Daily Short #62, September 14th, 2017: OL Thoughts and Grades (A Historical Performance)
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The best overall offensive line performance in the illustrious and controversial history of the Deep Dig.
LT Connor Williams - 69 snaps
No disruption allowed
1 knockdown
DEEP DIG GRADE: 84.56
153 snaps on the season; disruption allowed and/or penalty caused once per every 38.25 snaps
Williams bounced back from a very un-Connor-Williams-like performance with the best one of his entire career at Texas. Which is only fitting when it was the best performance out of the Texas offensive line as a group in any single game dating back five seasons. No other game has featured three players above the 80 threshold, and this was the first game in which Connor Williams has started poking into the mid-80s-overall (averaged between run and pass-grade) that has been predictive of highly selected prospects in the NFL draft over previous seasons such as Jake Matthews, Luke Joeckel (looking like a bust), Joel Bitonio, Taylor Lewan, Larry Warford and others. While many of these players peaked into the 90s in one element of their games (usually the run-block portion outside of Matthews) they would usually have average scores in the mid-to-high 80s. Williams' snaps/disruption allowed numbers should continue to tick up after committing almost as much as he normally does over the course of an entire season in 2017's opener versus Maryland.
LG Patrick Vahe - 71 snaps
1 QB hit, 2 run-stuffs allowed
1 knockdown
DEEP DIG GRADE: 80.94
154 snaps on the season; disruption allowed and/or penalty caused once per every 30.8 snaps
Despite the QB hit and the two run-stuffs allowed, this is probably the game where Patrick Vahe finally passed the eyeball test as a college offensive lineman with dominating potential. It's the best game he's ever played at Texas, and his first time to eclipse the 80-point-score mark. If we consider SJSU a viable opponent (which may need some adjusting to reality), then Vahe played like a Day 3 NFL pick in this one as a junior. The closest he's come to this level of performance, again, even despite giving up a hit and two run stuffs, would be in 2015 versus Kansas State (78.38), in 2016 again versus K-State (78.04) and also versus Kansas (78.2). Vahe's improving in his understanding of stunts and twists and keeping the open half of his body free to feel unexpected pressure and adjust to it when passing off stunters to Williams. As the two develop more chemistry in this aspect, the sky is the limit for the left side of the Texas offensive line. Where Vahe could have made this game into a monster was in his pulling in the power-run game. The Texas staff apparently took my advice last week in implementing a more diverse run-concept mix that actually involved the power play, but they were not as effective running it to the right side as Vahe continues to be too out of control when engaging edge defenders in free space for kick out blocks or when turning upfield through the alley to the linebacker when the crossing H-back handles the kick-out assignment. To often, Vahe ends up on the ground and it's the new area of his game that needs the most work as the understanding of stunts and twists seems to finally be on path to correction.
C Zach Shackelford - 75 snaps
1 pressure allowed
1 holding penalty
DEEP DIG GRADE: 79.78
159 snaps on the season; disruption allowed and/or penalty caused once per every 79.5 snaps
The run-concept mix versus SJSU broke down like this: Power - 44.4%, Outside Zone - 38.9%, and Inside Zone - 16.7%. Shackelford's outstanding (probably unsustainable) current snaps/disruption caused number has as much to do with the run-concept mix as it does his seemingly major improvements in the strength department. Shack struggled most last season as a freshman in inside-zone, where, as discussed ad nauseum here, he would far too often allow penetration upfield through his playside shoulder on solo-base assignments, which would, in turn, force early cutbacks for the running backs and throw off their initial aiming points. In addition to not running as much pure zone in the SJSU game, the staff threw in a pin-and-pull wrinkle allowing Shackelford to have an easy down-block assignment in outside-zone concepts which feels more like a power assignment (with built-in leverage) to a lineman. One of the undercover headlines of this year's Texas football team is that Zach Shackelford has played the best two games of his career to start the 2017 season.
RG Jake McMillon - 74 snaps
No disruption allowed
1 knockdown
DEEP DIG GRADE: 80.36
158 snaps on the season; disruption allowed and/or penalty caused once per every 79 snaps
It sounds like a broken record, but it was McMillon's best game on record as a Longhorn. Either San Jose State is brutally bad or the offensive line is stepping up in a major way. It's probably a little of both, but let's not let that take away from what should be a weight off of McMillon's shoulders after looking like a JAG last week versus Maryland. Both McMillon and Shackelford both have snaps/disruption caused numbers that will have to teeter down through the course of the season unless they go on to have absolute monsters, but it is worth noting that last year finished with Connor Williams being the far and away leader of the group, allowing disruption and/or causing a penalty once every 56.9 snaps over 911 total. Even with some regression, having a 2016 Williams-like season in this metric might not be totally out of the question for the two players which would clearly be a major and pleasant surprise for fans. We'll see how this number is looking between these two after a USC game which will provide one of the stiffer tests the unit will see in 2017.
RT Tristan Nickelson - 60 snaps
No disruption allowed
DEEP DIG GRADE: 76.33
131 snaps on the season; disruption allowed and/or penalty caused once per every 26.2 snaps
There were times in this game where Tristan Nickelson still looked bad, unbalanced and generally off-kilter in a few aspects of his game due to his size and lumbering gait, but he didn't allow any direct disruption. He's also strung together the two best games of his career at Texas to start 2017, exactly like Zach Shackelford. For any warts fans may notice with Nickelson, it needs to be noted that he has played at an above-average level given the Deep Dig's D1 baseline in both of his starts this season. To put this in perspective, he's had an average-or-below grade in all of his seven previous gradable starts outside of one (Iowa State in 2016 where he scored a 76.17). His snaps/disruption caused number is also way up through two games from his 2016 number of once every 12.7 snaps.
RT Denzel Okafor - 29 snaps
No disruption allowed
DEEP DIG GRADE: 78.5
42 snaps on the season; disruption allowed and/or penalty caused once per every 21 snaps
It was Okafor's first game with a significant enough sample to compile a grade and he played very well. He looks better on the playside of power concepts than Nickelson as his center of gravity is a little bit lower and his hand placement puts him in better position to cave the end down without losing his balance. While I don't think (for once) that Nickelson is in need of immediate replacing, Okafor is likely to slip into the starting spot at some point in the season if he continues to perform like he did versus SJSU in "1b" duty to Nickelson's current "1a."
Reserves
LT J.P. Urquidez - 9 snaps
LG Alex Anderson - 8 snaps
C Garrett Graf - 8 snaps
RG Austin Allsup - 8 snaps
RG Patrick Hudson - 5 snaps
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
The best overall offensive line performance in the illustrious and controversial history of the Deep Dig.
LT Connor Williams - 69 snaps
No disruption allowed
1 knockdown
DEEP DIG GRADE: 84.56
153 snaps on the season; disruption allowed and/or penalty caused once per every 38.25 snaps
Williams bounced back from a very un-Connor-Williams-like performance with the best one of his entire career at Texas. Which is only fitting when it was the best performance out of the Texas offensive line as a group in any single game dating back five seasons. No other game has featured three players above the 80 threshold, and this was the first game in which Connor Williams has started poking into the mid-80s-overall (averaged between run and pass-grade) that has been predictive of highly selected prospects in the NFL draft over previous seasons such as Jake Matthews, Luke Joeckel (looking like a bust), Joel Bitonio, Taylor Lewan, Larry Warford and others. While many of these players peaked into the 90s in one element of their games (usually the run-block portion outside of Matthews) they would usually have average scores in the mid-to-high 80s. Williams' snaps/disruption allowed numbers should continue to tick up after committing almost as much as he normally does over the course of an entire season in 2017's opener versus Maryland.
LG Patrick Vahe - 71 snaps
1 QB hit, 2 run-stuffs allowed
1 knockdown
DEEP DIG GRADE: 80.94
154 snaps on the season; disruption allowed and/or penalty caused once per every 30.8 snaps
Despite the QB hit and the two run-stuffs allowed, this is probably the game where Patrick Vahe finally passed the eyeball test as a college offensive lineman with dominating potential. It's the best game he's ever played at Texas, and his first time to eclipse the 80-point-score mark. If we consider SJSU a viable opponent (which may need some adjusting to reality), then Vahe played like a Day 3 NFL pick in this one as a junior. The closest he's come to this level of performance, again, even despite giving up a hit and two run stuffs, would be in 2015 versus Kansas State (78.38), in 2016 again versus K-State (78.04) and also versus Kansas (78.2). Vahe's improving in his understanding of stunts and twists and keeping the open half of his body free to feel unexpected pressure and adjust to it when passing off stunters to Williams. As the two develop more chemistry in this aspect, the sky is the limit for the left side of the Texas offensive line. Where Vahe could have made this game into a monster was in his pulling in the power-run game. The Texas staff apparently took my advice last week in implementing a more diverse run-concept mix that actually involved the power play, but they were not as effective running it to the right side as Vahe continues to be too out of control when engaging edge defenders in free space for kick out blocks or when turning upfield through the alley to the linebacker when the crossing H-back handles the kick-out assignment. To often, Vahe ends up on the ground and it's the new area of his game that needs the most work as the understanding of stunts and twists seems to finally be on path to correction.
C Zach Shackelford - 75 snaps
1 pressure allowed
1 holding penalty
DEEP DIG GRADE: 79.78
159 snaps on the season; disruption allowed and/or penalty caused once per every 79.5 snaps
The run-concept mix versus SJSU broke down like this: Power - 44.4%, Outside Zone - 38.9%, and Inside Zone - 16.7%. Shackelford's outstanding (probably unsustainable) current snaps/disruption caused number has as much to do with the run-concept mix as it does his seemingly major improvements in the strength department. Shack struggled most last season as a freshman in inside-zone, where, as discussed ad nauseum here, he would far too often allow penetration upfield through his playside shoulder on solo-base assignments, which would, in turn, force early cutbacks for the running backs and throw off their initial aiming points. In addition to not running as much pure zone in the SJSU game, the staff threw in a pin-and-pull wrinkle allowing Shackelford to have an easy down-block assignment in outside-zone concepts which feels more like a power assignment (with built-in leverage) to a lineman. One of the undercover headlines of this year's Texas football team is that Zach Shackelford has played the best two games of his career to start the 2017 season.
RG Jake McMillon - 74 snaps
No disruption allowed
1 knockdown
DEEP DIG GRADE: 80.36
158 snaps on the season; disruption allowed and/or penalty caused once per every 79 snaps
It sounds like a broken record, but it was McMillon's best game on record as a Longhorn. Either San Jose State is brutally bad or the offensive line is stepping up in a major way. It's probably a little of both, but let's not let that take away from what should be a weight off of McMillon's shoulders after looking like a JAG last week versus Maryland. Both McMillon and Shackelford both have snaps/disruption caused numbers that will have to teeter down through the course of the season unless they go on to have absolute monsters, but it is worth noting that last year finished with Connor Williams being the far and away leader of the group, allowing disruption and/or causing a penalty once every 56.9 snaps over 911 total. Even with some regression, having a 2016 Williams-like season in this metric might not be totally out of the question for the two players which would clearly be a major and pleasant surprise for fans. We'll see how this number is looking between these two after a USC game which will provide one of the stiffer tests the unit will see in 2017.
RT Tristan Nickelson - 60 snaps
No disruption allowed
DEEP DIG GRADE: 76.33
131 snaps on the season; disruption allowed and/or penalty caused once per every 26.2 snaps
There were times in this game where Tristan Nickelson still looked bad, unbalanced and generally off-kilter in a few aspects of his game due to his size and lumbering gait, but he didn't allow any direct disruption. He's also strung together the two best games of his career at Texas to start 2017, exactly like Zach Shackelford. For any warts fans may notice with Nickelson, it needs to be noted that he has played at an above-average level given the Deep Dig's D1 baseline in both of his starts this season. To put this in perspective, he's had an average-or-below grade in all of his seven previous gradable starts outside of one (Iowa State in 2016 where he scored a 76.17). His snaps/disruption caused number is also way up through two games from his 2016 number of once every 12.7 snaps.
RT Denzel Okafor - 29 snaps
No disruption allowed
DEEP DIG GRADE: 78.5
42 snaps on the season; disruption allowed and/or penalty caused once per every 21 snaps
It was Okafor's first game with a significant enough sample to compile a grade and he played very well. He looks better on the playside of power concepts than Nickelson as his center of gravity is a little bit lower and his hand placement puts him in better position to cave the end down without losing his balance. While I don't think (for once) that Nickelson is in need of immediate replacing, Okafor is likely to slip into the starting spot at some point in the season if he continues to perform like he did versus SJSU in "1b" duty to Nickelson's current "1a."
Reserves
LT J.P. Urquidez - 9 snaps
LG Alex Anderson - 8 snaps
C Garrett Graf - 8 snaps
RG Austin Allsup - 8 snaps
RG Patrick Hudson - 5 snaps
