Daily Short #125, January 8th, 2017: Texas Bowl OL Fallout + More 2018 Scenarios
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Texas OL vs. Missouri
LT Elijah Rodriguez - 75 snaps
4 pressures, 1 sack, 1 TFL, 1 QB hit allowed
2 knockdowns, 1 pin
Disruption allowed and/or penalty caused once every 9.38 snaps (yikes)
DEEP DIG GRADE: 73.67
LG Patrick Vahe - 69 snaps
2 TFL, 1 sack, 1 QB hit allowed
Disruption allowed and/or penalty caused once every 23 snaps
DEEP DIG GRADE: 74.14
LG Terrell Cuney - 6 snaps
C Zach Shackelford - 75 snaps
1 sack allowed
1 knockdown
Disruption allowed and/or penalty caused once every 75 snaps
DEEP DIG GRADE: 75.67
RG Jake McMillon - 75 snaps
1 TFL, 1 pressure, 1 QB hit allowed
Disruption allowed and/or penalty caused once every 25 snaps
DEEP DIG GRADE: 75
RT Derek Kerstetter - 71 snaps
1 QB hit allowed
1 holding penalty
1 pin
Disruption allowed and/or penalty caused once every 37.5 snaps
DEEP DIG GRADE: 76.2
RT Tristan Nickelson - 4 snaps
It's a good thing that the Texas offensive staff brought its A-game in the Texas Bowl (which I'm now convinced had 100% to do with Tom Herman taking over more play-calling responsibility from Tim Beck). Because, as usual recently, the offensive line didn't do anyone any real favors. It goes to show what I've been saying in my columns for years: that good coaches can scheme around bad offensive line play -- at least to some degree.
The "bad" started with Elijah Rodriguez at left tackle who played horribly in his first game back from injury. If Texas fans weren't used to abysmal left tackle play in the absence of Connor Williams through the 2017 season, it would have been one of the biggest storylines of the game. Despite being touted by the coaches as a player who was sorely missed in 2017 and one who looks to be a surefire future contributor, Rodriguez on this small sample was worse than Tristan Nickelson and Denzel Okafor were on the season by measures of both average DEEP DIG GRADE in 2017 (Okafor 75.87, Nickelson 74.38) and snaps/disruption allowed and/or penalty caused (Okafor 20.4, Nickelson 12.9). Allowing disruption and/or committing a penalty once per every 9.38 snaps as Rodriguez did during the Texas Bowl almost seems to be a Camhron Hughes-level of impossible. It goes without saying that at least one tackle position remains a large question mark heading into the 2018 season.
The interior line positions at two spots can probably be written on the ol' depth chart in Sharpie with Shackelford at center and Vahe at LG. Shackelford took solid steps forward in his game during the 2017 season in the areas of generating movement at the line of scrimmage in inside-zone and power-concepts and getting to the second level more cleanly. However, most will just remember a few bad snaps and some terrible penetration allowed upfield on ill-advised outside-zone play calls from the offensive staff.
Shackelford is turning into a good player while Vahe has always been one to some degree. We're still waiting on Vahe to turn it on and become the truly "plus"-player that he clearly has the potential to be, but even in the absence of that leap, we basically have an exact Kent Perkins-trajectory on our hands with him. In the worst-case scenario (barring injury) we can probably chalk Vahe up as a guy who never really lived up to his potential but was far from a disaster while at Texas with outside possibility of maybe playing in a professional football game one day. Believe it or not, Kent Perkins was actually called up to the 53-man roster from the practice squad for the Bengals final game of the 2017. (What a disaster that Cincy OL is).
The RG spot is as wide open as ever. We say farewell to Jake McMillon whose best season at Texas was alongside Connor Williams through Williams' epic 2016 breakout. McMillon didn't play the same way at all on his own over at RG and absent an elite player like Williams to his immediate left. The highest upside and possibly best returning player on the Texas offensive line is RT Derek Kerstetter. (If you would have told me in the preseason that I would be writing this in January, I would have asked you for some of what you were smoking). Kerstetter was thrown into the fire for all to see and held up incredibly well given the circumstances - despite some definitely wince-inducing hiccups and higher-than-average frequency of holding penalties as the OL's leader in penalties drawn for the season (9 total). As we look at the ol' depth chart, though, we can't exactly put his name in Sharpie, though, because we don't know whether he'll be at RT or LT in 2018. We have three seemingly sure-things on the OL heading into 2018 because what the Texas Bowl taught us is that we can't just chalk up the easy solution which was the Elijah Rodriguez plug-and-play pipe dream.
Should Texas opt to start Rodriguez -- I've already written about those possible scenarios:
If Rodriguez is re-inserted at RT the line could look like
1a) Kerstetter - Vahe - Shackelford - ??? - Rodriguez
1b) ??? - Vahe - Shackelford - Kerstetter - Rodriguez
(We could also flip this scenario over to Rodriguez at LT and moved Kerstetter to RT).
If Rodriguez is re-inserted at RG the line could look like
2a) Kerstetter - Vahe - Shackelford - Rodriguez - ???
2b) ??? - Vahe - Shackelford - Rodriguez - Kerstetter
But what about scenarios without Rodriguez?
What about the "Samuel Cosmi really is a beast like some have indicated he's looked like at practice through the later portions of his redshirt season" scenario? Well that could look like
Cosmi - Vahe - Shackelford - ??? - Kerstetter
or
Cosmi - Vahe - Shackelford - Kerstetter - ???
If you add in the "Patrick Hudson will take a major step forward in 2018 after a (hopefully) healthy spring" scenario, then the scenario above could look like
Cosmi - Vahe - Shackelford - Hudson - Kerstetter
Or maybe the "Junior Angilau doesn't go on his Mormon mission and comes in ready to rock" scenario?
Cosmi - Vahe - Shackelford - Angilau - Kerstetter
I almost forgot about the JUCO angle. There's also a "Mikey Grandy comes in better than anyone expects and is the rare example of a JUCO tackle who doesn't need a year to assimilate to a D1 program" scenario:
Grandy - Vahe - Shackelford - Hudson/Angilau/Rodriguez - Kerstetter
or
Kerstetter - Vahe - Shackelford - Hudson/Angilau/Rodriguez - Grandy
or (if we could combine the Cosmi scenario with a scenario that Grandy comes in and looks more like a guard)
Cosmi - Vahe - Shackelford - Grandy - Kerstetter
What about J.P. Urquidez? Now is about the time he should be taking the next step in his game. You could easily substitute him in to any of the scenarios above at LT. Tope Imade made his annual move from one side of the football to another at the end of the 2017 season and is now back an offensive lineman again. He, like Rodriguez, seems to be destined for reserve duty in 2018 but you never know what can happen over the course of an offseason. Imade is said to have guard/tackle versatility but he's an RG all the way from what I can tell. He could get into that Angilau/Hudson mix at the guard spot opposite Vahe. Garrett Thomas is still on the roster and looks more like a tackle than a guard despite the staff using him mostly as an interior-line guy in scout-team stuff I've gleaned from limited practice availability. He's unlikely to factor in, but again, you never know.
We can also take into consideration the fact that Texas is still after a few other JUCO linemen and we can't ever completely discount the (admittedly very unlikely) possibility of a late-emerging class of 2018 offensive line surprise.
The best news for Texas fans in this whole exercise?
The version of the Texas play-calling unit that handled the Texas Bowl has shown that it can get the job done with spare parts on the offensive line. Given the number of different scenarios for the 2018 season in the offensive trenches, perhaps a combination somewhere in there could be struck which had a chance to grow into something more than just spare parts. These are good players we're talking about, for the most part. It's how they're put together that's going to be the million-dollar question.
Or, in the cases of Tim Beck and Derek Warehime, the $790,000 and $400,000 questions for the 2018 season, respectively.
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
Texas OL vs. Missouri
LT Elijah Rodriguez - 75 snaps
4 pressures, 1 sack, 1 TFL, 1 QB hit allowed
2 knockdowns, 1 pin
Disruption allowed and/or penalty caused once every 9.38 snaps (yikes)
DEEP DIG GRADE: 73.67
LG Patrick Vahe - 69 snaps
2 TFL, 1 sack, 1 QB hit allowed
Disruption allowed and/or penalty caused once every 23 snaps
DEEP DIG GRADE: 74.14
LG Terrell Cuney - 6 snaps
C Zach Shackelford - 75 snaps
1 sack allowed
1 knockdown
Disruption allowed and/or penalty caused once every 75 snaps
DEEP DIG GRADE: 75.67
RG Jake McMillon - 75 snaps
1 TFL, 1 pressure, 1 QB hit allowed
Disruption allowed and/or penalty caused once every 25 snaps
DEEP DIG GRADE: 75
RT Derek Kerstetter - 71 snaps
1 QB hit allowed
1 holding penalty
1 pin
Disruption allowed and/or penalty caused once every 37.5 snaps
DEEP DIG GRADE: 76.2
RT Tristan Nickelson - 4 snaps
It's a good thing that the Texas offensive staff brought its A-game in the Texas Bowl (which I'm now convinced had 100% to do with Tom Herman taking over more play-calling responsibility from Tim Beck). Because, as usual recently, the offensive line didn't do anyone any real favors. It goes to show what I've been saying in my columns for years: that good coaches can scheme around bad offensive line play -- at least to some degree.
The "bad" started with Elijah Rodriguez at left tackle who played horribly in his first game back from injury. If Texas fans weren't used to abysmal left tackle play in the absence of Connor Williams through the 2017 season, it would have been one of the biggest storylines of the game. Despite being touted by the coaches as a player who was sorely missed in 2017 and one who looks to be a surefire future contributor, Rodriguez on this small sample was worse than Tristan Nickelson and Denzel Okafor were on the season by measures of both average DEEP DIG GRADE in 2017 (Okafor 75.87, Nickelson 74.38) and snaps/disruption allowed and/or penalty caused (Okafor 20.4, Nickelson 12.9). Allowing disruption and/or committing a penalty once per every 9.38 snaps as Rodriguez did during the Texas Bowl almost seems to be a Camhron Hughes-level of impossible. It goes without saying that at least one tackle position remains a large question mark heading into the 2018 season.
The interior line positions at two spots can probably be written on the ol' depth chart in Sharpie with Shackelford at center and Vahe at LG. Shackelford took solid steps forward in his game during the 2017 season in the areas of generating movement at the line of scrimmage in inside-zone and power-concepts and getting to the second level more cleanly. However, most will just remember a few bad snaps and some terrible penetration allowed upfield on ill-advised outside-zone play calls from the offensive staff.
Shackelford is turning into a good player while Vahe has always been one to some degree. We're still waiting on Vahe to turn it on and become the truly "plus"-player that he clearly has the potential to be, but even in the absence of that leap, we basically have an exact Kent Perkins-trajectory on our hands with him. In the worst-case scenario (barring injury) we can probably chalk Vahe up as a guy who never really lived up to his potential but was far from a disaster while at Texas with outside possibility of maybe playing in a professional football game one day. Believe it or not, Kent Perkins was actually called up to the 53-man roster from the practice squad for the Bengals final game of the 2017. (What a disaster that Cincy OL is).
The RG spot is as wide open as ever. We say farewell to Jake McMillon whose best season at Texas was alongside Connor Williams through Williams' epic 2016 breakout. McMillon didn't play the same way at all on his own over at RG and absent an elite player like Williams to his immediate left. The highest upside and possibly best returning player on the Texas offensive line is RT Derek Kerstetter. (If you would have told me in the preseason that I would be writing this in January, I would have asked you for some of what you were smoking). Kerstetter was thrown into the fire for all to see and held up incredibly well given the circumstances - despite some definitely wince-inducing hiccups and higher-than-average frequency of holding penalties as the OL's leader in penalties drawn for the season (9 total). As we look at the ol' depth chart, though, we can't exactly put his name in Sharpie, though, because we don't know whether he'll be at RT or LT in 2018. We have three seemingly sure-things on the OL heading into 2018 because what the Texas Bowl taught us is that we can't just chalk up the easy solution which was the Elijah Rodriguez plug-and-play pipe dream.
Should Texas opt to start Rodriguez -- I've already written about those possible scenarios:
If Rodriguez is re-inserted at RT the line could look like
1a) Kerstetter - Vahe - Shackelford - ??? - Rodriguez
1b) ??? - Vahe - Shackelford - Kerstetter - Rodriguez
(We could also flip this scenario over to Rodriguez at LT and moved Kerstetter to RT).
If Rodriguez is re-inserted at RG the line could look like
2a) Kerstetter - Vahe - Shackelford - Rodriguez - ???
2b) ??? - Vahe - Shackelford - Rodriguez - Kerstetter
But what about scenarios without Rodriguez?
What about the "Samuel Cosmi really is a beast like some have indicated he's looked like at practice through the later portions of his redshirt season" scenario? Well that could look like
Cosmi - Vahe - Shackelford - ??? - Kerstetter
or
Cosmi - Vahe - Shackelford - Kerstetter - ???
If you add in the "Patrick Hudson will take a major step forward in 2018 after a (hopefully) healthy spring" scenario, then the scenario above could look like
Cosmi - Vahe - Shackelford - Hudson - Kerstetter
Or maybe the "Junior Angilau doesn't go on his Mormon mission and comes in ready to rock" scenario?
Cosmi - Vahe - Shackelford - Angilau - Kerstetter
I almost forgot about the JUCO angle. There's also a "Mikey Grandy comes in better than anyone expects and is the rare example of a JUCO tackle who doesn't need a year to assimilate to a D1 program" scenario:
Grandy - Vahe - Shackelford - Hudson/Angilau/Rodriguez - Kerstetter
or
Kerstetter - Vahe - Shackelford - Hudson/Angilau/Rodriguez - Grandy
or (if we could combine the Cosmi scenario with a scenario that Grandy comes in and looks more like a guard)
Cosmi - Vahe - Shackelford - Grandy - Kerstetter
What about J.P. Urquidez? Now is about the time he should be taking the next step in his game. You could easily substitute him in to any of the scenarios above at LT. Tope Imade made his annual move from one side of the football to another at the end of the 2017 season and is now back an offensive lineman again. He, like Rodriguez, seems to be destined for reserve duty in 2018 but you never know what can happen over the course of an offseason. Imade is said to have guard/tackle versatility but he's an RG all the way from what I can tell. He could get into that Angilau/Hudson mix at the guard spot opposite Vahe. Garrett Thomas is still on the roster and looks more like a tackle than a guard despite the staff using him mostly as an interior-line guy in scout-team stuff I've gleaned from limited practice availability. He's unlikely to factor in, but again, you never know.
We can also take into consideration the fact that Texas is still after a few other JUCO linemen and we can't ever completely discount the (admittedly very unlikely) possibility of a late-emerging class of 2018 offensive line surprise.
The best news for Texas fans in this whole exercise?
The version of the Texas play-calling unit that handled the Texas Bowl has shown that it can get the job done with spare parts on the offensive line. Given the number of different scenarios for the 2018 season in the offensive trenches, perhaps a combination somewhere in there could be struck which had a chance to grow into something more than just spare parts. These are good players we're talking about, for the most part. It's how they're put together that's going to be the million-dollar question.
Or, in the cases of Tim Beck and Derek Warehime, the $790,000 and $400,000 questions for the 2018 season, respectively.
