Morning Coffee Intends To Be More Aggressive. No, Really.

by Peter Bean on Aug 22, 2007 9:44 AM CDT in Quick Hits Comment 15 comments

We'll start with a nice Longhorn notes column from the SA Express-News' Jeff McDonald. Along with a nice featurette on Drew Kelson, McDonald includes this "Buy" note:

Buy: Akina’s blitz-a-palooza. UT players have been raving about Duane Akina’s aggressive approach to calling defenses. So far in summer workouts, the Longhorns co-defensive coordinator has displayed a propensity to come with blitzes so exotic, they might as well come with a fruity umbrella drink. No less an authority than quarterback Colt McCoy says the defense is doing things he’s never seen before. Look for this year’s defense to be far more aggressive than Gene Chizik’s conservative, base-oriented scheme.

Virtually every time a defensive coordinator assumes a new job, there's talk of being "more aggressive." Football, and defense, are aggressive activities, so it's an adjective which gets tossed around liberally. However, it's not always indicative of how a DC intends to coach his defense. His scheme may not, in fact, be more aggressive than his predecessor's.

With Akina, though? I'm certain he intends to be blitzing with greater frequency than Gene Chizik, who was married to his base 4-3 defense. Chizik emphasized maintaining position, controlling gaps, and limiting blitzes. I talked to Duane Akina about his scheme over the summer and he made it completely clear that there will be more blitzing. Not only more blitzing, but more appearances of blitzing - even when the defenders aren't going to be coming.

We don't have any results to judge just yet, but I firmly believe that the blitz, a real risk in the NFL, is a smart, prudent defensive tactic for NCAA football. The kids on offense don't execute well enough for the risk to be so great it's not worth it. Get to the quarterback, make him make quick decisions. You'll get burned on occasion, but the cost-benefit overall is in your favor.

While McDonald was busy featuring Drew Kelson for the Express-News, the Statesman's Cedric Golden was profiling Erick Jackson, the free safety competing with Kelson for a starting job. Jackson is a fifth year starter who's been limited to special teams duties as stars like Michael Huff and Michael Griffin crowded the safety position.

Golden writes that Jackson's time may have come. According to various camp reports, Jackson has been playing well, and he's always had a reputation as a fierce bell-ringer. He hits hard and flies to the ball much like the departed Michael Griffin. Normally, I raise an eyebrow that any fifth-year senior would suddenly become a starter, but with Texas, the caliber of play at safety has been so strong that good players can, and have, been lost on the depth chart. Jackson has had to wait because he's been behind some real superstars. He'll have a chance in '07 to make his own mark.

Some interesting nuggets in Suzanne Haliburton's notebook, including:

*Emmanuel Moody, the USC tailback who's opted to transfer, includes Texas among the schools he intends to visit. Moody will also take a look at North Carolina, Florida, and Oklahoma State. The tailback situation at Texas, UF, and OSU isn't exactly wide-open, but anywhere would be less competitive than at USC.

*Quan Cosby intends to return for his senior season. I have no idea why the media's asking him about this right now, but Cosby iterated that he'll be playing both in 2007 and '08.

*If post-season awards are your bag, you'll be happy to know Coly McCoy is on the Davey O'Brien watch list.

*Chris Hall may have the inside track on the starting left guard spot. This is in line with what Greg Davis said on Monday.

Briefly: Player quotes from Tuesday's practice are up at MB-TF.com... Corn Nation lovingly suggests Texas has a baby complex... Sam Bradford has been named OU's starting quarterback; C&CM approves... Shannon Woods has been named a co-starter for the Red Raiders... What do you do when your house is broken into and your XBox is stolen? Write a haiku...

--PB--

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More blitzing?

TMQ says Aiiiiyeeee!

In all seriousness, I'm excited to see Akina unleash more blitzers. After all, we have the speed to disrupt offenses.

As for Kelson and Jackson, is it inconceivable for Jackson to be on the field for nickel and dime packages as an additional corner? I thought he's gotten some time there before. If they're both as good as people are saying, I'd like to see both of them in there.

The SA article is also interesting in that it says to "sell" the youth movement on defense, stating that we should expect "Robert Killebrew, Scott Derry and Rashad Bobino at linebacker; Ryan Palmer, Brandon Foster and Erick Jackson in the secondary." Color me unimpressed.

by jc25 on Aug 22, 2007 10:18 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

football

Something different is always better. In Carl Reese's last years, people were clamoring for something less than walking 7-8 men up to the line and shooting every gap (which is all Reese seemed to run at the end). I remember being so excited when I saw our linebackers more than 3-4 yards off the line of scrimmage when Robinson and Tomey got here.

Now, after Chizik's scheme, we're hoping for more pressure. I hope Akina can strike the right kind of balance between these two philosophies.

by Jason Mayer on Aug 22, 2007 10:22 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Excellent point

Nothing to add to that.

--PB--

by Peter Bean on Aug 22, 2007 10:25 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Quan

How old is Quan? Is he 25 yet? If he has a decent year I'd be shocked if he doesn't go to the NFL. Every year he stays here is on year less getting paid. I'm not sure how much he made off of baseball, but I don't think it was that much.

by afat on Aug 22, 2007 11:34 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Re: Quan

Depends what he's in this for. Did he come back to college for a shot at the NFL, or was he looking to fulfill his college degree while playing football? Is he even good enough to be drafted into the NFL?

Keep in mind that after this year, should he decide to stay, Quan would be the obvious best receiver on the team, with Pittman and Sweed (and to a lesser extent, Nate Jones) leaving. So he would have a chance to get his diploma while being the best receiver on a top 10 program.

But hey, if he can get himself drafted on the first day in '08, I can't fault him for leaving.

by jc25 on Aug 22, 2007 12:11 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

anytime you add "a-palooza"

to the end of something, I'm gonna get excited about it.

by the other Andrew on Aug 22, 2007 12:02 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

...

Not really sure where to put this, so I stuck it here. It's a really great feature piece on Georgia AD Damon Evans, who's pushing student-athletes academically while raising the profile and profit level of his school.

With the conflicts of opinion over scheduling as well as our debates over recruiting and keeping mature and behaved student-athletes, I thought this was a relevant read.

by jc25 on Aug 22, 2007 12:19 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Bohl's article on Mack Brown's

legacy is interesting, if anyone has seen it.

I'm starting to wonder just how long Mack will stick around. I think he will be gone sooner than some people think.

Hypothetically, if he won an MNC in 07 or 08 he will probably retire, IMO.

Cats and dogs sleeping together.

by EYESofBEVO on Aug 22, 2007 12:27 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

rumors

I interned with a girl this summer whose sister was good friends with Mack's daughter when she transferred to UT for grad school. According to her daughter he was going to retire if they hadn't won the MNC.

by whoopspat on Aug 22, 2007 9:28 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Thats a lot of seperation from

the start of the rumor.

by Wells on Aug 23, 2007 9:07 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Blitz-a-palooza excitement

When you have apparently less-than-all-American talent at linebacker and secondary positions, you have two choices. One is the choice of the Baylors of the world: find some edge rushers and one great linebacker to stuff 1 of every 3 third and short runs (and thus end 7 minute drives by the opposing offense) and play the college version of the "cover 2" and keep everything in front until the opposing offense gets to the red zone. The other is to scheme, blitz, and disrupt, which, with UT's speed, will kill 90% of drives in 3-6 downs by 90% of college teams and give up 2 big plays for touchdowns each game (great!). Such a scheme will also give up 40+ points a game to top ten teams(not so great!). I think the Longhorns will be taking the second approach, which will work great and win the Oklahoma game but lose the A&M game unless they've saved back 15 run blitzes that A&M would have never seen.

by burnt in ny on Aug 22, 2007 1:26 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Exactly right

This is the frustrating story of UT football. We are geared up to hammer inferior opposition and flop against the top teams. Seems to me that a good part of the value of the blitz is the surprise element. If your blitzes are predictable (like ours) you lose that.

by Caradoc on Aug 23, 2007 9:46 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

respectfully disagree (in part)

Our LB's have underperformed no doubt, but aren't our new crop of DB's blue chippers, albeit young?

I also agree very much with your assessment of the two core schemes. But I tend to disagree with the mindset that OU is the gimme and A&M will present more challenges. I have A&M taking a big step backwards from last year where they lucked their way thru how many games (when you almost loose to Army in S.A. you just are NOT an elite team). Our loss to them last year was waaaay more about our own short comings than anything special from their side. The Ags have a 'Thunder & Lightning' attack that they don't even use correctly [too heavy on the thunder] and a QB who is the reincarnation of Bucky Richards. I think an inventive blizting scheme, with as much emphasis on faking a blitz to get opposing offenses to check into a different set, will befuddle the Ags alot more than the Swooners.

Chizik's, stop the run at all cost, style left our secondary completely on an island and thus I put it squarely on the scheme that they got torched so much last year. After all three of the guys on this 'malingned' secondary are now pros are they not? An effecitve blitzing scheme at the college level will give more help to those DB's than a cover 2 in my humble opinion.

Final comment, since we are talking about the college level let's not discount the emotional intensity that factors into the game. Linebackers that get to blitz and get sacks/stops for loss are alot more fired up than guys stuck the entire game in a run stop gap assignment situation right?

by longhornJ on Aug 23, 2007 10:42 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

some good points

You make some good points. I don't dispute that A&M could use their talent better. I think UT can stuff a power running attack anyway as long as they save some defensive looks. I got the feeling last year that A&M kept the ball so long because they knew exactly where to attack.
The point about intensity is also good, as it gives you a chance to blow open games if things go your way early in a big game.

by burnt in ny on Aug 23, 2007 2:50 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs