September is barely 4 months away...

[Monkeypox]

I read he was recruited as a QB until Mustain put Arkansas on his radar. When word came Mustain was going to verbal, Nutt backed down and started pushing the DB card on Woody.

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That would be odd, since Woody was a 2004 recruit, and Mustain just now committed to Arkansas. Woody was listed as an athlete/DB in their recruiting report.

[Got5onIt]

That would be odd, since Woody was a 2004 recruit, and Mustain just now committed to Arkansas.  Woody was listed as an athlete/DB in their recruiting report.

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Other Big 12 & SEC schools were also recruiting him at DB.

So what are you saying??? I fantasized the whole spectacular scenario? Unless I fantasized our whole recruiting process, Wilson came to NT for being promised a chance at playing QB. I know when Mustain committed and I know when WW came out of school.

Hell, I've got the Parade issue with Mitch & Emmitt Smith on the cover. I see it everyday when I sift through the magazine rack while taking a dump.

Edited April 14, 2006 by Got5onIt

[Monkeypox]

Other Big 12 & SEC schools were also recruiting him at DB.

So what are you saying, I fantasized the whole spectacular scenario? Unless I fantasized our whole recruiting process, Wilson came to NT for being promised a chance at playing QB.I know when Mustain committed and I know when WW came out of school.

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What I'm saying is that at no point was Nutt considering him a replacement for Matt Jones. Not when they recruited him as a DB out of high school, and not after he'd played half a season at Coffeyville. When he was first recruited, even were he considered a QB, he would've been the #2 of the recruits that year, behind Alex Mortensen. Of the QBs already on their roster, he would've been considered a distant 3rd, because the "heir apparent" at that time was RS-FR Robert Johnson, right behind Matt Jones.

As for this year, no SEC or Big 12 school was recruiting him as a QB. That IS part of why he came here, and he certainly wasn't being considered the replacement for Matt Jones. Not when Arkansas has two QBs already in their system who played for them during the season. Mustain is expected to compete, but even he's not necessarily the front-runner, after Casey Dick performed admirably at the end of the season. And as for the timing with Mustain, he didn't come on board with Arkansas until January, when there were articles in September saying Woody wouldn't be going back.

[Got5onIt]

What I'm saying is that at no point was Nutt considering him a replacement for Matt Jones.  Not when they recruited him as a DB out of high school, and not after he'd played half a season at Coffeyville.  When he was first recruited, even were he considered a QB, he would've been the #2 of the recruits that year, behind Alex Mortensen.  Of the QBs already on their roster, he would've been considered a distant 3rd, because the "heir apparent" at that time was RS-FR Robert Johnson, right behind Matt Jones.   

As for this year, no SEC or Big 12 school was recruiting him as a QB.  That IS part of why he came here, and he certainly wasn't being considered the replacement for Matt Jones.  Not when Arkansas has two QBs already in their system who played for them during the season.  Mustain is expected to compete, but even he's not necessarily the front-runner, after Casey Dick performed admirably at the end of the season.  And as for the timing with Mustain, he didn't come on board with Arkansas until January, when there were articles in September saying Woody wouldn't be going back.

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I know he wasn't considered a direct heir apparent for Matt Jones. Is it unfair to say that any QB recruited during Matt Jones' Sr. year is a potential replacement?? Meager, Phillips, Byerly, all recruited as Hall's replacement, correct? My wording may have been a little over the top, but it isn't false. Unless, WW was never even considered a QB recruit. The athlete tag he received was in part, for that reason.

Edited April 14, 2006 by Got5onIt

[Monkeypox]

I know he wasn't considered a direct heir apparent for Matt Jones. Is it unfair to say that any QB recruited during Matt Jones' Sr. year is a potential replacement?? My wording may have been a little over the top, but it isn't false. Unless, WW was never even considered a QB recruit. The athlete tag he received was in part, for that reason.

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No, it's not unfair to say that any QB recruit during Matt Jones' Sr. year is a potential replacement. However, to say that a QB recruit they're looking at as a DB WAS considered a replacement for Matt Jones is hyperbolic at best, and to then to claim that this never-established idea "speaks volumes" to his ability as a QB is just plain silly.

[Got5onIt]

No, it's not unfair to say that any QB recruit during Matt Jones' Sr. year is a potential replacement.  However, to say that a QB recruit they're looking at as a DB WAS considered a replacement for Matt Jones is hyperbolic at best, and to then to claim that this never-established idea "speaks volumes" to his ability as a QB is just plain silly.

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So now you're going to tell me Woody was actually a DB at Coffeyville, right? So Arkansas recruited him as a DB only, and he ended up at the NAIA level as a QB? Makes alot of sense.

Well, I think I'll continue to stay in my ridiculous and silly world. At least there, NT wins the National Championship in my lifetime.

[Monkeypox]

So now you're going to tell me Woody was actually a DB at Coffeyville, right? So Arkansas recruited him as a DB only, and he ended up at the NAIA level as a QB? Makes alot of sense.   

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They were saying IN SEPTEMBER that Wilson wasn't going back to Arkansas. September's pretty early in the football season. Why do you think that was? Was it because they so badly wanted him to come in and take over as the starting QB, and he didn't feel like it?

If he was EVER considered a replacement for Matt Jones by Nutt, he wouldn't be playing here.

[Got5onIt]

If he was EVER considered a replacement for Matt Jones by Nutt, he wouldn't be playing here.

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I'll agree with you here.

Still doesn't mean you won.

[pollock]

I'll agree with you here.

Still doesn't mean you won.  

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When 2 GMGers post a full page arguing about speculative Houston Nutt rumors, NOBODY wins.

Woody is a player, and needs to be in the game. But unless something changes over the summer, Phillips needs to be under center. He is our best shot to make use of three OUTSTANDING receivers.

[LongJim]

LongJim

I do too.  They have had their way with us on the ground in the past.  No reason to stop now, which is why I say line up heavy against the run and make them pass.  Their two new QB's are nothing speed wise compared to Young, and didn't look that impressive trying to run the ball in their spring game.  And regardless if their new QB's get the hand off away on the read, or get the throw off, hit them in the mouth and put them on the ground as much as possible.

I agree with you, Rick. Got to create pressure on the new guys. I do, however worry a bit about Snead running the ball should he play. He's quicker than most people think, and I believe we will see a world of difference with him and McCoy when the MG visit in Sept.

As an example on defense we should look at the way A&M played them last year.  A&M stacked the line and played aggressive, holding Young to 19 yards rushing and a little over 160 passing. 

Good points. One thing in looking at aTm the past couple of years, was that Franphony recognized the need to hit the weight room w/his DL, and they did that after the aTm game 2 years ago. I think it made a world of difference, because Aggy basically took it to the Horns OL all day last year. One reason why I'm interested in seeing how/if the weight room work that the MG did (?) this off-season has made any difference. I think we'll be able to see some proof in the pudding the first couple of games, because if the MG comes out and hangs in there at the LOS, I will be optimistic about progress being made in the off-season.

A&M used a punishing, inside ground attack and controlled much of the game.  Their freshman QB ran for over 100 yards and it kept tU busy all night.  But do we have the O line play this time around?

See above. I don't know. I'm hoping that UNT's lines can make some noise. We should be able to tell pretty quickly, though. As I said, aTm got physically whipped 2 years ago in Austin, and whatever Fran's other faults, he recognized this and sent his hogs to the weight room hard in the off-season, and it showed last year.

For the most part A&M shot itself in the foot early in that game and they never could recover from it but that game plan was effective. 

UT very nearly lost that game, because aTm came out and smashed them in the mouth, and a young QB had a game plan he could execute to his level of ability/experience. It was a great game plan by DF, and what a game by the QB. He earned a lot of respect from OB's everywhere that day. I'm glad we get them in Austin this year.

At any rate, to have some success in the inside running game, I believe UNT will have to run a lot of trapping, leverage-type plays to try to help them physically at the line of scrimmage. Of course it's easy to say that sitting here at my keyboard.

[DallasGreen]

Best first play--take a knee and plead for mercy. After all as DD would say just like the next Sat. in Fouts vs. SMU ---this is just another ho-hum OOC game!!!

[LongJim]

Okay, I’ll preface my comments by saying that I’m not an expert on this stuff, but I’ll throw it out there anyway at risk of being embarrassed by the more football-learned in our midst.

With that out of the way, I took another look at the UT/aTm game from last year and wanted to share what I saw.

UT DEFENSIVELY

· Did not adjust well to the spread option run by aTm. (I’m sure Chizik has rectified this.)

· Safety/DE/LB’s did not seem to know who had quarterback on the option, and they did not adjust consistently until about 6 minutes left in the 3rd

· Cornerbacks pretty much shut down aggy receivers except for the halfback pass for a TD that was set up by all the option plays before. I believe a receiver also got loose in the late 3rd/early 4th, and McGee could not get the ball to him.

· Did not keep contain on McGee to the outside

· Could not find an answer for Lane inside, although in viewing the game, he got a majority of yards in the 3rd and 4th, when the UT DL was a bit gassed.

· In the 3rd and 4th, the beating that McGee was taking began to take a big toll. I didn’t remember it being that bad while watching the game, but he really took a pounding.

aTm DEFENSIVELY

· Did a great job on the edges keeping Young in the middle of the field. Young was not able to get outside like he normally does, and the LB’s/S were able to tackle him by forcing him inside. Although the backs still gained their yards

· Showed a lot of 6 and 7 man fronts, and would drop the corners into coverage at the last minute.

· Did NOT blitz as much as I remembered. When they did, it was just as likely to come from the middle of the field.

· Were VERY aggressive in the secondary. Appel was mugging receivers all day, and kept Young from finding targets consistently. In fact, the entire secondary did a very commendable job against UT’s receivers.

· DL interior had some inspired play, which was helped by an injury to UT’s starting center, and some boneheaded plays by UT linemen, but they did a generally good job against the UT backs inside, and they were not intimidated.

UT OFFENSIVELY

· Run, run, run. It was obvious that Brown did not want to get Young hurt during this game, and had him hand the ball off most of the time. The Horns had success off tackle and straight up the gut. Taylor was effective outside. I think this is what the MG will see September 2.

· The pass to the flat, and the slant were open all day, although Young was running for his life much of the time.

aTm OFFENSIVELY

· Heady play by McGee, who ran the option out of multiple formations to confuse the Longhorns.

· Used UT’s overpursuit against them on McGee’s last touchdown, and several plays to the outside.

· Was not effective with the pass, as UT was able to get good pressure in passing situations, and McGee was not accurate due to pressure on others.

· Lined up in Trips w/1 back, 2 wides to each side w/1 back, split backfield, under center, I formation, and basically ran the same option play out of each of these formations. After working off-tackle, and outside by pulling the ball from the diving back and keeping, he would then give UT a dose of the back up the middle.

· Ran the halfback pass to perfection, by setting it up with previous option plays, and finding just the right time for it, as the safteties were overcommitting to the run.

aTm had a very good DL/OL, and it showed in the UT game. The secondary played out of their minds, and the QB was fearless while taking a terrible beating.

This will be key this September in Austin when the MG visit. What will be exciting is to see what progress has been made in the offseason by UNT on these ends.

[TIgreen01]

Well, considering your scenario is to have UNT receive the kickoff and start from the 20, I'd say we're basically screwed from that point on. I do not see us gaining 150 yards in this game, so if we are to win it we need to be playing on a short field and take advantage of turnovers. Considering that UT will be using a run,run,run gameplan, we're going to have to hope that Jamaal Charles (and is Selvin Young still there?) lose a few fumbles as they did last year. I totally agree that we should absolutely stack the box on every play and make them pass. Maybe the 3-4 will help us coming off the edges to get to the QB better when they do pass and force some bad throws.

Going just off of the last 8 years of games against top 5 BCS teams, DD will not come up with a gameplan to challenge UT's defense...so for this game, he will put all of his emphasis on trying to avoid getting run on up the middle and forcing the QB's to beat us.

To answer your question on what NT should do if we get the ball on the 20 to start the game....3 straight low-risk running plays--and for goodness sakes, have Keronna Henderson on the field to take out whatever LB/S is shooting the gaps to help avoid a crushing hit on Super Jamario. Then block like a MF'er for T. Spencer and hope he gets off a huge punt to get a good start to the field position war. Our emphasis in this game needs to be on special teams play---avoid the blocked punts and huge returns that UT usually gets against us. Making UT drive the entire field will help us keep the score low and beat the spread. And that is all I'm hoping for out of this game....for DD to get back to his old ways of consistently beating the spread against the big boys.

[LongJim]

Well, if anyone cares about this:

After watching the OK State game again, it looks like the Cowboys game film is what aggy used to prepare their offense. OK used the spread with a read option, and was able to really confuse the UT defense for much of the 1st half.

One thing I noticed is that in their spread on a run play, the "flanker" would block down on the DE or outside LB, and drive him inside, and the tackle or TE would dive at the outside leg of the DE to seal the outside corner for the running back.

There was a lot of chop blocking by the OK OL, and it worked against UT's stronger guys for a while.

The Cowboys also had success running up the middle out of the I with a 5 step drop and handoff, and tried to set up play action this way with minimal success. aTm also tried this.

OK state also used Pena in a lot of rollout plays, and he would sometimes just tuck it and run if the pass wasn't there--which was often. Similar to McGee, he took a beating that became evident as the game went on.

OK also used a trick play on 4th down, just as aTm would a couple weeks later, and both resulted in touchdowns.

OK state created turnovers by Young and turned them into touchdowns by being very aggressive offensively.

The OK DL played above their heads, and for the first half at least, were able to contain Young by forcing him to run (when he did) to the middle of the field.

Depth and talent level wore the Cowboys down in the second half.