5 Thoughts Following The Loss To TCU

[DBut82]

I am just throwing out ideas and have no clue how feasible it might be. 

We use Moore as a blocking TE. 

Why not move Okafor to TE just as another blocker and just run two blocking 2 TE's along with Moore.  Atleast it would help out the OT's.  We continuously leave our OT on a island 1v1 and that isnt working.

All I am saying is try something different, atleast be unpredictable.

Sounds like you're asking this staff to run a power formation with linemen who were actually recruited to run power...imagine that.  Nah, we'll continue to run zone schemes until they begin to work next year...

 

[DBut82]

Y'all know Heard's my guy.  And to be honest, I don't necessarily think he's "the answer".  But I do know that the offense seems to run better with Sam because of his mobility.  And as far as trying something new, I don't understand why Heard doesn't get the shot.  Herman made the comment in yesterday's press conference that Heard's action at qb is dependent on the health of the other 2 qb's; of which we only have have 2.  What's the difference who the 2 are, whether it's Shane and Sam or Shane and Heard.  If Heard starts and is injured then you have Shane and vice versa.  IDK, I guess I don't understand his reasoning.  Please help me out.

 

[DMAC]

I am with you on this.  

If we actually gave Heard the chance to throw more he would be more effective as a scrambler and runner. 

We have big WR's.  Lil J, Collin, and Joe could go up get those passes.

I saw the presser and wandered the same thing.  Putting Heard when everyone knows he is going run isnt going to work.   I believe Warren has more pass attempts on trick plays than Heard does.

He needs more than 1 pass attempt in the 4 games he has come in for a few plays.  He might surprise us all.  

In the end its a mystery with the coaches.  Just like how Carter and Young didnt see any considerable playing time until the last 2 games. 

Did they just improve the last games or was it always there but coaches refused to play them?  My guess is the latter.

 

[TexExSpur]

They could also spread the the OL out like TT does to hide their deficiencies.   Problem is, when you have Cuney standing in the same spot he hiked the ball from when the play is whistled dead, it won't do much good.

 

[DBut82]

I am with you on this.  

If we actually gave Heard the chance to throw more he would be more effective as a scrambler and runner. 

We have big WR's.  Lil J, Collin, and Joe could go up get those passes.

I saw the presser and wandered the same thing.  Putting Heard when everyone knows he is going run isnt going to work. 

He needs more than 1 pass attempt in the 4 games he has come in for a few plays.  He might surprise us all.  

In the end its a mystery with the coaches.  Just like how Carter and Young didnt see any considerable playing time until the last 2 games. 

Did they just improve the last games or was it always there but coaches refused to play them?  My guess is the latter.

As much as we all like Sam, his pass percentage sucks (56%, 6 TD, 4 INT).  I just don't see Heard being worse in that regard ESPECIALLY considering he's won games, big games, here as a qb. In 2015 he 58%, 5 TD, 5 INT btw...

 

[DMAC]

As much as we all like Sam, his pass percentage sucks (56%, 6 TD, 4 INT).  I just don't see Heard being worse in that regard ESPECIALLY considering he's won games, big games, here as a qb. In 2015 he 58%, 5 TD, 5 INT btw...

Whats our 3 and out percentage?  I am sure its really bad anyways.  What would it hurt to try him out.  Kansas would be a good game to try it out on.

We have punted 53 times this year.  San Jose State has punted 61.  

I couldnt find a stats for 3 and outs though

 

[TexExSpur]

Whats our 3 and out percentage?  I am sure its really bad anyways.  What would it hurt to try him out.  Kansas would be a good game to try it out on.

We have punted 53 times this year.  San Jose State has punted 61.  

I couldnt find a stats for 3 and outs though

Texas is 58th in 3rd down conversion percentage.  Middle of the pack.  They're 62 of 154 on 3rd down.  .403

on the other hand...

TCU is 6th in the nation at 68 of 136 and batting .500

As for punts, he's one hell of a weapon...But we would like to see that number cut in half with a more efficient "scoring offense".

 

[DMAC]

Texas is 58th in 3rd down conversion percentage.  Middle of the pack.  They're 62 of 154 on 3rd down.  .403

on the other hand...

TCU is 6th in the nation at 68 of 136 and batting .500

As for punts, he's one hell of a weapon...But we would like to see that number cut in half with a more efficient "scoring offense".

I remember thinking TCU wouldnt be near as good without Boykin.  They did drop off some but not much. 

Their defense seems to be very good every year with Patterson.

 

[TexExSpur]

I remember thinking TCU wouldnt be near as good without Boykin.  They did drop off some but not much. 

Their defense seems to be very good every year with Patterson.

They had a little glitch in personal when Bumpass moved on from football, but GP is defense.

 

[DBut82]

Whats our 3 and out percentage?  I am sure its really bad anyways.  What would it hurt to try him out.  Kansas would be a good game to try it out on.

We have punted 53 times this year.  San Jose State has punted 61.  

I couldnt find a stats for 3 and outs though

I agree. What would it hurt? And I agree that Kansas is a good game to try him out.  As was Baylor a few weeks ago...

 

[RickyFlair]

Go through those classes and remove the guys who never made it to campus, washed out or haven't stayed healthy enough to contribute and you get a slightly different picture. The 2014 class drops into the 30s in national ranking if you take out the guys who didn't make it to campus or washed out when Strong was hired. Those are your seniors and redshirt juniors right now.

You can remove 10 blue chips from the 2015-16 classes (counting Kirk Johnson and Patrick Hudson because of injury), plus two more from 2014 (Roberson and Catalon). Far more significantly, erase three offensive linemen (Delance, Hodges, Major; add Hudson if you want). There's a fair chance those first two guys would be your starting tackles right now. Okafor could play guard. Kerstetter could have redshirted. Etc. 

So the recruiting rankings don't tell the whole story. To be sure, too many guys haven't been adequately developed. That's hardly the fault of the coaches who've had one spring, summer and part of a fall with them. And it's a rare athlete who can reach his potential when he's playing for a new position coach in a new system every year or two. 

Injuries and attrition happen at every program. There is no doubt that our coaching staff instability has caused more attrition and hindered player development. I'm certainly not blaming our current staff for the lack of player development.

The post I was commenting on stated our coaches were trying to "stay in games with less than blue chip talent...with no such athletes on offense.". I can see why someone might think we are without talent by watching our poor performance during games but that is not the case. The disparity of talent between us and any other Big 12 opponent, except OU, is huge. Last year our recruiting class was one of the worst in the history of our program but it was still the 2nd best in the conference. In 2014 OU, Baylor, and OK State were the only teams above 40 in the national rankings. In 15-16 us and OU were the only programs inside the top 30 nationally. Our injuries and attrition have not left us with a roster of scrubs. We may not have our fastest horse in the race but we are not racing with mules.

I hate that we have been devastated by injuries especially on the offensive line. I wish we could have had a consistent staff in place the past 5 years and the system was fully implemented with the right personnel. However, I am not going to excuse the complete lack of any semblance for a consistent offense on our lack of talent. We can score 24 points against OU and 10 against OSU? How is that even possible? Vahe played sick and Porter was out (which probably helped us) but other than that it was the same crap talent. 

What type of recruiting classes will enable us to compete in the Big 12? Does our entire O-Line have to be injury free? Is this an offensive system that takes 3 - 5 years to install? I'm not asking about National relevance or playoff potential just scoring 20 points consistently.

 

[Daniel Seahorn]

I have been down on Beck for awhile. 

I realize the guys up front are either young and not developed or have hit their ceiling on potential but just are not that good. 

Its hard to grade Beck fairly in this environment but the two issues are not automatically mutually exclusive.   There are ways to get the ball out faster.  I thought Herman was a guru so its not squarely on Beck.  We cant find one successful way to quick hit WR's or RB's for short gains?   

One example:

There were a few plays where the WR's see the blitz coming and they never break off routes or even look at the QB.  Lil J did it twice vs TCU from what I saw.  Is that a player problem or coaching problem?  Lil J is one of favorite WRs but still you gotta help the QB out.  That should not be happening 9 games into the season and that blame cant purely be on the OL.  

More examples:

Why are we going uptempo so much it seems like we are more unprepared for it than the defense is. 

We are not fooling anyone in the wildcat or with Heard at QB for that matter.  We all knows its a run.

Maybe its the garbage can method.  Try everything and see what works and what doesnt.  But damn cant any coach do that?

@Daniel Seahorn

When is Elijah Rodriquez expected back?  Conner will probably be for WV, right?

Pretty sure Rodriguez is done for the year. Herman has said WVU is the target for Williams. 

 

[Adferrum]

Wasn't able to watch the game on Saturday an just finishing up watching it (3 quarters through). Couple of thoughts so far:

- On the defensive side Gary Johnson was really playing well, probably his best game so far this season IMO. Yet again, another week another early deficit before the D showed up to ball. Those two first drive penalties and the trick play pretty much killed us on the first drive. Those early points continue to haunt us and put us in a bad spot

- I really thought that after last year the kicking game couldn't get worse, but well, expect the unexpected I guess. Our inability to score FG costs us so many points per game. If your kicker is 7/14 you might want to try another guy.

- On offense I thought we played a really good 2nd quarter. Just weren't able to finish twice: one time we missed the FG, the second time we turned it over on downs after a horribly executed 4th down hurry up call. But we managed to amass over about 200 yds in one quarter against the best defense in the Big12. My take away is that our offense isn't as bad. I also felt that the play calling was not as bad on Saturday than some might argue on here. What was different in the second quarter is that Shane took the 2 50/50 balls that lead to our lone TD: We should do that more often. With our offense, only scoring once on 14 possessions, I think you should be more aggressive in throwing the deep ball, especially if you got an accurate passer in Shane and always a huge height advantage on the outside. Even if some of those get picked by a good defense, I you throw it far enough, that won't matter as much since you probably would have to punt anyway in the end. Plus, going deep more often might stretch the defense and set up a more efficient run game (Toneil Carter was missed dearly on Sat). 

On the other hand, deep throws need more pass pro than our offense might be able to provide. I don't know the answer to that, but on Saturday it held up on a couple of deep throws.... Anyways, can't get much worse 

 

[Royal 60]

Thank Goodness for Baseball--V'ball--ladies B'ball -- Things on football front are Sad

 

[Royal 60]

I have had Season Tickets for 47 Years This is worse offense I have ever seen from the guys in burnt orange . 

 

[DMAC]

Anyways, can't get much worse 

Careful, we could give a up TD every series that would be worse.

 

[Adferrum]

Careful, we could give a up TD every series that would be worse.

On offense? As worse as that would be it wouldn't change much from the results.

Take a look at the games we have played this year. Usually we lose because our offense is over matched and we lose the battle in the trenches. Since we don't have that much of a problem scoring against lesser teams (putting up 56 against SJSU, 38 against Baylor, 40 against KSt) it seems to be more of a skill/talent issue than anything else. 

In the games we lost, we usually did so because we couldn't generate any points (7 against TCU, 10 against OSU, 24 against OU or USC). I know I have been stating the obvious so far. But the thing is, our defense has played well in each of those games. The way we have played offense so far, we weren't able to win those games. So you might wanna try something new, since the defense can't get much better. For me, that would be trying to use your weapons and going deep more often. Hence if it backfires, you still lose, if it works, you might be able to get a couple of W.

Anyways, this won't matter much for the rest of the seasons. We should be able to handle KU solidly like we did with SJSU or Baylor. Also TTU and WVU have horrible defenses, so our OL might not be as exposed as it has been in the previous games. We should be able to win all of those if we continue playing like we have been. From a talent level we shouldn't be as over matched as we have been by those 4 losses and are likely to generate some offense.

On another note, losing Hill is obviously big, especially against the TTU and WVU offenses. But I think whoever is stepping in, most likely Josh, will be able to do just fine. 

 

[DMAC]

On offense? As worse as that would be it wouldn't change much from the results.

Take a look at the games we have played this year. Usually we lose because our offense is over matched and we lose the battle in the trenches. Since we don't have that much of a problem scoring against lesser teams (putting up 56 against SJSU, 38 against Baylor, 40 against KSt) it seems to be more of a skill/talent issue than anything else. 

In the games we lost, we usually did so because we couldn't generate any points (7 against TCU, 10 against OSU, 24 against OU or USC). I know I have been stating the obvious so far. But the thing is, our defense has played well in each of those games. The way we have played offense so far, we weren't able to win those games. So you might wanna try something new, since the defense can't get much better. For me, that would be trying to use your weapons and going deep more often. Hence if it backfires, you still lose, if it works, you might be able to get a couple of W.

Anyways, this won't matter much for the rest of the seasons. We should be able to handle KU solidly like we did with SJSU or Baylor. Also TTU and WVU have horrible defenses, so our OL might not be as exposed as it has been in the previous games. We should be able to win all of those if we continue playing like we have been. From a talent level we shouldn't be as over matched as we have been by those 4 losses and are likely to generate some offense.

On another note, losing Hill is obviously big, especially against the TTU and WVU offenses. But I think whoever is stepping in, most likely Josh, will be able to do just fine. 

I assumed my statement was self explanatory.  I meant on defense but I guess we could give up a TD on every series on offense.  :huh:  

Failed attempt at seeing the bright side on me. 

You probably wont anyone here that believes this offense could be much worse than it is now.

It is rather a mystery how we were able to run out the clock in the last 5 minutes of the Iowa State game by running the ball.  granted this was TCU's defense but the personnel was basically the same up front.

 

[drgilbert]

If you play Heard this game at QB and he is successful then you get a false sense of security, so it’s a waste. He is not the answer now or the future. Let’s use the two guys we have and give them more snaps so they are better prepared for next year. This year is done. Maybe we win 6 and go to a bowl. 

 

[prosfromdover]

If we win the rest of our games and keep the recruiting class together, Herman will have done no worse than Kirby Smart or Nick Saban in their first years before him. So we've got that going for us, you know, if it happens.