Justin, Paul, and Ian pick apart Sark's favorite RPO and continue their analysis of the SEC QBs next season. Subscribe to Inside Texas to stay locked in with your favorite team every single day https://www.on3.com/teams/texas-longhorns/join/
Inside Texas Football
Deep Dive: Sark's Deadliest RPO, SEC QB Gauntlet
welcome to the deep dive brought to you by inside Texas football youtube channel powered by inside texas.com i'm your host is always justin wales and with me as always is paul waddlington and Ian Boyd please like our video and subscribe to the inside texas football youtube channel we are climbing up that's to seven thousand help us out also come see us at inside texas.com we're running a special for a dollar that gets you through the spring game that gets you into the portal season and it gets you all up on the recruiting stuff but today and like we do in every deep dive we're gonna we're gonna talk about some team we're gonna talk a little bit about sark's favorite rpo and then we're gonna we're gonna continue a conversation about quarterbacks in the sec because paul thinks this is going to be a better conference of quarterbacks by the end of the season and i think he's probably right like usual i'm gonna start it off with Ian though hey man sark's got a favorite rpo this is things you've talked about and written about dive into to the details of this and just what it means to to this offense in 2024 yeah anybody that watched monday night live we talked about this a little bit we had a source that watched some practice cut-ups in a coaches clinic that texas did and he got to see a lot of cut-ups of the same rpo over and over again uh texas was just dicing up their own defense with it this is the play this is the play as they ran it last year and as you see it with the miami dolphins with uh a few tweaks that they that they were doing in in spring and the way it works is it's like the old school zone read with vince young but instead of the quarterback's option when they're unblocked defensive end if the unblocked defensive end crashes and chases after the running back instead of pulling the ball and running around the edge like vince young did texas has a series of pass options available to him and so it's like a two-read play it's like almost like a triple option um and the way that the the way it works here that it was being described as they would line up with all the receivers in the boundary so then defense has to figure out how to line up to that like do they have the nickel lineup over there how do they how do they account for all those guys but then they motion the slot the h all the way across the field and then at the snap they motion the y across too like he's going to block for split zone only instead of blocking you just runs out into the flat and the defense has to process all this like that because it's right before the snap and then right after the snap all this movement then they're running outside zone into the boundary and if you don't have any guys left there because everybody scattered after the motion then you just run the ball behind kelvin banks and dj campbell and all these guys and you pick up an easy five 10 15 yards if you don't if you actually adjust to the motion half decent and you're in crashes after the running back the quarterback will pull the ball and then he's got this glance route by the z where the z is basically just running into open space he's got a wheel route outside if there's man coverage and then he has the the tight end coming across into the flat lathe if you want to see this play in action last year texas ran it and a few different looks off of it against oklahoma a bunch of times last year and then they didn't really run at the rest of the year i think probably because most the rest of teams they played or fly over teams and those teams would just drop everyone back into coverage and so it didn't create the same advantages they do other stuff this year in the SEC they're not going to get to fly over every week they may not get it once they're going to get teams trying to play them legitimate man coverage four down fronts all that and so now this rpo takes center stage for texas and uh it's it looks like a lot um but it's almost like just like a base concept for them just like the just like the beer for a wishbone team or something like that they're going to run it a couple times every game they're going to run play action in screens that are designed to look like this but then catch you for your over plays and that sounds like this is going to be a really big deal next year Ian can i ask you a question yes is the x receiver a viable option or is he just clearing space just just a clear out route yep Ian can you tell me in 2024 terms which guys are going to be in which spots that we think right now well that's part of the fun of this because if they make this a mainstay in the offense they could do it a million different ways right they could put jadon blue and backster in the back field have jadon blue motion out and run the wheel route they could have uh you know there's all sorts of stuff they could do but uh i guess the main thing is you want a fast guy running the wheel you want a reliable guy at the z or the x whoever's running the glance that you want that guy to be reliable makes the right read on the quarterback's leverage and is running to the red spot um the running back is going to be the running back it's not pretty simple there and honestly probably all the receivers will be able to do all of the different tasks they may even um USC runs stuff sort of like this with Lincoln Riley and sometimes they'll put their ultra fast guy as the y to run the little flat route and then the little easy check down becomes just a way to get the ball into the hands of like a Jeremiah branch or in the case of Texas maybe uh Silas Bolden right you put him in the back field and just have him run that little flat route the other team covers everything they force you to check it down but then you're checking down to Silas Bolden in space and you have to tackle him in terms of the run game that obviously that's an option on this right in fact it could be the preferable option right if the defense guards it in a certain way you just just an auto handoff yep you're talking outside zone so you're seeing that the play side tackle up on the top he's gonna hook that end right who's who's responsible for getting out on the linebacker is anyone or are you counting on not getting a flag if you do pull it you have to throw it like what's what's the read there like for the run to really go you need to leak someone out on that linebacker on the play side especially but maybe even the back side how do you balance that with not getting a penalty or you counting on like big 12 refereeing carrying over to the SEC I usually don't draw it out because it's usually based on reads of the combo blocks but basically you're gonna the center is gonna try to reach that tackle and the guard is gonna help him and hopefully just kind of give him a shove into the center and then and then climb up to the to the linebacker I guess what I'm asking is what if that linebacker doesn't move forward right what if he just stands at in space are you risking a penalty when you leak out on him like what's oh almost like a spy yeah yeah so what Paul's referencing is if your offensive lineman get more than three yards down field then you will get maybe flagged for having enough more receiver down the field when your quarterback throws the ball right I think that the benefit of running outside zone with these RPOs is that it's usually the the linemen go lateral first before they get down the field and so it just creates a little bit of time for the quarterback to make the read and potentially get the ball out before they're getting before they're leaking down field and if he hangs back I mean he's really at risk on a running play if he just stands back there right you're a little bit counting on him not doing that for one there's so much action going on that he's probably going to trigger pretty fast especially sees banks going wide and Connor or Campbell going wide or whoever and he's going to be like okay my gap is moving I got to get somewhere quick and then if he does stand back and you don't throw it if he's going to get killed and they're going to get gashed so bad unless they play it really well somewhere else so you're you're mostly counting on that just not happening but there's like some chance of it because of what you outlined Ian if if there's not much flyover though in the SEC what's going to be the counter defense for this because obviously it'll be put on tape obviously it'll work what would be what would be the defense's mindset because at some point they're not going to be able to go straight up man on a SARC offense what's the next call oh good question I'm a little bit of wait and see there I noticed that by the end of the year last year whether they were playing a flyover team or whether they're playing Washington the main strategy from teams was to play like off-man coverage and to have a single deep safety but to drop him back just way the heck back like make sure that worthy and Mitchell do not get behind you back and stay in the middle of the field and then they would just kind of play 10 and 11 against the run and that's partly why Texas was able to run the ball so well even after they lost Jonathan Brooks it's because teams were like well you're going to run the ball but we're going to try to stop you in the red zone because we know that Mitchell are worthy of beat us in a play and you'd think that maybe that's would be where teams would pick up but Texas also has all new receivers so they kind of got to prove that they can actually reliably take the top off like they did last year last year the second game of the year they play Alabama and Mitchell and worthy both beat Alabama secondary over the top yeah and so everyone from then on out in the big 12 and on the schedule knows if Alabama can't stay on top of these guys we are not going to stay on top of them and so everybody played them differently from then on out they'll have to earn that again I was going to say Ian and you'll remember so what happens is you show something early you scare everybody they play off and then someone goes I don't know Kansas State their first half game plan I don't think this ad and I Mitchell guys that good surely we can single cover him out on you know in space and Texas burdens him again and Kansas State revamps their game plan in the second half hey you mentioned OU and this I'm glad you did because that this is the play or the base of it where Quinn hit something like 19 passes in a row right in that second half just tearing up OU 10 12 18 yards a chunk and at first Venables tried to blitz this right which is kind of what you want you want people to blitz this if the quarterback will deal the ball out quickly which Quinn did and then I did see a couple of plays where OU would drop their end into coverage and then they have a linebacker blitz inside of him and the idea is we're going to muddy the quarterbacks initial read and then maybe he won't notice the the blitz are coming from from depth and we'll get a turnover or cause hurry throw or something like that was there something OU did in the first half and by the way that wasn't successful but was there something OU did in the first half sitting on some of these routes that caused Quinn and the you know receivers to miscommunicate that caused the turnovers early and the incompletions or was that just game jitters um I think they ran it more later in the game yeah Oklahoma didn't really like you said they didn't really have great answers for it but the interception on Jotovian Sanders was actually this play they had so where where we have the Z they had Jotovian Sanders at tight end run that route from an inline tight end position and it actually worked like a charm because he ran wide open right in front of the end zone but you were through a little bit high and so like our money sign safety here because of the compressed space of the red zone that guy was able to get all the way over and smack Jotovian Sanders right after the ball got there and then the ball floated in the air and somebody else picked it off and by the way that was Bowman who's a Billy Bowen his childhood friend who's a tremendous football player yeah excellent yeah um especially it's stuff like that so there was that but that was more just a feature of a great play and compressed space like between the 20s Oklahoma just got wrecked and it like a lot of times they'd have their end hang back and coverage so that your quarterback never gets to all these pass options and you don't have to worry about them but then Jonathan Brooks broke a couple of long runs when they did that yep because now you're playing five on five on five in the run game with no it just didn't work out very well and and you know the outside zone just to mention so obviously you want to get pressure with your defensive lineman right not just that edge but the interior guys the backside guy if the quarterback holds the ball too long right the problem is outside zone welcomes penetration because if you run up the field they're just like oh great yeah we'll carry you up the field we we're going over there like the running back will just extend their their cut and go right further out if you penetrate they just bypass you and the only penetration that's valid against outside zone is on the correct if you got to penetrate on the correct side and you've got to do it early to make the the back take more depth and take a longer way around yeah but that's it's a it's a really interesting play if you can get really slick and proficient at its execution because there's a lot of moving parts it's really tough to defend i think where it does get short circuited is the instance you pointed out Ian where you don't execute it decisively and quickly and and process all these multiple things going on because you know the defense gets a vote too right they get to line up in different ways and show you different looks so this is awesome they uh one more note on that because you mentioned outside zone and the benefits of running this with outside zone they actually ran it more with inside zone in the last couple years and that was one of the tweaks for next year is that they're running it more outside zone and our source noted that both banks and came Williams when they are the play side tackle that the are blocking on the direction the running back is headed they were both routinely hooking the defensive end wow winning new is outside shoulder and that is really hard i click it in the fill level block usually you're happy like the defensive end over penetrates and you just push them but they were hooking them and what that does is your linebacker your mic linebacker that you were worried about well what if he kind of hangs back you can't hang back if the end gets hooked he's got to go replace him with this a wide open edge yeah so yeah look forward i think i think he was saying that Campbell was pulling around also some too wow yeah so well that's that's an area too where Cole Hudson if he's able to win out he demonstrated repeatedly on polls he's really good Hayden Conner makes contact and makes the block he just doesn't make the violent finishing that Cole Hudson and sometimes DJ Campbell can bring yep like Paul says he's a he's a screener not a driver yes he's a screener i'll tell you somebody that's that's really good at defending rpo's and defending anybody that's Andre the lawyer hey you got a call Andre the lawyer at 214-444-8808 Andre helps everybody he can including long horns with car wrecks slipping falls 18 wheeler accidents on the job injuries wrongful deaths Andre is a proud inside Texas reader but he will help anybody if you ever get stuck if you ever get in a position where you need somebody to help you defend that rpo or defend you in the court room Andre Laurie onto the lawyer is your guy give him a call at 214-444-8808 gentlemen last week we talked about a little bit about SEC quarterbacks and it was mainly some of the guys on the schedule but there were so many and we ran out of time so we're going to bring it over to part two and we've got some interesting guys that we can talk about today we were talking about it in pre-production and there's some interesting quarterbacks in this conference much more than I anticipated 30 minutes ago we're going to start off with guys on the schedule continue that trend and we'll go we're going to go through Michigan State we're going to go through Vanderbilt and we're going to go through Florida and let's start Michigan State Mississippi State we're going to go that route we'll try startville not Lansing one side of the country not the other let's start Mississippi State with a quarterback that looks pretty familiar to the big 12 into the Texas Longhorns and you go with it Paul yeah familiar face Blake shape and has left Baylor and just going to be the head coach he's going to be playing for head coach Jeff Levy running that offense he's going to put the ball in the air quite a bit they're going to put the the game on his shoulders and try to be respectable in year one Mississippi State was gutted by graduation by by the portal a little bit they lost Bill Rogers who's been the quarterback there forever and it's going to be the shape in era or at least a one-year year he's 23 years old he started a bunch he's played a lot of football Baylor you know what's interesting is if you ask that the layperson you know what do you think of Blake shape and I think a lot of people say oh he's not very good or he's average or and I get it but if you look at his numbers his career 36 touchdowns 13 interceptions so almost a three to one career touchdown to interception ratio I have watched individual games where Blake shape and has played really well obviously Texas did not play against him last year they have played against him the the year previous I think he's athletic somewhat limited in terms of his arm strength but not a bad college quarterback and I think the best Mississippi you could state could do on short notice I think he's capable of running Levy's offense and I think that's the main thing if you don't remember shaping very well it's about 5/11 205 210 got pretty good armies he's he's not a true dual threat but I'd say he's very mobile pretty athletic he was a very good baseball player and like I said he's an older guy so he is going to be the guy for Mississippi State I frankly don't think Mississippi State has a ton around him they actually did a good job in the portal and we probably will do a feature on portal additions and portal losses as we get after the spring practices because we're not more additions and losses you're not yeah but uh Levy did a pretty good job on short notice restocking some key aspects of Mississippi State but I think Schapans got a tough row to ho but he is a familiar quarterback that we're going to be able to go against and I think he'll probably have his hands full with the Texas defense I noticed Paul that um he had problems up till last year like he looked like he played like second base or shortstop previously and that was maybe more his natural sport but he would the problem would be that he would bail on the pocket early yes he was very comfortable throwing on the run like he was like trying to turn a double or something but he would just get himself into trouble but then last year he seemed very improved in that regard but he tore up his knee and so yeah I'm kind of curious like you I've seen a lot of things from him that make me think he might actually be pretty good if he can be healthy at minimum he's a competent college quarterback right it's hard to be 36 and 13 touchdown interception ratio and stink and Ian's more subjective analysis is right he had a really bad habit of bailing early on the pocket trying to use that mobility it's a bad habit a lot of quarterbacks who are athletic have from high school right because you can always extend the play but you play a higher order defense you play a Texas team that's going to have Burke and Simmons and more out there running around on the edge and suddenly you're going to find out there's guys that weigh 240 250 who are faster than you put better athletes and they're going to just run you down and so I think he did address that bad habit and in fact before his injury he was playing really well for Baylor so I think I think Libby did a good job and Justin you're going to say that you think he could run Libby's offense yeah I mean for what Libby's going to do they're going to you know he's going to have one read and if he has two they're going to tell him from the sideline or if they do the calm and the in the helmets you know for what shaping can do I think Libby will gear it around that what you know his positive attributes and so you know Texas fans are a little familiar with shape and obviously playing at Baylor that they've seen him a handful of times they're not I don't know how familiar Texas fans are with Vanderbilt's new quarterback I do know that our man Paul Waddlington is a big fan and I got to tell you after after learning about this guy I think I'm a big fan too Diego Pavia did I did I did I go to that Diego Pavia is he is a very entertaining player he's a colorful personality he was the star quarterback he was the one man gang at New Mexico State and if you weren't keep paying attention to that program they had they were but more abundant awful a program as ever existed and Jerry Kill became the head coach he made Pavia his quarterback and they have gone to consecutive bowls and had just amazing seasons for New Mexico State Diego my favorite sports are football and the combat sports I love the UFC I love boxing Diego's right at my alley he was a all-state championship wrestler in high school and he received major college wrestling scholarships like Nebraska Oklahoma State level like legit and he decided to pursue his passion which is football Diego plays the game like it's a combat sport he is a quarterback but he is more than happy to meet you after the game in the alley and sort things out as well he's about he's listed at six feet I don't think he's five ten and a half but he's two hundred pounds and he's a wrestler which means he can level change and he's fast and he's a dual threat quarterback he throws the ball like he like your ex-wife is throwing something at you as she's walking out the door he he's a competitor and this guy lays it all out on the field and if you guys remember New Mexico State went into Auburn went into the Plains and humiliated Hugh Freeze what 38 to 10 Diego was the the juice behind that and in that game he threw an interception and the Auburn defensive back is running up the sideline and Diego the wrestler kicked in he ran double leged him picked him up and body slammed him in front of the Auburn bench caused a big bunch clearing brawl and he got New Mexico State all fired up Diego is also the guy who famously peed on the field of the rival New Mexico during a practice during the week of warm-up practice and when he was asked about it he basically shrugged and said F them so Diego is going to bring some competitiveness to Vandy and maybe a little edge that they've been missing so that sounds like a natural fit for the yeah he's just a Vandy guy all the way a bunch of guys with collar pops named Chet and Chaz and then Diego Pavia going around getting in bar fights last on the schedule that last one of the last ones we wanted to talk about and to me probably the most interesting because of the dynamic in that room and what Billy Napier is going to be facing in the 2024 season it's Florida you know the Gators are coming to Austin this season and their quarterback is Graham Mertz but I'm here in Graham Mertz might not be the starting quarterback by the end of the season they've got a freshman that came in from Willis Texas a 5a or 6a rather player of the year in DJ Lagway he was a big big kid dad played linebacker at Baylor Eric Nalene our buddy at inside Texas we actually met Derek as a sophomore playing baseball a really good kid really competitive kid a kind of kid that could turn around a program could turn around an offense but he's going to have to unseat Graham Mertz first Ian you know where do you see you know you were a big fan of Mertz at Wisconsin you had lauded about his passing you know threats and abilities what do you see going on at Florida like what's it going to take for Mertz to to keep that job is it wins and losses on the schedule to keep you know Napier in Gainesville or are they just going to go with the freshman and all the upside that comes with it yeah you you brought this up pre-show and it's such a good point because Napier is going to be under a lot of pressure to win games and there are just no wins on the schedule there's no gimme wins like their non-conference games are like uh UCF is like one of the easier ones this team is probably gonna be pretty good and then uh Florida State on the road in the year and then I think who's there Miami I feel like they play another team too that I can't remember maybe they're playing all the state schools in one season yeah you can't remember anybody doing that and they're playing Georgia and they're playing Tennessee and I think they're playing like LSU or something they're playing Texas yeah they also host A&M and Tennessee by the way now I mean all those teams I think could be very good yes it's terrible it's a terrible miss I mean look I think Graham Mertz when I watched him in Wisconsin actually thought he made some good decisions and some good throws at times but their their offense was bad he didn't have receivers he was under pressure all the time he played pretty well last year um they don't seem to have like another NFL receiver to bail him out so they they seem like they're they could be a team that could be very good but just do not have the overpowering talent anywhere on the roster to get them from like a six and six type of team on this schedule to where Napier needs to be to stay so to your question I would think if Napier is thinking look the only way I can keep my job is to play this freshman and flash some things and make people say well okay we went five and seven but maybe we should stick it out with this freshman and see what could happen in another year then I would probably make that move after a few losses with Mertz and maybe like midway through the season or something all right would you say the very beginning because I don't think you can just bench Mertz out the gate I feel like your team might quit on you if you do that unless lagways just dominating in practice is Mertz that entrenched I mean he if you look at his numbers last year you'd be shocked it was like 25 to 3 touchdowns the interceptions nearly 3000 yards he played pretty well yeah I mean he's a good quarter if Mertz knew that he was like gonna be screwed out of a job because of these political dynamics he could transfer and be the starter at a number of very respectable schools so I would if I were gonna play the political game and I'm Napier I would wait until the season is already pretty entrenched as being like we're not doing better than like six wins this year and then I would put lagway towards the end of the year and see if we could manufacture some hype and momentum for the next season and then and then I left to worry about the the bottom line and the standings as much yeah I mean from a political tactical career extension standpoint that might be the play but I mean Florida's problem was defense right I mean they they can't stop people from scoring they clean out the coaches or they're bad on defense that he'll be fired right yeah and honestly we as an aside we've talked about the playoff and then you know there's going to be a nine in three team that makes the playoff if this Florida team goes nine and three they deserve the playoff have no doubt and in fact I think they should be a high seed right they should be the five seed so I don't think that's going to happen though but so Merck's to your point Ian 20 touchdowns to reinterceptions last year they did have a very risk-averse passing game it was basically a forward handoff a lot of the time but he executed it well 73% completions almost 3,000 yards as Ian said and that was a contrast to Wisconsin he throw 26 interceptions in his career at Wisconsin before throwing three he was he was loaded by the Wisconsin fan base part of it I think to Ian's point they didn't understand the poor offense and the poor support system around him but I think he was a pleasant surprise for a lot of people because when Florida took him that was a that was like a lot of people laughed at him like what took Graham Burtz and obviously they saw something in him that that the film was a little deeper on him than people thought at cursory level so he's going to be an interesting guy and will we Texas even see him you know that's Ian's point that's interesting and to tease next week we're going to cover another group of SEC quarterbacks gentlemen and one of them is being lauded as one of the top three or top five quarterbacks in the country and it's possible he may not be the starter say halfway through the season it is I love listen only thing I love more than the deep dive it is a tease in Paul Waterlington brought it today this top to bottom we killed it on the RPO we killed it on the SEC quarterback section this this is just good content this is just good youtube you guys absolutely appreciate but really though I appreciate the viewers and for you guys for tuning in and making us a part of your day thank you so much for joining us on this edition of the deep dive please like and subscribe the inside Texas football youtube channel please come to see us at inside texas.com we really do have a great time it's a great community there's always a lot of fun and we learn all these interesting anecdotes about all these different players including a quarterback from New Mexico state who's probably going to be in the WWE when he finishes his term in Nashville gentlemen Ian Paul thank you so much and thank you again for joining us on the inside Texas football youtube channel powered by inside texas.com