What about the defense?

Yup, a record-setting year upcoming on defense with perhaps each year after getting better ’n ’ better.

Usage point though: “wreck havoc” would mean like wreck the wreckage. The coupling you are looking for is wreak havoc, literally, loose the hawks.

It’s just a feeling, but this team just might be seriously kick ass after it comes up to speed. Kinda like in 1968. A year most of you guys sadly can’t relate to.

Good stuff, Nickel. I actually expect the Horns’ defense to be overall deeper and better upfront. Randall, Howell, Derek Johnson spinning down EJ or Sacho on passing downs. On the end you have Sacho, EJ, Okafor and Mims, who I expect to contribute this year. A star in the making with Keenan Robinson with lil’ Acho solid on the other side. As long as we can sure up Mike, I’m liking the makeup and we haven’t even considered any true freshman making a splash. The secondary is our strongest corp, especially CB. Replacing Kindle, Muck and Lamar will be tough but we said the same about Rak, Roy and Henry. Injuries always play a key, but I expect this to be the best defense we’ve seen on the 40 in quite awhile…..Deep and experienced, but still fairly young….

You know, the aggy game concerned me more about last year’s defense that the Alabama game did. The defense played OK against Alabama until it was really worn down, which came as the result of the offense sputtering and not holding the ball at all. The aggy game was a different story — particularly the inability, or refusal, to pressure johnson. I think this year’s defense can be just as good as last year’s — despite the loss of so many wonderful players — provided that Scott does a passable job and our corners step it up. No more mental errors is key — as is remembering the coverage (no names need mentioning here, but you know exactly to whom I’m referring). And our linebacking corp is beginning the process of becoming severely bad-ass.

Thanks OldTimeHorn, I’ll admit I don’t remember ever understanding that distinction.

Bixby: I only know history, nothing close to firsthand experience of those days. Wasn’t that the year that the wishbone was installed?

Bateman: It’s hard for me to project how good this defense turns out in relation to the previous two. They’ll have to find more ways to get turnovers with little Earl gone. I’m beginning to think that Muck is frequently held in such high esteem because he was a good linebacker playing with or after terrible players.
In other words, we should be able to replace Muck’s talent now that we have a stronger pipeline and coaching there although his intangibles were excellent as well.

Ghost: I think the Aggy game was a testing ground for Muschamp in trying out a zone-defense before Texas had to play Florida. Johnson destroyed it throwing at the doughy soft spots in the zone and still running over and around everyone even though they could keep their eyes on him. Also Aaron Williams injury allowed a lot of the linebacker on Fuller matchups that killed Texas over the course of the game.
I’ve read other commentaries that argued that Houston was exhausted from the short turnaround and wore down quick against constant double teams and Texas didn’t send much extra pressure. Overall it was a confusing gameplan that only makes sense to me from the perspective of Muschamp testing his zone against a dual-threat QB before facing Tebow.

I would have though the cover-1 man with Thomas as a spy might have been a better route but that puts even more pressure on linebackers against slot receivers. Given the recent DB recruitment I’m betting that Muschamp would like to move towards a little more zone in the future.

Thanks for the nod, NR. The way you degree in English without actually having to, you know, read a bunch of books is to take courses like Anglo-Saxon.

I think your take on the Aggie experiment last year is exactly right. Hope Muschamp is done experimenting with them as the guinea pigs.

Nickle,

It was more than the wishbone. It was finding team leadership and putting all the top talent on the field in the right postions.

Bixby: Was that the first year starting for Worster and Street? Go ahead and give us a little history, that was my major at UT.

I agree about all the unfortunate injuries with the US national team. But hey, at least our captain didn’t sleep with his teammate’s girlfriend. Plus, it’s encouraging to see that the US depth is improved enough that we can still be competitive with the #3 team in the world. Plus, USA only lost 3-2 versus Brazil. Don’t sell this team short.

Everything depends on which of Dempsey, Davies, Gooch, and Holden make it back healthy and in form by the World Cup. The first 3 are 3 of our 6 most importane players (along with Howard, Donovan, and Altidore). That’s a whole lot of “ifs.” We had all of those dudes when we beat Spain and played Brazil.

The showing against Brazil was pretty solid and did follow beating spain but it was 4-2 in the Brazilian game and another goal should have been counted that would have made it 5-2 for Kaka and co.
I like this team to make some noise and maybe knock off a top team if everyone is healthy.

1968 was the first year that Street and Worster started as well as the first year of the wishbone. However, Street wasn’t the starter at the beginning of the season. Bill Bradley started the first couple games (a tie against UH at home and a loss to Tech in Lubbock). Street played quite a bit in the second half of the Tech game and became the starter the following week. Bradley moved to safety and was an instant hit there.

One of the significant things about the 1968 season was the spring and summer workouts that preceded it. They were by all accounts brutal. Royal had finished 6-4 for three consecutive seasons and was determined to do whatever it took to identify who really wanted to play. Lots of players left after the spring. Those that stayed formed the nucleus of the ‘68 and ’69 teams. It’s worth noting that the Wishbone wasn’t even installed until the summer.

Bixby: Was that the first year starting for Worster and Street? Go ahead and give us a little history, that was my major at UT.

It was Worster’s first year on varsity, as freshmen weren’t eligible. James Street took over as the starter in the third game, after a loss and a tie. Thus began the 30 game winning streak. It was also Chris Gilbert’s senior year. Gilbert was the first player in NCAA history to rush for over 1,000 yards in three successive seasons.

The advent of the Wishbone drew most of the press, but the defense was outstanding. Great players everywhere, including DE Bill Attessis, DTs Loyd Wainscott and Leo Brooks, LBs Scott Henderson, Glen Halsell, and Corby Robertson, and the Cambell twins at DB.

By the end of the season, that was the best team in the country and arguably the best Texas team in history, to that date. They blew Tennessee out in the Cotton Bowl, 35-7.

‘66 my high school was in the same 3A district with McKinney, a team that gave up one TD all season, to a 4A Fort Worth School (Pascal?) If I recall, they gave up one more in the playoffs before meeting Worster’s Bridgeport team in the state championship. Worster scored four touchdowns on them in the first half before being rested the second half in a runaway game. I was in awe. Couldn’t wait to see him at UT.

‘67, my first year at UT, we still had freshman ball. ’68 Worster and company hit varsity just when the Wishbone was introduced. We tied ranked Houston in the opening game. I burned out the engine of my roommate’s RoadRunner Hemi on the outskirts of Lubbock headed to our loss there, but from then to Notre Dame in the Cotton Bowl two years later, it was all W’s.

Bill Bradley was still starting QB in ‘68, but his hands were small. Royal called him the best athlete he ever coached, but after the loss to Tech, Street became quarterback. The CBS camera crew (ABC? who handled NCAA games then?) voted Street the most difficult QB to follow with a camera, and that was his key, great footwork, great deception. About four games into the ’69 season, my roommate (yes, same one) calculated that our 2nd string was literally the number 2 offense in the country, yardage-wise. That’s how potent the Bone was! That was of course the year we beat #2 Arkansas for the National Championship last game of the season. The streets of Austin were wild that night.

That’s incredible, thanks for the stories guys. That calculation about the 2nd string offense is ridiculous, I’ll have to remember that the next time I think of 2005 as the best Texas team in history. I’m sure some of those who remember back may not see it as a foregone conclusion.

Our D played incredible against Alabama especially since our offense did very little. We gave up a long run and one long drive in the second quarter. Go back and look at the long run and tell me who got burned. Yes, Scott is playing this year but I wouldn’t say losing Thomas is an upgrade. We still have our other safety starter and will have him for 2011 too.

The ‘61 team, IMO was the best UT squad up until ’05. They were absolutely poisonous. Until the TCU game, every game they played was basically over midway through the second quarter. They dominated both offensively (flip-flop offense) and defensively. Many of the first teamers were worried that they wouldn’t letter because of lack of playing time. At one point, the UT RBs James Saxton, Jerry Cook and Tommy Ford (the 1st, 2nd annd 3rd string RBs) ranked #1, #2 and #3 in rushing in the SWC.

They were undefeated, untied and untested. Then came the TCU game.

OldTimeHorn – thanks for the summary; those must have been great times to be a student. Anyone at all interested in the ‘69 team should read “Hogs, Horns, and Nixon Coming” just a fantastic book about the Big Shootout. BTW, Worster’s high school was Bridge City I believe.

Yup, RF. Bridge City. I suspected I didn’t have it right, cuz I never heard of it before Worster or since. Another correction: I think it was after the third game that season that our second string offense was second in the nation. The fourth game woulda been OU, and even though we whupped ’em, I doubt we ran up yardage numbers like in the first three games (@ Cal, Tech & Navy).

They show the ’69 OU game on ESPN classic occasionally. We really won that game passing more than on the ground. Not sure what our final rushing yardage was, but it was a couple of big pass plays to Speyrer that allowed Texas to take control after OU jumped out to a 14 – 0 lead in the 1st quarter. Texas finally put it away when OU fumbled a punt at their own 20 with about 3 minutes left.