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As always, we'll give analysis along with the tiered rankings (now updated through one game) which are derived via a proprietary scoring formula, and based on the following advanced charting statistics (please note the distinctions in how tackles, etc. are counted and why these stats will always differ from the official university stats):
Click Images to Enlarge
***Please note for 2019: -1 point has been added for any defensive penalty outside of defensive pass interference which is always considered a coverage burn and is not double-counted.***
Defensive Snap Counts By Week and Percentage of Total Defensive Snaps Played Through 3 Weeks
Defensive Productivity Market-Share Percentages and Snaps per Production Caused Metrics Through 3 Weeks (snaps per disruption caused is colored coded from blue/best to red/worst)
vs. RICE
In all, it was a solid all-around effort from the Texas defense versus the Rice Owls where we saw some newer faces thanks to the big lead Texas got out to, allowing for the playing time of key reserves. The best outcome of the game for our purposes is in regard to numerous players finding their way out of the "sub-replacement-level" category of the rankings and into the acceptable production tiers given their playing time.
That list starts with NT Keondre Coburn, who Tom Herman consistently says is playing excellently despite not racking up the counting stats that many depend on to judge performance. We always sort of shook our head at this, as we chart non-traditional stats of "disruption" like run-stuffs, interior pressures, QB hits, etc. and Coburn still wasn't showing up as anywhere near the disruptive force guys like Poona Ford, Hassan Ridgeway or Malcom Brown were. In fact, he was more in line with somewhere around a senior-year Chris Nelson-level of production -- which is nothing to sneeze at for a freshman. In this game, Coburn was a force, credited for 1 sack, 1 separate TFL and 3 run-stuffs along with a few points for tackles in a day where the defense played very few total snaps. It took his season-long market share right to the brink of BJ Foster levels (and before you say BJ Foster has been injured, remember that Foster was at times every snap player when healthy while Coburn is consistently right at the 50% mark). Both players have played around the same number of snaps on the season despite Foster's absence vs. Rice. Foster is still ahead as far as total efficiency, but seeing a true starter at defensive linemen creep up into this territory is excellent news.
The big surprise was No.6 - LB Juwan Mitchell. We know it was only Rice, but he looks much better than Ayodele Adeoye, and should figure into the picture to play more often than Adeoye when the team goes to 3 LBs. Mitchell looks perfectly capable of handling either inside role and was effective in doing so versus Rice. He has a nose for the football, leading the team in points for tackles in this week's Deep Dig. He's fast enough sideline-to-sideline, he plays with excellent leverage and he comes downhill with thump. On 59 total snaps this season, he has been uber-efficient, having the best snaps/production caused metric of any player who has taken at least 30 snaps. He also had a sack, a big-time QB hit and generated 2 stuffs in the run game. We need more Mitchell. MOAR.
It may get it at select times situationally -- we saw in the Rice game that when one-dimensional teams can't throw on them, Texas finally gave way to @Ketchum's wish to play with four down linemen. It was the first time under Todd Orlando at Texas we have seen this, as we had to add a new column to the standard charting sheet to account for a 4th down lineman. In this "jumbo" setup, Texas also used 4 LBs -- Ossai, McCulloch, Adeoye and Mitchell -- so, if nothing else, Mitchell should have a role carved out in this package. However, his performances versus La Tech and now Rice indicate he needs a long look to chop into Adeoye's playing time.
Tom Herman said Ta'Quon Graham played his best game as a Longhorn (which isn't saying all that much to be honest), but Herman was not lying. Graham was a fairly disruptive force inside and he could have had a bigger game had he been just a smidge twitchier getting to the QB on at least two instances. He should get credit for completely collapsing the pocket on a few memorable plays, though, and was able to get to the QB in the form of a key QB hit and a pressure as well as tacking on a TFL. Again, excellent developments to see DLs creeping out of the sub-replacement-level category, which is defined as players who have generated less individual production than the average across all defensive players.
Jacoby Jones also remains in the tier with Graham and Coburn thanks to terrific efficiency despite limited snaps thus far. An interesting note on Jones: he is more versatile than fans might think. For the same reasons he has been disruptive and productive at DE (burst, ability to bend the edge, great pursuit angles, heavy hands and solid motor) the staff actually messed around with him at B-Backer to kill the game's final 10 snaps once Joseph Ossai was hurt and backup Byron Vaughns got his series or two in. Something to monitor. The staff could be looking for ways to get Jones on the field more. We were not huge fans of Jones' JUCO film, but are now solidly on board with the idea of him being a very intriguing developmental talent who can give you immediate production.
Staying on the defensive line, Moro Ojomo and T'Vondre Sweat are both teetering on the edge of replaceability, but both have seen just over 50 snaps. Both actually have better snaps/production metrics than Malcolm Roach and Ta'Quon Graham, so the depth along the line is being cultivated well despite the fact that it isn't as top-heavy and dominant a group of starters as fans may be used to. Whatever it is, it seems to be working at least serviceably and there is really no way but up from here barring injuries or unforseen circumstances.
CB Kobe Boyce continues to start opposite Jalen Green but really only usually plays 50% or so of snaps if you look at the game logs above. The competition and the musical chairs at corner will continue but apparently it won't involve true freshman Kenyatta Watson just yet. Even when the third-stringers and backups were in the game to end it, Donovan Duvernay was flanked on the other side by Josh Thompson, who moved from a nickel/third-safety-type role to outside CB instead of Watson.
The numbers are easy to see in the illustration above, but from a market-share and efficiency standpoint, D'Shawn Jamison is actually looking like a real runner to take the reins at one of the corners. To add a little context, we'll give you our numbers here for the DBs on catch-rates allowed *when clearly targeted (*please note we only have the TV angle of the broadcast and only take records of completions versus DBs where the camera angle provides a good enough view to understand the general coverage, and hence, assignment of the DB. While the stats are not all-encompassing, they have indeed always given a fairly accurate overall view of where each player stands).
CB Jalen Green - 150 snaps
67% completion percentage
75 snaps per coverage burn
2 PBUs, 1 batted pass
CB Kobe Boyce - 91 snaps
83% completion percentage
18.2 snaps per coverage burn
1 PBU
CB Anthony Cook - 74 snaps
57% completion percentage
74 snaps per coverage burn
2 PBUs
CB D'Shawn Jamison - 49 snaps
25% completion percentage
no coverage burns
CB Donovan Duvernay - 16 snaps
67% completion percentage
16 snaps per coverage burn
CB Kenyatta Watson - 6 snaps
never clearly targeted
Finally, perhaps the best part of the defensive breakdown - only 2 missed tackles on defense which might be the best mark in this category in the history of the Deep Dig. It certainly is in the Todd Orlando era. Let's hope this can jump-start the unit in this category as next week, as it will face a WR in Tylan Wallace who leads the Big 12 in yards-after-catch as well as the nation's leading rusher, Chubba Hubbard, who has amassed 521 yards on the ground thus far through the 2019 season, averaging 7.2 yards per carry.
The Absolute BEST in family and cosmetic dentistry for the Houston-Memorial Area
Now Accepting New Patients --- 281-293-9140
As always, we'll give analysis along with the tiered rankings (now updated through one game) which are derived via a proprietary scoring formula, and based on the following advanced charting statistics (please note the distinctions in how tackles, etc. are counted and why these stats will always differ from the official university stats):
Click Images to Enlarge
***Please note for 2019: -1 point has been added for any defensive penalty outside of defensive pass interference which is always considered a coverage burn and is not double-counted.***
Defensive Snap Counts By Week and Percentage of Total Defensive Snaps Played Through 3 Weeks
Defensive Productivity Market-Share Percentages and Snaps per Production Caused Metrics Through 3 Weeks (snaps per disruption caused is colored coded from blue/best to red/worst)
*******************
vs. RICE
In all, it was a solid all-around effort from the Texas defense versus the Rice Owls where we saw some newer faces thanks to the big lead Texas got out to, allowing for the playing time of key reserves. The best outcome of the game for our purposes is in regard to numerous players finding their way out of the "sub-replacement-level" category of the rankings and into the acceptable production tiers given their playing time.
That list starts with NT Keondre Coburn, who Tom Herman consistently says is playing excellently despite not racking up the counting stats that many depend on to judge performance. We always sort of shook our head at this, as we chart non-traditional stats of "disruption" like run-stuffs, interior pressures, QB hits, etc. and Coburn still wasn't showing up as anywhere near the disruptive force guys like Poona Ford, Hassan Ridgeway or Malcom Brown were. In fact, he was more in line with somewhere around a senior-year Chris Nelson-level of production -- which is nothing to sneeze at for a freshman. In this game, Coburn was a force, credited for 1 sack, 1 separate TFL and 3 run-stuffs along with a few points for tackles in a day where the defense played very few total snaps. It took his season-long market share right to the brink of BJ Foster levels (and before you say BJ Foster has been injured, remember that Foster was at times every snap player when healthy while Coburn is consistently right at the 50% mark). Both players have played around the same number of snaps on the season despite Foster's absence vs. Rice. Foster is still ahead as far as total efficiency, but seeing a true starter at defensive linemen creep up into this territory is excellent news.
The big surprise was No.6 - LB Juwan Mitchell. We know it was only Rice, but he looks much better than Ayodele Adeoye, and should figure into the picture to play more often than Adeoye when the team goes to 3 LBs. Mitchell looks perfectly capable of handling either inside role and was effective in doing so versus Rice. He has a nose for the football, leading the team in points for tackles in this week's Deep Dig. He's fast enough sideline-to-sideline, he plays with excellent leverage and he comes downhill with thump. On 59 total snaps this season, he has been uber-efficient, having the best snaps/production caused metric of any player who has taken at least 30 snaps. He also had a sack, a big-time QB hit and generated 2 stuffs in the run game. We need more Mitchell. MOAR.
It may get it at select times situationally -- we saw in the Rice game that when one-dimensional teams can't throw on them, Texas finally gave way to @Ketchum's wish to play with four down linemen. It was the first time under Todd Orlando at Texas we have seen this, as we had to add a new column to the standard charting sheet to account for a 4th down lineman. In this "jumbo" setup, Texas also used 4 LBs -- Ossai, McCulloch, Adeoye and Mitchell -- so, if nothing else, Mitchell should have a role carved out in this package. However, his performances versus La Tech and now Rice indicate he needs a long look to chop into Adeoye's playing time.
Tom Herman said Ta'Quon Graham played his best game as a Longhorn (which isn't saying all that much to be honest), but Herman was not lying. Graham was a fairly disruptive force inside and he could have had a bigger game had he been just a smidge twitchier getting to the QB on at least two instances. He should get credit for completely collapsing the pocket on a few memorable plays, though, and was able to get to the QB in the form of a key QB hit and a pressure as well as tacking on a TFL. Again, excellent developments to see DLs creeping out of the sub-replacement-level category, which is defined as players who have generated less individual production than the average across all defensive players.
Jacoby Jones also remains in the tier with Graham and Coburn thanks to terrific efficiency despite limited snaps thus far. An interesting note on Jones: he is more versatile than fans might think. For the same reasons he has been disruptive and productive at DE (burst, ability to bend the edge, great pursuit angles, heavy hands and solid motor) the staff actually messed around with him at B-Backer to kill the game's final 10 snaps once Joseph Ossai was hurt and backup Byron Vaughns got his series or two in. Something to monitor. The staff could be looking for ways to get Jones on the field more. We were not huge fans of Jones' JUCO film, but are now solidly on board with the idea of him being a very intriguing developmental talent who can give you immediate production.
Staying on the defensive line, Moro Ojomo and T'Vondre Sweat are both teetering on the edge of replaceability, but both have seen just over 50 snaps. Both actually have better snaps/production metrics than Malcolm Roach and Ta'Quon Graham, so the depth along the line is being cultivated well despite the fact that it isn't as top-heavy and dominant a group of starters as fans may be used to. Whatever it is, it seems to be working at least serviceably and there is really no way but up from here barring injuries or unforseen circumstances.
CB Kobe Boyce continues to start opposite Jalen Green but really only usually plays 50% or so of snaps if you look at the game logs above. The competition and the musical chairs at corner will continue but apparently it won't involve true freshman Kenyatta Watson just yet. Even when the third-stringers and backups were in the game to end it, Donovan Duvernay was flanked on the other side by Josh Thompson, who moved from a nickel/third-safety-type role to outside CB instead of Watson.
The numbers are easy to see in the illustration above, but from a market-share and efficiency standpoint, D'Shawn Jamison is actually looking like a real runner to take the reins at one of the corners. To add a little context, we'll give you our numbers here for the DBs on catch-rates allowed *when clearly targeted (*please note we only have the TV angle of the broadcast and only take records of completions versus DBs where the camera angle provides a good enough view to understand the general coverage, and hence, assignment of the DB. While the stats are not all-encompassing, they have indeed always given a fairly accurate overall view of where each player stands).
CB Jalen Green - 150 snaps
67% completion percentage
75 snaps per coverage burn
2 PBUs, 1 batted pass
CB Kobe Boyce - 91 snaps
83% completion percentage
18.2 snaps per coverage burn
1 PBU
CB Anthony Cook - 74 snaps
57% completion percentage
74 snaps per coverage burn
2 PBUs
CB D'Shawn Jamison - 49 snaps
25% completion percentage
no coverage burns
CB Donovan Duvernay - 16 snaps
67% completion percentage
16 snaps per coverage burn
CB Kenyatta Watson - 6 snaps
never clearly targeted
Finally, perhaps the best part of the defensive breakdown - only 2 missed tackles on defense which might be the best mark in this category in the history of the Deep Dig. It certainly is in the Todd Orlando era. Let's hope this can jump-start the unit in this category as next week, as it will face a WR in Tylan Wallace who leads the Big 12 in yards-after-catch as well as the nation's leading rusher, Chubba Hubbard, who has amassed 521 yards on the ground thus far through the 2019 season, averaging 7.2 yards per carry.
