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2018 conference media days thread

Machinator

By Machinator
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KYHorn

KYHorn 17069

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7 minutes ago, Dnaguy said:

Knit tie.

Do you even fashion brah?

 

7 minutes ago, texifornia said:

Knit tie, dude. Very old-school professorial look that's been mildly appropriated by hipsters.

Yeah, well, he's wearing it so it sucks and stuff.

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Tex Long

Tex Long 4400

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Kirk died awhile back. That's if he even existed at all. 

Y'all are likely referring to Curt Bowls, whose names are often spelt incorrectly as Cunt, Kunt, or even Kurt in the one instance and Bowels, Bhols, and various others in the latter.

The preferred nomenclature, Dudes, is Curt Bowls, though, and that's a Good Thing™ because it gives us a perfect Exacta:

FCB - Fuck Chip Brown

FCB - Fuck Curt Bowls

... well, those and 0U Sucks. 

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Tex Long

Tex Long 4400

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When MensaTom says "no changes" to the punt game, I can hear a sharp intake of breath. The Punter was shaky at first, then improved quite a bit, so maybe we should worry about Cuz, eh Mate?

I think - I hope devoutly - no problems and we pick back up where we left off.

The reason for a lot of The Punter's prowess in killing it inside the 20 and not getting returned from pretty much anywhere had to do with the Aussie Rules footy he and Cuz both played: there is a huge premium on punting accurately, in terms of distance and direction. In Aussie Rules, if you kick a ball to a teammate who catches it in the air, he gets a free, unobstructed kick, and your team can move the ball down the (gigantic) field quickly. You might have noticed The Punter playing kick-and-catch with Josh Thompson, who was streaking downfield with the exact purpose of catching the punt. I would hope Dicko has passed that along to Cuz and that they're working on keeping that going.

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TreatyOak

TreatyOak 16334

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4 hours ago, Tex Long said:

Kirk died awhile back. That's if he even existed at all. 

Y'all are likely referring to Curt Bowls, whose names are often spelt incorrectly as Cunt, Kunt, or even Kurt in the one instance and Bowels, Bhols, and various others in the latter.

The preferred nomenclature, Dudes, is Curt Bowls, though, and that's a Good Thing™ because it gives us a perfect Exacta:

FCB - Fuck Chip Brown

FCB - Fuck Curt Bowls

... well, those and 0U Sucks. 

Fuck Chip Brown. 

Yes, Fuck Chip Brown.

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Lhorn

Lhorn 4913

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12 hours ago, Machinator said:

 

Ironic considering their reputation of getting calls horribly wrong then having Walt Anderson double down on it.

Rules changes make me nervous.  Seems like a potential avenue for officials to effect the outcome of the game and then have it cosigned by the conference as "point of emphasis."  Defense lineholding an OL for example which was a "point of emphasis" call on Poona but has never been called before or since. 

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Bodacious Bevo

Bodacious Bevo 3584

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2 hours ago, selvahorn said:

 

 

 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

 

 

2 hours ago, Lhorn said:

Ironic considering their reputation of getting calls horribly wrong then having Walt Anderson double down on it.

Rules changes make me nervous.  Seems like a potential avenue for officials to effect the outcome of the game and then have it cosigned by the conference as "point of emphasis."  Defense lineholding an OL for example which was a "point of emphasis" call on Poona but has never been called before or since. 

I love story lines like this

Attitude and culture can absolutely lead to results on the field. Not saying it will, but if we end up surprising everyone next year this (and the OL) will be the reason why

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Machinator

Machinator 32099

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Ian Boyd interview with Vahe, Andrew Beck, Hager, and Herman

I had a few good conversations with Patrick Vahe, Breckyn Hager (it was hard not to just camp out and listen to him the entire time), Andrew Beck, and Tom Herman. I didn't connect with Chris Nelson, which was probably a mistake.

Here were some of the big takeaways from the interactions...

On the offensive line

Breckyn Hager
"They're all grown men now."

Patrick Vahe 
On Herb Hand...

"Really he just gives us a confidence boost whenever it comes to any play that comes up, whether it’s pass pro or run game, especially the inside zone he LOVES inside zone and power. I think that’s the biggest thing that he gave to us as an offensive line, just the confidence and being able to trust each other a lot more just because of communication schemes and all.

How does he instill confidence in you guys?

Because he has expectations and he’s willing to get it his way rather than trying to mold around it. He’ll…whatever expectation he has he’s gonna have it met. And that gives you that mindset like he’s challenging me, can I step up to the plate and actually meet that expectation and actually do what I gotta do? Or just sit back and watch everybody else do it?

On executing combo blocks with Zach Shackleford against nose tackles...

I feel bad for anyone that lines up in a zero, cause Shack is good at disguising his block and I’m good at backing him up when it comes to doubles. But, we still got a lot of work to do, it’s just fun.

Andrew Beck
How much Chandler Cox film have you watched this offseason?

How much…who’s that?

Chandler Cox, from Auburn.

Not any...wait that’s not true, we watched a little with Coach Hand but we’ve kinda been working on ourselves right now. 

How much can the run game change now that you’re back?

I don’t know, hopefully we do better. Like I said, I don’t know if that has anything to do with me or if it has to do with the O-line getting better. I think our RB room has gotten a lot better, Tre came in as a grad transfer our younger guys are growing up, we’ve got guys healthy now that haven’t been. So I don’t know if it’s gonna be me but I’m excited to watch the run game get better because of those guys as well.

Being a team that’s in year two of the install, are you able to work more concepts?

Yeah, absolutely. We understood the plays and we could run the plays but now we understand the why behind it and what works vs certain things. Now we can get into more, they can call a play and there are more checks we can make on the field when certain things happen. Understanding that now is something we’ve really worked on in the offseason and in spring ball.

What’s your favorite scheme to block in the offense right now?

Power, power is power it’s the same across football, everybody washes down, kick out, pull around, that’s always fun just old school.

You like to kick out?

(laughing) That’s my job so I better like it.

Takeaways:
There's definitely some confidence from this team in general but it doesn't necessarily seem centered around what they're going to do on the offensive line. Rather, the more realistic expectation is that they're just going to approach a degree of competency that we haven't seen in some time.

There's a long ways after all from Texas OL play this decade and 2010 Stanford. That said, a competent Texas OL with the kinds of talent that gets recruited to Austin may prove better faster than expected once they're going up against B12 defensive fronts rather than Orlando's dogs.

The most interesting notes to me regarded how Coach Hand has insisted on rebuilding their techniques to his specifications and then Beck and Vahe noting that the players have a much greater command of the system and know how to communicate and get into the best schemes to make the system work.

A highly competent and cohesive Texas OL could be a wondrous thing and again, it's possible that such a unit may prove better than expected. 

Hager on the coaching staff

On Coach Herman:

Our relationship is so unique and rare and special to me that…I mean, not only will I go run through a brick wall for him on a game day but I will also, if he needs any favor in life I will serve him. I could always talk to that guy, he’s stimulating mentally, when you have someone that intelligent and interesting and outspoken, of course you’re going to gravitate towards it.

On Todd Orlando:

Last year your role and the expansion of the dime package coincided, so obviously for you that was a big story of the season. How much of the team’s psyche and approach to the game changed when you guys started rolling with the lightning package?

Uh, I would just say it was the TO effect. Coach Orlando, tough as nails, that was just his effect on the game of football. What he created its…it’s special. And I don’t really, that is such a dear package, like, it’s so dear to my heart for so many reasons. So I wanna wait to be able to discuss its repercussions on my life and the football life once I’m in a comfortable place with speaking on it.

Have y’all talked at all within the team or with Orlando about how that might revolutionize the game and the way defense is played around the league?

I mean, I try, I try. But like at the same time, it’s more so like…I try to watch film with him. Every film session you get with this man is a blessing from the football gods. It really is.

Takeaways:
As Joe will cover, Breckyn Hager is a man on a mission. He hates having long hair, he hates losing games, he struggles to express himself to the media and to be understood clearly on all of the deep thoughts and revelations he's having about himself and the game of football. He's probably one of the most fascinating players I've ever encountered.

His response to all of this now that he fully trusts Tom Herman as a person and Todd Orlando as a "savant" of defensive football is that they're going to get everything he has and everything he can help to squeeze out of his teammates. He may prove the most difficult senior to replace from this team simply for the way he's going to pace the team in effort.

Tom Herman on the dime package
Tom, did Jim Heacock and Todd Orlando change defensive football last year?

I mean the short answer is yes. Have they changed it forever? I dunno. But I know the first time we used our lightning package we held Oklahoma State to 10 points in regulation and the first time they (Iowa State) used it they held us to 17 points. So I think, the only way you can survive with six DBs is if your front five, in that case, can defeat blocks, right? I mean, the way we’ve all grown up learning football has been everybody’s got a gap and you just keep pushing the ball to the extra defender, right? Because the ballcarrier can’t block for himself. Right? Well, when you put all those guys into coverage or at least off the line of scrimmage, now you’re saying “hey big boy, now just taking up your gap’s not good enough. You gotta make a play, you gotta get off a block and go make a play. But if you’ve got the guys that can do that? Great. If not, it gets a bit dicey. 

How much does it help though that you have guys that don’t know, if they want to push it to the extra man they don’t know who that is.

Well yeah, I think that’s the whole premise of it is to create confusion.

At what point did you guys determine that this could be more than just a third down package, that this might be a solution for the back half of the season or the future?

When we saw it run against us on Thursday night in Ames, Iowa (laughing)

So you immediately were like, “okay when we get back we’re going to…”

A little bit, I said “hey Todd, study this, man.” This is something I’d never seen before. You know as we were trying to adjust offensively, we were trying to go back into your rolodex of games and defenses that you’ve seen and I’d never seen that before. So you’re trying to adjust on the fly. So we studied it and implemented it kinda incrementally, had some success with it.

Takeaways:
The staff knows they stumbled upon something special and Orlando is going to continue to tinker with it and sort out what kinds of new opportunities they've found for setting up playmakers to make plays.

Tom Herman on running the QB

Do you guys have a pitch count on how many carries you like to see the QB get in a game or is that…

As many as it takes to win.

Do you ever think, we gotta save em for X, Y, and Z game or…

No, no, win this game and worry about the next game next week.

How much of the short-yardage package do you guys think that, running the QB especially if it’s Sam, how big a role do you see that playing in the coming year.

Ummm, in a perfect world it would not be a factor. But I do know this, ask any defensive coordinator in this league how difficult it is to defend Kansas State on the goal line. I mean, you’re done, you’re outta gaps, right? So there is an element to that that affords you, I mean running the football on the goal line in short-yardage is one of the hardest things in football there is to do. So when you can gain an extra blocker doing it, you have turned the tables a little bit. So there’s a time and a place for it.

Takeaways:
Nothing shocking here, Herman can do math and his system leans heavily on the advantages a team can get if they have a QB who is able and willing to do some dirty work in the box. I'm sure they'll emphasize to Sam Ehlinger the importance of staying healthy and protecting himself but I'm also sure that they love his passion for inside running and plan to make good use of it in the coming year. Especially with the improved depth in the QB room.

Overall this team has a lot of confidence and seem to be channeling some frustration in a very positive manner. In the past you could tell that they were tired of losing and really wanted to break out but there's a very different vibe this year where the players seem much more confident in the staff and each other then I've seen in previous years.

"We're going to walk softly and carry a big stick," said Breckyn Hager. "A lot of guys have sold their souls to collect souls."

Much of the rest of the media at this event were laughing about Herman struggling to list elite players but this Texas team appears ready to go out and collect some souls this season.

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