Offensively: We just don't have a clue. 4th quarter play calling is still a disaster, and it stems from the fact that there's no identity and no direction. I've yet to be even moderately dazzled by one of Shawn Watson's play calls, and how can I be between calling speed options with Tyrone Swoopes, passes on 1st down in the 4th quarter when the team should be in clock-kill-mode, and shenanigans of that sort? Defensively: Second shut out of the year, mad props (even if it was KU). I'm pretty sure that never happened under Mack, even with Muschamp at DC. ST: Sigh.
I've caught a few quarters of Horns football, and was imagining how irate you were feeling. Such under-center. Very tight ends. Wow.
In this particular situation I wouldn't mind all that if it was put to good use. Conversely, I love the hurry up, but holy **** does Watson not have a clue when to use it.
I don't want to beat a dead horse, but it still urks me how they kind of snuck Watson through the back door during Strong's so-called "search" for an offensive coordinator. To conduct this "search" and then name Wickline as the OC but then bring in your boy at the last minute and say they will "share" the play calling duties, but your boy will have last say....why go through all that? Just say the OC is Watson cause he's my boy and be done with it. Makes me think Coach knew the fan base or the boosters wouldn't be happy with Watson as the OC so he had to pull an okey doke on us.
The reason I've been disappointed with the offensive playcalling is that I had much higher expectations. Flame away, but I actually believed we'd call a smarter offense this season. In my humble opinion, 2014 Texas' errors on that side of the ball have been many and obvious. Of course, I thought us terrible in this regard last season, too, so I'm not sure if it has worsened. Case McCoy (who I love for what he accomplished and who I would buy a big fat steak to thank him for ou and tamu) was such a miserable college qb that he could have made [insert your favorite offensive guru here] look dumb. Not saying I could throw better passes myself, but 15% of current Texas starting HS QB's prolly could. Since our o-line is....under construction I dont expect to see awesomeness but we could at least be intelligent and make the optimal choices under constraints...such as knowing how to kill the clock, handling QB-center exchanges, sending in the best personel per situations. I have more, but I will just end it here.
If it remains more of the same for BU and OU with the offense, the headlines are going to stop giving Strong so much leeway with "well he needs to bring HIS guys in first" and it'll be more like "why the hell do you run a hurry up for three consecutive 1-yard plays?" Strong will have some tough questions to answer at the end of the season about the direction of the team.
looking back i think a pooch punt on 3rd down and some old school prevent defense would have won the ucla game...
Gahornphan, in regards to: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- it still urks me how they kind of snuck Watson through the back door during Strong's so-called "search" for an offensive coordinator. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It irks me everytime I have to deal with lawyers and the realities of the court system. The reason for the delays then was how and to what extent Wickline's contract clause could be handled. There was over a half a million reasons why Wickline had to be called the OC. They had to work out the phrasing of how he could still be called the OC without paying the extra required by Wickline's contract. In some logical fashion, it is legitimate to call Wickline the play caller because Strong is so determined to make a running game out of an OL that is decimated and made out of freshmen and converted DL players. Wickline calls the play on the field after talking with his position players, Watson in the press box then probably goes along with it if he thinks it is situational time to run. The problem that Watson cannot overcome is that so much work was done in the spring and fall camp that depended on the OL and a healthiy Ash at QB. There is so much dependence on the running game with this offensive scheme that there is no recourse except to make the OL get reps with these RBs hitting a wall of tacklers. Because it was too late to change the overall offensive strategy when Ash disappeared, the season really hangs on Wickline's ability to make this new OL work correctly. The season blew up when both the QB and three OL starters disappeared. We are seeing damage control now and a stubborn will to make the running game work, even though the W-L record goes down the tube. Compare the difference between what Strong and Watson are saying in response to the question about how to best score more points with their offense.
UCLA game, punter just out kicked the coverage. He hit it 60 yds. Hard to account for that, but directional punting would help in that situation. Also there was an obvious block in the back that didn't get called on the return. What I did like was coming out and throwing on the 1st play of the game on a rollout instead of a 1 yd run up the middle.
I am sorry for straying off topic here, but since I was asked: Majorwhite, I do not profess to have any expertise as an OC, but I am just stating how it might work considering the expertise areas of Wickline and Watson combined with the type of dink&dunk offense that the horns so far have been trying to run. Here I am just assuming that the Horns are attempting to do something similar to the few games that I saw Louisville run the last couple of years. Watson's goal is 50-50% for a run/pass ratio unless there is some special situation happening on the field. He even charts the plays during the game to make sure the pregame goals are occurring. Wickline should not be calling any play from the playbook. He is answering the question: "If we were to have a running play next, what should it be?" Based on down and distance, that is the information that is relayed to Watson up in the press box. He is restricting Watson (or recommending) what running play(s) to call based on his knowledge of what is happening with his position players. On the field he is watching only his OL play against their DL. Part of the information is also coming from discussions that he is having with his OL. "What is working; what do they see; how do they think they are doing; are they injured? " All this is with continual conversation on the field - because that is the advantage that he has. He is not trying to study the coverages nor trying to keep up with the passing game. He should off-load much of the running game concerns from Watson, which allows him to focus on the other aspects of a normal OC. What Wickline is passing onto Watson is what blocking matchups are working without going into the details of what his position players are telling him. Watson then decides how to use this run play that should happen with the other information that he is accumulating up top. Wickline is only focused on the pass blocking in the OL and what blocking patterns are working. If Watson wants to call a pass play, then he overrules the running play that Wickline thinks should be run. Wickline is only focused on what might work from a run blocking standpoint. The type of offense that Watson has run at Louisville depends upon a lot of motion to happen before the snap in order to get the correct blocking mismatch by the final alignment. What Wickline should be doing is telling Watson a little bit more about what blocking mismatches are working or not working on the OL. Wickline has studied the opponent's tendencies before the game and knows what blocking matchups to concentrate on.
After watching our offense for the first four games, why when I think of Watson, Wickline and Koenig calling plays does Larry, Moe and Curley Joe come to mind?
Thanks, the Louisiville piece was insightful. I have not watched them in about 20 years since we last played them.
