Coordinator Grades: Halfway Point

[fellside]

So what do you guys think? My thoughts are uneducated and over simplified, so I'd like your take.

Harsin: While the past two weeks have shed light on some of his flaws, at the very least you have to admit he's accomplished something some thought was impossible: We can run the ball. That can't be stressed enough. We have a bad O-line, but Fozzy and Monroe look rejuvenated in this offense.

The overuse of trick plays is annoying, but the thing that frustrates me the most is Harsin's obvious over-thinking. Not using Malcolm Brown in the red zone should be an unforgivable sin.

It's tough to grade him because we have freshman starting at QB, RB, WR, and C.

Grade: C+

Diaz: I've hated this defense from day one. The only way it can be successful is if the opposing team shoots itself in the foot. I honestly don't know how Diaz has ever beaten a ranked opponent. Wait... has he ever beaten a ranked opponent?

I can't stand watching our CB's literally run away from WR's on every play. After watching Muschamp's blitz packages the past 3 years, Diaz's defense just looks sad.

To be fair, the talent doesn't seem to be there in the seniors. And the talent we do have is inexperienced.

But this defense is soft. Softer than any defense we've had in a long time. The final drives of the 1st half the past two weeks have shown that. When Texas desperately needs a stop, Diaz's defense will be sure to let you down.

The only reason he is above an F is because his defense did decent against 4 terrible teams.


Grade: D+

[branthebuilder]

I'd be more generous with Harsin. It's not like he's calling for INTs and fumbles from the press box. Ash's INT took points off the board yesterday. Red-zone has been tough sledding, and that's probably on Harsin. I'd go C to C+ so far.

Diaz is a D+ only because the secondary is better than expected and they haven't lost to the $#@!ty teams on the schedule. The DL is atrocious. I'm tempted to give him a pass there because recruiting and attrition prior to his arrival have limited his chances for success, but even guys like Randall and Jeffcoat who were supposed to be studs this year have been weak. LBs were supposed to be the strength of this defense and he's getting nothing out of them. Playing Robinson out of position all year is a huge mistake, imo. Either start Edmond at MLB or go to a 4-2-5 and freely rotate Robinson/Acho/Hicks. The blitzes are poorly timed, poorly executed, and easily exploited to this point.

[P]

I will wait to evaluate Harsin. Our QB play is terrible right now, so we are playing one dimensional by nature. I can see his creativity, but until we can complete a forward pass, we can't open the playbook. Right now opposing D's just tee off on our running game. They blitz us hoping to catch us in a slow developing running play, so they can create negative yardage situations and force us to do something we don't want to do...... throw the ball.

The only way to get teams away from the line of scrimmage is to throw the football, and we don't have that ability yet. I will give Harsin a C for now. We can run the football, and that's already more than I can say we were able to do under GD.


Manny Diaz looks lost to me. He seems to be learning on the fly week by week. Last week we tried to play zone between the 20's, then man up in the red zone vs OU. Well, we got torched. This week he dedicated as many men to the passing game as possible, and rushed only three quite a bit. Well, OSU had all game to throw the football.


Right now Diaz is a reactionary coach, and good defenses attack the opposing offense. While most people here don't think we have any talent( and they are right that there isn't anyone playing exceptional right now), it's not the only reason we are struggling so mightily. A lot of it has to do with putting the kids in a situation to be successful.

I give Diaz a C also.

[thiefery]

i also feel that its too early to be grading. I would wait till the end of the season and see how the team has come along. These past two games were against really good opposition. The true test will be how the team gels together in the next month before the AtM game.

[JDizzle]

The fact that we can run the ball now with this oline and knowing we'er not a huge threat to beat you with the pass, I would give Harsin a B. Give him some time with Ash to clean it up and it will be all a's

If we weren't giving up HUGE runs right up the middle I would give Diaz a B. I don't know what the problem is here, but I still think our QB situation hurts us on this side of the ball. I would give Diaz some time to get the personel he wants. B-

[runthebone]

Our blitz success percentage is awful. The blitzes are both easy to see and ineffective, which is the exacta of sucking.

Who's the current DC for Auburn?

[Pimphand]

I give _iaz a _+

[Pimphand]

Our blitz success percentage is awful. The blitzes are both easy to see and ineffective, which is the exacta of sucking.

Who's the current DC for Auburn?

Their defense is $#@!ty

[alphahydro]

Offensive Coordinator: Incomplete. Hard to grade him with our situation at QB, not to mention the youth he has on the O line.

I'd revisit this in +/- 4 games. I have to say that things look promising, but he seems to be a little streaky as a playcaller. On the plus side, it didn't take him long to make changes at QB, and his ability to set up the running game has been impressive, especially given our O-line and QB situation.

Defensive Coordinator: B (some of that should definitely be shared w/ Akina). We had a phenomenal defense in 2009. Just because we aren't yet performing to that standard 6 games into our new defense does not mean that Diaz deserves a C.

There are a couple things here. First, Diaz' defense isn't pretty.

Watch what he did w/ Miss. State last year.



It's hideous to watch, but you look up at the end of the game and Auburn, which torched everyone else on their schedule, just couldn't score points. He pretty much did that all last year. Now look at Miss State's defense this year. . . Bottom line, a Diaz defense will never be easy on the eyes. It just is what it is.

Second, he gets opposing offenses off the field. Heading into this week, we were a top 5 team in the country in adjusted third down percentage. That will only go up after the team's performance against OSU.

His scheme has also been part of the reason we've been able to perform well against the pass with a very young secondary (we're top 10 in adjusted pass yards and pass efficiency per play).

There have been some bad runs against this team. But on every run, there has been a player who took a bad step or shot the wrong gap. That will improve with reps. Also, plagued us last year under Muschamp.

If we can eliminate some of the missteps and get our offense going, I think people will stop complaining about the defensive coordinator.

Finally, if you look at the numbers, we're a better defense than we were last year.

http://barkingcarnival.fantake.com/r...010&team=Texas

http://barkingcarnival.fantake.com/r...011&team=Texas

The only thing we were significantly better at last year was getting sacks.

Muschamp was an A+ DC, imo, and last year (the third in Muschamp's system), with basically the same personnel but much more experience at CB, we did not perform as well as a defense as we have so far this year. . . .

Some of you guys take the "we're texas" slogan a little too seriously. We can't just suit up a bunch of random guys in longhorn gear and install the -2 yard maximum defense in six games. It seems like Diaz has done pretty well this year, especially given our youth in the secondary.

Also, imo we've improved every game on defense. We've cut down on mistakes in every game. It's just that the last two games, we've faced offenses that will exploit a higher percentage of the defense's mistakes. . .

Just my $.02...

[Yossarian]

Incomplete.(and no that's not a shot at GG)

[BuddyLufkin]

I hate our zone scheme and continue to be puzzled by our CBs leaving huge cushions when we blitz but trying to put together a solid D with the piss bucket of talent we have on the d-line may be an impossible task.

[alphahydro]

Their defense is $#@!ty

LOL. Yeah, it's terrible. Worst they've had in a while; they do seem to be improving though....

If Malzahn had left, they would have lost to Utah State, imo.

[Orange&White]

Manny Diaz being the Defensive Coordinator of the Texas Longhorns reminds me of Tony Romo being the franchise QB of the Dallas Cowboys.

Someone holding the reins of a well known institution, with nothing in his history to suggest that he deserves it and, unsurprisingly, nothing to show that it was a good decision.

[Staboned]

I hate our zone scheme and continue to be puzzled by our CBs leaving huge cushions when we blitz but trying to put together a solid D with the piss bucket of talent we have on the d-line may be an impossible task.

[Lhorns101]

I hate our zone scheme and continue to be puzzled by our CBs leaving huge cushions when we blitz but trying to put together a solid D with the piss bucket of talent we have on the d-line may be an impossible task.

Yea that $#@! blows my mind also.

[Marti-mar]

I give Harsin a solid B+. He's manufacturing points with, this is almost physically painful to say, less talent than he had at Boise. He inherited a team with ZERO offensive tackles on it and an atrocious QB situation. Outside of OU, the offense has been good enough to win every game. He's got a lot of work to do, but I think he'll get it going when he has a real OL and QB situation. Davis and MacWhorter royally $#@!ed this team over with their incompetence at it may take years to fix.

Diaz - I think a D+ may be generous.

The D-line has regressed into a void of utter non-factor play. He turned Jeffcoat from a budding All American into a JAG.
The LB play has been horrible. (that's Diaz's position group dammit).
The blitzes are slow developing and ineffective. We're not fooling anyone with the multiple looks and exposing our coverage since we're not fooling anyone with the multiple looks
The young secondary players have been the biggest bright spot by far ...

We had a horrible scheme for OU, didn't make any adjustments to stop UCLA's running game, and Iowa St. is the only thing that stopped Iowa St. Iowa St. should have put 30 pts on our defense that day but they just kept $#@!ing themselves over. I sincerely hope I'm wrong on Diaz, because he seems like a $#@!ing cool dude, but I haven't been impressed with his defenses or scheming ability and that keeps getting re-enforced each week.

[Fastbreak]

Diaz is just working with what he has. No one on the front 7 has done anything this year. You can count the plays that the DE's have made on 1 finger...

[ImissWallyPryor]

The fact that we can run the ball now with this oline and knowing we'er not a huge threat to beat you with the pass, I would give Harsin a B. Give him some time with Ash to clean it up and it will be all a's

If we weren't giving up HUGE runs right up the middle I would give Diaz a B. I don't know what the problem is here, but I still think our QB situation hurts us on this side of the ball. I would give Diaz some time to get the personel he wants. B-

On both of OSU's long runs our LB failed to recognize where the hole was opening (as alphahydro pointed out). I'm pretty sure it was Hicks on the first one and Robinson on the second. Instead of plugging the hole, they followed one of the OL before running up the back of the DL. It's pretty simple, if the G is blocking toward the middle and the T is blocking to the side, there's a real good chance the hole is going to open between the G and OT, not between the G and C. If you miss that read, you might have to rely on Gideon to make the play.

On that first long run, Diaz was chewing out Hicks as he came to the sideline. I'm sure everyone would have noticed it if Hicks was white.

[Fastbreak]

On both of OSU's long runs our LB failed to recognize where the hole was opening (as alphahydro pointed out). I'm pretty sure it was Hicks on the first one and Robinson on the second. Instead of plugging the hole, they followed one of the OL before running up the back of the DL. It's pretty simple, if the G is blocking toward the middle and the T is blocking to the side, there's a real good chance the hole is going to open between the G and OT, not between the G and C. If you miss that read, you might have to rely on Gideon to make the play.

On that first long run, Diaz was chewing out Hicks as he came to the sideline. I'm sure everyone would have noticed it if Hicks was white.

This is why I chuckle when people blame Gideon for everything. He may not be all-world, but he is about 9th on our list of problems on D...

[ImissWallyPryor]

Getting back to the original subject, I'd give Harsin a solid B or B-/C+ish. I like a lot of what he's doing, but that cutsey $#@! he pulled on at least two red zone opportunities pissed me off. OSU was not stopping our running game, especially our quick-hitting running plays. Harsin has no idea how frustrated our fans became in the GDGD years by the slow-developing running plays. He'd win plenty of people over quickly if he'd use those very sparingly, and he'd probably enjoy more success since our line can't hold blocks for very long.

I'm going to give Diaz a C. The talent isn't what we're used to, and what talent we have is young. But, his blitz packages are not nearly as well-disguised or imaginative as Muschamp's were. i can tell just about every time where the blitz is coming from, so I'm sure good, experienced QBs like Landry and Tweeden can see it every time.

[Mr. Drummond]

Harsinwhite - B- I think we lose to either BYU/UCLA if GDGD is still here. But he got too cute with OU/OSU - run the ball. But we wouldn't have beaten them anyway with GDGD. I do hate that we wasted so many 1st team snap with Gilbert, when everyone outside Mack, Harsinwhite and LH94 saw the writing on the wall.

Diaz - C+ I am not as down as many of you are on him. Front 7 just isn't that good. But his blitz package is simplistic and needs to improve yesterday. But we do get off the field on 3rd down so that's a positive. Give him a little time, if by next year he hasn't improved significantly I am fine with a change. We weren't going to win the MNC this year anyway, so I don't have a problem with trying out a young guy that may be the next "A" DC vs just plugging in a "B" level experienced guy. Sometimes you have to go for it - and timid/scared this hire wasn't.


EDIT: pretty much what was just said...

[RabidHorn]

Offense B-
Defense C

[emerson1]

I read that 16/18 plays in the redzone yesterday were passes. Of the one that worked Ash $#@!ed it up, but when you have the best running back in the game there is no reason to not just line up and run it. Even if the oline does suck a majority of the time, they were opening up some holes yesterday.

[Rissin]

On that first long run, Diaz was chewing out Hicks as he came to the sideline. I'm sure everyone would have noticed it if Hicks was white.

Yep, people only notice when white players make bad plays...please.

[neverwenttoUT]

Both get a C+ from me thus far.

[wildcat09]

I read that 16/18 plays in the redzone yesterday were passes. Of the one that worked Ash $#@!ed it up, but when you have the best running back in the game there is no reason to not just line up and run it. Even if the oline does suck a majority of the time, they were opening up some holes yesterday.

Yeah, I love Harsin but he definitely overthought himself in the redzone yesterday. Obviously they were going to load the box in the red zone to stuff the run, and he probably knew that'd give them more opportunities to throw. The problem is the offensive line is such dog$#@! that when they load the box Ash is pressured immediately and the play breaks down. With a better line and a more experienced QB, I've got no problem throwing it in the red zone, but a man's got to know his limitations.

[Fastbreak]

Who is our best back at getting yards between the tackles? Answer: M. Brown
Who always gets pulled in the red zone or short yardage? Answer: M. Brown

[branthebuilder]

Yeah, I love Harsin but he definitely overthought himself in the redzone yesterday. Obviously they were going to load the box in the red zone to stuff the run, and he probably knew that'd give them more opportunities to throw. The problem is the offensive line is such dog$#@! that when they load the box Ash is pressured immediately and the play breaks down. With a better line and a more experienced QB, I've got no problem throwing it in the red zone, but a man's got to know his limitations.

I agree with this. I think you can keep the defense from stacking the box by threatening the edges rather than by passing down the field. Put Fozzy in the Wildcat with Monroe/Goodwin/Shipley on the fly sweep to threaten the edge, then zone read between Fozzy and Malcolm. Second choice for me would be the same setup but with Ash at QB and a third WR so Ash has a run pass option after faking the fly sweep. Smartfootball.com had a post about Pitt running that play last week. Last year and in 2009 I didn't understand when GDGD would get in the redzone and suddenly decide to run inside zone with Cody and this year I don't understand Harsinwhite wanting to get away from power running in the redzone.

[Theo Huxtable]

Harsin = B
Diaz = D

[Bushwood CC Member]

i wonder what Mack Brown thinks. well, maybe not. he kept GD all those years.

[qwater25]

Harsin: B- (just because of the change from GD)
Diaz: C- (expected a lot more)

[Snacks]

i'm confused...

y'all are giving the OC a B, and then back-dooring that with, "but he should run the ball more" or "he should run MB more" or "he should run more in the red zone"....

how in the $#@! is that a B?! he's failing OC101, but gets a B- because he's not GDGD? if you KNOW you have a QB problem, and you KNOW you have a pass blocking problem, and you KNOW you're running the ball well, but you keep putting the pressure on the QB and OL in the red zone, how in the hell is that a B? how is that even a C? Hell, GDGD would be handing the ball to MB. He might not call the right kind of play (slow developing stretch, for example) but he wouldn't take the ball out of his hands...

fans of other teams and objective fans think harsin is killing himself with silly, slow-developing trickeration and what seems to be either a desire to abandon the running game or a panic-induced abandonment of the running game.

at best, he gets an INC.

Manny Diaz gets a C-. I can't tell how good the defense would be with an offense that could take care of the ball. The blitzes suck, but that's because the DTs are below average, imo. You need DTs and DEs to get pressure on their own, so a blitz is EXTRA pressure. Our blitzes are the equivalent of 3 man pressure...

Mack Brown gets an F, because he's in charge and has run the ship aground... we don't have a QB or DT. Our LB and OL are average. He's supposed to be the great recruiter of players and whatnot, so the kids can't be this mediocre.

Duane Akina gets a B. Get ride of Gideon and it's an A.

Akina should corchs

[Snacks]

my response wasn't directed at qwater (i hadn't even seen his post) but his response fits... if gdgd were calling the exact same plays, we'd be bitching about how he's not giving it to DJ Monroe enough.

[Greenspointexas]

all i will say is that i simply cannot for the life of me remember a team so inept at blitzing before. its not even that we suck at it... its non-existant.

id rather just rush 2, have 2 spy the rb/fb, and the rest drop into coverage.


manny diaz has the worst blitzing schemes ive seen in a long, long, while

[cochamps]

Harsin B-

Diaz C-

[sessamoid]

Yep, people only notice when white players make bad plays...please.

Some people only notice it.

Let's go back to the lovely Scott Derry/Robert Killebrew days. Derry was unfortunately the best option we had, but Killebrew was an order of magnitude worse. People here spent all their venom calling out Derry though. Kill not only took himself out of plays, he often took out a teammate as well.

[ImissWallyPryor]

Yep, people only notice when white players make bad plays...please.

White DBs (and RBs) are the modern day version of the 70s black QBs. The truth is, the skin color of a black player is rarely mentioned until he screws up off the field.

[Michael Knight]

I give the fans an F. Can we please wait until we play more than 6 games, especially when the last 2 games are against probably the best offenses in the nation

[dhamalrdr]

I give Bennie Wylie an A+ because of his smokin hot wife

[Phillip]

He turned Jeffcoat from a budding All American into a JAG.

What exactly, outside of his last name and 5 star ranking, has Jeffcoat ever done on the field that makes you think he was a budding All American?

[Silky Johnson]

Manny Diaz being the Defensive Coordinator of the Texas Longhorns reminds me of Tony Romo being the franchise QB of the Dallas Cowboys.

Someone holding the reins of a well known institution, with nothing in his history to suggest that he deserves it and, unsurprisingly, nothing to show that it was a good decision.

The defense has looked bad, but to put it in perspective.

We held OSU to the least amount of yards all year, 157 yards below their average.

According to the announcer OSU hadn't had a three and out all year, we forced 3.

Anyway it doesn't matter, turnovers, turnovers, turnovers...

Until you get the turnover margin to zero, there is nothing else to work on.

[Marti-mar]

What exactly, outside of his last name and 5 star ranking, has Jeffcoat ever done on the field that makes you think he was a budding All American?

His play last season, before injury, was outstanding. He was the best DE we had since they turned Acho into a DT/DE hybrid. He made some rookie mistakes, but was showing all the signs of being a future dominator - as a true freshman. Now he looks like a JAG. It has some people wondering if he's playing injured because of the stark contrast between what he showed last year and how he's played this year.

[THujone]

I agree with those who say too early to grade. The reason is that so much of the success or failure on each side of the ball is directly attributable to the pieces in the scheme. Both sides have MAJOR issues...some that are so glaring, that side of the ball will fail no matter what scheme you have.

On offense, we have huge personnel probs on the o-line, a very very green QB and 1--maybe 2 legit WRS. Holy $#@!.

On defense, we have Gideon, a very lackluster LB corp and a line that just occupies space. You can see manny sending the blitz, but for some reason they just all pile up on the LOS. It's $#@!ing weird.

And I think this defense IS better than last year, even with an entirely new secondary. Both Ds had gaping holes from time to time, but at least this one gets its hands on the ball some--whether that's just a broken up pass or an int.

[dluens]

When the defense brings 6 or 7 players they ought to get a sack once in awhile, even if they're mediocre players. Diaz bend but don't break mentality has paid some dividends this year but when you bring the house it has to pay off at least occasionally.

[ndawg]

We started the season a bad team. We are now a decent team that is improving every week. Defense is forcing some turnovers and keeping us in games. They've given up some head scratching big plays, but they're far down on the list of things we need to fix to win more games.

The offense is still completely flacid, and the timing/execution is terrible. David Ash is barely starting to show signs of being able to beat a disguised blitz with hot reads. We he can get the ball out faster than the pass rush with quickly thrown screens and slants, teams will spread out a bit more and our pass protection will suddenly look better. If he can start challenging secondaries deep, he'll get even more space. Our running game is looking good, and it'll be a while before we face a potent enough offense that Ash will need to throw more than 25 passes to get a W.

The rampant bellyaching is impatient and shortsighted.

[The Tower]

it is way too early to grade.

[ldogg53]

Harsin: C+
Homeboy only had to play against this type of competition 1-2 times a year. And he usually had a month to prepare for one of those games. This is trial by fire and why people don't give the mid-majors as much credit as they think they deserve. Play this $#@! week in and week out. It is a beating. He is learning and I trust will improve.

Diaz: C-
His defense is not translating to the B12 style of offense yet. He isn't flat out terrible, but this defense is borderline terrible regardless of what stats say. Sacks are important, TOs are important. This D doesn't impose it's will on anyone, but rather I find myself watching and thinking "just hang on guys". Blitzes have been awful all season long and our coverage choices are mind boggling at times. And he doesn't get a pass for installing a new "scheme" as many like to do. $#@! that, defense is one of the easier things to install and coach and they've had 9 months to do it. No excuse at this point.

[ldogg53]

it is way too early to grade.

bull$#@!.. we're 6 games in... these are mid-terms and they're not doing so great. Grades can and do change.

[ndawg]

One thing that has been puzzling me on offense are our slow developing running plays. At first I thought we were going for delayed handoffs, but I'm becoming more convinced that it's just crappy execution.

Sadly, I think we'll have to wait for Ash to spend a summer at Manning Camp before he can really drop back like an experienced QB.

[ndawg]

bull$#@!.. we're 6 games in... these are mid-terms and they're not doing so great. Grades can and do change.

It's not too early to give the team midseason grades, but correctly assigning responsibility for why our plays are breaking down is not a task I would entrust to armchair QBs.