Texas Coordinators Talk Midway Through Fall Camp

i feel like i’ve fallen into a vat of chocolate.

i really like Diaz’s outside-of-the-box thinking/scheming. He reminds me of a defensive version of Mike Leach…w/betta mental stability + good social skizzles & manners.

I can’t get over the visual of players dropping from helicopters and popping out of holes in the ground. Good googley goo!!!

So, so enthused. We poke fun at Mack, but it’s a great sign that he’s got these guys running the show as they are. I’ve always said he’s at his best when the going gets tough (terrible front-runner). I think we’re seeing that not only with the hires he made, but how they’re running things as we had to hope they would. Very, very encouraging.

Love the coaches from our generation. They don’t seem to believe in the mystacism of the profession like the old guard, favoring a more scientific and methodical approach. We needed some more process.

absolutely agree, pb. i came back to say exactly that. i don’t see one word or even implication that the decisions on personnel are going to have to be okayed by anybody upstairs.

beautiful music to these ears. i’m as happy as a pig in new slop.

we need some more process and you need a better handle.

The game of college football has been in constant evolution and it is good to see the freshness that the new coordinators are bringing to the team. Their perspective of the game is progressive and out of the box. I really love how Diaz approaches defense as a means of offense. And on the other side of the ball, who would of actually thought that the players we drooled over in high school would end up seeing the field in specific scenarios that could be TAILORED to their strengths? It seems simple but GD could never figure it out. He expected players to meet all the standard requirements of a position rather than take advantages of their strengths. I know the verdict is still out on this team but I love the way the coord’s are putting their everything into the program and trying to keep us out in front in the world of college football.

Rivals has a nice, long article on the coordinators’ presser that has a few quotes that weren’t in the MBTF transcript. Pretty thorough.

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/news?slug=rivals-1254617

You have to be excited about coaches who think outside the box when approaching problems.

The obvious question for Diaz is that if you are going to blitz to create pressure, how susceptable are you to a big play b/c your secondary is obviously your weakness.

If certain offensive players equal certain packages, 3-4 games in the opposing DC is gonna know what to look for when Monroe steps on the field.

Scipio—your pre-season restlessness (I’m guessing) is our gain as it has produced several terrific posts these past few days. Thanks for taking the time to share these thoughts with us. Great way to pass the time as these last days before the season drag by.

The big picture problem for our program leading up to last season was that we got OLD as a coaching staff. They expressed themselves in cliches partly out of habit but partly out of honesty. They thought in cliches—depth charts, the platonic ideal of positions, the assumption that “talent” would overcome poor schemes and lazy game-plans. They were bailed out by that talent (particularly at QB, WR and at key positions on defense) until last season. Got the feeling that was as much by luck and accident as by design.

It is a treat to hear the fresh thinking of our badly needed new coordinators. The others above nailed the difference: process and its specific components. Can’t wait to see them plug the disparate abilities of their players into targeted game plans for each opponent.

Absolutely right that this approach effectively enlarges our roster. The clearly talented players languishing unused on our bench in years past drove me nuts—DJ Monroe was last season’s most glaring example.

Wait … what. I blacked out in the middle of Diaz’s quotes with a bloody nose and came to in the comments section.

This is awesome. Am I the only one to notice that Major Applewhite basically distilled his entire career in a paragraph whilst describing his ideal player? What made him a winning QB and how he was prepared to pull off miracle comebacks was his willingness to study tape longer and produce to, and above, his potential.

He did it regardless of his position on the depth chart. VY and Colt are Longhorn gods, but Major will forever occupy a special place in my fan heart and I’m f—-ing glad he’s on staff. The guy is a natural leader, winner and coach and will eventually have his own program. Perhaps UT.

Scip,

I read last night before bed and went to sleep happy. The big question is whether this massive shift in philosophy is able to turn into practice on offense. As you and I have talked about, my litmus test is on what we do when we are up big in a game. Boise State put in backups but they continued to run their offense… not hand off for 15 dive plays in a row. Will we put our players development as the first priority and use every game snap available to us or will we continue to squander those opportunities to placate some vague sense of honor toward the opposing team that I actually find insulting?

miketag,

I originally thought the same thing about personnel tendencies with Boise State. The problem is that the opponents had never seen the whole package of plays and Boise State continued to find big plays with specialized personnel all year long sometimes precisely because the defense thought it knew what to look for. That’s the beauty of actually understanding constraint in every package you install. Both Virginia Tech and Utah were about as prepared as you can be for this offense and they still got got. Assuming you could know every play in the specialty packages, would you want to use your practice time to prepare for them all or focussing on shutting down the base packages? Would you divide up your defensive personnel and have them specialize as Harsin does his offensive personnel?

It is still true that the more things a good player can do, the more dangerous they become because it gets them into the base and gets them more touches and makes the base offense more diverse. But it’s not true that knowing personnel tendency = shutting down this offense.

Major is a baby-faced killer and a borderline masochist. I love that line. He must be thinking he’s died and gone to heaven after what he went through last year on the old staff.

I would have to think that the special packages for Monroe or whoever, would be added to or altered every week so that defensive coordinators really can’t get a handle on the package.

While I was initially very cautious about Diaz’s aggressive defense I’ve become very happy to realize that both coaches are on the cutting edge in terms of schematic and strategic developments.

Utilizing the TE position in motion all the time to create numbers in the run or pass game is basically what took New England to 14-2 last year and Diaz’s attempts to make things very simple for his defense while taking away all the things that make an offense thrive.

So long as Diaz knows that in the Big 12, teams actually will try to score on dink and dunk passing attacks in lieu of a traditional running game we should be more advanced in terms of what we are doing than much of the rest of the league.

Where are my 15 scripted plays damnit!

Ready for 9/3. Tidal wave sea change, imo.

In other good news, we secured a killer tailgating spot and the Cosm is joining forces when available. Yes, you can meet Jesus Shuttlesworth at a tailgate and witness an I AM SPARTACUS reenactment.

Tipsy Gypsie, on the other hand, will be easy to spot.

mike_ag takes a somewhat basackward approach to thinking as learned in fish camp during his 18th year.

Please. Diaz will be utilizing blitz packages as and when warranted. It is not an incessant part of the scheme but more like a stiletto wielded by a surgeon. Coaches that simplify their grasp of the defense will be backed up all day.

Unlike his predecessor, package players may or may not be a key. Again, there is a lot of diversion happening. So much that it will blow your mind.

Harsin doesn’t define [ players ] in terms of position so much as Stuff They’re Good At.

Roles, not positions.

If certain offensive players equal certain packages, 3-4 games in the opposing DC is gonna know what to look for when Monroe steps on the field.

Not. Go back and look at what Harsin has said about learning how the D is going to respond to certain personnel, formations and motion before the snap and motion after the snap, and more than merely learning, also conditioning the D to expect certain action from those plays… which does not happen this time. Monroe comes jetting across, the OL moves that way, the QB turns and pitches it to Monroe, just like he did against BYU and UCLA… or, no, wait, he doesn’t, he bootlegs it to the backside and lofts a pass to a streaking Miles Onyegbule, who faked a block on the CB and ran right by him and is now three yards behind him, wide open. So much for your tendencies…

Miketag-
I hope opposing DCs believe they know exactly what’s coming when they see DJ Monroe or whoever take the field. We ran the same offense for 13 years straight and did all right. I think Harsin will be effective.

Tradition and cliche had long since ossified into dogma for a lot of the Texas staff – the influx of fresh thinking and modern, coherent systems and approaches are fantastic. I can’t imagine how energized and invigorated the players are to know that they will be put in position to succeed and rewarded for effort and doing the things they do well.

Re: DJ Monroe and other mysterious depth chart casualties – when you’re a creative offensive strategist and play-caller, you have the FREEDOM to understand where to best plug a very specialized player into some elements of your offense as well as to create new plays that both fit within that offense and set that player up to maximize his strengths. When you are an aging play thief, you have no way to scheme around a player’s weaknesses on a consistent basis. If you’re an aging play thief who calls plays without caring about which personnel are actually in the game…you can end up without a single job offer despite a fresh Broyle Award perched on the mantel next to the Animal Crackers. The Heisman folks should’t be half as embarrassed that Reggie Bush has one of theirs as the Broyles folks should be that GD has one of theirs.

How do you really feel about GD, nobis?

My big questions is how the heck we won the MNC with the buffoons we had as coaches.

Very talented players and very special QB.

My big questions is how the heck we won the MNC with the buffoons we had as coaches.
Standard Mack strategery – you win in February and everything else takes care of itself. Some thymes.

From here on, I shall be known as nordbergeron.

To echo others thoughts, I’m still trying to get over the fact that we have an OC that will assess strengths and weaknesses of players and play to the strengths. No more mix of 250 lb (or 270 lb) RBs with the same job description and plays as the ones for the 200 to 180 lb backs. I’m as excited as I was in ’98.

LonghornScott -

To echo your thought on running plays with the scrubs, I’ll harken back to the days of Spurrier’s Gators. Love him or hate him (I love him) he kept running his offense until the final gun. He wanted the walk ons and 3rd stringers scoring. Asked why he did that, his response was along the lines of it’s not my responsibility to stop my offense, it’s the other teams. Hopefully this new blood shares some of Spurrier’s mentality.

I just realized that I did a lot of echoing….

Helloo…hello………..hello….

Echo…..echo……………..echo…….

Muschamp also helped out quite a bit. 2009 is a 2-3 loss team with a more mortal defense.

norderbergeron, ftw.

We’re trying to teach them that we don’t want to make big plays because it’s cool and it will make people like us on campus.

Although both of these things will occur when you do.

Harsin doesn’t define DJ Monroe or DeSean Hales in terms of position so much as Stuff They’re Good At. That’s a really important distinction. Our old coaching staff often had very Platonic notions of some necessary set of requirements at every position and if you didn’t have a check in one box, you were unplayable.

Interesting take. I actually thought that one of our historic weaknesses on offense was the close correlation between personnel and play selection. Certain players were used for specific roles. Remember Brett Robin on 3rd down? The Tony Jeffrey bubble screen? The Henry Melton failed goalline dive?

After most of our losses to Oklahoma, Sooner defenders would be quoted saying something to the effect that they knew the exact play that would be run just from the personnel package on the field.

And you just cut them loose as long as they’re heading the right direction and hanging on to the ball, they should be okay.

That reinforces some things that we (or you) have discussed here in the past: one, that running back probably more than any other position can be plug-and-play. Two, great running backs are born and not made (or at least not made at the college level), and those blaming the Major for the struggles of our running game last year were really misguided. And thirdly, given the limited importance of the RB coach’s role as a teacher, a good RB coach should bring value in another area.

Very intriguing quotes. Should the Horns rumble out to a 2-3 start, it’s going to be a fascinating look into Brown’s psyche.

“and those blaming the Major for the struggles of our running game last year were really misguided”

I think most people with an IQ over 90 realized that at the time, although that didn’t make listening to the rest bitch about it any more pleasant. The people responsible for that dumpster fire are now currently unemployed.

“But it’s not true that knowing personnel tendency = shutting down this offense.”

Something the good folks in Norman are going to learn to hate.

“My big questions is how the heck we won the MNC with the buffoons we had as coaches.”

Having a roster replete with future NFLer’s, the most dynamic player in the history of CFB, and an OC who stumbled onto an offense which both took advantage of VY’s skill set while giving us identity, counters, continuity, and demanded a secondary’s attention in the backfield at all times never hurts.

Wait, I’m a bit disappointed by the lack of info in that PC. Which players will show great promise, only to sit on the bench because they “can’t learn the playbook” or “can’t line the defense up correctly?”

With Harsin, personnel does not equal predictability. And think of all the crap that would go off in your mind on defense trying to face one package, then another, then another all in the same game and the plays you expect in the package from their last game were altered because they were just setting you up.

I hope sending in players to make obvious handoffs and take knees if we are ahead are over. Mack did that to be a “nice guy.” About the nicest guy you should be in football is sending in your less experienced players in to get experience and reward them for the effort they put in. A “nice guy” coach is an ego trip and bad for the team.

As for our defense, I think people will score on us but they will also get beat up, fumble, loose ground, throw interceptions and we will stop a lot of their drives. In the meantime, I don’t expect too many teams to stop our offense. I don’t think Harsinwhite will tolerate that for very long. And a few games are going to turn into knock down and drag outs.

I forgot the most important thing: the coaching staff has risen to the level of the talent. “Losing” does not long exist in that environment.

Our old coaching staff often had very Platonic notions of some necessary set of requirements at every position and if you didn’t have a check in one box, you were unplayable. Harsin, to put it bluntly, thinks that’s madness.

No offense, but in my opinion this is madness.

Dammit! These coaches, and all y’all, are fishin’ me back in again! Not that I’m a bandwagoneer…far from it…but I was prepared to be ok with general improvement, better attitude vis a vis body language, and an extry win or two. That may still be the best way to maintain my blood pressure this year, but now I’m starting to dream.

Ok, so we knock off BYU and UCLA (who has an ass-thrashin’ due ‘em if anybody does), then win one of OU, Okie-lite, or aggy, and run the table elsewhere. Voila…10-2! The secondary matures quicker than expected, the O-line gels and stays healthy, the receivers find the stick-em, and the QB manages the game. Who’s with me? Anyone?!

ECHO…Echo…echo….

Gack. Tags all brokey.

Love the coaches from our generation. They don’t seem to believe in the mystacism of the profession like the old guard, favoring a more scientific and methodical approach.

It’s up to some anthropologist, I guess, to document the benighted hideboundedness of Texas football in the 70’s and 80’s, with the possible exception of Houston.

So this is what irrational exuberance looks like.

I may actually be looking forward to football season now. Still terrified about how this new bunch will do, but maybe not quite as much as last week.

It would be awesome if sometime this season, Manny Diaz’s presser included the quote, “stats are for winners.”

PB -
 
You have always said that. I think you’re right.
 
Mad Clapper -
 
Moneyball is seeping into football. It’s a harder game to isolate into its component parts, but approaching it analytically has a lot of benefit.
 
hornsfans11 -
 
Really nice thoughts.
 
TKO -
 
Thanks, buddy.
 
miketag -
 
Agreed on coaches who can think outside the box.
 
A lot of Diaz’s pressure packages are about showing six and bringing four, but there’s no question that we have to get to the QB and be sound tackling in the secondary.
 
nobis60 -
 
Nice summary.
 
nordbergeron -
 
Make it so.
 
Brick -
 
I’m talking about every down players. How many times have we heard Player X can’t play because they don’t know every pass protection or they don’t block well enough on a certain play or they don’t know the practice drills as well as a senior?
 
BTW, our special packages were always a joke mostly because the personnel were only allowed to run one play, they didn’t practice it much, and the schemes themselves were terrible.
 
bigduke -
 
These things I too believe.
 
roach -
 
This is rational exuberance. And my investment horizon is a lot longer than Year 1.
  
Mr Orange -
 
You should be terrified because all of our players are incredibly young, but they’re young guys learning good football.

Miketag’s comment about opposing DCs knowing what to expect was correct. It was just the one year delay in posting that makes you all think he was wrong!

The key word here is “package”. Where last year a particular personnel grouping meant a certain play, this year it means a certain package of plays. You can bet that some of those plays will be fakes based on the obvious ones.

I know we have a steep learning curve to negotiate, but it should be fun to watch. It might even save my TV screen from thrown objects, if I no longer see sideline passes for 2 yard losses on first down.

How did we win a national championship?
No matter what play GD called Vince called his own play. 4th and 19 – he ran it and made a first down. He overcame Gd’s hieroglyphic scripted plays.
I moaned for years about GD and was told to quit complaining. I’m going to be exuberant for years and nobody will be able to stop me. I wouldn’t trade our coaches for any other staff in the country. We may not win them all but we are going to be really fun to watch.

“From here on, I shall be known as nordbergeron.”

And we were all here to witness history.

Chills.

I am giggling and clapping like a schoolgirl and while my girlfried is a bit disgusted (she’s a casual fan, drinks more than watches) I don’t care at all. Every aspect of our offense and defense has it’s positives. Yes, we have some holes in there too. Understood. However, we have the staff in place to exploit the positives while doing our best to downplay/hide the negatives. What a wonderful departure from last year when it was the other way around. I am thoroughly excited about the future and am quite happy I didn’t sell my season tics.

Hook em !!