My live, random thoughts from the Texas versus [tag]Louisiana Lafayette[/tag] game. Hopefully we play a little better tonight than Oklahoma did today. (Go Horned Frogs!)
First quarter
- It’s got to be tough for these ULL kids to be playing after all they’ve been through over the past week. Lafayette didn’t really get hit by Hurricane Katrina but you know that a lot of these kids are probably originally from New Orleans and the surrounding area. Donate to the Red Cross and help out anyway you can.
- Throwbacks look good. Love the helmets and jerseys. Little weird not to have names on the back of jerseys, especially tough in the first game when I don’t know everyone’s new numbers yet. I’ll have to be checking the roster often.
- The black shoes make us look slow. Even Vince looks like he’s plodding along a little bit.
- Selvin Young looks much bigger than he did a year ago.
- The defensive front just ran over the ULL offensive line. All sorts of pressure on the QB and penetration on running plays.
- Henry Melton is a big old boy, I look forward to watching him run over some people in short yardage situations this year.
- We are in deep #@*$ at field goal kicker right now. And a long return on the ensuing kickoff. We need special teams help in a hurry.
- How does ULL have a better field goal kicker than us? At least we’ve looked a little exciting on kick returns.
- LOVE the speed option on third and short. Has to be scary to opposing defenses. Jamaal Charles needs to put the football in the outside arm.
- Great to see the two true freshmen backs (Charles and Melton) getting in there early. Touchdown for Charles on a nice easy off tackle play to the left. Looked good.
- Just noticed Larry Dibbles for the first time. Good to see the rumors about him having academic issues was just a rumor. We’ll need him this year and our depth at DT should be one of our biggest strengths.
- Speaking of depth, I just saw Thomas Marshall in there already. We must be rotating a ton of people. He’s probably the fifth string defensive tackle.
- Aaron Harris just caused his first forced fumble of the year, he’s got a long way to go to catch up to DJ’s total from last year. He’s playing really well right now, really disruptive.
- Good catch by Nathan Jones, helped VY out a little on a ball thrown behind him. With all the talk about his passing skills, he had very little help from his wide receivers last year.
- That may be first pass down field I’ve seen Ramonce Taylor catch as a receiver. That’s at least three touches he’s had already here early in the game.
- The first Quan Cosby sighting. I think the depth and talent at WR is going to be a big difference between this season and last. Lots of guys to throw to and Dave Thomas as the go to guy.
First quarter is over and Texas leads 13 – 3. Very, very good showing on offense and defense and a very shaky start on special teams. So far I like what we’re doing on offense a lot. Mixing things up, spreading the ball around. Letting Vince move around a little and throw the ball in the intermediate level.
Second Quarter
Taylor in the game at tailback now. Two carries in a row. So far today he’s been on the field a ton and touched the ball on two reverses, a reception down field, and two runs out of the backfield. I love it.- Crap, Selvin Young is hurt. Looks like they may just be taping it up, because it looked like just a student trainer was with him. If it was more serious he’d have a doctor or six looking at it. Cross your fingers.
- Yep, they’re just retaping it. Hopefully it’s not a recurring thing though.
- Vince just had all day to throw and made a great decision and throw to find Nate Jones for a ten yard touchdown. If you give him that kind of time he’s going to absolutely kill you one way or another.
- I think I’m going to vomit. I’m going to close my eyes next time we try to kick the damn thing. Richmond McGee looks terrible. What happened to Brian Carter holding? Why is Matt Nordgren doing it? We could find a drunken frat boy former soccer player in the stands who can kick extra points. Let’s let McGee kick off, punt, and maybe kick long field goals and just go for two the rest of the time.
- Pass coverage is a little lacking right now. Little too much space between the ULL receivers and our DB’s right now. Might be okay if we keep getting this much pass rush though.
- Selvin Young is back in. He’s definitely lost a step and gained some muscle, as the year wears on I expect he’ll lose a little of that weight and regain some of his quickness. Until then, Charles is our homerun threat.
- It’s a thing of beauty to see Vince hitting a wide open Brian Carter down the middle of the field. Greg Davis, if you open up the offense like this and spread the ball around against Ohio State and OU, I’ll kiss you.
- Selvin runs with the ball in the wrong damn hand. Another fumble (though they ruled he was down) and Mack Brown immediately pulls his butt off the field.
- Wooo! That was a pretty play. Charles off tackle to the right flips it back to Taylor coming back the other direction and he scoots for a thirty yard touchdown. We’re definitely giving the Buckeyes a thing or two to worry about and have to gameplan for.
- Holy balls this is embarrassing. That should be McGee’s last attempt this year. At least find someone who won’t make his lineman’s butts sore when he kicks the darn thing.
- I almost wish we’d stop scoring so we’d stop having to kick extra points. Nice pass by Young to a wide open David Thomas in the endzone. McGee actually makes the kick!!! Classic celebration by Will Allen running off the field. He looked like we had just made the kick that won the Rose Bowl again.
- Good to see Vince Young fired up and running hard. We’ve got a big lead in a meaningless game and he’s still working his butt off and excited about it. He’s looked real good throwing the ball too, not perfect but I think almost every ball he’s thrown has been catchable. Except for that one just now out the back of the endzone. It was a good play though to throw it only where our guy had a chance though and not turn the ball over.
- Whoa, that was just a screen play to a running back not named Brett Robin. Looked real good to get Charles out there in open space.
- The David Thomas All-American campaign is under way. Three catches for 34 yards and two touchdowns.
- Extra point time. I’m gonna close my eyes, someone tell me if we make it.
That’s the end of the first half with Texas leading 39 to 3. I’ve been very impressed with the offense and the defensive front seven. Let’s hope next week Vince can do the same things passing with a lot less time to throw. We better blow people out every game this year, or else our special teams will cost us a game or two.
Third quarter
Texas A&M is playing Clemson on ABC right now and just had a punt returned against them for a TD to go down 10 to 3. Wish that game (or ours) had been in the mid-afternoon lull so I could’ve watched both games.
It’ll be interesting to see how much the starters play in this half. You don’t want to rub it in against ULL and you don’t want anyone hurt, but you’ve got to get your team ready for next week. I imagine we’ll see at least a couple series out of the first series.
- Good sounding hit by Michael Griffin on first play of the half. Don’t want your players to be leading with their helmet, you’re going to get yourself or someone else hurt. Shoot, the ULL player is still down. You just can’t do that, it’s too dangerous.
- What on Earth are they reviewing? The receiver barely even touched the ball, let alone caught it. So far this week I’ve been very disappointed with the replay system across the country. Saw a play or two Thursday was reversed that shouldn’t have been. Oh, they were reviewing that? They just wanted to check on whether there was a penalty. That makes more sense, but it was kind of useless.
- Why are the announcers shocked the starters are in on the first series of the second half? The lead is pretty big, but you’ve got to play your guys and get them ready. It would be different if this was week 5. We played a ton of backups in the first half anyways.
- Bad throw/decision by Vince. Tried to throw a ball downfield to Brian Carter who was covered tightly. It looks like it was also underthrown a little. Interception number one and not needed at all.
- Good punt return from Aaron Ross, almost broke it all the way. I think the disappointment of a returner who was just tripped up by the punter or kicker is one of the more amusing things in sports.
- Vince just tweaked his shoulder. Short touchdown run and was very slow to get up. Crap. Nobody working on him on the sideline though, hopefully it’s nothing. It’s Nordgren/Colt McCoy time.
- I love Henry Melton. I don’t give a crap if there’s a hold, he’s a big, scary SOB running the football.
- Well he got his touchdown anyways, wow. Great looking kid with the ball in his hands.
Fourth quarter
- Jamaal Charles is making a bid to be this team’s starting running back, or at least to get his fair share of the carries. He’s looked real electric tonight.
- Henry Melton is a beast! Another tough run for a touchdown. Man is he fun to watch.
- The 2nd and 3rd team defensive linemen that are in there right now aren’t really getting any pressure on the ULL QB. They have all day to throw.
- I’m surprised with the number of personal fouls ULL has picked up, it’s not like this is a rivalry game or anything.
- A&M is down 16 to 10 midway through the 3rd quarter. (I’m flipping back and forth now with that game.)
- A lot of walk-ons on the field right now. Matthew McCoy is in there at QB instead of true freshman Colt McCoy. I’m guessing we give Colt a little more practice time before deciding whether or not we should burn his redshirt this season. He’ll be the guy who has to step in if (heaven forbid) Vince Young leaves after this season so he needs to be ready.
Final thoughts
That’s the ballgame. The team looked good on offense, showing a lot of different things running and passing. I’m very excited about all the options that players like Ramonce Taylor and Jamaal Charles give us, should add another facet to our gameplan. They can score on any play. The defense also looked pretty good too, although I think they kept things pretty basic. The line dominated and the linebackers were flying all over the place. The only negative, and it’s a big one, is how abysmal the field goal kicking looked. Richmond McGee looked really bad on his first three extra point kicks, really bad. It’ll be interesting (in a horribly scary way) to see what we do in the kicking game next week in Columbus.
Final score: Texas 60, Lousiana Lafayette 3
reply to #1
Matt
September 5th, 2005 at 11:49 am
I don’t think Melton can be tackled.
If we can’t get the kicking game in order before next week, that puts us at a big disadvantage. Against OSU’s defense, fields goals will probably be important. Scary stuff.
reply to #2
Brian
September 6th, 2005 at 7:50 am
I definitely think that Melton will be a big advantage in short yardage this year. Just imagine how tough it’ll be for opponents to bring him down when we only need a yard or two. Plus, after he makes his name doing that can you imagine running Vince on a bootleg after faking the Melton inside dive? Scary.
As for the kicking game… ugh. We’ve got to at least make extra points, I can handle not being able to make a 45+ yard field goal. But we’ve got to be money on extra points and field goals 35 yards and in.