40 Acres Sports

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 Owls.

Start of the Game (15:00) WTH UT Students?! Where were you?! You are not allowed to ask your parents to wash your clothes this Thanksgiving. If you do not show up for the game, there will be consequences.

1st Quarter (10:59) WTH Cody?! I am going to overlook the fourth down and 1 scoring chance that you missed, because you scored on the second fourth and 1 at the 8:45 mark of the quarter. Cody Johnson’s hard running (124 yards) at times plus sound blocking from a young offensive line netted 259 total yards of rushing for the game.

2nd Quarter (13:52) WTH GG?! Great protection coupled with a great throw by Garrett Gilbert (263 yards for the game – no int.) to James Kirkendoll produced a 63 yard touchdown. Great job by the offense and Greg Davis of seizing the moment after the blocked FG attempt by the Longhorn defense.

2nd Quarter (:00) WTH Owls Defense?! You only rush three lineman and when the pass is in the air not one of defensive backs even make an attempt to jump for the ball? Great job by Malcolm Williams in going up and making a play!

3rd Quarter (4:26) WTH Davis?! Since we do not run a scheme offense but instead we try to out talent the opposition. Please Greg Davis put our talent, DJ Monroe, out on the field more. Monroe had two straight back to back first down runs before being replaced. He averaged +7 yards a carry for the game with only 6 touches.

4th Quarter (15:00) WTH Acho?! What a tremendous interception for a 57 yard touchdown by Emmanuel Acho. The touchdown sealed the win for the Horns. Emmanuel has been a warrior playing with a huge brace on his leg. It was also great to see brother Sam running alongside. Sam Acho had a tremendous game with 12 tackles, 3 sacks and a fumble recovery.

4th Quarter (4:13) WTH Longhorn Band?! It was great to see the Longhorn Band enjoying themselves towards the end of the game. Members of the Longhorn Band placed their arms around each other and swayed side to side and then jump up-and-down as they sing their own colorful take on a traditional song “Home on the Range”. The opening line is “Home, home on the range, where the deer and the antelope play with themselves.”

Next up for the Longhorn’s are the A&M Aggies in Austin on November 25th.

Thanks for following my WTH articles throughout the season. I appreciate the opportunity to rant about the greatest University sports program in the country. You can continue to follow comments on all of UT sports on twitter at 40AcresSports or follow me at Horns1991. HOOK EM!!

I wouldn’t say that I ever thought the game against [tag]UTEP[/tag] was in jeopardy, but I will admit I was a little worried and/or disappointed that we only carried a 15 point lead going into the 4th quarter. It seemed pretty obvious that Texas was dominating the game, but they just couldn’t put it away until late in the game. And once again we showed our weakness lies in the young secondary, which didn’t really show much improvement from the previous game against [tag]Florida Atlantic[/tag]. Luckily we still have some time before we have to face OU.

Now let’s see how each position fared.

Quarterback – Overall Grade: A-

[tag]Colt McCoy[/tag] had another outstanding game, throwing for 282 yards and 4 touchdowns. Colt’s one interception came in the 3rd quarter when wide receiver Dan Buckner was not able to get off the line against the smaller cornerback. I can’t really blame Colt on that one. Colt spread the ball around well, completing passes to 7 different receivers. I really like the confidence Colt is playing with so far this year and it doesn’t look he will be slowing down anytime soon.

Backup quarterback [tag]John Chiles[/tag] did make a brief appearance in the game, but did not attempt any passes. He did run twice for a measly 5 yards. He was a total non-factor. [tag]Greg Davis[/tag] needs to get him more involved.

Running Backs – Overall Grade: B+

The highlight of the running back group is the emergence of a possible future star, [tag]Fozzy Whittaker[/tag]. Fozzy missed the first game with a knee injury but showed no signs of that against UTEP. Fozzy showed off his great lateral speed and ability to get around the corner in a hurry. He is the perfect compliment to the downhill slasher, [tag]Vondrell McGee[/tag]. Fozzy ended up with 72 yards on 12 carries for an impressive 6.0 yards per rush average. Vondrell ended up with only 6 carriers and 18 yards. He better watch out, the way Fozzy ran Saturday, he better improve his production if he wants to see more action on the field.

Receivers – Overall Grade: A-

If you remember last week I was a little disappointed with [tag]Quan Cosby[/tag]’s performance. Well you can throw all of that away, because this week he had the game of his life against UTEP. Quan caught 8 passes for 154 yards, including one where he completely burned the cornerback for an easy touchdown. Tight end [tag]Blaine Irby[/tag] found the end zone again with a nice leaping touchdown up the middle in the second quarter. [tag]Dan Buckner[/tag] also scored a nice touchdown off of a Colt scramble, but his inability to get a push off of a much smaller corner ended up with Colt’s only interception. Dan has the size, he just needs to learn to be more physical around the goal line. [tag]Chris Ogbonnaya[/tag] continued to show he is always a threat coming out of the backfield and is definitely a nice luxury to have on 3rd downs.

Defense – Overall Grade: C+

So how do you give up only 13 points and still get a C+? By letting a team move the ball on you the whole game. Well ok, maybe not the whole game, but at times UTEP moved the ball down the field with ease. Texas allowed 3 drives over 65 yards, 4 field goal attempts, and 1 touchdown. The young secondary again looked average at best. [tag]Earl Thomas[/tag] is supposed to be the one all of the coaches were impressed with in practice. Well somehow he needs to figure out to translate his success in practice to the field.

The defensive played a decent game, but only started to dominate late in the game when they had finally worn out the UTEP offensive line. [tag]Brian Orakpo[/tag] did end up with 2 sacks, but with their size and speed they should have dominated the whole game. Linebacker [tag]Roddrick Muckelroy[/tag] had a ridiculous game, racking up 14 tackles and returning a fumble 26 yards for a touchdown. Overall the linebackers played pretty decent.

Special Teams – Overall Grade: B+

Quan Cosby had an impressive game at the wide receiver position, but he also made an outstanding play on special teams. Quan caught a missed field goal right on the edge of the endzone and alertly returned the ball all the way to the UTEP 35 yard line. Texas scored easily and basically put away the game right there. The kick-offs were much improved from last week, but that is probably due to the high altitude in El Paso. We’ll see how that goes next week.

Overall – Overall Grade: B+

I give Texas the same rating as last week. Not too great, not too bad. They definitely need to sure up some things in the secondary, but luckily there is some time for them to improve. And besides, right now Colt is on fire and the offense is rolling, so let’s save the worrying for a few more weeks.

Honestly, there really aren’t too many exciting games to watch this weekend. It’s almost like all of college football is waiting for next week’s match-up of USC and Ohio State. The game to watch this weekend has to be Miami at Florida. Florida hasn’t beat Miami in 23 years but will come into this game as huge favorites. Definitely something to watch before the Texas/UTEP game kicks off. Let’s see what else looks good this weekend.

Cincinnati at #4 Oklahoma (O/U 53) – 3:30 PM EST on ABC. After barely breaking a sweat last week against Chattanooga, I am pretty interested in seeing what Oklahoma will do against a real team in Cincinnati. Now I am not saying Cincinnati is a world beater or anything, but they have been making some real improvements in their program and are coming off of a bowl win. Oklahoma looks unstoppable, and the Bearcats run a spread offense, so this game as the potential to be a very high scoring affair. I think this game easily goes over the 53 point total, and probably more around the 70 mark.

Miami (FL) at #7 Florida (-23) – 8:00 PM EST on ESPN. Like I mentioned above Florida hasn’t beaten Miami in 23 years, so I expect Tim Tebow and the Florida Gators to be pretty jacked up for this game. But even though they are heavy favorites, you can never know what to expect in these in-state rivalry games. I don’t think Miami will pull out the victory in this one, but I think their defense can keep them in it enough to cover the 23 points they are getting.

#10 Texas at UTEP (+27) – 10:15 PM EST on ESPN2. Texas looked really impressive on offense last week and should continue that trend this weekend against UTEP. UTEP struggled in their opening match-up against Buffalo allowing 484 yards and 42 points. Hopefully this will be a good opportunity for the Texas secondary to get on track. I’m sure [tag]Will Muschamp[/tag] gave them an earful after getting beat several times last week against [tag]Florida Atlantic[/tag]. Even though this game is on the road, I see Texas winning by 35 and easily covering the spread.

Obviously the Texas Longhorns were supposed to beat [tag]Florida Atlantic[/tag] pretty easily (24 point favorites), but I was a little worried about how they were going to perform with all of their young talent. But I must say that I came away from the game very impressed overall. The offense looked solid, the defense was decent, and they looked liked they were playing with some confidence. I am looking forward to seeing this team progress.

Now let’s look at how each position fared.

Quarterback – Overall Grade: A

If there were any doubts about how [tag]Colt McCoy[/tag] would perform this year, he quickly put the naysayers to bed by completing his first 13 passes and 19 out of his first 20. And if that wasn’t enough he tacked on 100 yards rushing, joining [tag]Vince Young[/tag] as only the second player in school history with 200 yards passing and 100 yards rushing in the same game. One of the best things about Colt’s running was he didn’t have that chicken-with-his-head-cutoff style he seemed to have perfected last year, but that he actually ran with a purpose. And luckily for us, he was even able to survive two very late cheap shots from the FAU linebackers on the sideline.

[tag]John Chiles[/tag] also got into the action as both QB and in the new “Q package” on offense. The Q package didn’t necessarily contribute to any big plays, but having Chiles out there with Colt at the same time definitely made the defense think a little extra. Hopefully will get to see this a little more throughout the season. Chiles also threw for his first touchdown, 29 yards down the middle to WR James Kirkendoll.

Running Backs – Overall Grade: B+

The running backs didn’t do anything to get me too excited, but [tag]Vondrell McGee[/tag], [tag]Chris Ogbonnaya[/tag], and [tag]Cody Johnson[/tag] all had solid games. All three scored touchdowns, and Ogbonnaya even caught 4 passes for 35 yards and a touchdown.

I must say I am a big fan of McGee and I think he has a lot of potential to be a great running back this year. He showed that he isn’t afraid to run up the middle, and also has the speed on the outside. McGee finished with 63 yards and 1 touchdown. Even though they split a lot of time at the running back position, I expect to see a few 100 yard games out of McGee this season.

Receivers – Overall Grade: B

It’s easy to have a good game as a wide receiver when the quarterback is on fire. Tight end [tag]Blaine Irby[/tag] had a stand-out game catching 7 passes for 62 yards and a touchdown. Irby seemed to be Colt’s safety valve throughout the game. [tag]Jordan Shipley[/tag] put in a solid performance, including a nice touchdown catch in the back of the end zone. I do hope to see some more production out of [tag]Quan Cosby[/tag] in the next game. Cosby never really seemed to be a factor, and dropped a catchable ball from McCoy after a nice scramble.

Defense – Overall Grade: B-

It’s hard to give the defense a B- when they only allowed 10 points, but the secondary looked somewhat shaky throughout the game. Our young safeties struggled as expected, as redshirt freshman [tag]Earl Thomas[/tag] got beat on several big plays. At least he helped to make up for it with a blocked punt. The front seven was actually pretty strong. Even though the defense did not record a sack, they were constantly putting pressure on FAU QB Rusty Smith and forcing him to make some hurried decisions. Muschamp definitely has some work to do with this defense, but one good sign is it looks like they responded well after giving up to early red zone drives.

Special Teams – Overall Grade: B-

Starting the game off by kicking it out-of-bounds is not something I wanted to see. I am not sure why we always struggle with the kick-off, but it is something they eventually need to correct. Quan Cosby was returning some punts, which is pretty scary considering he is one of our main receivers. Not sure we can handle an injury to Cosby at this point. Earl Thomas’ blocked punt was nice, and I think having Akina back focused on special teams will be a good thing this year.

Overall – Overall Grade: B+

Like I said, overall I was pretty impressed with the performance. The offense executed well and Colt looks like he is back on track. There are still some things we need to sure up on defense, but they are young and have a lot of potential to be very good.

The Austin American-Statesman has posted the full 30 minute video of the [tag]Florida Atlantic[/tag] postgame press conference up and it’s embedded below. The Texas coaches field most of the questions but [tag]Colt McCoy[/tag] and [tag]Brian Orakpo[/tag] also have a few things to say. Watch it:

(Kudos to the paper for providing high quality video and to UT for actually allowing them to post it.)

The first game of the year is finally upon us. It has been a long eight months since the Longhorns were last on the football field, but at 6pm tonight (only on pay-per-view) Texas will face off against [tag]Florida Atlantic[/tag]. I’ve coughed up the $35 (thanks DirecTV for the extra $5 fee!) so feel free to sit back and listen to Craig Way on the radio while my expert observations complete the picture for you.

Follow along with the live blog of the game below, starting at 6pm.

Note: Comments closed till after the game, please use the CoverItLive bulit-in comment system to participate in the discussion. Game’s over, comments now open for discussion on the game.

[tag]Florida Atlantic[/tag] isn’t a national power but they’re not the typical Texas first game opponent either. Sun Belt champs and a bowl winner last year under coach Howard Schnellenberger, FAU is certainly capable of giving the Horns a scare if they don’t bother showing up.

The last thing Texas coaches and fans want is a repeat of the Arkansas State game a year ago. Here’s three things the Longhorns need to do to make sure the big upset doesn’t happen:

1. How will the young safeties react under fire?

The five safeties listed as co-starters for the Horns are all freshmen and two of them have been in class less than a week. Meanwhile FAU quarterback Rusty Smith led the Owls to a bowl game last year with his strong play in the latter part of the season including a 336 yard, 5 touchdown performance against Memphis in their bowl game. If the safeties (and the entire secondary) can limit mental mistakes and the resulting big plays the Longhorns should be able to stave off the upset.

2. Use John Chiles and the Q Package.

We saw [tag]Greg Davis[/tag] use [tag]John Chiles[/tag] in a few unique situations last season but mostly as a decoy or a traditional quarterback. The full “Q Package” installed this offseason reportedly has Chiles all over the field including quarterback, receiver, and running back. It’s important for the success of the offense to have someone step up as a big play guy and if Chiles is that guy it needs to start early. Hopefully not only will Chiles line up in multiple spots but we’ll get to see him throw, catch, and run a little from all over the field.

3. Get the running game started early.

Last year with Jamaal Charles the Texas offense still waited till late October before getting a consistent running game going, if they want to have a chance at a Big 12 South title this year they’ll have to get rolling a lot sooner than that. It’s going to be a running back by committee approach this year with sophomore [tag]Vondrell McGee[/tag] leading the way. Against FAU Davis needs to get McGee 15 carries before halftime and see what he can do.

Programming providers announced for Texas-FAU pay-per-view telecast. Find out who is airing the game in your area.

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?

(more …)

Florida Atlantic coach Howard Schellenberger talks mess against the Horns. Says the team isn’t tough.