Posted August 28th, 2008 by Brian
Filed under: Football, Quick Hits
ESPN has five burning questions for Texas. Secondary, interceptions, running backs, etc.
Position Rating: C+
Starters: Rashad Bobino, Roddrick Muckelroy, Sergio Kindle
Reserves: Jared Norton, Keenan Robinson, Emmanuel Acho
Linebacker has been a position of much consternation for the Longhorns since Derrick Johnson left the 40 Acres. A good way to ruin a perfectly good time last season was to bring up linebacker play around a bunch of Texas fans. This year might be different as there are guys all over the depth chart that have fans excited.
Probably the player the Texas fanbase is most excited about is starting strongside linebacker [tag]Sergio Kindle[/tag]. Fans have been awaiting his arrival since the moment he committed to the Horns back in 2005. Injuries have slowed down his career so far but now as a junior he may be ready to explode on the scene. Backing him up is [tag]Keenan Robinson[/tag], a redshirt freshman who coaches are incredibly high on.
At middle linebacker [tag]Rashad Bobino[/tag] is entering his fourth year starting for the Horns. Bobino isn’t the biggest or most athletic guy but he’s smart and plays well in space. Despite Bobino’s experience he’s being pushed hard by his backup, sophomore [tag]Jared Norton[/tag]. Officially listed as a co-starter, Norton is the prototypical middle linebacker who had to lighten up to be able to run with the many spread offenses in the Big 12. Norton will knock your block off and may play more than Bobino against certain teams and in certain situations.
Starting on the weakside is [tag]Roddrick Muckelroy[/tag]. Muckelroy was a starter back in his redshirt freshman season and has finally earned his spot back late last season in the Holiday Bowl. He moves well but also isn’t afraid to knock your lights out. His athletic potential had Texas fans screaming that he should be in there all last season. Behind Muckelroy is true freshman [tag]Emmanuel Acho[/tag]. Some questioned his recruitment but Sam’s little bro definitely is making the jump from TAPPS to the big leagues look easy.
If I was grading purely on potential this group would be much higher. Bobino is the only player we truly know what he’s capable of, but the talent is most definitely there and if Muck and Kindle come on like they should this unit could actually be a team strength by midseason. This has been a position of weakness for years and a big improvement here would solidify the Horns against both the run and the pass.
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No games have been played since our spring power rankings so there’s not much movement in our preseason big 12 power rankings below. [tag]Baylor[/tag] kicks things off for the conference and the entire country Thursday night when they host Wake Forest and everybody else finally gets underway Saturday. A week from now in our first regular season power rankings things will begin to clear up, but here’s our preseason conference rankings:
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[tag]Oklahoma[/tag]
LW: 1The Sooners are on many lists as a top national title contender and until at least October will likely remain the class of the conference. We won’t learn a thing about them in week one against Chattanooga .
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Texas
LW: 2Muschamp fever is spreading and I’ve definitely caught it. The Texas defensive depth chart is incredibly young but with Muschamp calling the shots there could be a big improvement over last year.
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[tag]Missouri[/tag]
LW: 4Mizzou moves up because I’ve got less and less faith in Texas Tech as we get closer to kickoff. The offense will be great, can Gary Pinkel and the defense hold up their end of the bargain?
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[tag]Texas Tech[/tag]
LW: 3Improved defense? Where? The Red Raiders played four good teams after the coaching change and gave up 41, 59, 27, and 28 points. They’ll be good but they’ll fade again when they hit the tough stretch.
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[tag]Colorado[/tag]
LW: 6I’m not the biggest Darrell Scott fan after his recruitment but I think he’s going to make a big difference for CU starting this season. They’ve got an incredibly tough schedule starting with week one so I wanted to give them some love now because they might drop fast.
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[tag]Nebraska[/tag]
LW: 5I like Bo Pelini but I’m starting to get a bad feeling about his tenure in Lincoln. It’s just incredibly quiet up there and with a program with the history and prestige of Nebraska I don’t think that’s a good thing.
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Texas A&M
LW: 7With the way they’re “recruiting” for 2009 Aggie fans better hope they overachieve this year or Mike Sherman is a coaching god because it’s going to get worse before it gets better. I like Stephen McGee, can he remember how to pass now that he’s in a real offense?
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[tag]Kansas State[/tag]
LW: 8Something is still missing about this team, I thought they’d have turned a corner by now. I’m still glad they’re off our schedule this year. Can Ron Prince and Josh Freeman lead them to any upsets and get them in a bowl game this year?
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[tag]Kansas[/tag]
LW: 9I thought I might be alone on my opinion of the Jayhawks return to the bottom third of the league but I haven’t really seen too many national experts expecting them to come close to repeating this season. We won’t know anything about them till week three.
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[tag]Iowa State[/tag]
LW: 10Probably the easiest schedule of any Big 12 team. They play Iowa in non-conference play but they manage to avoid Texas, Oklahoma, and Texas Tech. Gene Chizik is thanking the scheduling gods every morning.
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[tag]Oklahoma State[/tag]
LW: 11I don’t know what happened to Oklahoma State… oh wait I do: Mike Gundy. As much as I thought Les Miles was a dufus he had the Cowboys headed in the right direction before he left.
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[tag]Baylor[/tag]
LW: 12Art Briles looks like he’s going to put things in true freshman QB Robert Griffin’s hands early and reports are he’ll be a good one. I think Briles’ has the offensive mind to take advantage of his great size and speed.
ESPN’s college football talking head (one of the best) Kirk Herbstreit has released his annual list of best players/coaches/etc. in the country, the Herbie Awards. Just a little bit of love for the Longhorns in his awards, including calling the Longhorns his Big 12 South sleepers. Is that a backhanded compliment? And like most Texas fans, he certainly has a serious man crush on defensive coordinator [tag]Will Muschamp[/tag].
Here’s the Longhorn-related notes:
- Big 12 South Sleeper: Texas
- Defensive Ends – Sack Masters: [tag]Brian Orakpo[/tag]
- Top Defenses And The Geniuses Behind Them: Muschamp
- Head Coaches-In-Waiting: Muschamp
- Favorite Restaurant: El Arroyo
Posted August 26th, 2008 by Brian
Filed under: Football, Quick Hits
EDSBS Caption Contest: Colt McCoy. Sledgehammer + hard hat + football = ???
Position Rating: B-
Starters: Quan Cosby, Jordan Shipley
Reserves: Malcolm Williams, Brandon Collins, James Kirkendoll
The top two guys at wide receiver are as solid as they come but beyond seniors [tag]Quan Cosby[/tag] and [tag]Jordan Shipley[/tag] there’s a big drop-off. The Longhorns will be relying on a group on unproven young players whenever the team goes to a three wide receiver set. There’s talent in that second group but none of the youngsters has stepped up and pulled away from the pack during preseason practice.
After a four year pit stop in minor league baseball Cosby has fulfilled much of the promise he had coming out of high school. He’s been a steady performer in his time at Texas and caught 60 passes for 680 yards during the 2007 season. He’s a surehanded receiver quarterback Colt McCoy and Texas fans can count on to haul in anything near him on an important third down.
As most fans know, Shipley’s biggest issue has been staying healthy. After being injured in both 2004 and 2005, he missed three games last year as well but caught 27 passes for 5 TDs. He is more a downfield threat than Cosby but can still be counted on to actually catch the football.
Cosby and Shipley are both proven commodities but neither stands over six feet tall. The Horns need big [tag]Malcolm Williams[/tag] to step up to play one of the outside spots so Cosby can move inside. Williams has all the tools but as is expected from a redshirt freshman has been inconsistent in practice. If he’s not ready sophomores [tag]James Kirkendoll[/tag] and [tag]Brandon Collins[/tag] have impressed as slot guys.
Greg Davis will also be hoping to give this group a little boost by inserting quarterback [tag]John Chiles[/tag] out wide as part of the “Q Package.†Another lightning quick slot guy Chiles will give the Horns an extra playmaker wherever he is on the field.
Overall the position has a lot of promise but a lot of question marks. If just one of the young wide receivers step up to provide a third option then the passing offense is going to be in much better shape. Cross your fingers that Williams or [tag]Dan Buckner[/tag] becomes a stud quickly.
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Posted August 26th, 2008 by Brian
Filed under: Depth Chart, Football
Football season is so close you can smell it. Less than a week from now the Longhorns will finally take the field for the 2008 season against FAU and today [tag]Mack Brown[/tag] and Co. released the first official depth chart of the year. We wouldn’t be true Texas fans if the first thing we did wasn’t overanalyze and complain about it, so of course we’ve done that below:
General Thoughts
- Lots of OR‘s all over the place like every year. Harder to complain this year because there’s a ton of youngsters on at least one side of the conjunctions.
- Looks like there will also be a lot of situational players as well. There are several places where players (e.g., [tag]Aaron Lewis[/tag]) are listed as co-starters with very different complementary players.
- Lots of youth in general, including several true freshmen. There may be some games this year where you’re yelling at the television set because of the mistakes but 2008 and 2009 should be exciting.
Offense
- No [tag]Malcolm Williams[/tag] anywhere at wide receiver. Not in the top 3 at either flanker or split end. True freshman [tag]Dan Buckner[/tag] right behind [tag]Quan Cosby[/tag] is encouraging but overall no Williams seems like bigger story. Let’s hope the light comes on.
- Former tackle [tag]Greg Smith[/tag] has been back at the position for less than two weeks but he’s already listed ahead of [tag]Peter Ullman[/tag] as the blocking tight end.
- [tag]Michael Huey[/tag] vs. [tag]Cedric Dockery[/tag] vs. [tag]Charlie Tanner[/tag] at guard. Everyone has been raving about Huey throughout fall camp but most believed he’d be cutting into Tanner’s reps not Dockery’s. The general opinion (and we all know that’s never wrong) is that Dockery is the better of the returning guards but Huey is listed behind him. Is there a strategic reason the coaches believe Huey should stay at right guard?
- The 12 names and 5 OR‘s confuse me at running back. What exactly is going on there?
3. Tiger Stadium
Death Valley on a Saturday night has probably the best gameday atmosphere of any college venue in the country. The fans are widely considered the loudest and most passionate, probably due to the fact that they have been drinking and partying all day. And if you ask most college football coaches, this is one of the last places that they would ever want to play a road game.
Built in 1924, the stadium has expanded to an impressive 92,400 seating capacity. In terms of population, that makes Tiger Stadium the sixth largest city in Louisiana on gamedays.
An interesting fact: In a game against Auburn in 1988, when quarterback Tommy Hodson completed a game winning touchdown pass, the subsequent crowd roar registered as an actual earth quake on the LSU seismographs.
Check back soon for our #2 favorite college football stadium.
College football’s best stadiums
Position Rating: B+
Starter: Brian Orakpo, Henry Melton
Reserves: Eddie Jones, Sam Acho, Russell Carter, Aaron Lewis
Even after moving two of the position’s best players inside to defensive tackle, defensive end is still one of the team’s greatest strengths heading into the season. There’s a possible dominant pass rusher in [tag]Brian Orakpo[/tag] and on the other side there’s an interesting battle brewing for the power end. The talent and depth at the position may be the strongest of any position on the team.
Orakpo has all the tools to be a disruptive force off the edge. He had a solid 9 tackles for loss and 5.5 sacks despite only appearing in nine games and not being 100% last season due to a knee injury in the season opener. After an impressive Holiday Bowl performance (4.5 tackles behind the line and 2 sacks) Texas fans are hoping for the same thing for an entire healthy season.
At the power end former running back [tag]Henry Melton[/tag] is currently expected to be the starter but is being pushed by young and extremely talented players behind him. At 6-foot-3 and 265 pounds, if he can play hard every down Melton could play himself into a lot of NFL money this season. If he stumbles there’s a lot of talent ready to step up behind him.
Sophomore [tag]Eddie Jones[/tag] is a former five-star recruit and will split time with Melton to start the year. Jones is the future at the position and I expect him to get a larger and larger share of the snaps as the season progresses regardless of how well Melton performs. Behind Orakpo is exciting sophomore [tag]Sam Acho[/tag]. He didn’t play a ton last year but he showed incredible flashes of ability and a knack at getting after the quarterback during his true freshman season.
Overall defensive end should be a position well stocked with talent for the next several years. This season there’s talent and depth and if guys fulfill their promise it will make a huge difference to the entire defense. If the line can put pressure on the quarterback everyone else’s job gets a lot easier.
Update: Official depth chart for FAU is out and [tag]Aaron Lewis[/tag] is listed as a co-starter with Melton so I’ve added him to the list of reserves.
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Posted August 24th, 2008 by Brian
Filed under: Football, Quick Hits
Longhorn schedule full of talented backs. The top ten running backs Texas will face this season from Orangebloods.
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