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Skill Player Snap Counts and Game-by-Game Percentages of Offensive Snaps
OL Thoughts and Grades
LT Calvin Anderson - 64 snaps
DEEP DIG GRADE: 78.12
1 TFL, 1 sack, 1 pressure allowed
2 knockdowns
25.86 snaps per disruption allowed and/or penalty caused (2018 season)
This game fell right in line with Anderson's median performance for the 2018 season thus far even though he allowed slightly more disruption than usual. Everyone surely noticed the sack-fumble he gave up at one point via the same issues we identified last week with change-up outside speed. When defenders save up a little something for third down speed-wise on Anderson he can get thrown for a loop.
We'd called for regression to the historical mean in the snaps/disruption allowed and/or penalty caused department for Anderson since Week 2 of the season and rest assured, that thing has normalized. Still, sitting at just under 26 snaps marks the best tackle play Texas has seen -- not counting Connor Williams -- since Donald Hawkins' senior season.
LG Patrick Vahe - 65 snaps
1 run-stuff, 1 pressure, 1 QB hit allowed
1 pin, 1 knockdown
DEEP DIG GRADE: 76.69
15.78 snaps per disruption allowed and/or penalty caused (2018 season)
Vahe's snaps/disruption allowed numbers remain miserable, but at least they improved in this game and grade-wise, it was his best of the season. Thank God, the Texas staff finally got the memo and quit using Vahe as a pulling guard on power concepts. They did exactly as suggested here and used other players on pin-and-pull setups to get pullers going out to the right side of the offense when they need them out that way aside from one play out of 65 on offense where Vahe, again, was a complete non-factor in space and failed to execute his assignment.
It shouldn't take away from Vahe's best game in 2018 and any improvement is welcome. If he can get back up to the 19-to-21-ish snaps/disruption area, he can be as serviceable as a Denzel Okafor circa 2017 or as Zach Shackelford was as a freshman. Those are not extremely high water marks, but it's hard to expect too drastic a turnaround given we're almost halfway through the season already. So, while his NFL hopes are looking slim at this time (what he's put on tape to start the season make him entirely undraftable barring workouts that blow the doors off of gym in every drill which isn't likely to happen), it's encouraging to see menial improvement headed into an OU game where Army has given Texas the recipe for how to stay in it: pound the middle of the defense with the run, sustain long drives, hold on to the football and keep Kyler Murray and Lincoln Riley off offense.
Texas had its most plays per drive in the KSU game as if it were warming up specifically to implement this game plan versus OU, and to be able to win, the Horns will need Vahe to operate at at least this level and not the unacceptable level witnessed versus TCU or the lackadaisical half-speed stuff we got against Tulsa.
C Elijah Rodriguez - 65 snaps
DEEP DIG GRADE: 77.15
1 TFL, 1 run-stuff allowed
22.69 snaps per disruption allowed and/or penalty caused (2018 season)
C Zach Shackelford - 15 snaps
DEEP DIG GRADE: N/A
23.25 snaps per disruption allowed and/or penalty caused (2018 season)
There was some shuffling at center and the right guard spot as Shackelford was inserted back in as the starter for 15 plays, bumping Rodriguez out to right guard during that time. Shackelford played fine. No negative plays and two slightly positive ones out of 15, but it was not a large enough sample to generate a grade (there need to be at least 20 snaps to calculate a Deep Dig grade). With that said, the 15 snaps with no disruption took Shackelford up to 23.25 snaps/disruption allowed which is the highest mark of his career at Texas which has teetered right around 20 or 21. He's continuing to get better and something tells me he could take that up to the near-30-range as a senior which would mean good things for Texas (as should be expected from a lineman who's been in the program 4 years as a starter, right?)
Ketchum might say it's time to give Elijah Rodriguez some damn respect. He's playing better than most hoped of projected, and in all, this was basically tied with USC for his best game of the season. He's keeping his hands inside better and isn't losing his feet as often. He's a good player for Texas and the Mizzou disaster he played at tackle for the Horns in the bowl game -- quite possibly the worst OL performance anyone has seen at Texas in recent memory and that is saying a hell of a lot -- we can now say was a product of a one-position player playing completely out of position. Rodriguez is not a "Swing Tackle" candidate under any circumstance, but, the numbers say he's basically been a good player at guard, grading out at an above-average baseline. It's hard to see the requisite traits that might lead to NFL success, but Texas fans will take a non-descript, above-average option up the gut of the offense any day given past precedent.
RG Derek Kerstetter - 50 snaps
DEEP DIG GRADE: 77.0
1 QB hit allowed
3 knockdowns, 1 pin
38.5 snaps per disruption allowed and/or penalty caused (2018 season)
Another week, another above-average performance by Kerstetter, who should be among the five players slated to start versus OU, even if Shackelford is indeed healthy and ready to go. The optimal lineup would absolutely include both Rodriguez and Kerstetter while sending Vahe to the bench. We know this will not happen, but it is what should happen if the Texas OL personnel was actually a meritocracy.
Just look at the snaps/disruption allowed numbers on the season. Even if you believe the Deep Dig grades are sometimes off -- they could never be that off through 5 games. The Texas staff finally saw reason with not pulling Vahe to the right after four weeks so maybe they'll see reason here, too. Kerstetter is an awfully tough guy to send to the bench in favor of others who are simply not performing. It will be fascinating to see how all that unfolds.
RT Samuel Cosmi - 65 snaps
DEEP DIG GRADE: 80.76
No disruption allowed
41.88 snaps per disruption allowed and/or penalty caused (2018 season)
Cosmi continues to play so well. He even had his best individual grade on a snap this season taken off the board because on the same play, TE Andrew Beck committed a holding penalty, negating the down for our charting purposes. It's Cosmi's second game of scoring an 80-plus on the Deep Dig scale as a RS FR in his first season starting which is unprecedented even in the age of Connor Williams! His feet, balance, punch, his set, his hips and his eyes are all interconnected like a machine and he's like a Williams clone with the smoothness in which it all operates.
He'll be leaving early for the NFL if this continues and who's to say it won't? He'll take bumps along the way as he develops though, and here's hoping that this unit, led, no doubt, by Cosmi from a pure player performance perspective if not a "senior leadership" one, can attempt to play up to his level versus Oklahoma, because Texas will need every edge it can get.
There are chances of rain in the Cotton Bowl on Saturday morning and afternoon and this group of big boys needs to embrace the idea of playing a smash-mouth game in the mud and muck should that be the case. For the first time in years, Texas walks into the Red River Shootout with a group of hogs capable of going toe-to-toe and actually winning in such a matchup if things fall right.
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Skill Player Snap Counts and Game-by-Game Percentages of Offensive Snaps
OL Thoughts and Grades
LT Calvin Anderson - 64 snaps
DEEP DIG GRADE: 78.12
1 TFL, 1 sack, 1 pressure allowed
2 knockdowns
25.86 snaps per disruption allowed and/or penalty caused (2018 season)
This game fell right in line with Anderson's median performance for the 2018 season thus far even though he allowed slightly more disruption than usual. Everyone surely noticed the sack-fumble he gave up at one point via the same issues we identified last week with change-up outside speed. When defenders save up a little something for third down speed-wise on Anderson he can get thrown for a loop.
We'd called for regression to the historical mean in the snaps/disruption allowed and/or penalty caused department for Anderson since Week 2 of the season and rest assured, that thing has normalized. Still, sitting at just under 26 snaps marks the best tackle play Texas has seen -- not counting Connor Williams -- since Donald Hawkins' senior season.
LG Patrick Vahe - 65 snaps
1 run-stuff, 1 pressure, 1 QB hit allowed
1 pin, 1 knockdown
DEEP DIG GRADE: 76.69
15.78 snaps per disruption allowed and/or penalty caused (2018 season)
Vahe's snaps/disruption allowed numbers remain miserable, but at least they improved in this game and grade-wise, it was his best of the season. Thank God, the Texas staff finally got the memo and quit using Vahe as a pulling guard on power concepts. They did exactly as suggested here and used other players on pin-and-pull setups to get pullers going out to the right side of the offense when they need them out that way aside from one play out of 65 on offense where Vahe, again, was a complete non-factor in space and failed to execute his assignment.
It shouldn't take away from Vahe's best game in 2018 and any improvement is welcome. If he can get back up to the 19-to-21-ish snaps/disruption area, he can be as serviceable as a Denzel Okafor circa 2017 or as Zach Shackelford was as a freshman. Those are not extremely high water marks, but it's hard to expect too drastic a turnaround given we're almost halfway through the season already. So, while his NFL hopes are looking slim at this time (what he's put on tape to start the season make him entirely undraftable barring workouts that blow the doors off of gym in every drill which isn't likely to happen), it's encouraging to see menial improvement headed into an OU game where Army has given Texas the recipe for how to stay in it: pound the middle of the defense with the run, sustain long drives, hold on to the football and keep Kyler Murray and Lincoln Riley off offense.
Texas had its most plays per drive in the KSU game as if it were warming up specifically to implement this game plan versus OU, and to be able to win, the Horns will need Vahe to operate at at least this level and not the unacceptable level witnessed versus TCU or the lackadaisical half-speed stuff we got against Tulsa.
C Elijah Rodriguez - 65 snaps
DEEP DIG GRADE: 77.15
1 TFL, 1 run-stuff allowed
22.69 snaps per disruption allowed and/or penalty caused (2018 season)
C Zach Shackelford - 15 snaps
DEEP DIG GRADE: N/A
23.25 snaps per disruption allowed and/or penalty caused (2018 season)
There was some shuffling at center and the right guard spot as Shackelford was inserted back in as the starter for 15 plays, bumping Rodriguez out to right guard during that time. Shackelford played fine. No negative plays and two slightly positive ones out of 15, but it was not a large enough sample to generate a grade (there need to be at least 20 snaps to calculate a Deep Dig grade). With that said, the 15 snaps with no disruption took Shackelford up to 23.25 snaps/disruption allowed which is the highest mark of his career at Texas which has teetered right around 20 or 21. He's continuing to get better and something tells me he could take that up to the near-30-range as a senior which would mean good things for Texas (as should be expected from a lineman who's been in the program 4 years as a starter, right?)
Ketchum might say it's time to give Elijah Rodriguez some damn respect. He's playing better than most hoped of projected, and in all, this was basically tied with USC for his best game of the season. He's keeping his hands inside better and isn't losing his feet as often. He's a good player for Texas and the Mizzou disaster he played at tackle for the Horns in the bowl game -- quite possibly the worst OL performance anyone has seen at Texas in recent memory and that is saying a hell of a lot -- we can now say was a product of a one-position player playing completely out of position. Rodriguez is not a "Swing Tackle" candidate under any circumstance, but, the numbers say he's basically been a good player at guard, grading out at an above-average baseline. It's hard to see the requisite traits that might lead to NFL success, but Texas fans will take a non-descript, above-average option up the gut of the offense any day given past precedent.
RG Derek Kerstetter - 50 snaps
DEEP DIG GRADE: 77.0
1 QB hit allowed
3 knockdowns, 1 pin
38.5 snaps per disruption allowed and/or penalty caused (2018 season)
Another week, another above-average performance by Kerstetter, who should be among the five players slated to start versus OU, even if Shackelford is indeed healthy and ready to go. The optimal lineup would absolutely include both Rodriguez and Kerstetter while sending Vahe to the bench. We know this will not happen, but it is what should happen if the Texas OL personnel was actually a meritocracy.
Just look at the snaps/disruption allowed numbers on the season. Even if you believe the Deep Dig grades are sometimes off -- they could never be that off through 5 games. The Texas staff finally saw reason with not pulling Vahe to the right after four weeks so maybe they'll see reason here, too. Kerstetter is an awfully tough guy to send to the bench in favor of others who are simply not performing. It will be fascinating to see how all that unfolds.
RT Samuel Cosmi - 65 snaps
DEEP DIG GRADE: 80.76
No disruption allowed
41.88 snaps per disruption allowed and/or penalty caused (2018 season)
Cosmi continues to play so well. He even had his best individual grade on a snap this season taken off the board because on the same play, TE Andrew Beck committed a holding penalty, negating the down for our charting purposes. It's Cosmi's second game of scoring an 80-plus on the Deep Dig scale as a RS FR in his first season starting which is unprecedented even in the age of Connor Williams! His feet, balance, punch, his set, his hips and his eyes are all interconnected like a machine and he's like a Williams clone with the smoothness in which it all operates.
He'll be leaving early for the NFL if this continues and who's to say it won't? He'll take bumps along the way as he develops though, and here's hoping that this unit, led, no doubt, by Cosmi from a pure player performance perspective if not a "senior leadership" one, can attempt to play up to his level versus Oklahoma, because Texas will need every edge it can get.
There are chances of rain in the Cotton Bowl on Saturday morning and afternoon and this group of big boys needs to embrace the idea of playing a smash-mouth game in the mud and muck should that be the case. For the first time in years, Texas walks into the Red River Shootout with a group of hogs capable of going toe-to-toe and actually winning in such a matchup if things fall right.
