Ground and Pound: How Texas Can Beat OU

by RolloTamasi on Oct 6, 2025 8:10 AM CDT in Texas Longhorns and Other Football

The Sooners under Bob Stoops have made their hay with an aggressive, quick strike offense and physical defense that exploits known tendencies -- a combo that has led to some humiliating final scores. The offense has gone further in this direction since Kevin Wilson and Josh Heupel installed the no-huddle but they've always been about play-action bombs and systems that protect the QB from making critical analysis after the snap.

A Scipio already typed, their defense is a tendency-attacking monster that specifically thrives when the back 7 is loaded with playmakers and ball hawks. Their 2000 defense, an absolutely dominant unit, was not especially overwhelming in the trenches but the way guys like Strait, Roy Williams, and Rocky Calmus attacked you led to timely defense and turnovers.

They are designed to build a quick lead and then converge on your route tendencies and your QB with blitzes and smart, aggressive play from pattern-read coverages. If they can play you with their nickel Cover-2 and bring zone-blitzes on 3rd and long they can really punish you. Their current crop of back 7 defenders isn't big - they all weight in under 240 - but they're rarely out of position and tackle well. The Sooner D has already knocked five offensive players out of a game this season. The one liability Harsin will no doubt attack is the questional coverage ability of OU's LBs and safeties. Similarly, if you can get a good seal block at the second level on these guys, the Texas RBs can have some success.

Stoops made his name at Kansas St. with Snyder running a particular variation of your 3-deep, 8 man front that revolved around attacking you inside with aggressive safety help and fast-flowing linebacker play. That's translated to the spread game with their Roy-backer/Sam linebacker Cover-2 which aggressively assaults your perimeter passing game and looks for turnovers and QB hits. They've kept moving in that direction by fielding a fast, undersized back 7 that clean up plays quickly.

Their offense isn't particularly physical, though they have some very solid talent at TE and FB, and when their running game looks good it's usually because the front 7 isn't lined up correctly, not because they are trucking positioned defenders. In the passing game, Landry generally knows where he wants to go with the ball and his eyes don't lie. The trouble is that covering Broyles and Stills is immensely difficult and he can beat good coverage all over the field.

That's as unflattering a picture as I can paint of this team. I think that Alabama or LSU would take them apart in the National Championship if it comes to it, but as satisfying as that might be the real question is whether Texas can do it.

Since Stoops/Venables specialize in attacking your base concepts and relying on their speed to apply constraints, the best way to attack them is with concepts that can reliably attack them at multiple points. Go watch tape of the 2008 game and you'll see that even with Shipley flexed out as a mini-TE and 4/5 WR formations that their back 7 still knew where Colt was going with the ball and were within inches of pick sixes on multiple occasions. Colt made plays, Quan worked magic, and they couldn't really cover Shipley. Fast forward to 2009, they take Shipley away with such impudent schemes and techniques that we are able to run the ball for over 100 yards with one of the worst running games in the school's history. OU didn't care, they knew we didn't know how to win that way and it was only by a defensive miracle that we won.

Harsin, however, isn't looking to create the best matchups and then execute them against your best effort. His base concepts do apply pressure at multiple parts of the field. The inside-zone/sweep play is designed to punish a fast, aggressive defense with a tendency to overplay. Flow quickly to the zone and you have to try and change direction and beat Monroe in a footrace. Hesitate in dealing with the zone and the F=MA equation begins to trend against you as you approach the tackling of Malcolm Brown.

That said, OU can still employ an 8-man front like ISU did and perhaps respect Shipley/Davis more with their corner's drops and ask us to beat them by banging our head against their 8 men and throwing hitches and short against a physical back 7. We need to test them early in the passing game and keep a clean pocket to throw the ball because a pump-fake could be worth 6 points. Other than that, we should welcome the challenge to pound the ball for 4 quarters. Who wins the LOS in the 4th quarter usually wins this game.

In the passing game, Case plays with a certain confidence that you can't help but feel is completely unfounded and his self-sack against Iowa St. probably kept Harsin awake with nightmares about Ronnel Lewis until he decided to just play the freshman. Colt got away with his footwork until he faced Ndamukong Suh without more than 1 reliable receiver. Case isn't that athletic and I think Lewis is more than athletic enough to instill that same lesson. This is why the Cigar is telling us that Ash may get his shot to take over this weekend. If he runs with it, he'll have earned his job in extreme contrast to how Gilbert begun his career here.

Now, for all the talk about the youth on this team I have the following counter-punch:

Emmanuel Acho, Keenan Robinson, Kheeston Randall, Kenny Vaccaro, and Alex Okafor are all upperclassmen who could be playing in the NFL next season. Blake Gideon is a 4 year starter. Which basket do you think we should place our eggs in?

OU's offense is considered an elite unit and our defense needs to take them on and decisively win that matchup for us to get this upset.

In Michael Holley's "Patriot Reign", which includes Belichik's line about swagger that Scipio has been quoting, we get a glimpse into how they approach a defense of "the greatest show on turf", the 2001 St. Louis Rams. After blitzing Kurt Warner in the regular season and getting smoked, Belichek determines that the way to throw a spoke in the wheel of the Ram machine was to take away Marshall Faulk rather than assaulting Warner. So they would jam him at the line with their ends before pursuing Warner, prevent a clean release to areas of the field where he could not be covered, and attempted to always make Warner check to option no. 2.

Allow me to introduce some stats from the Sooner's first 4 games: Landry threw for 9.3 yards per attempt against Missouri while Broyles caught 13 balls for 154 yards. Jones had 12.9 yards per attempt against Ball St. with Broyles pulling in 4 catches for 109 yards. Against Tulsa, Jones completed 8 yards per pass while Broyles had 14 receptions and 158 yards.

Florida St. held Broyles to 55 yards on 7 catches and Landry had only 7.4 yards per attempt and 2 interceptions.

They won that game due to defensive excellence and a few very impressive catches by Stills. And because they knocked Emanuel out of the game. They still run the ball a lot to set up their play-action but it's effectiveness is a mirage. We can't fall for it.

How would you defend the Sooner offense? Personally, I would line up Adrian Phillips against Broyles in the slot so you have someone that can get physical with him underneath and in the screen game. In the instance of Fire-Zones, play Vaccaro over the top of him and punish him quickly on any receptions over the middle of the field ... asuming you can get a clean hit. Broyles is a bitch in space. If they are willing to ask him to lay his body out 5-8 times with Kenny the Maccabee lying in wait we should welcome that strategy.

Diaz's system is possibly ideal for handling the Sooner attack in the following regards: He knows how to get his guys lined up and they can do so quickly (have been practicing it all year), their assignments are pretty simple and thus execution based, and he regards his Fire Zones as being as safe or base as anything else he runs.

The last point is crucial, because our ability to have automatic Fire Zone calls against their hurry-up without getting brutalized by their screen or passing game, is going to take away their crutch: Landry's pre-snap certainty.

Take the following play as an example:

gideoninterception1

Iowa St. is lined up in a trips formation to the field side and we come out with a Cover-2 look although we can already see Acho and Gideon creeping a little closer.

gideoninterception2

Fire Zone! The corners and boundary safety are the 3 deep defenders, Gideon's assignment is Hot 3, which is not somewhere you would expect to find him and a role that would be filled in base Cover-3 by an inside linebacker. He reads Steele's blues and voila, INT and almost a pick six.

gideoninterception3

Interception returned 43 yards like he was back at Leander running the zone-read against Cedar Park.

The rule for our 6 pass defenders in the Fire Zones against Landry should be as follows:
1). Deep defenders MUST stay on top of Stills and Broyles.
2). Hot defenders should watch Landry Jones eyes, because they don't lie.
3). Bracket Broyles whenever possible.

I expect to see a lot of looks deployed to confuse the Sooners and hide where the ball should go. 3-4 defense with Hicks, Acho, Robinson, and Cobbs all in the game is an option that provides some dangerous blitzes while presenting a lot of tacklers who wrap up, and underneath defenders who can take deeper drops than Jones is used to facing.

Some Man looks and 7 or 8 pass defender looks will come into play as we seek to confuse Landry and create opportunities where he finds a Blake Gideon or blitzer where he expected to find Broyles or a checkdown. It's more than possible that he might channel Romo while in Dallas if we encourage him with some hits and disguises. His tendency and ability to beat coverage with his arm can backfire if we make him do so repeatedly against the likes of Hicks and Robinson.

So there you go -- screw their running game, pound Broyles and Landry both mentally and physically, and make them earn their way down the field. If we can get 2-3 turnovers that kill better Sooner drives or present scoring opportunities, then our ground game and gadgets could be enough to manufacture winning offense.

That's how we win. If you aren't seeing Red Zone stops and turnovers when OU has the ball you could be looking at a long game. But if you are, we take them down like Georges St. Pierre and pound them for 5 rounds and come out with the belt.

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Read More: bob stoops, brent venables, bryan harsin, cover 2 nickel, fire zones, ground and pound, mack brown, malcolm brown, oklahoma sooners, ou sooners, outexas, red river rivalry, red river shootout, roy back, texas longhorns, texasou, ut longhorns, Adrian Phillips (CB - Texas), Blake Gideon (S - Texas), Kenny Stills (WR - Oklahoma), Kenny Vaccaro (S - Texas), Landry Jones (QB - Oklahoma), Manny Diaz (DE - W. Michigan), Ryan Broyles (WR - Oklahoma)

Comments

Just borrow the Mike F’ing Sherman playbook from last year and you are guaranteed a win.

Of course, you need multiple studs across the board to pull that off. Maybe The Supreme Commander can loan you a few of his.

by Aggie Rick on Oct 6, 2025 8:11 AM CDT reply actions

Akina confirmed yesterday that Vaccaro is getting his NFL audtion saturday and will be playing “over the top” of Broyles. I’m guessing that he mans up on Broyles when we play Cover-1 and shades over him in the Fire Zones so we can stick him if they go to him over the middle against the blitz.

Aggie Rick: I feel like Sherman has an outstanding playbook but little grasp of tactics to control the game. Like McClellan, he drills and prepares an outstanding group and then utterly fails to deploy them correctly in the heat of the battle. Maybe if they just had a better leader at QB that would make all the difference. Y’all never seem to have a Colt or Vince who can guide things and make plays ad lib.

by Nickel Rover on Oct 6, 2025 8:38 AM CDT reply actions

Good analysis Nickel.

Can you expand upon the deployment of the “Fire Zone”. Is this a variation of Zone coverage? If so, how does it differ? Is it disguised, dynamic (shifting, expanding, collapsing) dependent on the offenses formations, etc.?

Thanks.

by Rio Lobo on Oct 6, 2025 9:21 AM CDT reply actions

AggieRick may be proving that the real Aggies are hard to parody.

by RomaVicta on Oct 6, 2025 9:22 AM CDT reply actions

Rio Lobo,
Check this out: http://brophyfootball.blogspot.com/2011/01/manny-diaz-bulletproof-fire-zone.html

by Simms to Gilbert on Oct 6, 2025 9:27 AM CDT reply actions

The Aggie Rick act kills me. Everyone falls for it.

by Team Dirty Leg on Oct 6, 2025 9:28 AM CDT reply actions

Normally, I would defend OU by mashing the “B” key as fast as possible, but your way seems better.

by lurkerinthedark on Oct 6, 2025 9:30 AM CDT reply actions

Thanks Simms, I meant to include that link in the post.

Rio: it’s zone coverage with 3 deep defenders and 3 underneath. The 3 underneath drop to the “hot zones” where quick passes generally go, and take deeper drops if the QB is taking deeper drops. The deep 3 just keep everything in front of them.

It’s pretty safe, if vulnerable to mid-range gains or open field destroyers, and I bet we throw a ton at Landry.

by Nickel Rover on Oct 6, 2025 9:44 AM CDT reply actions

Quick question - so which wunderkind dazzles us more with his brilliance this weekend - Diaz or Hairsin?

by realmccoy on Oct 6, 2025 10:03 AM CDT reply actions

Nickel, I found that very insightful. Thank you.

by robsta on Oct 6, 2025 10:05 AM CDT reply actions

Since the ’clips thrive on disabling offensive players, might we be preparing to return the favor?

If Diaz has anywhere ner as much craftiness as the Harsinquisition, we may expect to see some things from the D that have not yet been shown. Looking forward to seeing Kenny V or one of his mates separating Stills, Broyles, and/or Bradford Jones from their senses.

RELENTLESS ATTACK. O, D, ST.

by Tex Long on Oct 6, 2025 10:07 AM CDT reply actions

TexLong: this is definitely a game where we want to have a consistent attack plan for D, ST, and O to accomplish a general theme of making their offense do heavy lifting and making their D play run defense for 4 quarters.

It would be nice to see some ST gameplanning ala what we did with Alabama in this one. A few scores early that convinced OU to throw more would be ideal.

by Nickel Rover on Oct 6, 2025 10:10 AM CDT reply actions

Ryan Broyles got food poisoning the day of the FSU game, had to get 2 IV’s before the game even started.

by Sooner Fan on Oct 6, 2025 10:29 AM CDT reply actions

Sooner fan, you missed the point. The point is not, “we can do whatever FSU did and eliminate Broyles!”

The point is that if Broyles is off, Landry really suffers. We’ll substitute Vaccaro’s helmet in his gut for food poisoning and hope for a similar result.

by Nickel Rover on Oct 6, 2025 10:35 AM CDT reply actions

Nickel, what do you think our defense is good at that we haven’t seen yet this season? i.e. defending a spread offense that doesn’t have a running threat at QB

by Arthur Goddamn Fenstemaker on Oct 6, 2025 10:43 AM CDT reply actions

Arthur: yeah, you see guys like Manning and Brady struggle against this style of defense because they have to get their protections lined up to buy time and then know where the soft spot in the zone is. It takes an intense level of preparation, field vision, footwork in the pocket, comfort with receivers, and ability to adapt on the fly for those guys to punish defenses like the Steelers, Jets, or Ravens employ.

OU is really good at staving off pass-rush with pace, multiple formations, play action, and Landry just trusting Broyles to beat coverage and then trusting his arm to hit small windows. Against an NFL defense, they would get taken apart. Hopefully we can demonstrate that for them.

by Nickel Rover on Oct 6, 2025 11:05 AM CDT reply actions

The point being, stationary QB’s are child’s play to blitz against. You can send guys at a dead sprint and not get punished nearly enough to prevent you from doing so, especially if the running game isn’t hurting you. Diaz’s “play the run on the way to the QB” will get it’s real test.

by Nickel Rover on Oct 6, 2025 11:06 AM CDT reply actions

I sure hope that if Vaccaro is playing Broyles over the top that we don’t run that stupid 4-2 front that is so easy to run outside on. The one where there is nobody in the box outside of the end who is playing a 7 technique and that end then crashes inside for some reason. I promise you OU will get 12 yards a pop on that little pass out to the back in the flat or on the simple stretch play if we run that front.

by Uh on Oct 6, 2025 11:25 AM CDT reply actions

Uh, you talking about our under front with the Sam lined up over the slot? I don’t recall us getting punished on either outside runs or quicks to the flat in that front, mostly because running horizontally to Okafor’s side is a bad bet (he’s the 7) and because our linebackers get to the ball so quickly.

I’m betting though that we defend the perimeter with numbers and dare them to do the dirty work inside the box against our waves of young DT’s. We are slightly vulnerable there but I don’t think they can make us pay. Especially with Habern out.

by Nickel Rover on Oct 6, 2025 11:32 AM CDT reply actions

yeah, when you take someone away from his or her accustomed behavior you sometimes get funny results.

don’t tell the guy who’s changing your oil a really funny story unless he is accustomed to that or you are liable to drive away with a crankcase of antifreeze, and it won’t be his fault. it will be yours.

by yeh on Oct 6, 2025 11:59 AM CDT reply actions

they are working on the water where i am so i went to panera to get a bagel . . . and use their euphemism.

the bagel with tax was a dollar twenty-nine, and i handed the girl two bucks. then, remembering i’ve been wanting to spend down a little pocket change, i dug out a quarter and a nickel to hand to her and ask back one of the bucks. she stared at me blankly, and i said, ‘i gave you two bucks, but i want to spend down some change, so you owe me one of those bucks back. then i’ll have given you a dollar thirty and only owe a dollar twenty-nine, so you owe me another penny. so just give me a buck and a penny.’

i’m pretty sure i’d still be standing there if i hadn’t said the last line.

point being: only take someone out of his or her accustomed behavior if you want to mess him or her up. my encounter with that was unintentional and benign, but manny’s won’t be.

by yeh on Oct 6, 2025 12:29 PM CDT reply actions

If anyone is going to the state fair and knows of a good place to watch the game, besides inside the stadium obviously, let me know.

by Nickel Rover on Oct 6, 2025 12:33 PM CDT reply actions

The Panera analogy was mirthful and explicative—rascally, yet unpretentious. Not unlike the splendid pinot noir I enjoyed last evening with the lesbian postal worker from Hamburg.

by Dionysus on Oct 6, 2025 1:00 PM CDT reply actions

memo to vacarro… detonate broyles everytime he touches the ball

by jt on Oct 6, 2025 1:06 PM CDT reply actions

yeh = lesbian postal worker from Hamburg? Right on, I don’t judge.

by Dagga Roosta on Oct 6, 2025 1:13 PM CDT reply actions

Nickel and Simms:

Thanks for the info on deployment of Fire Zones, Good stuff.

by Rio Lobo on Oct 6, 2025 1:14 PM CDT reply actions

I have a story similar to the bagel one: I stopped at an IHOP late one night and asked for a bacon and egg sandwich to go. There followed the biggest clusterfuck I have ever witnessed.

The waitress first looked confused, then huddled with other waitresses. Then she came over and asked if I wanted fries or potato chips with that. I told her “neither, just a bacon and egg sandwich”. She disappeared into the kitchen for a while, then came back and asked me if I wanted that on a regular bun, or what? I told her “on toast” and she disappeared again. By this time I was getting frustrated and testy, not to mention hungry.

After waiting a few more minutes with no sandwich, I asked the cashier to see the manager.
The manager came out, chagrined, leading my waitress, who was crying. He explained that a bacon and egg sandwich wasn’t on the menu and the waitstaff couldn’t figure out how to either put it together, write it up, or price it. It seems they started with a hamburger, backed out the meat, backed out the fries, added an egg, added bacon, changed bread, and etc., etc., and were coming up with an unbelievable price. I had apparently paralyzed the entire operation.

The manager apologized, then told the cook to hard-fry an egg, fry some bacon, and make a sandwich on toasted white bread. That worked.

Oh, and in keeping within the context of this thread, I hope UT slaps a knot as big as a horse turd on OU’s collective head.

by J.R.69 on Oct 6, 2025 1:43 PM CDT reply actions

the lesbian postal worker from Hamburg

Say, that wasn’t Frieda, by any chance? Was Gerlinde with her? Nice gals, provided you keep ’em too occupied to fit up the strap-on…

by Tex Long on Oct 6, 2025 1:48 PM CDT reply actions

The point is that if Broyles is off, Landry really suffers. We’ll substitute Vaccaro’s helmet in his gut for food poisoning and hope for a similar result.

Ha. Good stuff.

by Scipio Tex on Oct 6, 2025 2:31 PM CDT reply actions

Say, that wasn’t Frieda, by any chance? Was Gerlinde with her?
I didn’t think to ask her name. The strap-on never made an appearance but there was a vague reference to naked dodgeball and sauerbraten which I neglected to pursue.

by Dionysus on Oct 6, 2025 2:56 PM CDT reply actions

Nice writeup.

…all upperclassmen who could be playing in the NFL next season. [And] Blake Gideon is a 4 year starter

This line may not actually have been intended to elicit a laugh at Mr. Gideon’s expense, but it did so anyway.

by Louis L'am Jones on Oct 6, 2025 5:48 PM CDT reply actions

At my hospital I just found a confused old asian woman, naked and leaning over a sink trying to wash her hands while her catheter lay on the ground after it had been violently pulled from her urethra by her own misguided hands.

I’m hopeful that this image will be indiscernible from Landry Jones by the end of the 4th quarter.

by Nickel Rover on Oct 6, 2025 6:24 PM CDT reply actions

naked dodgeball and sauerbraten

I believe you may have been misled by her unfamiliarity with Englisch… that’s almost certainly “naked dodgeball WITH sauerbraten.”

Was she a postal worker?

by Tex Long on Oct 6, 2025 6:33 PM CDT reply actions

jr, that sounds a lot like that jack nicholson diner scene. but your experience follows right along with mine. the first sign of unexpected behavior and some people become hopelessly lost.

a friend of mine was bemoaning the car repair business these days. he says there are no mechanics nowadays. just parts changers. once they get removed from the rote of what they’ve been taught they are helpless — and, therefore, not helpful.

i asked a question of a salesman on my doorstep one day, and he started the entire spiel from scratch. i did it a second time and the guy walked away. if i wouldn’t let him recite without interruption, he couldn’t proceed.

this is what both manny and harsinwhite are all about. give mixed clues and see if people can figure something out. many can’t.

by yeh on Oct 6, 2025 7:29 PM CDT reply actions

Okay, NR… between Scipio’s foreshadowings, Srr50’s incitement, HornMafia’s asides, Longhorn Scott’s analysis and your reasoned assurances, I’m starting to feel like a 17-y/o buck with a date this Saturday where I’m bound to score.

I. Can’t. Wait.

Better be glad you guys have only a cyberspace address, cuz if this Saturday turns into a dry hump, I’m coming to hunt y’all down. What am I saying? I KNOW too that we’re going to leave Okie looking stoopid.

by OldTimeHorn on Oct 6, 2025 7:30 PM CDT reply actions

Now sounds like a good time to mention that they are minus 10.5 favorites in vegas.

by Nickel Rover on Oct 7, 2025 12:55 PM CDT reply actions

I’m still looking for the gooner who predicted 0u by 38 back in August. Offered him 10-1 for that, six figures minimum, but he disappeared. Ten and a half sounds about right to the unwashed.

by Tex Long on Oct 7, 2025 1:12 PM CDT reply actions