Football Articles
Masking A Weakness: Defensive Tackle edition
Posted by ChrisApplewhite on April 12th, 2009 under Football
Roy Miller was the best henchman in the world, the Oddjob of Will Muschamp’s operation. Short, tough, and deadly, his best asset was keeping his boss from having to do any dirty work himself. Have a scotch, give an order, and sit back. Well, Oddjob died and Miller graduated. Goldfinger had to fight his own battle and got sucked out of a plane. Muschamp probably stays up until 3am, weeping quietly to himself. He’s going to have to work this year.
The DT position isn’t a place where you need a fleet of Sherman tanks. A simple base defense is fine. The fatalist in us wants to worry about what the tackles can’t do then drink poison and die, leaving a sassy and self-loathing suicide note. We are a dramatic bunch. But football isn’t always about weaknesses, in fact it’s much more important to know your strengths. Arizona made it to a Super Bowl on the backs of two guys and a great coaching staff that knew what they could do and didn’t bother with anything else.
So what can they do? Lamaar Houston is of the Tommie Harris mold; cat quick and devastating if he can beat the OL to a spot. But not the kind of player that’s going to shuck off blockers and make plays, meaning you have to make sure you keep him away from double teams and either in a gap or stunting towards one.
Ben Alexander is passable as someone who can squat in a general area and hold it down as long as there is only one blocker on him. He’s shown the ability to get his shoulder down and keep enough of his body free to protect his gap.
Kheeston Randall is mighty and quick, but entirely unknown. He can do anything you’d want a DT to do, but not reliably.
Since Jarvis Humphrey is teetering on the edge of life and death, and Michael Wilcoxin’s upside is a reliable paperweight, those first three are probably the realistic rotation this year, assuming none of the freshman show up ready to go. None of them can handle a double team, so we’re going to see a lot of situations where the offense doubles the playside and only tries to hold off the other DT long enough for the RB to run away. You can see that play out here:
We’re going to see this early and often. Alexander did what he does, but of what use? The play isn’t going to him and he most certainly won’t make it to the play. Houston was hit with two bodies and turned around completely, unable to even keep the second blocker from getting to the next level. This was the first play of the game. Early and often.
(notice, also, Blake Gideon getting flatted by Brandon Collins)
It just so happened that the second play of the game illustrates what we’ll likely see from Muschamp as a first line of defense — quick stunts from the linebackers to keep double teams off the tackles. Yes, it’s the same concept as mugging, but Muschamp, from some reason, didn’t line up some LB with no rushing skills right in the face of a blocker. We hid it:
Run stunts are not unlike the 46 defense, which is not unlike our three man line from last year. Instead of lining three men up across the middle of the OL, one of them is a LB sprinting into position late. What he lacks in size he makes up for in force and surprise.
Notice how Norton’s blitz prevented Michael Huey from engaging Alexander. Notice then how Alexander is able to fight across the face of Chris Hall and get to the playside, because he can handle one blocker. (You may also choose to notice Alex Okafor’s outstanding play, but this isn’t about him).
Football is much easier when you can reduce it to one on one match ups that you can win. Putting either one of our starters against two blockers because ‘gal durnit, that’s how we do things‘ will lead to a lot of hair pulling and blog whining. Nobody wants that. There were a lot of run stunts in the spring game, so it looks like Muschamp knows what he’s up against this year.
The last clip also featured a nice appearance by Good Lamaar Houston, slicing past his man and closing down on the runner from the backside. This is what he can do better than anything else, but no offense in its right mind would give him a chance. You run at speed and away from strength.
We can combat this by reinforcing the immediate area around Houston with additional personnel, shifting the bulk of the line one way or another. This is called either an over or under front, depending on which way you move your guys:
That’s an over front. The line has shifted it’s strength to the strong side of the formation. From another play and a better angle:
There are 4 blockers from the center to the TE, and 4 defenders over them. There is no opportunity for a strong double team here. It they do, the LB will be free and the DE will be left with a tight end, which is generally a win for the defense.
This is was our base defense last year so it’s not exclusively for Houston’s benefit. He’s pretty awful at the point of attack if he’s faced up to someone, so we’ll see a lot of defense simply align the strong side of their formation to Houston’s side. The tight end blocking the DE is sub-optimal, but the alternative is having two blockers for two linemen, leaving Houston alone to do Good Lamaar Houston things.
Muschamp didn’t do it in the spring game, nor did he do it last year, but should offenses insist on pressing the issue, we may see the line, or at least the tackles, line up according to strength instead of left/right. Having Houston away from double team possibilities would play to his strengths and make him a better football player. This would put us in an under front. The downside is that Ben Alexander would be the one getting doubled, but we could run blitz occasionally to help him out.
How do you rush the passer, then, if neither of your guys can get off of blocks? The blitzing helps, but we can’t always rush 5 or 6. This is where Muschamp will earn his paycheck this season. We did a couple different things in the spring game.
Stunts like that will let us create matchups and angles for the linemen that will get them in a little more favorable position. This one works about as well as you can hope for, which may say more about our OL than DL, but that’s just the fun of the spring game. We can also combine that with blitzes to create penetration:
To help out with double teams from the center, we used a split front, meaning both DTs played 3 techniques:
This removes the immediate threat of a double team from the center. We went to this front in almost every 3rd and long and 2 minute situation. We could substitute a bigger DE for Ben Alexander — Russell Carter, or a healthy Eddie Jones being my choice — since there isn’t a big need to fight through two blockers with this front.
We did a lot of this stuff last year, so it may just be that we have a very DT-friendly defense regardless. The one difference I expect to see is more blitzes from a single LB, giving us a 5 on 5 situation on the line. We can cover man to man, so the trade off between blitzing and risk on the back end will be some what mitigated.
While I’m here and watching the spring game in more detail:
- Alex Okafor won’t be a dominant pass rusher this year because he has no moves at all. If he gets around the guy, great, but if the OT is on top of him they’ll just lock up. He’s going to be a superstar eventually, but we need to teach the kid some tricks. It took Brian Orakpo 3 years to learn his little dip, if that means anything.
- Christian Scott is for real. He’s faster to the line than Gideon, and had more hard hits in the spring game than any other safety did all of last year. I am fully on board with him now.
- I was wrong about Wells, he got some meaningful time on Sunday.
Happy Easter, folks.
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Blake Stansbery commented on the blog post Recruiting the Trenches ago
TP welcome to the network.
I like how you broke this down, and identified which positions history shows a high star ranking has proven to be important. I personally feel that after what all the recruiting sites dub their top players that there is a major falloff. We all love that the recruiting sites bring
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Hiphopopotamus commented on the blog post Did Rick Barnes use a plant last night to distract KU players? ago
I’m convinced.
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Mister Mike commented on the blog post Thoughts on the win in Austin ago
Don’t follow basketball as much as you guys do here, but I did watch that game last night. Using my extensive experience in analyzing the sport (next to none) the game felt like it had that “Big Game” feel to it, but somehow it just didn’t turn out that way. Kind of…lackluster?
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Hiphopopotamus wrote a new blog post: Thoughts on the win in Austin ago
We weren’t overly impressive, and at the same time, it may have been this team’s most impressive win. The game didn’t have much rhythm. We never shot it well. In fact, our two best guys can’t be much worse from the field. But damned if we didn’t guard them – especially in that first half.
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Trips Right commented on the blog post Did Rick Barnes use a plant last night to distract KU players? 34 seconds ago
Wholesome goodness. Thanks for posting.
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HenryJames commented on the blog post Another night, another would-be hero 2 minutes ago
I think Kiper has Okung too high at number five. He’s a right tackle in the NFL, and no one will take a RT that high.
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skymonkeyhorn commented on the blog post Texas Hoops vs. Kansas: Post-Mortem 6 minutes ago
Basketball is a simple game of passing,dribbling,catching,shooting and denying the other team from scoring. Simple yet played by chess masters that know what they have (known quantities) in players,chemistry, and heart (will to win).
Maybe they are also an unknown phenomena to the stubborn, mad,lusting minds of entrenched coaches that are playing the games -
uthookem commented on the blog post 2011 Texas Football Recruiting 21 minutes ago
I consider this thread incomplete until a picture of Barney Frank is added.
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HenryJames commented on the blog post Scholarship Numbers & Junior Days 21 minutes ago
I summer in Brookshire.
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Texastough commented on the blog post Texas Hoops vs. Kansas: Post-Mortem 40 minutes ago
“As long as he is putting teams into the tourney every year, I think he is untouchable. ”
Thats basically the equivalent of being one of the top six or seven Big 12 teams, which doesn’t cut it. I think he has to average top 2-3 in Big12 and sweet 16 or so to be
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Bob in Houston commented on the blog post Texas Hoops vs. Kansas: Post-Mortem 46 minutes ago
Bob, essentially what you are saying is that we are not a well coached basketball team. I agree.
Jordan Hamilton is a selfish and lazy player. He is a terrible fit to play for Barnes. Not sure if either one will be around next season at this rate.
I’ve seen too much player development and too much
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skymonkeyhorn commented on the blog post Texas Hoops vs. Kansas: Post-Mortem 47 minutes ago
Oh ! Trips your one liners are getting very very good in a nice sort of way. This was a great one.
Almost a classic. “ponderos, shouldn’t you be supersizing something somewhere?”
Keep up the good work……
“Admirable that you continue to attempt an analysis with some type of hope for them” -
Farmer Ted commented on the blog post ”Bo Made Me Cry.” 49 minutes ago
Good read, Mike. There’s a lot of truth in there. I do believe that one of the reasons that Florida’s recruiting class was rated so highly is that 100% of their signees were offered scholarships by Florida. If Florida loses interest in a kid, his stock drops a bit. That’s defensible
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Ag_in_TX wrote a new blog post: Did Rick Barnes use a plant last night to distract KU players? 58 minutes ago
If you watched the game, and if you have one drop of testosterone in your bloodstream, you couldn’t have missed her. The redhead with huge tracts of land – right behind the KU bench – who stood for every time out and stared at the KU players.
She stuck out like a sore thumb. Never
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Darius Pourceau commented on the blog post Recruiting the Trenches 1 hour ago
Welcome to the site guys! Aaron Rodgers is the man.
http://bornhogwild.fantake.com/
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Art Vandelay commented on the blog post Texas Hoops vs. Kansas: Post-Mortem 1 hour, 2 minutes ago
Bob, essentially what you are saying is that we are not a well coached basketball team. I agree.
Jordan Hamilton is a selfish and lazy player. He is a terrible fit to play for Barnes. Not sure if either one will be around next season at this rate.
We went scoreless for 10:54 during
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Trips Right commented on the blog post 2011 Texas Football Recruiting 1 hour, 13 minutes ago
Well done. The Barney Frank line blindsided me like a strain of juarez clap. Funny stuff.
I’d like for us to go out of state for a QB and at least 1 maybe two CB’s. Is Quandre tall enough to play corner or angry enough to play safety?
Rumor around the campfire is
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skymonkeyhorn commented on the blog post Texas Hoops vs. Kansas: Post-Mortem 1 hour, 25 minutes ago
I feel our pain…
Was Barnes wearing a helmet last night. I did not notice as I was in awe of the blood being spilled
on the floor for almost 11 minutes without a point.
Coach Knight was reading this blogs out loud for TV.
The most insightful was that Barnes needs to go to the 7-8 -
James commented on the blog post 2011 Texas Football Recruiting 1 hour, 28 minutes ago
Barney Frank and Mormon quips in the same post. My Tuesday is complete.
Texas HS football is going through a phase (era?) where the best athlete talent is being put on offense. DBs aren’t being developed in vast quantities. Why wouldn’t you go after a couple OOS DBs?
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Trips Right commented on the blog post Texas Hoops vs. Kansas: Post-Mortem 1 hour, 30 minutes ago
ponderos, shouldn’t you be supersizing something somewhere?
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Trips Right commented on the blog post Texas Hoops vs. Kansas: Post-Mortem 1 hour, 32 minutes ago
Gillispie’s a mid-major clown because of his off the court indiscretions. Seriously, The University of Texas is much too high profile to risk its brand and image with this moron. And anyone that mentions Augie Garrido should be permabanned the intertubes. The situations aren’t remotely similar.
If you want to go down the
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Trips Right commented on the blog post Texas Hoops vs. Kansas: Post-Mortem 1 hour, 38 minutes ago
Leonidas, none of those points came against Dex. Boxscores aren’t reality, they’re like porn movies. If porn was real everyone would be a plummer.
As for Pittman on offense, Aldrich wasn’t playing him straight up, he was getting a double virtually everytime down. That’s not Aldrich’s fault but it’s reality.
Pittman rarely
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Mister Mike commented on the blog post Nebraska Fits the Profile of the 2010 National Champion 1 hour, 44 minutes ago
Good line. What is the thinking on his ability vs. the injury?
It’s funny you should ask. I’m working on putting something together right now that will be discussing this very topic. I know you’re waiting with bated breath for it too. Admit it.
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Bob in Houston commented on the blog post Texas Hoops vs. Kansas: Post-Mortem 2 hours, 6 minutes ago
Should be “complementary” scorers. Oh well.
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Bob in Houston commented on the blog post Texas Hoops vs. Kansas: Post-Mortem 2 hours, 10 minutes ago
OK, I was there. Not the best seat in the house, but not a bad one either.
Trips hit part of what struck me over and over. KU had offensive options/outlets when Texas forced them into trouble (which happened quite a bit, as the stats showed that Texas did bring defense last night), and the
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Mister Mike wrote a new blog post: ”Bo Made Me Cry.” 2 hours, 49 minutes ago
At least, that’s the line I would expect to hear from Rivals or Scouts if they were in a relationship with Bo Pelini and ended up going to Dr. Phil to try and work out their differences. Of course, that would never happen because Bo would’ve just laughed, packed her shit up, and thrown it
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HenryJames commented on the blog post Scholarship Numbers & Junior Days 3 hours, 1 minute ago
CTJ,
Rivals doesn’t think there are any elite players in Texas this year. Do you think we’ll have to go out of state to compensate?
Thanks!
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D W commented on the blog post Another night, another would-be hero 3 hours, 54 minutes ago
Hamilton is so stupid on the court it makes my teeth hurt.
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Sailor Ripley commented on the blog post Top 8 Teams in College Hoops 6 hours, 45 minutes ago
Yeah, I think we can scratch Texas out of there. Who takes place 8?
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Sailor Ripley commented on the blog post Looking at Texas 6 hours, 58 minutes ago
You guys have a basketball team. Is it Indianapolis this year?
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Petey said:
April 12th, 2009 at 9:59 pm
I hope Freshmen DTs Calvin Howell and Derek Johnson come ready to play.
whoopspat said:
April 12th, 2009 at 11:01 pm
Ben Alexander is the new Erick Jackson.
TKO said:
April 13th, 2009 at 4:19 am
“notice, also, Blake Gideon getting flatted (sic) by Brandon Collins”
Gideon didn’t get flattened by Collins on that first play. He drove Collins back into the play and got taken out by another offensive player rolling through his legs.
Anyone who watches that play objectively will see that’s the case.
justaguy said:
April 13th, 2009 at 5:30 am
You broke down tape of a scrimmage in which the coaches really haven’t game planned, really aren’t scheming, and are more concerned with individual effort, technique, and ability?
Texas faces at challenge in finding a trio of solid defensive tackles for next season, but being this is in April and not August and two of the possible answers aren’t even on campus it might be a bit early. Texas has had young defensive tackles step forward and contribute (Marcus Tubbs, Rod Wright, and Frank Okam to name 3 off the top of my head in the past 8-10 years).
I don’t know if Johnson, Howell, or Randall will be the answer next fall, but considering they have 4 full months to get themselves physically ready and things don’t become reall until 5 months from now all this is subject to change a few times over the next few months.
Nordberg said:
April 13th, 2009 at 5:40 am
“You broke down tape of a scrimmage in which the coaches really haven’t game planned, really aren’t scheming, and are more concerned with individual effort, technique, and ability?”
Hey, it’s April.
TaylorTRoom said:
April 13th, 2009 at 5:52 am
He didn’t overanalyze a scrimmage. He wrote a post about a problem Texas has to solve next year- the lack of a dominant plugging DT. The scrimmage was the only source of footage showing the Texas defense without Roy Miller. His choices were to use the scrimmage footage to illustrate, or not have any graphics at all.
HenryJames said:
April 13th, 2009 at 6:03 am
“Texas faces at challenge in finding a trio of solid defensive tackles for next season, but being this is in April and not August and two of the possible answers aren’t even on campus it might be a bit early.”
I’m willing to bet that Muschamp is preparing for both the worst case and best case scenarios. And the prep for the worst case scenario definitely occurred during the spring.
Water cooler said:
April 13th, 2009 at 6:49 am
Chris-this writeup is perfect!
wisconsinhornybadger said:
April 13th, 2009 at 7:06 am
thank you for posting actual info backed by examples chris
glenn said:
April 13th, 2009 at 7:52 am
yeah, the graphics really helped me visualize.
thanks for the illustrated posts you’ve generated to explain issues, ca. your work is a big part of why i think this is the best brass nuts information source around for longhorn sports.
though i really like burnt orange network, too. (don’t tell me it’s ‘b. o. nation’. i refuse to limit longhorn sports to one country. we’re the wide, wide, world of longhorns!)
jc25 said:
April 13th, 2009 at 8:05 am
Nice write-up.
More please.
Croatian red-haired Guinea Pig said:
April 13th, 2009 at 8:40 am
Please…this is the best, Chris!!! I couldn’t get this write up out of my mind-it interfered with the easter egg hunt I went to at Headhouse Square (lol). I could not concentrate.
Turn the page, Fred said:
April 13th, 2009 at 8:43 am
Enjoyed the article.
Thanks.
Austintacious 'Horn said:
April 13th, 2009 at 9:29 am
TKO: Really appreciate your study of the game film.
Thanks so much for your objective observations.
Until someone plays safety in the real, no one knows how difficult it is at this level. After watching the replay in total,it made me really glad BOOM has the know how to get 3 safties on the field at once. Heck, Im a big proponent FOR USING 3-5-3 with the 4-2 multiple front and all hard man coverage. We got the horses to drive opponent offenses into oblivion as long as we line up correctly and flying to the ball/tackling with abandon…wooooooooh! thanks to the players and coaches for their great progression this spring.
LA Horn said:
April 13th, 2009 at 9:32 am
Great, great stuff. Thanks.
8straight said:
April 13th, 2009 at 9:45 am
Coach Boom will have to do a lot of this. (borrowed but no link) Modern warfare played by guerrilla rules. Always go to undefended targets and targets that do not yet have countermeasure same with situations that do not have defensive countermeasures. Never, never attack your adversary’s strength on his terms.
LonghornScott said:
April 13th, 2009 at 10:13 am
Great post, Chris.
We are definitely going to do a lot more with our fronts this year to get pressure and avoid unfavorable match-ups inside. The important thing is that we are able to play clean-up well.
Teams that do their homework are going to hit us with pulling lineman while we run blitz a linebacker out of the play and they could end up with a two man advantage. That’s why having a guy like Scott at safety would be great… we need guys who are confident making open field tackles in that situation. The only matchups that really concern me are OSU, OU, and KU… OSU because their offense is well suited to make us pay up front… OU and KU because they will install the offensive plays to specifically exploit.
Against everyone else I think we are going to suffocate and force them into one dimensional passing offense early. The speed we have in our fronts combined with the coverage flexibility Muschamp has this year should make for some damn entertaining defense in that situation this year.
BrickHorn said:
April 13th, 2009 at 12:34 pm
the graphics really helped me visualize
ChrisApplewhite is the poor man’s rpongett.
Wait, did I say “poor?” I meant to say “reasonable, sane and intelligent.”
justaguy said:
April 13th, 2009 at 5:32 pm
We needed pictures to know that Texas currently doesn’t have anyone close to Roy Miller on the roster?
LonghornScott said:
April 13th, 2009 at 6:34 pm
justaguy,
This is going to blow your mind: the post was about how our defense may attempt to address not having a Roy Miller.
justaguy said:
April 13th, 2009 at 6:46 pm
Scott, Oh, damn really? I never would have guessed it. Yes, it is April and yes there is nothing wrong with Chris spending his time doing it. What I love is how it is taken as gospel by some.
The theoretical exercise was fine if the purpose was indeed filling time, but it is purely an academic exercise when you consider that two of the players who will get a chance to fill that role aren’t even on campus and we have 3-4 months before Fall camp. Spring games are shows for alums and fans. The coaches can learn a few things, but by the time the game comes around Mack, Muschamp, and Tolly already knew the situation and Muschamp has already said he expects the freshmen dt’s to come to camp ready in the Fall to contribute.
Dre Jones said:
April 13th, 2009 at 7:14 pm
Hi guys! Can I play?!
BEHorn said:
April 13th, 2009 at 7:43 pm
I really liked the piece until I read justaguy’s comments, and now I’ve realized that I was tricked into wasting my time.
And yet, I can’t wholly repress this feeling of having been informed … I will have to ponder this further. Unless I shouldn’t – I will await another justaguy post to tell me what to think.
LonghornScott said:
April 13th, 2009 at 8:03 pm
“The theoretical exercise was fine if the purpose was indeed filling time, but it is purely an academic exercise when you consider that two of the players who will get a chance to fill that role aren’t even on campus and we have 3-4 months before Fall camp.”
Wait is it a theoretical exercise or an academic exercise or is it a filling time exercise? What exactly sort of purpose would you normally assign to a sports blog post, justaguy?
“Spring games are shows for alums and fans.”
Muschamp doesn’t strike me as the type of guy who wastes opportunities to teach and learn.
Who is reaching more: Chris speculating on how our defense will probably cope without having a viable 1 Tech DT (with the best sample of data available at this point), or you speculating that one of the freshman DTs will be able to step in and demand double teams?
Your reaction to this thread is bizarre at best.
ChrisApplewhite said:
April 13th, 2009 at 8:43 pm
Tough crowd.
“Muschamp doesn’t strike me as the type of guy who wastes opportunities to teach and learn.”
This is exactly right. We actually learned an awful lot from last year. Spring football is like any observational science — you can learn an awful lot if you know what to look for.
Kafka said:
April 13th, 2009 at 9:12 pm
Chris,
I haven’t had a chance to really do your analysis justice but I really appreciate that you are posting again.
An interesting topic might be the correct scheme/strategy for using these young frosh DTs that are coming in. Do you think any of them might contribute next year?
ChrisApplewhite said:
April 13th, 2009 at 10:02 pm
“I haven’t had a chance to really do your analysis justice but I really appreciate that you are posting again.”
Thank my new keyboard. Last one crapped out after about 10 months of struggling with a spilled soda or something.
“An interesting topic might be the correct scheme/strategy for using these young frosh DTs that are coming in. Do you think any of them might contribute next year?”
Probably not. Defensive linemen have very technically demanding jobs, DTs in particular. Watch Alex Okafor play, he has 0 moves. The only reason he’s going to play is because he’s an unreal athlete with monster potential. I don’t see that in the interior, at least not right away.
I think we’ve got 3 options next year, unless Humphrey gets healthy. He’s got game.
NateHeupel said:
April 13th, 2009 at 10:41 pm
On the uptick when looking at the RRS, UT’s most significant weakness, the d-line, will be mitigated by OU’s most significant weakness: the o-line. That should be interesting.
Ag in Tex said:
April 14th, 2009 at 4:36 am
Leach just suspended McKinner Dixon. I’m numb. Enjoyed it while it lasted, though.
dedfischer said:
April 14th, 2009 at 4:37 am
That was supposed to be me.
Higher Ed said:
April 14th, 2009 at 4:57 am
Hell ded, y’all didn’t have room for another desk on the 50?
dedfischer said:
April 14th, 2009 at 5:02 am
Probably, just not a permanent study hall facility, which seems to be the requirement for Dixon. I’ve never seen a guy with such a high football IQ, and corresponding classroom ineptitude.
justaguy said:
April 14th, 2009 at 5:20 am
Scott, Hey I try my best so if it is bizarre at best I outdid myself.
I find it truly amazing that some one here had to watch clips from a scrimmage to see that Texas doesn’t have a defensive tackle near the level of Roy Miller.
I guess it is time for me to leave this inner circle of football knowledge and let you continue this video circle jerk.
Bottom line is that Chris is right. There isn’t an immediate answer to this question and all I have said is you don’t have to have the fucking answer in April. Okam and Wright were true freshmen that stepped on campus and made major impacts. Tubbs was a red-shirted freshman who did the same. Can any of Johnson, Howell, or Randall make the same type of contribution in 2009? Only time will tell, but the key in each of those situations was that they played along side a older defensive tackle who had the ability to physically dominate.
Texas not only doesn’t have that in Houston they are basically reworking their defensive front. Kindle was a great pass rusher from linebacker, but do we know how he will hold up at the point of attack against the rush? The same can be said for Acho, Carter, Jones, and Okafor. Only time will tell won’t it.
Muschamp is from the Saban school and I agree that any moment on the field is a time to learn. As I mentioned above, he and Tolly knew what they had before the Spring game. They knew Alexander’s limitations, Randall’s inconsistency, and in the same vane I don’t think Muschamp meant his comments about Johnson and Howell to be directed solely at Johnson and Howell.
BEHorn,
Sorry to ruin the article for you. True same I some how slowed your path to enlightenment. How else would we have known the shortcomings of Alexander (aside from not playing for three years) or the fact a young defensive linemen is inconsistent.
Guess I just fucked up my chance to be a member of the secret society.
LonghornScott said:
April 14th, 2009 at 5:42 am
“I find it truly amazing that some one here had to watch clips from a scrimmage to see that Texas doesn’t have a defensive tackle near the level of Roy Miller.”
If that were the purpose of the clips, it would be amazing.
You are a weird dude. You actually go on to make a salient point about having an experienced, physical DT to accompany a young DT who contributes early (debunking the only actual point you made earlier in the thread).
“Muschamp is from the Saban school and I agree that any moment on the field is a time to learn. As I mentioned above, he and Tolly knew what they had before the Spring game.”
Put those two things together and you will see why it is perfectly valid to consider the fronts in the spring game as a viable sample of tactics we will likely see this year.
Chris makes a football post designed to discuss possible adjustments we may see this year to not having a dominant interior presence and you take a big ole dump on the thread. Talk football and no one will have a problem with you. Act like a dick and you’re going to take a lot of shit.
Kafka said:
April 14th, 2009 at 6:29 am
“Defensive linemen have very technically demanding jobs, DTs in particular.”
I did not play played organized football until my junior year in high school (my first high school had banned football because of a tragic accident a player suffered). When I transferred to another high school as a junior(and was finally able to play organized football), I started out at nose tackle and defensive tackle, then moved to defensive end, and finally ended up at middle linebacker my senior year.
My opinion is that (technically) DT is simpler than DE which is simpler than LB. DT is also simpler than OL. The hard part of DT is being sufficiently big and strong and fast that you can compete against the OL monsters. The simplest instructions for a DT (i.e. what they told me when I started) are just line up on somebody and knock them backwards until a runner comes close enough to tackle or the QB goes back to pass.
Are any of these frosh DTs big and strong and athletic enough that they can compete now (assuming the DC is able to simplify their assignments enough)?
Compton said:
April 14th, 2009 at 7:20 am
“I find it truly amazing that some one here had to watch clips from a scrimmage to see that Texas doesn’t have a defensive tackle near the level of Roy Miller.”
Wow, I find it truly amazing that an intelligent person could read the original entry and come to the conclusion expressed in the above statement. Impossible even.
RolloTamasi said:
April 14th, 2009 at 7:38 am
I rather think the Texas DT’s responsibilities are more complicated than those of your high school D.
Scipio Tex said:
April 14th, 2009 at 8:49 am
Chris:
Great piece. I would hate to play Florida running their QB draw series against our current personnel. You definitely would hate to play your DTs in twin 3’s against that.
A lot of the big plays in the passing game against our defense will likely come from play action where they force us to outnumber the box to stop the running game and then throw over the top of us. Fortunately, there won’t be many teams on our schedule capable of executing that on us. (OSU/OU)
Rollo –
DT is the easiest position on the football field in terms of responsibilities. Nothing even comes close. That said, from a skill and maturity standpoint, there are very few young guys that are physically ready for college ball.
Nth Handle said:
April 14th, 2009 at 8:54 am
Easier than punter? Ok, I guess if you are a righty kicking lefty or something.
The General said:
April 14th, 2009 at 9:27 am
Watch the NFL sometime. There aren’t 32 quality punters in the league. Punting ain’t easy.
DT requires many physical assets, but few mental ones. The only ‘reads’ a dt has are to read the pressure of his blockers and fight it. Occasionally they need to read the backside of a trap or counter.
So, if they are ornery, confrontational, and willing to chase down someone who is running away, then they can make all their reads instinctually.
dedfischer said:
April 14th, 2009 at 9:53 am
You are all supposed to be weeping for me, not nitpicking the effectiveness of 3 deep blue chips.
The General said:
April 14th, 2009 at 10:09 am
Completely worthless anecdote:
In high school, there were a few area SE Texas teams that played the double 3 technique defense. We killed these guys with out one and only audible to a FB Quick Trap. We would kill teams with this. Like, the fb would have 150 on 12 carries and a couple of touchdowns.
Now 3A East Texas does not equal D1 football, but double threes cede leverage inside and it requires outstanding downhill LB play to counteract this. We have not shown that type of LB play as of yet.
Corey Schlesinger said:
April 14th, 2009 at 11:19 am
Hi!!!
Scipio Tex said:
April 14th, 2009 at 2:31 pm
Loved Rathman. I also remember Schlesinger tearing up Miami and Warren Sapp for Osborne’s first MNC.
HenryJames said:
April 14th, 2009 at 2:41 pm
I bet Muschamp is staying awake at night figuring out how to stop all the fullbacks we’ll see next year in the Big 12.
BatesHorn said:
April 14th, 2009 at 5:29 pm
Scip, That was supposed to be a Youtube of Schlesinger’ second touchdown in the 95 Orange Bowl against Miami.
HJ,
Yuk it up all you want, right until some fat white guy from Plano gouges us for a long run on a trap up the middle that would give Don Shula a hard on.
Petey said:
April 14th, 2009 at 11:03 pm
That was a great writeup and very insightful.
I think we will see a lot of stunts and blitz next season. SPEED will be the key.
I want to see Norton step his game up and have a HUGE year.
Kindle is a destructive force.
I trust Muschamp to get these guys ready.
D-LINE play is going to be really really important.
Fico said:
April 17th, 2009 at 6:01 am
General:
I don’t think you will see us use the double 3 tech alignment unless it is third and long and we are looking at 10 personnel or no backs.
That being said if a team can trap us with one back on third and long multiple times and successfully convert we probably are getting embarrassed and don’t deserve to win (at least from a defensive perspective)
Chris:
When you are discussing the over front, I feel that the play side end (strong side end) should play the 9tech while your DTs are in the 3tech and nose. Put your backside DE in a 7tech
Since I cannot see the receivers in said picture I am going to assume that we are looking at 11 personnel in a pro/twin gun weak set. Depending on how alignment of the nickel is determined, i.e. does he go to the passing strength via the secondary call for the run strength via the LBs, will cause two variations in alignment. Since, in this example I am assuming we have a pro/twin set, 1 WR and TE to strong side and two WRs to the weak side, I am going to assume the passing and run strength are both to the TE side.
If the above scenario is the case, then you would have your nickel in the box in the bubble between strong side end and tackle. MLB would be in the backside bubble between the NT and backside end. The WLB would be splitting the difference between end man on the LOS and the #2 WR to his side.
Let your strong side safety cheat down a little giving you 7 in the box since, assuming a basic quarters coverage here, he would be able to play closer to the line, at 8 yards or so due to lining up over a TE not a WR.
The safety also gives you numbers on the strong side, while allowing you Nickel to flow fast is the play goes weak due to the Safety being in the box and having the ability to play cut back.
If the offense runs counter to the weak side you still have 1 on 1s unless they pull in which case they would be playing in to Houston strength of speed at chasing the play down backside while running the heel line.
IF the formation we are looking at is 11 personnel Tryps Gun weak, the nickel would be out of the box and the backside backer would be in, and the MLB would be in the bubble between play side end and tackle. The backside safety could cheat down since he has to either bracket number #1 to his side on an inside route or carry the vertical of 3 which again is a TE allowing him some flexibility and recovery time.
The principles are the same, but I believe our ability and faith in the secondary will allow us to bring a safety in the box and play both the run and pass comfortably…. The extra man will relieve much of the pressure on our DTs and LBs.
My 2 cents.
ChrisApplewhite said:
April 17th, 2009 at 8:18 am
Yeah I saw you post on the shag, FICO, and I don’t feel I need to add anything. I did intend to include safety help (the foreshadowing was the Gideon comment), but ultimately forgot. Nice catch.
Croatian Cavy said:
April 17th, 2009 at 11:54 am
Y should anyone care what I think?
maninblack said:
April 18th, 2009 at 6:35 pm
Nice article Chris
TTomTerrific said:
April 19th, 2009 at 9:28 pm
I haven’t mentioned lately out loud how perfect the Muschamp hire was….for all the right reasons.