Orange/White Game 2017

Da Game

 

Watching the Horns, I liked what I saw. Boo has improved his play, the receivers hung on to the ball, very few drops. I liked Lil' Jordan Humphrey, and Collin Johnson play. The DL played well. Overall the level of play and the "hustle" is much better than last year, and that was with several starters out of the line up. Now for the doldrums of life without football and waiting till August and summer camp rolls around.

Good meeting up with and talking with Dionysus, Olehornfan, and WorsterMan.

 

Sam Ehlinger looked way better than the stats showed. He was running for his life almost every play, and 90% of the incompletions were correct executions of throwing it away to avoid a sack. Most of the rest were dropped by second string receivers. He never played with the 1s, or against the 2s. Only with the 2s against the 1s. He mainly only had time to stay in the pocket long enough to throw a deep ball twice, and once was the TD, and once it went off the hands of the receiver in the end zone. In my opinion, he looked every bit as good as Buechele did last year at this time, if not better.

Lil Jordan and Collin Johnson are freaks. With Heard and Duvernay streaking around, those guys are going to be hard to cover. Just hope we won't be playing walk-on RBs!

 

You must have been watching a different game.
Ehlinger was not even close to being as good as Buechelle last year and certainly was not better.
Boo is the starter regardless of what Herman says.
Sam will be fine. But the seperation was apparent.

 

Completely agree with moondog. Buechele is the clear starter. I would ideally like to redshirt Ehlinger, but I do not think we have the depth to do so.

 

I wasn't there; I watched a replay on TV. I completely agree that Shane Buechele looked better, and that the separation was apparent (in April, 2017). I love Shane Buechele, and he should start unless injured. I still think Ehlinger looked as good or better than Buechele looked in April 2016. If Sam had been able to sit behind the first string line for long periods like Shane did on Saturday, and was throwing to Collin Johnson and Devin Duvernay, and if Shane had had the pocket collapse in 1.9 seconds every time and dropped balls, the stats would have been much different for both. Sam E showed great accuracy and arm strength, ran the offense authoritatively, made no obvious mistake that I saw, and looked to be strong as a runner.

 

The most glaring thing about the O/W game was that the first team was so much better than the second team on both sides of the ball. That made it hard to evaluate some players, and I think Ehlinger was one of them.

 

Game Highlights

 

I watched the game on tv. Rewound and watched some of it more than once. No qb battle exists, excecpt maybe for who is # 2. And that will be critical because Boo will likely get banged up some, just like last year. Sam needs a year to redshirt. he is not as ready as Boo was this time last year.

I think the run game will be good. We will get healthy there. Also Carter is the real deal. Our line is competent. First time in years I've thought that.

Our defense will be above average. They are physical. They will be better prepared than the D was last year. (Duh!)

Basically I came away optimistic. Boo has got to stay healthy though. All bets are off if we have to use Sam for more than mopping up.

 

Overall, everything I am seeing I like. The instruction is sound, consistent throughout the staff, and understandable.
You have to build a complete mindset that bad ***, mean dudes rule the roost and that is what is happening.
I think we will be more physical for sure.

 

I too enjoyed meeting up with and enjoying the game with Dionysus, Bevojoe, and WorsterMan. Perhaps without Easter issues we can have a few more Hornfans next year.

We were in row 4 in the middle of the field and all agree that Sam is not ready. He did spend a lot of time facing a tough rush but at other times he did have time to throw. Even though he hit some nice passes it was a struggle to hit open receivers in stride. A great talent for sure just needs time.

 

this is my thought for the whole season. we'll be fine, not dominant, but Shane is not Rothlisberger. He MUST stay healthy for us to show.

 

and herein lies the problem. Sam is more valuable Red Shirting. Texas doesn't need to waste a year of his eligibility just mopping up.

 

This coaching staff has had these players for a short time.

What I saw at the Spring game were players that have been coached up in a short period of time.

I feel this will continue in fall practice. I agree we are not deep, but I feel this coaching staff will get the most out of players on the roster. We will have to wait to see if the staff can recruit and get the players needed to build a national championship caliber roster.

Results are what count, so we will have to wait to see this fall. Offensive/defensive schemes, wins and losses, improvement etc.

That said, after watching the spring game, I am happy. I see real coaching going on, a QB/WR combo of Boo and Johnson that will be special, a disciplined team and great effort by the players. This wont be the most talented team, but it will be well coached team which should pay off in wins.

Boo is a special QB, unbelievable downfield accuracy, including when passing on the run.

Players that don't buy in, will be gone.

First time in a while I feel really good about Texas football and first time in a while I believe there is a chance to beat anyone on our schedule.

 

I completely agree, but who is our #2? Heard? Am I missing someone?

I think the lack of depth forces us to not redshirt him.

 

No; and that is THE issue. RS is the best for Sam and the team, but Herman has to find a grad transfer/JUCO QB. If he doesn't Sam will be on the line.

 

Can't believe its been so long since we had any QB depth.
Its a huge reason why Mack got fired and (one of many) Strong got fired.
Taking only one QB a season is just not enough.

 

We had 2 QB's transfer. We had plenty.

 

And you really can't blame Mack for what happened to Ash. Although I do, and will always, blame him and GD for running Colt up the middle against the Bama defense in the 1st qtr with absolutely nothing to gain.

Still, there was simply some bad luck that went along with mismanagement and laziness. Like I said, the perfect storm.

 

Couple that with they didn't have the foresight to have Gilbert ready to play if something happened to Colt.

 

I will always blame GD for running Colt into the teeth of the best D-Line in the country. Knowing he had no real backup.
And I will always blame Major for running Ash into the middle of the D-Line when he had 3 more than competent RBs. Ash suffered a concussion and was never the same. And again, no real back up.

 

A better plan would have been to completely abandon our offense for the Alabama game.

Running Colt everywhere was our offense for 4 years. Applewhite wanted to bring that back in 2013. It was what Vince Young did. The only difference between VY, Colt and Ash is VY was fortunate enough not to get hurt. Anyone with the ball has to run forward into big people that want to tackle them. There are times where it is excessive and dangerous (like giving someone 50 carries up the middle), but that was not the case in the above described situation. Colt ran up the middle for a long TD against A&M 2 games before the Alabama game.

The problem with Ash was he had 0 business playing as a true freshmen in 2011 (that was on Mack and company), got banged up then and never recovered. I am hopeful Buechele was not too banged up last year and does not suffer a similar fate.

 

^ This was our offense. Yes, in retrospect if our coaches new Colt would get hurt on a freak accident, Mack could have implemented his change from the spread to the "Bama offense" between the Nebraska game and Alabama game and people could have complained about that change even earlier.

 

C'mon man. Aggy had 3 men on the line and nobody in the defensive backfield attempted to stop the run. Look at the spacing! Colt had wide open space. Even Case ran this well against the aggys.
Bama had a near NFL caliber D-Line. We were moving the ball at will without running Colt up the gut. It was a stupid call. Or maybe Colt should have checked out of it.

 

Bama had a 4 man line and everybody flying to the ball.

 

It was an option to the right, which was part of our normal 2009 offense. Colt got hurt on a freak accident. The call was only a bad call if the coaches had future knowledge. A running QB is key to beating Saban's Alabama teams. See Manziel, Cam Newton, Clemson, etc.

 

They had people who got their hands on Colt at the line of scrimmage...the more critical component was that aggy had nobody that could CATCH Colt on that 65 yard gallop...although he is fortunate it did not have to be 75 yards...

 

On another note, I hope Herman can get Texas football back to producing great youtube highlights we can post from Texas Football victories like that Colt run against A&M.

Buechele and his WRs have a lot of highlight potential.

 

Or even some youtube highlights of defeats in playoff or NC games.

 

This, comparing apples to aardvarks. You simply can't risk the ONE most critical player on a play that will net 2 yards at most. Anyone with any common sense at all could see there was nothing to gain based on the defensive alignment and we weren't fooling anyone.

I may win the lottery too, but there's a reason I don't buy lottery tickets. If I'm calling plays, I'm calling plays that will have the best chance of succeeding against the defense I'm playing. I might try to surprise them in the 4th qtr with a QB keeper if it's critical, but no way in the 1st qtr.