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Thread is Long overdue... Thanks info below @satyanash

Notes for Tech Game...

Humidor

LB: Demarvion Overshown is getting more comfortable with each practice. A little in-game experience goes a long way when playing a new position. He’s already thinking less and reacting more. Juwan Mitchell has been running with the 1s. It surprised nearly everyone when Cort Jaquess got the start versus UTEP. Jaylan Ford — he’s going to be a factor next year if not sooner. The position could use some competition.

Spur: Chris Adimora is a mean son-of-a-gun but sources are curious to see how he holds up in the passing game. He’ll blanket tight ends but if matched on a receiver things could get a little interesting.

CB: D'Shawn Jamison and Josh Thompson have a solid grip on starter status but expect Tech to throw it around a lot necessitating fresh legs. Jalen Green and Kenyatta Watson II should also play a fair amount of snaps. Sources are excited about Thompson but want to see him against the better competition Tech presents. The feeling is he’s becoming a real player and everyone wants it for him. He’s a respected figure in the program.

S: Starters remain the same but BJ Foster should play too. The team loves BJ which made it a certainty he would be welcomed back. This group knows it’s in for much stiffer competition than in the opener. Our source wanted it known he was predicting a pick for Sterns. Ha ha.

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UTEP Game... Josh Thompson

 

Thanks for the following @texifornia

Boyd on Thompson. There were a few players that caught my eye as I took in some games around the league.

Quote

Josh Thompson: Cornerback, Texas

One of my big questions for Texas in their move to playing a 4-2-5 this season under Chris Ash was "who's getting left 1-on-1 against vertical routes?"

Every Big 12 offense at this point, and particularly the one mentioned in the section above, is pretty darn good at finding the 1-on-1 matchup so they can throw the ball on a vertical route. If the offense gets into a 3x1 set (trips formation) they can really cause problems. A 4-2-5 defense can only shade safety help to two or maybe 2.5 receivers, someone is going to get left 1-on-1. Sometimes that's the nickel, which is a tough assignment. Especially for Texas where they're playing the 215 pound sophomore Chris Adimora in that role because of the run-stopping duties that also tend to fall to that position.

The better way is to ask one of your cornerbacks to be able to hold up 1-on-1 without help over the top. That's the route Texas took against UTEP and they left Thompson on an island fairly often. UTEP recognized it and took three notable shots at him, including this fade:

This is "solo" or "poach" coverage. The field safety is playing over the top to help the nickel and the boundary safety is opening to the field so that he can help over the top of the middle linebacker if that third receiver (from the sideline) goes vertical. This is a great coverage for protecting the nickel from slot fades without losing your help over the other slot. This is a terrible coverage for protecting your boundary cornerback from 1-on-1 deep shots, he could potentially be left isolated on a post (depends on the boundary safety and what's holding his attention) and he's definitely all alone outside of the numbers.

Obviously in this instance Texas won that matchup decisively. Thompson also broke up a backside fade playing in cover 3 and defended a post route in quarters playing to the wide side of the field.

At 6-0 and perhaps 210 pounds, Thompson is a big, powerful dude that is also uniquely fast. At a SPARQ event in high school he ran a 4.57 40 and posted a 40.4" vertical. In other words, he's explosive. He's come a long way at Texas in coverage, in their 2018 matchup with West Virginia Texas had to play Thompson in place of injured starting nickel P.J. Locke and Dana Holgorsen attacked him with motions to force him into the box against the run as well as slot fades to David Sills. Holgorsen was rewarded for that targeting and the Mountaineers won a shootout in Austin.

But if things are coming together for Thompson now as an older player, as tends to happen, it is a game changer for the Texas defense. If the Longhorns can bracket the other receivers with Caden Sterns and senior Chris Brown while trusting Thompson to hold up (big if) then they're going to be very strong on defense this season. This is perhaps the no. 1 thing to watch for in Texas' Big 12 opener against Texas Tech, who has legitimate outside receivers in T.J. Vasher and Erik Ezukanma.

 

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Special thanks @satyanash

 

LAST WEEK'S INFO...    SEPT. 18th

Humidor:  

We‘ve been asked a lot about linebacker Juwan Mitchell. We try to leave the locker room stuff where it belongs. We’ll just say he’s been in the doghouse some and it’s up to him how long he’s in there. The staff is high on what he brings to the table and would love to start him. That should be versus Tech, but it should have been versus UTEP too. One of the early themes of the new era is the restoration of meritocracy. If a talented guy is suspended for something that doesn’t require a mandatory suspension, that’s probably a good thing.

 

Last thing that I've seen on Byron Vaughns...

Late August...

Humidor:  "Depth behind Ossai is unsettled.  Vaughns missed some time for non-football related issues. He’s still expected to be a valuable contributor this year. My source continues to rave about Bush’s ability." 

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247 Jeff Howe:  LB & DB Depth Chart for Tech

LINEBACKERS

MIKE

1. Juwan Mitchell (Jr.)

2. Cort Jaquess (Jr.) — OR — Ayodele Adeoye (Soph.)

WILL

1. DeMarvion Overshown (Jr.)

2. David Gbenda (RS-Fr.)

3. Jaylan Ford (Fr.-HS)

Key Quote: " In the spring, I was actually working out with the safeties. I went up to Coach (Chris) Ash after one day when we had like a voluntary little workout and I asked him, 'where do you see me as? What do you think is best for me?' That's when we started chopping it up, started talking about my weight, talking about, at the next level, what are they looking for in an athlete like me. We just went from there... What I like about Will linebacker is in this defense, it's basically just playing safety closer to all the action. That's what I like. I like to be involved in the action and I like to get physical." — Overshown on his move from safety to linebacker and what he likes about his new role on defense

SECONDARY

Cornerback

1. D'Shawn Jamison (Jr.)

2. Jalen Green (Jr.)

3. Jahdae Barron (Fr.-HS)

Cornerback

1. Josh Thompson (Jr.)

2. Kenyatta Watson II (RS-Fr.)

3. Kitan Crawford (Fr.-HS)

Key Quote: "Obviously, you've got to play well to be a good leader and he came out tonight — we'd seen that throughout training camp him. He did a heck of a job act. Everybody wants to talk about the interception. That was a heck of a play. We needed it, but while he was in, played the game — not just that one play, but he every play that he was in, played it really, really well." — Herman on Thompson's performance in the win over UTEP

Safety

1. Caden Sterns (Jr.)

2. Montrell Estell (Soph.)

3. Jerrin Thompson (Fr.-HS)

Safety

1. Chris Brown (Sr.)

2. B.J. Foster (Jr.)

3. Tyler Owens (Soph.)

Key Quote: "B.J. obviously let his frustrations get the best of him and was very contrite, very apologetic. We'll handle the discipline in-house. He knows what he did was wrong, letting his frustration get the best of him. It's OK to be frustrated, but we've got to be able to control our actions and he realizes that and, again, is very apologetic and will serve as penance internally and it'll be water under the bridge for us and his team." — Herman on Foster's status with the team after he left the field early in the win over UTEP

SPUR

1. Chris Adimora (Soph.)

2. Anthony Cook (Jr.)

3. Xavion Alford (Fr.-HS)

Key Quote: "It's one of the more difficult positions, in my opinion, because of what we're asking that guy to do. He's got to have a really unique skill set. He's got to be tough enough and physical enough to fit the run. He's got to be athletic enough and quick enough to play some man-to-man on a slot. There not a lot of guys that can do that, so we really had to spend a lot of time going through our roster, identifying individuals that would have that skill set to do both of those things. That's not easy to do: fit the run, play zone, play man, blitz. I feel really good about where we're at right now with that position. I like the guys that have been repping there. I think we were lucky, we hit the right guys when we made this switch with guys there." — Chris Ash on what the defense needs out of the SPUR position to be successful

 

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Scipio Tex notes on DB/LB Tech Game    (Thanks @satyanash  )

DB

Chris Adimora played an excellent game. Very good tackling in the open field in 1 on 1 situations, made a brilliant play settling into a Tech receiver’s slant that created his interception and field flipping return, had a heads up batted ball on a stunt, and a terrific play on the ball on a 3rd down that forced a Tech punt. When we give him a cover over the top and let him play ball, he’s an impact player.

Josh Thompson erased TJ Vasher from the Tech game plan in the 1st half. His only first half hickey was an unnecessary PI on a jet sweep pass trick play where he had perfect position, but panicked when he couldn’t locate the ball. Still, I was really excited by what I saw from him early.

In the second half, TJ Vasher burned him on two slants (one converted a 3rd and 16, the other went for a TD as Texas safeties also blew their tackles) with Thompson playing off coverage, and then Vasher made an amazing fingertip catch in the end zone on a go-fade. Tip your cap on that last one, though Thompson didn’t get big enough piece of TJ early in that route. Beyond the plays Vasher made on Josh, there were a couple of other plays where he had a step on Thompson, but the ball was poorly thrown. Those failures on high leverage downs/situations just killed Texas. TJ Vasher was the second half Tech passing game. Thompson looked to be slightly hobbled, so I’m not sure if that played a role at all.

D’Shawn Jamison competed with Overshown for the missed tackle crown, but was edged late as he could only manage three. He got muscled by Ezukanma and a couple of others and also missed a tackle on the Tech RB in run support. Jalen Green logged some good snaps and had terrific coverage on the Tech receiver on the Chris Brown INT, but he also dropped an errant Bowman throw that hit him in both hands. Lost to Ezukanma on a 50/50 ball TD, but it was good coverage, an excellent DeAndre Hopkins imitation by Easy E, and Bowman took a throw it up Why not shot with the Longhorn offsides free play.

Chris Brown made a fine play on the bad Bowman throw into double coverage. Got beat on some bad angles supporting his corners inside. Otherwise, fine.

Caden Sterns missed two tackles, one resulting in a TD on the Vasher slant. Also had a clear PI that wasn’t flagged on 3rd down in man coverage. Took bad angles all afternoon. Registered one authoritative solo tackle in space, but also shied from a contact a couple of times. Sterns has a significant role to play against a team like Tech but that didn’t happen on Saturday.

BJ Foster got a fair amount of snaps. His most notable error was the combined Overshown-Foster-Ossai gaffe that led to the long Thompson TD run instead of a tackle for loss. Beyond that, he was active and a willing tackler. Anthony Cook had a face mask personal foul in limited snaps.

LB

Let’s take our medicine early. DeMarvion Overshown missed five tackles and blew a lateral fumble recovery that would have given the ball to Texas deep in Tech territory. That was bad football IQ. Overshown did show a lot of range. The problem is that his range allows him to miss more tackles over a larger area. He’s obviously too weak to tackle without great fundamentals and leverage and for a great athlete, he has a knack for finding himself in a bad athletic position in the open field. On the plus side of the ledger, he had a tackle for loss cleanup off of a D’shawn Jamison stunt and he erased a couple of Bowman throws with solid pass drops.

Juwan Mitchell was credited with five tackles. Debatable. He cleaned up some trash created by the DL’s excellent interior run stopping, but he was very poor in pass defense. He didn’t offer much outside of an assigned gap and he was negligible as a blitzer. In pass coverage, he’s dropping mechanically and just covering grass and failing to get deep enough to dissuade easy throws on in cuts or posts. Bottom line, Overshown and Mitchell are currently liabilities unless they dramatically improve their level of play.

 

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3 hours ago, Lhorn said:

Adimora get clowned in the film room after getting run down by a fucking right tackle with several blockers assisting him?
Nice pick though and great effort by the OL on the tackle.

You definitely wanted to see a pick 6 given how much space and blockers he had escorting him to the sideline.  But there's a huge silver lining - by him not making the touchdown it allowed our Offense to score and take time off the clock, leaving Tech with 40s left on their last possession before OT.  Blessing in disguise and not exactly something I would coach.

BTW, Chris has a seemingly odd stride I can quite put my finger on.  Not exactly fluid.  Looks like a rampage of sorts, almost like an RB.  His acceleration after the catch was impressive.

Edited by Hmmm
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 Humidor...                       Thanks @satyanash

Another issue last week was poor linebacker play, namely at Mike. Juwan Mitchell received a lot of coaching this week on taking better angles and getting deeper drops in coverage. He ended up with a couple of interceptions in practice because of it. Rubber bullets in practice are one thing, let’s see how he plays when lead starts flying on Saturday. Improving his play was a point of emphasis, though.

This week is going to be a big test for the linebackers. We can be sure the TCU OC’s saw the struggles in the passing game and will test them similarly, but quarterback Max Duggan is also a serious threat to run the ball. The linebackers have been coached to keep an eye out for Duggan scrambling from the pocket.

Overall, the staff wants to keep Duggan in the pocket and trying to get through his progressions. He’s still young in that regard, and not the most accurate from the pocket. Keeping rush lane integrity is a big priority but if Duggan breaks out, the linebackers will be charged with cleaning it up. He can probably out-run Mitchell, but Overshown is a different creature.

At the same time all this stuff is going on, the defensive backs need to do a better job of re-routing receivers to throw timing off. Injuries aren’t too bad on defense. Chris Brown is banged up and didn’t participate in contact this week, though he did practice. We think he’ll start but we expect to see a lot of BJ Foster as well. Brown is one of the toughest guys on the team and won’t want to sit.

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3 hours ago, Tex-19 said:

Wonder if we see more of Jalen going forward. I thought he outplayed Jamison by a lot against Tech and he was our unquestioned #1 last year when healthy

Gotta believe tcu will put a tall WR like Quentin Johnston against Jamison...

 

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So I'm not going to rewatch the TCU game, but did anyone else feel like the defense played much better after Mitchell was ejected?  Our fucking walk on with athletic limitations makes better reads, fewer penalties, and better tackling than Mitchell.  We gave up 14 points with Mitchell starting very quickly.  Once Cort got in, we held them to field goals multiple times in the redzone and seemed to play much better outside that wide open QB draw play that resulted in a TD.

I'm okay if I never see Mitchell play another snap at Texas.  He's terrible.  Time for Ford, Hullaby to grow up quick.

Edited by victory88
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10 hours ago, victory88 said:

So I'm not going to rewatch the TCU game, but did anyone else feel like the defense played much better after Mitchell was ejected?  Our fucking walk on with athletic limitations makes better reads, fewer penalties, and better tackling than Mitchell.  We gave up 14 points with Mitchell starting very quickly.  Once Cort got in, we held them to field goals multiple times in the redzone and seemed to play much better outside that wide open QB draw play that resulted in a TD.

I'm okay if I never see Mitchell play another snap at Texas.  He's terrible.  Time for Ford, Hullaby to grow up quick.

Didn't seem like we missed much of a beat.  I think Cort got most of his snaps in the fourth (after Dele got some time) and the only thing I see keeping him off the field is his speed compounded with playing in the B12.  Here's a play you won't see show up on the stat sheet:

 

Edited by Hmmm
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10 minutes ago, Tex Long said:

Far's I'm concerned, Mitchell can get back in the portal, and stay there 'til he's gone. Our coaches are too chickenshit to do that, though.

I'm giving fewer fractional fucks every time #MensaTom opens his mouth.

With Dele out due to injury, coaches have to find a way to get more out of Juwan while keeping him out of the doghouse...

Hope they can develop these younger LBs soon...

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3 minutes ago, LTtxfan said:

With Dele out due to injury, coaches have to find a way to get more out of Juwan while keeping him out of the doghouse...

Hope they can develop these younger LBs soon...

Our coaches don’t have the testicular fortitude to keep Juwan in line. He’s going to punch another coach and his attitude shows why these coaches are a joke and have no accountability in this program. 
 

he threatens to leave the program multiple times and quits middle of a game similar to how foster did and you know what punishment they get? More playing time. 

Edited by Bevo VIII
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2 minutes ago, Bevo VIII said:

Our coaches don’t have the testicular fortitude to keep Juwan in line. He’s going to punch another coach and his attitude shows why these coaches are a joke and have no accountability in this program. 

Hutzler just got here -- Great LB coach, that needs more time

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