Liveblogging A Recording Of The Spring Game: First Half

Ahmad Brooks! Bill Radigan! Texas Football on Fox Sports!

There is some talk that they actually practiced tackling this year. Last time we did that we won the Rose Bowl. Maybe that will sink in.

Instead of Orange v White in some stupid-assed scoring system, they are now running Team Tradition vs. Team Bald Eagle Mountain. Not a huge fan of the team names here.

This ended up being really long so I cut it into halves. And if you didn’t get to see it, you can find the entire game download here:

http://www.shaggybevo.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=6326

It’s an avi file, and you need divx6 installed to watch it. Credit to TexasOwnzYou.

- Opening kick is fielded by Malcolm Williams of all people. He must’ve won the chance in a door prize or something, since you don’t see 6′4 guys returning kicks that often. He returns it against the walkons, who don’t touch him for 40 yards.

Another note, Justin Tucker managed to kick it off to the 6 as the commentators laud his leg strength. Ouch. He’s 17, so whatever, but it isn’t a good first impression. He did make the tackle, though.

- First team offense at the skill positions: Colt McCoy, Chris O, Jordan Shipley, Quan Cosby, Blaine Irby, and James Kirkendoll. The last one is a surprise, I have to say, but nothing else is.

Up front: Ulatoski, Dockery, Hall, Tanner, Allen. This isn’t even close to our best unit by the end of the year. I would not look for this to stick.

Looks like the first team defense. It’s hard to tell who’s playing, but I can see Palmer, Thomas, Scott, Miller, Orakpo, Houston, Muckelroy, Beasley, Gideon, Bobino, and what looks to be Henry Melton. Gideon starting isn’t a surprise because of the injuries there, but Melton? Him stepping up would be huge. I would’ve figured Acho got the first look there. Interesting.

- First play is a well designed rollout that uses a rub to spring Kirkendoll to the outside. Earl Thomas flashes his ability and covers 6 yards in no time to break up the play. Shit like this is what we missed having no coverage ability at the safety spots the last two years. Kirkendoll should’ve caught the pass, but even if he did it’s just a 4-5 yard gain. Last year he catches it easily and turns up field for a few more. Those are the kinds of things that I am looked to see end, giving up yardage without a fight.

Should be noted that our blocking back Chris O totally whiffed on his block attempt there. Orapko would’ve nailed McCoy after the throw (legally). That’s going to be how he earns his playing time so he can’t afford many of those.

- 1st and 5 after Palmer’s offsides call, Chris O gets the carry on our zone play. The OL gets a decent push, the defense maintains it’s gap control and Chris O can only plunge forward for a few. Probably the best result you can hope for in a game against yourself. Plus marks for everyone there.

Allen made a tremendous block, sealing off Houston from the play. Textbook. Hall made a good block on Miller, and of course Bobino runs off to nowhereinparticularland, leaving the small gap. We made the secondary make the tackle though, which is a good sign for the offense.

- 2nd and 1, Vondrell McGee comes in and gets the first down on a nice cutback form the zone. Really showed his acceleration. Roy Miller kept Hall from getting to Muckelroy, who ended up with the tackle. That’s old school, right there.

Had Hall made his block it would’ve been a big play because Melton charged in after Colt, and McGee would’ve had room because Gideon was slow to come up. Get used to hearing that, that’s all I’m saying.

Allen made another great block and destroyed somebody at the second level. I like this kid. First look at Charlie Tanner, and he’s thicker than I thought he was. Roster lists him at 300 so maybe he is big enough. Size isn’t really the important thing, strength is, but he looks the part more than I remember.

The defense has kept the same look the entire series so far, kind of using Earl Thomas as a rover, keeping him in the box. He’s the one Allen abused just now. Clever look for dealing with the spread. Beats seeing Eric Hall lined up over the slot.

Ahmad Brooks compares McGee to Selvin Young, which I think is a pretty good expectation to have. He reminds me of the young slashing Selvin, though.

- 1st and 10, Brandon Collins replaces Kirkendoll. We shift to a blitz look and bring 5, playing man behind it. Colt throws a nice pass on a quick post to Collins and Beasley just made an NFL play on it. So just to recap, two passing plays, two great performances from a DB. Welcome back, pass defense.

As I said in the practice report, there is accurate, and then there is NFL accurate. Had colt thrown that pass maybe 4 feet more to the left, it would’ve been completed. It seems nitpicky, I know, but these things matter against a good team. Collins had to slow down and Beasley made them pay.

- 2nd and 10 we spring a new addition to the offense, a quick screen to McGee. Beasley comes up fast and beats Ulatoski to just trip McGee up enough to allow Gideon to make the tackle. The play didn’t really work, but that is something I would love to see more of. It would keep defenses from playing downhill at us so much. It’s really just another running play, to me, which we need. It attacks a different area of the field from our normal run game.

- 3rd and 9. We blitz again, bringing Muck and Scott off the edge, and dropping Melton off on the other side. Nobody got to Colt because the threw it too quickly, but you could see the speed there that we’ve been missing. The play itself was a fade down the sideline that again should’ve been caught, but they called a terrible PI on Beasley so the drive continues, undeservedly.

-1st and 10. We run that nifty option reverse to Shipley who ends up taking down to the two, and shows that he’s got his fluidity back. He’s good to go, folks.

The shame of it is, Mack and Greg probably consider this a trick play(as would most coaches), but if Colt is our QB, this needs to become a staple. We need to do anything and everything to keep the backside of the defense in place. It’s an easy pitch, safer than an actual option pitch because you know you’re going to do it and you can see the pitch man the entire time, so why not run it 2-3 times a game? Anyhow, great play and even better run by Shipley.

- 1st and Goal from the 2, easy TD. They didn’t really show it. Colt’s official stats on the drive would be 0-1, but he threw three passes and none ended up being caught. One was a drop under pressure, one was slightly underthrow and defended well, the other was a good throw that Quan should’ve caught, even though it was coming from behind his head. He should’ve been in better position. All good throws, just a combination of good defense and bad hands.

Kyle His came in at some point, and the play followed him.

- The kickoff doesn’t even reach the 15. They handed the ball to Jeremy Hills instead of having him catch it, I assume to for coverage purposes, so maybe they told him to kick it over there. I hope so.

- Chiles’ unit is in, and I’ll try to fill it out best I can as we go. Fozzy is the RB with him.

Well, it looks like Greg Davis has been reading my posts, because we debuted a new twist to the zone read. We handed off against the grain of the blockers, meaning Fozzy was going around the backside DE, and Chiles’ path was between the DE and the rest of the defense:

It may not seem like much, but this is a huge development, assuming the youngsters just didn’t run the wrong way. The puts pressure on both weakside defenders, DE and LB, meaning they can’t just crash after OL anymore. We’re hitting them in different areas, which is so, so important. The linemen are going to look a lot better after plays like this.

As for the actual result, Chiles fumbled the handoff, and lost yardage. There were acres of running room, too. Looks to me like he saw it open up too late and tried to pull the ball back, but I won’t ever know. The defense ran a cool twist off the weakside and both guys ended up going after the RB. Whoever the slot receiver was got fooled by the stunt.

- 2nd and about 15. Looks like most of the same defense is still in. It’s the little things that they do so much better than last year that really have me excited. They get to the ball so much faster. Mmmmm, warm feelings.

Greg Smith is the left tackle, which seems odd to me. Britt Mitchell is the left guard, McGaskey is RT, which is where I said he belong since the day he committed. Scout88 had him at center, which is why we all like him so much. Huey is the RG, and Burnette is the center. I couldn’t see Burnette’s number, but I can tell it’s him from his massive, fairground turkey leg calves. Seriously, that kid is thick. Montre Webber is in, which is nice from him. He’s shown talent in getting open since he’s been here. He needs to bring it all together.

We run a QB, which should probably be a staple with Chiles. Huey demolishes his man and opens up enormous running room for Chiles. That was an old Leonard Davis take out half the line on his own type block. We’re playing one hand touch with the QBs today so he gets saved a pop from Earl Thomas. Acho technically gets credit for the tackle by playing textbook draw defense, rush, then retrace your steps in pursuit. Good play from him.

- 3rd and 6, Ahmad Brooks says John Chiles’ stout legs are very “simular” to Vince Young’s. Let’s not debate about which of those two things was more absurd.

We run a vanilla pattern to try and get Collins open for the first, but Norton takes a great angle to almost pick it off. Collins was swamped, which leads me to believe Chiles probably should’ve gone some place else with the ball there. Not a great 3rd and 6 playcall there because Chiles really only had one option for a first down.

- During the punt Rod Babers interviews Jordan Shipley and drops the microphone. OK, not really.

It’s taken me over an hour to get through the first 15 minutes of the game.

- Colt’s offense is back in on first down and runs a zone read. He fools everyone and still gets only a yard. This is why you can’t do this stuff with him. He doesn’t have the acceleration to make you pay for leaving him alone. The pursuit will get to him too quickly.

Miller fucked Dockery up. He was as deep in the backfield as the unblocked Melton. Hix was in at RT. His number is 64, Ulatoski’s is 74, so Hix may have started. I refuse to go back and check it out, though.

- 2nd and 7. They gave Colt 3 yards for some mystifying reason. He’s getting the DeWayne Wade treatment.

We line up with 2 TEs like the last play, and McGee shows his shiftiness, bouncing the play outside for about 17 yards. The last 4 came at the expense of Earl Thomas, who got trucked. He held on and made the play, so credit to him for that, at least. Lamarr Houston managed to get inside Allen that time, forcing the run to the perimeter. That sure is a fun battle to watch.

I would like to note that I also called for a 2 TE look for Colt for this very reason. The defense kept both safeties back, 7 man front, and we had a hat on a hat. McGee just ran around it and no one could stop him. If the defense wants to keep the run game in check, they have to bring guys up. It’s not like the choice the end has to make on a zone read, it’s more of a macro situation, but it’s still putting pressure on the D. I’d like to see more of this. I’d like to see less of my old posts, because man they suck. I almost feel guilty since I’m the only Barker who gets a paycheck for this.

- Foist dawn. I formation for the first time, the defense shows it’s 8 man front, probably in response to the last two plays. They also shift before the snap and blitz. Norton and his sweet ass arm things shed Allen’s block to make half the tackle. They had him at OLB that time with Bobino in the middle. Not sure I like that, unless he’s improved in coverage. Tanner made a great block on Houston. Roy Miller fought through to get the runner from behind, great play from him. I hope he stays healthy because he is a huge factor so far. He kept Hall from making any block and still beat Dockery inside. That is not easy to do.

- 2nd and 10, back in the shotgun. We tried to run the counter but the whole thing looked fubar’d to me. Hall blew his assignment and basically let Miller run in and blow up the play.

The more I watch the play the less I’m sure what it is. There was no counter action from the backfield, it just looked like a handoff with two pullers to lead, and a keep fake from McCoy to distract the end. I also can’t tell if Allen was supposed to pull, or he just had to run to get his guy. We ran a version of our normal zone against A&M that had a pulling guard to lead Charles (as part of our one-new-wrinkle-for-each-team-that-we-never-see-again package). Looks like maybe that play to me. I would’ve liked to see it develop better just to get a feel for what they were trying to do there.

Ha. Mack ran over to McWhorter to have a “WTF was that” meeting on the field. Probably making mental notes to chew out Hall on the sideline. The meeting ends with McWhorter giving Mack a wasn’t-my-fault shrug.

- 3rd and 11 whistled dead, but we ran the play. And interesting thing here from the defense, the DL gave a split look, meaning no lineman was over the center. Everyone was outside shaded on their guy for pass rush reasons. We may have done some of that under Chizik, but I don’t recall specifically. The play was a deep in or something that Colt threw late and Beasley broke up. That’s a completion last year. Beasley is just too good to get away with that stuff now.

- There was no flag on the play, much to the surprise of Ahmad Brooks:

“Yeah, I think someone on that far side jumped offsides . . . which is why you see the . . . field goal unit?”

They gave Orakpo a cheap touch sack. No way he gets him in a game.

- Tucker’ s 50 yard FG falls short, and Mack remembers why he stopped giving scholarships to high school kickers. Tucker pulls the Reggie McNeal “limp after a bad play” routine. Nice.

- Chiles comes back on with Buckner, Collins, and Williams. This is going to be a good group for us. 8th year senior Peter Ullman is out there, too. We run a normal zone read, and Aaron Lewis and Russel Carter destroy in. Whitaker had no chance there. Good defense. The right side of the line did a good job, though, McGaskey in particular.

- Chiles drops back to pass on second down and scrambles for 5. This is why a running QB is so useful. With Colt, it’s 2nd and 10, with Chiles, it’s 2nd and 5. Of course, Colt probably would’ve found a receiver there, but since I can’t see the play develop I have no idea what Chiles saw. Also, we going straight drop back with Chiles anyway? Bah.

- 3rd and 5. We run a sprint out pass (It’s like they can hear me . . . from the future) and Chiles launches it downfield to show off his arm I guess, because there was no one there. Someone messed up. It looks like the slot receiver was supposed to run a corner and got jammed. Tough to tell on TV.

- The punter is someone I’ve never heard of before (John Gold?), but he booms a great kick. Fair catch.

- 1st and 10. Same vanilla looks from everyone. McCoy attempts a deep post to Cosby but overthrows it. Palmer had decent coverage. He still turns and runs too quickly, which is part of why we had such trouble keeping teams from playing pitch and catch on short outs. Beasley on the other side has much better technique here.

Colt needed to lead Cosby across the field more than he did. Again, it’s a difference of maybe ten feet but it matters.

- 2nd and 10. Allen moves early when a LB runs up to the line.

- 2nd and 15. We run the same play that Chiles tried on that 3rd and 6 earlier. The difference is night and day. Colt gets the ball out on time and the catch is made before the coverage can get there. If Chiles can just do that much, he’ll be so much better. This is where Harris is still better than him, I think. Chiles is still playing street ball.

-3rd and 9, we show the split DL look again. Colt completes the dump off to Chris O for a decent gain, but no first down. The underneath coverage swarmed him, which is a good sign. Everyone was covered really well in a zone coverage. Remember when we could do that? Good times.

- Punt!

- 1st down. We run the reverse option again (just call me Kreskin) and Sam Acho kills it by staying at home. What a great play. I can’t believe how good this kid is. We really got a steal here. Collins still got 3 yards because Acho couldn’t wrap him up, but Acho saved 10 yards there, easy.

- 2nd and 8, zone read. Fozzy gets the handoff and falls harmlessly forward into a pile. Defense did a good job clogging it up there. Ben Alexander played it very well, using the old school method of fighting off a double team by fighting them to the ground. Aaron Lewis closed any cutback lane. Good job up front.

Sweet play by Tanner there, too. Fozzy didn’t go down for awhile, and Tanner gave him a running bump for knock Fozzy forward another yard or two. Heads up play.

- 3rd and 6 - In that practice report above, I mentioned how Chiles short arms the ball a lot, resulting in a sinker that doesn’t reach it’s target. He did it again here to Fozzy, who was being pursued by Alex Zumberge. Yes, that Alex Zumberge.

I will defend Chiles forever as not needing to be a great passer to be effective. But this shit you need to be able to do. There was nothing hard about this and he still couldn’t even get the ball there. There should be warning sirens going off in Mack’s head right now. Awful pass.

- Punt goes into the endzone.

- 1st down. We try a playaction throwback but Orakpo abuses Allen and gets the sack. McCoy would’ve been obliterated in live action. Orakpo looks like he’s over his injury, that’s for damn sure.

- Tunnel screen to Shipley gets a few on 2nd and long. I don’t understand why we do this. Nobody is going to pressure you here. Run a damn play. Davis is as bad as Bill Parcells in these situations. Muck made a good play to get the tackle, fighting off Hall there.

- 3rd and 12, we show the split DL, then run a stunt out of it. Interesting to see this progress. Colt has to scramble and gets one away to Shipley underneath but it’s whistled dead as a sack. Gotta love spring football. Miller ran through Dockery like he wasn’t even there.

- Punt!

- Team Inspiration or whatever the fuck they are called is back out . . . and right back in as Chiles calls timeout. They reconvene in an I formation, and run a playaction boot that nets about 12 on a Chiles scramble.

I wish we’d just put him in the shotgun and run 90% of the time, but if we are going to insist on passing with him, this is how I want them to do it. Dravannti Johnson ate up the receiver on the play, so Chiles exercised his option to run. When you can beat teams who cover all your guys, you have an enormous advantage. Play to it. He won’t give you as many big plays through the air, but he will give you more consistent gains.

- 1st again. Cody Johnson is in at FB, as he was on the last play. I want to see him carry. Same deal, playaction boot. Chiles gets pressure but buys some time and gets it off to Dan Buckner. Unfortunately Chiles threw his patented slider and the ball ended up low and outside. Concern level here is high. It looks like Chiles pulls back a little bit, instead of stepping through. There are some serious mechanical issues here that Davis needs to correct.

- 2nd and 10, Fozzy slips on the handoff. Looked like Britt Mitchell pulled, so it almost ended up looking like a lead draw. I like the variety we are seeing here. Major really seems to be pulling his weight early on. Credit where credit is due.

- 2nd and 11, and we see the reason everyone wants Chiles to play. Sees a hole left open by the blitz, the man coverage can’t see him, and he takes off and ends up getting nearly 30 yards. He forces you to play a certain way, that’s for sure. Guys like him can punish you in a hurry.

- Here is an IM conversation I had about two years ago.

Me: dude, fozzy whitaker is fucking good

HenryJames: really?

Me: yeah.

Ever since that day I’ve waited to see him show his stuff. He gets the handoff on first down and somehow slips past Dustin Earnest who all but had him nailed. He flew past an excellent block by Burnette to pick up a first down. Such great body lean and feel. This is going to be a guy who will find creases and make you pay. He’s like a cat, able to shrink his body and slip away, so quick and has such a great feel for running the ball that it’ll end up overcoming his size. I don’t know if he’s a homerun threat, but he is for sure a very good player. Watch him.

- First and goal, Fozzy scores easily. He had a hole and shucked off a tackle attempt to waltz in. Burnette got a good block on Norton, who could only throw an arm out. His was the weak attempt that Fozzy used his savvy to get away from. Blake Gideon took himself out of the play by coming up on the line way to wide, and ended up being the biggest reason the TD was scored. That should’ve been his tackle. Fozzy just cut it up and Blake was never within 3 yards of him.

Mitchell and Burnette executed textbook combo blocks there. It says a lot that Chiles couldn’y hit earth from an airplane at this point and we still scored easily. If you were wondering why I want Russel Sheppard so much, this is my reason. The spread option is downright deadly.

- Kickoff!

- 1st. Flashback to 6 months ago, Colt gets bum rushed and has to scramble away. The DL was in it’s split look again with Henry Melton at DT. He ran right past Charlie Tanner, who was nice enough to let him pass unharmed. Melton looks pretty good at tackle.

- 2nd and 10, same alignment. Colt overthrows Shipley was was so wide open that nobody else was even on the screen. How in the world do you miss that throw?

It’s really hard to tell what coverage this is. It looks to me like a matchup zone, or maybe man with some pattern reading. I’m not sure who was supposed to be with Shipley there, but somebody blew an assignment. Really tough to tell without knowing the call. On a positive note, though, it’s exciting to me that I can’t tell what the hell defense we just ran. The more confusion, the better. Except for the kind of confusion that leads to wide open receivers, of course.

It looked like Scott was caught looking at the QB and trying to jump a route, but I have a hunch that Thomas was supposed to cover Shipley there.

- 3rd and 10. We run a double in with a clearing route inside, and Colt makes a bad decision. Norton didn’t drop with the seam route and was there to break up the pass. Kirkendoll had single coverage and was open. Colt needs to see the MLB better there.

- Halftime!

For the Second Half, read here: Second Half Report