Comments on: Texas Football: The Rice Post-Mortem

By: Devil's River

Devil's River — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 04:24:00 +0000

Did we ever learn how to defend against a half back pass? If not K. St. wins again.

By: Scipio Tex

Scipio Tex — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 20:10:52 +0000

Bench:

The ultimate answer is: it’s Mack Brown’s football team. He’s responsible for challenging his employees thinking and habits. At the end of the day, the buck always stops there. Mack was pretty instrumental in pushing Davis to adopt Vince’s high school offense, and in cutting our losses with Reese and Chizik, so he can certainly be a force for positive change within his own staff. Though I believe Chizik would contend that he tried to play young LBs and was thwarted by Mack’s devotion to family atmosphere.

bad boy:

I can agree with your assessment on the DBs only if you can acknowledge that you seriously raise the likelihood in the near term of flat out blowing coverages to give opponents easy TDs. The older guys may not make the play physically, but they’ll be where they’re supposed to. My primary goal in bringing up the DBs and contrasting them to LB is that their situation is not as clear cut and I’m actually sympathetic to the defensive coaches in this area.

UTexas:

When you give my observations your seal of approval, then I know I’m generally onto something. Your comments are always appreciated and valued.

By: bad bob

bad bob — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 18:35:55 +0000

a huge AMEN!! on the LB situation…

as for the DBs, I still lean toward playing more and more of the young ones. True, at this point, they’re not better, and I’m sure they’ll make huge mistakes (well, exactly the kinds of mistakes they made against Rice…). But I also can’t help thinking they will make some big plays that Foster wouldn’t. On the whole, even if they break even with the current starters, it’s a plus, since they will almost definitely become better as they go along. The seniors are just not going to get any better…

By: Bench the Starting LBs

Bench the Starting LBs — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 12:36:20 +0000

What do you think about the belief that Mack restricts GD’s playcalling and is the source of the puckered wrinkled penny offense?

Does anyone believe that Akina and Mac Duff (a guy in his first year with no allegiance to the older LBs) don’t want to play the young LBs?

Do the bizarre decisions come from Mack or staff?

By: UTexasfootball

UTexasfootball — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 04:39:51 +0000

Scipio—great job. Hix is rapidly becoming the kind of OT we are hunting—he graded very high. Huey is a mauler that plays like a clumsy Blalock. Kindle was very impressive as a playmaker and if the DC stunts him from asshole to appetite he will be the difference maker that he was recruited to be. Norton is the most physical LB we’ve had in “Mack time” and actually has LB instincts. Muckelroy is the best overall LB on this football team and would be a producer at any of the three LB spots. We have eight DL’s playing the game at a very high level—our defensive personality definitely changes when we go young at LB. Agree with the DB thoughts but think we must mix the talented in enough to see if the cream will rise to the top. Once again—Thankee for the thoughts.

By: Scipio Tex

Scipio Tex — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 02:37:03 +0000

Earp: Thanks for the correction. Silly brain fart, made more amusing by the fact that a friend and I had just had a conversation about Oscar Giles doing a nice job developing the DE position. Early onset senility?

By: Squirrel

Squirrel — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 01:43:56 +0000

“we want more John Chiles and Vondrell McGee”

Amen, brutha. Instant chub!

By: Earp

Earp — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 23:21:26 +0000

“I have a lot of confidence in our DL coach’s ability to create a solution. Tolly and McCrary are top notch.” Giles replaced McCrary several years ago.

Very entertaining analysis.

By: Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite

Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 21:31:36 +0000

Late last night, flicking the remnants of my exquisite petit dejeuner de chouette en crout(accompanied by a superb Ramonet Batard Montrachet, ‘66) from my bib, I was idly flipping through Dundas’ Practical Advice to Men With Clipboards and Whistles (Anomie Press, 837 Catspaw, NY NY, 1984) in the idle hope that perhaps there was some point of elucidation to be gleaned re: the predicament of having better linebackers on one’s second team than one has on one’s starting team.

Silly me. It turns out that it is not a predicament at all. Why, the answer was staring me in the face. Well, perhaps not staring, but let’s just say fixing me with an indulgent gaze, as if it were self-apparent. Actually, it was more of a winsome glance. That still doesn’t do it justice, really. But no matter.

Simply put: play one’s best players.