MGB: Seth Littrell press conference notes

Green Crazy · October 5, 2016

16 minutes ago, MeanGreenMailbox said:

There was no eight man front.

Here is BYU running into a seven man front against Texas for score...even though Texas had 12 men on the field:

Not great blocking, very hard running + sh*tty tackling.

Here's a score against a true 8-man front...on 4th and 1...defense expecting the run:

First highlight...although, it's worth watching how Ohio State's run game dismantles OU overall:

my bad. thought someone said something about running against 8 man fronts.

i stand by the o-line being shitty.

MeanGreenMailbox aka TFLF · October 5, 2016

How to be successful against an eight man front? It's all there: the TE cuts out the back field-crashing DE (or LB, depending on the front used), the RB cuts off the weakside (before motion, anyway) LB, OL-men go up the field to take out the other (strongside, again before the presnap motion) LB, the WR seals off his CB...and, of course, the RB trusts his blockers enough to stick with the play.

Instead of taking a vaseline jar with him into the Mike Leach film room everyday, Harrell should be required to watch how Ohio State/Urban Meyer operates their offensive schemes. Leach-infected teams put up many passing yards (much of it playing catch up),while Urban Meyer-influenced teams go ahead and try to be competitively balanced on offense.

(There's a reason Meyer has shelves full of championship trophies and Leach does not. Offensive guru, my ass. Get competitively balanced on offense.)

Again, as pointed out earlier, we're now an "Air Raid" school that has fewer passing touchdowns so far this season than McCarney's run-based 0-5 squad was last year at the same point in the season.

The OL surely gets much of the blame. However, O-linemen aren't the only players expected to block on every play. It also helps if your OC recognizes what the opposing defense is doing, how they line up, and how to counterbalance it with his own players. As you can see in the Ohio State clip above. Helps if the QB knows these things as well, so he can audible if necessary.

I don't think we are seeing much defensive personnel or alignment recognition by either the OC or QB. Combined with poor blocking all the way around, the offense sputters.

Also, don't give me, "Yeah, but that's Ohio State." It's a sweep. My son's 5th grade team runs sweeps. Kids - and coaches - at this level should understand at this point how to run a sweep.

Also, don't tell me Jeffrey Wilson isn't fast enough to run sweeps against C-USA level competition. He's fast enough. The thing he may not be is - trusting his fellow teammates to execute their blocks.

Anyway...with good coaching, eight man fronts can be neutralized pretty easily.

NOTE: The obvious caveat here is, if we are trying to win games. If not, and we are just "gaining experience for next year," then by all means, just f*ck around all year on offense while pretending that all other opponents aren't also "gaining experience" out of playing their 12 games as well.

I have yet to see a team that isn't "gaining experience" from its games. Why does everyone assume all other opponents aren't also "gaining experience."

That's why, after following the team since 1990, I get tired of the "we're building" or "we're rebuilding." Well...who the f*ck isn't? Show me the coaching staff that says, "You know, we're just playing this year for fun. We hope that our players learn nothing and come back again next year knowing as little as they did before the start of this season."

"Gaining experience" is nothing but coachspeak bullsh*t those some fans will continue to buy into. Everyone gains experience every game, every season - even opponents.

It's why Mac was fired last season. You can't have as much experience as he had, with as many recruiting classes as he had, with as many successes he had at taking Iowa State and North Texas to bowl games, and claim to be "rebuilding" or "building" or some other such horsesh*t.

Coach! That's what you're paid to do! You're not coaching in a vacuum. Rick Stockstill isn't going to forget how to coach season after season just because you've decided the fart away a season to "gain experience."

Go ask SMU Jesus whether or not the AAC got any less competitive while his team "gained experienced" from the asswhippings they took last year.

And, on top of it all, to pretend your recruiting will be any different with a two or three win team than it was with a one or two win team. It's insanity.

Stupid.

(NOTE now concluded.)

Edited October 5, 2016 by MeanGreenMailbox
Ranting and raving about "gaining experience"

THOR · October 5, 2016

i wish many of the posters here were our coaches...damn we'd be national champs every effing year...

untjim1995 · October 5, 2016

I know that many think differently, but Littrell is showing us that he is taking the long-game here and just implementing his offense for the betterment of long-term results, when he can get some decent talent here. What he inherited here is low-level FCS on the offense. He has had to find new QBs that were light years ahead of what he found was here when he took the job. That was easy for him to do. The OL is whole other argument, though. You cannot fix this kind of mismatch in talent and scheme in one season. Again, you cannot have the worst recruited class in FBS two years ago and not have it kill your team's overall performance. Yes, his last class was ok, but overall, Mac's give-up in recruiting is what you are seeing now. Littrell knows it--and he is smart enough to say the opposite, but deep down, he knows that this thing is bad--as in terribly bad, actually. He also knows that he has already made us significantly better in every way than last season. Our mindset in the locker room is better, our offensive philosophy is waaaaayyyyyy better today, our recruiting is already better, and the development of the players to his scheme is already showing signs of being a lot better than Grandpa Metamucil's was.

Enjoy the little things you see in improvement on the field. The scoreboard really shouldn't even matter to you if we lose. The fact he has already doubled up last year's record tells you that we are moving upward. The nadir for all of us was the Portland State game last year--we have already shown we are above that. Now, its all about seeing who SL and company can bring in to keep this thing going in the right direction. And I have full belief that they know what they are doing. If our reputation within Texas HS circles can improve, SL and his staff will be the ones to get it done. Its yet to be seen if that is possible-- and its entirely possible that it isn't because of our past. But if they can, this thing will build up to a bowl contender in 2018 and beyond. If not, its highly probable that our FBS playing days will be over once the future culling occurs in the highest level of play within the next decade.

MeanGreenTexan · October 5, 2016

55 minutes ago, untjim1995 said:

I know that many think differently, but Littrell is showing us that he is taking the long-game here and just implementing his offense for the betterment of long-term results, when he can get some decent talent here. What he inherited here is low-level FCS on the offense. He has had to find new QBs that were light years ahead of what he found was here when he took the job. That was easy for him to do. The OL is whole other argument, though. You cannot fix this kind of mismatch in talent and scheme in one season. Again, you cannot have the worst recruited class in FBS two years ago and not have it kill your team's overall performance. Yes, his last class was ok, but overall, Mac's give-up in recruiting is what you are seeing now. Littrell knows it--and he is smart enough to say the opposite, but deep down, he knows that this thing is bad--as in terribly bad, actually. He also knows that he has already made us significantly better in every way than last season. Our mindset in the locker room is better, our offensive philosophy is waaaaayyyyyy better today, our recruiting is already better, and the development of the players to his scheme is already showing signs of being a lot better than Grandpa Metamucil's was.

Enjoy the little things you see in improvement on the field. The scoreboard really shouldn't even matter to you if we lose. The fact he has already doubled up last year's record tells you that we are moving upward. The nadir for all of us was the Portland State game last year--we have already shown we are above that. Now, its all about seeing who SL and company can bring in to keep this thing going in the right direction. And I have full belief that they know what they are doing. If our reputation within Texas HS circles can improve, SL and his staff will be the ones to get it done. Its yet to be seen if that is possible-- and its entirely possible that it isn't because of our past. But if they can, this thing will build up to a bowl contender in 2018 and beyond. If not, its highly probable that our FBS playing days will be over once the future culling occurs in the highest level of play within the next decade.

Is that what was causing all the consistent crap on the field?