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Texas Football 2021 In-Season Thread: Can we get a redo?

BurntOrange&White

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victory88
victory88

So this is going to be a long post, but a few thoughts about Sark, this staff, position groups, game performance, and Arky. Sark:  I think we hit a home run hire.  I was drunk on the Meyer bandwa

Mr.kansas
Mr.kansas

Bahahahahahahaha. Rock chalk, Jayhawk. Texas is back folks.........bahahahahahahaha. Then Gonzaga decided smack around your basketball team like a 2 dollar whore. https://www.istexasbackyet.com m

UncleSonny
UncleSonny

I missed this live, but Joe Cook pointed this out in his gif breakdown. We tried to catch them with some tricky shit in the 2Q.  All the skill players stood upright like they were at the play-cal

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VinyVango

VinyVango 708

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I would hope Karic and or Conner could get some time.  They showed a little last year.
Shame they weren't even given a chance against Ark, given what the fucking starters were doing out there.
 

A lot of players who are not starting will likely see at a good chunk of minutes against Rice…a small window to perhaps make an under-fire argument why they need to start… hopefully any changes that need to be made will become glaring enough for Sark to pull the trigger for the Tech game.


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gmr548

gmr548 16701

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yeah..oops.
Some reason mixed up Majors and Conner (Don't all white OLmen look alike)...and maybe remember hearing some decent things about Conner from practice reports.
 
 

Just giving you a hard time. I agree with you in general that both personnel and concept shifts could help this OL.

Ian Boyd took way too many words to say it, but he is right that this OL was constructed by Tom Herman to run his concepts and the fit with what Sark and Flood want to do is iffy. Certainly not the first time that’s been pointed out as it was brought up over the summer. Ironically Herman stumbled into probably what they do absolute best - an offense based on outside zone built to maximize Bijan’s truly elite burst and cutting ability - too late last year for it to matter. OZ as the bread and butter, perhaps mixed with some personal tweaks like bumping Jones down to OG and inserting Karic at LT, and building off of that, would probably yield better results. We certainly see some promise from that towards the end of last year.

I don’t expect Sark and Flood to change much, and right now that looks like the difference been this being a 7-8 win team vs a 9-10 win team.
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UDontKnow

UDontKnow 10572

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18 minutes ago, gmr548 said:

SIAP -  I thought Darius Terrell had an interesting write up in the TFB open post, though the "SoRrY iF mY oPiNiOn TrIgGeRs YoU" intro is dumb as fuck whether it's football, politics, or anything in between: https://texas.thefootballbrainiacs.com/2021/09/open-post-weekend-september-17th-19th/

Thanks for sharing. That was a good read and Terrell is spot on about damn near everything.

 

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BurntOrange&White

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Scipio:

 

Rice was a chance to get right and the Texas offense did just that, scoring 58 points, amassing 620 yards at 10 yards per play, while rushing for a combined 427 yards with five different Longhorn running backs getting extensive work. Yes, it's Rice and the Owls were as bad as I promised, but how would you feel right now if Texas had sputtered around and won 34-17? Not great.

So maybe this didn't prove much beyond the fact that the Texas experienced the same game in Fayetteville we did and decided to coach and play better.

While the players certainly demonstrated effort and some athletic pride after last week's loss, the Texas coaches also showed a bit of introspection with a game plan that featured outside zone in the running game and Xavier Worthy in the passing game. The Slippery Splinter Sprinter from Fresno caught 7 balls for 88 yards and a touchdown in the first half and demonstrated some of the edge and heart that Texas needs. I saw you put that shoulder into a dude on the punt return, Xavier.

Texas also made a point of attacking the Owl size deficiencies in the back 7. Early and often.


That was mean.

That play is truncated, but it's actually outsize zone going the other way. Bijan sees the overplay and offers a vicious cutback to punish the over pursuit. This is one of 100 reasons that OZ is awesome with a running back like Bijan and a fairly athletic Texas OL that benefits from certainty, but at this point, how much I sell you on outside zone doesn't matter, does it?

OL

They struggled a little early in protection (it's almost always on play action or when we are pulling linemen in pass protection - OL with unclear assignments often block air - especially ours) and passing off defenders in the run game, but when they were good, they were great. Rice's front is the strength of their entire program and they have a couple of legitimate dudes, so don't totally dismiss the improvement in the running game with "It's Rice." Just partially dismiss it. The Horn offensive line overcame some early rocky moments to eventually find their legs, get hat and hat, and then pile drive Rice defenders into the dirt. The holes were cavernous at times.

While much is made of the rhythms of the passing game, running games have a rhythm and timing element as well. Sometimes uncorking on a bad defense can help to get it down and clarify for a staff what the team is good at.

Christian Jones had a hold and gave up a free rusher once. He's also very inconsistent in his pass sets. At this stage, every one of them should look the same. They're not. He needs some individual attention and to get out of his own head. He is athletic though and really thrives when he can use it in the running game. I need him meaner. When Okafor was good, he crushed people. Had a mental hiccup or two. Majors was very solid against a legit dude at NT. Kerstetter was effective and had a crushing drive block on a 3rd and 6 running play with Roschon where he sprang him for 14 yards over right tackle. This was Angilau's best run blocking game since Utah- on Bijan's long touchdown run, he caved an entire side of the Rice defensive line, effectively sealing the entire backside of the defense singlehandedly.


Bijan gets the praise there, but let's be clear about who wore the cape on that highlight.

Observation: our 2nd team OL has a nastier disposition than our 1st team. A lot of of that is because of Andrej Karic. He had six pancakes and Karic repeatedly made a point of punishing Rice defenders with finishing blocks at a juncture in the game where most guys are striking deals to let up. Karic is very chippy. I have to accept that I simply have a different view of football than Flood. I want edge, motor, and cruelty in my starting lineup. Even at a tiny 6-4, 290.

I dig Logan Parr in limited viewing and Hookfin is an easy mover at 300+. I can't believe how wide and thick Hayden Conner is. His natural base is so strong that if he develops even decent feet and technique, it's going to very difficult for any college pass rusher that isn't a high NFL draft pick to do much with him.

QB

Casey did a good job (15 of 18 for 164 will work), but little was asked of him as the Horns correctly chose to pound the running game. My two favorite throws were a very nice location ball to Dixon through traffic to convert a 3rd and 17 (22 yard gain) and then the back shoulder touchdown to Xavier Worthy. Good balls. The interception isn't remotely on him - that was a free Rice DL who felt his way through the protection when we pulled a backside OL to seal the edge. I don't like that concept and Rice punished Casey for it. Clean game and he'll be our starter against Tech. At one point during the broadcast, Lowell Galindo had a single run-on sentence describing Casey where he threw out the descriptives JUICE, FIRE, VIBE & DEMEANOR like he was reading a Mad Lib.

Hudson Card was inserted in the lineup in the 3rd quarter and immediately sparked the offense!

RB

Three different Longhorn runners broke 60+ yard runs and four different Texas runners scored. It's hard not to be excited about this running back room.

Bijan: 13-128-3
RoJo: 3-112-1
Robinson: 5-83-1
Brooks: 9-63-1
Watson: 8-33-0

I don't need to extoll the virtues of Bijan, but on review he made some Rice linebackers and safeties whiff in tight quarters that I simply didn't see watching live. Incredible agility and vision. Obviously, his power and contact balance remain his most underappreciated attributes.

I freaking love the RoCat.


Out of 13 personnel, no less (3 tight ends, somewhere Joe Gibbs is smiling).

If anyone ever asks you what football speed looks like, this is a decent clip to share:


Robinson understands the best way to get vertical quickly is to crease it and not bounce.

Jonathon Brooks doesn't test well. He's not that big. But he's good at football. Great eval.


He runs like Marcus Allen. Just smooth, slippery, and seems to paralyze tacklers with his long strides.

Gabe Watson ran hard and tough and is as elusive as a Galapagos tortoise with lumbago.

WR/TE

The coaches clearly made a point of involving Xavier Worthy in the game plan to get him loose, build confidence, and weaponize the young freshman. Some DeSean Jackson in that young man. A big part of this offense's upside is going to be found in developing Worthy. Moore had a long catch and Whittington was quiet with one catch.

It was good to see Jared Wiley feeling better. He had some good lead blocks on Rice little guys and he caught an easy touchdown among his three receptions. Obviously, he's feeling better and we need him. Cade Brewer had a nice catch where he decided that running into his blocker's back was a good idea. He'll watch that on film and laugh.

Final

Given the choice between blowing out a bad team 58-0 or not blowing the bad team out 58-0, I choose blowing out a bad team 58-0.
 

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BurntOrange&White

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Scipio Defense:
 

A shutout is always welcome. Rice playing their 3rd string QB for most of the game may have contributed slightly to that fact. Not to mention an Owl offense that wanted to run the ball with power sets trailing 44-0 at halftime. That will throw a wrench into any run-based ball control offensive game plan.

While the Owls exhibited absolutely zero ability to throw the ball down the field (19-24-128 yards), they did actually run it effectively (the top 3 Owl runners were 19-117 at 6.2 ypc with two 23+ yards runs), only abandoning the running game due to game script. Texas wasn't light in the box either. That's moderately concerning and I'll talk about why below at the positional level.

Overall, I thought Texas played pretty hard. Getting tons of reps for the entire roster is always a positive. It was interesting to see some of the new faces that the coaches brought in early (Barryn Sorrell) in order to get a sense of how they'd perform in game action.

Great job by the Longhorn special teams on Saturday and they're getting the lead in this write up.

Special Teams

Jeff Banks must have identified that Rice's right-footed kicker was drifting a little too much and that their outside offset protector weren't very physical. Solution? Line up a very physical dude like Ray Thornton on the edge with Keilan on his outside hip and have Ray mesmerize and destroy the Rice outside protector (notice that the Rice guy flanking him inside has no one to block) while Robinson sprints in on the soft corner and takes the ball off of the punter's foot. That's how you draw it up. Safety.


Dicker had 5 touchbacks on 5 kickoffs and Texas punt returners averaged 11.3 yards per return. Texas never punted.

Defense

DL

Moro Ojomo played good ball. Great effort. Particularly against the run. I thought this was Sweat's best game this year so far. More active, lower pads, better hand placement. Injured the 2nd Rice QB with a hard tackle. Jacoby Jones had a nice tackle for loss and mixed it up in the running game. Ovie had a sack on a T/E stunt when the QB flushed into his hands and got a tipped ball later, and he was better against the run after a F level performance against Arkansas. Ovie wasn't in favor of the Cold War. Hates containment strategies.

Barryn Sorrell looks the part and I'd like to know more. Alfred Collins got more run. We'll see on Alfred.

Byron Murphy had a nice sack in the late 3rd quarter when he walked back a Rice OL right into the QB. Textbook by #90.

I'll just say it: Keondre Coburn has not been a useful player inside. I don't like watching him, but it's hard not to see the guy standing straight up hand fighting and getting driven off of the ball or stalemating with an OL and watching. I don't know what happened but his pad level is terrible, he has no technique, and he's much weaker. I would limit him to 15 snaps a game and play a lot more Sweat-Ojomo pairings.

Vernon Broughton is still too high and doesn't bring his feet.

LB

Rice attacked our linebacker's desire to drift and vacate with the little pitch power wrinkle that screams outside toss but is actually designed as an inside power run. That's good coaching identification by Rice and it led to multiple big gains. This was their longest:


The two interior DTs get blocked. Luke is coming on a run stunt. Overshown blocks himself by drifting and never reads his blocking keys. BJ drifts to a bad spot, loses depth and sight of the ball, and doesn't really see what's happening. I don't know what Jamison is doing. Dude's backpedaling at a power run. This play really messed with our keys and I'm curious as to why. We'll see multiple forms of it again.

DB

Rice had three completions >10 yards and averaged 6.7 yards per completion. Not a lot to evaluate here in the passing game.

Jerrin Thompson forced a fumble putting his shoulder pad right on the ball and Josh Thompson was there with a hustle fumble recovery. Up 37-0, Josh was selling out like it was a 0-0. I appreciate that.

Anthony Cook is good.

Final

I'm not trying to overplay the run shakiness, but this defense has a ways to go in its fundamentals and needs to look at rewarding the most productive DL with more snaps, even if it means shortening up the rotation. I'm very curious to see this secondary tested against Tyler Shough and a capable Tech receiver corps.

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Codaxx

Codaxx 6254

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On 9/20/2021 at 6:36 AM, BurntOrange&White said:

Scipio Defense:
 

A shutout is always welcome. Rice playing their 3rd string QB for most of the game may have contributed slightly to that fact. Not to mention an Owl offense that wanted to run the ball with power sets trailing 44-0 at halftime. That will throw a wrench into any run-based ball control offensive game plan.

While the Owls exhibited absolutely zero ability to throw the ball down the field (19-24-128 yards), they did actually run it effectively (the top 3 Owl runners were 19-117 at 6.2 ypc with two 23+ yards runs), only abandoning the running game due to game script. Texas wasn't light in the box either. That's moderately concerning and I'll talk about why below at the positional level.

Overall, I thought Texas played pretty hard. Getting tons of reps for the entire roster is always a positive. It was interesting to see some of the new faces that the coaches brought in early (Barryn Sorrell) in order to get a sense of how they'd perform in game action.

Great job by the Longhorn special teams on Saturday and they're getting the lead in this write up.

Special Teams

Jeff Banks must have identified that Rice's right-footed kicker was drifting a little too much and that their outside offset protector weren't very physical. Solution? Line up a very physical dude like Ray Thornton on the edge with Keilan on his outside hip and have Ray mesmerize and destroy the Rice outside protector (notice that the Rice guy flanking him inside has no one to block) while Robinson sprints in on the soft corner and takes the ball off of the punter's foot. That's how you draw it up. Safety.


Dicker had 5 touchbacks on 5 kickoffs and Texas punt returners averaged 11.3 yards per return. Texas never punted.

Defense

DL

Moro Ojomo played good ball. Great effort. Particularly against the run. I thought this was Sweat's best game this year so far. More active, lower pads, better hand placement. Injured the 2nd Rice QB with a hard tackle. Jacoby Jones had a nice tackle for loss and mixed it up in the running game. Ovie had a sack on a T/E stunt when the QB flushed into his hands and got a tipped ball later, and he was better against the run after a F level performance against Arkansas. Ovie wasn't in favor of the Cold War. Hates containment strategies.

Barryn Sorrell looks the part and I'd like to know more. Alfred Collins got more run. We'll see on Alfred.

Byron Murphy had a nice sack in the late 3rd quarter when he walked back a Rice OL right into the QB. Textbook by #90.

I'll just say it: Keondre Coburn has not been a useful player inside. I don't like watching him, but it's hard not to see the guy standing straight up hand fighting and getting driven off of the ball or stalemating with an OL and watching. I don't know what happened but his pad level is terrible, he has no technique, and he's much weaker. I would limit him to 15 snaps a game and play a lot more Sweat-Ojomo pairings.

Vernon Broughton is still too high and doesn't bring his feet.

LB

Rice attacked our linebacker's desire to drift and vacate with the little pitch power wrinkle that screams outside toss but is actually designed as an inside power run. That's good coaching identification by Rice and it led to multiple big gains. This was their longest:


The two interior DTs get blocked. Luke is coming on a run stunt. Overshown blocks himself by drifting and never reads his blocking keys. BJ drifts to a bad spot, loses depth and sight of the ball, and doesn't really see what's happening. I don't know what Jamison is doing. Dude's backpedaling at a power run. This play really messed with our keys and I'm curious as to why. We'll see multiple forms of it again.

DB

Rice had three completions >10 yards and averaged 6.7 yards per completion. Not a lot to evaluate here in the passing game.

Jerrin Thompson forced a fumble putting his shoulder pad right on the ball and Josh Thompson was there with a hustle fumble recovery. Up 37-0, Josh was selling out like it was a 0-0. I appreciate that.

Anthony Cook is good.

Final

I'm not trying to overplay the run shakiness, but this defense has a ways to go in its fundamentals and needs to look at rewarding the most productive DL with more snaps, even if it means shortening up the rotation. I'm very curious to see this secondary tested against Tyler Shough and a capable Tech receiver corps.

Ovie had a sack on a T/E stunt when the QB flushed into his hands and got a tipped ball later, and he was better against the run after a F level performance against Arkansas. Ovie wasn't in favor of the Cold War. Hates containment strategies.

Sometimes people just try too hard 

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dcar00

dcar00 14964

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Texas drive chart - nuts...

TEX 1st TEX25 15:00 KO TTU0 11:07 TD 3:53
TEX 1st TEX20 8:37 PUNT TTU0 5:32 TD 3:05
TEX 2nd TEX25 14:00 KO TTU0 10:16 TD 3:44
TEX 2nd TTU40 7:35 DOWNS TTU0 5:05 TD 2:30
TEX 2nd TEX16 3:31 KO TTU0 0:09 TD 3:22
TEX 3rd TTU25 13:40 INT TTU30 12:01 INT 1:39
TEX 3rd TTU7 9:38 PUNT TTU0 9:01 TD 0:37
TEX 3rd TEX13 7:19 KO TTU0 5:14 TD 2:05
TEX 3rd TEX25 5:02 KO TTU0 4:09 TD 0:53
TEX 3rd TEX40 0:43 DOWNS TTU0 13:23 TD 2:20
TEX 4th TEX25 6:40 KO TTU29 0:48 DOWNS 5:52
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gmr548

gmr548 16701

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I wasn’t able to watch the game on Saturday - obviously the final stat line with gobs of yardage and 35 points doesn’t look great for the defense. But this was also a 35-7 game, 42-14 at half, and eventually 49-14 with Tech not scoring in the first quarter. So it would send some of that was garbage time which I’m less concerned with. How did the defense look for the first 2.5 quarters?

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Burt Macklin

Burt Macklin 19230

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5 hours ago, BurntOrange&White said:

Does anyone have the current FEI ratings for offense/defense?

It’s usually not updates until Monday or Tuesday. We were 11th overall, 9th in offense and 40th in defense after Rice. It’s safe to say our offense will be going up. Not sure on the defense. Depends on how much of the game was classified as garbage time. 
 

OU was 12th and ISU 13th last week so I’m expecting both of them to drop when it’s updated. We’ll be the highest rated B12 team per FEI. 

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BurntOrange&White

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Scipio Tech Offense Postmortem:

 

This just in...

Bijan Robinson has now slaughtered more people in space than the entire Alien franchise.


The Longhorn offense also murdered Texas Tech in space, up close, and everywhere else, turning 11 offensive possessions into 9 touchdowns. This is how you want Texas offensive drive charts to look:

10-75-TD
9-80-TD
12-75-TD
6-40-TD
9-84-TD
3--5-INT (Bench Casey Thompson!)
2-7-TD
6-87-TD
3-75-TD
6-60-TD
9-46-Downs

Texas ran 75 plays for 639 yards at 8.5 yards per play and put 63 on the board (7 were from Josh Thompson). Once again, Texas found its footing in the ground game, relentlessly running outside zone until Tech tried to adjust and then the entire running game repertoire opened up for 336 yards. The Texas offensive line and running backs are pretty good at outside zone. WHO KNEW?

Steve Sarkisian was all over Tech DC Keith Patterson's junk defenses early, burned him badly (see the Bijan flat touchdown toss), and when Patterson called off the dogs into tepid 3 man rushes and bad zones, Tech was reduced to read n' react without the athleticism to the do the important "react" part of the equation. Texas put Tech on islands and the better athletes won.

Finally, it's strange to consider that while the Longhorn passing game was hyper efficient and Texas receivers compiled more YAC than a Tibetan ox cart, Texas missed on several open deep throws that would have gone for single play scores. Thompson might have had a 400 yard day. The Horns have got to hit those for the whole offensive ecosystem to truly flourish against better defenses.

OL

I'm starting with the much criticized big guys up front. They dominated. Great game. Pockets in the passing game were nearly flawless (Thompson's only sack came when he mishandled a play action fake and fell on the fumble), #11 had all day to throw, and even when he moved off of his spot, it was to step up into a wide open window or as a covered Tech defender went by. That's not pressure. That's just moving from a good pocket to a better one.

Two observations:

The Texas OL did a much better job of maintaining cohesion inside (no turned shoulders or guards bailing out on Jake Majors) and on the exterior the tackles are allowing defenders determined to sprint up field to go right past Thompson while they provide a helpful push and maintain contact. Kerstetter is particularly good at this. This served as the Windex on Casey's passing windows.

In the run game, Texas pounded outside zone like the coaches told them this was going to be our first 10 scripted runs. It turned out well. As they gain facility in running it, they will start to realize (again) that it's the most flexible running play in football. Being able to run OZ opens up every other run in the repertoire as defenders start to worry more about occupying blockers and their relation to their gap and the depth and path of the ballcarrier than playmaking and attacking the offense. Thinking, reflective defenses are generally faltering defenses and well run OZ introduces a lot of doubt to defenders at every level.

Okafor had an early holding call and Jones drew another in the second half on a Thompson scramble, but that's the the extent of the malfeasance list for the OL.

Every Texas guy whipped the guy in front of him on most downs. Energy was great, pad level was better, physicality was markedly improved. Tech's DL stinks, but the Raider LBs don't, and Texas generally clowned them. Tech had only 3 tackles for loss (had been averaging 8+ per game) and one of those was Casey Thompson sacking himself with a fumbled snap.

Watch (correction:Tope Imade) #67 on the right side on this Robinson 3rd and 1 run:


RB

In every Bijan clip where he breaks someone's ankles, I like to imagine the defender saying,"Noooooooooooooooo" in the distorted whistleblower voice in 60 Minutes interviews.

Robinson finished with 18 carries for 137 yards and 2 catches for 54 yards and a 39 yard touchdown. If Texas wanted, he could have had a 280+ total yard game, but there are other mouths to feed and other games to play. Also, I don't think #5 cares. The myriad ways he can humiliate a defender (lateral cuts, vicious stiff arms, straight trucking) makes him the most posterizing runner in college football. His backups aren't too shabby either.

RoJo had 13-64 and 2 touchdowns, including another RoCat effort over right tackle led by Bijan and Cade Brewer. Keilan had 4 carries for 42 yards and a score and looked as nifty as last week. Finally, Jonothan Brooks continues to impress with his productive running style. 7 carries, 48 yards, a score.

QB

Casey was hyper efficient and commanding in his clean pockets, picking Tech apart in the short and intermediate game to the tune of 18 of 23 for 303 yards, 5 touchdowns, 1 interception. He demonstrated good presence in the pocket and continues to show the ability to gain opportunistic rushing yards when required. I like that he's keeping his eye level down field as he seeks better passing windows, but when it's time to grab some grass with his legs, he commits and runs the ball.

That all written, he has to stop putting extra helium in every ball that travels more than 20 yards. Save fade balls for the fades, not posts and fly routes. It cost Xavier Worthy long touchdowns and when he combined the floater ball with a wild scramble to his left while throwing across his body, the result was an end zone interception deep in Tech territory that I'm sure he wanted back.

He's showing good vision on intermediate balls fitted into zones at the sticks. And even when things went bad for him, they went right.


Beautiful pocket, settles in, overthrows Moore for....a 25 yard gain to Whittington. Just like you draw it up.

When Napoleon would consider what marshal to promote to lead one of his armies, he would evaluate every possible metric with his advisors. Then his final question was always,"Yes, but is this man lucky?"

Not lucky enough to invade Russia in winter, but could probably handle Spain in a bowl game.

WR/TE

Desean Jackson freshman Cal film.

Xavier Worthy:


Just sayin'. 5 catches, 100 yards, 3 touchdowns. Football speed for days, scrappy as hell, and clearly smart to process Sark's offense as a freshman.

Whittington had an early drop that irritated me given his recent run of same, but he was great after that, grabbing 5 catches for 93 yards and a touchdown. Great YAC play here on a composed Casey toss on 3rd and 6:


Marcus Washington had a catch for 22 yards and cost himself a likely touchdown tripping up on his own feet.

Cade Brewer blocked well and has done so all year.

Final

A dominating offensive performance. It began with the coaches emphasizing the team's strengths and then giving the offense several beater plays against Tech's defensive tendencies. The offense executed and you could see the confidence, physicality, and speed of play increase with each success. That will encourage Sark to put even more on their plate. Positive feedback loops and all of that.

The Texas offense will be a confident bunch heading into Ft Worth.

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BurntOrange&White

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Scipio Tech Defense/ST Postmortem:

 

Let's eat our vegetables first. Then we can enjoy the steak and dessert of the Longhorn offense.

In my preview, I sold this matchup as the first real test of the Longhorn secondary. There were a few plays where Texas tried to fill in test questions with a crayon. Or ate the crayon and denied having received a writing implement. Or drew a picture with some puffy clouds and a tree. In some schools of study, that will earn you a doctorate, but on college football Saturday, those are typically not A efforts.

While the Texas defense didn't quite play up to the standard of the Longhorn offense in the 70-35 slaughter of the Red Raiders, there was some good stuff as well.

Texas was solid against the Red Raider running game, limiting them to 3.9 yards per carry collectively and with Tajh Brooks out, held their #1 runner Sa'Rodorick Thompson to 3.4 yards per carry. They also did a good job of shutting down Tech #1 receiver Erik Ezukanma. He totaled only 56 yards on 10 targets and 7 receptions. His longest catch of the game went for 18 yards. Non-factor.

Unfortunately, the rest of the Red Raider supporting cast went off on Texas. Backup QB Henry Colombi came in for the slower processing Tyler Shough (68 yards on 11 attempts) and he had a career day, going 17 of 23 for 324 yards and 3 touchdowns. His willingness to let it rip and generally play with house money freed the Texas Tech supporting cast and they punished the Horns repeatedly on deep balls.

Tech gained over 500 yards at 7.8 yards per play, which is how the numbers will pencil out when the secondary gives up throws of 75, 69, 40 and 38 yards. Not exactly keeping the ball in front of you. The three longest plays came on pretty much the same route concepts (Jamison got the brunt of two of them, Foster was late over on the other) and all three went for touchdowns. The fourth by a scrambling Colombi was just a great throw on a late coverage bust. We can rationalize those plays as a loss of intensity with Texas leading 35-7 early and a five touchdown final margin, but good teams don't really do that and it shouldn't matter to a prideful defense if the Texas offense has 17 or 70 on the board. If it happens once, it's a wake up. If it happens three or four times?

There's plenty of room to grow for the Longhorns on defense and part of that is already materializing with shifting rotations and new faces earning more playing time. Let's see if this game sparks a line-up move or two.

DL

Texas experimented with some different pass rushing personnel packages and worked Alfred Collins and Barryn Sorrell more into the rotation.

The most amusing experiment came when Pete decided to have the Texas DL run the Veer.


That Collins sack off of the stack formation shouldn't surprise us. That formation and the down and distance allows him to just be an athlete and get after the passer. It's the more conventional assignment piece that he's been struggling with. He also had a nice tackle for loss where he outquicked a guy, but on more mundane downs he's still working to find his legs. The coaches are clearly making an effort to engage him though.

Moro Ojomo had a terrific early series where he strung together a tackle for loss and then a big pressure on 3rd down coming off of the edge in a pressure package where he disrupted an open Tech screen on 3rd and 9. He got dinged for an offsides later, but he's been our best DL through four games.

Freshman Barryn Sorrell got heavy reps and finished with 5 tackles (led the DL) and a tackle for loss. #88 has motor and energy and the coaches are rewarding that. Great recruiting find. Jacoby Jones played physically lining up inside and outside and had a nice QB hit, collapsing the pocket on a 3 man rush on 4th down. Excellent effort.

T'vondre Sweat clearly has the nod over Coburn inside and he notched 3 tackles, though Coburn continues to start. If you can find Coburn on the field or in the box score, you're working hard.

Ray Thornton is physical and I appreciate that, but #46 has to work on his get off. You know who has get off? Ovie Oghuofo. You know who didn't do much on Saturday? Oghoufo.

LB

Overshown led the team with 9 tackles and made some great plays in space, largely in pursuit. I also want to show you some bad Demarvion, which will help you understand some of the success teams are having running inside and why Texas can be poor at the point of attack.


#0 stands, watches, and gets pancaked by a Tech TE spectating on a very straightforward inside run. What he's doing here defies a lot of the basic rules of linebacking. Overshown has to fire on this more quickly and use his quickness. That should be a 1-2 yard run. He should not be getting reached and pancaked by a freaking tight end lined up outside of him. (FWIW, you also see the consistency issues with Collins on this play - watch him get washed out)

Brockermeyer had a great opportunistic interception grab that he brought deep into Tech territory and was otherwise active. Like Overshown, he's watching a little too much on some inside runs. He had a very similar clip to Overshown on another Thompson run where he was also caught looking. Both of these guys are finesse linebackers and must play accordingly. Trust the keys and fire in there.

Jaylan Ford notched 4 tackles in relief and that's the most I've seen of Devin Richardson to date.

DB

First, let's start with the awesome.


Terrific job by Josh Thompson. This is the best example of what's possible in PK's scheme. Thompson is in off coverage, suggests he's going to outright bail, lulls the QB into an automatic throw, and attacks the ball right through the receiver. Pick 6. He also added 5 tackles and his only hickey was missing an early tackle on Ezukanma, who is, in fairness, a very strong receiver.

I also want to praise the Andrej Karic of the CB group - Darion Dunn. Every time he's on the screen, I see him doing something physical and nasty. He had 4 tackles and brought willing, violent contact on multiple plays. My notes have repeated "Good tackle, Dunn" and "Dunn is violent" liberally scrawled all over them.

Nothing but praise for Anthony Cook. Straight up football player. 6 tackles and even when he makes an error, it's done full speed with immediate recovery.

Then there's the crayon portion of the test:


Watch both clips. In the first, Jamison does a great job of riding the receiver out and then lets up almost as if he doesn't understand the receiver eligibility rules. Then Schooler comes over the top with the "assist." He hits Jamison and frees the Tech receiver for a TD. This is...not good.

On the other side of the field, Jamison gets victimized again on the same concept. Zero safety help and Jamison doesn't play the coverage as if he knows whether he has any or not.

Colombi knew where he was throwing the ball on both of those plays before the snap hit his hand.


BJ Foster also had a rough outing, giving up the inside on Tyler Shough's TD run and then showing up late a couple of times on Tech throws. Was it on him entirely? I can't tell, but I know his depth and reaction to the ball in the air isn't good enough. Schooler did have a great physical tackle that was flagged on the goal line and I have no idea why. The "slam" happened in the natural course of the tackle.

Adimora had a late sack on a hard blitz and Jerrin Thompson added 4 tackles. I expected to see more of Admiroa and I still wonder if he has a role for us at safety at some future date. Jerrin got caught with a bad angle or two supporting the run, but sometimes backs spring out of the scrum pretty quickly.

Special Teams

Keilan Robinson had another impressive block that would've made it 21-0, but he was a shade into the neutral zone and that helped create a new set of Tech downs that ultimately led to a Raider score. Learning point there, but Banks needs to keep bringing it when he sees shoddy protection. At no time does he coach guys to line up (barely) in the neutral zone and it's pretty clear that Robinson has a real knack for this role. Let's not back off of our aggression here.

One reason is that punt teams that are overly concerned about the block will set up max protect and will be slower to actually cover punts. To that point, later in the game, Tech had to punt from deep in their end zone. Instead of predictably going for the block against Tech's max protect punt, Banks set up the return for Jamison who had an easy 43 yard scamper up the sideline. Texas started with the ball on the Tech 7. Two plays later - touchdown. Texas 49-14.

Jamison took out a couple of kick offs that he probably wouldn't have tried to return in a competitive game, but I'm sure the coaches will have a word with him about that.

Dicker kicked off 11 times (!!!!) and 8 of them went for touchbacks.

Final

The defense made some big plays, but I'm a little disappointed that they weren't able to turn the big Texas lead into better play or even passable pass coverage efforts as Tech had to play predictable catch up. Texas is still figuring out its rotations and personnel in some spots and now with conference play under way there's now an imperative to coach the coachable or get the next man ready.

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BurntOrange&White

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BobbyBurton:

 

Forgive me if I have to ask the question.

Is this real? Is Texas becoming an offensive juggernaut?

After enduring a decade of average to mediocre offensive play under Tom Herman, Charlie Strong and the latter Mack Brown years, we haven’t seen anything like what has happened the last two weeks since Colt McCoy or VY were donning the burnt orange and white.

The Horns have been so dominating the last couple of weeks that Texas hasn’t punted in two straight games. Sure, there have been two turnovers as well as a couple of turnovers on downs. But no punts? That fact is almost surreal. After all, we’re only a few years removed from a Texas punter winning the MVP of a bowl game.

Yet now Texas hasn’t punted since there were 13+ minutes left in the third quarter in the Arkansas game.

So have the Horns really gone from inconsistent offensive play, stringing together three-and-outs and expectedly running QB power to not punting? And have they done that all in a single season with a single coaching change?

We still don’t know if this will last. We don’t know if this offense works nearly as well as the talent level of opponent improves.

All we know for sure is that the Horns now look more than merely capable. They can actually be overwhelming to opponents with lesser talent.

After all, Texas didn’t look like a juggernaut against Arkansas or Louisiana, two teams with much better talent on defense than either Rice or Texas Tech.

Or is there something else at play?

Did it just take a QB change, some repetition, a couple of games and confidence in a new system to get Sarkisian’s offense on track?

I don’t have all the answers. I just know that the Texas offense looks a million times better this season than last, and how they play against a talented TCU squad could be a truer indication of just how good this offense really is.

**

This offensive transformation in a coach’s first year reminds me of one that took place in Norman during Bob Stoops’ first year at OU in 1999.

For more than a decade, the Sooners had routinely tripped over themselves on offense after Barry Switzer was forced out, going through a bevy of coaches that couldn’t seem to get it done.

Enter Stoops, who hired Mike Leach and Mark Mangino, and the Sooners were off and running.

That is about the only legitimate comparison I have for what has happened in Austin thus far.

Texas, like OU back then, has transformed from an offense that oftentimes looked dysfunctional to one that can put up points and run away from other teams.

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BurntOrange&White

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EricNahlin

 

Precocious Joe will have updates from the press conference in this post.

While we await Sark after his throttling of Texas Tech and ahead of TCU, we’ll pass along a couple of minor notes we’ve heard after the game.

Source: Sark was happy with the intensity they came out with after the Rice win. He said he knows how they respond to a loss and now how they respond after a blowout win. They need to continue to come out fast. There’s no reason to keep things close and play down to the competition level. Set the tone early and put teams away. Games don’t need to come down to the wire.

If we’ve stated teams take on the personality of their coach, the All Gas, No Brakes mantra seems to be taking root. The team sure doesn’t appear to be wound up tighter than Dick’s hat band. We’ll see if that continues as competition improves.

On a few freshmen: Jonathon Brooks and Barryn Sorrell, they’re getting confidence building reps that will go a long way. Sorrell is going to play a lot this year. He handles everything they put on his plate. Some of these guys, like Xavier Worthy, are more like upperclassmen when it comes to how they prepare.

On Darion Dunn: “He’s embraced competition and keeps scratching and clawing for more snaps. He wouldn’t have picked Texas if he was afraid to compete. There’s two ways you can go when getting snaps like he does, where you don’t know how many you get —you either press too much and play poorly or let it all hang out. He lets it all hang out every time he’s out there.”

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