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Big 12 football analysis

Pac-12 football

Mario Cristobal and how the west is won

June 10, 2020 by ianaboyd

I was pretty bearish on Mario Cristobal’s Oregon team heading into 2019. Justin Herbert never really convinced me he was elite, the offense seemed overly focused on running the ball behind the offensive line, and the strategy of building Oregon around the offensive line always struck me as a dubious method. Every school is always … [Read more…]

Posted in: Pac-12 football Tagged: Air Raid, Alabama Crimson Tide, Chip Kelly, Demographics=destiny, Graham Harrell, Joe Moorhead, Mario Cristobal, Mater Dei High School, Nick Aliotti, Oregon Ducks, Pac-12 football, Pac-12 recruiting, Pacific Northwest, Polynesians, Pro-spread, Spread-option

Who’s making the playoffs in 2019? Pt. III, “this side of the Mississippi”

August 7, 2019 by ianaboyd

I’m actually on the wrong side of the Mississippi these days to utilize this expression. It’s an old expression meant to describe unique features of the frontier in contrast to the more densely packed populations and civilization on the east side of the country. Nowadays the east side of the Mississippi has 58% of the … [Read more…]

Posted in: Big 12 football, College football postseason, Pac-12 football Tagged: College Football playoffs, Houston Cougars, Iowa State Cyclones, Oklahoma Sooners, Oregon Ducks, Texas Longhorns, Utah Utes, Washington Huskies, Washington State Cougars

Chip Kelly and the pro-style RPO offense

February 6, 2018 by ianaboyd

Over at SB Nation I have some thoughts up on Chip Kelly’s return to the college game, which has been timed with Philly winning the Super Bowl while embracing many of his tactics and ideas. Pro-style offenses these days tend to use RPOs, because why not read a defender on a running play for an … [Read more…]

Posted in: General college football, Pac-12 football Tagged: Chip Kelly, pro-style offense, RPO, UCLA Bruins

Hercules Mata’afa and undersized DL

November 20, 2017 by ianaboyd

Undersized DL are becoming a pretty common theme to college football these days. Over at Inside Texas, Scipio Tex recently broke down how much Texas was getting out of their three-man DL fronts in the dime package they’ve ridden to dominance in the second half of this season. In that front Texas regularly relies on … [Read more…]

Posted in: Big 12 football, Pac-12 football Tagged: Air Raid, Alex Grinch, Cautious Mike, Hercules Mata'afa, Mike Leach, Oklahoma Sooners, Washington State Cougars

The first playoff rankings

November 1, 2017 by ianaboyd

They released them the other night I think. Me and the wife have been watching “Stranger Things” recently so we aren’t super up to date on the World Series or this playoff show. The whole goal of these weekly rankings is to amp up the anticipation and talk around the sport and maintain the entertainment … [Read more…]

Posted in: AAC football, Big 10 football, Big 12 football, College football postseason, Pac-12 football Tagged: Alabama Crimson Tide, Clemson Tigers, College Football playoffs, Georgia Bulldogs, Miami Hurricanes, Notre Dame Fighting Irish, Ohio State Buckeyes, Oklahoma Sooners, Penn State Nittany Lions, TCU Horned Frogs, Wisconsin Badgers

Why I’m picking USC to win it all

August 31, 2017 by ianaboyd

Check out my reasoning at Football Study Hall and try to forget that I picked Georgia to win two years ago, or when I picked Michigan last year.

Posted in: College football postseason, Pac-12 football Tagged: 2017 playoffs, Sam Darnold, USC Trojans

The 2017 Texas A&M Fighting Aggies…

August 28, 2017 by ianaboyd

Over at SB Nation I’ve got a preview up of the season opener between Texas A&M and UCLA. My sense of the 2017 Texas situation is that it’s not good. At all. They still have talent, plenty of it, but they’ve had tons of talent for much of this decade and typically managed to piss … [Read more…]

Posted in: Pac-12 football, SEC football Tagged: Anthony Hines, Chad Morris, John Chavis, Kenneth Murray, Kevin Sumlin, SEC football, Texas A&M Aggies

Utah goes Air Raid

June 26, 2017 by ianaboyd

Kyle Whittingham has always coached great defenses and his coaching tree extends to multiple programs across the country now. The offense has been slower to come along, but now they’ve hired an up and coming guy who made his name coaching high schoolers like Jake Browning and then leading Eastern Washington to a ridiculous season … [Read more…]

Posted in: Pac-12 football Tagged: Air Raid, Kyle Whittingham, Mormon mafia coaching tree, Spread offense, Troy Taylor, Utah Utes

The top 5 defensive coordinators in the nation

June 13, 2017 by ianaboyd

It’d been maybe a month or two since I chuckled at the fact that Oklahoma ran Brent Venables out of town to make room for “cautious Mike” Stoops. This article was a good outlet for that energy as I ranked the top 5 DCs in college football today. Aranda is the sole representative of the … [Read more…]

Posted in: ACC football, Big 10 football, Big 12 football, Pac-12 football, SEC football, Theoretical ramblings Tagged: Brent Venables, Bud Foster, Clemson Tigers, Dave Aranda, Don Brown, LSU Tigers, Michigan Wolverines, Pete Kwiatkowski, Todd Orlando, Virginia Tech Hokies, Washington Huskies

Podcasting with the Trojans

May 25, 2017 by ianaboyd

I went on the “Traveler hates thursdays” podcast, a USC Trojan pod, to talk about Texas football, the upcoming rematch between the programs, and some other stuff. I made my “Athens v Sparta” metaphor while describing some of the difficulties that programs like Texas and USC have in fielding physical, tough-minded football teams. In hindsight … [Read more…]

Posted in: Big 12 football, Pac-12 football Tagged: Athens v Sparta, Podcast, Texas Longhorns, Traveler Hates Thursdays, USC Trojans
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Links

Breakdown Sports (B1G X’s and O’s)
http://breakdownsports.blogspot.com

Football Study Hall
http://www.footballstudyhall.com

Inside Texas
http://insidetexas.com

Saturday Down South

https://www.saturdaydownsouth.com

MatchQuarters.com (schematics on the ubiquitous over-quarters defense)
https://matchquarters.com

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http://psalmonetree.blogspot.com

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