I've never said he was the worst play caller and if I did it was in a fit of anger after a three and out. UT should be able to do better than him is my opinion. I tend to think UT has a pretty good offense to go with McCoy and I think UT will have a lot of 2-4 round guys from the offense. McCoy may not be a senior, but he's still playing pretty good with a few mistakes. Not counting strength of schedule is almost as big a hyperbole as calling Davis the worst play caller. Calling Notre Dame superstar laden in reference to UT is also misleading. UT has the better offensive line and the better running backs. I would also put Sweed up against any of Notre Dame's wide receivers. Quinn is better than McCoy at this point, but McCoy has the better offensive unit to run. If you want to go yards/att as the meterstick for OC, UT is 23rd beneath teams like Houston, N Illinois. I would have no problem with Davis as a playcaller if UT still had Young. UT is still running the same slow developing run plays even though the defense doesn't have to account for the QB keeping it and running 80 yards. I got no problem throwing the WR screens since UT is still getting good bang for the buck.
I agree - and that is because rather than throwing into the teeth of a zone or standing around waiting to get smacked on a blitz, he's throwing the ball where he should and not making mistakes (as a consequence UT leads the nation in turnover margin). The result is the #4 offense in the nation. First, ND's SOS is 15th, UT is 38th - that's not exactly a huge difference. Second, I'm saying this to illustrate the double standard at work: ND has a veteran, all american QB, with established players, UT has a novice QB. ND's offensive guru is renowned and fellated as a genius. UT's is bashed routinely by his own fans. However thier productivity is the same. What gives? Perception or reality? If Weis is a genius at calling plays and Davis is incompetent, why the disparity? Dont' give me "SOS", either. Precisely, and they are getting it this year too as the stats show. It is not as good as last year, but that's because they had one of the greatest offensive teams of all time led by one of the greatest QB's of all time.
Unless of course if something goes wrong in the same way as it went wrong before it could indicate that his playcalling is regressing to a pre-Vince style. Is it any wonder people are concerned? He wasn't that good for a long while, then he changed styles and had very good offenses, but now he's doing some of the same things that made the offense sputter in big games in the past.
he's doing the exact same things that he has always done, and that any OC would do: Take what the defense gives you. You can't argue with results.
Why would you take what the defense gives you? After all, there's probably a reason the defense is giving it to you. Which set of results though? He's got basically two distinct sets of results at Texas - the first which says: "I will beat up on anyone who doesn't approach us in talent, but I will not be good against teams that do"; or the second that says: "I will but huge numbers against anyone who we play against". Of course I can argue with results - his results argue with each other.
The same reason you would throw to an open receiver as opposed to a covered one. Find me one team that statistically plays better against top teams than it does against lesser teams over the same span. I'd be highly suprised if you coudl find one. It's simple logic and this applies to most offensive coordinators, basically ever. Find me one coach that does this. One. I will throw some names out for you: Steve Spurrier, Mike Leach, Hal Mumme, June Jones, Todd Dodge - all highly regarded as offensive masterminds. Run a comparison of how they play vs. highly ranked teams and again vs. unranked teams. Shockingly, I bet you're going to find out that it's more difficult to score points against good teams then bad ones. Go back and look at the post I made a few pages ago re:2002 Ohio state. They struggled against crap teams and didn't blow anybody out, so in a way theyw were more "consistent", but that's not a preferable alternative. Super teams in college football come around a few times a decade; holdng Davis to that standard is impossibly unfair, but it is the one that people choose.
Nah, my biggest crit this year is not trick plays. It is a too many 3WRS sets and not enough Charles plays (runs or dumps) or isolations with guys like Sweed and Finley. In a nutshell too much on McCoy and not enough utilization of the skill player weapons and other teams strength (oline). In this way it is more of an issue of scheme/philosophy, play calling within the game is secondary. That OSU had an offense where half the time the QB couldn't hit the broad side of the barn as well as skill talent that in the end looks quite overated (Jenkins, Clarett). But they didn't usually hurt their defense and did make some big plays when they had to. But you are right I wouldn't like their results given Texas' skill players and Oline. But OSU still ran versus Texas when it wasn't working. Texas was running well versus OSU but passed too much, which included two big TOs in the passing game. The run game was there versus OSU with 5-6 blockers, no telling how well it would have worked with a couple TEs or TE + fullback. More likely then to get 1 on 1 isolations with Sweed down the field then too. And I beg to differ Mich and OSU react that much to their opponents. They foremost work to establish the run and pass off play action. In other words they foremost dictate tempo. Same with SC. Now Smith is good enough OSU can be successfull passing even when a good defense knows he is passing, but that is a rarity in college football. Generally to be successfull against a good defense you have to keep them off balance with the play call. Because that offense was going to put more pressure on a young QB than necc. They had since VY declared to change the offense AND the pieces to do it (at least two good TEs, some big backs that could be fullbacks/H-backs). They basically just had to return to the offense pre-Vince (that doesn't fix the play calling in the game, but at least gets the scheme to make it easier on McCoy). Finally, Snead hadn't taken a snap. Colt is a coaches son. I think they would have a much easier time picking up a new offense than putting them in an offense so dependent on QB play. Starting spring and on was plenty of time to go to a more vanilla smash mouth offense that didn't rely on their QBs so much. It was what I was saying Texas would do day 2 after VY declared, I was shocked to see what they opened the season with. Like I said use them both. Use spring for some creative sets with both Charles and Selvin in there. Counters, reverses, fakes to one, fakes to the other (see Bush and LenDale). Decoys at times even. Having Charles out there makes the defense adjust a whole heck of a lot more than an extra WR, and Charles can run those screens better anyway and Selvin can block better for Charles than that extra WR can. Perhaps it falls on Mack even more, but GD shares some blame for not using his biggest playmaker more either directly in the play or as a decoy. Having him in there less than half the plays takes a lot of pressure away from the defense. Texas probably had the #1 combination of returning OL and tailbacks in the land. They have one of the best verticle threat WRs and a verticle threat TE most all LBs can't cover. Yet they scored 7 points and had two key TOs versus a very green defense that probably will determine a NC game representative. I am sure Texas's offensive coaches would love to have the season over. and think they could have done better with what they have. I am not calling for their heads, but think they could have utilized their talent a lot better and had a scheme to limit the responsibility on one of the two fresh QBs that was going to have to start. I actually think McCoy has done real well (probably better than Booty honestly). But we could have made it a lot easier on him and maximized his chances to be successfull--and making it a passing contest between him and Troy Smith in the critical game in his 2nd game ever was not a smart way to plan for the season.
I don't think those two things are comparable. Taking what the defense gives you concedes superiority to the defense. You're reacting to what the defense is doing, rather than forcing them to react to you. And since no defense worth a damn is going to give you anything you're good at, or that will consistently go for big plays - you're putting yourself at a disadvantage. As for your second point - I did not say that top teams should perform better against good teams than bad ones. That's ridiculous, and it's a pretty poor strawman argument. You said, "You can't argue with results" - except that Greg Davis has not had uniform results at Texas. There have been two distinct Greg Davises at Texas - the one that lays a beatdown on Rice and then gets destroyed by the Brothers Stoops - and the one that unleashed Ricky Williams and Vince Young.
That is shading it one way, but their returning OL right now only features 2 starters from last year. The RB's, while good, you have to agree are simply not in the same class as Adrian Peterson or even a Ray Rice. Charles is great but he doesn't seem to have the same burst in the open field he had pre-injury (and was injured again this year IIRC). Sweed is very good, but he is not yet a Jarrett, Samdjrala, Calvin Johnson, Ted Gin Jr. type player - few are. As for the "vertical threat TE", the guy is a redhsirt freshman with a propensity for false starts, holding penalties, and the occasional drop, something that David Thomas never did. And don't forget Ramonce Taylor - the guy accounted for 15 TD's last year - that's kind of a hell of a lot for a guy who was a 3rd or 4th option on offense. Most importantly of all, of all the top teams in the country, they probably have the least skilled quarterback with a weak arm. With all due respect to McCoy, tell me you wouldn't take Brady Quinn, Chad Henne, Troy Smith, Erik Ainge, Chris Leak, JD Booty, Pat White, or Brian Brohm over him right now....if Texas has any of those palyers they are probably the #1 team in the country right now. Yet despite all this the Texas offense is as productvie or more so than all of those teams (save WV). Granted - the above list sounds like I'm making excuses - which underscores the ludicrous nature of why a team that has been really good on offense this season needs to be "excused" for anything.
Who is to say GD is the conservative one. After all the buck stops at Mack Brown. Say what you want about the play calling and offense but Mack and GD know the limits of the players. I wonder if the reason we don't run I-Formation sets might be coz we don't have a true fullback? In fact the only scholarship fullback we had was a DT (Derek Lokey) who's gone for the rest of the season. Making matters worse, our Fullback for the remainder of the season is a walk on.
That's such a rigged argument. yes, there have been two distinct Greg Davis, one who has good results and one who has had bad ones. This is the necessarly consequence of not being perfect and goes for every non-divine coach in the country, which includes all of them. Tressel has had bad days, as has Charlie Weis, as has Mark Richt, as has every single name you can think of. Urban Meyer's offense sputtered vs. Auburn. Tuberville's offense sputtered vs. Arkansas the week before. Les Miles offense couldn't do jack vs. Auburn. C'est la vie.
Sendlien, Studdard and Blalock were all starters last year. Correction it's Calvin Johnson and then everybody else. If you ask me a case can be made for Sweed against any of the other WR you mention. Might not be as fast as Ginn Jr., might not have the hops of Jarret, might not have Samardja's.... oh god what does Jeefy have except good hands??? But he does run better routes and (something NFL scouts love) he's probably the best blocking WR in the country. Ironicaly, this might be the reslult of all those east west passes. Edit: Dwayne Jarret???? Oh those USC WR really pan out.
Except that I'm not talking about bad days and good days. I'm talking doing the same thing consistently for weeks, months and years. The Greg Davis who coached Texas for the last eighteen months of Vince Youngs career is NOT the same Greg Davis who'd coached the previous five or six years. And after some questionable play calling at times, Texas fans are concerned the Bad Greg Davis is coming back and we'd all like to see Good Greg Davis stick around.
Texas has consistently had one of the top offensive teams in the land since 2002, and has a very good winning % against top 25 teams. So yeah, they are consistently doing that. They won their second straight RRS a few weeks ago in case you missed it. So what is the problem now? It's the same guy. The exact same one. LOL, "Bad" Greg Davis is riding the #4 offense in the country all the way to the Fiesta bowl at present Meanwhile Offensive guru/genius Mike Leach is getting almost shutout by TCU. Charlie Weis' brilliant schemes are being sliced up by Karl Dorrell. Mark Richt's playcalling is the subject of numerous editorials. Steve Sarkisian is apologizing for beign too conservative. PERSPECTIVE. Read this post about USC Sound familiar?: http://www.sportingnews.com/blog/TrojanMan5/35226 LOL, considering that USC and Texas can't seem to find good offensive coordinators (in the minds of their fans) I'm beginning to realize they must be the most precious commodity on earth.
Yeah possibly against Boise St. http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=2627844 ....I think I just threw up in my mouth.
yeah that would be absolutely f'in r****ded I would rather play someone like Arkansas in the cotton bowl or something
yes, but there's a huge difference in taking what the defense gives you because that's what they want you to take and making the defense make a choice between two good options for you and then burning them with whatever they go with. when defenses know we're going to take what they give us on a blitz and it's a pass to the flats, it doesn't make it hard to press our receivers and stop the ensuing pass for short yardage. in the ou game in the 3rd quarter, they tried to blitz and press sweed, but colt smartly checked to sweed going long and beat them. that's taking what they give you in an aggressive manner. not just taking it because they make it the obvious choice because they want that from you. the last year and a half we made teams take what we wanted to give them. we attacked them and made them stop us. we didn't ask our players to make spectacular plays to out-athlete someone or we would have to punt. we made the D make the play to make us punt. you always throw to the open guy, but where the open guy is is a matter of you taking it to a defense and just settling for the easy out. you can't seriously think that's what our argument is. this is inane. everyone knows it will be harder to score against good defenses. but it shouldn't be a drop off a cliff from 40 ppg to 10 ppg like with ou for 5 years. or against fsu when unc went from 31.5 ppg to 1.5 ppg (1.5 ppg!!!) against the one real good defense they faced. every other year unc scored more than the 2 years davis coached there. i seriously doubt fsu was holding all of their opponents to 30 points less than their average (b/c i don't think their opponents averaged upwards of 40 ppg). only GD seems to experience such sharp, drastic declines. and he does it over and over. that can't be that hard to understand. those are the results you apparently think we can't argue against. 1.5 ppg against fsu! that's atrocious. 10 ppg in 5 years against ou, 2.8 ppg of which were late, garbage time points is a huge falloff. i would expect a decine from the mid 30's on the season to maybe 20 against real defenses. a 3 or 7 pointer once is ok, bad games happen. doing it over and over is a pattern. doing it at another school right before you get here isn't digging up old games and ignoring the present, it's part of the bigger pattern. it's using all of the results, results we can certainly argue against. as far as rose bowl, rose bowl, rrs, i already said i thougth the previous year and a half were good. surprisingly i haven't argued against any of those games. the ttech game in 2004 was a game that almost everyone at hornfans thought was a well-called game. and people were actually complimenting GD on the performance. usually in a back-handed, who is this guy in GD's body sort of way, but people have given him his props. i did as well. and i did it for a year and a half. but i won't ignore a huge pattern of sucking in big games, a pattern that is closer to revealing itself this year than not, and say we're top 4 in scoring so everything is fine. in general, the fact that colt has such good stats and we score so much is pretty damn good considering we have a freshman qb and games are shorter this year with the new clock rules, but 7 points against osu is 7 points against osu and those are the games where GD should earn his $300K per year or whatever it is. while it's nice that we can put up 40 at will against the isu's of the world and thus never have to worry too much about being upset against them (which is nice, i'm not being sarcastic, because other elite teams without that ability do get upset in games that we don't), at UT, it's about what you do against the other UT's of the college football world (and i don't mean tennessee). without complete and utter trust in his offense, davis' offensive teams fall off a cliff in those games.
That's exactly what happens to happy go-lucky offensive genius Mike Leach who is held up as the shining counterexample to Davis. He puts up 70 vs. the Indiana State Universities of the world and then is lucky to break 10 or 20 vs. Texas or Oklahoma. That's what happened to 2004 Oklahoma. They rarely put up fewer than 30-40 points, but against Texas and USC? 12 and 19 points respectively. Same with 2003 Oklahoma. They scored over 50 seven times, and were the highest scoring OU team ever....but in their two losses (big 12 CCG and BCS title game), both huge games by any measure, they put up 7 and 14. The only reason why you're not going to see a similar variance at Ohio State is that few schools dominate teams offensively as much as Texas does (or Oklahoma did). Accordingly when a 2002 Ohio State team squeaks by Michigan by 14-9, nobody is calling for Jim Tressel to resign since they rarely exceeded 30 in previous weeks.
