I didn’t take in much college football over the weekend as a result of driving to Austin to visit newborn family. I did attend the Texas/Oklahoma State game though and took in a lot from that contest. One result that really stood out on the scoreboard was Iowa State dropping 72 while their key receivers … [Read more…]
Week 2 didn’t have a ton going on across the Big 12 and what good matchups there were largely went sideways for the conference. In a major reversal of years of tradition, LSU came into DKR and put on a clinic for modern spread passing offense. I’ve really only seen a handful of Big 12 … [Read more…]
Nickel became the standard “base defense” for the Big 12 sometime around the turn of the decade. Honestly I haven’t done the research to pinpoint the exact year but Texas went base nickel in 2008, Oklahoma State was starting Shaun Lewis as their “star” LB in 2010, and of course Oklahoma rolled in nickel as … [Read more…]
While breaking down Oklahoma’s prospective depth chart on defense the other day, the size and weight balance of their roster really stood out. Mike Stoops really wasn’t building a defensive roster that was friendly to a major change in approach. After his initial run at the Big 12 in 2012 where the Sooners ran a … [Read more…]
Ian Boyd: Coach, last year with the new defensive coordinator, you brought a lot of pressure, finished 10th nationally in sacks, but gave up 32 and a half points per game. Will the approach on defense change this year in year two to something more conservative or will you guys run it back and look … [Read more…]
I’ve written about the Wisconsin Badgers quite a few times over the last few years. I may mention them again soon to relate the full story of this exchange I had with Gary Patterson: The Badgers also came up in this recent piece where I described which teams derive the greatest strength from monopolizing in-state … [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…]
Last Friday at Football Study Hall I broke down OSU’s evolving approach to offense and contextualized it somewhat within their plan for attacking the Cyclone Inverted Tampa-2 defense last season. That post started as me determining to look back and try to fully grok how it was that OSU was able to drop 42 points … [Read more…]
I just recently finished the newest book by my man Coach Alexander: https://www.amazon.com/Hybrids-Making-Defense-Cody-Alexander/dp/1790429722 It’s a phenomenal read both for coaches of the game and also fans and writers that want a deeper and more comprehensive look at how defensive tactics have evolved to the point we’ve reached today. Coach A has a few main points … [Read more…]
Yes, I’m going to volunteer for this annual beating once more and break down every recruiting class in the Big 12. I started with the Texas class, which you can read about over at Inside Texas, next I move through the Big 12 going from north to south. This is Matt Campbell’s highest rated class … [Read more…]