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When it comes to the complexities of the Texas Longhorns offensive scheme, we’ve seen bits and pieces of the whole through the team’s first three games. Co-offensive coordinators Major Applewhite and Bryan Harsin wanted to show opposing defensive coordinators– especially those they will face during October and November in Big 12 Conference play– what the offense is capable of without showing their entire hand.
During the 66-31 thrashing of the Ole Miss Rebels, Texas showed a few more wrinkles in the offensive game plan, but it’s obvious plenty is still being kept under wraps on both sides of the ball.
The talent gap between the Texas defense and opposing offenses–in spite of some lapses in concentration and execution–has allowed Manny Diaz to run base sets with a few small wrinkles, without going all out and showing everything which Texas will throw at conference opponents starting with a visit to Austin by the West Virginia Mountaineers on Saturday, October 6th.
As the Longhorns travel to Stillwater to take on the Oklahoma State Cowboys this Saturday, this talent gap is much smaller, but still doesn’t necessitate Texas showing it’s whole hand, at least not just yet.
The theory is this: Texas has given opposing offensive and defensive coordinators enough to chew on that game-planning for everything they could see within both offensive and defensive schemes that it will keep them plenty busy in preparation.
In holding a few things back– which they will be almost certain to “show” against West Virginia with a huge national audience and several high-profile recruits who will be in attendance– Texas forces Big 12 coaches to absorb even more in an even shorter period of time.
While I know this isn’t necessarily a unique concept, it’s one the Texas coaching staff has the luxury to employ due to increased confidence in key impact players on both sides of the ball. David Ash‘s performance against Ole Miss engendered this confidence and showed both Harsin and Applewhite he is capable of running more complex looks and can execute what he is asked to outside of basic packages of plays.
On the defensive side, the emerging leadership of Jordan Hicks, Jackson Jeffcoat, and Quandre Diggs— along with the long-time leaders–has given Manny Diaz confidence that Texas can throw multiple looks at opposing offenses when the time is right to do so.
Whether the defensive unit has to expand this coming Saturday will depend in large part on how successful they are in rattling the Cowboys’ new signal-caller J.W. Walsh who has stepped in to replace true freshman Wes Lunt due to a knee injury. Walsh is capable and at times has looked very good in Oklahoma State’s past two contests.
If the Cowboys’ offensive line can give him the protection he needs to get comfortable in the pocket and test a Texas secondary which has proven to be vulnerable in zone coverage through the first three games, we could all see some new looks from the Longhorns earlier than expected.
For now, the flavor of choice on the Forty Acres is plain vanilla.
I don’t expect this to change until October 6th.
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Kris Hughes is the College Football Network Manager for Rant Sports and a member of the Football Writers Association of America.
You can follow him on Twitter or check out his Facebook page. Kris is also the host of the Rant Sports College Football Hour on the TSC Radio Network on Sunday evenings at 8 Central Time and Rant Sports Radio on the Blog Talk Radio Network Wednesday evenings at 8 Central Time.
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