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Tua's elusive, but he's not overly elegant. He doesn't plant and explode up the field like a zone-cut running back. Give him a head of steam, though, and he’ll rumble forward like Russell Westbrook driving to the basket.
Alabama's been making this happen by using mid-line reads, which leave an interior defensive player - rather than an edge defender - unblocked on option plays. This better fits the Tide's personnel and combats the growing trend of "inside shoulder" alignments from defensive linemen.
More and more, defenses are positioning players on the inside shoulder of offensive linemen on early downs and in short-yardage situations. The highlighted defender below is doing so in a "2i" alignment (the second gap on the inside shoulder), which is meant to make it more difficult for the offensive lineman to get ac...
Alabama wants to be a zone-run and stretch attack - get a hat on a hat and let the running back read the field and exploit spaces. But that's tricky when the front-side guard has a pre-snap advantage.
Vertical options help against that challenge by reading an interior defender and making the quarterback the straight-line option with the running back as the perimeter threat.
It all works the same, philosophically: If the defender crashes to the mesh point, the quarterback will pull the ball down and keep it. If the defender sits back, the QB will hand the ball to his running back with one defender being blocked through the read - leaving the play as a 10-on-10 contest.
And while edge defenders are used to reading options, interior defenders are not. The latter group is used to being snarling menaces who only see the quarterback's eyes when they've buried him into the turf. Tease them with a free path to the ball and they’ll jump all over it.
Those vertical options give Alabama the best of both worlds, particularly when Damien Harris is in the game at running back.
Harris is a true zone-cut guy with nimble feet. He navigates creases and contorts his body as well as any back in the country. He rarely, if ever, misses the correct cutback lane.
So, using Harris as the perimeter threat with Tua as the head-on threat (rather than the traditional reverse) maximizes both of their talents while keeping up with the principles of option football - one-on-one battles across the board.
Clemson's premier linebackers will need to get used to seeing a big-bodied guard and quarterback screaming downhill together rather than zipping from hashmark to sideline. There will be some serious collisions. It's not an easy mental switch.
Whether or not those linebackers can stack and shed the head-on blockers will be decisive in determining whether they can slow down Alabama’s rushing attack. And those linebackers can't afford to overrun plays in anticipation of the ball going outside, particularly if the guys up front bite on those mid-line reads.
On the other hand, take away the option game and Alabama’s offense could become restricted.
Read the jet motion: The jet motion is a great leveraging tool that offenses use to either move the defense (before countering the opposite way) or to slice defenders off with speed. Alabama must be alert and ready to stop the onslaught of Clemson's jet-motion designs - which the Tigers term "Rocket" motion.
Pressure Lawrence: You don't win big games without defensive pressure. Clemson will bring it. Can the Tide? Lawrence hasn't faced a side as deep and talented as Alabama. He hasn’t played on this kind of stage, either, but the semifinal was a nice teaser.
Still, Lawrence has been the ultimate cool customer throughout his maiden season as Clemson's starter. His passer rating drops to 25th in the country when he's pressured, but that's still astounding for a true freshman.
Meanwhile, this is the best Clemson offensive line in the Dabo Sweeney era. But the unit will have its hands full against Quinnen Williams, Anfernee Jennings, Raekwon Davis, Christian Miller, Isaiah Buggs, and a batch of funky blitz looks. That defensive group will need to get to Lawrence for Bama to claim the title.
In fact, in the eight games I charted with Lawrence at the helm, Clemson only gave the ball to the motion man twice! And one of those plays came in garbage time during the semifinal blowout of Notre Dame.
If the running back is 1 yard deeper than the quarterback, expect an inside-zone run attacking the A and B gaps.
If the back is hip to hip with the quarterback or on his heels, look for a perimeter run attacking the C-gaps - an outside zone, quarterback zone, or quarterback wrap.
If the running back is farther forward, in front of the quarterback or acting as a sniffer, expect a run to really stretch the field, attacking the C or D gaps - a sweep, stretch, or quarterback zone/power run.
Jot those down and see if you can impress your watch party by calling out plays before they unfold, Tony Romo style (I am no fun at parties).
Now, I know you're thinking it can't be that easy - but it can! And that's part of the beauty of Clemson's system. It's rarely, if ever, evolved. But just because you know what's coming doesn't mean you can stop it. It's a form of football schadenfreude for Dabo and Co.
Alabama presents a different challenge, however. Clemson typically gets away with being so obvious because it has better players than its opponent. And even when you know what’s coming, all the motion and movement can be discombobulating when conducted at hyper speed.
The Tide simply munches up athletes-in-space offenses because - just like the Tigers - their athletes are usually better than the opponent's.
So, it will be fascinating to see how much self-reflection the Clemson offense does heading into Monday night. Do the Tigers stick with their tendencies ("this is what we do best, so just try to stop it") or will they avoid tipping their cards against a rare defense that can match up man to man?
The answer could make all the difference.
"Why not bring a comic convention to Corpus Christi?" he thought while walking around with his children. "Everybody loves this stuff."
The idea struck Daniel Benavides in an aisle at Toys R Us last August.
The following Monday, Benavides, who has worked and attended numerous comic conventions, reached out to friend and local businessman Ryan Romel to help him bring the Corpus Christi Comic Con to the Coastal Bend.
The inaugural event will be Saturday and Sunday at the Richard M. Borchard Regional Fairgrounds and feature former Power Rangers, comic book TV characters, animé voice actors and World Wrestling Entertainment stars.
"This stuff" Benavides was referring to is the explosion of comic book culture into mainstream pop culture, and it's more than Batman, Superman and Spider-Man.
Since 2000, there have been 33 live-action feature films based on Marvel Comics and 16 based on D.C. Comics.
This year alone, "Wonder Woman," "Logan," "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2," and "Spider-Man: Homecoming" have grossed $1.2 billion in the United States alone, according to Box Office Mojo.
"Corpus Christi is ready," Benavides said. "We want the Corpus Christi Comic Con to be everything it can be, and we have a ton of ideas. But we have to walk before we run."
Corpus Christi Comic Con will be one of the largest events at the fairgrounds with about 340 tables needed for vendors, celebrity guests and comic artists, he said.
"Being in the comic con world, I've seen the good and I've seen the 'really bad,'" he said. "We don't want to be the 'really bad.' "
Promotion started almost immediately with sponsored Facebook advertisements and other social media posts. The social media engagement strategy was key in getting future attendees hyped and tuned in for celebrity announcements, Romel said.
Trips to the Victoria Comic Con, South Texas Comic Con in McAllen, Alamo City Comic Con and Fan Expo Dallas were necessary to figure out where Corpus Christi's own convention would fit in the state mix of fanboys and fangirls.
"We wanted to do the homework and really learn what fans want," Benavides said. "It's not a new idea, but it's a new idea in Corpus Christi."
The event will have the makings of a traditional comic convention with comic books, animation, movies, TV shows, cosplay (fans who dress in costumes) and more. The first convention was in San Diego in 1970 and was created for fans of comics, movies and science fiction. It is still the largest American comic convention.
San Diego International Comic Con drew 135,000 fans in 2016. Its 2017 convention also is this weekend.
Austin St. John, the original Red Power Ranger, will be one of the guest celebrities in Corpus Christi. He will host a Power Rangers panel and be available for photos, autographs and conversations.
"I've been to quite a few conventions in the last three years, but before that I was gone from the industry for 23 years," St. John said. "All over the world, I have been astounded to see the love and support from fans. To see them smile at their own memories of watching the show brought back the true love and apprecia...
The convention circuit has drawn St. John back to acting because he has seen the impact that shows and movies have on people.
"Pop culture is full of passionate people who are just now finding their voice and standing up to talk about it and show their support for it," he said. "Nerds, geeks, goths... everybody is finding a place where they're not afraid to speak their voice, and I think that's great."
Benavides, Romel and third partner Jon Garcia want to have something for everyone, not only a niché market or subculture.
"If you make an adult show that's not for families, parents might stay away. It'll be safe, but fun, for everybody" Benavides said. "But you can't have a comic con without the comics."
The comic convention concept isn't new to Corpus Christi.
Since 2005, RealmsCon, an animé and character convention, has progressed from 700 people in a small hotel convention room to more than 6,000 guests at the American Bank Center last year.
Daniel Velasquez, the founder of RealmsCon, has seen his convention grow in attendance every year. He said 40 percent of attendees come from out of town with the furthest from Australia.
RealmsCon, which will be Oct. 6-8 at the American Bank Center, is a multi-genre convention but caters to animé lovers.
"Getting started is the biggest hurdle to go through, especially nowadays, when money is tight," Velasquez said. "We started out of our own pocket with no help from anywhere or loans. It's a gamble, but any kind of business is."
The Corpus Christi Comic Con isn't catering to any genre specifically but did pay attention to what locals enjoy, which is where the WWE stars Kevin Nash, Booker T and Karlee Perez come in.
"Corpus is a wrestling town, and the wrestling fans here are passionate," Benavides said. "The excitement around the show signifies that we're doing something right,"
With only a few days until Benavides' big idea goes into action, he said he feels like throwing up every day. But the excitement is palpable.
"I love this community, love the local businesses," he said. "I see the passion."
Everything you need to know about this weekend’s Corpus Christi Comic Con, including celebrity guests, panels and events and photo opportunities. VivaCC, inside.
Share your Comic Con photos on social media using #VivaCC.
BALFOUR Beatty has sold its 50 per cent stake in Royal Blackburn Hospital to HICL Infrastructure Company Limited.
HICL, which has owned half of the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) scheme since the hospital was built in 2006, has now bought all of the shares.
In doing so it has acquired East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust’s 38-year contract with Consort Healthcare.
Trust bosses said the change would not affect patients.
The trust is five years into the PFI deal, which will see it pay back an estimated £680million in interest.
The contract was created when Royal Blackburn Hospital was built by Balfour Haden Joint Venture, a partnership between Balfour Beatty Construction and Haden Young, who are both subsidiaries of Balfour Beatty, a UK-based civil engineering company.
The £113million project was carried out on behalf of Consort HealthCare, an investment body also owned by Balfour Beatty, who became East Lancashire Hospitals’ PFI partners.
Under the terms of the contract Consort was responsible for all repairs and running the hospitals car park, which brings in around half a million pounds a year from staff and the public.
Jonathan Wood, the trust’s director of finance, said its PFI contract and repayments would not be affected by the latest move.
He said: “Nothing changes in the contract as this is purely a change to share ownership.
A Balfour Beatty spokesman said the sale was part of a wider capital recycling programme announced by the group last year.
HICL, a Guernsey-based investment firm previously known as HSBC Infrastructure Company Limited, said it had completed the acquisition of “an incremental 50 per cent equity and loan note interest”.
It said the combined outlay of the Blackburn deal and buying a 75 per cent stake in another PFI hospital project in Sheffield was £19million, which it said “was funded by its existing cash and debt resources”.
A BBC investigation in April claimed that HICL was sending payments from its PFI agreements into an offshore ‘tax haven’.
In six months last year HICL made more than £38m profit from its 33 PFI schemes and paid £100,000 in UK tax, equating to less than half of one per cent of the profits.
HICL said it was subject to UK tax laws, and that the profits had been paid to mostly UK shareholders.
HSBC, which helped form HICL, said it set up the scheme to give people a chance to invest in PFI projects.
This time last year, Feedback revelled in revelations that vestigial muscles in your ears attempt to point toward the source of loud noises (15 December 2015). Now we can relay more charming news, this time revealed in the PLoS One paper “Facial Indicators of Positive Emotions in Rats“.
The researchers note that while negative stimuli have been used to decode unhappy rat expressions, nobody had yet recorded whether happy rats break into a smile.
By tickling 15 giddy test subjects, they found that a happy rat’s ears become “significantly pinker”. It’s an important new measure for animal welfare, and good news for any rodent-powered sleighs finding their way through a foggy Christmas Eve.
FEEDBACK has been mulling over the best strategies to overcome the universe’s appetite for single socks, a crucial matter when we’re digging out our stockings to hang by the fire.
THANK goodness for Sondre Jacobsen, who reports he has been performing a longitudinal study on just this issue. Sondre tells us he has been purchasing batches of 100 pairs of identical socks to find out how quickly they fade to the point of no longer matching as pairs.
Casting aside single socks as they fall out of favour with the rest, Sondre finds it takes five years for a cohort of socks to reach “a critical level” of just 10 matching pairs.
For his more discerning partner, who demands a closer match in their hosiery, the interval is less than two years before a fresh batch must be purchased. Well, at least we know what to buy them for Christmas.
WE ARE alerted to an entry in BMJ Case Reports, revealing that a 63-year-old woman was taken to hospital after drinking what she thought was an insomnia-curing herbal tea made from comfrey leaves.
Doctors at King’s College Hospital in London were able to identify the leaves as foxglove, a highly poisonous plant with a superficial resemblance to comfrey. The woman recovered, and was advised – redundantly we imagine – to seek out the market vendor who sold her the toxic tea.
Feedback wonders how this could happen, with the UK’s Psychoactive Substances Bill having outlawed the sale of such agents? Should we expect police raids on farmers’ markets in the coming year? Watch this space.
GOODWILL among men: John Meachen has been browsing through London Under London: A subterranean guide, which he notes is written by Richard Trench and Ellis Hillman. “How one under and one above could cooperate, is, I suppose, encouraging,” says Meachen.
TED WEBBER notes that our feature examining the roots of chronic pain (26 November, p 34) relates the travails of the appositely named (though she might wish otherwise) Emma Payne.
VETERAN readers may recall that British consumers were once encouraged to “go to work on an egg”. Now some Japanese people are being encouraged to stay in with noodles. Following a spate of high-profile accidents involving elderly drivers, police in Aichi prefecture are offering discount coupons for local noodle bars t...
Will road safety officers taste success with their noodly initiative? Stay tuned.
STARMAN Buzz Aldrin was rushed to hospital after falling ill while on an expedition to Antarctica. TIME magazine notes that the medic treating the Apollo astronaut in Christchurch, New Zealand, is one Dr David Bowie.
AND on that note, it’s only left for us to thank you for all the wonderful delights you’ve sent Feedback over the last year. See you in 2017, folks!
1. Would you rather have a friend who loses your books, or one who dog-ears them?
2. Would you rather secretly love a book everyone else hates, or secretly hate a book everyone else loves?
3. Would you rather be stuck on a very long plane or train ride without a book?
4. Would you rather have dinner with your favorite author or your favorite character?
5. Would you rather date a character you have a crush on or your crush from real life?
6. Would you rather have your favorite book turned into a movie, or your favorite movie turned into a book?
7. Would you rather read a book with an annoying cliffhanger, or one where your favorite character is killed off?
8. Would you rather lose the ability to read any new books, or the ability to reread books you've already read?