Quarterback – Overall Grade: A

After ‘s 5 touchdown performance in the Rose Bowl, there is no surprise that he entered this season as one of the top contenders for the Heisman Trophy. With all of that pressure, I was interested to see how he would perform. I think it is safe to say that Young did not disappoint. Young finished the game with an efficient 13-17 for 173 yards. He looked to be very comfortable throwing the ball and you could tell he has gained a lot of confindence this past off-season. played for most of the second half but did not attempt a single pass attempt. He did scramble a few times, showing off an interesting technique of gaining more yards when going out of bounds.

Running Backs – Overall Grade: A+

Texas appears to have a full stable of speedy and powerful tailbacks to compliment quarterback Vince Young this year. Freshman running backs and had a huge impact on the game, with Charles running for 135 yards and 1 score and Melton running for 65 yards and 2 scores. I swear it looked like Melton couldn’t be tackled. A bigger and quicker added 65 yards and speedster also added 65 yards. With a total of 418 yards, I would say things are definitely looking good for the Texas running game.

Receivers / Tight Ends – Overall Grade: B

was up to his usual self, making big plays and scored 2 touchdowns on 3 catches. With his 2 touchdowns, David Thomas moved into fifth place all-time at Texas for a tight end with his 51th career reception. Senior also help out by setting a career high with three receptions against the Ragin’ Cajuns for 65 yards, matching his previous career total of three receptions in only the first half. , , and also performed well, with Nate Jones scoring his first career touchdown. It was nice to see some consistency in this group and I look forward to seeing them improve this year.

Offensive Line – Overall Grade: A+

Considering that Selvin Young, Jamaal Charles, Henry Melton, Ramonce Taylor and Vince Young averaged 9.5 yards per carry, I would say that the offensive line did pretty well on Saturday. (fellow Plano East grad) led the offensive line who just totally dominated Louisana Lafayette. Hopefully they keep the same aggressiveness next Saturday against OSU.

Defensive Line – Overall Grade: A

From the first series on offense for Louisiana Lafayette, it was pretty apparent that they were not going to be able to accomplish. Rod Wright, , and dominated Louisiana’s offensive line and disrupted about everything they did. In a nice surprise on the line, redshirt freshman stripped Louisiana-Lafayette quarterback Jerry Babb for his first career forced fumble.

Linebackers – Overall Grade: B

Redshirt sophomore had a huge game, recording 7 tackles and recording his first ever sack. , , and played solid games under the new defensive coordinator . Texas definitely lost a game-breaking player in Derrick Johnson, but this linebacking crew should be able to keep up with any offense they see this year.

Secondary – Overall Grade: B+

had a pretty impressive game intercepting a pass in the second quarter, continuing his improvement from spring camp. All 3 Griffin’s played impressive games in the secondary, with a couple big hits on Louisiana’s receivers.

Special Teams – Overall Grade: C-

Now before we get into the kicking game, let me talk about the bright spots on the return game. Aaron Ross had 5 punt returns for 106 yards, breaking one for 52 yards in the 3rd quarter. also added an impressive kickoff return for 34 yards. The kicking game, however, was a totally different story. went 1 for 4 on his first 4 PAT attempts. That is just ridiculous. I am fine with having some question marks with 45+ field goal attempts, but anything inside 35 yards should be solid. This is something that definitely needs to be corrected before the OSU game for us to have a shot.

Overall – Overall Grade: A-

There is definitely some room for improvement, but overall I would say that this was a pretty good performance for the first game of the year. I really wish that we had a little bit better competition to tune-up for OSU, but not much we can do about that. Next week will be the true test to see if this team is ready for another trip to the Rose Bowl. I would have given the team an A if it weren’t for the 3 missed PAT’s. I hope next week I am giving the team an A+.

Offense

OL – Big improvement over last year. Best tackle tandem in the nation and a ton of attitude from the guards. We lose Jason Glynn but should be a very capable replacement.

QB – will be better in every facet, depth is much worse and scary as hell. Young must reduce his mistakes. If he can cut his interceptions in half this year (he had 10 last year), the Longhorns’ offense will be tough to stop.

TB – Pretty big drop off overall but I think statistically they’ll still be pretty good. Will they be able to get the difficult yards against the OSU’s and OU’s of the world? I expect big plays out of and that could really break open some games.

FB – Worse at lead blocking and therefore will be de-emphasized. Still serviceable though. I think the position will be back next year (with Marcus Myers, , and Michael Houston) and will be more versatile than we’ve seen in the past.

TE – Improved in single TE sets with having an All-American season, and improved blocking when is in there. Pass-catching threat out of 2 TE sets will be down, especially early in the year as true freshman gets acclimated.

WR – Up a notch from last year’s group, but that isn’t saying all that much. All the young guys have improved (some obviously more than others, especially ) and the more time a QB and his WR’s get together the better. The additions of a hopefully healthy and a quickly improving could be huge.

Defense

DL – A lot better if is with us (academic eligibility rumors are swarming) but I’m excited by the idea of a healthy and together. Starting ends should be improved and the backups should be able to contribute to the pass rush.

LB – Big improvement at two spots and an even bigger drop off at the other. More blitzing and more sacks, but fewer turnovers forced unless converted safety goes INT crazy. You can’t expect to replace Derrick Johnson but overall I think we’ll all be very happy with the play out of these three spots this season.

DB – Corners are improved and safeties will be by the end of the year. Mike Griffin needs experience but he’s got the potential to be better than Phillip Geiggar was last year. We need sure tackling from the entire secondary and to limit our stupid decisions. More pressure on opposing QB’s from the front seven will make their job much easier. Depth is some of the best in the country.

Special Teams

FG/XP – Yikes, everyone has struggled this fall in practice. Whoever is doing the kicking needs to make a few kicks in the early weeks to build some confidence.

Kickoffs – A healthy should mean more touchbacks and more kicks into the right zone. Better coverage because the overall depth of team means better athletes on the coverage teams. Hopefully all the talk of more emphasis on this facet from the coaching staff wasn’t just lip-service.

Kick Returns – Every kickoff should be exciting with Taylor back there. How much will provide if teams kick away from Ramonce? Might see one of the younger guys back there deeper into the year. I expect Cosby to make an appearance at one of the return slots sometime early in the season and it’ll be interesting to see what he’s capable of.

Punting – McGee has gotten better every year and there’s no reason that should change. Hopefully he won’t have to do it very often.

Punt returns – Selvin Young back there should mean fewer fair catches and more big plays, but I’ll be worried about his health everytime too. I don’t want Ramonce back there right now, he scared the crap out of me everytime last year. Get him some returns in mop up time so he’s ready to tear it up next year. Anybody think Pittman deserves a chance to show what he’s got?

Final Thoughts

Almost every spot is either improved or equal to the talent we had on the field last year, so overall we should be a better team. You can’t lose guys like Cedric Benson and DJ and expect to hit the ground running the next season, but that doesn’t mean this team isn’t capable of big things. We’re relying on a lot of young talent and have a huge test early in the year, so the success of this team will hinge a lot on how quickly those guys can become ballplayers.

I’ll post my national and game by game predictions later this week.