• The KillerFrogs

STOPPING THE RPO: HOW TCU RESHAPED THEIR DEFENSE TO DEFEND RUN-PASS OPTIONS

Eight

Eight

Member
CryptoMiner said:
The RPO is the talk of football, with NFL and College Teams using it to control and dictate defenses . But Gary Patterson and #TCU reshaped their defense to stop the RPO with simple adjustments. And everyone should take note. Debut from @NFLFilmStudy: http://www.optimumscouting.com/news/how-tcu-reshaped-their-defense-to-stop-rpos …

http://www.optimumscouting.com/news/how-tcu-reshaped-their-defense-to-stop-rpos
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"RPOs stress both the mental and physical ability of individuals within a team’s defense and TCU’s been up to the challenge as they’ve shrunk at cornerback, defensive end, and linebacker while increasing mass at their interior tackle and safety positions"

huh, so should we tell ian about noah and yoyo at corner since he went to great detail about how tcu made a decision to "shrink" at corner despite how many attempts to recruit a 6' corner?

"With the exception of nose tackle, most of his front seven has shrunk in size with the exception of nose tackle."

big ross at 330~, corey is ~300, joe b is 300+, ellis3 is 300+, karter is 300.....yeah, about that shrinking the front part........................
 
Eight

Eight

Member
finally had a chance to go back and look at the frogs recruiting on the defensive side of the ball from 2009 to 2017. it is interesting when an author has a theory and fits the details of the story to dovetail with their original theory.

for example, patterson started shifting safeties to linebackers to get better athletes into position to deal with the increasing use of RPO's by the big 12 offenses.

possible, but there is one detail our author forget and that was the train wreck tcu had at linebacker in recruiting and other matters over the first part of that time period. consider this list:

2009
tanner brock (yeah, don't need to revisit that mess)
2010
blake roberts ( i believe he had injury problems)
marcus mallett (stud)
2011
paul dawson (stud)
deryck gildon (gone)
lederice sanders ( i believe moved to fullback)
2012
a.j. hilliard (kenny cain said it best)
2013
paul whitmill (special teams)
sammy douglas (had injury issues early before playing late in career)
dac shaw (did not qualify)
2014
ty summers (stud)
vinny ascolese ( i still think this had to be some type of practical joke)
2015
semaj thomas (moved to de then left program)
alec dunham (special teams)
mike freeze (somewhere with vinny i guess)
2016
tyree horton (who the heck knows)

8 recruiting classes, 16 linebacker prospects signed, 4 studs in brock, mallett, dawson, and summers. unfortuntately only one was signed after 2011.

more importantly, of the 10 linebackers signed between 2012 and 2016 6 either never made it to campus or left shortly afterwards, 2 have been career special team players, 1 was a part time stater, and then we have ty summers.

so did tcu move guys like arico and trevon because tcu needed to get more athletic or simply because they had missed so badly at linebacker duing that 5 class stretch?
 
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4

4th. down

Active Member
Eight said:
finally had a chance to go back and look at the frogs recruiting on the defensive side of the ball from 2009 to 2017. it is interesting when an author has a theory and fits the details of the story to dovetail with their original theory.

for example, patterson started shifting safeties to linebackers to get better athletes into position to deal with the increasing use of RPO's by the big 12 offenses.

possible, but there is one detail our author forget and that was the train wreck tcu had at linebacker in recruiting and other matters over the first part of that time period. consider this list:

2009
tanner brock (yeah, don't need to revisit that mess)
2010
blake roberts ( i believe he had injury problems)
marcus mallett (stud)
2011
paul dawson (stud)
deryck gildon (gone)
lederice sanders ( i believe moved to fullback)
2012
a.j. hilliard (kenny cain said it best)
2013
paul whitmill (special teams)
sammy douglas (had injury issues early before playing late in career)
dac shaw (did not qualify)
2014
ty summers (stud)
vinny ascolese ( i still think this had to be some type of practical joke)
2015
semaj thomas (moved to de then left program)
alec dunham (special teams)
mike freeze (somewhere with vinny i guess)
2016
tyree horton (who the heck knows)

8 recruiting classes, 16 linebacker prospects signed, 4 studes in brock, mallett, dawson, and summers. unfortuntately only one was signed after 2011.

more importantly, of the 10 linebackers signed between 2012 and 2016 6 either never made it to campus or left shortly afterwards, 2 have been career special team players, 1 was a part time stater, and then we have ty summers.

so did tcu move guys like arico and trevon because tcu needed to get more athletic or simply because they had missed so badly at linebacker duing that 5 class stretch?
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Very well stated 8. Sometimes the facts can be brutal but it is what it is. GP, since inclusion in the Big 12, has become a lot more personally involved in recruiting because he has to in order to survive.
 
gohornedfrogs

gohornedfrogs

Tier 1
Eight said:
finally had a chance to go back and look at the frogs recruiting on the defensive side of the ball from 2009 to 2017. it is interesting when an author has a theory and fits the details of the story to dovetail with their original theory.

for example, patterson started shifting safeties to linebackers to get better athletes into position to deal with the increasing use of RPO's by the big 12 offenses.

possible, but there is one detail our author forget and that was the train wreck tcu had at linebacker in recruiting and other matters over the first part of that time period. consider this list:

2009
tanner brock (yeah, don't need to revisit that mess)
2010
blake roberts ( i believe he had injury problems)
marcus mallett (stud)
2011
paul dawson (stud)
deryck gildon (gone)
lederice sanders ( i believe moved to fullback)
2012
a.j. hilliard (kenny cain said it best)
2013
paul whitmill (special teams)
sammy douglas (had injury issues early before playing late in career)
dac shaw (did not qualify)
2014
ty summers (stud)
vinny ascolese ( i still think this had to be some type of practical joke)
2015
semaj thomas (moved to de then left program)
alec dunham (special teams)
mike freeze (somewhere with vinny i guess)
2016
tyree horton (who the heck knows)

8 recruiting classes, 16 linebacker prospects signed, 4 studes in brock, mallett, dawson, and summers. unfortuntately only one was signed after 2011.

more importantly, of the 10 linebackers signed between 2012 and 2016 6 either never made it to campus or left shortly afterwards, 2 have been career special team players, 1 was a part time stater, and then we have ty summers.

so did tcu move guys like arico and trevon because tcu needed to get more athletic or simply because they had missed so badly at linebacker duing that 5 class stretch?
Click to expand...
This is a well thought out post. While reading it, I couldn’t help but think how “football smart” our linebackers have to be in GP’s system. Maybe it’s not so much that GP has “missed,” but that it’s just damn hard to play that position in his system.
 
Eight

Eight

Member
gohornedfrogs said:
This is a well thought out post. While reading it, I couldn’t help but think how “football smart” our linebackers have to be in GP’s system. Maybe it’s not so much that GP has “missed,” but that it’s just damn hard to play that position in his system.
Click to expand...

thanks. i think that while terms like football iq, football smarts, etc....get thrown around like some generic soft skill when talking about prospects the track record is there that players with that innate ability to process and recognize quickly seem to thrive in gp's defenses.

i think just as tcu recruits for speed on defense they recruit for the intelligence as well as seen by gary's love of recruiting high school quarterbacks. believe as well that when some write about the speed in which the tcu defense plays what gets confused is the difference between foot speed and recognition and reaction by a defender. one of the best examples of this was paul dawson.
 
S

Sebastian S

Active Member
One of the games they were talking about TCU's defense.

There is no such thing as a "base defense" for TCU, Patterson changes it up depending on what he watches on game film.

It is also very dependent on each unit doing their assignments, when working it's amazing to watch but it's also 1 missed assignment from being a disaster.

Patterson also admits when he has called a wrong play and we get burned for it.
 
BleedNPurple

BleedNPurple

Active Member
I’m sure that coach has been studying OU’s games against us last year until his head hurts. Main variable was a highly motivated Baker Mayfield. I’m sure OSU has been looking at those two games also and hope to wreak the same havoc. If there’s a weakness in our D OU sure seemed to have exploited it.
 
S

Sebastian S

Active Member
BleedNPurple said:
I’m sure that coach has been studying OU’s games against us last year until his head hurts. Main variable was a highly motivated Baker Mayfield. I’m sure OSU has been looking at those two games also and hope to wreak the same havoc. If there’s a weakness in our D OU sure seemed to have exploited it.
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Both OU games are a blur to me.

Does it boil down to an accurate mobile QB being our weakness?
 
Eight

Eight

Member
Sebastian S said:
Both OU games are a blur to me.

Does it boil down to an accurate mobile QB being our weakness?
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plus a very good offensive line and running backs, a group of receivers who can run their collective asses off, a mismatch at h-back, and an aggressive scheme to utilize all those ingredients

it isn't simply one thing which is another thing authors such as a our self-professed expert miss.
 
S

Sebastian S

Active Member
Eight said:
plus a very good offensive line and running backs, a group of receivers who can run their collective asses off, a mismatch at h-back, and an aggressive scheme to utilize all those ingredients

it isn't simply one thing which is another thing authors such as a our self-professed expert miss.
Click to expand...

This sounds like something OSU can match if not be better at.
 
ThisIsOurTime

ThisIsOurTime

Active Member
Eight said:
so did tcu move guys like arico and trevon because tcu needed to get more athletic or simply because they had missed so badly at linebacker duing that 5 class stretch?
Click to expand...

Probably a bit of both. But we certainly have missed at LB which is why they changed coaches and why we were playing a walk-on for a while. Because the star LBs are in high demand, the reality is TCU may always be in a position where we are trying to create a star player by converting him from another position that he played in high school. Dawson, Summers, Evans and Carter all played something else but played LB at times at TCU. What hurt TCU is the other guys on your list who didn't last or contribute for various reasons and we couldn't land one of those star LBs. If we landed just one star LB like Baron Browning, a lot of these problems are hidden. The good news is we are in a better position now to land star LBs than a few years ago but we will still need to find ways to be creative at LB and elsewhere to make up for other perceived recruiting shortcomings.
 
Eight

Eight

Member
Sebastian S said:
This sounds like something OSU can match if not be better at.
Click to expand...

possibly, but if tcu is to compete at the highest level this is the offenses you face and the offenses you have to slow down.

seriously, ou, ohio state, clemson, fsu with winston. who didn't have nfl talent across their offense?
 
BleedNPurple

BleedNPurple

Active Member
Agree we have to master that. In the case of OU last we ran into a buzz saw of a QB who had a chip on his shoulder for us - he was going to will that team to beat us if it killed him. Never seen so many scramble upon scramble upon scramble and then hit a receiver that is now improvising. BM probably had too 10 improvs his receivers had learned. At least 12 plus times it turned into street football improv plays. Now that he’s pro I hope BM does well, lord knows the kid has fought hard for it - desire > talent - see Doug Flutie. Hard to game plan against improv street game - Fran Tarkington comes to mind.
 
Volare

Volare

Full Member
Eff that. I'm ready for Johnny Manzel II. I'll root for him to fail every week.

and Eff the Big 12 for retroactively changing the rules for one player at one school.
 

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