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(Eric Nahlin) Horns up, horns down: Texas vs Louisiana-Monroe

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The return of Texas football didn’t disappoint from the fan or critic angle. This looks like a team that will be fun to grow old with, even through trials and tribulations. Or maybe especially because of them. If Steve Sarkisian is the right coach for Texas, you’ll want to sit back and enjoy week to week growth. As mighty Alabama comes to town we’ll likely see more trials this Saturday, but for now I think the program had a successful opener. If last night was a leading indicator, Sark and Pete Kwiatkowski seem to have had a useful offseason.

Horns Up

Team pursuit: Team pursuit tells you a lot about where a program is. Throughout August we heard the defense was exemplifying more effort and team speed. That consistently showed up last night with gang tackling from all three levels. Guys were showing up and guys were finishing tackles through the whistle. Texas was clearly the more athletic team, but they also seemed to want it more. That will become increasingly important as talent disparity dissipates. Effort level travels well. If it’s consistent, it raises the program’s floor. Last night was illustrative of program buy-in from the players. The big caveat is the level of competition, but last night was promising and a big improvement over last year.

Defensive cohesion: There were a couple of times where the players were not on the same page. This became evident through their animated communication. But overall, the defense played fast. That stems from confidence in their understanding of assignments. As Ian wrote, there is a lot already in the defensive playbook. If PK knows what he’s doing, that is a good sign of where he thinks his defense is. We heard about improved football IQ but last night appeared to be evidence of it. This appears to be another big improvement over last season.

Edge: I know Barryn Sorrell is going to be good (he’s one of the best mental evals on the entire team), but last night he was fantastic. He won’t always hold a stark talent advantage, but even when he doesn’t he has complementary traits that will make him good, namely strong hands, good leverage, and old school effort. He may be a bit ahead of where I expected him to be. From a wide alignment he can gain steam and press the pocket. He also plays with low pads against the run. He’s going to be a player. If Edge is improved over last year, the whole defense will be better for it. Let’s give it some more time but there seems to be a theme developing on the defensive side of the ball.

DeMarvion Overshown and D’Shawn Jamison: Sourcing extolled the virtues of these two elder statesman throughout August but we were somewhat tepid. Their talent has always tantalized but we’ve yet to see consistent output from them. UL-M doesn’t make for a great sample size but these two undoubtedly talented players balled tf out. You know Jamison is not happy about losing punt return to Xavier Worthy. So what does he do? Eliminate the first punt return of the season with a block that was returned for six by Keilan Robinson. That’s buy-in. Later he did what has apparently become muscle memory to him and pick sixed the quarterback. Overshown looked by far the most comfortable he’s ever been on the field. While I still don’t have a great understanding of how improved he is as an off-ball linebacker, PK seems to know how to play to his strengths. Overshown coming from different angles is going to be a real thing this year. Him knowing where to direct his immense talent could become one of the storylines for the year.

Ja’Tavion Sanders: When Isaiah Neyor went down, Sanders’ ability as a receiver became that much more important to the season. We know he has elite ability as a receiver and last night showed Sark thinks the same. Has Sark ever had a TE who will be this productive? I don’t know, but I do know last night was just the tip of the iceberg for what they have planned for Sanders. He will be a feature receiver this year and I bet he plays a prominent role in trying to slow down the Bama pass rush.

Cleanliness: There were not a lot of penalties or assignment busts. Generally speaking, this was a clean effort that inspires confidence in coaching and player buy-in. If this same teams shows up versus Bama they’ll keep it competitive.

Horns Down

There’s not a lot to put here and I’m not including a freshman quarterback in his first start. I thought he showed growth throughout the game. He’ll take some lumps next week and come back better for it. He is Horns Neutral as far as I’m concerned. I’m not going to knit-pick just to make the title work, but the offense could have operated at a higher level. They didn’t run a lot of plays, they missed some opportunities, etc. Last year the defense being better than the offense in August was pyrite. This year appears different.

There will be plenty to discuss this time next week, but based on last night I expect a spirited Texas to show up and fight. Good job, Sark. That was the start you needed and apparently deserved.

 

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Bobby Burton: Where my head's at after the Longhorns' win

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It was an uneven start, but the Texas Longhorns eventually cruised to a win. Quinn Ewers’ first two passes looked like those of a doe-eyed freshman making his first-ever start. But then, Ewers settled into the game, thanks to a heavy dose of Bijan Robinson on the game’s second drive. After Bijan and the run game got rolling, Ewers became more and more confident.

While far from perfect the rest of the way, Ewers generally made the easy plays look easy, like the one to Jordan Whittington just before half to put the Horns in legitimate field goal position, as well as numerous passes to the outside in the quick game. He also made a couple of sublime ones; the dump-down to JT Sanders that neatly suckered a defensive lineman into no-man’s land resulted in long gain on third down and another pass to Sanders down the seam was threaded into a tight window most quarterbacks don’t even see.

Yet there were other plays Ewers likely wishes he had back. He was just a tad late on a throw to an open Xavier Worthy that went out of the back of the end zone. Yet for those worried with Ewers’ deep-ball performance in this game, I’d tap the breaks on those concerns. It may not have shown it on the TV angles, but ULM was playing a deep safety on almost every play to attempt to take that away. And the threat of that deep pass held the safety back and led to Bijan carrying the ball just ten times for 71 yards.

I know it’s only ULM, but in his first game, Ewers looked like someone who can grow into being a difference maker at QB. And that’s really all we needed to see. At the same time, we know will be ups and downs this season as he learns at the college level, but Texas fans should be enthused this morning because he is exactly the type of QB that is tailor-made for a Sark-led offense. He can make the easy throws look easy and he can make the improbable ones, too. If Ewers stays healthy, he is as advertised.

**

Let’s briefly discuss the defense. Prefacing once again that this was against a ULM squad that was not on par with the Horns from a talent standpoint, the Horns’ D slightly exceeded my expectations last night. And they did so in a way that I believe will be make a difference in the long term.

The Horns played both smarter and tackled more surely. They produced a pass rush, consistently. They clogged up the run game much, much better than a year ago. The ULM quarterback was not great (he was decent), yet the Horns’ never let him get his timing. He was also a good scrambler and the Horns only let him loose for one first-down run.

What’s more, we saw a wider variety of looks from Pete Kwiatkowski. The veteran defensive coordinator did not take the off-season off. Instead, PK has found a way to get DeMarvion Overshown into a position more suitable to his talents and is clearly toying with the idea of a true spy on the QB in third-and-long situations that will allow the Horns to mix coverages behind a pass rush.

All of these things were improvements from a year ago. Taken individually, they may not amount to much because does not have a future first-rounder on its starting defense. But it’s the answer Texas fans most needed to see. The Horns’ defense will be better this year, the question now is by just how much.

**

Jaylon Guilbeau is such an interesting player. As Rod Babers said last night in the post-game show, Guilbeau is “decisive”. Add his surprisingly elite acceleration to that decisiveness, and Guilbeau has a chance to become a real player on the 40 Acres. And Guilbeau was far from the only freshman making a difference.

Kelvin Banks and Cole Hutson both started. Banks, in his first start, flashed plays of pure dominance. Hutson looked great in pass protection while teaming with Jake Majors on the first team. I really like Hutson’s long-term trajectory because he’s a smart player who blocks to whistle and initiates contact in pass protection; linebacker cross blitzes will not work as well against him as they have other Texas guards in the past.

Then there’s Ethan Burke. I was literally super surprised with how PK deployed Burke. The confidence in a true freshman to do that tells me all I need to know about what this staff thinks they have in him.

**

Isaac Pearson found out just what it’s like to play in front of nearly 100,000. And the results weren’t good. He not only muffed a snap on a field goal, he did the same with a punt snap. Here’s hoping he overcomes those issues and settles in to become the punter Texas coaches think he can be.

**

A QB with talent who should grow into the position, a RB who is special and a defense that looks improved and plays more like a team. It’s a solid win with some really nice bright spots.

 

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Scipio Tex Postmortem Offense.

The Texas offense only ran 58 plays, but still managed 52 points on the strength of two non-offensive touchdowns, minimal penalties and 6.6 yards per play. Texas left a lot in the tank. Bijan Robinson notched only three touches in the second half, Quinn Ewers ran a stripped down offense after two shaky opening throws and couldn't connect deep with Worthy, and most of the starters were phased out in the mid 3rd quarter. Steve Sarkisian pulled Ewers a little early in my view. I'd have preferred Ewers have one more 3rd quarter drive with the starters, particularly after a couple of Sanders throws where he started to show comfort, but Sark saw enough.

Pummeling teams you should pummel is good. However...in my preseason preview, I pointed out that ULM was a really terrible football team. In fact, I wrote:
 

Nonetheless, if Texas struggles too much with the Warhawks in their season opener, turn this preview into a fireplace log and take up another hobby.


and
 

Breaking down the Warhawks player by player is not a particularly useful exercise. This game will be determined more by Longhorn energy, focus, and effort than anything Louisiana-Monroe does.


I echoed the same sentiments in my weekly preview. A lot of potential for egg on the face with that kind of talk, but I watched their film. It doesn't take many reels to understand bad athletes + head coach padding his retirement accounts. I'm still seeing a lot of "Yeah, yeah, but we won big so...IT'S HAPPENING!" Fan is short for fanatic after all. I get it. Telling folks to cool their jets never goes over well. That second point from my preseason preview does have some applicability. Texas did show energy, focus, and effort. That's a base expectation. That's doesn't earn a letter grade or an Attaboy. It's Pass/Fail. Texas Passed. On to the real season now.

QB

Quinn Ewers had a shaky start, but eventually got it together. On his first throw, he hung up a go route to Xavier Worthy that could have been picked by a better single high safety, then threw a nonsense interception on 3rd and 7 into coverage. On that second attempt, which was from empty set, he had a clean pocket and a wide open Jordan Whittington four yards past the sticks, but chose to leave the pocket and halve the field to make something happen. You'll hear the Longhorn play by play guy say he was flushed. He wasn't. Bad QB play. What should have been an easy 14 yard gain and a new set of downs became a turnover.

Sark had a nice little chat with Quinn on the sideline and then pulled back the reins on the offense for the next three quarters, which is a correct gauge of where the freshman is right now. A lot of simplistic single reads, check downs and a staple RPO. He overthrew Worthy in the end zone twice and also threw behind Keilan Robinson on a swing pass. When he finally nailed the lead on a little swing pass to Bijan, Robinson did the rest for a 16 yard touchdown. That's stuff he'll see in the film room and understand that if he can just distribute cleanly on time, Texas has good enough athletes to make him look good. In the 3rd quarter, Ewers also had a couple of nice connections with Sanders.

The first, a little flip out improv where he felt Sanders trailing him and flipped it to him while pretending to look downfield. The second, a veteran instinctive step up in the pocket to find a streaking Sanders between two defenders (3rd Q, 9:57 mark). Quinn threw that ball effortlessly and the zip on it from a pure arm throw is good stuff. His final stat line of 16 of 24 for 225 yards and two touchdowns with one pick is largely a tribute to YAC (190 of 249 passing yards were gained after the catch) and a couple of Sark set piece gimmes (see Sanders TD throw). Ewers in on a developmental trajectory and Sark will dial up the offense based on what he sees Ewers can handle. The freshman will grow in fits and starts and it won't be a straight line. Fortunately, Texas has some weapons and a very good play caller to help him along.

Hudson Card got a lot of action in the second half. He was sacked twice. One of them suggesting that his internal clock is still too often a sundial. Sark adjusted to his QB and the protection he was getting from the #2 OL and Card was successful on a series of sprint and roll outs, completing 4 of 5 short passes.

The QB position is limited right now. But not by physical constraints. It will be fascinating to see various facets of the O open up as Ewers gains confidence, experience, sees the field better and starts tossing it around like the natural thrower he is.

RB

Bijan touched the ball 13 times for 111 yards and two touchdowns. He looked very good. No reason to take tread off of his tire, even if he could put up 100 yards in the second half running against the ULM defense. Roschon, Brooks and Keilan combined for 12 carries for 73 yards and two rushing touchdowns while Blue handled closing time. The backs are what we think they are and frankly, our quarterbacks needed the work.

In the two back set featuring Keilan and Bijan, I wouldn't exactly describe Keilan as a blocker (see 5:05 mark in Q1). More of a I-got-in-your-way-er.

WR/TE

Ja'Tavion Sanders had a coming out party, suggesting that my prediction that the Texas TE who had not yet caught a collegiate pass would be on All Big 12 teams by year end could come to fruition. Sanders looked good as a receiver (6-85-1) and above average-ish as a blocker. A dual description we haven't seen here in a while. Let's see how it plays out. Gunnar Helm got the TE #2 snaps and was fine in about a dozen snaps.

The Texas receivers didn't put up numbers as the game flow, a couple of missed balls, and some of the constraints on the offense disallowed it, but I was pleased with the blocking effort I saw from Jordan Whittington and Casey Cain. Whittington earned his Lambo like he was trying to eventually play at Lambeau with some absolutely outstanding blocks. He's just stronger than the average corner or nickel across from him, particularly the 170 pound variety. Casey Cain even contributed a pancake on Bijan Robinson's touchdown run. Cain had the best play of the day as a pass catcher, breaking a tackle near the line of scrimmage and then sprinting for another 40+ yards of YAC. Right now, he's WR #3 over Milton. Worthy was quiet with 2 catches, but hopefully he and Ewers get on the same deep ball page soon. Savion Red intrigued me in very limited action. Moves easy for a thickly built 205 pound freshman.

OL

Kelvin Banks has special feet for a 18 year old big guy and you can tell he takes football seriously. I only imagine what he can be once he gets strong and 20 starts under his belt. He and Hayden Conner did a nice job passing off stunts and slants to each other, albeit against weak competition. Jake Majors was alright but he's no stronger now on the field than he was as a true freshman. 3rd year player. There's no shock at contact. Cole Hutson showed good aggression, though he did give up the primary pressure that flushed Ewers into a sack. Hutson did a good job of sealing defenders on double teams a couple of times. A lot of guards want to drive the defender, but that often allows disengagement. Blocking him off and turning him is more valuable and an easy visual cue for the RB. HEY, CUT HERE. You'll see a good example of that on the Jonothan Brooks TD. Christian Jones had some good run blocks and held up as a Big 12 average right tackle. He may be overplaying the inside move given his struggles there and gave up some pressure on a couple of pass rushes that he should have driven past the QB by five yards. He also surrendered a sack on Card while in a double team with Gunnar Helm. That's a weird deal that happens more often than you'd think as both blockers essentially get in each other's way and neither declares definitively who has inside/outside.

All in all, this group looked decently cohesive and focused, but ULM lacks the athletes to test much outside of gross incompetence.

Final

ULM is a bad football team. Have I made that sufficiently clear? The Texas offense will improve as the year goes on and Sark left plenty in the playbook for future opponents. Nothing is static when a team is starting three freshmen at the most developmentally intensive positions in the game. Alabama looms, but it's a mirage as a measuring stick. How the offense performs and grows against UTSA, Texas Tech, West Virginia, Oklahoma will set the season's upside.

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Good stuff from Scip. I think we saw similar stuff (there are some things he gets at a higher level than I do) difference being he isn't as rosy. 

The QB play and OLine development will set the ceiling on this team. I do think he is underselling some of the obvious differences even just through one game when it comes to how the D looks. Sure it's ULM but it's still an FBS opponent with a shifty* little gamer at QB. We looked more focused, disciplined, gave better effort across the board and tackled pretty well. The secondary is going to have some bad games - we're still giving receivers too much space and leaving the middle of the field open - but I think they're also going to make some great plays. Obviously the DJ pick six - but maybe my favorite play of the game was Watts identifying the play - screaming at everyone which side they were going to - then sealing the edge and making a great solo tackle at the LoS. We don't make that play last season. We just don't. I can understand that ULM is shitty and still make observations like that. 

Assuming we stay relatively healthy - 7-5 would be hard to stomach. And I felt that way before we kicked the ball off Saturday. 8-4 feels about right - but this roster is plenty capable of stumbling into 9 or 10 wins - just like we kind of stumbled into 7 losses last season. 

Edited by ztejas
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Defense postmortem. 

 

I hope I've offered sufficient ULM is terrible caveats for all of you by now. Despite that, I also know that some of you will still reply,"I saw the 2013 Seattle Seahawks out there. Might Saban sensibly forfeit to prevent exposing his Heisman hopeful QB to our withering pass rush?"

Don't stop believin!

Opponent weaknesses aside, Texas looked like a defense that had received an offseason of coaching attempting to impart the basics of the game. ULM did very little to test the Horns by assignment, conflict or pure talent, but the 2021 Texas defense earned failing grades in some pretty basic criteria of defensive aptitude, so even competent team play where defenders look like they're honoring assignments is salutary. Despite Texas emptying the defensive bench early in the 3rd quarter, ULM's two primary runners combined for 36 yards on 19 carries and Chandler Rogers finished an ineffectual 14 of 19 for 108 yards and a pick six. The Warhawks last 10 plays went for 100 yards and while that's irritating if you want to see Texas youngsters play their assignments and value their opportunities, it means ULM's modest final output of 64 plays for 259 yards was also deceptively inflated. They couldn't do much on offense.

I was also really pleased to see Texas understand pursuit and gang tackling better. That's largely effort, but doing it correctly is also a skill. If a DB or LB is getting off of a block, they shouldn't run to where the ball is, but to where it's going. I saw several instances where Texas defensive backs played this properly instead of cutting off a fellow teammate pursuing. College running backs are good athletes. Don't give them a two way go.

The most striking thing about the larger Texas philosophy was how Kwiatkowski deployed personnel when the game mattered. No Texas defender in the front 7 played more than 30 snaps (safety and nickel also alternated heavily) and the 1s and 2s (such as they are - I prefer the #2 interior DL group) were more or less played interchangeably throughout. Will this approach hold over the course of the season? Is Texas trying to figure out who will play in games after being fooled by practice All-Stars last season? Is this the solution to developing depth and guaranteeing effort? When does Texas shorten the bench? We'll find out as the season plays out.

Defensive Line

The interior DL was a constant rotation of Ojomo/Coburn and Sweat/Murphy with Vernon Broughton brought in as the 5th interior DL. ULM's offensive line was completely outmatched but I was encouraged that Kwiatkowksi let his guys do more than just stack blockers and he allowed some attacking upfield. That certainly plays well to the DL's strengths and depth. As you'd anticipate, that varied with down and distance and whether they were in a 3-3-5 or 2-4-5. The five big boys combined for 12 tackles, 1.5 sacks and generally did what they wanted against a young, outmatched ULM group that had to abandon its running game and had to throw everything on timing or on the roll or risk a sack.

The edges had a very good game. Barryn Sorrell was my clear Defensive MVP, showing up well against run and pass equally. I had him with three pressures and two sacks in limited pass rush opportunities. He also had a great QB hit in the early 1Q after humiliating the Monroe tight end assigned to speed bump him. Watch how well he uses his hands, stabbing the ULM OT to get him rocking back and then slapping down his arms as he takes the corner.



Hat tip to Ojomo and Coburn for the upfield pocket push there. Earlier, Sorrell notched another sack with an inside move where he once again did a nice job of playing through the OL's hands. Sorrell is really interesting to me in that he has no single outstanding physical trait but appears to be above average in almost everything. He's football smart, skilled and coachable. That counts for a lot. Ovie Oghoufo is showing better discipline in not sprinting wildly upfield and he's certainly quick. He set the edge against ULM nicely, but I want to see him set the edge against a real team.

Linebacker

I'll call Overshown a linebacker because that's what the media guide says, but he's basically a weak side edge rusher against passing sets, a hero safety walked up to the line of scrimmage against standard offense and an off-ball linebacker protected by big fronts who gets to peer into the backfield and chase after the guy with the ball. He's not doing much real linebacking. The commonality of all of his deployments is that his assignment consists of a single task: chase and pursue. #0 excels at doing that and it showed up on the field and in the box score with 8 tackles and 2 tackles for loss. I don't even think he played more than 20 snaps but still made an impact. Diamonte Tucker Dorsey earned the start and he has nose for the ball. He took a bad step on a Chandler Rogers scramble run up the middle, but that's coachable. Interested to see how he handles the upgrade in competition coming soon. Jaylan Ford looked bigger and more athletic, but he needs more reps on run fits. My guess is that the varied fronts and looks as well as diminishing Demarvion's responsibilities means Jaylen has a little more to think through. It'll come in time. David Gbenda backs up DTD and Jett Bush was the backup Mike, earning snaps as early as the 1st quarter. He's certainly a much better fit at inside linebacker than edge, but I would expect his snaps to lessen as competition ramps up.

Defensive Back

D'shawn Jamison housed an errant Rodgers throw, but notice how the overload blitz from Guilbeau and Finkley affected the ULM QB's accuracy and timing. Finkley's straight path push on the blocking back was a good job of understanding football geometry. Next time get your hands up, young fella.



Ryan Watts didn't get to score twice like Jamison did, but he played well. He offered good run support and had a nice cover in the end zone. When he pressed, receivers had real trouble getting into the route. Big ol' corner and that wingspan is real. How will he handle a 4.3 40 guy next week?

Young Guilbeau Baggins was a treat to watch. Instinctive. He and Jahdae Barron split snaps 50/50 and Boogie Knight's quiet stat line (4 catches, 26 yards, long of 9...haha) was a product of their efforts and the Longhorn base pass rush.

I thought Anthony Cook looked decisive all game. Good PBU hit early forcing a ULM drop. Thompson was decisive in run support, including one hard decisive fill early in the game. Kitan Crawford isn't as dialed in as they are yet, but the staff is going to keep playing him to speed his football IQ.

Final Thoughts

Everyone played early and late and that's good for morale and for the coaches to construct real depth charts.

Seeing Texas pursue, deploy assets correctly, occasionally take on blocks with the correct shoulder, and demonstrate some understanding of football geometry is good. That these things need to be praised gives you some notion of how lost Texas was in the final days of Orlando and the early days of Pete K in 2021. One caveat for a fine defensive performance is that this was accomplished against comparatively poor athletes who didn't exactly have a visionary offensive coordinator trying to force Level 2 assignment comprehension on the Longhorn D. Texas got to play pretty free and loose. We'll see in the coming weeks how Texas responds to conflict and if this defense really gets first principles or if they just scouted out a bad program that was in Austin to collect a check.

We have a lot of games left to determine whether this D's upside is Top 30 or Top 50. I'm eager to find out.

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ST

 

Special teams gets its own write up because there's a heck of a lot of good and bad to sort through.

Let's start with the good. The Longhorns got on the board early after a 3 and out by the Texas defense:



Jeff Banks clearly saw some coaching neglect in ULM's shield protections (as in, blocking priority begins with proximity to the football) and D'shawn Jamison sprinted through untouched for the block while Keilan Robinson got the scoop and score. Apparently, based on their film study, Texas expected to block a punt going into the game and they expected to do it early. Not a bad tone setter. Some Texas fans are such maniacs that they were irritated that the block and score delayed our first look at Quinn Ewers. You may confess below in the comments.

That wasn't the only Longhorn special teams highlight. Later in the game, Xavier Worthy defied one of the cardinal rules in the return game by giving ground while reversing field to line up his return with the Return Right blocking scheme. This is behavior that might be punished by a better opponent, but notice the great decision-making by Texas blockers to pull up or get their pads in front of their men as Worthy puts them in a tight spot:



Worthy got 21 yards out of 65 yards of running, but it's a good example of a disciplined return unit doing their job and allowing a great athlete to try to make a play. Worthy was also very aggressive later in the game, scooping up a rolling punt in a crowd. If I had to guess, his aggression in those returns may have stemmed from regret at the 10:16 mark in Q1. ULM was attempting their second punt, Texas had return on, and Worthy fair caught with a good amount of green around him.

Now for darker news. The Texas kicking game - specifically as it pertain to the kickers - showed some cracks. Don't say I didn't warn you:
 

Isaac Pearson is said to have a kangaroo leg, but expect the typical Year 1 Aussie growing pains that come with their first live action, complete with fumbled snaps and occasional shanks. It happened to Dickson, it happened to Bujcevski, it will happen to Pearson.


Pearson mishandled a field goal snap costing Texas 3 points before the half and then dropped a perfect snap in punt formation, leading to a booming 15 yard kick. The latter is part of the expected growing pains predicted above. The former is the coaching staff probably not thinking this through particularly well. Yes, I get that you want a special teams guy holding kicks because of how practice breaks out. But execution in-game is more important than the inconvenience of losing your backup QB to some holding drills. Hudson Card needs to be holding those kicks. Not the guy who has never been in a college football game and thinks an American football is an Aussie Rules Football on a diet. Let's limit his nerves and make Pearson's world as small as possible. Danny Trejo came in to punt and Machete's 40 yard average belied line drive punts that were almost blocked, begging to be housed by anyone who can set up a punt return. Both Texas punters had saucers for eyeballs. Texas needs to get Pearson up to speed as the punter quickly and exile him from holding.

As for kickoffs, Will Stone had nine kick offs and only three made it to the end zone for a touchback. Half of his short kicks didn't have much air or hang time either. If you can't consistently get a touchback, you want a pinned kick inside the opponent 5 yard line with plenty of hang time where the returner catches it two yards from the sideline and not much field to work with. Texas needs dramatic improvement here. On the positive side, Sideshow Bert Auburn made a 41 yard field goal when the hold went smoothly.

Texas made huge plays in special teams against ULM, but don't let that cloud the fact that the unit showed several major issues with respect to unforced errors that showed future opponents with better coaching and more talent that there are opportunities available for game-changing plays in a bad way.

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