Today’s matchup for the Longhorns against [tag]Iowa State[/tag] should be a rout, but there’s been lots of games like that this season and Texas only took care of business against Rice. The Horns need to continue the solid play from last week against Oklahoma and if they can they should be able to come home with a comfortable win.
Follow with me and my random thoughts during the game below:
First Quarter
- I wonder when FSN Southwest will be in high definition on DirecTV? It looks like the game is being shot in HD and if I had FSNMW I could be watching it in HD. Oh well.
- Ryan Bailey kicking off, is Hunter Lawrence hurt?
- Same starting lineup on defense that we’ve seen all year.
- Texas is only 7th in the Big 12 in punt returns? [tag]Quan Cosby[/tag] is solid back there so I don’t really blame him for that number. With Limas Sweed out for the year it might be time to protect Cosby and put one of the young WR/DB’s back there.
- Long bomb from [tag]Colt McCoy[/tag] to [tag]Jordan Shipley[/tag] on Texas’ first offensive play. McCoy does nice job buying time in a collapsing pocket and finds Shipley wide open. 58-yard touchdown for the Horns.
Texas 7, Iowa State 0
- FSN’s wonderful coverage continues. They take a TV timeout and miss both the kickoff and the first ISU play after it. Sad.
- FSN announcers are apparently using an OU roster instead of Texas.
- On third down play it looks like defensive line slants to the field and [tag]Robert Killebrew[/tag] lets the ISU runner get wide for the first down. Might have been Lamarr Houston’s fault. Terrible defensive fundamentals.
- I was just going to complain about the lack of pressure from the Texas defense then [tag]Lamarr Houston[/tag] comes untouched off the end for the sack.
- Face raped? Yikes. Not sure you should say that on TV. That was a definite face mask but the reason the helmet comes off is that it’s not fitted correctly. Your helmet should never come off that easy. He said face rape again.
- Is our defense really this poorly coached? We’ve got guys flying inside to avoid blockers on every play. If you’re a defensive end and have a linebacker blitzing to your inside you can’t try to get in the same gap. Ugh.
- [tag]Derek Lokey[/tag] playing defensive end on that play. He got whipped man on man and gave up a big run.
- Texas holds on third down and forces a field goal. Field goal is wide right. Break for Texas as Iowa State had put together a very solid drive.
- Mental mistake by wide receiver covered up Jermichael Finley. FSN announcers are morons.
- Looks like [tag]Chris Ogbonnaya[/tag] is seeing increased playing time already over Jamaal Charles. If we’re going with the wide open offense that’s a good idea since he’s a better blocker and pass catcher than Charles.
- Looks like McCoy is growing a sweet mustache. Couple more weeks and that might be thick enough to show up on camera.
- Ogbonnaya and [tag]Vondrell McGee[/tag] get the two Texas redzone rushing attempts. Hope Charles can keep his head up, figure out the issue, and earn these attempts back.
- Not sure that was a well advised throw by McCoy but man did Cosby get up and get that one. No good camera angle but I think that might have come out a little when he hit the ground. Another good scramble to buy time and find a receiver by Colt.
Texas 14, Iowa State 0
- Hunter Lawrence kicking off on this one. Wonder why it wasn’t him in there on the first one?
- Young linebackers in there for this series.
Looks like we’re definitely headed towards another situation where the early FSN game is going to interfere with the start of the Texas vs. [tag]Rice[/tag] game. Texas Tech and Oklahoma State have decided to forego defense and play a 9-hour offensive shootout. All is not lost however, if you’re a DirecTV customer the game will start on schedule on channel 667 and you can check out FSN Southwest’s contingency plan for the telecast over on the official UT football site. Plus I’ll post frequent updates on the game here on this post. Stay tuned…
First Quarter
- Rice won the toss and will kick off.
- Good deep kick and [tag]Quan Cosby[/tag] takes a knee.
- Chris Hall starting at right tackle again. Limas Sweed is healthy enough to make the start at receiver.
- Colt McCoy misses Cosby on a 12 yard out.
- [tag]Jamaal Charles[/tag] may never touch the football again. Another damn fumble. Rice football.
- No surprises starting at linebacker. Same three veterans: Derry, Bobino, Killebrew.
- Great penetration on the blitz by [tag]Rashad Bobino[/tag] results in a loss of yards.
- [tag]Deon Beasley[/tag] got the start at cornerback over Brandon Foster.
- How is that not grounding? Rice OL forgets to block Frank Okam and he gets a free run at the QB.
- There’s a flag, they called it after all. Rice lining up for 50-yard field goal attempt.
- Rice kicker misses wide left. My former coworker and former Rice kicker Derek Crabtree would’ve made that one. Or so he’d tell me.
- Charles is still the running back. McCoy hits Jermichael Finley on a quick out for a 9 yard game.
- Charles reverses field and gets a good gain. Kid has tons of talent, hold on to the ball and I’ll be your best friend.
- Ugly option play and McCoy gets brought down hard. Guard Cedric Dockery got his ass kicked.
- Great catch on a hitch by Cosby. Colt tried to get him killed. Short of the first down and Texas has to punt.
- Texas sends out [tag]Colt McCoy[/tag] with the rest of the punting team in some sort of likely fake but we screw it up and have to blow a timeout.
- After the timeout we’ve got the regular offense out there for 4th and 2.
- Lead dive out by Charles behind FB Atwan Cobb gets the first down.
- Completion from McCoy to Nate Jones on a slant. 7 yard gain.
- McCoy fumbles the shotgun snap but he rolls to his left and finds Cosby alone for a completion and a first down.
- Terrible looking play where two Texas linemen are running laterally 3 yards deep in the backfield and Charles has to fight his way through them on the counter before he can get a couple of yards. Yikes.
- Tony Hills with an obvious hold made more obvious by the fact that he threw his hands up in the air trying to claim innocence. Costs the Horns a first and goal opportunity.
- McCoy and Cosby bail out Hills. Great pass and catch for the touchdown on 3rd and long. The inside receiver was even more open on the play.
Rice 0, Texas 7
- About 1:30 left in the Tech/OSU game and OSU just scored to go up by four on a 54 yard TD catch.
- Didn’t know Texas was using the Bill Bates air conditioned shoulder pads. Great technology.
- Great job by Aaron Lewis to string out the play, Bobino flies to the ball and blows up the blocker, and Lewis is able to make the tackle.
- The Rice receiver might have been bobbling that ball. Rice thinks so too and is running the no huddle.
- Rice’s line is getting whipped right now. They’re doubling the two defensive tackles and that allowed the end to come and make the tackle untouched.
- As I’ve said over and over again, that spread punt formation is the dumbest thing in college football. Texas gets the ball at their 33.
- Colt is holding the ball a tick too long on the deep ball. Another underthrown bomb and another incompletion. He’s got a good enough arm if he gets rid of it a little quicker he’d be a lot more successful.
- Long run by Charles on the single back counter.
- Another ill advised deep ball. Come on Colt. Be smart. Interception but there’s flag on the play.
- McCoy bailed out by the pass interference call. That could have gone either way. First down Texas.
- John Chiles in the game. McCoy motioned left and Chiles ran the zone read. Nice idea but center Dallas Griffin got his ass beat and a Rice lineman blew up the play.
- Two incompletions and Texas will have to attempt a field goal.
- Ryan Bailey’s 44-yard field goal goes right down the middle.
Rice 0, Texas 10
- If our corners are going to give 15 yard cushion they can’t miss freaking tackles. Beasley whiffs and there’s a good gain for Rice.
- Ryan Palmer shows Beasley how to do it.
- Sergio Kindle in the game. Texas defensive line is blowing up the zone read every time.
- Looked like all the young linebackers might have been out there on that series. Rice has to punt.
- Cosby fair catches a line drive punt at the 10 and Texas starts this possession with bad field position.
- Charles lined up at wideout and McCoy puts a beautiful pass in his hands and Charles drops it. Would have been an easy 6.
- Colt is leaving all these short passes up high. Doesn’t seem to have the zip on it he did last season.
- The game is on regular FSN Southwest now so I’ll be doing less play by play and make more witty comments.
Athlon has released their preseason All-Big 12 team and there’s of course several Longhorns on it. Not too many complaints, though I do think receiver [tag]Quan Cosby[/tag] deserves some third team love especially since Nebraska’s Maurice Purify might not even be on the team next year.
I hope they’re right about [tag]Tony Hills[/tag] and [tag]Roddrick Muckelroy[/tag]. Hills gets a lot of hype but didn’t perform consistently last year, he has a lot to prove to me before he’s mentioned in the same breath as other recent Texas linemen. If Muck and the other linebackers can step up their game this year the defense will be vastly improved.
Check out all the Longhorns on their list below:
First Team Offense
QB Colt McCoy 6-foot-3 205 So.
RB Jamaal Charles 6-foot-1 200 Jr.
OL Tony Hills 6-foot-6 305 Sr.
First Team Defense
DL Derek Lokey 6-foot-2 280 Sr.
DL Frank Okam 6-foot-5 320 Sr.
Second Team Offense
WR Limas Sweed 6-foot-5 219 Sr.
Second Team Defense
LB Roddrick Muckelroy 6-foot-2 230 So.
S Marcus Griffin 6-foot-0 202 Sr.
Third Team Defense
DL Brian Orakpo 6-foot-4 248 Jr.
LB Robert Killebrew 6-foot-2 230 Sr.
Honestly, I am not all that surprised at this move, it is just unfortunate that it comes at a time where we have some uncertainty with the health of our quarterback.
Nothing is official yet, but Coach Mack Brown has confirmed that they are aware of [tag]Jevan Snead[/tag]’s plans, and will not make an official announcement until after the bowl game. What does this mean for his availability in the bowl game? No one knows, and Texas still hasn’t been picked for a bowl game.
Snead currently has yet to decide where he will continue his college career, though it is said he is looking at TCU, Houston, and Louisville. People I have talked to say TCU is currently at the top of the list.
If [tag]Colt McCoy[/tag] cannot go for the bowl game, it gets pretty dicey on who will replace him. Do you throw away the red-shirt of [tag]Sherrod Harris[/tag]? Do you put 3rd stringer Matt McCoy into the mix? Or do you just play a full option offense and put receiver [tag]Quan Cosby[/tag] at the helm? I don’t know the answer, but they all sure sound like scary choices.
Maybe we need to just make a quick phone call down to Florida and see if Brantley wants to get his career started early. Ha.
In a nutshell, Texas had their way with Louisiana Lafayette, which is indicated by the 60-3 score. Texas did pretty much anything they wanted to on offense, including rushing for 418 yards. The defense was also stout, and you could tell right from the start that Louisiana Lafayette was going to have trouble doing anything. I guess the only real down spot is Saturday’s game is the special teams, who missed 3 extra points! Now let’s move on to a position-by-position look at how the Longhorns graded out on Saturday.
Quarterback – Overall Grade: A
After [tag]Vince Young[/tag]’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. [tag]Matt Nordgren[/tag] 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 [tag]Jamaal Charles[/tag] and [tag]Henry Melton[/tag] 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 [tag]Selvin Young[/tag] added 65 yards and speedster [tag]Ramonce Taylor[/tag] 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
[tag]David Thomas[/tag] 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 [tag]Brian Carter[/tag] 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. [tag]Nate Jones[/tag], [tag]Limas Sweed[/tag], and [tag]Quan Cosby[/tag] 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. [tag]Justin Blalock[/tag] (fellow Plano East grad) led the offensive line who just totally dominated Louisana Lafayette. Hopefully they keep the same aggressiveness next Saturday against OSU.
The 2005 Texas Longhorns will begin their season in less than one week against Louisiana-Lafayette. It won’t be long till we find out how this team compares with the nation’s best, we’ll know a lot about how good this team is the following week against Ohio State. But how does this year’s team compare to the Longhorns who went 11-1 and capped the season with a Rose Bowl victory last year? Here are my thoughts…
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 [tag]Lyle Sendlein[/tag] should be a very capable replacement.
QB – [tag]Vince Young[/tag] 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 [tag]Ramonce Taylor[/tag] and [tag]Jamaal Charles[/tag] 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, [tag]Chris Ogbonnaya[/tag], and Michael Houston) and will be more versatile than we’ve seen in the past.
TE – Improved in single TE sets with [tag]David Thomas[/tag] having an All-American season, and improved blocking when [tag]Neale Tweedie[/tag] is in there. Pass-catching threat out of 2 TE sets will be down, especially early in the year as true freshman [tag]Jermichael Finley[/tag] 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 [tag]Billy Pittman[/tag]) and the more time a QB and his WR’s get together the better. The additions of a hopefully healthy [tag]Jordan Shipley[/tag] and a quickly improving [tag]Quan Cosby[/tag] could be huge.
Defense
DL – A lot better if [tag]Larry Dibbles[/tag] is with us (academic eligibility rumors are swarming) but I’m excited by the idea of a healthy [tag]Rod Wright[/tag] and [tag]Frank Okam[/tag] 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 [tag]Drew Kelson[/tag] 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 [tag]Richmond McGee[/tag] 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 [tag]Tarell Brown[/tag] 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.
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