better players at the WR position in order to run a pro spread offense. Did you read the transcripts? Or did you just lazily see a snippet in a tweet and see my response and decided I’d read too much into it? It isn’t like this is the first we’ll have seen of baffling personnel decisions coming from this staff.

For whatever reason, enjoy your faith that the same crew will make smarter decisions earlier than they did last year or the year before. Personnel match-ups have yet to be something that appears as a strength for this staff, IMO. Lining Kyle Porter and Andrew Beck up in an empty set is not strategic. It’s moronic. That happened in Maryland and it played a role in the loss. Beck lining up in an empty set throughout the season was dumb as shit. If that’s repeated with Brewer all year, it’s still dumb as shit. 

I still think you’ve read too much into it.

“Now he’s 250 pounds and can do a lot of things similarly to Andrew.” 

So Herman thinks he’s bulked up enough to take on the role of run blocker for the offense. Ok. 

Herman has his culture and idea of what kind of offense he wants his teams to run.  He’s gonna give it a go with Brewer. This is not surprising.  

As far as benching “legitimately outstanding” WR talent goes, I look forward to seeing that actually demonstrated on the field before I make any big judgments. 

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TexasPride10

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8 hours ago, BrazilHorn said:

If Sam can hit the little TE seam route this year like 5 TDs are for the taking regardless of who plays TE. 

He overthrew Beck repeatedly on that route last season. 

Beck also dropped one of them that hit him right in the face mask (I can't remember which game it was); so make it 6 TDs for the taking. 

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BigBenBamboozle

BigBenBamboozle 1,957

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6 hours ago, closetojumping said:

My intel is that my own eyes tell me Brewer looks like a mediocrity. Reports from people at practices have said the same to all of us on the boards. Have you seen something different? When people are still apologizing for a guy’s injury almost two years later as a reason towards his poor performance, it’s no longer the injury that’s an issue. Maybe he’s finally recovered and really looks like a player. I’ll be plenty happy if so, but that wasn’t the case in the spring.

Herman could have been dismissive of the question. He instead harped on it and used it as a means to tell everyone that they’ll be regularly benching better players at the WR position in order to run a pro spread offense. Did you read the transcripts? Or did you just lazily see a snippet in a tweet and see my response and decided I’d read too much into it? It isn’t like this is the first we’ll have seen of baffling personnel decisions coming from this staff.

For whatever reason, enjoy your faith that the same crew will make smarter decisions earlier than they did last year or the year before. Personnel match-ups have yet to be something that appears as a strength for this staff, IMO. Lining Kyle Porter and Andrew Beck up in an empty set is not strategic. It’s moronic. That happened in Maryland and it played a role in the loss. Beck lining up in an empty set throughout the season was dumb as shit. If that’s repeated with Brewer all year, it’s still dumb as shit. 

To be fair, after Maryland you also said Sam Ehlinger was a mongoloid idiot destined for collegiate mediocrity due to poor decision-making skills. Sam proceeded to throw 308 passes without an INT. 

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Al_4_ISU

Al_4_ISU 12,504

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18 minutes ago, SnowAggy said:

Gotta be the new guys; although between Wells, Klieman, and Brown I'm least sold on Klieman. 

I just have a horrific feeling in the pit of my gut that Klieman is Snyder 2.0.

Also terrified by the fact that he's a UNI dude.  It means he bleeds black and gold in his little bird heart, and now being at KSU will love nothing more than fucking us over in typical K-Statey ways.

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closetojumping

closetojumping 62,888

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43 minutes ago, BigBenBamboozle said:

To be fair, after Maryland you also said Sam Ehlinger was a mongoloid idiot destined for collegiate mediocrity due to poor decision-making skills. Sam proceeded to throw 308 passes without an INT. 

Meh. I, and I alone, was down on Sam Ehlinger in the aftermath of the 2017 season and the 2018 Maryland performance. Right. And yes, that should invalidate every other take I’ve ever had. 

If Brewer turns things around the way Sam did, I’ll happily own it and be glad to be wrong. And then I’ll continue to post my thoughts about football and recruiting. As of now, there’s nothing offering hope on Brewer publicly or privately, so sure, let’s cross our fingers as he lines up dicklessly in empty sets all season. 

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BigBenBamboozle

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25 minutes ago, closetojumping said:

Meh. I, and I alone, was down on Sam Ehlinger in the aftermath of the 2017 season and the 2018 Maryland performance. Right. And yes, that should invalidate every other take I’ve ever had. 

If Brewer turns things around the way Sam did, I’ll happily own it and be glad to be wrong. And then I’ll continue to post my thoughts about football and recruiting. As of now, there’s nothing offering hope on Brewer publicly or privately, so sure, let’s cross our fingers as he lines up dicklessly in empty sets all season. 

giphy.gif

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BrazilHorn

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24 minutes ago, closetojumping said:

Meh. I, and I alone, was down on Sam Ehlinger in the aftermath of the 2017 season and the 2018 Maryland performance. Right. And yes, that should invalidate every other take I’ve ever had. 

If Brewer turns things around the way Sam did, I’ll happily own it and be glad to be wrong. And then I’ll continue to post my thoughts about football and recruiting. As of now, there’s nothing offering hope on Brewer publicly or privately, so sure, let’s cross our fingers as he lines up dicklessly in empty sets all season. 

I will concur that watching Brewer line up in empty sets and be virtually uncovered and never targeted was really frustrating given the WR talent sitting on sidelines. 

I wonder though how much of Improvement out of TE position last year stemmed from Sam’s improvement as a passer and better understanding of offense. Now 3rd year in system I expect to see even better usage/expansion of playbook. 

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BERT

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2 hours ago, closetojumping said:

Meh. I, and I alone, was down on Sam Ehlinger in the aftermath of the 2017 season and the 2018 Maryland performance. Right. And yes, that should invalidate every other take I’ve ever had. 

If Brewer turns things around the way Sam did, I’ll happily own it and be glad to be wrong. And then I’ll continue to post my thoughts about football and recruiting. As of now, there’s nothing offering hope on Brewer publicly or privately, so sure, let’s cross our fingers as he lines up dicklessly in empty sets all season. 

Ah yes, let's not forget about the balls that were not gargled. 

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Yesh

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My memory of the Strong years is hazy, but how good was Beck until last year?  In other words, was it obvious in year 2 that Beck was going to turn out as good as he did?  Was he ahead of where Brewer is now?

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Machinator

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Ian Boyd talked to some of the players at the breakout sessions, here are the transcripts:

Collin Johnson

Ian: 
What can Malcolm Epps do this season...

Johnson: 
(interrupting) Ah, he's a beast.

Ian: 
...does he have to wait his turn or is he going to have to be on the field?

Johnson: 
He's a beast, when he hits the field, whenever that time comes, whether it's this year, next year, whenever, he's going to be a beast. That’s one guy who really developed and watching him in spring ball…I didn’t really take part in spring ball, I didn’t do any contact stuff still coming off my knee, and Malcolm just balled out. I think he led the team in receptions, things like that. So he had an unbelievable spring ball he’s just going to carry that over to the season with confidence.

Malcolm Roach

Ian:
You’ve played almost-nickel for Charlie Strong, you played on the boundary outside linebacker, you’ve played middle linebacker, defensive end, nose tackle some on third down last year, this year do you feel your role is a little more set or do you feel that this is another year where you may float around in different ways?

Roach:
I think I’ll probably be playing majority defensive end but Coach Orlando, I think he’s still gonna try his hardest to put me in positions for mismatches and things so, to be honest, there’s no telling where I may line up.

Narrator pause: Pretty sure this means on third down/passing downs when Texas moves out of the tite front or base fronts and gets wonky in order to attack teams with movement and blitzes. I'm guessing Roach will tend to be assigned inside lanes when they get creative because he'll be so darn good at working across the faces of OL and getting off blocks, setting up blitzers to come screaming through untouched in the gaps he's moving out of. When an OL starts a play having to track Roach, he's going to tend to hold their attention even if a new player like B.J. Foster is entering into that OL's assignment zone. Nevertheless, Roach may get some numbers simply because he's hard to block on the move.

Ian:
You have sort of a new cast on the defensive line but a lot of those guys have played before, do you guys feel like you're a veteran group that teams need to be aware of or do you kinda need to make your mark this season?

Roach:
We feel like we’re a very veteran group, we got two seniors (Roach and Wilbon), a junior (Graham), and a redshirt freshman (Coburn) that’s played a lot on this defensive front. So just coming into this season we have guys that have played a lot football, so...just getting ready for the season and we’re going to take it one game at a time.

Ian:
Besides Malcolm Roach, who should opposing quarterbacks be most afraid to see coming free at them?

Roach:
(zero hesitation) Ta'Quon Graham.

Ian:
Ta'Quon Graham?

Roach:
Yeah.

Brandon Jones

Ian:
Brandon your role changed somewhat last year, they had you shifted down somewhat with Sterns rolled over into your old spot (the combover). Um, how do you feel like that went for you last year and what were some of your takeaways from playing in a different role?

Jones:
It was good, it was a good experience just because Coach Naivar, my position coach, he wants us to multi-task and play multiple positions and just prepare yourself for the next level to be able to play at a lot of different spots. You know playing down in the box, I like to tackle people, I know I can run people down, I have pretty good speed so I use that to my advantage. So it was a good thing for me to build up my game more.

Ian:
Is that something that’s going to continue to be a big feature or do you have something else in the works that you’ll get to show off this season?

Jones:
(grinning) You know, it’s up to coaches whatever they do, I’m in the position I’m in now for as long as I’ve been here that I’m pretty flexible and can do whatever the coaches put me.

Ian:
How has Foster looked, playing in that nickel spot now, you know that’s an adjacent position really for where you’ve been…

Jones:
Right.

Ian:
…how’s that been?

Jones:
I think it’s been good, especially for the way we use our nickel, BJ’s very athletic and very physical, and I think he can get the job done for sure.

Narrator pause: When Justin was chatting up Jones later on he reaffirmed his enthusiasm for playing down in the box, for doing that rather than playing the difficult nickel position, and for the fact that Josh Thompson still knows the nickel position the best out of anyone on the team.

Sam Ehlinger

Kaelan Jones (The Athletic):
What have you seen out of Jordan Whittington so far? Everyone has been talking about how great he looks, what have you seen?

Ehlinger:
Yeah, he’s a freak. Absolute freak. Just…a lot of guys it takes them a little bit for them to break down and make a cut but Jordan it’s like, he’ll be full speed and put one foot in the ground and he’s going the other way. The versatility that he has, the quickness, it’s very impressive.

Wescott Eberts (Burnt Orange Nation):
How fast is Jake Smith?

Ehlinger:
Phew, freaky fast.

Wescott:
Is he as fast as Duvernay?

Ehlinger:
I dunno...they haven’t had a footrace. Um…

Wescott:
They pretty close?

Ehlinger:
I dunno, that’s a hard question. He’s extremely fast but he’s also extremely quick, it’s not just a straight-line speed, it’s like a quick twitch and he’s still carrying that speed.

Wescott:
How’s your connection with him developing?

Ehlinger:
It’s been going well, he’s a great kid, extremely intelligent, he’s been a delight to be around, he’s two lockers down from me so I’ve got to chat with him a good amount and he’s coming along really well. He’s been killing the workouts and I’m excited for him.

Narrator pause: You didn't necessarily get the sense from this exchange that Ehlinger is working with Jake Smith a whole lot just yet, particularly when his big point of reference was being near his locker rather than having a lot of work with him in drills, but I'm reading into the body language here some. He may get a ton of action.

Wescott:
How much of a change is that going from LJ in the slot, you know big guy with great ball skills, to somebody that is smaller and twitchier like Jake Smith?

Ehlinger:
Well I think, you can make either/or work because it definitely changes the throw but both of them can be done. Where you see LJ, maybe he wasn’t a 4.3/4.4 guy but he was a 6-4 guy so he could go get the ball you just put it in his area and he’s going to get it. But now you got speedier slots in Josh Moore and Jake Smith and some other guys and if that safety takes one wrong step he’s got them beat by five yards. So it’s just a different throw. I don’t think it’s a bad thing in any sort of way. Obviously we’d love to have an LJ but the adjustment it can be a big play down the field.

Narrator pause: Notice that he mentioned Josh Moore back in here with Jake Smith. It's a good guess that as of right now, Moore is ahead of Smith for the slot position pending how fall camp goes for the freshman and also for the next guy...

Ehlinger on Brewer:
Last year Andrew was incredible, and this year’s TE Cade Brewer is going to be as good if not better. I’m really optimistic about his potential, he’s extremely strong, he got good playing time as a freshman and a sophomore, he was an incredible receiver in HS at Lake Travis so if we want to split out it’s not an issue it’s not like “oh well he can’t run routes,” and he’s doing a great job in the run game. It’s definitely a versatile part of our offense because we can go really fast and move him into the backfield and split him out and it’s hard for defenses to sub in packages for that so, I think he’s going to do an excellent job.

I think a lot of times teams discredit the TE coming across the middle and now that may be true if you don’t have a TE you can rely on but last year we certainly did and we hurt people with it and I think this year Cade’s an incredible fill-in for the passing game. I mean, if you’re going to leave him open over the middle he’s going to catch everything in his area and he also can catch and move with the ball, it’s not like he’s a static target. If you forget about him, we’ll hit him.

Tom Herman was also defensive of the 11 personnel package when I asked, resulting in the following exchanges that occurred back to back in the televised presser.

Tom Herman

Ian:
Coach, last year the offense was often defined by having Andrew Beck who could block a defensive end one play and then motion out the next and get Lil'Jordan Humphrey matched up on a linebacker. But both are now gone, so who will define the offense in 2019?

Herman:
I don't know who will define the offense. I think that's a very subjective statement you made in terms of the offense being defined by Andrew Beck and what he was able to do. I think our offense will be very similar. We feel like Cade Brewer is an excellent replacement for Andrew Beck. Obviously Andrew was a two-time captain and a first-team All-Conference player. So those are big shoes to fill, and the same with Humphrey, enormous shoes to fill.

We feel like our depth and talent at receiver is such that we feel that is a position of strength for us. Then we feel like Cade Brewer, you know, Cade started most of the season as a true freshman having played wide receiver in high school and boom! You get to college and you're playing tight end at whatever he was at that time, probably 220 pounds, now he's 250 pounds can do a lot of things similarly to Andrew.

Other reporter:
Coach a follow-up about the tight end position. Why and how is it so important to the offense? Andrew, I think a lot people maybe overlooked, I know the staff didn't overlook, but his play and contribution last year was pretty important to the offense, correct?

Herman:
Extremely important, yeah. We define our offense as a pro spread. We're going to run NFL concepts in the run game in terms of inside zone and power and counter (Notable inclusion of counter here as I think GT counter is likely a bigger factor in 2019). We're going to run NFL concepts in the passing game, NFL concepts in our protections. The only difference is we're going to do it from the shotgun and we're going to make defenses have to defend a mobile quarterback.

So I think, you know, we're not one of those fun and gun, chuck and duck, whatever you want to call it, four wide receivers throw it every snap and run a draw here and there. We want to be a power running team, and we're slowly building that. Having a dominant tight end certainly helps along the way.

It's probable that the staff wants to protect any major tweaks coming in personnel packages if that occurs in 2019, wants to bolster Brewer's confidence heading into fall camp that he can be a starter on this team, and may also simply not yet know what the best 11-man package on offense will be.

One of the big storylines to follow in the fall will be which guys are popping and earning the coaches' trust as the go-to guys that will see major roles in the coming year. Even after these responses by Herman and Ehlinger it's not obvious to me whether or not Brewer will get nearly as many snaps as Beck did or not.

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El Diablo

El Diablo 4,232

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3 hours ago, closetojumping said:

Meh. I, and I alone, was down on Sam Ehlinger in the aftermath of the 2017 season and the 2018 Maryland performance. Right. And yes, that should invalidate every other take I’ve ever had. 

If Brewer turns things around the way Sam did, I’ll happily own it and be glad to be wrong. And then I’ll continue to post my thoughts about football and recruiting. As of now, there’s nothing offering hope on Brewer publicly or privately, so sure, let’s cross our fingers as he lines up dicklessly in empty sets all season. 

Tone.

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Burt Macklin

Burt Macklin 19,053

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1 hour ago, Machinator said:

Ehlinger on Brewer:
Last year Andrew was incredible, and this year’s TE Cade Brewer is going to be as good if not better. I’m really optimistic about his potential, he’s extremely strong, he got good playing time as a freshman and a sophomore, he was an incredible receiver in HS at Lake Travis so if we want to split out it’s not an issue it’s not like “oh well he can’t run routes,” and he’s doing a great job in the run game. It’s definitely a versatile part of our offense because we can go really fast and move him into the backfield and split him out and it’s hard for defenses to sub in packages for that so, I think he’s going to do an excellent job.

I think a lot of times teams discredit the TE coming across the middle and now that may be true if you don’t have a TE you can rely on but last year we certainly did and we hurt people with it and I think this year Cade’s an incredible fill-in for the passing game. I mean, if you’re going to leave him open over the middle he’s going to catch everything in his area and he also can catch and move with the ball, it’s not like he’s a static target. If you forget about him, we’ll hit him.

So not only was CTJ wrong on Ehlinger, but now he’s going to be wrong on Ehlinger on Brewer. Very impressive. 

Edited by Burt Macklin
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