Mondays in the Humidor with the Big Cigar - 9/14/15
By: Jesus Shuttlesworth
In this edition of Mondays in the Humidor with the Big Cigar we’ve got some inside the lines intel about what went down on Saturday night. Our eye in the sky takes us into the film room of sorts with some information you won’t get about the game anywhere else. Our Cigar connections also take us to the opposite sideline where we’ll discuss what Rice thought about Texas and its personnel. Finally, there are some rumblings about Steve Patterson and the direction of his career here at Texas. El Cohiba gives us the skinny on what we can expect from the AD’s office in the near future as we go inside the Humidor.
Jesus Shuttlesworth: Thanks for taking the time. Let’s start things off with an attaboy or two. In last week’s article you mentioned that there were folks up and down the power structure who would advise Coach Strong to make a change at OC, one of which was Steve Patterson. That obviously came to fruition. You also mentioned that a switch at OC would almost assuredly mean a switch at quarterback. Can you expound on all of that now?
Big Cigar: Watson was the elephant in the room now for over a year now and really Charlie had no choice. He hired Norvell as an insurance policy and here we are. There was no way Strong could afford to be tone deaf here. Throw in the fact that they basically scrapped the game plan for Notre Dame on game day, and there really was little choice. It had to be done.
Jesus Shuttlesworth: What about the Heard component to this? Was it academic that he would start when Norvell was named as the play-caller?
Big Cigar: The answer is yes. No one on the team knew Heard would be the starter until right before kickoff, but the staff knew, to a man that Heard was going to be the guy. That’s why he got most of the snaps in practice last week. If you were paying attention to that and the fact they were running the ball more frequently out of the spread, then it had to be Heard. You basically reported as much, right?
Jesus Shuttlesworth: I sort of hedged by saying I was 70% sure Heard would start, but that was purely based on snap allocation during the week. At a high level, I think the change had to be made. What did the team think of it?
Big Cigar: Not to slight Swoopes at all, but the kids were really fired up about the switch at both levels. There were a lot of disappointed offensive players after the play-calling in South Bend and the kids really like Norvell as a coach. But as soon as Heard came in and made plays with his feet, that gave everyone a spark, even the defense. Everyone likes Swoopes, he’s genuinely a good guy, but to a man they’ll tell you that Heard probably gives them a better chance to win, and these kids are downright sick of losing.
Jesus Shuttlesworth: Good stuff. After film study, what are the coaches saying about Saturday night’s affair?
Big Cigar: Overall, they’re not happy with some of the effort especially in the 2nd half, but it gives them an opportunity to coach harder this week. The good news is there are some things they see on both sides the ball that can easily be corrected so they feel they’ll get better. The bad news is that the competition level goes way up this week and they can’t afford to make those type of mistakes on Saturday or they’ll get blown out.
Jesus Shuttlesworth: Where are the biggest bright spots and where is the most concern according to the coaches?
Big Cigar: The biggest bright spot is offensively they think they’ll be able to continue to build an exciting offense off some of the things that Heard does with his feet. He’s going to help the running game because he threatens an extra gap which is good news for a young offensive line. The bad news is that the staff is way down on the secondary right now so you can expect some changes there. The inability to get off the field on 3rd down in general and mesh the coverage of the back 7 is a big concern. The kid from Cal (Goff) will pick them apart if they present the same holes in their coverages this Saturday.
Jesus Shuttlesworth: I understand that you talked to someone close to Rice’s offensive staff about their preparation for Texas and perception of the Horns after the game?
Big Cigar: Yeah, preparation wise they were ready for Heard and pretty much knew he’d play a lot on Saturday. The schemed for him but weren’t quite prepared for his quickness. They also were impressed by Norvell’s ability to counter their scheme in-game and take advantage of some of the looks they were giving Heard. The feel once Heard is experienced enough to check into his own stuff and recognize some things pre-snap, that he has a chance to be a really good player. The Rice staff felt he left some points on the table by not getting Texas into the right play all the time, but Norvell seemed to help out in this regard.
Jesus Shuttlesworth: What about the other side of the ball?
Big Cigar: Their staff had the same impression of our defense as our own coaches. They felt that our secondary was the weak link going in and that they could exploit some things in the passing game. Driphus Jackson isn’t necessarily the pocket passer you need to totally exploit the Horns secondary so they couldn’t get away from their own identity enough to take full advantage but they knew they’d have some success in the air.
Jesus Shuttlesworth: What did they think of the defensive personnel?
Big Cigar: Individually they were really impressed with Shiro Davis and his ability to hold the point. He was super strong against the rush and they had to adjust to his strength during the course of the game. As a pass rusher, he could be a Sunday player if he had another move or two because right now he’s purely a bull rusher. I was surprised because he was the first player mentioned to me.
Jesus Shuttlesworth: Any other surprises?
Big Cigar: He mentioned Naashon Hughes as being surprisingly quick and athletic but they figured out they could run right at him and engulf him. If he bulks up a bit more and figures out how to get off of blocks, he can be a force. They were most surprised by Ridgeway and how little he played. They felt he was easily the best player on the field when he was in the ballgame and whether he was injured or in the dog house that he needed to play more. They felt he impacted the game the most and were pretty pleased he didn’t play more snaps. Malik Jefferson was someone they schemed for and they felt he was easily the most athletic player they’ve played this season. They think he’ll be special once the game slows down a bit more for him. The other guy they were impressed with was Charles Omenihu. My friend couldn’t believe how athletic he is. He mentioned how raw Charles is, but athletic ability is going to make him a special player down the road.
Jesus Shuttlesworth: Other than the secondary, who did they want to attack?
Big Cigar: The wanted to attack Peter Jinkens and make him make decisions in both the pass and running game. They felt he’s plenty good athletically but he makes a lot of poor decisions when he’s forced to read things. My friend says he’s the kind of guy that as a defensive coach you throw up your hands and tell him to play “get' em" football because otherwise he’s going to get out of position in a hurry.
Jesus Shuttlesworth: So do we have a remedy for that?
Big Cigar: I’m sure our coaches are seeing the same game that Rice saw so I’d expect Breckyn Hager to start getting more looks. We’re so young we can’t afford our upperclassmen to be making mental mistakes.
Jesus Shuttlesworth: Great. So let’s step outside the lines a bit and talk about what’s going on with the perception of Texas. The Notre Dame game was evidently an eye opener for a lot of the big boosters and guys who write big checks. We saw a change at OC but what else is being talked about with respect to the football program?
Big Cigar: Let me preface everything by saying Charlie Strong is not necessarily on the hot seat right now but there are things that are being looked at to improve not only the product and game day atmosphere but to give Charlie a helping hand in recruiting. There’s conversation now about getting an athletic director who understands the sport of college football and has more of contemporary context of how everything works. I think if you polled the people who matter you’d find that the Patterson experiment is probably not going to end well so there’s a lot of talk about what a replacement would look like. One of the things being discussed is getting a guy who can help Strong and company make Texas the “cool” school again.
Jesus Shuttlesworth: So how does that work?
Big Cigar: Instead of bringing in a guy that’s all bottom line oriented, the guy being talked about will be someone who can win the facility arms race, introduce a better game day atmosphere, and do things with uniforms and the like to improve recruiting.
Jesus Shuttlesworth: Some of our purists won’t like the uniform comment.
Big Cigar: If it helps us recruit and helps us win, there shouldn’t be much to gripe about. It’s a new era and things like that help sell the program and get kids to come to your school.
Jesus Shuttlesworth: So what’s the latest on Patterson?
Big Cigar: I’m told there was a faction who offered to donate more money to the school if the President would consider going another direction with his athletic director. Fenves obviously doesn’t have a lot of loyalty to Patterson so it’s not a bad strategy if you want to tip the scales. If that happens, I think you’ll see a different set of criteria used to hire the next athletic director.
Jesus Shuttleworth: Thanks.
Big Cigar: You bet.
what impact do you'll think this has on Charlie though.
. We running black excellence up here at OSU and the country doesn't need those Texas rednecks to ruin it.
