The Deep Dig
Kansas State State Part I: Defense
presented by Wendy Swantkowksi, DDS
Looking for experienced, family and cosmetic dental care in the Houston-Memorial area? Go with the best! OB sponsor Wendy Swantkowski, DDS. Call 281-293-9140 and find out why so many Orangebloods members are her patients!
Market Shares and Futures
Here’s how the productivity rankings are tallied, as always, Deep Dig data and statistics are likely to differ from “official” statistics kept by the university:
Solo Tackles: 1 point
Assisted and Boundary-Assisted Tackles: .5 points
Touches-Down and Untouched Force-Outs: 0 points
Sacks: 2 points
QB Hits: 1 point
QB Pressures: 1 point
TFL: 2 points
Batted Passes: 1 point
Fumbles Caused: 3 points
Fumbles Recovered: 1.5 points
Run-Stuffs: 1 point (on top of tackle if applicable)
Pass Break-Ups: 1 point
Blowups (a PBU that ‘blows up’ the opposing WR): 2 points
Interceptions: 3 points
Defensive Touchdowns: 6 points
Missed Tackles: -1 point
FOR DBs ONLY (new in 2016)
Lockdown Bonus: A bonus awarded (3 points for CB, 2 points for S and Nickel*) that can be whittled down by the following negatives stats:
Completions allowed: -.5 points
Burns: -2 points
* points per total snaps in the game. If a player was only a 50% snap participant as an outside cornerback, the lockdown bonus he’d start out with would be only 1.5 points.
Standings in the Deep Dig’s Productivity Market Share Rankings represent the number of points the player has scored to this point in the season per the Deep Dig’s official records.
The rankings will be updated weekly through the season as players move in and out of the Top 10 and market-shares shift toward the future. For now, Malik Jefferson is in absolute freefall …
THE TOP 10 RANKINGS (through seven games)
(Player) (% total team productivity created) (movement in ranking from last week)
1. LB/FOX Breckyn Hager - 9.14% (even)
2. DT Chris Nelson - 7.22% (+1)
3. LB Anthony Wheeler - 7.13% (+1)
4. FOX Malcolm Roach - 7.04% (-1)
5. LB Malik Jefferson - 6.95% (-3)
6. DT Poona Ford - 6.67% (even)
7. S Jason Hall - 6.54% (+1)
8. DE Charles Omenihu - 6.22% (-2)
9. DT Paul Boyette - 5.76% (even)
10. S Dylan Haines - 4.3% (even)
Falling out of the Top 10: none (for the second-straight week)
NOSE
97 Chris Nelson - 47 snaps (24 at NT, 23 at DT)
93 Paul Boyette - 41 snaps
TACKLE
95 Poona Ford - 43 snaps (34 at DT, 9 at NT)
98 D’Andre Christmas - 12 snaps
- How about this for an interesting stat from the Deep Dig: Paul Boyette had a great game versus KSU and generated the same number of run-stuffs in the contest that teammate Poona Ford has had over the six games leading up to KSU combined.
- The Chris Nelson monster that started versus Iowa State continued into the KSU affair as Nelson was able to work his way back up to the number two spot in the rankings. This rank matches Nelson’s highest of the season coming into Week 2 after bursting on the scene versus Notre Dame.
- On a staff full of questionable coaches, Brick Haley is a guy who has come to Texas and earned every bit of his paycheck. Whether you say he’s made lemonade out of lemons or chicken salad of chicken scratch or wine of water; the job he’s done on the defensive line this season has been nothing short of alchemy.
- With Gerald Wilbon and Jordan Elliott sidelined and players such as Chris Daniels and Marcel Southall assured of not wasting a redshirt on what is quickly turning into an abomination of a lame-duck season, fans should expect to see more and more of D’Andre Christmas each week to spell the “big three” of Paul Boyette, Poona Ford and Chris Nelson.
- Of all the players on the Texas defensive line, the player with the most promising NFL future at this time certainly appears to be Nelson. The Deep Dig has always said he was the key underrated piece to the defensive front this season, and he’s been nothing short of fantastic on the whole if just a small bit inconsistent from game to game. But everyone knows it isn’t the defensive line that’s getting Texas embarrassed week after week …
END
90 Charles Omenihu - 45 snaps
91 Bryce Cottrell - 24 snaps
FOX/SAM/“Double Fox”/Overhang
44 Breckyn Hager - 40 snaps
32 Malcolm Roach - 39 snaps
40 Naashon Hughes - 27 snaps
23 Jeffery McCulloch - 9 snaps
- Cameron Townsend is getting swindled with the new way the staff is integrating and handling the sam and/or third-linebacker/hybrid-role. Since the integration of the “sam” recently has been less about bringing in a specialized role player (the one Townsend and trained and hoped to be in position to contribute at this season), it has morphed into a way to get one of the extra fox/overhang players in. What was once a role carved out as a niche has become a conduit to getting guys like Breckyn Hager and Malcolm Roach on the field at the same time. We’re not sure which transfer we’re more sure of occurring in the near future: Cameron Townsend or RB Tristian Houston.
MIKE
46 Malik Jefferson - 43 snaps
30 Tim Cole - 29 snaps
WILL
45 Anthony Wheeler - 45 snaps
35 Edwin Freeman - 30 snaps
- This line might as well start off each week’s LB section: Death, taxes, Malik Jefferson missing tackles behind the line of scrimmage when he’s been put in position to make sacks and/or TFL’s. As horrible as Charlie Strong has been as a coach at Texas, no one can blame “coaching” for Jefferson consistently blowing big opportunities when he’s been schemed to be in position to thrive. We’d have benched him, too — we’ve been saying as much for two weeks now.
- And let’s stop a moment and be clear, it was not a “rotation” that took place in the game as Strong has tried to pass off to media, like a bloated Dad fanning the air around him and crediting the foul odor in the room to the family dog like no one around him has any damn sense. If it was an everyday rotation, why did personnel groupings that had never occurred before such as Jeffery McCulloch at mike and Anthony Wheeler at will pop up in the participation log?
- It’s because the Texas linebacking unit is, at its base, much weaker than anyone could have reasonably expected. Without a bellcow leader in Malik Jefferson, the unit really doesn’t have much. Coming into the season, you could at least say that the group wasn’t that deep, but it was stacked at the top with some quality young pieces coming in. The part about the quality youth remains; Jeffery McCulloch has flashed in incredibly dazzling ways. But the strength at the top? It’s nonexistent.
- In fact, Malik Jefferson is a liability and if we were betting men and women — a few of us down here have been in previous lives — we’d put our paycheck this week on Jefferson not even starting versus Baylor.
- And who knows if that will be an upgrade? Who gets put in? Edwin Freeman? Edwin Freeman made some big plays versus KSU (an interception and fumble recovery among them), but even those big-point scorers didn’t really boost his snaps-per-production-caused numbers all that much simply because Freeman has been a missed-tackle machine.
- How much of a missed-tackle machine? The worst on the whole team. Freeman misses a tackle once every 21.4 snaps to “lead” the defensive unit. For reference, Poona Ford misses a tackle once every 303 snaps. Among linebackers, here’s how Freeman compares:
Jeffery McCulloch (29.7)
Malik Jefferson (55.3)
Anthony Wheeler (65.3)
Tim Cole (92)
SECONDARY
NICKEL
11 PJ Locke - 39 snaps
25 Antwuan Davis - 6 snaps
CORNER
24 John Bonney - 74 snaps
2 Kris Boyd - 59 snaps
1 Sheroid Evans - 15 snaps
SAFETY
31 Jason Hall - 74 snaps
14 Dylan Haines - 63 snaps
4 Deshon Elliott - 11 snaps
- No Brandon Jones? It was only the second game this season where the stud freshman failed to record a snap on defense.
- On first review, it seemed like Texas used its nickel package in the secondary much more predominantly than we would’ve expected given the run-heavy nature of the KSU offense and its presumed inability to challenge downfield. In all, Texas was in nickel for 60.8% (45 of 74) of its plays versus KSU in 2016. When comparing that number to 2015, it is identical. Texas was in nickel for 37 of 60 snaps versus the purple wizard in 2015 (61.66%).
- Why was the team in nickel so much? We don’t know the answer to that question. Maybe the person who decided to give ten yards of cushion underneath to outside wide receivers against a horribly inaccurate downfield passer in Ertz could answer that question for us. Ertz was able to dial up his career completion percentage about 25 percentage points because of it.
- Maybe that same all-knowing source could tell us just what in the hell is going with a few things:
1) Davante Davis and Holton Hill - are we taking crazy pills or have they disappeared from our collective reality?
2) Jason Hall - one player who actually seemed to be on a productivity uptick was basically benched versus Iowa State to produce his lowest snap-percentage totals on the season just to return versus KSU to play his first 100-percent participation game of the season.
3) The other 100-percent snap-participant on defense versus Kansas State - why, John Bonney of course! We double-dog-dare you to attempt explaining that one to some of the more agitated members of our dark basement. Just look at the coverage stats …
Coverage Stats on Downfield Pass Attempts vs. KSU
Kris Boyd: 2 completions allowed
John Bonney: 4 completions allowed, 1 burn
Snaps per production generated (through seven games)
players who have not yet caused 2016 production not included; *players with under 100 total defensive snaps in 2016 not included
FOX B Hager
243 total 2016 snaps on defense
4.86 snaps per production caused
FOX M Roach
209 total 2016 snaps on defense
5.43 snaps per production caused
DT C Nelson
270 total 2016 snaps on defense
6.84 snaps per production caused
DT P Ford
303 total 2016 snaps on defense
8.30 snaps per production caused
DE C Omenihu
300 total 2016 snaps on defense
8.82 snaps per production caused
S D Elliott
136 total 2016 snaps on defense
8.84 snaps per production caused
S J Hall
335 total 2016 snaps on defense
9.37 snaps per production caused
DE B Cottrell
100 total 2016 snaps on defense
9.52 snaps per production caused
DT P Boyette
310 total 2016 snaps on defense
9.84 snaps per production caused
LB A Wheeler
392 total 2016 snaps on defense
10.05 snaps per production caused
LB M Jefferson
387 total 2016 snaps on defense
10.18 snaps per production caused
LB E Freeman
107 total 2016 snaps on defense
11.89 snaps per production caused
S D Haines
291 total 2016 snaps on defense
12.37 snaps per production caused
FOX N Hughes
219 total 2016 snaps on defense
13.27 snaps per production caused
NCB P Locke
227 total 2016 snaps on defense
13.63 snaps per production caused
CB K Boyd
249 total 2016 snaps on defense
13.85 snaps per production caused
CB H Hill
182 total 2016 snaps on defense
15.54 snaps per production caused
CB D Davis
195 total 2016 snaps on defense
19.74 snaps per production caused
CB S Evans
217 total 2016 snaps on defense
23.61 snaps per production caused
S K Vaccaro
159 total 2016 snaps on defense
24.57 snaps per production caused
DB J Bonney
215 total 2016 snaps on defense
31.48 snaps per production caused
Did He Play on Defense? No He Didn’t …
scholarship players on defense that have played at least a defensive snap in 2015, but did not against KSU in Week 6
CB Davante Davis - 195 snaps on defense in 2016
CB Holton Hill - 182 snaps on defense in 2016
S Kevin Vaccaro - 159 snaps on defense in 2016
S Brandon Jones - 85 snaps on defense in 2016
DL Jordan Elliott - 60 snaps on defense in 2016
DT Gerald Wilbon - 22 snaps on defense in 2016
DE/LB Erick Fowler - 12 snaps on defense in 2016
LB Cameron Townsend - 7 snaps on defense in 2016
This Week in Missed Tackles …
John Bonney - 4 missed tackles on defense
Dylan Haines - 2 missed tackles on defense
Malcolm Roach - 2 missed tackles on defense
Deshon Elliott - 1 missed tackle on defense
Kris Boyd - 1 missed tackle on defense
Bryce Cottrell - 1 missed tackle on defense
Breckyn Hager - 1 missed tackle on defense
Anthony Wheeler - 1 missed tackle on defense
Jeffrey McCulloch - 1 missed tackle on defense
Malik Jefferson - 1 missed tackle on defense
Tim Cole - 1 missed tackle on defense
For a total of 16 missed tackles on defense versus KSU, In case Vance Bedford asks.
As we turn our attention to Part II: Offense, we thank you, once again, for reading.
Kansas State State Part I: Defense
presented by Wendy Swantkowksi, DDS
Looking for experienced, family and cosmetic dental care in the Houston-Memorial area? Go with the best! OB sponsor Wendy Swantkowski, DDS. Call 281-293-9140 and find out why so many Orangebloods members are her patients!
. . .
Market Shares and Futures
Here’s how the productivity rankings are tallied, as always, Deep Dig data and statistics are likely to differ from “official” statistics kept by the university:
Solo Tackles: 1 point
Assisted and Boundary-Assisted Tackles: .5 points
Touches-Down and Untouched Force-Outs: 0 points
Sacks: 2 points
QB Hits: 1 point
QB Pressures: 1 point
TFL: 2 points
Batted Passes: 1 point
Fumbles Caused: 3 points
Fumbles Recovered: 1.5 points
Run-Stuffs: 1 point (on top of tackle if applicable)
Pass Break-Ups: 1 point
Blowups (a PBU that ‘blows up’ the opposing WR): 2 points
Interceptions: 3 points
Defensive Touchdowns: 6 points
Missed Tackles: -1 point
FOR DBs ONLY (new in 2016)
Lockdown Bonus: A bonus awarded (3 points for CB, 2 points for S and Nickel*) that can be whittled down by the following negatives stats:
Completions allowed: -.5 points
Burns: -2 points
* points per total snaps in the game. If a player was only a 50% snap participant as an outside cornerback, the lockdown bonus he’d start out with would be only 1.5 points.
Standings in the Deep Dig’s Productivity Market Share Rankings represent the number of points the player has scored to this point in the season per the Deep Dig’s official records.
The rankings will be updated weekly through the season as players move in and out of the Top 10 and market-shares shift toward the future. For now, Malik Jefferson is in absolute freefall …
. . .
all game photos via UT Athletics
all game photos via UT Athletics
THE TOP 10 RANKINGS (through seven games)
(Player) (% total team productivity created) (movement in ranking from last week)
1. LB/FOX Breckyn Hager - 9.14% (even)
2. DT Chris Nelson - 7.22% (+1)
3. LB Anthony Wheeler - 7.13% (+1)
4. FOX Malcolm Roach - 7.04% (-1)
5. LB Malik Jefferson - 6.95% (-3)
6. DT Poona Ford - 6.67% (even)
7. S Jason Hall - 6.54% (+1)
8. DE Charles Omenihu - 6.22% (-2)
9. DT Paul Boyette - 5.76% (even)
10. S Dylan Haines - 4.3% (even)
Falling out of the Top 10: none (for the second-straight week)
. . .
NOSE
97 Chris Nelson - 47 snaps (24 at NT, 23 at DT)
93 Paul Boyette - 41 snaps
TACKLE
95 Poona Ford - 43 snaps (34 at DT, 9 at NT)
98 D’Andre Christmas - 12 snaps
- How about this for an interesting stat from the Deep Dig: Paul Boyette had a great game versus KSU and generated the same number of run-stuffs in the contest that teammate Poona Ford has had over the six games leading up to KSU combined.
- The Chris Nelson monster that started versus Iowa State continued into the KSU affair as Nelson was able to work his way back up to the number two spot in the rankings. This rank matches Nelson’s highest of the season coming into Week 2 after bursting on the scene versus Notre Dame.
- On a staff full of questionable coaches, Brick Haley is a guy who has come to Texas and earned every bit of his paycheck. Whether you say he’s made lemonade out of lemons or chicken salad of chicken scratch or wine of water; the job he’s done on the defensive line this season has been nothing short of alchemy.
- With Gerald Wilbon and Jordan Elliott sidelined and players such as Chris Daniels and Marcel Southall assured of not wasting a redshirt on what is quickly turning into an abomination of a lame-duck season, fans should expect to see more and more of D’Andre Christmas each week to spell the “big three” of Paul Boyette, Poona Ford and Chris Nelson.
- Of all the players on the Texas defensive line, the player with the most promising NFL future at this time certainly appears to be Nelson. The Deep Dig has always said he was the key underrated piece to the defensive front this season, and he’s been nothing short of fantastic on the whole if just a small bit inconsistent from game to game. But everyone knows it isn’t the defensive line that’s getting Texas embarrassed week after week …
END
90 Charles Omenihu - 45 snaps
91 Bryce Cottrell - 24 snaps
FOX/SAM/“Double Fox”/Overhang
44 Breckyn Hager - 40 snaps
32 Malcolm Roach - 39 snaps
40 Naashon Hughes - 27 snaps
23 Jeffery McCulloch - 9 snaps
- Cameron Townsend is getting swindled with the new way the staff is integrating and handling the sam and/or third-linebacker/hybrid-role. Since the integration of the “sam” recently has been less about bringing in a specialized role player (the one Townsend and trained and hoped to be in position to contribute at this season), it has morphed into a way to get one of the extra fox/overhang players in. What was once a role carved out as a niche has become a conduit to getting guys like Breckyn Hager and Malcolm Roach on the field at the same time. We’re not sure which transfer we’re more sure of occurring in the near future: Cameron Townsend or RB Tristian Houston.
MIKE
46 Malik Jefferson - 43 snaps
30 Tim Cole - 29 snaps
WILL
45 Anthony Wheeler - 45 snaps
35 Edwin Freeman - 30 snaps
- This line might as well start off each week’s LB section: Death, taxes, Malik Jefferson missing tackles behind the line of scrimmage when he’s been put in position to make sacks and/or TFL’s. As horrible as Charlie Strong has been as a coach at Texas, no one can blame “coaching” for Jefferson consistently blowing big opportunities when he’s been schemed to be in position to thrive. We’d have benched him, too — we’ve been saying as much for two weeks now.
- And let’s stop a moment and be clear, it was not a “rotation” that took place in the game as Strong has tried to pass off to media, like a bloated Dad fanning the air around him and crediting the foul odor in the room to the family dog like no one around him has any damn sense. If it was an everyday rotation, why did personnel groupings that had never occurred before such as Jeffery McCulloch at mike and Anthony Wheeler at will pop up in the participation log?
- It’s because the Texas linebacking unit is, at its base, much weaker than anyone could have reasonably expected. Without a bellcow leader in Malik Jefferson, the unit really doesn’t have much. Coming into the season, you could at least say that the group wasn’t that deep, but it was stacked at the top with some quality young pieces coming in. The part about the quality youth remains; Jeffery McCulloch has flashed in incredibly dazzling ways. But the strength at the top? It’s nonexistent.
- In fact, Malik Jefferson is a liability and if we were betting men and women — a few of us down here have been in previous lives — we’d put our paycheck this week on Jefferson not even starting versus Baylor.
- And who knows if that will be an upgrade? Who gets put in? Edwin Freeman? Edwin Freeman made some big plays versus KSU (an interception and fumble recovery among them), but even those big-point scorers didn’t really boost his snaps-per-production-caused numbers all that much simply because Freeman has been a missed-tackle machine.
- How much of a missed-tackle machine? The worst on the whole team. Freeman misses a tackle once every 21.4 snaps to “lead” the defensive unit. For reference, Poona Ford misses a tackle once every 303 snaps. Among linebackers, here’s how Freeman compares:
Jeffery McCulloch (29.7)
Malik Jefferson (55.3)
Anthony Wheeler (65.3)
Tim Cole (92)
SECONDARY
NICKEL
11 PJ Locke - 39 snaps
25 Antwuan Davis - 6 snaps
CORNER
24 John Bonney - 74 snaps
2 Kris Boyd - 59 snaps
1 Sheroid Evans - 15 snaps
SAFETY
31 Jason Hall - 74 snaps
14 Dylan Haines - 63 snaps
4 Deshon Elliott - 11 snaps
- No Brandon Jones? It was only the second game this season where the stud freshman failed to record a snap on defense.
- On first review, it seemed like Texas used its nickel package in the secondary much more predominantly than we would’ve expected given the run-heavy nature of the KSU offense and its presumed inability to challenge downfield. In all, Texas was in nickel for 60.8% (45 of 74) of its plays versus KSU in 2016. When comparing that number to 2015, it is identical. Texas was in nickel for 37 of 60 snaps versus the purple wizard in 2015 (61.66%).
- Why was the team in nickel so much? We don’t know the answer to that question. Maybe the person who decided to give ten yards of cushion underneath to outside wide receivers against a horribly inaccurate downfield passer in Ertz could answer that question for us. Ertz was able to dial up his career completion percentage about 25 percentage points because of it.
- Maybe that same all-knowing source could tell us just what in the hell is going with a few things:
1) Davante Davis and Holton Hill - are we taking crazy pills or have they disappeared from our collective reality?
2) Jason Hall - one player who actually seemed to be on a productivity uptick was basically benched versus Iowa State to produce his lowest snap-percentage totals on the season just to return versus KSU to play his first 100-percent participation game of the season.
3) The other 100-percent snap-participant on defense versus Kansas State - why, John Bonney of course! We double-dog-dare you to attempt explaining that one to some of the more agitated members of our dark basement. Just look at the coverage stats …
Coverage Stats on Downfield Pass Attempts vs. KSU
Kris Boyd: 2 completions allowed
John Bonney: 4 completions allowed, 1 burn
. . .
Snaps per production generated (through seven games)
players who have not yet caused 2016 production not included; *players with under 100 total defensive snaps in 2016 not included
FOX B Hager
243 total 2016 snaps on defense
4.86 snaps per production caused
FOX M Roach
209 total 2016 snaps on defense
5.43 snaps per production caused
DT C Nelson
270 total 2016 snaps on defense
6.84 snaps per production caused
DT P Ford
303 total 2016 snaps on defense
8.30 snaps per production caused
DE C Omenihu
300 total 2016 snaps on defense
8.82 snaps per production caused
S D Elliott
136 total 2016 snaps on defense
8.84 snaps per production caused
S J Hall
335 total 2016 snaps on defense
9.37 snaps per production caused
DE B Cottrell
100 total 2016 snaps on defense
9.52 snaps per production caused
DT P Boyette
310 total 2016 snaps on defense
9.84 snaps per production caused
LB A Wheeler
392 total 2016 snaps on defense
10.05 snaps per production caused
LB M Jefferson
387 total 2016 snaps on defense
10.18 snaps per production caused
LB E Freeman
107 total 2016 snaps on defense
11.89 snaps per production caused
S D Haines
291 total 2016 snaps on defense
12.37 snaps per production caused
FOX N Hughes
219 total 2016 snaps on defense
13.27 snaps per production caused
NCB P Locke
227 total 2016 snaps on defense
13.63 snaps per production caused
CB K Boyd
249 total 2016 snaps on defense
13.85 snaps per production caused
CB H Hill
182 total 2016 snaps on defense
15.54 snaps per production caused
CB D Davis
195 total 2016 snaps on defense
19.74 snaps per production caused
CB S Evans
217 total 2016 snaps on defense
23.61 snaps per production caused
S K Vaccaro
159 total 2016 snaps on defense
24.57 snaps per production caused
DB J Bonney
215 total 2016 snaps on defense
31.48 snaps per production caused
. . .
Did He Play on Defense? No He Didn’t …
scholarship players on defense that have played at least a defensive snap in 2015, but did not against KSU in Week 6
CB Davante Davis - 195 snaps on defense in 2016
CB Holton Hill - 182 snaps on defense in 2016
S Kevin Vaccaro - 159 snaps on defense in 2016
S Brandon Jones - 85 snaps on defense in 2016
DL Jordan Elliott - 60 snaps on defense in 2016
DT Gerald Wilbon - 22 snaps on defense in 2016
DE/LB Erick Fowler - 12 snaps on defense in 2016
LB Cameron Townsend - 7 snaps on defense in 2016
. . .
This Week in Missed Tackles …
John Bonney - 4 missed tackles on defense
Dylan Haines - 2 missed tackles on defense
Malcolm Roach - 2 missed tackles on defense
Deshon Elliott - 1 missed tackle on defense
Kris Boyd - 1 missed tackle on defense
Bryce Cottrell - 1 missed tackle on defense
Breckyn Hager - 1 missed tackle on defense
Anthony Wheeler - 1 missed tackle on defense
Jeffrey McCulloch - 1 missed tackle on defense
Malik Jefferson - 1 missed tackle on defense
Tim Cole - 1 missed tackle on defense
For a total of 16 missed tackles on defense versus KSU, In case Vance Bedford asks.
. . .
As we turn our attention to Part II: Offense, we thank you, once again, for reading.
