Two main sections below
Watched 2nd half of KU vs TT to get a sense of how our next opponent is playing.
- What did I see in KU vs TT
- Oddball observations from KState's whooping of OU
Watched 2nd half of KU vs TT to get a sense of how our next opponent is playing.
- The game shouldn't have been close. TT OC and secondary were REALLY, REALLY BAD in the 2nd half when playing with lead
- TT's offense when playing with the lead could not have been less creative. They ran the shotgun RPO action 90% of the time with 75% being gives to the RB for 1 to 3 yards. It was middle school offense. KU could have stopped them with the same defensive call 10 plays in a row
- TT secondary was swiss cheese. KU did a nice job of playing pitch and catch but TT went out of their way to make it easy with slips, trips, bad angles, huge cushions. It was gross.
- TT middle linebacker Jordyn Brooks flashed every other play. I've note seen a consistent stud like that in the Big 12 in a while. He looked and played exactly how I expected Murray to loook and play against us. He was regularly shooting the gap, chasing down Pooka for a loss, but then that just made KU throw...refer to prior point
- Jonathan Alexander is addicted to the big play. So much so that he'll throw a tantrum mid-play when a teammate misses a chance to make one. After Tyler Burns failed to block an OU punt (a block Alexander has proven he likely makes), look at Alexander's reaction middle of the screen while the ball is still in flight. He jumped in the air and grabbed his helmet.
- One of the shots as ABC cut to break was Ben Newman giving a motivational talk to the DLine on the bench. For some reason it surprised me that he's got such liberties in game.
- Another shot that I don't have a screen capture for was AJ Parkers dri-fit sleeve had "Pound the Stone" mid-bicep
- Chop Blocks. What constitutes a legal chop block? Coach Klieman was asked about what the difference was and he said "we did a better job getting guys to the ground". I agree. He then said "guys were worried about drawing penalties". I guess it must be a fuzzy rule. I was noticing how much better we chopped during the game so I tracked them during my re-watch and didn't see us once fail to get a guy on the ground. Here's who chopped successfully
- Lenners x1
- Gilbert x1 (great one on the Thompson zone read to Brown mistake)
- Trotter x2 (his are lethal)
- Barta x1 (on Gilbert's TD run)
- Coaching excellence from far more than the OC and DC. Think about how far each position group has come since last spring. Its hard for me to say whose done the most with their respective group, but its fair to say they are all showing good progress
- Special Team is consistently producing game-changing plays without giving up anything negative in conference play
- OLine- Riley taught Tyler Mitchell to do a line dance with that fancy step right then back left
- WR- i don't remember a drop on a catchable ball in the last 2 games (a problem that really hurt the rythym against Baylor)
- RB- couldn't believe their effectiveness Saturday. Whether it was Gilbert's patience on zone reads, burst around the edge to flank the OU safety on a stretch or stiff-arming Murray out of a play. Brown was very effective as well. His jump cut that left Murray grasping on the chunk run to the 5 was beautiful. Trotter looked good even making a guy miss with a nice jump cut on 3rd down run that we didn't convert late in the 4th.
- TE- Sammy Wheeler was a QB at the start of spring ball
- Dline- Drew Wiley was an indistinguishable piece who was prone to getting blown up last year.
- LB- Eli Sullivan was all over the field Saturday. Daniel Green has gone from ? to contributor and Patton has been solid
- DBs- teaching new techniques and being so effective that we're tied for fewest passing TDs allowed in FBS (if I heard DScott right)
