EDGE 2024 EDGE Colin Simmons

[Park Gothic 5005]

12 minutes ago, Codaxx said:

He we will figure it out. He will learn to hit the bull rush, when he sees the OT on skates rushing back to mitigate his speed. His bull rush will be about leverage, not pure strength. I just havent seen him use his hands much or use a counter. Been straight sprint to QB or some kind of juke and go. 

You are dead right on getting out of his pass rush lane (run game is applicable also). That was the double-edged sword I was talking about. You are going to have to live with some of that as a coach, because he can just make plays that other guys can not. He is on pace for double digit sacks. Texas has not had someone with 10 sacks going back to 2016 (cfbstats.com - 2017 Texas Longhorns Sacks, site doesnt go back further). He has 6 TFLs (1.2 per game). Only Ossai in 2020 (1.78 per) and Omenihu (1.29 per) have been better since 2016. Simmons is a freshman and not logging the same snaps as those guys (yet). You dont want to turn him into a robot and lose that play making ability. You have to try to rein him in a bit, but not too much. The biggest thing for him will be gaining the experience that helps him figure out when to break the rules. 

I'm honestly more worried about how he plays against counter / pulling guards in the run game. Instead of crashing down on the pulling guard to jam the lane up from the outside, he tries to dip inside the guard to put himself in the lane. It happened at least three times on Saturday. I understand wanting to get in the running back's lane, but when he goes inside he gives up contain. It did not look like Gbenda or Blackwell were prepared to trade jobs, and that shit can bite us on the ass with how bad their run fits have been. Maybe Simmons isn't not big enough to effectively crash down, but we can't give up contain like that.  

At any rate, it's not a huge issue. Burke struggled with it too back in '22 and figured it out soon enough. I'm just picking nits because he's otherwise so good as a true freshman. 

Edit: Here's an example of what I'm talking about 

 

Edited September 30 by Park Gothic

[Codaxx 5652]

18 minutes ago, Park Gothic said:

I'm honestly more worried about how he plays against counter / pulling guards in the run game. Instead of crashing down on the pulling guard to jam the lane up from the outside, he tries to dip inside the guard to put himself in the lane. It happened at least three times on Saturday. I understand wanting to get in the running back's lane, but when he goes inside he gives up contain. It did not look like Gbenda or Blackwell were prepared to trade jobs, and that shit can bite us on the ass with how bad their run fits have been. Maybe Simmons isn't not big enough to effectively crash down, but we can't give up contain like that.  

At any rate, it's not a huge issue. Burke struggled with it too back in '22 and figured it out soon enough. I'm just picking nits because he's otherwise so good as a true freshman. 

Edit: Here's an example of what I'm talking about 

 

He did that a few times. I was wondering if they were teaching him to wrong shoulder the puller (it looked intentional). He also knifed in a couple plays. I am guessing he went 1 for 3 on those. Got 1 TFL and gave up couple decent runs. 

Edited September 30 by Codaxx

[Park Gothic 5005]

8 minutes ago, Codaxx said:

He did that a few times. I was wondering if they were teaching him to wrong shoulder the puller (it looked intentional). He also knifed in a couple plays. I am guessing he went 1 for 3 on those. Got 1 TFL and gave up couple decent runs. 

Yeah - at first I thought that it must be something they coached him to do, because that's not how you defend counter as the edge. But the LB's didn't seem prepared to keep contain. 

Although considering which LBs were in at the time, that may be more on them than Simmons. 

[Bodacious Bevo 3576]

1 hour ago, Park Gothic said:

I agree with pretty much every thing you've said, but with one caveat. I've watched a bit of his high school tape and all of his snaps at Texas. I think he is actually a sophisticated pass rusher, but is still working out what he can and can't do as a college freshmen. He used the basic rip move pretty well in high school and was happy to bull rush, but has avoided those at Texas, which is probably smart. He's not strong enough (yet) to bull rush most OTs he'll face and the rip move is really more useful after you've gotten tangled up with the tackle - something he's avoided as much as possible. I've haven't really seen him use the swim move in college or high school, but maybe that's because he doesn't like giving the tackle a chance to get under his pads. I think he's been relying primarily on speed rushing because that's the advantage he has at this point in his game and at this level. 

But I recommend watching his feet. He very good at playing the "game within the game" against the OT across from him. He'll use a stutter step inside in a series after the OT scene a stunt or two, making the OT pause and lean inside just enough to give Simmons an easy path around. He'll also change his pace up from down to down, making it harder for the OT to get into the same rhythm.

To be clear, he's still playing like a freshman. But his pass rush is probably a little more developed/sophisticated than it seems so far this season.  

Just to add to this, I recommend watching his third and longhorn interview for those that haven't seen it. He talks about his bag of rush moves and goes into some detail with Alex Okafor. I think he's a pretty advanced rusher. There's only so much to show in five games. 

[Funk Doctor Spock 12115]

Wisner is just getting better and better after watching that clip. He's a man-child. Dude runs between the tackles, has burst, and is a tough SOB. 

 

Anyway, Simmons is an athletic freak whose ceiling probably won't be reached until he's in the NFL. He'll be almost unstoppable by the end of next year and his JR year. 

[Dbeasy 15010]

Simmons was a really high profile recruit, has played great as a freshman. But man he’s not very big. I don’t know how he will be able to handle bigger  fast tackles.   

[VirginiaLonghorn 4759]

1 minute ago, Dbeasy said:

Simmons was a really high profile recruit, has played great as a freshman. But man he’s not very big. I don’t know how he will be able to handle bigger  fast tackles.   

I was surprised how much taller than Simmons that UF OL is .. 😳

[texifornia 56596]

2 minutes ago, Dbeasy said:

Simmons was a really high profile recruit, has played great as a freshman. But man he’s not very big. I don’t know how he will be able to handle bigger  fast tackles.   

There are so many of those in college football. And he definitely won't grow as an 18/19 year old

[BurntOrange&White 39846]

8 minutes ago, Dbeasy said:

Simmons was a really high profile recruit, has played great as a freshman. But man he’s not very big. I don’t know how he will be able to handle bigger  fast tackles.   

He’s as big as Micah Parsons lol

[Lou Loomis 739]

Seems very good at football. 

[BurntOrange&White 39846]

Floridas tackles are 6’6 315 and 6’7 320 lbs fwiw