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  1. Brisketexan

    Brisketexan

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    Radical Larry

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    Hank Scorpio

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    Beau Vine

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Popular Content

Showing content with the highest reputation on 10/04/19 in all areas

  1. As I have a few other times this year, I watched a single game (NC State @ WVU) of our upcoming opponent, West Virginia. Based on that viewing, I make drastic and wide-reaching claims about the strengths and weaknesses of the Mountaineers. As you can already tell, my strategy and analysis is as flawed as West Virginia’s claim to statehood (seriously, check it out here: West Virginia is probably unconstitutional). But enough self-flagellation. Let’s get to it: Coach philosophy: After a strong, but ultimately disappointing 2018 campaign, Dana Holgorsen left the craggy bootlegging dens of Morgantown for the concrete syzzurp jungle of Houston. The 2018 WVU squad was stacked; it saw five players drafted and had another—David Sills—be named All American. The 2019 squad is…. not stacked. New coach Neal Brown spells his first name wrong and has taken over the helm of the Mountaineers. You probably remember Neal Brown from the time his Troy Spartans took down LSU. You probably forgot that he was offensive coordinator at Texas Tech under Tommy Tuberville, following their firing of Mike Leach. After his hiring, Tuberville fired Tech’s then-inside WRs coach, Lincoln Riley. Brown’s OC highlights at Texas Tech featured such memorable contests as Taylor Potts leading the Red Raiders to a close win over Northwestern in the 2011 Ticket City Bowl, and literally no other games (unless you count the time they got rung up 41-7 by the Tom Herman-OC’ed Iowa State Cyclones?). Neal Brown is technically a member of the Air Raid coaching tree, as he played under Leach and Mumme at Kentucky in the late 2000s. But his offense is not particularly Air Raid-y, and in my viewing of a single game, I saw very few of the Air Raid staples of Yore (saw a version of mesh once, didn’t see four verts, etc.). Brown’s coaching style appears to be: aggression. He has taken an underpowered WVU squad (smart of Holgo to get out while he did, by the way) and has basically cranked the intensity and aggression up to 11. Speaking of crank, there is a crystal method to West Virginia’s madness: His defense’s sole goal appears to be trying to force negative plays in the run game on first down to make the offense resort to predictable play calling later in the series. Sound familiar? It’s Orlando’s defensive philosophy. But as you’ll see below, WVU’s defense is far less staffed for that approach. And based on what I saw from NC State, if faced with a competent offensive attack, WVU’s aggression will likely crumble when stacked against a balanced offense. But while WVU plays aggressive (several clips of that in the defensive breakdown below), they do not appear to be well-coached. They make lots of silly mistakes and mental errors that Texas can capitalize. Offensive Philosophy: I mentioned above that WVU’s personnel and depth leaves something to be desired. The one thing Holgorsen left a lot of, though, is speed at the receiver position. And they use it. WVU LOVES buck and toss sweep. They’ll run it from any formation to any guy. They’ll run double sweep action and try to confuse the defense on who caught the ball from the toss. QB: WVU’s QB is Austin Kendall, who grad-transferred in from OU. He’s no Will Grier: Kendall has a tendency to miss throws high. Sometimes it’s due to pressure. Othertime, it’s due to him just being kind of shitty. In either event, there ought to be some opportunities for our safeties and LBs to pick off stray passes on Saturday. To the extent Brown is a true Air Raid disciple, you’d think he’d be able to get his offense up and running pretty easily at WVU. But there are…. some kinks: But just like any more experienced college QB, if Kendall gets into a rhythm, he can make some good throws. Watch that one again, if you glazed over it. This is actually a super savvy play in the red zone, when Air Raid offenses tend to bog down due to lack of space. What is so special about it? Watch Kendall cut the play action short to look at the backside post. This takes the safety all the way from the near hash most of the way to the far hash in about a second and a half. Now, that safety is playing run hard, so if he draws out the play action, maybe he still has a good window, but by that time, his receiver is several steps deeper into the redzone. Here’s a view of Kendall from the safety’s perspective on this play: Generally speaking, though, Kendall isn’t going to beat Texas, if Texas doesn’t bail him out by giving up cheap penalties. Kendall doesn’t have the arm strength or accuracy to hit the deep bombs that Will Grier made so many teams pay with: And when Texas has an opportunity to pick Kendall off (and there will be opportunities), they can’t shoot themselves in the foot by fighting over the ball: I’ve said it a few times, but Kendall will give the ball away—especially if he gets pressured. Texas should capitalize: WR: As mentioned above, WVU has speed at the WR position. Sean Ryan (18) and Sam James (13) were their best options in the game I watched. Neither should scare you, especially because Kendall struggles getting them the ball. Here’s Ryan. He’s a bigger receiver—in the Collin Johnson mold. He still has good speed, though. Holgorsen didn’t recruit you unless you had speed. WVU’s best (or at least most lethal) receiver is James. He has plenty of speed: I mean, seriously. Look at the separation he gets here on a very simple post-corner: Wow. But James, while explosive, struggles with consistency. If he doesn’t get the separation he wants, he will drop the ball: RB: WVU’s running back is fine. He’s #6, and his name is McCoy. He’s not going to hurt us on Saturday, unless Orlando loses his mind in stopping the run for some reason. OL: West Virginia’s OL is significantly less intimidating than last year. I’m not even sure how good they were last year; Grier always got the ball out so fast, it was impossible to get to him. Things are… different… now. WVU’s OL can sometimes hit on outside zone decently. Theydo a nice job of working together on OZ to pass off defenders and get to the second level. WVU’s pass pro Defensive Philosophy: As mentioned above, WVU’s D is aggressive. Their DL gets upfield on almost every play, making them susceptible to screens and traps, and their safeties try to DESTROY wide receivers, making them susceptible to PIs and targeting penalties. Their LBs generally suck—especially in pass coverage. No first-year DC bump here. WVU’s LBs are just turf-guarders in the pass game. There are a lot of opportunities for explosive plays here. DL: As mentioned, WVU’s defensive line’s sole mission in life is to get upfield. And that makes sense, given how undersized they are. #55 is Dante Stills. #56 is (his brother?) Darius Stills. They rotate at DT/NG (depending on whether WVU shows an odd or even front). And they both get their asses upfield: Here’s Dante Stills (55): He is WVU’s best DL (maybe by a lot): But Stills is so focused on getting upfield that he is susceptible to jumping offsides: Here’s his brother, Darius: Seriously—look at how far upfield these guys get Here’s where WVU’s really bad, though: Moving laterally. They got destroyed by NC State running outside zone And when they didn’t get penetration, on inside zone, too: The other thing that will punish this defense is screens… if you don’t throw the ball four feet over your RB’s head. And if you don’t get IN FRONT of your lead blockers… LB: Linebackers might be the weakest part of the defense—especially in pass coverage. WVU’s LBs’ gap integrity is a mess. Just check out how haphazardly they’re running around here: Gap integrity is a mess here. The stand-up DE/OLB gets easily hooked by the tight end. The playside mike backer tries to shoot a gap for no apparent reason, putting him in the wash and taking him out of the play. And the run supporting safety tries to shoot that same gap, allowing the tackle to get to him and put a block on him. And I can’t wait to see Braun link up with these undersized linebackers and take them out for breakfast: Pancakes anyone? Pass defense by LBs is rough. Look at 10 here—he’s just covering space. He doesn’t commit to try and cover the inside wide receiver, and he doesn’t work over to the Y, either. Nor does the outside linebacker lay a hand on the Y as he runs up the seam, and until the QB throws the ball, the safety is actually running away from the tight end running up the middle of the field. Speaking of which, remember those times Andrew Beck and Sam couldn’t hook up down the seam last year against WVU? That play will be there on Saturday, too: Doesn’t even matter who’s throwing the ball: Given how aggressive this defense is in pursuing the RBs, one other thing that will be there all day on Saturday, if we need to use it, is the QB read game: DB: I’ve covered a lot of ground, including some safety stuff above. Suffice it to say, the DBs might be their most aggressive unit on the field—with feast or famine results. They will try to lower their helmet, and they might have some guys tossed for targeting: Given the above issues with LBs and safeties covering space instead of players, though, you ought to expect Devin Duvernay to have a big day: This is a stick-draw concept, but the read on that outside LB is wild, because he just doesn’t move at all until the ball is thrown. He does nothing except hop. He doesn’t try to defend the run. He doesn’t try to defend the pass. He is frozen in place, except he hops a little bit. Not a good sign. Conclusion: For some reason, WVU thinks they have a rivalry with Texas. Oddly, they might play better in DKR than they do at home against Texas. But WVU is going to come out fired up on Saturday. Their fans will be fired up. They’ll make plays on defense that put us behind the chains. They will take advantage on offense, if we bail them out or give them free penalties. But if Texas is methodical and assignment sound, WVU cannot stack up with the horses Texas has, and Texas should win (and cover?) easily.
    25 points
  2. 13 points
  3. I think this is the only cover in SI history that doesn't have any words - didn't need it imo:
    13 points
  4. DOTARD hasn't murdered six million people, but taking immigrant children away from their parents and putting them in camps where they sleep on the floor and don't have access to toothbrushes and clean drinking water is more than a few steps down the path toward that. The hateful rhetoric and cult followers are a few more steps. Hitler blamed the Jews and homosexuals. DOTARD blames the Muslims and immigrants- more steps. The blatant corruption and disregard for the law-- more steps. The joking about staying in office past 2024- another step or two. Offering pardons to admin officials who break the law- more steps. White supremacists marching openly in the streets- a lot of fucking steps. White supremacists targeting hispanics in mass shootings- a lot of fucking steps. "Good people on both sides"- a lot of fucking steps. How many steps from genocide do we have left? Yes, "we". Me, you, all of us are responsible for this. You are either part of the solution or part of the problem. Accusing Hugo of pearl clutching, or mental illness, is part of the problem. BTW, The people who need to seek help are the ones who don't see how fucking serious this shit it. The people who need to seek help are the ones who don't realize (or care) just how close to outright fascism we are. I'm not familiar with your posting history, so I don't know where you stand, but you should be attacking the DOTARD cultists and DOTARD himself, not Hugo.
    11 points
  5. 10 points
  6. We need to decide if we want to keep Trump or keep the Republic because we can’t have both.
    10 points
  7. 9 points
  8. And maybe...I know, another flyer here.....as a gun owner and user, we need to do everything we can to NOT blow someone away, because that's a bad thing. Even when you're within your rights, it's a bad thing. So....take every step not to do so. I would shoot someone to defend myself and/or my family. But I would also do everything I could to avoid doing so, including waiting until the last possible instant, and identifying my target. Because jumping out of the bushes and making ridiculous growling noises is ALSO something that an idiot kid or someone else might do for laughs. And blowing away my son, one of his friends, or one of my buddies -- well, that would be bad. Very few encounters in your life are "kill or be killed." Pulling the trigger should be our absolute last possible outcome.
    9 points
  9. Girth, Wind, and Liar... and a fourth traitor, too
    8 points
  10. I'm hoping they're a one hit wonder. Flock of Smeagols.
    8 points
  11. 8 points
  12. Another factor to consider is that King started getting bone marrow transplants before the season to treat his leukemia. The hospital wasn't sure who the donor was, but the bone marrow samples were labeled "Z. Calzada". That might explain his complete loss of accuracy and high INT rate.
    8 points
  13. The Crashing Blumpkens
    8 points
  14. If I'm reading it correctly, everyone now in spots 20-60 (including Bijan, Garth, JQJ) moved up one spot, King dropped 41, and the entirety of the rest of the top 247 was unchanged. So dropping King was the only change. Lol.
    8 points
  15. Wife had a positive pregnancy test yesterday. We're on our 4th try at IVF and haven't gotten this far before. Long ways to go, but I cried for the first time in a long time yesterday, and for good reasons. Second blood draw tomorrow to ensure that hormones levels are going the right direction.
    8 points
  16. You choose to believe a guy that demonstrably lies 10 times a day. And the story you choose to believe is the one where he’s figured out how to expose Biden Jr in China by chess moves that start with having a whistleblower alert the world of impeachable crimes a continent away, and claim that behavior is not wrong. An act that if it became the norm quite literally puts the very idea of free and fair elections at risk. And the story you choose to believe is that he’s realized that the only way to expose this corruption is through making shouted unsupported allegations days after the whistleblower alerts the world instead of, for instance, showing he’s got the evidence and he’s got the witnesses. And you choose to believe the motivation for this is because he can’t get the media to report on it otherwise despite the fact the state controlled media is the most watched channel in the country, he is literally talking to the media in making the allegations, and with one phone call he can sit down with any other channel in the world. There’s a term for that. It’s called a personality cult.
    8 points
  17. “Guys, I don’t know anything about this conversation but let me parachute in with zero context and tell all of you how to feel and behave!” Either catch up and give an informed contribution or fuck off.
    8 points
  18. I know we've seen a million false dawns of the downfall of this presidency before, but y'all still holding to the doom n' gloom "He's our president forever and our country is fucked forever" line are starting to remind me of the pussies who were declaring that all was lost against Oklahoma State WHEN WE HAD THE LEAD IN THE SECOND QUARTER two weeks ago. Past is not always prologue. All bad things, as well as good things, do come to an end. Trump is not a supervillain. At some point a few of the Rs in the Senate are going to realize that he is a millstone around their necks no matter what they do so they will settle their personal score with him on their way out the door. They will realize that breaking with Trump is the least of several bad options they have in store. So chill and enjoy our front row seats at the awesomest, most richly-deserved mass comeuppance in the history of this wonderful country. The rats are jumping off the ship already. As aggy loves to say, the worm has turned. The hogs are in the tunnel. That homie's dead. He just doesn't know it yet.
    7 points
  19. No, the answer to your question is: You are a disingenuous dickbag with an extensive history of being a disingenuous dickbag and everyone has figured out that you are incapable or unwilling to have a good faith discussion on any of these topics. TLDR Fuck off troll
    7 points
  20. Maybe.....and I'm just taking a flyer here....how Americans think about and use firearms is totally fucked up.
    7 points
  21. 7 points
  22. Liucci may be the closest thing I’ve seen to a real life Ignatius J Reilly. He’s totally irrelevant with everything he says. He fake works as a way of life. He says a ton and bloviates as though it’s a source of oxygen. He’s perpetually in cahoots with buffoons. His fantasy world involves him being some sort of omnipotent savant, which constantly leads to wrongheaded idiocy. And he’s trending towards the kind of big, fat ass descriptive of the character. He also has zero sense of humor and yet is the source of continued high comedy for those spectating. It’s kind of fascinating.
    7 points
  23. 6 points
  24. 6 points
  25. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
    6 points
  26. Listen man, I’m not one to do this very often, but this is complete and total bullshit. You have no fucking idea what you’re talking about. You’re what would happen if Ketchum and Kurt Bohls decided to procreate. Haynes King is a phenomenal football player and an even better person. His dad cares deeply about his performance on the football field, and his mom is still deeply disturbed that her son looks like a soulless crypt keeper. I mean, she has no clue how he could possibly look so dead inside, but she knows that Jimbo is going to fix it. His dad values his son going to a school with a QB whisperer who knows how to utilize a QB’s leg and arms, but they ended up settling for Jimbo instead. Still, as I’ve said for years on this site, Haynes King is a 5 star QB in my heart and that’s all that really matters.
    6 points
  27. Taking this 10 year old on his first real hike tomorrow. Hoping to get in about 6+ miles. He's going to love it.
    6 points
  28. I dunno, banging on someone's back door at 11:30pm, hiding in the bushes, leaping out and growling? guy was doing about as much as he could do to get shot, short of disguising himself as a black man and getting pulled over on a routine traffic stop.
    6 points
  29. Can you imagine how furrowed Mitt's brow was when he tweeted that?
    6 points
  30. I still feel like I’m living in some fantasy land because we are getting to redshirt our talented OL recruits from 2019. Having depth on the lines again feels so foreign to me.
    6 points
  31. Fairly quick read, some holy shit in there. The texts are written out on pages 4-9. Taylor covers his ass twice VERY directly. Before that is the Dems letter and after it is screenshots of the texts. Sondland tries to shoot it down, but it's so fucking obvious all laid out like that in context.
    6 points
  32. You are right, Trump is not Hitler. That was worth one moral equivalency point. Now answer this question worth 50005590457 moral equivalency points: Why are you more concerned by a powerless message board poster equating Trump to Hitler than you are with President Trump openly soliciting foreign powers to target his lead opponent in the next Presidential election for political assassination?
    6 points
  33. I just want him to hold his job until we play next year. Is that petty? probably. But taking less money from USF in his first two years so Texas would have to pay up is a dick-move on his part. Payback is coming....well, if he still has a job there.
    6 points
  34. It died when they had fat swimsuit models
    5 points
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