Since I’m heading to Big 12 Media Days in a couple of weeks I got to vote in the largely meaningless, preseason All-B12 ballot. They like to hold a vote on the order of finish, there’s a semi-bizarre distribution of positions to vote on, and then OPOY, DPOY, and Newcomer of the year. I almost … [Read more…]
Matt Campbell has been pretty excited this offseason about four developments within the Iowa State program. First, they have their OL more or less set with all five starters from 2018 returning. The lineup they relied on down the stretch was solid and all returns but they also have potential upside if some of their … [Read more…]
The zone blitz is immensely difficult to rely on as a strategy in the Big 12. There have been a number of defensive coaches that came into the Big 12 with a background in utilizing the most cutting edge from zone blitz world only to fall upon hard times. Some notables: Manny Diaz who took … [Read more…]
Baylor is a trendy dark horse pick in the Big 12 for this coming year. Perhaps not as a champion but at least as a contender. In my estimation the group they have to beat out for that consists of Texas Tech, Iowa State, Oklahoma State, TCU, Oklahoma, and Texas. I’m already ready to rule … [Read more…]
The Sooners will have a different sort of team in 2019, that much is clear. Jalen Hurts will bring a new flavor to Lincoln Riley’s offense and Alex Grinch is hoping to transform the Oklahoma defense. The former is likely a one-year stopgap before Spencer Rattler assumes command of the offense and steers it back … [Read more…]
I noticed this very interesting tweet recently from @GPCWallace about Klieman’s first real recruiting class at K-State: As a contrarIan, my initial reaction was, “well congratulations. K-State has loaded up on their normal allotment of 22 3-stars before the rest of the non-Texas/OU has done so. Big deal.” But there’s a lot more to recruiting … [Read more…]
Playing great offense is primarily about over-stressing an opponent. You need to present more threats than they can cover up, identify where they are weak, and then get the ball to the right spots at the right time. The HUNH spread is ascendant as an offensive strategy because it’s the best way to accomplish that … [Read more…]
Texas and Iowa State each share a real problem heading into the 2019 season. Texas’ DC Todd Orlando piggy backed off Iowa State DC Jon Heacock’s inverted Tampa 2 defense back in 2017 and both had tremendous success with it. The Cyclones made it their new base for 2018 and added more to the scheme … [Read more…]
In a series I’m doing at footballstudyhall.com I broke down the chess games between Patterson and the Buckeyes that took place early in 2018. Going in I figured that Dwayne Haskins and the passing game would be too much for the Frogs, and he definitely did some real damage throwing it around but TCU had … [Read more…]
In the past I’ve tried to be sympathetic to the NFL draft’s evaluations of players. I don’t know why I assumed that their evaluation was a gold standard, perhaps because college football conversations on team talent levels are often dictated by how many players a team had drafted and where they went. We should probably … [Read more…]