SB Nation User Blog: BoddickerIsClutch

UT/Big12 All-Star Discussion

BoddickerIsClutch — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 19:24:56 -0000

Yeah, Im bored at work, and thirsty for more football discussion. Unfortunately my work place is a barren expanse with no football fans of any consequence in sight.

So I bring a fairly lame topic here to generate some more discussion to fuel my purely selfish needs.

Here is my UT all-star team, sprinkled with some players I respected as opponents. I roughly kept it to the past 10 years, so sorry, no Tyler Rose.

Your charge: Find specific positions you disagree with, and support an alternative candidate from within the past 10 years, with facts, pictures, video, or inane discourse. Then subject your choices along with mine own to your peers for ridicule and rebuttal.

Offense:

QB - Vince

RB - Ricky, backed up by Quinten Griffin

FB - Jovarski Lane; Tell me he couldnt excel here.

WR1 - Roy Williams

WR2 - Rashaun Woods; push off specialist, hell of a college receiver

WR3 - Wes Welker; Running back in College I know, but anywhere else he would have made a hell of a receiver.

OL - Not much flash here, but as long as Kasey Studdard is there, Im happy

TE1 - David Thomas

TE2 - Martellus Bennett

Random Offensive Sub1 - Ramonce Taylor

Random Offensive Sub2 - Darren Sproles

Defense:

DT - Tommie Harris

DT - Shaun Rodgers

DE - Corey Redding

DE - Tim Crowder

LB1 - Derrick Johnson

LB2 - DD Lewis

LB3 - Dan Cody

SS - Roy Williams

FS - Josh Bullocks

CB1 - Terrance Newman

CB2 - Michael Huff

The What If Teams of UT Basketball

BoddickerIsClutch — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 14:26:35 -0000

I had this conversation the other day with Meekrob, but thought it was a good enough conversation piece to bring up here for some more opinions.

The question is, which would have been our best what-if team of the Barnes era?

The choices include, but are not limited to:

Your 2003 Texas Longhorns:
TJ, at 110% health and commitment stays for a Junior campaign. The Longhorns retain almost the entirety of the their final four team, and continue their off season development into a stellar 2003-04 year. The two best teams to come out of the field in this tourney were UConn and Georgia Tech.

Your 2007 Texas Longhorns:
Kevin Durant, one of the most special freshman to grace the college game elects to forgo millions in endorsements, and make a bid for a national championship. Texas is able to start 2 guards with Durant in the lineup, and our depth instantly increases by a huge leap, and one bound. The offense flows through the forwards instead of relying on the guards, and very very few teams can manage to stop Durant with just one player, which opens up Abrams, Connor, and DJ for the deep shots. Texas still has to compete with the freaks on Memphis and Kansas.

Your 2008 Texas Longhorns:
DJ Augustine, worried about his defense, combined with a strong sense of team, and a gentle educational push from his family, decides to stay for his Junior season. Our team looks exactly the same as this past year, only a year older, wiser, stronger, and with more depth at guard courtesy of the man named Dogus, this team becomes perhaps the deepest we have seen at Texas. Dexter drops another 20lbs, Wingman and Chappy improve their games and conditioning with a full off season with Todd. A new freshman or two also help to contribute in limited but meaningful minutes. The big 12 is decidedly weaker than last year, but as to the rest of the field, who knows.

Which team has the best chance of winning it all? Would LaMarcus's team have been better? Disagree with any of my summaries? Discuss! And support your argument.

Poll

Which team has the best chance of winning it all?

Longhorn Football - Past 4 Years - Updated

BoddickerIsClutch — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 21:53:56 -0000

I'll admit it, I'm an engineer.

As such, I tend to lend more credence to statistics than probably most of the people out there.

That said, I found myself looking to compare the national championship Horns, to Colt's horns. No one gets more credit (Vince) or more blame (Colt) for the performance of the team than the quarterback, but Football, perhaps more than any other sport, is a team sport.

Here is the data - absolute numbers are averages per instance or per game, depending on the stat, and in parenthesis is the national rank.

First off, as we should all well know, the 2005 squad was a hell of a team. Top 10 offense, defense, and in special teams categories. Wow. It should also come as no surprise that Vince hardly went down at all.

Second thing that sticks out to me, is the decline in special teams and defense since 2005. Reasons for this could stem from lbs of pot, to Chizik, to Akina, to Cosby. Whatever the reason, that sort of sharp decline is really a concern. I hope that Muschamp helps to fulfill our hopes and dreams, and hopefully Shipley or someone gets a chance to step up on special teams to give us some help there as well.

Third is turnovers. Margin as well as absolute here. Honestly the overall number I was expecting a more dramatic difference from 2005 to 2007, not a 30% increase. However, that combined with our lack of creating turnovers is killer. Hopefully Colt can lower his picks, and we can generate a few of our own with Beasley and some LB blitzing pressure. This is another really bad trend to see that we need to improve on immediately.

Ok enough of me, take a long look over the numbers yourself. Are there any conclusions you draw from them? Any opinions reinforced, any dispelled?

Part 2:

First off, something was out of whack for the Tackles for Loss stats in 2004. Ill assume the national position is right, but something changed, and the per game numbers didn't sync with the other years, so I didn't include it.

What else, I'm surprised at how little we actually ran in 2006, and when we did, how few yards per carry we had. With the O-line being what it was, Greg must have been seriously confused as to how to run without Vince.

Lastly I was at first appalled by our yards penalized, looking at these other stats I think I consider around the 40th in the nation near what I would call "disappointing"; however for penalty yards as I looked at the teams on the top, we are about right. I think penalties shows some measure of aggression on D, and no doubt bone-headedness, but I don't think you push your limits if you don't break them sometimes. So, I'm fine with where we stand in penalties.

Plus in 2005, that was just more yards for us to gain back each possession!

Time of possession in 2006 is counter-intuitive as well. With what is certainly our worst rushing year, and 3rd down conversion year, we had our best time of possession. Though really, with them being so close, you might as well assume they are equal. Point still stand though.

Pryor to Ohio State

BoddickerIsClutch — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 16:30:36 -0000

Wow, Im not sure how Tressel pulled that one off, but now Rich really needs a QB.

http://media.www.michigandaily.com/m...

UM has no experience at QB now, and only one recruit who is the dual threat that Rich is so lauded for using.

Nice Night for the NBA Horns

BoddickerIsClutch — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 13:37:57 -0000

If I were to tell you that our three most recent NBA stars all had a good night scoring, who would you think scored the most?

What about the most rebounds?

Most assists?

What about who played the fewest minutes?

Well the answer to all of these last night, was TJ Ford. Coming off the bench to drop in 28 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists, in 27 minutes of play. Its good to see this kind of production, as I hope it is an indication he is fully recovered from his injury earlier in the year.

Lamarcus put in 20 points, and Durant had a 27 point outing.

Man, why couldn't Dallas have gone for Ford instead of Kidd?

First Seed Distances

BoddickerIsClutch — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 18:06:08 -0000

I wanted to assemble some concrete numbers on the schools distance to the regional sites. So using Google maps, this is what Ive got. Note: These are technically "driving" distances, but it should still give a good idea.

UNC - Chapel Hill:
Houston - 1173 mi
Detroit - 695 mi
Phoenix - 2193 mi
Charlotte - 143 mi

Duke - Durham
(close enough to Chapel Hill, see above)

Memphis - Memphis:
Houston - 568 mi
Detroit - 742 mi
Phoenix - 1471 mi
Charlotte - 635 mi

Texas - Austin:
Houston - 165 mi
Detroit - 1388 mi
Phoenix - 1006 mi
Charlotte - 1213 mi

Tennessee - Knoxville:
Houston - 568 mi
Detroit - 512 mi
Phoenix - 1861 mi
Charlotte - 246 mi

UCLA - Los Angeles:
Houston - 1546 mi
Detroit - 2281 mi
Phoenix - 372 mi
Charlotte - 2427 mi

Kansas - Lawrence:
Houston - 758 mi
Detroit - 830 mi
Phoenix - 1321 mi
Charlotte - 1014 mi

These are what I would consider the top front runners for #1 seeds. As I previously stated, looking at these numbers, I am really rooting for UCLA to get a #1 seed. As to how the assignment process exactly happens, no one is very clear on. But I would think it would be difficult to justify sending UCLA anywhere but Phoenix, especially given the rest of the field. On the flip side, if UCLA does not get a #1 seed, I would think its a pretty safe bet that Texas heads off to Phoenix.

The only possible one to go to Phoenix over us, if UCLA doesn't get a #1, would be Kansas. However Kansas makes a more logical choice to go to Detroit judging by the numbers, which again sends us to Phoenix. Not to mention with their recent work, I wouldn't hold my breath in KU reclaiming a #1.

So what to root for?

For me, I want the following to happen.

Texas wins out. Rooting for a loss for your own team is just silly, Houston or not.

UCLA wins out. Our best chance to not go to Phoenix is UCLA.

Memphis lose another. I think they are a lock for a #1, even with another loss, but putting them on more equal footing with us come deciding time could factor to our advantage.

Tennessee to win out. I think they represent the best shot at being a good fit in Detroit.

UNC to beat Duke. I root for all Roy Williamses.

So to summarize, our best Houston shot, in my opinion, lies in Texas, UCLA, Memphis (with another loss) and Tennessee getting #1 bids, which would hopefully lead to Houston, Phoenix, Charlotte, Detroit, respectively. If it looks like all the above is going to happen, I reserve the right to change my stance on #5 to better Texas' Houston chances.

Thoughts?

On Why I hate USC

BoddickerIsClutch — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 16:02:34 -0000

This is my first entry into BON as a diary contributer, but my vehemence was so strong I felt a public forum was necessary.

I submit to you, that which I saw presented last night:

http://msn.foxsports.com/cfb/story/7...

West Virginia, Florida, and USC.

Yes, the team that couldn't score enough points to beat the 2rd string Stanford Quarterback at home, has been nominated by the purveyors of all things football, Fedex, as one of the elite offenses of this past year.

Lets take a look see.

USC's Stats:
Rushing Offense - 28th
Passing Offense - 50th
Total Offense - 29th
Scoring Offense - 34th

Not in the top 25 (top 27 if we want to be picky) in any single team offensive category.

Ok well what about the other candidates?

West Virginia:
Rushing Offense - 3rd
Passing Offense - 114th
Total Offense - 15th
Scoring Offense - 9th

Obviously a running team, two top tens can excuse their low passing.

Florida:
Rushing Offense - 24th
Passing Offense - 38th
Total Offense - 14th
Scoring Offense - 3rd

Top 25 in 3/4 of the categories, top 3 in scoring, and a heisman trophy winner who set the record for rushing TDs by a quarterback. I am fine with this pick.

Now I think Texas had a weak year. Our offense was confused more often than it was dominant, we won many games in the 4th quarter, and only really dominated 2 teams we played. So in this off year for Texas, how did we stack up against USC stats?

Texas:
Rushing Offense - 17th
Passing Offense - 39th
Total Offense - 13th
Scoring Offense - 14th

Whats that you say? We beat the crap out of USC this year? In every category!?!

Well Geoff (thats my name by the way, phonetically just like Jeff in case you are a re-re), if you don't think Texas deserves recognition, who should go over USC?

Well besides the easy answer of, just about everybody, lets get a few specific examples.

To mirror WV, how about Texas Tech?
Rushing Offense - 119th
Passing Offense - 1st
Total Offense - 2nd
Scoring Offense - 7th

Houston finished top 25 in each category:
Rushing Offense - 10th
Passing Offense - 25th
Total Offense - 4th
Scoring Offense - 23rd

Kansas had a hell of an offensive year:
Rushing Offense - 31st
Passing Offense - 17th
Total Offense - 8th
Scoring Offense - 2nd

So why the hell is USC in there? Why? The bias towards Pete Carroll and his team is so freaking strong that its not even funny. They beat an Illinois team at home, that hadn't been to a bowl game in 6 years, and think they deserve a shot at the national title because of it?

God I hate USC.