The Deep Dig
Oklahoma Part II: Offense
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!
Offensive Line Thoughts and Grades
CLICK HERE TO ACCESS OFFICIAL OL GRADING LOG
Deep Dig Grading Scale
55 LT Connor Williams - 80 snaps
1 TFL, 1 QB pressure and 1/2 sack allowed
2 knockdowns
DEEP DIG GRADE: 78.13
It was a much higher grade for Williams than we were expecting as he allowed 2.5 times more disruption in this game alone than he has on the rest of the season combined. (Williams came into the contest having only allowed one sack with zero pressures, hits, TFLs or run-stuffs allowed).
As the grade shows, Williams continues to operate at a higher level and as a player who's taken the next step toward an NFL career in his sophomore season. The same still cannot be said about a certain sophomore line-mate and fellow freshman All-American of Williams', but at least things are looking up a bit ...
77 LG Patrick Vahe - 80 snaps
1 QB hit and 1/2 sack allowed
1 knockdown
DEEP DIG GRADE: 76.00
It's a little disappointing in itself that this is basically tied with Cal as the best game that Patrick Vahe has played all season. Like a few others on offense who we'll get to through the column, Vahe has regressed, albeit slightly. He's still allowing too much pressure in the passing game and it almost seems like the communication between Williams and Vahe on the left side of the Texas offensive line has grown worse as the two have acclimated to their new arrangement this season which flip-flopped sides for Vahe.
They are setting to wildly different levels which makes it impossible to stay hip-to-hip and conscious of stunts. If we were an opposing defensive coordinator, we'd test the duo with stunts and twists until they show they are capable of working in tandem to pass players off to one another and mirror smoothly into the new engagement. This is not optimal. We're talking about Texas' two best offensive linemen, and how they are basically sitting ducks regarding techniques that most high school players worth their salt can understand. The reason for the 1/2 sack for both Williams and Vahe is due to horrible execution of a stunt pass-off, and there were other times through the game where the execution was just as bad, only with less-disastrous results.
photos versus OU via Texas Athletics
56 C Zach Shackelford - 80 snaps
2 run-stuffs and 1 sack allowed
DEEP DIG GRADE: 75.75
Matt Mattox is trying to hide Zach Shackelford and in many ways and it’s just now begun working. We’ve nearly cracked the screen on our basement’s rickety old television set with angry swats and fingers pointed at Shack. It’s in zone concepts most frequently, as he consistently gives up “worst-case scenario” of letting upfield pressure come through his play-side shoulder to disrupt lanes and play-flow.
Simply put, with Shack at center, Texas cannot be an effective team while running traditional zone, due to the fact that Shack cannot handle a solo-base assignment on a one-technique effectively. Shackelford has allowed double the run-stuffs (8) of any other Texas OL, thanks largely in part to his inability to handle this assignment. However, Texas doesn’t seem keen on taking a zone element out of its run-mix. To the contrary, in fact.
We know that Mattox's "run-home-to-mama"-concept is power, but usage of both inside and outside zone has been on a steady increase all season. To keep Shack from screwing everything up, Mattox has begun to associate a pin/pull element to certain outside-zone calls which usually allows Shack an easy crack-down block (almost exactly the same one he’s making in most power concepts) while the adjacent, covered lineman pulls around.
Still, it was Shack’s best game of the season and fans certainly hope the uptick from here continues. While the overall outcome of 2016 remains very much in doubt, the remainder of ball games will serve as invaluable opportunities for Shackelford to development into a better all-around player.
If he can continue scoring at this level and even moving upward, we could be looking at an offensive line at Texas within the next two years (depending on Connor Williams’ NFL decisions) that is downright dominant and one that is very-good-to-awesome by some point in 2017.
76 RG Kent Perkins - 80 snaps
1 TFL and 1 run-stuff allowed
1 false start penalty
1 knockdown
DEEP DIG GRADE: 75.88
We were surprised he graded out acceptably on the whole, because Perkins’ game versus Oklahoma was at times pure slop. We must give him credit, though: it was his best game of the season, which should tell you all you need to know.
It seems every week in 2016 Charlie Strong is faced with a crossroads game or a "make-or-break" game to save his job, and Perkins' plight has been eerily similar -- only with the goal being garnering NFL consideration rather than keeping a job.
If you put a gun to our heads, we'd be terrified and ask, 'why on earth you would point a gun at us like this?'
Then, when you reply that we must answer one way or the other (based on all we know at this time and nothing else) regarding whether Kent Perkins will be drafted by an NFL team, we'd say absolutely not. Our scale has never once even graded him as a draftable prospect. Time is either running out on Kent Perkins or, more than likely, it's already hit triple-zero.
It's time to start calling a spade a spade. Kent Perkins, a surefire NFL prospect in the minds of Texas fans through his first 2.5-to-3 years at Texas (one who just needed to 'take that next step' to realize his beastly potential) is very likely to never see an NFL 53-man roster.
The ship has sailed. He's just not that good.
Now, can you please put down the gun?
58 RT Brandon Hodges - 63 snaps
1 sack, 1 TFL and 1 run-stuff allowed
1 false start penalty
DEEP DIG GRADE: 76.27
The last in a week of OL grading surprises, Brandon Hodges played the second-best game of all. Hodges had some horrible plays, but when looking at the grade log, those horrible ones which caused disruption were basically his only hiccups, period. Overall, he graded positively on nearly three-times the plays he graded negatively on.
Hodges exited the game after 63 snaps with a right ankle injury, as is expected to miss the next 2-3 weeks per Orangebloods. He was replaced for the final 17 snaps of the contest by Tristan Nickelson who should be considered a downgrade until proven otherwise.
Nickelson only graded negatively three times (two below-average grades, one bad grade) but only graded positively three times as well (two above-average grades, one good grade). Also, issues remain regarding his balance and proneness to overextension both in pass protection and in engagement with off-edge defenders as a play-side blocker in zone or as a back-side pulling option in the counter and wingback-trap settings. One redeeming characteristic in Nickelson we've noticed is his length and a much-improved level of strength through the upper body which allows him to execute difficult reach-blocks with much greater ease in 2016 than we witnessed in 2015.
Skill-position snap counts and one-liners
CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE SKILL PARTICIPATION CHART
Quarterback
7 Shane Buechele - 71 snaps
18 Tyrone Swoopes - 9 snaps
- We think Buechele's ribs are OK. His accuracy downfield (while a bit shaky at times) looked mostly back to normal following a wonky Oklahoma State affair, as did his delivery and mechanics.
Running Back
33 D’Onta Foreman - 58 snaps
21 Kyle Porter - 16 snaps
- Well, we've seen once and for all the D'Onta Foreman is capable of carrying the load for Texas and if he continues at his current clip, he's going to have to test the NFL waters come season's end. The Deep Dig has always been adamant in our stance about Foreman's underrated skill-set in virtually every aspect of his (elite) game and it is gratifying to see the national media start to recognize him in the same way. It will likely take a second or third-round grade for Foreman to consider making the leap after his junior season, but certainly other factors could contribute. Most notably:
1) Charlie Strong is fired. This would make Foreman leaving more likely from all I can gather as Foreman is reportedly very close with Strong, maybe the closest with him of all players on the offense.
2) He will have made it through an entire season carrying the mail healthy. For a guy who's had a few issues staying on the field for extended periods, striking while the iron was hot (and with durability concerns from teams largely cast aside due to presumed recency bias) is something he'll have to at least consider.
Wide Receiver
8 Dorian Leonard - 50 snaps
3 Armanti Foreman - 47 snaps
6 Jake Oliver - 36 snaps
9 Collin Johnson - 33 snaps
2 Devin Duvernay - 28 snaps
1 John Burt - 26 snaps
13 Jerrod Heard - 22 snaps
11 Jacorey Warrick - 18 snaps
5 Lorenzo Joe - 16 snaps
- You see guys like Armanti Foreman, Collin Johnson and Dorian Leonard in as the two WRs for the 18-wheeler package because they are the team's best outside stock-blockers. If we were a running back on the Texas team, we'd love looking out and seeing one of these players split out on run-plays much more than we would seeing John Burt.
- Now that Lorenzo Joe is back, you can throw him in that mix of great downfield blockers as well.
- Speaking of Burt (and Leonard), Burt is about to lose a job. His "backup" played the most WR snaps on the team and we could see more of that going forward. When talking about regression on this 2016 Texas team, you can virtually start with Burt who has looked worse than terrible -- like a hard-luck character in some football movie that, for whatever reason, simply can't catch the football no matter what he tries.
- OC Sterlin Gilbert mentioned recently that Burt may be fighting through a hand injury and to that the Deep Dig says, "Gobbledygook." We've been told by numerous people close to the program that this is just John Burt. He didn't have a hand injury in the spring game, he didn't have a hand injury when he was fighting the football in practice to start the season and he didn't have one on fan day this year when dropped another long ball from Tyrone Swoopes and we're very suspicious of the suggestion he has one now.
Tight End
42 Caleb Bluiett - 32 snaps
47 Andrew Beck - 16 snaps
- Another week of invisible TE play in the receiving game. Speaking of invisibility ...
Did he play on offense? Nope.
Scholarship players who did not record a snap on offense versus Oklahoma (doesn’t include special teams participation if applicable):
OL Jake McMillon (138 total snaps on offense)
RB Chris Warren (120 total snaps on offense)
OL Alex Anderson (93 total snaps on offense)
OL Elijah Rodriguez (72 total snaps on offense)
RB Lil'Jordan Humphrey (27 total snaps on offense)
OL Terrell Cuney (10 total snaps on offense)
OL Denzel Okafor (5 total snaps on offense)
OL Jean Delance (3 total snaps on offense)
RB Tristian Houston (3 total snaps on offense)
TE Quincy Vasser (3 total snaps on offense)
As we turn our attention to (yet another) make-or-break game for Charlie Strong at Texas (how many are there going to be?)
… we thank you, once again, for reading.
Oklahoma Part II: Offense
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!
. . .
Offensive Line Thoughts and Grades
CLICK HERE TO ACCESS OFFICIAL OL GRADING LOG
Deep Dig Grading Scale
55 LT Connor Williams - 80 snaps
1 TFL, 1 QB pressure and 1/2 sack allowed
2 knockdowns
DEEP DIG GRADE: 78.13
It was a much higher grade for Williams than we were expecting as he allowed 2.5 times more disruption in this game alone than he has on the rest of the season combined. (Williams came into the contest having only allowed one sack with zero pressures, hits, TFLs or run-stuffs allowed).
As the grade shows, Williams continues to operate at a higher level and as a player who's taken the next step toward an NFL career in his sophomore season. The same still cannot be said about a certain sophomore line-mate and fellow freshman All-American of Williams', but at least things are looking up a bit ...
77 LG Patrick Vahe - 80 snaps
1 QB hit and 1/2 sack allowed
1 knockdown
DEEP DIG GRADE: 76.00
It's a little disappointing in itself that this is basically tied with Cal as the best game that Patrick Vahe has played all season. Like a few others on offense who we'll get to through the column, Vahe has regressed, albeit slightly. He's still allowing too much pressure in the passing game and it almost seems like the communication between Williams and Vahe on the left side of the Texas offensive line has grown worse as the two have acclimated to their new arrangement this season which flip-flopped sides for Vahe.
They are setting to wildly different levels which makes it impossible to stay hip-to-hip and conscious of stunts. If we were an opposing defensive coordinator, we'd test the duo with stunts and twists until they show they are capable of working in tandem to pass players off to one another and mirror smoothly into the new engagement. This is not optimal. We're talking about Texas' two best offensive linemen, and how they are basically sitting ducks regarding techniques that most high school players worth their salt can understand. The reason for the 1/2 sack for both Williams and Vahe is due to horrible execution of a stunt pass-off, and there were other times through the game where the execution was just as bad, only with less-disastrous results.
photos versus OU via Texas Athletics
56 C Zach Shackelford - 80 snaps
2 run-stuffs and 1 sack allowed
DEEP DIG GRADE: 75.75
Matt Mattox is trying to hide Zach Shackelford and in many ways and it’s just now begun working. We’ve nearly cracked the screen on our basement’s rickety old television set with angry swats and fingers pointed at Shack. It’s in zone concepts most frequently, as he consistently gives up “worst-case scenario” of letting upfield pressure come through his play-side shoulder to disrupt lanes and play-flow.
Simply put, with Shack at center, Texas cannot be an effective team while running traditional zone, due to the fact that Shack cannot handle a solo-base assignment on a one-technique effectively. Shackelford has allowed double the run-stuffs (8) of any other Texas OL, thanks largely in part to his inability to handle this assignment. However, Texas doesn’t seem keen on taking a zone element out of its run-mix. To the contrary, in fact.
We know that Mattox's "run-home-to-mama"-concept is power, but usage of both inside and outside zone has been on a steady increase all season. To keep Shack from screwing everything up, Mattox has begun to associate a pin/pull element to certain outside-zone calls which usually allows Shack an easy crack-down block (almost exactly the same one he’s making in most power concepts) while the adjacent, covered lineman pulls around.
Still, it was Shack’s best game of the season and fans certainly hope the uptick from here continues. While the overall outcome of 2016 remains very much in doubt, the remainder of ball games will serve as invaluable opportunities for Shackelford to development into a better all-around player.
If he can continue scoring at this level and even moving upward, we could be looking at an offensive line at Texas within the next two years (depending on Connor Williams’ NFL decisions) that is downright dominant and one that is very-good-to-awesome by some point in 2017.
76 RG Kent Perkins - 80 snaps
1 TFL and 1 run-stuff allowed
1 false start penalty
1 knockdown
DEEP DIG GRADE: 75.88
We were surprised he graded out acceptably on the whole, because Perkins’ game versus Oklahoma was at times pure slop. We must give him credit, though: it was his best game of the season, which should tell you all you need to know.
It seems every week in 2016 Charlie Strong is faced with a crossroads game or a "make-or-break" game to save his job, and Perkins' plight has been eerily similar -- only with the goal being garnering NFL consideration rather than keeping a job.
If you put a gun to our heads, we'd be terrified and ask, 'why on earth you would point a gun at us like this?'
Then, when you reply that we must answer one way or the other (based on all we know at this time and nothing else) regarding whether Kent Perkins will be drafted by an NFL team, we'd say absolutely not. Our scale has never once even graded him as a draftable prospect. Time is either running out on Kent Perkins or, more than likely, it's already hit triple-zero.
It's time to start calling a spade a spade. Kent Perkins, a surefire NFL prospect in the minds of Texas fans through his first 2.5-to-3 years at Texas (one who just needed to 'take that next step' to realize his beastly potential) is very likely to never see an NFL 53-man roster.
The ship has sailed. He's just not that good.
Now, can you please put down the gun?
58 RT Brandon Hodges - 63 snaps
1 sack, 1 TFL and 1 run-stuff allowed
1 false start penalty
DEEP DIG GRADE: 76.27
The last in a week of OL grading surprises, Brandon Hodges played the second-best game of all. Hodges had some horrible plays, but when looking at the grade log, those horrible ones which caused disruption were basically his only hiccups, period. Overall, he graded positively on nearly three-times the plays he graded negatively on.
Hodges exited the game after 63 snaps with a right ankle injury, as is expected to miss the next 2-3 weeks per Orangebloods. He was replaced for the final 17 snaps of the contest by Tristan Nickelson who should be considered a downgrade until proven otherwise.
Nickelson only graded negatively three times (two below-average grades, one bad grade) but only graded positively three times as well (two above-average grades, one good grade). Also, issues remain regarding his balance and proneness to overextension both in pass protection and in engagement with off-edge defenders as a play-side blocker in zone or as a back-side pulling option in the counter and wingback-trap settings. One redeeming characteristic in Nickelson we've noticed is his length and a much-improved level of strength through the upper body which allows him to execute difficult reach-blocks with much greater ease in 2016 than we witnessed in 2015.
. . .
Skill-position snap counts and one-liners
CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE SKILL PARTICIPATION CHART
Quarterback
7 Shane Buechele - 71 snaps
18 Tyrone Swoopes - 9 snaps
- We think Buechele's ribs are OK. His accuracy downfield (while a bit shaky at times) looked mostly back to normal following a wonky Oklahoma State affair, as did his delivery and mechanics.
Running Back
33 D’Onta Foreman - 58 snaps
21 Kyle Porter - 16 snaps
- Well, we've seen once and for all the D'Onta Foreman is capable of carrying the load for Texas and if he continues at his current clip, he's going to have to test the NFL waters come season's end. The Deep Dig has always been adamant in our stance about Foreman's underrated skill-set in virtually every aspect of his (elite) game and it is gratifying to see the national media start to recognize him in the same way. It will likely take a second or third-round grade for Foreman to consider making the leap after his junior season, but certainly other factors could contribute. Most notably:
1) Charlie Strong is fired. This would make Foreman leaving more likely from all I can gather as Foreman is reportedly very close with Strong, maybe the closest with him of all players on the offense.
2) He will have made it through an entire season carrying the mail healthy. For a guy who's had a few issues staying on the field for extended periods, striking while the iron was hot (and with durability concerns from teams largely cast aside due to presumed recency bias) is something he'll have to at least consider.
Wide Receiver
8 Dorian Leonard - 50 snaps
3 Armanti Foreman - 47 snaps
6 Jake Oliver - 36 snaps
9 Collin Johnson - 33 snaps
2 Devin Duvernay - 28 snaps
1 John Burt - 26 snaps
13 Jerrod Heard - 22 snaps
11 Jacorey Warrick - 18 snaps
5 Lorenzo Joe - 16 snaps
- You see guys like Armanti Foreman, Collin Johnson and Dorian Leonard in as the two WRs for the 18-wheeler package because they are the team's best outside stock-blockers. If we were a running back on the Texas team, we'd love looking out and seeing one of these players split out on run-plays much more than we would seeing John Burt.
- Now that Lorenzo Joe is back, you can throw him in that mix of great downfield blockers as well.
- Speaking of Burt (and Leonard), Burt is about to lose a job. His "backup" played the most WR snaps on the team and we could see more of that going forward. When talking about regression on this 2016 Texas team, you can virtually start with Burt who has looked worse than terrible -- like a hard-luck character in some football movie that, for whatever reason, simply can't catch the football no matter what he tries.
- OC Sterlin Gilbert mentioned recently that Burt may be fighting through a hand injury and to that the Deep Dig says, "Gobbledygook." We've been told by numerous people close to the program that this is just John Burt. He didn't have a hand injury in the spring game, he didn't have a hand injury when he was fighting the football in practice to start the season and he didn't have one on fan day this year when dropped another long ball from Tyrone Swoopes and we're very suspicious of the suggestion he has one now.
Tight End
42 Caleb Bluiett - 32 snaps
47 Andrew Beck - 16 snaps
- Another week of invisible TE play in the receiving game. Speaking of invisibility ...
. . .
Did he play on offense? Nope.
Scholarship players who did not record a snap on offense versus Oklahoma (doesn’t include special teams participation if applicable):
OL Jake McMillon (138 total snaps on offense)
RB Chris Warren (120 total snaps on offense)
OL Alex Anderson (93 total snaps on offense)
OL Elijah Rodriguez (72 total snaps on offense)
RB Lil'Jordan Humphrey (27 total snaps on offense)
OL Terrell Cuney (10 total snaps on offense)
OL Denzel Okafor (5 total snaps on offense)
OL Jean Delance (3 total snaps on offense)
RB Tristian Houston (3 total snaps on offense)
TE Quincy Vasser (3 total snaps on offense)
. . .
As we turn our attention to (yet another) make-or-break game for Charlie Strong at Texas (how many are there going to be?)
… we thank you, once again, for reading.
