Daily Short #169, April 23rd, 2018: Spring Game Offensive Thoughts, Snap Counts, OL Grades
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Skill-Player Snap Counts
WR
Brennan Eagles - 45 snaps outside
Jerrod Heard - 45 snaps (15 snaps outside, 30 snaps in the slot)
John Burt - 44 snaps outside
Collin Johnson - 41 snaps outside
Devin Duvernay - 35 snaps outside
Lil'Jordan Humphrey - 29 snaps (9 snaps outside, 20 in the slot)
Jordan Pouncey - 29 snaps in the slot
Davion Curtis - 24 snaps outside
(walk-on) Phillipp Moeller - 20 snaps in the slot
TE
Reese Leitao - 35 snaps (3 inline, 13 split out, 19 at h-back)
Andrew Beck 26 snaps (1 inline, 11 split out, 14 at h-back)
Max Cummins 23 snaps (1 inline, 5 split out, 17 at h-back)
(walk-on) Austin Hibbetts - 19 snaps (2 inline, 5 split out, 12 at h-back)
Samuel Cosmi 1 snap (1 split out)
QB
Sam Ehlinger - 35 snaps
Shane Buechele - 30 snaps
Casey Thompson - 20 snaps
Cameron Rising - 19 snaps
RB
Toneil Carter - 38 snaps
(walk-on) Tim Yoder - 33 snaps
Daniel Young - 29 snaps
Kyle Porter - 16 snaps
Lil'Jordan Humphrey - 5 snaps
The offensive line was not as bad as you would think even considering the fact there were only 8 scholarship bodies in action for the spring game. There were definitely bad performances -- as we'll see -- but to lay the offensive inefficiency of the scrimmage at the feet of the OL, or any other offensive position group entirely, is wrong.
The scrimmage was televised, which made it feel like a game. This is the case for all spring scrimmages across the country. The offense runs plays against the defense, there is literally no "game-planning" involved -- but what is involved is situational football. The offensive coaching staff for Texas should have done a better job with the flow of the plays called situationally for both the white and orange teams in the scrimmage. The scrimmage was disproportionately pass-heavy and there were long spells where the run-game was abandoned, just as we saw during miserable stretches of offensive play in 2017.
Of the 104 total snaps charted, only 23 were traditional, designed runs!
The defense knew what was coming as it had seen the base, vanilla passing plays in practice. Furthermore, there was a disconnect somewhere regarding the pass-protection sets on the backside of run-pass option looks (blocked as inside zone) that left outside linebackers completely free to blitz in and cause easy sacks. (See Jeffrey McCulloch's big game). That guy felt like he won the lottery on some of those reps. But it wasn't just him, it was others, too. Either the QB was mis-communicating the call, the OL didn't understand the call, the RB didn't understand the call, the TE didn't understand the call, or the play design was simply bad. Repeatedly.
When some will argue that nothing should be expected of an offense in a spring game because the scheme is so vanilla, I say, "Good. If it's that simple and easy, then execute it."
OL Thoughts and Grades
LT 78 Denzel Okafor - 63 snaps (52 at LT, 11 at RT)
1 sack, 1 pressure, 1 TFL and 1 QB hit allowed
1 holding penalty caused
Disruption allowed and/or penalty caused once every 12.6 snaps.
DEEP DIG GRADE: 73.89 (Unacceptable)
It's time to end the charade and just move the big man inside to guard where he has always belonged. His feet are too heavy and it's the same outcome every time, no matter how much fans want the light to have finally come on for Okafor at a tackle position. If the offensive staff is actually looking poised to stick with the squirt-gun, no-run offense, it neuters Okafor of basically all the skills he holds. He needs to be a hog inside who will murder you in a phone booth on run-downs and time is running out to let him develop in this natural role instead of letting him whither away at tackle. Okafor is going to be a junior already. Once Calvin Anderson gets to town, the new position battles to watch will be for every interior line position between Patrick Vahe, Zach Shackelford, possibly Derek Kerstetter if Samuel Cosmi can continue to improve and move to RT, Patrick Hudson, Okafor and any of the newcomers. No one's job in the middle of that line should be safe and a true competition under the seemingly outstanding tutelage of Herb Hand could finally spell the end being in sight regarding the unit's run of historic underperformance.
LG 77 Patrick Vahe - 68 snaps
1 TFL, 1 QB hit allowed
Disruption allowed and/or penalty caused once every 34 snaps.
DEEP DIG GRADE: 75.54 (Acceptable)
The plain and simple truth is that Patrick Vahe needs to step up and be a leader on this football team -- not in the mouthy Naashon Hughes way with no on-field production behind your words, but in the Connor Williams way where your game is elevated to levels others see and want to aspire to. Patrick Vahe, coming into his senior season, is an average offensive lineman who would be a slim shot to get drafted should he continue to play lackadaisically down to his competition. Furthermore, he needs to become better at understanding -- and Dear Lord please stop me if you've heard this before -- his spacing in pass-pro sets and in his feel for the open space around him. He needs his head on more of a swivel and he needs better awareness. I can't believe I'm saying it, but at this point - based on three years of tape now - there really isn't that good a reason to say his spot in the starting lineup should even be guaranteed for 2018. It likely will be, because that's how things go with coaches (who all value experience so greatly), but from a pure evaluation-sense, Vahe really hasn't ever even been that good. He's showed promise as a young player but didn't build on that promise in the same way Connor Williams did. He has one year to change it.
C 56 Zach Shackelford - 65 snaps
No Disruption independently allowed
1 knockdown created
DEEP DIG GRADE: 77.69 (Above-Average)
Shack didn't independently allow any disruption in the game, but was definitely part of miscommunications with the guards next to him (most prominently Tope Imade but also Elijah Rodriguez) to allow disruption in a few forms. With this said, Shackelford remains underrated and generally crapped-on by the fanbase for doing nothing more than basically what he is asked and screwing up at times but not as often as the others. His 77.69 grade in the spring game was partially the result of getting reps versus weaker players later in the game, but that was the case for all of these guys.
RG 72 Elijah Rodriguez - 75 snaps (3 at center, 20 at left guard, 52 at right guard)
2 pressures allowed
Disruption allowed and/or penalty caused once every 32.5 snaps.
DEEP DIG GRADE: 75.27 (Acceptable)
Rodriguez played acceptably on the whole but continues to look like a baseline-level player with limited strength and general upside while concurrently possessing the ability to blow a play up for the offense at any point in time. A lot of his best plays came against a very small and underpowered walk-on in Edward Pequeno (a name that actually means 'little' in Spanish). He's simply not as good as Tom Herman and staff led fans to believe when reminiscing about Rodriguez during the time of his injury. Coaching staffs love experience more than anything, but I'd still be surprised if Rodriguez is anything more than a swing-depth player this fall as first man up along the line's interior. If he is not, it will be an indictment on Patrick Hudson who needs to make a move this summer and fall to add a mauler that can actually generate positive movement on run-downs.
RT 68 Derek Kerstetter - (20 at center, 57 at RT)
No Disruption independently allowed
1 knockdown created
DEEP DIG GRADE: 78.33 (Good)
Kerstetter played well in the scrimmage and looks to be picking up where he left off to end a productive -- albeit fraught with rookie mistakes -- freshman season. The fact that he is mixing in at center is important as this gives the opportunity to shuffle the group in a whole host of new ways once Calvin Anderson arrives in Austin which will be the impetus for a lot of shifting among the "best 5" that Herb Hand has at his disposal. Kerstetter's ability to play center gives an extra button to use in whatever that eventual game of Tetris will look like.
LT 52 Samuel Cosmi - 53 snaps
1 pressure allowed
1 false start penalty
Disruption allowed and/or penalty caused once every 26.5 snaps.
2 knockdowns created
DEEP DIG GRADE: 78.21 (Good)
I'm surprised by the grade, but maybe I shouldn't be. He only had a few egregious errors during the scrimmage and kept the damage to a minimum on those. His feet and balance are still issues (to a much lesser degree than some of the others - he has some juice in this area if he keeps working on it) but he's already a better option than Tristan Nickelson or Rodriguez were at either tackle in 2017. An immense upgrade, in fact. If you lived through the games those guys started, you could easily make it through a game Cosmi starts in 2018, period. Before we get too head-over-heels, though, it needs to be remembered that a lot of his work was done against guys like Andrew Fitzgerald, etc. Still, he was the lone bright spot among the three "depth" players on OL.
RG 67 Tope Imade - 52 snaps
1 sack, 1 QB hit independently allowed
Disruption allowed and/or penalty caused once every 26 snaps.
DEEP DIG GRADE: 73.46 (Unacceptable)
He needs to understand that in combo blocks, especially in three-hand-protection techniques that he needs to keep the uncovered half of his body free and generally just needs better feel for stunts and twists in pass protection, as well as the space around him as a protector. The Texas defense wasn't even technically stunting against him, it was just more instinctive players coming on delays and such. In the run game, if he does get his hands on you, he drives through the whistle and had a few nice flash plays in this way.
RT 71 J.P. Urquidez - 37 snaps
1 QB hit, 1 run-stuff and 1 pressure allowed
1 holding penalty
Disruption allowed and/or penalty caused once every 9.25 snaps.
DEEP DIG GRADE: 72.57 (Unacceptable)
He simply isn't ready, which isn't the worst news for Texas as it will not need him to be in 2018 barring outright Armageddon-like disaster injury-wise. And that kind of thing doesn't ever happen, right?
Right?
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Now Accepting New Patients --- 281-293-9140
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Skill-Player Snap Counts
WR
Brennan Eagles - 45 snaps outside
Jerrod Heard - 45 snaps (15 snaps outside, 30 snaps in the slot)
John Burt - 44 snaps outside
Collin Johnson - 41 snaps outside
Devin Duvernay - 35 snaps outside
Lil'Jordan Humphrey - 29 snaps (9 snaps outside, 20 in the slot)
Jordan Pouncey - 29 snaps in the slot
Davion Curtis - 24 snaps outside
(walk-on) Phillipp Moeller - 20 snaps in the slot
TE
Reese Leitao - 35 snaps (3 inline, 13 split out, 19 at h-back)
Andrew Beck 26 snaps (1 inline, 11 split out, 14 at h-back)
Max Cummins 23 snaps (1 inline, 5 split out, 17 at h-back)
(walk-on) Austin Hibbetts - 19 snaps (2 inline, 5 split out, 12 at h-back)
Samuel Cosmi 1 snap (1 split out)
QB
Sam Ehlinger - 35 snaps
Shane Buechele - 30 snaps
Casey Thompson - 20 snaps
Cameron Rising - 19 snaps
RB
Toneil Carter - 38 snaps
(walk-on) Tim Yoder - 33 snaps
Daniel Young - 29 snaps
Kyle Porter - 16 snaps
Lil'Jordan Humphrey - 5 snaps
The offensive line was not as bad as you would think even considering the fact there were only 8 scholarship bodies in action for the spring game. There were definitely bad performances -- as we'll see -- but to lay the offensive inefficiency of the scrimmage at the feet of the OL, or any other offensive position group entirely, is wrong.
The scrimmage was televised, which made it feel like a game. This is the case for all spring scrimmages across the country. The offense runs plays against the defense, there is literally no "game-planning" involved -- but what is involved is situational football. The offensive coaching staff for Texas should have done a better job with the flow of the plays called situationally for both the white and orange teams in the scrimmage. The scrimmage was disproportionately pass-heavy and there were long spells where the run-game was abandoned, just as we saw during miserable stretches of offensive play in 2017.
Of the 104 total snaps charted, only 23 were traditional, designed runs!
The defense knew what was coming as it had seen the base, vanilla passing plays in practice. Furthermore, there was a disconnect somewhere regarding the pass-protection sets on the backside of run-pass option looks (blocked as inside zone) that left outside linebackers completely free to blitz in and cause easy sacks. (See Jeffrey McCulloch's big game). That guy felt like he won the lottery on some of those reps. But it wasn't just him, it was others, too. Either the QB was mis-communicating the call, the OL didn't understand the call, the RB didn't understand the call, the TE didn't understand the call, or the play design was simply bad. Repeatedly.
When some will argue that nothing should be expected of an offense in a spring game because the scheme is so vanilla, I say, "Good. If it's that simple and easy, then execute it."
OL Thoughts and Grades
LT 78 Denzel Okafor - 63 snaps (52 at LT, 11 at RT)
1 sack, 1 pressure, 1 TFL and 1 QB hit allowed
1 holding penalty caused
Disruption allowed and/or penalty caused once every 12.6 snaps.
DEEP DIG GRADE: 73.89 (Unacceptable)
It's time to end the charade and just move the big man inside to guard where he has always belonged. His feet are too heavy and it's the same outcome every time, no matter how much fans want the light to have finally come on for Okafor at a tackle position. If the offensive staff is actually looking poised to stick with the squirt-gun, no-run offense, it neuters Okafor of basically all the skills he holds. He needs to be a hog inside who will murder you in a phone booth on run-downs and time is running out to let him develop in this natural role instead of letting him whither away at tackle. Okafor is going to be a junior already. Once Calvin Anderson gets to town, the new position battles to watch will be for every interior line position between Patrick Vahe, Zach Shackelford, possibly Derek Kerstetter if Samuel Cosmi can continue to improve and move to RT, Patrick Hudson, Okafor and any of the newcomers. No one's job in the middle of that line should be safe and a true competition under the seemingly outstanding tutelage of Herb Hand could finally spell the end being in sight regarding the unit's run of historic underperformance.
LG 77 Patrick Vahe - 68 snaps
1 TFL, 1 QB hit allowed
Disruption allowed and/or penalty caused once every 34 snaps.
DEEP DIG GRADE: 75.54 (Acceptable)
The plain and simple truth is that Patrick Vahe needs to step up and be a leader on this football team -- not in the mouthy Naashon Hughes way with no on-field production behind your words, but in the Connor Williams way where your game is elevated to levels others see and want to aspire to. Patrick Vahe, coming into his senior season, is an average offensive lineman who would be a slim shot to get drafted should he continue to play lackadaisically down to his competition. Furthermore, he needs to become better at understanding -- and Dear Lord please stop me if you've heard this before -- his spacing in pass-pro sets and in his feel for the open space around him. He needs his head on more of a swivel and he needs better awareness. I can't believe I'm saying it, but at this point - based on three years of tape now - there really isn't that good a reason to say his spot in the starting lineup should even be guaranteed for 2018. It likely will be, because that's how things go with coaches (who all value experience so greatly), but from a pure evaluation-sense, Vahe really hasn't ever even been that good. He's showed promise as a young player but didn't build on that promise in the same way Connor Williams did. He has one year to change it.
C 56 Zach Shackelford - 65 snaps
No Disruption independently allowed
1 knockdown created
DEEP DIG GRADE: 77.69 (Above-Average)
Shack didn't independently allow any disruption in the game, but was definitely part of miscommunications with the guards next to him (most prominently Tope Imade but also Elijah Rodriguez) to allow disruption in a few forms. With this said, Shackelford remains underrated and generally crapped-on by the fanbase for doing nothing more than basically what he is asked and screwing up at times but not as often as the others. His 77.69 grade in the spring game was partially the result of getting reps versus weaker players later in the game, but that was the case for all of these guys.
RG 72 Elijah Rodriguez - 75 snaps (3 at center, 20 at left guard, 52 at right guard)
2 pressures allowed
Disruption allowed and/or penalty caused once every 32.5 snaps.
DEEP DIG GRADE: 75.27 (Acceptable)
Rodriguez played acceptably on the whole but continues to look like a baseline-level player with limited strength and general upside while concurrently possessing the ability to blow a play up for the offense at any point in time. A lot of his best plays came against a very small and underpowered walk-on in Edward Pequeno (a name that actually means 'little' in Spanish). He's simply not as good as Tom Herman and staff led fans to believe when reminiscing about Rodriguez during the time of his injury. Coaching staffs love experience more than anything, but I'd still be surprised if Rodriguez is anything more than a swing-depth player this fall as first man up along the line's interior. If he is not, it will be an indictment on Patrick Hudson who needs to make a move this summer and fall to add a mauler that can actually generate positive movement on run-downs.
RT 68 Derek Kerstetter - (20 at center, 57 at RT)
No Disruption independently allowed
1 knockdown created
DEEP DIG GRADE: 78.33 (Good)
Kerstetter played well in the scrimmage and looks to be picking up where he left off to end a productive -- albeit fraught with rookie mistakes -- freshman season. The fact that he is mixing in at center is important as this gives the opportunity to shuffle the group in a whole host of new ways once Calvin Anderson arrives in Austin which will be the impetus for a lot of shifting among the "best 5" that Herb Hand has at his disposal. Kerstetter's ability to play center gives an extra button to use in whatever that eventual game of Tetris will look like.
LT 52 Samuel Cosmi - 53 snaps
1 pressure allowed
1 false start penalty
Disruption allowed and/or penalty caused once every 26.5 snaps.
2 knockdowns created
DEEP DIG GRADE: 78.21 (Good)
I'm surprised by the grade, but maybe I shouldn't be. He only had a few egregious errors during the scrimmage and kept the damage to a minimum on those. His feet and balance are still issues (to a much lesser degree than some of the others - he has some juice in this area if he keeps working on it) but he's already a better option than Tristan Nickelson or Rodriguez were at either tackle in 2017. An immense upgrade, in fact. If you lived through the games those guys started, you could easily make it through a game Cosmi starts in 2018, period. Before we get too head-over-heels, though, it needs to be remembered that a lot of his work was done against guys like Andrew Fitzgerald, etc. Still, he was the lone bright spot among the three "depth" players on OL.
RG 67 Tope Imade - 52 snaps
1 sack, 1 QB hit independently allowed
Disruption allowed and/or penalty caused once every 26 snaps.
DEEP DIG GRADE: 73.46 (Unacceptable)
He needs to understand that in combo blocks, especially in three-hand-protection techniques that he needs to keep the uncovered half of his body free and generally just needs better feel for stunts and twists in pass protection, as well as the space around him as a protector. The Texas defense wasn't even technically stunting against him, it was just more instinctive players coming on delays and such. In the run game, if he does get his hands on you, he drives through the whistle and had a few nice flash plays in this way.
RT 71 J.P. Urquidez - 37 snaps
1 QB hit, 1 run-stuff and 1 pressure allowed
1 holding penalty
Disruption allowed and/or penalty caused once every 9.25 snaps.
DEEP DIG GRADE: 72.57 (Unacceptable)
He simply isn't ready, which isn't the worst news for Texas as it will not need him to be in 2018 barring outright Armageddon-like disaster injury-wise. And that kind of thing doesn't ever happen, right?
Right?
