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12 minutes ago, OU Sucks said:

He did play, then he limped off the field and don't think he came back after that.

Reported today on HornFM that Black didn't start Tech game because of some off the field issue... which put him in the coaches doghouse.

But Black did play at Tech, and limp off the field.  Herman didn't mention him being hurt in today's press conference though.  

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18 minutes ago, LTtxfan said:

Reported today on HornFM that Black didn't start Tech game because of some off the field issue... which put him in the coaches doghouse.

But Black did play at Tech, and limp off the field.  Herman didn't mention him being hurt in today's press conference though.  

He must not have been in the doghouse for long, because he was in by the end of our first drive.  Remember seeing him celebrate with Sam after the first TD.

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1st game. holy fuck he's our savior!

2nd game. holy fuck he sucks donkey balls dipped on a mixture zebra cum and king cobra venom.

 

it's the second game of a new OC and scheme where we didn't have spring ball to implement anything. we are basically trialing the new dev code in production. shit is going to break. take a look across the cfb landscape. most teams, including offenses, suck. this has been a crazy fucking year. nothing normal applies.

i blame the shitty O more on the Oline sucking shit, sam looking like shit for much of the game and not trusting his Oline and receivers, and the Oline sucking more shit by committing stupid fucking penalties every drive. let's say we won in spite of the Oline. 

the D is another thread unto itself. again the same situation applies. we are implementing a brand new scheme without the benefit of spring ball. plus our LBs fucking SUCK in coverage and tackling.

this would be a dismal season except that nothing normal applies. a lot of teams look like shit and will continue to look like shit because of the shittastic year.

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1st game. holy fuck he's our savior!
2nd game. holy fuck he sucks donkey balls dipped on a mixture zebra cum and king cobra venom.
 
it's the second game of a new OC and scheme where we didn't have spring ball to implement anything. we are basically trialing the new dev code in production. shit is going to break. take a look across the cfb landscape. most teams, including offenses, suck. this has been a crazy fucking year. nothing normal applies.
i blame the shitty O more on the Oline sucking shit, sam looking like shit for much of the game and not trusting his Oline and receivers, and the Oline sucking more shit by committing stupid fucking penalties every drive. let's say we won in spite of the Oline. 
the D is another thread unto itself. again the same situation applies. we are implementing a brand new scheme without the benefit of spring ball. plus our LBs fucking SUCK in coverage and tackling.
this would be a dismal season except that nothing normal applies. a lot of teams look like shit and will continue to look like shit because of the shittastic year.

Lincoln Riley with a QB that has had more than a year to learn the offense had trouble scoring against KState at home. The same KState that actually lost their game to a bad team.

Yurcich and Sam took their show in the road in the Big 12 and put up 56 pts against a Tech team that also had a bye week to prepare.
The OL is a problem, the pass D is a problem, the offense is mildly concerning, but not to the extent of last year or the Sterlin Gilbert experience.
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Thanks @satyanash   

(Scipio Tex) 2020 Texas Tech Post-Mortem: Offense

So let's take a deep breath and break down an offense that was at different times and in varying degrees: efficient, precise, unambitious, gutless, disappointing, totally unstoppable, and frustrating all within the confines of the same game. And quarter.

What went well:

Sam's Run Game. He was incorporated early and often, then again late, and the box score (16-69-1) belies how crucial he was in providing clutch third down conversions and getting us deep into the red zone when the rest of the offense seemed a little short of ideas.

Winnerness. Sam stuck with a tough game (and game plan) and rallied his teammates to a huge, improbable win. Late game script dictated that Texas had to run its best tactical approach - spread 'em out, speed it up, let Sam make plays - and that he did. Why being down 15 deep in the 4th quarter dictated what seemed fairly clear coming in is odd, but nonetheless, Ehlinger engineered the sixth game winning drive of his career. Props to #11 and his teammates for playing until the final gun and then one overtime beyond.

Josh Moore. I don't know if he has the size and durability to be a #1 wide receiver, but #1.5 will do. 5 catches, 73 yards, 3 tds. He was shaken up a bit, but returned to the game and provided several big catches. His early 31 yard touchdown catch was a tremendous example of pure ball skills between two Tech defenders.

The early quick game. Texas counted up Tech's D and threw it out wide when the numbers favored. The receivers blocked hard for each other. This was a good approach and taking early candy is never a bad thing, but the failure to have much opponent specific game plan beyond that on a two week break is odd.

What did not go as well:

In the second half, the offensive staff wanted it one way, but it’s the other way.

Loss of tempo/aggression. Much of the second half featured tepid offensive play calling and an unwillingness to press the Red Raiders defense. No vertical stretch and a complete neglect to attack the middle of the field on play action, despite Tech safety Thomas Leggett sprinting up in run support like he was shot out of a cannon, and the Red Raiders playing as many of their 240+ pound linebackers on the field as possible. Early on, it looked like a bleed 'em underneath and tire 'em out attack that we'd exploit later with bigger plays down the field. That didn't happen until 3:13 was on the clock. Then we saw what an exhausted Tech front looked like pass rushing with some of their best LBs on the sideline. When the field got big, Tech got small.

Stubborn 12 personnel. Started manageably with what Tech was allowing, but Wiley and Brewer were non factors for most of the game and the 1st half RB Texas running game featured 21 carries for 66 yards running the same two runs. I’m not sure why we’d expect any DC to honor our TEs as threats. The best attribute of Tech's defense is good LB play and decent run stopping big bodies inside. Why allow Tech to keep those linebackers on the field or in the box where they’re comfortable? Even without Smith and Whittington, the match ups dictated making the field bigger, not smaller. Anyone see the HBU game? Texas actually ran the ball better from 2x2 or 3x1 split wide by forcing a lighter box.

OL cohesion. The box score will show that Texas scored 63 points and allowed two sacks and six tackles for loss. Who could possibly be down on the OL? Other than Sam Cosmi, I'm pretty down on some of the key mistakes that they made. The two sacks they surrendered were against three man rushes, one of them on a T/E stunt where the end ran between an unoccupied Kerstetter and Okafor. The OL also had multiple penalties at key moments that were absolute drive killers. Offsides. Blocker downfield. Chop block. Holds. The game plan didn't exactly set them up for success in the running game, but the lack of displacement or their ability to get hats on a 2nd level defender was notable.

Pad level is also too inconsistent in the running game. This is a basic coachable thing. It doesn’t require talent. Zone blocking doesn’t mean you stand up. 27 minutes of the second half. Until Texas went to hurry-up tempo late, the Horns logged the following 2nd half possessions:

4 plays, 16 yards PUNT
6 plays, 4 yards PUNT
3 plays, 3 yards INTERCEPTION
12 plays, 64 yards FIELD GOAL
3 plays, -21 yards PUNT

That's five possessions totaling 66 yards and a field goal while setting Tech up with three short field touchdowns. Down 15, Texas went tempo, spread it out, and rattled off three touchdowns on 13 plays to score 22 points and win the game. Winning is hard.

RPOs & Misdirection. The RPO - at least true RPO reads - went through long stretches of absence. Misdirection was also notably missing, unless you're counting the Josh Moore throwback pass that was nearly intercepted going the other way. What happened to all of the window dressing and eye candy that characterized the UTEP game plan to freeze linebackers and make safeties doubt their eyes?

3rd Down. Texas was 5 of 16 on 3rd down. 31%. Against Tech? Not acceptable.

In all, Texas gained 476 yards on 89 plays. 5.3 yards per play. That’s a grind. It didn’t have to be. It felt like a Tom Herman game plan.

Final

Looking at the scoreboard to evaluate the offense can be very deceptive. Particularly when lots of points and short fields are getting created by other means. Texas lost the second half on offense badly for 27 minutes until game script forced a different approach and we played Hurry Up Hero Ball from the spread. This team can’t afford to have entire halves of offensive lethargy. Two weeks post UTEP, it would be hard to argue this offense took a step forward.

Really happy to have some teaching material for this staff and the team with a W rather than a L. Props to this team for believing it could still win and making it happen

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Bobby Burton grade for Tech Game

Offense

The game plan worked for the first half and not for the second. Texas tried to stay with the two tight end approach way too deep into the game after it was clear that the Red Raiders were willing to stop the run game at all costs. Texas played right into their hands. Instead of attempting to prey on the Red Raiders weak pass defense, the Horns stubbornly tried to win the game between the tackles and all Tech did was keep crashing more people into the box. It felt like Tom Herman and Mike Yurcich overplayed their hand, thinking the Texas OL and tight ends were good enough to overcome a loaded box. They aren’t and they weren’t. Hopefully, Texas has learned its lesson but given Herman’s proclivity to the power run, I’m not so sure. I guess we’ll see in the weeks to come. If an opponent has a weakness, attack that. Don’t try to force a square peg into a round hole. Alas, the penalties and ineffectiveness of the OL, the subpar play from Ehlinger for a large portion of the second half and the inability to get skill players in space is why this grade — despite scoring so many points — is necessary. The game never should have been this close had the Texas offense not been so stubborn.

Grade: C

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Good grief. We had 63 points, 56 in regulation. If the final score had been 56-0 or 63-0, no one would be complaining about offense. But now we bitch about offense because defense and ST shit the bed and have up 56 points?

We can improve in every facet of the game, but offense is not a big worry right now.

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2 minutes ago, Mikey4 said:

Good grief. We had 63 points, 56 in regulation. If the final score had been 56-0 or 63-0, no one would be complaining about offense. But now we bitch about offense because defense and ST shit the bed and have up 56 points?

We can improve in every facet of the game, but offense is not a big worry right now.

Seriously. Shit on defense all you want, but God damn we put up 60 points. Set Ash's ass on fire 

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1 minute ago, Spider2YBanana said:

Seriously. Shit on defense all you want, but God damn we put up 60 points. Set Ash's ass on fire 

If Bowman stays healthy, Tech gets OU in Lubbock and I want to see how Tech does against that OU Grinch defense.  It may be ugly for OU because their secondary is worse than ours.  

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Just now, lemonandaturd said:

If Bowman stays healthy, Tech gets OU in Lubbock and I want to see how Tech does against that OU Grinch defense.  It may be ugly for OU because their secondary is worse than ours.  

Oh man, Bowman should feast if he's healthy. Ou's defense is much worse than ours. I can't wait to see that happen. 

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22 minutes ago, Mikey4 said:

Good grief. We had 63 points, 56 in regulation. If the final score had been 56-0 or 63-0, no one would be complaining about offense. But now we bitch about offense because defense and ST shit the bed and have up 56 points?

We can improve in every facet of the game, but offense is not a big worry right now.

The offense was non-existent for 27 minutes in the 2nd half. You can't net 50 yards of total offense for almost an entire half in the Big 12 and expect your defense to pitch a shut out. Not too mention, Ehlinger's INT that set up a 10 yard TD, nor the fact that Tech was playing almost the entire 2nd half in Texas's territory.

And for the offense, 7 points came from a blocked punt, while the Texas defense and STs gave the offense great field position consistently throughout the game. There's a reason why the final score was 63-56 and neither team gained more than 500 yards of total offense.

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On 9/26/2020 at 11:53 PM, Zeus said:

Oh, that's funny.

Whatever.

I did like the RB screen we ran once and it worked. Ran it against a blitz and there was a little fake screen the other way first. Didn't go back to that :(

I wish the screen game was on point because those and QB draws are just so sweet to go to the well on sometimes.

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15 hours ago, OU Sucks said:

He did play, then he limped off the field and don't think he came back after that.

 

15 hours ago, LTtxfan said:

Reported today on HornFM that Black didn't start Tech game because of some off the field issue... which put him in the coaches doghouse.

But Black did play at Tech, and limp off the field.  Herman didn't mention him being hurt in today's press conference though.  

I saw Black on the field near the end of the 4thQ

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On 9/28/2020 at 7:41 PM, lemonandaturd said:

If Bowman stays healthy, Tech gets OU in Lubbock and I want to see how Tech does against that OU Grinch defense.  It may be ugly for OU because their secondary is worse than ours.  

Are you saying there are other DBs in the league that are worse in tackling? Good God!

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https://247sports.com/college/texas/board/21/Contents/longhorn-offense-run-game-glossary-breakdown-tons-of-gifs-152273779/

247... Chris Osgood

Longhorn Offense Run Game Glossary / Breakdown (Tons of GIFs)

I want to take a quick pass through the Longhorns offense run game. This includes the first half of the UTEP game and all of Texas Tech. Texas has about 10 general run play types used so far, which involve around 5 major blocking schemes. You're going to see me emphasize how an offense will make things look different to a defense while maintaining a mastered execution core, especially for the offensive line.

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The basic Inside Zone is doing just fine at 4.8 Yards-Per Play (YPP) at a 56% Success Rate. The other sustained run play Midzone is fairly efficient with a 50% Success Rate, but doesn't get a ton of yards at only 3.7 YPP. Split Zone is a bit of a performance struggle, and a lot of the designed QB run elements are flailing with low usage. The QB Draw, paired with the constant threat of 4 Verts has been very effective on five tries. Yurcich probably wants to get Split Zone more efficient and make Midzone more explosive. Those two improvements would make you believe in the Longhorn run game again.

The yellow columns show the average down and distance of the various higher usage runs. The Midzone play is used earlier in series', as compared to Inside Zones with an average down of 1.4 with 9.2 yards to go, where the Inside Zone average down is 1.6 with only 6.4 yards to go.

There have been 10 designed QB runs plays (including a couple pitch options) against 44 running back or read-option runs. This means Ehlinger has been put in elevated harm's way on almost 20% of the Longhorns runs. I would probably like to see this drop down into the mid teens, even though quarterback injuries are much more prevalent on drop back passes over running plays . What do you think is the right balance here?

Inside Zone

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Inside zone uses covered-uncovered rules for the offensive linemen and a running back path behind the play-side guard. In the above clip the play-side is to the left. The back-side attached tight end and the offensive guards were covered into their play-side (left) gaps and took on those linemen in their faces. The offensive tackles and centers were uncovered, so they looked to climb onto linebackers. Inside Zone typically emphasizes double team combos by the uncovered linemen before they look to climb. It's interesting that only the Center did any double team combo blocking before climbing; the tackles really wanted to get vertical fast. The Longhorns had six blocking six here for a nice gain.

Split Zone Inside Zone

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Split Zone is an Inside Zone with a fullback or tight end (Brewer here) going against the play direction. In the above clip, the play-side is the the left and the Split action by Brewer is to the right. This action can mess with linebacker play recognition keys, which should cause some hesitation. The split action blocker can seal the end, lead block for a QB keep, arc block for a QB keep (leave one defender to be read), or even head out for a screen throw. Texas mostly uses their split action blockers to simply run block into the first opponent colored jersey they can find outside the back-side tackle. In this above play, Johnson didn't like what he was seeing on the designed path behind left guard, and opted to follow Brewer on a cutback. The design was to the left, but the result to the right is perfectly fine, normal, and not at all bad.

Pistol Midline

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Texas lined up with a Pistol formation using Robinson twice in the first half against UTEP. This formation provides left-to-right run play ambiguity whereas offset shotgun tells the defense where the running game is likely to go opposite the running back's pre-snap alignment. It can be hard to get the running back involved in any passing game out of the Pistol however. UCLA for example runs the ball 96% of the time it lines up in the Pistol, but is still fairly efficient with it in spite of the massive run tell. Here Texas is running a Pistol Midline Zone. The line is still blocking Inside Zone, but the running back is now aiming behind the Center. If you see a pistol formation, shout at your friends "RUN COMING" to seem really smart.

Midzone

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Midzone is the primary wide run threat by Texas. We could quibble about calling this a sweep, or Outside Zone, or shotgun Wide Zone, but I think Midzone makes sense as the running backs are aiming for the play-side tackle, and are clearly coached to get upfield sooner than later. You can most easily identify this play by the running back path being somewhat horizontal as he gets the ball. The linemen are still zone blocking using covered/uncovered rules, but are doing so while hauling their butts to the sideline.

Don't worry about what No. 70 Jones is doing here, he is blocking for a backside screen or quarterback keeper since he can't really contribute to the play-side; he didn't run the wrong play or mix up the direction as it may appear.

The Inside Zone and Midzone pair well with the screen passing emphasis to form a uniform horizontal threat to the defense at the line of scrimmage. If Texas were to mix in a true Outside Zone, Wide Zone, or more Pitch Options moving forward, you might see a reduced emphasis on screen passing. I suspect what we have seen is what we will get moving forward though.

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Most Midzone runs by Texas so far include a lead blocker tight end. Ten of the 14 Midzone runs so far have come from a twins or two-back backfield (where the added guy is a tight end). In fact ten of the Longhorn's 22 twins backfield snaps that I have tracked were Midzone. Impress your friends and shout "MIDZONE RUN COMING" when you see the twins backfield. You'll have a coin flip shot at being correct.

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The above clip shows that the lead blocker can be attached to the front side of the offensive line to do the lead block job just as easily as from the backfield. Slightly different formation to the defense, same consistent execution for the offense.

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The above same-side Midzone really caught my eye. This loosens up the defense from keying on the pre-snap run direction based on running back alignment. Johnson had to get the ball and get going to the left quickly here without the benefit of some runway coming from the right. Johnson lined up a little tighter to the quarterback and Ehlinger pivoted hard to present the ball out wide to the left. There's no possible read option on this one, Ehlinger has to make sure Johnson gets the ball quick and clean. It's a nice constraint play to keep the defense honest left-to-right.

Midzone Reverse 

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The above Midzone reverse is the lone running game trick play so far. Trick plays need to be cheap on practice time and rely on a simple twist to a well mastered base play. Most of the offense on this trick is just running a normal Midzone to the right. This is smart coaching in a time of COVID.

QB Power

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We'll call this a QB Power because we have a designed quarterback run with a trailing pulling guard and a running back pretending to be a fullback. I think of most gap plays deploying a "Wham" to set an offensive kick-out edge, and a "Wrap" to lead block for the ball carrier into the designed target gap. The rest of the line looks to pin the rest of the defense inside. In this case Johnson is the Wham and Angilau is the Wrap. Neither really blew their guy off the ball and Ehlinger opted to bounce outside of both.

I am not pushing the Herman play-calling conspiracy. I promise I'm not a Herman truther. If I were however, this play would probably be my exhibit number 1. This feels very Herman.

QB Counter

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We'll call this other gap quarterback run QB Counter. This time we're running away from the running back's pre-snap alignment. The pulling guard is swapped into the Wham role, and now Ingram trails as the Wrap. Fullback first, lineman second = Power. Lineman first, fullback second = Counter. At least this is how I keep it straight for my terminology.

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On the end zone view of the same QB Counter, we can see a lack of mastery in this so-far-one-time play. Okafor has the look of a guy that wants to Wrap, and forgot he needs to Wham and kick out No. 6. If Okafor kicks out No.6, Ingram can Wrap through to No.1, and Ehlinger can overcome the low snap to slither away from No. 97. Either hang your hat on this type of play or shelve it; don't dabble! You have to wonder how much practice time went into these Power and Counter one-off plays that are actually pretty different and exotic for the players at the detail level.

QB Midzone Lead

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Here's a QB Midzone where the running back takes on the previous tight end lead blocking job. It's just plain old Midzone right to the linemen, and the defense is probably much more concerned about an Ingram run going from the offense's right to left. Now we're back to leveraging our core masteries with calculated QB hit risk tolerance.

Pitch Option

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Texas has so far run two not-so-great Speed or Pitch Options. It looks like Texas is trying to employ Midzone blocking in the direction of the option run. This is good from a scheme mastery perspective, but I like the UCLA Pitch Option blocking scheme better. I broke it all down here.  The UCLA version leaves the play-side defensive end unblocked as a pitch conflict man and then mostly has everyone else block backwards. The Texas version brings the defensive mass with the play direction. The Pitch Option that I didn't gif had Ehlinger show an Inside Zone hand-off action fake before taking off on the run. This is designed to suck the defense further upfield early in the play.

QB Draw

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Texas ran five QB Draw plays against Texas Tech in the midst of a bunch of 4 Verts spam. This is such a great complementary scheme. The defense was terrified of horizontal stress at depth and gave up the middle of the field knowing 4 Verts doesn't route into that space. You can tell these are designed QB runs all the way because of the way the running back and offensive lineman release downfield with bad intent really early.

Conclusion

The Texas run game probably isn't doing as badly as you thought. There's definitely a ton of room for upside improvement though. The scheme is well thought out on the whole, and isn't overly broad. The staff seems conflicted about the QB run game; they need to settle on an identity there.

What new surprises could be in store? I get the feeling Yurcich really wants to commit to and master the zone simplicity with Inside Zone and Midzone. GT Counter (guard Wham, tackle Wrap) or Buck Sweep (interior guards and centers pulling) are personal favorites.  Chip Kelly likes to put multiple tight ends attached together on the same side of the line   to create an overload quantity of run gaps for a defense to account for. This creates run gap responsibilities for pass rushers and defensive backs that aren't accustomed to such jobs. It's fun to make diva cornerbacks tackle running backs! A very small evolution for Texas with Yurcich would be do that with 12 Personnel to create D and E gaps out wide. I don't see Texas going under center, but that Pistol option could easily become a single game flavor-of-the-week against specific defenses. Texas has also been showing jet action (receiver motion across the middle timed up with the snap) but has yet to show a jet sweep (handoff to that jet motion).

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I don't get the hate on Yurcich right now... Ingram doesn't fumble the ball and we score on that last drive, Texas would have put up the most points it has against TCU/Patterson since 1990...   30 fucking years....   that's the Jim Wacker then Pat Sullivan then Dennis Franchione and 20 years of Gary Patterson.

3 games in averaging 48 points (in regulation) a game.  Not sure what's being asked of him??

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21 minutes ago, MonkeyDoughnut said:

I don't get the hate on Yurcich right now... Ingram doesn't fumble the ball and we score on that last drive, Texas would have put up the most points it has against TCU/Patterson since 1990...   30 fucking years....   that's the Jim Wacker then Pat Sullivan then Dennis Franchione and 20 years of Gary Patterson.

3 games in averaging 48 points (in regulation) a game.  Not sure what's being asked of him??

Lol. The mighty Cyclones of Iowa State put up 37 on them last week.  

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Is Yurcich taking full responsibility for some of the shit play calls?

That is, it has appeared to some of us that there is an uncanny resemblance in the Tech and TCU games to a lot of the wtf moments on offense from last season... is #MensaTom insisting on having the last word on some possessions, and overriding what Yurcich calls? Looking at #MensaTom on the sidelines, flapping a play sheet and screaming at someone on his headset, it seems plausible...

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On 10/4/2020 at 11:15 AM, MonkeyDoughnut said:

3 games in averaging 48 points (in regulation) a game.  Not sure what's being asked of him??

Kick Turtle Tom in the dick and insist on running the actual offense when we have a lead.  At least, that's what I would ask of him.  I assume he can get close enough to do that.

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3 hours ago, jinx said:

Kick Turtle Tom in the dick and insist on running the actual offense when we have a lead.  At least, that's what I would ask of him.  I assume he can get close enough to do that.

AND... Fuckin' Let Yurcich Call the Plays!!!

(thanks to @Coach pop a bitch for finding tweet)

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