Quick Thoughts on the Spring Game

Nice write-up. Our receivers looked fast. And that’s with Goodwin standing on the sidelines. The D also looks fast (and mean). We have no worries on that side of the ball as long as Muschamp is recruiting and coaching. Gilbert was accurate and poised, we have no receiving threat at tight end, and Whaley looked like a load to bring down. I was encouraged by our blocking in the I, but it’s a zero-sum game so I’ll reserve judgment.

“And all this without Goodson.” Or Jerry Rice, and Tim Brown. Goodwin, you Nordic slouch.

Akina has been busting AJ White’s ass. They know how important his development is for 2011. His ability to get run over and still make the play on Whaley was very encouraging.

Last year the D absolutely dominated the O. This year, it was a lot different. I feel like this scrimmage backed up my Spring write-up.

“I like us to win the conference.”

I like us to win it all.

Matthews had a few nice catches and showed some ability after the catch as an H-Back/TE

Technically we were without Goodson as well.

I was encouraged by the play of Mathews, he seems like a guy who likes having the ball in his hands as opposed to Smith who looked like he shit his pants every time Colt tossed it in his direction.

It might just be that I’m blinded from my begging for a breakout running back, but I really thought Whaley ran well today, he is such a big guy that he will be able to be a good college running back if he is given the opportunity… I’m not saying he is going to be another all american but I think he could be a consistent 10 TD 4 to 5 yard per carry kinda guy.

Anyone have any thoughts on what the role of DJ Monroe is going to be? I know last year he was sorta a RB, sorta a WR, mostly just a special teams guy but in my opinion he’s the most electric guy on the roster with the ball in his hands and I really think we would be doing well to get him the ball more in 2010.

You’ll more than likely see DJ come in on Kick Return, and sparingly when we go 5 Wide and put him and Marquis on the field at the same time.

I watched while holding my week old baby, I felt like we bonded.

A few thoughts:
-I love Colt, and he did a lot of great things for Texas, but Garrett makes me a little moist.
-Receivers looked capable, especially Hales.
-Matthews turned a dump-off on third down throwaway (good, conservative play by Gilbert to not force it) into a first down. That will need to happen 2-3 times per game to beat NU, OU, Tech, and bowl game.
-Running backs, meh. Running game, maybe, just maybe, better (not sure it could get any worse)? I enjoyed watching the delayed hand off and play action.
-I didn’t see a reason to watch the defense. I trust Muschamp, and when his horses can’t hit the QB, their heart just isn’t in it.

Expectations – must win Big XII, anything on top is gravy.

Hook ’em!

Our OL can fire out and block like most 20 yo 300+ lb behemoths can. It’s nice to let them do it now and again. It will be RB by commitee again, but we can play for a NC with that ploy. Been there done that.

Every time Hohn Chiles starts and runs a play next year it will take away one more opportunity from Hales. That isn’t good.

Garrett Gilbert is our next great QB. He can rifle it with the best and showed a bit of elegant touch when needed. We’re going to be nails at TE/H-back this year.

The Acho Ocho Bros didn’t play much or at all by design. Their presence improves our defense by at least 27.8%, so factor that into the zero sum game of our O vs our D.

With Muschamp as DC (thank God), I’m certain that Vacarro will be employed correctly next year as a disruptive force to offenses such as Tech’s and OU’s. He’ll be our Roy Williams (Okie Roy). Can ou see the young fella with blitz responsibilities? Chill bumps.

There is no reason to reduce expectations for the 2010 Horns. Beat OU, beat A&M, win the Big 12 and play/win a BCS bowl, hopefully the NC one.

Our QB situation vis a vis Bama’s alone should make us a bigger favorite than the Tide this year.

DJ Monroes role may very well be backup to Fozzy on the injured list.

OB’s and BON are both reporting M. Williams didn’t have a catch. Are you sure the TD pass was to him?

Thanks for the writeup.

I didn’t see Malcolm get a catch, but he did have a nice run on a designed end around-ish play. He’s a freak, and he should park his ass in front of a Juggs machine catching balls from now until the Rice game.

Oh, and the 1s vs 2s was weak. But yeah, we should wreck shit next year.

The thing that worries me about Whaley is him getting clogged down in the backfield. He would be great behind a line that does a good job of blocking in the interior, allowing him to get to the second level where he can wreak havoc. However, if a DT busts a gap there’s no way Whaley can cut and avoid the TFL. Fozzy is much better suited in that kind of a situation.

I wouldn’t mind seeing Whaley come in towards the end of games where the opposing DL is worn down.

The TD catch that Minny spoke of was to Hales……

Hales was awesome today

Whaley looks great when he has some room to run. Not so much when he has to create for himself. The comparisons to Melton are obvious.

I wish McGee would have been able to play today. He’s the guy IMO who will benefit the most from our offensive changes.

Barrett Matthews looked great. Extra extra extra blocking surface.

I thought Vacarro had killed Tre Newton. He and Scott together errrr I mean them and Gideon, give us a pair of safeties like we haven’t had in a long time.

Not to go unnoticed, Justin Tucker looks great at PK, and John Gold kicked the shit out of the ball. As far as returners I’d like to see Goodwin and Monroe on KR and Goodwin on PR.

And yeah, Gilbert looked good. Really, really good. I went today with my brother, and told him we may lose Gilbert after his junior year, because he may be the #1 pick in the 2012 draft.

“Get ready for a slew of mindless predictions of mediocrity based on the rationale that "you don’t lose your legendary QB and not miss a beat", blah, blah.”

So it is mindless to think that Gilbert’s rookie season might be at least slighty worse than Colt’s Heisman contender seasons? That reminds me of the preseason predictions for UT’s rookie hotshots in basketball this season. QB is a very challenging position and takes time to learn. Vince and Colt were much better by their final seasons than they were their rookie seasons. The same is true for almost all QBs, and most likely will be true for Gilbert. BTW, you can’t tell much when the 1st team O faces the second team D and when the D can’t hit the QB.

I’m guessing that losing Earl Thomas is going to sting. I don’t see any horn making All America at safety next season, including Scott and Vacarro.

Matthews did catch the ball well and Whale ran pretty well. I’d like to see Matthews mostly at TE and Whale at h back/flex TE/TB.

Kafka,

I read it to mean that we will still remain a force to be reckoned with to win the conference, not that GG will step in and be as good or better than Colt. The drop off won’t be as much as the expectation is how I understood it.

Whaley looked good when he could find the hole. He missed some cutbacks. Hills looked good. I still think Newton is our most complete back….

Whaley needs to prove he can run inside. He doesn’t have the style of a quality RB. Maybe it will come with time.

btw, game didn’t seem well attended to me. Fans b/t the 20’s with tons of empty seats between them.

Well, it was Easter. Strange time to have a spring game for fans…..

Caught ESPN’s coverage of the Spring game, GG looked really good. Guess there weren’t any Tim Tebow sightings today to occupy their time.

Dunno. Seems like Easter would be a big day for Tebow.

Was anyone else as impressed as I was with Jeremy Hills’ touchdown catch and run? He appeared to have very good speed with his cutback and burst between three, albeit backup, DBs in the open field. Looked every bit as fast as Fozzie. It’s nice to know we have guys in the stable who can step in and provide the same kind of production as our starters. Now, if we can just use Whaley the right way and ensure that our O line continues the transformation from a dancing bear to a road grader mentality, we’ll be decimating defenses all over the Big XII.

Orange90, I’m pretty sure it was DeSean Hales who had the TD catch and run.

No, Hills’ TD came after Hales’. It was a little flare pass in the right flat and he basically ran it the whole way. Hales’ was on a slant over the middle but I believe he also split two defenders.

“Are you sure the TD pass was to him?”

I’m sure not. I found myself focusing on the DB more to see who’d been beaten and came up with a walk-on obviously. You guys say it was Hales I’m sure you’re right.

Kafka, Gilbert perfmorming slightly worse than Colt’s best year isn’t going to produce mediocrity for this football team.

Hills looked good all through Spring. He didn’t get the memo that he was supposed to just curl to the ground and give up any hope of playing time. He’s quality, and already going to be a Jr. He’s playing with urgency.

Good write-up Minnesota. I was able to score 1st row, 50 yard line seats (first and last time that will ever happen) and I pretty much saw exactly what you did. I was skeptical of Whaley going into the game but he definitely showed some talent out there as did DeSean Hales. After the 3rd qtr however, I lost track of who was where because they started rotating everyone out on each team and I lost track. Perhaps the Achos and other experienced players were holding out?

Oh and did anyone else notice that Earl Thomas looked absolutely miserable while being presented with the National Defensive Back of the Year award? He was usually all about flashing the Hook Em sign and smiling, but man he looked like he really didn’t want to be there.

Colt’s girlfriend was there, and I took some creepy stalker video of her. Good lord, she is just ridiculous.

Colt’s mom is smoking. I stood five feet from her not long ago. I had to use Vasherized’s man purse to cover myself up.

Nordberg, are you going to “use” the video?

Magnus, I’m married. So of course I will.

Vaccaro was excellent. The ball he should have picked off came when he literally out ran Greg Smith (not a hard thing to do, but I digress) to the spot. He came from a step behind Smith and got between him and the ball. It was a really impressive burst. Then of course he showed off what we already knew he was capable of and decapitated somebody.

What impressed me most about Gilbert was that even though he has a stronger arm than Colt, he has so much touch. He’s incredibly good at dropping balls between defenders. He showed his touch in the MNC and he showed it yesterday. He delivers an extremely catchable ball, which is important if we expect our TE’s to do anything. Barrett Matthews looked like he had the best hands of our TE’s (I thought he was a FB?).

I think Connor Wood should be the back-up QB. Sherrod Harris is just AWFUL. He’s really embraced his roll as bench warmer and appears to have absolutely no interest in ever playing in a meaningful game. With that said, I would try to red-shirt both Wood and McCoy. If GG gets hurt mid-game and we have to play Harris, Whaley made it look like Harris could simply hand him the ball and ride him to victory.

Thanks for this M’Horn!

“Desean Hales today and that’s an excellent sign as Hales is obviously a game breaker hisownself.”

I am looking forward to Sept when I can see some Texas Football live and in person myowndamnself!

Great post MH. I have a feeling we’re going to surprise some people this year.

Gilbert to Hales looks solid. My goodness.

“Gilbert perfmorming slightly worse than Colt’s best year isn’t going to produce mediocrity for this football team.”

If mediocrity is winning about as many as you lose, it is crazy talk to predict that the horns will be mediocre next season. There won’t be a “slew” of predictions that the horns drop that far. If mediocre is defined as losing two or more games next season, yeah, that could happen.

As far as not “missing a beat” at QB, we’ll see. Gilbert is probably going to make his share of rookie mistakes and almost certainly will perform worse than junior/senior Colt, probably significantly worse. It is not an accident that Mack chose to have Gilbert face the 2nd team D instead of the 1st team D. Not getting hit in the spring game also makes a huge difference. As the great philosopher Mike Tyson observed: “Everyone has a plan ’till they get punched in the mouth”.

Kafka,

Gilbert will throw no more than Sr. Colt’s 12 picks. I already know you’re going to say he won’t throw as many passes. No he won’t, but he’ll be making tougher throws. He will not perform significantly worse. Are we watching the same guy?

Attendance was most likley hurt by it being Easter. Even though it was way after Church time most families have dinner or a gathering to celebrate. Hard to get out of these deals. An arguement Horns spring game over Jesus ressurection to your family is hard to win.

Not if your family has their priorities straight.

I was glad to have something to watch on Easter.