Blake Gideon...

We are missing him. Inside Texas has had several posts from insiders saying that coaches are fretting that no one has stepped up to replace his "coach on the field" role, and that that is why he started for four years. They have also said that he covered for others' mistakes and no one is anticipating or doing that now.

Instead, we regularly blow assignments (check out Vacarro's reaction when he got no FS help over the top on the seam route TD). Phillips and Thompson can't tackle for sh!t and cost us several TDs today.

It's amazing how far the D has fallen. Our LBs (other than Hicks) are simply terrible. They can't read the play, flow the wrong way, are easily blocked, can't see the ball and have no instincts for the position at all. 33 and 7 are just worthless, and 55 should not be getting 40 snaps as a true frosh MLB. We have really recruited that position badly.

Diaz better re-think his scheme and figure out how to compensate for injuries or his guru reputation is over. He has three likely first rounders on his defense this year, and he got schooled by a frosh QB and had the second best defense on the field.

 

How you like me now? How you like me now? How you like me now?

 

Seems like a tenuous argument. Fans always look for the simplest answer. I don't visit inside Texas so I'll just take your word for it that "posters say". I doubt having Gideon back for another year would make a huge difference.
Yes, Gideon brought something that coaches liked. But tackling was not one of his strengths. And 55 got this many snaps because of an injury to the LB corp, but yes 33 is useless but both are irrelevant to your argument.
As bad as this was, it no looked no worse than several of last year's games, in which Gideon was a huge part.
We are young and have a high ceiling, and we just got out of Stillwater with a W. And to be frank, Zona, you have always had a Blake Gideon bias.

 

Blake's a better coach than Diaz

Diaz had two ******* weeks to fix this ****. Young players are going to be out of position some times, but that missed tackling is ********

 

Shilala -
I freely admit to being a Gideon fan and have defended him in the past from frankly ill-informed criticism. I played the position in college and coached it at the 5A level, so I know something about it. He was a good player. He would be an improvement over what we have now at FS. Gideon never missed tackles like the ones tonight (he was usually a very reliable tackler and often a big hitter) and we never gave up huge plays like that to a frosh QB.

And the "posters" and sources on IT are well-connected and authoritive. When they are effectively quoting the current staff on background then it's legit.

 

Agree with all. Except Cobbs has been less effective than Edmond. They are both inexperienced and will hopefully improve quickly, but my feeling is it will take until late this season for either of those guys to fly around with confidence like Keenan and Acho did as upperclassmen the last few years. (Wish we'd had a better D-line with those guys.) We needs Hicks back badly.

 

I'm one of the few Texas fans that has always been on the fence about Gideon. I thought he was a smart player and was an overall positive for the team, but many of his worst mistakes came at the worst times in some of the biggest games. His intelligence was offset by his lack of consistent playmaking and occasional boneheaded play. Frankly, if he's what we're missing right now I don't think that's saying much for our current safeties.

 

No!!!!!!

 

I thought this was going to be a post about losing a close game on a last second pass play.

 

Agree 100% with madcow.

 

Beat,

Then it would've been a post about Earl Thomas.

 

It's really simple, tackling is our problem. Assignments will be missed from time to time. Good OC's will cause confusion. But there is no excuse to running up and putting a shoulder on someone without wrapping up.

 

I hear ya, Puck, and I guess that's a more accurate reference. Of course, the Pearl Necklace won't get blamed for that game...

 

Between Gideon, Acho, and Robinson, it really does seem like there's some leadership, organization, and the like missing from our back 7 - those were all pretty smart and experienced players.

 

Beat, not sure I understand the Pearl Necklace reference. I must have skipped Hornfans 101 class that week.

There is plenty of blame to go around for the Tech loss. Just about every player gets a share (fumble, interception, safety, dropped passes, dropped interceptions, poor coverage, poor tackling, poor blocking). Oh yeah, and the coach who calls timeouts.

 

AllI know is with Gideon on the field we didn't give up the big plays. Now that he is gone, Phillips the guy that replaced him seems to be bouncing off alot of people carrying the football. For all the BG haters, he was an integral piece of the puzzle, that is missing this year. Whoever was playing WLB against OSU is just horrible, or the scheme just took him out of the play.

 

"This defense, as bad as it has looked thus far, has us at 4-0 "

Actually, and as strange as it sounds, the offense has us at 4 and 0 in spite of the defense.

Nit pit

 

i found this post from inside texas interesting. specifically the following quote

---

 

No offense taken, it's right on target.

 

No, I'd say that's pretty much on the money. If I'm Diaz, I'd be ticked that I'm seeing guys that not only are not wrapping up, but aren't even trying to wrap up. I know he's teaching it, because we see it in the practice highlights, but at some point, the only thing you can do is sit the guy down.

 

Let 'em wrap up the bench for awhile

 

I think it's a mistake to compare the performance of young 1st year starting LB's to the performance of senior multi-year starters and somehow extrapolate to the intrinsic value of that player over his career. Let these guys have some growing pains before you throw them under the bus. Acho, Robinson and Muckelroy all had their problems when they first took the field full time.

 

Look on the bright side. Your targeting penalties are down 100%

 

Unfortunately, he will be forever remembered for the last 3 minutes of the 2008 Texas-Texas Tech game.

 

Which is kind of silly given how many goats we had that game.

-Colt threw a pick 6.
-Shipley dropped what would have been a 60 yard TD pass.
-Two guys totally whiffed on their blocks for that early safety.
-Davis shouldn't have called that play that led to the safety anyway.
-Earl Thomas & one of the Brown brothers gave up the deep pass at the end and then blew the tackle as well.
-Our clock management with just a few minutes left in Tech territory was awful.

Heh, Prodigal, when I read PropJoe's post I was about to response with literally that same sentence until I saw you'd already said it.

 

Good for him, guy gave everything he had for Texas and sadly is remembered for one play. Blake and Craig Curry will forever be linked in my mind.

 

That's pretty selective memory. I kinda like looking at the whole picture. Both were outstanding Longhorns and one play doesn't distract me from remembering them as having had outstanding careers.

In the Tech game, who were the two DBs that messed up that tackle and allowed the TD? Now, that play I remember well, even if the players have faded from memory.