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Texas Spring Football Game 2018


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5 hours ago, HuntinHorn said:

It’s the damn spring game and with a shitty system of “picking teams” instead of playing all the ones together. I thought it would be tough to watch/evaluate and it was. That being said, I like what I saw of Ehlinger as a whole. His passing to LJH and Duvernay showed some good improvement. LJH is gonna beast. Can’t wait to see him and CJ play together against opponents that don’t go against them everyday. Duvernay’s catch over the deep middle while getting hammered by 15 was surprising as well. Good stuff from somebody that is just supposed to run go routes.

 

Looking back on that highlight film, Sam made some good throws that he would have missed last year. Hopefully he improves on his consistency too by August when the defense doesn’t know every play. I see improvement. I like seeing him run out of bounds too. Hopefully he can stay healthy.

 

We completed passes to tight ends! That is a good start. Hopefully those guys can get some more yardage against a groups of DBs and LBs that haven’t seen the same plays over and over for 15 practices.

 

I’m gonna reserve judgement on the oline until Maryland instead of raining doom and gloom. Injuries, the playing every down of the game and the mixing and matching all game just does not lend itself to consistency or cohesion. Hopefully by the end of August, with the new additions, injuries healed, more time under Hand, and getting to rest when we’re on defense, they’ll get it together. With that, the RBs, should come around as well.

 

Defense is gonna hurt folks. Hager and Charles are going to wreck some QB’s lives. Can’t wait to see the true #1 defense with Gary Johnson ... They are going to be fun to watch bringing the pain.

 

Wow.  A rare, well thought out and rational explanation of the spring game.  What a breath of fresh air.  This fan base really can beat you down with the negativity.  Thanks Huntin! 

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Our O line units in the first half:

White: Okafor-Vahe-Shack-ERod-Kerstetter (1)

Orange: Cosmi-Erod-Kerstetter-Imade-Urquidez (2)

White: Cosmi-Erod-Kerstetter-Imade-Urquidez (2)

Orange: Okafor-Vahe-Shack-Imade-Urquidez (3)

White: Cosmi-Vahe-ERod-Imade-Okafor (4)

Orange: Cosmi-Vahe-Shack-Erod-Kerstetter (5)

White: Cosmi-Erod-Kerstetter-Imade-Urquidez (2)

Orange: Okafor-Vahe-Shack-Imade-Urquidez (3)

White: Okafor-Vahe-Shack-Erod-Kerstetter (1)

Orange: Cosmi-Erod-Kerstetter-Imade-Okafor (6)

White: Cosmi-Vahe-Shack-Imade-Kerstetter (7)

I numbered all of the unique lineups. By comparison, we had 8 different starting lineups last season.

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I don't understand the focus on QB. Our issue is O-line. We fix that we solve the run game, we solve the QB issues and might even partially solve the OC issues.  We look much bigger, much more athletic and hanging out on the field after the game it was very apparent these guys are much more together and having more fun than they have had in long time.

Edited by MonkeyDoughnut
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There are very few things that can be learned from a spring game. For me personally, I tend to focus on only only a few things, like breakout physical traits and DB technique. LJH was amazing yesterday. That dude looked NFL potential good. And Kris Boyd flashed NFL play. On QB’s you can never tell whether they are going to be really good, but you can tell if they have poor accuracy and noodle arms. I continue to be unimpressed by Buechele’s arm and instincts. Thompson was very fast but inaccurate at times, showing he needs time to develop. Rising has a great arm. If he were 2-3 inches taller, he’d be really special.

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59 minutes ago, Bobby_Batronic said:

Well, the usual suspects did usual suspecty things on the OL, we need people to come in and start or come back from injury and start at several positions on that unit, and the sprint out pass fetish seems to be raging unabated. It’s not a reach to look at that, consider our recent past and project the offense to likely be pretty bad. Not entirely putrid, but capable of inducing nausea on a drive to drive basis. 

Meh. Good defense is a pretty good analog to Dramamine.

Would I rather have a good offense to go with it? Well, of course. But given the shit-show we've rolled out for the better part of a decade, I'm willing to be happy with baby steps. Get better than last year, give me hope Beck is on the way out, and I'll be happy.

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It was a fucking Spring Game. There were good moments, bad moments and normal Spring Game-ish things. I like to think this was the last time we see such a poor offensive line at Texas moving forward, and I do believe the fall version at OL will be much improved. We have got to get over this fucking O-line hump. Hearing Mack Brown talk about our O-line today made me a bit ragey, considering he was the one who started us on this path of garbage O-line. 


The QB situation still reverberates to this day ever since John Chiles
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3 hours ago, ousux said:
5 hours ago, taybo20 said:
What’s the point of running QB power when the QB is in non contact jersey?

Practice? I don't see how people forget the spring game isn't really a game. In fact, both the offense and defense would be giving far more looks in a practice session closed to the media, and more importantly...LHN cameras.

Lol... it’s  like you forgot they just had 3 weeks of practice before this and will have fall practice before the next real game

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IT: Spring Game Quick Reaction: Defense/Special Teams

DEFENSE

If you thought the offense struggled, imagine if the defensive front 7 hadn't been split up by the Spring game draft format. Roach, Omenihu and Hager sharing the same pass rushing space is a daunting proposition for a lot of offenses. Particularly when all three can credibly line up at multiple positions and come in unexpected ways. 

Overall, the defense dominated in stretches, featuring a withering pass rush and a good display of depth and tackling from the secondary. 

Defensive Line 

When Breckyn Hager was being evaled as a recruit, I thought his best realization would be 50+ pounds north of his HS playing weight with a hand on the ground. That's how it played out. Hager's offseason weight and strength gains (he looks somewhere between 260-270 now) have allowed him to add a potent bull rush to his gap-taking arsenal. He's going to be a handful. 

Speaking of handfuls, Charles Omenihu looked good playing a more conventional DE outside of the tackles and he's using his hands and length well. He's made the realization that his wingspan allows him first contact and first shot at hand placement and he gets to lead the dance if he does both of them correctly. We'll still need him to hunker down and disrupt against the run as a 5 technique and that's what the NFL expects too. 

Jamari Chisholm has completely remade his body while gaining good weight and he showed better activity level than last year. I did a double take when I saw him run out. Wilbon was a little sluggish as a pass rusher and needs to work on get off and not giving up the advantages of his frame with high pad level. Get him some Roy Miller and Poona Ford tape post-haste. 

I liked what I saw from Graham at nose tackle and he's certainly carrying 290 well. Now he needs to bring the relentless motor that Orlando is looking for when he plays a converted DE at NT. 

Bimage certainly looks the part and he got a gimme sack on a blown blocking assignment. Christmas made no impression. 

Nelson didn't play due to injury and if he sticks around (Herman is courting him with press conference mentions, he's listed on the "1st team" depth chart etc), he's a tremendous situational asset.

Linebackers

Orlando lined Roach up at Rover and he dominated on inside stunts. He was credited with a sack and 2 tackles for loss. I saw a lot more than that. Roach is carrying 270, but he's retained his mobility and he has a great feel for avoiding trash and taking the best route to the QB. Our very own Levon Kirkland? He also played the run well inside the tackles, largely because he doesn't take false steps. In our "regular" defense, I expect him to split time outside at B-Backer and inside at Rover. Offenses will try to exploit him in space, but I'm guessing Orlando has some counters for that. 

McCulloch led the defense in sacks. Most of that was favorable match-ups or blown assignments, but he looks more fit and that's improved his motor and work capacity. He's always had a good first step, but he's learning to run the arc more efficiently and persevere if someone counters his initial move. Like Roach, he'll rep B-Backer or Rover, but I'm less confident about him against the run.

I expect to see some pass rush packages that go McCulloch-Hager-Omenihu-Roach. 

Anthony Wheeler looked good inside. I haven't written that in a while. Hopefully, I'm not being fooled by the simplicity of our Spring running game, but he tackled well in space, moved much more fluidly than last year's Mummy Shuffle and looked solid covering the short passing game. Maryland will tell the tale for me as to whether he's really diagnosing or if he's just jumping plays he's seen a million times from our offense. 

DeMarco Boyd got quite a bit of run and he has a nose for the ball. He doesn't always finish and he gets swallowed up by size. The second LJH touchdown run is a good example. Adeoye certainly looks the part. It's unlikely he redshirts, even if we only play 1-2 "true" linebackers this year. No Edwin Freeman or Gary Johnson Saturday and we clearly need a third LB to emerge for depth purposes. 

Defensive Backs

A good display of depth and open field tackling. The quality in our young guys is obvious. 

Kobe Boyce really showed me some ability and his development is going exactly as I anticipated when he was a "too-skinny" three star inked out of high school. He's the second best pure cover guy on the team right now behind Kris Boyd. But he can't tackle like Kris and is about twenty pounds lighter. Boyd was terrific and dialed in on every snap save getting beat once by LJH up the sideline, but he recovered enough to tip the ball on a bad Ehlinger throw. 

BJ Foster showed range, anticipation and maturity that I didn't expect from a player who doesn't have that many reps at safety in high school, much less at Texas. He's ahead of plan.

Chris Brown did some really good stuff Saturday and his aggression and football IQ allows him a play-fast speed that his athletic attributes don't suggest, but #15 also had an unnecessary PI on Leitao when he had him covered and then a hit that could have easily been called targeting had the officials been interested in throwing the flag. 

Brandon Jones played with poise and evidenced real aggression and good angles supporting the run. Contrast that with what we saw a year and a half ago against Maryland. Like Wheeler, I'll be very interested to see how this translates under live fire. 

John Bonney continues to be a versatile depth guy who can help us at multiple positions. Jarmarquis Durst displayed some ability as a tackler, but I'm not sure if that translates to game action. Donovan Duvernay had a nice break up on his brother and he can play cornerback fairly credibly in bump-and-run if he's guaranteed a cover over the top on the shallow hash. I didn't see much from Cuffee. 

Taken as a whole, the group loses some 2017 front line talent with the losses of Hill and Elliott, but depth is top notch, the systematic aspects of the defense are starting to take hold, and Texas should be able to put six quality DBs out on the field whenever Orlando chooses. The overall unit average could very well be as good as the 2017 group if that cohesiveness sticks. 

Special Teams

Tough to tell on Ryan Bujcevski, but the Aussie cousin certainly has enough raw leg. The question will be ball placement under fire and how much he freaks out when he experiences his first all out punt block rush or a bad snap that calls for improvisation. 

Rowland nailed a 29 yard gimme and then a career high 50 yarder, but I'm not sure if the trajectory of the latter clears the LOS against a defense with their DL putting up their hands and getting a little penetration. Naggar missed a 41 yard opportunity pretty badly.

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46 minutes ago, Machinator said:

Our O line units in the first half:

White: Okafor-Vahe-Shack-ERod-Kerstetter (1)

Orange: Cosmi-Erod-Kerstetter-Imade-Urquidez (2)

White: Cosmi-Erod-Kerstetter-Imade-Urquidez (2)

Orange: Okafor-Vahe-Shack-Imade-Urquidez (3)

White: Cosmi-Vahe-ERod-Imade-Okafor (4)

Orange: Cosmi-Vahe-Shack-Erod-Kerstetter (5)

White: Cosmi-Erod-Kerstetter-Imade-Urquidez (2)

Orange: Okafor-Vahe-Shack-Imade-Urquidez (3)

White: Okafor-Vahe-Shack-Erod-Kerstetter (1)

Orange: Cosmi-Erod-Kerstetter-Imade-Okafor (6)

White: Cosmi-Vahe-Shack-Imade-Kerstetter (7)

I numbered all of the unique lineups. By comparison, we had 8 different starting lineups last season.

So it looks like the rumors about the coaches liking Cosmi at LT are true. He's probably the future there. Anderson probably starting LT this year.
I like moving Kerstetter to C (probably as a backup) and I bet he's either the RT or backup RT.
ERod down to guard. Probably be Vahe at LG, ERod at RG, and Imade as #1 backup.
RT either Kerstetter or Okafor. Urquidez just can't do pass pro yet.

Edited by Disco Missile
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1 minute ago, Hook1997 said:

Yes but if you state the obvious here you get neged by the sunshine pumpers.......

What's the "obvious"? That we don't have a great QB right now, or that the conclusion to draw from that is that we need to start yet another freshman QB?

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Just now, Disco Missile said:

So it looks like the rumors about the coaches liking Cosmi at LT are true. He's probably the future there. Anderson probably starting RT this year.
I like moving Kerstetter to C (probably as a backup) and I bet he's either the RT or backup RT.
ERod down to guard. Probably be Vahe at RG, ERod at LG, and Imade as #1 backup.
RT either Kerstetter or Okafor. Urquidez just can't do pass pro yet.

Anderson is the LT starter if he's healthy. Kerstetter is the RT. If Anderson goes down, Cosmi probably replaces him. Kerstetter doesn't seem to be an option at LT for the coaches.

Vahe is probably going to be LG because that's what he's played for most (all?) of his career here. I think there's going to be a battle for RG between Hudson, Okafor, Rodriguez, Grandy and Imade, and the first two will be the primary contestants for that spot.

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1 minute ago, Machinator said:

Anderson is the LT starter if he's healthy. Kerstetter is the RT. If Anderson goes down, Cosmi probably replaces him. Kerstetter doesn't seem to be an option at LT for the coaches.

Vahe is probably going to be LG because that's what he's played for most (all?) of his career here. I think there's going to be a battle for RG between Hudson, Okafor, Rodriguez, Grandy and Imade, and the first two will be the primary contestants for that spot.

I swapped my Ls and Rs for some reason. Fixed it on the edits.

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2 hours ago, Hook1997 said:

Practice or not I’m not sure how you can be optimistic when both completed less then fifty percent of their passes....  that’s not looking fine.   Just pissed right now bc the qb position is going to cost us lots of games again this year I think.

Sam: 13-22  Shane: 12-21  You might want to recheck your math there,  Sport.

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4 minutes ago, Machinator said:

Anderson is the LT starter if he's healthy. Kerstetter is the RT. If Anderson goes down, Cosmi probably replaces him. Kerstetter doesn't seem to be an option at LT for the coaches.

Vahe is probably going to be LG because that's what he's played for most (all?) of his career here. I think there's going to be a battle for RG between Hudson, Okafor, Rodriguez, Grandy and Imade, and the first two will be the primary contestants for that spot.

I haven't seen anything about Okafor to G. Why you say that?
I was hoping Grandy would be a plug-and-play RG but I think he has a way to go. 
I thought ERod was serviceable. Imade as well. Our interior line had only a few miscues and did fairly well run blocking.
I am interested to see where and how Hudson fits in. He has a lot to offer and our line will be better with him in it.

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2 hours ago, Hook1997 said:

Practice or not I’m not sure how you can be optimistic when both completed less then fifty percent of their passes....  that’s not looking fine.   Just pissed right now bc the qb position is going to cost us lots of games again this year I think.

Last year Buechele was a 65% passer. Ehlinger was around 57%.

And that was with terrible pass protection. They'll do better with an improved OL and a year of experience.

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8 minutes ago, Disco Missile said:

Last year Buechele was a 65% passer. Ehlinger was around 57%.

And that was with terrible pass protection. They'll do better with an improved OL and a year of experience.

To be fair, it's hard to imagine either of them ever completing a forward pass if the sky is actually falling.

B|

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If they can't be worse, experience wins. Those two freshmen are red shirting barring injury. Even then, Heard will probably take snaps before they do. 
The very last thing I want to see on this football team is a true freshman playing quarterback again.
Same here, barring injury to both Sam and Shane for the same game, Rising and Thompson shouldn't have anything more than clipboard/headset duty.
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23 minutes ago, cafe society said:

Sam: 13-22  Shane: 12-21  You might want to recheck your math there,  Sport.

Ok I emblished by a couple percent.....  those look great to you???    still not pretty.   I’m just worried the offense is going to be the same or worst as last year.  I just don’t see much improvement coming.  Shane can’t hold up without getting hurt and Sam is inaccurate as fuck plus 10 yards..   Sorry for being real.  I just want a damn qb at Texas again!

Edited by Hook1997
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it's a  spring game. I don't know how anyone can judge someone like Ehlinger in a spring game when his biggest strength is the run game. Spring games are glorified practices. 
There's obviously some issues on the offensive line if we suffer any injuries, but there's not much to take away from the QBs in a spring game setting. 
 
Its actually more vanilla than a regular closed practice..or more accurately "vanilla with a few sprinkles thrown in that won't be used during the season". (Screen pass to Hager etc..)

Any coach would be dumb to use the spring game to put things useful to opponents on film..
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Sidenote: I think we're jumping the gun by penciling in Grandy as a starter. He has great physical potential coming out of JUCO, but he's still raw, and he missed most of spring with a concussion.
Speaking of Grandy, seems like he was out more than 2 weeks..

Must have been one helluva bell ringer.
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18 minutes ago, Tailgate said:

Saban is fine with freshman QBs.

Yeah when you have the best offensive line in college your QB has a lot more time to not have to act or think under pressure, you know the main area that makes college freshman look bad. While Cam and Casey would obviously benefit from time with Yancy, it's not like they don't have the physical tools to succeed right now. If we put them behind Alabama's OL they'd be great and all would be well for them. They'd fuck up occasional as freshman quarterbacks are wont to do, but hey they'll succeed a lot more than they fail. Put them behind our OL and they'll be mentally and physically broken by Thanksgiving.

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18 minutes ago, TheFlyingBoat said:

Yeah when you have the best offensive line in college your QB has a lot more time to not have to act or think under pressure, you know the main area that makes college freshman look bad. While Cam and Casey would obviously benefit from time with Yancy, it's not like they don't have the physical tools to succeed right now. If we put them behind Alabama's OL they'd be great and all would be well for them. They'd fuck up occasional as freshman quarterbacks are wont to do, but hey they'll succeed a lot more than they fail. Put them behind our OL and they'll be mentally and physically broken by Thanksgiving.

Sam nor Shane has not shown me they are better. They could break like a wishbone at thanksgiving as well as anyone.

Edited by Tailgate
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1 hour ago, Dbeasy said:

Christmas looked fat and out of shape. Does he not put in the work?

He’s been putting in plenty of work at the dinner buffet.  

2 hours ago, Walden Ponderer said:

Meh. Good defense is a pretty good analog to Dramamine.

Would I rather have a good offense to go with it? Well, of course. But given the shit-show we've rolled out for the better part of a decade, I'm willing to be happy with baby steps. Get better than last year, give me hope Beck is on the way out, and I'll be happy.

Our Spring game defense looked legit. Then again, just about every defense looked legit against our offense last year, and our defense looked like that most of the year. We either have RFL’s (ravenous fuck lions) all across the D line or our O line is a particular brand of abysmal. I watched our OT get blown up and chunked into the pocket time and again. Baby steps would be their getting walked back. 

I dunno. We go as far as those baby steps and consistent punting can take us. And Dicker the kicker. I thought the defense would take a small step back given the loss of best players at every level, but that it would be mitigated by QB turnover on teams we’ll face in 2018. I’m goning to change that a bit.  The secondary will see no drop off. LB will also see no drop off if health issues stay away. D line needs Graham, Nelson and Coburn to some how approximate Poona’s relentless motor via sabermetrics, mainlining Red Bull or some form of remote controlled, subcutaneous cattle prod. 

Anderson needs to be the real deal at LT, and Hudson needs to push the G rotation to take a step or take it from them. We need average punting from Alphabet Aussie and someone to be an improvement at place kicker. Do that and we may shake the .500 football mold we’ve been perfecting MB’s departure. 

Edited by Bobby_Batronic
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I thought Kerstetter held his own at OT in the spring game. Cosmi looked fine against the 2s, which is fine for a second-string OT. Urquidez was predictably a disaster going against the likes of Hager. I didn't watch Okafor too closely, and it wouldn't surprise me if he was terrible, but he's also not the starting LT once Anderson reaches campus.

Edited by Machinator
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5 minutes ago, Machinator said:

 I didn't watch Okafor too closely, and it wouldn't surprise me if he was terrible

The only play I noticed him, Omenihu stiffarmed him on the shoulder and turned him into a swinging door to the QB.  But Omenihu did that to guys on other FBS teams too.

Edited by ClubWhatever
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Has anyone watched other spring games? They all looked boring, sloppy, and every team struggled in one or two aspects. (Minus Clemson...they looked good everywhere) I'm not saying our game was inspiring but for all you people thinking we will suck this year, you cant gather shit from any spring game. Especially one that mixes the teams up without true 1st or 2nd teams.

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2 minutes ago, Casual Encounter said:

I’ve only watched the first 30 minutes so far. Shane looks uncomfortable as hell. 

That’s because Shane is not good. The ND game was his peak and very much the outlier. 

Edited by Guest
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5 minutes ago, Machinator said:

I thought Kerstetter held his own at OT in the spring game. Cosmi looked fine against the 2s, which is fine for a second-string OT. Urquidez was predictably a disaster going against the likes of Hager. I didn't watch Okafor too closely, and it wouldn't surprise me if he was terrible, but he's also not the starting LT once Anderson reaches campus.

Shaking my head. Shack starts for another season because Kersetter is our only option at RT. I'd like E-Rod to get a long, hard look at center. I'm very bearish on Shack. 

Oak has to move inside the minute Anderson reports. The guard competition could theoretically be spirited. Hudson, Vahe, Oak,  and Tope Imade. 

I'd be careful with redshirting Junior Angilau. I think he needs to stay engaged and part of the team, or maybe he takes another look at that mission trip. 

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