Texas Longhorns Football: A Look at the Offense

The Texas Longhorns' offense is good, but hasn’t reached it’s potential yet. It is getting better every week, but it still has some bumps in the road.

If you’d like to see what a bump-free offense looks like, watch a Kansas game.

The Jayhawks attack underneath coverage with multiple packages out of multiple formations. They run unique combinations with unique ideas, and do so with a discipline, practiced efficiency.

If they fail, it’s usually because their best receiver is a fast tight end, their second best WR is a failed QB, and their QB is an uppity wood nymph.

Texas, on the other hand, runs relatively few plays that don’t always put teams in the positions the Longhorns anticipate. For instance, here is a route combination they’ve been using regularly for the last couple years:

This is a simple, basic combo. LBs drop into zone, throw underneath. If they jump the cross, or cover it man, the QB throws behind to the "in" route. It’s a good play that works on the chalkboard.

The problem is that, in the practice room, on a whiteboard, those little O’s don’t fight back when our X’s are running around. They do, quite literally, what we tell them to do.

Of course, opposing coaches probably like their jobs. They like those six-figure paychecks, and they like beating Texas. So they aren’t going to play the type of defense we want them to play, because that’s how you get rolled by 60.

If you remember the 2006 game against Texas A&M (and to a lesser extent the ‘07 version) or the recently played Wyoming game, you saw exactly the type of innovation that will give Texas such fits.

(Greg Davis note No. 1: This innovation is not new. It started matriculating down from the pros in the early '90s. It was brought down to stop offenses exactly like the Longhorns'. These common, older problems that were presented have been largely solved, yet Texas hasn’t taken part in the next wave of offense, aside from its brief foray into the zone read).

Stuff like this (pattern matching) allows a defense to give the minimum amount of attention to crossing and/or shallow routes without giving up too much beyond them. Teams still run traditional zones and Texas can still score in bunches against them, but the more professional schemes give Texas fits, because it doesn’t stress them by overloading underneath or taking full advantage of those WR on LB matchups. The Longhorns do exactly what such schemes were designed to stop.

When the quick outlet routes are taken away, that’s when Texas gets into trouble. If the primary route isn’t there then Colt has to scramble or try to create or force something. Sometimes it works, sometimes is doesn’t, but it’s not reliable and can lead to scoreless stretches.

Think about Texas' most effective plays in the last couple years. Most come off of broken plays where Colt scrambles, a lot are seam routes against zone defenses, but the big ones are plays where everybody is short. Those still work because you can’t double team everyone, and pass rush has no time to make a difference. Last year Texas did this a lot, this year less so.

One of the best plays Texas ran last year (and sparingly this season so far) can be found as part of this post. This is a classic pattern that stresses the underneath coverage in a way that ensures something will always be open.

The only way to cover everybody soundly is to do it man to man, and there wasn’t a LB alive who could stay with Shipley on that "out" cut, especially with the timing he and McCoy had.

I would think that part of the reason we’ve seen it less this year is because of the personnel differences. Texas can replace the athleticism of a Quan or Ogboyyanaana (I should not have to look it up now that he’s gone), but not the consistency.

Two hundred times Colt McCoy dropped back and decided that his best option was one of those two guys. That’s what, two thirds of the pass offense? Then right before the season started, the one other guy Colt trusted was ruled ineligible.

Effective offenses are usually achieved by finding out which pieces you have and then fitting them together in a way that benefits everybody. Every week Texas seems to find a new piece. Shipley is now Quan, Buckner is now Shipley, Newton is a better Obi-Wan, etc.

Texas hasn’t replaced Brandon Collins yet. I was hopeful that it would be Kirkendoll, and maybe it will be, but he hasn’t done anything yet. I feel like the team is one more guy away from really hitting its stride again.

The short game is about trust and execution, which is where you turn when you don’t have any big play threats. It’s why teams like Tech and Navy do what they do. You have to make the defense play your game.

The one downside is that it limits the importance of physical talent, which is why Malcolm Williams is getting David Aaron-ed. He is big and fast but he’s running plays that need discipline and timing.

The short game is also purposeful. A statement that says “I am going to get these seven yards.” When you have deeper, layered options, if one is covered, it may be too late to get to another one, especially if the defense has any amount of closing speed.

Timing is important in the passing game because it accentuates your advantage in knowing what is going to happen. Once the defense reacts, they’ll run to catch up to you. Every moment after the reaction makes the throw harder to make because the window gets smaller as the pass rush gets closer.

Short patterns are designed to get the ball out no matter what at the expense of big plays (although proper timing can lead to YAC). The way Texas does things can lead to missed opportunities underneath because the team waits for deeper routes that never come free.

Let’s take a break and think about what it takes to stop the Longhorns' offense. Closing speed in the back seven, a good pass rush, and a defense based on finding tendencies and taking them away.

Sound like anybody we know? Texas is in for a tough game in two weeks, I’d say, regardless of record.

There is good news, though. Colt is still the best three-step passer in the game (Greg Davis note No. 2: but let’s not focus as much on that this year...for some reason), and OU’s pass rush will almost certainly force Texas into it. For the last three seasons OU has sat back, put only six men in the box, and dared Texas to run.

The Longhorns have had success against that for two straight games and if Stoops is smart he’ll do more to force the issue this year. The Sooners can’t let Texas pick them apart again.

Texas' running game is, at this point, functional if not underrated, and I feel it can move the chains against a gambling, impatient back seven. Big plays won’t come from play calls; the Longhorns will have to let OU make mistakes for them. The key for this offense is staying on the field long enough to take advantage of that mistake.

This is where that final guy comes in. Texas has two good receivers and two good running backs who each add something to the passing game (one-and-a-half backs, really, because one of them is never healthy).

Teams have been bracketing the WRs and letting everyone else’s mediocrity take care of itself. So far it’s worked.

Texas needs that fourth guy to make plays when everyone else is covered; that Brian Carter-type guy who only has two or three catches but each one keeps a drive going. There are one on ones available but between Williams/Kirkendoll/Chiles, nobody seems to be able to convert consistently.

Of course, this is all from two games. Two eerily similar games. UTEP and UL-M don’t count, because the Texas players get better quality reps in practice. Texas didn’t hit its stride until the second half of the OU game last year.

Just like Wyoming, Tech (this year and last), A&M last year . . . hey wait—Texas seems to hit its stride in the second half of every game. I know I’m not the only person to notice this. Why yes, I do have a theory about this.

Greg Davis note No. 3: Texas scripts its openers. Always has. I can’t remember what the number is, but I want to say 15. Scripted plays are picked during the week, away from the emotion of battle, based on what you think you can do against the defense based on talent and how they will play you.

Texas routinely gets hammered early in games.

The Longhorns also pick plays that appear that game and no others, and those rarely work either. This is because when the offensive staff makes educated guesses about what will work and what won’t, they are playing a chess game in which the other guy gets a 20-move head start.

Sometimes Texas' pet plays work. In 2007 we saw several good runs against OU based on plays we never saw again (Greg Davis note No. 4: We never saw those plays again. What!?). The 2003 home loss to Arkansas saw two out-a-bunch packages that worked all of once in eight or nine tries. The latter is not the outlier, either.

This, in some ironic sense, does make Texas unpredictable. The Longhorns are a very consistent team schematically but you never know when their scissors will be met with rock. This is called a Greg Davis special and everybody knows what I’m talking about.

The reason Texas isn't 5-7 is because it does run out of scripts, eventually and unmercifully.

In the Wyoming game the Longhorns started attacking the short flanks to open up the middle, and it worked wonderfully. Against Tech they started running more short patterns. Texas is not incapable of making adjustments, it’s just that they are always made late.

Like Vince Young playing in a Chris Simms offense for two years, or Colt playing in Vince’s for two-and-a-half, it’s the timing that matters.

So far nobody’s been able to move the ball on the Longhorns' defense to put them in a hole. Tech did that last year but couldn’t this year. Wyoming never threatened to beyond a special special teams decision.

The odds are that it is going to happen. Texas will be down 24-7 halfway through at least one second quarter because that’s how football goes sometimes. The Longhorns can still score in bunches if, when it really matters, they go back to what they know works. If they don’t, then they’ll drop a game. It’s probably going to be that simple.

The other possibility is that Newton becomes the starter and Whitaker does as much as his body will let him (McGee is a fine running back but brings little to the passing game. That’s too important a role to fill with OK guys). Somebody decides to be that consistent third receiver and off Texas goes. The OL won’t be dominant but knows its job and can execute whatever the defense gives it.

The real key is finding out what that is early and really going after it. Some teams will give up the short stuff, some will gamble and blitz, and if Texas does’t adjust accordingly it will be vulnerable to a loss.

If it does adjust, though, the Longhorns should waltz to 13-0. They are a good matchup with both UF and 'Bama so I like the odds there. Just watch for the keys:

1. A CONSISTENT slot receiver.
2. Whoever does play in the backfield should add something to the passing game.
3. If the defense plays back, drive on it. If the defense blitzes, create big chunks of yardage.
4. Run on six men in the box.

Do those four things and Texas is golden. A look at the defense will be coming later in the week.

This article was written by ChrisApplewhite of Barking Carnival.

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