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Texas O-line talk


Coach pop a bitch

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Poor Coaching, blocking and an inability to run the ball killed Texas... 100% agree with the following from Ian Boyd:

Quick thought no. 1: Texas played 9 on 11 on offense

It's baffling why Texas' solution to losing a guard on offense is to insert Denzel Okafor to RT and slide Derek Kerstetter inside. Kerstetter is a pretty good offensive tackle that can be trusted to hold up now and again against a good edge rusher, Okafor routinely struggles to hold up when teams come after him off the edge. Texas' slavish devotion to playing what they seem to think is the "best five" left them pretty vulnerable against the best defensive player (player period?) in the Big 12. Baylor lined up James Lynch over Okafor and were rewarded with several sacks and a great deal of disruption in Texas' ability to get much from their spread passing sets.

Beyond that, Texas also maintained their emphasis on 11 personnel and subbed in true freshman Jared Wiley for Reese Leitao as the starter. That's right, the underweight freshman who played QB last year for Temple HS was asked to help Texas win the point of attack against the best DL and overall defense in the Big 12. That didn't go particularly well, although it went better than perhaps a reasonable person would have suspected.

Texas also mixed in a 10 personnel package that played both Devin Duvernay and Jake Smith in the slot positions rather than using a big body with questionable ability to get open underneath. They ran that on a few third downs early in the game, most of which were thwarted because Okafor couldn't block Lynch, before finally turning to that package just before the fourth quarter while asking Sam Ehlinger to dig them out of the hole. Things looked promising until Ehlinger short-armed a deep shot to Eagles in the end zone and was picked. Another somewhat promising drive, albeit in a desperate period of the game, included the same set as well as consistent double teams on Lynch was thwarted by some penalties on the offensive line.

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Didn’t Hand’s last Auburn team give up a billion sacks, but we just attributed that to Stidham being a bad QB and other things fans tell themselves to feel better?  Part of me wonders if we really poached him or if that was a soft landing.
We had at least 3 guys on the OL lose their cool and get personal fouls in frustration as we were losing, too.  So, we got that going for us, which is nice.  

A lot of the sacks Texas has given up are on the coaching staff and Sam too.
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8 hours ago, TwiceHorn said:

The whole inability to handle stunts thing baffled me.  Isn't that kind of like Offensive Line 101?  Maybe 103, Intermediate OL?

I know it requires communication and teamwork, but shouldn't these guys be kind of gelled or gelling by now?

Weird.

Whatever it is, it’s evidently an elective at Texas. 

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On 11/22/2019 at 7:13 PM, LTtxfan said:

Disconnect and Poor Coaching

https://247sports.com/college/texas/Article/Texas-Longhorns-football-Tom-Herman-Dan-Neil-run-game-embarrassing-Sam-Ehlinger-Denzel-Okafor-Reese-Leitao-Marcel-Spears-Mike-Rose-139018240/

Dan Neil: Texas run game against Iowa State was embarrassing

ByDAN NEIL 63 minutes ago
 
Former Longhorns’ All-American OL DAN NEIL, who won three conference titles at Texas and two Super Bowls with the Denver Broncos, provides an exclusive game analysis to Horns247. Here's his breakdown following Texas' 23-21 loss at Iowa State:

I finally got ahold of the game film and started watching the Texas offense to see what happened against Iowa State. It really is sickening to watch Texas try to run the ball in this game.

What is obvious is ISU played harder on defense then Texas did on offense.  Iowa State linebacker Marcel Spears (No. 42) and Mike Rose (No. 23) whipped everyone’s ass last Saturday.  At one point Rose stands up Denzel Okafor in the hole. When a lineman gets stood up in the hole, taking away the running backs lane, you are going to lose every time.  Texas also turned free safety Lawrence White (No. 11) into a tackling machine. He was one-on-one with the back and made the tackle every time. The back needs to make this guy miss or flat out run his ass over! He is a safety and a back needs to beat a safety.

Herman said the injury to right guard Junior Angilau was more of a problem then they thought. The problem was Okafor in the run. He simply can’t cut off the backside end. This takes away your entire run game to the left. He missed the backside cutoff the entire game!  I’m watching guys like left guard Parker Braun, who has played well, not get their head across in zone blocks. The tight end getting beat. I see no defender getting driven backward - ever.   

What jumps out at me more then anything else is Texas made Spears into an All-American. He whipped everyone’s backside on Saturday. It was not that Texas did not get a body on him. Rather, he kicked the guy’s ass who was trying to block him. You will not see it in the stat sheets, because Spears didn’t always make the tackle. What he did was take on the lead blocker, drive him in the hole so the back had nowhere to run and allowed someone else to make the tackle.  There are plays where the tight end and Okafor do not know who to block. I will defend offensive line coach Herb Hand here. These are the two new starters for this game.

It was not all bad. 

There were times where the line got the back to the safety and the back did not make the safety miss, but it was for a gain. I will take that. At least it is not for a loss. You can’t have a loss of yards. Negative plays kill an offense. 

Let me give you the sequence for the failed fourth-and-2 play in the second quarter after D’Shawn Jamison’s interception in Iowa State territory.  On third-and-3, Texas ran QB power right. They moved Samuel Cosmi to the right side in an overload line. The middle linebacker came in unblocked. On this play that’s not unusual.  It is hard to get to the middle linebacker because of all the bodies in a small area. Running back Keaontay Ingram completely missed his guy. Watch the film and you would laugh at the attempt (if it wasn’t so heartbreaking to watch this over and over again all day).

So, what does Texas do? Get in an overloaded line and run the exact same play! Same result. Ingram got beat - again - and the middle linebacker was unblocked - again. Not sure why Texas thought somehow the result was going to be different.  I have a philosophy about running the same play back-to-back. You do that in middle school. When I was at Texas with John Mackovic calling plays and at Denver with Gary Kubiak and Mike Shanahan calling plays, I can’t remember ever calling a play back-to-back after the first one failed.

I don’t even know what to say.

Now, let’s take a look at the final two run plays everyone is complaining about when Texas had the ball with four minutes left, holding a 21-20 lead from the Texas 15.  The first one failed because tight end Reese Leitao didn’t know who to block. Mental error. The second play was a zone read out of an unbalanced formation.  Instead of Sam Ehlinger keeping it, he hands it off to Roschon Johnson going to the left side. Braun and Leitao got beat, and those two defenders made the tackle.

I hear everyone complain about the time it took Tom Herman to get out of 21 personnel and into 11 personnel. Let me just say they should have never been in 21 personnel.  It has nothing to do with the plays or the situations. It has to do with the fact their tight ends (Leitao and Jared Wiley) can’t block, and the ball was never thrown to either of them. Coaches need to see this and take the tight ends off the field earlier.

I try not to be too critical of the coaches or players. I know one thing: everyone is trying to win the game.  I usually stay out of the week-to-week overreactions about if a coach is the greatest or should be fired.  Watch the film and you will see all you need to see. I watched this film and I am here to say on offense that both the coaches and the players were bad.

This loss falls across the entire offense - top to bottom. The fourth-and-2 call was bad. Taking too long to get out of the run game and into a pass-first, run-second mode was bad. Effort and execution by the players were bad. Getting beat physically is awful.

Now comes the moment when we see if the coaches can call a better game and if the players decide they want to be more physical than their opponent.  Baylor’s front three are damn good and physical along with linebacker Terrel Bernard (No. 26) being a tackling machine. Texas better show up for this one!

Dan doesn’t even know the difference between then and than. He has no business questioning a Mensa member. 

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On 11/23/2019 at 2:19 PM, Neonmoon said:

5 guys are unable to block 3 

constantly 

 

On 11/23/2019 at 2:22 PM, Neonmoon said:

Watch the OL each play. They are utter garbage 

This is how I watched the game after a couple of plays. It was absolutely comical watching 3 Baylor defensive players blow up our 5 offensive linemen. My favorite part was in the 3rd quarter when we decided to keep a RB and TE back to help the 5 offensive linemen block 3 Baylor D Linemen, and they still put pressure on Sam. I have never wanted to put in the time to learn how to do gifs, but after watching this game, I'd almost put in the effort to make them if someone has a copy of the game. Just utter trash from our Oline.

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On 11/23/2019 at 10:21 PM, TwiceHorn said:

The whole inability to handle stunts thing baffled me.  Isn't that kind of like Offensive Line 101?  Maybe 103, Intermediate OL?

I know it requires communication and teamwork, but shouldn't these guys be kind of gelled or gelling by now?

Weird.

Maybe they need to be 3 hour classes. 
 

 

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On ‎11‎/‎24‎/‎2019 at 12:21 AM, TwiceHorn said:

The whole inability to handle stunts thing baffled me.  Isn't that kind of like Offensive Line 101?  Maybe 103, Intermediate OL?

I know it requires communication and teamwork, but shouldn't these guys be kind of gelled or gelling by now?

Weird.

Inability to handle stunts is more understandable, we had a freshman (Angilau) at RG for a while. But watching us put Denzel Okafor (known liability in pass pro) and James Wiley (undersized true freshman) on James Lynch was comical. The right side of the O-line kept caving in.

 

Edited by satyanash
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41 minutes ago, HtownHorn said:

How bad are the 2018/2019 OL classes that none of those guys can get on the field besides Angilau. I'm all for RS'ing. But with 2 games left, and the OL being a complete shit show, how can you not be throwing bodies at the problem now?

So do you bench:

Cosmi/Kerstetter: The two that have consistently been plus guys all year.

Angilau (if he plays)/Okafor (if he doesn't): Both need reps.

Shack/Braun: You gonna bench seniors in a meaningless game on senior night?

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1 hour ago, satyanash said:

Inability to handle stunts is more understandable, we had a freshman (Angilau) at RG for a while. But watching us put Denzel Okafor (known liability in pass pro) and James Wiley (undersized true freshman) on James Lynch was comical. The right side of the O-line kept caving in.

 

I didn't watch the Baylor game but I have read that Wiley was asked to handle Lynch in one on one situations. No TE should be asked to do that, let alone a guy that was playing HS QB a year ago. Gross incompetence in play design.

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50 minutes ago, gmr548 said:

So do you bench:

Cosmi/Kerstetter: The two that have consistently been plus guys all year.

Angilau (if he plays)/Okafor (if he doesn't): Both need reps.

Shack/Braun: You gonna bench seniors in a meaningless game on senior night?

Yes. I would bench Shack and Braun. They both suck. Angilau is hurt and shouldn't be playing. Okafor will be a SR next year, and should be portaled. He can't play OT, and according to the coaching staff he's a better OT than an OG.

 

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32 minutes ago, HtownHorn said:

Yes. I would bench Shack and Braun. They both suck. Angilau is hurt and shouldn't be playing. Okafor will be a SR next year, and should be portaled. He can't play OT, and according to the coaching staff he's a better OT than an OG.

 

Lulz. Benching seniors for first and second year OL who aren’t ready, and wanting to kick an upperclassmen linemen out of the program because he struggles playing out of position.

As much as I hate our coaching staff,  I can definitively say that they’re a hell of a lot better than HtownHorn. 

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Yes. I would bench Shack and Braun. They both suck. Angilau is hurt and shouldn't be playing. Okafor will be a SR next year, and should be portaled. He can't play OT, and according to the coaching staff he's a better OT than an OG.
 

So you're for benching two seniors, one of which is a four year starter and if I'm not mistaken was voted a captain by his teammates, on senior night. In a situation where the outcome doesn't matter.

Let's set aside the obvious fact that there's a reason first and second year OL rarely play. And the fact that roster management on the OL is one of the few things this staff has more or less nailed in three years at Texas.

You think reps in a meaningless game for whatever two underclassmen step in their spots - reps that almost certainly would end poorly - are worth the shitstorm that would cause in the locker room? At a time where buy in appears as low as it has been in the past three years?

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

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  • 1 month later...
7 minutes ago, UDontKnow said:

With Samuel Cosmi returning next season, what are predictions to the starting offensive line? He'll be the incumbent at LT.

Kerstetter stays at RT if somehow Angilau can command the C position? 

Discussion might be early because no grad transfers yet.

I think Kerstetter is better off as interior OL, whether that's at C, or Angilau moves to C and Kerstetter at G. We have a lot of young guys who could step up at RT with: Moore and Jones (third years) and T. Johnson, and Hookfin (second years). Plus, you have Okafor, though I'd like to see him at G.

For the open interior OL spot, it looks like Hand has been following multiple potential grad transfers, so that's an option.  If not GT, then you have Okafor or W. Tyler, plus whoever doesn't win the RT job. I could see Tyler Johnson being ready to start at G next year, if he's not the RT.

Either way, we'll likely be at least 7 deep with quality options and potentially be up to 8 or 9.

 

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From the article:

29. TEXAS LONGHORNS

Highest-graded player: OT Samuel Cosmi – 83.7 (18th)

The Texas offensive line was certainly thought to be one of their weaknesses heading into 2019, but it was far from that. In fact, if they are both to return to college football in 2020, both Cosmi and fellow tackle Derek Kerstetter will be two of the three highest-graded returning tackles in the Big 12.

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3 hours ago, UDontKnow said:

With Samuel Cosmi returning next season, what are predictions to the starting offensive line? He'll be the incumbent at LT.

Kerstetter stays at RT if somehow Angilau can command the C position? 

Discussion might be early because no grad transfers yet.

Cosmi, Junior, Kerstetter, Okafor/Johnson, Jones/Moore.

This is the make or break offseason for the remaining 2018 class of OL, Jones, Moore, and/or Ghirmai need to make a move on the depth chart.

Probably need another GT to come in this offseason, especially with Shepherd bailing.

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It's so nice to have options for the OL again. Doesn't seem too long ago that we were completely depleted. Wonder where we would have ranked those years. Probably not far off of where FSU is ranked this year. Top 20 next year is very achievable. 

Edited by Sock Monkey
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  • 3 weeks later...
On 1/6/2020 at 4:19 PM, Pato del Muerto said:

I can’t imagine Johnson playing guard. 
 

cosmi/junior/kerstetter/okafor/Jones is what I think they are hoping for, with moore or johnson as the backup tackles and girmai backup guard. 
 

projections do all look much prettier with cosmi at LT. 

i like this lineup.  but i do recall reading Junior was being groomed at center to replace Shack.  i'm confident in his ability to play guard or center. nice to have the versatility of Kerstetter who can play all positions on OL.  still not sure if Kerstetter's best position on OL is inside or outside. thought he was too tall/long for center but he certainly proved me wrong.

Edited by The Whistler
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