2011 Texas-Rice Post Mortem: Offense

Excellent anaylsis as always. I too loathe a good portion of our fanbase on game day. I knew all the excitement of the offseason changes would be erased with the first three and out.

I only listened to the game, but it struck me that the Horns were in either a traditional or off-set I formation for a lot of snaps, if Craig Way is to be believed.

I don’t think of the Boise offense as generating a power running game necessarily out of traditional formations (but I may be wrong). Seems to me Harsin may like what he has at fullback and, more importantly, he has probably never had the benefit of two freshmen thumpers like B and B.

What’s the scoop? Scip.

I echo your thoughts on watching a game with Longhorn faithful. I keep hoping your posts will chill everyone out, even though I know y’all have been saying all of the above for months now and it still hasn’t helped. Ugh. And I don’t even bother trying to explain complicated concepts like “new schemes” and “a young team” to my aggie friends. They are all still in the middle of their f-you victory soliloquy – tightie-whities included – and have no ability to even comprehend football analysis outside of “t.u. sucks.”

Thanks for your write-up, as usual. Appreciate it. Looking forward to BUY.

Scip-
I know you were talking directly to me with that awesome comment. Thanks. I agree with the QB analysis. My grade for GG would be a C. He is very average at this point. But a C is a passing grade. Bringing Ash along slowly is genius even though others are impatient with it. Our RB are collective studs. Our wide receivers played reasonably well but have much more talent than they showed. We stll need to teach our tight ends how to block especially Grant.
OL is improving. DL needs to improve. LBs were underwhelming. CBs played well. Gideon is well … Gideon. Vacarro played well.special teams still can’t cover kickoffs well enough. And Shipley catches a punt on the 6 yard line. But all in all with Harsinwhite play calling never a dull moment. The beginning of an exciting and special year. Thanks for all of your, JS,the Asset, Longhornscott, and the Big Cigar’s excellent prep for this and al future games.

I was frustrated with Gilbert’s play, particularly early on. I’d like to see him make quicker, more “catchable” throws in the 5-15 yard range. Or I’d like the vertical running game to become dominant enough that we primarily use his arm for deep play action.

I liked all the extra packages for different players. I think that will be a great recruiting selling point — we won’t put you in a box. We’ll develop your whole game, but also let you be a special snowflake.

is it me or were there A LOT of people cheering every time Case was on the jumbotron? Did they think it was Colt? I don’t like it.

I would have liked to see Ash get more opportunities to pass. 1 for 1 is not bad. I still need to see the game on tape.

I’m confident that if GG remains in his one-read-robo mode, the coaches (specifically NOT Mack) will make the right choices and play the most qualified QB. David Ash imo

Scip,

What’s your take on Snow coming out in the 4th? Breather or performance issue?

thanks for not loathing me

and do i remember a late hit out of bounds on Gideon? What was that all about?

I think it’s pretty clear that despite his flaws and lock on to one guy pre snap and wait for him to get open, GIlbert is the best guy we have right now. He drives me nuts with his performance but I no longer scream for McCoy to run out there. Ash is getting brought along slowly and I was so relieved when he ran out there as a WR; no redshirt. Eventually Ash will take over but Gilbert is the best we have, even if he isn’t very good.

i like you breakdown and you honesty about our fans on gameday ( i stay away from the game threads as much as possible). GG should be our starter but he’s no star and what calms me down is that we are in an offense that doesnt need a star at QB to be functional and effective based on Boise winning a ton of games without a true star QB. as long as GG doesnt throw it to the other team then im happy with him.

I still cannot believe that Mack let the OC’s call their game. Everything that happened was discussed here and on the "Cosm, but to see it live was surprosing at the very least. The multiple wildcats were awesome, but a redshirt freshman wide out throwing a TD pass to a true freshman, incredible.

As pointed out on 24-7, GG played much better after his big run, maybe he should get a package early in the game to help settle him down.

Still concerned about the O-line and addiction to rugby punting, but otherwise a good start to the year.

4. Go to Disneyland handcuffed to a Goth Wicca.

I’ve been on much worse dates than this.

Godzillatron,

The Rice QB was trying to tight-rope down the sideline, it was a judgement call by the ref.

I think anyone other then Gideon (or Killibrew) would have gotten the benefit of the doubt.

jones -
 
There aren’t easy radio descriptives for what we’re doing on offense. Offset covers a lot of ground.
 
Sasha -
 
Thanks for keeping the faith.
 
I said -
 
Very welcome.
 
ndawg -
 
Agree. Lots of easy throws available in this offense and we have several guys with YAC ability. Gilbert needs to deliver balls where our guys can make a play.
 
Fried Rice -
 
I wrote off McCoy as a high school senior, so my prematureness knows no bounds.
 
53 Veer -
 
No idea. I couldn’t watch a replay.
 
godzilla -
 
Gideon on the Defensive Post-Mortem.
 
Texas-13 -
 
He may be the best guy we’ve got at this snapshot of time. No question. You can question what the coaches are doing, but there’s clearly a defensible plan. The question is what happens when it get indefensible.

kriscod -
 
That’s a smart sanity preservation strategy. And you’re right. Real offense doesn’t require a God at QB to execute.
 
soliver -
 
Some QBs really settle down once they get hit. Maybe Gilbert needs that. I remember Peter Gardere and James Brown used to need a hit to settle them down. Maybe we should have Vaccaro nail him in warm ups.
 
parlin -
 
Those are my dates!

Given Gilbert’s limitations as a one-read quarterback, how do you see Harsin and Applewhite game planning the passing attack against legitimate defenses (e.g. BYU this weekend)? I fear that Gilbert is still going to be a turnover machine when the better defenses are able to take away his first read and make him panic in the pocket.

Fried Rice, Those throws are just a representative data point, as data from the spring game, practice reports, and fall scrimmage footage are the foundation for the trend.

ndawg, Agreed on the short passing throws, there’s a reason our other (non Gilbert) packages showed their face in the red zone. Good point about recruiting and I hope the excitement it generates with the current players keeps this team motivated especially through the eventual losses to come.

wholly and totally agree with the analysis here. bingo, bingo, and bingo.

agree with others here who say the development of the qb personnel looks right on. after all those years of what appeared to me to be unconscionable mismanagement of the young qbs who didn’t come in ready to play, it is such a breath of fresh air. i think we can expect an appropriate increase in david’s workload through the season and hope that garrett holds together/develops to give david the time he needs, however long that is.

turbo analysis. much thanks. now about that defense . . .

CS -
 
Deep balls, play action, simple reads, encouraging him to run.

Fried Rice – Case is not Colt and will never be him. The sooner our fans understand that the better. Talking to some people at the game it reminds a lot of the Simms/Applewhite idiocy, only this time one player actually has done nothing to even be in the argument. It’s also quickly becoming apparent that the Major Cultists are Case’s biggest supporters. Apologies in advance Scipio for opening up that conversation.

godzillatron – you are correct about the McCoy cheering and it goes along with the above. it also shows the football IQ of a lot of the fans as the time it was the MOST noticeable McCoy had already been in the game for a few plays. the fans cheering didn’t realize it though.

One thing I think we really need is some Cayleb. Offense seems to lack a wr who makes the tough catch over the middle. Lots of talent, but missing the lunchbox guy. MB needs to be given larger role. I would like to see him in earlier. His presence makes the play- action better. Some mat laugh, but GG’s ability to throw the long ball will deep defenses honest. Overall it was a good showing for the first game. Team made progress from quarter to quarter. That is probably the most important thing. Hopefully, we will see another giant step next week.

Thanks for the analysis, Scip.

guys, i don’t think the fans thought it was colt. i think they were cheering seeing the name ‘mccoy’ on a texas jersey.

Nice review Scipio. This team kind of reminds me of the Cowboys in Jimmy Johnson’s first year coaching. They lost a lot of games but at the end of the season you could see the bulbs coming on. Laying the foundation for greatness. I think that’s where we are at in a way.

codaxx, that offense was beginning to click when malcolm came into the game, but with his going in and coming out you could see it’s a different offense when he’s in there.

Considering GG did (mostly) what was asked of him, it annoyed me greatly when fans went wild at the game at the sight of Ash or McCoy. I hope those two passes by McCoy the younger simmered that portion of the excitement. Also heard plenty of Gilbert boos, though the only stadium wide one was in response to the aforementioned WTF play.

Without BC and ’Cosm giving me the lowdown I suppose I would be more antsy at any Gilbert mistakes too. During the WTF I did have a momentary flashback to last year that gave me shivers as I fell into a brief, second long abyss of wondering if it was all happening again.

Love the post mortem’s Scipio. Keep up the good work.

BC’s preseason information leading up to the weekend was nothing short of miraculous (cue JS etal). Can’t extend my congratulations and thanks enough.

I was only able to watch about a half on the illegal streaming site, so I missed gigi’s apparent improved(?) second half performance but as I posted elsewhere on BC, I can’t fault the logic of giving Gilbert (junior) the start, bringing in Ash (freshman) for special packages /meaningful game experience, then McCoy (sophomore) for the mop-up. [Unless dad and son are delusional, I can’t fathom the McCoys believing the “backup” tag really means No. 2 but it’s a long season and . . .]

Thanks again for the spot-on preseason articles. Watching the development of this team will be maddening but special, and I’ll do my best to minimize the gigi-simms “it” comparisons. Also looking forward to actually watching the Horns on real TV.

Scip,

I was lucky enough to be at the game and not have to read the game thread in progress. I looked at it yesterday and even then found myself wanting to choke about half the posters. I sympathize with you going through during the game.

What got into Applewhite? Our RBs looked awesome. I am really surprised one of our holdover coaches got so much out of these guys after being such a failure in previous seasons. What do you think accounts for Applewhite’s sudden, incredible turnaround as an RB coach?

Oh, and where do I get my cayenne pepper enema?

Why one of our own fans would call a 20 year old busting his ass for his team “gigi” is truly beyond me

more on Gilbert, not to beat him down but a fair eval. He NEEDS to be better at 3rd downs. He went 2/7 with only 1 first down passing that has to get better. He did rush for 2 first downs and he was sacked once. Great QBs are born on 3rd down conversions and if Gilbert gets better at this then that will be the difference in going 7-5 or 10-2.

No doubt he was locking on and forcing some but, I would ALMOST bet my house I saw GG look off his primary on 2 or 3 passes in the second half. Don’t hold me to that, I don’t have the game on DVR to go back and look. He also gets a pass for locking on for the four deep balls and I will take 50% completion rate on those all day long. Thats about 25% of his passes. That of course leads me to wonder how often should a QB be expected to look off his primary per game. I mean I know its not exactly like that. But in a good offense with a serviceable QB (because we do not need world beaters anymore), how many times would one expect on average. How far before you can say, ok this guy is getting it and improving. I know there are tons of variables like down and distance, coverages, personal. I am going to wag it as 30%. Just because it makes me feel good, and I think more then that might imply something more systemic. I wonder how ofter GD QBs would have to go to the second or third option to be effective. 75%? :)

Great breakdown and much appreciated. You are a bit higher on the receivers than I am today, but I can live with that. I was disappointed with the drops and lack of separation they displayed, but they’re all a bunch of baby-faced boys that will grow up in a hurry with this offense and these coaches.

Also your mature, even-handed, fair analysis of Gilbert and the other QBs and why they are playing and the roles they fill is a refreshing reprieve from the knee jerk estrogenically filled hysterical screeds from so many of the posters on some other boards. Some of them just need to go ahead and jump and get over it.">)

C level QBing with an A level game plan. Greg McElroy thinks it can work.

True, but I don’t think we have Bama’s defense to go along with it.

None of this seemed truly real until I read the first Post Mortem of the season. I’m always grateful for the extra work and info you, js, the asset, and the cigar have thrown our way through the long dark offseason.

No ad nauseum, but I think it’s fairly obvious there is a ton of upside all over this team. It’s nice to have some faith in the coaches to fix what they can as quickly as possible.

Having said that, GG has really got a bad case of the lock-ons and as mentioned too much already, that could really be a limiting factor against any competent offense.

thanks again Scip, look forward to a whole season of these!

The 48 hour wait for this analysis seemed almost as long as the 8 month wait for a game, but I keep reminding myself “patience” is the theme for the season .. . . I didn’t pull up the veetle link until midway in the first quarter so I missed seeing Fozzy string together a series of one yard runs early. Was Rice overplaying the run? Were guys missing assignments? or were guys just getting whipped? . . . .

Once I got the video feed, the run game looked OK. Just wondered what holes we were trying to hit and why there wasn’t anything there.

Thanks for all the great reads . . .this one included.

um, “defense”

A lot of folks do confuse Colt and Case. On an incomplete from McCoy to Shipley in the 4q, the PA announcer said incomplete pass from Colt to Shipley. I think it was tongue in cheek.

I had a great time at the tailgate, and appreciate the inside info you passed along. It was right on.

and we executed a screen pass correctly!

I go to see it in person. I laughed, I cried. A very emotional experience.

Ricky said: September 5th, 2011 at 2:32 pm
“What got into Applewhite? Our RBs looked awesome. I am really surprised one of our holdover coaches got so much out of these guys after being such a failure in previous seasons. What do you think accounts for Applewhite’s sudden, incredible turnaround as an RB coach?

Oh, and where do I get my cayenne pepper enema?"

…I really do loathe this fanbase sometimes.

Thanks for the writeup Scip, great job as always. I think we have all kinds of upside with the new coaching staff in place and its proper utilization of each player’s strengths. I’m no longer going into every game fearful that we’re going to tuck our heads up our asses and be forced to win in spite of our offensive gameplan. BYU will be a very good test for us.

Great analysis as always, Scipio. An observation from seeing the game on LHN (I have Grande): It was rather touching to see Gilbert smiling, happy, and victorious after the game when he was interviewed on the field. I got the feeling that maybe it wasn’t just the win over Rice, but maybe there is a monkey losing its grip on that young man’s back.

I can’t see what the QB is looking at on TV, so I have no opinion about him locking onto receivers. As for being a single read QB, don’t a lot of plays in the HarsinWhite offense set up a single read? Gilbert looked good when he rolled out after a fake. I feel like some of the plays Longhorn Scott explained from the Boise offense had play action roll out where a single receiver is set up downfield for the play action pass. I guess I’m getting at the possibility that a lot of the offense doesn’t require a lot of in depth reading after the snap and maybe Gilbert will suffice and more.

Sure would make for a better season if Gilbert started trending better and better negating the need to rush Ash onto the field as a starter.

“I find it refreshing to watch an offense with a plan, diversity (scored on a WR reverse pass, three different guys ran wildcat, tons of motion and misdirection), creativity, roles for everyone, and drives that were thwarted by player execution errors rather than stupid concepts.”

This right f-ing here. We saw the same game. Kept thinking that Harsin will call any play, anytime, from anywhere on the field (diversity, creativity) and each call oozes purpose and intelligence (plan, roles for everyone).

Unfortunately, it sounds like we also heard the same game. In section 3 at DKR, these were the voices of unreflective entitlement (with the responses in my head):

“Why is he calling so many running plays?” (So we can both run and throw later, genius)

“Gilbert’s terrible, put McCoy in.” (mental jam of Living Color’s “Cult of Personality”)

“This is as bad as last year.” (How can I shut this yay-hoo up?)

I got my wish in the 3rd quarter when wild cheering for our boys finding their groove drowned him out.

So, this is what a real offense looks like. There will be more growing pains to be sure, both on the field with mistakes and off it with more idiotic comments. But, I completely agree that Saturday rang in a sea-change on offense in which the scheme will work well enough with decent talent and execution. With the better talent and execution to come it will be unstoppable.

Mulholland, turn up your sarcasmeter.

The kind of comments you mention in the post are why the shag is more unreadable than usual right now. Every thread devolves into a GG/Ash argument with the same tired talking points.

When GG tried to lateral that ball I thought the pressure might be getting to him and he was pressing to force something to happen. I expected him to come back out, throw a couple of picks, and never be seen again. He needs to stop those wtf moments, but at least he responded well.

Thanks to the ’Cosm for giving us a laugh when the commentator flipped out over Ash coming in.

Roma,

I’ll never be confused with a Gilbert-defender, but I have to agree with you. That post-game interview was like it was a completely different person.

Never seen that boy look comfortable before. If that becomes a habit, I won’t mind.

Maybe Samantha Steele just has that effect on a guy.

The thing in the Rice game, to me, was Harsin. Man, that was some kind of offense. Movement every snap, trick plays that Rice couldn’t handle, with run plays that were set up to be effective. Texas’ offense is going to be a monster O soon.

Of course, all this was against Rice. We’ll know a helluva lot more after BYU.

“drives that were thwarted by player execution errors rather than stupid concepts.”

This cannot be said enough. Throughout the game, you could see the offense learning, improving and adapting, which was a sight for sore eyes.

A few thoughts on GG. He is an average QB, but he was a much more confident average QB at the end of the game than at the beginning. Nothing changed in his play between halves (save for the brain fart of an opening 3rd quarter drive) except confidence. In the first half, he threw into double coverage, didn’t hit receivers in stride and missed wide open 2nd and 3rd receivers by simply not going through his progressions. In the second half, he looked like a serviceable QB, making athletic plays vs. forcing the action. I actually left the stadium cautiously optimistic that this offense can function well with an average QB that doesn’t turn the ball over.

That all being said, I’m excited to see Ash grow and get his game reps. This offense will be filthy when the kids grow up

Oh my personal favorite comment as Brown ran off the field after a couple of plays.

“Way to go Mack, I see nothing has changed.”

I want a BC T-Shirt that has the URL for LHScott’s break down on the HA offense. With a line underneath that says read it or STFU.

I know I shouldn’t but I keep wondering what we would have seen with Harsinwhite running the offense in ‘08-’09 and ‘04-’05. Seeing each play set up another play and knowing that this is likely setting things up for later in the season was awesome.

53 veer pass: I noticed the Kelley-Snow substitution, and feared for Snow’s health. But he came back a series or two later. My take was that the coaches wanted to get Kelley some snaps with the first unit (Hopkins shifted from RT to LG). If that’s it, hallelujah! It’s killed me for years that we NEVER sub in the O-line except for injury.

Seems like a no-brainer to occasionally let a near-starting second-teamer get some legit snaps. Good for morale, motivation, depth, selling point for recruits.

Scipio: You really hit it with your offensive overview. Wonder what Bohls and Golden were thinking when Ash took the field; both predicted last week there was a 0.00 zero chance of Ash playing against Rice. The Cigs and The Asset may not get KB’s salary and face time; they just get the facts. Thanks mucho.

“I want a BC T-Shirt that has the URL for LHScott’s break down on the HA offense. With a line underneath that says read it or STFU.”

Jerry, for the win!

“I actively loathe 20% of our fan base on game day.

But not you, Person-reading-this-now. You’re awesome."

You SO get me. I love you, Scip!

I thought the game plan early was questionable, I like fozzy I knew he would start but I think he’s an avg every down back but a great 3rd down/ swing pass, draw play, screen back…I thought we could’ve settled the team (GG) down more by trying to establish the bruising running game early & then go over the top with play action, loved that we could manufacture offense…B&B both being freshmen, first game, fozzy a sr. I get it…but hopefully going forward we don’t wait till the 2nd half to establish the run…

Is it possible we start Edmond at MLB sooner rather than later? Move Robinson over to acho spot & on 3rd & obvious passing downs bring in acho? Would love thoughts?

Thanks & keep up good work.

Young Williams, I guess Mulholland has a thing for cayenne pepper enemas…I was going to leave that line out but thought the sarcasm of my RB coach critique might not be obvious enough.

Offense, aye. Brown. Shipley. Ash. Bergeron. Davis. Whittaker. Johnson. Harris. There was a lot to like from the skill players. OL needs work. Gilbert… maybe the light came on – we may hope. McCoy – not to see the field without minimum 3-TD lead.

Not a huge difference from 2010, except the attitudes all around – coaches’, players’, and of course, ours as well.

The best part is, it went about how I expected (thanks to all the ‘Cosmic Barkers) – little better in some parts, little worse in others, but I think I saw some progress, and I know I saw players having more fun than I’ve seen in a long time.

So far, so good.

I appreciate the McElroy comparison. If the running game gets going we don’t need a playmaker at QB, but we do need an accurate QB or at least one that doesn’t turn the ball over. If GG can keep away from the INT or stupid fumbles then maybe even hitting just north of 50% of his passes could be enough for us to win most of our games. Anyone who thinks comparing Gilbert to McElroy also has to imply that this team is going to be in the MNC might want to go purchase a case of snow globes…they likely break easily on a hard head.

mrwill, if you haven’t you need to read the longhornscott articles on offense (and defense, too).

http://barkingcarnival.fantake.com/author/longhornscott/

a lot of what harsin wants to do with his playcalling is to set up the defense. you need to be patient, though i admit i was getting antsy.

ricky, that line did it for me. i realized what you were doing, but it is subtle and someone not accustomed to the subtlety of this place wooden speck it.

I know this was an offensive post, but… the worst ignit-mcnugget fan moments for me came on the defensive side of the ball. Watching Diaz stack three down linemen over and over… and seeing Rice respond as predictably as the tide, running to the other side over and over…

I couldn’t help but smile when numbnuts said “They’re running all over us! This defense is terrible!”

Yes, they ran too much. But the scheme was exactly as advertised: Make them run where you want them to run. Don’t think it will always be pretty, and this year at least, it might not always work, but it was what should have been expected.

McHargue is a pretty doggoned good QB, but as talking-heads on TV correctly pointed out, Diaz was in McHargue’s bean pretty good. Talk about happy feet, and on 3-step drops, too. No sacks, but that was because the offense was too afraid of them.

actually, texel, i think there was progress with gilbert. my son and i both speculated that gilbert would be right back in the game after his wtf play and that he’d have something on his plate. that, of course, was exactly what happened and we had a great drive. from my experience working with troubled youth (not saying gg is troubled except some of this stuff) there are very special teaching moments right after something goes really wrong. i posit that harsin thinks that way and those two series were grist for the mill, soda speak.

Add another weapon to the HarsinWhite attack: Marquise Goodwin won’t redshirt because of track, begins practicing with the team tomorrow.

http://www.mackbrown-texasfootball.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/090511aab.html

Yeah, Scip. Where do I go to get one of those cayenne pepper thingies? Perhaps Mulholland would care to join me?

Hate to beat a dead (sick) horse but 2 things I noticed. GG in the red zone is a no-no and Harsin cured that with the wildcat, hiding GG’s inadequacies by pulling him out.

Other thing that scares me with GG is all the low throws on short or intermediate passes. No YAC but also I hate seeing a receiver squatting or taking a knee to catch a pass when a defender is bearing down on him. Someone could be hurt.

The Snow Globe comment made my day much better. Thanks, Scip!

It is entirely possible that after tailgating for several hours and witnessing the poor throws to start the game that I, Newy25 may have, allegedly suggested that Gilbert had an inappropriate sexual relationship with his mother. Suggested so at frequent intervals at a decible level
not acceptable by any decent social decorum.

While not admitting to this there would be mitigating circumstances that allowed for me to cross over into that 20% temporarily. Not an excuse but just sayin’.

It was speculated on the game thread that at halftime Harsin told Gilbert that he didn’t have to “make something happen”, that the game was in hand and all he needed to do was follow the planned plays and everything would be just fine… pre-snap read, decide to run or throw; if throw, read 1, read 2, check, and throw it away… no problemo. Just practice throwing it at least eight rows deep (Arkysaw lost at least a couple of games that I saw last year partly because Mallett didn’t throw away the ball far enough). Maybe it wasn’t at the half, maybe it was after the – ahem – ill-advised lateral, which we were lucky to not turn over… but I have a feeling the conversation has taken place and will be repeated. “Relax. Relax. Just follow the plan, no pressure at all.”

It’ll either work, or it won’t. If it doesn’t, Ash will be on the field a lot more. I thought it was telling that we went to Plan B in the red zone, and successfully, too.

I’m just hoping I still feel this way next Sunday morning…

Ricky said: September 5th, 2011 at 3:39 pm
Young Williams, I guess Mulholland has a thing for cayenne pepper enemas…I was going to leave that line out but thought the sarcasm of my RB coach critique might not be obvious enough.

You would be surprised, Rick. I’ve heard so many ridiculous things post-game, I’ve lost the ability to distinguish jest from stupidity. Keep me in your prayers, maybe one day I’ll return to my old self.

Where do I go to get one of those cayenne pepper thingies?

Forget that. It’s not remotely a good idea.

The Hot Fudge Enema, now… that’s a whole different story. I can prolly make you an appointment – I hear it’s a possibility for the OU tailgate… brings a whole new meaning to the phrase “tail gate”.

Mulholland, I just wanted a chance to accuse a non-Aggie of liking cayenne pepper enemas. I am sure LSU has a bunch of them waiting for A&M in the coming years. Tabasco sauce and a catheter, holla!

Nahhh. I think aTm has already got dibs on the hot fudge market in anticipation of next year.

Yeh -

Thanks great articles & insight..I understand the idea of the offense that wasn’t so much my problem as the substitution package…the biggest difference in the Boise & TX offense is obviously QB trust. I like the McElroy comparison & I believe GG could be a better version but imo to see that potential realized we have to maximize our personnel packages, which I thought we did in the second half….but you were right patience was my biggest issue

Thanks & sorry for posting a defense question

Scip,
The Garret Gil-bot line was pure gold.
I’m cautiously optimistic regarding GG, as his play the 2nd half showed marked improvement vs the 1st half (minus the WTF play). The LHN announcers were very irritating with their Ash disbelief. You would think they would have done their gameprep homework (ie read the ’Cosm and BC). I snorted in derision at their ignorance. A pox on their stupidity!
Finally, it is so refreshing to watch our offense and NOT call out the plays beforehand. And I could do it hammered-drunk last year. Of course, hammered-drunk was the only way I could watch the Horns last year. I think 8 wins is reasonable this year. If we can avoid major injuries and the youngsters progress as I expect, we could be pleasantly surprised.

Thanks for the write-up and thanks as always for the BC insight. You’re exactly right that you guys did an awesome job of preparing us for this game, which was handy in the first half and early in the 3rd quarter. I’m wondering about two things:

1. Not to be too much of a homer, but it really seemed like we had a number of iffy calls go the other way, on our own field no less. I generally expected that A&M might have to deal with this, but should the Texas fan base set its own expectations this year to expect the judgment calls to go decisively the other way?

2. This is less a wonder than a statement, but it’s curious to me that no one else mentioned it. It was 100-something on Saturday, and neither the O line or the D line got weaker as the game wore on. In fact, quite the opposite. Rice seemed to wilt on both sides of the ball while Texas seemed stronger. Was this purely a rotation thing, or did we get to see the first effects of a Bennie Wylie style of S&C training? I’m thinking Wylie deserves a lot of love that I’ve yet to hear him get.

The improvement on offense from last year to this is exemplified by Harsin’s going away from the hitches into the teeth of the defense after the first two drives. GDavis would have called it all day. And then blamed it on GG.

“Some QBs really settle down once they get hit. Maybe Gilbert needs that. I remember Peter Gardere and James Brown used to need a hit to settle them down. Maybe we should have Vaccaro nail him in warm ups.”

Just have him warm up within 10 yards of Gideon, he’ll get hit.

I have been to a lot of season openers over the past years and they always seem to take a while to start clicking. I thought this team executed well and showed a lot of potential. Most of the big plays involved freshmen and sophomores which makes me feel that we will see improvement each week as they mature and gel as a team. Many of the things that have been predicted by BC played out but I really expected the defense to be more in attack mode. They did not blitz near as much as I expected and i thought they would be in the backfield every play but they didn’t seem to get much push from the tackles. They also let rice get some yardage up the middle which reminded me of last year. Overall though I thought for a first game they played well. Score was comparable (point differential) to the zero u game and they are #1. Not bad for a bunch of freshmen and sophomores that are learning a entirely new offense and defense.

Observations

Thanks to B C and ‘Cosm I was actually prepared to watch our offense perform and understand what was happening and am looking forward to the rest of the year.

I listen to the game on earplugs as I watch. I really appreciate the job Craig Way does, but his life just got more difficult. It was not unusual to see as many as four subs between plays. Difficult to call formation because it can change three times before the snap of the ball. Harsinwhite will give defensive coordinators fits. Folks you need to be there, HD TV won’t even be able to cover it all.

Our offense is definitely a work in progress. Look for good things to happen.

Scipo is nails.. Thanks.

Thanks for the write up Scip. You are the only one I trust in the aftermath, and I am struggling with not having seen this one. You complete me! BTW, I am a Goth Wiccan!

Cant wait to actually get to see the game next week.

Garrett Gilbert was the Anti Michael Jordan on Saturday. NOT CLUTCH.

He was 1 for 6 on 3rd downs in the first half. It got to be so bad that the announcers were spouting praise on how stout Rice’s defense was. RICE. RICE.

We’ll be no better than Bama last year. 9-3 or so if we don’t get better QB play.
I, too was very pleased with the schemes and the running game. But we HAVE to get better on 3rd down to extend drives, flip the field, and get our d some much needed rest. You just CANNOT start the game 0-5 passing on 3rd down like Garrett did on Saturday. It’s no wonder that Rice had something like a 14-6 Time of possession advantage on us in the first half.

I like the play action boots for GG because they force the defense to honor the backside of the formation (we’re doing all sorts of things to make the do that anyway), provide Gilbert with a run pass option, and place multiple receivers in GG’s line of sight so that the reads are simpler.

The offense still looks a bit ponderous with him under center. It’s not attacking the way our wildcat packages are, but it will in time. Execution will meet confidence and then Katy bar the door.

I’m interested to see what wrinkles emerge as DJ and Jaxon keep picking up big yardage on the fly option and little screen plays. Those will have to be honored as well. Fozzy is going to pitch to Mike Davis on the wildcat at some point too.

I wasn’t able to watch or listen to the game (7-year old birthday party) but have been reading the blogs. I noticed on one graphic that hopkins moved to LT and kelley was at RT. edsp referred to linemen being moved around in his earlier post. Scip, it sounds like you’ll be addressing this more after BYU, but I’d be curious to know anyone’s observations about how much linemen were moved and which set seemed to be most effective. I’m not sure Allen is going to get it done at LT and moving Hopkins there permanently may be the best solution in the end. As important as QB play is, that will be obsolete if the line doesn’t play substantially better than last year.

Not much comment about the downfield blocking by OL and receivers. On Whittaker’s catch and run TD an OL and two receivers hit Owls downfield. Last season our OL rarely made it 3 yards past the LOS and our receivers rarely completed their routes if not primary.

Oops. It was 16-14 time of possession for Rice. My bad.

Looking at our drive chart. We had 6 first half possessions. 5 of them were for 5 plays or less. WOW. WOW. WOW.

Gilbert does need to work on his accuracy and touch on the short/intermediate throws. But, at least he put them low and away where the only one that had a chance at it was his target. High and/or inside and you are asking for trouble. Not sure if that’s intentional or just coincidental, but it’s something to build on. He just needs to back off on the gas on those passes. Maybe he could take a lesson from Case on how to throw off his back foot so the ball isn’t coming in at 95 mph with down and away movement. Gilbert=Kevin Brown, imo.

Thanks for the writeup. We have a ways to go, but I saw a lot to like. Most of what I saw on offense that I didn’t like was correctable. Defense not so much, more personnel issues that aren’t going to go away this year more than likely.

“He was 1 for 6 on 3rd downs in the first half. "

To be fair, I seem to remember that 2 of those were drops by the WR/TE.

Disappointed in OL. Would trade OLs with SMU today !

Um, GG was 1-6 in obvious passing downs and wasn’t “clutch” enough for you?

Got it.

We scored (6 not 3) on a drive that began at our 1. Even though it was “only Rice” that has to be a shot in the arm for a young team.

I didn’t see any of the game. But it sounded like the running game absolutely dominated in the 2nd half. I would like to see the 2nd half ypc.

I would have hoped going into the game that Gilbert would have graded a B. It will be interesting to see him play against BYU.

As has been said, if you have been reading this site for any time at all, nothing about this game should be a surprised. John Harris throwing a pass? Not surprising. I watched that same play in LHS’s series. The Ash Package was expected. The LBs struggled against inside power running, no duh. There were 4 RBs making significant contribution’s? Of course there were.

I guess the most surprising thing was seeing Paden Kelley come in on RT and Hopkins being moved to the LT. It will be interesting to see how that turns out long term. Maybe Paden is out of the dog house now.

Glad we finished strong and didn’t give up a TD. That is the most encouraging thing. Hook’em!

“Um, GG was 1-6 in obvious passing downs and wasn’t "clutch" enough for you?

Got it."

This is what COlt and Vince had. They could improvise. I never felt like a 3rd and 8 (which we saw ALOT of) would be a 1 for 6 chance of converting. NEVER. I always felt we had a good chance to convert. But not now.

I just don’t think Gilbert has ‘it’. I hope I’m wrong. Scipio calling him Mcelroy was spot on. We can still be good with him, but we don’t have the Bama running game either.

So glad you understand the offense, whereas we mere readers, are just your clueless followers. Gosh you know everything about football and the horns offense. Since you know so much, why aren’t you coaching somewhere earning big bucks? Cause you wouldn’t be waisting your time doing this if you really understood an offense.

I actually laughed out loud when the announcers were all confused when Ash went in. I would have expected that from a game day crew that just flew in for the day, and didn’t have any time to really research the teams they were covering. But from the LHN? Give those boys a free subscription to BC and the Cosm before their next game.

Gilbert is the future right now. Ash is the future. McCoy, you cannot judge on two passes. He will get 2 more this week. Ash will get a few more snaps this week. The coaches are building a platform for him, one brick at a time as they say.

Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but there are thousands of people not coaching somewhere that understand an offense. If you’ve played, read, talked, coached and watched for years, you tend to absorb a little. This isn’t atom splitting, it’s a game. It really doesn’t take much more than a ninety IQ to figure it out if you’ve been around it. Really all those confusing sounding plays, audibles, formations and reads would take all of a few hours to figure out for most systems if you have half a brain. Executing them is another matter, but it’s not hard to understand an offense.

Did you notice the subtle but effective alignment on the fling play to Davis? Davis was lined up on the line of scrimmage right in split and they shifted the te to his side The tight end was ineligible due to Davis covering him up but the safety did not pick up on this. Davis runs a fly with single coverage from the corner. He was obviously toast before the play began.

“Some of them just need to go ahead and jump and get over it.">)”

I’ll pack his chute.

I saw plenty to like and what I didn’t like can be fixed. In regards to the ‘one read’ deficiency of Gilbert, that should also be something that can be overcome with scheme; specifically bootlegs. Roll him out and let him read either high (deep post, flag, whatever) or low (drag, out, whatever). Matt Schaub is going to earn people a lot of fantasy points doing just that.

It’s going to be a fun year and we’re all going to learn a lot about the game, even Joey.

John Harris, the redshirt freshman that threw the td pass to Shipley is going to be a special player at Texas. He is a jack of all trades. you may see him in the corner of the endzone jumping for the ball, he high jumped 6 10 in high school. He also can run the option. Seems like everywhere you look on this offense their are playmakers now. What a difference a year makes.

No. If you really understand an offense, then you’re doing more than writing a blog about it. Thinking you understand it by watching TV, when you really don’t, is what makes many look like they don’t have half a brain.

liked what i saw for the most part, a couple of things that stood out to me:

1) GG is incapable of hitting a receiver in stride in his chest on a short/intermediate throw.
2) I would like to see Ash get some non-wildcat snaps, every snap Case gets is a wasted snap of experience for Ash.
3) Keep running wildcat in red zone, GG is not good down there.
4) Like to see Brown on first and second down and Fozzy on third. Brown hits the hole quicker than any back we have had here since Benson. He gets whatever yards are available on every play.
5) Can you imagine the combinations of DJ, Jaxon, Marquis, Fozzy, Davis and Ash running the wildcat?
6) Gideon was terrible again, did any take notice that he was pulled in the 4th for Brewster who played well? I hope this the beginning of the end for Gideon.
7) Must shore up inside run defense quickly

I saw enough to believe HarsinWhite can scheme around our deficiencies on offense. I’m actually a lot more worried about the interior of our DL, but I guess that’s a topic for another Post-Mortem. For the most part, I was pleased with the progress I saw on offense.

I’m really enjoying certain stats coming out of this that tell the story of well deployed talent. I always suspected we had players, so it was really nice of HarsinWhite to confirm the suspicion. Fozzy is a senior and only scored 6 TD’s in his career up to the Rice game. Now, in one game under the new regime, Fozzy scored twice(one run TD, one pass TD). He scored 25 percent of his career touchdowns in one night. He didn’t do it on 30 touches either. He did it on a few plays where he got some space and was given a chance to make a play. That sort of optimization of talent is what BC has been talking about a lot this summer, and it’s good to see some stats bear it out. Part of the optimization is more that just getting players into something they’re good at, i.e. how all the backs were used. It was also by keeping players out of bad situations, or ones they are not good at. Gilbert was not asked to be 80 percent of our offense like Vince or Colt. He was asked to convert some key downs, threaten deep once in awhile with a clean-ish pocket, and hit some high percentage throws in between. We didn’t see him asked to take full charge of the red zone offense. He was relieved of a great deal of pressure and responded favorably by making a decent game with the assignments he was given.

We looked like a Boise-lite offense. I felt like we looked both better and worse than Boise in specific ways. Our playbook was not as diverse as Boise yet, and what we ran of it was kind of sloppy. However, you could see everyone figuring out what we are good and and riffing on it as we settled into the pace. Where we looked better is in some key spots/positions, where there are some explosive skill players that you don’t see at Boise. In short, a reasonable number of athletes with more potential, but not running at peak efficiency like the well oiled machine on the smurf turf.

we converted a 4th and 1 against rice.

we didn’t do that last year.

progress motherfuckers!!!!

4th quarter rushing statistic: 20 carries, 123 yards.

And per the Mothership…Marquise Goodwin is back on board, starting today. Decided not to redshirt after all. Should be interesting to see what Harsin does with him.

What I liked was seeing multiple players used in different ways.

One of the many frustrating issues of seasons past was the fear of showing anything to OU, in order to surprise them with…. what, exactly? There’s no reason not to show flair in the running game early because there are so many uses for the various players that those studying Texas will have a lot on their plate no matter when the game is scheduled.

agree, bobbin aitch. the guys here have been saying that harsin likes to build a mountain of data for our opponents to wade through. i expect to see a good deal more stuff show up between this first game and the shootout, and that that game will be a mix of what has been seen and what has not.

“6) Gideon was terrible again, did any take notice that he was pulled in the 4th for Brewster who played well? I hope this the beginning of the end for Gideon.”

I noticed the same thing. In fact, I remember one play in the 4th where I thought, wow, Gideon just made a great (probably TD saving) tackle on their RB who gashed us up the middle. Then I realized it wasn’t Gideon, it was Brewster. Gideon was also getting abused on those quick WR screens every time they came to his side. His lack of speed, quickness, and ability to consistently tackle in the open field is a giant liability for the D. Nothing against him pesonally, but I just feel we have better to throw out there.

big cringes when the stadium got loud for McCoy on the ’tron. and naturally the place was quiet when Bergeron was bashing heads. watching the game at home is quite underrated.

“right around the mid 3rd quarter, the Longhorns figured it out and were going to score on every possession from then on.”

Much more likely Rice was just worn down by the middle of the 3rd quarter.

“We basically manufactured 500+ yards of offense with smoke and mirrors until the running game took over late.”

Of course this also means that UT had to rely on smoke and mirrors to move the ball for most of the game (until UT wore Rice down with superior depth and conditioning). It would have been much more encouraging if UT could have efficiently moved the ball vs Rice (before they wore out) without smoke and mirrors.
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