Linebackers & Blitzing
We have run the same blitz package for five straight games. The only change Akina has made is the number of times he calls his two pet designer moves. The Mike mug has become a regular bet when Bobino is in the game and the best that can be said is he stays out of everybody else’s way while entertaining one offensive lineman, usually from a pinned position. Norton gets a few mugs and usually makes solid penetration which has led to a few tackles behind the line of scrimmage. The Sam LB blitz off the strong edge has virtually disappeared with Killebrew in the game. Kindle ran three edge stunts in his one half of play which forced the action and even though he didn’t get the tackle the blitz actually looked organized and healthy.
Both blitzes started out as disguised “shifts” that intended to cause confusion in the blocking schemes. We now announce our blitz a full ten to twenty seconds before the offense must snap the ball. Instead of a surprise “sneak” attack we now see favorable audibles announced while we wait patiently for the hammering we know is coming. We are smart enough in our game-planning minds that we refuse to actually fake a mug and jump back to a true LB alignment because that would be deceiving and it must be in the rules as unmanly if not unfair. Speaking of great football minds, does anybody doubt the Akina/Mac Duff combo would have problems selling clemency on death row?
It would be refreshing to see the Mike mug turned into a positive blitz by adding two more options to go along with the straight ahead give-up employed now. Why not include the nose tackle on a Mike aligned mug weak and make it a cross stunt with the two positions exchanging aiming points. If bluffed right (which means give it away early like we do now) the guard should attack the LB’s alignment which gives the nose a huge opening to operate within. The MLB would simply loop back inside if he was caught too close to the LOS or scrape inside if he found enough depth at the snap of the ball. When Mike mugs strong, the same cross stunt would be available with the strong DT. The second option needed is to draw the audible by aligning the mug early and shift out of the mug into a stunt away from the original mug stunt.
If we are bound and determined to give away our stunts so early that the offense has time to change plays and then joke about it, we might try tricking them with the bait and switch. Bait them with the mug and then switch to a real stunt (cross or X stunt) within the same alignment. Funny how inferior starting LB play hits a raw nerve and how much it actually parallels inferior blitz packages that won’t be copied by any high school coaches in Texas.
October 5, 2007 at 2:38 pm
If you were going to hire a Mike-mugging defensive coordinator, why not me? At least I could defend against the option.
October 5, 2007 at 3:18 pm
great article. I hadn’t thought of using the stunts to make the mug at least serviceable. But if you’re going to bed with a pig, candles and music can’t hurt.
October 5, 2007 at 3:25 pm
I think he’s been practicing against Greg Davis too much. He seems to think that by showing his blitz early, the other team will panic and audible to an underneath route.
October 5, 2007 at 3:37 pm
Whatever, TexasFootball. As if you have a moustache.
October 8, 2007 at 7:38 am
Guys, Can I come back to Austin & be a co-co-defensive coordinator?
October 8, 2007 at 11:15 am
I’ll be available, too. By the way, what’s a blitz?
Sincerely,
K Cosgrove
October 9, 2007 at 10:37 am
rpongett sez: “You have neither a law degree nor a Tivo. So what makes you think you have even a shred of credibility when it comes to analyzing the play of our linebackers?”
October 9, 2007 at 10:31 pm
Texasfootball, nice bunch of pure hot air. brickhorn, Pongetti still knows a HELL of alot more than you do about the game and he is blowing the crap out of this lame blog post on Orangebloods right now.
Have a look at these Texasfootball and keep telling us how much smarter than Akina you are. Here’s plenty of blitzes by Killabrew off the strong edge.
http://rpongett.phpwebhosting.com/killblitz.html
Have a look at all of these blitzes and tell us again how we’re showing blitz 20 freaking seconds before the snap.
http://rpongett.phpwebhosting.com/nodblitz.html
What a bunch of rubbish by a bunch of wannabe JV coaches on this site. At least try to say something that simple video can’t rip apart.
October 9, 2007 at 10:32 pm
You wimps ban my IP or something? Why aren’t you letting me post? Can’t handle someone who blows up your BS?
October 9, 2007 at 10:35 pm
Texasfootball, nice bunch of pure hot air. brickhorn, Pongetti still knows a HELL of alot more than you do about the game and he is blowing the crap out of this lame blog post on Orangebloods right now.
Have a look at these Texasfootball and keep telling us how much smarter than Akina you are. Pongetti has video showing more than a dozen blitzes by Killabrew off the strong edge.
He’s also got video that blows the crap out of your nonsense about how we’re showing blitz 20 freaking seconds before the snap.
What a bunch of rubbish by a bunch of wannabe JV coaches on this site. At least try to say something that simple video can’t rip apart.
October 9, 2007 at 10:36 pm
Watch these:
http://rpongett.phpwebhosting.com/killblitz.html
http://rpongett.phpwebhosting.com/nodblitz.html
October 9, 2007 at 11:32 pm
“Pongetti still knows a HELL of alot more than you do about the game”
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Oh man, highest of high comedy.
October 10, 2007 at 10:58 am
ChrisApplewhite, I notice you and others like to say Pongetti doesn’t know anything but then you never answer why he keeps proving your statements wrong with simple video, especially Texasfootball here, who was making all kinds of ridiculous claims that are clearly false. HAHAHAHAHA is not an answer. Texasfootball was talking out of his rear end, Pongetti proved it, and now Texasfootball suddenly is nowhere to be found to comment on his own mistakes.
October 10, 2007 at 11:06 am
rpongett is a lawyer that “learned” football by browsing as many websites as he could find. One of our favorite things to do each week is browse his videos, read the ridiculous descriptions that make no sense, and see how many completely miss what actually happened on the play. The guy doesn’t understand dick about football, but to his credit, he has done a tremendous job fooling the public.
Since rpongett’s videos don’t actually show 20 seconds before the snap, and since I’m sure Texasfootball was exaggerating to make a point, I don’t see how exactly you can say he was disproved.
But mainly, the notion that rpongett actually knows anything about the game is hilarious. He proves in week in and week out that he has no idea what he’s watching.
October 10, 2007 at 11:28 am
rpongett is a smart guy who has a bad habit of pontificating quite condescendingly on topics that fall well outside of his area of expertise.
October 10, 2007 at 11:44 am
If we ban your IP you’ll know it, motherfucker. We’ll blow up your whole goddamn keyboard. We’ll drill all the way through the entire OSI reference model, crawl out of your motherboard and slap you across your fractious maw.
Now, that being said, we encourage people to come over and comment. I hope that TexasFootball and some of the other guys will come back to this post and partake in a discussion with you and others who don’t agree with the coach’s take.
Thanks for coming by!
October 10, 2007 at 12:20 pm
The only way to get your IP address unbanned is to defeat me in the Octagon. So, unless you’re pretty confident in your homoerotic combat skills, I’d advise you not get banned.
October 10, 2007 at 12:22 pm
“homoerotic combat skills”
Is that sword fighting?
October 10, 2007 at 1:32 pm
Well I don’t about the claims from either side, but those videos sure show we don’t know what the fuck we’re doing when we blitz. (And I am using the Royal “we”)
October 10, 2007 at 1:34 pm
No shit. I saw a lot of Killebrew running right into a tackle and then having a tickle fight.
October 10, 2007 at 1:56 pm
Good grief. rpongett’s best evidence amounts to roughly two strongside blitzes per game, the vast majority of which resulted in big gains for the opponent? Wow, that’s just not very persuasive. Unless you’re blinded by his Tivo-to-vast-interwebs wizardry.
October 10, 2007 at 2:19 pm
UTexHorn—I watched the links that you provided and still stand by my statement, thank you. I said that the Sam stunt off the edge has VIRTUALLY DISAPPEARED with Killebrew in the game. Your link showed exactly ONE (ASU) out of maybe twenty attempts where Killebrew made any disturbance to the QB or influenced the play. He didn’t make the QB hurry the throws, didn’t make the QB scramble, and several of those plays went for very positive gains for our opponents. If that doesn’t quality for virtually disappearing I can’t help you. The statement didn’t say Kill wasn’t called to run the stunt but that in my opinion the stunt wasn’t recognized as an all out edge stunt nor was it effective.
I don’t think the selection of specific stunts that were started at the snap or actually delayed stunts actually depict the full spectrum of our blitz packages. For every example presented in the second link I’m sure we could find a Mike (Bobino and Norton) or Will (Derry or Muckelroy) mug where they stepped up to the LOS well before the ball is snapped. You missed the main point—the main point was why didn’t we do something different out of the alignment instead of the straight ahead sacrifice every time.
I have had several exchanges with rpongett over the years and would gladly talk football or this particular article with him on this site. You mentioned wantabe jv coaches and pure hot air but you actually missed on half of that with me. Some may feel I’m full of pure hot air with my thoughts and I don’t have a problem with that asumption. If you don’t care for my opinions I encourage you to just skip clicking on my contributions. The other half of your statement is completely untrue.
I never had to be a wantabe jv coach because I had the honor of coaching varsity football thirty years in Texas 5A high schools at the DC level. I thoroughy enjoyed spending part of each practice working with the jv kids and don’t really appreciate the tone intended about them in your statement. Since you have so much to offer UTexHorn, why don’t you give us a little football post to make our day?
TLR—feel free to discuss football with me anytime right here—you couldn’t be more wrong about me defending my knowledge of the game or my articles. Care to share some of your knowledge with a football post?
October 10, 2007 at 3:12 pm
And that’s why you don’t talk football with a lawyer.
October 10, 2007 at 3:15 pm
Or have a football coach represent you in a legal matter
October 10, 2007 at 4:24 pm
Ironically, if you happen to be a football coach at Texas, you actually need a lawyer. For your players at least. See, they really do go hand in hand.
As for the intraweb fracas, if I need help with an MOU I’ll call Pongetti. If I need to understand defensive alignment and responsibility, I’ll take my chances with TexasFootball. Just my opinion, I could be wrong. I doubt it, though.
October 10, 2007 at 9:06 pm
UTexhorn? TLR? Hellooo0ooo? BrickHorn, HenryJames, somebody—please post TexasFootball’s comments at OB on the thread in question. I’m banned from posting on that ridiculous board….and I have no good reason why I keep paying to read it. It’s wild to me how many dumbasses think smug TIVO Master has got the first fucking clue what he’s watching and lecturing and insulting everyone about.
http://texas.rivals.com/showmsg.asp?sid=902&fid=500&tid=102726706&mid=102773372
October 10, 2007 at 11:23 pm
Getting into an arguement with rpongett is a bad idea. It’s like trying to reason with a 6 year old.
October 11, 2007 at 5:27 am
There’s not much more pathetic than being an rpongett sycophant. It’s like being a groupie for Milli Vanilli.
October 11, 2007 at 6:44 am
“There’s not much more pathetic than being an rpongett sycophant. It’s like being a groupie for Milli Vanilli.”
Thanks for bringing up some embarrassing memories, A-hole.
October 11, 2007 at 10:45 am
I love it when you get to see someone on a message board who doesn’t know who they are talking to.
Learn from this cautionary tale, kids.
Don’t be a UTexHorn. Don’t be a TLR. Don’t be a HenryJames.
October 11, 2007 at 10:50 am
dont be dat person
October 11, 2007 at 11:11 am
What person? Dances With Possums?
October 11, 2007 at 11:16 am
“What person? Dances With Possums?”
No, someone completely different: Hornius Emeritus.
October 11, 2007 at 11:42 am
jnecakes.
October 11, 2007 at 1:23 pm
Further to “don’t be dat person,” this is the year of the curse of the f— lion.
October 30, 2007 at 10:58 am
big firm lawyers are assholes.