First of all, I really wish Dallin Leavitt would have stayed at BYU. He played great in that game (and all year), and we could really use his services this year.

Second, all last year I was baffled by that play where Mitch Matthews would come in motion from his WR position prior to the snap, moving into the backfield as if he were going to be the pitch man on an option play. I don't remember him ever being involved in the play once it got going (as a pitch man or otherwise), and wouldn't think that would be a good idea for him to carry the ball as an RB, anyway. Last night it finally dawned on me what that motion was accomplishing.

Whether it was Matthews or Jurgens, whenever the WR motioned into the backfield as a potential option pitch man, the Texas middle linebacker moved at least a couple of steps to that side of the ball (sometimes he moved a lot more than that), which took him out of position to defend the dive. Then the RB would take the hand-off up the middle, and when the OL blocked the DL correctly, there was no one to tackle the RB until he got to the safety (Hine scored a touchdown on one of those plays because he beat the safety and didn't have to deal with the MLB).

I guess I'm just slow, but all this time I couldn't figure out why you would take away the threat of a pass down the sideline and bring the CB closer to the ball by bringing that WR in motion to become a pitch man that was never going to receive a pitch. Turns out that Robert Anae does know more about football than I do.