2011 Texas-BYU Post Mortem: Defense/Special Teams

waited up for this guy….thanks

Another great article, Scip! You have been money, thus far. You’re in Cali, right? You gonna make it to the game?

I’ve thought that the rapid ascension of Byndom, Diggs, and Phillips has been one of the top few stories of 2011 so far (especially viewed through the play-for-2012-13-lens). If one of Turner, Thompson, Evans, or a recruit-to-be-named-later can take the reins at even a reasonable pace, the backfield is stiggity stacked for 2 more years. I’m sure that Akina has reminded Agholor and Collins that they can play alongside such talent. Lots to be excited about, but that’s the one of the elements that has really stood out to me for whatever reason.

Young DTs and corners have exceeded my expectations by a lot. Randall was very good this week.

I love Hicks, Diggs and Edmond. Those guys make watching our defense and special teams fun again. I especially like watching young guys excel on special teams, like Edmond is now. They are always the guys who start turning heads later in the season and the next season. Byndom was doing it on special teams before he got his shot. But you could tell he was going to be a player.

I don’t think your secondary will be tested until you see some team speed – probably OU. Your pre-game analysis was spot on. The only thing that could have sunk your team would have been a pick 6 or 2. They didn’t have quality depth and their 1st teamers wore down as the game progressed. In the 2nd half the seemed to think they could get somewhere with 3 yard passes. They must have stolen the gameplan from GDGD. If they were going to win they needed to score Td’s in the 1st half and they had to settle for field goals.

Stupid question: Is Mykkele pronounced like “Michael?”

Thanks, Scip, for the rundown!

I love D. So happy the debacles under Robinson and Mac Duff are distant memories. The last few years have been so much fun, and it looks like more will come. I love it when you’re picking from about 10 guys for the BAMF of the D.

Just wanted to say that Saturday night I went back reread your pre game articles. It was like Croesus reading his notes from Delphi. Dead on. Well done.

Thanks for this breakdown, too. I’m reluctantly getting my hopes up that the Diaz defense will arrive full grown by mid re-building season. The ferocious tackling that punctuated good positioning on key downs thrilled. Keep it up as the competition keeps improving, and I think we may have something here.

How much more fun is it to write and read these breakdowns in the new era of assistant coaches? Pretty damn.

You know what’s really scary about this defense? Most of the two deep will be back next fall. We lose two linebackers, but Edmond will replace one of them so we might be better at that spot. Gideon will, finally, be gone, and we can slide Phillips in there or maybe Thompson grabs the job. Only key loss will be Randall, and DT finally looks like a deep area that should be bolstered by MB-2 and some of the colts like DJ and Dorsey and Daniels will have grown up.

Loved watching all the great tackles in the game. Along with everything else, the missed tackles got really frustrating last year. Awesome spirit this game—the D was electric in the 2nd half!

another good report. thank you.

all over this team precocious youngsters are asserting themselves and erasing deficits we thought would be pot holes to knock our wheels off. one last big piece to the puzzle and a couple of real possibilities to scratch that itch. i bet at least one rises to the challenge.

it’s always so comforting to see a talented defense begin to round into shape. really exciting to see.

mykkele is pronounced my-KELL, i think i read somewhere.

Thanks, yeh. For a multitude of mixed metaphors and for answering my question.

Equals your crisp report on the offense. To think the team shut down BYU in the second half to the degree you’ve just described, and did that after already playing long minutes on the field in the first half, to hold up a staggering Texas offense that kept going 3-and-out. Had no idea the D could handle things that well after surely leaving everything on the field already by halftime. Amazing! Tipping my hat to Bennie Wylie and the character of this new bunch!

Enjoy your writing, Scipio!

i aim to pause and i dance like a mover.

now, how is onyegbule pronounced?

I love seeing our corners hit with ferocity against much bigger players. Saw that numerous times in the game (including Harris’s sweet crack back!). It sends a strong message to the other team. I love seeing this young team come together. And I love the accountability that is driving it!

Football is good again. Yahoo!

Thanks for the writeup Scipio. BTW – any recommended blogs for Florida? I’m interested in checking in on what Gator nation thinks of Muschamp.

errr….. Should have said ….. I like seeing our SMALLER players hit with ferocity against……

When Heaps scrambled and hit the wide open huy on 3rd down I thought, “oh shit, touchdown”. Then out of nowhere comes a Texas DB to nail the guy in his tracks. Haven’t seen that since 2005 really. Kanny V owns this unit. You can just tell it, although I think it was his incorrect read to take the inside guy that caused thier only TD. Plug in Josh Turner next year and our secondary is going to be special. Is there such a thing as a 5th year Freshman? Diggs looks like one. They’ll face much tougher receivers down the road but they’ll also be better when they do.

We absolutely took everything they had been doing away from them in the second half. It was incredible how much we improved. Diaz needs to light a fire under JJ’s ass. No more entitlement in this program, Jackson. Way to close the deal, guys!

As to ST’s I’m confused as to what our punting game is trying to accomplish? Straight ahead rugby punts? Do we not have a traditiona punter on our roster?

Oh and Steve Edmond is a grown ass man!

Jeffcoats lack of production is puzzling….A few plays I noticed Jeffcoat would start off standing as an OLB and then stunt around to the middle where he would get swallowed up by the various polynesians and such, just seemed weird. Not sure if we need to give Wilson a few more downs as the Ivoirien Nightmare/pure edge guy.

This… “Goodwin always looks like he’s fighting himself when he’s running…”

My observation was always thinking was cruising in fourth looking or a reason or a seam to change gears. ’Fighting it is a much more succinct descriptor…

Marquise only pawn in game of strife.

Roma Victa -
 
It’s a lot more fun to write. Last year was a beating.
 
topogigio -
 
Check out EDSBS and Alligator Army.

David S FTW on Wylie!

I agree with Jake on the punting question marks. Perhaps its a good week to start getting Ash some punting reps. Then again, would be nice to keep in our pocket until OU (perhaps add during the bye)

Could you imagine how stacked our d-line would have been had Cotton and Bible stayed away from the buffet line and Wylie was here last year?

OPEN FIELD TACKLES! YEEHAW! I’M TYPING IN ALL CAPS BECAUSE I’M TOO EXCITED NOT TO!

I swear that’s the last time I do that until Texas wins its national championship in 2013…

Great synopsis of your D.

It was as good of a all around defensive performance from us that I’ve seen in the past 12 months. It’s been said once before but if you don’t believe we have the top front 7 in the big 12 atm I don’t know what games you’ve been watching…

…. though might we be able to say the same about our 2ndary at the end of the season? The future looks bright inside this tunnel.

I don’t think I’d recognize Carrington Byndom this year over last, even with a haberdasher and cane.

Can’t wait for Saturday. Will I be the lone BC’er at the game?

Don’t want to get too jacked up over 2 wins against unranked opponents but this defense has an incredible amount of athleticism, i.e., speed and strength. I’ve watched some great defensive teams, especially in the late 70s and early 80s, and it’s actually our back 7 who have me amped at this point. Our corners are going to be really good. Now if we can get Jeffcoat’s head on straight, get Wilson integrated into the rotation, and keep getting what has been better than solid production from DT2, this defense is going to be really tough to beat.

diggs is a beast. he’s going to be a superstar corner. can’t believe we offered so late.

and if i recall correctly, he was out of the game for byu’s one td drive. i really only remember 3 throws actually going at diggs, 2 of them short passes in front of him where he made the tackle and the 3rd being the int.

“Goodwin’s track speed doesn’t seem to cleanly translate to the football field nearly as well as DJ’s does.”

Because DJ is quite a bit faster.

I thought our special teams play was really awful. The only thing keeping it fomr being as terrible as usual was that Steve Edmond is Grendel. He makes out kickoff coverage look much better. The punting was atrocious. The return game in the first half was a nightmare. We were a little lucky not to be down by 3 TDs at the end of the first quarter because of the holes our ST put us in. That really cannot happen against better teams.

Is Ash a traditional style punter? If so, then we ought to give him a shot. He cannot be worse than what we are getting. Unfortunately, punting is going to be kind of important with this team.

UTexex said " because dj is quite a bit faster"

Texassports.com:
 D.J. Monroe runs personal best 60 meter (6.76) @ 2011 Big XXII Track Championship
Marquise Goodwin runs personal best 60 meters (6.72) @ 2011 Big XXII Track Championship
Hummm. Seems they both are pretty (quick/fast)

I think they are using the rugby style punt to buy time getting the team down the field, i think he avg. 41 yards a punt in the byu game. i dont have a stat sheet in front of me so i could be wrong. they say Ash is a real good punter. Would be cool, I remember Danny White playing Qb and punting for the Cowboys back in the day, A running/ passing threat, he could pin that ball in a corner.

After Rice Diaz was talking about some guys on the D not “trusting the system” and I’m wondering if they were going to “jell.” From my understanding it was about a player picking a way to go and the guy behind him covering him. It sounded like a lot of coordination was needed in the D and I wondered how long it would take the players to figure it out. Then I saw it in the second half, particularly in the 4th quarter. It was like the whole team was coordinated into a unit. A couple of times we put on a rush, the qb got rid of the ball on a short pass and it looked like it was going for a big gain but someone came up and stopped the receiver in his tracks. It was beautiful and you knew BYU couldn’t do a thing. The system was working and it rocks!

Edmonds is that legendary Rolling Ball of Butcher Knives. With a Pimp-Slap attachment.

UT’s young defense is impressive, but BYU presented UT with limited challenges regarding playmaking from the RB and short passing game and little threat of longer throws. These early results are promising, but none of the Horns opponents prior to OU will bring that combination to the table.

The OL’s development, especially running the ball, is the most impressive advance. UT will learn a lot about OU’s ability to handle a power running game this weekend, I think.

Don"t forget Josh Turner showing up and getting a good lick in on a tackle. Turned the guy upside down.

I think what you are seeing with Goodwin is a track guy who has a finely tuned track and field running style who now must carry a ball and wear pads. Pads and a ball are not conducive to high efficiency running mechanics. His speed is reliant on technique to some extent. Even so he is definitely has the football speed to burn people.

“Don"t forget Josh Turner showing up and getting a good lick in on a tackle. Turned the guy upside down.”

I think the announcer had a bum roster. 17 (Phillips) made that tackle. I did not see Turner in the game on defense.

I see what you see on Jeffcoat. I also think he is not really physically developed yet. He needs another year in the weight room – had trouble keeping guys off his body.

For a DE to lose contain 3 times in just one game is really bad, especially when you consider that his dad was a great DE for many years in the NFL and taught his son well. On one play where Jeffcoat lost contain vs BYU, he guessed that the runner was going to cut inside instead of just staying headup with his blocker to keep his options open. It was just terrible technique.

The personal foul was basically a turnover. The drive was stopped but Jeffcoat’s easily avoidable foul kept it alive. Unbelievably stupid play. Compounding this, Jeffcoat gave his DL coach some attitude when he came to the sideline and the DL coach was chewing Jeffcoat out.

It is time for Jeffcoat senior to give his son a refresher course in NFL quality DE technique and attitude.

It was great to see the defense stay resilient, and really turn it up in the second half. I really like what Kenny V brings to the table—he’s definitely a gamer.

Just last week Goodwin got back into pads for the first time this year so there’s some rust to knock off.

Having said that, DJ screwed up the one kickoff return while Goodwin had a 40 yard kickoff return. Goodwin has already passed up DJ on the kick returner depth chart, most likely because he has better hands and better judgement.

DJ has a subtle high speed move (the same move that Jamaal Charles had) that discombobulates would be tacklers. I haven’t seen Goodwin do that move.

speed is really hard to judge.

some years ago i was sitting in the stands waiting for practice to begin, and numerous players were running on the track that used to encircle the field. i looked for lam jones and was disappointed that he was loafing — until i watched him blow past several players who were absolutely sprinting. the really fast ones make it look so easy.

With all the talk about Bible and Howell, it is just good to see someone step into the role. Ashton Dorsey, come on down! Coming out of high school, I remember both of them being highly touted and just about neck-and-neck for #1 and #2 ranked in the state. Good to see one of them produce.

I noticed Jeffcoat losing contain as well. I didn’t know if that was part of the scheme, if he was looking inside for a reason knowing someone else had contain. Sounds like me first impression was right. Keep your outside shoulder free Jackson! I think the worst part about the times I saw was that it was in the 1st half when we needed the D to get off the filed but just couldn’t.

LBs were great. BYU tried to run up the middle but there was a big pile every time. If my eyes didn’t deceive me I saw Keenan fill a gap fast and mean. He didn’t make the tackle but he definitely made the play. Then in the 2nd half it was tle LBs swatting balls and almost coming up with INTs.

I agree that it will be interesting to see what will happen we they face more speed, but Byndom and Diggs were like glue on Saturday both in coverage and tackling. Didn’t notice Vaccaro, but as you said it was because they didn’t throw to his man. Hook’em.

Well, nobody knows better than Whaley how to destroy a promising running game.

I bet he’s secretly passing Ho Hos to the other team at the line of scrimmage.

I really like the way this season is unfolding. My expectations were for a 8 to 10 win season, which were high, but reasonable. I now feel that’s very doable if our QBs can play within themselves and not rush to judgment. The defense is going to keep us in just about every game. If we can get through @UCLA, @ Iowa State and in Dallas vs OU with two more victories, this team will be flying high going into 3 game home stretch.

They’re young and they will stumble, but the “feeling” from this team is fresh.

fyi, almost puked on the booty juice filtered through bunion pads. Your Id resides in the darkest of the blackest hole in the universe.

Uh, no, Goodwin beats him at both the 60 and 100 (the x in his 10.3x 100m is marginally smaller than Monroe’s 10.3x 100m).

But I do think it’s true that Monroe seems to have the shake-n-bake moves down a little more pat. Defenders know this and realize they must slow a little more than they do with Goodwin, to be sure he doesn’t juke ’em, and thus it seems that Monroe is faster than Goodwin on the field.

It might also be that because Goodwin is approaching the speed of light by a slightly smaller margin, his mass is increasing slightly more than Monroe’s as a result. This has the effect of drawing defenders toward him via gravity.

(I believe Einstein had much to say on this topic in a 1927 paper discussing Bronko Nagurski.)

Great stuff. I think the 2010 Horns lose that game by 30.

:Process wise, I saw two coordinators who figured out how to win an ugly game with what they had at hand. This is just huge. Gold stars and smiley faces for them all around.

This game was partially won before the season started. You have a tougher team now. We were getting handled physically and the Horns decided there was a street fight going on and they better get in it.

Overall I saw a kind of what hockey players call grit and I didnt really expect much of that until about late October. I expect plenty of setbacks still but I think the mindset has really changed. BYU is a pretty stout team full of grown ass men and I think that will prove out the rest of the year.

This is a foundation building season and it looks like some of the pieces are getting into place much faster than I thought possible, especially on defense.

In reading about Diaz’s schemes over the summer, I imagined some kind of risky, gambling, berzerker-type defense that would be susceptible to being gashed for big plays on blown assignments—or rather, due to a lack of clear assignments.

Thankfully, that’s not what we’re seeing… at all. In fact, what has been most astounding about this defense is that despite the huge multiplicty of looks that it gives and the wildly varying assignments that players have from play-to-play, we somehow always end up with three or four helmets immediately converging on the ball.

Example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bb2v2N536oE#t=1h51m06s

With 12:43 left in the game, BYU on 3rd and 9 runs the draw to DiLuigi who is immediately forced wide as Acho sheds his block and ends up getting hit simultaneously by Byndom, Brewster and Gideon at the sideline for a measly, three-yard gain. Note where Gideon comes from to make it in on the play… off-side hash, 12 yards off the LOS… He starts making a bee line to the tackle spot at the snap like he was stealing BYU’s sideline signals. Brewster comes from the other deep safety spot and Byndom sheds his receiver’s block with ease. Result: Three helmets at the ball at the same time. With Acho close as well.

Note as well that BYU had two receivers lined up on the off-side, including a slot receiver covered by Hicks (I think). With Gideon bailing immediately, the slot receiver could have caused huge trouble, but Hicks stayed in front of him and prevented an inside release.

It’s some kind of wicked magic, but it seems to be working so far.

I was excited that the DBs looked as good as they did. Same feeling as in 2008 with a bunch of youngsters and it turned out to be Earl Thomas and the Browns dominating.

I think Goodwin’s issue is reading the field. On a screen he caught, he got 3 yds by jumping over a defender who was on the ground. If he would have run diagonally to the center of the field, he would have gained 5-10 yds at least.

Hey Scipio, on some of those Jeffcoat plays where you say he lost contain I’m suspicious that he was actually stunting inside and leaving outside contain to Hicks or whomever was positioned out there. I also noticed that he stunted inside on one play, submarined a guard and held up a tackle and freed Robinson to make a tackle for loss.

Do you remember the contain plays? I didn’t watch them carefully the first time around so I’m sure I could be wrong. To be certain, he didn’t make that much noise in the pass-rush but I’m curious to see what will happen when we play Big 12 teams that use less max protect and try to stop him and Oak with just their tackles and maybe an RB.

Nickel Rover, the one play I remember for Jeffcoat, he was not stunting. He was engaged with the Tackle on the outside but he wasn’t putting out much effort to contain the back. The back got around him and went for about 5-8 yards. I wondered if contain was his responsibility just because he didn’t seem to make a point of containing.

So I’m guessing Okafor won’t be breaking any sack records this year…

@Scipio:

Great read, but what the hell was BYU exploiting on our defensive right early in the first half? Repeatedly, they went off-tackle or threw back to the RB on play action, all into the same spot, i.e., curl zone, defensive right.

I’m asking this from memory, I may put on the tape and see that it was nothing.

New here and love this site – thanks to all who make it so. To comment on Jeffcoat, I have watched the BYU game 3 times now (much to my wife’s chagrin!) and can’t help but notice what I see as a complete lack of effort and motivation from him throughout the course of the game. My DVR got exercised on several plays where he was almost always last off the line, first to stand up and last to “fall” on the already down back.
Agree also with Monahorns comments. As a fan of Jackson and his father, I hope this is isolated (sick, dog died, case of the runs, etc) and not related to something else that our oppenents will without fail expose in the coming weeks.

Im friends with david ash, and he said garrett is out of the battle. jkjkjk i dont really know but i really am friends with david ash.

Great writeup. We saw the same game. I liked two of the points you made.

First, the linebackers in coverage. BYU’s tests were two fold: physicality which you’ve talked about often, and schematic. The schematic test was their short passing game. They attack linebackers and safeties in coverage and their run game. Their wideouts are average, so their short passing game goes to Luigi and their tight ends. They got a cheap td and a long drive where their short game was clicking, but otherwise we stoned them.

Second, you spelled out well what Robinson gives us in the middle. You said this:

“He covers a hell of a lot of ground when he takes his drops and it must be irritating for a QB to look at our defense’s pre-snap shifts and know that we can still cover out of 6 man fronts or blitz out of 3.”

This flexibility is the stuff that the Diaz schemes thrive on. Later in the season, that confusion will lead to sacks and turnovers. With some of our earlier coordinators, when they saw “tweener”, that guy would typically eat themselves out of a position, or get buried on the depth chart. Diaz reads it as “hybrid”, and he uses that position to give him flexibility and confuse blocking assignments to get mismatches and penetration. Everyone does this to some extent with big nickel packages and rush linebackers.

Only with Diaz, you can see it at every level. Up front, we use the same twists and zone drops that everyone else does. We also will play linemen out of a two point stance and linebackers out of three. We’re not afraid to swap roles to beat a blocker.

We do the same thing across linebackers. With Robinson in there, you never knew what he was going to do. He almost had a pick and got another excellent pass breakup. His picks are coming.

The tackling ability of our corners and secondary let us play some strange games with assignments. He was letting his DEs give up outside leverage a time or two and getting contain with his corners, rotating a safety over the top with a linebacker underneath. He was also playing alignment games with Vaccaro.

Once Cobbs is in, he will give us yet another hybrid. Now, the roster is full of them, and we’re using them to maximum advantage.

I think we’re just scratching the surface.

Great write up. It is nice to be moving into week 3 with Jackson Jeffcoat’s play being one of the biggest question marks. I have little doubt that he will turn things around quickly. Each week that the defense spends more time gaining faith in the scheme and overall confidence makes this a potentially very scary unit.

Thanks for putting mine and others’ into proper perspective, Big Ern. Well said.

Nickel -
 
Jeffcoat clearly had inside gap responsibilities on some plays and contain went to a corner or safety. So no worries. I did see plays where he clearly had contain where he tried to gap the tackle and make a tfl instead of play his assignment. One of them on a pass rush, two on run plays (only one was punished, on the other the back messed up). Didn’t note the times as I was just trying to get through the game.
 
spider -
 
BYU was clearing our zone and running our defenders out of it, then hitting a crossing WR or late releasing TE or RB. Heaps also just made some nice throws. Once we got used to the play action, it settled down. Going more man in the 2nd half helped too.

Scipio, I’m sure you are right. I think his play overall is getting a little more criticism than it deserves but his lack of pass rush success or overall playmaking has been mildly disturbing.

Scip—-watch Reggie Wilson string out the TE (GL) on the upside down tackle by CB. Damn I love watching the game played right.

Can we afford aligning 88, 73, and 79 in front of that foreign style punter—-they ain’t exactly my idea of point or contain specialists and we are down to six once you throw in the hupper.

By the way—-other than a couple of “I saw it the other way’s” you did good—-real good.

TexasFootball -
 
Thanks. Always great to hear from you.
 
Big Reggie Wilson fan too. I’m curious as to why he’s not getting more snaps as #3 DE.
 
Yeah, I don’t get what we’re doing on punts at all. I don’t like having non-tacklers on the field.

love the writeup. in regards to goodwin, a lot of his sluggishness is due to the fact that he isn’t in football shape. i know from experience that you can be in great aerobic shape but when its hot and you get hit in football it can sap all your energy immediately. one good run in pads for the first time then contact can take your legs right out from under you, his legs looked dead after his first return to me, he will get faster, trust me…

“now, how is onyegbule pronounced?”

ON-yuh-BOO-lay

thank you, hooked. i’ve been wondering.

Scipio Tex —

Many thanks for your outstanding football analysis and post mortems, professor.

I have never cut this class.

Really proud of this D so far…bigger tests to come though

Scipio,

On the Goodwin speed question I’m not sure he is fighting it but I do see your point. I don’t think it’s “football shape” because I saw some examples last year.

I think it’s simply a matter of Monroe being more agile and having better moves. That clearly applies more to football than track. When they hit their top gear both are two of the fastest players in the country.

Also, neither are world class sprinters (Goodwin is a world class long jumper obviously).