Looking ahead to 2010: Offense

The biggest question mark heading into the 2010 Longhorn football campaign would have regarded the growth and play of likely starter Garrett Gilbert. Then he was thrust into the National championship game and as Nathan Gaskey quickly pointed out, “he’ll never be under more pressure than that for the rest of his college career.”

Additionally, Garrett played pretty well and delivered a few strikes I’m not sure Colt was ever capable of. That said, I don’t expect Gilbert to be better than Colt next year but he has some arm strength and downfield accuracy that Colt didn’t, which was unsurprising because I have seen them throw back to back in open practices.

The Austin American Statesman has a muddled, uninformed piece up about question marks heading into next season but here I can give you a better presentation of what the team is looking for in spring practices and for the fall squad. Today the focus will be on offense, we’ll start with that ghost that has haunted Texas since Vince’s departure with nothing more than a temporary answer when Charles ascended to brilliance:

The Running game:

This is a focus every off season and many of the other team questions will come into play here. From a strategic level, with a first year starter at quarterback and the team’s leading receiver graduating coupled with a poor running game the last few seasons, having an effective running game in 2010 will be a priority.

Texas could not make teams pay for pinching off the short-pass offense employed with Colt with the lowlight being Nebraska’s Defense dominating both the short passing game and the running game by using 6 defensive backs and stuffing the Longhorn running plays with 1 linebacker and 4 defensive lineman.

The problems with the running game have been run over by me, the coaching staff and tons of commentators over and over again. Essentially I think it boils down to these:

1). Bad implementation of scheme: Texas installed the Outside zone-stretch as the base offensive play ala the Indianapolis Colts. They don’t block it well and don’t run it well. The running backs don’t read the creases well and don’t allow the blocks to set up or else the blocks fail in ways that zone-blocking should never fail. For instance, you should never have a negative play on a zone run, the whole scheme is supposed to prevent that very occurrence.

The outside zone, while an excellent base play that can be run with 3 wide receivers (like Texas likes to employ) demands a lot of repetitions to be run properly so the above mentioned mistakes don’t happen.

The West-Coast passing game that Texas used with Colt McCoy also demanded a lot of repetitions to be run properly because the receiver routes are timing based. Colt would read the defense and then make a timed throw into the soft parts of the coverage. It was run excellently, I don’t know if I’ve seen a better executed short-passing game in college football. However, such a scheme necessarily limits the amount of time that can be spent on the running game, and Texas chose the very running scheme that demands the most practice time. I can’t say for sure that Texas didn’t have time to run the zone-blocking AND West Coast passing attack in practice but I do know that the execution of the running game was poor.

2). Personnel: Chris Hall was moved to Center, I can only assume, for his speed in open space and experience making line calls. However, he was hopelessly weak at the point of attack and was frequently driven into the backfield. The rest of the line wasn’t necessarily suited for zone blocking and seemed chosen for experience and skill in pass protection.

Also extremely important is the Tight End position. The outside zone is heavily dependent on the tight end making a key block on the defensive end. If that block fails the play, designed to get outside quickly, is going to go badly quickly because that’s one of the first blocks the runner reads.

The Tight End is basically essential for an offense like Texas’ to have balance in the running game and passing game because it allows for base running and passing plays to be run from the same formations.

Next year Texas will have a very different line because 3 starters are graduating. The remaining 2, Michael Huey and Kyle Hix, are not particularly suited for zone blocking which best utilizes quick moving lineman who can make lateral movements.

Texas Tech blogger dedfischer once wrote on tortillaretort.com, “if your center isn’t a weakness, it’s a strength.” David Snow seems a lock to take on the job of starting center (since he did when Chris Hall went down in the National Title) and he qualifies for that condition. Thus, the addition of a tight end from one of a million scholarship possibilities, the inclusion of Snow on the line, and a possible departure from relying as much on the short passing game improve Texas chances at running the outside zone stretch as their base play.

While we’re here lets move on to

The Offensive Line:

Again, from the Right guard to the slot receiver everyone on the team is gone. That’s center Chris Hall (3 year starter), Left Guard Charlie Tanner (3 year starter) and the all important Left Tackle Adam Ulatoski (3 years at LT one at RT all starting).

Truly the only one I think Texas is likely to miss immediately is Ulatoski. He wasn’t an elite talent for the position but he was highly skilled in the fundamentals and most of McCoy’s problems from blind side rushers were either missed calls that led to unblocked rushers or someone like the Aggy defensive end Von Miller who disgraced just about everyone last season. His return next season is about as exciting as our chances at economic recovery, I dread the Aggy game next season.

However the future is bright because Texas has a few players with Left Tackle talent. There is mulleted back-up Luke Poehlman who is currently undersized and about whom I have no real opinion other than that I’m not sure Gilbert wants to see a mullet coming from the back of the helmet responsible for covering his blindside. Then we have the inexperienced talents Garret Porter and Mason Walters.

Porter I’ve seen play basketball in person and he has the mobility, long arms and lack of body fat you like to see from a Left Tackle. He redshirted this season however. Mason Walters played Center in high school and would have been playing guard as a sub this season but was injured. Given Texas’ recruitment of the no. 1 Center prospect in Texas (from my very own Cedar Park High School) and Snow’s presence I’m expecting Walters to see time at Left Tackle eventually because that’s where you would expect an offense to place its most valuable talent.

Starting Right Tackle Hix would be a terrible Left Tackle because he doesn’t move well laterally against speed rushers and his backup, Britt Mitchell, couldn’t beat out Mullet man to be back-up left tackle for Ulatoski so I’m forced to assume he’s rubbish in pass protection as well.

Center will be David Snow, who looked great as a freshman and mixed as a sophomore with his low being the Red River Shootout when OU’s McCoy nearly broke him down. At any rate, he’ll be an improvement over Chris Hall whatever Davis chooses to do.

Replacing Charlie Tanner is an undertaking that would seem to have been simple but failed to happen for 3 seasons. He was a very solid player but not the kind of elite talent Texas can field with their resource base. My bet is on 5 star Senior Tray Allen taking over there. Allen was considered one of the best lineman of his recruiting class and a potential Left Tackle extraordinaire. He never caught on but showed flashes of brilliance in practices, scrimmages and garbage time when moved to guard. A line with Walters, Allen, Snow, Huey and then Hix would be an athletic upgrade over last year’s group but will require seasoning to reach the same levels of pass protection. However, that is an acceptable timeline because Gilbert and the skill players are all young as well.

In conclusion, pass protection may be dicey on the edge as Walters or whoever has to learn the ropes but against the kind of interior pass rush that really bothered Texas last year there should actually be improvement with Hall being replaced by Snow.

With the foundation in place for Gilbert’s offense we can move on to:

The Skill Players:

Brandon Collins was a likely candidate to be the no. 2 receiver this season behind Shipley in replacement of Cosby. Then he was ruled academically ineligible, then he was arrested for armed robbery and that was it. Dan Buckner was statistically the no. 2 receiver in the offense this season and then he was arrested in college station and transferred. Well then.

Marquise Goodwin surprised a lot beginning the season as a track player who might earn a spot on the team and finishing as the leading receiver in the OU game and 2nd receiver in the National Championship. His value just in running the WR screen makes him a starter in my mind. He went for 70 yards against Alabama just with 3 screen pass receptions.

Malcolm Williams has been and will be until potentially fall camp, the most talented receiver on the squad. He’s a downfield threat because of his size and speed and when he catches the short routes he can accelerate past guys in a hurry. His blocking on screens and running plays is also invaluable. However, he drops the ball. He’s like the Terrel Owens of the Longhorns without the bad locker room stuff or frequent pass opportunities.

After those two I’m less certain about the others. Kirkendoll was great in games that didn’t pit him against Texas-level talent and John Chiles is just learning the position but hasn’t shown the work ethic and consistency. I think the staff decided a while ago that Chiles was one of the more explosive talents and have continued to employ him under that assumption but he hasn’t shown it on the field.
There are other guys that haven’t seen the field like DeSean Hales, a shifty former running back who got good reports from bowl practices, and Greg Timmons who is a 6-3 guy with good fundamentals. Incoming however are Mike Davis and Chris Jones, 2 highly valued recruits, and Darius White the number one receiver in the national recruiting class. Nothing is set in stone here really.

At running back there is a huge collection of talent. Chris Whaley was last year’s prize RB recruit but unless he’s a game-breaking talent I think Tre Newton will hold down the job of starting running back because he knows how to find the crease in the zone running game, he is an excellent pass-blocker, and he can receive coming out of the backfield.

DJ Monroe would be a great third down back if he had those latter 2 skills. Nevertheless his speed on sweeps makes him a valuable weapon to be used like Percy Harvin in the offense next year.