Coach Venables,

I'm not sure if you share the opinion of Coach Stoops regarding us fans and our irrelevant opinions.  I know Coach Stoops feels as though we fans who routinely spend a good deal of our hard earned money to attend the games and support the program have no right to voice those opinions and question what is so clearly not living up to expectations.  Well, I have to respectfully disagree with Coach Stoops so please allow me a moment to step down off of my soapbox and offer you some advice for this upcoming game against Texas.

I'm quite certain I do not have the time someone such as yourself does to devote to watching game film of the Longhorns.  That said, I have seen a majority of their games over the past several years and I believe I have picked up on something that you have possibly overlooked.  So brace yourself as this going to come as a major shock because this isn't something you've ever heard from any national "analyst."  Texas's offense consists of virtually nothing more than 3-7 yards passes.  Let me say that one more time just to make sure it sinks in.  All Texas ever does on offense with regular success is throw the ball 3-7 yards down the field.  ESPN would have you believe that Colt McCoy is the most accurate QB to ever play the game, while at the same time never once mentioning that virtually any below average QB could complete those same passes from the shotgun with no pressure and no bump on the receiver off the line of scrimmage.  That's not to say Colt's not talented, because that would be a ridiculous statement.  Colt is an excellent QB and one of his more infamous talents is forcing himself to fall to the ground while trying to be held up by OU staff on the sideline in order to draw a completely legitimate late hit penalty, multiple times.  Texas fans will surely point out the performance of Mike Knall last year and deservedly so, because who else would you want to use to compare your QB to than the OU punter.  Sarcasm aside, Colt is a very good QB and just because 90% of his completions are five yards or less doesn't mean they just go for five yards.  Texas's success comes from missed tackles and YAC and their record over the past decade speaks for itself, so my criticism of their offensive system aside it obviously works for them.

Forgive me I got distracted there for a minute, back to the topic at hand.  We've established the fact that for whatever reason you insist on keeping three LB's on the field at all times.  Which was confirmed this past week against Baylor who routinely lined up in 4 & 5 wideout sets only to find Keenan Clayton lined up against the slot receiver and Ryan Reynolds covering the huge open spaces in the middle of the field.  I'd like to ask you a question that I see as a pretty easy one to answer Brent.  Do you think Clayton matched up against a slot receiver such as our own Ryan Broyles is a matchup that favors Clayton or Broyles?  I have to believe that you'd say it's an advantage for Broyles, which begs the question why you constantly put Clayton up against slot receivers when that is such an obvious mismatch?  Now I realize being an OU fan I'm probably biased to Broyles and my opinion that he's one of the better slot WR's in the country, so this might not necessarily be a fair comparison but even an average slot WR should be able to exploit being lined up against a LB, no?  In addition, for some reason you have so much faith in the ability of the only two cornerbacks you ever allow on the field that you insist on lining them up 5-10 yards off the line of scrimmage every down.  So while I'm aware as a humble fan I couldn't possibly know what I'm talking about, you'll just have to trust me when I say this will not work against Texas.  You see Brent, because of the fact that 90% of the time they throw the ball it's no farther than five yards down the field you simply can't play Franks and Jackson 10 yards off the line of scrimmage.  It's makes the incredibly easy throws they ask Colt to make even that much easier, if you can believe that.  They've only done this every year that McCoy's been there, including with a virtually 100% success rate in this game last year, so I certainly understand why you've failed to notice this yet.  

It's understandable really, you give a 10 yard cushion and Colt simply flings the ball out to the WR who is essentially wide open and most of the time our defender comes up to make the tackle after a five yard gain.  Well, obviously that strategy allows you to force them to have to run two plays to achieve a first down instead of just one.  My suggestion to you Coach Venables is that you move Jackson and Franks up to the line of scrimmage and not allow the Texas WR's a free release to possibly throw off the timing of the Texas short passing game.  I only suggest this because these short passes are basically their entire offense and disrupting the one thing they do well just might help you win the biggest game of the year.  

The second and I believe equally as important strategy involves recognizing sometime between today and Saturday that Reynolds matched up against Shipley probably isn't a good idea.  It's not your fault that it took two quarters and Brandon Crow being in the game for Texas to figure out we can't cover the middle of the field, it's Greg Davis's.  It is however your fault that it has taken you that entire game, the rest of last season, and every game this season to fail to adjust to the fact that every team we play uses the same strategy to move the ball up and down the field.  So in the off chance you've forgotten who Jordan Shipley is I have a friendly tip to help you remember.  You've probably never heard this before because when they broadcast a Texas game the announcers never bring it up, but Shipley and McCoy are roommates and have been friends for a long time.  Shipley is the only reliable offensive weapon McCoy has and he throws to him A LOT!  So instead of using the slowest guy we have on defense to cover their best weapon, how about trying to prevent that mismatch?  I'm probably just taking a shot in the dark when I suggest that Texas just might line up Shipley in the slot and run a crossing route over the middle, maybe just one or two times.  Based on what we've seen thus far this season, you've failed to realize that this is still the easiest part of our defense to exploit.  BYU and Miami did it repeatedly and Texas just might try it considering they're the ones to exploited it in the first place.  I can virtually guarantee that even the refs on the Texas payroll that are sure to work the game Saturday will not call a penalty on you if you should to choose to spy Shipley with someone who can actually cover him.  It's not an illegal formation to bring Jackson or Franks inside to cover the slot WR.  It's not an illegal formation to line up in a nickel package (that's w/ 2 LB's on the field and an extra DB since you clearly don't know).  Now I can't make the same promise if you allow Shipley to catch a pass over the middle and make him pay the price for doing so, but I can promise that it would be worth at least one penalty to send the message.  Before you get carried away Texas fan, I'm not advocating hurting the kid just a good solid football hit (not unlike the helmet-to-helmet hit Kindle put on Potts that you say was a clean hit).

So in summary Brent, the status quo OU defensive scheme that you seem to love so much isn't going to get the job done on Saturday.  While I'm absolutely convinced that Texas is very overrated, has played nobody, and has almost as many flaws as we do, they are more than capable of getting up for this rivalry game and putting together a very good performance and forcing OU fans into the walk of shame out of the Cotton Bowl.  Those of us (myself included) who will be in attendance are counting on you to prevent this from happening Brent.  So there's no point in blitzing if you're going to play 10 yards off their receivers and all Colt has to do is dink and dunk all the way down the field.  As discussed in detail, that's all their offense is designed to do and Colt has proven he's very good at throwing the ball three yards and allowing the WR/RB to do everything else.  No doubt having Sam back with one game under his belt is going to be huge in this game, however I think most of us realize it's going to fall squarely on the shoulders of your defense to be the difference in this game.  No doubt we'll need points from the offense, but with Kevin Wilson at the helm I don't think most of us feel very confident in a shootout.  So your defense will need to make at least one play in crunch time and I know I speak for all of Sooner Nation when I say there's no better game on the schedule for the defense to step up, fly to the ball, and lay the wood to any Longhorn unfortunate enough to be the man with the ball.  

So while it goes without saying that TEXAS SUCKS!, they're coming off an underwhelming performance against Colorado and will be looking to take no prisoners against our Sooners.  All that said, welcome to the best week of the entire year!  It's time to relish the underdog role and come out and play as though we have nothing to lose.  Do you hear that Kevin Wilson?  Do you hear that Bob Stoops?  There will be no mention of not winning this game, so in turn we expect you to come out and coach to win the damn game rather than coaching to not lose the game.  Come out with the mentality that this game will look like 2000 (63-14) or 2003 (65-13).  Now I'm definitely not saying that's what I expect the score to be (although how freaking sweet would that be), but there's no reason that shouldn't be your mentality.  Come out of that tunnel with the intention to dominate so we can take that Golden Hat back home and tell those Texas fans to take that banner of theirs and fly it right up their . . .