Later today I’ll have my column up on Inside Texas that will cover K-State and some of their issues this season (now up!) but in the meantime, here’s a podcast I recorded with “the short side option” on the Texas-KSU battle and what I’ve been seeing from either team:
The latest edition of The Short Side Option is now available!
We look back at WVU, preview Texas with @Ian_A_Boyd, and answer your questions.
Listen below:
?Apple Podcasts: https://t.co/is71RPzHDN
?SoundCloud: https://t.co/YLjq7oLphY
?Stitcher: https://t.co/or0OcXab56— The Short Side Option (@TSSO_Podcast) September 27, 2018
They also put me on the spot to update my “teams that can win the B12” list and I agree with their assessment that the three favorites are definitely Oklahoma, West Virginia, and Texas. We talked some Oklahoma as well on the podcast, y’all know I can’t resist detailing my various theories on OU defensive struggles. I gave OSU and Iowa State as other teams I’m not giving up on yet, Texas Tech may elevate into that world as well after I watch them although…probably not.
I’ll have more later today or tomorrow. I’ve got loads of B12 thoughts and have been working my way through Tech-OSU so some of this may appear in a Football Study Hall post and some may turn into a scattershot post or else multiple bits on this blog. So stay tuned.
I’m going to go ahead and count out OSU. Unless Knowles figures out how to defend against spread passing teams, WVU and OU are going to mess them up pretty bad. And they need to find a better option at quarterback.
The more I see of this game, the more inclined I am to agree.
Their pressure package murdered Boise but it’s doing a lot of nothing to Tech. Also, Knowles doesn’t seem to get the Air Raid. He’s falling into all of the normal traps.
These Tech WRs are so much better than everyone expected though.
Yeah, it was weird. I watched the first quarter and a half of the Boise game and OSU looked like a different team than in the Tech game. Against Tech, there were a lot fewer stunts by the defensive line, maybe because Knowles was scared by the quick passing attack. And Bundage’s injury maybe limited some of the linebacker blitzing they had so much success with against Boise. But overall they looked much more static against Tech.
Probably also a bad sign for their rush defense that Tech ran for so many yards against them without their first and second string running backs, although the true freshmen, Henry and Thompson have looked way better than their recruiting rankings (or high school tape, really) would suggest.
Antoine Wesley has been a great surprise. I’ve always thought of him as a back of the roster/depth guy and he’s been shuffled positions so many times in his years here that I didn’t really expect him to ever break out like this. It’s also been interesting to see Kingsbury shift the emphasis of the offense away from the inside receivers now that we don’t have a really dynamic playmaker there like he has had in the past with Amaro, Grant, Giles (sort of), and Coutee. Although, I will say that JD High has been a lot better than I expected going into the season. It will be interesting to see what happens when KeSean Carter starts getting more reps. He’s looked really good so far.
I’ve had a different impression. I’ve been noting how Tech has given Knowles a rude awakening to B12 offense and been throwing a lot and very effectively to both High and Austin. The outside guys are weapons too but the inside guys are murdering OSU when they try to play zone.
Yeah, they’re both serviceable, and High is a little more than that. Austin, on the other hand, is second lowest among receivers in marginal efficiency (to Vasher, who makes up for it by leading the receivers in marginal explosiveness) and lowest in marginal explosiveness, per Bill C’s stats: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vQ2e9xV7-ClihFVJ3kla0ZDxzFCQ7-WXvQRur-nK6gOzo333PqSetw52kEGgbXKb6viGZSbYuJugvRR/pubhtml#
And that Wesley is getting the most targets on the team by a substantial margin is surprising when the last three years its been Coutee, Giles, and Grant, all inside guys.
Yeah, although they’ve moved Wesley inside for some of those targets. But on Austin, for instance, they’re trusting him on a lot of running plays in the film I’m watching and making hay. They’re totally undoing the structure of the OSU defense with their RPO game (FSH post forthcoming) and Austin as a primary target there. The numbers on him catching slants and bubbles aren’t going to capture the impact.
Awesome, I can’t wait to read it
You’re going to enjoy it, got a few bits of Kingsbury wizardry I’m breaking down.