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Wulaw Horn

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satyanash

satyanash 14,281

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Joseph Cook: What is your favorite play in Red River Shootout history?

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One of the questions we have in the Roundtable this week is what our favorite play in the history of the rivalry is. There’s some overlap in our decisions, but there are also a LOT of plays to choose from. My frame of reference for this game starts in 2002. That’s when my dad started taking me, and I’ve been to every one since then either in the stands or in the press box with the exception of 2011, with plenty of happy and sad stops at the Whataburger in Corsicana on the way back (Thanks Dad!). That time frame has a lot of great ones, including kickoff returns, big runs, interceptions, field goals, and defensive stops. I won’t spoil mine ahead of the Roundtable, but was curious what play from the Cotton Bowl in mid-October stands out above the rest In your mind?

For my money, Shipley's kick return is up there.

 

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satyanash

satyanash 14,281

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Scipio Tex: 2020 Oklahoma Football Preview

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Throw out your Longhorn angst. Stifle your anxiety and fretting. Stop worrying about what coach you'd like to replace Tom Herman. Or whether Herman will run three consecutive inside zone runs with a 35-31 lead late in Dallas with 6:00 on the clock. Damn, I should have omitted that mind worm. Never mind. Back to the message...

This week, there is only one singular focus: to crush Oklahoma.

 

It's Hate Week. Act like it. If you have a problem with Tommy's Turtlin', don't enter this thread with your own shell retreat game in force. Inside Texas always endorses reality, but it better be tempered with the proper hatred for the land thieves that live on the slum side of the Red River. Now I will break down these slack jowled yokels, who love a Golden Hat almost as much as a golden shower...

The Sooners are 1-2 and 0-2 in Big 12 play after close losses to Kansas State (38-35) and Iowa State (37-30). So now we know why Lincoln Riley was so deeply concerned about COVID-19 and player safety. Anytime a Sooner postures about ethics, trust that rat smell in your nostrils and start checking behind the baseboards. I knew it back in August and now we all know it. Oklahoma wasn't ready to play this year and Riley was appropriately worried. The question remains whether Riley and the Sooner staff can get Oklahoma back on track so that they can be a factor down the stretch of the Big 12 race. The best way to short circuit that prospect and put heat on a young head coach who hasn't yet shown the ability to handle criticism, is to pummel them in Dallas.

Their Big 12 losses were well deserved, but Oklahoma is still a dangerous team, Texas isn't exactly without its own issues, and Texas-OU is one of the few college football series with a legitimate history of unexpected results. Riley is 3-1 against Herman, but the margin of victory has not exceeded a touchdown - even in last year's game where the Sooner staff thoroughly dominated Texas from whistle to whistle.

Oklahoma Defense

Throw out the Sooner 48-0 shutout of Missouri State. That score and those stats merely prove that Alex Grinch runs a system that profoundly bullies hapless opponents, but as opponent quality and game planning scale up, the Sooner D has fewer answers and a lot more questions. Kansas State averaged 7.8 yards per play. Iowa State averaged 7.4 yards per play. Both dropped multiple chunk plays on the Sooner D and on re-watch, none of them were of the "oh, well stuff happens" variety. It should also be noted that KSU committed 13 penalties - it's not like the Wildcats were running a well-oiled machine out there. The Sooners have allowed multiple long touchdowns in the running and passing game, have tackled poorly at times, and frequently showed disarray in their secondary, and in the coordination of their stunts and run fits at the line of scrimmage.

When Grinch's pressure choreography falls apart, the Sooners fall apart.

The problems begin on the Sooner DL. While they will return the drug-suspended DE Ronnie Perkins, after the NCAA blinked on his four game time out like a lemur in a sandstorm, he didn't play in Ames and we'll see how game ready he is in Big D. He's their best defender and obviously brings an element of disruption and some real pass rushing ability. Perrion Winfrey is the nose tackle and he ain't Neville Gallimore, who completely dominated Texas last year. Winfrey registered a total of 1.5 tackles playing starter's snaps against both Big 12 opponents and he has looked more JAG than jaguar. LaRon Stokes has been whatever at the other end position, providing neither consistent pass rush nor run stopping. DE Marcus Stripling has been, this season, more hype than impact. Reserve Isaiah Thomas has forced more snaps in the rotation with his get-off, but he's better on the move in a stunt than anchoring the LOS. The Sooner front is smallish and not particularly disruptive.

When you run a three man front, you'd better have two guys that can be a problem if the O doesn't double team on the playside, or tries to give a backside DE a cursory pass off in zone blocking. Unless Ronnie Perkins balls out, the Sooners don't have any problem creators and that means that Longhorn blockers can seep onto the linebackers and nickel. That has a cascading effect on the entire Sooner defense.

The Sooner LBs have had their single play highlight moments but DaShaun White isn't Kenneth Murray at the MIKE and Asamoah and Bonnito have been up and down at OLB. Reserve OLB Bryan Mead has logged snaps in their stead and he is not very good in space. White is a very effective disruptor on called blitzes (4.5 tfl, 2.5 sacks), which is a feature of the MIKE in the Grinch system, but when he's not on Grinch's joystick, he's late to the party and has not yet shown diagnostic ability as a conventional off-the-ball backer. The Sooners are stunting and gaming these guys to make up for their problems up front and while Grinch has a very good feel for this, it has turned them into a feast or famine D that hemorrhages single play 60+ yard touchdowns, sandwiched between tackles for loss. A lot of beta.

Finally, the Sooner secondary is smallish (no Sooner starter is taller than 6 feet) and they have been inconsistent outside at cornerback with Jaden Davis and Tre Brown. They miss Parnell Motley, who really was a pain in the ass for other team's #1 option. They are still penalty ridden (by design) but they gave up big passing yardage on busts to both Kansas State and Iowa State. While their smaller, coverage oriented defensive backs may match up well against Texas wide receiver personnel, forcing them to make tackles in the run and screen game is always desirable. The Texas skill players need to be physical as hell.

The only real Sooner defensive strength has been 3rd down defense. Grinch is holding opposing offenses to a 25% conversion rate (8 of 32) and that's outstanding money down D. Grinch is good at knowing your 3rd down stuff and dialing in a good call based on down and distance. On neutral downs, things get a lot more interesting for Oklahoma. Texas needs to play Canadian football and treat every down as an opportunity to score 70 yard touchdowns. Not as a chance to "control the ball and clock" and repeatedly find itself in 3rd and 5.

Sooner Offense

Lincoln Riley is very good at using formations to dictate coverage match-ups that play into a easy read and a QB friendly shot to a wide open Sooner receiver, but the most under-appreciated aspect of Riley's offensive schemery is his ability to roll up huge yardage in the running game against light and honest boxes, exploiting paralyzed hinge defenders who think they have to look for EVERYTHING rather than just doing their job. It's very important that Chris Ash break down responsibilities clearly and cleanly for the Back 7 Texas defenders. And then go over it with Mitchell and Overshown twice more.

OU has moved up and down the field this year, but the easy yards in the running game haven't presented themselves and Spencer Rattler has been turning it over far too much for the Sooners to put unrelenting pressure on defenses (and, in turn, opposing offenses) the way they're accustomed. They're also around 45% on 3rd down conversions - about 10% below what they're used to. Rattler is completing 73% of his passes, but he has four interceptions against Big 12 opponents, including throws like this:

While Rattler fits the perfect Sooner QB douche mold to a tee, don't underestimate him. He is talented as hell with a big arm and the ability to alter his delivery from multiple throwing platforms. His interceptions are not related to inaccuracy. They are related to poor judgement or bad reads. While the Cotton Bowl will lack the emotional rollercoaster the crowd provides that can feast on the psychology of young signals callers, it's still a big game and we want Rattler pressing to do too much. Give him some looks and get in his face. Rattler doesn't offer the legs or running ability of a Kyler Murray or Jalen Hurts, much less a young Baker Mayfield. He has 16 yards rushing over 3 games. When OU guesses wrong, there's no foot eraser. Got to make them pay.

He's certainly not a statue in the pocket and can shake a DL, but he's not going to take off on a 45 yard run unless something goes horribly wrong in the Texas defense. He's also a true 6"0. He does a good job of finding passing windows sliding in the pocket and Riley creates viewing space for him in the scheme, but the Texas DL needs to demonstrate active hands on RPOs, get a couple of them tipped up in the air, and change the game with a 50 yard pick 6 to an opportunistic Texas DB.

The Sooner pass receivers have been a distributed attack. Six different Sooners have at least 7 catches and they've used TE Austin Stogner and H-Back Jeremiah Hall well, and we'll see plenty of 12 and 21 personnel, trying to trick us into playing big and then throwing the ball on play action. They can watch film and they want to expose our linebackers and create pass/run game conflict.

Stogner goes 6-6, 250 and fits the mold of the classic Sooner flex TE. Hall is a Swiss Army Knife who can catch, block, and do the dirty work in pass protection when the Sooner OL needs help. He has three receiving touchdowns and both Sooners need special attention in the red zone and on key 3rd downs. Wide outs Wease, Rambo and Mims make up the primary Sooner WRs. All can run and are quick after the catch, but they're not big targets and if the Texas corners can stay on top of them and be very physical, Texas can deprive Riley of some of their easy screen game. There is no Mark Clayton/Sterling Shepard/Marquise Brown/CeeDee Lamb level talent out there.

Freshman Seth McGowan and TJ Pledger carry the load at RB. Absent from the Sooner offense are the gaudy yards per carry averages that characterize Riley runners. The Sooners are finding out how the other half lives, slugging it out for 2-6 yard gains instead of popping 60 yarders on the regular. The Sooners's longest run of the year? 23 yards. Yeah, that surprised me, too. Both backs can catch though, and that merits our attention.

We've grown so accustomed to dominant Sooner OL play that it's startling to seem them have some struggles. Left tackle Erik Swenson has been getting beat too often and they even benched him for a stretch against Kansas State, replacing him with freshman Anton Harrison. That's great news for Joseph Ossai. Right guard Tyrese Robinson has been struggling with quickness on the interior and when he presses, it all falls apart for him. If Ash will continue running line stunts, Texas will have a shot at inflicting negative plays. Center Creed Humphrey is the default selection for All Big 12 center, but it's worth mentioning that the one defender that gave him the most trouble last year was Baylor's Brayvion Roy. Keondre Coburn's play style has some eerie parallels to Roy, particularly when he's feeling frisky and wants to push the pocket.

Honestly, it's just nice to see OU struggle up front like the rest of Big 12 mortals.

Final

If you tell me you have a clean read on this game, I will call you a damn liar. However, I can tell you with confidence that this is the most vulnerable Sooner team we've seen since 2014. They're not strong up front on either side of the ball, they're breaking in a talented new QB, Riley is pissy from seeing his invulnerability dented, and they are disjointed from players suspensions, missed practices, and offseason off-field shenanigans. It's right there for Texas. How much do we want it?

 

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TexMexBuddha

TexMexBuddha 987

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Jamaal Charles broke a long TD run against blOU during the championship season. It was cathartic to see Charles gash blOU's defense after watching Adrian Peterson do the same to us the year prior.

 

Damn. I am in agreement. This is the play where I knew Jamaal was special.

 

Stonie Clark stop 12 years to the day yesterday is 1a.

 

 

 

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satyanash

satyanash 14,281

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(Ian Boyd) Peering through the Hubble: Space matchups in the Big 12 during the RRS weekend

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We’ve done an awful lot of Red River Shootout content this week. I just published the Gameplan on the Inside Texas Member’s board, which is free for non-members as well. Me and Kegan Reneau also had a back and forth over the Red River Shootout that was surprisingly non-contentious. There’s a few other games taking place this week though and plenty of space matchups to investigate in projecting how these games will go.

Last week it was noted that Texas held a number of space matchups against TCU, which bore out well save for in one area. The Horned Frog cornerbacks played a great game and didn’t give up much to Texas’ passing game. However, the Longhorns blocked the Frog pass-rush with relative ease and torched their vaunted safeties with empty formations. All for naught of course, as Texas gave away two key fourth quarter possessions first with play-calling and then with a misguided running back reach for the goal line on first and goal that resulted in a game-deciding turnover.

West Virginia predictably bottled up the Baylor offense, the Bears can’t utilize a “space force” on offense because their quarterback leaves them ground bound. Oklahoma State rolled easily over Lawrence without experiencing any of the malaise I noted often besets teams trying to play football up there. Kansas State whipped Texas Tech with more “Deuce Vaughn in space” and then there was the Iowa State vs Oklahoma game.

Oklahoma had advantages on offense on the perimeter and held up fairly well on the edges in the pass-rush. But Iowa State played a lot of cover 2 to negate the problems out wide and while Oklahoma performed reasonably well in pass protection they couldn’t beat the Cyclones in the middle of the field. On the flip side, Iowa State abused the Oklahoma secondary at most every position and PFPurdy did his usual routine in just barely evading disaster against the pass-rush. Here’s how the matchups in space look for Week 3 of Big 12 play.

Oklahoma vs Texas

The Sooners are a much better team with freshman Anton Harrison at left tackle rather than Erik Swenson, at least their upside is higher. He’s a much better athlete overall. That said, I think it’s fair to say that Oklahoma’s biggest problems have occurred when teams isolated a good pass-rusher on big Marquis Hayes in space.

Joseph Ossai on a down to down basis is probably not going to wreck Oklahoma’s day. Stunting inside on passing downs is another matter. The biggest challenge for Oklahoma on offense will be in finding their top receivers down the field matched up on D’Shawn Jamison, Josh Thompson, and Caden Sterns for Texas. The Longhorns have been positionally strong this season on vertical throws, although they don’t always find the ball in the air. When they’ve been beat they’ve been beat by good efforts by receivers to go up and get the ball and good placement by the quarterback. One easy way to make sure the Sooners are in this game from start to finish is for Spencer Rattler to beat Texas’ defensive backs down the field and necessitate more conservative coverage than Chris Ash would prefer.

On the flip side, there’s a few important battles. Texas hasn’t been good outside at receiver when matched on cornerbacks, but they have been dangerous throwing to slot receivers. If the Longhorns play this game from spread sets make the space matchups that matter take place between OU’s nickel, safeties, and linebackers and the better Texas skill talents that’s a win. If they start landing shots outside because Tre Brown and Jaden Davis don’t play well, that works as well. The Sooners secondary is a target-rich environment right now.

Using spread sets and getting the ball out fast to slot receivers is probably the best option though because Oklahoma may bring Nik Bonitto and Ronnie Perkins off the edges for the first time this week. Space matchups in this game are pretty even, the game will come down to infrastructure and coaching strategy.

 

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satyanash

satyanash 14,281

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Horns247 Staff Predictions: Texas vs. Oklahoma

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Bobby Burton

Lincoln Riley is a young head coach and he is faced with the first true losing streak of his career. Yet Riley says he thinks the Sooners are “closer” to turning the corner on this season than maybe even his own team realizes. Perhaps his offense is. But his defense has reverted the last couple of weeks. Nevertheless, I suspect Riley will be ready for the Horns. Texas should beat Oklahoma. That’s what it looks like logically. But this rivalry defies logic. And I think the Horns are hungover from a TCU loss where they stubbed their own toe time after time. My gut says the ultimate difference in the game will be that Riley is better in the red zone than Herman and Yurcich.

Oklahoma 38, Texas 34

Chip Brown

Barry Switzer told me the team with the best quarterback usually wins the Red River Shootout. That, without question, is Sam Ehlinger. We've seen Ehlinger deliver in this game (in 2018). Last year's offensive game plan for OU was non-existent. I'll blame that one on Tom Herman's offense-by-committee and not letting go of Tim Beck after UT's win over Georgia in the Sugar Bowl. Mike Yurcich was brought in to have a better plan.

Throw in the fact that Ehlinger on Sunday pushed his chips into the middle of the table with his teammates about being more disciplined, and I'm going to give Texas the benefit of the doubt to clean up its unforced errors - one last time. Both teams' defenses have struggled to tackle. OU will likely have stud defensive end Ronnie Perkins back from suspension. His matchup with Sam Cosmi will be one to watch. Texas HAS to be the more physical team in the trenches, or it will be a long drive back to Austin for Texas fans. Dicker The Kicker comes through in the end - again.

Texas 43, Oklahoma 40

Jeff Howe

For as long as I’ve been following it, the Oklahoma game is the one game on the Texas schedule that mimics the brand of football played in the Southeastern Conference since it’s decided based almost entirely on what happens along the line of scrimmage. The more physical team — the one able to establish the run and the one that does a better job of either jarring the ball loose or is able to take advantage of making the opponent rely on throwing the football to try and move it — is, more often than not, the one that wins. (Since 1998, the team that wins the rushing yardage battle and the turnover battle is 13-0; in the last 23 meetings the winner of the turnover battle alone is 16-4 while the team that’s won the rushing yardage battle over that stretch is 20-2.)

Those numbers have also dictated how things have gone for Texas in the Tom Herman era, for better or worse. When Herman’s Longhorns can control the game on the ground, Texas is 18-0 under Herman when it records at least 40 official rushing attempts. When they can take care of the football, the Longhorns have won 15 of the 19 games in which they’ve won the turnover battle and are an impressive 11-1 when finishing plus-2 or better in turnover margin.

I don’t know that I trust either running game to dominate on Saturday. Oklahoma hasn’t gotten things to click in the way the program previously has under Lincoln Riley (the Sooners currently rank 57th nationally out of 74 actively-playing FBS teams in rushing offense at 122.7 yards per game while the team’s 3.57 yards per carry is sixth in the Big 12) and Texas is dealing with Roschon Johnson’s shoulder injury and Keaontay Ingram needing to bounce back from a late-game fumble that helped seal the team’s fate in a loss to TCU last weekend.

Oklahoma also ranks No. 65 in the country in turnover margin (minus-4 margin is tied for the worst in the Big 12 with Kansas). That’s why I’m giving the Longhorns the edge because a veteran quarterback with the ability to thrive in the running game the way Sam Ehlinger is capable of and protecting the football more than Spencer Rattler (a redshirt freshman making his first start in the game) can be the single biggest difference on Saturday. (In four career meetings with the Sooners, Ehlinger has accounted for 13 touchdowns and only one turnover.)

Ehlinger needs to be the difference otherwise Texas will lose what looks like the most winnable Red River game on paper in a number of years. As ugly as things were around the program following the loss to TCU, it’s borderline frightening to think about what the tone will be if the Longhorns can’t pull this one out.

Texas 31, Oklahoma 27

Taylor Estes

I don’t really know how to feel about this game. On one hand, I think it’s quite possibly the best chance Texas has had against Oklahoma in about 10 years due to the Sooners’ struggles early this season. On the other hand, the Longhorns love to shoot themselves in the foot in games that appear to be in their favor, which is why Texas as a ranked team has lost to unranked opponents six times since Tom Herman took over as head coach in 2017. At the end of the day, I don’t believe in Texas to take care of business in many games until I see otherwise. And I just can’t imagine Lincoln Riley leaving the Cotton Bowl with a third loss on the year.

Oklahoma 41, Texas 38

Mike Roach

I’ve got no real read on this game as both teams have struggled in two conference matchups. I think Oklahoma is ripe for the picking, but I’m not sure Texas is the team to do it. The Longhorns must cut down on penalties and turnovers that plagued them so much. I’ve gone back and forth, but I’m not sure I can see an Oklahoma team dropping three straight.

Oklahoma 37, Texas 34

 

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dcbc

dcbc 14,409

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On 10/3/2020 at 3:20 PM, Wulaw Horn said:

Fuck anything that has happened so far. Beat OU. 
put the second or third loss of the year on them. 
get the upper hand for a trip to the conference title game. 
Win the conference. 
I don’t really give a shit, this year, about anything other than winning conference. Flush this game- go buttfuck the sister fuckers and everything is in play that you should care about. 
If we don’t, fire the Herm. 

This guy fucks . . . in a tent. 🤘

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