Texas football schedule, roster, recruiting and what to watch in 2018

More off-season stuff to read.

https://sports.yahoo.com/texas-football-schedule-roster-recruiting-151337069.html

 

RB position in "shambles" ?

Gross exaggeration - maybe questions / challenges but not shambles.

 

Let's hit each of these

Agree with Worster, RB is not in shambles. Questions but not shambles. It is also the position where freshman are most likely to make an impact. Ingram can run and catch fairly well. The big questions are can he make college football players miss the first tackle and can he figure out blocking assignments.

Schedule - favorable for us; Maryland and Tulsa should give us two games to work out the kinks before USC; USC is at home without Darnold; USC, TCU, KSU, and OU in order sucks, but the remainder of the schedule is good; Baylor in Austin is nice to recover from 4 really tough games in a row and we have a BYE before we take on the rest of the conference; I like the schedule

QB - not worried; I think Ehlinger can be brilliant if he doesn't make freshman mistakes; I think Buechele can be very effective with a serviceable offensive line; assuming we get Calvin Anderson I think we will have a serviceable line; without Anderson I think we probably need to use Ehlinger as a runner more often and Buechele will need to be the backup

Replacing draftees - this is the toughest; Calvin Anderson is the only good replacement we have for Connor Williams, without Anderson our line will only be marginally better than last year; I think Brandon Jones and PJ Locke will do a good job replacing DeShon Elliott; Gary Johnson should do pretty well replacing Malik full time; our DB core is solid even without Hill; Dickson will be hard to replace but hopefully a more potent offense will minimize the impact of losing the best punter in football

Hand - while I hope Hand will improve our line play, I must say this is a weird hire to me and I am very scared of repeating the Wickline-Watson debacle; not having a single, defined playcaller running the offense gives me heartburn

 

With a decent o-line I think RB could be a strength of this team.

Carter and Young are solid, and Porter has been very good at times with some blocking. I hope Ingram gets on the field this year—from all accounts he seems to be good enough to play as a true frosh.

 

To be fair, it said the running "game" was in shambles, not the backs. It's hard to disagree from my POV. We were #95 in the country in rushing the ball. Coming off of a year where Foreman dominated and running saved a couple of our games in 2016, there should have been very little reason to doubt that Warren et al would put up similar numbers. I know injuries happen but the way our run game was mismanaged put us behind the 8-ball on offense for literally the entire season outside of the SJSU game.

Way too many question marks... everyone always passes the eye test in the offseason, but Carter had his suspension, Johnson will probably never return and I'm still trying to get used to that, and Ingram is a big question mark and arguably the slowest of the backs. Houston goes unused and probably won't stay assuming he's still unused next year. No one trusts Porter to do anything other than get his 1 yard into the middle of the LOS.

As for QB - remember Colt's sophomore slump? Can anyone imagine what Ehlinger would be like with a "slump?" As if his poor decision making didn't cost us 3 games last year? Colt's slump would look All-America worthy compared to what we witnessed from the QB position last year.

I, too, am worried about the Hand hire. Too many cooks in the kitchen is what killed Strong's ability to make a coherent statement about what type of offense we'd have. Coupled with Wickline's lawsuit.

 

Exactly.

 

I have said for over a year, he starts the OU game, unless Herman has a Mack Brown brain fart and doesn't want to expose him too early to that pressure.

Ingram = Butch Hadnot with an SAT score over 500.

 

Assuming Ingram is the real deal, I would hope that he is getting reps every game, starting with game 1, just to get that experience and be ready for the conference stretch. We need all our weapons clicking this year.

 

P town's post made a lot of fine points. The only point p town made when addressing the various positions that jumped out at me in wtf way was the statement, "Ehlinger can be brilliant." Huh??

I was really wanting Ehlinger to be great. But I didn't see greatness. I saw a terrifically courageous kid, giving it everything he could, running too much, inaccurately passing, unable to read defenses and then making mistakes that were mind numbing. His season demonstrated why he needed to be red shirted. Not just for his development, but because we had such a porus O line, unable to protect anyone. We needed an O line that could cover up the mistakes of youth. We had an O line that illuminated the inexperience of our young QB's.

I would say, "Ehlinger needs to demonstrate that he can be a competent D-1, Power five QB consistently." Brilliant is way down the line.

Buchelle showed flashes of above average passing accuracy his freshman year. Buchelle hasn't shown he can stay healthy. Buchelle needs to deliver the accuracy, and show he can stay healthy; then we can see if he can be an effective, competent D-1, Power 5 QB.
I would say that putting a QB on the field that can win consistently is the biggest, most important question that needs to be answered for this team.

If Anderson comes, we should be competent at O line. We will have experience next year, even if he doesn't come. We will be better in the line regardless. If Anderson comes here, then we could have above average O line play. Then other things have a shot to fall into place for this offense.

Our defense is going to be good. Period.

 

Agree.

 

Walk up to the line of scrimmage.
Knock people over.
Run off tackle.
Get first downs.
Win jewelry.
Go to class.
Don't hit women.
No guns.

It ain't rocket science. Coaching and talent have been winning doing this for a century. Offense's like Cougar High's Air Raid (still glad they scored 95 on SMU), maybe fun to watch, but no one has ever won a big game at any level with it.

 

Since we are talking about qb's Ehlinger disappointed me last year. In his defense, though, he was concussed or close to it on a few of those bad plays. I realize that. But I like Beuchele. I just think he can manage the game better and especially if he has a better offensive line. He can run efficiently if he needs too and he is pretty accurate throwing the deep ball. Let's not forget that. I just would like to see him in sync, though, with his receivers on timing routes.
If we don't get Anderson, I think Kirkstetter can handle the position because he'll be smarter, stronger and bigger. I think coach Hand, after studying his tape, will point out his mistakes, weaknesses and help him with that. so I think Kirkstetter will be alright. Yeah i already miss football. Oh, BTW, i hope we utilize c. Johnson better. But i said that at the beginning of last season..

 

I think Buechellinger will start, but one of the two freshmen, who are more like the qbs Herman had at OSU and UH, will probably finish the season. That won't necessarily be a bad thing, considering the fact that two true freshmen qbs ended up deciding the national championship game.

 

I was fine with both QBs last season. Sam's upside is much better imo. It's managing his fatal errors. Take away game killing, soul crushing mistakes, and I'd love to watch that kid all season, win or lose.

 

I love this QB debate.
It makes it so apparent that there is no (heir) apparent.
I have ajways viewed Buechele as just missing the juice...the IT.
And, at least for myself, it is painfully obvious.
There are a few times I'd rather have had him in there...but not many.
With an average team you need intangibles...higher upside moments to help swing games. Of course, with that comes low moments (and unfortunately in key moments even). I do not see us there at the end in those games without Ehlinger's upside/intangibles anyway. Just MHO.
Now with a better overall team, no need to go getting jiggy with it. By all means, play a game manager.
We needed more than a game manager for most of our games this year.

 

Handicapping the running game is not easy and indeed, the O-line will be an important factor. I’m optimistic. It’s funny though. A few years ago we had two 5 stars, Brown and Gray. Both were “can’t miss” players, and frankly neither lived up to the expectations. Not close.

Then there was that 2 Star that no one wanted. From Day 1 it was apparent that Forman would be special, so all he does is win the Doak Walker and rush for more than 2,000 yards, behind a mediocre line, and with defenses aligned to stop him.

I think a number of the RBs on the roster could emerge, and be pretty darn good. We shall see. But handicapping them is an inexact science.

 

Unfortunately Foreman's career here was like a puff of smoke. If he would have stayed for his final season it would have been like sipping a fine wine. We didn't get that opportunity but I don't blame him at all. That was an unexpected season from him that we got to see. Wasn't it just he and Ricky that gave us 2 thousand yards in a season? I, for one, feel pretty good about our current rbs.

 

How sweet would it be to roll the tide and see aggy get rolled by tide in the same season?

 

Ehlinger is an elite athlete. Even as a freshman he was an imposing physical presence. He is very hard to sack and very hard to contain on the run.

Yes he made several costly mistakes at the end of a few games that resulted in Ls that could have been Ws, but I would also say we may not have even been in a position to win in some of those without some brilliant efforts by him leading up to the close finish.

Buechele is probably the better pure passer at this point, but he doesn't have anywhere near the elusiveness or athleticism. When pressure gets to him, he is very little threat to escape or even avoid a sack.

I prefer Ehlinger at this point. He's 18-19 years old...still a boy. As he develops into a man over the next few years he could become even more of a beast. And I would hope experience would reduce the kind of catastrophic mistakes we saw last year.

 

Agree with @Longbomb - Sam has serious upside imo

 

Granted you are absolutely correct but Bum Phillips once said something about potential getting you beat 21-7 every time.
Let’s see how spring and fall workouts shake out.

 

If anyone knows about getting beat, it would be OA Phillips, who had complete disdain for The University of Texas.

 

Never having met the man (and I guess I missed out on that chance) I had no idea what his opinion was on the university, nor would I have cared. That’s why God made chocolate and vanilla. Grant me however that in Bum’s opinion here, a blind squirrel found a nut.
I just think we need to go with who can win for us against the opposition that particular day and not worry about potential. But as I am not nor ever was a football coach I’ll leave those decisions to those whom are immediately responsible.
As to the starter @ QB, I’d be happy with Shane, Sam, a freshman, or for that matter Ted Constanzo as long as we get the W.

 

As to the starter @ QB, I’d be happy with Shane, Sam, a freshman, or for that matter Ted Constanzo as long as we get the W.[/QUOTE]

Funny you bring up Ted Constanzo. He was my 7th grade art teacher.

 

totally agree with this sentiment

 

Sam is certainly more elusive, a better pure runner than Shane. Those are physical gifts. He is not a gifted passer, nor is he gifted with arm strength to make the difficult throws (long to the sidelines, deep throws to swift receivers, etc.) and his accuracy is average at best. What really must develop right now is his decision making and ability to take care of the ball.

So for Sam to develop into a beast that can play QB at a winning level in the B12 he is going to have to make some big strides, work hard, and elevate his game.

I'm not invested in who develops that skill, but there may be someone on campus now who has that passing ability, and that passing ability will take the team further than a running QB who struggles in the passing game.

I trust the coaches to find the young man who brings the team the best chance of winning.

 

Rising, while 2 inches shorter, weighs more than Ehlinger.
If he has the passing skills then who knows.
We tend to invest ourselves in certain players.
But one may come from nowhere and take over.
I want to see Shane have success after all he's been through.
But I will accept whoever wins games.

 

I've heard that Rising has a great arm, didn't know he was so big though

How is Casey Thompson's passing accuracy? We could have quality competition at QB this year