The Deep Dig
Spring Game 2016 Part II: Defense
presented by Hat Creek Burger Company
CLICK HERE for all participation and disruption data
NOSE
Paul Boyette - 34 snaps (first-team)
27 at nose, 7 at tackle
Chris Nelson - 37 snaps (first team)
20 at nose, 17 at tackle
Patrick Ojeada (walk-on) - 49 snaps (second team)
29 at nose, 20 at tackle
TACKLE
Poona Ford - 33 snaps (first team)
28 at tackle, 5 at nose
Alex Mercado (walk-on) - 49 snaps (second team)
29 at tackle, 20 at nose
The interior defensive line unit for the Texas spring game was, hopefully for fans, the thinnest (literally and figuratively) they will see again for some time. With all the meat being brought in over the summer, there will not be another exhibition of offseason football for the Longhorns that leaves the team appearing so starved for bodies anytime soon.
Texas usually had about five players rotating in and out of games in 2015 on the defensive line’s interior: Hassan Ridgeway, Desmond Jackson, Poona Ford, Paul Boyette and Chris Nelson. In the spring game, it had only five players to split up between two teams and two of those players were walk-ons.
In essence, if we’re judging by spring alone, Hassan Ridgeway (soon to be taken highly in the NFL draft) and Desmond Jackson (formerly the team’s strongest player) have both been replaced by walk-ons in this core group of five.
It goes to show that our Deep Dig’s lackluster findings for the Texas offensive line came against a truly depleted group. Even more damning for the first-team offense is that walk-on DTs Patrick Ojeada and Alex Mercado played every single snap of second-team work and never got spelled.
Not only was the Texas starting interior offensive line going up against walk-on talent in the Orange-White game, it was going against walk-on talent that was gassed.
If Vance Bedford wanted to pull one of those guys out of the game, he would have had to find a replacement selling beers in the stands.
Disruption Stats
Poona Ford - 8.25 snaps per production caused (11th place)
Paul Boyette - 11.33 snaps per production caused (15th place)
Chris Nelson - 18.5 snaps per production caused (19th place)
Patrick Ojeada - 49 snaps per production caused (tied 27th/last place)
Alex Mercado - 49 snaps per production caused (tied 27th/last place)
END
Charles Omenihu - 52 snaps (first team)
Quincy Vasser - 49 snaps (second team)
FOX
Naashon Hughes - 52 snaps (first team)
Breckyn Hager - 49 snaps (second team)
The defensive ends were one of the more disruptive groups on the day having, as we’ll soon see, three of the four players who took snaps place in the team’s Top 10 for snaps per production caused.
This is saying a lot as the depth on the edges is in almost as bad of shape as the DL’s interior in the absence of Bryce Cottrell and Derick Roberson (both of whom have never shown a thing to indicate they’d be better options than Texas had on the field last week, anyway).
Charles Omenihu was going up against very weak competition in an injured Tristan Nickelson and an out-of-position Elijah Rodriguez at the tackles, but he still showed more pass-rush upside than we have seen out of a Texas DE since Cedric Reed left campus.
Quincy Vasser will not blow anyone away with his athleticism, burst, explosive abilities, power, or speed — and he doesn’t really pass the eyeball test for what you look for in a truly dynamic SDE. But overall, he was the most productive player of the day on defense racking up 12.5 Deep Dig points for disruption on 49 snaps.
Like Vasser, transitioned ILB-to-FOX Breckyn Hager spent the entire day going up against a first-team Texas offensive line that was given more problems by the makeshift second unit than any Texas fan should feel remotely comfortable with. Hager’s stats, per the Deep Dig, read about like Vasser’s: two assisted tackles, one sack, two QB hits, one QB pressure, one TFL and one run-stuff to go along with one missed tackle.
Naashon Hughes, the only real returning starter or veteran contributor within this group, kept up his form from 2015 which can be defined as saying his picture should be on the side of a milk carton somewhere with “MISSING” stamped above it. Hughes, Texas’ current starter in its potentially most versatile and disruptive position, only caused production once very 26 snaps per the Deep Dig and is squarely in line to lose a job. The future of the FOX position, at this stage, looks to possibly eventually shift into an Erick Fowler/Breckyn Hager platoon.
Disruption Stats
Quincy Vasser - 3.92 snaps per production caused (4th place)
Breckyn Hager - 5.44 snaps per production caused (6th place)
Charles Omenihu - 5.47 snaps per production caused (7th place)
Naashon Hughes - 26 snaps per production caused (21st place)
MIKE LB
Tim Cole - 29 snaps (first team)
Malik Jefferson - 23 snaps (first team)
Demarco Boyd - 33 snaps (second team)
29 at MLB, 4 at WLB
Johnny Tseng (walk-on) - 15 snaps (second team)
8 at MLB, 7 at WLB
WILL LB
Edwin Freeman - 29 snaps (first team)
Anthony Wheeler - 23 snaps (first team)
Cameron Townsend - 39 snaps (second team)
29 at WLB, 10 MLB
Jay Harper (walk-on) - 10 snaps (second team)
9 at WLB, 1 at MLB
It’s probably the only time (barring injury or blowout) that you’ll see Tim Cole rack up more snaps than Malik Jefferson in any kind of game setting, but let’s give Cole some credit: within the most productive group on the field for the defense in the spring game (the linebackers) Cole was the most disruptive per the Deep Dig, not only in total, but on a per-snap basis as well, causing production once every 2.9 snaps.
Malik Jefferson, as we’ll see, wasn’t far behind him though. The thing we noticed most about Jefferson was his much-improved ability to diagnose inside-run, get his fit right and create the run-stuff. In 585 snaps charted by the Deep Dig in 2015, Jefferson racked up only 8 total stuffs; one run-stuff per 73.25 snaps. In the spring game it was more like one run-stuff in less than every 8 snaps. He didn’t make tackles on any of the stuffs, but he was responsible for stuffing the run and making the ball-carrier have to divert course leading to no-gains and TFLs for teammates.
Edwin Freeman (in a limited 77-snap sample from 2015) was last year’s leader in snaps per production caused, so it shouldn’t be any surprise that he finds himself in the Top 10 for the spring game. Anthony Wheeler, who has improved dramatically as a downhill and sideline-to-sideline force since last year’s freshman campaign, fared even better than Freeman finishing at No. 3 just behind Jefferson.
In short, Texas has four good to very good players at the ILB positions between Jefferson, Wheeler, Freeman, and yes, Cole. With LB talent coming in, this group looks to be well set for the foreseeable future barring injuries.
One player who’ll need work is true freshman Demarco Boyd. While he showed a few nice things, the fact is he missed five tackles in 39 snaps which is clearly beyond unacceptable. Boyd needs to learn to get his facemask on the runner’s numbers, keep his head up, wrap up and drive. Basically, do what he’s been taught since Pee-Wee football because this kind of arm-tackling simply will not cut it in big-time college football. Boyd has been to used to getting by on his physical gifts and it showed in the spring game. He needs a redshirt.
Disruption Stats
Tim Cole - 2.9 snaps per production caused (1st place)
Malik Jefferson - 3.07 snaps per production caused (2nd place)
Anthony Wheeler - 3.54 snaps per production caused (3rd place)
Jay Harper - 5 snaps per production caused (5th place)
Edwin Freeman - 6.44 snaps per production caused (8th place)
Johnny Tseng - 15 snaps per production caused (17th place)
Demarco Boyd - 33 snaps per production caused (24th place)
Cameron Townsend - 39 snaps per production caused (26th place)
NICKEL
PJ Locke - 52 snaps (first team)
Antwuan Davis - 49 snaps (second team)
CORNER
Holton Hill - 48 snaps
40 at RCB, 5 at LCB (first team)
3 at RCB (second team)
Davante Davis - 32 snaps
32 at LCB (first team)
Kris Boyd - 58 snaps
15 at LCB, 12 at RCB (first team)
31 at RCB (second team)
Sheroid Evans - 49 snaps
49 at LCB (second team)
Dillon Boldt - 15 snaps
15 at RCB (second team)
SAFETY
Kevin Vaccaro - 52 snaps (first team)
Deshon Elliott - 53 snaps
27 first team
26 second team
John Bonney - 48 snaps
25 first team
23 second team
Trevor Carr - 49 snaps (second team)
The current Texas staff has shown it optimally likes to leave its defensive secondary in through the entire course of a game, but on its hands it has a group of three corners in Holton Hill, Kris Boyd and Davante Davis who are all pretty hard to keep off the field.
For this reason, and because they are all three still young players who will piss the coaching staff at points in the future due to missed assignments and mental errors, we’re likely to see these three players all get run in the fall. The onus coming out of spring is on Kris Boyd to show the staff he’s a starter and not a backup who sometimes gets run with the ones.
One thing Boyd will have to work on, despite continuing to be a standout with pass-breakups, is his missed tackles. Besides his brother, Boyd was the only other player to miss multiple tackles in the spring game with two. That’s seven missed tackles in one half of spring football for the Boyd brothers for those keeping track at home.
PJ Locke has overtaken the nickel corner spot and one interesting effect of Jason Hall and Dylan Haines both being inactive for the scrimmage was the usage of Bonney at safety with Antwuan Davis handling the nickel.
On the LHN broadcast, one fact given by announcer Lowell Gallindo was outrageous: he said that Davis can do the second-most reps of 225 of all the players on the team at 32. That is unreal for a 200-pound corner and almost seems as if someone doesn’t have their facts straight. It’s certainly something we’ll follow closely.
Deshon Elliott, as he always seems to do, was able to come up with a big play to cause a turnover, but spent just as much time with the ones as he did the twos unlike Kevin Vaccaro who was the most productive DB of the day; in a tie with John Bonney (who was night-and-day more productive as a safety in the spring game than he’d even been as a nickel corner) per-snap.
Disruption Stats
Kevin Vaccaro - 8 snaps per production caused (tied for 9th place)
John Bonney - 8 snaps per production caused (tied for 9th place)
Holton Hill - 8.73 snaps per production caused (12th place)
Deshon Elliott - 8.83 snaps per production caused (13th place)
Steroid Evans - 9.8 snaps per production caused (14th place)
Antwuan Davis - 12.25 snaps per production caused (18th place)
Dillon Boldt - 15 snaps per production caused (18th place)
PJ Locke - 20.8 snaps per production caused (20th place)
Davante Davis - 32 snaps per production caused (22nd place)
Kris Boyd - 38.67 snaps per production caused (25th place)
Spring Game 2016 Part II: Defense
presented by Hat Creek Burger Company
. . .
CLICK HERE for all participation and disruption data
NOSE
Paul Boyette - 34 snaps (first-team)
27 at nose, 7 at tackle
Chris Nelson - 37 snaps (first team)
20 at nose, 17 at tackle
Patrick Ojeada (walk-on) - 49 snaps (second team)
29 at nose, 20 at tackle
TACKLE
Poona Ford - 33 snaps (first team)
28 at tackle, 5 at nose
Alex Mercado (walk-on) - 49 snaps (second team)
29 at tackle, 20 at nose
The interior defensive line unit for the Texas spring game was, hopefully for fans, the thinnest (literally and figuratively) they will see again for some time. With all the meat being brought in over the summer, there will not be another exhibition of offseason football for the Longhorns that leaves the team appearing so starved for bodies anytime soon.
Texas usually had about five players rotating in and out of games in 2015 on the defensive line’s interior: Hassan Ridgeway, Desmond Jackson, Poona Ford, Paul Boyette and Chris Nelson. In the spring game, it had only five players to split up between two teams and two of those players were walk-ons.
In essence, if we’re judging by spring alone, Hassan Ridgeway (soon to be taken highly in the NFL draft) and Desmond Jackson (formerly the team’s strongest player) have both been replaced by walk-ons in this core group of five.
It goes to show that our Deep Dig’s lackluster findings for the Texas offensive line came against a truly depleted group. Even more damning for the first-team offense is that walk-on DTs Patrick Ojeada and Alex Mercado played every single snap of second-team work and never got spelled.
Not only was the Texas starting interior offensive line going up against walk-on talent in the Orange-White game, it was going against walk-on talent that was gassed.
If Vance Bedford wanted to pull one of those guys out of the game, he would have had to find a replacement selling beers in the stands.
Disruption Stats
Poona Ford - 8.25 snaps per production caused (11th place)
Paul Boyette - 11.33 snaps per production caused (15th place)
Chris Nelson - 18.5 snaps per production caused (19th place)
Patrick Ojeada - 49 snaps per production caused (tied 27th/last place)
Alex Mercado - 49 snaps per production caused (tied 27th/last place)
. . .
END
Charles Omenihu - 52 snaps (first team)
Quincy Vasser - 49 snaps (second team)
FOX
Naashon Hughes - 52 snaps (first team)
Breckyn Hager - 49 snaps (second team)
The defensive ends were one of the more disruptive groups on the day having, as we’ll soon see, three of the four players who took snaps place in the team’s Top 10 for snaps per production caused.
This is saying a lot as the depth on the edges is in almost as bad of shape as the DL’s interior in the absence of Bryce Cottrell and Derick Roberson (both of whom have never shown a thing to indicate they’d be better options than Texas had on the field last week, anyway).
Charles Omenihu was going up against very weak competition in an injured Tristan Nickelson and an out-of-position Elijah Rodriguez at the tackles, but he still showed more pass-rush upside than we have seen out of a Texas DE since Cedric Reed left campus.
Quincy Vasser will not blow anyone away with his athleticism, burst, explosive abilities, power, or speed — and he doesn’t really pass the eyeball test for what you look for in a truly dynamic SDE. But overall, he was the most productive player of the day on defense racking up 12.5 Deep Dig points for disruption on 49 snaps.
Like Vasser, transitioned ILB-to-FOX Breckyn Hager spent the entire day going up against a first-team Texas offensive line that was given more problems by the makeshift second unit than any Texas fan should feel remotely comfortable with. Hager’s stats, per the Deep Dig, read about like Vasser’s: two assisted tackles, one sack, two QB hits, one QB pressure, one TFL and one run-stuff to go along with one missed tackle.
Naashon Hughes, the only real returning starter or veteran contributor within this group, kept up his form from 2015 which can be defined as saying his picture should be on the side of a milk carton somewhere with “MISSING” stamped above it. Hughes, Texas’ current starter in its potentially most versatile and disruptive position, only caused production once very 26 snaps per the Deep Dig and is squarely in line to lose a job. The future of the FOX position, at this stage, looks to possibly eventually shift into an Erick Fowler/Breckyn Hager platoon.
Disruption Stats
Quincy Vasser - 3.92 snaps per production caused (4th place)
Breckyn Hager - 5.44 snaps per production caused (6th place)
Charles Omenihu - 5.47 snaps per production caused (7th place)
Naashon Hughes - 26 snaps per production caused (21st place)
. . .
MIKE LB
Tim Cole - 29 snaps (first team)
Malik Jefferson - 23 snaps (first team)
Demarco Boyd - 33 snaps (second team)
29 at MLB, 4 at WLB
Johnny Tseng (walk-on) - 15 snaps (second team)
8 at MLB, 7 at WLB
WILL LB
Edwin Freeman - 29 snaps (first team)
Anthony Wheeler - 23 snaps (first team)
Cameron Townsend - 39 snaps (second team)
29 at WLB, 10 MLB
Jay Harper (walk-on) - 10 snaps (second team)
9 at WLB, 1 at MLB
It’s probably the only time (barring injury or blowout) that you’ll see Tim Cole rack up more snaps than Malik Jefferson in any kind of game setting, but let’s give Cole some credit: within the most productive group on the field for the defense in the spring game (the linebackers) Cole was the most disruptive per the Deep Dig, not only in total, but on a per-snap basis as well, causing production once every 2.9 snaps.
Malik Jefferson, as we’ll see, wasn’t far behind him though. The thing we noticed most about Jefferson was his much-improved ability to diagnose inside-run, get his fit right and create the run-stuff. In 585 snaps charted by the Deep Dig in 2015, Jefferson racked up only 8 total stuffs; one run-stuff per 73.25 snaps. In the spring game it was more like one run-stuff in less than every 8 snaps. He didn’t make tackles on any of the stuffs, but he was responsible for stuffing the run and making the ball-carrier have to divert course leading to no-gains and TFLs for teammates.
Edwin Freeman (in a limited 77-snap sample from 2015) was last year’s leader in snaps per production caused, so it shouldn’t be any surprise that he finds himself in the Top 10 for the spring game. Anthony Wheeler, who has improved dramatically as a downhill and sideline-to-sideline force since last year’s freshman campaign, fared even better than Freeman finishing at No. 3 just behind Jefferson.
In short, Texas has four good to very good players at the ILB positions between Jefferson, Wheeler, Freeman, and yes, Cole. With LB talent coming in, this group looks to be well set for the foreseeable future barring injuries.
One player who’ll need work is true freshman Demarco Boyd. While he showed a few nice things, the fact is he missed five tackles in 39 snaps which is clearly beyond unacceptable. Boyd needs to learn to get his facemask on the runner’s numbers, keep his head up, wrap up and drive. Basically, do what he’s been taught since Pee-Wee football because this kind of arm-tackling simply will not cut it in big-time college football. Boyd has been to used to getting by on his physical gifts and it showed in the spring game. He needs a redshirt.
Disruption Stats
Tim Cole - 2.9 snaps per production caused (1st place)
Malik Jefferson - 3.07 snaps per production caused (2nd place)
Anthony Wheeler - 3.54 snaps per production caused (3rd place)
Jay Harper - 5 snaps per production caused (5th place)
Edwin Freeman - 6.44 snaps per production caused (8th place)
Johnny Tseng - 15 snaps per production caused (17th place)
Demarco Boyd - 33 snaps per production caused (24th place)
Cameron Townsend - 39 snaps per production caused (26th place)
. . .
NICKEL
PJ Locke - 52 snaps (first team)
Antwuan Davis - 49 snaps (second team)
CORNER
Holton Hill - 48 snaps
40 at RCB, 5 at LCB (first team)
3 at RCB (second team)
Davante Davis - 32 snaps
32 at LCB (first team)
Kris Boyd - 58 snaps
15 at LCB, 12 at RCB (first team)
31 at RCB (second team)
Sheroid Evans - 49 snaps
49 at LCB (second team)
Dillon Boldt - 15 snaps
15 at RCB (second team)
SAFETY
Kevin Vaccaro - 52 snaps (first team)
Deshon Elliott - 53 snaps
27 first team
26 second team
John Bonney - 48 snaps
25 first team
23 second team
Trevor Carr - 49 snaps (second team)
The current Texas staff has shown it optimally likes to leave its defensive secondary in through the entire course of a game, but on its hands it has a group of three corners in Holton Hill, Kris Boyd and Davante Davis who are all pretty hard to keep off the field.
For this reason, and because they are all three still young players who will piss the coaching staff at points in the future due to missed assignments and mental errors, we’re likely to see these three players all get run in the fall. The onus coming out of spring is on Kris Boyd to show the staff he’s a starter and not a backup who sometimes gets run with the ones.
One thing Boyd will have to work on, despite continuing to be a standout with pass-breakups, is his missed tackles. Besides his brother, Boyd was the only other player to miss multiple tackles in the spring game with two. That’s seven missed tackles in one half of spring football for the Boyd brothers for those keeping track at home.
PJ Locke has overtaken the nickel corner spot and one interesting effect of Jason Hall and Dylan Haines both being inactive for the scrimmage was the usage of Bonney at safety with Antwuan Davis handling the nickel.
On the LHN broadcast, one fact given by announcer Lowell Gallindo was outrageous: he said that Davis can do the second-most reps of 225 of all the players on the team at 32. That is unreal for a 200-pound corner and almost seems as if someone doesn’t have their facts straight. It’s certainly something we’ll follow closely.
Deshon Elliott, as he always seems to do, was able to come up with a big play to cause a turnover, but spent just as much time with the ones as he did the twos unlike Kevin Vaccaro who was the most productive DB of the day; in a tie with John Bonney (who was night-and-day more productive as a safety in the spring game than he’d even been as a nickel corner) per-snap.
Disruption Stats
Kevin Vaccaro - 8 snaps per production caused (tied for 9th place)
John Bonney - 8 snaps per production caused (tied for 9th place)
Holton Hill - 8.73 snaps per production caused (12th place)
Deshon Elliott - 8.83 snaps per production caused (13th place)
Steroid Evans - 9.8 snaps per production caused (14th place)
Antwuan Davis - 12.25 snaps per production caused (18th place)
Dillon Boldt - 15 snaps per production caused (18th place)
PJ Locke - 20.8 snaps per production caused (20th place)
Davante Davis - 32 snaps per production caused (22nd place)
Kris Boyd - 38.67 snaps per production caused (25th place)
