oudavid1
2/28/2011, 12:37 PM
It’s no secret the Texas Longhorns run the show when it comes to the Big 12’s almighty dollar. They have the highest-paid staff; they receive the lion’s share of conference revenue; and now they have their own television network.
So while Texas is successfully running a program akin to a Fortune 500 company, why is OU—the hated neighbor to the north—dominating the Big 12 on the field?
It’s not as though OU has better athletes. Texas lands at or near the top of the recruiting rankings every year.
It’s not as though the Longhorns are void of recent success either. Texas boasts nine 10-win seasons in a row from 2001-09 and a national championship in 2005.
Yet the Sooners own more conference championships (seven) than Texas (three) and are the prohibitive favorite to win the conference next year. Meanwhile, the Longhorns are licking the wounds of their first losing season under Mack Brown and overhauling their assistant coaching staff.
So why do the Sooners seem to be one step ahead of the Longhorns for football supremacy in the Big 12? Ultimately, the difference is in the coaching.
One caveat to the previous statement: Bob Stoops and Mack Brown are two of the all-time great coaches in all of college football, but Stoops has more skins on the wall in the Big 12...
Here’s why.
Physical toughness
From day one in Norman, Stoops infused physical toughness on both sides of the ball. His defenses stop the run and pressure the quarterback. His offenses establish the run to open up the passing game.
Much like the Sooners, Brown’s defenses stop the run and attack the quarterback. But on offense, the Longhorns at times lack the ability to dominate the trenches against top-level competition. Instead of attacking defenses at the line of scrimmage, the Longhorns often fall in love with the finesse of the spread offense.
Offensive identity
Brown tends to vacillate between offensive identities based upon the strengths of his quarterbacks. From the pro-style sets during the Major Applewhite/Chris Simms era to the spread option of Vince Young and Colt McCoy—and back again to the pro-style sets under current starting quarterback Garrett Gilbert—Texas has not maintained a clear, distinct offensive direction.
Case in point: Gilbert was a 5-star pro-style quarterback out of Lake Travis High School in Austin. But Gilbert’s 5-star skill set doesn’t fit Texas’ spread offense identity, perfected by his All-American predecessors Young and McCoy.
Consequently, Brown is overhauling a previously dominant offensive system that doesn’t need repair for a quarterback that probably should be playing for a team more adept to utilizing his talents, like Alabama, USC or (dare I say it) OU.
Conversely, Sam Bradford—OU’s former Heisman Trophy quarterback and top overall pick in last year’s draft—was a 3-star quarterback out of Putnam City, Oklahoma. Bradford wasn’t a prized recruit out of high school, but he was perfect for OU’s system. He had size, a solid arm and made good reads.
Stoops’ staff assessment and development of Bradford paid dividends for the Sooners, producing one of the highest-scoring offenses ever, two Big 12 championships and a BCS championship appearance.
Offensive line scheme
A former NFL offensive lineman with close ties to the Texas program said Brown’s staff has done a poor job developing its offensive linemen for the pro-style run game.
Texas recruits highly-touted linemen but doesn’t focus on lower body strength and conditioning like it should. He said too much emphasis is going into bench-press numbers instead of squats, and linemen can’t get the necessary leverage needed to drive defenders off the ball.
This makes sense considering the style of offense Texas ran prior to last year. The Longhorns’ blocking schemes are designed to react to the movement of the defense and create a pocket for the passer. Offensive linemen block from an upright position, so even designed running plays don’t have the same physical impact as firing out of a three-point stance.
The system works when mobile quarterbacks such as Young and McCoy serve as primary ball carriers, but it becomes a huge problem when those same linemen, accustomed to blocking in the spread offense, transition to a pro-style offense with a quarterback under center who is not a runner, such as Gilbert.
The Sooners, on the other hand, utilize multiple offensive sets that require offensive linemen to fire out of the three-point stance. Additionally, OU often lines up multiple tight ends and uses a fullback to create more holes for the ball carrier. While the Sooners also employ elements of the shotgun spread, their success hinges on their ability to establish a physical run game.
For what deficiencies it may currently have, Texas is still Texas—and one bad season isn’t going to ruin Mack Brown’s legacy in Austin. A year from now we may very well be talking about another 10-win season for the Longhorns.
However, the sense is the Sooners are pulling away from their Red River rival, and the new-look Big 12 may take on the same old Sooner-dominated pecking order even with Texas calling the shots behind the scenes.
Link (http://bleacherreport.com/articles/618026-texas-may-call-the-shots-but-ou-is-still-the-top-dog-in-the-revamped-big-12)
So while Texas is successfully running a program akin to a Fortune 500 company, why is OU—the hated neighbor to the north—dominating the Big 12 on the field?
It’s not as though OU has better athletes. Texas lands at or near the top of the recruiting rankings every year.
It’s not as though the Longhorns are void of recent success either. Texas boasts nine 10-win seasons in a row from 2001-09 and a national championship in 2005.
Yet the Sooners own more conference championships (seven) than Texas (three) and are the prohibitive favorite to win the conference next year. Meanwhile, the Longhorns are licking the wounds of their first losing season under Mack Brown and overhauling their assistant coaching staff.
So why do the Sooners seem to be one step ahead of the Longhorns for football supremacy in the Big 12? Ultimately, the difference is in the coaching.
One caveat to the previous statement: Bob Stoops and Mack Brown are two of the all-time great coaches in all of college football, but Stoops has more skins on the wall in the Big 12...
Here’s why.
Physical toughness
From day one in Norman, Stoops infused physical toughness on both sides of the ball. His defenses stop the run and pressure the quarterback. His offenses establish the run to open up the passing game.
Much like the Sooners, Brown’s defenses stop the run and attack the quarterback. But on offense, the Longhorns at times lack the ability to dominate the trenches against top-level competition. Instead of attacking defenses at the line of scrimmage, the Longhorns often fall in love with the finesse of the spread offense.
Offensive identity
Brown tends to vacillate between offensive identities based upon the strengths of his quarterbacks. From the pro-style sets during the Major Applewhite/Chris Simms era to the spread option of Vince Young and Colt McCoy—and back again to the pro-style sets under current starting quarterback Garrett Gilbert—Texas has not maintained a clear, distinct offensive direction.
Case in point: Gilbert was a 5-star pro-style quarterback out of Lake Travis High School in Austin. But Gilbert’s 5-star skill set doesn’t fit Texas’ spread offense identity, perfected by his All-American predecessors Young and McCoy.
Consequently, Brown is overhauling a previously dominant offensive system that doesn’t need repair for a quarterback that probably should be playing for a team more adept to utilizing his talents, like Alabama, USC or (dare I say it) OU.
Conversely, Sam Bradford—OU’s former Heisman Trophy quarterback and top overall pick in last year’s draft—was a 3-star quarterback out of Putnam City, Oklahoma. Bradford wasn’t a prized recruit out of high school, but he was perfect for OU’s system. He had size, a solid arm and made good reads.
Stoops’ staff assessment and development of Bradford paid dividends for the Sooners, producing one of the highest-scoring offenses ever, two Big 12 championships and a BCS championship appearance.
Offensive line scheme
A former NFL offensive lineman with close ties to the Texas program said Brown’s staff has done a poor job developing its offensive linemen for the pro-style run game.
Texas recruits highly-touted linemen but doesn’t focus on lower body strength and conditioning like it should. He said too much emphasis is going into bench-press numbers instead of squats, and linemen can’t get the necessary leverage needed to drive defenders off the ball.
This makes sense considering the style of offense Texas ran prior to last year. The Longhorns’ blocking schemes are designed to react to the movement of the defense and create a pocket for the passer. Offensive linemen block from an upright position, so even designed running plays don’t have the same physical impact as firing out of a three-point stance.
The system works when mobile quarterbacks such as Young and McCoy serve as primary ball carriers, but it becomes a huge problem when those same linemen, accustomed to blocking in the spread offense, transition to a pro-style offense with a quarterback under center who is not a runner, such as Gilbert.
The Sooners, on the other hand, utilize multiple offensive sets that require offensive linemen to fire out of the three-point stance. Additionally, OU often lines up multiple tight ends and uses a fullback to create more holes for the ball carrier. While the Sooners also employ elements of the shotgun spread, their success hinges on their ability to establish a physical run game.
For what deficiencies it may currently have, Texas is still Texas—and one bad season isn’t going to ruin Mack Brown’s legacy in Austin. A year from now we may very well be talking about another 10-win season for the Longhorns.
However, the sense is the Sooners are pulling away from their Red River rival, and the new-look Big 12 may take on the same old Sooner-dominated pecking order even with Texas calling the shots behind the scenes.
Link (http://bleacherreport.com/articles/618026-texas-may-call-the-shots-but-ou-is-still-the-top-dog-in-the-revamped-big-12)