Expect to see much more 12 personnel.
The multiple tight end look was tremendous for the Longhorns on Saturday night against the Georgia defense, one of the few bright spots on offense from the entire evening.
I charted the snaps Texas had on Saturday with both Gunnar Helm and Juan Davis on the field and it looked rather encouraging.
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A few key takeaways:
First let's get these numbers squared away. I counted 24 snaps with the Longhorns in 12P, those plays went for 145 yards, and when you add in penalties drawn on those plays, 168 net yards. The Longhorns in total had 80 total snaps on offense against UGA.
Texas was in 12P for 30.0% of their snaps in the ballgame, and the formation accounted for 55.98% of their total yards on the night. Not too bad.
– Texas averaged 6.04 yards per play from 12P.
– Adding in penalties from 12P, Texas averaged a flat 7.00 yards per play gained out of the formation.
Ryan Wingo deep shot DPI and a Tre Wisner facemask penalty in the red zone helped the cause.
– Texas did not have a single negative play in 12P. No sacks allowed. No rushing losses, (there was a -1 yard rush from Wisner but a facemask negated the play).
– The Longhorns had eight explosive plays in the game – pass plays over 15+ yards and run plays over 10+ yards. Four came in 12P.
Ewers to Matthew Golden for 24 yards on a dig route in 3Q.
Ewers to Matthew Golden for 34 yards on a go-route in 3Q.
Tre Wisner rush for 10 yards.
Ewers to Gunnar Helm for 23 on an out route in 4Q.
The other four explosive plays that qualified were a 21-yard scramble from Arch Manning, a 19-yard catch from Golden, a prayer from Ewers to Helm on the sideline for 18 yards and the 17-yard TD to Jaydon Blue in 11P.
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Sarkisian's bread and butter is 11 personnel. It has been the case for his entire tenure in Austin and even prior to arriving. However, for whatever reason, there has been a consistency in 12 personnel, especially when starting each half.
The Longhorns show a proclivity to utilize 12 personnel at the beginning of games and on their first possession of the second half. It's been a recurring trend for Sarkisian, but it gets the job done.
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A look at the play-by-play yardages gained on each 12 personnel play and when they occurred in the game.
Drive 1:
9 yards
3 yards
5 yards
8 yards
3 yards
Drive 3:
inc. (15-yard DPI penalty)
4 yards
0 yards
Drive 4:
5 yards
0 yards (incomplete)
Drive 9: (out of halftime)
6 yards
24 yards
-1 yards (facemask penalty, +8 yards)
1 yard
0 yard (incomplete)
Drive 10:
34 yards
4 yards
10 yards
Drive 13:
0 yards (dropped)
23 yards
0 yards
4 yards
0 yards
4 yards
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This obviously does not guarantee a thing in the win-loss column, but there was more success in this look than any other agains the Bulldogs Saturday night.
Hopefully, Texas gets the chance to play Georgia again to exercise some of those demons offensively. If they do, I would look for Juan Davis and Gunnar Helm to be on the field a good bit more than what we saw this past weekend.