How the best OL are built
Over at Football Study Hall I surveyed some of the better OL units of this decade in college football and what sorts of parts went into their assembly.
Month: August 2017
“The Expansion Candidate” Ep 4: Previewing TCU with FrogsOwar
This week I had Jamie Plunkett (@FrogPreacher) and Melissa Triebwasser (@TheCoachMelissa), the managing editors of FrogsOwar.com to preview TCU’s 2017 season. Amongst our topics were whether Gary Patterson was going to rebuild his once legendary defenses, how he might do so, the current trust level in Kenny Hill, and the long-term vision for the team … [Read more…]
How the nickel package became base D in college football
I wrote a big piece on that is now up at SB Nation as part of our preseason preview. Going into that piece I figured I more or less knew the subject matter like the back of my hand since the emergence of the nickel defense is something that has defined the game since I … [Read more…]
What’s this in my preseason koolaid?
Preseason is the time of eternal optimism, when every question mark about every team is one that could break positively or negatively and it’s hard to be sure of which. I find you often get the clearest picture by assuming that the question marks about a given team will break about 50-50. If you do … [Read more…]
Tennessee set to go with a Texan signal-caller
I think it’s possible that Tennessee moving on from Joshua Dobbs could actually boost their offense if Quinten Dormady makes good on some of the potential I’ve seen in him. Dormady was a 4-star “pro-style” recruit from a San Antonio suburb (Boerne) that missed his junior year with an injury from baseball and managed to collect … [Read more…]
Big 12 camp stories from Baylor, Iowa State
Baylor’s profoundly changing run game I noticed from @CraigSmoak that Baylor has elevated freshman Ryan Miller to starting center on the depth chart while moving converted TE Sam Tecklenburg to starting left guard. When I broke down Baylor’s 2017 recruiting class I noted that Ryan Miller was liable to play early thanks to coming from … [Read more…]
The Expansion Candidate: Episode III
I had Tim Fitzgerald of GoPowercat on the show this week to talk about the Big 12 frontrunners, the state of things at Kansas State heading into this season, and the future of football.
Confuse and clobber
Over at Football Study Hall I explain the philosophy of offenses using unbalanced sets, fullbacks, tight ends, and multiple RB formations to try and confuse opponents before running them over. The main idea with this style of offense is to use a variety of formations, sweeps, and multiple ball carriers to obscure the fact that … [Read more…]
What’s the reason for TCU’s defensive slip?
A few years back I wrote a really popular post called, “TCU’s Baylor problem” in which I explained that Baylor’s offensive scheme (which is now gone but has influenced the rest of the league) presented major stresses to TCU’s 4-2-5. Everyone had a Baylor problem, really, but TCU’s 4-2-5 was designed to allow them to … [Read more…]
Checking in on the Wildcats
Everyone loves to talk about Oklahoma bringing back a loaded OL and Baker Mayfield, or the embarrassment of riches that Mason Rudolph will have running routes for him at Oklahoma State, but the K-State offense could be as good as either. While Oklahoma has to find new features outside at receiver, the Wildcats are likely … [Read more…]