SB Nation - UTEP Miners

And for their next trick...

One Man To Beat — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 04:50:56 -0000

More photos » by Rogelio V. Solis - AP

8 days ago: Mississippi guard Chris Warren (12) scores a first-half layup past UTEP guard Julyan Stone (5) during their NCAA college basketball game in Southaven, Miss., Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2009. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

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Act one: Ole Miss narrowly edges Southern Miss 81-79 overcoming a six point deficit in the last 1:19 of regulation snagging victory from the jaws of defeat.

Act two: McNeese State, bound and determined to upset a newly ranked Rebel squad, holds a 15 point lead with only 11 minutes remaining in regulation. The Rebels tenacious defense and poise results in a 31-point swing in a 16 point (83-67) victory.

Act three: The UTEP Miners fans back in El Paso might have been jangling keys at the three minute mark boasting a 70-58 lead over the 20th best team in the land. Eight minutes later, Ole Miss caps off a 33-11 run winning in overtime 91-81.

Seriously, Rebels, have some compassion on your fans. Three come from behind victories in a row? Mississippi is the most obese state in the union, fans will drop left and right at this kind of trend.

PG Chris Warren dropped a career-high 32 on the Miners though he was nearly non-existant in the second half. Warren had 17 in the first half in 18 minutes of play, then cashed in 11 more in a five minute overtime period. Get the ball in his hands, and watch the magic happen. The speed is still there even after a season ending knee injury last year could have hampered his ability to get up and down the court.

SG Terrico White (the Robin to Warren's Batman thus far) added 19 for Ole Miss and really got the Rebel rally going in the final three minutes by draining two key three pointers. White and Warren are continually leading the team in scoring, but one player with a massive wingspan showed up Wednesday as well.

C Reginald "The" Buckner "Stops here" (Chris Berman has apparently invaded our blog) had mostly shown flashes on defense this season with his propensity for blocking shots. Buckner scored 11 points and grabbed six rebounds in this game, while also blocking three shots. He was hot early on and has played well enough in my opinion to warrant more playing time. His free throw shooting was suspect to say the least (1 of 5 from the charity stripe), but that could be a conditioning issue, the result of being a true freshman.

At times, SF Zach Graham was a huge spark-plug for the Ole Miss offense throwing down 14 points and shooting three of five from behind the arc. He's making a case for being the go-to sixth man for the Rebels.

UTEP had the upper hand going into the last three minutes of play. C Derrick Caracter was a huge addition, literally and figuratively for the Miners. Caracter recently cleared eligibility issues from his transfer from Louisville and had a double-double with 15 points and 15 rebounds in the game. His fouling out in overtime was the final nail in the coffin in this contest. He'll be a big factor for this team moving forward into Conference-USA play.

The Miners were led in points by Randy Culpepper who couldn't seem to find his shot, going 2-12 in three point range. UTEP dropped to 5-2 on the year, but brighter days are ahead for this team that won more than 20 games last season.

The Rebels will play Centenary on Saturday, and I'm fairly certain most fans will chalk it up to be a lopsided victory. However, sources have disclosed to the Cup that the Rebels plan to spot Centenary 50, just to see if they can continue their escape artistry, another Houdini-like effort, in their quest for the Big Dance.

Rebel Roundup - 12/16/09

The Ghost of Jay Cutler — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 14:58:35 -0000

More photos » by Don Ryan - AP

University of Texas-El paso guard Julyan Stone, left, drives downcourt against Oregon State forward Omari Johnson. The Rebels square off against the Miners tonight in Southaven.

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Ole Miss vs. UTEP Preview | CBS Sports
What are you doing tonight? The semester is over, South Park isn't airing a new episode, and you're naturally going to wait until tomorrow morning to listen to the first 20 minutes of Red Cup Radio before getting tired of us; so allow me to make a suggestion: Go to Southaven to watch the Rebels take on the Miners of UTEP. This, along with our matchup against West Virginia on the 23rd, is our last big out of conference test before the rigors of SEC play so, if you're within an hour's drive of Memphian suburbia, don't be lame and be there for your Rebel basketball team. We will bring you a preview of our own later today.

Weekly Watch: Week 4 | ESPN
ESPN's weekly watch gives the Kansas State Wildcats, a team whose only loss comes to our Rebels, some mad props and says this in its places to be segment:

Southaven, Miss., Wednesday: UTEP, my personal sleeper, travels to the suburbs of Memphis to play Ole Miss in an attempt to get some national recognition. This should be one of the better games of the week between two teams that have had little national profile so far but could make some noise in March.

You see! Even ESPN says so! DO NOT BE A BAD REBEL.

Cotton Bowl Practice: The Rise of Tig | Brandt
We've talked to some folks and Brandt has only confirmed what they've told us: Tig is tearing it up in practice. And not just as a safety, where he is apparently playing well, but also as a halfback. Per the Cup's rapscallion of a rival, took his very first handoff in practice to the house. Welcome back, Tig. Stay out of trouble and you'll do well here. Also beyond that link are some interesting notes on Patrick Trahan, Raymond Cotton, and others. That, and epically ridiculous Clarion Ledger comments threads, but that's to be expected by now.

Dexter McCluster and John Jerry, 3rd Team AA | More Brandt
Briefly, Dexter McCluster was named a 3rd team All-American All-Purpose Back and John Jerry named a 3rd team Tackle. Congratulations, Dex and Baby J.

SEC 2000-10: Mike Price's Trip to Pensacola (2003)

cocknfire — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 18:00:27 -0000

More photos » by Eric Gay - AP

But for a night he would rather have back, Mike Price might be the coach at Alabama right now.

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It had already been more than a decade since Alabama's last national championship when, after the 2002 season, head coach Dennis Franchione bolted for Texas A&M and the Tide decided to go West -- very, very West --

EARLIER TODAY: What a Decade It's Been

to find its new leader. The university settled on Mike Price, the head coach who had guided Washington State to two Rose Bowls. To say it was a fateful choice would be something of an understatement.

Five months later, Price was fired without having coached a single game in Tuscaloosa. In between was a story that included strippers, Sports Illustrated and the largest to-go room service order in recorded human history. Even now, there's dispute about exactly what happened during a golfing visit to Pensacola that ended Price's "career" at Alabama.

The story started out bizarre -- Price had allegedly spent the evening with two women, one a stripper named Destiny and one of whom spent $1,000 on room service and asked for it to go -- and quickly dissolved into the ridiculous. The Associated Press dispatched a reporter to a strip club in Idaho to ask if Price had frequented that establishment while coaching at Washington State. ("He would have stood out like a sore thumb" was the reply.)

Price denied the most explosive allegations -- including accusations that he had sex with two women in his hotel room -- in the Sports Illustrated story that marked the beginning of the end of his time at Alabama. He later sued the magazine, which settled out of court without either side publicly budging on its version of events.

When Price was unsurprisingly canned, he somehow found the nerve to hold a self-righteous press conference blasting the university's decision.

I've asked President Witt for a second chance, and he declined. What ever happened to a second chance in life? ... I wanted to make something positive out of this negative. I really truly believed that the University of Alabama is bigger and better than this, that we could have overcome this. ...

In football, I call them teaching opportunities. "Here's an opportunity to do this son." And this I felt like was an opportunity for the University. I don't feel like the punishment meets the crime. I strongly feel that I was the man that could have put this behind us. I think President Witt is making a mistake. He's not breaking the law, but he's making an error in judgment. ...

I'll tell you what, I don't know if you remember four months ago, but I think you felt like I came here as a man of dignity and class. And I'm going to go out as a man of dignity and class.

For some reason, he declined to take questions.

Price would eventually land at UTEP, where the Miners have gone 34-38 in his six seasons. (In fairness, that's pretty good for them, and UTEP defeated Houston this year while five of its eight losses came by a touchdown or less.)

Alabama officials were left with only four months to find a football coach before the beginning of the 2003 season. They settled on Mike Shula, son of the legendary pro coach Don and a former Alabama quarterback who went 24-11-1 as a starter. Shula was just 26-23 in his four years in Tuscaloosa, with just one winning season (2005, 10-2).

Most of us know what happened after that. Risking his reputation, Alabama Athletics Director Mal Moore lobbied then-Miami Dolphins head coach Nick Saban to take over at the Capstone. It will be Saban who leads the Tide to Pasadena in January for a chance at its first national title of the BCS era.

Overall, not a bad trade for one of the worst scandals in the university's history.

Week Thirteen BlogPoll Ballot Draft

T Kyle King — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 10:00:16 -0000

When compiling this week’s BlogPoll ballot, I paid no attention to last week’s top 25 (ergo, you should ignore the arrows) and I did not consult any other person’s or organization’s rankings, so the fault for what follows is mine and mine alone. I began by cobbling together a list of all BCS conference teams with records of 9-3 or better and all mid-major teams with records of 10-2 or better. This list came to twenty teams, so I went back and added in the six BCS conference clubs with 8-3 records. In so doing, I overlooked nine BCS conference teams and independents with 8-4 records, as well as five mid-majors with 9-3 records. I remain open to arguments in favor of any of these teams, but the first draft of my ballot reads as follows:

Rank	Team	Delta

1	Alabama
2	Florida
3	Texas
4	Cincinnati
5	Boise State	1
6	TCU	1
7	Oregon	2
8	Ohio State	2
9	Iowa	2
10	Georgia Tech	3
11	Virginia Tech	1
12	Pittsburgh	4
13	LSU	7
14	Miami (Florida)	1
15	Southern Cal	6
16	Oregon State
17	Penn State	4
18	Houston	4
19	Oklahoma State	4
20	West Virginia
21	California	2
22	Nebraska
23	Brigham Young
24	Wisconsin
25	Central Michigan
Last week's ballot

Dropped Out: Clemson (#14), Mississippi (#17), North Carolina (#18), Stanford (#24), Temple (#25).

The Alabama Crimson Tide (12-0) have beaten eight Division I-A teams with winning records, including the 11th-ranked Virginia Tech Hokies (9-3), the 13th-ranked LSU Tigers (9-3), and the Mississippi Rebels (8-4), yet the Tide’s only close calls have come in heated rivalry showdowns with the Tennessee Volunteers and the Auburn Tigers, both of which are 7-5.

The Florida Gators (12-0) have beaten seven Division I-A teams with winning records, but the Sunshine State Saurians’ best victory was over Louisiana State, which is the second-best victim ‘Bama has bested. The Texas Longhorns (12-0) have taken down only five opponents who are above .500 and their best win was over the 19th-ranked Oklahoma St. Cowboys (9-3). As we shall see, the Pokes’ credentials are somewhat suspect, so the ‘Horns are a decidedly shaky No. 3 in my view.

I awarded the No. 4 spot on my ballot to the Cincinnati Bearcats (11-0) due to the fact that Brian Kelly’s club has bested the 16th-ranked Oregon St. Beavers (8-3), the 20th-ranked West Virginia Mountaineers (8-3), and the Rutgers Scarlet Knights (8-3). All told, six of Cincy’s Division I-A triumphs have come against teams with winning ledgers.

The Boise St. Broncos narrowly edged out the TCU Horned Frogs for the No. 5 ranking, but it was a close call because the two teams’ resumes are so similar. The two mid-major mammoths arrived at 12-0 by virtually identical routes, as both clubs have beaten one Division I-AA opponent at home (UC-Davis for Boise State and Texas State for Texas Christian), one 6-6 squad on the road (Hawaii for the Broncos and Wyoming for the Frogs), five teams with winning records, and five teams with losing records. Each has beaten a 1-11 team at home (BSU defeated Miami (Ohio) and TCU defeated New Mexico) and each has taken advantage of four opponents with four or fewer wins.

The Horned Frogs’ second- and third-best wins (over the Utah Utes and the Clemson Tigers) were superior to the Broncos’ second- and third-best wins (over the Nevada Wolf Pack and the Fresno St. Bulldogs), but Boise State’s triumph over the seventh-ranked Oregon Ducks (9-2) carries considerably more weight than Texas Christian’s victory over the 23rd-ranked BYU Cougars (10-2), so the Broncos sneaked by the Frogs . . . barely.

(I would add at this point that Texas and Texas Christian have beaten the same number of Division I-A teams with records above .500 and that the Longhorns’ triumvirate of wins over Oklahoma State, Texas Tech, and Missouri clubs with a combined 25-11 record is comparable in quality to the Horned Frogs’ trio of triumphs over BYU, Utah, and Clemson outfits with a cumulative 27-9 ledger. Texas and TCU share only one opponent in common; the ‘Horns traveled to Laramie and beat the Wyoming Cowboys 41-10, whereas the Frogs traveled to Laramie and beat the Wyoming Cowboys 45-10. Texas allowed 13 points in a narrow win over the Oklahoma Sooners at a neutral site game played in Dallas, while Texas Christian went on the road and throttled a Brigham Young team that allowed 13 points in a narrow win over the Oklahoma Sooners at a neutral site game played in Arlington. There is a compelling case to be made for the proposition that the Longhorns are not the top team in the Lone Star State, or, at least, are not noticeably distinguishable from the other contender for that title.)

Oregon laid claim to the No. 7 ranking ahead of the Ohio St. Buckeyes (10-2) in spite of the fact that the Big Ten champions have the better collection of victories over winning teams: Ohio State beat Iowa, Penn State, Wisconsin, and Navy, while the Ducks defeated Southern California, California, Utah, and Arizona. The Buckeyes were dragged down by the fact that they lost to two teams, including the Purdue Boilermakers (5-7), that both were beaten by Oregon.

The Iowa Hawkeyes (10-2) landed one notch behind an Ohio State team to which they lost a close contest on the road. Iowa ended up ahead of the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (10-2) not on the basis of wins, but of losses. In the victory column, the Hawkeyes and the Engineers are comparable. Both have ten wins; both claimed four of those victories by a touchdown or less; both beat one Division I-AA team and three Division I-A teams with winning records. On the whole, the Ramblin’ Wreck’s top three triumphs (over Virginia Tech, Clemson, and North Carolina) arguably are better than Iowa’s (over Penn State, Wisconsin, and Arizona), but the Hawkeyes lost a couple of close ones to an 8-4 team at home and a 10-2 team on the road. The Golden Tornado lost a close one to a 7-5 team at home and a thumping to a 9-3 team on the road.

Wins over No. 14 Miami (Florida) and No. 22 Nebraska enabled the Gobblers to overcome three very respectable losses and claim the No. 11 ranking for VPI, while the Pittsburgh Panthers (9-2) staked an admittedly shaky claim to the No. 12 spot with victories over Rutgers, Navy, and South Florida. Both of Pitt’s losses came in close contests on the road, but the Panthers’ early-season setback to the N.C. State Wolfpack (5-7) gives me pause and I very well might be persuaded to drop Dave Wannstedt’s club.

The Bayou Bengals’ three best wins were over a trio of 7-5 teams (Georgia, Arkansas, and Auburn), but their losses to Alabama, Florida, and Ole Miss are forgivable, so Louisiana State sneaked ahead of the Miami Hurricanes (9-3). A convincing win over Georgia Tech, a recent triumph over the South Florida Bulls (7-4), a previous victory over Oklahoma that acquired new luster in the Bedlam Battle, and a trio of losses to teams with at least eight wins apiece vaulted the ‘Canes ahead of the USC Trojans (8-3), who are hanging onto narrow victories against Ohio State and Oregon State while otherwise relying upon name recognition to make us forget about a stumble against the Washington Huskies (4-7) and blowout losses to Oregon and Stanford.

The Beavers ended up behind the Men of Troy thanks to the head-to-head result of the two teams’ Pac-10 meeting in Los Angeles, but wins over Cal and Stanford continue to keep Oregon State in contention. Despite boasting a 10-2 record, the Penn St. Nittany Lions deserved no better than a No. 17 ranking because Joe Paterno’s club has beaten the Northwestern Wildcats, the Temple Owls, and no other Division I-A teams above .500 while being beaten soundly by both Ohio State and Iowa.

I know lots of folks don’t think the Houston Cougars deserve to be ranked, but the Cougs are a refugee from a traditional Southern power conference and a division champion who got to 10-2 by beating a Division I-AA opponent, skating by four Division I-A foes by seven or fewer points, beating the Mississippi St. Bulldogs (5-7) in Starkville, and taking advantage of five teams with losing records. Houston sounds to me a lot like Georgia Tech, but, whereas an ACC division champion would finish fourth in the SEC East, a Conference USA division champion would finish in the top half of the Big 12 South, at least judging by the Cougars’ wins over Oklahoma State and Texas Tech. Those key non-league wins allowed Houston to overcome the problem of having lost on the road to the UTEP Miners (4-8).

For obvious reasons, the Cowboys remained one spot behind the Cougars, but a better set of losses (to Texas, Houston, and Oklahoma) allowed the Pokes to stay ahead of a West Virginia unit that fell to Cincinnati, South Florida, and Auburn before boosting its resume by beating Pittsburgh in the Backyard Brawl.

The California Golden Bears (8-3) suffered their three setbacks to teams with eight or more victories each, but none of those losses came in close contests and Cal’s wins over the Stanford Cardinal (8-4) and the Arizona Wildcats (7-4) are the only bright spots in a resume weighed down by the presence of triumphs over Division I-AA Eastern Washington, the Washington St. Cougars (1-11), the Maryland Terrapins (2-10), and the Arizona St. Sun Devils (4-8), the latter of whom the Berkeley Bears barely beat.

The Nebraska Cornhuskers (9-3) won the Big 12 North after tackling a non-conference slate straight out of the Sun Belt. The Big Red Machine beat Arkansas State, Florida Atlantic, and Louisiana-Lafayette but defeated only one team all year with a ledger better than 7-5. The ‘Huskers came up short against the Iowa St. Cyclones (6-6) in an offensively moribund contest, so Nebraska clings to a No. 22 ranking while patiently awaiting its loss to Texas.

Brigham Young does not deserve to be ranked, but I had trouble finding another team to rank 23rd, so the spot went to a Cougar club that lost lopsided affairs to Texas Christian and the Florida St. Seminoles (6-6). Narrow wins over Utah and Oklahoma are about all BYU has to its credit, but those victories are better than the Wisconsin Badgers’ triumphs over Fresno State and Northern Illinois. Those are the only two teams over .500 to have fallen to Wiscy in the course of the Badgers’ 8-3 autumn.

The Central Michigan Chippewas (10-2) slipped into the No. 25 spot ahead of Rutgers because the State University of New Jersey beat a pair of Division I-AA teams and the Chips at least sneaked by the Michigan St. Spartans (6-6) on the road. Also, unlike the Scarlet Knights, they didn’t lose to the gender-neutral Syracuse Orange (4-8).

You should by all means feel free to offer constructive criticisms, heartfelt feedback, and thoughtful arguments for the inclusion or exclusion of particular teams. For what it’s worth, I watched the Ball State-Western Michigan game on Tuesday and the first half of the Texas-Texas A&M game on Thursday before devoting my Friday to flipping back and forth among and between the Cincinnati-Illinois, Alabama-Auburn, Colorado-Nebraska, Pitt-West Virginia, and Boise State-Nevada games. My Saturday was spent bouncing around between the Clemson-South Carolina, Mississippi-Mississippi State, Florida-Florida State, and Miami-South Florida games before I settled in for the Georgia-Georgia Tech game.

Go ‘Dawgs!

Don't Bet On It!: National Games of Interest

T Kyle King — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 02:05:22 -0000

(Author’s Note: I apologize for not getting word to everyone in a timely manner, but I guess you figured by now that I wasn’t on the radio this week. John Frary contacted me ahead of time and I failed to notify all of you, which I regret. I’m slated to be back on at my regular time at 7:15 next Monday. We now return you to your regularly scheduled weblog, which is already in progress.)

Having provided you with this week’s slate of SEC picks, I now turn to the national games of interest. Last week, I was 3-2 in games played outside the Southeast, leaving me with a 23-20 record for the season. Accordingly, I shouldn’t have to warn you, but I will anyway: Don’t Bet On It!

The following games will be played on Saturday, October 31, except where noted otherwise:

North Carolina Tar Heels at Virginia Tech Hokies (Thurs., Oct. 29): This matchup lacks much of the luster it was expected to possess when the weeknight tilt was scheduled. This interdivisional showdown and/or key intra-division clash was rendered mostly moot by UNC’s and VPI’s trips to Atlanta to face an offense run by Paul Johnson and endorsed by the 70’s Preservation Society. These ACC also-rans are now jockeying for postseason position, and I like the Gobblers to get it done in Blacksburg.

West Virginia Mountaineers at South Florida Bulls (Fri., Oct. 30): All right, "Mountaineers," I get. West Virginia is located entirely within the Appalachian Mountain range, so the mascot fits. "Bulls," though? Because, when you think of bulls, you think of . . . Tampa? (I’m sure there’s an explanation for that nickname choice. I’m equally sure that there’s an accurate description of that explanation that’s eight letters long . . . and, come to think of it, the first five letters of that eight-letter description spell out the USF mascot!) This is the week that one of these teams says so long to any hope of ending the autumn in the top 25. I’m taking West Virginia to be the team that solidifies its poll position.

Southern Miss. Golden Eagles at Houston Cougars: Before Urban Meyer led the Utah Utes to the mid-major promised land in 2004, the course charted by the putative "BCS buster" was a familiar one. The plucky young upstart would score an early eyebrow-raising upset or two, usually over a team from a major conference with more historic name recognition than actual current value, then reach the cusp of the top ten after a fast start before losing a couple of head-scratchers in conference play. In that respect, Houston, you have a problem: the Cougars already have stumbled against the inscrutable UTEP Miners, and this looks like the losable game that will boot the Conference USA darling from the top 25 for good. I’m going with Southern Miss to register the upset.

Texas Longhorns at Oklahoma St. Cowboys: In the past, this foregone conclusion has qualified as the national game of disinterest, but the Pokes have made great strides as a program in the interim, and Mack Brown’s club has yet to play a truly challenging game on the opponent’s home field. Is this the game in which Bevo’s soft underbelly is exposed? Probably not, but I expect Oklahoma State to make a game of it before falling to Texas.

USC Trojans at Oregon Ducks: As a battle of mascots, this one is a complete mismatch. On one side, we have an ancient warrior immortalized in epic poetry; on the other side, we have a cartoon waterfowl with anger management issues. No contest. However, the Men of Troy could have their hands full in Autzen Stadium against an Oregon team that has improved dramatically since its season-opening swoon. The problem is that this isn’t the kind of game Pete Carroll’s clubs drop; when the Trojans know they’re going on the road to face a daunting conference opponent that could swipe the Pac-10 title from them, they’re always ready to play. It will be a battle, but, in the end, Southern California will emerge victorious.

I’m 100 per cent confident that those predictions will be at least 40 per cent wrong, but I have no idea where the error lies, which is why I go out of my way to offer a weekly disclaimer and emphasize it repeatedly until you internalize the vitally important message that you must remember, no matter what: Don’t Bet On It!

Coming Soon: National Game of Disinterest.

Go ‘Dawgs!

Snap Shots: Discipline and Screen Defense

Peter Bean — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 07:08:16 -0000

I'll probably bump this up front and center again early next week, since the weekend's live action will shove this down the page pretty quickly. But the post is done, so if you're here and reading it, dive in to the fun.

With the exception of our look at Sergio Kindle's speed rush, the Snap Shots series primarily has focused on the offense. Today, we spend a few minutes with the defense, and in particular the unit's work against the screen. What follows is a frame-by-frame breakdown of Texas' exceptional work disrupting an attempted screen during the first quarter of the UTEP game. The Miners may have been outmatched in this contest one way or another, but this particular play neatly illustrates a host of broadly applicable points about this year's defensive unit.

THE CONTEXT: It's 3rd and 10 for the Miners, who line up in a look the Longhorns will see many, many times this season: shotgun with aces spread wide, a tailback alongside the QB.

TEXAS' DEFENSIVE SET: Texas is in its base nickel package, the alignment of which is telling about how Muschamp wants to defend the spread passing attacks we'll often see. First, note the alignment of the secondary: the corners Curtis and Chykie Brown are in soft-press coverage, the nickelback Aaron Williams is up on the line pressed over the strongside slot receiver, Earl Thomas is eight yards deep over the weakside slot, and Gideon is twelve yards deep behind Chykie and Williams.

Rod Muckelroy and Keenan Robinson are your LBs, Eddie Jones and Sergio Kindle are upright on the ends, while Sam Acho slides inside to flank Lamarr Houston on the interior. You'd have to sub Christian Scott for Gideon to get a faster, more athletic group of 11.

If you're wondering why you should care about this, please recall, first of all, that Chizik, Akina, and McDuff were defending these offensive sets from the 4-3; but second, it's also worth looking at how Muschamp and this young-a-year-ago defense have matured. It's not difficult to see how nicely Texas is aligned pre-snap to handle this set, and we could spend an entire post talking about the niceties of the alignment and personnel alone.

[NOTE: CLICK ANY IMAGE TO ENLARGE]

At the snap: As Vittatoe receives the snap, Texas brings five rushers towards the line -- tackles Houston and Acho strike to engage on the inside, while the highlighted trio of Kindle, Muckelroy, and Robinson move forward. Note, however, Eddie Jones, shaded in the picture below: he's most likely sitting in a read (taking away the quick pass to the weakside slot) or, possibly, simply disinterested in rushing based on something he sees.

Reading the D: As UTEP's interior receivers start downfield, two potential screen receipients run strongside (green lines below). The observation here is centered on Texas' defensive ends: Sergio Kindle has properly altered his rush to account for the tailback sliding outside while Eddie Jones continues to hold his ground unengaged, watching Vittatoe for his cue.

The match up: It's easy to see from the frame below what factors will control the outcome of the play. As Vittatoe starts to pass the bubble screen, UTEP's left guard (shaded) has what looks like a good line on Eddie Jones, who is making his initial step towards the play as he sees what's coming. Note that if a second from now UTEP's left guard successfully engages Eddie Jones, there's a nice gap in the middle of the field, thanks to a nice seal block from the center on Keenan Robinson (just inside the left hashes).

Heads up: As the ball is released, UTEP still looks to be in good position to make a solid gain out of this: the left guard has what looks like a good angle towards Jones, Acho (shaded) is engaged with a blocker, and Robinson is sealed inside by the center. Look closely, however, at the shaded area (might be helpful to click the image to enlarge): If you peer in close, you can see a small, but crucial detail: Acho has both kept his head up (eyes on the QB) and used his arms to keep separated from the back-pedalling, upright left tackle.

Zooming in: A fraction of a second later, you can start to see why this screen is going to fail. At the left of the image the shaded Sam Acho, eyes on the ball, is disengaging from the left tackle, while Eddie Jones (shaded near the 20 yard line) has begun his close on the play with a quickness that -- in a mere split second -- has turned what looked like a good angle for the left guard a not-so-hot one.

Ball arrival: As the ball arives, Acho is disengaged and lurching towards the receiver, while Eddie Jones is racing past what is now an out-of-position left guard for the Miners.

Might as well drop it: The UTEP receiver drops the screen pass, in all likelihood because he can't help but notice that Sam Acho and Eddie Jones are about to crush him at the same time.

Fail: What looked like a promising play at the outset turns out to be a painful incompletion, thanks to Acho and Jones's discipline and athleticism.

The lesson: Texas is defending the screen game exceptionally well so far in 2009, in a way that highlights a bevy of important points:

Healthy and in his fourth year in the program, Eddie Jones has emerged as a difference-making DE.
Citing Sam Acho's "intelligence" is not a meaningless throwaway line. He's a versatile, strong, quick, and well-techniqued playmaker Muschamp can use on the outside and interior.
Sergio Kindle is not a one-dimensional head hunter. When he's asked to rush the QB, he's thriving; when his assignment requires something else, he's there.
Will Muschamp's intensity is endearing, but it's his ability to coach superior athletes into disciplined, aware defenders that is most encouraging.
The defensive line may be an injury away from being a worry again, but the group that we're seeing is more than just adequate -- it's damn good.

WildHorn Part 3: Final Thoughts and New Plays

GhostofBigRoy — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 13:46:35 -0000

More photos » by Eric Gay - AP

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Part 1

Part 2

Tech Success

The WildHorn debut was successful in part because Tech wasn't prepared for the play, as evidenced by about three players biting on the fake to DJ Monroe, but also because the Longhorns executed the three of the four plays well, while using the only passing play so far, a play that could have gone for big yardage had Colt McCoy delivered the pass with more accuracy.

The Goalline Dalliance

After the UTEP game, Mack Brown explained why the Longhorns used the WildHorn in the red zone in that game, seemingly an odd decision given the decreased space so close to the goalline:

Philosophically, a few things that we are looking at are the Wild Horn. When you have three games that we have pretty much blown out in the first four, you get to look at a lot of different things. We have just been looking at plays and toys. We have not run the Wild Horn on the goal line before in the red zone, but we did it the other night and did not do it well, so we are trying to tweak that entire formation and see where we go from here. We were disappointed in our red zone running game the other day - not goal line short yardage, we are doing that very well - but we do not think that we responded very well when we were in the red zone and kicked two field goals. We felt like starting at the eight or five-yard line that we should have scored touchdowns.

Brown acknowledged that using the formation in the red zone did not give the plays a high chance of success ($):

When we get into a game like that (against UTEP) - and we've been in three where we could do what we want - we hadn't worked on the Wild Horn in the red zone.

So it wasn't fair to the kids. But we just talked about it and said, ‘What the heck, let's try it.' When we've needed two or less yards, we've been great.

Brown and the coaching staff are still concerned about running the football in the red zone. Yes, the Longhorns have scored on 23 of 23 of their red zone trips, but there will be at least one game this season when they can't afford to settle for field goals. If the UTEP game is any indication, then the WildHorn won't be much help inside the 10.

Determining Cause

Did the WildHorn fail against UTEP because it is as poorly derived as the Q package? Or did the team just need to execute better and work out some kinks in the schemes? The answer, as it does many times in life, probably falls somewhere in the middle -- the UTEP defense made some adjustments and gave the blocking scheme some problems, but the Longhorns need to make some adjustments. On the most successful play, the counter read by Chies that gained three yards, Ulatoski had pick up a defensive end who sliced into the backfield after a pre-snap shift inside. EBS can't block that player, so why pull the tackle in that case? Just like the first play run against UTEP, the tackle should have stayed at home to block that player after the shift and the play might have succeeded. The blocking schemes for each of the plays was surely something the coaching staff looked at during the bye week.

The Elephant in the Room

The most strident argument against the WildHorn is probably the massive outright failure of 33% of the plays -- Chiles lost major yardage on two of the six plays so far. Both of those resulted from poor snaps by Chris Hall that forced Chiles to fall on the ball in the first instance and in the second caused the play to descend into chaos. In my recollection, Hall hasn't had any problems hiking the ball to McCoy, but I think the problems are really an indication of the lack of practice time spent with the plays.

Execution, stupid

Davis could make the best, most innovative playcall with the WildHorn and it wouldn't matter if the players don't execute, particularly in fundamentals like adequately snapping the football. While the coaching staff surely put in some new plays, refining the several plays currently used is also a priority. Is it worth it to continue to try to block the read end or linebacker, given that optioning that player off is the purpose of that type of football? Can a blocker account for the outside linebacker on the counter read when Monroe takes the handoff?

The Wildcat Series

Dan Lee popularized the Wildcat (or "Wild Hog," if you will) at Arkansas running a series of three plays with Darren McFadden and Felix Jones, even using it on the goalline, as the clip shows:

How Does Darren McFadden Do It? (via CBS)

The plays worked effectively on the goalline for the Piggies, could work for Texas anywhere on the field, and present the possibility of actually, you know, running some plays from a single-wing series with the WildHorn, which is philosophically quite divorced in everything but name from what most other teams are doing with their Wildcat packages. It makes sense that the coaching staff didn't want to spend critical time in fall camp putting in a whole new series and, instead, altering some playbook staples to put Chiles at quarterback -- the zone read and the new counter read, plus the reverse pass.

With the bye week providing some extra work in practice, I believe the Longhorns could have installed the Wildcat series Lee used at Arkansas -- the blocking schemes are simple and perhaps the hardest thing element of the plays is the timing between Chiles and Monroe. Here are the plays, as they would look for Texas:

Lee calls this the Stealer play and it's been a staple at Arkansas and now at Miami. In fact, along with the power, it's the basis of what most teams use with the formation. Monroe comes into motion while the blocks down the line of scrimmage, much like the speed option play that will be discussed later. It's a deceptive play because the linebackers have to freeze for a second to defend against the power, critical time when facing the elite speed of DJ Monroe. This play gets the ball to Monroe in space better than the counter read because he's already near full speed when he takes the handoff.

If the defense moves the outside linebacker (the linebacker on the wide side of the field) outside of the box to deal with the Stealer, then the offense has an easier task running the power play with one less player in the box, though this play diagram assumes the linebacker remains in the box, as Tech played the Longhorns after the first play that Chiles broke off for big yardage:

It looks like the Stealer to defenders with their eyes in the backfield as Monroe goes in motion, but it's a pre-determined run up the middle with Chiles, behind the left guard pulling into the hole and searching for the inside linebacker. If the outside backer takes any false steps worrying about Monroe, a serious concern for him from his position inside the tackle, then the pulling guard may get to the third level before encountering any resistance, ostensibly with Chiles on his hip. Chiles may not be Darren McFadden, but the speed of Monroe outside gives a defense a lot to think about, especially at full speed.

Of course, both plays work towards the wide side of the field, so what happens when the defense overpursues? A constraint play, of course -- the counter, already a part of the WildHorn in a different iteration, but here working as pure misdirection:

Chiles fakes the handoff to Monroe, taking a slight step or two with the motioning running back before reversing course and taking advantage of the open backside of the defense.

Those three simple plays form the basis of the series that has made the Wildcat wildly successful and one that Texas could undoubtedly use to great effect -- that is, if the Longhorns decided to work on it during their bye week.

The Option Option

To my knowledge, the Dolphins also run an option variation of the original series that is much similar to the counter read play that Texas already runs, but with the running back starting in motion from the short side of the field, of course. If it isn't a play that Dolphins use, the Longhorns could easily install it by optioning off a defender in the box, the defensive end on the wide side of the field, leaving another blocker free to account for an extra unblocked player. Imagine the counter read play, except with only the backside guard pulling and Monroe coming in motion from the short side of the field.

There is another option play in the playbook that Texas could revisit with Chiles, one that they used with him at quarterback -- the speed option, another play that works well to try to punish teams for putting all three linebackers in the box:

So far this season the Longhorns have scored twice using this play with the base offense, so it works even with McCoy running it.

Oh Yeah, He Was a Quarterback

Perhaps the most intriguing, unexplored aspect of the WildHorn is the possibility of using Chiles to throw the football a little bit. Neither McFadden nor Ronnie Brown are really trustworthy enough to throw many passes out of the formation and Lee tends to use an extra tight end or an unbalanced line, which the Longhorns won't be doing, leaving Texas with two legitimate receivers on the wide side against a defense pinched in towards the middle, keeping the deep safety inside the tackles and leaving the strong safety and cornerback one-on-one with the receivers, presenting the opportunity for several easy throws.

The first throw is a play-action screen pass to Jordan Shipley in the sub-B position, with Malcolm Williams blocking for him:

If Chiles can hit Shipley even reasonably well on the run, the play has a high likelihood of success and the possibility of breaking a big one without a lot of moving parts having to come together, especially if the play fake to Monroe occupies the linebackers, as it should.

The second play is the exact same design as the reverse pass used against Tech, except with a fake to Monroe instead of using the reverse and Chiles throwing the ball instead of Colt:

Both of the passes are easy deliveries for Chiles and the design of the second has already worked in terms of sucking in the strong safety. The screen shot above was taken from a play against UTEP where the cornerback face guarded Shipley the whole time and never once looked into the backfield, so Shipley's slant route into the end zone will almost cerrtainly draw coverage. If not, it's a pretty easy throw for Chiles to hit Shipley as long as he makes sure the free safety bit on the play fake for a beat or two.

Put Up or Shut Up Time

This will be a critical week for the WildHorn -- if it is successful, expect the Longhorns to continue to use it, especially as they seek to use the quarterback to run more often, but try to protect Colt McCoy from injury. If it isn't successful, it could go the way of the Q package and disappear.This week, Brown asked the Texas players to take ownership ($) of the formation:

We're looking at Wild Horn, and we've told the kids if it's not good, we're not using it. So unless you can use it seven, eight times a game, why have it when you're taking your All-American quarterback out from under center to put someone in.

So if it's not helping take away some of the quarterback runs from Colt, then don't mess with it. So if you guys want it, you better bust your tail, or we won't be long with it.

However, Chiles believes that the unique UTEP defense disrupted the goalline plays because the Miners" gave us some looks we hadn't seen, but we've been working on it and we'll have it fixed for this week." Personally, the triggerman thinks the formation has staying power.

Chiles added, "The more we add to it, the more they can't key on just a few options. The more I give to D.J. (Monroe) and do some different things, the more it will surprise people. It spreads the field out, and I'm gonna have to give him the ball a little more, so they can't key on me."

The speed of Monroe presents a lot of problems for defenses, especially as they put seven men in the box to deal with the running game of Chiles. In attempting to get Monroe the ball more often, the concern is that defenses will simply run the read man up the field to force the handoff, then not have to worry about scraping a linebacker behind to defend the play, instead leaving that man in the box to defend Chiles. The Longhorns may have to devise a play like the Stealer that is a pre-determined handoff based on previous defensive strategy by the other team.

But the main reason the Longorns are using the play is to relieve pressure for McCoy to help carry the running game, according to Brown:

We're trying to take some of Colt's hits away and let John Chiles take those runs because all the Wild Horn is what's Colt's been running and what John has been running for two years.

As the Longhorns continue to struggle finding a consistent running game, the WildHorn may stick around just because Texas needs to run the football, but also needs to protect the most valuable player on the team. However, the team must execute the plays better -- paritcularly Chris Hall, who has struggled snapping the ball to Chiles. Other concerns include players understanding their blocking assignments, dealing with pre-snap adjustments, especially players shifting into gaps across from pulling lilneman, and getting the ball to Monroe more often.

Heading into the game against Colorado, the continued existence of the WildHorn is on the line and provides one of the most compelling storylines to a game the Longhorns are expected to dominate. Does it have staying power or is it really just another Q package to which the coaches won't fully commit and let it just fade away?

Words From Mack...

GhostofBigRoy — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 18:20:32 -0000

More photos » by Harry Cabluck - AP

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...And, Rashad Bobino is the Most Successful Ball Carrier in Texas History?

No, I haven't gone crazy. You just really have to click and read after the jump on this one...It's a real leap.

Talkin' special teams: kickoff returns. The two kickoff returns for touchdowns by DJ Monroe and Jordan Shipley's punt return against Texas Tech have brought a lot of attention to Texas special teams, prompting a nearly-weekl spot in my Tuesday Morning Coffee post. That attention, in turn, has brought up concerns about the punt protection against Wyoming and kickoff coverage the last several weeks. On Wednesday, Mack Brown addressed the special teams units:

We are also trying to figure out how we keep speed on the field for the kicking teams. We are proud of our punt return team. We are proud of what D.J. [Monroe] has been able to accomplish with our kickoff return team, but we need to get Marquise [Goodwin] in there and do a better job of getting him more looks because there was a poor decision between he and Eddie Jones where we had a ball hit the ground the other day, which could have cost us in a much tighter ball game.

To play to which Brown referred occurred coming out of halftime for UTEP's second kick off and first after Monroe's touchdown return -- to keep the ball away from Monroe, UTEP kicked high and short to Goodwin's side of the field and Eddie Jones took a good long look at it before finally letting it go over his head, but Goodwin, watching Jones, hadn't gotten in position to catch the football and had to retreat to inside the five yardline to retrieve the live ball, picking it up and advancing it only three yards before being tackled viciously around the neck. Yeah, not so good there and the Longhorns no doubt spent a lot of time working with Goodwin fielding that play this week and deciding if they want to put Malcolm Williams back with Monroe again -- Williams is averaging 30 yards on his three kickoff returns and has more collegiate game experience fielding kicks.

However, Brown wants to get as much speed on the field as possible but knows not every speedster can return kicks, meaning that Goodwin will indeed get a long look before the Colorado game:

You don't know [who is good at it], it's like who can block kicks. You have to try them. Some fast guys don't get it, they'll run into piles, they're not patient, but D.J. [Monroe] has a great knack for doing it and we hope Marquise [Goodwin] does the same. We don't know that yet. He hasn't done it long enough for us to find out for sure and that's something that we really have to find out in the next 10 days.

After relating the story of a sky kick gone wrong against Ted Ginn and Ohio State, Brown returned to the busted return with Goodwin and Jones:

The other day I thought we had the perfect situation for Marquise because if Eddie [Jones] goes up (to block) and Marquise catches it, that's at the 30-yard line and we've got room, so we are working so hard right now.

Brown also noted that the poor return on that play significantly brought down the team average on kickoff returns and it would increase the average by about four yards per kick, but still keep the Longhorns second in the country behind Stanford, the only team in the country with three kickoff returns for touchdowns this season.

The Shipley conundrum. Or, the Cosby conundrum, no redux. As for seeing Jordan Shipley back returning kicks and reprising his starring role from the Cotton Bowl last season, Brown said, "Not so fast, my friends:"

We know Jordan can do it, so that's easy. The thing that we have to do, we felt like we lost Quan (Cosby) for the Texas Tech game last year and we felt like it was because we had him doing too many things. Jordan is playing the position that Quan played last year, and he's touching the ball 10, 11 times a game outside of the kicking game...But we do feel like that we've got to be smart with Jordan because he's playing so well and if we can get somebody else to help D.J. on kickoff returns, we'd rather not have Jordan in there.

Were Monroe not having such unqualified success at the position, there might be more talk about needing Shipley's explosiveness at the position, but those two touchdown returns have silenced any talk in that direction. As Brown said, there's no reason to risk injury to Shipley and not learn from a prior mistake. Shipley will take more than enough hits as it is, even on punt returns, as evidenced Saturday by an illegal hit before the ball arrived by Max Stephenson II, who then promptly picked off McCoy's subsequent pass and took it to the house.

Talkin' special teams: kickoff coverage. On Tuesday I wondered about the squib kicks Texas employed for much of the game and Brown provided an explanation:

We experimented a lot the other day in kickoff coverage because kickoff coverage with the rule change is one of the more difficult things right now for college football. We are trying to look at squibs. We are looking at sky kicks. We are trying not to kick the ball to the same place two times in a row because if you do and the kickoff return team gets a beat on your coverage, then that is a very, very dangerous thing to have happen during a ballgame.

It makes sense to work on covering different styles of kicks in a game situation given the historical struggles by the Longhorns in that department and practicing those different kicks helps the Texas kickoff return team work against sky kicks and squibs after the miscommunication by Goodwin and Jones. In terms of facing dangerous return teams, however, Brown may be looking ahead to Florida, ranked fourth nationally in that department. The teams the Longhorns will face during the tough three-game stretch? Missouri is the highest ranked at no. 60, while Oklahoma and Oklahoma State bring up the pack at numbers 87 and 112, not so respectively. The highest-ranked team Texas will face during the regular season is already in the rear-view mirror -- the good Pirates of the Red Raider at 29th in the country.

As much as everyone would like to see Justin Tucker kick the ball out of bounds every time, even against UTEP, that's just not a reality:

When the game got out of control, we really just wanted to try stuff. I know fans get frustrated sometimes with things that come up in a ballgame that's a blow out, but it's really a learning experience for us. We can experiment, kick it around, and we find out that a squib kick that's kicked properly is really hard to pick up and it was hard for them to pick it up. They averaged only 19 yards per return, but we still had a couple that were out to the 40 and that's what we're trying to keep from happening. If you could kick it out every time, you would.

The nature of the squib kicks makes the raw field position numbers look bad for the coverage teams against UTEP, but it may be a strategy that the Longhorns need to employ this season, most likely against Florida if both teams make it through the season unscathed.

Talkin' special teams: punts and fakes. Punt coverage hasn't been a problem, but the Longhorns could be looking at developing their ability to run fakes out of their punt formation:

We are look at punting with our left foot, with our right foot, we are looking at what fakes are available because this is a relatively new thing for us and for college football. Those are all things that we are trying to look at and figure out.

After Tucker's disastrous decision, the odds might seem small that Tucker would try another fake this season, but I think Texas has to look at it and against put some hope in Tucker's decision-making abilities in the regard. The other aspect to fakes in the punting game involves Antwan Cobb's position as the personal protector on the punt protection unit, the position Rashad Bobino occupied throughout his entire career at Texas and the position at which he may in fact have provided his most significant contributions to the team.

Gratuitous Bobino digression. It was Bobino who carried the ball on fakes six times for 28 yards in his career, each time for a first down:

Two yards on 4th and 2 against Ohio State to keep a touchdown-scoring drive alive out of halftime last season.
Seven yards for a first down in the third quarter of a close 10-7 game against Baylor in 2007. The Longhorns scored a touchdown and helped stave off the incredible ignominy of losing to friggin' Baylor in football -- the type of thing that earns walking papers for Texas head football coaches.
Three yards for a first down on 4th and 1 early in the game against Arizona State in the Holiday Bowl. Colt McCoy ran for a touchdown on that drive to put the Longhorns up three touchdowns in the second quarter.
Six yards for a first down in the second quarter against North Texas in Colt McCoy's first game. Texas scored a touchdown on that drive.
Five yards for a first down against Oklahoma State up 3-0 in the second quarter in Stillwater. The Longhorns scored a touchdown on that drive and never looked back in the only lopsided and relatively boring game recently in that series.
Six yards for a first down against Texas A&M his freshman season to help the Longhorns score a critical touchdown to take a 28-22 lead in the closest game of the national championship season.

So not only did Bobino pick up a first down each time he carried the football, but the Longhorns scored a touchdown on every single one of the drives that he kept alive, several times providing a turning point in close games. Let me amend my previous statement by saying that Rashad Bobino's most significant contributions by far came in picking up first downs in big situations to help win football games. Yes, Rashad Bobino actually helped win some football games at Texas. I know I now find myself glad that I spent 25 minutes researching each of those runs. Big ups, Rashad -- my feelings of appreciation for you may be newfound, but they are heartfelt. In fact, I'm going to go out on a limb here and call him the most successful ball carrier in the history of Texas football -- what other back can claim a first down on each carry and that each drive in which he participated ended in a touchdown? None, I suspect.

Back to special teams. In other words, Cobb has big shoes to fill at that position and didn't get off to a great start by allowing one blocked kick and nearly another. If the Longhorns did to pick up a big first down this season and want to do so with a fake punt, will Cobb be able to execute the play with Bobino's consistency and results?

Running back situation still fluid. When Vondrell McGee rushed for over 100 yards against UTEP, he not only earned the coveted honor of Flavor of the Week at running back, he also threw a wrench into Mack Brown's plan of narrowing the running back rotation, especially with the Mythical Fozzy Creature making the most of a rare appearance on the field. Of course, the offensive line also didn't help out Tre' Newton much and neither did a sore neck, as Nate's son picked up only 25 yards on nine carries.

So what's new with Fozzy and the guys, Mack?

[Fozzy]'s only had the one game, but he's doing well. He came back and he has confidence now, so we feel like he's right back in the mix. Cody Johnson looked really good on the one carry he had Saturday for a touchdown and he's at 242 pounds and 13 percent body fat, so he's really gotten in great shape and we're back to having a good mix of four guys there to compete. What we think we will do is we'll put the guys in the game and if a guy gets a hot hand like Vondrell [McGee] did Saturday, we'll leave him in.

In other words, back to square one, especially the comment about Johnson, who appeared to have been relegated to short-yardage duties after the Wyoming game. What, you expected resolution here?

Defensive tackles playing well. Neurotic Texas fans have moved their attention away from the defensive tackle situation only four games into the season, which is good news all around. Brown weighed in on their performance:

Right now, it's really strong. We still need to continue to develop depth at defensive tackle, but we're really proud of Ben Alexander, Kheeston Randall and Lamarr Houston. Lamarr is playing at such a higher level than ever before, Kheeston is so much improved from last year, and Ben's a five-year senior and it's time for him to play. He's excited about playing every down. So, those three guys have given us a good base to start from. We've been able to work Sam Acho in there some and Sam's improved so much and Eddie Jones now. He was concerned a little bit about his shoulder the first couple of weeks, but the last two weeks, he's played lights out. Then you continue to try and get the young guys like Calvin Howell to come on, but we're in better shape right now than we thought we'd be at this time.

The extra practice will undoubtedly benefit the young players, as did the game against UTEP. The idea, no doubt, is for players like Howell, Acho, and Jones to get some more time against Colorado, with the two defensive ends perhaps even getter a look inside on running downs to see if they can do more than just rush the passer from that position.

Dirty Dozen Rankings - Week 5

Beergut — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 11:48:54 -0000

Our weekly rankings of all Big 12 teams. The fourth game of the non-conference season has been played for most teams, with others playing their final non-conference game this coming week. The teams are ranked based on where I think they are right now in the season. Previous weeks rankings are in parenthesis. As always, comments and criticism are welcome.

Oklahoma(3): Moved in anticipation of their win over Miami
texas(1): I think high schools would have fought harder than the Miners did.
Missouri(2): Solid win over Nevada.
Oklahoma State(4): It was only Grambling.
Kansas(5): Close win over Southern Miss doesn't look so good after USM's loss to UAB.
Nebraska(7): Dominatng win over Louisiana-Lafayette was just what they needed.
Texas A&M(8): Beat UAB in spectacular fashion, as expected.
Texas Tech(6): Dropped because of back-to-back losses.
Iowa State(10): Moved up because they already surpassed last season's win total.
Baylor(9): Suffered most expensive win in Big 12 season so far, with loss of Griffin to injury.
Kansas State(11): Blew out Tennessee Tech. Meh.
Colorado(12): Good thing about a bye week is you can't lose to anyone. Can't beat anyone, either.

Notes: Oklahoma moves up after a ye week because I think they'll beat Miami @ Miami after two weeks of preparation. A win over a ranked team gives them a better resume right now than texas, even with texas being undefeated and OU already having one loss on their record...I don't think I have ever seen a Mike Price-coached team shos as little fires or passion or effort as the Miners did against texas last Saturday...Missouri did score a nice win over Nevada, and wins on the road are always tough to come by...Grambling's band put on more of a show at halftime with their tribute to Michael Jackson's "Thriller" than the football team did on the field against Oklahoma State...Kansas struggled a bit with Southern Mississippi, showing that the Jayhawk defense can still be had by a good passing game...I'm still not sure I trust Zac Lee to lead Nebraska to the top of the North division, but it is possible I'm putting too much blame for the Virginia Tech loss on him. He doesn't look like an elite QB to me, though...A&M's win over Alabama-Birmingham while missing two key starters on offense vaults them over a two-loss Texas Tech team.We'll see how far A&M has come (or how far they have to go) after the Southwest Classic this weekend...First the heartbreaking loss to Houston, then Twittergate. Tech will probably put 70 up on New Mexico on Saturday, just to purge the bad feelings of the last two weeks...Paul Rhoads is quietly laying a solid foundation for his program at Iowa State...We're going to find out how good of a coach Art Briles really is after the loss of Robert Griffin. If he can get Baylor to 6 wins with Blake Szymanski at QB, give him the conference coach of the year award right now...Brandon Banks is giving K-State fans at least one thing to cheer about. If they can be competitive with Iowa State on Saturday, that will represent progress...I'm not sure what Colorado spent the off week doing, but judging by their loss to West Virginia, working on run defense wasn't on the agenda.

Morning Coffee Enjoys This Week's New Flavor

GhostofBigRoy — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 12:00:21 -0000

More photos » by Eric Gay - AP

Congratulations, Vondrell McGee. You are the new Flavor of the Week. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

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Flavor of the Week at running back: Vondrell McGee. Four weeks, four different flavors at running back. Can it continue? Will the Mythical Fozzy Creature build on his strong second-half performance and first collegiate touchdown against UTEP to win the hearts of Longhorn fans for a whole week? Unfortunately, it will be almost two weeks before there is a definitive answer, but for the moment, Vondrell McGee holds a special place in the heart of all fickle Longhorn fans. There's also the bad news that the award will almost certainly have a repeat winner at some point this season. Boo.

After tweaking his ankle and losing his starting job to a more productive Tre' Newton, McGee responded against a UTEP defense that had basically given up with the first 100-yard rushing game of his career, a number McGee reached only carrying the ball eight times. The highlight was a 51-yard run during the first Texas possession after halftime and it was really a perfect example of how little the individual running back matters in the scheme, as the two guards, Huey and Tanner, opened up a gaping hole in the UTEP defense, while David Snow got to the second level to block a linebacker and all McGee had to do was run through it and then try to wring whatever speed he could get out of his still-injured ankle. He undoubtedly took a great deal of grief from his teammate for being caught from behind, but then breakaway speed has never been on of his attributes.

Perhaps more heartening was his 23-yard run for a touchdown in the second quarter on a speed option, as he used his strength to break a tackle near the end zone. It might be an effective play for McGee if he can take the corner consistently, as he doesn't have to read a hole on the play.

While a specific running back may not win the job, it never hurts to have depth at the position and McGee made a strong case that he can still help the team this season and intends to do so. He'll have another week to get his ankle healthy and using him in the second half of games against tired defenses may be the perfect strategy to help him return to his high school roots of running over and through opponents.

Garrett Gilbert watch. One of the storylines going into the game surrounded getting some snaps for Garrett Gilbert after he only played one series each against Wyoming and Louisiana-Monroe. The Longhorns scored early and often to put the game out of reach essentially by the end of the first quarter, allowing Gilbert three series in the second half, two of which resulted in rushing touchdowns.

Just like both previous appearances, Gilbert looked poised in the pocket and delivered the ball with accuracy, completing five of six passes for 49 yards, leaving him at 11 of 14 on the season -- a completion percentage of nearly 80%. Gilbert mostly owes the high completion percentage to the playcalling, as Greg Davis has kept the throws pretty easy for him, but the important thing is that Gilbert is executing in game situations.

It's increasingly apparent that Gilbert and Marquise Goodwin, despite their limited time together, really have something going on. In fact, I think that they should live together next year, just because it would provide such a unique, heartwarming story for Texas fans to listen to during every single broadcast for years on end. Doesn't that sound fun? On his first drive of the day, Gilbert threw to Goodwin four times, completing every pass for 38 yards. Given Goodwin's speed and Gilbert's predilection for looking in his direction, it's probably just a matter of time until the true freshman breaks a long play for a touchdown late in a game.

The connection with DeSean Hales? Not looking quite as strong, as two of Gilbert's three incompletions have come on passes targeting Hales, who is still looking for his first collegiate reception.

Tracking: special teams. As indicated in Sunday's By The Numbers post, DJ Monroe is now the first Texas player to ever return two kicks for touchdowns, not only in a season, but in a career. A career that for Monroe is only four games old. Yeah, he's that good, that fast, that historically remarkable and judging by the first four games, that number isn't likely to remain at two for very long. If teams decide to start kicking away from Monroe, the coaching staff already has a solution -- on Saturday Marquise Goodwin was back with Monroe to return kicks, putting the team's two fastest players on the field at the same time.

Jordan Shipley looks like he intends on returning punts for the rest of the season with several strong efforts against UTEP a week after his game-changing return against Tech. On the day, he gained 73 yards on his three returns, with a 52-yard return that gave the Longhorns a short field and another 20 yarder for good measure -- his current average of just more than 16 yards per return is good for 14th in the country. A natural punt returner, Shipley has excellent vision, as well as an understanding of where his blockers will be, and, of course, the quickness to blow up some angles.

Hunter Lawrence did miss an extra point off the upright on Saturday and nearly knocked through a 54-yard goal that hit the crossbar before falling harmlessly into the end zone. So a bit of a mixed bag for him and the missed extra point may heat up the competition for placekicking duties with Ryan Bailey, a competition that was extremely close throughout fall practice. The punting game was fine, as Justin Tucker just barely got a rugby kick inside the 20 yardline, but kicked it out of bounds and probably should have gotten it inside the 10. John Gold punted for the first time since the coverage problems against Wyoming and had a 39-yard punt that went out of bounds, so not the best effort from him, so apparently Antwan Cobb fixed his protection problem.

The real area of concern though is kickoff coverage. It's not to the point where the Longhorns look like they're about to have one taken to the house, but they do rank 64th in the country, behind such stalwarts as Western Kentucky, Marshall, and Tulane. Justin Tucker sent the first two kicks into the end zone for touchbacks and kicked another to the goalline, but after that the coaches starting calling for squib kicks that mostly resulted in decent field position for UTEP. It's hard to say why exactly the coaches changed philosophy in the middle of the game -- perhaps they saw a coverage problem or just plain didn't want to allow for any big plays, but it's something to watch moving forward.

Oh yeah, and Malcolm Williams absolutely waxed the UTEP punter after the long snapper sent the ball over his head and into the end zone. The definition of de-cleated, actually. Good stuff.

Tracking: playmaking defense. For the second week in a row, Texas excelled at creating turnovers, forcing three fumbles and hauling in four interceptoins. Through four games, the Longhorns have forced 12 turnovers after forcing only 16 all of last season, while the six interceptions ties the six through all of last season. Texas also sacked UTEP quarterbacks four times on Saturday, including the sack and forced fumble on the game's third play from scrimmage. In other words, this defense is much, much improved as forcing turnovers.

Earl Thomas had two interceptions on Saturday, tying his total from all of last season, and almost took the second one back for a touchdown, but stepped out of bounds while trying to run down the sideline. The pick six is probably going to happen for him sooner rather than later. Blake Gideon set off the most biggest and most sincere celebration along the sidelines in some time with his first career interception and said after the game that it took a huge weight off of his shoulders. Ben Wells also joined the party, recording his first career interception as well, and, as Scipio Tex noted, helping create a much better memory for Texas fans:

Ben Wells! Thank you for giving me a mental image beyond a Baylor WR streaking by you.

Indeed.

The biggest negative? Somehow Sam Acho didn't manage to recover a fumble in the game for the first time this season. The guy really let all his fans and teammates down and the BON crack investigative team will start trying to figure out what in the heck is wrong with him during the off week. The leg whip sack, though? That was pretty sweet. When you're Sam Acho, apparently it's not illegal. Was that a Mountain West officiating crew on Saturday? Naw, they didn't miss nearly enough calls to be from that conference.

Randomness, bullet style. I like bullets. Do you like bullets? Bullets are good.

The Longhorns lined up in a bunch formation several times, which was highly unusual, and threw screens both times. It's a good way to get Marquise Goodwin the ball, but Greg Davis is going to have to break tendency for those plays to work against better teams.
Speaking of Goodwin, the Longhorns need to throw him one of those flanker screens they've been running for John Chiles. I think good things would result.
Eddie Jones is playing like a man possessed. Or like someone who has almost had their career ended by injuries. Really nice to see him healthy and playing well -- hopefully he can sustain it for the rest of the year.
Apparently Trevor Walker is the fourth-string quarterback. But where was John Paul Floyd? It's gotta be rough to be the only quarterback on the roster not to get into the game on Saturday. He needs to get some game reps in case the four quarterbacks go down in front of him. I'm starting to panic here.
Did Jeremy Hills give way to Jamison Berryhill because of the fumble or was Mack Brown just worried that Hills would break another long run on the next drive and reach the dreaded number of 70 on the scoreboad? And watch out for that ball when you're around Brock Fitzhenry, Jeremy -- he's not-so-secretly a saboteur.
It was really hot in the stadium on Saturday. Like really, really hot.
Besides the interception, McCoy did a much better job of not staring down Jordan Shipley in the game.
McCoy also looked like he fixed whatever was causing him to sail his passes, looking extremely accurate on the day -- he completed 80% of his passes on the day and that number would have been over 90% had his receivers not dropped four passes. That's the McCoy we know and love.
Malcolm Williams dropped another pass. That's the bad news. The good news is that McCoy came back to Williams two plays later on fourth down and Williams hauled in the pass and turned upfield for a 12-yard gain.
Chykie Brown played his most consistent game of the season and seems to have dropped the "You Can't See Me" routine after the penalty in Laramie -- he's just wagging his finger now, Mutombo-style. (By the way, I just checked the spelling of "Mutombo" -- I was right, of course -- but found out that his full name is Dikembe Mutombo Mpolondo Mukamba Jean-Jacques Wamutombo. Which one isn't quite like the others?)
Nice to see Fozzy Whittaker show a little burst around the corner -- of the three running backs competing for serious carries, Whittaker is the fastest and ranks ahead of McGee in terms of versatility. I'd also like to note that I'm going to retire the Fragile Fozzy moniker until further notice. Like until he gets hurt again. Dammit, I was trying to be positive...