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Posts posted by satyanash
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Ian Boyd: What does Tiaoalii Savea bring to the Texas defense?
QuoteJohnny Nansen had an interesting challenge waiting for him in Austin as the new co-defensive coordinator for the Texas Longhorns. The team was losing an extremely valuable duo in the middle of the defense with T’Vondre Sweat and Byron Murphy heading to the NFL Draft while their position coach Bo Davis left for the same role with the LSU Tigers.
The nose tackle position in particular is an area of concern. The two main figures at the position in 2023 were Murphy and Trill Carter, the latter of whom exited via the transfer portal. Likely replacement Ja’Maree Caldwell opted to head out to Oregon after Davis was poached, leaving Texas without a position coach or a transfer option to stabilize the interior.
No matter, Nansen had a solution in Tiaoalii Savea, a former blue chip recruit from Nevada who’d joined him at UCLA and followed him to Arizona. Now Savea comes to Texas with just the skill set to help the Horns solve for losing their impact contributors up the middle.
Scouting Savea
Savea’s stats on the year tell an intriguing story. He had 22 tackles on the year with six tackles for loss and 1.5 sacks, which is solid but not overwhelmingly dominant. The Wildcat defensive front last season had two lines and Savea typically played on the second unit and often as a 4i-technique in a 3-down front. Those are good numbers for a back-up who’d play 30 or so snaps every game but don’t necessarily convey his part in the Arizona defense.
He was rated 90.86 out of Las Vegas (Nev.) Desert Pines and was 6-foot-3, 265 pounds but now is listed at 6-foot-4, 308 after three years of college strength and conditioning. Savea doesn’t have amazing length or many pass-rush moves to speak of although he has some real burst when allowed to shoot gaps in the run game. For Arizona he was useful as a point of attack defender or slanting on blitzes who could either be hard to move or hard to keep out of the backfield as the situation might dictate. Here’s a few of his highlights against Oklahoma.
Savea is solid against a double team unless it’s pass protection in which case he’s largely a non-factor save for in the fact he’s occupying two people. It’s a win if a defense can get the protection scheme to dedicate two men to blocking Savea, he’s not particularly dangerous in the pass rush. He is very familiar with the art of slanting to deny angles and occupy blockers who are then unable to pick up blitzers. Arizona Mike linebacker Jacob Manu had 6.5 sacks on the year on those blitzes.
As Savea’s higher rate of tackles for loss indicates, he’s at his best playing 1-on-1 or (better still) on the move generating penetration into the backfield. Savea caused real problems for the Oklahoma run game and was spilling runs with penetration on a remarkably high percentage of his snaps. He’s a very stout presence when working upfield because of his combination of initial quickness and raw power.
How does he fit into the Texas defense?
Texas is in need of nose tackle to play next to Alfred Collins, Vernon Broughton, and Jaray Bledsoe. The scheme Texas has been playing actually makes use of penetration and quickness at nose tackle. Murphy was routinely freed up to get after teams in the A-gap and blow up schemes before they could get started by burrowing under guards and getting into the backfield.
Savea could have a similar impact although he’s not the same sort of player. As a 2i nose tackle he could command a lot of double teams with his ability to blow by guards and some of his snaps at 4i as a Wildcat suggest he won’t be totally washed away when the double team comes. He’s not terribly easy to move. It will be an adjustment for him but not totally dissimilar from what he’s done in the past and he certainly doesn’t lack the physicality or doggedness to perform in a sacrificial role.
If Savea can hold down 30 or more snaps a game as a nose it sets Texas up to continue to play and develop Aaron Bryant and Sydir Mitchell alongside him without asking them to lead the way just yet. This might also open up opportunities for Texas to explore the possibilities of slants and stunts from their tackles in the coming season. Collins is one of the better looping defensive tackles in the game and would do well coming around the edge of a Savea slant.
If the guard chases the nose inside the protection is cooked against Collins coming around. Texas has yet to show much in the movement game up front under Pete Kwiatkowski but are likely to evolve in this direction with Davis gone and Nansen on board. Texas’ 2024 defense continues to take shape.
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25 minutes ago, Park Gothic said:... and r/LonghornNation is just over there in the corner, being weird.
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Yeah I remember SI partnered with CNN for their online website. Used to be cnnsi.com or something similar. They did try to capture the online space but ESPN was too stiff a competitor.
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Bobby Burton: Sunday
QuoteThe first Junior Day of the year occurred yesterday. And it was considered “successful”. So how many commitments did the Longhorns grab? Five? Seven? Ten? Nope. Just one emerged. And it really should be no surprise to close onlookers of the program. That’s how Steve Sarkisian plays it. When it comes to recruiting and Sark, patience isn’t just a buzzword, it’s a way of life. Yet there are different ways to look at his patience. Sark and running back coach Tashard Choice took that one commitment not from a player in the upcoming 2025 class, but a running back in 2026, Aledo’s speedy Raycine Guillory Jr.
Perhaps that’s how the Horns want to play it. Take a player who wants to sign two years from now, yet a pledge from a 2025 player is just too soon. How does that jibe with Sark’s “patient”recruiting style? Here’s how: The immediate class needs more detailed introspection. While we all know a commitment two years from now doesn’t always stick, one in the ‘25 class is very likely to. So Sark is actually playing the long game yet again. Better to be thorough on the front end, especially on decisions that will impact your program sooner. It’s a simple, proven concept. And Sark’s not changing, not until he has truly surveyed the landscape, met with a multitude of recruits and is ready to pull the trigger.
Sark and recruiting, I just never get the feeling that he pushes the panic button. He’s willing to play the long game. Always.
**
New scholarship offers for class of 2025:
- ATH, Michael Terry Jr., San Antonio Alamo Heights
- RB, Rickey Wright, Tyler Chapel Hill
- OL Ryan Frodje, Cypress Bridgeland
- OL, Connor Carry, Prosper
- DL, Gustavo Cordova, Lake Travis
**
We’ll have more from junior day later today.
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Caption: TCU back Kyle Gillespie is wrestled down by two Longhorns defenders during a 1940 home game. The Frogs would suffer a 14-21 defeat.
Caption: Texas end Wally Scott blocks the punt of A&M's Derace Moser during third-quarter action at Kyle Field. The Longhorns would go on to upset the second-ranked Aggies, 23-0.
Caption: Texas head coach Dana X. Bible squats on the sidelines as the Longhorns roll to a 24-7 victory over Texas A&M on Thanksgiving Day, 1946. It would be the final game of Bible's coaching career.
Caption: Texas' Bobby Layne (22) shakes hands with Alabama's Harry Gilmer (52) before the 1948 Sugar Bowl in Tulane Stadium. Layne would receive the Sugar Bowl's very first MVP award after the Longhorns' 27-7 victory, and was reportedly seen drinking hurricanes out of the trophy in the French Quarter that night.
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20 hours ago, Reese Bennett said:
si has been dead to me since they put a soccer guy on the cover the week the Rockets won their first championship--and we all know the Knicks would have been on the cover if they had won. I had been waiting my whole life--including the first year I got a subscription for Christmas at age 9--to have a Houston championship team on the cover and they fucked me. Just look at this shit. Rockets championship below soccer and on par with an old-ass Ted Williams fishing. Since then, I haven't even picked up an issue in a doctor's office waiting room. Fuck them. And good riddance.
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Quote
The Florida Gators’ football program is under NCAA investigation. The investigation has been underway since at least the summer. On June 9, the NCAA sent UF President Ben Sasse a notice of inquiry. That’s a formal document enforcement staff sends to schools alerting them of the investigation before interviewing any school employees or athletes. The Tampa Bay Times requested the letter in October. The request was initially denied but fulfilled Friday after inquiries from the Times’ legal counsel at Thomas & LoCicero.
“We have been and will continue to cooperate with the NCAA,” Gators spokesperson Steve McClain said. “We hold ourselves to high standards of excellence and integrity on and off the field. Because we follow NCAA policies about maintaining confidentiality, we are unable to offer additional comments.” The specific nature of the investigation and potential violations are not specified in the document.
The Gators were last sanctioned by the NCAA in a separate case in December 2020. They received a one-year probation for recruiting violations under then-coach Dan Mullen. A Level II infraction involved Mullen and an assistant meeting with a recruit who hadn’t finished his junior year of high school. A Level III infraction centered on impermissible contact between coaches and recruits who were on their way to a tournament in Tampa.
The investigation comes as enforcement tries to keep up with the quickly evolving spaces of recruiting and name, image and likeness. Last week, Florida State was sanctioned after offensive coordinator Alex Atkins drove a transfer prospect to a meeting with a booster who led an NIL collective. That booster offered the prospect $15,000 as a recruiting inducement, according to the negotiated resolution between the NCAA and the Seminoles.
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Sad. I really hope they don't shut down the SI Vault. Someone needs to run this page through the Internet Archive and save everything before it's gone.
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Mike Farrell: Hey, Tide Fans. Suck it Up and Quit Whining
QuoteAlabama fans are funny. They’ve been funny since Nick Saban first began dominating college football recruiting around 2008. Complaints about too few five stars and so on were always comical. I call them “first-world problems,” and now they are at it again. Now that Bama fans are experiencing a coaching change for the first time in 17 years, all of a sudden, the world needs to change.
Some are fanboys, some are ex-players and coaches, and some work for a business run by Alabama fans, but no matter where you come from, you’re bitter. Well, suck it up, buttercup.
I grew to love Nick Saban. What he did at Alabama was amazing and unprecedented, and Alabama fans have had it good. In fact, they’ve been spoiled. No other fan base gets to complain about not winning a natty every year or that they only have six 5 stars, and it should be eight. It’s been an amazing run and has made them oblivious to the real world. And now they are facing adversity for the first time in ages. Waaaah. Deal with it.
Alabama has had more than 20 players hit the transfer portal since Nick Saban retired, and 'Bama fans don’t know what to do with themselves. Suddenly, the 30-day window for players to transfer after a coach leaves or is fired is outrageous. The lack of loyalty from Bama players astonishes them, and all leaving are looking for a NIL bag of money. Isaiah Bond, Kadyn Proctor, Caleb Downs and others are all traitors and don’t have what it takes to be true Bama players. On and on it goes.
Well, guess what? Dozens of football programs have dealt with the 30-day portal window and have seen a mass exodus of players. And they didn’t like it either. But they didn’t have six national titles and a juggernaut of a program to look back on for nearly two decades to help comfort their feelings. Alabama fans do.
But, but, but - the timing of it all is terrible. I get it, and you’re right. But it’s only terrible because Alabama was shoved into the playoff over Florida State because of prestige and TV money, so you missed the portal recruitment window. And now your players are leaving and can’t be replaced because the window is closed. Had Alabama not been forced into the playoff, perhaps Saban would have stepped down in early December, and Bama would have had a fighting chance at roster management. But you can’t have it both ways. You can’t get your questionable playoff berth AND be active in the window. Were you crying when Florida State players were declaring for the NFL Draft, opting out, and hitting the portal in December? Nope. You didn’t care.
The program that stole Jahmyr Gibbs and Tyler Steen from poverty programs is now upset that teams are taking their players? That’s life, deal with it. People will think I hate Alabama because of this article. It’s not true. What I can’t stand is rich people complaining about private plane flight delays or pretty people complaining about waiting in line at the club. Deal with it, life comes at you fast, and everyone deals with crap.
Alabama will regress under Kalen DeBoer. There’s no other option. He won’t consistently win the SEC and national titles, and he won’t have No. 1 or No. 2 recruiting classes every year. And if this initial reaction to a transfer portal rule that has been in place for years is any indication, then Alabama fans are in for a rough time.
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8 hours ago, Juke_Em said:
Yeah Terry is done and he knows it. But this was always going to be the ending - the interim is never the right guy. It's too hard to recover from losing Chris Beard within only a year...Terry will have to be the patsy for this program for a year or two.
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Stunning incompetence from Mitchell.
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Only we could fuck that fastbreak up.
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Eric Nahlin: Wednesday night Texas notes on coaching search and high profile portal targets
QuoteI’ve been working the phones and this is what I’ve come up with today. There isn’t much earth shattering but there are some positive trend lines in UT’s favor.
D-Tackle coach, by way of NFL
It’s an NFL guy. Which NFL guy? That I’m not sure. There isn’t a list of candidates; there is a hire that Sark has either made or is just waiting until after that coach’s season is over to finalize. As we suspected, Sark has his man. Many fans are simply naming the best guys they can think of even if they don’t make logical sense. Since I don’t know who it is, maybe it is one of those guys but I doubt it. I don’t care who it is because I trust Sark.
If it is Rodrique Wright, that works for me. That wouldn’t be close to the same thing as randomly naming a former Longhorn great with zero coaching background. If it was Mack Brown making that sort of hire, then I’d have some concerns. Sark wouldn’t hire a guy to “bring him home.” He’d hire him because he’s a good coach, good fit, and, oh yeah, being at home is a good recruiting pitch. How many times do you think Freddie Roach has used that angle at Alabama?
TE Amari Niblack, by way of Alabama
The Alabama transfer will visit soon. I don’t know the exact day and time. I still feel strongly Texas will land one of Niblack or Benjamin Yurosek and I lean towards Niblack being more likely. He’d be in the program for Spring ball which is an obvious benefit. While Yurosek went to Stanford, he’s also from Bakersfield, which is like California’s Abilene. He might struggle to learn the offense. I kid. Niblack having multiple Alabama teammates committed to Texas is a plus. Those guys are working on him.
So, if I think they get one of the two, and I think Niblack is more likely, why not put in an RPM? I’m just not quite there yet. In the event Texas goes hard after Yurosek I could have egg on my face. We’ll keep investigating this one but I like UT’s chances of landing Niblack at this time.
CB Jabbar Muhammad, by way of Washington, by way of Oklahoma StateaI
If you recall his cousin Malik Muhammad‘s recruitment I mentioned there was a lot of slack in it. A slack recruitment is one where ground can be made up very quickly. I have heard Muhammad’s visit is going well after Oregon probably held a slight lead coming in. He arrived today and will also visit tomorrow. I think there’s a slight chance Texas can shut this one down on the visit, but it’s more likely he’ll visit Alabama and Oregon. He’s not a kid, he’s a man making a business decision so he’s not going to get caught up in an emotional decision. Texas does have the same tailwinds with Jabbar that it had with Malik, namely proximity and extensive family ties to the school.
Bottomline, I feel good here, better than I did a couple of days ago. However, between Oregon’s NIL and Alabama’s desperation (including Jabbar’s familiarity with Kalen DeBoer) as it acclimates to its new normal, I’m not ready to rev up the RPM’s just yet.
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2 hours ago, FloridaHorn said:Alabama Football: They fucked around and Found out.
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24 minutes ago, Reese Bennett said:
Two of those are not like the others.
TTU and Nebraska are the only two with zero conference titles since the turn of the millennium?
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26 minutes ago, Chili dog said:I’m not sure whether to rejoice at the probable impending demise of Ohio State football or mourn over the possibility that atm gets lucky on its next AD hire. Any word on whom they’ll target?
It' doesn't matter. The institutional rot at A&M goes beyond the AD position. Eric Hyman (A&M's AD from 2012-2016) did an illuminating interview on the subect: https://www.star-telegram.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/mac-engel/article174596706.html
QuoteThat Contract was signed on his watch, so “it’s his fault.” No contract in college football these days has generated as much scrutiny and criticism as the one handed to Kevin Sumlin when Eric Hyman was Texas A&M’s athletic director. In December 2013, Sumlin signed a six-year, $30-million extension. Guaranteed. With A&M coming to AT&T Stadium on Saturday to play Arkansas, it’s assumed that Sumlin is coaching for his job after a board member called for him to be fired after the Aggies’ embarrassing 44-43 loss to UCLA in the season opener.
Was That Contract Hyman’s decision? “No. I had nothing to do with it,” Hyman told me in an interview on Wednesday morning at a Starbucks near his home in Fort Worth. “I have done this job a long time and I don’t blame Kevin Sumlin. If someone is going to give you $5 million a year for six years, it would have been stupid of him to turn it down,” Hyman said. “But the contract was given to me, and it was ‘This is what we are going to do.’ I looked at myself and I was stunned.
“I had no say so over it. I’ve been doing this job for a long time. I had worked with Steve Spurrier for years, and he was paid a heck of a lot less than Coach Sumlin. And he won national championships after conference championships. And then you are making this commitment to a person, and again I don’t blame Kevin, that’s never won a conference championship. When the original contract was given to me, if Kevin were to leave the next day there was no buyout provision.”
Is this a case of an ex-athletic director covering his behind with revisionist history? On this one, no. Given Hyman’s history of how he handled coaches and costs plus A&M’s history of an “active board,” his explanation is plausible. But why would A&M give Sumlin such a deal when there was no need? “Because people didn’t know what they were doing,” Hyman said. “I learned this valuable lesson when I was at VMI (Virginia Military Institute), what the 12th Man Foundation is, or the Frog Club, or whatever.
“I learned this as a young, 33-year-old athletic director: VMI people are brilliant. They come to a meeting in a three-piece suit and they leave their brains at home. There are some schools that are more than that; A&M, to a certain extent, had more people like that. They would say things and do things that are mind-boggling.”
Throughout his career, Hyman was close to the vest in his dealings with the media, so it’s equally mind-boggling for him to say this on the record. He is 66, and essentially retired. The former AD at VMI, Miami (Ohio), TCU, South Carolina and Texas A&M is a bit looser with his thoughts. What he said about A&M, where he was the AD from 2012 to 2016, is troubling. Someone within that power structure should at least acknowledge they are part of the problem.
Hyman didn’t necessarily always make people happy in his stops at TCU or South Carolina, but the results speak for themselves. Both athletic departments improved dramatically after his arrival, including A&M’s. He was at TCU from 1997-2005. We spoke, on the record, for about 10 minutes and focused mostly on A&M.
You have a legacy at TCU and South Carolina; do you feel like you have one at Texas A&M?
I wasn’t there long enough. We tried to implement some programs but at A&M they managed the activities, they didn’t manage the results of what we were trying to do.
What does that mean?
They were in the day-to-day activities of athletics. If you want to hire an athletic director you have to let them do their job.
Who is they?
The leadership of the university.
Do you regret taking the job?
There are some things that I felt because of my ethical standards I was not a good fit. I felt if I had to do it again, I would probably do a lot better job of researching it.
The myth surrounding the expansion at Kyle Field is that it was done on the back of success of Johnny Manziel. Is that true?
It was already done. When I got there, before Manziel won the Heisman Trophy, a lot of work had already been done. The road map was in place. Did Johnny make it easier? Sure. No question. Because of the success and notoriety. When I got there, I think, most people were apprehensive about the SEC. Most people felt they were not sure how well they were going to do. Johnny flipped the thought process and gave them a boost of confidence.
Can A&M in the SEC be successful and sustain it?
It’s a tough league but if look at historically, what A&M has to do is not shoot itself in the foot. Yeah, I think the potential is there. My reservations about taking the job was the 12th Man Foundation and how involved they were in what you were doing. I thought they were fantastic.
What were those reservations?
I had heard they ran athletic department, which was just a rumor. When I got into it, that was my biggest surprise. The quality of people was terrific.
Did you enjoy your time at A&M?
Parts I enjoyed and parts that I did not. There were situations they did not let the athletic director do their job. People there wanted to run the athletic department and not let the athletic director do it. It was so political. Because of that it’s made it difficult to achieve of what you wanted to do. I laid out, in the interview process, what I wanted to do to do what a successful athletic department does. I didn’t deviate from that. That’s what I tried to do. When I got into the situation, that was not true.
They told you what you wanted to hear?
Well, Dr. (Bowen) Loftin was the president, and then he was asked to leave. At that point in time, it was Katy bar the door.
Are you hopeful or concerned about the future of A&M athletics in the SEC?
If they allow the people to do the job, they can be very successful. They’ve got people there that want to be the athletic director. They micro manage.
Do you think that is a common problem at other large, Power 5 state schools?
You have the presidents more wired than they used to be, because of the visibility and because of the money that is involved. Some schools, probably so. It just varies. But the ones I’ve talked to, none are like Texas A&M.
Do you miss the profession at all?
EH: Parts are I do miss, and parts I am ecstatic I’m not there any more.
What do you miss?
The connection with the student-athletes. Some of the coaches. That’s why I did the job — to make a difference on a person’s life.
What don’t you miss?
The political-ness. You have it everywhere, but some of the shenanigans that went on.
Do you still like college athletics?
It’s changed a lot.
That’s not an answer.
[Laughs] It’s a lot different than when I first got into it. And I don’t know that I am the best person for college athletics, the way my values are.
Do your values have a place in college athletics?
I would hope so, and some places more than other places. What I stand for, what I think is right. I understand you have to win but you want to win with class. But you have to make the main thing the main thing, and that is the student-athletes, and we can’t lose sight of that. We are losing sight of that. It’s more professional than it is true college athletics. They are more professional. It’s more of a professional sport than a college sport.
Does that apply across the board or just two sports?
Just a couple, but to a certain extent the other ones, too. These people have to have time off. They don’t. Now there are some that don’t want time off because they want to go to the Olympics. I understand that. Part of college is the experience of being able to connect with other college students, not just football players. Not just basketball players or track athletes. It’s a chance to be able to meet other people and the chance to grow from that. I think college athletics has gotten more isolated.
If a 22-year-old student comes to you and says they want to be you and be a Power 5 college AD, what do you tell them?
I’d say have a lobotomy first.
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2 hours ago, CashMcCoy said:You can imagine being a daily Shaggy/Surly user since I was 15 has had a terrific impact on my intellectual development.
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22 minutes ago, Hornmatic said:
If all goes well guys like Bond won’t be here next year. So it’s important to point out to the Moore/Nibblets of the world that they’re on the same path as Arch and there’s no reason to be impatient. Work your ass off, learn/master your craft, you can probably be worked in a little this year, and be ready to ball out with Arch in 2025.
Yeah the coaches will likely emphasize that we're only in this situation because of Andre Coleman's incompetent WR recruiting. Because of his failures we were denied a competent group of upperclassmen WRs.
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Arizona should close the loop and hire Ryan Grubb.
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Ian Boyd: What will Duane Akina bring to Texas?
QuoteJohnny Nansen will be bringing a familiar character with him when he joins the Texas football staff under Steve Sarkisian for the 2024 season. Arizona’s “senior defensive analyst” in charge of the secondary, Duane Akina, is going to take on the same role with the Texas Longhorns. Since exiting the Texas program when Mack Brown resigned, Akina has worked in the Pac-12. From 2014 to 2022 he was the defensive backs coach for Stanford and then at 66 years old took on a lighter “Gary Patterson at Texas” sort of analyst role at Arizona in 2023.
As Longhorn fans who recall the 2000s will relay, Akina knows defensive back play and was an important fixture in the Mack Brown era while crafting two of the best secondaries in program history in 2005 and 2009. Now he returns to lend his expertise to a Texas staff which is overflowing with young talent in the secondary but has yet to see it materialize into an elite unit.
Akina’s Texas secondaries
Akina was known for three main features at Texas back in the 2000s.
- A “four corners” recruiting philosophy
- Excellent man coverage
- Building NFL pipeline and developing “DBU”
The “four corners” philosophy meant Texas primarily recruited defensive backs who projected to play cornerback and moved some of them inside to safety as needed. The 2005 secondary is a terrific reflection of this approach. This unit started the following defenders:
- Right cornerback: Cedric Griffin, 2nd round pick and 7-year NFL veteran.
- Free safety: Michael Griffin, 1st round pick, 10-year NFL veteran, two-time Pro Bowler.
- Strong safety: Michael Huff, 1st round pick, 8-year NFL veteran.
- Left cornerback: Tarell Brown, 5th round pick, 7-year NFL veteran.
- Nickel (not a starter back then): Aaron Ross, 1st round pick, 7-year NFL veteran.
Michael Griffin was an elite athlete despite eventually checking in at 215 pounds. Michael Huff was a track star who could be a dominant box safety or erase a slot in man coverage as the situation dictated. Everyone in the lineup could run and cover and Akina made sure they all know how to play man, which created flexibility across the unit. If you hadn’t heard, this unit won the National Championship.
Between Texas recruiting some of the best skills athletes within the state and Akina teaching them how to play defensive back and man coverage, the school began to claim status as “Defensive Back University” due to the volume of players sent to the NFL and their success after arriving. From 2001 to 2013 while Akina was the defensive backs coach, Texas had 13 defensive backs drafted including five 1st round picks.
The approach evolved some over time. Akina was made co-defensive coordinator for the 2007 season and the Longhorns had some issues in pass defense, leading to the hire of Will Muschamp for 2008. Muschamp brought a base nickel and quarters coverage philosophy which was maintained by his successor Manny Diaz. This approach was scrapped before the end, in part due to Akina’s preference for playing single-high coverage. The Mack Brown Longhorns went out in 2013 blending Cover 1 (single-high man coverage) and Cover 3 (single-high zone coverage) under Akina’s direction.
After arriving at Stanford, Akina continued in that direction of teaching single-high defense with an emphasis on man coverage. Over his nine seasons in Palo Alto the Cardinal sent six defensive backs to the NFL, most notably safety Justin Reid who played a lot of nickel (man coverage on the slot) for Akina. The Arizona Wildcats had a similar philosophy.
Akina as a defensive analyst at Texas
Nansen is the new co-defensive coordinator at Texas and he’s coming from a background of utilizing single-high safety coverage on the back end. He’s bringing back Akina to serve in the same role at Texas he held at Arizona, as an analyst overseeing the secondary. This simply begs the question of what sort of input Akina is likely to have on the Texas secondary.
The Wildcats intended for Akina to be able to be hands on with their players and even moved him to an on-field role for a spell when the NCAA didn’t approve rules allowing analysts to coach players directly. A an analyst he can be a resource but obviously isn’t allowed to be an extra position coach, which means he’ll likely have more of a role in overseeing the vision and coaching of the secondary.
In that regard, he’s certainly not coming to update or upgrade their command of the quarters coverages which have defined their approach for the last few seasons. It’s possible Akina could supplement their overall approach to coverage and man coverage in general with the focus remaining on a base, two-high coverage system. He could work within that scheme as he did under Muschamp or Diaz but he’s not going to be offering fresh vision for a two-high defense and certainly not vision better than what Patterson brought in 2022. Given some of the issues Texas had with that approach this season, the historical preference for single-high coverage shown by an increasing number of coaches on staff (including both coordinators), and Akina’s hire it seems likely they may adapt a new approach.
So this role may serve to help change the schemes on the back end of the Longhorn defense to something more akin(a) to what co-coordinators Nansen and Kwiatkowski ran at previous stops. This coming spring should be an interesting and important one for a talented and retooling Longhorn secondary.
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Scipio Tex: On A Barcalounger Watching Musical Chairs
QuoteTexas is currently in the enviable position of reclining comfortably with its feet up, behind a velvet rope, holding a pitcher of margaritas, watching the music play and the portalers dance. The Longhorns have already invited some quality players to join them at their table and not all will accept, but the ripple effects of coaching hires and how they impact the portal has still not yet been fully felt.
The unscheduled 30 day transfer window triggered by a head coach leaving their job has further energized the dance floor and it’s an element with impacts that could last until the Longhorn Spring game. Nick Saban was the giant GOAT thrown into the koi pond. The fish are still stirring and the waves haven’t stopped. That’s how Texas landed future NFL receiver Isaiah Bond from Alabama.
Saban’s ripple effect to Seattle is why Texas is in the Final Two for standout cornerback Jabbar Muhammad. Two players Texas coaches know well, both up for contract seasons and guaranteed potential starters. Those are the known impacts so far. The unknown are still being sorted. The vacated Washington position could have its own impacts beyond a cornerback prospect. Let’s get nuts for a moment.
The Huskies have circled Arizona’s Jedd Fisch as their top candidate. The two schools were once PAC brethren and somewhat comparable jobs (though Washington has always had a much richer history and had better overall commitment), but Washington’s entrance to The Only Other Conference That Matters and Arizona’s accounting department misplacing a zero or three over the last fiscal decade means that the future earning potential of each job (and the ability to build out winning resources) is now distinct.
The question is how Fisch sees it. Here’s where it gets really fun, stupid and speculative.
Arizona opening up would start the portal clock on standout QB Noah Fifita (not a Texas target, see current QB room) and Tetairoa McMillan (very much a Texas target, my favorite WR in the country). Not to mention a handful of other decent Wildcat players that a certain Duane Akina and Johnny Nansen just might have good internal scouting reports on.
McMillan stands above them all. Like, really. He’s 6-5 and had 90 catches for 1402 yards last year. McMillan is my #1 receiver I want Texas to tamper with. McMillan and Fifita are former high school teammates and might be attached at the hip, but following Fisch to Washington may not be in the cards for both. McMillan might have a strong interest in a high level college offense with a proven QB, a quality OL, familiar Wildcat coaches on staff and the requisite national spotlight to guarantee his NFL draft stock.
Would you like to know more? OK. Let’s speculate even more wildly and irresponsibly. Arizona would need to hire someone and who better than fellow desert denizen Barry Odom, fresh off of a rejuvenating 9-5 campaign at UNLV. UNLV just lost their starting QB Jayden Maiava to USC and the best player on the roster – returning senior wide receiver Ricky White (#2 on my national tampering favorite receivers list) would be without both a QB and a coach.
If you’re not familiar with his game, White finished the season with 88 catches for 1483 yards last year and was one of the best half dozen WRs I saw last year. Think of a 185 pound Xavier Worthy clone with ball-winning traits. So should the music end just right, he’s potentially in play. While UNLV feverishly passes the hat in the Circa poker room.
What of Michigan if Harbaugh leaves? What ripple effects could that set off? The Wolverines are expected to promote OC Sherrone Moore – if he’ll stop sobbing uncontrollably and cursing on national television – and their most likely pivot – DeBoer -was just taken off of the game board by Bama.
Michigan probably wouldn’t have obvious impacts that Texas might benefit from, but as I outlined above, impacts aren’t obvious until they are and the music doesn’t stop. Until it does. None us know the impact that will trigger the next ripple that is relevant. Meanwhile, this lounger is comfy and a pleasant buzz makes the wait bearable and the speculation even more fun.
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