 
Tracking the Longhorns: Aug. 12
Aug. 12, 2008
On today's practice: Right now we're working on a whole lot of situations. Today we worked on a one-minute situation and then a various kind of blitz situation. Each practice at this time is dedicated more to situations, first-and-10, third-and-short, third-and-long, goal line, coming out, than actually setting it down and playing the game. We'll get that tomorrow in the scrimmage. I'm really pleased with where we're at right now, we've just got to keep working as we head downhill towards the opener. On the state of the offense at this point: Physically, I've just been pleased with the way the guys have worked. One, they were in great shape when they came back, and two, they've worked extremely hard. We're throwing and catching the ball really well right now. It's hard to evaluate running backs until you put them in a scrimmage situation because when you're playing thud, you don't really know. Did they break the tackle, did they not break the tackle? There are certain things you can evaluate with running backs - blitz pick up, catching the ball, pads and things like that. Running backs don't really get a full evaluation until you're going live in a scrimmage situation, so we'll look forward to how that goes tomorrow. We mentioned earlier we have to have some young receivers come on. I'm really pleased with Malcolm Williams, he's having a heck of a camp. It goes without saying that Quan (Cosby) and Jordan (Shipley) are doing well, but Malcolm is really doing well. Dan Buckner is having a very productive fall camp, and James Kirkendoll has been really consistent. I feel like before we play the opener we'll have our six or seven receivers that we can get in a rotation and play with. Looking at some various change-ups in the offensive line with different groups. (We are) working Buck Burnette both at center and guard, right now. We've left Chris Hall only at center, but we know he can play other spots, looking at Britt Mitchell both at guard and tackle, looking at Greg Smith at tackle (and) tight end. So there are some changes and some moving around as they get the foundation, so we're looking for position flexibility. The more things they can do and be able to help us take care of any injuries that may occur later.
On Greg Smith training at tight end: He's a big body, he's played out there before so he has a good understanding of everything, and he just gives us an anchor point at some of our two-back stuff and some of our two tight end stuff. On how much they plan to use a two-tight end formation: It will depend. We like the formation, it tends to balance out defenses and forces them to eliminate some of the things they do, not everything obviously, but we like the formation. Whether or not we can play it as much as we have in the past is just going to depend on stuff as it happens. On what they like about the two-tight end formation: We feel like in our passing game we've got a bunch of things that we can throw out of a two tight end, so it doesn't preclude us from being able to throw the ball. Your play action in that formation is really good, we've got a series of drop backs in that formation, you don't have everything that you have with your three wide receivers obviously, but you certainly have enough that the defense has to play run and pass. On the plan for Wednesday's scrimmage: Right now we haven't determined everything about the scrimmage, but our plan right now is that we would start off with some blitz work, because you can't get too much of that, then we'd put the ball down and play for maybe 30 snaps for each group, and then we'd finish up with a series coming off the goal line, a series in the red zone, and then a series down tight. That's what we're looking at. On how to handle QB John Chiles and where the coaches found ideas of how to use him: John is a guy that we felt like we had to get involved more on the offense. We dabbled with it last year. We didn't really know what we had, so we dabbled with it. We're doing much more at this time now. We have a whole series of things, both runs and throws, with John and Colt (McCoy) in the ballgame at the same time. You've got to be careful because he's our number two quarterback, and so we've got to be smart at how much we're putting him out there, because we don't want to take away from his development at quarterback. The package is much broader than at any time last year. We did evaluate some different things. We looked at a lot of tape that Oregon was doing with (QB Dennis) Dixon, some of the things that they were doing. We looked at everybody in the Big 12, different ideas that people are running because the Big 12 is a lot of spread offense so we tried to steal some ideas from them. We always study USC in the off-season to see what they're doing out of their two-back and their motion sets, and then we spent some time visiting with Gary (Kubiak) at the (Houston) Texans about some of the things they're doing. (We gathered) a lot of different ideas until we got back this summer and said 'OK, this is what fits us the best.' On what he's worked on with QB Colt McCoy: We've worked really hard on a couple things. One, stepping forward in the pocket, there were a couple times last year that he left the pocket where we felt like he could step forward in the pocket and still be a threat as a runner but keep the pass alive a little bit longer. The second thing is just an overall better understanding of everything that we're doing. (He is) an extremely bright young man, so we're giving him a lot on his plate to do. The things we talked about other than being in the pocket are ball protection, and there were too many interceptions last year. Part of it is understanding that sometimes the defense wins the play, and when they do, you have to throw it away or take it and go. If that creates a punt, then it creates a punt, but you're still playing field position football. On the receivers: We're working both Quan (Cosby) and Malcolm Williams at that split end position, we're working both of those guys at the far, flanker position, the position we call B. We're working Jordan Shipley and Brandon Collins inside at the slot receiver. James Kirkendoll's a guy that can play all three spots, an extremely bright guy. Sometimes when we're going, Quan's playing to the field and Malcolm's in the boundary, and sometimes it's flipped. We're just trying to find the best combination. Different teams create different problems. Quan is really bright and has got tremendous hands. He sometimes presses a situation that we felt like he needed to improve on and he worked on it really hard this summer. Malcolm, because of his size and because that guy plays on the line of scrimmage, it's easier to press that guy than it is anybody off the line of scrimmage. That guy, typically for us, has been a bigger body guy, a Roy Williams, a Limas Sweed, and that's where Malcolm kind of fits into the picture. On the problems LB Sergio Kindle creates for an offense: Will (Muschamp) has done a great job of mixing packages and getting Sergio on the field, dropping him and rushing him. He's just such a physical presence. In some schemes, if your back has him in pass protection, you've got to pick your spots because you're asking a back to do a lot if he has to do that very often, they're going to have to do it some. We've got to be able to slide protection to him to get somebody else on him. We've got to be able to chip him coming out of the backfield if we've got a tackle or a tight end on him. It creates a situation where you need to know where he is.. On the offensive line: This line is going to be really good. Cedric (Dockery) is the only senior in the bunch and so there's still a lot of youth and they're learning each other's chemistry but it's going to be really good. On Major Applewhite: The neat thing about Major is that he got his foundation here, so he understands what we want to do in the big picture. At the same time, when we brought him back to talk to him, even before he got back on campus, I told him, 'We also want your thoughts because you've been in three different systems since you left here.' He's brought some excellent thoughts to us within the framework of what we're trying to do. He's done a great job with the backs, because he understands the importance of them being exactly in certain spots in the passing game. He understands that having been a quarterback, so he's very demanding on that part of the game. Overall, he's brought a lot of different things to the staff. On Cody Johnson: Cody Johnson is having a really good camp. We're working him at fullback in our two-back sets, and we're working him some at tailback in our one back set just to create more depth. He brings something that the other ones don't, especially into the game when you've got the defense tired. He's a big body and he rolls up in there and you don't think he makes anything, and all of a sudden the pile has been moved. We're working him at both spots. |
|
