An illuminating recap on what the Texas OL needs to improve upon this year from OL miscues of last year. A few glimpses from the article that confirmed my observations or resonated with me: It’s clear from studying the miscues that Texas didn’t get the expected value from having All-ACC Parker Braun at LG and 4-year Shack at center. Those two were much, much better as run blockers than interior pass defenders. One other issue that you can find on many of Texas’ sacks is the lack of hot routes. They were often asking Ehlinger to work through some deeper progressions from five or six man protections without having a hot read. When Texas used empty sets with hot checks, Ehlinger hit them and often did great damage. ... there’s a number of ways that Texas could improve here. They could use more motion and cues to help him read the defense quickly, they could train him to check down faster, they could improve in protecting along the line, they could encourage him to scramble more, they could use more max protection, they could use more hot routes, etc. Inside the Gameplan: Can Texas build a championship OL in 2020? - Inside Texas
Agree on Shack, disagree on Braun. Braun was exactly who we thought he would be. He was a killer run blocker with little to no experience as a pass blocker. He was a project at best, we should have redshirted him. He would have paid big dividends next year.
I agree that he was as advertised - strong run blocker with little experience as a pass blocker. Not sure I agree that he should have been red-shirted. We needed him last year, even with the pass-blocking deficiencies, as evidenced by the fact that he was a starter.
True, but Hand and Herman regarded him as one of the top two options they had at guard. I respect their judgement, but Braun was a lot better on the run blocking. Also, in retrospect, Shackleford might not have been the best communicator on the Offensive Line.
Agree, I think Shack had a very disappointing senior season, and communication might have played a part in that.