SPONSORED BY MYPERFECTFRANCHISE.NET
Are you…- Ready to leave the corporate Rat Race for the American Dream?
- Looking for a side hustle while working your current job?
- Wanting to diversify, build wealth, and/or leave a legacy?
Andy is a franchise consultant (as well as franchise owner) and helps people find franchises that fit their skill sets, financial requirements, time to commit and more….
His services are 100% free and he’s here to help if you have any questions about business ownership.
Learn more about Andy and franchise ownership through these resources:
Andy's Story
Why a Franchise
Service Based vs Brick and Mortar
Semi Absentee Ownership
The Process and How It works
Andy Luedecke
www.MyPerfectFranchise.Net
p: 404-973-9901
e: andy@myperfectfranchise.net
Book time with me at: Andy's Calendar
*****
Texas is hosting UGA-to-Arizona DT transfer Bill Norton for the spring game this weekend, and there are reasons to believe that a pairing with the Horns could make plenty of sense for 2024 as Norton once again dips his toes in the portal. Not only is Norton's teammate Tiaoalii Savea from UA currently on the Texas roster, but his ex-DC Johnny Nansen is now in Austin, as well.
Did I mention that Texas' arguable biggest need right now is more quality depth (and really upgraded starter-level play) among the interior DL?
But how good is Norton?
I re-watched the Arizona games versus Oklahoma in the Alamo Bowl and versus Washington earlier in the 2023 to get a feel as to how to answer that question. I chose those two games, because earlier in the offseason, those were the two games I charted of Savea upon learning of Texas' interest in bringing him on board, and thought an apples-to-apples comparison of the two might aid in bringing us some clarity.
- Bill Norton is a pure nose tackle. In these two games, he played 88% and the head up on the center or at the one-technique, 4% head-up on the guard (2-technique), and 8% one the guard's outside eye (3-technique).
- Bill Norton was used heavily in these games. He was a true, front-line starter for a very good Arizona defense in 2023. He played on 68.46% of snaps, which was a 15% greater snap share than Texas' most heavily deployed interior DL (T'Vondre Sweat) played in 2023 (55.33%). One issue with him playing so much is that he does get gassed and becomes ineffective.
- Bill Norton is an early-down iDL. He does not profile anything like a T'Vondre Sweat or a Byron Murphy with his upfield penetration and effect on the passer. He is usally (as in, almost always) off the field on 3rd downs, long down-and-distance and against four-minute offense.
- Bill Norton played a much better game versus Washington than he did in the bowl game versus Oklahoma. If you were to watch the game versus OU on its own, you would come away thinking there is no way that Norton is a take. You can watch it for yourself and just watch No.45 the whole time and I'm not sure anyone would disagree. It is from that game that we can see the downside of his overall play, whereas the UW game shows a lot of his most positive attributes (albeit mostly versus an undersized center in Parker Brailsford): he eats up a lot of space in the middle, he was much better holding up against double teams in that game as well, allowing superstar LB Jacob Manu (whose role Anthony Hill will be playing in next season in Nansen's scheme) to do Jacob Manu things. He also had his only sack of the season in that game, a rare instance against Michael Penix in 2023. He also drew a holding penalty when Brailsford had to take him on in a man-solo assignment.
- However, the Oklahoma game showed us a few flaws that need to be addressed, or at least accounted for: Inconsistent pad level through series, bulky and stiff versus inside-zone double teams and a total failure to move laterally while engaged. Very little production and an on/off motor. He loses his feet too often and struggles to stay off the ground against opposing cut blocks. The Oklahoma offense had lots of trouble with the Arizona defensive front and the Wildcats drew seven holding calls in the game, but Norton was not one of them, he also didn't have a hand in creating any of the Sooners' six turnovers. (By the way, I really hope Nansen brings the tradition of the turnover sword to Texas, it is awesome).
- Three missed tackles through two games. He missed them all in the same way: plays that set up as if they could have been nice run-stuffs where the running back was able to break the arm tackle of Norton. He needs to improve in disengaging the opposition with more power and creating more space to fit up his responsibility with more of his bulky and sturdy frame rather than an arm and a shoulder. That equates to one missed tackle per every 29.67 snaps. For comparison, here are some snaps-per-missed tackle numbers from the interior DL of the Texas 2023 defense: Sweat (207.5), Carter (100.5), Broughton (70.25), Bledsoe (80), Murphy (123.3), Collins (61).
- Since he plays nose tackle, Norton would be coming in to challenge Vernon Broughton. Let's have a look at the total snaps/production-caused for all Texas defenders since 2015 who have played at least 100 snaps in the given season and add in the numbers from Norton and Savea, based on this (admittedly rather small) two-game sample from 2023 in Arizona:
(Click Image to Enlarge)
- You see that Savea actually came out looking really good in this exercise, while Norton did not. However, in comparing Norton to Broughton, he did come away more efficiently per-snap over this sample than Broughton did in the 2023 season. And if you look at cockamamie PFF and compare the two players (who both coincidentally wear No.45 on their jersey), they have the exact same grade as run defenders (69.7, which is tied for 176th place among 545 college football qualifiers from 2023).
In the end, the Bill Norton versus Oklahoma would look to be a slight downgrade from the player Vernon Broughton was in 2023, while the Bill Norton versus Washington would appear to be a realtively significant upgrade to 2023 Broughton. On the whole, the numbers show that Norton is probably a slight upgrade on Broughton overall based on these two games, but likely not as big a potential shot-in-the-arm as a player like Savea could be poised to be. However, Savea's competition at 3-technique (Collins) is stiffer than Norton's would be in Broughton, giving Norton the potentially easier road to playing time in 2024 should he choose to come to Texas. He would provide immediate, viable depth at worst and could possibly start at best.
Putting all these factors together, it shows that Norton is a take. However, he is not the type of presence that would single-handedly overhaul the state of the current iDL totem pole for the Longhorns, and the search for continued iDL additions in the portal should continue.
