Wide receivers will be key this season

The Eagle takes a look at A&M's wide receiver situation this season. If we are going to truly make the spread portion of our spread option scheme work, we need to be able to execute the base scheme of mesh routes, and that means we need our WRs to make plays for us this season.
The running game, with returning starts on the OL and in the backfield, should be stellar.
What we want, though, is an offense that is equally lethal in the air and on the ground, and for that to happen, we need to find some playmakers at WR.
Personally, my money is on Kerry Franks, E.J. Shankle, and Pierre Brown to step it up big for us this season.



WR/KR Kerry Franks goes the distance against Texas Tech

Football news

Japhus Brown won't be returning to the team, having failed to qualify academically to play his senior season. While I'm disappointed we lose him as a player, I really hope he sticks it out and finishes his classwork, so he can graduate.

Also, I am impressed so far with what Randy Shannon has done at Miami, from a discipline standpoint. He is cracking down on his players, hard. I only hope their issues on offense continue long enough for us to beat them when we play them in Coral Gables this season.
Miami @ Miami is still the scariest game on our schedule, imo.

Big Televen expansion

There are rumors going around that should Notre Dame not accept another overture from the Big Televen to join their conference, The Conference That Can't Count will pursue texas university. Since texas basically won't go anywhere without Texas A&M in tow (I don't think the politicos in the Texas Legislature will allow it), this would be a move that would effect A&M.
However, I believe the travel costs for the non-revenue sports like women's swimming and men's tennis, et al., would make such a move cost prohibitive.
A move to another conference would also mean texas would be playing A&M and Oklahoma as out-of-conference games, which means they would only have two non-conference games to start the season that are already pre-determined. I don't see either A&M or Oklahoma changing the game dates they've had for years now, so it would royally screw with texas' conference schedule, if they made the move.
I wouldn't mind seeing A&M and texas in different conferences, mainly b/c it would strengthen the perception of college football in Texas. With two schools in two different BCS conferences, the schools could play each other at the end of the season, and regardless of who wins, it won't effect their ability to win their respective conferences and go to a BCS bowl. The situation they had in Florida with UF in the SEC, FSU in the ACC, and Miami in the Big East is a perfect example of this situation.
Regardless, I don't see this move happening.

A&M ranked #25 in pre-season poll

I don't put much stock in pre-season polls, but A&M is ranked #25 in the USA Today coaches poll. It doesn't mean anything to me, b/c we'll know what kind of team we have after we face Fresno State and Miami, but it is better than being unranked.
Another positive is it guarantees our highlights will make Sportscenter.

I do think it is a joke that we're ranked behind Florida State, Nebraska, and Rutgers, but if we're a good team, we'll move ahead of those teams.

I will enjoy watching texas fall from their perch at #4.

I also think Oklahoma is overrated at #8.

The philosophy of a series-based offense

The offensive philosophy of a series-based offense is simple: We will run one play, our bread and butter play, that you won't be able to stop. If you over-align yourselves to stop that one play, you leave yourself open to the other plays in that offensive series.
A perfect example of this is the Double Wing Offense, a ground-bound offense that currently holds the national HS record for average points scored in a game, with Don Markham winning a state championship while averaging 63 points per game.
The main play of the Double Wing Offense is the Toss, or Power play.



Double wing power play video

Once the defense has become accustomed to seeing the wingback receive the pitch on Toss, the LBs and DTs will be slanting playside every time they see motion to stop the play. When this happens, the offensive coordinator will call a Counter.
The Counter shows the same motion and backfield action as the Power, but with the backside wingback taking the ball and coming back the other way, away from motion, countering the normal action of the Power play. In this way, you take advantage of the LBs and DTs being out of position watching for Power, and pop the Counter for a big play.


The Double Wing Counter play video

After the defense decides they are tired of getting hammered off-tackle by the Power and Counter, they will bring all their defenders up on the line to stuff the run. Often, they will stack LBs and CBs over and outside the OTs and TEs. The offensive coordinator will then call for the Wedge, having the whole offensive line attack one defensive lineman (usually the NT) as a unit. The five-on-one blocking is brutal, but effective. Wedge-blocking is often used in the NFL and college football in short yardage situations.

The Wedge play

Once the whole defense is packed into the box, and the offense has the defense committed to playing "football in a phone booth", the offensive coordinator can then call on a variety of play-action passes to his TEs or wingbacks, exposing DEs and LBs who are crashing down into the line, expecting a downblock that never materializes.


Passing from the Double Wing

You can now see why a series-based offense is very effective and many coaches run them, especially at the youth and high school level. A good series-based offense will have an answer for whatever the defense throws at them, making it very difficult, if not impossible, for the defense to stop them.

Two former goalies going head-to-head

Melanie Wilson and Kati Jo Spisak, both goalies for A&M's women's soccer team in their times at school here, will be facing each other in the semifinals of the W-League Championship in Rochester, NY tomorrow.
Melanie was at A&M the same time I was, and Kati Jo followed her; I was able to see both of them play, and both of them were and are awesome.
Both are now leading the W-League, Spisak in minutes played, games played, and victories, Wilson in goals against average. Both are tied for the league lead in shutouts.
I have a feeling this game will end 0-0, and go into sudden death overtime.

Criteria for greatness in college football

You know, there are a lot of fans and sportswriters who call a player at different positions 'great', without really defining greatness. Often, we end up with a player who has less than impressive statistics being called 'great', or even 'the best in the nation at his position', simply b/c a sportswriter believed something a coach said about the player, and doesn't know enough about football to intelligently disagree with that coach's assessment.

I have some criteria for greatness, statistical rules I think we should hold a player to before we call him 'great':

• Quarterback: Must pass for over 2500 yds, minimum, and average more than 200 yds total offense per game, minimum. For example, texas' Colt McCoy, he of the sub-200 yds passing average per game, is not great.
  
• Running back: Must average at least 5 yds per carry to be considered great. Must average 100 yds per game over the course of a season. Only exceptions are if the running back in question is playing behind an injury-depleted offensive line, after having shown greatness in a previous season.
  
• Wide receiver: Must have over 1000 yds receiving in a season. Only exception is if the WR is in a true spread offense, with 3 or more other receivers averaging over 700 yds receiving, also. In that case, he must have a minimum of 40 receptions for 800 yds, or 20 yds per catch or better.
  
• Offensive Line: I'm kind of simplifying this, I know, but must be a dominant run-blocker, and cannot give up more than 1 sack in a season. Greatness is difficult to achieve for linemen.
  
• Defensive Tackle: Must have at least 5 sacks and/or 10 tackles for loss before he can be considered great. DTs often face double-teams, but that doesn't mean they should be shutout every game. Great players still make plays.
  
• Defensive Ends: Must have 10 or more sacks, and double-digit tackles for loss to be considered great.
  
• Linebackers: Minimum 80 tackles to be considered great. Must be dominant in stopping the run game.
  
• Cornerbacks: Must get 3 or more interceptions in a season, minimum, before you can be considered for greatness. May not get beat more than once a season, unless it is by an equally great wide receiver.
  
• Safeties: Must hit like a truck. Must not get beaten deep, must be able to cover opposing deep threats well. Must make at least 30 tackles over the course of the season. If teams are constantly trying to go deep on you when they aren't behind on the scoreboard, that's a sign of a safety who isn't great.
  

So, there you have it; my criteria for greatness. I know it doesn't mean anything to sportswriters, but I think if we had more actual criteria to judge players by, we wouldn't see so much bias in sports commentary.