Inside Texas has
an article listing the 10 players on the current roster that they think our new coach will deem essential to his immediate success.
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There’s so many different players currently at UT that it’ll be interesting to see which ones Herman deems most worthy to use as the vanguard for his #TexasTakeover. If he were to draft 10 players from the current roster as the “these guys are essential to my plan,” here’s my stab at guessing which 10 he’d choose first.
10). Edwin Freeman
If Todd Orlando sticks with his base 4-0-4 (two 4i-technique DEs and a 0-tech nose) 3-4 defensive front, he’s going to need inside linebackers that can take advantage of being covered up and flow to the football or blitz from different directions with speed. Edwin Freeman is arguably a candidate one for that role and came on so strong at the end of 2016 that he ended up leading the inside linebackers in tackles for loss while adding three sacks and two interceptions to boot.
If Orlando ends up adjusting his front to get Breckyn Hager and Malcolm Roach on the field together, he’ll need inside linebackers that can fit into different roles across the front and be as adept beating blocks as they are scraping to the edge with speed. Currently Freeman is the furthest along of the Texas LBs in these duties as well.
Herman’s Houston defense made great use of inside LBs... that were both athletic and versatile. He’s going to find Freeman to be a delightfully athletic upgrade... who’s just starting to figure out how to play confident up in the box.
9). DeShon Elliott
There were times down the stretch in which Elliott flashed true brilliance at the safety position. Orlando’s defensive schemes will require that his secondary know what they’re doing in a few different coverages and will still require that the safety spots are stocked by guys that can quarterback the defense, but they’ll also simplify things a bit at a time when Elliott will be naturally starting to grasp the college game at a higher level as a third-year player.
In particular, Orlando’s scheme at Houston always made great use of safeties that could cover ground and loved to hit, which is exactly who DeShon Elliott is as a player.
In particular, the field safety needs to be able to credibly cover down on a slot receiver in order to unleash the field blitzes Orlando loves to send as well as cover ground and match vertical routes from deep alignments. Elliott is perfect for this role and is now in position to put it all together.
8). Malcolm Roach
This defense is designed to make the most of versatile, violent football players and Malcolm Roach is exactly that. His ability to serve as a credible coverage dropper will probably see him line up at outside linebacker. In fact, his ability to play in the box and grapple with OL combined with the heavy frequency in which Texas will face Air Raid teams may push Orlando to consider downsizing his 3-4 defense to a 2-4-5 nickel package that features Roach as more of a true DE/OLB hybrid.
Either way, Roach’s versatility and the violence with which he plays the game will ensure that he figures prominently in Herman’s plans for fielding an aggressive defense.
7). Jerrod Heard
In 2015, Jerrod Heard ran the ball 111 times for 736 yards at 6.6 yards per carry and his ability to make hay on concepts like “QB counter” was the best feature of the offense. Unfortunately the QB position has some other requirements, like reading defenses and throwing the football, that caused some problems for Heard.
In 2016, he moved to WR to help complete the Texas offense and present more vertical constraints to free up D’Onta Foreman to run wild.
Herman’s offensive structure is less rigid in how it chooses to attack defenses and can easily incorporate a player that just needs to get the ball in his hands in space in simple ways. You can expect Heard to get involved on bubble screens, tunnel screens, quick passing concepts, the odd vertical route, and also sweeps. Herman is going to want to force opponents to regularly prove they can tackle Heard before he picks up positive yardage because most teams have not proven they’re up for it.
6). Devin Duvernay
Duvernay is probably the best prospect for [a shifty little speedster with good hands] that Texas has ever signed as he combines the “sudden in all directions” attributes of players like Ayers with good hands and long speed that put him in the highest percentile of NFL WRs.
Just as Herman will look to involve Heard in a few different ways, he’ll do the same with Duvernay who’s even shiftier and more explosive. Between these two, Armanti Foreman, and the lack of great TEs on the roster, Herman may choose to use more four-WR sets to get all of that speed on the field where it can burn opponents.
5). Breckyn Hager
Hager is a more obvious fit as an outside linebacker in Orlando’s 3-4 defense then Roach and probably won’t be a down linemen in that front save perhaps for third and long packages. Like Roach, Hager plays the game without restraint and with the sort of violent intentions that can allow a player with less than elite athleticism to punch well above his weight. He’s relentless in his pursuit of the football, and when he’s playing a rush-OLB position that allows him to hang out on the perimeter, he can be a wrecking ball on the edge or a guy who quickly finds his way to the football even when teams are running away from him.
All that said, he’s a better athlete than he often gets credit for and a very credible pure, pass-rusher. Beyond his willingness to violent crash into blockers, Hager is also pretty capable of winning the edge and turning the corner on people in the pass-rush and he also became an absolute demon down against the run when he learned to aggressively play the zone-read without yielding a soft corner.
4). Collin Johnson
The nature of Herman’s “smashmouth spread” is that it creates multiple “running back” positions that regularly get the ball behind the line of scrimmage and then need to be able to turn upfield and gain yardage behind blockers. The outside WR position is generally used as a blocker in those instances, but he has an additional role that can make him foundational to the entire offense.
At 6-foot-6, 212 with good hands, legit quickness, and a tremendous catch radius, Collin Johnson can’t really be cancelled out with man coverage. If Texas can develop the chemistry between him and the starting QB to have CJ run choice routes outside based on the coverage and alignment of the DB, particularly with concepts like the back shoulder fade, they can force double teams over Johnson that frees up everyone else to wreck shop in the middle of the field.
3). Malik Jefferson
In a contest of sheer quickness in the open field, Jefferson has few equals but creating a position where that’s his primary job description has been difficult.
There are a number of places that Jefferson might end up in Orlando’s defense and hopefully he’ll master the package well enough to serve in a few different spots, but one area where he could be particularly dominant is as the field outside linebacker spot where Orlando used nickel DBs in Houston.
In the base 3-4 set, this position needed to be able to get his eyes and potentially his hands on the slot, deny a quick pass, but then still be able to arrive to defend the edge against the run. To do this at a level that can thwart the best spread offenses requires a level of acceleration you don’t typically find in a linebacker, but Jefferson has it in spades. If you can regularly blitz Jefferson into opposing backfields without the OL realizing what’s happening you’re going to create some major messes.
It’s also possible that Herman and Orlando finally get the hate flowing through Malik at such a level that he can embrace the dark side and rule the space between the tackles as a sith lord/inside-backer.
2). Kris Boyd
Kris Boyd could help [Texas] achieve the... important goal of locking down at least one Texas sideline against all of the potent, spread offenses in the Big 12. Herman is inheriting several cornerbacks with a lot of promise but Kris Boyd is the best athlete of the bunch and one with enough mental toughness to nail down a major role.
He still has a ways to go as a corner in terms of technique but he was probably the best on the team playing cover-2 last year and that will be closer to the style that Texas will now employ with new DC, Orlando.
There’s lots of players on the roster that Orlando will be able to use to get pressure on Big 12 QBs but Boyd could be the glue that allows the pressures and coverages to come together without the defense getting roasted outside with the passing game.
1). Sam Ehlinger
I’d say the most likely outcome for 2017 is that Shane Buechele holds down the starting job, but Sam Ehlinger is the ideal QB for Tom Herman’s offense and he’ll get the keys to the car at some point.
The tone that Ehlinger seems poised to set for Texas is “we’re just as skilled as you but also willing to bash skulls until you quit.”
Herman wants to threaten the middle of the field with a physical, downhill running game while still featuring the skill to burn teams by accurately throwing the ball to speed on the perimeter. The ultimate way to create this kind of stress is with a QB that’s big and tough enough to run between the tackles and skilled enough to throw outside, which is Ehlinger.
With these ten players and their extensive remaining eligibility, Herman will look to finally execute the #TexasTakeover that Longhorn coaches have been promising for this whole, lost decade.
