Ketch's 10 Thoughts From the Weekend (Ok, let's talk about the defense...)

[Victor St Claire]

Fans that subscribe to sites like this can sometimes be so close to the thing that they are following that they focus more on what doesn't happen that what does.

Instead of looking at his total performance as one of the best in school history, some want to isolate a mistake or two from early in the game as a way of pointing out he wasn't perfect.

No shit.

Fans, coaches, players all get so close and involved they cant see the light through the dark and in some cases the dark through the light. Mack couldn't see he had an issue towards the end. Today we have a case of some fans not being able to see the QB is not the issue. We have issues just not at QB currently. It's hard to make sure you dont get pulled in by the good or bad and not allow yourself to see things as they really are.

 

[HealthLawHorn]

In the best game of Colts career the 2008 OU game Colt threw for 277 yards with 1 touchdown . His passer rating was 156 . He also threw what should have been a crucial interception in the end zone that was jarred loose by the ground .
Colt also had a running back that ran for 127 yards and we had a kickoff returned for a touchdown .
Overall Sam had a better game than Colt did that day plus Colt had a lot more offensive help .

I don’t mean to nitpick, but that was hardly Colt’s best game. Look at Arky, Missouri, A&M and Okie State from 2008 and A&M from 2009. He was dominant. But I admit I may be selling Sam short.

 

[jspirohorn]

* Joseph Ossai: Todd Orlando can't put this kid enough positions to make plays. He's a future Sunday player who makes monster plays.

The reward of making him so multiple (the tipped INT) wasn't worth the risk of not pass rushing him off the edge 95% of the time (573 yards passing). I'm surprised you haven't responded to some other posters suggesting Ossai become a full-time pass rusher but this defense can't get enough pressure with it. Orlando needs to watch a lot of film on how Muschamp used Orakpo and Kindle.

 

[john gray]

I don’t mean to nitpick, but that was hardly Colt’s best game. Look at Arky, Missouri, A&M and Okie State from 2008 and A&M from 2009. He was dominant. But I admit I may be selling Sam short.

Colt was college football hall of fame caliber player . He was a 2 time Heisman finalist and won multiple player of the year awards .
His career passing rating was 155 .
His best year was 2008 when he had a 173 rating for the year .
Sam had a rating of 175 against LSU .

 

[darrenj]

Sam's not even in the same universe with gifted passers like Trevor Lawrence and Tua. Elite passers can make all the throws accurately, and Sam can't do that. What we have to hope is that Sam's familiarity will makeup for his passing limitations by consistently directing the offense into the right play calls, allowing his teammates to contribute enough playmaking to win the conference.

Still not really sold on Tua as watched him play terribly against both Georgia n Clemson last yr. Which were the only 2 games where the talent was even close on both sides. Most games he just gets to sit back there and throw to 3 1rst round picks and not get touched. Sam played much better than Lawrence did Sat as well. Is he as good as passer as either of them not even close. Now as an overall college QB he is pretty darn close.

 

[frink1951]

I know you're referring to this season, but Brandon Jones is a senior who has played a lot of football here and I don't think he's played up to his talent level anywhere near consistently.

He has definitely lost a step, either through a nagging injury, a few extra pounds, or trying to do too much and getting gassed early.

 

[94Sip]

Because women have not been playing soccer around the world like the US has. I lived in Mexico for 12 years and there were not any girls soccer leagues at the youth level. If a girl wanted to play, they played with the boys.

The thing you are not getting is that all over the world soccer academies start at early ages, just recently in the US, and this is much better training than college soccer. If you pay attention to the youth programs around the US, you see big name international teams setting up shop in the US looking for future superstars.

I played soccer my whole life. I was coached by a Brazilian guy that made it into their national program and was then cut. I was good enough to be offered as a walk-on at Duke. My point is that I understand what is going on in the rest of the world. My high school team had an exchange student on it, from Brazil, that was not even good enough to play futbol in brazil, only rugby, and he was by far the best player in our district, and it wasn't close.

The same thing is happening with youth baseball right now. But what America is missing is that the collegiate ranks should be a great place to deepen the talent pool. The collegiate opportunity gives girls the opportunity in America to get better. It gives them hope for a future with the sport. It gives young girls to get better at soccer and if they are not good enough for the USWNT, they still get a great degree. That right there keeps most boys from developing - there is no reason.

Men's soccer in the US is in a death spiral. The best players can try to go play overseas - I knew a bunch of kids that thought they were good enough. They all came back in tears. They were not even close to being good enough. The program has to be rebuilt from the ground up, and a robust collegiate environment has to be a part of the equation.

The same thing is happening in baseball. There are many kids that are drafted straight outta HS. But there are many more that go to college and develop and then go to the MLB - they were just late bloomers.

 

[frink1951]

If we can't win the Big 12 without Ingram being one of the conference's best backs then we can't win the Big 12. He does not have the speed, quickness, elusiveness or burst to pose a threat to any top 40 team. His HS 100 meter PR was 12.5, and now he wears a brace. He has good forward lean and vision but that's not enough to make him one of the best backs in the Big 12. He racked up yards in HS running through holes that he will never see against any top 40 team. The coaches may try to help him rebuild some confidence against Rice, but it was obvious that RoJo was the better back against LSU and has a level of burst, quicks and want to that Ingram does not exhibit. RoJo is not a proven commodity by any means yet, but unfortunately Ingram has shown that he lacks the burst to be more than an average back.

Ingram = Jonathan Gray. Which may be good enough.

 

[MadDogKC]

Anyone who questions Sam needs to take a break from watching football until they learn how to view the game rationally. Ehlinger is nails, period.

Not deep balls and wide open receivers

 

[texhorns12]

May be time to take a few days off of this site. The disrespect Sam is getting is pathetic.

 

[boernefan]

How do you make 3 points about his scheme and play-calling and NOT address his bewildering decision to all-out blitz on 3rd and 17 when all we needed was a a simple stop that LSU likely would have settled for to force a timeout?

That very nearly worked. He took a risk because he wasn’t confident in our pass rush.
At least that is how it looks to me.
He was trying a lot of DL guys trying to get a rush.
Burrow made a very difficult and unlikely throw to make that play.

 

[boernefan]

Those last steps are always the hardest to take. See Mack's career.

Sometimes you have to be very good to get the type of recruits you need to get to elite.

 

[john gray]

Not deep balls and wide open receivers

The only wide open deep receivers that Sam had had this year were the 3 touchdown plays to Eagles .

Well actually if the DB hadn't tried to undercut Eagles on the 55 yard touchdown he would not have been open . The high throw over the DB essentially threw him open .

 

[MDHornfan]

Last team to put 38 points on LSU...

Aggy in 2016

aggy put 74 on them last year

 

[john gray]

aggy put 74 on them last year

They scored 74 including 7 overtimes . The score was tied at 31 at the end of regulation .

 

[Ketchum]

Fans, coaches, players all get so close and involved they cant see the light through the dark and in some cases the dark through the light. Mack couldn't see he had an issue towards the end. Today we have a case of some fans not being able to see the QB is not the issue. We have issues just not at QB currently. It's hard to make sure you dont get pulled in by the good or bad and not allow yourself to see things as they really are.

Co-sign.

 

[Ketchum]

The reward of making him so multiple (the tipped INT) wasn't worth the risk of not pass rushing him off the edge 95% of the time (573 yards passing). I'm surprised you haven't responded to some other posters suggesting Ossai become a full-time pass rusher but this defense can't get enough pressure with it. Orlando needs to watch a lot of film on how Muschamp used Orakpo and Kindle.

I literally just talked about this exact thing in the podcast I recorded and used the same example.

 

[Ketchum]

Not deep balls and wide open receivers

This play did not result in a touchdown.

Missing receivers and throws in general happen to every quarterback in the sport.

 

[FriscoWolf]

Ossai needs to be rushing the quarterback on every passing down going forward. Sending a corner or safety as the 4th pass rusher isn't working

He reminds me of Sergio Kindle who started out at linebacker and then was a DE with great versatility to move him around.

 

[wfoot]

A year ago, he was second in the nation in downfield passing efficiency.

Downfield passes are the least efficient throws a quarterback can make, so he's going to miss some, even when they are open.

Tom Brady was awesome last night... and he missed a couple of throws it. It happens.

I'm nopt the one that's blind. I'm the one using my brain.

Ketch, I know you are a huge Sam fan, as am I. My only point is that he missed, has missed, wide open receivers on deeper patterns time after time. He did it twice on Saturday night. While they are harder throws, he had open receivers who he could have easily hit by putting some air under the ball. Brewer was so open he could have lobbed the ball to him, but instead threw the ball hard into the ground nowhere near Cade. He also missed DD who was very open. He can and should learn from those game changing mishaps. Some practice and some coaching about how to complete long passes when the receiver is wide open would help. It's different from when he has to drill the ball into a tight window like the ball he completed to Jake. It would help us if he improved on this aspect of his game so I hope he does.

 

[FriscoWolf]

Sam is playing better right now than Colt did as a senior. Colt was awful vs. the best teams on the 2009 schedule.

Colt had a crappy OL and no running game. It was amazing that we made it to MNC game and probably win it if Colt doesn’t get hurt.

I agree that Sam is better so far. He has a better OL than Colt but he may end Iike Colt lacking a running game. My confidence is sky high with Sam.

 

[Ketchum]

My only point is that he missed, has missed, wide open receivers on deeper patterns time after time.

He was second in the nation last year in downfield passing.

Yes, he has missed receivers down the field. My point is that it happens to every quarterback at every level on a pretty consistent basis.

 

[Ketchum]

Colt had a crappy OL and no running game. It was amazing that we made it to MNC game and probably win it if Colt doesn’t get hurt.

I agree that Sam is better so far. He has a better OL than Colt but he may end Iike Colt lacking a running game. My confidence is sky high with Sam.

Colt was working with Walter Peyton compared to what Sam had on Saturday.

 

[Ketchum]

Question for those that want to engage.

Other than OU and UGA from last year, when has Sam ever been better than he was Saturday night?

 

[Coach840]

Def. coaches need to be teaching, teaching, teaching the next couple of weeks and put them in positions to succeed.

 

[boernefan]

I don't get the sense they are even thinking about moving parts around.

I think that the defense will be really coached up this week and some guys will respond. I expect a big improvement against Rice.

 

[Ketchum]

I think that the defense will be really coached up this week and some guys will respond. I expect a big improvement against Rice.

They have two weeks to get ready for Okie Light.

 

[john gray]

In over 40 years of watching Texas football there are only a handful of games where we have a better quarterback performance than Sam had Saturday .
Unfortunately we came up a touchdown short . If we catch the 4th and 2 and make 1 stop that would have been viewed as an all time great UT qb performance .

 

[TD TX TD VY]

Question for those that want to engage.

Other than OU and UGA from last year, when has Sam ever been better than he was Saturday night?

I don't understand why you and others are acting like Sam is being blamed for the L. I haven't seen that sentiment from anyone on the board. People have just noted the deep throw accuracy issues. It's probably in the bottom 10 percentile in the ranking of the size of this team's issues, but that doesn't mean it's somehow wrong to acknowledge it exists.

 

[Ketchum]

I don't understand why you and others are acting like Sam is being blamed for the L. I haven't seen that sentiment from anyone on the board. People have just noted the deep throw accuracy issues. It's probably in the bottom 10 percentile in the ranking of the size of this team's issues, but that doesn't mean it's somehow wrong to acknowledge it exists.

He's at the very bottom of things on this team that warrant heavy inspection.

I'm also trying to make everyone understand that needing to throw better down the field is literally a thing for almost every quarterback alive.