Spring

Right Tackle is still a worry. In a real game Eddie Jones could have completely decked Gilbert on one play because the RT was too slow afoot. That’s where the run game has to work to slow that end down.

Also still mildly concerned about other DT next to Randall. Howell could be an answer. Not seeing it from anyone else right now. Since we are a step slower at safety now the D line has got to be nails.

“PS – Garrett Gilbert will be better than Colt McCoy by November 2011. It will probably happen before this season is done (If Texas can run the ball at all they won’t lose one game this season and Gilbert will be magnificent). There I said it.”

Pretty much.

I’m selling my Britt Mitchell stock and using the proceeds to buy stock in Tray Allen. But seriously, the most positive sign I saw from the oline was their ability to get to the second level.

Also still mildly concerned about other DT next to Randall. Howell could be an answer. Not seeing it from anyone else right now.

Don’t forget that we have Bible, Dorsey, and Cotton stepping on campus this summer. I know they are freshmen but they are talented freshmen and I expect 1 or 2 to at least provide some depth.

Also, don’t forget about Tevin Mims. I see him playing inside a lot this year. He played a little last year as a freshmen but spent most of the time on the end. He’s bulked up a little and is playing where I always thought he would wind up.

Lastly, we have Sam Acho. He didn’t play yesterday because the staff knows what they have with him. If E. Jones, Okafor, R. Wilson, J Jeffcoat, and Greg Daniels prove to be enough at end then expect Acho to spend a lot of time inside.

Throw Higgins and Derek Johnson into the mix and I think our DL will be more than fine this year. In year’s past I might have been concerned due to all the young unnprovens we have but Muschamp has shown an ability to coach up guys and get people to realize their potential like no other in recent memory on the 40 acres.

Not to poo on the parade, but in McCoy’s first year, he was protected by the following: Blalock, Dockery, Sendlein, Studdard, Hills. Charles and Selvin combined for 1,500 yards and 14 TDs. Sweed had 46/801/12, and Cosby had 45 receptions as the possession receiver. Finley picked up 31 catches from the TE position. Consequently, Colt passed for 2500+ yards and 29/7 TD/INT.

Flashforward to 2010. Our line: Hix, Huey, Snow, Allen, Mitchell. Yeah… If Newton and Fozzy can combine for 1500 yards, you win the slapbet. Mal Williams putting up Sweed-like numbers, that I can see. Chiles or Kirk with Cosby-like reliance? Not so much. Matthews as a Finley-like security blanket? Hopefully.

Fuck it, it’s Garrett Gilbert. Over/under set at 2,500 yards and 30 TDs. I’m feeling positive today.

By the way, MB-TF is allsome.

Like Rockin Robin before him, I will be glad when Blake Gideon improves our graduation rate. He will make a great coach in the not too distant future.

The Colt’s influence on our O is starting to become evident. There’s even some hints of the Cowboy’s as well. Good…we’ve used the offseason to do some studying. If the 2 back run game stalls out, we’ll probably see more of the Colt’s one back run game. We made a statement about our run game emphasis with the way the Spring Game started. The good news was it fit the flow of the game, because we were productive…up until the drive stalled. It was then that it hit me that we weren’t calling pass plays just to throw the ball. It makes me think that we’ll take the mindset into the Fall of ’we’ll keep running the ball, until you stop us.’…at least versus teams that we overmatch up front.

I feel better seeing Barrett Matthews have success.

t1climb1 – Mims must continue adding size to give himself a chance to be a force inside. He’s still a little light, but he has added some weight. Johnson has the size, as he has the body-type of Casey Hampton circa 1998. I just don’t know if he’s ready for prime minutes just yet. My best guess is that Dorsey will provide some relief DT minutes this Fall, but you’re right that at least one of the incoming DT’s should provide some depth.

So out of all the names you come up with ‘OrangeTree?’ Sounds like you’ve been vacationing in Amsterdam or Vancouver.

“The Colt’s influence on our O is starting to become evident.”

This scared the shit out of me. I read this in Brent Musberger voice, a la “The Major.” These fools on here would have murderized you for that.

Ah, the old misplaced apostrophe…maybe I was going for the double meaning.

Is it a stretch that Gilbert is already being groomed to be Manning’s replacement? Surely, they’d have to trade up to get him, or the Manning’s could coach him up on how to influence the draft…I’m getting ahead of myself.

That being said, Gilbert will be a fine player. Here’s to hoping we’ll get to watch him for the next three years.

I don’t get the optimism on the Oline play. I saw way too many missed assignments on vanilla plays that we’ve run forever to have any increase in expectation for this group. I get that it is early and we’ve got lots of repetition to correct mistakes, but I thought that for the majority of last season.

nice read. i thought the offense played pretty good considering there weren’t really any wrinkles except play action, which is the best wrinkle of them all.

PREDICTIONS 2010 (it doesn’t matter if you care):

by season’s end, everyone will get off McWhorter’s back and begin ordaining him as the Phoenix.

G. Davis will be extolled as more versatile than ever imagined because of his run scheme/play action flair for play calling, even though he did it for years with Ricky Williams and Cedric Benson. however, people will never remember that he annually puts us in the top 10 for scoring.

Gilbert will win the first of his two N.T.’s.

Muschamp fields two AA’s which will become his norm.

Speaking of Fozzy’s durability, I saw him on campus today wearing a protective walking boot. It’s good to see that he’s already in mid-season form…

Great article.

Only thing I’ll add is that if we’re counting on the freshman DT’s it’s going to be Dorsey or no one. Taylor Bible looks fat. I mean, like he swallowed Gary Coleman fat.

Bill Bixby: Please go to hell. Thank you.

I like Barrett Mathews, but the combination of him, Greg Smith, and James Kirkendoll is an invitation to press the one good receiver and have the other safety in the box. I prefer to think that DJ Grant will be healthy come fall and provide a Thunder/Lightning aspect to the TE position. Certain personnel packages leave us vulnerable and we won’t know how good this team can be until they have to adjust to a defense that has them pegged.
 
This.
 
Our running game hinges as much on our ability to develop outside threats at WR and TE as anything.

Why, if Krik was on the field, would we have only 1 good reciever? I think that we have enough quality WRs that we can put 2 good ones on the field. Kirk may be one of those WRs, and he may not. Even if Smith is not a viable target, we should still have 2 WR threat as well as the RB in the middle and check down to the FB/HB matthews (not to mention the play action hopefully slowing the rush and freezing the safety).

Is it completely inconceivable for Walters to take a starting spot at either LT or RT if he comes back 100% in the fall? When he’s healthy I think he’s by far the most physically talented of all the linemen on the team.

WRs are not going to be an issue. we lost Cosby and promptly recovered. i don’t see any problems this year with our skill spots. it is entirely possible that three or four younguns jump out and open the whoopass. i’m quietly giddy about this season.

Another thing, it’s startling to compare the level of talent in the program now versus only a few years ago (2007), especially on defense. Can you imagine Scott Derry starting on this team? This program is in a much, much better place than where it was after the 2005/2006 kids left.

“I like Barrett Mathews, but the combination of him, Greg Smith, and James Kirkendoll is an invitation to press the one good receiver and have the other safety in the box. I prefer to think that DJ Grant will be healthy come fall and provide a Thunder/Lightning aspect to the TE position.”

Goodwin will start, not Kirk. If Matthews is the next Martellus Bennett and has the speed to go deep, how does that encourage the D to bring up the safety? The only reason to bring up the safety is that Smith is not a receiving threat. If Matthews is TE and Grant or Whale is the h back, it will be risky to bring up the safety.

Scipio: Matthews caught and ran well, right?

Kirk tears it up against Rice and UTEP then disappears against good defenses.

Malcolm Williams just needs to get his shit together and catch the goddamn football. We have a potentially salty lineup if Goodwin, Hales, and Timmons make adequate strides and either Davis or White show up ready to go.

Matthews looked good yesterday but he’ll never be confused with Jermichael Finley. We need a healthy DJ Grant to shore up our receiving options at TE unless Smith can start aiming his volleyball sets to our downfield receivers.

Vasherized nailed my thoughts.
 
We just need some pieces to come together, specifically downfield outside threats and TEs that can consistently punish a team for trying to cover them with a LB.

Our WR’s 2 through the end of the bench will be much better this year than last year. Luckily Gilbert only has one half of Shipley dependence to draw on. He won’t really know what he’s missing.

Kirk left AJ Williams’ jock on the ground the other day for what would have been a td. He also torched C. Brown on a double move. The ball was under thrown, but he had his man beat. I won’t be surprised if he becomes a weapon. I realize we need to see it when it counts.

I can’t help but think Mike Davis has a bigger impact on us next year than Goodwin did this past year. Man I sound like an annoying sunshine pumper.

Man I sound like an annoying sunshine pumper.

You attend one practice and suddenly morph into the lovechild of echeese and Bill Little.

Please rekindle some of that Swedish skepticism, pronto.

The only thing that makes me feel comfortable right now about our passing game is the dude throwing the ball. It’s not the guys catching it.

Depth at WR is always good and that would be particularly useful if we were going to run a lot of 4 WR, but with a lot of 2 WR sets, we could really use two strong starters.

Fuck Greg Davis.

Fuck Greg Davis.

That feel better magnus?

I rented a car last week while in Colorado and they gave me a Prius. When I returned home to Dallas I burned a pile of tires to offset the hippy quotient.

NIce write up. Remember a do-it-all at safety named Jerry Gray?

There seems to be a lot of people around these parts that subscribe to the “We’ve got Keeston Randall and a bunch of bodies” philosophy at DT.

I’ve stated my position as to why we will be fine on the DL and it begins and ends with Will “Muthafucker” Muschamp. As I said before, in year’s past I would have been concerned with all the unproven talent that we are going to rely on but Muschamp has shown he gets the most out of guys and coaches them up. Remember last year? We were all wondering what the hell we were going to do outside of Lamar Houston. Suddenly, Randall came on strong, Ben Alexander actually gave us a lot of quality snaps, and Eddie Jones coming in on obvious passing downs let us use SAcho inside to get 3 elite pass rushers on the field at once. Suddenly our concern last year became a huge strength.

Also, for those that are talking about guys being out of shape or needing to add weight, now is when that begins. We have 5 months until the season starts. This is when guys hit the weight room. It was 12 weeks between Pasadena and the spring game. Only 7 weeks between the Rose Bowl and the start of spring practices. There’s no way guys have time to work on the things they need to from technique or weight training in that time. The time between now and September 4th is when that happens.

Since the 2007 Aggie debacle this staff has had a different attitude and the arrival of WM has added a even more fuel to that fire. Since that season, this team has seen 2 consecutive years where the leadership has stepped up and taken control of the offseason. I don’t see it falling off this year and that’s why I expect the work to get done in the next few months. If Bible got fat and doesn’t get in shape over the next 5 months…fine, he gets left behind on the depth chart. He will be passed by Dorsey, Mims, Higgins, Howell, et al.

The Defense is not my concern heading into 2010. OL is where my concerns lie. Everybody is worried about the tackles and rightfully so. Anybody thought about what happens if either one of them gets hurt? We have no depth thanks to a string of bad luck and racist facebook updates. Unless we see Walters, Ashcraft, Porter, Buchanan, and a few others emerge I’ll be sweatin the OL all year long. If that unit gets shored up and the depth comes along, the rest of our problems on Offense take care of themselves. And for the record, I’m including the emergence of an actual pass catching TE as part of that OL concern.

t1,

No, I feel terrible for it. This is the new magnus, complete with bluebirds on his shoulders.

Well done on the tire burning. I’m a fan of doing the exact opposite of what hippies say. For instance, when they say get a Prius, I remove the muffler on my truck. When they keep saying it, I get a bigger truck. When they persist further, I wedge their gas pedals.

You left the Bay huh?

Let me guess, Gray was in town for the scrimmage? Mack will run 4-wide sets when Metoyer visits for the RRS.

Yep. I love the bay area for its natural beauty, great restaurants, and cool weather. I don’t miss the state taxes, cost of real estate, and militant leftists. Left of center is fine, but there is a whole other breed out there. They thought Molly Ivins was a redneck.

The plan is to move back down to Austin next year. Are you still on the left coast?

“Let me guess, Gray was in town for the scrimmage? Mack will run 4-wide sets when Metoyer visits for the RRS.”

This is actually reasonably funny. Not only for Gray, but Green and Brown also. The second part of the post is kinda weak, Metoyer was probably going to wear orange but we decided not to recruit him..

“Malcolm Williams just needs to get his shit together and catch the goddamn football.”

Fuck you. That’s easier said than done.

Forgive dedfischer, he’s been doing taxes for three months. I just gave him Kansas plus 10 for tonights game. Yeah, uh ded, they didn’t want Metoyer. Not saying he’s not a talent, they just didn’t pursue him.

t1, I hear you on the likes, it’s an experience for sure. My old man used to live on a boat in Alameda. It was the life. But the draw backs are considerable. I’m in H-Town, which of course has it’s drawbacks.

“And Spring arose on the garden fair,
like the spriit of love felt everywhere.
And each flower and herb on Earth’s dark breast
rose from the dreams of its wintry rest.”

Ah, Spring. When rank inexperienced qb’s magically become future NFL Hall of Famers. When clumsy, acne-ridden offensive linemen suddenly become monsters because of a change of scheme. When NFL draft picks who played safety leave… and are replaced by even better players. When a campus that is totally bereft of Division I running backs suddenly has 4 of them or 5, or 6. When it becomes clear that despite all this, the home team will “win the conference”.

I love Spring.

Mack said that Whale is staying at TB but needs to lose 25 pounds. Whale weighs about 260 now.

Mack also said that he is switching Smith to h back and Matthews to TE.

FWIW, Gilbert and Matthews seem to have a good rapport.

Yes, ransom, Gilbert is truly an unknown quantity at this point. Too bad we have no idea at this point how he will react to a big stage. I suspect your prediction is somewhere between “really shitty” and “so-so.”

Remember a do-it-all safety named Bill Bradley?

Running the ball doesn’t necessarily require a traditional TE. You need guys who can catch the ball, block an LB, chip block a DE, and are fast enough to be difficult for an LB to cover. Malcolm can do this, so can Matthews. Probably Whale and maybe Cody, too. The flex TE concept is not a bad idea, just Buckner made it look like a bad idea because he was a poor blocker.

I mention Malcolm because, if you run wide to Malcolm’s side, he can block the OLB, leaving the DB covering Malcolm to tackle the TB. This is especially nice when Whale is running the ball.

Ransom’s spring review: Everything sucks, we’re all going to die someday.

I’m in H-Town, which of course has it’s drawbacks.

The drawbacks all being that your are in H-Town? I was depressed to realize that we just had our 2.5 days of good weather. Now it is time for scorching heat and suffocating humidity.

I don’t mind the weather really. It’s not like I’m a brick mason or day laborer. Ha ha ha ha!

06_UT, my saying is, “Houston sucks, but I love it.” I’m defensive of her. She’s been good to me. There’s plenty to do, it just doesn’t come with a lot of culture or beauty.

ransom hates our freedom and wants the terrorists to win.

There’s plenty to do in H-town, that’s true. It just can’t be done aesthetically. Or outside for half the year (unless you have a pool). But whatever. Lots of jobs and violence.

The Astros are terrible so I’ll be loaded up with the firm tickets whenever I want them. If anybody wants to hit a game and sit about 8 rows behind the home plate side of the visitor’s dugout let me know. We should be effectively eliminated from the playoff race after Barry Zito blanks us tonight, so I imagine I’ll be able to get tickets whenever I want starting tomorrow.

Ghost that’s funny. We have third base tickets, and I was telling the owner he won’t be able to give those tickets away even if he sent people with beer money.

I’m sure Zito’s good for one hanger to Carlos. I like us for a solo, and the mf’n loss.

OrangeTree – the best name you could up with is that murder haven you used to live in on Rio Grande?