Spring Scrimmage: Special Teams

 

Spring Scrimmage: Defense

I had to take a basketball break between writing up my reviews, but now I'm ready for more thought spewing.

 

Pom Girls: I feel that these girls are an integral part of every single sports success the University of Texas enjoys. I wonder if opposing teams practice ignoring our sirens? While I was taking notes on the scrimmage I wrote down "Pom Girls are hot" at least three times. Let's just say that if there was a cheerleader Final Four, they would be perennial contenders.  

Defense

Line: I noted before that Texas needs to make some moves on the defensive line to be successful next year, specifically a couple of our defensive ends need to be moved to tackle. The skill of our defensive tackle starters was apparent as they harassed both our running backs and quarterbacks all game long. The second team defensive tackles got pushed around with ease and looked like they were wearing roller skates at times. Roy Miller and Ben Alexander looked really solid and got to the quarterback more than once each. At defensive end the rotation varied greatly but the extreme level of talent was apparent. Senior Brian Orakpo is undoubtedly going to be a starter in the fall, but the coaches made an effort to give other players an opportunity to shine. Big Henry Melton started today, and it should be noted that he is no longer the fleet footed running back-slash-defensive end he used to be. He has clearly put on an immense amount of weight, and isn't nearly as agile as he was two seasons ago. Based on what I saw today, our best players all play defensive end. 

Linebackers:  My personal favorite (for no real reason) linebacker, Sergio Kindle, watched from the sideline today, but he wasn't missed much. Coach Muschamp had the defense in a Nickel formation most of the time, starting Rashad Bobino and Roddrick Muckelroy. Jared Norton and Keenan Robinson both split time between the first and second team defenses. I cannot express how much better our linebacker corps looks now than the one featured in last year's lackluster defense. I think Coach Boom has already, and will continue to make an incredible impact on our defense's performance. Specifically, the blitzing schemes I saw at this scrimmage were interesting, stunning, and actually variable. I noted blitzes from the cornerbacks, any or all of the linebackers, a safety or two, and sometimes none at all. The "sometimes not at all" is what made all the difference for me. The offense clearly had a much harder time adjusting to the blitz when they weren't 100% sure that it was coming every single time. 

Cornerbacks: Chykie Brown, Curtis Brown, Deon Beasley, and Brandon Foster all saw time with the first and second team defense. I was most impressed with Deon Beasley, who had the diving pass deflection, not Curtis Brown like I said earlier. The cornerbacks' experience was most easily spotted in their confidence in zone coverage. They played aggressively and purposefully not only in the zone, but in man coverage too. Most impressively of all, they allowed only 99 yards through the air in all. I said before that the aerial coverage would be paramount to a successful 2008 campaign, and I think today was a step in the right direction.

Safeties: Surprise! It's Blake Gideon! At one point, a guy sitting behind me said "I don't think that white safety has been out of the game yet," and he was right. Blake "the caucasian invasion" Gideon wins my most surprising player of the game award. At strong safety, this guy was in on literally 60% of the tackles, whether he was just support or not. What really struck me was his ability to sniff out the play before it even came to fruition. The best player on the defensive end of the field, however, was Earl Thomas by a long shot. He led the team in tackles with 6, played superior pass coverage, and just about never stopped charging. He was lined up at cornerback most of the day, but he is listed as a safety, so that's why I'm mentioning him here. Thomas also managed to be really disruptive in the backfield as Coach Boom's number one blitzer. My least favorite defensive player of the game was free safety Christian Scott. If Scott wants to make an impact next year he absolutely has to get more comfortable in zone defense. Just about every receiver was able to get open on him when the defense was in the zone. I can't imagine the panic he felt as he watched from 20 yards down field as his man, Jordan Shipley, dove at a deep pass he was supposed to be at the very least in the neighborhood of. 

Spring Scrimmage: Offense

Now that I've had some time to think about the game, I'm all ready to give my real-life thoughts.

Stadium: The new changes to the stadium are phenomenal. Our stadium is going to be a very imposing place to play when it is completed and full of Longhorn fans. The horseshoe is going to be two decks high the whole way around, with two lines of boxes in between. I really believe we are going to have one of the loudest stadiums in the nation at the beginning of next season.

Offense

Line: The first team offensive line stunned me, but not in a good way. The defense managed at least one sack on every single drive. If we want to run the spread style offense this year with Colt as our starting QB, we are going to need a lot more accountability from the linemen. Tray Allen really struggled against Roy Miller, and definitely gave up a few sacks that would have left Colt looking for his marbles. 

Running backs: With all the youtube highlight reels I keep stumbling across, I was expecting this crew to go to work today. After re-watching the game I've come to realize that the running backs were impressive, just not in the same way we're used to. With Jamaal Charles as our running back, success was measured by the number of 40 yard runs he completed in a game. With our current set of running backs, the success measuring-stick might have to be altered to include tough five and six yard runs that move the chains but aren't on Sport Center's nightly Top 10. Fozzy Whittacker and Vondrell McGee consistently hit the holes hard and ground out the short yardage situations, but had few dazzling explosive runs like we've come to expect from our running backs. Tre' Newton and Jeremy Hills had a few carries too, but both were plagued with the fumbles and are unlikely to get much playing time this fall. Vondrell was the acting starter, and in my opinion rightfully so.

Receivers: I can't say that any of the receivers had an outstanding day. Jordan Shipley, James Kirkendoll, and Quan Cosby were the acting starters, but none of them truly impressed me. Jordan Shipley had the most exciting performance with a 20+ yard reverse, a deep fingertip miss, and a number of solid possession receptions. I vote Quan Cosby for my preseason first-team highlight machine after the acrobatic show he put on today. I'm not sure if it's that the QB's think he is faster than he is, or if he just loves diving for catches, but Quan was flying all over the field (but not making many catches unfortunately). Cosby most likely would have held on to a deep heave he dove at had his catch not been interfered with. The backup wide receivers looked much improved from their showing at the Spring practice I attended. True freshman Dan Buckner's lower body strength and center of gravity control looked much improved, as did his overall speed and confidence on the field. I would love to see Buckner crack the starting lineup due to the fact that he is a big tall receiver that reminds me a whole lot of our last #4. Philip Payne has a great frame for a receiver and tons of potential, but has a very long way to go in terms of ball skills. 

Quarterbacks: I can tell already that today's quarterback performances are going to be the center of many off-season internet discussions. Predictably, Colt McCoy was the acting starter, John Chiles led the second team offense, and Sherrod Harris and G.J. Kinne traded snaps in the fourth quarter. I'm sure the coaches were hoping from a public relations standpoint that Colt would be awesome, John Chiles would be a little worse, and so forth in order to publicly validate all the hard work they've done analyzing every play of every practice. Unfortunately for them, the performances were all over the board. Colt had some great deep looks to a few different receivers, but didn't connect on any of them. John Chiles looked explosive running the ball, completed a few passes (he only completed one last season, so that's good enough for me), but had major misfires trying to hit Fozzy on an out route and Dan Buckner on a drag route. Sherrod Harris's passed well and ran the ball even better, but only received a handful of snaps. G.J. Kinne had the longest pass of the game deep to Dan Buckner coming across the middle of the field, but unfortunately it was probably the wobbliest pass of the day. Sherrod Harris is clearly over his injury, as he had no problem scampering up the field for a 30+ yard touchdown. Chiles had his own long run, but came up short of the touchdown. Interestingly, the team with the scrambling quarterbacks and the second string running backs outran the starters by over 100 yards, even though the majority of the ground work was done by the actual running backs. I'm a strong proponent of scrambling quarterbacks not just because of their ability to get out of sticky situations, but because the added running threat in the backfield puts a great deal more pressure on the defense. I think that the lopsided rushing stat shows just that. Final evaluation: Colt is our main guy for now because he is the more accurate passer and can run enough to get out of sticky situations, but it would be a travesty if both Chiles and Harris didn't get meaningful playing time next season.