Finally, I have a short interaction I had with Matt Rhule about the Baylor defense. This came after a few questions in which he praised Taylor Young for helping lead this team through the 2017 season and in which he accidentally indicated that he has a high level of trust in Charlie Brewer. Also after … [Read more…]
If you haven’t heard from fans of other conferences, the Big 12 hasn’t been doing so well in the NFL draft of late. This was a big story in 2017 when only one player (Pat Mahomes, Texas Tech) was drafted from the conference into the first round. I figured that the league would rebound strongly … [Read more…]
With the season and recruiting classes firmly in the rearview mirror I was keen to check in on something I didn’t devote much time to previously, the status of the #RhuleofLaw defense. I studied Temple fairly intensively last offseason partly because they were an interesting team that won a fascinating league and partly because Baylor … [Read more…]
I don’t know that I want to try and rank them all again. Last year I developed a system for weighting the grades I handed out and then added it all up. This year I think I’m done with that. It’s fun content and makes for good debate but I’m not sure how valuable it … [Read more…]
The average pundit said that Matt Rhule was going to struggle to recruit Texas replacing Art Briles and coming in to a program that had just endured a PR nightmare but that he’d be able to win early by utilizing Briles’ players. I had a very different sense of things, I was never terribly worried … [Read more…]
This should be our final piece to this puzzle and then I’ll begin to move on to the always popular Big 12 class breakdowns. In part I we focused on the ways in which teams still run 3-4 and 4-3 base defenses in the spread era today. These are increasingly less common because of how … [Read more…]
I just got a look at the coach’s selections for the All-B12 team, it was pretty solid. I mean they list like six DL or something silly like that to make sure that everyone who had a standout season is recognized which is reasonable. The main purpose of a list like that is to give … [Read more…]
The 2017 season featured the most returning talent at QB in the Big 12 since perhaps 2008 and now this crop is moving on, making way for a cast of young signal-callers some of which got their starts in 2017. Last year I broke down the contrasting styles of Charlie Brewer and Shawn Robinson about … [Read more…]
Texas isn’t back but pre-Briles Baylor is! That’s probably harsh, I’ve been saying all along that Matt Rhule would likely take his lumps in year one while working to achieve the macro-level culture change and roster reconstruction necessary to win “his way.” I did think that they’d handle Liberty without difficulty but looking back it … [Read more…]
LSU shut the freaking door on BYU’s defense this last weekend while fielding a defense of Houston kids. I broke down how they mixed an old school 4-3 Under defense with a 2-4-5 nickel sub-package to wreak havoc on BYU’s pro-stylings on offense over at Saturday Down South. I think their “confuse and clobber” offense … [Read more…]