SB Nation User Blog: UT_BKC

NFL Horns: Break Out Day for a New Horn

UT_BKC — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 16:25:30 -0000

Quan Cosby caught his first pass in the NFL! He also caught the two others thrown his way for a total of 47 yards on 3 catches. Toss in his 1 tackle on STs and his 5 Kick returns for a total of 94 yards (31 long), and this was a spectacular day for Cosby. This really is a great story. He was key to our success last year but went undrafted. I don't think any of us who saw how hard he worked and how good of a player he was didn't expect him to earn a spot on the roster and eventually contribute. However, I'm not sure any of us expected him to be contributing this much this early in his rookie year. Way to go Quan.

via jayjanner.files.wordpress.com

David Thomas: Also having one of his best days ever was TE David Thomas for NO in a close loss to Dallas. Thomas started for the injured Shockey and caught 8 passes for 77 yards.

Vince Young: A lot of Horns to talk about in this game, and I'll start with VY. He had 3 TDs and 236 yards with 14/27 passes and an INT to lead the Titans to a victory over the Dolphins (his int was crazy. I think it was tipped 4 or 5 times). The odds are low that they'll make the play offs, but it would be an amazing story if VY brought them back from 0-6 to make it. Vince also scrambled for 24 yards on just 2 carries, but they were important ones in a 27-24 game. Both came on 3rd and longs to keep TD drives alive in the 1st and 3rd quarters. That is why you start VY and not Collins. How much do you have to be paid to realize that?

Ricky: He did his best to help bring his team back with 80 yards and a TD on 19 carries. He also scored the 2 point conversion that sent this game into overtime. His fumble did hurt the Dolpins, but not as much as Henne's 3 ints (one to a Horn that I'll get to in a minute).

Bo Saife: Playing as a safety valve for Vince as always, Bo had 5 receptions for 40 yards.

Michael Griffin:What a day for Griffin. It has been a slow year for him, but he really stepped up today and won the game for the Titans. He did drop an interception that would have sealed the game in the 4th, but he made up for it by picking off Henne in OT to set up the winning field goal. He also recovered a fumble early that set up a field goal.

Cedric Benson: Getting back to the Bengals game, Cedric was held in check most of the day. He only ran for 53 yards on 15 carries. He also had a couple of catches for 19 yards in a close loss to the Chargers.

Jamaal Charles: Wow. What another incredible day. Charles looks like he's going to keep this starting job for a while. He had 154 yards (career high?) on 25 carries. Again, he had a huge play going for 47 yards on a score. Toss in 2 receptions for 16 yards and 1 return of 24 yards for good measure. No lost fumbles.

Roy Williams:Not much to talk about here in the Cowboys' win over NO. Just 1 rec for 14 yards.

Quentin Jammer: He was instrumental in helping take down Ced and Cosby's Bengals with 6 tackles (4 solo) and an interception late in the game to set up a TD.

M Huff: Huff helped keep the Titans playoff hopes alive as the Raiders upset the Broncos. Huff had 4 solo tackles and broke up a couple passes.

Casey Hampton: Wreaking a little havoc in the backfield, Hampton had 5 tackles (3 solo) and half a sack.

Jermichael Finley: The TE had another big day for the Packers catching 9 passes for 74 yards and a TD in a loss to Hampton's Steelers. Wow. What I'd give to have had him stick around for 2 more years.

I'll update this tomorrow if Orakpo has a good game. Hopefully he'll make some more progress towards the sack record for a rookie.

That's is a lot of success for Horns in 'lime light' positions (YV, Benson, Ricky, Finley, JC) over the past few weeks. Any wonder that we're getting the pick of the crop when it come to recruits? Our coaches can just point to these guys and say, "look this is where we'll get you." Unless they're on the OL.

Great Day For NFL Horns

UT_BKC — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 15:51:08 -0000

Bumped. Hook 'em

It was a good day for quite a few Horns. Three of our running backs produced very well, but 2 of them didn't get any support from their team. Orakpo went nuts.

Here is a quick break down, stats provided by ESPN.

Ricky: 108 yards on 28 carries with a TD to help the Dolphins win. He did lose 1 fumble.

Benson: 96 yards on 16 carries. I don't know why you had the ball to a guy named Leonard to fumble it when your main back is getting 6 ypc. Bengals were just too far back to keep handing it to Benson.

While we're talking about Benson, Cosby: 107 yards on 6 kick off returns. Cosby only got a chance to try to return 2 punts as the Bengal's D couldn't stop the Vikings and make them punt.
Jamaal Freaking Charles: 143 yards on 20 carries with a 76 yard TD run! Also 38 yards on 7 receptions. Zero fumbles. Net positive? I think so. Net negative = Matt Cassel who managed to turn the ball over 4 times. Somehow KC still only lost 16-10. After 3 Ints, with JC running that well, ~~I think you just Wild Bengal with JC and LJ~~ just hand JC the ball all the time.

VY: Was doing well until he got hurt on a 44 yard run. He was 6/8 for 132 with a TD. I hope he's OK.

Roy Williams: Meh day during the Cowboys' loss. He seemed to do about as well as the other WRs though.. I don't know if he had any bad drops. He had 4 recs to lead the team with 74 yards, but no TDs.

Orakpo: FOUR sacks. FOUR. And the guy is playing LB most of the time. Crazy. He's at 11 for the year. If he doesn't disapear (he did go the last 3 games without a sack) he could break the Rookie record for sacks. I think he is only 3 or 4 away.

Huff obviously didn't have a great day being on the other side of the 34 to 13 beating of the Raiders by the Redskins.

If I missed any other Horns with good days please add them (obviously its hard to list stats to show how OL like Studdard helped thier teams to 27 offensive points).

BON Pick Em

UT_BKC — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 19:47:13 -0000

Some Odd numbers this week (as usual). There also seem to be less the gimmies. This week seems tough.

Also, what's with the 11th game? Is that normal?

Anyway, I'd have to say USC being favored by 11.5 after a nail biter at As St and a loss to Stanford is a little odd. The only other thing I feel comfortable about on that list is VaTech beating Va by a lot more than 14.

The rest of those game are psychotic (Ark @ LSU) or the point spread is really low (Pitt at WVU favored by 1.5). Does anyone really know if the SEC is that good after UF and Bama? The gamecocks have played 5 bad games in a row (they did manage to win the one over Vandy by 4), but Clemson is only favored by 2.5. Georgia is bad this year. BAD. Please don't even try to make the case that they are not (my coworker tried to say they are "better than advertised" after his Hogs lost to them). Yet somehow a very good GaTech is only favored by 7.5 AT home. Someone must know something I don't.

Really, the main reasons for creating this thread are: 1) there isn't much (actually any) trash talking or fun smack talk going on at the board and 2) some how I've stumbled into 5th place :)

Orakpo says TCU can't hang

UT_BKC — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 21:10:19 -0000

Switched this to a post.

http://espn.go.com/blog/nfceast/post/_/id/6913/orakpo-hopes-cowboys-remain-confused
On ESPN, at the end it says that Orakpo wants to make it clear that TCU can't hang with us. Good pr Rak!

It also talks a little about how he is playing well and improving. He has 7 sacks this season to go with 32 tackles, 3 tackles for a loss and a pass defended.

The sack number seems crazy to me. Usually, double digit sacks is a big deal, and maybe it still is, but it seems like there will be a lot of people doing that this year. I count 14 people with 6 or more sacks right now that could hit double digits (Dumervil and Allen are tearing it up at an unbelievable pace). Still, that is great to see for his rookie year.

It mentions that he is a canidate for rookie of the year. I'm glad he's in the discussion (and I was hoping he would win it going into the season), but I think Cushing is just playing too well for Rak or anyone else to get it.

Our other rookies:
Melton - not sure he's played
Miller - Looks like he's doing well for a rookie and getting some PT with 21 tackles, 2 sacks, and a tackle for a loss
Obongnayaaa - Yeah, I know that's wrong, but I think it's close enough. Not getting much PT.
Cosby - returning kicks and blocking like a badass
Ryan Palmer and Cedric Dockery - does anyone know if they made rosters and how they are doing?

Orakpo on track for Def Rookie of the year?

UT_BKC — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 13:13:12 -0000

The only reasons I watch the NFL are to 1) see the Texans play and 2) see how ex Longhorns are doing.

I haven't gotten to see him play much, but I noticed that Orakpo seems to be doing well:

So far on the season he has 15 tackles (11 solo), 1 pass defended, and 2.5 sacks. That's pretty good for a rookie 5 games into his season. If he can keep his pace, he'll end up with quite a few tackles and 8-9 sacks which should at least put his name in the convesation for Def rookie of the year.

Glad to see an NFL Longhorn doing well. It is also nice to not have to worry about hearing all the 'over rated' crap.

On another note, Benson is averaging just shy of a hundred yards rushing per game. With the Bengals(I think he averaged 100 ypg during the last 5 games with the bengals last year also). WtF? Its good to at least seem him doing well now.

Chris O and other NFL Longhorn Updates

UT_BKC — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 03:46:41 -0000

Unfortunately I didn't actually get to see any of the game, but I was checking the stat lines on ESPN and was surprised to see that Chris O had 9 carries for 32 yards and 2 catches for 6. He had the most touches of any St Louis Ram player. Hopefully things will work out for him there.

Others I noticed:

Limas Sweed: 2 catches for 56 yards (I think this will be his break out year)

Chris Simms (just reporting, don't throw anything at me): 3/4 for 26 yards and 1 TD. Orton had THREE ints. Is Simms in danger of getting a starting job?

Cedric Benson: 8 Carries for 28 yards and 1 catch for 5, and 1 fumble, sadly

Brian Orakpo: only 2 tackles, but they don't show a lot on D during the preseason

Roy Williams: 1 catch for 12

Huff got himself a pick - I hate that he is losing his soul in the wasteland that is the Raiders' organization. I hope he gets out of there soon and goes on to Defensive player of the year awards and pro bowls

Being in Houston, I'm anxious to see Okam play tomorrow. I think he will provide solid depth and maybe even have a big impact this year. A lot of people have been calling him a bust, but I'm not exactly sure why. He was a 3rd round rookie last year. Where people expecting him to step in and start? The way i look at it, if you're drafted in the first round you should be starting sometime your rookie year. 2nd rounders should have a moderate impact their rookie year, and start sometime during their 2nd or early 3rd year. 3rd rounders should get some P/T, but I think they are more about good depth and being a 'project.' I wouldn't expect them to have much impact until the 2nd year, and probably not starting till 3rd, maybe 4th. This of course assumes that the player is drafted in the 'correct' spot.

I'm sure I missed quite a few, especially anything dealing with the big men in the trenches. Please add to this below if you got to see any of these games and any Longhorns stood out.

The New Cowboy's Stadium and Recruiting

UT_BKC — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 16:37:54 -0000

I was reading Burnt Orange Gold in The Eyes of Texas, and it brought me back to something I started thinking about a year ago when Arkansas dropped us to play A&M for 10 years (by the way, great article and great magazine!).

Does the new Dallas Cowboy stadium hurt us in recruiting?

Having a BIG game in Dallas every year, obviously, really helps our exposure there. Although it currently isn’t nearly as important as the Red River ~~Shoot Out~~ Rivalry, the A&M/Ark game will still be a highly promoted game between 2 BCS teams.

Arkansas has always attempted to pull talent from the north end of the state in much the same way as OU has. Now they have a big game in the second biggest recruiting hot bed in Texas. Even worse, as much as some of us would like to deny it, A&M still has a big following and Sherman has done a good job of recruiting. Now he can tell recruits in Dallas that they can come to A&M and be guaranteed of playing in the (new) Cotton Bowl every year in front of their friends and family on national TV.

OU is also getting the opportunity to play the first game in this new stadium. Will they get more games like this? Will their extra exposure hurt us?

Do we start seeing a few more 4 and 5 star recruits start slipping away because of this?

With that in mind, I would like to see us get another game in Dallas each year. Do a long term deal with a BCS team if we have to, or invite UTEP/TCU/A New Warm Body to play us there each year.

Also, while making my scheduling/recruiting wish list, here are a couple other things:

1) Play in Houston every year. I think it’s great that we might play in Reliant next year. That will be good for us. I say either invite a team to play in Reliant every year, or set up Home-Away with Rice and UH so that we play one of them in Houston every year (the other at home, obviously).

2) Pick a state and mine it by scheduling some games there. Florida and California are the next largest hot beds for recruiting but distance and competition (at least in Florida) may be too great. I would actually set my sights on Louisiana. Not as many recruits, but we are much closer. That would save money on recruiting trips, plus, we’d already have a bit more exposure there, and making it to camps/campus would be easier on recruits. I believe going and playing a game there every other year would, in the long run, pay off for us in recruiting Louisiana (and maybe even east Texas). We could play LSU, but I don’t think we have to; Tulane would work just fine. Maybe we could invite FSU/Ga/South Carolina or someone similar to meet us in the ‘middle’ and play at the Superdome occasionally?

The only problem I see is the decrease in home games. That would be 1 in Dallas and Houston every year, and one in Louisiana every other. So an average of 1.5 home non-con games and 3.5 conference games gives us only 5 home games a year (if I’m correct about the number of home conference games). Maybe a big time deal at Jerry World would be enough to make up for the lost revenue from the home game?

What are your thoughts? Does this hurt us? As mentioned in Burnt Orange Gold, we can't just ignore this and write it off because “We're Texas.” We have to look at the possibility that teams that we are already competing heavily against for recruits might get an advantage playing in what will be the newest, best football stadium in a city full of talented high school players. And if it does, what do we do about it?

UT #1 in Big 12, 5 in national attendance

UT_BKC — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 20:52:13 -0000

The link to the ESPN article is here:

http://myespn.go.com/blogs/big12

I think it's pretty awesome that we have the largest crowd by far in the Big 12. There's a 13,000 person drop from us to number 2 OU(SUCKS). It would have been really nice if we could have squeezed 2k more seats into the stadium to hit the 100k mark.

Being in the middle of such a large crowd is an amazing experience. It's also a good recruiting tool.

It's a good time to be a Longhorn.