2022 Fall Camp: Drippin'

[BrazilHorn 6792]

Fuck all this Card talk. Sark needs to name Ewers QB1, push his chips into the middle of the fucking table and go for it.

No QB "controversy" just get the fuck to work. Quit wasting reps with the ones on Card. Just stupid.

[ATXhorn17 1676]

It’s gonna take Bama 1-2 seconds to shred our o-line and get into the backfield… Hudson’s speed could be a differentiating factor—buying extra time. Have Hudson run for his life for 3-4 quarters.

And if it goes poorly (like most of us suspect), you avoid shattering Quinn’s confidence and keep him healthy. He gets some 4th quarter garbage time and then settles into a rhythm against UTSA prior to beginning conference play.

[DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt 12301]

4 minutes ago, Dbeasy said:

I actually think it will be neither. It will be a plain vanilla season full of the usual bed shitting against OU and Alabama, with wins against the lesser teams, and a few games lost where we were never really in it, leaving us all melancholy and bored. There will be neither excitement or depression, just indifference. Merry Christmas!

What you described has the entire recruiting class blowing up and Sark going into year 3 as a dead man walking.

[UncleSonny 6790]

29 minutes ago, Tex-19 said:

For all the shit we give FCB, he does tend to break a lot of the official news.

Does he though?

[DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt 12301]

Just now, ATXhorn17 said:

It’s gonna take Bama 1-2 seconds to shred our o-line and get into the backfield… Hudson’s speed could be a differentiating factor—buying extra time. Have Hudson run for his life for 3-4 quarters.

Lol.

[Red Five 41596]

2 minutes ago, ATXhorn17 said:

It’s gonna take Bama 1-2 seconds to shred our o-line and get into the backfield… Hudson’s speed could be a differentiating factor—buying extra time. Have Hudson run for his life for 3-4 quarters

hahahaha

[TankedBevo 2495]

6 minutes ago, Dbeasy said:

I actually think it will be neither. It will be a plain vanilla season full of the usual bed shitting against OU and Alabama, with wins against the lesser teams, and a few games lost where we were never really in it, leaving us all melancholy and bored. There will be neither excitement or depression, just indifference. Merry Christmas!

Fuck that shit. I know we have issues but if we can't beat OU THIS YEAR with their depleted roster and new, weird as fuck coach then we might as well just throw in the towel

[Tex-19 3009]

6 minutes ago, Vertigo said:

None of what Chip said passes the eye test from the practice. The 9.95ers need to keep tension so that people keep reading. When gameweek rolls around, they limit the playbook to a package of plays anyway. There are ways to protect a young quarterback and Sarkisian knows how to do it. Roll Quinn out vs ULM, get him some confidence, and then let's see where the chips fall. Ewers will be lightyears ahead of where he is now with 3 games of experience heading into conference play. 

True on them keeping suspense for clicks. But you're talking about one vanilla open practice - the decision isn't going to be based off that.

And look, I hope it's Quinn too but I also understand why it might not be. He's a Freshman, they almost never start week 1. In fact, when he first committed here my assumption was that he'd become the starter after Bama (so as to not feed him to the wolves before he's ready). He'll get a lot of snaps vs ULM either way so the biggest difference is Bama and tbh it might be better to not subject him to that trauma 

[Vertigo 20461]

8 hours ago, OB3 said:

Same thing with Murphy (unless he’s hurt) dude has a cannon but I don’t think I saw him throw one on a rope all night

Murphy is being tasked with learning a brand new throwing motion and mechanics before he gets meaningful reps. He has not yet learned how to throw with velocity out of the new motion, hence why it looks so strange right now. 

[Js1 86940]

10 minutes ago, EZ$ said:

So I guess our defense is bad ass and I should expect no less than two pick-6s when we face Bryce Young.  

Well BoB is still calling the offense.  So maybe...

Alabama vs. Texas A&M - Game Summary - October 9, 2021 - ESPN

[UnhappilyMarried 842]

2 minutes ago, ATXhorn17 said:

It’s gonna take Bama 1-2 seconds to shred our o-line and get into the backfield… Hudson’s speed could be a differentiating factor—buying extra time. Have Hudson run for his life for 3-4 quarters.

And if it goes poorly (like most of us suspect), you avoid shattering Quinn’s confidence and keep him healthy. He gets some 4th quarter garbage time and then settles into a rhythm against UTSA prior to beginning conference play.

Bijan/Rojo going 2008 Ricky/Ronnie White would be more of a differentiating factor than Hudson fucking Card 

[The Deuce 1094]

2 minutes ago, ATXhorn17 said:

It’s gonna take Bama 1-2 seconds to shred our o-line and get into the backfield… Hudson’s speed could be a differentiating factor—buying extra time. Have Hudson run for his life for 3-4 quarters.

And if it goes poorly (like most of us suspect), you avoid shattering Quinn’s confidence and keep him healthy. He gets some 4th quarter garbage time and then settles into a rhythm against UTSA prior to beginning conference play.

No. Give me Ewers with 3 games experience heading into conference play rather than 1 game.
 

IMO, Reaching the B12CG is very attainable as long as Ewers progresses with each game played. Conference starts with a road game, and I want my QB to have more than 1 start under his belt when he is asked to go win a road opener

[ATXhorn17 1676]

2 minutes ago, Red Five said:

hahahaha

I mean, laugh if you want. But Coburn, Murphy, Ethan fucking Burke, and Ovie were consistently blowing up plays in the backfield the entire open practice… And I doubt they’ve become All-American caliber overnight… 

[MirrOlure 15185]

It’s gonna take Bama 1-2 seconds to shred our o-line and get into the backfield… Hudson’s speed could be a differentiating factor—buying extra time. Have Hudson run for his life for 3-4 quarters.
And if it goes poorly (like most of us suspect), you avoid shattering Quinn’s confidence and keep him healthy. He gets some 4th quarter garbage time and then settles into a rhythm against UTSA prior to beginning conference play.

So you’re saying Card can beat the Alabama DL to the sideline behind him and to his right?

[Red Five 41596]

2 minutes ago, ATXhorn17 said:

I mean, laugh if you want. But Coburn, Murphy, Ethan fucking Burke, and Ovie were consistently blowing up plays in the backfield the entire open practice… And I doubt they’ve become All-American caliber overnight… 

Um no, it was the other part that is hilarious. 

[TankedBevo 2495]

9 minutes ago, ATXhorn17 said:

It’s gonna take Bama 1-2 seconds to shred our o-line and get into the backfield… Hudson’s speed could be a differentiating factor—buying extra time. Have Hudson run for his life for 3-4 quarters.

And if it goes poorly (like most of us suspect), you avoid shattering Quinn’s confidence and keep him healthy. He gets some 4th quarter garbage time and then settles into a rhythm against UTSA prior to beginning conference play.

This is a terrible idea. Hudson's speed means fuckall when he runs sideways with panicked tunnel vision most of the time. Bama's DE's run faster shuttle times than our skill players for crying out loud

[Bevo 13825]

18 minutes ago, Dbeasy said:

I actually think it will be neither. It will be a plain vanilla season full of the usual bed shitting against OU and Alabama, with wins against the lesser teams, and a few games lost where we were never really in it, leaving us all melancholy and bored. There will be neither excitement or depression, just indifference. Merry Christmas!

[LTtxfan 49909]

If RoJo isn't back healthy for the Bama game, pass protection blocking from our RB's is a concern...  

[FloridaHorn 4864]

19 minutes ago, EZ$ said:

So I guess our defense is bad ass and I should expect no less than two pick-6s when we face Bryce Young.  

There will be two pick-6s when we face Bryce Young, but it will be the Alabama D doin' the pickin'

[ChickenNuggets 1661]

[HtownHorn 15243]

10 hours ago, Hermanator said:

Sark basically saying the team watching Card shit his pants on the Arkansas field ruined it since no one could believe in him after that. 

Yeah, Ewers is going to start. Card is the desperation backup. Offensive line needs to run block like fucking monsters and we need to ride Bijan and a hopefully improved physical defense to wins. Ewers isn't ready to put the team on his shoulders and sling it to wins yet. 

Yeah, the 1st half on the season needs to be the young OL and Bijan, Johnson, Keilan, Brooks, and Blue getting in sync, with Ewers and the passing game chipping in 220+ a game. The 2nd half of the season needs to be Ewers moving that total much closer to 300+ a game.

[LTtxfan 49909]

8 minutes ago, FloridaHorn said:

There will be two pick-6s when we face Bryce Young, but it will be the Alabama D doin' the pickin'

So for Texas, instead of "pickin and grinnin"

It's...

Gloom Despair and Agony

[Tex-19 3009]

11 hours ago, Hookem2147 said:

Went back and jotted down each 11 on 11 snap

Ewers completed 11 of 19 passes, took 2 would be sacks, had the beautiful throw to Thompson for a TD and also threw an INT on a tipped ball

Card completed 7 of 14 passes, took 2 would be sacks, had two nice touchdown throws and had 3 INT’s, one of which looked like it was a tipped ball on a RB check down.

Just watched the 11-11. Would add a couple qualitative things to this:

Ewers had another long TD pass dropped by Worthy (should've been an easy catch). 

Card's tipped ball INT could've been caught but it was a short route that was probably thrown a little too hard. Another one of his INTs was really a clear sack and he just kinda threw it up afterwards. I probably wouldn't really count that one. 

Overall Ewers seemed clearly better to me. But I know that's just one short practice worth of 11 on 11 only.

[Sir Ulrich 5337]

Boyd wrote up a report on the practice video and said in favor of Card that the "the results here were really quite one-sided" and the "battle really isn't close"

[westexhorn 2157]

4 minutes ago, Sir Ulrich said:

Boyd wrote up a report on the practice video and said in favor of Card that the "the results here were really quite one-sided" and the "battle really isn't close"

"The results here were really quite one-sided (7 on 7). After an early pick to a robbing safety, Hudson Card showed a decisive trigger and he clearly knew what he was looking at. Quinn Ewers really struggled to get a clear read and rarely got his throws out with the right timing. He was picked a few times and had few completions.

The 11on11 drills told a similar story but were better for Ewers than the pure passing drills. Just in terms of executing a dropback passing game with a three-step drop and progression, this battle really isn’t close. Hudson Card has the far greater familiarity with these concepts and consequently has better timing and accuracy, provided the pocket isn’t completely demolished."

Edited August 18, 2022 by westexhorn

[Sir Ulrich 5337]

1 minute ago, Tex-19 said:

Just watched the 11-11. Would add a couple qualitative things to this:

Ewers had another long TD pass dropped by Worthy (should've been an easy catch). 

Card's tipped ball INT could've been caught but it was a short route that was probably thrown a little too hard. Another one of his INTs was really a clear sack and he just kinda threw it up afterwards. I probably wouldn't really count that one. 

Overall Ewers seemed clearly better to me. But I know that's just one short practice worth of 11 on 11 only.

That's what I got out of it. The 7 on 7 drills they ran allows the DBs to cheat routes since they are 4 on 3 and know what side it goes to. Card still cant keep from throwing fastballs to players 8 yards away. On the flip Ewers relies on touch a tick to much but the more reps he gets over the next two weeks the better. 

[ClubWhatever 12277]

3 minutes ago, Sir Ulrich said:

Boyd wrote up a report on the practice video and said in favor of Card that the "the results here were really quite one-sided" and the "battle really isn't close"

Yeah but he’s afraid so none of that matters. 

[TheMailBox357 213]

Ian Boyd just dropped a breakdown of the open practice footage on YouTube

Spoiler

Scouting the open practice

Ian Boyd•8/18/22

Open practices are often like spring game scrimmages. Steve Sarkisian knows he can’t count on discretion from observers, or that it won’t be spied out by opposing teams, so they keep things really simple. However, you can’t hide how well your team executes the most basic concepts of their playbook.

It’s also not really worthwhile to go out and practice many things which aren’t fundamental components of your system. If a defense is running a pattern-matching coverage in an open practice, you can safely assume they plan to run it during the season. Doesn’t make much sense to practice something complicated you don’t plan to count on during the season.

As it happens, Texas did run some pattern matching coverages during the open practice and ran them with a degree of precision which would lead you to believe they weren’t throwing them out there for the first time. There were definitely moments where you had to feel sympathy for the quarterbacks trying to compete with each other against tight coverage.

A careful watch of the open practice, such as I was able to get, revealed a number of interesting things about the passing offense and defense for the 2022 Longhorns.

 

Diverse defense

I was struck by how the defense played the 7on7 segments almost strictly in quarters. The first few snaps featured pretty basic quarters and then they mixed in a few different varieties, including Gary Patterson’s favorite trips coverage. Their execution was pretty tight as well, like one of TCU’s teams before they melted down at the end of Patterson’s tenure.

The single-high coverages I’ve expected to see play a greater role were also present in the full team drills. They’d spin the safety down over the tight end pretty often, especially against 12 personnel formations geared toward the run. It looked like a more holistic, complete defensive package with multiple single-high and two-high options to keep offenses guessing and allow the defense to disguise and play to different matchups.

There was a good deal more match quarters than I would have expected though and it appears to be the main base defense. Their execution of the coverage is unquestionably making life difficult for the quarterbacks. They’re matching everything pretty tight, save perhaps for the field corner who will play off, and the safeties are definitely employing the Patterson approach of lining up with depth and playing flat-footed until the offense has committed (don’t go until you know).

The linebackers look pretty mobile and comfortable as well, overall this defense looks miles from where they were a year ago trying to execute modern pass defense.

A potential hang-up for fans is that their approach isn’t particularly aggressive against the run. The Stars (nickel position) are emphasizing coverage and the solution to the run game is to hang on up front and hope the cavalry (safeties) don’t allow anything to get out of hand. However, the safeties aren’t backpedaling near so often so they do arrive before long. The defense also has plenty of single-high coverages which drop a safety down and can outnumber the run game.

Pass protection

Things look different when there’s a true left tackle on the edge. Kelvin Banks just moves differently and the geometry and physics don’t care that he’s a true freshman. He cuts off angles, fends off pass-rushers with length, and has the sheer size to avoid being run through. You can’t control the battle with him as a pass-rusher, you have to really set him up and he recovers more easily than a typical tackle.

In general, pass protection is an obvious concern for the Longhorns, but the left side pairing of Kelvin Banks and Hayden Conner is actually better than they’ve had in a while in terms of pure ability. The right side is much trickier and Sark has some interesting calculus to do in choosing his lineup. Christian Jones still gets beat on inside moves and simply doesn’t move naturally going backwards like Banks can. However, he’s a third-year starter and quietly a good run blocker.

You’d think they could move him to guard and get results but have shown zero interest up to this point in doing so. Perhaps because they’d like to leave guard open for promising freshmen who wouldn’t be ready to play tackle. They could replace him with a better pass protector like Andrej Karic or more natural setter like Cam Williams, who like Banks is just a different looking football player. In the former example, they lose some quality in run blocking and in the latter they may be trading out predictable busts for unpredictable busts. If Jones will consistently execute his assignments provided you don’t leave him in 1-on-1s in space, maybe that’s a good thing for this line over a less steady right tackle who’s a better player. Or maybe not. How ready is Williams?

The pass-rush seems a little more hopeful every day. The defensive tackles are pretty solid at pushing the pocket, the coverage is forcing quarterbacks to hold the ball, and they may be able to find a winning player at Edge between Ovie Oghoufo, DeMarvion Overshown, or even Ethan Burke. The Westlake freshman keeps his feet moving constantly, has length to engage with tackles, and some real burst he employs in a few different pass-rush moves.

The quarterback battle

They ran both 7on7 style drills and 11on11 drills in this scrimmage. The 7on7 drills were actually generally 3on2, 4on3, etc. They’d only run them to half the field, giving the quarterbacks reps in reading a single side passing concept and throwing against coverage. At times they’d line up with a running back and a receiver, or two receivers, a tight end and a receiver, etc. It gave them a chance to make progressions on a variety of concepts against a variety of coverages.

The results here were really quite one-sided. After an early pick to a robbing safety, Hudson Card showed a decisive trigger and he clearly knew what he was looking at. Quinn Ewers really struggled to get a clear read and rarely got his throws out with the right timing. He was picked a few times and had few completions.

The 11on11 drills told a similar story but were better for Ewers than the pure passing drills. Just in terms of executing a dropback passing game with a three-step drop and progression, this battle really isn’t close. Hudson Card has the far greater familiarity with these concepts and consequently has better timing and accuracy, provided the pocket isn’t completely demolished.

On the play-action as well, the common narratives of Ewers as a decisive and aggressive passer relative to gun-shy Card don’t really hold up. Ewers has some unreal ability throwing the ball but he’s not consistently on time yet with his reads. Good match quarters with safeties sitting on the hash marks is pretty unforgiving if you’re not throwing the ball on time. Ewers did show the expected knack for executing long throws off single reads and he also seems comfortable with different crossing patterns.

The danger comes when he locks into a read and it isn’t there. Plan B often devolves into a sack or an interception.

In both the 7on7 portion and later in the 11on11 portion, Card hit touchdown passes on post routes off flood concepts.

It’s an awful lot like “spear” but instead of having a deep crosser from across the field, the slot runs a corner route. The quarterback reads the the free safety. If he hangs back on the post route then the corner route is generally there whether the nickel tries to carry it or not. If the safety takes the corner route, or just stays flat-footed long enough, then the post will get behind him if the quarterback throws it well. It’s a great concept for attacking quarters coverage and Card nailed the timing by reading the safety on both scoring strikes.

Card generally knew where to go with the ball even if a read was cloudy, or he could make something happen with the scramble, but his ball security was alarming at times.

Presumably Ewers would be most comfortable if allowed to regularly work off play-action and get a lot of his throws in with concepts drawn up for him and carefully practiced throughout a week. If protected well enough with the gameplan and a running game, you could see his arm doing a lot of damage. However, Card would also be effective within such a friendly context and would allow for a much fuller approach due to his greater comfort within the system.

The battle still comes down to whether or not Sark feels Ewers can be hurried along in the missing pieces of development to be a consistent starter or if he’ll need to start building the gameplans around a more developed player in Card. Overall this practice made clear Texas has certainly added some talent to the roster, but being in year two in the system may prove to be the biggest boost for the coming season.

 

Based on Ian's open practice breakdown, seems like Card is the guy. Especially after just reading Chip Brown's report.

[Tex-19 3009]

1 minute ago, westexhorn said:

The results here were really quite one-sided. After an early pick to a robbing safety, Hudson Card showed a decisive trigger and he clearly knew what he was looking at. Quinn Ewers really struggled to get a clear read and rarely got his throws out with the right timing. He was picked a few times and had few completions.

The 11on11 drills told a similar story but were better for Ewers than the pure passing drills. Just in terms of executing a dropback passing game with a three-step drop and progression, this battle really isn’t close. Hudson Card has the far greater familiarity with these concepts and consequently has better timing and accuracy, provided the pocket isn’t completely demolished.

I didn't watch the 7-7 but idk what he's talking about for the 11-11. Ewers looked way better.

[Hornlover 8915]

27 minutes ago, UnhappilyMarried said:

Bijan/Rojo going 2008 Ricky/Ronnie White would be more of a differentiating factor than Hudson fucking Card 

I assume you mean Ronnie Brown, and you want to run the Wildcat?

[MoJames 8258]

Wait why are we passing this year?

[UnhappilyMarried 842]

Just now, Hornlover said:

I assume you mean Ronnie Brown, and you want to run the Wildcat?

I did, yes. And I don’t, no. Just slightly more than I want to see Card. 

[closetohumping 17778]

55 minutes ago, Hookem2147 said:

Worried the QB you prefer won’t start, step right up and choose from one of the following options to make yourself feel better!

1) Well, if they are close to even you have to go with the guy one year younger

2) This isn’t even a real competition. Sark knows

3) The team hates the other QB

4) The media showed Quinn in a few Instagram videos this spring so they obviously know

5) Even if Ewers is throwing interceptions left and right, you can work with that since he has the arm talent

6) Practice isn’t real. He’s probably just a gamer

Quinn has a strong arm so his ints will be further down field and quicker 

[westexhorn 2157]

1 minute ago, Tex-19 said:

I didn't watch the 7-7 but idk what he's talking about for the 11-11. Ewers looked way better.

Ian Boyd's tunnel vision for "executing a dropback passing game with a three-step drop and progression"  concept lol

[closetohumping 17778]

1 hour ago, BurntOrange&White said:

So we’re going to repeat last year with 2 QBs?  I don’t see that happening. And if it does then we hired the wrong guy. 

I think sark has already dy said no rotating.  

[BurntOrange&White 41651]

11 minutes ago, Sir Ulrich said:

Boyd wrote up a report on the practice video and said in favor of Card that the "the results here were really quite one-sided" and the "battle really isn't close"

The same guy who said move Whittington to safety and RoJo to linebacker in their final year? 

[JesusSweatDuck 18045]

59 minutes ago, ztejas said:

Looked more like this to me.  @Bigbend1812 can you put Chip Brown's face on the guy in front and Ewers on the guy in the back?

Edited August 18, 2022 by JesusSweatDuck

[Longhornlove 5136]

8 minutes ago, TheMailBox357 said:

Ian Boyd just dropped a breakdown of the open practice footage on YouTube

  Reveal hidden contents

Scouting the open practice

Ian Boyd•8/18/22

Open practices are often like spring game scrimmages. Steve Sarkisian knows he can’t count on discretion from observers, or that it won’t be spied out by opposing teams, so they keep things really simple. However, you can’t hide how well your team executes the most basic concepts of their playbook.

It’s also not really worthwhile to go out and practice many things which aren’t fundamental components of your system. If a defense is running a pattern-matching coverage in an open practice, you can safely assume they plan to run it during the season. Doesn’t make much sense to practice something complicated you don’t plan to count on during the season.

As it happens, Texas did run some pattern matching coverages during the open practice and ran them with a degree of precision which would lead you to believe they weren’t throwing them out there for the first time. There were definitely moments where you had to feel sympathy for the quarterbacks trying to compete with each other against tight coverage.

A careful watch of the open practice, such as I was able to get, revealed a number of interesting things about the passing offense and defense for the 2022 Longhorns.

 

Diverse defense

I was struck by how the defense played the 7on7 segments almost strictly in quarters. The first few snaps featured pretty basic quarters and then they mixed in a few different varieties, including Gary Patterson’s favorite trips coverage. Their execution was pretty tight as well, like one of TCU’s teams before they melted down at the end of Patterson’s tenure.

The single-high coverages I’ve expected to see play a greater role were also present in the full team drills. They’d spin the safety down over the tight end pretty often, especially against 12 personnel formations geared toward the run. It looked like a more holistic, complete defensive package with multiple single-high and two-high options to keep offenses guessing and allow the defense to disguise and play to different matchups.

There was a good deal more match quarters than I would have expected though and it appears to be the main base defense. Their execution of the coverage is unquestionably making life difficult for the quarterbacks. They’re matching everything pretty tight, save perhaps for the field corner who will play off, and the safeties are definitely employing the Patterson approach of lining up with depth and playing flat-footed until the offense has committed (don’t go until you know).

The linebackers look pretty mobile and comfortable as well, overall this defense looks miles from where they were a year ago trying to execute modern pass defense.

A potential hang-up for fans is that their approach isn’t particularly aggressive against the run. The Stars (nickel position) are emphasizing coverage and the solution to the run game is to hang on up front and hope the cavalry (safeties) don’t allow anything to get out of hand. However, the safeties aren’t backpedaling near so often so they do arrive before long. The defense also has plenty of single-high coverages which drop a safety down and can outnumber the run game.

Pass protection

Things look different when there’s a true left tackle on the edge. Kelvin Banks just moves differently and the geometry and physics don’t care that he’s a true freshman. He cuts off angles, fends off pass-rushers with length, and has the sheer size to avoid being run through. You can’t control the battle with him as a pass-rusher, you have to really set him up and he recovers more easily than a typical tackle.

In general, pass protection is an obvious concern for the Longhorns, but the left side pairing of Kelvin Banks and Hayden Conner is actually better than they’ve had in a while in terms of pure ability. The right side is much trickier and Sark has some interesting calculus to do in choosing his lineup. Christian Jones still gets beat on inside moves and simply doesn’t move naturally going backwards like Banks can. However, he’s a third-year starter and quietly a good run blocker.

You’d think they could move him to guard and get results but have shown zero interest up to this point in doing so. Perhaps because they’d like to leave guard open for promising freshmen who wouldn’t be ready to play tackle. They could replace him with a better pass protector like Andrej Karic or more natural setter like Cam Williams, who like Banks is just a different looking football player. In the former example, they lose some quality in run blocking and in the latter they may be trading out predictable busts for unpredictable busts. If Jones will consistently execute his assignments provided you don’t leave him in 1-on-1s in space, maybe that’s a good thing for this line over a less steady right tackle who’s a better player. Or maybe not. How ready is Williams?

The pass-rush seems a little more hopeful every day. The defensive tackles are pretty solid at pushing the pocket, the coverage is forcing quarterbacks to hold the ball, and they may be able to find a winning player at Edge between Ovie Oghoufo, DeMarvion Overshown, or even Ethan Burke. The Westlake freshman keeps his feet moving constantly, has length to engage with tackles, and some real burst he employs in a few different pass-rush moves.

The quarterback battle

They ran both 7on7 style drills and 11on11 drills in this scrimmage. The 7on7 drills were actually generally 3on2, 4on3, etc. They’d only run them to half the field, giving the quarterbacks reps in reading a single side passing concept and throwing against coverage. At times they’d line up with a running back and a receiver, or two receivers, a tight end and a receiver, etc. It gave them a chance to make progressions on a variety of concepts against a variety of coverages.

The results here were really quite one-sided. After an early pick to a robbing safety, Hudson Card showed a decisive trigger and he clearly knew what he was looking at. Quinn Ewers really struggled to get a clear read and rarely got his throws out with the right timing. He was picked a few times and had few completions.

The 11on11 drills told a similar story but were better for Ewers than the pure passing drills. Just in terms of executing a dropback passing game with a three-step drop and progression, this battle really isn’t close. Hudson Card has the far greater familiarity with these concepts and consequently has better timing and accuracy, provided the pocket isn’t completely demolished.

On the play-action as well, the common narratives of Ewers as a decisive and aggressive passer relative to gun-shy Card don’t really hold up. Ewers has some unreal ability throwing the ball but he’s not consistently on time yet with his reads. Good match quarters with safeties sitting on the hash marks is pretty unforgiving if you’re not throwing the ball on time. Ewers did show the expected knack for executing long throws off single reads and he also seems comfortable with different crossing patterns.

The danger comes when he locks into a read and it isn’t there. Plan B often devolves into a sack or an interception.

In both the 7on7 portion and later in the 11on11 portion, Card hit touchdown passes on post routes off flood concepts.

It’s an awful lot like “spear” but instead of having a deep crosser from across the field, the slot runs a corner route. The quarterback reads the the free safety. If he hangs back on the post route then the corner route is generally there whether the nickel tries to carry it or not. If the safety takes the corner route, or just stays flat-footed long enough, then the post will get behind him if the quarterback throws it well. It’s a great concept for attacking quarters coverage and Card nailed the timing by reading the safety on both scoring strikes.

Card generally knew where to go with the ball even if a read was cloudy, or he could make something happen with the scramble, but his ball security was alarming at times.

Presumably Ewers would be most comfortable if allowed to regularly work off play-action and get a lot of his throws in with concepts drawn up for him and carefully practiced throughout a week. If protected well enough with the gameplan and a running game, you could see his arm doing a lot of damage. However, Card would also be effective within such a friendly context and would allow for a much fuller approach due to his greater comfort within the system.

The battle still comes down to whether or not Sark feels Ewers can be hurried along in the missing pieces of development to be a consistent starter or if he’ll need to start building the gameplans around a more developed player in Card. Overall this practice made clear Texas has certainly added some talent to the roster, but being in year two in the system may prove to be the biggest boost for the coming season.

 

Based on Ian's open practice breakdown, seems like Card is the guy. Especially after just reading Chip Brown's report.

Ian Boyd is a fucking retard. Go watch the 11 v 11 and tell me with a straight face Card had the better day. Last time I checked, they don't play 7 v 7 on Saturday.

[Reynolds Woodcock 5064]

9 minutes ago, TheMailBox357 said:

Ian Boyd just dropped a breakdown of the open practice footage on YouTube

  Reveal hidden contents

Scouting the open practice

Ian Boyd•8/18/22

Open practices are often like spring game scrimmages. Steve Sarkisian knows he can’t count on discretion from observers, or that it won’t be spied out by opposing teams, so they keep things really simple. However, you can’t hide how well your team executes the most basic concepts of their playbook.

It’s also not really worthwhile to go out and practice many things which aren’t fundamental components of your system. If a defense is running a pattern-matching coverage in an open practice, you can safely assume they plan to run it during the season. Doesn’t make much sense to practice something complicated you don’t plan to count on during the season.

As it happens, Texas did run some pattern matching coverages during the open practice and ran them with a degree of precision which would lead you to believe they weren’t throwing them out there for the first time. There were definitely moments where you had to feel sympathy for the quarterbacks trying to compete with each other against tight coverage.

A careful watch of the open practice, such as I was able to get, revealed a number of interesting things about the passing offense and defense for the 2022 Longhorns.

 

Diverse defense

I was struck by how the defense played the 7on7 segments almost strictly in quarters. The first few snaps featured pretty basic quarters and then they mixed in a few different varieties, including Gary Patterson’s favorite trips coverage. Their execution was pretty tight as well, like one of TCU’s teams before they melted down at the end of Patterson’s tenure.

The single-high coverages I’ve expected to see play a greater role were also present in the full team drills. They’d spin the safety down over the tight end pretty often, especially against 12 personnel formations geared toward the run. It looked like a more holistic, complete defensive package with multiple single-high and two-high options to keep offenses guessing and allow the defense to disguise and play to different matchups.

There was a good deal more match quarters than I would have expected though and it appears to be the main base defense. Their execution of the coverage is unquestionably making life difficult for the quarterbacks. They’re matching everything pretty tight, save perhaps for the field corner who will play off, and the safeties are definitely employing the Patterson approach of lining up with depth and playing flat-footed until the offense has committed (don’t go until you know).

The linebackers look pretty mobile and comfortable as well, overall this defense looks miles from where they were a year ago trying to execute modern pass defense.

A potential hang-up for fans is that their approach isn’t particularly aggressive against the run. The Stars (nickel position) are emphasizing coverage and the solution to the run game is to hang on up front and hope the cavalry (safeties) don’t allow anything to get out of hand. However, the safeties aren’t backpedaling near so often so they do arrive before long. The defense also has plenty of single-high coverages which drop a safety down and can outnumber the run game.

Pass protection

Things look different when there’s a true left tackle on the edge. Kelvin Banks just moves differently and the geometry and physics don’t care that he’s a true freshman. He cuts off angles, fends off pass-rushers with length, and has the sheer size to avoid being run through. You can’t control the battle with him as a pass-rusher, you have to really set him up and he recovers more easily than a typical tackle.

In general, pass protection is an obvious concern for the Longhorns, but the left side pairing of Kelvin Banks and Hayden Conner is actually better than they’ve had in a while in terms of pure ability. The right side is much trickier and Sark has some interesting calculus to do in choosing his lineup. Christian Jones still gets beat on inside moves and simply doesn’t move naturally going backwards like Banks can. However, he’s a third-year starter and quietly a good run blocker.

You’d think they could move him to guard and get results but have shown zero interest up to this point in doing so. Perhaps because they’d like to leave guard open for promising freshmen who wouldn’t be ready to play tackle. They could replace him with a better pass protector like Andrej Karic or more natural setter like Cam Williams, who like Banks is just a different looking football player. In the former example, they lose some quality in run blocking and in the latter they may be trading out predictable busts for unpredictable busts. If Jones will consistently execute his assignments provided you don’t leave him in 1-on-1s in space, maybe that’s a good thing for this line over a less steady right tackle who’s a better player. Or maybe not. How ready is Williams?

The pass-rush seems a little more hopeful every day. The defensive tackles are pretty solid at pushing the pocket, the coverage is forcing quarterbacks to hold the ball, and they may be able to find a winning player at Edge between Ovie Oghoufo, DeMarvion Overshown, or even Ethan Burke. The Westlake freshman keeps his feet moving constantly, has length to engage with tackles, and some real burst he employs in a few different pass-rush moves.

The quarterback battle

They ran both 7on7 style drills and 11on11 drills in this scrimmage. The 7on7 drills were actually generally 3on2, 4on3, etc. They’d only run them to half the field, giving the quarterbacks reps in reading a single side passing concept and throwing against coverage. At times they’d line up with a running back and a receiver, or two receivers, a tight end and a receiver, etc. It gave them a chance to make progressions on a variety of concepts against a variety of coverages.

The results here were really quite one-sided. After an early pick to a robbing safety, Hudson Card showed a decisive trigger and he clearly knew what he was looking at. Quinn Ewers really struggled to get a clear read and rarely got his throws out with the right timing. He was picked a few times and had few completions.

The 11on11 drills told a similar story but were better for Ewers than the pure passing drills. Just in terms of executing a dropback passing game with a three-step drop and progression, this battle really isn’t close. Hudson Card has the far greater familiarity with these concepts and consequently has better timing and accuracy, provided the pocket isn’t completely demolished.

On the play-action as well, the common narratives of Ewers as a decisive and aggressive passer relative to gun-shy Card don’t really hold up. Ewers has some unreal ability throwing the ball but he’s not consistently on time yet with his reads. Good match quarters with safeties sitting on the hash marks is pretty unforgiving if you’re not throwing the ball on time. Ewers did show the expected knack for executing long throws off single reads and he also seems comfortable with different crossing patterns.

The danger comes when he locks into a read and it isn’t there. Plan B often devolves into a sack or an interception.

In both the 7on7 portion and later in the 11on11 portion, Card hit touchdown passes on post routes off flood concepts.

It’s an awful lot like “spear” but instead of having a deep crosser from across the field, the slot runs a corner route. The quarterback reads the the free safety. If he hangs back on the post route then the corner route is generally there whether the nickel tries to carry it or not. If the safety takes the corner route, or just stays flat-footed long enough, then the post will get behind him if the quarterback throws it well. It’s a great concept for attacking quarters coverage and Card nailed the timing by reading the safety on both scoring strikes.

Card generally knew where to go with the ball even if a read was cloudy, or he could make something happen with the scramble, but his ball security was alarming at times.

Presumably Ewers would be most comfortable if allowed to regularly work off play-action and get a lot of his throws in with concepts drawn up for him and carefully practiced throughout a week. If protected well enough with the gameplan and a running game, you could see his arm doing a lot of damage. However, Card would also be effective within such a friendly context and would allow for a much fuller approach due to his greater comfort within the system.

The battle still comes down to whether or not Sark feels Ewers can be hurried along in the missing pieces of development to be a consistent starter or if he’ll need to start building the gameplans around a more developed player in Card. Overall this practice made clear Texas has certainly added some talent to the roster, but being in year two in the system may prove to be the biggest boost for the coming season.

 

Based on Ian's open practice breakdown, seems like Card is the guy. Especially after just reading Chip Brown's report.

Based on his writing I assume an Ian Boyd practice summary video is the length of Shoah?

[Tex-19 3009]

Alright I watched the little 7-7 portion and Card definitely did look better in that. Ewers almost looked like he wasn't trying, kinda odd.

So my final recap - Card looked good in 7-7, bad in 11-11. Ewers looked bad in 7-7, good in 11-11.

[LTtxfan 49909]

4 minutes ago, BurntOrange&White said:

The same guy who said move Whittington to safety and RoJo to linebacker in their final year? 

Such a punchable face

Spoiler

 

[NWAustinDude 2266]

4 minutes ago, JesusSweatDuck said:

Looked more like this to me.  @Bigbend1812 can you put Chip Brown's face on the guy in front and Ewers on the guy in the back?

Now I would have Quinn up front, and FCB receiving in the back.

[BurntOrange&White 41651]

1 minute ago, Tex-19 said:

Alright I watched the little 7-7 portion and Card definitely did look better in that. Ewers almost looked like he wasn't trying, kinda odd.

So my final recap - Card looked good in 7-7, bad in 11-11. Ewers looked bad in 7-7, good in 11-11.

Which is more applicable to game day in your opinion?

[pearlandhorn 3343]

48 minutes ago, ATXhorn17 said:

It’s gonna take Bama 1-2 seconds to shred our o-line and get into the backfield… Hudson’s speed could be a differentiating factor—buying extra time. Have Hudson run for his life for 3-4 quarters.

And if it goes poorly (like most of us suspect), you avoid shattering Quinn’s confidence and keep him healthy. He gets some 4th quarter garbage time and then settles into a rhythm against UTSA prior to beginning conference play.

This is perhaps the most beta/pussy comment I have ever seen posted in the history of surly or shaggy.

[lazygringo 369]

Ian Boyd can’t be trusted to be honest and objective. He’s just trying to prop up his NIL guy.

Card was sacked 7 times and threw 2 interceptions. Only 1 touchdown, not 2. The other one was a sack.

Ewers protected the ball better and threw 2 touchdowns if you ask me. The Worthy drop in the end zone was on Worthy. Ewers placed it perfectly. His only INT was on a tipped ball that also should’ve been caught.

It isn’t really close. It’s Ewers.

[MoJames 8258]

3 minutes ago, LTtxfan said:

Such a punchable face

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[lazygringo 369]

Alright I watched the little 7-7 portion and Card definitely did look better in that. Ewers almost looked like he wasn't trying, kinda odd.
So my final recap - Card looked good in 7-7, bad in 11-11. Ewers looked bad in 7-7, good in 11-11.

In 7-7, it was all frenetic. There were staffers all over the field. IDK how the quarterback is expected to concentrate in that environment.

[Vertigo 20461]

The fact that we are having this conversation between what amounts to a true freshman who hasnt seen game action in two years, and a guy who has been in the program for 3 years, should tell you all you need to know. 

[Hookem2147 21930]

Suchomel just said on the OB youtube show that multiple people have told him that veteran leaders on the team think Card has outplayed Ewers in camp and believe as things stand today that he should start.

Edited August 18, 2022 by Hookem2147

[JFKFC 4965]

1 minute ago, Hookem2147 said:

Suchomel just said on the OB youtube show that multiple people have told him that veteran leaders on the team think Card has outplayed Ewers in camp and believe as things stand today that he should start.