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2021 Texas spring football thread


Machinator

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Spoiler

All eyes will be on the quarterbacks — Casey Thompson and Hudson Card — in Saturday’s Orange-White spring football game. Every throw, every decision, every move will be dissected on the DVRs of Longhorn diehards throughout the summer.

And for new coach Steve Sarkisian it will be just another step, just another practice film to break down in the months-long process of selecting UT’s next starting quarterback.

A couple things to remember: Sarkisian just installed more of the offense early this week. So, everything you see is a work in progress. These aren’t players working in a system they’ve known for a season or two. These are players working in a voluminous offense and in a new defense with new terminology after about a month.

They’ll have all summer to work on what they’ve learned and then all fall camp to polish things up.

With that said, it won’t keep every Longhorn fan or critic from making judgments or from confirming their bias for one quarterback or the other. I always say - don't pick sides. Be glad you have two, talented quarterbacks who love representing Texas. (More on that in a second.)

In Tuesday’s practice, Thompson had four touchdown passes with one interception, while Card had zero TD passes and was intercepted for a pick-six by linebacker Luke Brockermeyer.

Both quarterbacks threw two TD passes in last Saturday’s second scrimmage of spring football.

None of that is going to accelerate Sarkisian’s quarterback decision. Nor will Saturday’s spring game.

Here’s a couple things I’ve heard from team sources this week:

No. 1 Thompson and Card will be evaluated for the starting job based on their repetitions with the first team.

No. 2 Sarkisian will wait until late in fall camp or even the Monday before the season opener to announce his starting quarterback.

That’s what Alabama did last year when announcing third-year quarterback Mac Jones had beaten out five-star, early enrollee freshman Bryce Young.

On the surface, the parallels between the battle involving Jones and Young and the battle between Thompson and Card are interesting, if nothing else.

Many Alabama fans were expecting Young to win the job based on his prowess as a recruit. But Jones, who had stepped in successfully for injured starter Tua Tagovailoa in 2019 and had been on campus three years, was named the starter and went on to a historic season as a Heisman Trophy finalist en route to a national championship with Sarkisian as his offensive coordinator.

Now, Sarkisian is once again deciding between a young, gunslinger in Card, who happens to be a local product (Lake Travis), and a quarterback in Thompson who has been on campus three years and stepped in successfully for injured starter Sam Ehlinger in UT’s 55-23 Alamo Bowl victory over Colorado.

A couple coaches in the Big 12 who I spoke with this week said, if the competition between Thompson and Card is remotely close, they’d be shocked if Sarkisian doesn’t name Thompson the starter for the 2021 season opener.

“Sark has to play this one close to the vest, because you can’t afford for either quarterback to transfer,” one Big 12 coach said. “It’s crazy that it has to be a strategy like that. But it’s probably going to be a heck of a lot easier to convince Hudson Card to stay if he’s not the starter than it would be to convince Casey Thompson, who graduates in May, to stay if he’s not the starter.”

The other Big 12 coach said Thompson’s performance in the Alamo Bowl (8-of-10 passing, including four touchdowns through the air) should give Sarkisian confidence that he has a quarterback who has proven himself in a game.

“There was no doubt Thompson was ready when he got the opportunity,” the second Big 12 coach said. “That stuff means a lot to a coach.”

Another source close to the situation said the Thompson-Card competition reminds them of the QB battle between Colt McCoy and Jevan Snead going into the 2006 season.

McCoy was the lighter-recruited guy (out of 3A Tuscola Jim Ned) who had been on campus as a redshirt freshman, and Snead was the highly recruited quarterback with a big arm, who probably had the better spring game than McCoy in 2006.

McCoy ended up winning the job in fall camp, and the rest was history.

“Sark is going to end up playing the quarterback who gives him the best chance to win,” the source said. “But Casey Thompson has to have developed some nice calluses after being told for three years at Texas he’s NOT the guy. He might be on a mission like Colt was back in 2006.

“The bottom line is, at a place like Texas, you should have two, highly skilled quarterbacks at all time. When you look at places like Alabama and Clemson, they have a star quarterback being backed up by another star quarterback. That’s how you win big.”

The spring game will be the fans’ first glance at these two quarterbacks in Sarkisian’s offense. But Saturday will only be the next step in a journey not likely to be concluded until late August.

FIVE POSITIONS TO WATCH ON SATURDAY
RIGHT TACKLE

Redshirt freshman Andrej Karic (69), sophomore Isaiah Hookfin (73) and six-year, super senior Tope Imade (67) have been getting the most reps at right tackle this spring while senior Derek Kerstetter (68) continues to work his way back to full strength following ankle surgery last November.

Saturday is a great time to try to make a statement if you’re Karic, Hookfin or Imade - before Kerstetter returns to make his case.

MIDDLE LINEBACKER

David Gbenda (33) has emerged as one of the better stories of spring football with his play and vocal leadership. Let’s see how he’s adjusting to life at middle linebacker now that Juwan Mitchell, the team’s leading tackler from last year, has moved on. Texas is scouring the transfer portal for depth (see USC’s Palaie Gaoteote IV as a possible grad transfer).

WHEREVER BRENDEN SCHOOLER LINES UP

The former receiver has been opening eyes with his transition back to defense (Schooler played safety as a freshman at Oregon, leading the team with four interceptions). We’ve heard Schooler has gotten some looks at weakside linebacker in DeMarvion Overshown’s absence. So let’s just keep an eye on where Schooler (14) lines up.

RECEIVER

For the early part of spring, the names making plays at this position were Jordan Whittington (4) and Troy Omeire (21) - with Omeire in a green, non-contact jersey (while still working his way back from a torn ACL suffered in fall camp last year). Then, Joshua Moore’s (6) name was added to that list by Sarkisian. And finally Marcus Washington (15) and Kelvontay Dixon’s (16) names were added to that list by Sarkisian. But quantity hasn’t meant quality for much of the spring. So let’s see who can get off press coverage and bring it on Saturday.

SAFETY

Most of spring ball, B.J. Foster (25) and Jerrin Thompson (28) have lined up at safety with the first-team defense with Schooler (14) and Tyler Owens (44) backing them up. But we’ve heard really good things about early enrollee freshman J.D. Coffey (27). And Marques Caldwell (24) has gotten some second-team reps at safety when Schooler has gotten looks at linebacker. With Caden Sterns and Chris Brown moving on, this is a position to watch.

***

FIVE NEW NAMES TO WATCH
Ray Thornton (46), OLB

The LSU graduate transfer has drawn high praise from Sarkisian for his work ethic and from teammates for his play-making and leadership as he seeks to replace Joseph Ossai.

Troy Omeire (21), WR

Omeire was the rage of fall camp last year but tore his ACL before fans could see the 6-foot-3, 230 freshman making highlight-reel catches. Even though he’ll be wearing a green jersey, hopefully he’ll get a pass or two thrown his way.

Darion Dunn (4), CB

The McNeese State graduate transfer cornerback has come in and made a very positive impression from a play-making and leadership standpoint. With Jalen Green transferring to Mississippi State, Texas was able to reel in a veteran, 6-foot-1 corner to replace him.

J.D. Coffey (27), S

Caden Sterns came in as an early enrollee freshman and made an impact right away, and it seems Coffey may be cut from the same mold.

Jamier Johnson (31), CB

The 6-foot-1 early enrollee freshman cornerback has impressed coaches and teammates with his work ethic and play-making. Cornerback is crowded with veterans, including returning starters Josh Thompson and D’Shawn Jamison. But Johnson, like Kitan Crawford (21), appears to have a bright future.

 

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Burton

Spoiler


Yesterday morning, I visited with a former player who took in Tuesday’s practice.

He was complimentary of both quarterbacks. But he pointed out one distinct difference between the two.

He felt like Casey Thompson was more likely to let the ball fly when pressured in the pocket. He said Thompson looked more comfortable being forced to make back shoulder throws. On the other hand, he said Hudson Card prefers to use his athleticism to get himself out of immediate trouble and buy more time. He said there’s no doubt of Card’s athleticism either.

The former player feels like Texas “can win” with both QBs.

**

The former player also spoke very highly of Bijan Robinson and... tight end Jared Wiley. He said Wiley looked like a man among boys out there.

 

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Darius Terrell | What to Watch: Spring Game

Spoiler

1. What does the Offensive Line look like? 

Obviously, all eyes will be on Casey Thompson and Hudson Card.

However, I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t watched this tweet below at least 100x and analyzed every single part of the play because I’ve been just as starved for Texas Football as you all have. 

Without being able to confirm any of this, I believe that this is a clip of the 1st-Team Offense going against what is the majority of the 2nd-Team Defense. 

The Offense is in 11-Personel (3 WRs, 1 RB, 1 TE) and the Offensive Line on this particular play looked like this:

LT Jaylen Garth, LG Denzel Okafor, C Jake Majors, RG Junior Angilau, and RT Andrej Karic with Jared Wiley at TE. Casey Thompson and Bijan Robinson are the guys in the backfield with Josh Moore, Marcus Washington, and Jordan Whittington out there. 

The Defense on the play looks to me like this: 

Defensive Line: Jett Bush (X) Alfred Collins (3t), Sawyer Goram-Welch (1t), and Prince Dorbah (EDGE).

Linebackers: Marcus Tillman (Dime Backer), Jaden Hullaby (MIKE)

Secondary: Jahdae Barron (CB), Darion Dunn (CB), Anthony Cook (Nickel), Brenden Schooler (S), Tyler Owens (S)

Jordan Whittington gets sent into “Orbit” Motion (WR goes behind the QB and RB) prior to the snap to give some eye candy to the defenders and also possibly trigger a read key for Casey Thompson to determine whether to hand the ball off or get it out to Whittington on the RPO (Run-Pass Option). #11 Anthony Cook leaves the box, which now means it is a good matchup up front (6 bodies on 6 defenders) to hand the ball off.

I believe that #77 Jaylen Garth was getting some action in place of Christian Jones (obviously, the reason can’t be determined and Jones isn’t injured) and Garth did a terrific job of crossing the face and sealing Alfred Collins who, frankly, looked clueless on the play. Garth is a bit of a forgotten man from the 2020 class due to missing his Senior season of high school due to an ACL tear, which resulted in his ranking on the websites to drop. He then redshirted last season while continuing his recovery process. However, if you remember, Garth was very well thought of as a recruit early in the process prior to the injury and missing the camp circuit. If he can be a guy that can contribute as a Redshirt Freshman and possibly emerge as a multiyear starter down the road, that would be a hell of a win for the program.

LG Denzel Okafor keeps his eyes up pre-snap and picks up a blitzing Marcus Tillman and washes him out of the play.

C Jake Majors does an excellent job of making sure that Junior Angilau had control of Goram-Welch before sifting up to the second-level and pancaking Jaden Hullaby. There are reports of Majors splitting time with Rafiti Ghirmai in camp but I have very little doubt that Majors is the guy for the next 3 seasons. 

RG Junior Angilau will be a 3rd year starter. His steps, hands, and hat placement were textbook on the play above.

RT Andrej Karic didn’t have much to do on the play. No one showed up on his train tracks and he probably should have kept working up toward Tyler Owens, who Bijan Robinson made miss. He was impressive over the final three games of last season.

2. Who is the answer in the Nickel and at Safety?

By all accounts, the guys competing at the Nickel are the same guys that were competing at the SPUR position last season. Chris Adimora and Anthony Cook are the names. I’m personally more interested in seeing if the Defensive Packages change depending on the down and distance. My hope is that possibly a guy like D’Shawn Jamison can slide into the Slot in obvious 3rd Down passing situations. 

It’s been reported that B.J Foster and Jerrin Thompson have been the mainstays at Safety and that doesn’t really surprise me. What would surprise me is if both guys make it through fall camp and the season unscathed, which means that someone else will have to step up. My money is on Brenden Schooler.

For those that may not remember, Schooler began his career at Oregon on the Defensive side of the ball and actually started as a True Freshman, leading the Ducks in interceptions (4) and finished 3rd on the team in tackles (74) before moving to Wide Receiver out of necessity the following spring. He can be seen on the Bijan clip above running him down and delivering a big lick. Call me crazy, but I’m excited about his upside at the position.

3. Who steps up at Linebacker?

No DeMarvion Overshown. No Juwan Mitchell. All Spring.

There isn’t a single Linebacker on the roster that can complain about not getting a fair shake following this year’s set of spring practices. Based on reports elsewhere in addition to my own sources, David Gbenda has had a very solid spring. He’s developing some trust from the staff as well as his teammates.

I’m interested to see if Gbenda is the guy in charge defensively on Saturday and how he carries himself. 

Jaylan Ford has been receiving most of the reps alongside Gbenda. Believe it or not, I’ve also actually heard that Luke Brockermeyer has had a pretty nice spring as well.

Texas will continue to sift through the transfer portal in search of options regardless of what happens this weekend.

 

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8 minutes ago, Machinator said:

Burton

  Hide contents


Yesterday morning, I visited with a former player who took in Tuesday’s practice.

He was complimentary of both quarterbacks. But he pointed out one distinct difference between the two.

He felt like Casey Thompson was more likely to let the ball fly when pressured in the pocket. He said Thompson looked more comfortable being forced to make back shoulder throws. On the other hand, he said Hudson Card prefers to use his athleticism to get himself out of immediate trouble and buy more time. He said there’s no doubt of Card’s athleticism either.

The former player feels like Texas “can win” with both QBs.

**

The former player also spoke very highly of Bijan Robinson and... tight end Jared Wiley. He said Wiley looked like a man among boys out there.

 

Well that's terrifying. 

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(this one is easier to read than the usual Ian Boyd essay)

Inside the gameplan: Previewing the 2021 spring game
 

Spoiler

Texas will be playing football in DKR Memorial Stadium on Saturday, which is a big win for the program and college football at large. This time last year spring football was being cancelled while college football fans were being deluged with doomsday predictions about the sport’s future and fall prospects by many in the commentariat. Fortunately, those predictions proved about as accurate as the preseason picks the media would normally have been selling over the summer. This year everything is in a much firmer and more hopeful place.

The goals for the program in this game will be mostly to generate hype and excitement around the team, both for selling out tickets in the fall and also for building momentum for recruiting as they prepare to come out of this extremely long dead period.

Meanwhile both us new media and the old media will be constructing narratives out of this game based on the results, however silly it might seem. There will be plenty of takes cautioning against overreactions from the one good or bad throw either quarterback might make, but it’s human nature to make something out of the big plays we’ll see. Who else remembers DeMarvion Overshown laying a huge hit on Casey Thompson at the goal line a few years back?

How relevant will that play be to the 2021 season years later now Overshown is a linebacker and Thompson is battling for the starting quarterback job? Or Lil’Jordan Humphrey and Collin Johnson both making multiple snags in the 2018 game before pacing a breakthrough season the following fall?

Ideally this game would feature some big plays from particular up and coming stars which can be clipped into highlights to go on social media and generate some buzz about the season.

Shaping narratives

Spring games are rarely about creating a lot of additional film for the coaches to study, they get those cut-ups from the private spring scrimmages held throughout the practices. The public scrimmage is more about generating excitement and interest for the fans and for recruiting.

For this reason, the break-up of the teams is usually designed to engineer the sorts of results the head coach wants. If I’m Steve Sarkisian, I want the spring game to give me the following results.

-A few clips of Bijan Robinson running wild.
-Some probably scripted plays with the result of creating some highlights for prospective star players like Jordan Whittington, Ray Thornton, and Josh Thompson.
-Cloudy insight into which quarterback will win the starting job come fall.

The easiest way to generate those results is to make this a first team vs second team scrimmage and to play Casey Thompson with the first team while Hudson Card is relegated to the second team.

As the older, more established player who is less of an obvious schematic fit for a more pro-style offensive system, Casey Thompson is (at least hypothetically) the greater transfer risk. To lose either quarterback to transfer would be a disaster which would make Charles Wright and Cole Lourd uncomfortably important this fall.

Playing Thompson with the first team clouds the picture of who wins the spring game. If Thompson outperforms Card in the spring game, it can be summed up as “well, he had the much better supporting cast and didn’t have to face the first team defense.” Then if Card wins the job in the fall it can be understood as “the young, promising passer really put things together.” If Thompson plays poorly in the scrimmage but ends up winning the job in the fall, the story will still be “well...he was ahead in the spring too.”

If you don’t have a winner yet in the quarterback battle there’s no reason not to just maintain the 2020 pecking order and let the battle play out away from the public eye. Sark could go even further and rotate the quarterbacks so both play on either team.

Meanwhile, playing the first teams against the second teams helps accomplish the other goals. You probably spring Bijan Robinson for a few runs, make it more likely Jordan Whittington makes a couple of catches, and you give Ray Thornton and Jacoby Jones the chance to pile up some highlights working against the second team offensive line. Anything positive Hudson Card and the second team offense does against this set-up is gravy.

X’s and O’s watch

You have to be careful trying to glean much from the X’s and O’s in a spring game. By year three Tom Herman was willing to put anything on film in the spring game which was already on film from previous seasons but they certainly weren’t introducing anything new.

Everything Texas would run in the spring game this year would technically be “new” since it’s an all new staff with a lot of new players. In year one with Tom Herman the offense mixed in a lot of new looks by necessity because they were converting from Sterlin Gilbert’s “veer and shoot” to Herman’s “pro-spread.” On defense Todd Orlando ironically deployed the defense in a lot of 2-4-5 looks with Malcolm Roach as an outside linebacker. They laid waste to the Texas offensive line and spoiled Sam Ehlinger’s DKR debut, only to play the next season primarily in the tite front with Malcolm Roach as a 4i.

The 2-4-5 looks had really caught my eye and made me think Roach was about to have a huge year working off the edge, but he didn’t get to play there again until Orlando started using a 5-technique to set the edge from his 3-down fronts two full years later.

So you never know exactly what a new staff will be willing to show. Do they intend to put anything on film useful for themselves or is it a glorified fan appreciation day? Will the defense line up and play cover 1 man all day or will they show any of their actual disguises and match coverages? This staff doesn’t seem terribly concerned about keeping a particularly tight wrap on their various plans for the season. I think they put a lot more on weekly gameplanning rather than simply out-executing opponents, but that doesn’t mean they’ll advertise all of their X’s and O’s either.

Here’s what we can look for in this game: basic chemistry and execution of whatever base concepts they do call.

Even if Texas comes out in 12 personnel and just runs a few varieties of zone and maybe a gap scheme or two most every snap, you can still evaluate a lot from their execution of the basics. Do the offensive linemen trade off defensive linemen effectively on outside zone? How well do the linebackers react and fit their gaps? If the defense is playing basic match 3 or match quarters coverage how well do they trade off routes and deny easy throws to the quarterback's first read?

I’ll never forget watching Auburn play their base defense in the spring game of 2016 and realizing they were already pretty precise with their execution of press-quarters under Kevin Steele. Sure enough, they’d go 8-5 thanks to a defense which only yielded 17.1 ppg and kept them in a narrow 19-13 loss to Clemson to start the year. A careful eye should be able to see how well Texas’ players do or don’t execute the basic assignments of a base defense.

The base systems we will probably see are a multiple front defense that mixes 2-4-5 looks with some odd, 3-3-5 tite fronts backed mostly by match 3 defense and then an offense which relies quite a bit on outside zone and some accompanying RPOs and play-action.

Key matchups to observe

If we get mostly one’s vs two’s in this scrimmage then there are a few areas to watch in particular if you want to get a good gauge of how the team is coming along. A key matchup will be the first team offensive line facing the second team defensive line.

This should be a win for the offense. The second team defensive line is expected to be built up over the summer with the healthy return of T’Vondre Sweat and the expected additions of Ben Davis and Ovie Oghuofo at outside linebacker. The crew facing Texas’ offensive line in the scrimmage shouldn’t be able to devastate the passing game with edge rush. Inside, the trio of Denzel Okafor, Jake Majors, and Junior Angilau should be blowing open some holes for Bijan Robinson.

Another big area of interest will be between the first team wide receivers facing the second team secondary. Can the Texas wideouts get open against those cornerbacks and nickel against the slot and two outside receivers? The second team defensive back trio will likely be Kitan Crawford, Darion Dunn, and then one of Chris Adimora or Anthony Cook. Much of the Big 12 would be happy to roll out a trio of athletes like that as the foundation of their defense in 2021. Can Texas get their first team receivers open against them in the scrimmage running what will probably be fairly basic route concepts?

This is a pretty good test of whether these receivers could be expected (as things currently stand) to play winning football against better defenses such as Oklahoma, TCU, Kansas State, or other teams with strong skill athletes in the secondary. You probably won’t find a bigger concern on the team than whether they have playmakers who can get points on the board against quality defensive back play and prevent teams from loading the box against Bijan.

A battle between the first team cornerbacks and second team wide receivers should be a silent affair unless the second team quarterback is able to make some big time throws. If it isn't, this may tell us something as well.

Finally, an important matchup to watch will be how well the linebackers handle their assignments in the middle of the field. Even the most basic elements of this offense should be testing their ability to cover with depth between the hash marks and to properly handle runs the outside linebackers force between the tackles. To some degree they’ll be going up against the offensive line and the tight ends but in another sense they’ll be battling the space of the field and the eye and footwork habits they need to navigate those areas.

Texas will probably be adding multiple linebackers to the roster over the summer, including currently injured DeMarvion Overshown, but it’ll still be valuable to see how far along David Gbenda, Luke Brockermeyer, Jaylan Ford, and the others are in manning the middle of this new defense.

Then there's always the often misleading but still fun flashes of athleticism you get in a spring game. Anyone else remember making way too much of this?

But then there have also been moments like this...

...this was the third perfectly placed fade Shane Buechele threw in the 2016 scrimmage and this one came right after taking a high, late shot from Kevin Vaccaro. At this moment, it was clear Buechele would be starting the following season...at least to most of us.

So everyone buckle up and enjoy the show, you never know exactly what you'll get from these but there's no harm in making the most of it.

 

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7 minutes ago, USMCHorn said:

Holy fucking shit. Do you cry about every fucking thing? A fucking pointless post crying about pointless bullshit with a hint of self-righteous indignation mixed in. Fuck you, dad, go police the fucking daily texan or sum shit.

How’d I do?

I'm not much of a complainer. I do usually get irritated with lame, boring, dorky shit that unimaginative dickheads won't stop incessantly discussing. It's clear that uniform nuance and real estate quibbling get you rock hard, but it's not anyone's job to be sensitive about your fetishes. There's a uniform debate on the fashion forum. You and the other stumblefucks wringing their hands of whether "TEXAS" should or shouldn't on the front of the jersey should hustle over there and pick things back up on this. It seems really important, so we're all counting on you.

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7 minutes ago, closetojumping said:

I'm not much of a complainer. I do usually get irritated with lame, boring, dorky shit that unimaginative dickheads won't stop incessantly discussing. It's clear that uniform nuance and real estate quibbling get you rock hard, but it's not anyone's job to be sensitive about your fetishes. There's a uniform debate on the fashion forum. You and the other stumblefucks wringing their hands of whether "TEXAS" should or shouldn't on the front of the jersey should hustle over there and pick things back up on this. It seems really important, so we're all counting on you.

 

  • Haha 1
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