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Media/$9.95-er postgame analysis articles (Week 13)


satyanash

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3 minutes ago, Gravy Train said:

Tom is either ignoring any feedback that requires change or is only comfortable with a pack of "yes men" around him.  Neither will accomplish shit for the offseason when he'll be forced to make staff changes.

Who the hell worth a shit will Mensa listen to?

Seriously?

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21 hours ago, immamac said:

Can it be that he does lots of fucking illegal drugs that will void his guaranteed contract. 

People with high IQ's have a somewhat increased incidence of bipolar disorder.

People with bipolar disorder sometimes display unusual behaviors (kissing players, headbutting, blowing bubble gum bubbles during a game) and sometimes engage in dangerous and/or self destructive behavior (rumors from the past so I won't repeat them here).  Arrogance and stubbornness are also symptoms.

People with bipolar disorder frequently self medicate, often with large amounts of alcohol.

1200-1500 mg. of Lithium Carbonate per day might save the program, and more importantly might save a person's life.

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1 hour ago, TwiceHorn said:

Well, making bad assistant hires is forgivable if one acts quickly to rectify the situation.  Not so much if you double-down on them and act like a superior asshole to anyone who questions the hires in the face of evidence that they do, in fact, suck.

And it's not just a matter of forgiveness.  Failure to act quickly shows a lack of judgment that is inconsistent with the job requirements.  You can learn, but you better learn quick.  And with some humility.

Once is a mistake. Twice is a pattern.

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So are Beaty and Fedora not providing any type of scouting or analysis on opposing teams?


Of course they are, and it’s probably quality info and analysis. I wouldn’t put any blame there given what we have seen from the actual coaches.

There are accounts of our consultants self-scouting us and telling the staff that we are tipping off plays with our formations like 75% of the time. The HC/OC don’t think that’s a significant enough number to warrant any changes. Why? Because they are the “smartest motherfuckers, and just as soon as we get enough talent, you’ll see how genius their system is!”
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56 minutes ago, T’Boo Ted Marshall said:

So are Beaty and Fedora not providing any type of scouting or analysis on opposing teams?

Beaty’s never been known to be much of a schematic wunderkind and I’m doubtful about how helpful he’d really be.

Fedora knows offense, but it’s hard to say whether he’s not being helpful or if his help is going ignored. Either way, an offensive analyst can’t make up for the entire offensive staff being either under qualified or proven to be subpar at their jobs based on past experience....or both. Cough, Mehringer, cough. 

We did add more RPOs to our offense early in the year, and they usually worked pretty well. But like just about everything that was working early in the year, we seem to have gone away from them.

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23 minutes ago, scottsins said:

 


Of course they are, and it’s probably quality info and analysis. I wouldn’t put any blame there given what we have seen from the actual coaches.

There are accounts of our consultants self-scouting us and telling the staff that we are tipping off plays with our formations like 75% of the time. The HC/OC don’t think that’s a significant enough number to warrant any changes. Why? Because they are the “smartest motherfuckers, and just as soon as we get enough talent, you’ll see how genius their system is!”

 

Don't forget "we will impose our will."  

Goodgotalmighty.

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1 hour ago, Not that Bob said:

People with high IQ's have a somewhat increased incidence of bipolar disorder.

People with bipolar disorder sometimes display unusual behaviors (kissing players, headbutting, blowing bubble gum bubbles during a game) and sometimes engage in dangerous and/or self destructive behavior (rumors from the past so I won't repeat them here).  Arrogance and stubbornness are also symptoms.

People with bipolar disorder frequently self medicate, often with large amounts of alcohol.

1200-1500 mg. of Lithium Carbonate per day might save the program, and more importantly might save a person's life.

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21 hours ago, TwiceHorn said:

I agree that it seems unlikely, but it's possible that Herman sobers up, literally and metaphorically, comes to understand that he doesn't know everything and hires the best assistants he can find and lets them do their jobs.

What evidence is there that he would ever consider doing this? What from his past behavior would lead you to believe he's capable of it?

21 hours ago, Girdwood said:

Herman isn’t changing shit. You people are delusional. 

Nope. He's had chances to make the obvious moves already and hasn't.

21 hours ago, Fozzz said:

This is ridiculous and the team’s lack of performance provides no basis for making this kind of accusation. You should be ashamed. 

Shut the fuck up. You're out of your element.

20 hours ago, Fozzz said:

lol shut the fuck up. We both know you wouldn’t be saying this bullshit if the team were 8-3 right now.  

Well, yeah, because then we'd be playing a lot higher level of football.

2 hours ago, Gravy Train said:

Tom is either ignoring any feedback that requires change or is only comfortable with a pack of "yes men" around him.  Neither will accomplish shit for the offseason when he'll be forced to make staff changes.

I thought it was obvious he needed yes-men when he hired these loons.

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3 hours ago, bschoolprof said:

Notice how at first he tried to directly blame the players.  Then realizing, how that was going to play out, he corrected himself to say that they as coaches didn't get the players ready to execute their wonder scheme properly.  

 

His first response revealed his true thoughts though.  

If the players gave him a fuck you yesterday, wait until Friday.  This might be ugly against another dumpster fire program.  I wonder if the transfer portal gets active this week?

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Drew Mehringer, Corby Meekins, Derek Warehime....fuck Herman. Fuck Tim beck too. And that’s just offense. I don’t care about Tim Beck’s recruiting ability. We need to 1. Win and 2. Get guys to the NFL, and recruiting becomes much easier for anyone.

Results matter and our result are shit. Developing players matter and our players aren’t developing. And what’s even worse is that our coaches don’t seek to get the best from our players by scheme at all. Its just throwing shit at wall to see what sticks.
 

 

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2 hours ago, Gravy Train said:

Tom is either ignoring any feedback that requires change or is only comfortable with a pack of "yes men" around him.  Neither will accomplish shit for the offseason when he'll be forced to make staff changes.

Some Mensa types have an issue with thinking their shit doesn’t stink.   It’s either when they are almost to the point of no return or way past it, they ask for help.   Others will just refuse to concede to their critics or admit a weakness and go down with the ship.   

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Long, but a good read.

(Jeff Howe) Fixing Texas requires a long look in the mirror by Tom Herman

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WACO, Texas — It’s a gamble to do what Tom Herman did before Texas kicked off Saturday’s Big 12 road tilt with Baylor.Win the game and repeatedly head-butting defensive lineman Malcolm Roach would’ve been worked into the lede of every scribe hunched over a computer in the McLane Stadium press box. Nearly 41 years to the date after Grant Teaff lit a fire under a 2-8 Baylor club with a worm en route to an upset victory over Texas, Herman pounding his skull into Roach’s helmet could’ve given the Longhorns the extra bit of juice needed to knock off the No. 14-ranked Bears.

“I used to do that as a coordinator at Ohio State and as the head coach at Houston,” Herman said. “In my old age I'd kinda stopped doing it a little bit, but I just felt it inside of me in this game because I knew that we had to play physical. We had to play with strain. It felt like the young Coach Herman, I guess.”

Instead, it’s the latest in a growing line of ill-fated bits, tired gimmicks and worn-out cliches that have come to define the program under Herman. Saturday’s 24-10 loss to Baylor, a defeat dished out in a more thorough manner than the deceiving 14-point margin indicated, saw Texas get punked, beaten from pillar to post with no answers to fend off a group of hungry Bears who carved up the Longhorns en route to earning a berth in the Big 12 title game.

That’s where the Longhorns hoped to be when the season began and where many onlookers expected them to be. One year after playing for the conference crown, Texas (6-5, 4-4 Big 12) has regressed to such a low point that the program feels almost right back to where it was when Herman took the job. While Matt Rhule has taken Baylor from a 1-11 doormat to the Big 12 title game in two seasons, Herman and Texas are going in the opposite direction. And for that, Herman has nobody to blame except for the man he sees in the mirror every day.

While the eighth five-loss season of the decade can be lumped in with the previous seven as a sign of the Longhorns keeping with the recent tradition of headlining the list of college football’s most grandiose underachievers, this one is different. The end of Mack Brown’s run is long over and Herman did his best to scrub the program of nearly every reminder of the 16-21 record posted in the Charlie Strong era, a three-year stretch that opened the door for Herman to accept his dream job. It’s a dream that has officially become a nightmare.

Part of the problem is an offense that’s become too predictable and has struggled mightily when facing a defense with a pulse in conference play. Entering the weekend, the Big 12’s top four defenses in terms of conference ranking in total defense were TCU (No. 1, 328.8 yards per game allowed, 5.3 yards per play allowed), Oklahoma (349.4 yards per game allowed, 5.4 yards per play allowed), Baylor (356.2 yards per game allowed, 4.7 yards per play allowed) and Iowa State (356.5 yards per game allowed, 5.1 yards per play allowed).

After turning the ball over four times in a loss to the Horned Frogs, giving up nine sacks in a loss to the Sooners and rushing for only 56 yards (2.1 yards per attempt) in a loss to the Cyclones, Sam Ehlinger and Co. looked as inept as ever in their meeting with the Bears. Take away a 5-play, 55-yard touchdown drive inside the game’s final minute and a 68-yard run by Keaontay Ingram in the closing seconds of the first half and the offense tallied 268 total yards on their 62 other snaps (4.3 yards per play).

Texas hasn’t scored more than 27 points since needing to hit the 50-point plateau to beat Kansas on Oct. 19, has surrendered more sacks than anyone in the Big 12 (32 after Baylor brought Ehlinger down five times) and has been horrendous on third down over the last four games (37.3-percent conversion rate).“That's a great question,” Ehlinger said when asked where the offense has gone.“I don't know.”

Herman was hired to solve the program’s decade-long offensive identity crisis. The body of work will show the Longhorns were productive piling up yards and points in 2019, but the only identity forming is the same one Texas offenses under Greg Davis were guilty of owning in the early 2000s.Texas has enough talent when all of the pieces are in place to move the ball on just about anyone. On the other hand, the offense leaves a lot to be desired when the talent on the other side is equal or greater (or, in the case of Baylor, a sound scheme with properly-coached, max-effort players who don’t need to be reminded to buckle up their helmets and be physical) and a schematic advantage is needed.

With that said, Herman has bigger problems than how bad the offense has been of late (as hard as that might be to believe). Whether anyone wants to point to the Sugar Bowl win over Georgia and (with the benefit of hindsight) use it to suggest it got everyone’s expectations out of whack is irrelevant. Five losses in the third season of a build at a program where the administration has given Herman everything he’s asked for is beyond unacceptable.

Those who follow the program are done listening to platitudes about winning being hard or breakdowns of the battle against human nature. Schtick like Herman refusing to mention Cameron Dicker by name (the same kicker who has hit two walk-off, game-winning field goals, including with Texas trailing lowly Kansas in the game’s closing seconds) is beyond stale.

A head coach who felt the need to educate football-savvy fans about what they should and shouldn’t believe regarding reports of internal strife openly admitted that a portion of his roster mailing it in is a real possibility. “Will there be some? Probably,” Herman said. “We talk about the 10-80-10 principle. Every organization has got 10 percent of guys in the organization that are elite, 80 percent that are in the middle, and 10 percent that are defiant and disinterested and maybe a few of those guys will throw in the towel.”

In fairness, Herman followed that up by stating his belief that the players want to win, that they’re embarrassed and want to play to their standard. Judging by how the Longhorns handled themselves on the field (for the most part), they haven’t thrown in the towel and are still playing for something.Whether it’s for their own personal pride or each other, they’re not done swinging.

One has to wonder, however, how much faith the players have left in the current regime? If they’ve lost faith in the message from the top it would be hard to blame them since their effort suggests they’ve lived up to their end of the bargain. An organization that’s asked a group of young men willing to put their bodies on the line to sacrifice, strain and buy into a winning culture hasn’t delivered near to the extent it should have in a season that could realistically end with the program’s fourth losing record in six years. “I've done a poor job,” Herman said when asked if he feels like the staff has met his expectations in terms of getting the players ready to go every week. “The buck stops with me.”

No matter if the Longhorns beat Texas Tech on Black Friday or win whatever lower-tier bowl they’re headed for, Herman has to take a long look in the mirror and put everything within his organization under a microscope whenever the season is in the books. There’s no reason for even the biggest burnt-orange optimist to have confidence that the staff makeup as currently constructed can produce a championship-caliber product in 2020, a season where the win ceiling feels as though it’s shrinking with every red flag that continues to pop up unless major changes are made.

Aside from an offense that’s in a nosedive to end the season and a defense under Todd Orlando that’s upgraded from putrid to good enough to win with the way they’ve played collectively in recent weeks, special teams remains a complete crapshoot with the lack of a return game forcing the offense to begin nine of 12 possessions from their own 25 or worse (starting field position on drives Saturday included the Texas 6-, 4- and 2-yard lines following Baylor punts in the first half). Texas is also the most penalized team in the Big 12 with a season-high 104 penalty yards getting assessed on Saturday, lowlighted by unsportsmanlike conduct penalties called on Zach Shackelford, Parker Braun and Derek Kerstetter in the fourth quarter that ended the game the way losses usually end for bad teams when the frustration sets in that they’re getting their heads handed to them.

The Longhorns have morphed on the fly from a team that could tackle to one that doesn’t consistently block people and remains undisciplined. Those are signs of a poorly-coached team and there are no two ways around that truth. The job Herman has done leading the program in 2019 is every bit as bad as the job Brown did in his forgettable 5-7 season in 2010 or the consecutive 5-7 seasons Strong posted. Unlike Strong, at least Herman has a competent quarterback he can win with in Ehlinger and an offensive line made up of talented individual pieces.

It remains to be seen if Herman has lost his players, but he’s certainly lost the support of the burnt orange faithful. Reading the pulse of the fanbase, there’s a wide swath of Texas supporters firmly in the group that feels Herman can’t get it back, that the program is broken beyond repair and shuffling the staff will be no different than merely rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.

Given where things are headed, the state of affairs on the Forty Acres doesn’t quite feel like what Bob Stoops when through in 2014 (a Sugar Bowl win over Alabama in 2013 was followed by a season that ended with an 8-5 record following a blowout bowl loss to Clemson, which led to the firing of Josh Heupel and Jay Norvell, replacing them with Lincoln Riley to set the table for a 22-4 run over the next two seasons with a trip to the College Football Playoff and two Big 12 titles). Herman’s tenure feels more like what Lane Kiffin experienced before things ended for him at USC (an 8-5 record in 2010, a 10-2 finish in 2011, a 7-6 letdown in 2012 and a 3-2 start to the 2013 season when he was fired while returning home from a 62-41 loss to Arizona State).

Is it fair to suggest Herman is doomed? That's a harsh way to describe where things might be headed, but they might indeed be headed down that road. If there’s a silver lining for Herman it’s the right assistant coaches working on contracts currently set to expire after the season. Herman has a chance to make changes that can make Texas a better club in the fourth season of his tenure, one that’s shaping up to be a win big or go home scenario.

What’s a more important question is this: Is Herman capable of putting together a championship-caliber coaching staff? Furthermore, does his boss, Chris Del Conte, believe dishing out the multi-year, guaranteed contracts it will likely take to give Herman a chance to clean up the toxic mess the Longhorns are wading through worthwhile?

The truth is, Texas doesn’t have a choice. Unless the option to cut bait and move on from Herman is truly on the table (as insane as that sounds considering he won 10 games, got his squad to the conference title game and finished the season with a top-10 ranking in 2018), Del Conte’s way of doing business points to the move being to go get Herman whatever he feels he needs in order to succeed.

With that in mind, it’s going to take Herman swallowing his pride, showing a fanbase who feels he lacks humility in spades a heaping helping of it and getting real with himself about what he needs to change to get the arrow trending upward. Once he does that, then the time will come to deliver a vicious head-butt to the tough decisions that need to be made in the not-so-distant future if the program has any hope of turning things around under his watch.

 

 

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57 minutes ago, longhornmatt said:

He even came out and said as much when he was hired.  His answer to what he was looking for in assistants was “alignment.”  Not the best coaches available, not experience, not teaching ability, not new ideas and guys on the cutting edge of innovation.  Alignment.

alignment means do what I say.   it was a huge red flag dressed in the marketing bullshit word generator.  you hire the best people THEN you get them in "alignment".

dude is underwater and CDC is going to watch him drown completely because that is what shitty AD's do at Texas.  its why we have been a football disaster for 35 years save about an 8 year run.  besides raising money you have one other job as the AD at Texas.  Get football right.

OU had their Charlie/Herman type run(just in reverse) and rolled the dice with Stoops.  Stoops  left at the right time while our guy decided he was bigger than the University.

A real AD would see that last year was fools gold, bunch of close games to the likes of Tech, Tulsa, Kansas, and we lost to Maryland AGAIN.

what we have is John Mackovic 2 but in a MUCH better conference and just like Mackovic this is not going to end well.

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1 hour ago, longhornmatt said:

He even came out and said as much when he was hired.  His answer to what he was looking for in assistants was “alignment.”  Not the best coaches available, not experience, not teaching ability, not new ideas and guys on the cutting edge of innovation.  Alignment.

Yep. "Alignment." It was a joke then; it's a joke now.

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(Jeff Howe) Malcolm Roach: 'Everybody's hurting' as losses mount for Texas

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WACO, Texas — One of the redeeming qualities the 2019 Texas squad will be able to boast when the dust settles on an incredibly disappointing season is the leadership provided by Malcolm Roach. Always front and center when things are good or bad — like when a visibly frustrated Roach was placed alongside quarterback Sam Ehlinger in front of a microphone to field questions after a 24-10 loss to No. 14-ranked Baylor on Saturday — the defensive lineman has played the role of senior captain in a trying year to the best of his ability.

Following a 23-21 loss to Iowa State where he was drawn offsides on a fourth-and-4 field goal that set up the game-winning field goal for the Cyclones has time expired, an emotional Roach did his best to hold it together last week when he tried to explain his miscue. With Texas (6-5, 4-4 Big 12) one game away from closing out a season where things have come unraveled near the finish line, Roach’s detailed explanation of what it’s like to process a loss when wearing the burnt orange speaks to why he’s revered by teammates, respected by coaches and climbing the ladder of Longhorns those who follow the program want to see succeed.

“It's a feeling that I'll never get used to,” Roach said while sitting in a folding chair at a table next to Ehlinger within the bowels of McLane Stadium while still wearing his icy white uniform and all of his pads after playing in his final Big 12 road game. “It's a feeling that this team will never get used to,” he continued. “We'll never get comfortable with this feeling at all. That's why it eats you up every time you have this feeling. It's not comfortable. It's not something you want. We put so much work — winter, summer for 12 of these guaranteed. When you win them you're on top of the world and when you lose them you feel like you’ve hit rock bottom because we put in so much work every day,” he added. “That's the reason we feel like this after every loss because we put so much into it and when it doesn't go your way, it's just hard to swallow.”

Roach made it clear that he’s not alone and his point shouldn’t be taken lightly. Even though the Longhorns have dropped three of their last four games the effort hasn’t dwindled and the players appear willing to continue putting their bodies on the line for each other. Even though times are hard with Texas headed for a finish nowhere near what offseason expectations suggested the season could produce, the Longhorns are invested in winning and putting their best foot forward. Roach said there was no shortage of emotion in the locker room following a loss to Baylor that officially eliminated Texas from contention for a berth in the Big 12 title game.

“[There are] guys in that locker room right now that are hurting more than me,” he said. “Every Saturday we step on that field and play with that emotion. Everybody's not the same, but I know this: Everybody in that locker room is hurting from this because everybody — we've been together for so long and we do so much together, so everybody's hurting right now. It's not just one person feeling bad, it's everybody.”

 

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11 hours ago, satyanash said:

Yet here we are. The Horns are at 6-5, not because of its sometimes porous defense. The Horns are 6-5 because the offense is brutally bad. And that’s on the head coach, whose scheme has not evolved, whose play-calling has been sketchy at best and, perhaps most importantly, whose feel for his players and their strengths and weaknesses relative to opponents have been massively misguided.

One more time, for the people in the back. 

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I mean the porous defense and bad special teams also contribute.

But as I said at the time, the shocking and sudden collapse of the offensive line about halfway through the season stands out as the main culprit considering that supposedly we are going to be physical and exert out will and all that.

I had no way of knowing that was a permanent collapse. It just seemed like we had a few bad games in a row. What do I know?

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7 hours ago, taybo20 said:

Drew Mehringer, Corby Meekins, Derek Warehime....fuck Herman. Fuck Tim beck too. And that’s just offense. I don’t care about Tim Beck’s recruiting ability. We need to 1. Win and 2. Get guys to the NFL, and recruiting becomes much easier for anyone.  Results matter and our result are shit. Developing players matter and our players aren’t developing. And what’s even worse is that our coaches don’t seek to get the best from our players by scheme at all. Its just throwing shit at wall to see what sticks.

Such a solid take...

giphy.gif

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10 hours ago, Not that Bob said:

People with high IQ's have a somewhat increased incidence of bipolar disorder.

People with bipolar disorder sometimes display unusual behaviors (kissing players, headbutting, blowing bubble gum bubbles during a game) and sometimes engage in dangerous and/or self destructive behavior (rumors from the past so I won't repeat them here).  Arrogance and stubbornness are also symptoms.

People with bipolar disorder frequently self medicate, often with large amounts of alcohol.

1200-1500 mg. of Lithium Carbonate per day might save the program, and more importantly might save a person's life.

This is 100% spot on. 

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On 11/23/2019 at 10:37 PM, Bullneck said:

I skimmed the first article.  It makes reference to us no longer being eligible for the Big XII championship game.  

I would have thought such thoughts would have evaporated weeks ago.  How the fuck were we still mathematically in the running?  

Texas had to beat Baylor & TTU and Baylor had to lose to Kansas

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8 hours ago, Valmy77 said:

I mean the porous defense and bad special teams also contribute.

But as I said at the time, the shocking and sudden collapse of the offensive line about halfway through the season stands out as the main culprit considering that supposedly we are going to be physical and exert out will and all that.

I had no way of knowing that was a permanent collapse. It just seemed like we had a few bad games in a row. What do I know?

You're still missing the bigger point, though. Herman's whole offensive approach isn't in line with what's needed in this conference or recruiting for that matter. We should've known from the beginning that such phrases like "complementary football" and outright "we'll win games with our defense" means no offense in big 12 football. Remember "we need to score 1 more point than theirs"? Lol... 

No Tom, you need to operate as though you need to score every possession (regardless of score or time left) and as quick as possible. Sure, every play is designed to score yet somehow I could make an arguement yours are for 15. These 20 something scores ain't gonna cut it in this conference. Grow the fuck up and outsource this offense to someone who runs a true spread. 

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4 minutes ago, BigHorn'13 said:

 Grow the fuck up and outsource this offense to someone who runs a true spread. 

Oklahoma beat up TCU the other night primarily by rushing for almost 300 yards.  A ton of those yards are on power concepts.  The reason Baylor and OU are in the CCG and the reason we were last year, is mainly because of being able to run the ball.  Baylor has been running Brewer with power concepts too.  Ohio State is murdering teams by running the ball with Dobbins and Fields.  The power spread is the right system to win our conference.  We have an average offensive line and shitty game plans. 

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10 minutes ago, ClubWhatever said:

Oklahoma beat up TCU the other night primarily by rushing for almost 300 yards.  A ton of those yards are on power concepts.  The reason Baylor and OU are in the CCG and the reason we were last year, is mainly because of being able to run the ball.  Baylor has been running Brewer with power concepts too.  Ohio State is murdering teams by running the ball with Dobbins and Fields.  The power spread is the right system to win our conference.  We have an average offensive line and shitty game plans. 

blOU and Ohio State also both make liberal use of RPOs to keep the passing game clicking and the offense in sync as it moves down the field.

Where are our RPOs? Herman talked a lot during the offseason about how we would incorporate them more into the gameplan, yet they've vanished from our offense since the K-State game.

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4 minutes ago, satyanash said:

blOU and Ohio State also both make liberal use of RPOs to keep the passing game clicking and the offense in sync as it moves down the field.

Where are our RPOs? Herman talked a lot during the offseason about how we would incorporate them more into the gameplan, yet they've vanished from our offense since the K-State game.

The only times I recall them running an RPO were instances where Sam had to keep the ball.  Teams seem to be defending them better now than they were at the beginning of the season and we don't appear to have done anything to adjust.  

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1 hour ago, ClubWhatever said:

Oklahoma beat up TCU the other night primarily by rushing for almost 300 yards.  A ton of those yards are on power concepts.  The reason Baylor and OU are in the CCG and the reason we were last year, is mainly because of being able to run the ball.  Baylor has been running Brewer with power concepts too.  Ohio State is murdering teams by running the ball with Dobbins and Fields.  The power spread is the right system to win our conference.  We have an average offensive line and shitty game plans. 

I never said a spread like Leach. And I'm not sold this power/pro whatever the fuck you want to call it is right for this conference. Big 10? Yes. Big 12? We need something that's more explosive and in line with our conference. 

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It seems rather clear that Herman's notion of power running is to "impose our will" on opposing defenses. Meaning very little creativity or misdirection required. That might work in a league like the Big 10 with tOSU talent, but it's probably not going to work here in the BIg XII.

Although the Big XII doesn't have much of a reputation for defense, the defenses do face offenses that are very "multiple" for lack of a better term.  Thus, good or decent DC's are used to heavily scouting these offenses for tendencies and adjusting to them.  In that respect, at least, Big XII defenses are probably better than they get credit for.

I don't think Herman's notion of power/imposing our will is going to work here absent an overwhelming talent advantage.  And that's probably going to be hard to build here, certainly during what's left of his tenure.

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1 minute ago, utexas8 said:

You have this?

 

InsideTexas Inside Scoop

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By: Eric Nahlin and Justin Wells

Does it feel like you're in a time warp? It should feel like you're at the end of Charlie Strong's second year. You may prefer it to be more like Charlie Strong's third year where he was to be removed but that pesky Sugar Bowl win did happen. That win purchased Herman a bit of a grace period, but more importantly a contract extension.

Tom Herman's in a bit of a time warp as well, but he finds himself back in December of 2017, or at least judging by his rationale for the season going as it has, he's making many of the same excuses as he did then. I wish I could say it was obvious Herman learned from this period, but whether it's deploying his personnel tactically or cultivating team unity, I don't think he has.

By the end of Charlie Strong's second season at Texas many players, player parents, and boosters were ready to move on from him. Mike Perrin was, too, and went fact finding by talking to as many people (including coaches) near the program as possible, but Strong was pretty much guaranteed his third year. I alluded to the discord behind the scenes but didn't go into great detail because I was confident he'd be back. That last sentence should be a useful reminder to you, the dear reader.

With Strong guaranteed that third year, what did Texas do? They let Strong guide the process of finding new coordinators with very little oversight. It became an embarrassing, disorganized mess, not just emblematic of Strong's tenure but also the state of the Athletic Department at the time. While the football program may be stuck in December 2015, the Athletic Department isn't, thankfully.

Behind the scenes, Tom Herman is saying similar things to 2017. He doesn't have championship level players yet on the offensive line, at tight end (goodness gracious), his running backs and quarterback can get there but are a step away, defensive line needs more time, they need to get better at linebacker, etc. The problem is, there's a long way between making the playoffs and scoring three points in the first 59:30 of the Baylor game. The issues are so clearly coaching rather than player driven. There is no excuse for offensive regression whatsoever.

I get that Herman is doing damage control but these reasons for his team's performance are unacceptable. They have more talent than anyone in the league, save maybe OU. OU's greatest talent advantage over UT is on the head sets.

As one donor with more football knowledge than most stated, "Herman is a 'run his stuff' kind of guy. If he has the personnel to run 50% of his stuff, he'll run 50% of it. 75%, 75% of it. Tom is playing chess where there are only so many moves you can make. It's simply recognizing patterns. Once you identify his patterns he's easy to stop. Football is much more dynamic than that."

On top of his predictable offense, Herman's team is heavily penalized and exhibits poor fundamentals. In the middle of the Baylor game, I got the following text from the head coach of a Houston area high school:

"Texas CB's look like they have no clue. They are too talented to play like this. Kid (Jamison) was playing a catch tech on the last play (touchdown). The first rule in catch tech is to not back up, the second is don't give up the inside. The PI was a back shoulder and Green was playing press, but he never threw a jab to disrupt the timing and his length is his strength. He was playing a ghost tech (press but mirror the WR, aka mirror tech) which you ask smaller CBs to play against bigger WRs. They are playing with no confidence at the top of routes and it shows. They should be in positions to make plays and they are just trying to cover their man. Jamison has the best feet, he was better than Cook coming out, it just needs to be taught." Since the results are similar from position to position, I can only assume this is the level of coaching across the board.

Chris Del Conte has a huge, delicate task ahead of him. Currently he's gathering as much information about the program as possible. Of course he's hearing from boosters, many of which aren't too keen on shelling out millions for a giant stadium renovation to house the current product. He has to not only help Herman find new coaches, but also help repair relationships Herman needs in good standing to win next year.

Based on what I'm hearing from booster lines, I expect significant changes starting underneath the head coach, though check back on that in a week or two. From agent circles I've heard four names (at a minimum) of coaches who aren't expected to return. I'd take the over. Don't bother asking for names.

I asked a source, from a personality standpoint, what type of coaches does this program need? "Just care about the players. Nobody cares that the practices or workouts are tough, it's what happens in the hallways and meeting rooms."

Herman's defense, and it isn't entirely terrible, is everyone has asked Strong and him to fix Texas being soft so why now is everyone on his case for toughening up Texas? Yet again, like with "championship level players" mentioned above, we're seeing a significant lack of nuance. He's having trouble finding proper balance between toughness and his players wanting to play for him. We're going to continue to see how things play out and write what we can, when we can. The only thing for sure is you're going to see significant coaching changes at season's end.

Finally:

-- There's a rumor going around that a player got in a physical altercation with a coach. I've had a few people ask me about it. I don't know the origin but I've heard that it isn't true and I assuredly would have heard it if it was true.

-- Jalen Green and Keaontay Ingram will probably be listed as questionable for the Texas Tech game on Friday.

 

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18 hours ago, Rimbo said:

What evidence is there that he would ever consider doing this? What from his past behavior would lead you to believe he's capable of it?

Nope. He's had chances to make the obvious moves already and hasn't.

Herman will make changes. Whether or not they'll save his tenure here is a different matter. But the press conference today made it pretty clear major staff changes are coming.

 

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3 hours ago, longhornmatt said:

OU and Baylor have so much more varied and sophisticated rushing attacks than we do that it’s not really comparable.   They don’t just run QB sweep right or inside zone handoff over and over again.  

We could have a much better rushing attack if we introduced more counters, misdirection and power/pin and pull concepts to complement the zone plays.  But we don’t.

Much like Shawn Watson, Beck and Herman seem to think that you can just out execute defenses with base plays without having to bother with any kind of counters or deception.  And then the personnel is actually even dumber.  At least you can see the dumb logic behind the “impose our will” shit.   But lining up with a spare TE every snap, playing Garrett Gray for half a season just because we HAD to have a nominal TE on the field, Kyle Porter for a year and a half, and going 5 wide when 3 of the 5 are Epps, a TE and a RB, are just complete nonsense.  The only explanation I have for the personnel stubbornness is that the coaches are autistic.  

I'd lump Greg Davis in with that group too.  This X must react this way to that O. No consideration for the human reacting to their plays,  how to dupe said human into getting out of position or the abilities of those running the plays themselves. This does this.  See, it works on a white board.

 Actually, Herman seemed pretty decent at it when he was in a booth calling plays, and had an honest to God mastermind managing the game from the sideline.But now he's being fed a selection fo plays from very linear thinkers, and signs off on them if it seems ok to him. And his penchant for trying to show the world how big his dick is means he's happy to keep pounding away at that peg/hole mismatch.

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8 minutes ago, Bobby_Batronic said:

I'd lump Greg Davis in with that group too.  This X must react this way to that O. No consideration for the human reacting to their plays,  how to dupe said human into getting out of position or the abilities of those running the plays themselves. This does this.  See, it works on a white board.

 Actually, Herman seemed pretty decent at it when he was in a booth calling plays, and had an honest to God mastermind managing the game from the sideline.But now he's being fed a selection fo plays from very linear thinkers, and signs off on them if it seems ok to him. And his penchant for trying to show the world how big his dick is means he's happy to keep pounding away at that peg/hole mismatch.

I think a big part of that was Mack forcing GDGD to run.

He grudgingly stuck run plays in there to appease Mack.  And accidentally on-purpose sabotaged the offense a bit. Left to his own devices, GDGD would have been all air almost all the time.

 

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(Coach Venable) - Coach V's Grades - Baylor - Offense

It’s only fair that I admit it’s getting extremely difficult to stomach watching much less grading this sad mess that we call our football program these days...

Spoiler

... It doesn’t really matter to what extent changes are made to finish this season but if the powers that be think staying the same course and work harder is the answer we might as well forfeit the last two and rest up for spring football.

The most unorganized offense I had seen prior to yesterday was our 9th grade “D” team the year we had 150 kiddo’s come out for football. We had a severe shortage of coaches and time to do right by them but we settled on two formations and three plays to each side (strong and weak) with one passing play. We didn’t win any style points but that bunch of rag-knots got to the point where they never busted an assignment. It wasn’t pretty but that bunch won 5 games and most felt so good about themselves they came back for 10th grade sophomore “B” team.

We have too many plays where the guard thinks the tackle will pick up the defender and neither will put a hat on him. We have too many plays where the “read on the run” routes are busted and we wind up without a structured option available for the QB. We run a zone read option where the QB turns and watches the RB without carrying out any part of a fake keep to hold defenders. In other words, we do one helluva lot of disorganized actions that seldom add up to a successful looking organized plan.

I think it only fair to mention most of the individual players played hard on most downs but must add that very little passion was observed. It was more like going through the motions without any specific goal in mind. We just made too many mental errors and just as many physical mistakes. We don’t call plays that build off of each other. We also don’t do our blockers any favors with our predictability play-calling.

Here are the grades:

2—Johnson—-pass

6—Duvernay—pass

11—Ehlinger—pass

13—Eagles—pass

15—Washington—borderline

16—Smith—borderline

18—Wiley—borderline

26—Ingram—pass +

52—Cosmi—fail

56—Shackelford—fail

68—Kerstetter—fail

73—Braun—borderline

75—Angilau—borderline

78—Okafor—-fail

83—Woodard—borderline

85—Epps—borderline

We need to find a way to all pull from the same end of the rope. We waste too many honest efforts and the discouragement is winning the war. We definitely need the help of the staff. I’m thankful I never had that problem. We might not have been the best staffs ever but we were sound in plan and application. We were firm but fair. We were never “married” to a system—we built our system to fit the strengths of our kiddo’s. Best of all we all had fun and it showed. I don’t see much of this on Saturdays with this program.

 

(Coach Venable) - Coach V's Grades - Baylor - Defense

I just don’t understand what the hell goes into our thinking under this yahoo disguising our defensive plan of attack...

Spoiler

 

... I have been critical for the biggest part of three years but yesterday broke my competitive spirit. Baylor lined up in a tight wing and we aligned our DL strength away from the wing and all DB’s off the LOS. We had a 4i for our last man on the LOS. He was outflanked by the OT, LOS–TE, and Wing. Baylor found that nugget too good to pass up and was untouched till he had a good head of steam built up—in fact, they liked it so much they did it a few more times and we obliged by adjusting the same unsound way.

I know, one riot, one Ranger but this yahoo actually believes he can out-think the offensive play-caller with masterful match-up calls but forgets defenses need to start the play with sound alignment and sound responsibilities. It’s getting very tiresome for this old “hoot” to watch offenses carve his ass up because he won’t or doesn’t think assigning responsibilities is as important as “learning” where to blitz from or to be able to recite (in his language) the exact terms he taught from.

We had effort. I wish I could say our angle problems have been improved but yesterday was as poor as we have had. We managed to commit about the same number of missed tackles as usual. We still don’t play smart football either. We don’t react instinctively nor do we exhibit fundamentals of the game. We are still learning exactly how deep we need to blitz from so that we won’t factor in making a play.

We have guys that play the game the right way. They just need direction and a fair chance to be successful. We have basically schemed our two 4’s out of any chance of making a difference. Occupying blockers in order to free up LB’s to be active is canceled when both LB’s are statues long enough for the combo block to come off and pin or drive them into oblivion. We seldom steer the ball back into our noses who are actually good players.

Since we decided “coaching” LB techniques is over-rated we sacrifice them often by blitzing them with mugs and crosses. The sad part of that is we don’t come off the edge with our best edge stunter (Ossai) but instead run him right into a 300 pound biscuit eater at guard. We average about one sack a game from this strategy but considering we use it about 25 to 50 times a game it doesn’t have the shaving effect desired in this armchair.

Our secondary is full of five stars that aren’t even close to playing five star football. They have to learn all the exotic alignments and blitzes before they can qualify for scrimmage action. Has anybody not figured out that we like to blitz our DB’s—we even found a way to assign Ojomo manning up a flat route yesterday. This enables us to get maximum coverage out of our need to match call with our ringmaster slyly out-thinking their two step ahead approach.

Here are the grades:

3—Green—borderline

5—Jamison—pass

7—Sterns—pass

11—Adimora—pass

15—Brown—pass+

19—Jones—pass

23—McCulloch—borderline –

31—Overshown—-pass+

32—Roach—borderline –

36—Jones—borderline

38—Boyce—borderline –

39—Estell—borderline

40—Adeoye—borderline –

42—Bimage—borderline

44—Owens—borderline

46—Ossai—borderline –

49—Graham—borderline –

50—Vaughns—pass

91—Chisholm—-borderline

93—Sweat—pass

98—Ojomo—pass

99—Coburn—pass

Both sides of the ball need change in the worst way. The defense needs a new voice and direction. It’s amazing how much different I see the personnel on hand from the present staff.

Both inside backers are not productive in those positions. Ossai and Vaughns should be edge players. Overshown should be a deep MLB running both alleys from inside out. We need a straight running plugger as a middle backer in front of Overshown. Chris Brown is a second level player—either deep MLB or edge safety. Roach can play both SDE and a 3 technique. Graham, Ojomo, Sweat, and Coburn are inside techs (3 and 1). Bimage is a SDE or MLB plug.

Jones and Sterns are flexible safeties with the ability to accept several different assignments or responsibilities. The corners need situational guidance in the worst way. They are better football players than they are producing. We need to see if they will accept the challenge of playing both the island and active zone. Every DB needs a crash course on fighting for the thrown ball without reservations—intelligent interference calls should just be part of the job.

 

 

Edited by El Hornarino
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I think a big part of that was Mack forcing GDGD to run.
He grudgingly stuck run plays in there to appease Mack.  And accidentally on-purpose sabotaged the offense a bit. Left to his own devices, GDGD would have been all air almost all the time.
 
Missy of this is correct. All air all the time is not. There is a reason we recruited and featured great runners.... And run blocking OL...
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