On Texas Football: Three agenda objectives for Texas as it begins preseason camp
On the latest video episode of On Texas Football, Inside Texas’ Bobby Burton and Ian Boyd discuss an agenda for the Longhorns as they begin preseason camp on Wednesday as well a rundown of defensive glossary terms.
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Boyd, Inside Texas’ X’s and O’s expert, said the Longhorns should focus on the solidifying the middle of their offensive line – center, left guard and right guard, identify their top pass rushers, and “passing downs” pass game.
On the OL, Boyd opines that Texas needs to make sure that, if nothing else, this is an offensive line that doesn’t give up a lot of negative plays in the either the run game or the passing game.
“The offensive line’s priority is that it doesn’t miss a lot of assignments, doesn’t lose track of star defensive tackles when and where they show up on the schedule,” Boyd said. “They need a decently high floor of competency there and as we know they have a number of different ways that it could shake out.”
Boyd admits that the Texas coaching staff has already figured out who are the team’s best pass rushers but that doesn’t mean there’s not work to be done.
“The first couple of weeks (of preseason camp) is basic install of fundamentals,” Boyd said. “Welcome freshmen to what real football is all about. Right? And then from there, they need to start building the team to win the games on the schedule.
“They need to know exactly who the star pass rushers on this team are because there’s a few different options in each guy. The way the rest of the defense shapes up and the sorts of packages they run and sorts of called plays they call is going to vary wildly.”
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By “passing down” pass game, Boyd means in obvious down and distance situations where a team is behind the sticks.
“I mean, second down and 8 or third and 6 yards to go, when the offense has only five or six guys in protection, the quarterback’s dropping back and he’s reading the field and going through one, two or three progressions,” Boyd explained “So not play action shots, not quick-game throws, not RPOs but real NFL-style drop back plays.
“All the other stuff they need to get better at from last year, and they probably will. They have an amazingly high ceiling that directly correlates to how good they get at drop back passing.”
Boys and Burton also lay out some defensive terminology and explain the differences between Buck and Jack linebackers and field and boundary cornerbacks.
Boyd caps the video by saying he believes Texas is an “overwhelming favorite” to win the Big 12 Conference this season, and that there’s a clear drop off to the rest of the programs in the 14-team league.
There’s plenty more to catch up on in the video, so go check it out in its entirety.
