The defense today, etc
That switch finally flipped. The moribund group that was so emotionally beaten down from sucking for two straight years looked like they remembered how much fun you were supposed to have. All season long the only regular displays of enthusiasm came from Blake Gideon and Muschamp himself.
That’s what sacks and big hits do. You can’t get the latter if you can’t anticipate, and you don’t anticipate as a freshman. No matter how many points are scored on this group this coming month, the important thing is that they get better every single week — something they’ve done so far.
They are a long way from ready, in fact I’d be surprised if OU gets less than 30, but you cannot look at the young talent on the team and not be excited for this season and the next couple after it.
More:
- Thanks to whoever convinced Orakpo that he’s not a speed rusher. The guys rip move is off the charts good thanks to his relative strength and that’s where his success will come from. 4+ years too late, but late is better than never. Watching slow pocket QBs outrun the guy isn’t fun though.
- The interior of the OL is soft. DL manhandle them regularly. I still think we move laterally too much.
- Told you Jordan Shipley was fucking good.
- Keenan Robinson, Aaron Williams, Sam Acho, Curtis Brown and Ben Wells are all future superstars. Frankly, I’m surprised Acho doesn’t play more now as it is. If we make even a half decent post-Muschamp hire we are in great shape.
- Watching Jimmy Clausen outplay half the NFL today reminds me not to be too harsh on young John Chiles. But man, Sherrod Harris must’ve deleted all the DMX off Mack Brown’s iPod or something. If Chiles can’t run, which he can’t, I’m not sure what he is supposed to bring to the table. He’s a poor man’s Reggie McNeal right now.
September 27, 2025 at 4:29 pm
I’m ready fo the Cody Johnson era to begin. He runs behind blockers, finds creases and keeps his legs churning. I’m all for Fozzy and seeing what he can do but Johnson is a legit runner.
Thumbs up to Sam Acho’s celebrations with the other DL.
I was curious to see how Miller would do against Arkie’s rimington center, I still think OU has big trouble with our DL. Particularly Kindle’s rushes.
September 27, 2025 at 5:20 pm
Ain’t good defense fun to watch? I almost forgot what it looked like at DKR. However, now may be a good time for a reality check: Watching OU wax the Frogs 35-10 right now, I think I am most worried about their WRs getting isolated on our CBs. If their O-line gives Bradford and his two amigos time, they are going to pick on Ryan Palmer like an itchy scab.
September 27, 2025 at 5:25 pm
Arkansas put up a pretty high YPA - around 10, if I recall correctly. But we played the run about as well as is possible. Overall it was one hell of an effort, and even more impressive when you consider the two awful pass interference calls.
September 27, 2025 at 5:29 pm
Brick -
Like we discussed on the other post, though, their yards per passing play was probably lower. 180 passing yards on 28 attempts. I think you’re thinking of average per completion.
But the seven sacks for -58 yards leaves our overall pass defense pretty salty for the day. Admittedly against a terrible team, though.
September 27, 2025 at 5:39 pm
The performances of McGee and Chiles have been most disappointing, thus far. But then I’m reminded of the Mack/Davis ineptitude at managing backup QBs and designing a running scheme, so it’s not surprising.
Agreed on Cody Johnson.
Once again, if Colt goes down, we’re totally screwed. But Jevan Snead beat Florida, today!
September 27, 2025 at 5:54 pm
Yeah, don’t get fooled by the pig on the helmet — that was an flat out awful team we beat today. Casey Dick is horrible. Too horrible to deserve an obvious dick joke.
September 27, 2025 at 6:07 pm
Chiles is not, to date, deserving of the playing time or press he is getting. Time to see what Harris can do.
September 27, 2025 at 6:22 pm
Dick’s ypa drops below 4.5 when you figure in sacks as pass attempts with negative yards, which i think you should. his replacement’s numbers fared worse, but at least he had gotten rid of the ball before he got plowed by a longhorn instead of after.
September 27, 2025 at 6:28 pm
I’m ready fo the Cody Johnson era to begin.
If we continue to insist on giving him the ball from a standing start the era won’t look so good against OU’s defense.
September 27, 2025 at 8:03 pm
Huck - no, I was actually referring to midgame stats. Dick went 7/13 for 138 yards - more than 10 YPA. I stopped following the stats when he went out. It still concerns me that we gave up that many YPA to the Pigs’ first team QB.
September 28, 2025 at 8:52 am
This game concludes the preseason. What have we learned?
Colt, Quan, and Shipley have all torn up the admittedly inferior competition.
If Colt goes down, the horns’ offense is in profound trouble. Chiles has improved his passing a bunch but his running did not look great (the O line wasn’t doing him any favors). Colt was no good at running for his first year and a half (and look at how well he runs now). Way too early to give up on Chiles.
The horns have two receivers who are catching a significant number of passes (Ship and Quan). Shipley may even draw a double team from OU. Or not (it is hard to tell how good these guys are until they play a decent D). We always knew Quan and Ship can catch the ball, run clean patterns, and find the hole in the zone (i.e. good possession receivers).
The question was (and is) can they separate quickly from a good DB (i.e. before Colt is flushed from the pocket by a good pass rush)? Can either one of them force OU to double them? We’ll see in a couple of weeks.
TE went from being an outstanding pass catcher (Irby) to not much of a receiving threat. Huge step backwards.
The young WRs (except for Malcolm Williams) look a bit physically weak to compete with OU. Not a single breakout performance by any of them this season.
The running attack is suspect against OU. Colt is not going to run for 10 yards per carry against OU. Vondrell does not look like the answer at TB. Just how hurt is Fozzy? Injuring both knees in the same season sounds like a problem. Cody is our best healthy back right now. That is pretty astonishing (most people did not even include Cody on their O Big Board before the season).
The D is improving. The horns are finally starting to get a bunch of sacks. The secondary is still having trouble tackling and covering but is improving.
My guess is that the horns beat Colorado, lose to OU, and compete well with Mizzou (i.e. tossup).
On O, OU has much better running backs, better O line, better WRs, and is pretty comparable at QB (except that Colt runs better than Bradford and Bradford may throw the deep ball better).
I don’t know about the D side but it seems that on D, OU and UT might be of similar quality (i.e. pretty good front 7s, suspect secondaries).
UT will be forced to play OU straight up when on D. It will be a long day for Palmer if he plays much.
On D, OU may not respect UT’s running game. This will permit OU to put more speed in the D to deal with UT’s passing game (i.e. OU might do some of the following: replace a DT with a DE, replace a DE with an LB, replace an LB with a safety, play a lot of nickel, lots of zone blitzing).
September 28, 2025 at 4:30 pm
CA - Keenan Robinson, Aaron Williams, Sam Acho, Curtis Brown and Ben Wells are all future superstars.
Surprised to see Brown and Wells on your list. Not questioning it, but what did you see from this game that gives you that impression of them?