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Thinking Texas football

blacklab

By blacklab
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blacklab

blacklab 11,852

Posted
Posted

There's several people and websites in the UT internet that I fucking hate, and there are several that I really like.

Scipio and barking carnival is one of the latter.  Scipio has put out a preseason write up for the last 7 years and this year it's also available in print on Amazon. I know he's not everyone's cup of tea but I like reading his stuff.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1079562591/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=2019+thinking+texas&qid=1564073674&s=gateway&sr=8-3

In his own words:

Quote

The 2019 Thinking Texas Football Longhorn Football Preview print edition is live on Amazon.That means real print, a paperback, a tome, the Burnt Orange Bible, a real physical book is ready and waiting.

The paper was specially printed to convey the smell of freshly cut grass, the pop of pads, and the faint echoes of a coach’s whistle.

Many of you have asked for a paper version since the inception of the TTF book and now we finally can provide it reasonably to you via Amazon self-publishing. Thanks for your patience. Now it’s time...

The TTF Amazon e-version page will merge with the paperback page within the next few days. As always, if you prefer an e-version (or want both - as a bunch of folks have told me) get it at:

Smashwords

Apple iBooks

Amazon

 

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hornian

hornian 5,206

Posted
Posted
22 minutes ago, texifornia said:

Already bought it and read it. Great as always. Highly recommended.

(Also I think if you get it on Smashwords the authors get a bigger cut: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/947268 )

From that link:

I'm an attorney. I essentially write for a living. I've had cases that lasted over 2 years and had several dozen legal briefs in them that didn't hit 34,050 words combined. And I'm a long winded motherfucker! That's a fuckin' novel!

 

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texifornia

texifornia 56,566

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Posted (edited)
1 minute ago, hornian said:

From that link:

I'm an attorney. I essentially write for a living. I've had cases that lasted over 2 years and had several dozen legal briefs in them that didn't hit 34,050 words combined. And I'm a long winded motherfucker! That's a fuckin' novel!

 

I have a 40 minute subway commute each way and I hate podcasts, so more words is more gooder for me. I can at least promise they're well-written words!

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Walden Ponderer

Walden Ponderer 12,639

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16 minutes ago, Sejjr said:

Does he mention Fuck Lions perchance?

No, but subtextually, he gives you the impression he really wanted to.

This year's version reads a lot like they are doing everything they possibly can to avoid sounding like they are mainlining the kool-aid. Even though they, like me, are almost definitely mainlining the kool-aid.

I always enjoy the write-ups of the opponents, too, because it's always interesting to see whether teams are going to look like what we thought before the season that they would look like (spoiler: most of the time, they do; sometimes, like with Iowa State a couple of years ago, they surprise the fuck out of you somewhere in the middle of the season by changing everything mid-stream, and it somehow working).

Anyway, it's probably no surprise I like Scipio's writing, given that I'm a bit of a blowhard myself, but blacklab is right -- they're the good guys, even if they are a bit on the nerdish end of the spectrum.

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markstanco

markstanco 12,528

Posted
Posted
There's several people and websites in the UT internet that I fucking hate, and there are several that I really like.
Scipio and barking carnival is one of the latter.  Scipio has put out a preseason write up for the last 7 years and this year it's also available in print on Amazon. I know he's not everyone's cup of tea but I like reading his stuff.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1079562591/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=2019+thinking+texas&qid=1564073674&s=gateway&sr=8-3
In his own words:

The 2019 Thinking Texas Football Longhorn Football Preview print edition is live on Amazon.That means real print, a paperback, a tome, the Burnt Orange Bible, a real physical book is ready and waiting.

The paper was specially printed to convey the smell of freshly cut grass, the pop of pads, and the faint echoes of a coach’s whistle.

Many of you have asked for a paper version since the inception of the TTF book and now we finally can provide it reasonably to you via Amazon self-publishing. Thanks for your patience. Now it’s time...

The TTF Amazon e-version page will merge with the paperback page within the next few days. As always, if you prefer an e-version (or want both - as a bunch of folks have told me) get it at:

Smashwords

Apple iBooks

Amazon

 
Scipio is not liked around here by some? I always concluded he was the best from here and back in the SB/ST days as not being a homer or basher. FCB.
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mr. sunshine

mr. sunshine 2,824

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31 minutes ago, Deej said:

Bought the Kindle version so I don't have to drag a book into the shitter at work.

On a somewhat related note I used to have to drag the Sears catalog, notably the bra and girdle section, into the shitter when I was a kid. Damn kids got it made these days 

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Sock Drawer

Sock Drawer 214

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1 minute ago, markstanco said:

 
Scipio is not liked around here by some? I always concluded he was the best from here and back in the SB/ST days as not being a homer or basher. FCB.

It's that known cocksucker, Wescunt Eggberts that's in universal disfavor around here. Oh, and CB too.

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Machinator

Machinator 32,098

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49 minutes ago, Sgt Hulk said:

Someone gonna post cliffs 

He posted this on Inside Texas:

DEFENSE 

WE SMARTER, Y'ALL. 

The Texas defense lost a lot of experience (only three returning starters, however shall we cope?) but gained Football IQ on the second and third levels of the defense. 

At linebacker, Joseph Ossai and Jeffrey McCulloch are intelligent football players. When your two primary linebackers can digest game plans, it opens up options for the staff. The best counter to modern offenses putting players into conflict isn't telling your players what to do pre-snap, come hell or high water. It's creating flexibility within your structure so that they have agency to counter the offense in real time. 

If you make a study of the B-Backer/Rover relationship (or Mike/Rover/Nickel when we go Dime) in Orlando's preferred schemery, it involves a great deal of communication and cohesion between the athletes to know who is attacking which gap, who is dropping, and what offensive sets might trigger "automatics" (meaning, when the offense lines up in X formation and that guy motions, we know what's coming - y'all jump it). I will not besmirch the old LB corps as they gave their best for Texas, but Wheeler and Johnson, whatever the starting experience lost, were players best pointed in a direction pre-snap and told to go. Ossai and McCulloch offer intellectual flexibility and, despite their size, some athletic flexibility to go with it (both have a knack for dropping into passing lanes, for example). 

At safety, Texas returns their backfield brain in Brandon Jones (who missed four games last year and was hobbled in more) while sophomores BJ Foster and Caden Sterns will actually know what the hell is going on in the broader defense and not just rely on instinct anymore. An overlooked subtle asset is Chris Brown, who understands multiple spots and has coach-on-the-field attributes. Texas is smarter back there. The other benefit of a surfeit of safeties is that when you play them all (Dirty Dime time), you can actually narrow responsibilities for the guys you want near the ball (Foster, Overshown) freeing them to play fast and wreck things while giving more agency to third level players like Sterns and Jones who excel at covering ground and QB mind-f'ing. On field Football IQ goes up right along with team speed and quickness. 

As for cornerback, Cook and Green are green, but does anyone think they have less situational awareness than Boyd and Davis? 

DL IN AGGREGATE

No individual player will be better than Charles Omenihu next year. But our defensive structure rewards aggregate play. Breckyn Hager was not ideal for the defense last year (injury related, attribute related) and his gap shooting only creates structural weakness if he can't garner 8 sacks and 16 tackles for loss to make up for the holes and overrun he created in the front. Chris Nelson was a stud against interior runs, but teams simply learned to double him or run away, except for the stubborn fools who ran at him on 4th and 2. He was a non-factor against the pass. 

In aggregate, the 2019 DL can match the effective production from last year while also creating the necessary infrastructure at the line of scrimmage to allow Texas to "go small" (if playing a bunch of safeties who weigh between 200-215 is small). What do I mean by effective production? Remember, Poona Ford's numbers (31 tackles, 8 tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks) were just whatever as a senior. Poor statistical production. But his film and game impact? Man. He was the Big 12 DL of the Year for a reason. 

The keys are Roach and Graham being the classic 4i's that Orlando covets - stout enough to hold up against north south runs, but agile and hyper enough to be a problem in pursuit, extending outside zone runs to the sideline, providing enough pocket constriction to force the QB off of his spot and into the arms of the blitzing Ossai, Foster or McCulloch. Coburn and Wilbon should tag team the nose position sufficiently splitting snaps to roughly reproduce Nelson and I expect pass rushing packages on clear passing downs. Behind them, we have options. Jacoby Jones is an intriguing situational pass rusher who has a knack for getting to passers. Bimage can be Hagerish and give us some juice. Ojomo looked solid in the spring. Carson is already showing run stopping ability. 

OFFENSE

WE HAVE A QB

That's the most reassuring statement any team can voice going into a new season. Last year, Sam Ehlinger grew his yards per attempt from 7 to 7.7, improved his completion accuracy from the high 50s to mid 60s, accounted for 41 touchdowns despite missing nearly two full games and was responsible for only 6 total turnovers (5 interceptions, 1 fumble lost) despite incredibly high usage (425 pass attempts, 164 carries as short yardage single wing fullback). If Sam's development curves flattens out, Texas is in pretty good shape. If his trajectory continues on a steep upward trend, the upside of the offense improves from competent ball control to....well, super competent ball control with a dash of big play upside. Texas is going to play a few games where we have to outscore someone. I like trying to do that with a proven junior QB with 20 starts under his belt. 

THE OL WILL BE FINE

Will LSU give us some rocky moments early? Yep. Will Iowa State's front be tough in Ames? You bet. Here is the big picture: if you told me I could build out a new OL with some potentially high upside wildcard contributors (Parker Braun, Denzel Okafor, Junior Angilau) but I'd get three assets to minimize downside risk, I'd pick a quality veteran center to coordinate my line calls, a very good left tackle to own one edge and a swingman who can play any position on the OL. Zach Shackelford, Sam Cosmi and Derek Kerstetter. 

The growth from 2017 to 2018 on the OL was from poor to average. Don't overestimate what was lost. Or underestimate what Texas returned. Average is the new floor.

SPECIAL TEAMS 

The kicker and punter were both true freshmen last year. Tom Herman added his third recruiting class and program physicality is on the rise. Our best positional depth is in the defensive backfield. What do backup DBs do well when they're not defensive backing on defense? 

Texas special teams play will: 

1) improve
2) stay the same
3) get worse
4) hi! 
5) why doesn't Sam Ehlinger return kickoffs?

**

There's your refreshing drink. If you want more optimism grounded in reality exploring some angles that may not be obvious, I have some ideas where to find it.

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Slacks

Slacks 6,792

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Posted

I've bought them for a while... just getting through ou analysis and I'm concerned about:
1. defense - no proven playmakers that aren't safeties.
2. our inability to coach and play 4Q worth a damn.

If we are back in the cc game, then I'll feel great about next season. If we struggle with the early LA school games, I will feel shrinkage in my energy.

f the offseason

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Stampeder

Stampeder 92

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On 7/25/2019 at 7:58 PM, Deej said:

We may wreck shop. We may not.

Didn't really get into specific predictions in terms of our record from what I recall.  On offense, expect to be more explosive and pray for Sam to remain healthy.  On defense, while many are pointing to the loss of 8 starters as a major concern, he's making the argument we're not as inexperienced as most think and expects better play this year than last.  Third year in the scheme, better overall athleticism, etc.  If so, we can expect the floor for this season to be roughly how things worked out last season with some significant potential to the upside.

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