Widescreen
9/2/2007, 05:50 PM
http://forums.hornfans.com/php/wwwthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=football&Number=5174314&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=0&fpart=
First, the article:
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Sunday, September 02, 2007
In a ragged, disjointed season opener that only a Michigan team could really appreciate, Texas won its first football game of the year.
Here's pretty much the extent of the good news: thank goodness Texas wasn't playing somebody really good like Appalachian State. Arkansas State was more than enough.
The Longhorns survived a gritty effort from a really good team picked third in the Sun Belt Conference, which was basically the lesser of two evils Saturday and just slightly better than the upset that befell No. 5 Michigan.
As the rightfully proud Indians walked somberly off the Royal-Memorial Stadium field to fitting applause from Texas fans in the southwest section, defensive tackle Prince Hickman muttered, "They're supposed to be the Big 12."
He's right. And the Longhorns are supposed to be the heavyweights of that league. They are supposed to be a lot of things.
Texas looked very plain in its 21-13 win over Arkansas State, and nothing like a team ranked fourth in the nation. It was very unbecoming a team that was a 39-point favorite.
Asked if the Longhorns looked like a top-10 team, standout wide receiver Limas Sweed said, "I don't know. I'm not an analyst. We went out and played hard."
Unfortunately, they don't give points for playing hard, and the Indians gave up precious few themselves, just seven in the final 47-plus minutes. If the Longhorns play like this the rest of the season, they'll go 7-5.
At least the game was telecast only on PPV (pay-per-view) and not on HTV (Had To View). In the end, Texas finished with fewer yards rushing than Arkansas State, fewer yards passing than Arkansas State, and was penalized for more yards.
The crux of the narrow victory comes down to this:
Texas wasn't physical enough.
Texas wasn't disciplined enough.
Texas didn't finish enough.
Sadly, Mack Brown said he wasn't hard on his team in his postgame locker-room comments.
"No, this place is hard enough," the Longhorns coach said. "We can win by 40, and people are mad. We'll be honest with them and say some of these things are not very good. We couldn't score from the 1-yard line. That's not good."
The Longhorns were denied a touchdown on a terrific goal-line stand by Arkansas State, made repeated errors in trying to contain amazingly elusive quarterback Corey Leonard, and committed personal fouls to extend Indians drives and help ASU reach Texas territory on eight of 11 possessions.
At times, it was hard to tell which Davey O'Brien candidate was better, because Colt McCoy started ablaze and then couldn't get his team in the end zone.
"There were some tough plays, and we didn't convert on some things," McCoy said. "But that's fixable. It was not the prettiest and not the best, but we're 1-0. I'm not discouraged."
He's probably the only one.
Let's get all the lame excuses out of the way.
Arkansas State gives out scholarships, too. Most teams are rusty in their first game. Texas is very young. The Longhorns didn't want to show their hand against next week's perhaps-too-worthy opponent, Texas Christian. The team is a work in progress. It sure beats a loss.
That enough?
Now for the heavy lifting.
What's most worrisome is the lack of a punishing ground game and the realization that the Texas offense may be more finesse that physical. That's an old description of the Longhorns that we'd hoped was dead and buried forever once ol' whazisname took Texas to a national championship. By my count, Texas lined up in the I-formation twice outside the jumbo package inside the 5 and once threw for a nifty touchdown pass to Antwan Cobb out of it.
Too often, McCoy hands the ball to Jamaal Charles, who dances and jukes until he can find daylight. He put on a good offensive show with his assortment of dash and wiggle with his first 100-yard game in 11 games, but for too much of the evening, the running game failed to get untracked and continues to go sideways first.
As that Exhibit A, Texas couldn't punch in a touchdown in four tries from inside the ASU 3-yard line, with Charles held for no gain on fourth-and-goal at the 1.
As a good footnote, offensive coordinator Greg Davis did not call for the quarterback sneak on the lip of the goal-line, and McCoy is healthy enough to play next week.
"I thought it was going to be real easy," Charles said. "I took 'em lightly, then I had to go out and fight for everything."
As did his teammates.
On the bright side, however, we're guessing the Longhorns really didn't want to show TCU anything. Like the idea they're a great team. Here's hoping they save that.
Now the comments from the hornfans thread:
In reply to:
We'll be honest with them and say some of these things are not very good.
Easy there, Coach. At least wait until they've finished their juiceboxes.
:D
VInce was the reason we won the NC, not the coaching. It's time we accepted that reality.
I'm speechless.
More than anything, simply point to an underprepared and probably overrated Texas team that could be in for an interesting season, unfortunately. 7-5? I dunno. Not out of the realm, at all.
Texas fans admitting they are overrated????
...that TCU D is going to completely masticate that milk toast offense we're rolling out there. Our D was an abomination too.
I'm looking forward to that game. A lot.
I fully expect Texas to lose next week.
Tee hee.
"One of the things is they were giving us a lot of run blitzes , and it's hard when they do that."
Greg Davis telling us that in his one dimensional world there are no other options.
"We can win by 40, and people are mad."
Mack showing confidence that all is well.
Man, it's good to see UT fans back to the good old days of slamming their coaches. I guess we now know how long a honeymoon lasts. About 20 months.
First, the article:
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Sunday, September 02, 2007
In a ragged, disjointed season opener that only a Michigan team could really appreciate, Texas won its first football game of the year.
Here's pretty much the extent of the good news: thank goodness Texas wasn't playing somebody really good like Appalachian State. Arkansas State was more than enough.
The Longhorns survived a gritty effort from a really good team picked third in the Sun Belt Conference, which was basically the lesser of two evils Saturday and just slightly better than the upset that befell No. 5 Michigan.
As the rightfully proud Indians walked somberly off the Royal-Memorial Stadium field to fitting applause from Texas fans in the southwest section, defensive tackle Prince Hickman muttered, "They're supposed to be the Big 12."
He's right. And the Longhorns are supposed to be the heavyweights of that league. They are supposed to be a lot of things.
Texas looked very plain in its 21-13 win over Arkansas State, and nothing like a team ranked fourth in the nation. It was very unbecoming a team that was a 39-point favorite.
Asked if the Longhorns looked like a top-10 team, standout wide receiver Limas Sweed said, "I don't know. I'm not an analyst. We went out and played hard."
Unfortunately, they don't give points for playing hard, and the Indians gave up precious few themselves, just seven in the final 47-plus minutes. If the Longhorns play like this the rest of the season, they'll go 7-5.
At least the game was telecast only on PPV (pay-per-view) and not on HTV (Had To View). In the end, Texas finished with fewer yards rushing than Arkansas State, fewer yards passing than Arkansas State, and was penalized for more yards.
The crux of the narrow victory comes down to this:
Texas wasn't physical enough.
Texas wasn't disciplined enough.
Texas didn't finish enough.
Sadly, Mack Brown said he wasn't hard on his team in his postgame locker-room comments.
"No, this place is hard enough," the Longhorns coach said. "We can win by 40, and people are mad. We'll be honest with them and say some of these things are not very good. We couldn't score from the 1-yard line. That's not good."
The Longhorns were denied a touchdown on a terrific goal-line stand by Arkansas State, made repeated errors in trying to contain amazingly elusive quarterback Corey Leonard, and committed personal fouls to extend Indians drives and help ASU reach Texas territory on eight of 11 possessions.
At times, it was hard to tell which Davey O'Brien candidate was better, because Colt McCoy started ablaze and then couldn't get his team in the end zone.
"There were some tough plays, and we didn't convert on some things," McCoy said. "But that's fixable. It was not the prettiest and not the best, but we're 1-0. I'm not discouraged."
He's probably the only one.
Let's get all the lame excuses out of the way.
Arkansas State gives out scholarships, too. Most teams are rusty in their first game. Texas is very young. The Longhorns didn't want to show their hand against next week's perhaps-too-worthy opponent, Texas Christian. The team is a work in progress. It sure beats a loss.
That enough?
Now for the heavy lifting.
What's most worrisome is the lack of a punishing ground game and the realization that the Texas offense may be more finesse that physical. That's an old description of the Longhorns that we'd hoped was dead and buried forever once ol' whazisname took Texas to a national championship. By my count, Texas lined up in the I-formation twice outside the jumbo package inside the 5 and once threw for a nifty touchdown pass to Antwan Cobb out of it.
Too often, McCoy hands the ball to Jamaal Charles, who dances and jukes until he can find daylight. He put on a good offensive show with his assortment of dash and wiggle with his first 100-yard game in 11 games, but for too much of the evening, the running game failed to get untracked and continues to go sideways first.
As that Exhibit A, Texas couldn't punch in a touchdown in four tries from inside the ASU 3-yard line, with Charles held for no gain on fourth-and-goal at the 1.
As a good footnote, offensive coordinator Greg Davis did not call for the quarterback sneak on the lip of the goal-line, and McCoy is healthy enough to play next week.
"I thought it was going to be real easy," Charles said. "I took 'em lightly, then I had to go out and fight for everything."
As did his teammates.
On the bright side, however, we're guessing the Longhorns really didn't want to show TCU anything. Like the idea they're a great team. Here's hoping they save that.
Now the comments from the hornfans thread:
In reply to:
We'll be honest with them and say some of these things are not very good.
Easy there, Coach. At least wait until they've finished their juiceboxes.
:D
VInce was the reason we won the NC, not the coaching. It's time we accepted that reality.
I'm speechless.
More than anything, simply point to an underprepared and probably overrated Texas team that could be in for an interesting season, unfortunately. 7-5? I dunno. Not out of the realm, at all.
Texas fans admitting they are overrated????
...that TCU D is going to completely masticate that milk toast offense we're rolling out there. Our D was an abomination too.
I'm looking forward to that game. A lot.
I fully expect Texas to lose next week.
Tee hee.
"One of the things is they were giving us a lot of run blitzes , and it's hard when they do that."
Greg Davis telling us that in his one dimensional world there are no other options.
"We can win by 40, and people are mad."
Mack showing confidence that all is well.
Man, it's good to see UT fans back to the good old days of slamming their coaches. I guess we now know how long a honeymoon lasts. About 20 months.