presented by the Dental Offices of Wendy Swantkowski, DDS
The Absolute BEST in family and cosmetic dentistry for the Houston-Memorial Area
Now Accepting New Patients --- 281-293-9140
Three quick weekend topics before I head out to try and catch a few crappie and then check in to my Southwest Airlines flight to Indianapolis, set to leave way too early on Monday morning:
1) Longhorns at the Combine
Texas will have four players in attendance at the 2020 NFL scouting combine in Indy next week: WRs Devin Duvernay and Collin Johnson, S Brandon Jones and (somewhat surprisingly to me) DE Malcolm Roach.
I'll be there to cover the action and will do my best to transcriptions of their national media interviews up here inside the 40 as soon as I can, same as past years. The NFL isn't making it easy on me, though ... Tuesday is going to be a nightmare. Not only is every NFL HC and GM availability going to take place on that one day (it used to be stretched over three days), but we also will get QBs and WRs in the midst of that chaos. I'll need some stiff drinks with my shrimp cocktail at Harry and Izzy's on Tuesday night for sure.
As for my expectations for the Longhorns during athletic testing:
BRANDON JONES: Clearly, we aren't expecting a thing as I reported from the Senior Bowl he told me he was recovering from a minor shoulder labrum surgery. He was in Mobile to take part in interviews though, and was taking them very seriously. I have no doubt he will have that same attitude as he goes from hotel room to hotel room at the JW Marriott in Indy to meet possible new employers. Jones' hope was to be ready for Texas pro day and I'm assuming that's still the timeline.
MALCOLM ROACH: Wouldn't it be awesome if Roach came in and blew up the combine? He wasn't a very productive player during Tom Herman's time at Texas, but Tom Herman would still (wrongly, considering Joseph Ossai was on the team) tell reporters (and presumably scouts who would ask) that Roach was the best player Texas had on defense. I think what Herman appreciated most was Roach's leadership and personality. He's a guy you'd love to see succeed, but I can't say I have even the slightest clue about how he'll test. The NFL is rolling out a bunch of new drills this year, so Roach will be among the first class to take part in the 'run and club' and 'run the hoop' on-field portions.
COLLIN JOHNSON: People unfamiliar with Collin Johnson were wowed at the Senior Bowl by his ability to move and his nifty feet for a player his size. The issue was with contested catches. With this understood, I have very little doubt he'll show very well in the on-field drills versus air (where two new routes have been added as well, causing some trouble for my trusty charting templates). I'm not sure he'll have too impressive a 40-yard dash, and I suppose I would set the ober/under for his time right at 4.6 seconds. Anything sub-4.6 I would consider a win for him. I know it sounds weird, but I hope he got some massage work done on his hands after the Senior Bowl to help him get to a bigger measurement than the puny 8 3/4" from the Senior Bowl weigh-in. Before you say this is cockamamie, it helped former Arkansas QB Brandon Allen to "grow" his hands from 8 1/2" at the Senior Bowl to 8 7/8" at the combine.
DEVIN DUVERNAY: We all know he's going to blaze his 40. The thing that sorta stinks is that even if he does go 4.33 or something absurd like that, this is a bat-sh*t crazy awesome WR class, chalk-full of studs from top to bottom. There's a group of 4-5 guys led by Alabama's Henry Ruggs who we know are epic burners, likely even faster than Duvernay as rumors are beginning to swirl that Ruggs is aiming for somewhere in the 4.2's.
Speaking of Duvernay ....
2) Slot usage under Tom Herman
With all the talk of the slot position this spring (and moving forward) in regard to Jake Smith and Jordan Whittington, I decided to go back through my alignment charts, game-by-game, for every season at Texas thus far under Tom Herman. I wanted to see, from a season-long perspective, if it was a position where one person typically dominated usage or whether it was a position where people would move in and out of the role to form a committee, etc.
Here, we get to two main takeaways: What percentage of total snaps did each player play in the slot over the entire course of the season AND what percentage of THAT PLAYER'S total snap count was made up of snaps out of the slot.
Click Images to Enlarge
2017
2018
2019
What we can make of them? Hell if I know. The fact is that no group here has had two players who both profile as young, unproven types with elite recruiting pedigree coupled with virtually unlimited upside. Both Whittington and Smith look like future NFL players when you see them move and work in practice. If the offensive staff doesn't find ways to play both at the same time, I think we'll see a split that doesn't resemble any year thus far under Herman (assuming both stay healthy) in that it will likely be close to a 50/50 split among two major contributors without many stragglers vying for the minuscule leftover snap share.
3) Book Review: American Wolf: A True Story of Survival and Obsession in the West by Nate Blakeslee
FROM THE PUBLISHER: A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER The enthralling story of the rise and reign of O-Six, the celebrated Yellowstone wolf, and the people who loved or feared her. Before men ruled the earth, there were wolves. Once abundant in North America, these majestic creatures were hunted to near extinction in the lower 48 states by the 1920s. But in recent decades, conservationists have brought wolves back to the Rockies, igniting a battle over the very soul of the West. With novelistic detail, Nate Blakeslee tells the gripping story of one of these wolves, O-Six, a charismatic alpha female named for the year of her birth. Uncommonly powerful, with gray fur and faint black ovals around each eye, O-Six is a kind and merciful leader, a fiercely intelligent fighter, and a doting mother. She is beloved by wolf watchers, particularly renowned naturalist Rick McIntyre, and becomes something of a social media star, with followers around the world. But as she raises her pups and protects her pack, O-Six is challenged on all fronts: by hunters, who compete with wolves for the elk they both prize; by cattle ranchers who are losing livestock and have the ear of politicians; and by other Yellowstone wolves who are vying for control of the park's stunningly beautiful Lamar Valley. These forces collide in American Wolf , a riveting multigenerational saga of hardship and triumph that tells a larger story about the ongoing cultural clash in the West--between those fighting for a vanishing way of life and those committed to restoring one of the country's most iconic landscapes.
MY TAKE: Excellent book and very easy to read -- I actually read it in like 4 or 5 days. As someone who has always been more on the side of ***very hesitant*** about wolf reintroduction in the West, I was intrigued to hear about this extremely contentious issue with stories and anecdotes from the people who live on the extremes of both sides; from ranchers and hunting guides seeing their very livelihoods destroyed due to reintroduction to the people who love each collared wolf in Yellowstone like a member of their own family. I GIVE IT 3.75 STARS.
Alex's Daily Short Reading List (updated 2-21-20)
Books I've read or listened to on Audiobook since I've been sharing these reviews on OB (this list is not encompassing of all of my favorite books although it certainly includes a few of them - books I recommend reading/listening to start at 3.5 stars).
The Undoing Project (5 stars)
The Accidental Superpower (5 stars)
I Am Pilgrim (5 stars)
Empire of the Summer Moon (5 stars)
Gridiron Genius (5 Stars)
The Cartel (5 stars)
The Wanderers (5 stars)
The 4-Hour Work Week (4.75 stars)
Astroball (4.75 stars)
Dueling With Kings (4.5 stars)
The Border (4.25 stars)
Wrath of the Khans - Dan Carlin Podcast Series (4.25 stars)
The Son (4.25 stars)
Unfreedom of the Press (4.25 stars)
Supermarket (4 stars)
The Great Alone (3.75 stars)
Hunting El Chapo (3.75 stars)
The President is Missing (3.75 stars)
The First Conspiracy (3.75 stars)
REAMDE (3.75 stars)
American Wolf (3.75 stars)
The Lost City of the Monkey God (3.5 stars)
The Summer That Melted Everything (3.5 stars)
The North Water (3.5 stars)
Deep Survival (3.5 stars)
----
Woolly (3.25 stars)
Cathedral of the Wild (3.25 stars)
Classic Krakauer (3 stars)
A Beautiful, Terrible Thing (3 stars)
The World of Lore: Wicked Mortals (2.5 stars)
Game Theorist's Guide to Parenting (2 stars)
American Gods (2 stars)
The Graveyard Book (2 stars)
Stay Interesting (1 star)
The Absolute BEST in family and cosmetic dentistry for the Houston-Memorial Area
Now Accepting New Patients --- 281-293-9140
Three quick weekend topics before I head out to try and catch a few crappie and then check in to my Southwest Airlines flight to Indianapolis, set to leave way too early on Monday morning:
1) Longhorns at the Combine
Texas will have four players in attendance at the 2020 NFL scouting combine in Indy next week: WRs Devin Duvernay and Collin Johnson, S Brandon Jones and (somewhat surprisingly to me) DE Malcolm Roach.
I'll be there to cover the action and will do my best to transcriptions of their national media interviews up here inside the 40 as soon as I can, same as past years. The NFL isn't making it easy on me, though ... Tuesday is going to be a nightmare. Not only is every NFL HC and GM availability going to take place on that one day (it used to be stretched over three days), but we also will get QBs and WRs in the midst of that chaos. I'll need some stiff drinks with my shrimp cocktail at Harry and Izzy's on Tuesday night for sure.
As for my expectations for the Longhorns during athletic testing:
BRANDON JONES: Clearly, we aren't expecting a thing as I reported from the Senior Bowl he told me he was recovering from a minor shoulder labrum surgery. He was in Mobile to take part in interviews though, and was taking them very seriously. I have no doubt he will have that same attitude as he goes from hotel room to hotel room at the JW Marriott in Indy to meet possible new employers. Jones' hope was to be ready for Texas pro day and I'm assuming that's still the timeline.
MALCOLM ROACH: Wouldn't it be awesome if Roach came in and blew up the combine? He wasn't a very productive player during Tom Herman's time at Texas, but Tom Herman would still (wrongly, considering Joseph Ossai was on the team) tell reporters (and presumably scouts who would ask) that Roach was the best player Texas had on defense. I think what Herman appreciated most was Roach's leadership and personality. He's a guy you'd love to see succeed, but I can't say I have even the slightest clue about how he'll test. The NFL is rolling out a bunch of new drills this year, so Roach will be among the first class to take part in the 'run and club' and 'run the hoop' on-field portions.
COLLIN JOHNSON: People unfamiliar with Collin Johnson were wowed at the Senior Bowl by his ability to move and his nifty feet for a player his size. The issue was with contested catches. With this understood, I have very little doubt he'll show very well in the on-field drills versus air (where two new routes have been added as well, causing some trouble for my trusty charting templates). I'm not sure he'll have too impressive a 40-yard dash, and I suppose I would set the ober/under for his time right at 4.6 seconds. Anything sub-4.6 I would consider a win for him. I know it sounds weird, but I hope he got some massage work done on his hands after the Senior Bowl to help him get to a bigger measurement than the puny 8 3/4" from the Senior Bowl weigh-in. Before you say this is cockamamie, it helped former Arkansas QB Brandon Allen to "grow" his hands from 8 1/2" at the Senior Bowl to 8 7/8" at the combine.
DEVIN DUVERNAY: We all know he's going to blaze his 40. The thing that sorta stinks is that even if he does go 4.33 or something absurd like that, this is a bat-sh*t crazy awesome WR class, chalk-full of studs from top to bottom. There's a group of 4-5 guys led by Alabama's Henry Ruggs who we know are epic burners, likely even faster than Duvernay as rumors are beginning to swirl that Ruggs is aiming for somewhere in the 4.2's.
Speaking of Duvernay ....
2) Slot usage under Tom Herman
With all the talk of the slot position this spring (and moving forward) in regard to Jake Smith and Jordan Whittington, I decided to go back through my alignment charts, game-by-game, for every season at Texas thus far under Tom Herman. I wanted to see, from a season-long perspective, if it was a position where one person typically dominated usage or whether it was a position where people would move in and out of the role to form a committee, etc.
Here, we get to two main takeaways: What percentage of total snaps did each player play in the slot over the entire course of the season AND what percentage of THAT PLAYER'S total snap count was made up of snaps out of the slot.
Click Images to Enlarge
2017
2018
2019
What we can make of them? Hell if I know. The fact is that no group here has had two players who both profile as young, unproven types with elite recruiting pedigree coupled with virtually unlimited upside. Both Whittington and Smith look like future NFL players when you see them move and work in practice. If the offensive staff doesn't find ways to play both at the same time, I think we'll see a split that doesn't resemble any year thus far under Herman (assuming both stay healthy) in that it will likely be close to a 50/50 split among two major contributors without many stragglers vying for the minuscule leftover snap share.
3) Book Review: American Wolf: A True Story of Survival and Obsession in the West by Nate Blakeslee
FROM THE PUBLISHER: A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER The enthralling story of the rise and reign of O-Six, the celebrated Yellowstone wolf, and the people who loved or feared her. Before men ruled the earth, there were wolves. Once abundant in North America, these majestic creatures were hunted to near extinction in the lower 48 states by the 1920s. But in recent decades, conservationists have brought wolves back to the Rockies, igniting a battle over the very soul of the West. With novelistic detail, Nate Blakeslee tells the gripping story of one of these wolves, O-Six, a charismatic alpha female named for the year of her birth. Uncommonly powerful, with gray fur and faint black ovals around each eye, O-Six is a kind and merciful leader, a fiercely intelligent fighter, and a doting mother. She is beloved by wolf watchers, particularly renowned naturalist Rick McIntyre, and becomes something of a social media star, with followers around the world. But as she raises her pups and protects her pack, O-Six is challenged on all fronts: by hunters, who compete with wolves for the elk they both prize; by cattle ranchers who are losing livestock and have the ear of politicians; and by other Yellowstone wolves who are vying for control of the park's stunningly beautiful Lamar Valley. These forces collide in American Wolf , a riveting multigenerational saga of hardship and triumph that tells a larger story about the ongoing cultural clash in the West--between those fighting for a vanishing way of life and those committed to restoring one of the country's most iconic landscapes.
MY TAKE: Excellent book and very easy to read -- I actually read it in like 4 or 5 days. As someone who has always been more on the side of ***very hesitant*** about wolf reintroduction in the West, I was intrigued to hear about this extremely contentious issue with stories and anecdotes from the people who live on the extremes of both sides; from ranchers and hunting guides seeing their very livelihoods destroyed due to reintroduction to the people who love each collared wolf in Yellowstone like a member of their own family. I GIVE IT 3.75 STARS.
Alex's Daily Short Reading List (updated 2-21-20)
Books I've read or listened to on Audiobook since I've been sharing these reviews on OB (this list is not encompassing of all of my favorite books although it certainly includes a few of them - books I recommend reading/listening to start at 3.5 stars).
The Undoing Project (5 stars)
The Accidental Superpower (5 stars)
I Am Pilgrim (5 stars)
Empire of the Summer Moon (5 stars)
Gridiron Genius (5 Stars)
The Cartel (5 stars)
The Wanderers (5 stars)
The 4-Hour Work Week (4.75 stars)
Astroball (4.75 stars)
Dueling With Kings (4.5 stars)
The Border (4.25 stars)
Wrath of the Khans - Dan Carlin Podcast Series (4.25 stars)
The Son (4.25 stars)
Unfreedom of the Press (4.25 stars)
Supermarket (4 stars)
The Great Alone (3.75 stars)
Hunting El Chapo (3.75 stars)
The President is Missing (3.75 stars)
The First Conspiracy (3.75 stars)
REAMDE (3.75 stars)
American Wolf (3.75 stars)
The Lost City of the Monkey God (3.5 stars)
The Summer That Melted Everything (3.5 stars)
The North Water (3.5 stars)
Deep Survival (3.5 stars)
----
Woolly (3.25 stars)
Cathedral of the Wild (3.25 stars)
Classic Krakauer (3 stars)
A Beautiful, Terrible Thing (3 stars)
The World of Lore: Wicked Mortals (2.5 stars)
Game Theorist's Guide to Parenting (2 stars)
American Gods (2 stars)
The Graveyard Book (2 stars)
Stay Interesting (1 star)
