John Chiles Rising

Bubble screen 4eva!

John has always wanted, more than anything else, to play on Sundays. I think y’all will get his best possible performance this coming season.

I hope the best for John – the kid has had one f-ed up ride through high school and on to Austin. Seriously – you guys ony have a vague idea of how f-ed up his family life has been since 6th grade.

I really think he would have thrived at a smaller school and been much further along at this point. His high school coaches thought so too – but John didn’t listen much to them either.

Being an unbridled optimist, I contend that Chiles will replace Shipley AND provide Quan-like durability!

I will light a candle on my Brandon Healy shrine.

You’ve got John, Mal, and James as our starting 3. Chiles is supposed to be doing well, GG was raving about Captain Kirk, and Williams is our best shot at something big down the field.

Best thing is all the talent nipping at these guys’ heels, so they know they can’t miss a step, and it looks like they may have taken it to heart.

There can’t be more than a few teams in the country with a better receiving corps that what we’ve got. Both athleticism and experience are high this year.

I’m curious as to why our S&C and offensive staff felt playing QB was a free pass for lethargy, sloth, and losing all of his athleticism.

Your curiosity makes baby Jesus weep tears of unspeakable sorrow and dishonors our combat veterans.

Ag, very astute. For a kid who “wanted, more than anything else, to play on Sundays,” he definitely should have gone to a smaller school. Like, A&M?

If his athleticism is indeed coming back, he should be an asset. He displayed decent, to good hands last year.

I dont care what you say about 5th year seniors, but John Chiles is just not a good football player… dude can barely cut, has terrible speed and has hands like a digital clock

yea, hes gonna be good this year alright.. hahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahah

So…thats a “no” on keeping an open mind?

I’ll say this, I have more optimism for Kirkendoll drawing an unsportsman-like penalty in a Nebraska/OU game than I do Chiles having a breakout year.

Capt Obvious –
 
I’m much less impressed with our WR corps than you are, but agree that there is potential there.
 
And I don’t really expect GG to call any of our receivers a lazy piece of shit to the press.
 
magnus -
 
No, he means like SMU or TCU. Stop being a hyper-reactionary douchebag.
 
Brick -
 
You left out my burning of the flag and dishonoring the memory of Dr. King.
 
Year of the QB -
 
The John Chiles I saw in high school film could cut and run. You think dropping 20-25 pounds along with an attitude adjustment could help restore a bit of that guy?
 
Truthfully, he’s a big body with reliable hands and our slot position creates a lot of 8-10 yard candy routes if you’re willing to take the hit. If he can provide that service, he’ll have fulfilled his 5th year Senior duties.

Please explain the women’s track almost-rant.

Not sure I agree with the following statement…

“It’s another example of how we seemingly maximize every player on defense with a staff sharing a precise vision of how they view each player and his role, while on offense we’re fatalistic and hopeful.”

"Señor Mad Dog–¿Está bien?"

UT-06 – with all of the $$$ and resources of the UT Football Program, why would one of the football players need to go a coach outside of the football program for training? Closely followed by – why do very few of the UT football players train with the UT staff in preparing for the NFL Combine? The bio on mbtf.com on S&C coaching notwithstanding, there leaves a lot to be desired in that department. Doesn’t Muschamp run S&C for the defense?

Hey, I’m all for Chiles having a breakout senior season, but if he pouts like he did a few times last season then there are plenty of kids waiting to get on the field and make an impact at full speed.

A smaller school wouldn’t have helped, a more forceful coach that convinced him not to play QB would have however.

Also, all high school coaches can claim they wanted what was best for their guys but they balanced that against their own needs (not that i blame them, they have bills to pay) by playing guys at positions who shouldn’t be there but are just good athletes.

We seem to go another way by saying “play whatever makes you happy” with the idea we have enough talent to get by without them.

I do think Chiles has a better chance in something other than a short-route passing game. We were always getting him the ball on bubble-screens, at a dead-stop, and then expecting him to turn on the jets. That’s pretty tough on a big guy — it’s better for a guy like Goodwin.

I’m open to seeing what he can give us over the middle. I’d take Dan Buckner with some speed. He’s going to be one more year better at route running, which can’t hurt.

Let me also say that I’ll be EXTREMELY disappointed if Mike Davis gets significantly fewer reps that Kirkendoll. I expect the season to start that way but I don’t think that’s how it’ll end.

uthookem -
 
Nailed it.
 
Drew Kelson’s Hips -
 
Perhaps you’re unaware that we’re under new management on defense. It’s 2010.

“Also, all high school coaches can claim they wanted what was best for their guys but they balanced that against their own needs (not that i blame them, they have bills to pay) by playing guys at positions who shouldn’t be there but are just good athletes.”

Summit changed their whole offense to suit what John wanted – Summit would have liked to have kept him at wide receiver, but he was insistant that he was a QB. Since he was never going to be an effective flexbone QB, they put in the spread just for him. Coach Geller did what needed to be done to best showcase the player. It was frankly, in hindsight, a terrible mistake.

Plenty of schools were looking at him as a QB and he was certain he would be a QB at Texas. I told him he’d get moved ot WR because Greg Davis would never figure out how to best utilize his skill set, but he just laughed it off.

I still hold that if John had gone to SMU or TCU or a place like that, he’d still be a QB and would have a great shot at being drafted next spring.

Byt the way, several of you have made a mistake above – John is a fourth year senior – he was never redshirted.

“Given that what made Chiles a 5 star recruit was his quickness and athletic ability……”

“No, he means like SMU or TCU. Stop being a hyper-reactionary douchebag.”

Had a 5 star dual threat QB recruit (on the heels of VY mind you) picked SMU or TCU, what would your reaction have been?

55-600-5

If Chiles reaches this I’ll eat my hat.

" I told him he’d get moved ot WR because Greg Davis would never figure out how to best utilize his skill set, but he just laughed it off."

this is not one of Greg’s many weaknesses. it was the player.

I don’t think it’s such a big deal if some of the guys go for outside help in speed/strength/quickness. There are very few people that can be position coaches at the highest level, and probably fewer who can coach fundamental kinesiology well enough to teach to people of all different body types. So to expect someone to teach both is asking a lot.

My guess is that Chiles made the intellectual decision to listen to the coaches regarding a position switch after seeing how right they were about Melton, but he probably hadn’t come around emotionally. Having a last chance will wake you up. Much like the insightful BON post linked regarding Sherrod Harris, here’s hoping Chiles is able to get out in front of the 8 ball this season.

If Chiles has been this insistent on his ability to play qb than he has only himself to blame, coaches tell players what to play… not the other way around, especially in high school. If the kid wants to transfer so be it. I would have really enjoyed not having true freshman backup qb’s the last couple of years. While Miles may have lied to Shepherd about playing qb, the kid won’t be upset in 3 years when he’s getting a check to play WR.

I hope Chiles has a good enough year that someone looks at him and gives him a chance play.

Sugarpants -
 
This wasn’t going to a track coach to correct a form error. We’re talking about weight loss, basic conditioning, plyometric explosion.
 
Any S&C program that can’t provide basic speed training is lacking.

Scipio -

I like your stuff. Always entertaining. But, the statement…

“Any S&C program that can’t provide basic speed training is lacking”

…is a little off-base when viewed in light of Chiles’ visit to the track team. He wasn’t looking for “basic speed training;” he was looking for world-class speed training.

Turn the situation around: If a track star wanted to learn how to tackle, would he be better off having the track coach show him on the side, or taking a visit to Coach Boom for some expert-level advice? Would a QB with a throwing-motion issue be better off asking Mack Brown, or Major Applewhite?

Well, well, looks like the Chiles bandwagon has some new faces. Welcome aboard everyone.

I became suspicious of Chiles when he actually looked solid in spring practice. When I noticed him throwing blocks with abandon in the spring game I was sold, he has clearly bought into the Colt/Acho/Houston school of senior leadership and looks ready to leave it all on the field.

Maybe he can’t hold off Marquise and Davis but I definitely think 55-600-5 is in play.

I saw Chiles play in person his senior year in HS, and he made some pretty decent defensive backs on the opposing team just look silly with his ability to change direction on a dime and get back to full speed within just a step or two on those several occasions when he decided to keep the ball instead of throwing it. A breakout senior season wouldn’t surprise me a bit if he’s in as good of shape as you are hearing, Scip. Some young men take longer than others to mature…..better late than never.

Sooooo……. in observing how our players develop physically over the last decade or so, I’ve come to the conclusion that there are basically four types of bodies, and they are affected thusly:

Big strong guys with high elasticity of conditioning: They get much bigger. Usually a good result for the positions they are brought in for.

Big strong guys with low elasticity of conditioning: They eventually get bigger. Except for Luke Phoelman. Usually a good result for the positions they are brought in for.

Lean guys with high elasticity of conditioning: They get fat and slow and end up changing positions or wash out. This is where MadDog fails and fails and fails. When it happens on defense, they can be spun down. When it happens on offense, the players are usually screwed, except for the occasional Henry Melton.

Lean guys with low elasticity of conditioning: These are the guys that come in fast and fit and stay that way. I’m convinced any player that comes out of our program lean and fast just has good genetics. These are guys that were physical freaks before they entered the program. Vince Young, Earl Thomas, Jamaal Charles, Roy Williams.

So what we have here is a S&C program that tends to help the development of defensive players, and hinder the development of any skill player that isn’t a naturally fit person. I think this contributes to the current imbalance we see with the quality of our depth charts on defense and offense (of course recruiting is a big factor in this also).

I think the opposite of this would be what Tech had under Leach. Guys seemed to get quicker, faster, and gain positionally appropriate strength every year there.

Scipio,
I’m perfectly willing to give the guy another chance, even after all the shit he pulled last year. The physical makeover is impressive; his attitude will be the telling factor. If he becomes another Nate Jones, senior year version, I’ll be unicorn- and rainbow-happy.

Ok Nero, I am too stupid and I give up (even google didn’t help me, damn the analytics) – what is elasticity of conditioning?

sorry, I was trying to adapt a financial term. Basically, it’s like beta. It’s just a measure of how well something reacts to something else. If you have high elasticity, the dependent variable (conditioning, in this case) moves greatly with any change in the independent variable (the way the program is run). So, what I was saying was the skill position players that come out retaining their speed and weight are the ones that don’t react much to conditioning anyway. As in, they could work out a lot and not gain much muscle, or they could work out very little and probably still be fast and light. Mad Dog fails the guys who need to work their asses off to stay in shape. The guys with lower metabolism. These guys just blow up at UT.

Our NFL players to scholarships given ratio is as high as any college team. In the last 10 years we have won as many games as any college team.

Isn’t that really what matters? “But we could do better!” Yeah, but we could do a lot worse too.

What’s so wrong about this kid’s experience? He wanted to be a QB. The coaches gave him a chance. The S&C staff treated him like a QB, where balance, arm strength, flexibility are most important – not like a WR or RB. He showed some promise at QB, but he got stuck behind better options. He made a switch that is clearly in his best long term interest and it will help the team in the end. It took him 2 years to reshape his body. This is normal. Anything bad out of this experience was probably as much his own fault as any of the coaches.

Texas fans are such whining babies sometimes.

For now I’ll give Chiles a pass on his attitude last year. He came into college with high expectations for himself that didn’t pan out after a couple years. Then he switches to wr before last year. The clock is ticking and he wants results faster than learning a new position will allow. A little pouting is human nature.

Now dropping weight, more time learning at receiver, maturity, etc. Over the spring and summer the rest of the team has been impressed. I wouldn’t bet the house on a breakout year but sounds like its doable and I’ll be pulling for him. If we see him hit on play action early on, instead of only making catches within 5 yards of the line of scrimmage, I’ll start to be pretty optimistic.

We can afford to be whiney. Winning augments entitlement, which augments bitching. I think a lot of UT fans look at how they could refine an already great product. I’m glad we aren’t like a lot of teams that feel they have to go back to the drawing board every spring. If I was to just settle for above average, I would go and be a Virginia Tech fan.

“The log jam strikes me a little like playing Emmanuel Acho and Jordan Hicks behind Keenan Robinson at WLB. "

Scip: this is a very accurate and worrysome thing you have said here. I suppose that what is true for many is also true for coaches: there are some ways of being dumb that one must be very intellegent to accomplish.

“The log jam strikes me a little like playing Emmanuel Acho and Jordan Hicks behind Keenan Robinson at WLB. "

Scip: this is a very accurate and worrysome thing you have said here. I suppose that what is true for many is also true for coaches: there are some ways of being dumb that one must be very intelligent to accomplish.

My apologies, logjam on the company server.

Speed Kills- in a totally non hyper-reactionary way, and in no way reminiscent of douchyness, let me explain what you missed….

The part about what made him a 5 star QB in the first. You don’t take a Mike Vick type, throw 30lbs of questionable weight on him, and turn him into a pocket passer. It defeats the whole purpose of taking him in the first place. Especially when everyone and their canine knew there was a strong possibility for a position change.

That said, I don’t really have a problem with him working with the track and field coaches. While football S&C’s (should) know a lot about explosive, functional football excercises, they don’t know as much about improving speed as track coaches. Hell, Aaron Ross worked out routinely with his girlfriend.

Someone take a stab at explaining why in the hell our track star at WR (Goodwin) is playing in the slot and not on the outside? Kirk has NO business being out wide. I know it smacks of whininess, but fucking holy hell our offense strategy is annually offensive and erratic.
   Remember when Mack used to opine that having Simms under center 100% of the time gave him just as good a chance at reading a defense properly as it would were he out of the gun? Why not actually test that statement for validity and actually fucking try it? Now we run our entire offense out of the gun, WTF’nF?

There can’t be more than a few teams in the country with a better receiving corps that what we’ve got. Both athleticism and experience are high this year.

Unfortunately the talent and experience seldom reside in the same body, which is why I’d rate our corps significantly lower.

55-600-5 would be nice, but as long as Chiles is in the right place and is a reliable 3rd down threat, I’m fine with less.

Kirkendoll starting over Goodwin will make me cry

magnusbleuveigner said:
Hell, Aaron Ross worked out routinely with his girlfriend.

Don’t we all.

At this point, there is as much evidence that Chiles will be something other than a footnote to this season as there is evidence that I will be something other than a footnote.

In any event, I’m keeping an open mind on Chiles as a contributor.

Will you?

Ok, I’ll keep an open mind about Chiles being ready to contribute. GD’s ability to deploy him effectively? Not so much.

Scipio,
I share your concern with the stacking of 3 WRs at the Slot position, however I choose to believe (based on absolutely no empirical data) that the report of those 3 WRs at the Slot is not representative of the depth chart, but rather a rational approach to get all 3 exposure to the position in case it’s needed at some point down the road (ie – injuries, or whatever).

My uneducated hypothesis is that the depth chart at WR goes a little something like this today:

Slot – Chiles, then Davis. If Chiles lives up to the pre-season hype, he gets to keep the job. If not, we’ve got an eager and able Freshman at the ready.

Outside #1 – Malcolm, then Hales

Outside #2 – Goodwin, then Kirkendoll. Knowing Mack’s fondness for seniors who have stuck with the program for four years, I would guess that to stroke Kirk’s bruised ego at being #2 here, Kirk gets starts the year as the “starting” WR in the 4-WR sets. Ego stroked.

What this tells me is that Greg Davis seems to be opting for the “reliable” type of Slot WR, as opposed to a YAC-type of Slot WR. The type of Slot WR that runs 5-10 yard routes, is big enough to take the hits from the LBs and SS, hang on to the ball, and fall to the ground for a first down. I’m good with this, although now that we seem to be moving to a full-time TE offense, I’d expect Barrett Matthews to be the same type of receiver ("reliable, short yardage, in the land of the LBs underneath), with an occassional Greg Davis TE Seem route to keep the Safeties honest.

If we wanted to go with the more explosive “quick Slot WR” type, than I would understand guys like Goodwin, Hales, and even Chris Jones getting a shot. However, I don’t remember too many plays where a “quick Slot WR” can catch a medium range pass at full speed, make a Safety miss in space, and take it the distance. I think Shipley did it a few times (OU in 2008), but we just don’t seem to have that athlete / route combination much in the Davis years. Compare that to Florida (or OU) who makes a killing with inside WRs taking short-to-medium passes and turning them into 70-yard TDs. Mark Clayton holla!

Here’s a quote from Sheroid Evans:

"I plan on running track when I get to Texas. Track won’t get in the way of football. I talked to the coaches back when they first started recruiting me and told them I would be running track at whatever school I chose. The coaches said they don’t have a problem with it at all, they actually like the idea of me running track."

A couple drops, quits and pouts = wishful thinking.

Yes it would be great if Chiles has a great year. I hope he does.

Looks to me like the coaches have found a cold, wintery place for Chiles to walk away and die.

He’s shown no ability to separate thus far. I don’t expect we’re in for any new revelations.

Chiles producing at those numbers would be the extra gravy. But the meat/potatoes of the passing game has to be Matthews as a safety valve at TE, Goodwin continuing to transition from track star to WR, Kirkendoll being more consistent, and Malcolm Williams finding a damn pair of hands.

Question – does any of it matter at all if we don’t have a 1200 yd rusher a la Ricky Williams/Hodges Mitchell/Cedric Benson/Jammal Charles? Without that, we lose 3 games easily (maybe 4).

Scipio!

Will you be doing the annual team previews again this year? Looking forward to reading them!

Leonidas!
 
I don’t know! They are very time consuming!

Shit, this is Texas. You don’t need to meet all your expectations to get into the NFL. Look at Jamal Charles. The big school spotlight is enough to get you noticed and a chance.

yeah, those 1600+ yards Jamaal’s last year went largely unnoticed by NFL scouts.

Then again, he did run sub 4.4 at the combine.

Fresh Corn, Black Bean, and Tomato Salad…

I liked your entry and I’ve added a Trackback to it on my weblog! JB…