Texas' DL, Edge, LB, scheme, and whatnot from wherever
By Coach Venable: Sometimes you just start out writing and figure crap out from there. I’m totally blind to the portal re-routing a roster and have even less confidence in any one player changing the dynamic of a team position. Remembering a phrase from the past lifetime corners me where the portal concerns—what if said portal difference maker breaks his ankle the first play of the first game this season. Lost more than one this way.
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Do you drop or change schemes? Make position changes relative to whatever decisions you made after the injury bug jumped your butt. Have you prepared for the unsure? Our defensive staff has some attention to detail thought patterns looming and whether or not they will continue to roll out the preferred left coast system (without proper personnel) that has fallen flat here in Football America.
It’s now about a certainty that PK doesn’t have the same type of personnel that stunned the left coast on a regular basis. If we are to believe the “word on the street” we understand we just lost our only true pressure rushing hope and are now reduced to unproven talents raising chaos from whatever alignment PK dials up. It may be time for someone to grasp the fact that football is number one in this state and spring football is a close second.
Football often offers surprises but at the same time it also exposes weaknesses. One learns real quick in defensive coaching you better stop the run or the rest is immaterial. Fretting over quality edge rushing takes a backseat if the offense is gashing you off tackle whenever they feel like it.
One quickly realizes that the defensive personnel available now wasn’t a match for the new staff. One also ciphers said personnel wasn’t void of talent. The secret was to find the happy median between the desired scheme and the strengths of the personnel on hand. Sad to say the first year offered very little successful coordination from the head defensive whistle.
Coaches coach. Players play. Regardless of what defensive call PK rolled out we still should have executed the reaction much better. Missing direct hits on ball carriers is not the coaches fault. Continuing to play the same culprits is definitely the coaches fault. Somebody (regardless of possible mistakes) should have received their chance to play better than the starter. It’s not always a good thing to stay with the establishment—veterans that play poor attitude losing football need to hit the pine or join the frat house with their new free time.
This defense has so many options one could wear out a memory card thinking about all the possibilities. First solution should be consideration for standing pat with 88 (Sorrell) and 1 (Finkley) plus other new enrollees manning the strong edge in our preferred scheme. The first option change should be going bigger and moving the best suited of 98 (Omoro), 95 (Collins), or 90 (Murphy) to protect the proximity and alley.
Some will say that using bigs on the edge will kill pass rushing pressure and one can’t really disprove the notion. We can say the ground game should be in better hands. We can also state our edge pressure from these same smaller types was minimal at best last year. Are we really losing ground by being better against the run but in the same neighborhood against the pass? My bet is we will play OT’s that will have more trouble with (90, 95, and 98) against the pass than our “speed” rushers. Just a educated thought.
Finally, I still believe we will pay the price for not offering DL’s the opportunity to make plays and build stats. It’s not exactly a glamor role to tie up blocks for under-achieving LB’s to butcher. The state doesn’t produce many off ball LB’s that can excel plugging and covering. Having one LB grade out dead *** last is bad enough but we provided both cellar dwellers. Evals and actual coaching remains pissing against the wind.
There will come a time when even coach Bo can’t persuade the big trenchers on absorbing blocks. We are getting killed with negative recruiting across the DL board. We can’t get a solid LB to sign on the dotted line much less find one that grades marginal in game action. The famous 4i has a ton of negative glory attached—I’m sure there is a long line wanting the chance to achieve happiness after being buried in this can’t win alignment.
Hell, what the hell do I know. Seemed like a good idea at the time.
