Detailing Texas' late season coverage busts
“I think we can look back at games and say ‘man, just don’t cut that guy loose on that one route’ and that’s 50 more yards that maybe we would get back and a touchdown that kind of has reared its ugly head a little bit.”
Steve Sarkisian summarizing the end of the 2022 regular season
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There was a bit of controversy over who was to blame on some of the coverage bust touchdowns in the last two weeks of the season. It’s been a minute, but I wanted to take just a moment to demonstrate some clarity on what went wrong.
Here was the bust against TCU where Quentin Johnston ran free:
Here’s Baylor running the same play:
What’s different?
In the first example, field cornerback Terrance Brooks paused to potentially sit on the deep sail/out route by the slot receiver and let the outside receiver run free on a post. Anthony Cook almost adjusted to pick him up before letting him go to try and stop the sail. No one covers the post, touchdown.
In the second example, Brooks carries the post and Cook plays the sail route. It’s a little touch and go but they defend it effectively.
Many have assumed it was incumbent on the safety to stop the post…but it is not.
Here’s the same offensive concept run against Texas by West Virginia when D’Shawn Jamison is at field cornerback:
Why do you think we can easily find examples from nearly every Big 12 team running this play against Texas? Who remembers when I highlighted Hudson Card’s success executing this very concept in fall camp?
Here’s the play:
The design of quarters coverage is to potentially leave the cornerback on an island against the post route. Texas mixes in single-high defense which plants a safety in the middle to stop the post and hopefully that prevents defenses from just teeing off with concepts like these which can isolate the cornerback. However, every now and again the opponent is going to dial up one of these shots when Texas is in quarters and the cornerback has to be ready to stop the post on his own.
Texas lost Quentin Johnston because of a coverage bust by the freshman cornerback, Terrance Brooks. Just as they gave up this freebie against Baylor shortly after they stopped the post:
In quarters, the safety takes the slot on anything vertical. These in or out-breaking routes at 5+ yards are going to be picked up by the safety and the cornerback has to be ready to hold up outside in a 1-on-1. A bit risky, but it was a very good coverage to Texas this year and a big part of the reason why they were outstanding in run defense. I think Texas should maintain this approach in 2023, what’s the point of recruiting 5-star cornerbacks if you don’t use them? But you can see here the importance of having cornerbacks who can run, play the ball in this scheme, and know their assignments.
Wouldn’t be shocked if it’s Jahdae Barron who gets the call at field cornerback next season for this reason, although there are some challenges in playing nickel with this scheme as well…
