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1. Huckleberry said:

   October 13th, 2008 at 9:32 am

   You can tell that Mangino watched the game film and was just stunned that he was watching Texas do what they were doing conceptually. Equal parts admiration and disbelief.

2. Scipio Tex said:

   October 13th, 2008 at 9:50 am

   You can substitute my name for Mangino and that sentence would still hold up.

3. Parlin Hall said:

   October 13th, 2008 at 10:03 am

   Could one not now say, in all fairness:

   “Mangino’s mouth is watering as he looks at the OU Defense”?

4. Doperbo said:

   October 13th, 2008 at 11:52 am

   Could one not now say, in all fairness:

   “Mangino’s mouth is watering

   Yes

5. Dude said:

   October 13th, 2008 at 1:31 pm

   I read elsewhere that something like 30 of our last 47 plays were out of that unbalanced 4 wides set. Did OU not have anyone in the booth to see what we were doing, or did they just not have the athletes to match up?

6. Brent Venables said:

   October 13th, 2008 at 1:59 pm

   I’m sorry, I was busy skimming over HC offers.

   What’s going on now?

7. ChrisApplewhite said:

   October 13th, 2008 at 4:51 pm

   The blueprint’s been there. You can spread OU out and throw in between LBs, because for whatever reason they’ve just never been a great group in coverage.

   A better coached group against the run you will not find, but if you have a David Thomas or Jordan Shipley that can navigate seams you stand a great chance.

   On Saturday we had Jordan run that little stick route about 7-8 times and there was just nothing they could do about it. The zone can’t cover it because it overloads you, and no LB is running with him in man.

   I thought our base offense for Colt should be the short, west coast-y passing game, in fact I think I have an article on here about it way back in the archives. It just makes sense for us, especially against OU.

8. UTfan1 said:

   October 13th, 2008 at 7:34 pm

   All I know is that we turned OU’s no huddle offense in the first half to a no offense huddle in the second half. Boom. Game over.

   Hook’Em

9. speaking of Ambien... said:

   October 13th, 2008 at 8:00 pm

   ou’s linemen were clearly gassed down the stretch, lacking enough depth to rotate in fresh legs. On both sides of the ball.

10. sinless1 said:

    October 13th, 2008 at 8:01 pm

    hehe….forget the ambien reference, that’s from another post. sorry!

11. KilgoreTrout said:

    October 13th, 2008 at 9:13 pm

    Has Greg Davis turned over a new leaf/alien abduction or is this the Applewhite affect??

12. Redfoot said:

    October 14th, 2008 at 2:51 am

    I’m guessing the latter.

13. bat said:

    October 14th, 2008 at 3:38 am

    Last year, Davis had a pretty good game plan too. Actually, the last 4 game plans have been pretty good. I think the game plan was his.

    We had three receiving threats. OU is weak at safety. Shipley is our best zone buster. Moving him inside was logical. Using him basically as a receiving tight end was a great idea. Get him inside as far as possible to work over the linebackers underneath.

14. Dr.Venkman said:

    October 14th, 2008 at 4:45 am

    I’m of the opinion that we are definitely seeing an “Applewhite effect”, but maybe not for the reasons that many would think.

    Consider Davis as a VP level executive at a largish company. He’s really only going to be as good as his Directors. If you’ve got a bunch of Directors like Mack MacWhorter, you’ve got a lot to do on your own as VP. Mack’s a great guy who knows his job inside and out. You can count on him for certain things but you also know what he doesn’t do, and you, as the leader, have to compensate for that.

    Having an assistant like Applewhite enables Davis to do things he hasn’t been able to do in the past both from a game prep standpoint and from the standpoint of what happens in the meeting room when Coach Brown and everyone else put the final seal on the weeks strategy.

15. Trips Right said:

    October 14th, 2008 at 5:33 am

    OU usually had 1 LB spying McCoy on passing downs. Tough to play sound zone against a water bug wideout when you’re tracking the QB.

    It reminds me of the responsibilities bull reese used to heap onto our defensive ends.

16. RomaVicta said:

    October 14th, 2008 at 6:31 am

    This question is not on topic, but I’d like to see one of the fine bloggers here explain how the offenses of OU, Missouri, Tech and Kansas differ.

    Aren’t they all spreads? How would a defensive game plan for one differ from the others?

    Or are they way different?

    I’m a dumbass, and I want to know!

17. ohai said:

    October 14th, 2008 at 6:33 am

    What responsibilities were those other than 1) Don’t go after the QB and 2)try not to engage an OL?

18. steven said:

    October 14th, 2008 at 8:22 am

    Don’t know much about the play calling in the past, but from what I can tell, GD seems to be one of the best OC’s around. Maybe it was the personnel in the past that was holding him back. Maybe GD did not have as much confidence in the QB position or their descison making as he does now with Colt. Or maybe it was Mack’s conservatism holding GD back, as some people have said. GD did say in the past that if it was his choice, he’d probably throw it on just about every down.

    But you do have to hand it to GD over the past few years. Now I know that we play in a defense challenged conference and that may play some part in this, but, still, even taking that into account, the way he had been able to successful tailor his O’s to the personnel he has on hand has been impressive. As impressive as Colt has been, alot of the credit for his successful play has to also be given to the offense tailored around which allows for him to display his talents and the particular aspects of his game which he excels at.

19. Kafka said:

    October 15th, 2008 at 8:26 pm

    Using a short passing game was the single biggest reason the horns were so effective passing against OU in the second half. As an OU player said in their Monday press conference, UT nickel and dimed OU.

    At the end of the first half, the horns’ O had scored 13 points (3 of which were dubious). Colt was getting pressured a bunch: he fumbled a couple of times and had a pass that sure looked like it was intercepted (for sure it was thrown up for grabs and it was caught by an OU guy).

    In the second half (when the horns scored 25 points), almost all of the horns’ passes were short passes.

    Here is a list of the yardages (including YAC) of the completions Colt threw in the 2nd half:
    0th drive: didn’t summarize, IIRC it was a 3 and out
    1st drive: 10, 5, 6, 9, 9, 6, 2 drive ended in TD
    2nd drive: no completions, field goal
    3rd drive: 3 (pass interference),10, 6, -4, 37 (12 in the air and 25 in YAC); drive ended in TD
    4th drive 3, 10 drive ended in TD (mostly Ogbonnaya’s 62 yard run).

    Almost every short pass was completed in the second half. There was only one completion longer than 10 yards (and that was only for 12 in the air).

    Because Colt could throw these short passes as soon as he got the snap, there was no way for the Sooners to get to him with their blitz. The blitzing that had bedeviled Colt in 1st half (and has bedeviled the horns ever since Stoops got to OU) was neutralized.

    Pass blocking (including blitz pickup) is tremendously simplified when the QB throws the pass immediately. Colt got back into a rhythm and the rest is history. My guess is that OU was stunned when their blitzing did not work effectively (after so much success in the last 10 years).

    It is difficult for a D to challenge (in the sense of contesting the completion) a short pass because the risk/reward ratio is so high. If you try to break up the 6 yard pass, you risk of giving up the big play to stop a 6 yard pass. Why take the risk?

    Most DCs think it is best to give up the 6 yard pass and simply blast the pass catcher (i.e. you might cause a fumble or incompletion and there way less risk of the pass catcher getting loose for the big play). Your DL is no going to get to the QB so they might as well just get their hands to try to block the pass.

    Most Os are not competent enough to execute this strategy for an entire drive. This is why Scipio was so skeptical about this approach in his writeup before the game.

    But it worked.

    There is much less risk of penalties on a short pass because the OL is not nervous (because they don’t have to diddly blocking for a short pass) and there is no need to hold.

    If you have QB who can throw the short pass accurately and pass catchers who can catch under pressure (while absorbing hits) and know where to sit down in a zone, it is almost impossible to stop a short passing attack without taking imprudent risks.

    Once the D gets over aggressive in trying to stop the short passing game, Colt and Quan/Ship can exploit this for some big gains (unless Quan and Ship are doubled).

    Chris: I agree that a spread with West Coast elements is well suited for Colt.

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