AUSTIN — Through the five-plus years that Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian has spent on the Forty Acres, Sarkisian’s offenses have majored in 11 personnel with heavy doses of 12 personnel and some 21 personnel as a change of pace.
Notably lacking until the last two games? Four wide receivers on the field together in a 10 personnel package devised to get more snaps for freshman wide receiver Jermaine Bishop without taking the team’s top three wide receivers off the field.
“The first three
guys — Cam [Coleman], Emmett [Mosley], and Ryan [Wingo] have all earned and worthy of playing football for us,” Sarkisian said on Monday. “These guys have had great offseasons, they had great training camps, they’ve started the year well.”
After spending the spring at wide receiver and the summer at defensive back before returning to the offensive side of the ball for preseason camp, Bishop needed some time to come on, but now he’s “pushed the envelope for us,” according to Sarkisian, resulting in the installation of the 10 personnel package that debuted against UTSA.
“It took some time to get him back into the fold,” Sarkisan said. “Naturally, he’s a very smart football player. The game comes easy to him. I think we see when the ball’s in his hands, he can make plays.”
Bishop only played 14 snaps over the first two games of the season, but has been on the field more frequently against UTSA and Tennessee, playing 25 snaps against the Roadrunners and 16 snaps against the Volunteers. On nine targets this season, Bishop has six catches for 81 yards with 56 yards coming after the catch.
In Knoxville, Bishop had two catches for 34 yards, including a 29-yard catch on a corner route out of 10 personnel, one of quarterback Arch Manning’s best throws of the game.
It’s evidence of the explosive potential of the 10 personnel grouping with Bishop on the field.
Of Bishop’s six receptions, four have come on screen passes behind the line of scrimmage and gained 34 yards, operating as an extension of the running game. Against Oklahoma, Bishop could play a key role in the screen game if Sooners head coach Brent Venables opts to dial up the same type of frequent early-down blitzes that Jim Knowles used so successfully for Tennessee.
Using 10 personnel was a staple of Mike Leach’s Air Raid offenses at Texas Tech. Leach mitigated the difficulties of running the ball without a tight end or H-back on the field by almost entirely eschewing the running game and instead attacking the nickel and dime defenders in an era where those players were typically the fifth and sixth best defensive backs on the team.
In eight plays in 10 personnel this season, Texas has thrown the ball six times, so it remains a pass-heavy personnel grouping thanks to the lack of an extra blocking surface. The advantages don’t quite look the same with modern defenses now typically basing out of nickel defenses that now utilize the team’s most versatile defensive back at the critical nickel position, but the success the Longhorns have had in 10 personnel provide evidence of the package’s continued effectiveness.
To help with pass protection against Tennessee, Sarkisian lined up junior wide receiver Emmett Mosley V in the backfield before motioning Mosley out, as he did on the critical 3rd and 8 conversion to junior wide receiver Ryan Wingo on the four-quarter touchdown drive by Texas against Tennessee.
Sarkisian deploying a personnel grouping he’d never used with the Longhorns on such an important play hints at the role it could play moving forward with such limited impact from the tight ends in the passing game.
“What can we do that can make us harder to defend moving forward? So, the idea that we can go from 12 personnel to 10 personnel to the 20 personnel to 21 to 11, and do it efficiently, and not feel like our gears aren’t shifting, we’re going to try to take advantage of that,” Sarkisian said.
“Naturally, we haven’t been as efficient as we’ve wanted to be offensively. So there’s that fine line of what does that look like and how do you do it so that we don’t lose rhythm offensively. I think that’s always the challenge. But it’s been a nice addition, and getting him on the field has been good for us.”
