Game Thread Game Two: Texas 25, Ohio State 22 (final)

[scarletngrey11]

that is a good point, when your beating a team by 50 special teams wont be a focus point really.

 

[MililaniBuckeye]

I remember a while back, Mili, you found a Winner's Manual from the Cooper era and there were some differences from the one you found today as far as getting buckeyes went - very interesting way to compare the two coaches if I remember correctly, and the differences were quite obvious.

The one I posted above is the one I posted the last time (someone else had posted in on BN a long time ago, and I copied the post). I would guess that someone else here had posted the Cooper-era one.

 

[jwinslow]

The 4th and 18 was called with a little over a minute left in the game...we were down by 3-4 points. Hardly in the bag. We ended up scoring a TD with 9 or so seconds on the clock.
Are you still going to use 2 PR guys on the field next year. If so, I don't see you blocking many, if any, punts.

With Ginn, I probably wouldn't try to block any.

We will surely use the two man system... makes it much harder to punt away from a dangerous returner (plus the other guy always springs the returner for a big play)

We got some decent pressure last year, but we aren't gonna go for many blocks... they do it occasionally to keep the blockers honest.

 

[xrayrandy]

Um, I've been reading a lot of reports that say he can sometimes get it to the endzone, but it only matters if its deep in the endzone preventing a return. Your other kickers definitely haven't been doing it, but the reports have seemed to state that many of the kickoffs don't make it past the five. Maybe that was evaluating everyone, who knows.

I have been to all the open practices and know from personal obeservation as much as anyone not on the team or coaching staff about how well they have been kicking. First you need to know (or remember) that McGee had an injury for the later half of the season last year, so his kicks were low and short compared to normal. He has gotten healthy and gained a lot of leg strength since the spring. His two kicks during the recent scrimmage were 6 and 11 yards deep in the endzone. That was with a slight wind. Against a similar win he was kicking +/- 2 yards from the goal line. He can place the ball on either side of the field that deep with good hang time. The short answer is you probably won't return a kick made with the wind, and you might if it is against the wind. Other kickers did not kick as well but McGee is the only one you will see kick off.

 

[2002UNC]

If Tressel see that your punter is shaky I guarantee he will come after him. Any punt kicked in the end zone will get pressue. He will not use two guys if he thinks he can block it.

 

[MililaniBuckeye]

ProfessorX-Ray: You won't be kicking off very often, so that won't be a factor...

 

[azthebaz]

Woah, didnt know that. Well I guess then where is the best lot for regular cars?

If you cannot afford the airport you'll probably park on west campus and take a shuttle to the stadium. Or you can try to see if students will sell you their spot. I sold my spot last year, however this year I have moved a bit too far from the stadium to make it worth my while. Be careful though tow trucks are tow happy on game day.

 

[jreal26]

BTW, it is blatantly obvious that Mack Brown is a moron when it comes to special teams. He apparently hasn't had full contact many times in previous years (an InsideTexas article said how full contact on kickoffs in practice was a new thing last year)...



The only thing MORONIC would be to run full contact live punt coverages and kickoff returns in practice all the time. I've never seen teams run full contact drills on kickoff coverage for extended periods at any level. I've played highschool ball and college ball and have yet to see it. The first problem is, most of the people running 1st team are on the opposite unit. Most coaches want their scout team to simply give them a look. If the scout team wants to show out, and act scout team All- American, then they may go live. But most teams don't go full out live contact on kickoff and punt coverage in practice. That's just straight up stupid! Some people take any chance to blast Mack Brown for no apparent reason. I'm sure ole genius Tressel really allows Ginn to take live shots in practice from Carpenter and all the other starting kickoff coverage guys. Especially while some tool 3rd stringer is blocking for him. Enough with the blatant insults that have no merit.

 

[2002UNC]

Jreal your point is goodbut I think your misunderstanding what JWinslow is trying to say. Winslow is trying to say that brown doesn't care about ST. I have to agree with him. I live in the south and get alot of SEC and B12 games. I watched Texas play 5-6 games last year. I was shocked at how bad your special teams were. Its obvious that Mack doesn't emphasize Special teams. If he doesn't improve drastically Texas will lose by a double-digit margin. We will expose you guys for every other team on your schedule. VT is the only other team taht gets as much from their st as we do.

 

[High Lonesome]

paraphrasing a great Mack quote, " We have to get a punter...We would rather not punt, but in my experience it sometimes happens."

He clearly sees ST's as the 3rd part of the game as apposed to 1/3 of the game. That being said, he has promised a new aproach to them and a renewed commitment. I'll judge our kicking game in the first game.

 

[jwinslow]

It was not until last season that Brown incorporated full-speed, full-contact hitting during August workouts. It resulted from former DE coach Dick Tomey’s counsel. "The thing that Dick said was that if they do not tackle at full-speed before the first game, it’s hard to ask them to tackle in that first game," Brown said. "We have to do that."

This includes full contact on special teams practice, which Brown's Horns did not do until last year.

The quote speaks for itself. Our coach does have plays where Ginn and others are allowed to get popped. We had a kick scrimmage this spring, and apparently Marcus Freeman lit up Ginn pretty well a couple times. I'm sure there are times in practice where it isn't full contact, but just the idea that Brown would think it is ok to hope your guys can tackle well without doing so in practice is hilarious.

Most of the time (thanks to benson/matthews and VY), your team hasn't needed special teams to survive from the looks of your 2004 season. Thankfully for Texas... Michigan couldn't stop Lee Corso if he put on a helmet and ran the option... and so you were able to overcome the worst ST performance I've ever seen.

Its clear that Mack Brown does not get it, even after getting owned all day by Breaston (who ran in a straight line, this wasn't Breaston using his moves) on kickoffs. I was skeptical for a reason about Brown's ST solutions in the offseason, and it seems as tho many vulnerabilities still exist.

Maybe he doesn't know how to do better on special teams... and so its not even that he's ignoring it as much as knows his limitations. Seems like an assistant could help with that tho.

Your team is very talented, especially that defense. However, Henne had enough time to pass on you (where was the unstoppable DL?), and their WRs got open a lot (much more than against us). Edwards wasn't doing too many jump balls IIRC (which is what separated him from the rest of the nation), so it wasn't just b/c he was an AA wr that he was scoring.

But you've got serious issues on special teams. And they will come back to bite you. You haven't needed them in many of your big12 games, but you will need them on the 10th.

 

[scooter1369]

If you cannot afford the airport you'll probably park on west campus and take a shuttle to the stadium. Or you can try to see if students will sell you their spot. I sold my spot last year, however this year I have moved a bit too far from the stadium to make it worth my while. Be careful though tow trucks are tow happy on game day.

Sorry. My fault.

 

[jreal26]

The quote speaks for itself. Our coach does have plays where Ginn and others are allowed to get popped. We had a kick scrimmage this spring, and apparently Marcus Freeman lit up Ginn pretty well a couple times. I'm sure there are times in practice where it isn't full contact, but just the idea that Brown would think it is ok to hope your guys can tackle well without doing so in practice is hilarious.

Most of the time (thanks to benson/matthews and VY), your team hasn't needed special teams to survive from the looks of your 2004 season. Thankfully for Texas... Michigan couldn't stop Lee Corso if he put on a helmet and ran the option... and so you were able to overcome the worst ST performance I've ever seen.

Its clear that Mack Brown does not get it, even after getting owned all day by Breaston (who ran in a straight line, this wasn't Breaston using his moves) on kickoffs. I was skeptical for a reason about Brown's ST solutions in the offseason, and it seems as tho many vulnerabilities still exist.

Maybe he doesn't know how to do better on special teams... and so its not even that he's ignoring it as much as knows his limitations. Seems like an assistant could help with that tho.

Your team is very talented, especially that defense. However, Henne had enough time to pass on you (where was the unstoppable DL?), and their WRs got open a lot (much more than against us). Edwards wasn't doing too many jump balls IIRC (which is what separated him from the rest of the nation), so it wasn't just b/c he was an AA wr that he was scoring.

But you've got serious issues on special teams. And they will come back to bite you. You haven't needed them in many of your big12 games, but you will need them on the 10th.

I think you are seriously misinformed!! Texas, like any other school, has always gone full contact in August. They have not gone full contact ones vs ones for extended periods of time. Do you seriously believe that UT, under Brown, had never gone full contact in August practice?? Please, you're seriously smoking high end stuff!! The fact that some coaches go all out and some don't is merely different strokes for different folks. If Tressel believes in allowing Ginn to take full speed shots in a practice on kickoff return, good for him. As I've stated before, the only time I can recall ever going live punt and kickoff team is when the scout team scrubs would not provide a proper look. That's just my limited experience. In punt team we would go live only in punt block situations. Even then, it was only to simulate game speed getting to the kicker. A coach would stand where the kickers foot would meet the ball, and we would try to get to the ball as the coach had it extended.

On kickoff team, only a few instances would we ever go live and it was few and far between. And our program "greatly emphasized" special teams play. To imply that Brown never goes full contact, is again laughable. Many of UT's practices in the past have been open to the public, and many can attest that what you were reading was more "coach speak" than anything else!!

I'm more concerned about our place kicking duties than anything else. Anyone would be concerned kicking to a return man like Ginn (no brainer!!)Contrary to popular belief, Special teams have not been poor under Brown, they just haven't been stellar.


And yes, each team has issues getting to the QB. I think that is pretty well documented. I think that may be the downfall of either of these two teams. If we had one DE that could consistently provide strong pressure we'd be a helluva defensive unit. You guys are pretty much in the same boat. Although Kudla has all the measureables and Richardson has the build, neither of these two has shown that they can consistently put pressure on the qb. Each team pretty much has to send more than than the other team has blocking to get a great rush. That's why it will be important to stay out of obvious passing situations. And each team, whether you put much stock in our receivers or not, are more susceptible to the pass.

 

[Pheasant]

....Contrary to popular belief, Special teams have not been poor under Brown, they just haven't been stellar.
....

So you're saying they weren't poor in the Rose Bowl? You're correct, they were horrendous. I've never seen such horrible special teams play in a similar situation. This isn't hard to figure out.....Mack Brown is a terrible coach- Special teams requires a lot of effort and good coaching- Mack Brown's team is terrible on special teams.
You can blow smoke all day about how your special teams weren't that bad against southwestern texas state university school for the blind, but simply not being bad doesn't get it done against a well coached special teams unit. In the 4 games I saw Texas play last year, their special teams were bad in all of them. They just didn't get exposed in the others as much as the scUM game. If Texas brings anything related to what they had last year, the game will not be close.

 

[jreal26]

So you're saying they weren't poor in the Rose Bowl? You're correct, they were horrendous. I've never seen such horrible special teams play in a similar situation. This isn't hard to figure out.....Mack Brown is a terrible coach- Special teams requires a lot of effort and good coaching- Mack Brown's team is terrible on special teams.
You can blow smoke all day about how your special teams weren't that bad against southwestern texas state university school for the blind, but simply not being bad doesn't get it done against a well coached special teams unit. In the 4 games I saw Texas play last year, their special teams were bad in all of them. They just didn't get exposed in the others as much as the scUM game. If Texas brings anything related to what they had last year, the game will not be close.

Please do tell!! What games were the special teams so horrendous in? You've watched all these Texas games, please give me some examples other than Michigan. I'll give you one, against OKie St. they had two good returns. Now again, I implore you to name me any other games that our special teams were horrendous in? I'm the first to admit that they indeed need to be sound to beat you guys. You guys are acting as if every games was like the Rose Bowl. Again give me an example of how poor our special teams were???