Texas-Rice Football Post-Mortem 2010: Offense

Don’t know if this makes sense, but I am considering the following made-up metric for assessing our RBs performance – “percentage achievement”. Thought works like this:

What % of the “maximum available” yards did a guy make on any given play? Assume that the max is, say, 20 yards. (It’s silly to think every run play should go length of field.) Every run that goes 5 yards got 25% of its potential. Similarly, if we’re lined up on the opponents’ 15 yard line, then 15 yards is the maximum available and the 5 yard carry now represents 33% of the available potential. (This is different than that silly “we should get 4 yards every running play” that we heard a year or so ago – you should do better than that, I figure 20 yards is a pretty damn productive run play.)

Newton had 3 TDs, all from fairly close in. He achieved 100% of what was achievable on those plays. As such, even though the YPC isn’t much, his average “percentage achievement” may have been higher than “mere” YPC suggests. Measured in this way, I suspect Tre performed best — and actually did moderately well, in general — followed by Fozzy then Cody.

This probably doesn’t hold a drop of water, and maybe it’s just a pseudo-scientific way of making myself feel better about our pedestrian YPC. Otherwise, I just wonder about our OLs high pad levels and their inconsistency at reestablishing the LOS against a Rice DL that, while game, was hardly stout.

Just about perfect analysis, Scip. The apologists, who don’t get as deeply into the issue as you have, are saying, essentially, we have to walk before we can run (hmmm). I don’t disagree with that.

What you’re saying, and others are not, is that we got butt-kicked too many times at the point of attack. We are blocking NOBODY away from the point of attack, the blame there being, IMO — the WRs, the TE/H-back, and non-playside linemen.

The other irritant I have is the lack of a FB/TE/H-back leading plays. Ever. (Except Norton’s botch job on the goal line.) And, frankly, to do this, we have to get away from the concept of having three (or more) WRs on the field for every snap. Maybe the H-back, and fewer wideouts, are in this week’s game plan. If I were Wyoming’s coaches, though, I wouldn’t spend a lot of time scheming for that.

I appreciate the non-hysterics of your posts Scip.

I’ve learned that Longhorn football games are infinitely more enjoyable when I stay the fuck out of open game threads. I know it costs you some hits, but it probably buys me at least a few more hours of life that I’d otherwise lose to stressing over shrieking nellies who need to be repeatedly slapped by Leslie Nielsen and the rest of the passengers and crew of Flight 209 from LA to Chicago.

BEHorn -
 
I think I’m liking your last paragraph.
 
Cody and Tre had an identical number of goal line carries. It’s a fun concept, but irrelevant to this game. Our running game got stuffed on the goal line with Cody in the game and I spelled out why. The casual association is now Tre Scores! and Cody Doesn’t!
  
edsp -
 
Thanks for reading.
 
A two WR base set has its own problems. We don’t want to run the 2002 offense against 8 man fronts. I like 3 wide. However, I want us to run rational plays. That’s why I documented those first two drives.
 
Greg Smith may not be that good as a backfield lead blocker either.
 
We’re not losing many matches at the point of attack. It’s more about teams overplaying what it is we do and our running game possessing no natural counters to it. See my observation about our early success in the running game for both runners.
 
CJD -
 
Gracias.
 
Yes, all open threads attract a hysterical crowd. But that’s kind of how most of us watch the game. Then you can go back and watch the tape without emotion and see what actually happened.

I have a couple of thoughts on this: (1) are we even sure that we have more than a goaline package that involves an actual 2-back set?; and (2) the play-calling that led to that reverse was outstoundingly awful.

I hadn’t really though about the momentum going into that goalline stand and could barely see the play from my end of the stadium, but your description of it comports with my recollection.

I’d sure like to see a couple of plays called to Mike Davis. And I kept hoping that Traylon Shead would get some carries since we are apparently taking a “no red-shirts allowed” approach.

Did Darius White play?

Darius White did play.
 
Yes, we have a jumbo short yardage package and that’s how Cody has scored about 20 of his career touchdowns. That we choose not to run it often in actual short yardage situations is pure Greg Davis.

Right, I was asking whether we have anything other than that goalline package, which is usually an I if I remember correctly.

I’m wondering whether we have anything more pro-style with staggered backs. I don’t recall having seen that look.

I’m on an iPad. Not mine mind you, but….

On the deep ball to Malcolm, Mike D. was the “sure shot.” Dude was wide open for six. Not hating on Gilbert, we just need to recognize that Davis is working.

I sat in the end zone, which highlighted Cody’s vision problems. Hopefully he’s just knocking the rust off.

Kenny Vaccaro.

Vine -
 
The formation is irrelevant. It’s about personnel.

The screen to Cody was some hilarious shit. That one will be going on GD’s greatest hits for sure.

Scipio —

Nice breakdown and I largely agree with your observations. The comparison of the first two offensive plays was useful, but it’s worth noting that, in addition to Huey failing to get a hat on anyone, Barrett Matthews got beat on his block and it was his man who made the tackle. Matthews made up for it on the next play. I’m not sure how well Matthews held up in the run game overall, but it’s something worth keeping an eye on. He does show the ability and tendency to keep his feet moving well while blocking from what little I’ve seen so far.

Good thing I brought up Vaccaro on an offensive thread. He’s that good.

CalHorn -
 
That first play was supposed to go off tackle. Cody ran it behind the center. Not surprised the backside would give up the tackle when they expect Cody to be elsewhere.
 
Magnus -
 
Vaccaro deserves mention on all threads.

In one four play sequence, we erased our confidence in the running game, we put our guys at a disadvantage with personnel and play calling and we were reminded of Davis’ bad historical habits of not matching formation and play with field position…

This. I’ve read all he summations and the rationalizing about first game jitters on the road and needing time to establish an identity and all that nonsense. The bottom line is, we still have a fucking moron for an offensive coordinator and we’re never going to be great on that side of the ball until we put that dipshit out to pasture. Instead, he goes on the radio after the game and says the stupid call was his fault. Yeah, no shit, Sherlock. No consequences for his incompetence and the beat goes on, year after year after year.

Scipio —

Matthews wasn’t blocking backside on that particular play — he had the playside DE. But your point about Johnson hunting the wrong hole is a key one and shows how important it is for everything to mesh if the run game is to be successful. Had Johnson run in the correct hole and Huey put a block on the LB coming to fill, Matthews getting beat to the inside would not have mattered.

I also think you make an excellent observation about the need for playcalls to fit the particular situation, the offensive personnel, and the way the defense is attacking. The 4th down sweep call on the goal line was a particular headscratcher.

So much for operating off of memory. Thanks.

Rice didn’t bring much heat on Gilbert, was there any change in separation between the backs in pass protection?

CJ is regarded as being better able to stone a pass rusher, but it will be important for CJ to be consistently effective rushing relative to Tre/Fozzy so as to not devolve into telegraphing pass when he’s in. To the extent Tre picks up his pass blocking ability, that would be a good thing.

I’m ready to pull the shirt off Traylon Shead and see what he can do. Of course, the OL is what it is, but he can’t be any worse than what we have and I’ve had enough of them.

The offensive line play was pretty sloppy – two false starts by Hix, miscommunication between Hix and Matthews, pulling lead blockers not blocking anybody, Walters pancaking a guy one play, lazily riding a DT’s hip into our running back another. Not saying that these guys are going to start manhandling people, but that’s first day bullshit that we should expect to get fixed. Also, it’s possible it was just one guy on one play, but I’m certain I did see some backside cutting.

As you said, the pass protection was good. We should hope it stays that way, because even though we can safely assume we’ll roll more things out in the running game as the season goes along, I’m not counting on it providing us with any schematic advantage outside of maybe an improved draw package. The end of the first series and second series playcalling that you have transcribed for our masochistic enjoyment is a perfect example of how we are limited at the core. Different from the sloppiness, we unfortunately can’t expect that to get fixed.

I agree with your point about our stuggles matching personnel to situation and scheme, as well, and as it relates to the running backs, our recent history of seemingly random substitution doesn’t give me much reason for optimism there. One play, Cody is run off tackle, well blocked, has only the safety outside to deal with, and he basically lowers the shoulder and gets a minimal gain. Another play, Tre blows through a hole from a few yards out with only Rice’s safety at the goal line, and Tre gets completely stoned.

Having a plan for how our ball carriers’ indivual talents could best be exploited or having an exceptional running back that could make the most out of both plays would be nice, but we don’t have either, so I’m prepared for a lot of similar incidents this year.

Above negativity aside, I don’t see any reason to start predicting 8-4. Give me Gilbert over Landry and/or Muschamp over Pelini any day. Football football football football

Brilliant Shit, Scip. You never cease to make sense.

The disturbing thing to me was that Rice rarely, if at all, showed an 8-man front even after we made it known we were handing off the rock on first and second downs. No matter what they kept two deep safeties. If we’re going to run this type of offense, we have to make the defense bring the safeties up. Otherwise it’s pointless for us to run play-action off the runs. Most times we ran play-action yesterday Gilbert had to throw to the short man in the pattern.

1st and 10. Reverse from Cody Johnson to Marquise Goodwin which goes -3. Rice had not been over pursuing at all.

We throw a screen to Cody. Why? Rice hasn’t blitzed yet. It’s just…because. 1 yard.

I couldn’t see well enough from my seat to figure out who was in the game, but I had these exact thoughts about these plays. Only thing I could think of was that they had been scripted.

I didn’t see much happen yesterday that made me think the offense will do anything other than what it always has done, which is whip good teams and struggle against good ones.

I fully expect the emphasis on the run game to end at the point when the really good teams come up.

I really appreciate your insight and analysis and just want to take the time to say “thank you”.
This is the best Horn site on the interwebs. You boys really have a gift for teaching and entertaining at the same time (and usually making me LMAO several times a day).
Again, thank you..

I thought Cody was fine. He clearly had some vision problems, but I think that could improve with experience. If you remove his goal line carries he had something like 5.5 ypc. Solid for a big back hitting the wrong holes. Take out his biggest run and he gets 4 ypc. Most of this early in the ball game. I’d like to see him keep the starting job and get more carries throughout the game.

I predict a “re-examination” of the offense after the ou game. Or, the NU game. Watching the Tech game, I think even this offense [as miserably bad as it is] can beat Tech.

Without having rewatched the tape (I was at Reliant) I noticed they waited until Fozzy came in and ran the counter twice to him. The first run he demonstrated phenomenal patience and acceleration and went for 21. The 2nd an Owl got off a block and it still went for 5 yards. The man-blocking plays look great, the zone is still shaky.

I’ll address this in a post but all the hand-wringing over the offense is rather short-sighted. For one, the game plan in game 1 is always super vanilla, for another I don’t think they would have been less vanilla if Case McCoy were forced to start for some reason. We saw maybe 10% of the passing playbook.

On the other hand, there is serious meltdown in soonerland tonight. Apparently, Stoops lost it during the game and went ballistic on the sideline—ranting and screaming and pointing. He repeatedly shrieked “this is Utah State”!! Supposedly there is video

“He repeatedly shrieked "this is Utah State"!!”

At least he gets it. He is pissed off and will try to fix it. Our collective coaches probably wrote off the game as a scrimmage because they did not “open the playbook”. Every time I hear that excuse I think Arkansas State 2007.

I am one step away from dropping my Inside Texas membership. You should read how Rice is all of the sudden the 1985 Chicago Bears despite losing 10 games last year, playing without their best defensive player and starting a freshman QB against us.

Next it will be how Wyoming has an underrated defense ads we are holing back for OU.

The when OU beats us it will be some other bull shit and nothing to do with the offense.

Just re-watched the game (gotta love DVR) and specifically watched the O-line. I did this a lot last year too because I am a football masochist. What I noticed this year that was an improvement over last year, was that we got a positive push off of the ball. Yes this was Rice, but we couldn’t do that against anybody last year.

However, the line still has way too many “was that my man?” plays and seem absolutely incapable of holding a block past 2 Mississippi. I think that is why the water is muddied. It looked like we should have made yards rushing, but really didn’t. Doesn’t matter who is carrying the ball if no one is blocked 5 yards down the field.

My kingdom for an OC with an ability to coach.

For those of you at the game, were the WR’s getting any seperation? From the broadcast it looked like every WR thrown to had a defender right on him, with the exception of the deep ball to Williams.

Does anyone know what Cody/Tre’s longest runs were? I’d love to see their ypc averages with longest runs, as well as goal-line runs removed.

I felt like we had fewer three and outs when Tre was in, which led to more successful drives. He rarely breaks big runs, but consistently helps move the chains. I feel like Cody is more likely to pick up 8-12 yards when he breaks the line, but also has more 0-3 yard runs that leave us in third and longs.

I’ll have to re-watch the game with 4 fewer pitchers to see if that’s right.

Folks, can we please remember that this is the first game of the season? These guys have to get their feet wet. It’s not like we pulled an OU and barely squeaked out a win. We put Rice away-the game was never in doubt. Obviously we have issues to fix, but name a contender who doesn’t. Alabama, Florida, Nebraska, TCU, Oklahoma, Ohio State…they’ve all got problems to deal with after Week One. So, relax and enjoy the season. We just lost McCoy-Shipley, but things don’t look too bad. And that’s nice to think about.

2nd possession – 1st play, reverse to Goodwin that went nowhere. I think this is the play Bob in Houston is referencing. The insanity of GD in a nutshell. The point of a reverse or any sort of deceptive play is to capitalize on a particular tendency shown by the defense. How is that possible on the first play of a drive early in the game? I’ve seen GD actually run a reverse on the first play of a game, though I can’t recall which. These first play reverses have never, ever worked for more than a few yards, yet they remain a staple. It’s sickening. Great write-up, as usual.

Bill,

If you remove the longest runs and goal line runs Cody had 4 ypc and Tre had about 3.5 iirc.

I refuse to accept a SEC type offense. If that is what I have to do to watch a Longhorn team with twice as much skill potential as most SEC teams, just go ahead and shoot me in the right ankle right now. Please.

Horncasting, there wasn’t a ton of separation. They played off our receivers and stayed in nickel 2-deep. It would have been a really impressive day by their secondary if they were actually being challenged by variety but we didn’t really challenge them much.

Gilbert threw some impressive balls, I’m a fan of his Nomar Garciaparra impression rolling right and leading his guy to the sideline.

I think what you missed here in your disdain for the play calling is that this is typical Greg Davis. He is a macro play caller. We all operate on the micro, or as I like to call it…..normal football competitive reality.

I’ve spoken with him about this and he has indeed confirmed that he calls plays in the first few series with little to no intent on scoring. His goal is to see what the defense is giving and then exploit it fully later. Hence, why Texas is a second half team and also why Mack takes the ball after halftime……everytime.

They both know this isn’t popular, but it produces. So instead of doing the 3 play ass stomp out of the gate, he’d rather probe weaknesses early in the game when you can make up for mistakes, instead of gambling away series later in the game. (Though he doesn’t seem to mind doing that if our back is against the wall).

It’s just his style, one that I hate personally, but the guy is doing something right to produce a Heisman winner, two other Heisman finalists, the winningest QB in NCAA history, and take us to two MNC’s. Not to mention keeping Mack Brown the winningest active coach over the last 10 years.

But, with that said, I still think I could call a better opening series.

I’m just not sold on the O-Line yet.

Davis’ style of scripting early plays is not only a personal style but a page right out of the West Coast offense manifesto, which he probably he can probably recite like a pharisee recalling the Torah.

Jesus says the offense wasn’t made for the gameplan though but the gameplan for the offense.

You can actually see Muschamp practicing this a bit as well though. The only time Texas showed much on defense was when Rice got into the red zone on series one. He called a few zone-blitzes and that was the end of that. Those are going to be devastating this year, btw. Rex Ryan himself has (comparatively) weaker resources for zone-blitzing than Texas this year.

Shoulda saved that Jesus line for a post, no one will even read that comment.

Nickel
I read it, your hypothesis confirmed.

Good post, Scipio. I have tempered expectations as well, but the coaches did a good job of protecting Gilbert, and he is essential to maintaining the 10-win streak, which should give us a decent shot at getting to the Big XII Championship game.

Hook ’em!

Thanks for the excellent write up, Scip (expected nothing less, of course). While we certainly weren’t impressive on the whole, I find it absurd that the idiot media keeps lumping us in with OU, Florida, and USC as the power teams that “really struggled” this weekend. We didn’t give up 588 yards of offense (USC), we didn’t have 26 yards of total offense deep in the third Q (Fla), and we didn’t need an interception late in the 4th Q to stave off a game-tying drive by Utah Freaking State (OU). Geez.

The “we’re an SEC team get used to it” stuff is silly. We don’t have the personnel to be a typical slashing, power run game SEC team. We have the alleged #1 HS qb with great arm and deep ball touch and lots of speed. Adapt accordingly.

Thanks for the great analysis.

It’s that Greg Davis time of year again.

“Does anyone know what Cody/Tre’s longest runs were? I’d love to see their ypc averages with longest runs, as well as goal-line runs removed.”

Simple Excel -

Player….Overall YPC….YPC Sans Goal Line….YPC Long Run Removed
Cody Johnson… 4.0………. 5.7……………… 2.9
Tre Newton… 3.4………. 4.0……………… 2.9
Fozzy Whitt… 5.8………. 5.8……………… 3.9

triple -

 Protection wasn’t really an issue in this game. Rice didn’t blitz.
 
Blueshorn -
 
I don’t think adding another mediocre back to the RB mix helps our cause.
 
Veritas -
 
Thanks.
 
fromage -
 
Correct. I’m already reading references on other sites to “8 man fronts” and it makes me laugh. I think I’ve learned that 80% of fans don’t know how to count the number of defenders in the box.
 
bduran -
 
You and I saw the same game. Don’t worry – there will be a new RB goat every week. Just like last year.
 
Saltshaker -
 
Setting up a D is a great idea, but the instances I cite had nothing to do with that. Because there are no counters built into our O for them.
 
When you get down on the goal line, you have no other objective but to score. When you line up in a standard set against a goalline defense and pull a guard, you’re being an ignorant, unsound asshole. No two ways around it.
 
As for the screen and reverse Playstation calls, you don’t call those plays blindly. They’re reactions to defensive overplay. You don’t just pull them out of your ass against Cover 2 and think that you’re giving anyone “a look” that you can return to later. You just make the DC chuckle and shake his head and thank you for three and out.
 
Gilberto Verde -
 
I agree. We were in complete control of the game. OU had real peril.
 
the Clapper -
 
Being a SEC team is about a mindset, and there are ways to be a conservative offensive team while still being very effective. I just want us to run a real offense with plays that are interrelated and attack tendency. Not just some random grab bag of bullshit.
 
texasengr -
 
I think those numbers are very telling.

Apologies if this has been covered here before, but why do we ask our backside tackle to hook a defensive tackle who is lined up well to the play side of said tackle? Check that: why is the success of our zone play dependent upon that block being made, especially when the defensive tackle is likely to be a better athlete than our oafish tackles? I don’t understand why you wouldn’t instead block down with the backside guard and then pull the tackle into the hole. What are you sacrificing in that scenario?

I am one step away from dropping my Inside Texas membership. You should read how Rice is all of the sudden the 1985 Chicago Bears despite losing 10 games last year, playing without their best defensive player and starting a freshman QB against us.

Next it will be how Wyoming has an underrated defense ads we are holing back for OU.

The when OU beats us it will be some other bull shit and nothing to do with the offense.

Newy, I’ve been trying to give 24/7 a chance. Burton graded the offense and gave them a “B!” Now the apologists are out shouting down any post that criticizes the offense. Same shit, different board. I’m just going to save my money and read BC. The pay sites that depend on access to the program will not tell it like it is or allow meaningful and informed criticism.

Oh, and I predict the excuse for Wyoming will be their inspired play because of their fallen comrades. They’ll be a juggernaut and it will be a miracle if we can survive the surge.

Did we appear slow on offense…..watching other schools we appeared to only have speed with Goodwin

CS:
“Why do we ask our backside tackle to hook a defensive tackle who is lined up well to the play side of said tackle? Check that: why is the success of our zone play dependent upon that block being made, especially when the defensive tackle is likely to be a better athlete than our oafish tackles? I don’t understand why you wouldn’t instead block down with the backside guard and then pull the tackle into the hole. What are you sacrificing in that scenario?”

If you pull the tackle instead of the guard, the tackle has farther to go than the guard. Typically guards are also faster than OTs so the net effect is to slow down the play quite a bit. The coaches are thinking that if the DT is slowed just a little bit with a cut block from the OT, the DT won’t have enough time to get to the point of attack. The horns don’t cut block in practice for safety reasons so they’re a bit rusty on cut blocking. They should improve their cut blocking rapidly.

The OT has one big advantage over the DT he has to cut block, he can dive for the DT’s legs at the snap while the DT has to wait for the actual handoff to occur (i.e. the handoff might always turn out to be a fake) before he can pursue.

After seeing Boise tonight, I’m totally envious of their offensive scheme and playcalling. Not least of which, they have tight ends – and actually use them. As well as Moore plays and executes, it’s not like he’s out there pulling third and fourth down conversions out of his ass the way Colt and Vince had to. Oh well.

Kafka: You can put the tight end in motion to lead into the hole. And to your last point, that would require an offensive coordinator who employs a fastball and an off-speed pitch. Our guy is more like Ricky Vaughn.

CS:
“You can put the tight end in motion to lead into the hole.”

I guess you mean the H back rather than the TE, right? In any event, your question was why not pull the tackle rather than the guard so that was the question I answered. For some reason, Mack was not putting the H back in motion vs Rice (I guess to thwart Tech video study of the UT O).

“And to your last point, that would require an offensive coordinator who employs a fastball and an off-speed pitch. Our guy is more like Ricky Vaughn.”

You may be right but I don’t understand how your response relates to my last point.

I’d really rather see Fozzy or even McGee at this point over Tre. The kid probably has the least ceiling of all three, he’s too weak and has very little shake at all. If Fozzy’s healthy why not let him have a chance? Does anyone remember Jamaal’s early struggles staying in games after getting banged up, and that vanishing once he saw the NFL knocking on his door?

I also agree with the sentiment that McGee might have some more life in him with this new scheme, he’s got good power and some explosiveness, but he was victimized by being “the guy” last year when being “the guy” at RB meant certain doom. Tre probably gained his quasi-celebrity by always coming in at the end of games last year, the only time when we could ever run on anybody. McGee definitely looks the most like a pro back out of the three.

Kafka:

You said that the defensive tackle has to wait until he determines there will be no fake (i.e. off-speed pitch). We don’t throw off-speed pitches. Several defensive players over the years have stated that they know exactly what is coming. We don’t make defenders pay for crashing down and stuffing the run.

“What is concerning is that we still aren’t pairing personnel and game management with what we do best.”

The games vs Rice and Wyoming are just glorified scrimmages. Obviously Mack is going to keep the O as vanilla as possible before the Tech game to make it tougher for Tech to prepare. We’re not going to see much schematically before then (wouldn’t be prudent). Besides not showing Tech what we do best, Mack’s personnel and game management decisions vs Rice and Wyoming are mainly focused on not turning the ball over, winning the game without getting anybody hurt and practicing stuff like cut blocks, special teams contact, etc that he does not want to do in team practices for safety reasons.

It is irritating to see UT run a sweep vs a 9 man front but what can GD do about it? GD doesn’t know what the D front is going to be when he calls the play. It is up to the QB to audible out of bad play calls. When you have a rookie QB, it is normal that there can be problems with getting out of bad play calls (especially in the rookie QB’s first start).

“I would have preferred a legitimate wide open attack of whatever Rice was doing and if that meant Gilbert has to learn a lesson about throwing over the middle late, I’d prefer that lesson be learned in Reliant rather than in Lubbock.”

I would prefer that lesson be learned on the practice field in Austin. It was smart to not go with a wide open attack vs Rice (i.e. show as little as possible). Gilbert can make his mistakes/learning experiences vs. Muschamp’s D (far, far superior to the Rice D) in practice.

CS:
“You said that the defensive tackle has to wait until he determines there will be no fake (i.e. off-speed pitch). We don’t throw off-speed pitches. Several defensive players over the years have stated that they know exactly what is coming. We don’t make defenders pay for crashing down and stuffing the run.”

Thanks for explaining your point (nice analogy). You make a good point that is mostly true.

Having said that, this season the horns are focusing on play action passing and getting WRs (eg: Goodwin) involved in the run game via sweeps. This means the DT has to see that ball go to the TB or he is going the wrong way if the QB fakes the handoff and instead passes or rolls out or hands off to a WR sweeping the other way. The DT has to command his territory until he knows where the play is going. Roughly, this takes most of a second.

The OT who is cut blocking the DT knows where the play is going and can start his cut block with zero delay. Cut blocks work but are tough to practice because coaches want to avoid injuries in practice. The OL’s ability to cut block should improve as the season progresses.

The problem with cut blocks is not that they are ineffective but that they cause so many injuries.

Glad someone else has caught on to UT’s transformation into an SEC-style team. When the Longhorns picked WV’s brain to run the spread several years ago, Texas needed an offense that could keep pace with the defense’s incompetence. Now that Texas has a world-beating defense, a conservative SEC-style offense becomes possible.

As for the strange play calling, I get the impression that Texas’ coaches looked at Rice as a sort of NFL preseason game. They wanted film on a set of plays against actual competition (OK, stop laughing), and didn’t care about down and distance very much.

Gilbert found his limits, Coach Boom found his linebackers, and we found out our kick coverage is still not very good. Meh. Texas’ openers are usually a good indicator for future success, and I would have said that this game indicates a two or three loss season. Then I read about OU’s saturday effort and relaxed a bit.

trkhorn:

You’ll love this article on Boise State’s no-identity offense. Basically, they just run where you’re not and/or motion to get you out of position.

Kafka -
 
My point is much larger. The drives I picked out were very specific and for a reason. I’m talking about situational recognition. There is nothing more vanilla than a goal line offense. Or proper personnel on a short yardage conversion. Or calling a screen or reverse
 
It has to do with a larger picture and something we’ve seen from Davis in games we’re actively trying to win. I can cite literally two dozen other circumstances: whether in trying to run the ball out of our end zone reach blocking in the I against a eight man front, or not putting in a Jumbo package for a short yardage conversion and playing short-handed against a stacked front, or calling a screen simply because it’s time to call a screen, even if has no bearing how the defense is playing.
 
I’m smiling at the notion that you’d recommend Gilbert audible out of a called toss sweep when we already know Rice is in Goalline D. This was no surprise to us. Dude, it’s right there. We know how they’re lining up. Teams sort of tend to go into their goal line D on 4th and 1 in front of their goal. Gilbert’s not changing a play that Davis is calling with full awareness of what Rice is doing. Are you suggesting there was some doubt that Rice was going to, I don’t know, maybe put in a prevent?
 
If you think we’re “saving our goal line” offense, I’m not sure what we can discuss. What we do in our Jumbo package has been the same play for eight years. It’s about giving your personnel the chance to win. You don’t line up in a pro set offense and try to jam it in against a goal line D unless you have a legitimate play action threat. If you want to run the ball and be stubborn – great. Put in the proper personnel. It’s simple.
 
As for an open attack, that has nothing to do with complexity or showing our cards. I don’t want to burn special plays. It means just playing offense like it’s a proper game. Bust Mike Davis’ cherry. Get Darius White a catch. Involve Matthews. Throw over the middle. Mix the run and pass as if it’s a real game so Gilbert can get prepared for what he’ll see in Lubbock. We will do all of these things eventually, I’d just prefer Gilbert do them early rather than do them for the first time in hostile territory against real football teams.

I thought I could hear Scipio grinding his molars in apoplexy when they trotted out the 4th-placed little league team for an undeserved round of applause. Shouldn’t they still be in the Shaming Circle?

really good assessments..i expect chemistry to get better as the season goes on..hopefully they will have this out of their system soon. On the other hand, Cody Johnson needs to lose about 20 pounds…didn’t take long for him to run out of breath. He looked too slow going out of the backfield. I thought Foswhitt looked well at least for hitting the hole.

As my son and I sat watching the TCU game and then Boise I thought out loud how nice it must be to have an offense where all the pieces recruited actually fit into what you are trying to do in you scheme.

I’m ready to pull the shirt off of Malcolm Brown.

On an completely unrelated note, will there ever be life after Greg Davis?