What happened to the Texas offensive line?

The Texas Longhorns offensive line was supposed to be a strength this season.  It has now turned into the achilles heel of a 3-4 team and also makes for a strong argument for why they are not 6-1.

Just prior to the season opener, Tom Herman said, “Excitingly I think our strength on both sides of the ball is the line, offensive and defensive lines.” He added “I think we still need to find a consistent, product right tackle. Those other four guys may be the national championship year at Ohio State that I was a part of, that might be the only other offensive line that could compare with these guys. So I’m excited to see them play.”

The offensive line had already suffered one injury when Herman made this statement as junior Elijah Rodriguez went down with an ankle injury a week into fall camp. He was the top backup in 2016 appearing in every game and starting 3 at multiple positions. Rodriguez was leading the battle for the right tackle job over incumbent Tristan Nickelson and talented sophomore Denzel Okafor at the time of his injury. The staff had already lost another tackle in former top recruit Jean Delance who decided to transfer to Florida just prior to the season.

Even with the losses, here is the group Herman was confident with heading into the season.

1.        Connor Williams, LT

2.        Patrick Vahe, LG

3.        Jake McMillon, RG

4.        Elijah Rodriguez, RT (Suffered ankle injury August 8^th)

5.        Zach Shackelford, C

The team planned to use 3 backups regularly to have a solid 8-man rotation on game days.

6.        Patrick Hudson

7.        Tristan Nickelson

8.        Denzel Okafor

So, what happened?

The season ending injury to Rodriguez prior to the season immediately forced offensive line coach Derek Warehime into his depth inserting senior Tristan Nickelson into the lineup at RT vs Maryland. Nickelson has struggled to execute his blocks due to his 6-10 frame making it difficult to generate leverage against his opponent. He also lacks the quick feet to consistently handle speed rushers on the outside.

You may recall that Connor Williams had his worst game while at Texas vs Maryland giving up pressure and  committing 2 crushing holding penalties late in the 4^th quarter.  Patrick Vahe struggled in pass protection causing Shane Buechele to run for his life even when the opponent brought just 3 defenders. The line struggled to pick up blitzes primarily due to miscommunication instead of ability, adding to the frustration at a perceived strength of the team.

Texas dominated San Jose State 56-0 in week 2 and one of the highlight plays in the game was redshirt freshman guard Patrick Hudson helping Chris Warren into the endzone for a score in the 2^nd half. Unfortunately, on the next possession, Hudson suffered a torn ACL in his knee and would be lost for the season.

Herman has now lost his starting right tackle and his top interior backup lineman. This makes the line extremely thin and not able to withstand any more injuries or underperforming starters heading into week 3.

The most devastating injury of all strikes in that week 3 matchup vs USC as left tackle Connor Williams goes down with a knee injury.  This forces Denzel Okafor into the game to play on the right side and Nickelson to flip to the left. Okafor has all the tools for the position and Herman was hopeful he would earn more playing time possibly starting this season. However, the plan was not to play him extensively unless he earned it based on performance.

Texas enters conference play down 3 linemen from their top 6, has zero depth and weak at offensive tackle to run the ball on the perimeter and making them vulnerable on the pass rush.

During the bye week after USC, Herman decided to further change things up and give an opportunity to true freshman Derek Kerstetter over Okafor at right tackle.  The three-star recruit Kerstetter impressed Herman during the bye week with his toughness and willingness to get physical in the trenches. “He’s still got years worth of development from a strength and size standpoint to work on. But this is a guy that’s going to scratch and claw and scrape for everything and give you everything he’s got to make sure his guy doesn’t make the tackle,” Herman said.

Let’s take another look at the top lineman as the Longhorns enter conference play vs Iowa State.

1.        Connor Williams, LT (hurt knee Sept 16^th, underwent surgery)

2.        Patrick Vahe, LG

3.        Jake McMillon, RG

4.        Elijah Rodriguez, RT (hurt August 8^th with high ankle sprain and season ending surgery)

5.        Zach Shackelford, C

6.        Patrick Hudson, OG (Torn ACL Sept 9^th ending his season)

7.        Denzel Okafor, OT (Dropped due to performance)

8.        Tristan Nickelson, LT

9.        Derek Kerstetter, RT

As a result, the offense began to grind to a halt and failed to generate yards outside of the improvised Sam Ehlinger rollout and just find someone open.

The unit is hit again in their next game October 7^th vs Kansas State when right guard Jake McMillon suffers a hand injury. Without any quality depth, the team turns to junior Terrell Cuney to start at guard against Oklahoma. Cuney arrived at Texas in 2014 as a highly touted center recruit but has only played in 4 games over 3 years in Austin.

The injury to McMillon caused him to miss 2 games and also appeared to have severely impacted sophomore center Zach Shackelford. He’s since had issues snapping the ball and handling bull rushers lined up on his nose at the snap. He lacks the strength to be able to anchor and doesn’t have the support from McMillion he had earlier in the season. Pressure up the middle at the snap is the easiest way to disrupt an offense and Shackelford was unable to prevent this against Oklahoma State in their latest loss.

As Texas prepares to travel to Waco to face the winless Baylor Bears, the aforementioned Shackelford will be sidelined with a concussion missing his first game of the season. Cuney should start at center as McMillon returns to the lineup.

While offensive coordinator Tim Beck can be criticized for his lateral offense and refusal to use the middle of the field, this offensive line restricts the offense’s ability to compete consistently.

Hall of Fame coach Bill Parcells says, “you are what your record says you are” and these Longhorns are a bad football team with a 3-4 record.

What would you change about the NFL?

NFL viewership is down.

You may be aware that Nielsen recently reported that total viewership is down 7.5% from this time last year and it has gotten the attention of the commissioner and the owners.

There are several suggestions as to why, consider these:

• National anthem protest
• Lack of toughness on domestic abuse
• Roger Goodell's handling of Ray Rice and Zeke Elliott
• Quality of play (too many penalties and length of games)

Whatever the reason might be, the stats are clear.

Local television markets and national viewership are down for the NFL when comparing to last season or even since 2013.

It is true that ratings are down across the board but this is primarily due to cord cutting and other options available to customers.

But make no mistake, NFL owners and Goodell are concerned about this and have already met to try and figure out what they can do about it.

It made me think, what would I change about the game to make me come back to watch every game available to me?

What would you change to make you want to come back to the NFL?

Here is what it would take for me...

1. Remove the weekly Thursday night game and reinstate the afternoon doubleheader on Fox and CBS.  One of the best things about college football is having so many games to choose from at any given time and able to switch to watch whichever game is the most interesting.  There is also a competitive impact to teams playing on a short week or another having more days to rest and prepare.
   
2. Reduce the NFL preseason by two and add them to the regular season.  The players are going to demand this when the current labor deal expires in 2021.  Currently, owners do not have to share preseason revenue with players nor other owners. Adding them to the regular season is a benefit to players as potentially more money for the same risk they had been facing anyway.
   
3. Injury reports must be filed with the league office by 8am EST every Sunday during the regular season including the Monday night game.  Coaches should be able to keep this information private during the week for game planning and preparation.  There are obvious gambling and fantasy impacts so that is the reason for a uniform deadline to submit all injury reports.
   
4. Allow players who participate in less than 10% of offensive or defensive snaps to have unlimited access to the team facility during the offseason.  The players union demanded less offseason work and practice time during the last CBA but this has negatively impacted the quality of play. It has also hurt the ability for bottom of the roster players to develop from one season to another without any development leagues for them to improve.
   
5. Eliminate the 45 man game day roster. This rule was obsolete 30 years ago and has survived for no good reason. If you are on the 53 man roster, you are eligible to play.
   
6. Reduce replay challenges to 1 per half and any successful challenge allows to team to retain their challenge. In addition, all reviews should be conducted in the booth and the results communicated to the head referee. It is inefficient to require the referee to review a monitor on the field when the booth is already set up to do this.
   
7. Simplify what is a catch. The NFL has lost their way in determining what is a catch and seem to have allowed lawyers to write the rule book using the most confusing language possible. A catch is a receiver who gets 2 feet down in the field of play with possession. No more what happens if he goes to the ground, no more what is a football move or did he maintain control.
   
8. Reduce penalties across the board.  


• Any non-personal fouls committed by the receiving team on a special teams play are automatically dismissed if the receiving team elects a touchback or fair catch.
  
• Eliminate the illegal contact penalty.  Peyton Manning and Tony Dungy are out of the league and the penalty they pushed to create needs to go as well.  This has dramatically shifted advantage to the offense and the passing game allowing QBs to dice up defenses with relative ease. There needs to be competitive balance in games and defenses need this one back.  The rule designed by Manning and Dungy to beat the Patriots got them one championship but it didn't stop Brady and Belichek. It did open the floodgates for every other QB in the league though.
  
• Eliminate the tuck rule.  Speaking of those Patriots, we all know that is a stupid rule and should of been removed following that season.

What would you change to make you want to come back to the NFL?