Filling in the gaps

I had the some thought watching the SB, thought if Colt stayed healthy it could have turned out the same for longhorns against AL. If they could have made McElroy beat them he would have totally melted down, I think he only completed something like 6 passes anyhow.

Hopefully Mack doesnt relive that as well but I bet he had the same thought.

Speaking of gaps… is Chambers leaving, or not???

“I can’t help but think that his schemes are going to make Blake Gideon and Christian Scott look even worse than in 2010.”

Dear God in heaven.

Congrats on the impending marriage ‘n’ move to Big-D. Sounds like yer in the cardiac field. If that’s the case, my wife can make introductions to the right people at the Health Science Center in FW. As we all know, most days of the week, Fort Worth is better’n Dallas.

"You have to work just as much on a short pass as you do a long one, so why not spend that time on the long one and have a chance to score with it?"

This reminds me of my foaming tirade at the State Fair last fall, when the short pass enthusiast responded to 0u’s three-hour and fifteen minute opening drive by calling three consecutive short passes, all completions, leaving our young QB with a 100% completion mark for an average of one yard per pass, and putting the D right back on the field to try to figure out how to stop the no-huddle-no-look stuff being thrown at them. I opined that I’d rather see him 1 for 3 for twenty yards. I thought then and still do, with our supply of speed-burners on O, we should run relays of fly patterns at opponents and get them into their backup DBs as the starters are gassed. Hell, Harsin sounds like he might even wanna throw to the flyers, if not to a crossing TE or circling back.

Dont want to derail your thread but til the day I die I will insist that Greg Davis was a bottom quartile offensive mind.

HarsinWhite is top decile easily. You probably wont see all of that until 2012 earliest but by then some people in the Big XII are gonna get hurt. This will be the best thing to ever happen to Garrett Gilbert too.

over under on how long it takes everyone on this threat to start cursing Harsin/Applewhite next season.

I give it 3 games max.

Ha ha, Roach, you won’t get that from me. I know it takes at least four games to install a new scheme and get it purrrrfected.

Care to give an example of functional strength training?

Functional Strength training = Snatch; Clean

Bighornsfan32.

Functional strength training is using large muscle groups over a large range of motion. For football I would say it places an emphasis on explosive power, which is why I cited snatch an clean above, as opposed to a more static lift.

A classic example of non-functional strength training is a biceps curl i.e. an isolated muscle group moving through a short range of motion.

Glad to see another NR post.

You have to work just as much on a short [one] as you do a long one, so why not spend that time on the long one and have a chance to score with it?

That’s what she said?

I can’t help but think that his schemes are going to make Blake Gideon and Christian Scott look even worse than in 2010. Of course, once we rebuild that position with rangy athletes such as we’re bringing in we’ll be in pretty good shape.

Helloooo, Adrian Phillips.

He’s basically over-qualifed for this job.

Gray’s basically breaking in green corners, so it’s nice that he is. If he can do anything nice with Scott and Gideon, that would truly be a plus. It would really be nice to see a Diggs or Evans come in and start, umm, Blake Gideon-style.

I’m expecting major improvement at this position over the next 2 years whereas I would have been nervous about whom we had entrusted our 2010 WR recruiting haul.

Mike Davis and Darius White must be giddy at this prospect. I would love to see Wyatt put his foot down on Malcolm Williams if those hands don’t improve.

Re: "I heard Bryan Harsin say the other day to one of the coaches, "You have to work just as much on a short pass as you do a long one, so why not spend that time on the long one and have a chance to score with it?" "

It definitely moved. In fact, it stiffened.

I’m guessing that Harsin & Wyatt help Mal Williams get drafted in the NFL. He was an undrafted free agent with GD and Kennedy.

Mal seems to excel when he is moving deep and doesn’t have to think about the catch.

“Mal seems to excel when he is moving deep and doesn’t have to think about the catch.”

Exactly. He’ll impress you with an athletic grab, then drop the routine one. Hitch routes are not what I would use him for. Keep his feet moving.

Actually watched a local news sports report the other night – I heard three or four OL mentions as being held out of spring practice. Any confirmation on that? Doesn’t help our already inexperienced line.

Dear Collecitve Wisdom of BC,

Aggie here @ the office is telling me SEC is telling ESPN that if they cannot add a&m and get more $$$ from ESPN, FOX is ready to jump in & grab the SEC and pay it more, especially by adding Texas TV markets.

I call BS. But all the arguments ESPN will not pay the SEC more if it adds a&m really could be affected by FOX if FOX decided it wanted to go after the SEC + a&m.

Thoughts?

Andrewfrom UTLaw

I’m not an expert, but I think ESPN still has about 13 or 14 years left on its contract with the SEC. So I don’t really see how the SEC is in a position to negotiate with Fox regardless of weather A&M is involved or not.

roach:

Let’s say Mike Slive goes crazy and decides to offer A&M. Now you’ve got a material change in circumstances that could possibly authorize a renegotiation of the aforementioned contract, if not an outright breach by the SEC if ESPN didn’t play ball. ESPN contracted for the SEC as is. Not the SEC with direct access to the highly lucrative Texas market.

So …..Aggie thinks that Fox will shell-out the $$ to buyout ESPN’s contract and then offer even more $$ for a new contract.

All the SEC schools & Fox would agree to do all of that just to get Aggie in their conference?

I haven’t lived in Texas for over 11 years, so I often forget what it’s like to live near a socio-collaborative subculture of stupid.

If the Aggie had mentioned Comcast/NBC-Universal I would believe the SEC to expand rumor a whole lot more.

“Bighornsfan32.

Functional strength training is using large muscle groups over a large range of motion. For football I would say it places an emphasis on explosive power, which is why I cited snatch an clean above, as opposed to a more static lift.

A classic example of non-functional strength training is a biceps curl i.e. an isolated muscle group moving through a short range of motion."

yeah thats what I thought and I can guarantee both Wylie and Maddog use cleans and other compound movements. People throw around the functional line way too much without giving thought to what it means. The most functional movement you can do as a football player is playing football. You train the movement, you get good at the movement.

What made Maddog a poor SC coach and Bennie a good one is just the accountability and consistency to work hard, not so much the actual program. I’ve heard too many stories of players loafing through workouts or just getting signed in when no one was watching. Get rid of that, change nothing else, and massive improvement will follow. Not doing “functional core training” on a BOSU ball like some soccer mom at the 24.

By the way, everyone keeps saying the SEC will be able to tap in to the Texas market.

Is this fact?

Does A&M really get the SEC that many more viewers and a foothold in Texas?

On the surface Aggies’ reach isn’t really all that they think, as seen with the lack of televised games and an almost always half empty stadium.

Sure it would help, if nothing else, an ABC regional broadcast of LSU vs. Arkansas would probably be shown in the Texas markets, rather than a Big 10 or Pac 10 matchup.

“Good job Kennedy, you successfully taught a wizard to dominate within 6 years of teaching and got the most out of a particularly mature 26 year old professional in co-op clothing.” Hadn’t considered that fact before, but perhaps more damning evidence then the Phillip Payne, Fitzhenry recruiting/coaching busts.

And for Bo…. A lot of Bo Davis’ value comes in his recruiting as well. He knows Houston, and will be able to jump in immediately. He already has in fact. If we can hold this coaching staff together for even two years we’re talking natty championship for the 2012 and 2013 based on recruiting alone.

Just skimmed the thread quickly, but I’d like to read more about this functionally clean snatch someone mentioned earlier.

(not intentionally singling out Payne or Fitzhenry, but meaning to point out all the lazy evals and coaching busts we’ve had a WR.)

It would also mean 6 current SEC teams playing games in the state of Texas each year. That’s a pretty easy drive for any recruit from East Texas, Houston, the Metroplex or Centex who might want to check out that team in person.

There is a reason that SEC teams (and Notre Dame) are already scheduling games here.

Pretty sure nordberg just wants a functional snatch. Cleanliness is negotiable.

Dude, are you an EP fellow?

Don’t you just love it when Ags act smug? You know they are in the process of trying to get away with something. Unfortunately, ‘the something’ is always profoundly foolish.

It’s difficult to be the big brother/older cousin to those who never mature. Bless their little hearts, and please give us the patience.

Just a bottom of the barrel monitor tech. oldtimehorn you have an account here?

JC25: I like Vaccaro alright in coverage and Phillips looks hopeful. Scott is fine if he’s paired with someone who can cover the slot but it always sounds like Blake Gideon is a mortal lock to start whenever you hear Mack speak so….guess we’re hoping for Scott to be replaced.

Yes, but can’t log in cuz the retrieve lost password function don’t work. I assume you can access my email address. If not, send me msg here.

Nickel,

While I agree overall with the thrust of your point (Gray and Applewhite being the best hire, Searels and Diaz the most iffy), I don’t agree on the Harsin hire. Frankly, it’s a lot more risky than Texas fans let on. Let’s start with that quote you threw out there. It’s got a very obvious darkside, and I’m surprised you blew past it.

“I heard Bryan Harsin say the other day to one of the coaches, "You have to work just as much on a short pass as you do a long one, so why not spend that time on the long one and have a chance to score with it?"”

Three reasons, Bryan.
1) Your offensive line has to buy time for the QB to throw.
2) Your QB has to be able to actually put the ball on target.
3) Your WR has to be able to get separation from the DB.
4) Your WR has to actually catch the ball.

Take a look at OU’s offense. People honestly think Landry Jones is a Heisman candidate next year. Seriously. We make a KILLING off of the screen plays and short routes. They’re extremely low-risk, and with good a-fo-letes they’ve got the potential to go for big yards every time. You simply have to coach your receivers to put more than a modicum of effort into blocking.

Or four reasons. Whatever, the baby is screaming at me.

All those things are part of spending that time on the long one.

Nate,

1. Our crappy OL last year generally did a decent job in pass protection. Harsin also seems to employ a lot of extra protection in his schemes…he is used to producing points with a lower talent OL.

2. Should Gilbert retain his job, he is probably more accurate downfield than he is on short passes. This sort of offense will hopefully play to one of his strengths.

3. We have plenty of fast guys, but we also have precise guys who can create separation with their technique. I am not worried about our guys being able to create some space on a regular basis…the concern might be more if we have a QB who is capable of making the reads.

4. Our receivers showed a tendency to dropping the ball while standing still. Our offense was all stop and go and too often our receivers looked like they wanted to go before they had the ball. Our current crop of receivers will likely excel when not asked to over think but to just beat their guy and catch the ball. Hopefully they will also learn to block or else take a spot on the bench…not all the plays are going down field.

I actually think the Harsin offense will work very well at correcting a lot of our problems without asking a lot of guys to over think what they are doing. The only issue I see is that we don’t have a proven QB when it comes to decision making.

Your offense is low-risk but it also can get shut down when the other team also has ‘afoletes’. With any semblance of offensive creativity you also lose to us and to Nebraska last year. I am sure Heupel will be fine as a playcaller, but, while he will have the advantage of running pretty much the same scheme as was being run last year, he has only called a few games so you have no guarantees either.

The baby has gotten to you, Nate. Think about it…

1) Your offensive line has to buy time for the QB to throw.
2) Your QB has to be able to actually put the ball on target.
3) Your WR has to be able to get separation from the DB.
4) Your WR has to actually catch the ball.

All four of these fall in the realm of "if your team can’t do this, you’ve got fundamental problems. Also, recall that those three yard throws in the flat fly just as far and require identical accuracy to a fifteen or even twenty yarder over the middle.

It is nice to think about throwing downfield, but a good short game is important too. It’s just that we had a horrible system of it. Our guys caught the ball flat footed instead of in motion. Even if you are running parallel to the line of scrimmage, you need to be in motion when you catch the ball. That’s how OU makes its money, and why ours was retarded.

We were able to cover it up for a while because Roy Williams or Sweed would be able to outmuscle some 5’10" 170lb db when they came up for the tackle. Replace those dudes with just dudes, and they were sitting ducks.

Nate:

We spend way too much time parsing coaches comments.

The main risk with Harsin, is really only how much of the Boise Offense he was responsible for. Clearly as the Sooners should be intimately aware, Boise’s offense is very successful. It’s not a run and gun offense, it’s not a gimmick, they use tight ends, and full backs as blocking surfaces i.e additional protection. Combine that with an improved running game, I think it will put much less pressure on our line than in the past. The focus on down field passing will also help to pull safeties away from the box to help open up the running game. If your worried about getting beat deep and showing up on sports center looking stupid, you’re probably not going to line up 7 yards from the line. Personally, I think the Boise offense is a great (from Texas’s perspective) answer to the Stoops defense. Davis’ offense, played to OU’s strengths in a lot of ways.

2 commemts; Saw Diggs in 2009 when Angleton and Brenham met in the play-offs. Angleton would run 10/11 guys on the line of scrimmage in the first half. Still Brenham could not get anyone deep on Angleton. After building a 28-7 lead Angleton went back to a more basic defense and ended up losing the game in the final seconds. When i first saw Angleton line up in their 10/11 man front I thought that was the stupidest thing I had ever seen a team do. No one back even 5 yds in the middle, yet Brenham could not get anyone open except in the flat. A great testament to the speed of Diggs and a few other Angleton guys that could really run.

Point 2; 2010 MNC game between Texas/Alabama. 3 minutes 2 seconds left in the game, Texas has the ball, a first down and about 76 yds to go. They trail 24-21. 56 minutes and 58 seconds into this game in which Texas lost its playmaker, leader, heart and soul on their 5th offensive play of the game, a game in which Alabama intercepted a shovel pass for a give me TD and break a 49 yd run on a busted defensive coverage. Yet with 3 minutes left to play Texas had a good shot at winning this game. If everything in this game had transpired exactly as it did after McCoy went down, what do you think the chances would have been if McCoy was still in the game with 3 minutes left? If you were an Alabama fan would you have been pooping your pants? I have never been able to get an Alabama fan to answer that question. They are still scared shiftless what the outcome would have been; 1st-if McCoy had of played the whole game, and 2nd-forget the 40+ points McCoy would have put on the board and assume everything else played out exactly the same, what if it had been McCoy at QB with 3 minutes left, down 3 points and 76 yds for a TD or 40 yds for a FG.

Comment on Harsin and Boise State. Harsin now has 4 star players, but he is also having to prepare for 4 star players. Realistically, BSU didn’t play against too many 4 star kids over the years. In fact BSU with its 2 and 3 star kids was superior to the 1 and zero stars they were preparing for. Not so sure the BSU offensive scheme works all that well week after week against teams like OU, OSU, TT, and A&M. yeah I know, BSU beat OU and they beat Va Tech, but they also had months to prepare for them. A little difference facing OU and having 5 days vs 40 to prepare.

Be interesting to see how quickly Harsin adjust to the higher level of competition. I think he will be good, but look for some growing pains.

Be interesting to see how quickly Harsin adjust to the higher level of competition. I think he will be good, but look for some growing pains.

Fortunately for us, Harsin won’t be on his own – he is surrounded by co-‘s and assistants from XII, SEC, and NFL… I’m thinking it’ll work out just swell, I foresee growing pains more in execution than in preparation.

Apparently, the chinks won – we do live in interesting times.

RE: Harsin having to step up his game, I guarantee you that preparing for Texas’ offense from this point forward is going to be much more difficult than it has been, especially if you are OU.

Just the mention of that name apparently made GD piss his pants and curl up into the fetal position.

I dont think we take you out next year, but after that I dont think Texas continues to come into that game with one arm tied behind its back.