Monday, July 14, 2014

Previewing the Texas 2014 schedule: Kansas

Over at Inside Texas we've reached the B12 conference schedule where Texas opens play against Kansas, you can read it for free here.

I'm guessing this is the last chance for Charlie Weiss to make something out of that program, like a bowl berth, before he's sacked. When a team like Baylor is rising to the level of perennial contender the excuses for Weiss' failure to have even the slightest taste of success there are running out. There's also the fact that only two coaches ago the program reached BCS bowl.

Some of the candidates that I'd be considering for that job would include:

Dino Babers: Babers coached under Briles at Baylor from 2008 to 2011 and taught their wide receivers and special teams. In 2012 he took control of Eastern Illinois University, a program in the playoff subdivision, and installed the Art Briles offense. In year one they finished 7-5 overall and 6-1 in conference before being knocked out in the first round of the playoffs.

In his second year they finished 12-2 with a perfect 8-0 record in conference play and a quarterfinals exit in the playoffs. Babers was then hired by Bowling Green as head coach.

His QB for those two years, Jimmy Garoppolo broke school records set by Tony Romo and threw for 5050 yards and 53 touchdowns as a senior in 2013. The New England Patriots drafted him in the 2nd round, which should provide an interesting 2nd test case of how Briles-QBs do in the NFL and perhaps indicate how scouts will evaluate Bryce Petty for 2015.

Kevin Kelley: "The coach who never punts" of Pulaski Academy in Little Rock, Arkansas. Coach Kelley routinely transforms undersized players who don't draw attention from major universities into 1500 yard receivers.

Besides never punting and always using the onsides kick in order to accumulate as many possible possessions for his team as possible, Kelley runs a crazy, innovative offense that is probably the future of football.

Rather than relying on perfect timing or precision from athletes, the Pulaski offense is all about post-snap decisions and reactions to what defenses are doing. Players are taught how to win leverage battles all over the field while the QB is responsible for scanning, understanding what's happening, and putting the ball where it should go.

Kansas is never going to have the best talent in the Big 12 so it simply doesn't make sense to hire old pro coaches like Weiss and Campo to try and win recruiting battles against veteran college coaches and then teach inferior athletes to try and out-execute better players in classic schemes.

That will never work. What they need are coaches that can actually provide strategic advantages of their opponents by attempting things that other teams are too afraid to try.

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