When DeAndre McNeal was at Texas, he asked offensive coordinator Sterlin Gilbert for a copy of the playbook. Gilbert didn’t give him one. He didn’t have one to give. There was no playbook.
Gilbert — a descendant of the Art Briles coaching tree and purveyor of the up-tempo, spread scheme popularized by Briles at Baylor — had a scheme, but not on paper.
“‘What do you mean there’s no playbook?’” McNeal, now a receiver at Florida Atlantic, asked Gilbert. “‘Look, this offense is so simple, but it’s so hard to defeat that you don’t need it.