It is very clear watching the UT games this year that we have a very young and inexperienced team as a whole. I am not ready to throw this season out just yet and look completely to next year, but I do realize that this year is really more about rebuilding and progressing towards the fuuture. So I decided to take a look at our current depth chart and who young these guys are and who we will have next year: QB Junior - McCoy Soph - Ash RB senior - Monroe Soph - Brown Soph - Bergeron FB Senior - Roberson H-back/T end Senior - Grant Senior - Matthews Junior - Jones Soph - Terrell OL Senior - Poehlman Junior - Hopkins Junior - Kelley Junior - Walters Junior - Ashcraft Junior - Porter Soph - Flowers Soph - Espinosa Soph - Cochran WR Senior - Goodwin Senior - Hales Junior - White Junior - Davis Soph - Shipley Soph - Onyegbule Soph - Jackson DE Senior - Okafor Senior - Johnson Junior - Jeffcoat Junior - Wilson Soph - Reed DT Junior - Howell Junior - Dorsey Junior - Whaley Soph - Jackson Soph - Daniels LB Junior - Hicks Junior - Cobbs Soph - Jackson Soph - Edmond Soph - Thompson DB Senior - Vaccaro Junior - Phillips Junior - White Junior - Byndom Soph - Diggs Soph - Scott Soph - Turner Soph - Thompson Soph - Evans 2011 Seniors - Snow, Allen, Whittaker, Johnson, Berryhill, Irby, Randall, Robinson, Acho, Gideon, Scott. So the 2011 team will lose 11 seniors. Allen was benched ths week, Berryhill is basically a converted walk-on FB, Irby and Scott have only played sporadically due to injuries or other issues. So basically the team isn't losing all that much. You look at the list I provided above of the players returning next year and their classification next year: Seniors - 10 Juniors - 19 Soph - 21 The 2012 Texas team will still be very young. Still a very small senior class with only maybe 4 of those 10 being starters. Most of the starters will be Soph or junior. Then there will be another bucnh of RS frosh and True frosh coming in. This is of course just based on the depth chart this past week and I do realize that we have some other guys on the team. However they aren't the guys playing week in and week out now so there is no good knowledge of how they will contribute in the future. When I really realize how young this team is it takes the sting off a loss and helps put into perspective how much learning and reuilding this team really has to go.
Nice breakdown. The new coaching staff will also have one year under their belt...the future is bright indeed.
I know a lot of people keep dwelling about how this is a young team and youth alone excuses the losses and that the future bodes well. To that I say BS! OSU came to Austin last year with a young team. Almost all their starters were fresh/soph, those are now soph/juniors, and they did not have too hard a time in handling Texas' young fresh and sophs this year or last year. I doubt the Horns will be ranked as high as no 6 next time Texas meets OSU in Stillwater. In fact it will be while before Texas sniffs the top 10, let alone be ranked as high as no 6. OSU ended last year 11-2, with a hugely talented, young team. The only thing Texas has in common with the OSU team of last year is youth! I doubt Texas finishes better than 7-4 at best! That my friends is the how low the talent level at Texas has fallen. This is a major rebuilding task, and I would not be surprised to see 2-3 more lean years. And that too if recruiting picks up and Texas lands solid, performing recruits. The seniors from this years team, and last years almost to a man belong in Hall of Shame if Texas had one. Yeah Texas ran the ball well vs OSU, but thats like saying Texas defended the run well against OU. Big freakin deal, what good is being one-dimensional? OU passed at will against, and OSU stopped the Texas passing game. Based on the 3 times, I have seen Texas play this year, some predictions for this year: 1) Ash will not win any games for Texas this year. The best one can hope from him is that he does not lose games. Two straight years Texas has sub par play at QB, you can offer excuses you like but that does not change the fact that QB play has been a real weakness for 2 straight years. 2) Texas has a terrible receiving corps, no deep threats, no go to guys.Nada, zip, Zilch. That wont change. And what can one say about the invisible TEs? 3) The offensive line has and will continue to be terrible in pass protection! Lets face it, when it comes to pass protection, these guys are not just simply bad, they are horrible and will continue that way, youth as an excuse may be acceptable to some. Lack of talent is more likely. A&M and OSU both had young offensive lines last year, some how they did not seem to have any of the "youth" related problems Texas seems to be having. Maybe those problems are unique to Texas. 4) On defense, they are average at best along the front against the pass. Sacks are a rarity. The DB's are average, 2 weeks in row they have allowed QB's to throw for 300+ yards. Against the run they were solid vs OU, average vs OSU, don't expect that to change either. 5) I predict losses to KSU, and Tech. A&M will hand 50+ on these guys and win by 3+ TDs. BU and KU are iffy games, RGIII will have a field day passing against the pitiful Texas pass rush and porous secondary. The O will have to outscore BU, and thats ....well... dicey. Would not be surprised to see Texas go 5-6 this year or 6-5 in regular season. But no way in heck this team wins more than 7 games! It will take a major miracle for Texas to win 3 of the next 5, a minor one to win 2, and make it to a minor, pointless bowl game. Of course we can all console ourselves about how young this team is, and how it will grow and improve and magically next year will be wonderful and all will be well with the world. After all its not like you can win much with a young team anyway. It's not like we have seen another team win 10+ games with a young team. So why should Texas be any different? Actually its also an indication of how low fan expectations have sunk that people are happily willing to concede this year and point to next as one that will be big. When in fact all indications are the next will be perhaps marginally better than this year. Texas just does not have the horses yet to really compete against the likes of OU and OSU next year as well. OU reloads, and OSU has a lot of talent returning from a team that has beaten Texas twice in a row in Austin! Texas has not either of that going for it. These are lean times for Texas, and it will take a lot more than "one more year" to get over that.
that last post was utter ******** except for the comments about the O-line. Ash played his FIRST full game. the secondary actually did quite well. davis and shipley will be pretty good and swinging the ball out to marquis and dj gives us a lot of speed around the edge. kansas is iffy? are you serious? atm will hang 50 on us? get out of town.
DVPMD, the secondary gave up 300+ yards passing for the 2nd straight week, is that what you call doing ok? And please compare Texas freshmen to OSU's freshmen from last year and then tell me with a straight face which of those two groups is more talented?
So a kid should just be able to immediately acclimate himself from playing in front of 5,000 people with a High School playbook to playing in front of 100,000 people with a College/Pro style playbook? There is a learning curve.
Please stop the Excuses, what were they last year? This year you are saying young, next year you are saying young? The overall talent is down at Texas because they missed on several players at the key positions. Find the playmakers on defense and offense right now, Shipley and Malcolm Brown are difference makers for starters. Not seeing too many on defense at the present time, hopefully they develop and get better. I predicted 6 - 6 to 8 - 4 for this years team, I will stick with that. Texas getting to a bowl game this year would help their future. Going to be hard to keep Connor Brewer off the field because he is more talented than Ash and McCoy period. Shipley, Malcolm Brown and Jonathan Gray, I will build around those for starters. Improve the OL and have a strong running game and improve the defense. Last years recruiting class and next years class are very talented, I like the future of Texas football. OU and Okla. State were just better than Texas this year. Texas cannot just show up and win any more, they have to play well with few mistakes to beat anyone. Texas last 4 games this year are tough. At Missouri, Kansas State at home then at Aggies and at Baylor. Those teams right now are all better than Texas but it does not mean Texas cannot win 1 or 2 of those games.
GAWD, I think this sounds so much like AGGY!!!! we got off track with some BUSTS on recruiting...and some asst's needed replacing.... WE'LL BE BACK!!!
Hornpharmd, you may be right. But would you please explain how an equally young OSU team last year was able to go 11-2 (losing only to OU and Nebraska), and you think Texas going 6-6 would be a great season?
I don't buy the 'young team' rationalization. Teams with the recruiting classes that we have should be winning year in and year out.
Let's face it... young only matters at a couple of positions: QB and OL. And those are arguably the most important positions on the offense. If an offense can't sustain drives, the defense will get gassed and underperform. If an offense can't score touchdowns in the red zone, it's going to be hard to win games.
Young team is neither an excuse nor a rationalization. It's a statement of fact. As for OSU going 11-2 even though their young, having an experienced QB and a solid O-line helps. We have neither. Also, coaching staff is new. I agree that with the recruiting classes we get we should be winning year in and year out. We did from 2001-2009. But the 07-09 classes have had more that a fair share of busts and attrition. Many at the crucial spot of OL. Also, it was foolishness to put all of their eggs in one basket for Chris Whaley when LaMichael James and Christine Michael were available. Same thing for Garrett Gilbert when Andrew Luck was available the year before. But, the recruiting has been solid for '10 and '11 and will be lights out for '12.
This past week Ketchum discussed the recruiting over the last several years. One big problem is that Mack has gotten a little lazy and only recruit players that will automatically say yes. One big miss was Andrew Luck. Luck might have come to UT but the staff did not put any effort into recruiting him. There were several other players that if the staff had put some effort into recruiting them, would be starting here today. Hopefully the new coordinators and staff will change all that.
Geez, Horn in Toronto sounds like he is a foreigner or something with all the doom and gloom. Usually, you have to go to Mexico or Canada to get such negativity......
Horn in Toronto - you must be a lot of fun to be around. Wow. Don't consider a career in motivational seeking. The future is much brighter than you believe. In fact, this team has the talent to win the rest of it's games. 2-3 lean years? Give me a break. You should change your handle to "My Cup is Always Half Empty in Toronto." maybe y'all don't get enough sun there.
In response to OSU having a young team last year.... They had a 27 year old qb who had been in the system for 2 years. Look at Colt in 2009 how much he did with as ****** as our o-line was and with only one decent receiver. Experience at the offensive position that touches the ball every play is huge... part of the main reason I hope we don't rush to Conner Brewer next year... Also, Weeden is pretty good and I think we did about as well as anyone will against their passing attack. If it weren't for those two runs that should have been stopped after about 15 or less yards each with a player in position we would have been in able to win that game (which is a team that I think is somewhat legit for the number 6 ranking). <--- just my opinion though
Playing a true frosh under center is usually a deficit. Not how you want to draw up the situation. Add youth elsewhere and you have a team that is going to struggle at time, make errors, get out muscled, and make errors. That's just reality as it has existed for most any team throughout time.
Horn in Toronto - you must be a lot of fun to be around. Wow. Don't consider a career in motivational seeking. The future is much brighter than you believe. In fact, this team has the talent to win the rest of it's games. 2-3 lean years? Give me a break. You should change your handle to "My Cup is Always Half Empty in Toronto." maybe y'all don't get enough sun there. Its hard to buy the “youth” excuse when you have seen young teams perform well. We’ll see next year how OU and OSU do breaking in new QB’s but I would be shocked if they did as bad as Texas did last year, and did not exceed Texas’ wins this year. Texas A&M had (and still does) one of the best offensive lines in the conference (possibly all of college football) last year with 3 true freshmen starting, so unless I am missing something, true freshmen can be superstars! They are on pace to have 2 thousand yard rushers this season! But of course that has to be a mistake, I mean whoever heard of a “young” offensive line doing this well? Can you explain how OSU was equally young last year? Weeden was a 27 year old Junior. Hunter was a senior. QB play is one of the primary factors in determing your offense success. Texas didn't have great QB play last year and OSU did. OSU had 14 true freshmen in their starting 22 last year. I recall hearing in the Texas game last year that they had more than 20 freshmen and sophomores on their 2 deep. So somehow I don’t think there will be much drop off for them, even with a new QB starting. Sounds like you were putting a large emphasis on Texas being a young team whereas now you seem to despise anyone who mentions the very same thing. Obviously youth is not the only variable in our last two losses...but seriously dude...how soon you forget your own words. You just seem to be bitter. There is a reason people like you aren't coaches. And there is a reason people like Mack are coaches. You are correct here. That assessment was based on a kool aid drunk after wins over bad teams. That was a mistake. Texas has failed the only 2 real tests it has faced this season. The losses show a lot more than the wins do. I am not a coach, never was, and have no desire to be one. However one does not have to be a coach to see the glaring weaknesses on this team. And it is all the more disheartening when you have seen other teams do quite well with young players. You can draw your own conclusions from that fact. To me it simply means that the other teams young players were/are more talented than Texas’ young players. Almost every position on this team is ‘young’! The D-line was young last year, and has not improved much this year. So I don’t know why people think just one year of play will improve all the other positions. I’ll stand by my prediction, that it will be at least 2-3 more years of solid recruiting before Texas consistently wins again and is in the top-10. Until them look for more losses to the likes of OU and OSU. Don’t forget that while Texas may be maturing as a team, OSU is too. It’s 14 starting freshmen from last year are sophomores this year, will be juniors next year! So next year you will have Texas’ sophomores going up against even more experienced juniors. By the thesis that teams get better with experience, which team do you think will be better next year?
How do we know we wont wiff on the next few years of recruiting? Recruiting is a crap shoot. Always has been. Its all about player development. We have none. Blocking is not that difficult. Does it require skill? Yes. Difficult??? NO!!! Its amaxing to me that other teams cam get young lineman to block and young defensive lineman to wreak havoc but we have not been able to do that in years. As long as Mack is here, we will have a nice team. He is nice. We will reflect his personality.
OSU is ranked 2nd in the nation averaging 395 passing yards per game. Left Texas with 218. OSU is 4th in total offense averaging 51 points per game...left Texas with 38 points. Simple facts.... nothing more. Read into it what you will.
