Where is GD's head at? (I will give you a clue it is not on his shoulders)
by HornsRiverine on Oct 11, 2009 8:00 AM CDT
43 comments
Did Greg Davis attend the Mike Leach Spread Offense Camp this last summer? It honestly looks like Davis is trying to run the same style of offense as Leach does. Now before you fellow Horns fans start ripping into me just listen to my points.
First I am never one to blame execution on the coach's all you can do is get a game plan together and make adjustments, but the players still have to execute the play. With that said, last nights game plan was absolutely attrocious and where the hell were the damn halftime adjustments? The Texas offense became so predictable that my wife was barely paying attention to the game and was calling out what play on offense Texas was going to run. I am sure about 90% of you knew what the hell Texas was going to run the majority of the game.
Ok now back to my comparison of Davis to Leach. Tech does not recruit the same type of receivers that Texas does, they recruit the smaller, shifty, quick footed receiver that works well with those 5 yard passes because they rely on defenders missing the tackle which works well for them because it always seems like the first guy to the ball misses the Tech receiver and do not rely on the deep ball because they do not have to. So with that you cheat more guys up closer to the line to prevent a big YAC with more guys surrounding and flying to the ball. So when teams start doing that, you then watch Tech start attacking down the field more often to keep the defense on its heels.
Texas recruits the big run down the field try and create space receivers. Shipley is the exception because he is a threat to do both, but works better as a possesion receiver. So last night and for much of the season Colt threw what seemed like 98% of his passes between 3-5 yards, that plays as a huge disadvantage to the Texas offense. The Texas receivers are big, but are not shifty and quick like Tech receivers are, so when they catch the ball the YAC is not going to be huge unless they are in open space, but when 11 guys are not far from the ball that is not open space. It was almost like Davis counted on poor tacking by the Colorado defense, guess what? I do not think Colorado had one missed tackle the entire evening, they did an excellent job.
So what happened to the halftime adjustments? There weren't any Texas kept the same attrocious gameplan the second half and it was actually worst than the first half. Colorado was constantly lining up 8-9 guys in the box because Texas was never threatening deep. With those very short passes they are essentially run plays and that is what they aimed at stopping. With that many guys in the box you are not going to run the ball well at all. What the hell happened to Williams being a deep threat? Has he even caught a pass this year? If Texas does not start utilizing it's size with its receivers and then use Shipley underneath, the offense is going to continue last nights struggles. If Davis wants to play this dink and dunk passing game, then he needs to move Monroe, Whittaker, and those type of players to receiver because Chiles, Williams, and Buckner and not the type of athletes to make defenders miss.
I can guarantee that Oklahoma saw this last night and if Davis does not adjust and start attacking deep and the deep middle next Saturday could very well be a defensive struggle.
I absolutely hate blaming coachs on poor play, but I am going to put the blame on Davis' shoulders for one making such a crappy game plan to begin with. Colorado's secondary has been horrible and constantly beaten all season long, Colt should of had 500 yards passing last night with 5 TD's with how bad the Colorado secondary has been. Second if you cannot make halftime adjustments and you continue with what was not working to begin with, that is all coaching right there.
I hope this problem is addressed today and throughout the week and Texas comes up with a plan to attack Oklahoma's secondary and not let Oklahoma's LB's and D-line get involved. Now with that all said, I absolutely love the play by the Defense, that is a championship caliber defense and has been leading the way all year. I love Muschamp and am excited that he is the Longhorn's future head coach.
HOOK 'EM and BEAT THE HELL OUT OF ou!
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I completely agree with this
I was thinking the same thing. We did not stretch the field, and they did not miss tackles. They kept everything in front of them, and we were fine with that. I don’t get it.
3 plays I can think of that for any other coach but Greg would have signalled the benefit of stretching the field. The 2 double moves by Shipley (1 was a TD, the other a PI call) and a 22 yard pass to Buckner (with no YAC). Those were the only downfield plays I remember and all 3 were successful. If we do that 3-5 times in the first half, the game is over by halftime.
Seriously, this guy is going to give me a heart condition.
"A lot of people look for the easy way to do anything, in swimming there is no easy way." - Eddie Reese
by SwimTexas on Oct 11, 2009 11:24 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs
agree
I was also wondering where were M. Williams, Newton, and Monroe? They were listed on the injury list IIRC.
Oh, b4 I forget, what the HELL was up with that shovel pass play? That was just plain bad. After the first time it was stuffed, it should’ve been retired for good, but no, “let’s try it again. What? same result? weird.”
by vy til i die on Oct 11, 2009 12:00 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs
Hmmm
After the first time it was stuffed, it should’ve been retired for good, but no, "let’s try it again. What? same result? weird.
You must be new to watching Greg Davis call plays, as that statement could have been written 8 years ago. The man will never change. And he’ll be coaching here until I die, apparently. I actually awaken in the night sometimes, with cold sweat, and shaking hands, from a nightmare involving Muschamp’s first press conference after Mack retires, in which he announces that he’ll be retaining the services of Offensive Coordinator Greg Davis.
by BrooklynHorn on Oct 11, 2009 1:15 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
Ummmm no
I have been a Horns fan for all 28 years of my life, this post was to get last nights frustrations out. I have seen the goods and bads of this team and trust me Greg Davis is not the worst it has been. He is one of the most frustrating though.
The next up and coming Longhorns QB!
by HornsRiverine on Oct 11, 2009 4:24 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
Malcolm Williams was in the game. I think I remember a penalty on him on a kick return.
by burntorangehorn on Oct 11, 2009 10:13 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
colt needs to look down field sometime as well, he’s staring down those 5 yard slants and out routes from the snap.. more than once he had a receiver streaking deep and was too busy focusing somewhere else. colt seems hesitant to throw deep, regardless of what the WR are doing.
by Displaced Longhorn on Oct 11, 2009 1:13 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs
lotta problems, not a lot of adjusments or "flavor" to our offense
please o please tell me that davis has something up his sleeve for OU
i mean, he has to? right? he’s the o-coordinator at one of the best cfb programs in america
"We'll be baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!"
by greenspointexas on Oct 11, 2009 1:15 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs
No one knows.
As fans and for the team, we all hope he does.
Perhaps he believed we could play it plain vanilla and beat CU pretty easily. But even after we were DOWN, he made no adjustments…to me, that is scary. It’s the same story with GD. He’ll have his share of horrible called games every year. It surprised me that he never got it going at all. We do have a defense that can keep us in games and even win games (like the game yesterday).
"Football's so important in Texas. On the West Coast, it's a social. On the East Coast, it's a culture. Here, it's a religion."
-- Major Applewhite
by Sunkist on Oct 11, 2009 1:24 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
true, the no adjustments were killing me
i just hope that if we do wildhorn, he lets chiles pass it
if we run, we run out of i form or more qb draws on 1st down
more wr screens, or at least a damn slip screen like collins used to do (havent seen that near enough this year)
downfield passes, etc
"We'll be baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!"
by greenspointexas on Oct 11, 2009 2:17 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
Just a thought
They don’t have the capacity to address the problems. If they did, they would have by now.
So instead of waiting for a ship that probably never arrives, I instead wait for the day that we have a competent OC.
by utexex on Oct 11, 2009 2:08 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs
shovel pass to oblivion
Has the shovel pass ever worked for us?
It should only be tried when the pass rush is getting to Colt…which, so far, is not very often.
by MesquiteHorn on Oct 11, 2009 2:58 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs
Let's use our Heisman-armed NFL QB prospect to his max while he's still here!
I hate to be repetitive, but I have been saying exactly what was posted all morning long. Not only does it play against or strengths, throwing within 5 yards of the line of scrimmage is prone to turnovers, like the INT of of Shipley’s hands. Our o-line is at its best in pass protection. Put a fullback or true TE in, mass protect and loosen up the defense by throwing to Malcom Williams, Dan Buckner, J Shipley, or Marquise Goodwin down the field! This will get those safeties out of the box and allow us to gain yards in chunks, not by plodding 4 yards at a time. Where is Williams? Does GD think he got suspended like Collins? See last Nov 1 – he can get open and separate. If he is in the doghouse, let him out or we will be involved in a 13-10 slugfest with OU. Texas is not physical enough to line up and run it down your throat. This is the final half-season of Colt’s senior year – let the man throw it down the field!
by Wigman on Oct 11, 2009 4:59 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs
Hell Yes!!
What I’ve been ranting about to my wife all day.
by Orangetower87 on Oct 11, 2009 10:00 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
There were open receivers downfield all night
If they weren’t roommates, Colt wouldn’t look at them.
Disciplina Praesidium Civitatis.
by zamm on Oct 11, 2009 10:14 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
Williams is invisible. That isn’t Davis’ fault. Granted, Davis could probably do things a little better than he has been, but to blame him for Williams’ drops and rounded-off routes on offense is kind of silly.
Actually, what I still don’t get is that so many people get on Davis for the offense, when the offense is actually doing better than the defense as far as national rankings go (unless the CU game changed things significantly).
by burntorangehorn on Oct 11, 2009 10:17 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
Have we done one freakin play action fake all season?
I am re-watching some of the Colorado game and its like they are in our freakin hundle. They are guessing its going to be a run and bringing 8 into the box on the snap. Leaving 3 DBs to cover our 4 WR’s. And ofcourse they guessed right again and again.
by cj43 on Oct 11, 2009 10:26 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs
The way I see it next week in Dallas
is our defense giving up about 17-20 pts to OU. That’s no knock on our D, I actually think that would be a great performance, because no doubt Bradford will look better next week than he did against Baylor. But can our offense get more than that against a stout OU D? Well one would think so since Miami got 21, but with the way our offense has played in its two conference games this year and in both games getting help from the special teams, I’m not too sure. Combine that with awful playcalling and this is going to be a nerve-wracking week.
by 2Cor12:9 on Oct 12, 2009 12:54 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs
Awful playcalling? Texas leads the nation in points per game, and only a handful of scores have come from ST and defense. I’m not sure how much worse things could be.
by burntorangehorn on Oct 12, 2009 12:34 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
Are you serious?
Who in their right mind would be satisfied with 17 points against Colorado? Did you even watch the game? The playcalling was terribly obvious.
by 2Cor12:9 on Oct 12, 2009 1:08 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
I watched the game, but I don’t put it all on Davis. Did you not see all the drops and bad passes? A lot of this is on Colt, his receivers, and the line as well. Everyone had a bad game; would you say Colt’s play was just plain awful? Would you rather have Jonathan Crompton than Colt, perhaps?
by burntorangehorn on Oct 12, 2009 1:36 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
Like I said
17 points will not get it done. Granted there were some drops and bad passes and lackadasical efforts when it came to blocking, especially the WRs. But if I as a fan, someone who does not study film, knows what plays are coming just because of the personnel we have on the field, then how much more prepared for those plays will the opposing team be who have watched film. Who didn’t know when we had a 3rd and 3 on our opening drive of the 2nd half and we were in the shotgun with Cody Johnson at RB that it was going to be a draw play?
by 2Cor12:9 on Oct 12, 2009 1:59 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
And you believe that was specifically Greg Davis’ call, then?
17pts. won’t normally get it done, but often it will…especially when the other team scores fewer than that.
by burntorangehorn on Oct 12, 2009 6:01 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
Next game do me a favor
write down before each play what you think the play is going to be (and run or pass does not count). Then check after the play is done to see if you were correct. I am betting that you are much worse than you think you are, you just remember the ones that you were correct about.
by Wells on Oct 12, 2009 11:25 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
drops and bad passes??
Colt was 32 of 39, thats 82%. When that only gets you 17 points against a terrible defense, its on the OC. Defenses don’t have to adjust run vs pass when all the passes are 5 yards. Besides not even trying to stretch the field to open the running game and short stuff up, the mix of plays never let us get any rhythm.
We’re close to leading the nation because we have played terrible defenses, we have blue chips everywhere you look, a defense that gives the offense the ball back frighteningly quickly, and because we have a QB that completes 80% of his passes. NOT BECAUSE OF OUR OC.
by Texastough on Oct 12, 2009 2:49 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
Oh, so the blue-chips at almost every position (even if true, which it isn’t) makes the unit perform well despite the coordinator?
How’d that work out for Akina and MacDuff?
by burntorangehorn on Oct 12, 2009 6:03 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
exactly
“How’d that work out for Akina and MacDuff?”
About like the offense looked last Saturday.
I can’t believe you’re actually defending GD. Look at every first half this year except UTEP. Look at the entire Colorado game. Look at GoBR’s and PB’s and other informed X’s and O’s analysis out there. Look at all of the weapons we have not being utilized. For cryin out loud, when you have a QB that completes 80% of his passes for over an 8 yard avg, we should score almost every drive. We are a completely one dimensional offense, and GD can’t even get us in a good flow in that one dimension. We’re less than one dimensional, we are Colt and Shipley and sometimes Buckner. Davis has had Colt for 4 years and this is the best he can do? This is a disservice to our players. I hope he proves me wrong as much as anyone, but so far this season he gets an epic fail.
by Texastough on Oct 12, 2009 9:19 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
I don’t think Akina and MacDuff’s defense ever appeared anywhere near the top seven in the nation in scoring and yardage. That’s the point. People love to bitch and moan about how horrible and awful the guy is, yet it’s because they don’t actually look at the numbers. It’s classic emotional knee-jerk reactions. The guy is uninteresting, not terribly creative, and often conservative and predictable…but mostly just in pre-OUsucks games.
Do you not think it’s possible, just possible, that the strategy this year, as is almost always the case, is to get the vanilla stuff working and hold back the new and/or aggressive angles until the RRS? That usually seems to be the case, at least since about October 2004.
by burntorangehorn on Oct 13, 2009 8:21 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
And as for an “epic fail” (“fail” being yet another internet meme that needs to go away), I’m not sure how reasonable you think your expectations are when the guy’s the OC of an offense that’s leading the nation in scoring.
by burntorangehorn on Oct 13, 2009 8:22 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
I've used the same argument
But numbers can lie. I don’t know how all of the defenses we have played rank, but it can’t be pretty. And a QB as good as McCoy can make up for a lot of shitty scheming and execution. Like I said, I really hope you are right about the second half. We were lights out second half last year. I just really don’t buy the vanilla-on-purpose-before-OU argument. We are basically the same offense as last year, so we’re not fooling anyone. It would be better to be clicking on all cylinders than to try to suddenly turn it on in Dallas, and the coaches know that. I really think that GD is average at best and average doesn’t cut it here.
by Texastough on Oct 13, 2009 12:13 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
OUsucks’ film repository doesn’t reset at the end of each season. Any team is going to retain film from previous seasons that it deems likely or even just possibly relevant to the upcoming contest, especially against superior or equal opponents. So it’s obvious that if UT has anything new, and if they’re holding back so as to catch the upcoming opponent unawares, they would keep going with what’s been working since the last rollout. Haven’t they been doing that?
by burntorangehorn on Oct 13, 2009 12:38 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
?
Didn’t really catch that. My point was that there is a huge difference, say, between ‘05 and ’06 (post-Vince) and ’08 and ’09, when almost all the pieces of our offense are still in place, with the same QB for four years. There is not that much new stuff we can spring on them. Its more a matter of just choosing which plays to run out of a bunch of plays that everyone has already seen. And it would have been better to be clicking right now than try to jumpstart on saturday. My opinion is that we haven’t been holding anything significant back, we have just played poorly and schemed poorly so far this year.
Lets put this on hold until the end of the year. I’ll give you that only halfway through the season and with the numbers we have put up, its a little unfair to GD. My posts have been out of concern that we will really struggle in the second half against decent defenses. Like I said, if you watch the games and pay attention to any X’s and O’s breakdowns, this is a real concern, numbers notwithstanding. But thats why they play the games. HOOK ’EM!!!
by Texastough on Oct 13, 2009 1:18 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
There’s not new stuff? What do you call the rollout of the Shipley-at-flex last year? What about play-action looks, reverses out of the “wildhorn,” etc.? Those haven’t been used much, if at all, this season, and I think that’s because the pre-OUsucks games have largely been approached to meet the following objectives:
(1) Be undefeated going into Dallas. This is key, but it probably wasn’t a huge concern. There were a few struggles against TT and CU, but Texas was able to remove doubt as to the outcome of even those two games without having to resort to more exotic offensive playcalling.
(2) Establish the fundamentals. This means setting up the framework for the overall offensive approach, without the elaborate details. This has mostly happened, although the running game hasn’t materialized, so it’s incomplete at this point. But the materialization of a running game isn’t the type of thing that one should expect innovative playcalling to impact much.
(3) Set up for strategic surprise when it is needed. “[W]hen it is needed” means when the team is facing existential (to the objective of winning, that is) adversity, which has not happened at any point this season. This is just an assumption I’m making based on the last few years of lead-up to the OUsucks games, the OUsucks games themselves, and also what I would do if I were employing my background in strategic studies and D&D in a UT offensive coordinator’s position.
Due diligence in preparation for the first five games was and always will remain absolutely necessary, but this year it clearly allowed room for preparation for practicing to employ tactics that almost certainly would not come out of the bag until the OUsucks game at the earliest.
by burntorangehorn on Oct 13, 2009 2:04 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
defense
A defense as good as ours also helps the offense a lot by getting them the ball back.
by Texastough on Oct 13, 2009 12:14 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
And of course the offense helps the defense by keeping them off the field more often than not.
by burntorangehorn on Oct 13, 2009 12:39 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
Yes. I also watched UTEP. And last season’s games. Do you feel it’s rational to base an entirely negative lynch-mob mentality on just the CU game, or do you have other evidence you’d like to present at this time?
by burntorangehorn on Oct 13, 2009 1:47 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
I have
the first half of every game this year but UTEP, and all of CU. Thats half of this year. The offense has not helped the defense much in those examples.
I am basing this on what I have seen this year. You are basing your entire argument on wishful thinking that we are saving it all for OU and beyond. I think I am on firmer ground. But I truly hope you are right, and the games will decide it, we won’t. OU SUCKS!
by Texastough on Oct 13, 2009 2:15 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
It has nothing to do with wishful thinking. What you are saying is wishful thinking is actually just an educated assessment based on recent history, as I’ve explained here. There’s no wishing involved.
by burntorangehorn on Oct 13, 2009 2:20 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
thats the post I was referring to
it is you guessing that the reason we have been less than spectacular is because we are saving it for OU. Noone knows that but the players and coaches, so right now it is wishful thinking for you. Please, lets just save this until the end of the year.
by Texastough on Oct 13, 2009 2:24 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
It’s not a guess or a wish if it’s based on evidence.
by burntorangehorn on Oct 13, 2009 2:29 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
I’m not sure what you’re trying to say. No, I’m not kidding. I based my assessment on recent behavior by the same actor who has done this in the very recent past. It’s a perfectly reasonable set of evidence, and the assumptions are far less outlandish than the emotional hand-wringing that’s happening with many.
by burntorangehorn on Oct 13, 2009 8:32 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
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