Can Colt McCoy play mistake-free football for the first time this season? (Image: Austin Chronicle)
Texas and [tag]Oklahoma State[/tag]. On Halloween. Night.
Expect craziness.
The Horns and Cowboys always play exciting, heart attack inducing games but there should be no excuse for overlooking a very good Oklahoma State team this year. If the Longhorns show up and play well, the path to a possible national title shot only gets clearer from here.
Spooky things happen on All Hallows’ Eve, read on to discover to find out if the editors of 40 Acres Sports think the Horns will receive King Size Butterfingers or if Greg Davis will end up with his house covered in toilet paper…
Brian – Finally Texas comes out strong against Oklahoma State, but the Cowboys are too good for the Horns to run away with this thing and keep things relatively close. [tag]Colt McCoy[/tag] and the offense will click again but things won’t be as easy as they were against [tag]Missouri[/tag]. The Texas defense will come up with 3 turnovers but give up offensive turnovers and a couple big plays will allow OSU to stay within striking defense until the 4th quarter. Texas 31, Oklahoma State 16
Ross – Well, some one in orange will be happy tonight. Wow, I was not expecting the offense output last week. Colt McCoy and the offense line was solid versus the tigers last week. I expect the same offense tenacity against the cowboys no matter what type of defense that the pokes throw at us. Remember that good guys wear white. Texas 38, Oklahoma State 17
Longhorns have struggled and fallen behind huge seemingly every year against Oklahoma State, this year they’re playing on Halloween so things could be even scarier.
Link: Any Candy For Pokes?
Roddrick Muckelroy and the Texas D will try to shut down Zac Robinson's arm and legs. (Image: InsideTexas)
This week Texas faces possibly their toughest remaining test against [tag]Oklahoma State[/tag] on the road. The Cowboys have rebounded from an early season loss and are sitting at 6-1 and ranked number 14. In years past the Longhorns have let the Cowboys get out to leads and had to stage remarkable comebacks, what must the Horns do tonight to keep that from happening again?
1. Try not to fall behind by 28 points.
This is a simple one. Cut it out. I know it’s Oklahoma State, but that doesn’t mean you have to fall behind big early and then stage a giant comeback. Seriously. It’s bad for my health.
2. Don’t be surprised by Zac Robinson’s mobility.
Zac Robinson is easily the best quarterback the Longhorns have faced this season (eight plays from an 80% strength Sam Bradford doesn’t count) and he’s also the most mobile. In a lot of ways the Cowboys’ QB is similar to Texas’ [tag]Colt McCoy[/tag], efficient throwing the football and the ability to beat you with his feet. He might not have the top end speed McCoy does, but he certainly can scramble to make plays throwing and beat you with repeated 5-10 yard runs after avoiding a sack. [tag]Will Muschamp[/tag] loves to bring the blitz, especially early in the game, but can’t sell out or Robinson could run wild in the open secondary.
3. Throw it deep to Malcolm Williams.
The move to insert receivers [tag]Malcolm Williams[/tag] and [tag]Marquise Goodwin[/tag] into the starting lineup last week against [tag]Missouri[/tag] worked perfectly. They combined for 9 catches and the moves allowed [tag]Jordan Shipley[/tag] to have a huge day back in his old spot inside. This week against the Cowboys the Horns should open things up even more and take at least three deep shots to Williams. Making opposing defenses respect a deep threat will make it easy for McCoy to find open guys underneath and for the run game to find big running lanes.
Oklahoma State running back Kendall Hunter will be able to play against Texas this Saturday. He’s only played in two games so far this season and is still not 100%, but head coach Mike Gundy says he could get 8 – 10 touches during the game.
Posted October 30th, 2009 by Brian
Filed under: Feature, Football, Recruiting
Demarco Cobbs, Oklahoma's best player, is coming to Texas to play football. (Image: TigerRag)
Yesterday the Texas Longhorns received a surprise commitment from Oklahoma athlete [tag]Demarco Cobbs[/tag], the top player in the state and one of the best athletes in the 2010 class. Cobbs was on Texas’ radar earlier in the year but this commit comes completely out of left field. He’s been committed to [tag]Tennessee[/tag] since September and his name had not been mentioned at all recently on Texas recruiting sites in some time.
Cobbs could play receiver, safety, or linebacker for the Horns. Some are wondering with the odd circumstances if Cobbs is a solid commit, but he sounds solid when talking to ESPN’s Gerry Hamiliton below:
“In the beginning, Texas was always my dream school,” said Cobbs, who is the No. 17 player in the ESPNU 150. “I was being recruited by Texas in the beginning and wanted to commit, but it was before they started taking commitments. Then things just didn’t happen then. We started talking about a month ago. I had been talking to Coach (Bruce) Chambers the most. I exchanged e-mails with coach (Mack) Brown and had been talking with a few of the Texas coaches. It’s nothing against Tennessee. Even when I committed, I really wasn’t for sure. I always had Texas in the back of my mind.”
The switch came as a surprise, but Cobbs simply followed his heart in switching to his childhood favorite Texas.
“I grew up watching Texas and wanting to play there,” Cobbs said. “It’s not too far away from home, and I can’t go wrong going to a place that is great every year that also provides a great education too. It’s where I want to be.”
The Tennessean is reporting that the Titans have benched quarterback Kerry Collins and Texas legend [tag]Vince Young[/tag] will make the start Sunday versus the Jaguars. The Titans are 0-6 and Vince is due big money if the team wants to keep him after this season, it is only logical that the team throws him out there for the final 10 games of the season to see what he can do.
WTH?! (What the Heck?) moments are attempts to find the memorable and the off-beat perspective on Longhorns sports. Here are some interesting moments from the Texas’ game against the Missouri Tigers.
WRs Jordan Shipley and Marquise Goodwin were part of resurgent offense. (Statesman.com)
Pregame WTH McCoy?! Great game by [tag]Colt McCoy[/tag] who finished with 26 of 31 for 269 yards 3 TD’s and 1 interception. He nailed it during the pregame stretching when he was yelling at the team “this is our house, from the very beginning… lets go.” Colt knew exactly what he was talking about by leading the team to three straight scoring drives to put the Tigers away.
1st Quarter (8:08) WTH Mack?! Gutsy call by Mack Brown to order up a fake punt on 4th down on their own 47 yard line. Texas was only up one score and the message that was sent to the Tigers was it was going to be the Horns day.
Start of the 2nd Quarter WTH Mizzou fans?! It was Mizzou’s homecoming that they claim to have started back in 1911. Never new a simple call from the office of the president at Missouri to come back and watch a football game was such a momentous occasion. Wow, way to fire up the football fans with bringing out former MU basketball player Steve Stipanovich (1,836 points & 984 rebounds from 80-83). Let’s bring out our stud UT LaSalle Thompson (1,463 points & 1,027 rebounds from 79-82) next time the Tigers come to Austin.
2nd Quarter (:51) WTH Herbstreit?! You may not be good at predicting winners on the Gameday set early that morning in Provo (3-6), but you sure good at predicting UT scores. Kirk Herbstreit was wondering what the score was last year between the two teams at half. As soon as Kirk remembered the score (35-3), UT [tag]Curtis Brown[/tag] broke through to block the Mizzou punt in the end zone which was recovered by [tag]Malcolm Williams[/tag] to make the score 35-7 (eerily similar).
Start of the 3rd Qt. WTH ABC?! Great call by the television truck to cue up the Dave Matthews song “Too Much” with highlights from the first half which was all Longhorns.
3rd Quarter (5:45) WTH Smith?! Mizzou’s outstanding defensive player Aldon Smith had a tremendous night (11 tackles and 2 sacks). Too bad he added a bone headed play by hitting Colt out bounds (personal foul – 15 yard penalty) which caused Mack Brown to hyperventilate with the franchise lying on the sidelines.
Whole Game WTH Offensive Line?! [tag]Kyle Hix[/tag], [tag]Michael Huey[/tag], [tag]Chris Hall[/tag], [tag]Charlie Tanner[/tag] and [tag]Adam Ulatoski[/tag] who started the game and the rest of the big uglies should be lauded for a physical and dominant performance with the Horns gaining 400 total yards and scoring 41 points.
Next up for the Longhorn’s is a visit to Stillwater to take on Oklahoma State at 7pm on Halloween night.
Finally, some sense coming out of the Tennessee Titans. Team owner Bud Adams has told local media that he wants Texas ex [tag]Vince Young[/tag] to start at quarterback for the Titans this weekend. Head coach Jeff Fisher is apparently still interested in being awful with an old bad QB with no future than finding out what your possible future is capable of. Watch:
Former Texas running back [tag]Cedric Benson[/tag] had a huge 189-yard performance against the team that dumped him. Against the Bears he rushed for a career high in yards on 37 carries and now leads the league in rushing yards.
The BCS standings for the week have been released and the Texas Longhorns are still sitting at number 3. The team’s impressive win over Missouri did earn the Horns a few first place votes and overall points in the human polls, and that gain allowed the Horns to gain ground on both [tag]Florida[/tag] and [tag]Alabama[/tag] in the BCS standings.
Iowa and TCU made big jumps in the rankings but Texas should still control their own destiny. As we see every Saturday, anything can happen so just worry about what you can control between the lines. Keep winning and the rest should take care of itself.
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