I wrote about the move from the 4-3 to the 4-2-5 over at Football Study Hall. There will be lots of people who describe this as being a move to a “TCU-style of defense” but don’t be fooled by the 4-2-5 language. This is actually a move away from what TCU does and more towards … [Read more…]
The first big domino to drop this offseason for the Big 12 was Oklahoma State firing longtime defensive coach Glenn Spencer. Mike Gundy is always tweaking his approach and looking to find ways to create an edge for his team and Spencer’s record as DC since taking over for the deposed Bill Young wasn’t holding … [Read more…]
Tom Osborne was the head coach at Nebraska for 25 years, the OC for four years before that, and an assistant for four more years before that. Almost the entirety of the Nebraska Cornhusker football tradition and legacy is built off what he instituted and oversaw there. People today know Nebraska for their dominant run … [Read more…]
I would venture a guess that most people watching the Texas 5A D1 state title game between Highland Park and Manvel were rooting for Manvel. The Houston-area program is a perennial contender that’s always filled with exciting athletes with offers from top schools like Texas or A&M and this particular team was a diverse and … [Read more…]
Before the 2017 season kicked off I had a post discussing Mike Gundy’s Oklahoma State as a program with a keen mind for creative solutions to what’s basically the “scarcity problem” applied to college football. The problems facing OSU in 2017 were pretty substantial. They’d made considerable investment into that season, convincing the Mason Rudolph-to-James … [Read more…]
Specifically the 6A D1 matchup between the Lake Travis Cavaliers and the Allen Eagles. I believe this was the first time these two teams have met, in the playoffs or otherwise, although they represent two of the biggest powers in Texas HS football these days. They were competing in the bigger bracket tournament of Texas … [Read more…]
I speculated around this point over at SB Nation. It’s obviously very difficult to know the answer, just as it’s hard to really know whether one of the better Boise, TCU, or Utah teams of the past that went undefeated might have been able to win a playoff. The committee is designed to give everyone … [Read more…]
Buzz Bissinger’s book about the 1988 Odessa Permian high school football team is one of the greatest sports books ever written. That’s high praise that I’m personally poorly qualified to give but the breadth of subjects and characters he’s able to cover are stunning. Many of you may not have read the book but enjoyed … [Read more…]
If you read my final preview of the national championship, you’ll notice that I got two factors spectacularly wrong while predicting a Georgia victory. The first was in assuming that it particularly mattered which LBs and Ss were playing behind the Bama DL and how much experience they had in the Saban system. They all … [Read more…]
I’ve done two previews of the national championship. I broke down some of the big picture trends and stats over at Football Outsiders and dove in deep on how I think Georgia will attack Jalen Hurts for SB Nation. Because I was writing on the SEC extensively this season over at Saturday Down South I’ve … [Read more…]