Longhorns Finish Spring Football Drills

Longhorns Finish Spring Football Drills, Head Toward Season with
Confidence

The Longhorns wrapped up their 15 spring practices Saturday with a
scrimmage before a crowd very generously estimated at 43,000.
Texas is getting some respect, but with only 11 returning starters (7 on
offense, 4 on defense), the Longhorns are being ranked behind Oklahoma,
Kansas and Missouri in the Big 12 pecking order.
That pecking order might be correct because the Longhorns have to play
all three of other Big 12 powers, but the 2008 Longhorns could be very
good if a couple of positive things happen.
First, DTs Roy Miller and Lamar Houston need to stay healthy because (A)
they are very good, and (B) no one, including the coaches has a good
reason to be confident about the backups.
Second, QB Colt McCoy needs to stay healthy, too.
Backup John Chiles is an electric runner, and an improved passer, and he
is good for a change of pace, but I'm not sure he's ready for prime time
100% of the time.
I am going to give you an overall report on the status at each position after the spring
practices.
The offense might be good simply because the offensive line looked good
in the bowl game and all of the linemen who started in that game are
back.
Here's the starting lineup that was used in the spring game, with
injured players in parenthesis:
OFFENSE
Quarterback - Colt McCoy
Running  Back - Vondrell McGee
Wide Receivers - Quan Cosby, Jordan Shipley, James Kirkendoll Tight End
-
Blaine Irby Tackles - Kyle Hix, Tray Allen (Adam Ulatoski) Guards -
Cedric Dockery, Charley Tanner Center - Chris Hall DEFENSE Ends - Brian
Orakpo, Henry Melton (Aaron Lewis) Tackles - Lamarr Houston, Roy Miller
Linebackers
- Rod Muckelroy, Rashad Bobino, Keenan Robinson (Sergio Kindle, Jared
Norton) Cornerbacks - Ryan Palmer, Deon Beasley Safeties - Earl Thomas,
Christian Scott (Ben Wells)

One key point to remember is  the coaches change the starting lineup
frequently, so the lineup above was the starting group for the spring
game, but it might not be the same in September.
New defensive coordinator Will Muschamp used a 4-2-5 lineup for most of
the scrimmage, and that put freshman Blake Gideon in as the nickel back,
but the injured Ben Wells, a redshirt freshman, will be in the top five
when the pre-season practices start.
If Muschamp plans to keep running a 4-2-5 most of the time, it looks
like the nickel back will be Wells and the linebackers will be Muckelroy
and Bobino, although one of the injured backers could get Bobino's spot.
The young defensive backs were cautious in talking about the improved
pass rush, but the only veteran, Ryan Palmer, was sporting a wide grin
and saying , "We're finally going to get after them."
The secondary caught a lot of criticism last year, and some of it was
deserved, but the lack of a consistent pass rush makes almost any
college QB look very good.
Despite having seven starters back on offense and just four on defense,
the spring game showed the starting defense is better than the starting
offense.
I don't want to base everything on one look at the team in full pads,
but the loss of swift RB Jamaal Charles and TE Jermichael Finley really
took explosiveness away from the offense.
On the defense, getting a pass rush alone will make that unit better,
and the linebackers will be better and the secondary might not be as
good, but it will look better because of the pass rush.
Now, let's look at things on a position-by-position basis:

Offense

Quarterback - McCoy needs to do two things for Texas to have a chance to
have a great season.
First, he has to stay healthy.
Second, he needs to take better care of the football.
As a freshman, he had thrown 26 TD passes and only three interceptions
before he hurt his shoulder.
As a sophomore, he threw 22 TD passes and had 18 interceptions. He was
still good enough to be the Offensive Player of the Game in the Holiday
Bowl win over Arizona State.
Behind him, John Chiles is the first option, and he is a fine runner,
but his passing is way below average for a college QB.
Sherrod Harris looked good in a cameo appearance in the spring game. He
is a good runner and a much better passer than Chiles.

Running Back - McGee is a tough inside runner and has good speed, too.
He
can do some damage if he gets some help, but the key will be whether his
blockers can give him any room against defenses like the one Oklahoma
will bring to Dallas.
Fozzy Whittaker is a redshirt freshman who can run inside and has really
good moves and power.

Wide Receiver - The starters probably will be Cosby, Shipley and
Kirkendoll and the other three who will play a lot probably will be
Brandon Collins, and two to come from a trio that includes Malcolm
Williams, Montrae Webber and true freshman Dan Buckner.
None of the starters has scary speed, but all three are fast enough that
if they get open they will be hard to catch.
The really speedy guys are Williams and Webber, who both ran 10.5 in the
100 meters in high school. Cosby was faster than that in high school,
but he weighed about 175 then and he weighs about 200 now.
Incoming freshman DeSean Hales has scary speed and I still hope the
coaches will give another incoming freshman, D. J. Monroe, a look at WR.
He has really scary speed and ran a 10.46 last weekend. He also has run
a wind-aided 100 in under 10.1.
He probably will play cornerback at Texas, but he is really dangerous
with the ball in his hands and could give the offense an explosiveness
that it appears to lack.

Tight End - Irby is a good blocker and good receiver, and Peter Ullman
is a very good blocker and has good hands, but lacks defense-stretching
speed.

Line - Adam Ulatoski missed the spring with an injury, but he is
expected to return in the fall, and sophomore Kyle Hix did a great job
in his start in the bowl game as a true freshman. They should be the
tackles, with redshirt freshman Tray Allen backing them up.
Derrick Dockery is back at guard and Charlie Tanner or Michael Huey will
get the other spot. The nod went to Tanner in the spring game.
Chris Hall is back at center and he is not only a good one, he is very
versatile and can play any of the line positions.
Buck Burnette is the backup center.

Defense

End - Orakpo is an outstanding pass rusher, but has had problems with
injuries. If he can stay healthy, he will be outstanding. Aaron Lewis
will be the other end if his collarbone, which was broken in three
places, heals in time for the regular season.
Melton has as much potential as anyone on the Longhorn team, and he will
be outstanding if he ever decides to pay the price.
Sam Acho is a good pass rusher and improving run stopper. If the
Longhorns play four ends on third-and-long plays, he will be in there.

Tackle - Senior Roy Miller and converted end Lamarr Houston are going to
be the best inside pass rushers Texas has had in many years. I think
they will be good run stoppers, too, because Muschamp isn't going to
sell out one aspect of the defense to stop running and let people pass
the Longhorns silly.
But the Longhorns need Miller and Houston to stay healthy almost as much
as they need McCoy to stay healthy, because the DT backups are either
new or unproven.

Linebacker - The Longhorns are going to be much better at linebacker in
2008
than they were in 2007.
First, Muschamp demands they be aggressive or they will sit on the
bench.
Second, Muckelroy and redshirt freshman  Robinson are very good and
showed it this spring, and Jared Norton and Sergio Kindle will be back
in the fall and they are very talented, too.
Improvement at this position is one reason I think the Longhorns will be
better defensively in 2008 than they were in 2007.

Secondary - Palmer is a returning starter at CB and Beasley has played a
lot at CB. The safeties will be new, but redshirt freshmen Thomas,
Scott and Wells all impressed the coach this spring. They are big and
fast and talented and just need to get their baptism by fire.
The secondary might not be better than last year's secondary, but it
will look better because the Longhorns will have a pass rush this year.

Key Quotes . .

DT Roy Miller said the move of Lamar Houston from DE to DT "has been
great for our pass rush. We have some really good athletes in the line
and that is enabling us to get a lot more pressure on the quarterback."
DE Brian Orapko said new defensive coordinator Will Muschamp "is really
intense and if we aren't really intense, too, we won't play. He wants us
getting after it every play or else."
QB Colt McCoy said, "I think we'll be good offensively, but our
first-team defense is really tough."
"We have a lot of young guys who really have great speed," said head
coach Mack Brown.

good stuff godly.

since tray allen was forced to play last year as a true freshman, are you saying they are gonna try and redshirt him this year?  i know mack usually likes the redshirt linemen, but all the coaches talked about how good he was, so i didn't expect them to try and redshirt him this year.  is that the plan?

godly...

you DA MAN!!

I'm so dang busy at work (especially lately) I don't get a chance to keep up w/ the Horns & Spring Game is almost here. 

KEEP IT COMING!! Great stuff!