cold beer

Who Controls The Heat on Sumlin’s Seat?

As we enter the 2016 Aggie football season there’s lots of questions if Kevin Sumlin is on the hot seat. There is no correct answer at the current moment. The reality is the heat of Sumlin’s seat is controlled SOLELY by him and will be decided this season. If the Aggies win 9 game this season there is no heat. If he wins 7 games then he’s gone and if he wins 8 games it’ll depend on the number of home games he wins. More than likely the LSU game will be the most important. If he loses to Bama, UCLA, Tennessee, and LSU I don’t see how he can survive that but it’s still possible. As long as Sumlin doesn’t get to 4 losses there’s not an ounce of heat but once he hits 4 games then that seat will be hot. It’ll all because of his head coaching ability and nothing else. I’ll do a season prediction as we get closer to the season but this is my analysis of Sumlin and where he stands right now.

Coming into his fifth season at A&M it’s crystal clear what kind of coach Kevin Sumlin is. He’s a CEO coach that’s not going to grind things out. He’s hands off when it comes to the decisions his staff makes for in game preparation and even in game. I have a ton of specific examples but I won’t bore you with them. Buy me a beer and I’ll tell you in great detail. Kevin Sumlin is in the style of coaches like Les Miles, Mack Brown, and Bobby Bowden. They clap a lot and hope to give great speeches but if you ask them exactly what’s going on during the game he’s just watching like me and you. You better hope he can hire a great staff and recruit because he’s not going to have much effect on the actual games himself. That’s not a bad thing but it’s not a great thing either. It’s possible Sumlin can win a National Championship but he’s only as good as his staff and recruiting momentum. I’d actually be fine if he turned into Miles, Brown, and especially Bowden as all of those guys have a National Title to their name and I want that feeling just once before I die. Just once.

He’s not in the class of coaches like Nick Saban, Urban Meyer, and Gary Patterson who are guys that flat out grind it out during the season making decisions that influence his coaching staff in weekly preparation and in game decisions. I think Jim Harbaugh will join this group as well but let’s give him one more year at Michigan to make sure. I also think Tom Herman will join this class one day but let’s also give him one more year and see where he goes next. If Sumlin falters and Herman has another great season at UH I’d love to see Herman in maroon but let’s not worry about that right now.

Sumlin will never join that list of elite names because it’s not who he is. He’s not interested in the details of the day to day grind for game planning and in game coaching. He wants to be popular and celebrate leaving it up to those below him to make things happen. That’s not necessarily a bad thing but if he doesn’t hire right or loses recruiting momentum then he’s toast because he doesn’t have the ability to directly reverse course by himself.

Sumlin got to this whole make or break season because of hiring decisions he made. When Kingsbury left he promoted someone with no experience calling plays in Clarence McKinney. When McKinney didn’t work out he repeated the process in hiring Jake Spavital. Don’t even get me started on Jake Spavital. When year 1 of Jake Spavital didn’t work out Sumlin fired his offensive line coach and brought in Dave Christensen. That went even worse as Christensen was a HORRIBLE offensive line coach and Spavital was his usual horrible self. A decision made by Sumlin made things WORSE. So in the 3 years post Kingsbury Sumlin just TOTALLY botched his offensive staff. I mean just TOTALLY botched it. He made $5 million a year to make these stupid decisions. $5 million a year and he’s hiring inexperienced offensive coordinators. That’s on him.

While Sumlin was promoting Boy Wonder Jake Spavital, Nick Saban lost two games in a row to go 11-2 in 2013 and sent his offensive coordinator away. Seriously. He told his OC in an 11-2 season to get lost. He then hired Lane Kiffin as his OC and won the SEC two years in a row including a National Championship. He had no real relationship with Kiffin but remembered how tough it was to coach against his offenses despite the reputation of Kiffin at the time. See the differences in how these coaches operate? Saban isn’t about relationships. He’s about results on the field because he knows if he wins everything takes care of itself. Saban is focused on the field. Sumlin is focused on the lights off the field.

On the defensive side of the ball Sumlin held on to Mark Snyder one year too long. He probably shouldn’t have hired Snyder in the first place but Snyder wasn’t really as bad as Aggies fans made him out to be. Snyder was an above average coach but when paired with Sumlin’s below average OC hires after Kingsbury it made him look that much worse. Snyder was a tremendous DC his first year getting the most out of a lot of guys that weren’t the most talented but had a ton of heart. Snyder deserves credit for that 2012 defense but when the guys with heart left then Snyder was hosed. He made some HORRIBLE personnel decisions two years ago and I really feel Sumlin should have stepped in and guided him. I won’t name player names but there’s a certain position in the middle of the field that clearly wasn’t able to perform in the position but he kept getting run out there until it was painfully obvious. Sumlin then had to pull the old “every position will be evaluated” technique in the middle of the season. A great coach NEVER says that because they anticipate that coming before it gets there and makes adjustments. $5 million a year to make those decisions when it’s painfully obvious what’s going on. FIVE MILLION AMERICAN DOLLARS and midway through the season we have to re-evaluate everything because we’re getting our ass kicked. $5 million to reshuffle the cards.

As much as I’d love to see Tom Herman in maroon because I do think he’s going to join the likes of Saban and Meyer I REALLY want to see Sumlin win 9 games or more this year and keep his job. I absolutely LOVE the current staff he has for a guy like Kevin Sumlin. I mean LOVE. I’ll take John Chavis over any defensive coordinator in the country. Hands down without a doubt. That dude is a grinder.

I know Aggie fans felt we gave up too many yards on the ground last season but the reality is our defense played well enough to win EVERY game last year. I’m not kidding. Even against Alabama we held them to 20 points on offense. They didn’t score a touchdown beyond 5 minutes in the second quarter. Derrick Henry gashed us for 20 minutes but Chavis made adjustments and kept him contained. Chavis’ in game adjustments were just remarkable all season. Go back and watch the games and while we did give up some big runs on occasion for the most part our defense stopped opposing offenses when it mattered. Boy Wonder Spavital just couldn’t get his stuff together to respond when the defense gave the offense an opportunity to win the game. I don’t put that on Chavis. I hate Jake Spavital. Seriously. What a failure.

The Wrecking Crew is never coming back. Football has evolved where offenses are going to score points. Even Nick Saban has learned this which is why he’s adapted. If you think we can field a defense that holds quality opponents under 300 yards and 14 points you’re fooling yourself. It ain’t happening anymore. John Chavis coaches a defense that attacks and adjusts to make stops when it counts. That’s all you can ask for and he’s better than anyone in the college game in my mind. Most importantly he’s not going anywhere. As long as Sumlin is coaching A&M so is Chavis as long as we keep paying him. I don’t want to lose that so I want Sumlin to succeed this season. Think Gary Kubiak and Wade Phillips.

Offensively it took 3 years but Sumlin seems to have finally gotten it right. We’ll have to see how this season goes for Noel Mazzone but I like his experience. If we win 9 games that tells me he’s a solid enough offensive coordinator to compete at an elite level year in and year out. Even more than Mazzone I absolutely LOVE the hire of Jim Turner. This guy is a flat out grinder when it comes to the offensive line. He consumes himself when it comes to the offensive line in recruiting, technique, and motivation. It’s no surprise what’s happened to our Oline recruiting since he got hired. I think he’s the best offensive line coach in the country. He loves Aggieland and likely never leaves if he has anything to do with it. Offensive success begins and ends on the offensive line and I love having Turner handling that component of our offense. He and Mazzone should combine to be a really good offensive tandem.

More than likely this will be Mazzone and Turner’s toughest year on offense. Our QB is unproven and our offensive line has some holes. Yes, Trevor Knight is unproven. If Mazzone and Turner can get 9 wins or more things get easier next season as Turner adds talent and depth on the offensive line. QB will once again be in question next year but year 2 with an offensive coordinator and better line makes things a lot easier to manage. And just like Chavis, Mazzone and Turner are lifers at their positions so they’re not going anywhere as long as Sumlin is successful and we keep paying them.

I’d love to see nothing more than a band of Sumlin on vocals, Chavis on lead guitar, Mazzone on bass, and Turner banging the drums rocking Aggieland for years. It’s very possible but it’s going to take 9 wins to do it or 8 wins with major wins at Kyle to keep these guys around. 7 wins or less and some of them are going to have to find a new band to get gigs. They won’t be booked in Aggieland next season.

If Sumlin only wins 7 games then buy him out and head down Highway 6 to 290 and get Tom Herman and be done. If Sumlin isn’t the answer then I’d love to see Herman, Chavis, and Turner rocking in a new band in Aggieland. If not Herman then I’d be fine with Chad Morris to rock out with Chavis and Turner. All I know is for the first time in 4 years Sumlin has a staff he can win with and I want him to. If he can’t croon some chart toppers this year it won’t be because of the guys behind him. It’ll all be on his high dollar vocals not making it and he’ll never figure it out.

So who controls the heat on Sumlin’s seat? He does! He does!

Thoughts From the Games

Thoughts from the Games
Florida, SMU, and SC State

I’ve been holding off writing this again because the new gig has been taking up a lot of time but mainly I didn’t know what the hell I was looking at with this Aggie team. An amazing first half against Florida followed by an offensive turd in the second half. The turd continued through the first quarter against SMU before getting flushed. Then we struggle in the first couple of series against SC State before really opening it up. Through it all I feel like I started seeing what’s going with this team.

The La. Tech Game:

I’m still torn on if the lack of the La. Tech game has hurt us or helped us. As we get further along I think it’s actually helped us. They’re a good team and there’s a good chance we would have gotten beat as our offense would have struggled being on the road for the first time. Make no mistake we came out against Florida on emotion and surprise due to our first game in the SEC. I honestly can’t think of a time when campus and Kyle was fired up for a 2:30 game like that. There were a couple of the OU games in the early 2000s that had a 2:30 start and Kyle was rocking but they’re few and far between. I can’t help but think that carried over to the team and that’s part of the reason we jumped out to a great start.

Plus, with the element of surprise Florida had no idea what to look for offensively. Had they had film of us against La. Tech I think you might have seen our offense struggle the entire game as we’ll get to in a bit. I really do think we might have lost to both La. Tech and Florida had we played that game. As it stands I think we can now go into Shreveport and win that game and the result of the Florida game would have been the same and maybe even actually worse. We lost that Florida game but we all walked out of there thinking we could in fact compete against SEC teams. Let’s not underestimate the result of that. So, I think we dodged a bullet not playing La. Tech as this season is shaping up.

Offense:

I think we’ve all figured out what happened in the second half of the Florida game. I remember noticing it in the game and the quotes after confirmed it. Florida stopped sending their backers and just relied on their front four to apply pressure. That eliminated the open lanes due to over pursuit that our running backs and Manziel were able to exploit in the first half. Since that change our running game has been non-existent. Sadly, I think it’s going to continue that way until we start hitting passes down the middle of the field to pull linebackers from attacking the line of scrimmage or implement a true tight end or fullback.

What happened on Saturday night confirms what I believe as we couldn’t establish a rushing attack against a much inferior front 7. If we can’t establish a running game against this crew even without CMike we’re not going to do it against anyone. Much like Florida, SC State implemented the same scheme against the run. The used their front four to engage our offensive line and then the backers would simply scrape and fill holes. Not aggressively but basically seeing the same thing that the running back on the other side is seeing. The end result is their backers and our running backs are meeting at the LOS. I watched the SMU game on TV so it’s hard to tell but I’m guessing we did the same because we didn’t start moving the ball until Manziel made plays when the defense broke down on the ground and he was able to exploit it through the air in addition to his running. Other than Manziel we really didn’t have a running game against SMU either. Not good.

The reason this is happening this year and not last year is because we don’t have a true TE or fullback. What’s essentially happening is that our 5 offensive linemen are engaging the defensive front four leaving the 3 linebackers to fill the hole that’s created. In addition, because there’s no TE the outside linebackers are playing back off the line of scrimmage and just outside the tackles shoulder looking inside to fill those holes between the tackles. Normally they’d be lined up further outside on a TE and much closer to the line of scrimmage trying to avoid being sealed inside on a block. Without the concern of being sealed inside they can play both the inside and outside assuming they read the offense correctly.

Certainly our offense line has struggled early on with assignments but on Saturday night against SC State I watched our offensive lineman handle the front four of the defense only to have the LB fill the hole and meet out RB at the line of scrimmage. It’s not the line’s fault as much as it is the scheme’s fault. With a fullback they block the linebacker filling the gap and clear them out or at least engage them so the running back has a chance. It’s simple numbers working against us and no matter how well you execute you can’t block 7 guys with five guys. And they’re obviously going to leave their 7th guy home since we essentially have 2 RBs in the backfield with Manziel. So it’s basic 7 on 7 inside the box and I don’t see it changing if SC State can stymie our running game.

The other reason we’re struggling to establish a running game is we’re asking our lineman to run block without a hand on the ground. Without a hand on the ground it’s harder to keep lower leverage as well as fire out off the ball. Think of why track sprinters launch with their hands on the ground instead of on two feet. It’s much harder for our linemen to displace the defensive line so the best they can do is engage the defender and try and move them a little bit.

With all that I just don’t see us establishing a running game in this offense. At least between the tackles like we’ve seen in the past. What’s really lacking that I think we should be able to do is being able to establish an outside run. I would love to see us do overload sets to one side to see if we could seal an edge. Run some sweeps, screens, and zone reads to see if we can get those OLBs to focus outside more or exploit them if they’re hell bent on helping inside. I’d like to see Christine Michael get involved more in the running game so let’s hope he’s got his head clear and realized he’s costing himself money by doing whatever he’s doing to limit his playing time. He can actually take on a linebacker in the hole and get yards after contact. We’ll find out this weekend hopefully.

At receiver it’s hard to figure out what we have. We all know Swope and EZ but it seems like the staff is trying to figure out what they have in the others. It’s quite clear they’re trying to establish Mike Evans as the outside guy if you leave one on one he’s going to make you regret it. It seems we’ve tried to establish that without success and that’s why we can’t exploit the middle of the field with seam routes that Swope is perfect for. Manziel is also missing a bunch of open guys across the middle. Maybe he’s focused too much on the pocket pressure and not looking down field soon enough for fear he misses the pressure. However, it does seem Manziel is getting more familiar with his receivers as he’s been spreading the ball around the last two games. The receiver rotation has also been a little inconsistent so I’m not sure what all is going on and what we’re trying to accomplish with who. We’ll call the receiving corps a work in progress. There’s certainly talent there but it seems everyone including this coaching staff is still trying to figure who’s who and what’s what.

Alright, let’s get to Johnny Football. The kid is electric no doubt. There’s also little doubt he won’t be able to do what he’s done against SMU and SC State on the ground against our conference opponents. I think we’re going to find out that we played the weakest two teams we have on our schedule so it only gets tougher for Johnny Football from here. He has gotten much better about trying to stay in the pocket and when he scrambles keeping his eyes down the field and throw the ball rather than run. Still, there’s times when space is there and the kid should in fact take off and run. He did it against Florida until they took it away from him and he’ll learn over time as he gets more experience when it’s there and when it’s not. He’s just a work in progress.

Don’t forget ultimate success in college football happens because of one of two things or both. Those things are a suffocating defense and/or an electric player on the offensive side of the ball. You know the defenses of Alabama and LSU and even Florida’s first championship under Meyer but the times those teams haven’t won it you know the names of Vince Young, Tim Tebow, and Cam Newton. Now, I’m not saying Manziel is on the level of those guys but it’s pretty clear to me if you want to win it all you need someone that can transcend the offensive side of the ball if you don’t have a strong defense. Looking back there’s never been a “system” offense to win a National Championship. Oregon tried against a fairly average Auburn defense and couldn’t do it. Even Mike Leach’s vaunted offense often stalled against better defenses which is why he rarely beat Texas or OU and struggled in both Cotton Bowls he made it to with what might have been the SEC’s third or fourth best team.

I say all that in hopes that our offense is evolving from game to game as the coaches and players learn one another. I’d rather see that happen than the coaching staff stand headstrong and try to install their “system.” I’d really like to see Kingsbury evolve beyond what appears to be his “Air Raid” roots at Tech and UH. Nothing against Kingsbury but I’m beginning to see his roots won’t do well week in and week out against the SEC defenses.

As for what happens from here it’s not ideal but I think we can have a run of 3 games against Arkansas, Ole Miss, and La. Tech where can have some learning curves and still win. Now, I’m not saying we can win those games with major hiccups because we can’t but I think we can have some growing pains in those games and still win. Mainly because I think our offensive line is getting more comfortable in this system and receivers are learning what to do when the play breaks down and Manziel is able to extend the play with his legs.

So, in summary we’re not going to establish a running game between the tackles. Because of that let’s hope that Manziel and this coaching staff can learn from each other and craft the offense to the strengths of the talent we have on that side of the ball. It’s our only hope Luke.

Defense:

“The one constant through this season so far, Ray, has been defense. Aggie Football has rolled by like an army of steamrollers remaining competitive because of defense. The Wrecking Crew had been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt, and erased again by men that go by the names of Fran and Sherm. But defense has marked the time and Aggie fans have waited for its return. Kyle Field, this game, is a part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good, and that could be again. Oh people will come, Ray. People will most definitely come.” I adjusted the quote from Field of Dreams to reflect somewhat of how our defense has really carried this team so far. It feels good to have a defense that looks like it knows what its doing and can respond when needed.

Without our defense we get blown out by Florida and probably even play SMU close. Make no mistake this is no Wrecking Crew. Not even close outside of Demontre Moore. Dude is a one man Wrecking Crew so he definitely can be called that but there’s no one else. What this defense is doing is playing assignment football REALLY well. People are executing their assignment which allows all 11 defenders to cover the entire field and line of scrimmage. I think as we get more comfortable with the base defense and continue to execute it in our sleep we’ll see it get more aggressive. Until then I hope Snyder doesn’t change a thing as it’s absolutely marvelous to watch even if it’s not the old Wrecking Crew we know and love.

It’s also not on the level of Bama or LSU simply because we don’t have the athletes but it reminds me a lot of TCU’s defense. Now, don’t get me wrong in that we haven’t played an offensive juggernaut as Florida was very basic on offense, Garrett Gilbert couldn’t hit water if he fell out of a boat, and SC State missed a lot of open receivers or dropped balls that hit them in the hands. However, rarely is a receiver running wide screaming open like we saw with the litany of DCs that came before Snyder. Our LBs seem to understand their gap assignments and not overrun the ball carrier and the DLine understands engaging the OLine to free up others to make plays. Then there’s DeMonster who just wrecks shop all over the field. What’s impressed me the most is not what he’s done in the backfield but his pursuit all over the field. Time and time again he’s making tackles on the sideline simply because he’s pursuing the ball carrier the entire time. He must realize he can get paid like Von one day.

We are weak in a couple of areas and those include screen recognition and runs to the outside. Our defensive line will get sucked in by a screen and our LBs will either be slow to react or get up in the blocking or trash. Florida and SC State both ran some plays to the outside and gained positive yards. I think the weakness on these two things is our focus of not getting gutted up the middle and focusing our attention inside. I hold out faith that as our defense gets more comfortable with base assignments they’ll recognize screens and outside runs quicker and be quicker to react.

Despite how bad they’re playing as a team right now a Tyler Wilson lead offense can move the ball so we’ll find out where this defense really is on Saturday. Let’s hope we’re still proud.

Special Teams:

I have no clue what we have on special teams. No clue at all. We seem to be getting better each week but I’m still not sure as a whole. Our kicker hasn’t seen a tough field goal and he’s 1 of 2 making a 27 yarder and missing a 23 yarder. Doesn’t exactly instill much confidence does it? Epperson punts either like an old man playing golf that hits a shot 120 yards in the air but gets no trajectory so it rolls another 60 yards for a somewhat respectable drive or he punts like those rugby guys that rely on a roll except Epperson isn’t running before kicking. Whatever he’s doing it’s working for the most part so we’ll take it.

As for returns Dustin Harris has looked pretty decent returning punts but let’s be real in that he’s not an explosive returner. He’s got decent straight away speed but he’s no Dante Hall unless he’s jumping the curb and parking on the grass next to Kleberg that we don’t know about. Kick return wise our blocking was TERRIBLE against Florida and we haven’t seen many kicks in the other games thanks to our defense. However, with the new rules we shouldn’t be returning kicks on anything 2 yards or deeper in the end zone. Just take a knee and take it out to the 25 and be done with it. You get caught at the 15 yard line and then stall on a three and out all of sudden you’re behind on field position and that stuff matters.

There are just still a lot of unanswered questions about everything to be honest. Looking forward to Arkansas I’m DEATHLY afraid of this game. Tyler Wilson can still move the ball so they’re going to have the best day of any team against our defense so far. If our offense stalls a few times like it did against Florida we could be looking at being on the short of a shootout. I’d like to think we could win 35-21 but I can also see us losing 28-24 which would result in John L. Smith streaking on Kyle Field. Nobody wants that. Nobody.

If we can in semi-convincing fashion and our offense doesn’t stumble for the most part and our defense can hold Wilson and their offense mostly in check than I think we can go 8-4 with conference wins over Ole Miss, Auburn, and Mizzou in addition to our non-conference games. Arkansas reminds me of A&M last year. In total disarray as a team but there’s still enough talent that if it all clicks then they can beat a lot of people.

I’m somewhere between 8-4 and 6-6 with this team with all the clarity coming over the next three games. When we get to the mid-point of the schedule we’ll have a good idea of what we have despite still having LSU and Bama on the schedule.

Thoughts from the Mizzou Game

I’ve held off writing my review of the Mizzou game because I wanted to get away from it emotionally and try to figure out where the blame existed. After thinking about it, I think the blame can be placed equally at the feet of the coaching staff and the players. Once again, we had a double digit point lead at half and once again we choked it away. At least we had a chance with overtime but we choked that away even winning the coin toss in OT.

I think the coaching staff did a bad job making adjustments to what Mizzou was doing and the players didn’t quite execute as well as they should have. The lack of execution resulted in dropped passes, turnovers, false starts, and allowing Mizzou to shred the defense due to the lack of wrapping up and bringing Mizzou guys down by the initial defender making contact. Now, I’m not in the locker room at half, on the sidelines, or in the booth to know exactly what adjustments are made but it’s pretty clear Sherm and Co. don’t really anticipate adjustments and continue to run their game plan because it obviously worked in the first half. It’s pretty clear the other team often makes adjustments and we fail to react because the first half went so well. You’ll see those adjustments by the opponent and lack of adjustments by us in this piece.

I read somewhere this week that in Sherm’s almost four years of coaching he’s only come back in 2 games we were down at half and that was Colorado in 2008 and Baylor last year. We all remember Baylor last year and I honestly don’t remember Colorado in 2008 but that was Sherm’s first year and we had CU at home and they were pretty bad. I remember winning but I missed the game thanks to a sick dog and it not being on TV. That means I relied on Dave South. No wonder I don’t remember. Whatever, but that’s a pretty interesting stat that he’s only ever had two comebacks after half considering he’s 2 games above .500 in his tenure at A&M. That tells me he’s not a second half coach because in just this season alone he has lost more games where he’s lead at half than he’s come back from his entire career at A&M. At barely above .500 I’d say he’s had just as many chances to come back as he’s had to blow I’d guess. Without doing further research I’d wager there’s at least 2-3 if not more games he’s blown after half as I know we choked OSU last year and seem to remember blowing Colorado in 2009 in Boulder. I think it’s safe to say Sherm is not a second half coach. I’ll get to more Sherm later when I opine on what to do with him.

Before I get to the unit performances let me just say I do think our defense played well enough to win. Mike Sherman is an offensive coach and he prides himself on having an offensive unit that can move the ball. DeRuyter is a solid defensive mind but all of the playmakers are on the offensive side of the ball. If you don’t believe me just look at the number of defensive linemen we’ve moved to the defensive side of the ball after they couldn’t crack the offensive two deep. I firmly believe it’s the offense’s job to score more points than the defense gives up. Basically the reverse of the R.C. years where it was the defense’s job to allow 1 less point than the offense scored. There’s nothing wrong with it but when you have a coach that focuses on one side of the ball that’s what happens. Perfectly fine but the unit you focus on must perform better than the other team or you’ll lose. We ain’t the Wrecking Crew so it’s up to the Gulf Coast Offense to get it done. Oh, it would also help if special teams helped out from time to time.

OFFENSE:

I’m not really sure where to begin on the offensive side of the ball. We moved the ball but we shot ourselves in the foot too many times to win the game. Turnovers and stalled drives simply killed us. You look at this unit and it has all the talent in the world to be a VERY high powered offense to the tune of a Top 10 team. However, it’s just not working week in and week out. Some of it on playcalling and some of it on execution by players.

Before I talk about individual units there’s one thing I want to point out that I tracked to start the game and went back and reviewed the play chart to write this. During the game I noted that in both initial series to start the game the play call was pass, run, pass. In each of the series the initial pass was incomplete giving us second and 10. On those two initial series we went three and out. For the remaining series in the half each initial play was a run and we scored on each of these four other series. Now, in the first half there were 1^st and 10s within the series that we passed on first down but the point being that when we start a series running the ball we scored. Not a coincidence because I think Sherm has shown if he stalls on the first play with an incomplete pass he’s running the ball which puts us in another 3^rd down passing situation to which the DC is a better position to call a play to defend a pass.

Now here’s where it gets good. In the second half we had two series go three and out without a first down. Care to guess the first play? That’s right! A pass. EVERY time against Mizzou when we started a series with a pass, we went three and out. EVERY TIME! Four times we started a series with a pass and we DID NOT move the chains. Now, to defend Sherm somewhat, each of the series where we went three and out in the second half did have a false start so we needed 15 yards for a first down instead of 10 but I don’t think it’s pure coincidence that every series we started with a pass resulted in a three and out. Ironically enough, EVERY series we started with a run at MINIMUM resulted in at least one first down to move the chains. More time off the clock and more rest for your defense.

We had 5 other series in the second half where we started with a run. The end result of those 5 respective series were a fumble by Swope, “pass out” where we passed on first down within the series and couldn’t get the first down on two more tries, interception (which I’ll get to later), field goal, and fumble by Tanny due to pass pressure. Three of those stalled drives where on player execution in my mind, one field goal, and one set of play calling on first down that didn’t result in a first down.

Do you see a trend? Our play calling in this game was WAY more effective when we ran the ball the first play of a series. I’m perfectly fine with passing on first down within a series but I bet this turn of events is pretty similar in most of our games. WHEN WE GET THE BALL FOR WHATEVER REASON RUN THE DAMN BALL ON THE FIRST PLAY!!! To me, this gives our kick ass offensive line a chance to fire off on the defense let ting them take notice we can exert our will. I think it also gives a DC a little more to think about because all of a sudden it’s not 2^nd and 10. Maybe it’s not this simple but the drive chart in this game REALLY bears it out. Look, if your kids fail to execute then that’s on them to a certain degree but don’t let play calling put you in a deeper hole.

Another trend I noticed in looking at the play charts is that we only ran the ball on 3^rd and 2 or shorter outside of goal line situations. We had a 3^rd and 2 on the goal line and that’s where we ran the play action where Tanny hit Lamothe. Great play call but when we’re not in goal line we ran the ball 4 times on 3^rd down only getting stopped once when Cyrus couldn’t convert a 3^rd and 1. Each of those situations was less than 2 yards to a first down. Christine converted two and Tanny converted the other. Anything longer than 3^rd and 2 we passed each time. Not necessarily bad but a trend. And a trend that cost us because on the interception by Tannehill. We had 3^rd and 5 and Christine was in the game. He had backside help with the tackle and went over and “brother-in-lawed” the defensive end as the tackle released him outside thinking Christine was there to help. Christine was technically there to help but he didn’t put up much of a fight and the defensive end got to Tanny’s arm or hand resulting in an errant throw which got picked. Christine has gotten better at pass blocking but he still needs help as he brain farts from time to time.

Something tells me that we have a trend of passing on 3^rd and 3 or longer and especially on 3^rd and 5 or longer. If this is the case, either get Cyrus in there to pass block or release Christine to the flat or down the field so both the tackle and Tanny don’t rely on him on the backside. Let him be an outlet but DO NOT rely on him to block in 3^rd down passing situations. Like I said, if I picked this up in this drive chart I bet it holds true throughout the season. Christine being in the backfield is not fooling anyone it’s a run by any stretch. If this trend is true then get your best personnel in there to handle it on 3^rd down if you want the back to block. There’s no more crucial down on any drive than a third down. No ifs, ands, or buts. I’m fine with Christine pass blocking on non-third downs because there should be an element of surprise that it could be a run but for the love of all things holy don’t let him in the backfield when we know we’re going to pass on 3^rd down. To me that interception is half on coaching and half on execution. Sure, it’s possible Christine could have made the block but he’s shown to be iffy on pass protection so don’t put him in there on obvious third down passing situations. It’s that simple.

As for units some looked good and some looked bad. I thought Tanny had a decent game. He was 35 of 53 passing so he completed about 2/3rds of his passes. The incompletions seemed to be equally split between drops and bad passes. If I have one bad thing to say about Tanny it’s that he locks into Swope WAY too much. Now, I don’t blame him to a certain degree because Swope is head and shoulders our best receiver right now but sometimes Swope is not open and other times he misses a guy running down the field wide open. Playing QB is hard as hell. If you don’t believe me go play QB in a flag football game with at least 7 guys on each side. It’s hard as hell to read the entire field with 7 guys with no pressure so I have to imagine it’s infinitely harder with 4 more guys and people trying to knock the snot out of you. With that though I think he’d really improve his game if he’d scan the field more.

In the second half I continually saw him lock into Swope on 3^rd downs from the moment the ball was snapped. On SEVEN of NINE third down passing situations in the second half he went Swopes way with a potential for a completed pass. One of the others was a first down to Malcome Kennedy and the other was the interception but I’d wager money it was intended for Swope. Four of those resulted in a first down including the fumble by Swope. Two were incompletions and one was a completion on 3^rd and 15 that was two yards short of the chain. Look, I love Swope and converting 4 of 7 ain’t bad but defenses are going to start taking your binky away and you better be ready. If I’m Bob Stoops and Brent Venables, Ryan Swope is getting pressed at the line of scrimmage on 3^rd downs this Saturday. Tanny’s binky might not be there. Now, in Tanny’s defense the rest of this receiving corps is suspect so I don’t necessarily blame him but it’s something he and Sherm need to talk about and adjust. All in all Tanny is doing as good of a job considering the play calling and suspect receiving corps.

The offensive line looked dominant as always save for the five false starts which I just don’t get. How in the world can a line that’s been so solid brain lock so many times in one game at home? I don’t get it. I just don’t and make no mistake it hurt us on Saturday. Four were by guards and one by Joeckel. The thing I don’t get is that Brian Thomas had the first one and immediately got pulled for Ogbuehi. I’m perfectly fine with that as you’ve got competition for the guard spots right now so you want incentive to not screw up. When Thomas came off the field he was REALLY upset. He ran off the field and stood by himself for a play where he was visibly upset. Now, I don’t know if he was upset at himself for making the mistake or because the coaches pulled him but he was clearly upset. What confuses me is that Jarvis had a false start and he didn’t get pulled and then Thomas’ replacement in Ogbuehi had two false starts himself but didn’t get pulled. Now, I don’t pretend to know what goes on in practice so not sure if Thomas was on thin ice to begin with at the starting spot but just find it odd that his replacement made two of the same mistakes and didn’t get pulled.

I’m all for offensive line brain farts (false starts and holds) resulting in severe sanctions. I played offensive line/tight end in high school and we had one rule – More than two penalties by anyone and the entire offensive line paid for it. What we had to do was drive the blocking sleds backwards for 30 seconds and enough reps until our coach felt we learned our lesson. You think those things suck driving them forward try doing a backward bear crawl driving it. We had to do it after our first game and needless to say we never did it again all season long. We did get close one time as the guy I split time with at tight end false started twice in the first quarter. Our coach grabbed me and hollered, “Get your ass in there and don’t let the other guy back in there the rest of the game!” After the series I went to other guy and told him coach didn’t want him in the rest of the game and his response was, “I don’t plan on going back in because we’re not doing back backs due to me. It’s all on you, bro.” Of course he was half joking but I sure as hell didn’t screw up the rest of the game and luckily no one else did either. What sucked was on the post game high school TV show in my hometown of Victoria our coach went on air and talked about the game. He talked about what great tight end play we had that night and mentioned the other guy’s name. I always thought that coach was an asshole and that confirmed it. Anyway, enough of my stories but I hope Sherm and Turner know what they’re doing punishing one guy for a mistake and not the others. I’m perfectly fine not punishing Lewis , Matthews, and Joeckel because their backups aren’t on the same level but if there’s a competition at guard then be fair to everyone.

The one thing that did impress me about the line was other than the CMike brain fart, they made awesome pockets all day long. My favorite was when Joeckel and Matthews ran their defender into each other behind Tannehill. It was beautiful to watch our two tackles just create the perfect pocket and take their defender right where they wanted them to go which was into each other behind our QB who barely stepped up. It doesn’t get better than that. The other thing I love watching is seeing Matthews pull and get to the second level. To see a guy that big move that well is just breathtaking if you love offensive line play and you should. If this is not the best offensive line in the country next year I want to see who is. Despite the brain farts this unit performed at a high level as always.

As for running backs they did what they usually do. Christine got the lion’s share and would have likely gotten more had he not gotten hurt on the interception return but Cyrus didn’t look bad. I really do wonder if Cyrus would have scored when he got horse collared but it’s hard to say. Where Christine has two speeds which are fast and a little bit faster, Cyrus has about six gears he has to go through to get to top speed and he was going through most of them when he was horse collared. It looked like he was about to hit his full stride and no one had an angle on him but they might have been able to cut him off. Hard to say. Had he scored, the game might have been a win for us but you just never know. I do like that Sherm recognizes Christine brings a little more to the table even though Cyrus is a senior. God just blessed Christine a little more for a between the tackle runner and there’s no shame in that for Cyrus.

Now the bad part – The Receiving Corps. I have no idea what the hell is wrong with this unit other than Swope. I don’t even know where to start but I think I’ll start with Fuller. What the hell is wrong with this guy I have no idea. I really don’t. His routes are less than stellar and he dropped 4-5 passes he has to catch if he wants to be drafted in the first three rounds of the NFL draft. Sherm says he’s hurt and he’s a rep guy but that’s complete BS. Even if you can’t run routes due to an injury you can still work on catching the ball. For great receivers, catching a pass becomes second nature. It really does. The ONLY reason for a great receiver to drop a well thrown ball is because you have self doubt in your mind when it comes your way. THE ONLY REASON. You can get reps catching a ball even if you can’t run. I just don’t understand how he used to be so sure handed but is dropping balls left and right all season. His route running is suspect and his 12 yard comeback route is no longer surprising anyone. DBs are right on his hip even if the ball is there and he catches it. Even catching it though seems like a 50/50 proposition right now. He can’t go deep and he and Swope even got crossed up on a route in the second half. Someone wasn’t disciplined on their route and I’d wager it was Fuller but it obviously could have been Swope. I just don’t get it. If he’s playing through pain then that’s great but is it hurting the team? Is a 60% Fuller better than our other options? I don’t know but something is not right. It’s clear defenses aren’t respecting him as much as they used to as DBs aren’t afraid to stick on his hip.

EZ has looked decent but he’s not a playmaker. There’s not one receiver on this team that can stretch a defense. I don’t know if that’s by design because Tanny is weak with the deep ball or if the talent isn’t there. I mean seriously, if you’re a defensive coach preparing for this receiving corps is there one receiver that you worry about other than Swope? It’s why I don’t get the five wide receiver set. Who stands out in that set other than Swope? As a defensive coach do you really worry about scheming for multiple guys? Hell no. I just run my base coverage whether it be zone or man and let the chips fall where they may. There’s no real receiving threat on this team to scare a safety deep or not do press coverage on the line. We don’t run any draws to cheat LBs and safeties and we run play action very rarely and when we do it’s usually a quick pass to the tight end or someone within 10 yards. The next time we run a play action on second and within 5 for a deep ball will be the first time since I think the SMU game. I just don’t get why we go 5 wide with no back and utilize the element of surprise with our running backs since we don’t have 3 receivers that scare a secondary. Why put 2 more out there and take the threat of your best part of the offense in your running game off the field? Maybe I’m wrong but I’d love to see the completion percentage and average yards of gain on the five wide set. It can’t be good. I’ve only seen it effective against Baylor and it’s becoming more and more apparent that Baylor’s defense might be the worst in the Big 12.

The other thing I haven’t seen this receiving corps do well is block. I think they’re the main reason why we haven’t continually busted long runs or plays this season. Do these guys even block or just run around the field? It seems the five wide set would be perfect for some down field blocking but I don’t think they even do that. Just seems the whole receiving corps is lacking big time in all facets of the game including catching, route running, and downfield blocking. Watch OU’s receivers this weekend. If they’re not catching the ball you can bet your ass they’re engaging a defender until the whistle. I’ve never seen better prepared receivers than OU’s. They’re all talented but they do all facets of the receiving game really well and that’s not just because they’re talented. It’s because they work at it. I really do think this unit has dropped off big time since Cromwell left.

I did think the tight ends looked really good in the first half but we seemed to go away from them in the second half. Why I don’t know but Hicks didn’t see a pass thrown his way in the second half after catching 2 passes for 47 yards with each pass going for more than 22 yards each in the first half. Maybe it wasn’t there in the second half but if it wasn’t surely there was something else there because that means Mizzou adjusted to take that seam route away. My point is that there should RARELY be a situation where we don’t have a running back in the backfield and a tight end lined up outside the tackle. It just seems we’re more productive in that base set than anything else. I get the numbers spreading the field with five guys but you have to trust your offensive line to be better than what this receiving corps is showing right now.

Something I’d like to see more out of this offense is straight runs up the middle. It seems we really focus on the zone blocking looking to stretch out the defense and make the one cut and get up the field. I get the zone blocking scheme but I would think this offensive line is good enough to handle straight drive blocking and zone blocking. It seems the defense begins to anticipate the gaps in the second half and shoots defenders eliminating those gaps when we try and stretch those defenses out as wide as we can.

So what does all this mean? I’m not really sure. We can move the ball when we start with runs but we tend to stall out due to execution errors. When evenly matched teams match up they’re usually won due to special teams and/or turnovers. On Saturday we lost the game due to turnovers by our offense. Some of that is on Sherm and some of that is on the players. Ironically it was the passing game and not the running game that produced those 3 turnovers. Sure, one was on a running back’s suspect blocking but it was a pass none the less.

This offense is good enough to score points on anyone including Bama and LSU (probably not good enough to beat but look better than most teams they play) but Sherm just needs to recognize the weaknesses and adjust accordingly going forward. I also think he needs to save some wrinkles for the second half. And I’m not talking about the pitch to Swope on 3^rd down in overtime. I actually LOVE that play on a 2^nd and short as it could really bust loose but don’t get why Sherm called it at that time. Just seems Sherm gets lost in his playsheet rather than realizing how the plays he calls effect the flow of the game. Where was the reverses that we so effective against Baylor? Start with a 3-5 yard run on first down and then run some play action, reverses, draws, and creative plays on second down. Just doesn’t seem we do that and puts us into a predictable situation on third down. Just too methodical and college football is not about that. It’s about creativity and the element of surprise.

DEFENSE – I won’t go into too much depth on the defense like I did with the offense. Plain and simple the defense played good enough to win. We don’t have enough playmakers on the defensive side of the ball to truly be disruptive so our defense’s main focus is to limit points rather than shut down an offense. That means limiting 3^rd down conversions and converting drives into field goals instead of touchdowns. If I’m DeRuyter I make sure my guys know they have to up their effort on third downs and in the red zone. Sure, it seems like a defeatist attitude not giving 100% on every play but it’s the reality of the situation. Teach those guys to dig deeper in those two scenarios and let them celebrate those achievements.

I will say one thing I was disappointed with DeRuyter was running the second string subs towards the end of the first quarter. Mizzou got a first down on our 42 yard line and there was about a minute left in the quarter. Mizzou had been pretty methodical for most of the 1^st quarter so I don’t think they were going hurry up due to the end of the 1^st quarter. With a minute left DR made one of his wholesale substitutions putting about five to six of his second string DL and LB out there. In all likelihood the defense had two more plays but DR decided to sub. Why sub them when they’re two plays away from a long TV break between quarters. What happened? On the second play Mizzou scored on a 42 yard pass with :02 seconds left on the clock. Now, would the first team have been scored on? It’s very possible but if you’re not watching the clock to know the flow of the game or don’t believe your starters have two more plays in them before a long break there’s something wrong. Shouldn’t someone on the defensive staff be aware of the clock and be in DR’s ear? Did the Mizzou OC adjust knowing the pressure would be less with the second team DL in there? Who knows but it seems suspect to me to make that move at that time.

In the first half, Mizzou passed a lot more than I thought they would. They were doing more of a zone read pass keying on our OLB to the wide side. What they did a lot is put two guys out wide in a bubble screen set with a single back. The Mizzou QB would read our OLB. If the OLB crashed the Mizzou QB would pull the ball back and throw to one of the guys lined up outside. This was their bread and butter play for most of the first half and it worked decently but we did a decent job of defending it. We had great pressure in the first half getting 3 sacks total with two on the first series and almost getting a 4^th by Sean Porter but Franklin got rid of the ball right before his knee hit. Caleb Russell did have his most productive play of the year when he got held pursuing Franklin which turned a touchdown into a 3^rd and 20 at the 21 yard line. The result of the series was 3 points instead of 7 which was a pretty big boost. Way to go Caleb!

What I was surprised by in the first half was that Mizzou didn’t run the ball more and didn’t attack the middle seams like they did last year and like Arkansas exposed in our game earlier this year. They threw down the middle seams but not as much as I thought they would. Looked like 4 times in the first half and 4 times in the second half. Enter the second half. They didn’t attack the middle seams more with the pass but boy did they adjust on the ground. Mizzou adjusted and never ran the same zone read where they keyed our OLB but instead ran a more horizontal read giving the Mizzou QB a little more time to read the defense before making the decision to keep or hand off. This gave the play a little more time to develop since they weren’t passing outside giving both the running back and quarterback more time to see the hole develop. Make no mistake that Franklin is a very good running quarterback and it’s like Mizzou purposefully held that back to spring it on the defense in the second half. Just a simple adjustment.

Don’ believe me? Check this out. In the first half Mizzou ran 19 passing plays and 17 running plays. About as balanced as you can get. Second half? Mizzou ran 27 running plays and 8 passing plays in the second half including overtime. 77% of their plays in the second half were runs while only 47% of their plays in the first half were runs. Now you tell me if they made an adjustment at half. Wondering what Mike Sherman did before and after the half? Good thing you ask. In the first half we ran 24 passing plays to 22 running plays. Pretty much like Mizzou. Second half? 30 pass plays to 28 running plays. That’s right. The team up by 11 at half made NO adjustments in play calling in the second half while the team down by 11 committed WAY more to the run in the second half and won the game. Quite the head scratcher isn’t it? Maybe we don’t have the personnel to defend the run but I think at the same time DeRuyter was clearly not ready for it and got exposed.

Personnel wise we’re about where we’ve always been. No one stood out any differently in a positive or negative light in my mind. They are who we think they are. I think at this point DR should have a really good idea of what each player is capable of and can call games and adjust accordingly. What I was most disappointed with was the lack of wrapping up in this game. We looked really good early in the year wrapping up and gang tackling but against Mizzou there was very little gang tackling and most of that was due to not wrapping up. Gang tackling is not the result of everyone being around the ball but a result of the first defender holding up the offensive player if he can’t take him down so help can arrive. For some reason this defense wasn’t wrapping up on Saturday. I don’t have the stat but I bet there were at least 20 tackles that weren’t made despite contact by the defender on the ball carrier. Not sure if these guys were looking for highlight hits or just not wrapping up. Whatever it was I hope DR gets that corrected this week. Our defense improving begins with the technique of wrapping up.

The defense did have two VERY big stops on 4^th and 1. The first one was a flat out stop where they gave Franklin no room to run but the second stop on 4^th and 1 was a slight gift because a Mizzou player held a defender after the running back had gotten the first down but it goes down in the books as a 4^th down stop so credit to the defense. Your offense HAS to reward those stops. Has to. Those 4^th down stops are as good as turnovers in my book. What did the offense do with both of those stops? Gave the ball back to Mizzou on an interception and Tanny fumble. Poor defense. Just good enough to win but this vaunted offense gave it right back. Still, it’s a team game but that’s just frustrating as a defender.

I will say that second 4^th and 1 attempt by Mizzou was the best 4^th and short play design I’ve ever seen. The Mizzou QB snapped the ball and attempted to go forward. The running back just hung out in the backfield. When the Mizzou QB realized there was nothing there for him he did a quick pitch to the running back who had green grass to run to a first down. It was an awesome play design. Too bad Sherman doesn’t like attempting 4^th and shorts but it’s something I’d look to implement assuming Swope is not in the backfield.

I hate saying one player makes a huge difference but this defense is missing a healthy Coryell Judie. I don’t think he would have made a real difference in the second half because Mizzou ran so much but he could have altered the overtime results. When Mizzou got the ball in OT they ran the ball 4 straight times setting up a 3^rd and 8 from the 11. Their play call on 3^rd and 8 was beautiful. They were on the right hash and had a one back set with a three bunch formation to the right which is the short side of the field. That really doesn’t make much sense until you realize they put their best wide receiver in Marcus Lucas wide left. We left Dustin Harris on an island with no safety or linebacker help inside or up top. Harris lined up 5 yards off and inside of the receiver. Franklin and the receiver read it perfectly knowing it was man on man with the defense giving the wide side. Lucas runs a fade to the left side and Franklin immediately puts the ball up where only Lucas can see it because Harris has turned to run. Lucas adjusts his route to the ball and poor Harris never had a chance to turn and adjust himself. Just a perfectly executed play by t he Mizzou players and a perfect play call to exploit man coverage on 3^rd and 8 where the receiver was not getting disrupted coming off the line. Look, I like Dustin Harris but he’s clearly our 3^rd best cover corner behind Judie and TFred. Does Judie or TFred defend that play? I don’t know but it was pretty clear to me the Mizzou OC exploited our weakness with a perfect playcall.

Hats off to the Mizzou offense as they made a half time adjustment that exploited us throughout the second half and when we clamped down in OT they called the perfect play to exploit us yet again. I’d love to know if the plan all along was to be balanced in the first half and then exploit the run in the second half or if that adjustment to run more was made at half because the balanced attack wasn’t working. Either way, it worked and Mizzou won the game.

Special Teams – I won’t harp on these guys too much but just mention a couple of things. First off, Kyle Mangan had a gorgeous hit on a punt that was timed perfectly. Sadly, that was the only real highlight of the special teams. We didn’t get many punt returns as most of our punt returns were either fair caught or downed because we weren’t in position to catch the ball. Now don’t get me wrong in that I’d rather have a fair catch or downed ball compared to a fumble but it just seems that’s as good as our special teams aspire to be. Malcome Kennedy did have a catch interference on a punt which is just frustrating. The funniest and disappoint thing was on a kickoff by Missouri. We have two guys around the goal line and three guys around the 20 yard line. Well, Mizzou sky kicked to the middle 20. Our guy standing at the middle 20 was the great Spencer Nealy. What does he do? He runs away from the ball forcing the guys in the back to run up 20 yards and pick up the ball off the ground. Now, I don’t expect Nealy to return the ball but I sure as hell don’t expect him to run away from a live ball. One crazy bounce and that’s a Mizzou ball. If the guys you have lined up on the 20 have ZERO confidence in catching the ball then they don’t need to be back there. Worst case is they call for a fair catch and the other two guys on the 20 and the guys on the goal line run up to either protect him or be ready for a loose ball. Whatever you do, don’t run from the ball because it’s live. I just don’t get why Sherm doesn’t appear to really care about special teams execution. I don’t expect him to be Frank Beamer but average is what our special teams execution aspires to be and we can’t even really get there. It’s just disheartening because special teams and turnovers often decide the game for evenly matched teams and we don’t even seem to care about gaining a special teams advantage. The only exception is Randy Bullock who has become flat out nails. Damn shame he didn’t get a shot to win the game at the end of the 4^th quarter before we fumbled that chance away.

WHAT TO DO WITH MIKE SHERMAN – For anyone still reading, my thoughts on Mike Sherman are about what I thought when we hired him. I said he’d stabilize the program to the point we wouldn’t get blown out but we’d go between 8-4 and 10-2 every year. He’s a very solid coach but he’s not a great college coach. He’s too methodical and gets caught up in his playsheet rather than watching what’s going on throughout the whole game. It just doesn’t appear he has a solid grasp on the entire game.

He also doesn’t appear to have a great grasp of the college game. If I hear him mention the NFL one more time I’m going to pull my hair out. For some reason he doesn’t want people to forget that he has NFL experience. I don’t get it. Note to coach – The college game has NOTHING to do with the NFL. It’s great you can put guys in the NFL but that doesn’t really matter if we’re not winning ball games. Winning ball games comes first and putting guys in the NFL comes a VERY distant second if even there. Don’t get the two confused. What goes on in the NFL has NO bearing on what you do as a college coach. You get ZERO credit for losing a game but called a really good NFL game. It doesn’t matter that those bubble screens OSU destroyed us with in the second half won’t work in the NFL because we’re NOT in the NFL. We’re in college. The hashes are wider, the clock stops to set the chain, and the players aren’t motivated by a paycheck and are more motivated by getting lucky after a game. Give them a chance to get lucky week in and week out by winning football games! They’ll thank you for it on and off the field.

Outside of losing out there’s ZERO chance Sherman gets fired so get used to him. I’m torn on the guy because the team is in a much better place than it’s been in the last 10 years but there’s no National Championship on the horizon for Mike Sherman. Even conference or division championships in the SEC with Sherman at the helm will be hard to come by. Greatness is just not him because he’s not a gambler. He’s a VERY good coach but he’s too methodical to step out from his black and white world of Xs and Os and make something out of the ordinary happen. Make fun of Les Miles all you want but he knows you have to have luck to win more than you lose and he continually gives his team a chance to get lucky. I’m talking about on the field luck which coincidentally likely translates into off the field luck for the players.

I read this week that since 1975 only two national championship coaches did not win 10 games by year 4. Those 2 coaches were Bobby Bowden who took over an abysmal FSU program and Lavell Edwards who caught lightening in a bottle with a BYU team in 1984. EVERY other coach who has won a national championship has had a 10 win season by year 4. Many of these guys did it back when 11 game seasons and no conference championships game were the norm. Does that mean Sherman can never win a national championship? Not at all but it’s a pretty clear indicator the great ones continually improve through year 4 and unless Sherm wins out he’s going to at absolute best equal to last year which will be questionable because he’ll either be 8-4 in conference play with a lesser bowl win or 9-3 in conference play with another Cotton Bowl loss at best. Certainly not incremental improvement with what is as a whole a better prepared team for an improved season. Sure, we lost some guys on defense but this whole team should be better than last year especially with our schedule this year. Make no mistake that it appears Mike Sherman spit the bit this season when he had a chance to be better.

If you want more research on what works against Mike Sherman winning a national championship here’s the analysis I did after year 1.

https://rcwouldhavegonefor2.wordpress.com/2008/10/14/a-look-at-the-first-year-of-coaches-that-have-won-a-bcs-championship/

The compelling data in that analysis is those national championship coaches didn’t lose the first game at home against an inferior opponent, they won more than they lost at home, and didn’t get blown out by more than 7 points in most of their games. Sadly, none of that works in Mike Sherman’s favor and as the sample set gets bigger. His 4-8 first season with multiple blowouts including big losses at home is standing out as par for the course of where he’s ascending to.

So do we fire Sherman? All depends on who we’re going to go get. My personal belief is Sherm will follow the Fran plan of being gone after year 5. This season will be seen as a disappointment and we’ll walk into the SEC with no excitement hurting ticket sales. We’ll go 8-4 in our first year in the SEC at best creating a lethargic fan base and we’ll have a new coach going into the 2013 season. It sucks, but it’s pretty clear who we were getting when we hired him and it’s playing out like many predicted. If we fire him we better be damn certain on who his replacement is before we pull the trigger. No firing him and figuring it out. Someone better be in the bag and we better have done our homework.

The one wild card in all of this is Dr. Loftin. I spoke with Dr. Loftin after the Kansas game last year and he was surprisingly candid. That was my fist interaction with him but since then I’ve found him to be very candid which is refreshing. Even after the Kansas beat down last year he told me he had concerns for the football team. He said his biggest concern was Sherman calling all the plays and not having an OC. He feels it’s too much for a head coach to prepare an entire team in general while preparing the offense in such great detail that he’s creating and calling the plays. Loftin told me he actually sat Sherm down before the 2010 season and expressed his concern but Sherm told him he could handle it. Now, will a move to the SEC force Loftin to make the move sooner than later? I don’t know but always thought it was an interesting nugget Loftin was critical of Sherm for trying to be the head coach and the offensive coordinator at the same time. This is the same guy that forcefully pushed us into the SEC so maybe he doesn’t sit on his hands depending on how this thing plays out. I don’t see it happening though. I watched a special on Arkansas this week and even the great Bobby Petrino has an offensive coordinator that prepares the offense during the week despite Petrino being all over the play calling on game day. It can be done. Fortunately for us our foundation should be MUCH more solid for the next coach assuming it’s done in the next two years. At least we’ve got that…

Thoughts from the OSU Game

Respect is something you have to earn and is never given. Like what seems to be the normal operating procedure for Aggie Football for the past 15 years, we had respect sitting right in front of us and failed to take it. For you older Aggies, this feels like traveling to Boulder in 1995. Everything was sitting right in front of us and we let it slip away. Outside of the B12 Championship in 1998 there hasn’t been a defining a moment for Aggie football. Sure, there’s been some big wins but never something that was strung along to gain some respect. Hell, even that B12 Championship game was sandwiched between 2 losses so it kind of feels hollow to a certain degree. For whatever reason the Aggie football program seems to take one step forward and then takes two steps back never stringing together enough games to prove to people we’re more than a fringe national program.

Two steps back is CLEARLY what happened on Saturday and is the most frustrating part. The loss stung no doubt but the nation and most importantly the national talking heads that question us at every turn were watching. This was our chance to show everyone Texas A&M football can compete at the highest level. We let a halftime lead of 17 points slip away. And with that, respect slipped away. I don’t like losing but I hate the questionable nature of how non-Aggies perceive our football program. They have every right to their opinion because for 15+ years we have yet to string together a consistently good string of convincing wins. No doubt what we did in November last year was nothing short of amazing but the three losses earlier in the year still left a question mark over the Aggie football program. The Cotton Bowl loss certainly didn’t remove it. Unfortunately, Saturday’s loss left that question mark squarely in place.

Respect. It stared us in the face on Saturday and we didn’t grab it. There’s lots of blame to go around but I’m going to focus on the coaching. Good coaching does not let a 17 lead at home slip away. They just don’t. It really is that simple. Coach Sherman and staff got their pants pulled down by Mike Gundy and staff. Mike Gundy is the same coach that got his pants pulled down by Coach Fran and Darnell when OSU had a 17 point lead at halftime in 2007 at Kyle Field. That’s right, Coach Franell figured out how to overcome a 17 point deficit by a Mike Gundy lead team while Coach ShermRuyter figured out how to lose a 17 point halftime lead to a Mike Gundy lead team. It’s unreal. Simply unreal.

Let’s get to the game analysis.

OFFENSE – I said it last year but Jerrod Johnson shouldn’t have been the goat in last year’s OSU loss. I thought Sherman took too risky of playcalls in the second half when he should have been more conservative. It’s amazing to me how much of a free pass Sherm got in that gam but he’s obviously not getting that free pass now. There’s some blame to be put on the players as we turned the ball over three realistic times and four in total. I say three realistic because that last interception on the two minute drive was simply a result of the previous three turnovers and play calling. It shouldn’t have ever happened so I’m not counting it although it looks really bad on the stat sheet. If we’re ahead that fourth pick never happens.

From a player standpoint I thought we looked really good in the first half. We moved the ball on the ground, Tanny found his men, and the receivers caught the balls. We had five possessions only stalling on one of them while amassing 20 points and 300 yards. I can’t fault ANYTHING about the first half other than settling for field goals twice when we should have had one more touchdown. Still, that was an impressive effort. Surprisingly, from a time of possession standpoint we only had the ball for one more minute than OSU but we clearly dominated them in points and yardage. OSU only had 3 points and 140 yards in the first half. Time of possession is not always as big of a indicator as you think.

In the second half we lost our way and it can only be blamed on one thing – COACHING. Say what you want about the turnovers but good coaching doesn’t let those things salt away a 17 point lead at home. Based on the write-ups of the post game this is the one game where Sherman doesn’t admit to abandoning the run too early. He said, “In the third quarter we only had the ball 11 plays. We had a couple of penalties that put us in a precarious position. I put two backs in the field I believe at one point. We did try and run the ball.” Uh, Sherm, you had ONE penalty on an illegal chop block by your line. That’s it. On a play that got 3 yards on a first down. You had 12 plays in the 3^rd quarter and had 5 running plays. 11 plays and 4 rushes if you don’t count the penalty play. That actually makes the odds worse from a percentage of running plays. Say what you want, Mike Sherman, but you abandoned the run at a time when you should have been fully committed to it.

Wanna know how I know you abandoned the run? The WORST play call of the entire game happened after Blackmon fumbled the ball through the endzone. We just had two turnovers to go down by 4 points in addition to our first series of the half which resulted in a punt after 5 plays and a single first down. Our offense was struggling with only one first down and two turnovers in three series. We were handed a break where we got the ball back to stay down by 4 rather than down by 11. Aggies in my section said, “We never get breaks like this!” That was a gift from the football gods and what does Mike Sherman respond with? What play call does he make after getting a gift like that on first down? A DEEP BALL TO JEFF FULLER!!!!! A DEEP BALL TO JEFF FULLER!!!! You can’t tell me you didn’t abandon the run when you catch a break after two costly turnovers and a penalty and go deep on the very first play you get the ball back only down by 4. The football gods gave you a serious break and you got cute with it. If I’ve said anything this entire season it’s that Tanny hooking up with Jeff Fuller deep is a VERY low percentage play. So far this season there’s been no indication in a game that Tanny can go deep to Fuller but yet you call it after catching the biggest break you can get in a game. Ironically enough on the next play he gives it to Christine who got 5 yards. Next pass got picked. DON’T TELL ME YOU DIDN’T ABANDON THE RUN MR. HEAD COACH MIKE SHERMAN BECAUSE YOU SURE AS HELL DID AND WE ALL KNOW IT!!!!! (sorry to yell but just needed to get that off my chest.) You CAN NOT call a deep ball after getting that gift and expect to win. You should have been thankful for the break and got back to what worked in the first half but you didn’t. WORST. PLAYCALL. EVER. Go back to the run.

The other thing that Sherman did differently in the first half was he quit using Cedric Ogbuehi as a blocking tight end. Most people probably didn’t realize it but Ced was wearing #46 and was lining up as a blocking tight end. He’s a redshirt freshman tackle/guard that is a complete stud. If you saw him out there he was a huge asset. You essentially had 6 VERY talented blocking linemen and it showed in the stats. We had over 120 yards rushing in the first half and less than 40 in the second half. Blame possessions all you want but plain and simply we went away from what worked in the first half. Why he didn’t put #46 out there more is beyond me. I think sometimes Sherm gets too caught up in his laminated play sheet and doesn’t have a feel for what’s really going on.

In the 4^th quarter OSU really started pressuring us but that’s what happens when it’s obvious passing plays because you’re running 5 wide sets and showing you’re playing from behind. You’re still down by 7 with plenty of time left but you come out and show you’re passing and Tanny gets pressured. 1^st offensive play for us in the 4^th resulted in a hurry and an incompletion and the 2^nd play resulted in a sack. Tanny did complete a great pass to Swope on 3^rd and 15 but we shouldn’t have been in that position. We just came off a quarter where we only had the ball for 4 minutes forcing an obviously tired defense to play 11 minutes that quarter and you’re still ignoring the run. Yes, you’re down by 7 but your defense is gassed and there’s PLENTY of time left to drive down and make a statement while giving the defense a MUCH needed rest while leaning on their defense. DON’T TELL ME YOU DIDN’T ABANDON THE RUN MR. HEAD COACH MIKE SHERMAN BECAUSE YOU SURE AS HELL DID AND WE ALL KNOW IT!!!!! It’s amazing to me even a few minutes into the 4^th we still could have gone back to the run but we didn’t. Tulsa got 354 yards of rushing against this same defense and we get 160 with less than 40 yards in the second half. Unreal.

Offensive Summary – MR. HEAD COACH MIKE SHERMAN ABANDONED THE RUN NO MATTER WHAT HE SAYS AND THAT’S WHY THE FIGHTIN’ TEXAS AGGIES LOST THE GRIDIRON BATTLE!!!!!

DEFENSE – Ironically enough the defense suffered from the same coaching brainfart that the offensive side of the ball suffered from. From a player standpoint I thought we looked pretty good when we were lined up and ready to play. I thought Sean Porter played an amazing game. He was sick during the week but came out and played inspired football. He got gassed in the second half but so did everyone else. I thought our inside linebacking play was actually pretty good. JStew looked decent as did Charlie Thomas when he wasn’t hurt. We held Joseph Randle to 87 yards on 21 carries. That’s actually REALLY impressive. Our secondary didn’t look so good in the second half but we’ll get to why in a second. In the first half the Aggie defense gave up only 170 yards of offense and 3 points. Folks, that’s about as good as it gets for this defense against an offense like OSU.

While the defense got gassed in the 3^rd quarter because they played 11 minutes of football, they did have two solid stands in the 4^th quarter where they stopped OSU on 1^st and goal TWICE and converted them to field goals. Say what you want about the defense but that’s a lot of heart to nut up when you’re gassed and on your heels. They held an offense that had their way with them to field goals TWICE to keep their offense in it. To make matters worse Sherm leaned on this defense one more time electing to kick off rather than onside kick with 2:20 left. What does this defense do? They get a 3 and out to give the offense the ball back with 1:47 left and a timeout. What’s even more amazing is thanks to a Mike Gundy brainfart, TFred could have gotten a Pick 6 to win the game but Brandon Weeden threw the ball too high and missed Blackmon. Yes, it’s entirely possible this defense could have won the game had Weeden been on target. Blame the defense all you want but don’t blame any of the players as they played until the end and gave their offense a chance to win it or tie it while even having an outside chance to win it themselves.

It seems really odd having to write this but the defensive struggles are at the hands of one Tim DeRuyter. He was trying to dial up the perfect scheme on each play in the second half while OSU realized they could press the issue and were running bubble screens to the receivers while our defense was either looking for the playcall or trying to figure out where to go. OSU sped up the tempo and DeRuyter never adjusted. The other thing that OSU did well was pick up our blitzes giving their receivers time to find the soft spots in the zone. I really think when we were lined up we were running blitzes about 50% of the time and not getting through on any of them. We were sending 6 guys getting ZERO pressure leaving 5-6 receivers on 5 DBs. Not a good recipe for success. All in all, Timmy D had no answer for anything OSU did in the second half. No answer.

I’ve never quite understood the theory of giving guys rest by asking them to sprint off the field for a play or two. I get they might get a breather from a couple of explosive plays but asking big DLinemen to run back and forth from the sideline just seems to make it worse. I don’t know that we gained a single advantage by running our defenders in and out. If a guy is calling for a sub then get him one but don’t force a guy to run to the sidelines just to keep him “fresh.” Our inability to get lined up and in position is what cost us this game defensively. I don’t know how those two things can’t be deemed as the contributing factor. When we were lined up and knew the playcall we did really well. I don’t have the time or ability but I’d LOVE for someone to break down how many yards OSU got on plays where we ran in more than 4 guys and weren’t lined up correctly at the snap. I wouldn’t be shocked to see it as 25%-33% of their total yards. We held them to under 130 yards of rushing by their running backs and held Blackmon to 121 yards and one score. That’s actually really solid based on what they’d done coming into the game. Now, Weeden was 47-60 for 438 yards so it wasn’t all good but I can’t help but think most of those completions were because someone was wide open due to not being set or a blitz that didn’t work. I remember thinking Weeden was really off at times but didn’t realize he only missed 13 passes. Maybe it was just more shocking when he missed.

All in all, the defense did a pretty admirable job. If I had asked you before the game that OSU would get 30 points I bet you would have taken it thinking our offense could have outscored them. Yes, it was frustrating watching OSU come back from 17 down and take the lead but don’t lay the blame too much at the feet of the players on the defense. They responded when they had to and I’d wager dollars to donuts that if Sherm had committed to a running game and DeRuyter responded better to OSU’s hurry up offense in the second half we win this game. This defense played three REALLY good quarters of defense against a REALLY good offense with no help from their offense when they needed it most in the third quarter. Yes, they spit the bit in the third quarter but they weren’t getting any help from their offense or defensive coach. The players deserve some of the blame but not the brunt of it.

There is one weakness that I was made aware of after the game. I spoke with a former defensive player that stands on the sidelines during the game. He said there’s no vocal leader on defense right now either on the field or off the field. Interestingly enough he told me the same thing after the Missouri game last year. At that point Von hadn’t quite taken the reigns of the defense. TJE is probably not the guy as he’s a pretty quiet guy that just wants to go about his business. Although he’s only a junior I hope Sean Porter does it as he’s earned it starting all three seasons and has been far and away our most consistent linebacker this season. I think Hunter and Frederick also have the ability but it sounds like someone needs to step up and keep everyone focused. Hopefully it happens.

SPECIAL TEAMS – Not much to say here other than we’ve got to clean up being offsides on a kickoff. Like a receiver jumping offsides there’s NO excuse for it. You’re either behind the kicker or you’re not. Assuming the kicker doesn’t mis-step it’s easy to stay behind him. That offsides almost cost us DEARLY but we got away with it thanks to an OSU penalty on the next kick.

The other special teams blunder I thought was stupid was declining the delay of game penalty in the 4^th quarter when our defense had stopped the OSU offense at the 6 inch line. Yes, the kicker has a slightly tougher kick closer in, but if he’s going to miss a 17 yarder he’s going to likely miss the 22 yarder. A real coach would have put their jumbo set back in and gone for the touchdown all but putting the game away. Maybe the Aggie defense would have stopped them like they did against OU last year but that defense was gassed and we should have not let any question go back into OSU’s mind if they should kick it. I thought we got a little too cute there out thinking the situation when we should have been thankful for the stop and field goal attempt.

Arkansas Game – I haven’t watched a single down of Arkansas football this year so I really have no idea what to expect. I was very high on Arkansas coming into the season but they did get beat down by Alabama on Saturday in a bad way. They started out putting up 50 points on Missouri State and New Mexico but then only beat Troy 38-28. Those first two teams suck really bad. So bad that New Mexico just fired their coach and they don’t expect a whole lot. This team looks beatable but they’re still a very solid team. One of their starting defensive ends is out for the season and their other stud defensive end might still be out as well. That can only help if Sherman wants to run the ball. Maybe it’s my maroon colored glasses but I think this Aggie team wins on Saturday. We lost the game on Saturday mainly due to coaching. The players had some brain farts so those are pretty easy to clean up for the most part. Paint me a homer but I’m going Fightin’ Texas Aggies 24, Razorbacks 17.

BTHO Arkansas!

Thoughts from the Idaho Game

Although the score wasn’t as wide as we all would have hoped, there are a lot of positives to take from Saturday’s game. Well, that’s assuming you didn’t wager too much on the Aggies covering. I tend to say I don’t care about statistics and only care about the score. That’s generally true but we dominated Idaho more than the score indicates. The offense moved up and down the field for the most part but stalled out a couple of times resulting in field goals instead of touchdowns. Defensively we held them scoreless until late in the game. Score doesn’t show it but we were really solid. Still, you wish the offense didn’t stall out but it happens.

Just so you know I left early in the 4^th quarter to head to the tailgate and catch the OU/FSU game since our game was in hand and Tanny was out. Call me a two percenter but I’d tend to blame the shakes of no cold beer than not being a true Aggie. As fate would have it I watched the FSN replay at lunch today while I took down a queso covered steak burrito at Chuy’s. I was able to fill in what I didn’t see in person for the most part but you have no idea how much I’m fighting through a nap right now. Really fighting it.

OFFENSE – Had we not stalled out a few times this would have been as dominant as a performance as SMU. There was at least 8 points left on the field due to offense stalls if not more. As it stands I didn’t see any new wrinkles and Idaho was certainly selling out the run which factored into quite a few plays. They tended to fill the holes that are normally there and forced us to stretch our runs out further down the line of scrimmage giving their guys more time to flow and stop the run. We still looked really good running the ball but Idaho got lots of guys to the line of scrimmage most of the game to slow us down. I kept waiting for us to break one with so many guys selling out but we never hit it. Despite the selling out we still gained yards on the ground but smartly Sherman went to the air a little more often than I bet he thought he would. Now, should we be worried we couldn’t line up and smash Idaho in the mouth? A little bit but I have to imagine Sherm will have more wrinkles later in the season for teams that want to try this approach.

I don’t remember a lot of play action which is what you normally do when a team is run blitzing like crazy. You also fake a reverse or even try it. I think Sherm was committed to the run to get some more film for assignment teaching. There were four times in the 1^st half (maybe one early in the 3^rd quarter) where we lined up in a tight bunch formation to the wide side. Of those four times, we ran a sweep to the wide side. It was pretty obvious it was coming and we got a few yards but never busted it. Idaho recognized it and sold out stretching it out for a minimal gain. What I noticed the times we did was that our pulling tackle and tight end/fullback weren’t clean on who they were blocking. There were a lot of white jerseys and our guys looked a little hesitant on who to block because there were so many. Hopefully Sherm just wanted some film to teach more assignments and recognition. I wonder what it would look like if Idaho hadn’t sold out but at the same time you use that tendency to set something up later on in a real game. I’m fine just trying to maul Idaho throughout even if we weren’t successful due to numbers.

Tanny looked really solid. Not as good as SMU but he looked really solid none the less. He missed some passes early in the second half but for most of the first half he made quick reads and let the ball fly. His pocket presence is still very strong but there were a couple of times he held the ball a bit too long in the pocket and almost got sacked. If anything that’s a good thing to remind him to not get too comfortable standing around. It’s only natural to push it against a team like Idaho after getting comfortable against SMU.

Something else I saw Tanny do which made me smile was out throwing his receiver on deep balls. He threw two deep balls to Fuller and one Fuller jumped out to catch and the second time it was too far. On a deep ball you want to throw it too deep rather than too short so only your receiver can go get it. If you’re going to go deep and underthrow it you might as well punt as the DB is usually in position to catch an underthrown ball. Now, the second one appeared to re-aggravate Fuller’s hamstring so maybe that wasn’t a good thing but still, I’ve wondered if Tanny could out throw Fuller and he finally showed it on Saturday. It’s great to have that on film as it’s a reminder to defensive coordinators that you leave Fuller on an island and Tanny can find him and get it out there. Tanny came out late in the third quarter so I’m guessing Sherm thought there was nothing more for Tanny to gain by taking snaps but he looked fine in the time he was in there.

Our receivers looked fine for the most part. There was one egregious drop that I remember but most of the missed passes were on Tanny not putting it where it needs to be. There’s not much more to say about the receivers as it was just another normal day at the office. The tight ends looked pretty good and have turned into a very good safety valve for when Tanny rolls out. Tanny does a real nice job of looking downfield to use the tight end as a secondary receiver when there’s nothing else downfield.

Same thing with the offensive line. They had a lot of numbers to deal with as Idaho constantly brought people attacking the line of scrimmage and they handled it well. They did fine on pass protection with only one breakdown where Tanny avoided a sure sack and there might have been another breakdown as well. Only one holding call that I remember and no false starts that I remember so that’s always a positive.

All in all you would like to have seen drives not stall out and see Tanny be a little better on completions. 67% is certainly not bad but the way this offense is built and considering the opponent you would like to see a percentage closer to what Tanny had against SMU where he was 80%. You’ll take 67% against B12 opponents but it was Idaho so there was certainly room for improvement. Let’s hope Sherm starts adding more wrinkles as we get into the meat of the schedule so this offense looks a little more complex and confuses defenses.

DEFENSE – Trying to analyze the defense is really tough. We looked really solid but the stats outside of total yards don’t really bear it out. We had no turnovers and only 3 sacks with two by corners on corner blitzes. Time of possession is almost equal which is strange considering how dominant our offense was and how many 3 and outs our defense got in the first half. I know they cranked up some TOP in the 4^th quarter but at half it was split. I remember seeing that stat at half and thinking it was weird because we moved the ball with no big plays. So, in the interest of evaluating our defense I’m throwing out the stats and the 4^th quarter as a whole. Sometimes you just have to go with what your eyeballs saw and not worry about the numbers backing it up. Also, it looked like we actually would have stopped Idaho from scoring had it not been for a penalty on a 3^rd down where we stopped them near the goal line. I was in a queso induced haze so I’m not positive that’s what I saw.

I thought our defensive line looked REALLY good again. Not dominant but they created push all night long. Sure, they were going against a lesser opponent but it’s still good to see our 3 man front occupying and moving the blockers of the other team. I thought we had more sacks but my guess the QB was scrambling for a 1-2 yard gain which isn’t technically a sack but might as well be. All in all this unit did what I expect them to do much of the season which is engage and push around the offensive line being disruptive but not dominant. One person I’d like to make note of is Ben “Straight Outta” Compton. This was his first game at NT as a true freshman and he looked pretty good. Not dominant but he held his own. Really reminded me of a bigger Lucas Patterson in that he’s not the biggest guy out there but you can tell his he has solid technique so with more time he only gets better. Let’s hope so as having 3 fresh NTs will prove very beneficial to this defense since it’s a focal point.

Now, our linebackers. Go get a cup of coffee as this might take a while. First off, I’m just going to say the person I called out last week failed to impress again. I thought Damontre Moore would have gotten more snaps but Russell got the majority of the snaps and just failed to do anything. Not sure if Moore is still in the doghouse, not in shape, or what is going on but from what Russell has shown this season and what Moore showed last year it’s time for Moore to get the majority of the snaps. I don’t get why he didn’t play more in this game unless it was a matter of giving Russell every chance to maintain the starting position since he hasn’t played there as much as Moore. If Moore is not starting this Saturday I’m going to be VERY concerned. Russell is a great story but he can be taken care of by a single man. You don’t need to chip him, you don’t need to line a tight end up to help on him, and you don’t need to keep a back in the backfield to look for him. I don’t expect anyone to fully replace Von but would like to see someone that the offense has to at least think about or our guy can dominate the single person assigned to them. Russell just doesn’t have that so let Damontre go. This is just really looking to shape up to be a Mike Goodson situation where it’s CLEAR who the better player is but Sherm wants to reward the guy who practices better or goes to every class or something else other than the performance when there’s a real live game being played. I can’t help but think something is at play when watching Russell not really do anything and know the potential Moore has. Maybe lack of PT is the only thing Moore responds to but whatever it is it needs to get straightened out pretty quick. Maybe Von needs to call Moore. I don’t know but after two games it’s clear Moore should be starting and seeing the majority of the snaps at the Joker position. I think we would even be better served getting Brandon Alexander more snaps as he looked good at times on Saturday night. On the other side Porter looks really good so need to waste a lot of words on him as he is who he is. He just needs to be TJE’s little buddy on the outside cleaning up what TJE disrupts. Symbiosis at its finest. Not a knock on Porter at all because he’s really solid but no doubt he benefits due to the attention TJE is going to get.

Inside linebacker. Still unsure what we have here. We did look better against Idaho but no one is standing out and a multitude of guys are coming in and out so it’s hard to really judge. At Monday’s presser, Coach Sherman and DeRuyter mentioned Shaun Ward would move inside. Based on his size I think this is a fine move but it also confirms what I’m seeing where there’s lots of room for improvement. Now, to be fair we’re not blowing assignments left and right like we did before DeRuyter got here but no one is making plays left and right. However, in a 3-4 your ILBs have to make plays inside. You basically sacrifice your 3 defensive linemen to free up your 2 ILBs to make plays. We’re clearly not doing that. Garrick is the most consistent in my mind but it’s clear he’s missing Hodges. I think Garrick should be getting the majority of the snaps and looking to figure out who to complement him with.

Of those left, Jonathan Stewart looks to be the most consistent but he’s not disruptive by any stretch. He’s around the ball and helping with tackles so he’s not horrible but you’d like to see someone ready to crack heads inside. Donnie Baggs is very hesitant but he’s a true freshman. He has decent measurables but he’s just young. Steven Jenkins passes the eyeball test and when he’s not hesitant you can see he could be the answer. However, he still plays hesitant. So, Stewart is our most consistent followed by Jenkins and then Baggs in my mind. I’m almost of the mindset of getting Jenkins more snaps to see if he can learn the system on the fly because I think he offers the most potential right now. Maybe you just keep rotating these guys hoping one finally clicks like Hodges last year. It’ll be interesting to see what they do with Ward at ILB but it’s clear that there’s concern inside if they’re moving Ward. To be fair though the ILBs aren’t terrible by any stretch but you just hope to improve and solidify the guys that you have. We’ve had ILBs in the past that would make the guys we have now look all conference. So, these guys should get credit for being better than we’ve had in the past but we still have a ways to go to be dominant.

I would hope at some point we have a starting four of Moore, Williams, Jenkins, and Porter for our four linebacking spots. Based on what I’ve seen they offer the most promise right now. Hopefully with increased snaps they all just kind of gel together but in the little time we’ve been looking for Von and Hodges replacements they offer the most promise. We’ll still be susceptible to runs up the middle but should defend them better if Jenkins can develop.

In the secondary it’s similar to the DLine. The Idaho QB didn’t make any long passes and tended to dump off quite a bit. He didn’t get many of his yards until 4^th quarter garbage time. We didn’t look to have any busted coverage so it seems like some things were cleaned up from the SMU game but its clear Idaho isn’t even close to being the passing team that SMU was. Howard Matthews did look pretty good in the brief snaps he got. Campbell and Hunter are clearly our starting safeties but it’s nice to see there could be some talent waiting in the wings. All in all the secondary was pretty solid but not dominant and I’ll take pretty solid all day long. They just didn’t have a lot of opportunity to be dominant.

The one wrinkle I saw our defense do this game I haven’t seen in quite some time is make pre-snap shifts along the defensive line and have our ILBs show blitz in the gaps and then back off at the snap. They did this a lot in the 1^st quarter and then tapered it off for the rest of the game. Some of it had to do with Idaho making an audible after our shift so maybe that factored into it more than anything. I’m hoping this is a pre-cursor to messing with OkSU’s offense as they like to make their playcall based on what the defense shows. I don’t know why more defenses don’t adjust and show fake looks but would like to see it tried against OkSU. Surely with enough film study you can identify what types of plays OSU tends to run based on pre-snap looks. We shall see.

SPECIAL TEAMS – Bullock got a few more tries than I would have liked but he hit on all but one so that’s good to see. He was 3-4 on tries and 2-3 in the 40 yard range. That’s an improvement on being 1-10 from 20 yards which seems like we used to be. Return game was fine as Judie had a nice kick-off return and no one dropped a punt from what I remember. Punting was a head scratcher as Epperson hit a 40 yarder which is about as good as it gets with him. Kaser shanked one for 23 yards on his first attempt and then boomed one 68 yards for a touchback according to the stats as I was tailgating by the time he booted that one. I have to think Kaser gets the majority of snaps at punter if he can in fact boom them 68 yards even if it was slightly wind aided.

Oklahoma State Look Ahead – Up until watching OSU play Arizona and watching us play Idaho I felt REALLY good about our chances against OSU. I still feel confident but not nearly as much as I did coming into the season. This is gonna sound cliché but I think the team that wins either has the ball last or turns it over the least. This just looks like two evenly matched teams that can move the ball with suspect defenses. I will say I think our defense appears better just because we have DeRuyter who has proven to make chicken salad out of chicken sheet.

OSU is going to get points and I wouldn’t be shocked to see a 45-38 game going either way. The other factor will be the defense that trades touchdowns for field goals. If I’m Sherman I tell DeRuyter to keep it basic and to keep OSU in front unless he knows for sure he can get a blitz to work. I also tell him I don’t give a damn about any stat other than the score where he has to keep A&M within 7 points for most of the game unless the A&M offense is just clicking and he can dial up the pressure to see if he can put a foot on the throat of the OSU offense.

My main reason for feeling different about this game is that OSU has a legit ground game. I really thought they’d be one dimensional with the loss of Kendall Hunter but they’ve shown they really have the ability to run the ball and are very balanced. This brings our weakness at ILB into play and I think OSU looks to exploit it and will likely be able to because they have a VERY good offensive line and solid backs. If I hadn’t seen the running game against Arizona and Tulsa I’d feel much better about this game. Sure, our defense should be better than those two defenses but we’re still a borderline Top 50 defense at best.

Offensively coming into the season I expected Sherm to lean on the OSU defense with the run but after the first two games I’m not sure that’s the answer. After seeing Idaho sell out to the run I think we need to keep a balanced 50/50 approach with lots of play actions and roll outs to keep OSU from firing LBs and DBs straight up the field. We need OSU to worry about defending a 20 yard box rather than just the line of scrimmage. I know Sherm likes to be wrinkle free but I’d be fine seeing Cyrus attempt a tailback pass on one of those bunch formation sweeps. Not get too cute but let the OSU DC know it’s there. Also set up a reverse out of the formation with the power sweep if you see OSU selling out like Idaho did.

It’s going to be a close game but it’s at Kyle and we’ve played OSU close in the last two years so I think this is the year Sherm finally gets over on Mike Gundy. However, make no mistake this is about as evenly matched teams as you get. Two head coaches with heavy influence on their offense and two DCs with proven track records. Star players at the skill positions on offense with solid offensive lines and just enough playmakers on defense to make them competitive. Might as well be mirrors on the field instead of players. Kyle Field will be rocking and I think that makes the difference. Aggies 41, Cowboys 35.

BTHOOSU!

Thoughts from SMU

Before I get into what I saw on Sunday between SMU and A&M, a quick note on how I do this for the first timers. I’m no expert but I watch enough football to know the general feel of the game along with strength and weaknesses. I don’t take notes during the game and I dont watch DVRd or replays of the game. I might see highlights but that’s about it. I go completely from memory so that’s why I say I’m not an expert by any stretch. Also, my BAC fluctuates between games and affects my memory so some games I remember more and some games I remember less. It all depends on the pre-game tailgate!

Overall, the further I get away from the game, I feel MUCH better. During the game I kept trying to figure out how good SMU was. They looked like a La. Tech or SFA during the game but they’re MUCH better than that. This is a very good C-USA team and a C-USA in Houston beat UCLA on Saturday. Maybe SMU misses a bowl game this year but there’s a strong chance they make one and maybe even win the C-USA so this is a very good team. SMU’s offensive line has the most starts of any OLine in the country and their John Riggins look alike ran for over 1,000 yards last year. He’s actually a really good college RB because he’s strong and has really agile and quick feet.

Defensively they’re not as strong as their offense but they’re not terrible. We’ll definitely be tested more on defense but this was a decent test. They had some decent size on their line so it wasn’t like we just had a raw size advantage up front and just mauled them with no technique or ability. They also did a decent job of tackling and flowing to the ball so they put in a solid defensive effort in my mind. Overall this was a very good win and very good effort by the Aggies. I was concerned this was going to be a trap game because June Jones is a good coach and SMU has some talent and wouldn’t roll over like a typical road patsy. 46-14 is a great showing in your first game against a decent opponent. This could be a very good Aggie football team. It already is but they have to actually continue to do it on the field. That’s the only thing that really matters.

OFFENSE – The offense was the hardest thing for me to analyze. The reason I say that is because we were about as perfect as you get for a college offense. No, we didn’t put up 60 points and break big play after big play but this offense is not built that way. What we saw on Sunday night is EXACTLY how this is offense is built. No huge runs or passes but plays that chew up positive yards on every down and sustain drives. Looking at it during the game it’s kind of ho hum but looking back it was DAMN devastating. Now, SMU is not a dominate defense by any stretch but they’re a decent test in the first game and the Aggie offense scored a 98 out of 100 in my mind.

QB – Ryan Tannehill didn’t pitch a perfect game but he did throw at minimum a complete game shutout if not a no hitter. I’d have to watch film to see if it was a no hitter. He ran the offense to perfection. He made all the right decisions and trusted his receivers and OLine. He wasn’t perfect passing but at the same time he made some pretty damn good passes and was almost perfect. No QB ever is perfect. He threw Swope a couple balls across the middle that only Swope could catch. His TD pass to Priloeau was one of the prettiest balls you can make it. He hit Priloeau in stride while having to clear a couple underneath defenders while dropping it perfectly into Priloeau’s hands. Just a perfect pass. He looked great rolling out and finding the open guys as well. I still contend in college there’s nothing more dangerous than a roll out QB that can make solid throws. Tanny looks great doing this.

The two things that stood out to me most were his decision making. He either made a quick decision or showed some patience waiting for guys to get open. The thing that impressed me the most was his trust of the pocket. He stood in there fearlessly and showed very good awareness of when it was breaking down to get rid of the ball. He didn’t tuck too early or hold the ball too long. Most of that is on the OLine for giving him time but it’s awesome to see Tanny has a solid pocket presence. The reason Tanny didn’t pitch a perfect game is because he missed EZ on a quick post route where he was wide screaming open for a sure TD but Tanny went outside and short to Swope who was also open. That’s just Tanny though. He’s gonna lay up for the sure thing rather than go for broke. Good news is he’ll let it fly rather than tuck and run which is important for a QB because unless you’re Vince Young, tucking and running isn’t the best option.

RB – From a running back standpoint all I can say is enjoy it while we can. If we don’t have the best 1-2 punch of RBs in the country I’d like to see that team. Outside of Gray’s fumble that Fuller caught and Michael’s substitution error you couldn’t ask for much more. The other mistake was on the goal line in the 3rd quarter when Cyrus waited on the D lineman rather than go out to chop him and the Dlineman batted the ball down on 3rd down so we had to settle for a field goal. That’s nit picky though as that’s tough on a RB to go out and meet a guy he’s giving up 100 pounds to.

While the RBs didn’t bust off any long TD runs what they did is get positive yards on virtually every carry. What you notice about our RBs is patience on the hole and every step they take is forward once it develops. There were only a couple of runs where they were forced to go down the line but even then stayed parallel to the line and always looking to cut up field rather than try and burn the corner which is tough to do. Cyrus picked up right where he left off and most importantly Christine looked to have learned from Cyrus’ playing time when he got hurt. Christine appeared more patient looking for the hole. At times in the past he’s looked like a dog that just got let off the leash running into the back of the line as fast as possible. Sunday night he looked like a guy that fully understands how to run behind our zone blocking scheme. The other thing that looked different in Christine is that he used fewer spin moves and when he did he was spinning forward and not to the side. Once again, always looking for positive yards with every step. Let’s just hope I get to write a ho hum report of our backs every game because these guys are that good.

WR – Not many big pass plays other than the TD pass to Priloeau. LOTS of possession routes and most importantly lots of catches. It was really only Swope and Fuller that got any action. Saw Fuller go down the field maybe twice and Swope worked outside and underneath all night. Fuller ran a lot of stop routes in the 6-12 yard range along with catching a couple of quick outside passes. We averaged 11 yards per reception with the longest being 32 yards on the Priloeau catch. Not a lot to say about these guys as they weren’t necessarily game breakers but they appeared to be on the same page with Tanny all night long. Its clear Swope and Fuller are the main targets which is just fine. Don’t expect big yards out of these guys all season as that’s not how Sherm rolls with Tanny at QB but we should continue to see more possession routes and catches to sustain drives. Fuller and Swope look perfect for what Sherman wants to do.

OL – In my pre-season piece I talked about the quality of the offensive line and these guys did not disappoint. I’m sure there was once or twice when someone got through to apply pressure too soon but there were ZERO sacks and that’s all you can ask for from an offensive line. Sure, some is on Tanny but the OLine worked well with their QB all night so that’s solid. Most importantly I only remember one holding call on Pat Lewis I believe. I don’t remember any false starts on the OLine either which is VERY impressive in the first game. I think there was one false start on one of the receivers but not the line. That’s pretty damn good for their first game. Let’s hope it holds. From a blocking standpoint they created seams for the RBs to squeeze through all night long and created solid pockets for Tanny to throw out of all night long. Easier said than done but they did it well.

Now, I’m not sure how good the SMU defense is but I think their defense is pretty decent but not great so it was a really good effort. The other thing that impressed me is the athleticism of our tackles. A couple of times we ran Joeckel and Matthews on the same side and these guys move REALLY well for their size. Simply amazing what two likely NFL first rounders will do for an offense. Pat Lewis looks perfect at center and Shep Klinke is a big ol’ boy. This is a real beefy line with some real athleticism so it’s going to be fun to watch this crew. I can’t help but think this offensive line is just going to get better all season and we’re in for a real treat. It all starts with the big uglies in the trenches and we look like we have some solid guys for us.

DEFENSE – Point wise we did tremendous. This is a pretty damn good offense and we gave up 14 points through mainly 4 quarters of football. We got one gifted interception and another off a tip on a great play by TFred. Remember, their OLine has more starts than any other OLine in the country. Sure, they might not be the most talented but they’ve got some talent and have worked together for a long time. That’s usually the sign of a decent OLine. Their running back is also pretty sneaky good. He’s not nearly as plodding as he looks as he adjusts really well to a hole and didn’t just run straight ahead. Oh, let’s compare him to another big white running back with the recent Toby Gerhardt. Very similar as his feet were just outstanding.

Something I noticed that our best defensive plays were from our base defense. DeRuyter channeled his inner Carl Torbush and got exotic from time to time. That long run for SMU in the first quarter that almost resulted in a TD (turned over by replay) was done against a two man front. It was 3^rd and 8 but we ran a two man front. When I saw the front I immediately turned to the guy next to me and said we’ve only got a two man front. I’m assuming SMU noticed it to and likely audibled into that running play that was easy to execute because they pulled a couple OLineman and just clobbered our LBs and DBs. I don’t recall seeing that front again the rest of the game. We had some zone breakdowns but SMU ran a lot of crossing routes which are designed to confuse zones or lose man coverage because people get picked and confused. I would put some of that on our defense but give some credit to SMU because they executed those crossing routes REALLY well at times. At times though we were able to keep coverage which is what you want in your first game. There are a couple areas of weakness on this defense which I’ll get to in a bit but they did their job in only giving up 14 points. I’ll take that.

D LINE – I thought these guys did a tremendous job all night long. They tied up a decent offensive line all night long and applied pressure at key points in the game. Out of 8 sacks the DLine got credit for 6.5. That’s impressive for a 3 man front but not necessarily good for our defense which I’ll get to in a bit. TJE was about as dominant as we’ve seen from a 3-4 lineman in quite some time. Dude was just a destructive force all night long. I have no reason to think it won’t last all season. Jonathan Mathis didn’t do much but he looked to be getting double teamed most of the night. Eddie Brown got decent push and even the subs on the DLine looked really solid. In a 3 man front you don’t expect a lot of domination but based on Sunday night this group looks really solid with a real playmaker in TJE.

LINEBACKER – All off season we questioned what the loss of Von Miller and Mike Hodges would do to the linebacking corps. Well, if Sunday night is any indicator the initial prognosis is not good at all. We were without Domantrae Moore so I’m hoping his return greatly helps us. I’m also wondering if it’s time to break in more of these freshmen to immediate playing time. I just didn’t see anything great out of the LB crew on Sunday night but they ran pretty much everyone out there. I’m guessing to get film so maybe they settle on a couple guys on the inside after this game and get them experience and more coaching.

I really don’t like calling individuals out but I’ll do it if it’s warranted. Cayleb Russell had a less than stellar game based on all the off season reports. Dude might be one of the best athletes on the defense but if you’re lost assignment wise or have no technique it does you no good. This guy seemed lost all night long. He was handled single handedly all night long on the edge. He has two moves of getting around the edge or power rush. Problem is he doesn’t have Von’s explosiveness or his ability to cut back inside to fool the blocker. He also doesn’t have Moore’s football strength and technique to overpower a blocker. Plus, there were a couple of times where he was running free on the backside and just missed the RB because he didn’t know how to close. I watched him quite a bit because the off season reports had him as a suitable replacement for Von. You don’t expect anyone to be Von but even 70% wouldn’t be bad. I hate calling him out but what I saw on Sunday night wasn’t even maybe 50%. He’s still learning to play defense I know but it’s his senior year and if he’s going to start he needs to learn some things quickly. I honestly think Moore comes back with a clear head and assumes that spot very quickly. I think Sherm was just trying to teach Moore a lesson and give Russell a chance. Lessons learned so let’s move on.

Sean Porter is probably our best linebacker right now and while he’s very solid he’s not spectacular. His problem is we got spoiled by Von on the outside last year so everyone has to measure up to Von. It’s not fair but if we’re going to be great these guys have to get near Von level. I do like the combo of TJE and Porter on the same side as it’s clear it’ll be the most disruptive side of the line. That will be a huge boost to DeRuyter to know that side of the line can handle more and offenses might run away from it.

I have no idea what to think on the inside. No one stood out at all. They ran guys out there all night so maybe no one got comfortable with calls and keys but no one separated themselves in the middle. I think it’s clear Garrick is one of the best two so he might as well start getting reps and find out quickly who is going to stand next to him manning the middle. ILB is clear to me the weakest part of the defense and it’s going to allow teams to gash runs much like what SMU did on Sunday night. Good news is that we’re in a pass happy league but if someone will commit to running up the middle on us they can find success. Someone needs to tell Dalton Santos we’re going to the SEC and show him this film as he might be able to start as a true freshman next year if he’ll change his commitment from Tennessee to the Aggies. Let’s just hope Dat and DeRuyter find their Michael Hodges quickly. I know I just bagged on him but I wouldn’t be hesitant to move Russell inside if he can follow ILB assignments that are willing to attack the line and free Williams to make tackles based on reads. It wouldn’t hurt based on what I saw our ILBs do on Sunday night. Russell is athletic but there’s a lot more read and reacting on the outside than just being a down field ILB taking on OLineman all night long and it might suit Russell better.

DBs – While there were a few brain farts in zone coverage due to crossing routes I thought this unit did a pretty decent job as a whole. Coryell Judie is by far our best cover corner. SMU didn’t allow it very much because they didn’t run many routes straight up the field but when they did Judie stuck with them very well. He should come in handy against some of the better WRs in the B12. Terrance Frederick also had a solid game basically as the slot corner. He did blitz a lot and did decent but SMU was also really responsive to his blitz hitting the quick outside passes because our safeties and LBs were late to cover his man. I would have to look at the film but it seemed like a lot of their big pass plays came off a TFred blitz so that might be a big factor as to why they got yards due to our LBs and safeties being slow/confused on who to cover. If so, let’s hope DeRuyter can get that cleaned up. Dustin Harris looked solid at corner but they didn’t really test him deep that much and kept everything short for the most part. Each of our safeties got an interception with one being a gift and the other being a tipped ball but you’ll take them because at least they were paying attention to the ball. I thought both safeties did pretty well but not spectacular. I still worry about Trent Hunter as a cover guy but Campbell is a physical beast that if he can stay healthy will help Hunter out. Hunter is just so heady that we probably don’t have a better safety than him right now so I’m fine with him being out there.

Overall, looking back this was about the effort we can expect week to week. Great DLine play although there’s only three of them, solid DB play, and questionable LB play. I would say along the DLine we’re much better than last season and DB wise a little better. If Moore can be 60% of Von and DeRuyter can find someone to be 80% of Hodges then this could be a really solid defense. Not a lights out Wrecking Crew defense but easily Top 40 and maybe even Top 30. Finding Hodges replacement worries me more than any other position on the field and it’s going to be our Achilles heel for good teams if we don’t find it.

SPECIAL TEAMS – This is really hard to judge as we had two extra points blocked due to terrible blocking. I heard recently that guy has blocked 16 kicks in his career so he sounds like he’s got some good technique but a good special teams coach identifies that strength and prepares for it. We obviously weren’t. You hope that can get cleaned up and it should. Bullock did make his two field goal attempts which is good to see and looked fine kicking off. I think we had two punts which looked better than last year so you’ll take that. Kick return was decent but we only had three chances which is what you like to see. There was nothing impressive on punt return other than a muffed fair catch that we luckily were able to jump on. Punt return for this team just makes me nervous as hell. I don’t know if our guys get nervous but put someone back there that will catch the ball above everything else.

SUMMARY – Very good first game by the Aggies. They have a few things they need to clean up coverage wise and need to find someone to play opposite Garrick Williams inside but we’ve had much worse opening games. As evident by some team’s first game against a “lesser” opponent, a win is not always a given but we took it to SMU. Defensively as fans we have to pay attention to the score and not plays given up or yards amassed against us. The other thing about our defense that I didn’t mention is we seemed to adjust in the second half. That’s just a sign of good coaching and DeRuyter has proven he can distill the first half pretty quickly and make second half adjustments. Offensively you can’t ask for much better but we’ll definitely play better defenses. Based on this game there’s a lot of good things to look forward to for the 2011Fightin’ Texas Aggie football season. Let’s just hope this is not a blip and a solid indicator.

As for the next game against the Vandals of Idaho I fully expect a bigger pounding with Cyrus and Christine busting off some long runs along with Fuller getting him a long TD. I’m going to call 56-10.

And Baylor and their lawsuit threat can pound sand for all I care.

R.C. Would Have Gone For 2

Aggie Football and More