This is the play that Brandon Clear scored his 70 yard TD on this weekend, our version of the Deep Cross, a vertical stretch and flood pattern. Since this play has been explained before elsewhere we'll just do a quick breakdown of it for Clemson fans, plus we got a good vid clip of it in action.

Most of the crossing routes in our system are to take advantage of man/man coverage and indeed most of the plays NT used against our predominantly man coverage were crossers and quick slants, but this one attacked the zone coverage that North Texas showcased for most of the game.

The initial motion by Dwayne Allen is meant to showcase some adjustment NT has made for him. If the LB or NB goes with him, its man. If they just realign, its zone. You can tell then that they are playing zone coverage, and my pre-snap read would be Cover 2. The FS is allgned 12 deep and the SS about 10 deep off the tackles. The Corners have alternated their alignment (press or off) to disguise the coverage, so it could be Cover 3.

One of the reasons why, in my opinion, that we don't develop our WRs quickly is due to sight adjustments. Our offense is descended from the old Run & Shoot, Spence was a R&S guy in his youth and the basic core of his system is still used here, its just been simplified and Napier has added his preferences for the I-formation plays that he and Dabo are both familiar with (the '92 Bama squad was mostly I-form). The R&S is heavy on plays where the routes that are run by the receiver change based on the coverage that the defense shows. In theory its the most advanced way and hardest to defend, but I think its harder to teach, and we don't have a great track record there.

In this play the Z, Brandon Clear, reads the presnap coverage. If he sees C2 shell he runs a Go route up the sideline. If its Cover 3, a skinny post. In the play it appears to me that the press corner bails into Cover 3, and the CB on Clear forgot what he was playing. He has deep coverage there and came up, so he ran the Go. The Go route is the #1 read on the play usually, so Parker is looking at him first.

The deep crosser, Bryce McNeal, has to run in front of the FS and WLB, and behind the MLB. With the way they are aligned its no problem for him to run over MIKE, but the WILL is ignoring him. His alignment stacked dictates McNeal should just run over him too. WILL is worried about Dwayne Allen, who ends up blocking. McNeal ends up covered by the FS over the middle but should find a spot underneath the CB on the playside, and is the #2 read.

Harper runs PA up through the B-gap and runs an option route outside to the flat. Both the SS and MIKE are squeezing his route, so if Brown wasn't open, McNeal should've been and Parker would've had to throw to him. Harper is the #3 read. An option route means the RB has the option of going in or out based on the position of the coverage. They are above and to his inside, so he goes out.

The backside hitch route is just a safety valve, the last read on the play and you only go to him if everyone is covered.

So this particular play was a case where everyone made the correct read pre-snap and everything worked.

More photos » Patrick Collard - AP

2 days ago: North Texas player Lance Dunbar, front right, stretches for extra yardage against Clemson's Marcus Gilchrist (12) during the first quarter of an NCAA college football game in Clemson, S.C., Saturday, Sept. 4, 2010. (AP Photo/Patrick Collard)

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I was out of service during the Clemson game this past Saturday (wedding) and relied only on rare Blackberry score updates throughout the afternoon. I know, who in the world--or at least in the Southeast--schedules a wedding during football season?  That is a different story for another day.

I would like to begin by giving you my opinions about the game based solely on text messages received and pretty much the box score. This should give me a chance to look at this objectively and simply by the numbers before watching the game play and realizing exactly why the numbers ended up the way they did.

Hit the jump and we will look at the numbers and what they mean.

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More photos » Patrick Collard - AP

Clemson's Brandon Clear makes a 70-yard touchdown catch against North Texas during the second quarter (AP Photo/Patrick Collard)

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At least it counts as a W. There were some positives that I'll get to, and I'll leave my harsh criticism until after I watch the tape again for the film review. I was hoping I wouldn't have to do one this week (since it takes hours) but apparently we're still Clemson, and we find a way to look awful even when we win by 25 points.

Postgame Presser

A bad game played on both sides of the ball, but the most disappointing thing was our defense. I was looking for Steele to scheme differently to stop inside zone runs and he did change some things, but with the tackling and fundamentals so awful you wouldn't be able to tell.

If you noticed, Clemson did not blitz heavily in this game. This was something I questioned at halftime because the changes he made with the Nickel package -- heavy stunting -- were not working whatsoever. They were flying around, but right by the RB and the QB. The stunting made the inside Tackles jump out of their usual lanes, and they didn't get to the new lanes to stop anyone, they'd be caught completely flatfooted when the RB was running into a gap they weren't expecting him to.

Stunts are used to halt particular run plays (an inside stunt may stop an inside trap) and also to create a pass rush when you don't like to blitz. Pitt is a team that uses a lot of stunts, since they blitz infrequently. Vic K stunted quite a bit for the same reason. I don't have a problem with it and we'll need it for Auburn, but it didnt work today.

And if you dont fit your gaps up front, the LB play really looks awful. Hawkins played well against Kentucky but he was out of position quite a bit today. Willard was as well, and neither of them were fitting many gaps. It looked to me at first glance like they were continually dropping back into coverage and not reading KEYS. NOBODY READ THEIR DAMN KEYS TODAY. At least two long plays out of the backfield would've been easily stopped had Malliciah Goodman read his key.

I will wait til I watch it again before I get harsher. We got the sacks and turnovers, but we gave up 460+ yards. 3rd down defense was no better than last year. Steele seemed to have his heart set on Cover 0, and that didn't work. Man/man technique was AWFUL. We switched to more zone in the 2nd half and initially it was better, but if you play zone and don't tackle it sucks.

Overall for the D, tackling. It was fucking pitiful. One long run by Dunbar on a Shovel pass would've been a loss if Willard had made the tackle. Several times our secondary tried to arm tackle, and one time we needed 5 guys to make one tackle? Jesus Christ that pissed me off. DMac can hit our own guys and decleat them, but not make a good hard hit all damn day.

As for the offense, I was glad that Dabo left Parker in until the mid-4th, because his accuracy appeared no better than last season and he needs the work. His final stat line: 9/17, 170, 2-1. Thats the same as last year's stat lines. Early on his throws were well off and behind his receivers, but this appeared to get better as the game progressed.

Andre Ellington - Jamie Harper, outstanding. Harper may make a believer of me with his receiving skills that have been unutilized to date. The WR corps left me with a mild sense of excitement. They won't make tough catches but you can see the athleticism and speed we've got. Dye was a non-factor, and appeared to be in for his blocking. Marquan had taken the slot spot from McNeal, but I didnt notice him except for the PI call. Clear looked good and finally J. Brown got some receptions. I've been telling everyone here that Brown will be good.

But where was Dwayne Allen?

OL - Fair to Good. I know some folks are upset about the line play, and there should've been bigger run lanes at times for sure, but they did a fair job. This is something we'll look at on film.

The playcalling irked me. I said earlier that we should come out and run the ball, because our strength is clearly up front and in the RB corps. We didn't do that today. First play was shotgun. FAIL. We shouldve run the ball 35 times today. There shouldve been more play-action, but the passing game looked discombobulated. We hit alot of big plays but not long sustained drives, which was my biggest complaint last year too. We need to have execution and sustain it, not hit 3 or 4 bombs and play D.

Special Teams thankfully looked good, I thought Gilchrist was good, coverage was OK, and NO MISSED XPs.

Your thoughts?

More photos » Dave Martin - AP

11 months ago: North Texas coach Todd Dodge yells instructions to his team during an NCAA college football game against Alabama at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Ala., Saturday, Sept. 19, 2009. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)

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North Texas Mean Green at Clemson Tigers

Location: Clemson, SC

Kick Off: 3:30 EDT

Television: ESPNU

Radio: WCCP--104.9 (wccpfm.com)

North Texas Head Football Coach: Todd Dodge

Years at North Texas: Entering Fourth Season

Record at North Texas : 5 Wins 31 Losses, 2-10 in 2009. Dodge lost only 1 game in his last 48 at Southlake Carroll HS.

Returning Starters: 19 (10 offense, 8 defense, punter)

Game Notes

Both Teams’ Depth Charts

North Texas represents the Sun Belt Athletic Conference and is located in Denton, TX. The Mean Green are coming off of a 2-10 2009 campaign.

Todd Dodge is a Texas high school football legend. Dodge was able to dominate 5-A football, winning 4 state titles in his 7 years as a coach at Southlake Carroll High School. Prior to getting into the coaching profession, Dodge was a quarterback at the University of Texas in the early/mid ‘80’s. Outside of the high school arena, Dodge coached the receivers at N. Texas in the early ‘90’s and turned down an offer from Bill Parcells to join the staff of the Dallas Cowboys in order to become the head man at North Texas.

Famous alumni include "Mean" Joe Greene (this is where the school’s mascot--the Mean Green--derives, though this was the nickname of the '66 defense) and current NFL’er Cody Spencer. It should also be noted that Hayden Frye coached the Green before moving on to Iowa and Jerry Moore coached there before moving on to become well known as App State’s head man. 

North Texas runs a spread offense that Todd Dodge brought with him from Texas 5A power Southlake Carroll (Chase Daniel, among others) that is very simple to teach and run, somewhat similar to what Brian Kelly ran at Cincinnati. Last season Dodge called the plays himself but this year its going to change with the new OC from South Florida.

In Dodge's own words, they are a shotgun team 99% of the time and only show 3 formations. Doubles (2x2), Trips (3x1) and a (3x2) formation, with the RB placed to either side of the QB (of course, this was when he coached HS) and very little motion. They utilize a quick passing game for the most part, with considerable zone reading and both jailbreak and bubble screens used heavily as substitutes for the various running plays that you give up when you go Gun most of the time. Unlike Clemson they do not make sight adjustments, where the WR's route is based on the coverage he reads, and when a play is called thats what the WRs run unless an audible is called by the QB.

With new OC Mike Canales, expect more formations and more shifting, and perhaps a few more pro-style run plays. In either case, Clemson will be in Nickel during most of this game.

Their base defense is a 4-3, which bases out of Zone coverage, mostly C2/C3.

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With Kevin Steele’s preference to take out the SAM backer against spread formations we felt it would be useful to spend some time going over 4-2-5 and Nickel defenses. Additionally, since some have asked us how one defends the spread and why Clemson had such a difficult time with running QBs and the rush defense against Wildcat and spread teams last year we'll show the problems we have had with the Nickel against the run game.

Kevin Steele’s defense is very similar to Saban’s schemes as I’ve said. Saban, since returning from the NFL, has veered more into the 30 (3-man) front, but in reality Saban still runs 40 fronts about 40-50% of the time, so pigeonholing Alabama into a "3-4" team isn’t really accurate. Steele does use the fronts that he learned from Saban, Dom Capers, and Charlie McBride that are 30 and 40-based, but he has more of an NFL philosophy to defend pro-style sets. This calls for more 40 fronts and Steele has a clear preference for traditional 4-3 sets. That means he wants two big tackles to plug gaps, defensive ends that can work as spill players and rush the passer, and the traditional NFL linebacker.

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• Dr. B has elaborated at length on our walk on statistics.  The State paper shows more reasons that Swinney will continue to reward those who walk on as his tenure continues.  The P & C lets it known here also.  I think this is an issue that this staff must address moving forward as we cannot keep running such deficits (11 original walkons on this year's squad).
• Clemson has released the depth chart for week 1. Chandler Catanzaro has won the starting K position it appears, with Richard Jackson coming in 3rd. Chavis and Thompson are tied at NG. Dye is tied with Clear at X. Thats really the only surprises within. They are otherwise sandbagging a little and not announcing the true starters until they see them play against North Texas. The depth chart for Auburn will be more telling.
• Since its something we've tracked, ESPN points out that only 14 schools made money on sports last year.
• P & C is all jacked up about staff continuity here at Clemson.  All this staff consistency needs to put out some results, as we have already demanded heads role for certain positions and will not back off if there is no improvement. Sapakoff gets it wrong when he says our staff wasnt approached by other schools though.
• Outside the Clemson arena, Garnet and Black Attack have been discussing what it will take for SC to improve this season.  They also discuss the trials and tribulations of an NCAA investigation (and TE woes) as well as the emerging/interesting QB situation.
• I won't even attempt to sum up what the boys over at Tomahawk Nation are up to, as it would fill this page.  Do yourself a favor and do your FSU homework in one spot.  These guys know their stuff and bang out jam-up stuff daily.
• If you need to get all riled up for work, Roll Bama Roll has your early morning fire with some nice clips from the Tide S&C coach.  You may want to warn the coworkers and rival companies before ripping this bad boy up.
• GT's blog From the Rumble Seat has been counting the days down to football season for some time now.  In an interesting story, they discuss prep time and its effect on defending the Jackets.  We surely will discuss this topic when GT rolls to C-Town this season.
• Rocky Top Talk chats about a second helping of the Sabanator and how it would affect the perception of the Third Saturday in October.
• Courtesy of www.gobblercountry.com, smash this one to tour VT's new facilities:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhNv0K5o-hc&feature=player_embedded.

Have a good Thursday!

This shit is pissing me off.

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Yesterday Clemson announced that CB Mansa Joseph would be put on scholarship for the fall, bringing the total number of walk-ons currently on scholarship to 11.

Yes thats ELEVEN. Eleven guys on scholarship and how many get snaps aside from Special Teams? 3? 4? Eleven guys, 2 kickers, a punter, and a long snapper who doesn't play at all aside from long-snapping.

Don't worry about playing well enough in High School to get into Clemson! Come on and we'll put you on scholarship in a year anyway because we DONT KNOW HOW TO SIGN ENOUGH recruits to fill the open spots we have each year. We went and signed only 12 a couple years ago, so we could sign more later, and yet we still don't sign enough to fill the open spots?

Some teams play with 85 scholarship players, and have to cut good ones to make room for new recruits. At Clemson we play with 74 (73 if McKelvey doesn't qualify, and it looks like this is the case) and invite guys to walk-on and give them a scholarship place holder instead of signing good players up out of High/Prep Schools. Is it any wonder we continue to have depth issues?

Its a self-imposed NCAA probation. The Trojans will play with 71 (in any given year) under their probation.

I don't have a problem giving a scholarship to a guy as a senior who has worked his way through school or one that has cracked the depth chart enough to get meaningful snaps, 3 or 4 is fine, but 11 of them is taking it too far.

More photos » Mark Humphrey - AP

8 months ago: Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney, right, hugs linebacker Scotty Cooper in the closing moments of the fourth quarter of the Music City Bowl NCAA college football game on Sunday, Dec. 27, 2009, in Nashville, Tenn. Clemson beat Kentucky 21-13. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)

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Cooper came in as a highly rated 4-star recruit from Lake City who had offers from Michigan, Penn State, LSU, SC, and Clemson among others. However in his first year or so he had two knee surgeries that essentially robbed him of his athleticism and speed, and has never lived up to his billing since.

Last year, it was expected he would get considerable snaps, but he didnt get over 200 as a Strongside Backer in Steele's system to spell Kevin Alexander, and finished with only 12 tackles for the season. He last got significant PT two years ago under Blackwell's horrible tutelage, but never finished with more than 33 tackles in VK's scheme. Cooper really doesn't possess the size to play SLB in Steele's scheme, nor the speed to play Weakside in coverage, so he was kinda stuck.

Cooper said that since the Maryland game last season he has had a neck (nerve) problem that causes him a lot of pain when he makes tackles, and it has gotten worse in camp, so much now that he has decided to give up football. He's going to remain as a student coach with J.K. Jay and Stanley Hunter. Hopefully he'll make a good coach and recruiter someday soon for us.

Clemson now has 7 recruited LBs on scholarship, and we need 10 for a full compliment. This puts Daniel Andrews at backup Sam and may force a move by Parker to strongside for depth. While I did not expect Cooper to get more than 150-200 snaps again this year, it does put us in a serious bind with numbers. The plan was to take 3 LBs in recruiting already, so Cooper doesn't affect that.

All that means is that Steele will play even more substituted nickel coverage this season.

We have been crunching some numbers lately to try to see how Clemson matches up with their opponents.  We are currently in the process of putting together a pretty comprehensive recruiting database for the Tigers and our opponents.  Today we will examine these items from a distance to get a better grasp of how Clemson stacks up based purely on talent alone.

While we realize that talent alone will not win you football games, it definitely helps if the most talented players on the field are on your team.  We also realize that there are some busts and some players who are underrated coming out of high school.  It is difficult to objectively make adjustments and we feel that the best way to move forward is to utilize the "experts" rankings and assume that the AVERAGE accurately reflects talent recruited on an annual basis.

We will also be using this data over the course of the season to better examine how Clemson matches up with its opponent each week of the season.  I think this data and the visuals that it will provide will be interesting to see.  We will also be looking for trends to help us better anticipate future performances.  So hit the jump and dig through the data with us!

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Here is a primer.  Fan app day is tomorrow and we get to see (hopefully) some good looking uni's.