I think people underestimate how well Greg Davis does his other job: Quarterback coach. He exploits McCoy’s strengths(short incredibly accurate passes) perfectly. Mccoy’s strength is not in his downfield passing, and GD has made sure to not take too many risks unless handed to him in a platter(Malcolm Williams streaking past a stumbling Tech defender for a 93 yard touchdown).

That being said I think his weakness is his consistent run play calling from the shotgun. Its been discussed in detail on this blog, as to how bad the shotgun formation can be for a running game. Mccoy’s first snap under center came on the first drive of the SECOND HALF. It yielded 8 yards on a run by Fozzy I believe. That simply has to change.

I didn’t like running Ogy into that line early or those ‘bubble’ screens that the Buckeyes sniffed out every single time. They worked later only after we had gashed them over the middle or further down the sidelines. I had a really ugly Chris Simms flashback watching that first half of play calling because it made Colt look bad but it wasn’t really his bad at all.

Plus any idea why we didn’t see the Foz until second half? Rotating him and Ogy worked really well, and I look forward to a continued rotation with him and our other talented young RBs next year and in the future.

GD’s poor play calling in the first half and Colt being just a tad off combined to make the Buckeye Nation look vastly better than they really were. If we had run the pseudo-hurry up from the get go we’d have scorched the stickers off their helmets fo sho!

btw, nice post on the other OSU’s site PB, there’s obviously a bunch of bitter beer face going on over there right about now…

This offense was based around a short controlled passing attack. If you actually watched the games you would have noticed that we did throw “downfield” more than a handful of times per game. With the experience gained by Williams and Buckner no doubt we will be slightly more vertical next season. I have absolutly no argument with sustained drives, time of possession and touchdowns. It may not be flashy, but if it isn’t broken don’t fix it.
Look for the top priority in the spring to be on the run game.

GD has always been the kind of OC that lets players make plays as opposed to “engineering” a play via some sort of creative scheme or formation. And when you can move the ball down the field like we do (via thousand pin pricks) without any semblance of a TE or consistent RB, its hard to complain. Hence the solid “B” he deserves.

That said, I completely agree there is room for improvement which I think will come next year. Part of that is based on personnel with the return of a TE like Irby and Marshall who can stretch the middle of the field, as well as getting Fozzy, Tre Newton, or Chris Whaley the football. When you add components like that, and sprinkle in a dash of more physicality and playmaking at WR then I expect GD will add the last couple of pages to the play book.

Putting Colt under center a little more often and letting him run something more “pro style” would be my hope for next year. This would add play action, with a lone deep RB and would be a nice addition to this play book. Judging by the few clips I’ve seen of Chris Whaley this would seem to be the formation that would best suit his downhill running style, not to mention Vondrell’s and probably Tre’s. This wouldn’t be a seismic shift in the playbook, but just another look that would make sense given the talent that we are going to have at every position on offense.

5 wide, empty backfield, hurry-up is pretty creative for Texas standards. Beats the hell out of the power I. We use shotgun because Colt is most comfortable in the shotgun. You don’t have to be creative to be effective – just execute your scheme to perfection, whatever, it is. That is the beauty of the Texas offense this season. Tremendous execution of a controlled passing game using the talents of an accurate passer who makes the right reads. It’s when we get too creative that things seem to mess up. The last drive was an example of incredible execution (although the 4th and 3 cut it a little too close). Same thing with VY – brilliant execution of the zone read scheme. If we didn’t have such an accurate passer who makes good reads like Colt, the scheme would not work because it would not be properly executed.

Amazing how Cosby was so open in such a predictable, uncreative offense at the end.

1. We won the game; won 12 games; won our third BCS in five years; won our fifth straight bowl game, yet, some can’t help but criticize because the game was close and won on the last series and not every offensive drive resulted in a touchdown. Enjoy the win, guys. Texas football has never been in better shape than it is right now. Give credit to the players and coaches and how about saving the criticism for a loss?

2. I like Muschamp. I think he has done a great job with our defense and will continue to improve our defense; however, our defense made some crucial mistakes last night. Yet, Muschamp gets a complete pass and no criticism while Davis is raked over the coals. Muschamp gets props because he is antimated on the side line and yells boom m.f on You Tube – however, he doesn’t have the touch of Midas – not everything he draws up works – and it is not going to against good football teams.

3. OSU is a good football team who only lost to two other good football teams and we beat them. Congratulations to all the players and coaches.

Peter,

If the whole offense is adversely affected by the injury to a single TE, which many apprently believe it was, then this goes to recruiting. Why did UT find itself with only one decent TE apparently? Has this position been relatively ignored in recent recruiting years? And what are the prospects for next year?