Football Articles
Let’s Try the North Again
Posted by dedfischer on October 29th, 2009 under Football
Tech Offense
- The Aggies never really stopped the Tech offense, so I’m not necessarily concerned with our ability to move the ball. We just have to hang onto it or we will get beat….again.
- Seth Doege will be making his first start, and if he’s struggling, we’ve got to keep calling Baron Batch’s number and the WR hitch screens. It’s our safe place when things aren’t clicking. We’re going to need 40 points to win this ball game. Doege needs to maintain a good tempo early to keep the Kansas defenders on their heels.
Tech Defense
- Whatever faith I gained in Ruff and this unit, has been shattered. Kansas has the appropriate personnel to execute all the plays Jerrod Johnson and the Aggies did last week. If we show up with the same gameplan, we can’t stop them. We’re just not good enough at DE and not fast enough at LB. The Jayhawks will roll with multiple WR sets, and if we ask Brian Duncan to play tag with Kerry Meier all game like we did against Dan Buckner and Ryan Tannehill, I just don’t see how we can keep them from moving the chains. You have to take some chances against a spread offense instead of calling the plays for the offense. We executed a first day of 2-a-days scheme last week, which made Mike Sherman look like a genius. Í like to call it our “Skeletor” defense.
- I’m not sure why Ruff insisted on shooting our DEs past Johnson every snap last week, but we were playing 11-on-9 football for most of the game. Daniel Howard and Rajon Henley at least need to come out of the locker room. They played at a D-II level last week and that’s not an exaggeration. If the Aggies can run the ball in this scenario, you can damn sure bet on Kansas being able to. Our best defense will be scoring early and often on offense to gameplan the run out. It’s really the only way we’ve been successful in ground defense all year.
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Prepping North Dakota
By RRR on August 31st, 2009
RRR said:
October 29th, 2009 at 9:31 am
It would be nice if Darcel McBath called and gave Davis/Mitchem the secret to intercepting Reesing three times.
Doege, you’ll be fine. You’re a natural. But don’t screw up.
Hiphopopotamus said:
October 29th, 2009 at 9:43 am
Interesting you say 40, because that’s the number I set for us to prove we’re a real offense again. We’ve had our struggles the last few weeks and against this defense, I think we need to show 40 if this is an offense we’re going to count on the rest of the way. Holding you guys under 40 remains a concern as well, of course…
dedfischer said:
October 29th, 2009 at 10:23 am
Whichever QB plays better will win the game. Both defenses are equally suspect in my mind.
Knostrathomas said:
October 29th, 2009 at 11:00 am
Why do our DEs consistently get too far upfield? It looks like they have practiced against a scout team QB taking a 15-yard drop all week. Is this just bad technique/execution?
dedfischer said:
October 29th, 2009 at 11:05 am
There are only 2 answers to that question and this goes for any football team/schematics: 1. Your DEs are really dumb. 2. They have been coached to do it.
I don’t know the correct answer, but those are the only two options.
jdeeTTU said:
October 29th, 2009 at 11:57 am
So how long do you plan to let Ruff go before calling for his head? I know the whole ‘You gotta let him get his recruits before you criticize him too much’ angle… but this is not the first game he has had piss-poor play calling and refused to change it even after it is proven not to be effective. His predecessor lost his job after a game very similar in yardage to the aTm game. I was impressed with their showing at UT and Nebraska… but when a respectable showing is the exception and not the norm it’s disheartening.
dedfischer said:
October 29th, 2009 at 12:01 pm
jdee, I more or less answered that question on the post-mortem thread with this response:
“I think Ruff has improved our defense primarily because they play hard for him and he’s a better recruiter than his predecessors. However, it’s a given we’ll be outcoached on that side of the ball in 3 to 4 games a season with our existing talent level. I’ve been patient to date and will continue for another year or two. If you don’t have great talent, our philosophy on defense has been proven not to work on more than one level of football. Leach should know this better than anyone, and if he ever wants to win more football games, he will have to explore other options than the “easy” thing to do. That’s the kind of shit they don’t teach you in law school. You never know, Jackson Richards and Aundrey Barr could take the field next year and solve everything.”
dedfischer said:
October 29th, 2009 at 12:31 pm
I should also add to Ruff’s credit, he maybe trying to make some changes, but doesn’t have the personnel yet. 2009 and now 2010 are Ruff’s only full recruiting classes. A short-handed/mid-season 2008 class doesn’t count. Our weakness on the 2007 defense was at DE and he made a move to win immediately. Given we only had Crabtree for one more season, I agreed with this policy. Say what you want, but we wouldn’t have gone 11-1 without McKinner Dixon.
His 2009 class included 6 DBs, 2 of which are more or less starting. At times, we’ve been rolling with our nickel package for a majority of snaps since Will Ford stepped on campus. D.J. Johnson (former zone read QB) is better as a freshman than Wall or Moore were at this time, so I’m assuming he’s going to be an upgrade eventually. Cobb and Bullitt were close to playing this season, while the other guys consist of an intriguing 6′3″ corner prospect and a former Dallas Carter zone read QB. In other words, there are indeed some Gary Patterson qualities going on here. We’ve got 5 more DB prospects committed and I think Porter, Johnson and Polk will all have a chance to play early. That’s a total of 11 DBs in two classes. Over the same period, we’ve taken 4 LBs, so I’m waiting a year or two to see if that’s the direction we’re headed. We’re still paying the price for the previous staff’s JUCO policy, so until Ruff gets a couple of classes under his belt, it’s tough to say where this thing is headed.
mojave_reject said:
October 29th, 2009 at 12:57 pm
In the UT game, Ruffin seemed to demonstrate that he’s willing to get a lot more creative the closer he gets to the line of scrimmage. The defense rolled into Austin with one of three starting DE’s, yet Ruffin made it work through judicious playing of guys like Bront Bird out of position. Against A&M, on the other hand, we were playing with a fully stocked D-Line but without Will Ford and Brett Dewhurst, and it proved to be a much harder improv job for the Foopa Troopa. Not having been at the game I obviously couldn’t tell you what exactly our Safeties were doing, but from the sounds of it Cody Davis was the only one who even made it onto the field on most plays.
dedfischer said:
October 29th, 2009 at 1:08 pm
Our secondary was the only bright spot against A&M. D.J. Johnson got lost a couple of times, Moore had a bad PI, and Uzi just made a great play against Wall. Of the 559 yards allowed, I had the secondary responsible for 128, which is good enough to win. Almost too good, which is why I might like to see us put more responsiblity on them so we could overload to stop the run or spy mobile QBs.
Knostrathomas said:
October 29th, 2009 at 2:16 pm
I read a quote from Ruff that said we were spying Johnson and he “out-athleted” the spy.
I thought the secondary looked good against ATM other than a couple mistakes from Johnson. It is hard to ask for 10 seconds of coverage and to watch for the QB escaping the pass rush at will.
dedfischer said:
October 29th, 2009 at 2:54 pm
“I read a quote from Ruff that said we were spying Johnson and he “out-athleted” the spy.”
Interesting. I think this unit has peaked with regards to talent development in the front 7. Richards and Barr will bring some much needed athleticism up front, and unless we find an impact JUCO guy, I think they’ll start 4 years on our roster. We haven’t ever signed an end like Richards. Montae Reagor was the last guy we signed this good.
Tim said:
October 29th, 2009 at 3:33 pm
Tech is putting a lot of eggs into the Jackson Richards basket next year. If he doesn’t have a stellar freshman year, Tech is really going to be hurting at a critical position. I don’t know anything about Barr, and very little about Riley, and Haliburton, but if these guys don’t make up at least quality depth and Richards doesn’t come out swinging, it’s going to hurt what looks on paper to be a very promising 2010 season.
Considering Sheffield is really the guy who came out verses Kansas State, outside of 1 CB spot and both DE spots, Tech should have a very solid team in 2010. Oklahoma State should fall off the map and UT/OU both lose key starters. Should be interesting how A&M and Baylor look next year with Griffin coming back and A&M having so many young guys. Don’t be fooled though the Aggies will still lose 3 starters off of a below average offensive line.
riano said:
October 29th, 2009 at 3:35 pm
“I read a quote from Ruff that said we were spying Johnson and he “out-athleted” the spy.”
Johnson and Michael ate Cody’s lunch several times. Michael did a Sammy Morris impression and ran his ass over.
Cody did make a few plays tho….
dedfischer said:
October 29th, 2009 at 4:49 pm
If we were using our FS in Cover 2 as the spy, then I’ve lost all hope. I doubt that was the case and think he’s probably referring to Howard and Henley.
mojave_reject said:
October 29th, 2009 at 9:20 pm
I’m just glad we’re catching Todd Reesing in one of his rare statistical dips toward the realm of inferior DI athleticism that he would have been inhabiting all this time if not for a tragic accident involving an expired box of Flutie Flakes and a Ouija Board. Also if we really do live in bizarro world and Cody Davis is both one of the deep safeties AND a spy in Ruffin’s Cover 2, he’s got a much better matchup against Todd Reesing and Jake Sharp than Jerrod Johnson and Christine Michael. Maybe they can get into a competition for highest number of backhanded compliments of their “grittiness” and “gutty competitive spirit” garnered from the commentators.
Beergut said:
October 31st, 2009 at 8:53 pm
“Maybe they can get into a competition for highest number of backhanded compliments of their “grittiness” and “gutty competitive spirit” garnered from the commentators.”
LOL!!!
You forgot to mention the “veteran leadership”, how they are “crafty”, and how their “motor never stops”.
Beergut said:
October 31st, 2009 at 8:56 pm
ded,
I respectfully request you stop referring to Uzoma Nwachukwu as “Uzi”. If you want to use a nickname so you don’t have to remember how to write his name correctly every time you mention him (a desire I understand, believe me), just use his real nickname, which is “EZ”.
dedfischer said:
November 1st, 2009 at 11:36 am
I respectfully request for you to kiss my ass.
bigdukesix said:
November 1st, 2009 at 7:38 pm
I respectfully request for you to kiss my ass.
This was the only proper response to beergut’s post.
Beergut said:
November 1st, 2009 at 8:33 pm
I just think it is stupid to give someone a nickname when he already has a nickname he answers to. It reminds me of the people on Texags who always tried to give every damn player a nickname, like calling Thomas Carriger “Hawghunter” or Jami Hightower “The Tower”.
Marshall Dillon said:
November 3rd, 2009 at 5:39 pm
“I just think it is stupid to give someone a nickname when he already has a nickname he answers to.”
That’s why we don’t call you dickhead.