2009 Oklahoma Sooners Post-Mortem

Dead on.

Only good thing I can say is that Mack has shown a willingness to make personnel adjustments mid-season when something/one quits working. Maybe we will finally see Malcolm Williams and Goodwin start over Chiles and Kirkendoll. I believe that might go miles towards turning us into a dynamic offense.

Is Pleasant the same as Earnest?

BTW, well done, Scip.

In an alternate universe, Greg Davis is employed as Process Manager Grade 3 at the Port Arthur DMV.

Yep. And, strangely enough, that quantum leap still wouldn’t carry Greg Davis outside of the Peter Principle realm. That guy is underqualified at everything except coattail riding, at which he excels.

I clearly need a proofreader when I’m watching NFL and writing. Sorry, gang. I appreciate the corrections.

Also, Davis has someone with the personality of Al Gore writing the jokes on his cue cards.

It all makes sense after repeated viewings of “The Manchurian Candidate.”

“I’m proud of our effort and the majority of our staff who aren’t sitting dumbly in the excrement of their own smug self-satisfaction. In an alternate universe, Greg Davis is employed as Process Manager Grade 3 at the Port Arthur DMV. This is the guy who goes on break when you’re next in line and sits staring at you at his desk slicing up an apple during the noon hour rush knowing full well that he could take a longer break one hour from now when no customers are in line. Longhorn fans who still carry his water are Gunga Dins of irrationality.”

A-fucking-MEN!

Did someone steal your SEC defense/MWC offense line? I feel like I saw it somewhere in the mainstream media.

I praise Tebow every morning and nght that Muschamp will be roaming the UT sidelines for the next 20 years or so.

I get wood just thinking about what he will be able to do with the 2010 class of Wilson, Bible, Dorsey, Jackson, possibly Jeffcoat/Hicks, and the other top-notch recruits.

How you like me now, haters? Suck it!

whoopspat – Did someone steal your SEC defense/MWC offense line? I feel like I saw it somewhere in the mainstream media.
 
Dunno. Find it for me. I’d be interested to see it.

Kirkendoll is a head case and our OL should put someone out of the game for a cheap shot? Which is it?

Did anyone agree with the chop block call? It looked to me like it was a clean block below the waist, then the defender fell into a guy from the waist up. He definitely didn’t look like he was engaged with another blocker.

Sugarpants:
 
Context.

Great write up as usual, this defense will carry us to the championship game, but I still think that if we are going to be able to beat Bama/ Florida in the game, its going to have to be Colt doing his best VY impression…. I hope that jeffcoat soaked all that in, and realizes how amazing he will be if he lines up for muschamp the next few years..

Scip, I kind of agree but I am sure the OL is drilled not to take stupid penalties or retaliate. WRs, I think, are dealt with on a case-by-case basis.

that being said I would like to see those guys get in a face or two.

Did anyone notice that it appeared that Manute Bol was one of the sideline judges? that dude was about 7 feet tall and 175 lbs.

Great write up, Scipio, as always. Williams caught a couple of passes yesterday but was still not consistently in the game plan. I don’t know what the staff should do with Chiles but he clearly is not a starting WR. Why did monroe get zero touches? Can anyone imagine this D with Christian Scott? It’s too bad for him and us. Collins is and will continue to be a huge loss.

Excellent read. Awesome photo of Clipper Cooper as well!

Just watched it again and your observations are pretty accurate. Here are some more:

1. Who put on Beasley and Chykie’s uniforms and laid out some serious wood? Man.

2. While far from an A. Williams fan, his interception was NFL All Pro caliber.

3. It is amazing how good our DT’s have been. Randall is a keeper and Houston is a widowmaker.

4. Ulatoski should have trouble sitting down today after the reaming that English et.al. gave him. He continues to underachieve.

5. The offensive playcalling was as bad as I have ever seen, at any level of football. Just truly astounding. Greg Davis is the only person in America who could take McCoy, Shipley, Monroe, Williams, Buckner and Whittaker and get less than 300 yards out of them. We better hope that none of our current offensive commits saw this game. Horrible.

Finally, my brother called to say he and his buddies are watching the Bob Stoops Show and have a drinking game for every time he makes an excuse or says “we are just three plays from being number two in the country and undefeated.” They are all stinking drunk.

Travis -
 
I think you’re slowly coming around, amigo. But we won’t win a MNC game 35-31. It will be 17-14 on a Earl Thomas pick 6.
 
I agree that we made a very positive impression on defensive recruits on Saturday. Add Hicks and Jeffcoat to this current class we’re staring at the finest defensive class in recent memory.

Scip —

Any word on why DJ Monroe saw no action? That’s been really bothering me.

ransomstoddard, how can you not be an Aaron Williams fan? Outstanding player, great effort, etc. He’s one of my favorites—was last year as well.

Anyone notice in the Lamarr Houston pic that he is actually levitating?

ghost -
 
He’s too small too pass protect against the blitz and that was needed. And we’re not innovative enough to work him into a screen game or a misdirection running game lined up as a wingback with Fozzy.
 
CallKevin -
 
I had a similar reaction. Williams is one of my favorite Longhorn players and he’s a ten year NFL starter waiting to happen.

Monroe was in the game for a few plays and got one carry for 6 yards. He was typically in motion in front of Colt on that option/Wildcat type play.

“2. While far from an A. Williams fan, his interception was NFL All Pro caliber.”

Please explain yourself. I’m trying to come up with a reason why a Texas fan wouldn’t consider himself a fan of Aaron Williams, and I’m coming up empty.
IMO, he’s one of the best three or four players on the team, as a sophomore. And he’s the surest bet to tear shit up in the NFL.

He can’t. It’s his schtick.

A. Williams is a beast, of the top 10 pick variety. A big and rangy corner.

I understand about Monroe’s size, and I understand that we only ran one screen, but we have to find a way to get him on the field a little more. We need some explosiveness.

I thought we defended the Pistol insanely well. Every time OU lined up with that, it was a tfl. I figured Wilson would abandon it at some point, but it seemed like he went back to the well about four or five times. Sounds suspiciously familiar.

OU Sucks a bag of dicks!

Scipio,

“The Sooner OL was a prostitute that wouldn’t pay and Houston and Kindle wore a large feathered hat.”

Well played, sir. Just so.

RE: “OU has an elite Front 7. McCoy, Beal, Lewis – monsters. Colorado has a weak front 7. CU shut down our running game totally; OU had some trouble at times. If you can understand why, you’re on your way to enlightenment.”

You provided a glimpse of Nirvana in a previous graph: “Misdirection and down blocking is a lovely thing. Perhaps we could try it again? Or stick with it when it’s working?”

Throw in Fozzy and Cody making decisive cutback moves on the stretch play and a few QB draws and voila! Re-watched the game tonight and was struck by our taking over the game in the third quarter mostly by adding this kind of running game to the aforementioned feather hat D. Also clear that with a run threat Colt was no longer staring at a photo of OU’s DL on every pass attempt.

At risk of overestimating Greg Davis again, this could work.

Great write up Scipio, you did indeed called the under and my pocket book is the beneficiary.

I’ve rewatched the game a couple times now and I noticed something interesting. When Texas would go hurry up and hit a couple plays in a row, an ou player would feign injury, sit out a play and come back in. The most egregious example occurs at the 9:30 mark in the third quarter. We gash the sooners with Cody Johnson and Travis Lewis goes ballistic on Adrien Taylor for not fitting his gap. I mean he’s all up in the kid’s grill. Seconds later, Lewis is on the ground holding his leg. He limps off the field, sits out a play, and then is back in on the next down. Just an observation. Hope you would have some thoughts on it.

Everything else you posted was indeed Jimmy the Greek-like. John Chiles is a safety playing WR and shouldn’t be anywhere near a collegiate offense. I can’t remember a time he made someone miss. Mal Williams absence along with Buckner’s is astonishing.

Again, nice work.

Scip,

Excellent post as always. You would think that at some point Mack would have enough brains to be embarassed by GD’s piss poor performance. Not to mention that the poor play calling is getting the QB beaten to death again this year. Colt needs to go in person and complain to GD about this ridiculous situation. I think VY had to have a similar talk in person with GD and Mack.

Yo Scrip,
Any wonder the Aggies didn’t fair well in Manhattan this past weekend. I fully expect this to be used and abused by you in the future . . . .

O-line is an embarrassment, if they were men in the 2nd half why not the first? a joke… Colt has regressed whether we like it or not, he stares down his passes, when they took away shipley he could not adjust…. chiles needs to be on the bench, a complete non-factor… defense will be underrated till we win the MNC…. chykie is good for one or two “ouch” plays a game… A Williams is wonderful… Gideon would be a role player if Scott were eligible… is Brewster not better than him How many tackles can he bounce off of?? Why are the tight ends on the field at all?? Why are M Williams, Monroe, Newton (I know), Goodwin not seeing significant time? Again the O-line is a joke, we are Texas and this is the best we can coach For all that we won and I don’t care how we do it…. win out and we have a shot. Thank God for our D today… I hope the O doesn’t wear them out this year… I am an idiot fan watching games on TV and these observations seem obvious to me….am I wrong on any??? Mack must see the same film I do… E Thomas is wonderful as well

I’m okay with Williams. Just think a shutdown corner should have more than one interception. Also, who was it that whiffed the tackle on Broyles td? Again, his int was unreal. If you haven’t seen the picture of it on ESPN.com, it’s worth a look.

Being a shut down corner means people avoid you, Stoddard.

Hobbeshorn is apparently an alias of Larry King.

I noticed that, too, Trips.

Scipio, great write-up. I was shocked to see the offensive linemen standing around while Biel was throwing cheap shots. Can you imagine Studdard if someone pulled that?

Hook ’em!

Williams needs to be getting a LOT more love for stopping Murray on that 60-yard breakaway in the 1st quarter. It was essentially a 2-on-1 fast break with a blocker between him and Murray. He’s running backwards, sometimes a little left and sometimes a little right to keep Murray from getting away altogether. Then gets a hand on him and drags him down, or at least slows him down until help arrives. Thanks to the D holding them to a field goal, that turned out to be a 4-point play. It was huge at the time and seems even bigger now. Haven’t seen a replay but I think I’ve called it right. Can’t believe I’ve not seen anything about it elsewhere.

I can only comment on Lewis regarding injury, he was hurting pretty bad. The little roid freak was in his face on the bench trying to get him to fight through whatever was wrong like Lewis was a puss. When that did not work the trainers were working him most of the time he came to the bench.

Scipio, great write-up. I was shocked to see the offensive linemen standing around while Biel was throwing cheap shots. Can you imagine Studdard if someone pulled that?

Jessica has a brother playing for OU?

Trips is dead on. When we got around to watching the game again, a Sooner injury was soon to follow a Horn big play and momentum changer. Cheaters. There were at least 4 I can remember after a big offensive play. There were also a lot of cargo shorts, spiked hair in visors, and crimson graphic T’s there.

Someone riddle me the 3rd & 2 after Williams’ pick : after rewatching a few times, I’m thinking Goodwin blew his route, or at least that makes more sense than Colt making the wrong read, since that was a designed quick hitter where the QB has to trust his rec.
Thought it was a really dumb call in any case, with empty backfield (as though that’s such a horrible time for PA…)

surely the take on aaron williams was a joke? it seems some clarification might be in order – he’s the bad ass on our defense wearing number 4.

The pick was the exact same formation and play as the touchdown to Marquis. If Colt goes through his progression he would have found Shipley coming free on the drag route for an easy score.

Right now it looks as if Colt is determining where the ball goes before the snap. He’s Randal Cunningham. Except he doesn’t have Brian Billick in his headset or a receiving group like Jake Reed, Chris Carter, and Randy Moss.

The little voice inside Colt’s head is telling him he’s about to get hammered if he goes through his reads.

Considering his OL help, and the questionable play call in that situation, I’d be thinking bird- in- the-hand at that point as well, Trips. Make lemonade and all that.

most unbearable words in the english language: wild horn

“I thought we defended the Pistol insanely well. Every time OU lined up with that, it was a tfl. I figured Wilson would abandon it at some point, but it seemed like he went back to the well about four or five times. Sounds suspiciously familiar.”

Yup. Wilson’s insistence on running the ball was, well, sad.

The misdirection plays worked almost every time we ran it. I’m guessing an average of 5 yards, easy. That’s your running game right there. Just as we couldn’t seem to figure out their screen game (except for a couple of notable exceptions) they just couldn’t seem to make any sense of our misdirection plays. It was awesome to watch.

Addendum: On the screen pass to Murray on O.U.‘s 1st possession the downfield blocker (#47) grabs Aaron Williams’s facemask as Williams buys time for the pursuit. Williams keeps rotating his hips all the while making Murray stay behind the blocker.

Very nice post.
The sky always seems bluer, the air always seems cleaner and the future always seems to burst with possibilities after we beat Blow-U. Scipio, you’re 100% correct — beating them brings a unique kind of pleasure and releases such a tremendous rush of endorphins that the only comparable experience would be finding yourself simultaneously fellated by 2 hotties. While watching Texas beat OU from a private box in the Cotton Bowl.
Beating aggy, while certainly satisfying, is nowhere near comparable to this observer, and never has been, even back when they were good. There’s just something so urgent, so desperately essential in the need to beat these Zero-U assholes, to negate their legacy of lying, cheating and cocksuckery. Perhaps the most satisfying element, other than how our D totally dominated yesterday, was watching Chinless Bob’s postgame press conference, listening to his pre-constituted excuses, and knowing the struggle he was having containing the rage and frustration and dealing with the knowledge that he is now, officially, Mack Brown’s bitch. The worm has turned, Bobby, and you are now Mack, circa 2003. Have fun dealing with all the sleepless nights, dumbshit fan rantings and recruiting nightmares that is going to bring you. Couldn’t happen to a nicer douchebag.

This is why I love coming here!!

The individuals on this site understand football. Trying to explain how Gideon lacks “range” on another site is futile.

Watching the wingT/ wildcat action we drew up was great. OU seemed stunned by it. We used to run the fake speed option counter with Vince, and then it went on the shelf, only to be dusted of in 2009 by GD for the RRS.

The part that’s encouraging is that Utah sliced up Bama’s oversized defenders by running plays just as we did last year in the Sugar Bowl. It seems that once you slow Bama’s pass rush, they are pretty average defensively.

As far as Colt is concerned, maybe last season was an aberration. This is the Colt that we saw before last year. I always take the average. I hope to be proven wrong.

My problem with the 3rd & 2 call where Colt got picked is that it was predictable. If you throw short, lateral passes that go 20 yards east or west enough throughout the course of a single game, eventually it is going to get picked and probably taken back for 6, yet that seems to be the bread and butter of the typical Greg Davis offense. OU should have had 2 pick 6s in that game on those same short lateral passes. I kept waiting to see Buckner come in and make some big plays over the middle to even it out and it never happened. Frustrating.

On Colt’s interception, I’m pretty sure Goodwin was at fault.

IIRC, Goodwin ran a slant, but neglected to cross in front of his defender, resulting in the pick. Had the route been run properly, Colt’s pass hits him in the chest. Goodwin should leave little miscues like that behind with a bit more experience.

Great write up and observations, Scip. But it’s what we expect from you now. At this rate you are become the Timothy Tebowner of teh sports interwebs.

Post-OU offense must consist of the zone read featuring Colt keeps, misdirection plays, a combo RB package of 31/28, and much more Malcolm and good times with Goodson. There’s no reason Texas can’t play for a national championship with the goal of putting up 24-27 points per game on the scoreboard and winning by 14 points each game from here on out.

The thing that puts a glow in my heart after Muschamp gave me an OU win for my 60th birthday present is the fact that for the rest of life, Texas will be playing lights out balls to the wall defense. We’re going to win lots and lots of football games in the next couple of decades.

I like your Hunter Lawrence take. I commented to Trips after the game that the only guys involved with the game when Texas had the ball that stepped up and delivered were Lawrence and Goodwin. Lawrence’s kicks were right down the pipe.

I also mentioned before the game that the TX/OU game is a wild animal because it’s the only game where players are constantly elbowing each other out of the way so they can get a look at the field. And they do this the entire game. I actually commented that it’s such a slugfest that even Beasley was physical in the game last year. If we played OU every week Beasley would have lived up to his hype.

On Colt’s interception, I’m pretty sure Goodwin was at fault.

IIRC, Goodwin ran a slant, but neglected to cross in front of his defender, resulting in the pick. Had the route been run properly, Colt’s pass hits him in the chest. Goodwin should leave little miscues like that behind with a bit more experience.

You’re 100% correct, of course. The #1 job of a receiver on a quick slant is to cross the front of the defender at all cost. Goodwin simply ran a route with no regard for the defender’s positioning. I was talking with my uncle after the game and he was upset at Colt about that play. He’s a huge Cowboys fan so I asked him what Michael Irvin would say about the receiver failing to get across the DB’s face on that play. He got it then.

My issue with that, though, is that Goodwin should have been getting more reps in our other games to figure stuff like that out.

Will Mack & Co. point that Stoops “offered a recruiting infomercial reminding prospective Sooners that Bob Stoops couldn’t give a damn about you beyond what you can do for him on the football field”? Maybe more important: does he even need to?

It is on Goodwin for not planting and slanting short of what the route call for, the defender came up and derailed that route (ou took that option away with the defense called, there was a safety waiting over the top for Goodwin) but Colt can not throw that ball. A 5th year Senior can not make that mistake, take a sack kick a FG.

Whoever mentioned Shipley was open was dead on.

Huckleberry, throw in Fozzy Whittaker. He played a great game, and Johnson had some important carries on the scoring drives.

Fozzy looked fast. I couldn’t tell at times if it was him coming around the corner or Monroe. It’s amazing how Fozzy and Cody look when they’re moving as they get the ball.

Goodwin is a flat out stud. No way that guy should have been a lowly three star recruit. Guys that fast with hands are a rarity. I’m having trouble finding somebody comparable. Maybe Bernard Berrian? Hopefully he sticks with football. I wonder how the necessary bulk he would need to go to the NFL would effect his long jumping aspirations.

The comment on Colt’s toughness was spot on. He doesn’t get enough credit for it. Maybe he should walk around with his eye black/make-up smeared like Tebow.

I’ve been getting texts and comments from co-workers on how it was an ugly game. Fuck that. I’ll take the ugliest OU win over anything other than a beautiful OU win. If that game was played by Florida and Bama, it would have just been “SEC football.”

Game balls to the defensive line.

“My issue with that, though, is that Goodwin should have been getting more reps in our other games to figure stuff like that out.”

After hearing that Goodwin was faulted for that INT that was my first thought as well. Especially if he’s been displaying solid work during practice – sure hands and escapability. That sideline reception and TD move were the types of plays starters make and he did it twice in the biggest game of the regular season. That says to me that it wasn’t a fluke.

Whether or not it was Goodwin’s fault or Colt’s fault for the pick it all comes back around to Davis. He has ingrained so much BS into Colt’s head that the poor guy can’t operate anymore. Colt running the ball is 75-80% of our offense. I say this of course because it opens up so many more possibilities for the team. Colt’s fumbled run… could not have been prouder for the guy . I guarantee you he just thought to himself, F Davis, I’m making something happen. It gets the team going and it puts the D more on their heels. The dude is Balls and he lights a fire in this team when he pulls the Rice into the goal line runs. It would be interesting to see how many points we rack up if we let him loose one game and just let the man play.

The more half ass you play, the better chance of getting injured you have. It’s football. Let the man run. Sure, our staff has thoughts down the road (Pasadena and NFL for Colt), but lets make sure we get there.

Quick thoughts:

1. Regardless of who was at fault, if Colt doesn’t stick with the play and make the tackle after he threw the pick then it likely goes for 6 the other way and the game changes drastically. Props to him for getting the defender on the ground so that our D could take over.

2. I’m not sure I would agree that Colt has regressed, but he certainly doesn’t seem to have the trust in his guys that he had last year. Other than Ship, it doesn’t seem like Colt is really comfortable with any of the other receivers. Hard to really say, but based on Colt’s comments before the season I think the loss of Collins was bigger than we would like to admit. Colt is at his best when he has two receivers he really trusts. What he needs to figure out is that he just has to trust the guys on the field. If they don’t deliver, we may drop a game. If he keeps locking in on Ship every time we pass, we will lose a game.

To me the most amazing thing about aaron williams is that you forget about him most of the time, because the OC of every team we play plans his whole game around avoiding #4, who ever he is on, its pretty much a given they are going the other direction… reminds me of how we played against malcolm jenkins last year in the bowl game, we were not going to let him beat us so we just stayed the hell away from him. To me Aaron Williams is the most gifted player on the team, and thats hard for me to say with sergio on the D-line

On 3rd and 2 with the lead in the redzone why did the ball not stay in colt’s hands on a QB draw play, if you can’t pick up the first at least the clock keeps moving and you assure yourself 3 more points. Greg Davis should be a Defensive Coach, because he sure as hell knows how to shut down high powered offenses.

Insightful and candid, which is what we’ve come to expect. A great read that I always look forward to reading.

I have only minor criticisms of the defense, most of which can be attributed to a good opponent making good plays. Great game all around for these guys. Will Muschamp is a bona fide great football coach – thank God he’s on our team.

Was anyone else as puckered as I was early on when Earl Thomas got hit on the sideline and hit the back of his head on an equipment box? The words ‘oh, shit’ went through my head when I recognized his number. I’m glad he was able to get up and play – it might have been a different story had he been seriously hurt.

View of the offense is as just as strong in the other direction – it’s an abomination, and every single player and coach should be mortified with embarrassment.

Aside from a love for UT, why would any legitimately talented offensive recruit seriously consider Texas? Is it any surprise why we can’t get a top-notch RB to seriously consider playing here? Would you let your kid play for Greg Davis?

It’s often said that the personality of a team (or a squad within the team) takes on the personality of its coach. That axiom can’t be demonstrated any more clearly than when you examine the offense and defense of the Texas Longhorns football team.

“Our play was the stuff of Icelandic Sagas. " No, no my friend, your PM’s are the stuff of Icelandic Sagas.

We start from opposite perspectives and end up at or near the same place. You are of the Spassky School – it’s all about the guy moving the pieces, at least when it comes to offense. Hence, when Austin English comes free and almost decapitates our QB (that’s one way to get rid of his recurring case of sniffles, I suppose), it’s not Ulatoski (or Greg Smith’s fault), its either the scheme or the protection called. (As an aside, I’ll gladly take your bet on this point – there was definite human error, but it was somewhere down there on the left side of the line – twice). I’m more of the Limbaughian School – players play the game and either get the job done or not. When you don’t block Gerald McCoy for a half or are called for holding multiple times whey you try to, it makes it a bit tough on the play caller to come up with the right call on recurring third and twenties. When you start looking for an alternate wide receiver only in the third quarter of the sixth game of the season, you become fairly easy to defend. Or when you thereafter latch on to that third receiver like a skid row drunk to a bottle of Listorene, the defense might start jumping one of the two or three routes he seems to know.

The truth, as someone astutely pointed out to us elsewhere, lies somewhere in between. Davis has done a terrible job thus far this year getting his best players on the field and in a position to succeed. He has been far too willing to play a horizontal game in a ten yard box and rely on better players to prevail instead of requiring this offense to develop beyond its very limited comfort zone. He has not put his best wide receivers on the field. And his running game design, while certainly understandable in the sense of preserving Colt, has put the offense behind the chains all year. I’ll also add that his game plan for Oklahoma, including the oft-noted substitution of Greg Smith for Buckner, was every bit as putrid as his use of Shipley in the slot last year was inspired.

All that said, the offensive line performance to date has been nothing short of abysmal, making it very difficult to achieve any sort of continuity in play calling or result. The receivers who have played and are not named Shipley or Buckner have been inept. And Evil Colt, God bless him, has re-appeared in full bloom. We’ve now seen every excuse in the book for his periodically putrid play (he might actually win the Heisman if we can get him a good case of Swine Flu), other than the most obvious one that, for whatever reason – pressure, media focus, scheme etc. – he is not playing at anywhere near the same level as he did last year. His decision making is slower and more frequently flawed and he most definitely is not throwing the ball with anywhere near the same precision that he did last year.

Notwithstanding our different perspectives, we arrive at the same conclusions. We have enough defense and special teams to win a national championship this year if this offense can build off the successes from the second half and get on a semi-roll over the next couple of weeks. For that to happen, the coaches need to put Goodwin and Malcolm Williams on the field (while permanently retiring Chiles and Kirkendoll) and start making defenses have to defend more than a narrow horizontal box. We need to put the read back into the zone read and utilize misdirection and Colt’s feet to make life easier for our linemen. We also need those offensive linemen to bring it without having to wait until halftime of the sixth game of the year against their biggest rival to get pissed and play with fire. And we desparately need Good Colt to re-emerge from whereever Jessica Sim has got him hidden.

There’s the Cialis for our case of GD. That’s not a hard pill to swallow, is it?

“It’s often said that the personality of a team (or a squad within the team) takes on the personality of its coach. That axiom can’t be demonstrated any more clearly than when you examine the offense and defense of the Texas Longhorns football team.”

This. What people often forget though is Mack has more say/influence in the “conservative” offense than you think. Especially now that he knows his D is lights out. Probably has hurt the offense more than we think. Fucking infuriating.

1. The only reason any defense ever has to not blitz relentlessly is the fear of getting beat for a big play deep. We don’t do that.

2. What we call the “Wild Horn” isn’t really anything but a John Chiles QB draw. The stretch zone play we ran to start the game and maybe once or twice again later is much closer to being a true Wildcat play. With Fozzy or Monroe in the backfield, and the other in motion, that’s a play we could run as effectively as we used to run the Zone Read with Vince. No joke. It would require the practice time, but we could just kill out of it.

3. My only hope where Greg/Mack are concerned [I never understand why people fail to understand that Greg is only doing exactly what Mack wants him to] is that they are seldom worse than against ou. I’ve let go the fantasy that our offense will be anything like last year, but I do believe we’ll be closer to Tech ‘09 than ou ’09 the rest of the way. Thankfully, we won’t be “holding anything back” anymore, and I’m hoping some small bit of pressure will lift for Colt, the staff, etc. now that the 800 lb. gorilla game is behind them.

4. Watching ou run successfully when they did, watching us run the ball successfully when we did, and watching the Dolphins on MNF the other night hammered home something that doesn’t get enough run in my opinion: running the ball successfully is not just OL blocking like mean bastards and running backs running like scatty waterbugs. Timing timing timing timing timing. I see a lot of our running plays develop so awfully slowly, and I think to myself: what an unwonderful world. We probably don’t practice the timing much. The reason our stretch zone plays worked so well, among other reasons, is because we nailed the timing of the play.

5. I’m going to take up the mantle and give a defense of James Kirkendoll. I’m no Kirkendoll apologist normally. I still haven’t forgiven him the sacrilege of wearing #10 in 2006. But I was glad to see a little fight from someone on our team when he bowed up. Let me be clear: it was an egregiously stupid penalty, but I can’t be entirely certain it didn’t light a little fire under us. Heaven forbid that our players display the mentality of fighters and not choir boys. Again, it was stupid. I get that part. But it was also kind of cool.

6. On the other hand, Kheeston Randall, while being a net positive on the year, just about killed us with his roughing the passer penalty. That could have been the game. We had just scored, taken the momentum, just stopped them on 3rd down, about to get the ball back…dumbass RTP penalty. First down for the heathen. Two plays later, Ryan Broyles TD. Shame on you, Kheeston.

7. He didn’t play “well”, but I admire the fight in Colt for hanging in the game the way he did after the abuse he took in the first half. I think we see now that Colt was pretty much made by having Cosby and Shipley to rely on. Take one away, and we have ‘09 Colt. But I won’t question his fight.

8. The Longhorn OL who was lined up opposite Gerald McCoy will not and should not enjoy the film session. A legendarily poor performance.

9. We need to tackle better to be the truly shitstorming dominant defense we ought to be.

10. The military unit that is in charge of transporting nuclear warheads to and from places by hand needs to sign Emmanuel Acho up. I would sleep safer at night.

11. Bobby Kennedy needs to get over whatever grudge he has against Malcolm Williams. Enough already.

12. I like what ou brings out in Cody Johnson. He plays against them like it’s personal.

13. Oh yeah, DJ Monroe too. The other bit of “fight” I saw and loved was when one of the ou guys tried to add a little hot sauce on the end of a Monroe return and DJ kind of threw him down and gave him the Ali poster.

14. I think that very well may have been the best front 7 in the nation we played on Saturday. Again, I expect things to get a little better offensively from here on out. At least until the Big 12 game. Not exponentially better but incrementally better.

15. Goodwin…There are fews Longhorn joys more satisfying for me than watching the puppies bite in the ou game.

16. I’m astonished at how often a guy comes in unblocked against our O. It’s not that someone tries to block him and fails. It’s that no one even attempts to block him. Pretty sure that was the case on Colt’s first fumble. It happened a ton in the CU game. I don’t know if that’s scheme or dumb OL, but it happens all the freaking time with us.

“There’s the Cialis for our case of GD”-lawdog13.

brilliant!

right now, I can’t remember having this much speed on the offensive side of the ball. This may be the fastest Longhorn offense from position to position, that we have ever had here.

 Whitaker, Monroe, Goodwin, and Williams can all fly.

 That being said, our misuse of them should be considered blasphemy, and punishable by stoning. If I was an opposing defender, the motion action with Monroe or Fozzy coming around would be terrifying. If any one of those two got loose it’s over. The difference in pass rush from OU after seeing those a couple times was night and day. More should be ran.

Question, am I the only person here that thinks that Ship should be moved back inside? He was money on all those little quick-hitters last year that require the quarterback/receiver to be roommates to perfect. Slide him back inside. Put Goodwin and Williams out on the edge, and go from there.

 Instead of wasting downs on the Limp Horn, can we waste a down throwing deep every once and awhile? Just drop back and chuck one up to Williams. He seems to only really concentrate when it’s an acrobatic catch anyway! That way if it’s successful, touchdown, and if not, opposing defenses are scared shitless of their speed!

Well the new depth chart is out and Malcolm and Goodwin are starting. Let’s hope this is a move towards meritocracy on offense and a sign that we’ll start letting it fly a bit. I won’t get my hopes up though.

Limp Horn – I like it.

Interesting new depth chart. Goodwin is lister first as an “or” starter with Chiles.

Williams listed as starter at split end.

Kirkendoll is behind Shipley.

Tray Allen is listed as co-starter with Huey.

Whittaker and Johnson co-starters again. DJ Monroe is listed as specialty back.

I like this.

“Question, am I the only person here that thinks that Ship should be moved back inside?”

I thought for sure that this would be one of those “wrinkles” we put in for OU.

Shipley did line up inside a few times, but it produced nothing.

For those of us in the over 40 crowd this game looked very familiar. Saturday was a typical TX/OU game. Hard hitting, turnovers, big plays, questionable coaching decisions and officiating. High drama, high tension, but not always pretty. Not for the faint of hart.

They are who we thought they were, and we are who they thought we were.

faint of heart.

Yeah, 1991.

“Ben Alexander has now won this year’s Russell Gaskamp/Brandon Healy Award (Where did that come from 5th year senior). No debate. I’m so proud of 5 foot 10 Ben. Like teary-eyed proud.”

I made some comments in the off-season that were less than complimentary about Ben (most involved his mistreatment of an American Standard toilet). I hereby make a full retraction of said comments and apologize to Ben. His play has been as exceptional as it was unexpected, making it all the sweeter. Thank you, Ben..
EBS – You’ve exceeded expectations with your first down catch and have given hope to all high school tight ends that run in the 5.6 range..

“I thought for sure that this would be one of those "wrinkles" we put in for OU.”

regarding this and the new depth chart, it’s obvious we’ve been saving our “wrinkles” and “tricks” for mizzou. I saw it all along, what have you guys been watching. Greg Davis is a genius, he knew we could get by a sub-standard ou squad with our standard vanilla, 3 yd dink bullshit, I mean offense. duh.

As Royal said: “Ole Ugly is better than Ole Nuthin’.”

I’ll take ugly, as in Ugly Win.

Do you think Trojans look back on the 2006 Rose Bowl and think, “Oh, what a lovely loss that was”?
Hell, no.
They’d give anything they could to have won that game in any Ole Ugly way they could have.

A win is a win is a win.

Football ain’t art.

But watching our defense is better than most art I have seen.

Here’s a parallel in history for your consideration:

Cedric Benson has a limited coming out party in a losing effort against OU his freshman year, goes on to basically tear it the rest of the regular season.

Emergence of under-utilized Malcolm Williams, Marquis Goodwin, Cody Johnson, and (injured) Fozzy Whittaker this year.

If the staff can learn some lessons from this year’s ugly contest in manner similar to decisions they made in the wake of that 03 or 04 game, who knows, we could achieve some level of operational adequacy by season’s end.

I say this knowing full well that it is also possible, if not likely, that nothing will change and that the petulant child mad scientist that runs our offense will continue insisting that the solution to futility is more futility.

If you make some very necessary and very obvious adjustments to your offense, which have been mentioned by Scipio and others here in great detail, I see no reason why you shouldn’t run roughshod over the rest of the Big 12 and build up some “style points” on the way to Pasadena.

Nate -
 
Do you agree that 8-4 is your most likely result from here on out? Or do you think a meltdown is possible?

I hope that bradford goes ahead and has surgery , because he needs to think about himself now, and get that shoulder better for the combine, he seems like a great kid and I wish him the best of luck. Personally I feel bad for KU and Reesing, I think gerald mccoy is going to hurt the little guy, if they play 75% as fast and swarming as their defense played against us… it could get ugly for the manginos, that offensive line is worse than ours. I see stoops rebounding and going 8-4, with Lubbock being their only other loss… Leach is still seeing ou go for it on 4th down when they were up 412 to 7… Glad we got our tech game out of the way already, sticks seems to have his shit on point with that offense.

"Ben Alexander has now won this year’s Russell Gaskamp/Brandon Healy Award (Where did that come from 5th year senior). No debate. I’m so proud of 5 foot 10 Ben. Like teary-eyed proud."

The difference between Muschamp and Davis is summed up in this statement. Muschamp molds a weak area into a relative strength by sheer will. Davis takes a team strength in Colt and molds it into a weakness by complete idiocy.

Or, it’s not about molding at all for GD; it’s about sitting high up in the box tossing out random shit while you eat individual chocolate puddings.

Bear with me on the grammar. Puddings may not be grammatically correct, but it works.

And will everyone finally put to bed the belief that GD is holding back, saving the good stuff for OU (or whoever)?

That strategy (not showing the whole thing) may be valid in a big dick contest, but not in football! GD isn’t that smart anyway.

Is there a young Muschamp equivilant on offense somewhere in college football? And if there is, can we pay him a million dollars a year and have him come here and fire Davis for Mack? You know there’s a part of Mack that wants to do it, he just can’t.

“Individual packets of chocolate pudding”, SC.

Several observations, please feel free to disagree.

1) It seemed that Colt was throwing freely to the new receivers early in the season, but passes were frequently dropped or deflected into the hands of the opponents. He could count on Shipley and learned to trust Buckner, but after that? Does anyone else think that Colt might be a bit hesitant when throwing to anyone but those Ship or Buck? Damned if you do and sacked if you don’t. Ouch!

2) t1climb1, I apologize for not spelling an OU player’s name correctly. Your correction was invaluable should I ever feel the need to mention him again. Carry on.

Hook ’em!

nordberg -
 
I was asking that question of a friend just the other day. Tom Hermann? Kyle Shanahan (if he would leave NFL)? Major?

I understand the Shanahan line of thinking but have you watched the Texans inconsistencies? Slaton can’t run the ball, and our red zone efficiency has sucked especially when it counts. Plus, that would run Major off for sure. We owe Major a chance and I don’t think he left Bama to coach our rb’s without some sort of understanding.

magnus –
 
A lot of that is pure OL play and a lack of NFL talent there. I think the Texans have consistently good play calling and I love the architecture of their passing game.

Scipio- What do you think of gus malzahn, would his spread em out high octane offense work under muschamp?

Dunno. I don’t know what Will wants from an offense.
 
Most DCs fall into two distinct camps on offense when they become coaches:
 
1. RC Slocum – don’t beat yourself, shorten the game, protect the football, convert short fields
2. Bob Stoops – run an offense that he wouldn’t want to face as a DC, take risk, put pressure on the opposing D
 
I’m not sure where Muschamp falls.
 
I like Gus Malzahn as an innovator. It’s heartening to me that he’s shown the ability to be creative in the running game and in the passing game. I’ve not studied him that carefully.
 
I don’t know what kind of offense Applehite wants to run. Pro-style? Spread? 3 WR, 1 TE?

We forced five turnovers, set up our offense with field position on a platter (which we sent back to the kitchen), destroyed the Sooner rushing game (-16 yards), and contained the pass.

Honestly don’t know what everyone is seeing, besides blind loyalty to their favorite team, in Muschamp’s pass defense. Taylor Potts ripped it for 400 yards. Muschamp “contained” OU’s passing game this year to, instead of almost 400 yards like last year, 327 (most of it by a RS-Fr QB who had only two career starts under his belt).

UT’s run defense, very good. UT’s pass defense (50th in the nation in yardage allowed, 10 spots behind Navy), very suspect.

ponderos, sacks are part of pass defense. Opponents have called 257 pass plays against Texas, and netted 1105 yards, a 4.3 average. OU has a very good defense, and allowed 1017 yards on 234 pass calls, also a 4.3 average.

OU’s two biggest pass plays came on missed tackles. Obviously that’s part of the game, but it has nothing to do with schematic error.

Good defensive coordinators make teams one dimensional, that’s what you were.

Exactly. Evaluating pass defense on raw yardage is silly.

Well, I’ll stand by that if you give up 3-400 yards in games, that points to a problem somewhere.

Winning those games masks the issues, to be sure.

ponderos:
 
If a team throws 55 times to get 300 yards passing, your D is doing just fine. They’ll also have three turnovers, four sacks, and negative rushing yardage.
 
Judging defense by simple volume outputs is Football Analysis 1.0.

I’m fine giving up 300 yards a game passing while giving up 37 yards a game rushing. Take away the run and start zone blitzing, mistakes are sure to follow. This defensive mentality is suited perfect for this year when our toughest competition for the MNC are run oriented teams. I’d much rather match up strength vs. strength than weakness vs. percieved weakness (I still think our db’s are a strength).

This season couldn’t be going better for us, assuming the offense starts to show some improvements and create some unpredictability.

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