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The Conservatism of Texas Football Staffs

North Texas Golfer

Under Contract
Joined
Nov 5, 2013
Messages
5,014
A very fascinating and interesting discussion is taking place on another site about this. 

Too many good points being made to really be able to convey exactly what the original poster is trying say but here are a few things that I found myself absolutely agreeing with. 

But we are playing so conservatively that we aren't using those tools. We're still running with guys who don't fumble but average 2.8 ypc. We're only throwing quick passes and screens to the sidelines, and only pushing the the ball downfield on the sidelines, too. We're so scared of fumbles and interceptions and missed blocks that we're not giving our players reps in a full offense.Even Herman at Houston had to say, "This QB is the best we're going to get so we're going to take the reins off of him and let him play". And they did. But here, we are constantly "holding something back" and we're going to go all season in a training wheels offense if we're not careful and our guys won't be any further developed in running a full offense than they are now.

Our perspective needs to change first. Our play calling needs to follow immediately behind. THEN we can coach individual groups to mitigate the mistakes under that structure. Our approach, so far, has been backwards from that.

And for me, this really sums it up. 

How you ascend is very different than how you maintain it. When you're rebuilding, risk taking and management is a critical piece of the puzzle. But once you have the advantages, conservative play may be boring but it plays to the statistics that are in your favor. 

The problem is when you try to ascend conservatively. Call it the "muschamp plan". If you're Alabama, conservative may be boring but it's effective. But if you're an underdog, you don't get back to the spotlight that way most of the time. Muschamp might have been a good successor to Saban, but he wasn't the guy for a rebuild.

 
When you have only $10 in chips to lose, it's easy to go all in. When you're talking a couple of hundred/thousand, you think twice about it.
I definitely can understand that.  And maybe I'm not understanding your post.  But I personally would have preferred Herman go for it. And had we failed, him justify it by saying something to the tune of: "We were underdogs and had the #5 team in the nation exactly where we wanted them. The safe play would have been the extra point. But when you're on the road in a hostile environment, you let it all hang out. You cannot achieve greatness by playing it safe. We're Texas!  And we'll ALWAYS strive for greatness!" Yeah, something like that...HOOK 'EM!

 
anytime you are a road underdog if you have chance to end game go for 2 usually OTs favor the more talented team the especially at home

 
My post was in regards to the original post, not the one about going for 2.

 
My post was in regards to the original post, not the one about going for 2.
I knew that  :)  Here is a little bit of what the original poster said as it relates to your post above.

Taking risk is an important part of football teams that want to ascend to the top of the game--once you're alabama with 5* players at most positions it changes a little and more conservative play can be a winning strategy--and yet the coaching profession is built for exactly the opposite scenario. Coaches on big stages seem to avoid even the appearance of risk taking because their positions are so volatile and the public perceptions so influential in their job security.

 
With Conner being out we have issues at both Tackles.  Herman has said repeatedly he is narrowing the gameplan to not overload the young guys on the line.  Scripted plays will increase as the guys gain experience.  Beck even mentioned "Youth" multiple times in his last QA.  Without an experienced OL your offense isnt going to be good regardless of who the QB or RB is.  There are other issues but until we get a decent OL it wont matter much.  Kerstetter will be fine with a couple of years experience.  The other guy, Tristan is a Senior but is awful.

 
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