Texas-Cal Football Post Mortem: Defense

I couldn’t be more proud of our D

Good breakdown. Just to flash back to the beginning of the season, remember when some heretics doubted BC predictions that Texas would have the best front seven in the conference? WHO IS LAUGHING NOW?

Eagerly awaiting the 2012 look-ahead.

wow,just wow…hook em.in 2012………………………………….first

Next year’s D could be the D that would have saved Greg Davis’s job in 2010…thank the lord it didn’t exist in 2010!

Perfect choice of soundtracks for this defensive post-mortem. Percussive, dialed-in, jubilant.

Texas was solid in carrying out assignments. When a defense is that fundamentally sound, players are freed to not just tackle but put some shots on the opponent. That is what we saw play after play Wednesday night.

Hard to believe we were concerned about the young DT’s and corners after their performance in this game and through most of the second half of the season. Talented players adequately conditioned and coached will develop.

I agree that this defense could be scary in 2012.

4thn5 -
 
I must have just saved myself the trouble and written that. Agreed.
 
bigdukesix -
 
Ha. Yes. I do recall that. Game threads were particularly awesome whenever an opposing back would run for five yards. WHERE IS THAT FRONT 7 NOW, SCIPIOASS!? Good times.

Great write up Scip!!!

“…as we’ll miss players like Keenan Robinson, Kheeston Randall, and Emmanuel Acho,”

noticed you didn’t include Gideon. =P

Great read Scip.

Interested to hear your thought on Demarco Cobbs’ role next year. In the limited amount of snaps I saw from him in the game it appears to me that he brings a similiar flexibility to the defense as Kenny V. It looked like he was shot out of a cannon on blitzes, and in my estimation wouldn’t have any trouble running with most receivers. I don’t see us losing anything on obvious passing situations with him in there.

My only concern is his physicality against the run. His pursuit seems ok, but how is he at the point of attack ?

I have to say, having lived with years of Bull Reese’s blitz everyone but the safeties philosophy, I still gnash my teeth a bit when we bring more than four. Diaz has made me a believer again.

That’s funny. I had almost forgotten how much the fans were shitting on our defense at the beginning of the season. LOL.

The most promising thing about this year’s effort is how much we improved at every position throughout the year. That’s what makes me think we might be around the corner from something special . . .

That said, hats off to the seniors, who provided much of the leadership that made this year’s effort so special.

What’s not to love about this Killer D? The future is indeed bright and to your list – I anxiously await seeing what Cobbs, Malcom Brown and B Moore being to the table.
These DBs are light years ahead of where I thought they would be.
Thanks for the great write up.

Thanks for this. Momentum is indeed a treacherous bitch; and while I would have preferred a blowout(job), the pancakes were delicious.

Great write up as usual.

This defensive performance has me very excited for next season. It gives me some solace regarding the sputtering offense and question mark at QB. I know our OL will get better, our RBs will be healthy, and our WRs will be be healthy and better just because the running game will be better.

With a Top 5 defense, all we need is our QB to do what Ash did last night. Not screw the pooch. Our running game paired with a dominating defense will get us 10 wins, easily. If our QB situation improves better than most hope, then a BCS game, and maybe NC game is not out of the question. Realistic, in fact.

If we can get a couple of pleasant recruiting surprises by signing day, I think we could be making a special run over the next 3 years. Even if we don’t get those two, we’re in for some good times ahead.

That was a great defensive effort last night and a corresponding Post Mortem.

I think my favorite Jordan Hicks play from last night was his pass defended near a sideline, which he almost picked off. E Acho had a similar play too. Cal got some yards early on but as the game wore on the D got meaner and meaner!

Looking forward to 2012.

Even Sasha Grey would be terrified of this D.

If it hadn’t been Cal on the receiving end of that beatdown, I might have even enjoyed watching such a clinical and dominant performance.

Great write up. The D was fun to watch in this game. Against Baylor not so much. I am not yet ready to declare this D to be championship calibre. Rather I can only say with confidence that I expect more from the D next year than I do from the O. Will it be enough? Only time will tell.

Scip,

I think you’re at your funniest when you’re pissed (ie bye week postmortem last year and the bovani jones piece), but I love your writing when you’re ecstatic. It’s infectious.

You provided fantastic all season, and every season prior since you started. With the exception of InsideTexas now that they have JS and TG, I don’t think a single paysite is worth their asking price. With that in mind, I feel like I’m stealing from BC to be able to read for free the excellent writing put out by Nickel, Sailor, srr50, and especially you. Thanks for all the great reads and happy New Year.

This is music to my ears.

Nice job, Scipio.

Scip,

I think you’re at your funniest when you’re pissed (ie bye week postmortem last year and the bovani jones piece), but I love your writing when you’re ecstatic. It’s infectious.

You provided fantastic reading all season, and every season prior since you started. With the exception of InsideTexas now that they have JS and TG, I don’t think a single paysite is worth their asking price. With that in mind, I feel like I’m stealing from BC to be able to read for free the excellent writing put out by Nickel, Sailor, srr50, and especially you. Thanks for all the great reads and happy New Year.

Great write up as always. Thanks for all you do Scip! Our depth in the secondary has to be one of the best, if not the best, in the country. Evans and Phillips will be great players coming in 2012…count on it. Hopefully Byndom stays after next season but I take comfort in the fact that we have one more year to develop a substitute in case he does leave early. Kenny V deserves a lot of respect for coming back and turning down the money. Okafor staying really makes our DL solid across the board next year. I think Cobbs, Edmond, and Hicks will be great next season. Manny now has a full offseason to develop these 3 into a solid LB corp. I’d say this D will be a top 3, if not the best, D in the country in 2012.

Scip,

Where can I email you at? Have some Houston area things to run by you.

WestCoaster,

+1 on the Sasha Grey dig…however, I dare to say she isn’t scared of anything. FTW…literally

Sorry for the double posts. Was writing on my phone and I thought I had stopped the first one from posting so I could correct an error I noticed. Apparently not.

If Vaccaro and Okafor really do come back (not just pillow talk following a big win) the 2012 defense will be the best under Mack Brown.

The secondary alone will be filthy and arguably better than the 2005 squad.

The Huskies did okay against RGIII, but allowed Baylor to run (RUN!) for almost 500 yards. That shit gets DCs fired.

As a hybrid Husky/Longhorn fan, I couldn’t help but imagine how good a team with UW’s offense and Texas’ defense would be. Of course, there would also be a leftover team with UW’s defense and Texas’ offense. I nominate Tyrone Willingham to coach that one.

Enjoyed the write up and the mention of Gideon. Haven’t always been impressed with his play, but a definet hat tip for playing in his last bowl game with a broken arm. Kid has balls if not blazing speed.
Excited about next years progress on D, thoroughly enjoyed the game. Mack’s right, 8-5 tastes a hell of a lot better than 7-6. I wasn’t on Location and very happily killed a fifth of Crown Black. Way to play D
Hook em!

What to expect in 2012- K. Vaccaro at spring drills or NFL draft?

Oh, interesting anecdote. Vaccaro did some interning for one of my closest friends in Austin. (Not the Rhett Bomar kind). In conversations my friend had with Kenny it was looking like Kenny might go to The League if he could go first or second round. My buddy’s in Finance and was able to provide some advice in that regard also. My opinon is that the jury is still wide open on what Vaccaro does.
Obviously, I can’t post exact specifics on the conversations, but I have given the gist. For what it’s worth…

I thought it was funny when some not-to-be-named posters were cursing Kenny for the early personal foul. I thought it was a questionable call, and Kenny plays smart, IMO. He plays hard, all of the time, and if he gets called for a PF, it’s early in the game. The receiver has the entire game to listen for his footsteps.

His hits pay dividends. The intensity of the entire team seemed to change after that flag. It was like they thought someone ‘done’ their boy wrong. I was laughing at some of the good ole boy’s comments on here.

This defense is the bully that steals your lunch money, and then gives you a wedgie and leaves you hanging on the fence. The other kids aren’t going to want to walk through our neighborhood on the way to school.

How many of you remember when Westbrook’s secondary had more tackles than the linebackers?

While I feel that our D deserves all the credit in the world for making this season semi-respectable (that’s respectable by college football standards, not by Texas football standards), it’s hard for me to believe that the ceiling on this team is any better than 9-10 wins max next year. We will be bringing a talented class in, but again will rely on pups that generally need 1-2 years in the S&C system before they are ready to contribute and deal with a season of pounding (see Jaxon, Malcom, and Joe).

I really am concerned about the QB position going forward. What is the story for 2012?
1) Case all the way? Or is he even around to be in the conversation after not getting a snap in the bowl game?
2) Ash? Can we really expect 140ish yards and no turnovers getting us to 10 wins? Because I have seen zero upside (other than his athleticism) as far as developing as a QB over the season.
3) Conner? We’re really going to roll the dice on a true fresh two years in a row?
4) Is Overstreet even in the picture?

My New Years Resolution is to sport power bunions like Cody Johnson at the beach this summer.

Good writeup, Scip. I agree with Juice that you’re funnier when you’re pissed, just not 2x funnier. Aren’t Marvin Jones and Keenan Allen 2/5ths of the Temptations?

Thanks for the words and thoughts, Scip. You are the best!

What would be your greatest defensive concern for 2012? (Assuming we don’t lose one of the juniors to the League).

Next year’s LB … big Steve should be great against power running teams but how will he do against all the spreads and quicker teams … is he too heavy, ie, is he quick enough laterally? And Cobbs looked fine on a couple of blitzes but he’s almost like a safety instead of a LB size-wise … he’ll do fine against passing teams and as a blitzer but how about against the run?

But then I think back to the start of this year, when many of us were worried about whether a 2nd DT would step up, and whether our young corners were up to the task, and events proved we were wrong to worry, so here’s hoping Manny finds a way with the 2012 LBs.

I shudder to think what our defense does to our offense during closed scrimmages.

“Just not 2x funnier”

Well played. Shouldn’t post on my phone and drive.

Thanks for the write-up, and couldn’t agree more with your points. Phillips and Evans in particular had me drooling when I think of what we can be defensively next season. Our D next year is going to be F-I-L-T-H-Y.

Nice read and excellent analysis.

Great stuff as usual. That series after the punt return was just incredible. 35 yards of field position and gimme the ball too.

Maybe its the orange tinted shades but I don’t remember many more satisfying bowl wins outside BCS games. The Horns really laid a foundation for a nice 2012.

If you are just looking at how this was done and don’t get too caught up in the final score I think Texas really played a tremendous game. Exactly what we had to have.

Scip – great write-up. I’ll just echo the general sentiment and say that I was very impressed and love the way these guys played. It was remarkable to watch them speaking to each other out there and making the same calls at the same time pre-snap…Manny has taught them well. They were almost playing with one mind – which is something spectacular to watch.

Dr UCLA – Case is gone, man. I trust in the Humidor post on InsideTexas today and his tweet in response to Diggs: Quandre crowd-sourced whether he should switch to 6 or stay with 28 for next year, and Case responded that 6 was all his. Yes, I know, they can both be 6, but doesn’t bode well for his staying.

Stellar as always, Scip. A year ago, I would have never guessed that we upgraded when Diaz took over for Muschamp, but I believe we have.

Great write-up . . . great game.

I thought last year’s defense would be one for the ages and was sorely disappointed. Granted, Texas’ horrid offense took a lot of starch out of those guys by the end of the season, much like the respective units did in 91. So this year’s performance exceeded my expectations by far.

I thought this team played both pass and run with equal effectiveness. In fact, I thought this defense played the run better than the 2009 defense. Which brings up this question . . . How would this defense have fared against Alabama in the BCS game.

Could the Tide have gashed this defense like it did that Horn defense?

Cricket, I’m tickled to death to have Manny and love what I see from him schematically and during games on the sidelines. But Will recruited hard every year he was here and he left Manny a nice foundation to work with this year. That counts—-as Bryan Harsin would attest.

Beautiful piece, Scip. The Hicks breakthrough and once again seeing Adrian playing completely healthy open up a nice toolbox for Diaz for the back 7.

Oh, and I’ll never look at concord grape juice in the same way again.

hg03 -
 
Great question. Cobbs strikes me as a run blitz/edge stunt disruptor instead of someone that’s going to meet a pulling guard and drive him back into the hole. He can also handle TEs and RBs in coverage, which is a nice complement to Diaz’s fire zones.
 
Cobbs can run, he can cover, and he has the kind of athletic ability that leads to scores on strips and picks. I’m sure Manny is eager to find a role for him. We’re going to play 16-18 guys starter snaps next year and Cobbs will be one of them.
 
Colby -
 
That’s the beauty of zone blitzing when you trust your LBs in coverage – you get the feel of a full on blitz without having to commit crazy numbers.
 
alphahydro -
 
It took a little while for the schemes to take, but yeah, our fan base can be a little impatient. A full year under our belts and an experienced secondary means we hit the ground running in 2012. Bank on it.
 
JP -
 
I have zero read on what Brandon Moore will bring besides big bodyness. Anxious to get the Spring feedback on his abilities.
 
Texoz -
 
Gray running Wildcat will bring back a nice dimension to our offense and it’s not unreasonable to expect improvement across the board in every unit. I’d say the trend line is good if we coach and develop at our potential.
 
Monahorns –
 
He definitely showed something there. I’d meant to mention that in the post-mortem. Thanks.
 
Westcoaster -
 
Can’t thank you enough for your insights on the game. Sorry for the loss and I hope Cal gets it together next year.
 
burntorangejuice -
 
Thanks! You’ve been a valued reader for a log time and I appreciate the nice words. Glad you enjoy our stuff. Seeing the site grow has been a lot of fun.
 
ST Law -
 
Feel free to drop me a line at paul.wadlington@sbnation.com
 
Redmond -
 
Count the number of Huskies in the box and the number of DBs y’all had on the field. Baylor ran the ball at will because RGIII is the QB. He created the running game. Just like VY did, just like Cam did. When he graduates, Baylor’s backs suddenly have statistics that look a lot more human.
 
OilField Horn -
 
I agree. No question Blake is committed to the team and he played through quite a bit of pain.
 
java -
 
I agree. The bottom line is that if you want to play aggressive defense, you’re going to get personal fouls from time to time. I see it as the cost of doing business. Now if we’re getting personals for asinine stuff or taunting after the whistle on 3rd and 14, well, that’s a discipline issue. But if our guys body slam a runner during the echo of the whistle, I’m just going to shrug. I want football with an edge. Not robots.

I don’t have much hope of Kenny V returning. I got into a pissing match here with somebody about this last week or before who wasn’t as pantheony on him as I, but I maintain that his Victorinox-level versatility, at the college level, makes him as much or more valuable than pure coverage badasses at corner. The guy’s basicallly an LB who can cover slot WR’s. That’s sick and unique among any DB that’s been to the 40 acres since….uh…..Lee Jackson or something.

Java,

SMARTEST POST EVER!

He plays hard, all of the time, and if he gets called for a PF, it’s early in the game. The receiver has the entire game to listen for his footsteps.

mjohn713

I loved how we pretty much made Cal tap out. It was "just" a two score game with 2-4 minutes left but I didn’t really see Cal go to a super hurry up or take any desperate measures to win. It felt like more than an 11 point lead to me, and Cal must have felt the same way.

Jake -

I agree that you can’t discount the talent with which you have to work, but it appears that Diaz simplifying the scheme somewhat has allowed our guys to play with an aggessiveness that we haven’t seen in quite some time. We’re punishing offenses with our physical play and not giving up that initial scoring drive that seemed to be a hallmark of Muschamp during his time in Austin.

A side benefit of that DT depth is we can use guys like Whaley (and perhaps M. Brown) in selected situations like goal-line, three-TE or other jumbo packages.

Dr. ucla-LONGHORN,

If we had a 6’6 DGB out there tonight those two throws to Mike D would have been caught and even possibly the throw to Marquis. It wouldn’t have been out of the realm of possibility that Ash could have thrown for 300 yards last night with no turnovers. As former President of the David Ash Sucks I am now drinking optimistic sips of Kool-Aid.

mjohn713
www.insidetexas.com

Cricketslayer,

You forgot to mention we’re not giving up those 3rd and 20’s either.

Longhorn in Canada -
 
That made me laugh.
 
Dr UCLA-Longhorn -
 
I’ll discuss offense in the offense post-mortem. I definitely see this as a 10+ win team next year.
 
Dmitri -
 
I wanted to weave in a Pulp Fiction reference where John Travolta accidentally shoots Marvin in the face and Kenny Vaccaro is Winston Wolfe, but I couldn’t pull it off.
 
edsp -
 
Aside from losing Vaccaro, my biggest concern for next year’s team is probably experience at LB. Acho and Robinson played a lot of football for us.
 
bullzak -
 
The win was surprisingly satisfying. I went into the game sort of with a “let’s see what happens” attitude and I got sucked in pretty quickly. By the end, I was calculating 2012 depth charts.
 
desert fox -
 
I actually think there’s a strong argument to be made for playing a base nickel with Edmond playing ILB and giving him only tackle to tackle responsibilities. Of course, Steve may just show up in August weighing 283, so who knows?
 
For his size, Edmond moves really well laterally and has good instincts and that’s all you need if the guys around you are all cover types.
 
ndawg -
 
Our D should abuse our O, but it will be good for them. Sort of like training with BJ Penn every day and then fighting a random drunk on 6th street.
 
Cricket –
 
That’s an interesting thought. Honestly, Manny should thank Will for leaving the cupboard stocked. GD and Mack weren’t so kind to Harsin and Applewhite.
 
cirque de salado -
 
Thanks! I thought our D played pretty well against Bama in ‘09, but if you’re talking pure run stopping, I think this year’s unit certainly had better LB play. The ‘09 DL was nastier and more athletic overall, IMO. This secondary is better in run support though. I’d say it’s comparable overall.
 
Jake –
 
Already replied along similar lines before reading your reply. Good stuff.

Arriviste -
 
I’m in your camp on Kenny’s abilities. Interesting to see if he can stick to his word when the agents come sniffing around.

Thanks Scip, Great write up as always. Writing about the D must be very satisfying. Hopefully, watching Manny’s defense will get Mario E excited about being a Longhorn. I know I would want to play on a D like that. Even if he does,’t go our way, with what we saw on Wednesday and with what we got coming in, everyone should be pretty feeling good about next year. A long wait though.

I see next yr’s team to be similar to bama ’09 squad …dominant defense, power running game , and a qb that does not turn the ball over and manages the game . Definite recfor success.

Whether it will be a 10 win season or bcs appearance will depend on how improved our OL and QB play is.

Defenses like ours will be a far cry from what Patterson and Holgorson have seen. Their entry into the Big 12, even on a down year, will be traumatic, I predict.

interesting on the idea of a base nickle… cobbs hicks and vaccaro slot? or do we need to keep that mLB like steve edmond to eat up blocks vs run?

agree with monahorns, amazing to see how much range in coverage our linebackers had. and better than in 06-7 when it would be the DTs as the only ones running down plays on the sideline

Cricket, I’m tickled to death to have Manny and love what I see from him schematically and during games on the sidelines. But Will recruited hard every year he was here and he left Manny a nice foundation to work with this year. That counts—as Bryan Harsin would attest.

That counts a lot. I’m a Diaz fan but I don’t think he’s got this defense playing over its head as much as he has it playing up to its talent level. If this isn’t one of the top five most talented defenses in the country it’s pretty damn close.

“Momentum, that treacherous bitch, returned with profuse apologies and made us pancakes.” – That is terrific writing scipio.

I agree with the poster above about our D versus our O in practice being a massacre. I wonder what rating the LHN will have to put on those this spring. NC17 perhaps?

I’m excited to watch our LBs next year. I think Edmonds will be great after spending 8 months with Bennie, and I think the combination of Cobbs, Jackson and Hicks give us some great athletes at the position.

I also believe our secondary is about to be really good and the deepest we have had in a while.
  
FWIW, a relative of Vacarro with years of membership and single digit posts at Orangebloods, started a thread earlier this week stating that Vacarro had decided with his mother to stay for his senior year. Of course, it is a fluid situation that can be swayed by agents driving Range Rovers.

What a great game by Hicks, the kind of performance we have all been waiting for. Diaz deserves every penny of his salary, and half of Mack and Harsin’s.

More great work to add to your impressive body of what is now a tremendous retelling of Longhorn history.

Big picture, this season was exactly what it needed to be. Look at the process, and we became what we were looking for. Sure there were mistakes, beatdowns, unfortunate injuries and a number of casualties/transfers, but the output is exactly the team we want to go into next year with.

Ash can be what we need with enough practice snaps and coaching. RB should be a strength. Next year OL and WR are the big question marks, with TE in the mix as well. DL and DB look great and LB has enough talent to not be too great a drop off. If next years freshmen have half the impact of this years batch, we are in great shape.

Despite the pain of last year, it is a great time to be a Longhorn fan.

I realize Cal was unbanked, but that still was one of the best defensive performances I have watched by a Texas team. I was one of the loudest Coach Boom proponents and still believe Muschamp’s smash-mouth style is as good as any HC/DC in the NCAA. That said, I could not be more satisfied with Diaz’ bend-don’t-break game. Kudos Mr. Diaz!

Unranked

Thanks, mjohn713 and Scipio. I love KennyV’s intelligence, athleticism, energy, and leadership. I can certainly see why his mom would want him to stay another year, particularly with his younger brother here.

If he stays, I say KennyV for the Thorpe.

Hook ’em!

Glad to see you agree about Pussy Soufflé. After a couple of hard hits, he learned to bounce it outside like he did in high school.

You know, West Coast style.

Scip -

I missed the first half, and only got to see the game from the start of the offensive possession that led to the series you described above. I had the same fears, except I was a little more optimistic than you were. Watching the results after the punt just made me laugh, and made me think of comparing our D to the bully who steals your lunch money.

After that series I had no worries watching the rest of the game. Much better than the last game I watched down here in Mexico, which was in January of 2010. I got so drunk watching the second half of that one that I barely got back to the boat.

java, I want to see Kenny win it if he comes back, but his primary competition may also be wearing burnt orange. Byndom is a special talent and, like Scipio, I don’t think he’s even scratched the surface of what he can do. I wonder if a school has ever had two finalists for the award. Nice problem to have, IMO.

Of course, Little QJ ain’t too shabby either. He absolutely levitated on the INT. Awesome athleticism!

agreed with all your observations, but especially with your comments on LBs. It was a pleasure to watch them in the latter half of the year and on Wed. All the pieces are in place and it’s extremely apparent the value Muschamp put on speed in the years he was recruiting for us. this defense reminds me of the cowboy’s defense of the 90s that is best characterized by their team speed on D and by their depth. Add in this team’s future sackmaster, Jeffcoat, and its honest to goodness 2 shutdown corners and we’re looking at top 3 defense in the country next year.

http://barkingcarnival.fantake.com/author/scipio-tex/page/84/

Great write up as usual, Scip. I seldom disagree with anything you write.
 
BOJ beat me to the punch. Scip, you’re writing is more entertaining when your angry. For those interested in true comedic value please read the Arkansas State Impressions, and post mortems for Rice, UCF, and KSU. You get to read about Death Ewok, Greg Davis’ Hunt and Peck offense, the lack of playing freshman linebackers, Larry Macduff, Duane Akina as DC, Mack Brown’s clapping, and the true squander of Charles’ talents. It’s brilliant.

Great write up on our D. I think ZZZZ said it best by saying he thought it would be tough to replace Muschamp but Diaz has really been fantastic since his players caught on to his scheme. If we stay healthy on D next year, the sky is the limit.

 Hicks and Cobbs showed there will be no dropoff at LB and Edmond has shown that he will be a man. Acho embodied everything that’s great about college athletics. Great player, great person, and great student. Hats off to you, Robison, and Randall. Also, hats off to Gideon who embodies 2 of the 3 qualities. Your leadership will be missed but I’m very happy to see a glimpse in athletic ability at the safety position that I’ve been waiting for since ET left. The light will now shine on Phillips, Evans, and Thompson. My guess is AJ White is probably lost in the shuffle due to the immense talent on campus. As good as Randall was this year, I’m not worried about our DLine.

Java, I was not happy about Vaccaro’s personal foul in the third that backed us up to the 10 with a frosh QB who immediately took a sack to the one. That almost cost us dearly. Great point on Westbrook vs LB.

I agree with BigDuke, There is tons of talent on D. I can’t remember the mod, but someone stated earlier in the year that Muschamp had more to work with in 2008 than Diaz did. I disagree. Our LB’s are much better this year.

MJohn, DGB and Randy Moss don’t grow on trees. Easy there.

Now that the Seniors have departed from the 2008 class, I will leave you with Scip’s writeup of that class. Where is DBH and Ransom to comment?

http://barkingcarnival.fantake.com/2008/02/07/my-thoughts-on-our-class/

The scary thing is we left a few interceptions on the field as well. Could have easily been 7 or 8 turnovers.

Video highlights of the Texas Defense vs. Cal (explicit lyrics):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=mknnJrVuItg#!

Paging Mario Edwards. . . .

Sadly i think the answer to the question every nfl dc is asking right now—how to stop an nba power forward— is Vacarro.

This defense is good enough to blitz Keyser Soza and make him yell “calf rope”.

That’s some great writing Scip.

If you make the jump over to IT with JS, et al, I would just open my wallet up and tell them to take what they wanted.

Thanks for the vid alphahydro. These guys fucking breathe fire.

This defense hits harder than any longhorn defense if recent memory including Muschamps. They bring the wood no matter the down and distance and just beat the will to live out of Cal, especially Maynard!!

Kenny V’s size, speed, versatility and general badassedness bring to mind Arizona State Sun Devil and Dallas Cowboy Darren Woodson. While with Dallas, Woody could cover the slot, render other humans unconscious and was the best tackler on the team. He even helped Roy Williams ( yeah, that fucking Roy Williams) get to multiple Pro Bowls.
I really hope Kenny sticks around another year and goes on to enjoy a pro career similar to that of DW.
I can’t put into words my football love for Kenny, but I’ll try: Kenny is an Afro-Hispanic Mexican Texan Early Brownwood multifaceted lawyer hitting tattooed Swiss Army Knife. We will surely miss him when he’s gone.

JP, your Vaccaro description is AWESOME!

“I can’t put into words my football love for Kenny, but I’ll try: Kenny is an Afro-Hispanic Mexican Texan Early Brownwood multifaceted lawyer hitting tattooed Swiss Army Knife. We will surely miss him when he’s gone.”

I am sure it’s always easier and more fun to put up the D-post mortem first! One thing that I love about Diaz’s schemes is how fun they are to watch. Yes, fundamentally sound, dominating defense is fun too. But if I had my choice, this type of dominating defense is just more enjoyable. Love how the LBs peel off to the outside when the QBs roll out. It really cuts down on the QB’s ability to create out of nothing. Too bad the D’s weakness, safety play, was exposed but I think that will get better next year.

And I don’t know if people know how awesome our DTs will be next year. If just one of Moore and Brown are ready to contribute next year, we will have a serious rotating buzzsaw in the middle there. Can’t underestimate the power of that, and I am thinking more positive about Randall moving on up.

Great video Alphahydro…shows just how nasty this D was. Imagine carrying that into 2012! Manny Badger is sick!

Nice work as always, Scip. The biggest surprises to me (in a positive way) on this team were the development of the secondary and the emergence of Chris Whaley. Look, I was one of those guys ripping Whaley for being a fatass and wasting an RB scholly. Perhaps this defense will be the best thing to prepare the offense for 2012.

Hey, thanks VA. I was thinking of putting those words to music and having it recorded by the ghost of Bobby Darin. Or Kevin Spacey.
BM,
After years of worrying myself sick over our DT depth, health, conditioning, motivation, and felonious activities, I too share your enthusiasm in regards to next years DT rotation. Now I’m sorry to see Randall go but a year or so ago the thought of him leaving gave me night terrors.
All of these young studs wrecking shit in front of Edmond considerably eases my concerns when/if we face a power running team.
I’m not going to badmouth the outgoing safeties, but I’m totally stoked just thinking about our DBs. If Thompson and Evans grow up as quickly as Quandre and Care Bear, this defense will be absolutely suffocating.

I hear ya JP. For better or for worse, our coaches always found value in Gideon as a leader on the field and as a fundamentally sound cover safety for a high-percentage of plays. He’s a good Longhorn player in my book. Scott will always be A longhorn in my book too, but couldn’t cover/take angles well enough to contribute up to his physical potential.

That being said, I am stoked about our possibilities in the defensive backfield next year. We now have faster options that might be ready. AP and Kenny’s versatility can let you do so much. I think Diggs would be great in the nickel spot too. Both Thompson and Evans are going to cover a lot of ground back there. And now that the rest of our dbs can help them line up, I think they will both perform at a high level next year. And Turner as our “third” corner, with Scott and even Orlando Thomas being available, that is one awesome backfield.

Hey, AH – did something happen to the defense highlights? Loved the offense highlights, but would love to see what everyone is raving about.

I just don’t get all the love on here for Vaccaro. He’s a decent player I suppose but way undersized for the NFL so I’m not sure what his position would be. If he was faster, he might be able to make up for his lack of size that way but he has average speed. It only looks like he hits hard because of the way opposing players overreact when the collision occurs. I mean seriously: running off the field holding your head like its going to fall off your shoulders? Fake. His best bet is to stay in school and hope to gain some weight and some speed.

Watching the highlights reminded me how pumped up I got seeing Manny run 15 yards onto the field after a turnover. It was like he was ready to dive into the pile himself.

If he had, odds are he would have come out with the ball between his teeth.

Vaccaro is so valuable because he is a triple threat: excellent cover guy, excellent blitzer, and excellent run support. Multitalented guys like Vaccaro make it easy for a DC to dial up creative and effective zone blitzes, which makes it extremely difficult for the QB to know where the pressure will come from. Vaccaro is also a spirited leader.

I’m guessing that Vaccaro stays for another year and made that decision as part of the process that awarded his brother a scholarship.

What the fuck are UCLA and Illinois doing playing in a bowl game?

RS,

How is Vaccaro undersized at 6’1" 215 lbs, that a big bad mother fucker of a safety that can move. If he honors his word and stays I think he is first round in 2013.

Jake, i realize that KennyV will have competition from CB and Diggs, but my tiebreaker, if the finalists are all Longhorns, is seniority.

Groundhog, I know you were irritated with him, but you must consider the body of work for the game to that point. Why, exactly, do you think Cal suddenly became an ineffective offensive team?

RS, Ransom, or whatever, I’m a woman who loves our hard-hitting, pound ’em into submission defense. How can you not appreciate the value of Machete?

Scipio,

What are your expectations in terms of scheme development? Diaz talked before the Holiday Bowl RE the defense progressing from What to How to Why and that Acho & Keenan had made it almost all the way to Why we do what we do…

Hicks and JJ certainly looked like the light bulb was coming on! Thinking back to the beginning of the year and the indecision/thinking on the field was obvious. Watching the Holiday Bowl in person the guys were like Pirhannas with how fast the cut around the field.

Do you expect to see the speed of our Defense to be more evident early on next yr despite losing our 2 senior LBs?

“Hispanic Mexican Texan Early Brownwood multifaceted lawyer hitting tattooed Swiss Army Knife. We will surely miss him when he’s gone.”

I’m pretty sure “Vaccaro” is an Italian surname.

Ransom,
I have the feeling you’ve spent your entire life pickin’ flyshit outta black pepper.

sessamoid,
Don’t care if he’s an Indian outlaw half Cherokee and Choctaw and second cousins with the very “Italian” Franco Harris, I love him just the same. (no racist, no homo. Not that there’s anything wrong with that).

I’ve seen Vacarro. He’s about 5’10 185. Did you see him lost covering Allen? He needs some seasoning and more good weight. Obviously another year on campus will help his stock. And his temper with all the “form” personal fouls will catch up with him, as will civil attorneys chasing the ambulances carrying “Machete’s” victims. He’ll be lucky to see the field next year, let alone get drafted on the first day.

Vacarro is not 5’10" 185 lbs. Roster lists him at 6’1" 215lbs. Perhaps you saw his little brother.

I just don’t get all the love on here for Vaccaro. He’s a decent player I suppose but way undersized for the NFL so I’m not sure what his position would be.

Ransom stoddard, you lovely gorgeous trollfaced bastard.

 I love you man.

you obviously do get it, at 215 he’s about as undersized as Long Dong Silver, and his natural position, this year, has been “top” vs. slot WR’s, and will probably be safety in the NFL. But you knew that. Happy 2011 my friend.

i think it was 1977 when a bunch of punk youngsters invaded our defense and taught us new names to remember. some i recall:

dt steve mcmichael, sophomore
lb lance taylor, sophomore
lb bruce scholtz, freshman
lb robin sendlein, freshman
db ricky churchman, sophomore
db johnnie johnson, sophomore
db derrick hatchett, sophomore
db vance bedford, freshman

they, together with the older guys who could hang with them, transformed that defense not unlike what we’ve seen this year under manny’s watchful eye. they swarmed and just stoned offenses. made ’em want to go home. that was the year i learned to look for the pups who came to bite.

You guys really need to turn on your sarcasm meters. With all the love you are giving KV, NFL scouts are sure to notice. However, if you point out his flaws like I have, they will surely go away. So, say it with me: Vaccaro has bad breath and he can’t parallel park.

Get it?

Happy New Year!!

BTW, Eskimohorn gets it

I have it on very good authority he eats boogers and bites his fingernails. Clearly not ready for the nfl.

btw, this young pup wants to bite:

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=7408676

yeh, weren’t the Blackwood Brothers part of that unti as well?

yeh, weren’t the Blackwood Brothers part of that unti as well?

Glenn was a junior on that 1977 team — his brother Lyle actually played at TCU.

Mike Campbell actually wanted Royal to stay another year after 1976 because of the sophomore class that was maturing.

As mentioned above the sophs included
Ricky Churchman
Derrick Hatchett
Johnnie Johnson
Steve McMichael
Ron Bones

Fred brought in Robin Sendlein, Vance Bedford and Bruce Scholtz with his first recruiting class. Of course that 77 defense also had juniors Bill Acker, Blackwood and the Campbell twins along with senior Brad Shearer.

yes, there was a hard kernel of high quality already in place – much like our kids this year found on the defensive side – so that the influx of hungry sophomores and a few precocious freshmen wrought a pretty astonishing turnaround. like cal discovered the other night with our guys right now, taking them on was a bit like skinny-dipping with piranhas.

an oddity regarding acker and mcmichael was that they hailed from the same small town. freer was probably a good-sized place compared to my home town, but to have two very good d-tackles from a relatively small town at the same time was pretty unusual. with shearer still there, i’m assuming it was ’78 before they were co-starters, however.

that was a defense to remember.

Our defense wraps up and tackles so much better than I’ve ever seen a Texas defense tackle (been watching since the early 90s).

Thanks, srr for the correction on Lyle and the other info.

yeh, they were great players and Fred making Leon Fuller his DC didn’t hurt. That defense and the one that completely carried us the season we lost to Georgia in the CB are the two most talented at every position that I remember at Texas since I enrolled as a Freshman in 1970.

Markelle Martin and Blake Gideon were two safeties from the same year. Anyone ever seen Gideon make a play like Martin just made?