Five Thoughts: West Virginia

[Harrison Wier]

Doesn't a good coach adapt his style according to the players they have? 

This loss was on the defense and Herman, who I believe got out coached.

Yes, which is what is concerning. I wouldn’t say Herman got out coached. He made some questionable decisions, for sure. Orlando has to make some changes and if he refuses to, it’s close to time for Herman to play the veto card. 

 

[Eastexhorn]

Herman needs a class in Time Management and Sterns needs a class in Geoatry.

 

[RDHookEm]

Looks like we were in cover 2. Sterns was the deep man. This was on Sterns, he can’t let the receiver get on top of him like that. Poor zone discipline on his part.

 

[dillohorn]

Duffy is a solid backup, but he’s not Bowman. Duffy will give Texas issues because of his ability to use his legs. 

Yeah. I watched him again last night.

 

[North Texas Golfer]

59 minutes ago, RDHookEm said:

It was an absolute perfect throw. One yard longer or one yard shorter and it probably isn't a TD.

On the 2 pt. conversion, McCulloch makes a pretty bad play.

 

[joeywa]

Lack of defensive adjustments

Todd Orlando has primarily been given the benefit of the doubt this season, but it's time to make some criticisms about his personnel decisions. First and foremost, Orlando's decision to continually roll with a defensive front that generates hardly any pressure on the quarterback is highly questionable. On top of that, Orlando appears to have much more trust in his seniors than their play would indicate. Names are not going to be named, but there are several seniors in different position groups that have not improved since they've come to the 40 Acres. This has become blatantly obvious this season, yet Orlando continues to play these seniors that are clearly a weakness that is constantly attacked by opposing offenses. If the Texas defense is going to improve, some of these changes have to be made. Otherwise, opposing offenses like Texas Tech and Iowa State will continue exposing those weaknesses and putting pressure on the Texas offense.


Pass rush and injuries


If you are unable to generate a pass rush on Will Grier, good luck. Unfortunately for Texas, there was little to no pressure generated on Grier all afternoon. A large portion of the lack of pressure could be attributed to injuries on the Texas defensive line. Senior Breckyn Hager was ruled out for the game with a dislocated elbow, and second-string DE Marqez Bimage was ruled out with a dislocated shoulder. As a result, freshmen Keondre Coburn and Moro Ojomo were forced into action. Senior DE Charles Omenihu did not have a great night either, which led to plenty of time for Grier to pick apart the Texas secondary. Instead of trying to come up with different blitz schemes, Orlando appeared to stick with the rush of a three-man front, which was ineffective. BJ Foster, arguably the best blitzer on the Texas defense, was not seen much if at all today. These types of personnel decisions are hurting the Texas defense in a major way. Eventually, lack of execution has to come back to coaching. It's getting close to the time to look at the coaching on defense.

Amen. 

Something has to change with respect to these things. 

 

[dillohorn]

Everybody has injuries at this time of year.

 

[Harrison Wier]

It was an absolute perfect throw. One yard longer or one yard shorter and it probably isn't a TD.

On the 2 pt. conversion, McCulloch makes a pretty bad play.

I believe Graham was supposed to be in contain. He got caught up and didn’t get outside. Easy points. 

 

[MAO1]

I think Orlando is fine, our problem

is poor tackling and getting caught watching the play instead of watch assignments. There is no way QB runs should kill us like they have the past 2 weeks. Additionally, and I know people will say officiating doesn’t affect good teams, but we continue to get screwed week in and week out on blown or missed calls. We get a big play and I bet 88% of the people here look to the bottom right to see if a yellow box appears. That sort of crap needs to cease!

 

[North Texas Golfer]

I believe Graham was supposed to be in contain. He got caught up and didn’t get outside. Easy points. 

Saw that as well. 

 

[Harrison Wier]

I think Orlando is fine, our problem

is poor tackling and getting caught watching the play instead of watch assignments. There is no way QB runs should kill us like they have the past 2 weeks. Additionally, and I know people will say officiating doesn’t affect good teams, but we continue to get screwed week in and week out on blown or missed calls. We get a big play and I bet 88% of the people here look to the bottom right to see if a yellow box appears. That sort of crap needs to cease!

Poor tackling and lack of assignment discipline is coaching. Herman mentioned last week that they didn't emphasize tackling any more than they usually do. That's a problem after what transpired at OSU that should have been hammered home until the players were sick of it.

 

[RDHookEm]

Another thing that had not been mentioned. If Herman didn’t ice the kicker and allow a redo at the end of the half. Never been a fan of that tactic.

 

[primal defense]

It seems Orlando benefited greatly from having the right personnel for his scheme last season. Malik Jefferson was a much bigger piece than some give him credit for. Now, Orlando doesn’t have the right personnel for his scheme and it’s showing. 

Herman said during the off season that his number one concern after QB was replacing Malik and Poona. I was surprised since I thought it would be the OL since it was so bad last year that he had to hire a new OL coach.

That stuck in my mind and now I can see why Herman was concerned with replacing them.

 

[Sirhornsalot]

It seems Orlando benefited greatly from having the right personnel for his scheme last season. Malik Jefferson was a much bigger piece than some give him credit for. Now, Orlando doesn’t have the right personnel for his scheme and it’s showing. 

This is true. Imagine this defense with Poona and MJ still in it.

I miss them both.

 

[Sirhornsalot]

If he leaves I’d advise him to hire a good DC that runs something other than a 3-2.  I have heard that the 3-2 has difficulty slowing down the run.  

Not if you have the right personnel, which he had last year. That defense last year was salty.

3-2 looks bad when you have blown assignments and/or players getting whipped. Of course, any scheme looks bad when you have that.

Orlando does best when he's in attack mode. We really haven't seen that in a couple of games. He's been on his heels. To take a quote from Remember the Titans . . "they're on to your game. You need to shake things up."

 

[primal defense]

Everybody has injuries at this time of year.

Yes they do, however they don't have a reputation of having tough practices during the year.  Common sense says that the more hits you take during the game and practice can cause more injuries and fatigue during the year.

We may have to get use to have injuries during the year with Herman as coach.


The counterpoints to Texas HC Tom Herman’s ‘Bloody Tuesdays’




On the other hand, Herman’s teams at Houston suffered from significant injury issues, especially along the offensive line, perhaps contributing to late-season losses, including to UConn in 2015 and a regular season-ending loss to Memphis in 2016, in addition to two October losses following non-conference games against Oklahoma and Cincinnati

https://www.burntorangenation.com/2017/1/18/14312986/tom-herman-bloody-tuesdays-texas-longhorns-mike-gundy-practice

 

[Captain Hookem]

Yes they do, however they don't have a reputation of having tough practices during the year.  Common sense says that the more hits you take during the game and practice can cause more injuries and fatigue during the year.

We may have to get use to have injuries during the year with Herman as coach.


The counterpoints to Texas HC Tom Herman’s ‘Bloody Tuesdays’




On the other hand, Herman’s teams at Houston suffered from significant injury issues, especially along the offensive line, perhaps contributing to late-season losses, including to UConn in 2015 and a regular season-ending loss to Memphis in 2016, in addition to two October losses following non-conference games against Oklahoma and Cincinnati

https://www.burntorangenation.com/2017/1/18/14312986/tom-herman-bloody-tuesdays-texas-longhorns-mike-gundy-practice

Having a tougher team is worth the injury risk. Once Texas gets the depth they want then the injuries won't hit as hard as they do right now. 

By extension, some of the defensive issues we're seeing will be solved by better depth also. If we had the right players available there's no reason to think this year's defense wouldn't like last year's (and this year up until 3 games ago). 

The same complaint was made about Jimmy Johnson and the early 90's Cowboys... that he drove them way to hard in preseason. Didn't stop them from winning Super Bowls. Of course that was pre salary cap, and they had really good depth also. 

Texas just isn't 2 deep yet across the board.  Once the backups are practiced juniors/sophomores, instead of true freshman, the performance hit won't be nearly as bad. 

 

[Epictetus]

Was this afternoon I became more aware of the full extent of injuries before and during the game.

My biggest thought following the game?..  that AP did not drop Texas. Left them at #15.

Since when in the 8th weekend of the season do you lose a game like that... making it 3 losses on the year, and second in conference... and don't drop a position in the AP poll? And it's your second loss in a row... this late in the season

Lose to OK-State in a prime time road game with a few dozen shoot-yourself-in-the-foot erratic plays/miscues/penalties; come back home in a nationally-televised game and lose the way that went down... and Sunday afternoon only 14 teams in the country ahead of you in the AP poll after losing two straight.

OU has one loss at AP #6.   Sole loss --Texas.
WVA has one loss, and jumps from AP #13 to #7... having just beat Texas.
Common denominator for both teams positioned for the conference title: TEXAS.

I'm going in a circle... to make the point more than one way. There's national respect for this 3-loss program. The program should go into Tue practice with a positive attitude to finish 9-3, with still a mathematical chance for the BigXII title game and a major New Year's bowl.

Okay pounce on me for going full aggie on this whole matter. I can take it. Just trying to get over how bummed out I have been.

 

[dillohorn]

Was this afternoon I became more aware of the full extent of injuries before and during the game.

My biggest thought following the game?..  that AP did not drop Texas. Left them at #15.

Since when in the 8th weekend of the season do you lose a game like that... making it 3 losses on the year, and second in conference... and don't drop a position in the AP poll? And it's your second loss in a row... this late in the season

Lose to OK-State in a prime time road game with a few dozen shoot-yourself-in-the-foot erratic plays/miscues/penalties; come back home in a nationally-televised game and lose the way that went down... and Sunday afternoon only 14 teams in the country ahead of you in the AP poll after losing two straight.

OU has one loss at AP #6.   Sole loss --Texas.
WVA has one loss, and jumps from AP #13 to #7... having just beat Texas.
Common denominator for both teams positioned for the conference title: TEXAS.

I'm going in a circle... to make the point more than one way. There's national respect for this 3-loss program. The program should go into Tue practice with a positive attitude to finish 9-3, with still a mathematical chance for the BigXII title game and a major New Year's bowl.

Okay pounce on me for going full aggie on this whole matter. I can take it. Just trying to get over how bummed out I have been.

I pounce thee.

 

[Epictetus]

Orlando does best when he's in attack mode. We really haven't seen that in a couple of games. He's been on his heels. To take a quote from Remember the Titans . . "they're on to your game. You need to shake things up."

"Orlando does best when he's in attack mode. "

Ditto!!!