If Davis is the best OC Texas has ever seen then Mack must be censoring half his play book. My sugestion is find some films of DKR different offenses and you might see a great bit of difference.
MENJOU, a very well thought out post. And very correct on most levels. I will however disagree with you on a couple of areas. #1.) I would disagree that Colt McCoy keeping the ball some would not be enough to keep the D's honest. While Colt McCoys is not a good enough scrambler that he is going to beat anyone with his legs. There were a few games where he did keep the ball and had big gains. The examples you used for teams stopping the zone read, are based on teams selling out to stop the RB. Colt McCoy doesn't have to be an exceptional runner to gain 10-15 yards if teams sell out to stop Jamal Charles. And all the D needs is to respect the fact that the QB WILL keep the ball on the zone read, to open things back up for the RB. The problem is that Colt McCoy last year was not willing to run the ball on the zone read. When he had the option to keep the other teams honest. #2.) I am not worried about teams like tOSU A&M, and Baylor that do play to stop the pass. You are right that the big thing that those teams did, is they did play to stop the pass, not selling out to stop the run. But it was actually those games that just showed Colt McCoys inexperience, and in the A&M game his lack of arm strength from the injury. All three teams played the pass first, but they didn't all play it the same way. Baylor and tOSU played to take away the big play. We have the plays in our arsenal to attack you and put points up when you play that way. Against tOSU moving the ball most of the game was not the problem. The issue was turnovers, and not forcing the ball some. Against Baylor, we had no problem moving the ball once we established the running game. Anytime we tried to lean on the running game against Baylor, it was there for us. In the first quarter we did not try and lean on it, we tried to throw the ball to much. Once we decided to lean heavily on the running game, we were able to do what we wanted threw the air as well. A&M was a completely different issue. They figured out that McCoy did not have the arm strength to beat them deep, so they decided to take away the underneath stuff. The deep balls where available to McCoy, he just didn't have the arm strength because of the injury to get balls to the receivers. If he has the arm strength to get the ball to his receivers, the A&M game is a completely different game. The first half alone against A&M we missed out on two easy scores because McCoy could not get the ball to his open WR's deep.
I never heard Mack say that, but if the problem is that Colt needs to keep the ball more, then it is on Greg Davis to make that happen. If Colt is just not comfortable keeping the ball on a zone read, then we need to scrap that play. You can't force a player to succeed at something he is not comfortable with. I have no problem with mixing in a counter or zone read play, in fact it is necessary to mix in these type of plays as a change of pace. The problem is that as far as the running plays go, all we ever ran was either that slow *** counter, or the slow *** zone play. We rarely ran anything else. If you don't think there was anything wrong with our running scheme last year then what is your explanation for how poorly we performed?
Davis' offenses have NEVER been able to run the ball on talented defenses without Ricky (and a Mackovic trained line) and Vince. All the way back to North Carolina Davis' offenses have repeatedly failed to be able to run the ball against a good D.This is in spite of the fact that we have changed offenses and focuses several times. Clearly the man is too predictable and there is something wrong with his playcalling and creativity with plays. How some of you still don't get it is beyond me. We've had this thread every year since Ricky except the end of 04 and 05 when Vince singlehandedly made our offense unpredictable and broke defenses down even when it was predictable. Nothing has changed with regards to our ability to run the ball against good defenses and barring a Heisman level runner in the backfield at either QB or RB that can break tons of tackles, nothing is going to change.
Prior to Dockery getting hurt Texas did have some success running the ball especially to the right side of the line. When Dockery went down and Blalock slid inside things started to fall apart. Was that just a coincidence because teams had seen enough film to identify what Texas was going to do in the running game? Heck if I know, but I do know that Hills and Ulatoski struggled for a variety of reasons last year. As mentioned above they struggled with stunts and blitz schemes at times and the second half of the Nebraska game was pretty. I and most of this board don't know enough despite what we may think to truly understand what the Horns could have done last year with the problems at tackle. it did look like Davis did start to turn the game over to Colt. That is the big thing to me in 2007. With Major, Chris, and Vince there got a point where Davis seemed to trust the quarterbacks enough to direct the offense to the quarterbacks strenghts. When will he really turn the offense over to Colt.
That's a knee jerk reaction, Guapo. In 2006 we were in the chase, not just for the conference crown, but also for the MNC right up until the KSU disaster. If Colt doesn't get injured, we stomp KSU and aggy on our way to the second straight conference championship, and then on for a rematch with tOSU.
Superfan I thought football was about wining games not howyou passed the ball. Running or kicking FG are both good if you win. Texas under DKR had more varied offenses than Davis ever dreamed of not to mention the number of Champion Ships won.
[ I challenge any one of you to show me a time where Mack Brown has outcoached somebody in a game that mattered ] i believe he outcoached pete carroll in the rose bowl.
If you had been honest enough to quote me correctly, what I said was this: "with the exception of the Vince years, I challenge any one of you to show me a time where Mack Brown has outcoached somebody in a game that mattered. " Still waiting for an answer.
Nebraska in 1998, A&M in 1998, Mississippi St. at Cotton Bowl in 1999, Nebraska in 1999, Colorado in Austin in 2001, and KSU in 2002 all come to mind as big games Texas won without Vince Young to cover up for Greg Davis and Mack Brown's ineptness as coaches.
Excellent post. You guys ever have flashbacks? I do sometimes. I've never done anything harder than the Knob Creek I keep stashed for when the in-laws are in town but that doesn't seem to matter. Sometimes it's the smell of Drakkar Noir taking me back to prom, the soothing sounds of Color Me Badd floating through my memory. Sometimes it's sunshine and fresh cut grass, I'm 12 years old in the back yard playing smear the queer with my brother and half the neighborhood. Sometimes it's Hornfans, and someone puts up a good post and I'm magically transported back to 2001. It all gets fuzzy and space-time starts to fold and it's all just like I remember it. The thing about flash backs is you usually have them because things change. They take you back to an earlier time. They're nostalgic, comforting. The problem with this one of course is that nothing has changed except the names. Scipio isn't chanting in the background "defending" Tim Nunez, and the people that were actually defending the Port Neches Cabal have long since vanished or pretend that they weren't around to do so. You know who you are. dfl isn't putting up pictures of DD Lewis running away from the ball and getting blasted for blaming the coaches for it. Interestingly DD's opinion of said coaching years later in the NFL never makes it back to the discussion. Scott isn't breaking down tape for numbers of dropped balls and being told he is wrong "just because he has to be wrong because those numbers can't be right because they can't." Phx isn't lamenting our Interesting Teams and having the rank and file pile on him for it, but it doesn't really matter. It might as well be Hodges running the draw into 8 man fronts. A discussion of the precise definition of the word Mug and why Reese feels compelled to do so every other down. Breaking down tape of UNT to show reach blocks doomed to fail. Asking for some kind of help for one of the most overmatched linemen we've ever had on campus. Starting freshman prior to losing to OU regardless of their blitz pick up skills. We're in a vorpal time warp where the subject matter is independent of the response regardless of 1) truth and 2) validity. In the end for some it only comes down to whether you are fer us or ag'in' us. Being a fan of something and questioning it at the same time doesn't compute. I've never really understood that personally, but I've realized it isn't going to go away. Last year Davis took a loaded veteran Oline and one of the most dangerous backs in recent history and relied on the arm of a freshman to carry the season. There is a reason for that. You can blame injuries or sulky attitudes or personnel limitations or Zoroastrian Angra Mainyu or anything you want for it. It is what it is. BTW- Mack said they will have the running game fixed by mid-season. The optimists can take a measure of comfort in that. The pessimists can scratch their head and say "WTF, isn't that after OU?" I don't like telling people how to root.
Just an excellent, excellent post. I was thinking about this the other day as it relates to Chiles. What if he in fact becomes the backup QB. Will Davis, who has been coaching forever sit down at the drawing board and come up with some creative plays designed for his unique skills and talents? My guess would be no from what I have seen from him over the years. Liek anyone that's been doing something for years and years, you get set in your ways and, if I may, lazy. I could never imagine him doing the things that the staff at Florida do or Boise St. in making the most out of the talent around them. Last year's anemic running game was the most glaring illustration of not doing a damn thing to adjust from one year to the next to suit the current skills and abilities of the players.....ie. Colt. Great post.
