Texas Longhorns vs. Rice Owls
Unless you somehow missed the first two Texas games you know that the young Texas secondary still has a lot of growing up to do. Can they handle that prolific Rice passing game? Will [tag]Colt McCoy[/tag] and the Texas offense continue to put up big numbers on the scoreboard? Read our editors’ predictions below to find out:
Brian – Texas should win easily this evening versus the Rice Owls but there may be more important things to take away from the game than just the final score. With [tag]Oklahoma[/tag] and [tag]Missouri[/tag] dominating opponents the Longhorns need to show that they can do the same. The Horns need to and will show marked improvement on both sides of the ball from when they last played two weeks ago. The defense will still play it close to the vest but I think even without complicated blitzes the return of [tag]Lamarr Houston[/tag] will mean much better pressure on the quarterback. Texas will struggle to get big running plays but McCoy will continue his impressive early season play with at least four TD tosses.
Rice 10 – Texas 45
Mike – Even before Hurricane Ike this looked like a blowout, add the distractions and circumstances the Rice team has faced all week and it appears doubtful this game has any chance not to get ugly. I expect Texas to try and establish an identity in the running game, and I expect that identity to come in the form of [tag]Foswhitt Whittaker[/tag]. After a week off, look for Will Muschamp’s defense to try and set the tone with big plays and pressure. Rice excels on third down, and needless to say UT does not. If Texas can limit those extra opportunities and avoid mistakes the Owls have no chance. This one is all Texas.
Rice 13 – Texas 52
Matt – Even though we have only allowed 23 points in our first two games, both opponents have been able to move the ball a little too easily against our young secondary. And the one thing Rice does well is throw the ball, so this should be a good test before getting into the meat of our schedule. Hopefully with the week off Muschamp has straightened some things out and we see that improvement on the field. I am definitely not worried about our offense, as we should put up at least 50 this Saturday. I am going with a high scoring game (so take the over).
Rice 23 – Texas 59
Everybody knows to look for [tag]Colt McCoy[/tag] and [tag]Brian Orakpo[/tag] each game, but UT’s success in this week’s game against [tag]Rice[/tag] and in the upcoming conference match-ups will hinge on the production and success of a few players that are coming into their own. Let’s look at five.
[tag]Foswhitt Whittaker[/tag]
The redshirt freshman tailback was the most productive back in Texas’ offense in his only game this year. His skill set fits in perfectly with the type of offense Texas likes to run. Foswhitt averaged 6.0 yards on 12 attempts against UTEP. He had missed the first game with a knee injury but all reports suggest his knee is fine so expect more touches against Rice. Running backs coach [tag]Major Applewhite[/tag] has been emphasizing receptions out of the backfield, and with Whittaker possessing the best open field moves on the team he seems to be in line to become more and more a part of the offense. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him start, and if he doesn’t start against Rice, he will be by the time Big 12 play begins.
[tag]Earl Thomas[/tag]
The Rice game will be Earl’s third start at safety in college. Rice’s tight end James Casey leads the nation in receptions per game (over 9), and is sure to be Thomas’ man of the night as the defense has seemed to play [tag]Blake Gideon[/tag] in the deep middle. The redshirt freshman has played hot and cold as would be expected in his first two college games, but coach [tag]Will Muschamp[/tag] seems to have confidence in him. If Thomas can hold his own and wrap up when he hits a ball carrier it will help ease the anxiety of a lot of Texas fans. If he can’t, [tag]Christian Scott[/tag] or [tag]Ben Wells[/tag] may get more looks.
[tag]Michael Huey[/tag]
The young offensive lineman got a chance for major playing time when teammate [tag]Charlie Tanner[/tag] went down with a leg injury. Huey struggled at times against UTEP and must begin to move people off the line in order to hold off Tanner when he comes back as well as true freshman [tag]David Snow[/tag]. Texas wants more push in the run game on the inside. Huey has the raw talent and mean streak to remind many fans of ex-Longhorn, and big bellied cult leader, Kasey Studdard, but must translate it on the field to solidify Huey as a starter for the next few years.
[tag]Malcolm Williams[/tag]
Colt McCoy has played great, beyond great really in the first two games, but eventually this team will need a deep threat and the most likely candidate appears to be the 6’4″ Williams. Through the first two games it appears Texas hasn’t even looked to go deep, settling for underneath patters. As the talent of the players, and the coaches, rises the need to stretch the defense takes on added importance. Watching Williams in practice and in pre game warm ups leaves little doubt to his physical skills, but like most young players Williams needs to build his on field confidence by making big plays in a real game. Think of [tag]Limas Sweed[/tag] before and after the catch in the “Horseshoe” against [tag]Ohio State[/tag]. Williams will need a play like that to jump start his season and his career.
[tag]Ryan Palmer[/tag]
The best player on Rice’s team is wide receiver Jarrett Dillard and one would think senior cornerback Ryan Palmer will be the guy asked to shadow him throughout the night. The Owls offer little threat on the ground, so the play of the secondary (especially on third down) will be important in preventing any thought of an upset. Dillard and Rice quarterback Chase Clement will finish their careers as the leading touchdown scoring tandem in NCAA history will try to pick on the size of Palmer, but the senior has shown an ability to hold his own against bigger receivers. Holding this group of players in check will serve as a much needed confidence boost heading into games such as OU, [tag]Missouri[/tag], and [tag]Texas Tech[/tag].
Texas heads into this week’s game against [tag]Rice[/tag] off an unexpected bye week thanks to Hurricane Ike. Going into this game, the emphasis will not necessarily be on winning (that should come from just showing up), the emphasis will be on setting a tone for the upcoming Big 12 season.
When Texas has the ball
Through the first two games, one thing has become unmistakably obvious: this is Colt McCoy’s football team. This year’s Longhorns will go as far as he takes them, and so far that seems to be a good thing. After a sophomore slump that saw McCoy’s interceptions jump up significantly from his freshman year, McCoy has started off his junior year in spectacular fashion, including only throwing one interception.
On top of his improved passing game, McCoy is also leading the Horns in rushing. He is the only Longhorn to have over 100 yards on the season. This needs to change, and luckily for UT the Rice Owls are just what the doctor ordered for the Texas running game in the past few years.
New running backs coach [tag]Major Applewhite[/tag] has stressed ball security and pass blocking over explosive plays in the running game, but if Texas wants to get to their yearly goals of playing for the Big 12 championship and reaching a BCS game both need to happen. Texas ranks 23rd in the nation in pass offense, but sixth in the Big 12. The good teams in conference will be able to put up points, and with the youth in Texas’ secondary, UT’s offense must find a way to control the ball and shorten the game. This offense will not be able to score with the likes of [tag]Missouri[/tag] and [tag]Oklahoma[/tag]. In games like this weekend’s versus Rice, the running game needs to start asserting itself.
Texas’ offensive line should be able to physically dominate the smaller Rice defense. Expect the line to come out and quiet the naysayers after being out rushed by [tag]UTEP[/tag].
The receiving corps has been solid with [tag]Quan Cosby[/tag] and [tag]Jordan Shipley[/tag] being the go to guys. Against Rice look for Texas to try and get [tag]Malcolm Williams[/tag] and [tag]Dan Buckner[/tag] deep, these two flankers need confidence heading into the upcoming schedule. So far, the biggest surprise has been the play of tight end [tag]Blaine Irby[/tag] who has scored in the first two games.
When Rice has the ball
Another week, another spread offense for Texas’ young secondary to deal with. The preseason schedule has worked out perfectly in terms of giving this group practice seeing the types of offense they will in the Big 12. The talent will obviously be a step up once conference games begin, but don’t be surprised if the Owl offense presents a challenge for the defense. Quarterback Chase Clement and wide receiver Jarrett Dillard are no slouches, especially Dillard who could be the best player to come out of Rice in recent memory.
Texas ranks 98th in the nation against the pass so look for defensive coordinator [tag]Will Muschamp[/tag] to start bringing more pressure as the season wears on. In a game like this one where the outcome isn’t in much question UT may play close to the vest on offense and defense, but if Rice has success early look for [tag]Sergio Kindle[/tag] to be unleashed. Texas has worked on a “Buck” package with Kindle coming off the edge. This should become more and more a staple of this defense.
Rice offers no real threat to Texas on the ground. The linebacker corps has played as good as it ever has under [tag]Mack Brown[/tag]. Texas’ emphasis moving forward in the season is to create more turnovers and to create more pressure. With offenses running the way they do now, sacks are not as easy to come by. Muschamp keeps track of pressures and hits on the quarterbacks each week. He would like the number to continue to go up.
Quan Cosby had a career night
As Texas fans we’re spoiled and were expecting more out of the offense in the second half and a better showing from the defense. Despite the final score the game didn’t go as many predicted, and the team didn’t seem nearly as sharp as in the opening week. It is important to remember that at this time last year Texas had squeaked by Arkansas State and needed a second half comeback to beat TCU.
The team is definitely not playing its best football, the young secondary and the offensive line are only going to get better with each game. However, to win two games by large margins while so many youngsters learn on the job has to be encouraging for later in the season and certainly 2009.
Read on for some additional quick thoughts on the game:
Good
- [tag]Jared Norton[/tag] got the start. [tag]Rashad Bobino[/tag] got plenty of playing time but the fact that Norton started ahead of the senior linebacker is a sign that playing time is based on performance and not seniority.
- Quarterback [tag]Colt McCoy[/tag] was incredibly sharp again in the first half. He completed 14 of 16 passes in the first half for 187 yards and three TDs. He finished the game with 282 yards and 4 TDs. He seems to always be on the same page with his top wide receivers, [tag]Quan Cosby[/tag] and [tag]Jordan Shipley[/tag].
- Speaking of Cosby, he played his best game as a Horn against the Miners. In addition to his 8 catches for 154 yards he also made a huge play by returning a UTEP missed field goal for a momentum-changing 74 yards.
- Tight end [tag]Blaine Irby[/tag] made another appearance in the offensive gameplan. After the loss of Jermichael Finley to the NFL there was expected to be a big drop off in performance at the position but Irby has been great so far. He only had one catch but it was a nice 23-yard touchdown grab.
- Welcome [tag]Fozzy Whittaker[/tag]. It might take a few more weeks, but it looks like we may have found our next starting running back.
- [tag]Will Muschamp[/tag] coaches angry. The defense has been far from perfect, but the effort and attitude is definitely there and that can be directly credited to Muschamp. The team hasn’t allowed a second half point yet this season.
Bad
- [tag]Earl Thomas[/tag] needs to step it up at safety. The talent is there but he needs to improve with every game.
- The offensive and defensive lines did not look like they were overpowering UTEP’s inferior players until the Texas depth started to wear on them. Texas should be capable of dominating the trenches from the opening snap against a team like UTEP or they could struggle against Big 12 opponents.
- [tag]Greg Davis[/tag] showed no interest in getting the running game going. Whittaker was ripping off big chunks of yardage every time he carried the ball but despite that there wasn’t much effort to get him the football. There were only 18-20 rushing attempts before garbage time.
- Colt McCoy was far from sharp for most of the third quarter. It may have just stood out after three nearly perfect quarters of QB play but he missed several open receivers and threw a couple of ducks into the dirt as well. His tendency to abandon the pocket too quickly also reared its head a couple of times in the second half.
- Where is [tag]John Chiles[/tag]? He hasn’t gotten a ton of plays and when he’s in there as part of the “Q package” he appears to largely be being used as a decoy. He had no catches and only two carries for five yards. Even worse, when he got in there to replace McCoy in the fourth quarter it was purely to hand off the football and he didn’t look too excited about that.
Follow along below with our live thoughts and analysis during tonight’s game versus [tag]UTEP[/tag]. Feel free to leave comments and questions using the live tool, but not all comments will be published. Read below for more notes on comments and how the live blog will work. Hook ’em!
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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.
Blood dripping, Muschamp lays into the defense
Rumor has it that he took out his frustration on a clipboard during a play when the secondary busted pass coverage early in the game. He obviously didn’t care about the blood since it looks like he let it stream down his face while he was laying into the defense. No wonder they picked up their intensity.
If you haven’t already seen his YouTube videos from his days at Auburn, you should definitely check them out. As you can see, he definitely gets fired up (warning: strong language).
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.)
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 16th, 2008 by Brian
Filed under: Football, Quick Hits
Todd Dodge & Will Muschamp are two of Fox Sports’ coaches on the rise. I’d hate to lose Muschamp after just one season.
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