Inside the gameplan: Adjusting against Rice
If Steve Sarkisian wanted to take a stab at re-establishing the Texas offensive identity this would be the week to do it.
Through two games, the Texas offense has shown only two positive dimensions, the 20 personnel package utilized to generate a spread passing attack for Hudson Card against ULL, and then Casey Thompson’s running against Arkansas.
The spread passing sets would do favors for Thompson while Card is certainly no slouch as a runner, but the identity for Texas right now is fairly thin, tends to only show up on third down, and is noticeably lacking a key dimension…running the ball with Bijan Robinson.
It’s no great surprise this early in the season and Sark tenure, but much of what this Texas offense does best is what they did well under Tom Herman. There’s no bevy of Alabama offensive players, largely recruited and developed by Lane Kiffin and other coaches following his formula under the supervision of Nick Saban (and observed by Sark himself). There is a superstar running back though and a chance to mix in some more familiar looks for this Texas team.
Getting Bijan going against the Owls
This shouldn’t really be terribly difficult. Bijan has already shown an amazing knack for generating positive gains under bad circumstances in Weeks 1 and 2 and there should be some good circumstances when the Texas offensive line is blocking the Owls’ front.
The million dollar question is the extent to which the Texas offense will look different when Thompson is at the helm relative to what we’ve seen with Card.
Against Rice, I wouldn’t necessarily expect too many differences, but we’ll see. What this offense needs right now is to get some easy wins and build some confidence. If Sark wanted to lean into some quarterback run schemes (pending how many are even in the playbook), there’s some potential to break some big runs in this game. Thompson has some breakaway speed and the spread-option has always been a big part of his game since he was a star sophomore running for 1,000 yards in Southmoore, OK.
A potentially instructive point of comparison here would be Texas’ game against San Jose State in 2017. Shane Buechele injured his shoulder in the humiliating debacle against Maryland so true freshman Sam Ehlinger got the start.
Texas then proceeded to trot out some 12 personnel looks and run power and a little play-action on the Spartans. Why not? There was nothing SJ State could do about it. The following week Buechele was also expected to be out and they had a very different gameplan. Texas ran 11 and even 10 personnel heavily against the USC Trojans on the road in the Coliseum and Ehlinger got 19 carries while also attempting 40 passes.
Included among those carries were some zone-read plays and then quarterback power schemes Tom Herman had been sitting on until he needed them for a big game.
How much does Sark have in the playbook for maximizing Thompson’s legs and how much are we likely to see against Rice?
The answer to the first question appears to be, “more than he’s been letting on.” Obviously Texas has a zone-read game because Card scored with it against Louisiana. Then they also have this tweak they showed against Arkansas:
That’s not a zone-read, watch Bijan’s track, he’s blocking all the way and so is Cade Brewer. You could call this “zone follow” but ultimately it’s “quarterback power.” It’s actually roughly the same play Iowa State stopped against Texas last year on 4th-and-1, but with some misdirection (it presents like their read play Card scored on the previous week) and they don’t try to run it at Mike Rose. I’m curious if Casey is stepping up to the line to check to “quarterback power” from a zone-read to make sure they have the numbers they need.
There’s no doubt Thompson has years of experience on box counts and quarterback runs in the spread offense.
Here was another interesting play from Texas, which could be an obvious upside of playing Thompson heavily.
A bad miss by Derek Kerstetter obscures what is otherwise a reasonably well-blocked play. Jake Majors shines in this scheme and Christian Jones has the quickness to make reach blocks on the back end. Junior Angilau looks awkward lunging at his man here but he does seal him outside and allows for the cutback.
Way back when Gary Kubiak was mentioned in connection with Texas I mentioned the obvious fit between this scheme and the Texas roster. It’s downright impossible for a backside contain player to force a “give” read by a quarterback with Thompson’s speed on any outside zone-read play and still make the tackle on the running back, so you can always get a numbers advantage.
You won’t get angles and numbers THIS good…
…but you’ll help your team out. As has been emphasized for months now, this is also the run scheme in which Texas’ O-line clearly has the greatest comfort. They spent 2020 working on it and it suits the quickness of players like Jake Majors, Christian Jones, and Andrej Karic.
Sark could easily scheme some outside zone plays from the shotgun for Bijan which don’t even ask Thompson to pull the ball down much, if at all. No defense is excited to stop the Texas outside zone game by giving away a backside edge to a fast quarterback, the Owls may scheme up some disguises but Texas needn’t overly involve the quarterback run.
An outside zone-heavy approach, perhaps mixing in Andrej Karic at right tackle, could allow Bijan to dominate the Owls and pile up gaudy stats. This would then build confidence for the rest of the offense.
Moving forward on offense
A bigger question here is what Sark intends to do after the humiliating performance by his offensive line against the Hogs? Keep running the same offense and just take an opportunity to get better? Or zero in on some spread schemes leftover from the previous era and let Thompson cook in the offense he was recruited and developed to execute for three seasons?
Speaking of offense suited to Thompson, these were also familiar concepts.
These were both Greg Davis staples. The bubble screen seems like a predetermined read and not a true RPO, but Brewer blocks it well and Jordan Whittington was recruited by Herman for his ability to be a flex running back on concepts like this.
The second play is whip-dig, inside receiver runs a whip route and the guy outside of him runs a dig behind him. The idea is to hold the inside linebacker with the whip so the dig can get open behind him with a big passing window. Arkansas obliged and Thompson has an easy pitch and catch to his top receiver for a big gain on third down. Again, you won’t get looks this good very often, but these are simple spread concepts which pair well with a zone-option run game and Texas’ personnel.
Texas worked the whip-dig combination very heavily back in 2005. The threat of the zone-option run game and Vince Young scramble tended to occupy the minds of defensive coordinators and consequently there was typically a lot of space to attack with two-man route combinations to the field involving tight end David Thomas and the slot (usually Billy Pittman).
To what extent will Sark adjust his approach this season to run something closer to the Herman offense or a simpler, zone-option spread? We may not fully know until Texas Tech, if then.
However in many regards, this offense has the makings of a strong Herman offense. Brewer is arriving at Andrew Beck levels of effectiveness after returning for a fifth year and cutting some weight. The offensive line found an identity at the end of 2020 which has carryover into this season. Casey Thompson and Hudson Card alike have years of experience in this sort of system (remember they ran this at Lake Travis). Jordan Whittington is a close proxy to what Devin Duvernay and Lil’Jordan Humphrey offered as volume receivers in the slot. Finally, Bijan Robinson is the star running back Herman has lacked ever since he waived goodbye to Ezekiel Elliott with a hand adorned by a National Championship ring Zeke helped place on his finger.
Sarkisian has his own system he wants to get to, emphasizing downfield shots and quarterback play in the pocket. To make the most of his time at Texas, he may need to borrow more from his predecessor’s plan until the roster has been reworked in his image.
The goal has to be to clear space for Bijan Robinson to run in. Whether this happens due to vertical play-action shots, RPOs, outside zone, or even inside zone, determining the best course needs to be Sark’s priority if he wants to avoid embarrassments in Big 12 play.
