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Wednesday November 21st, 2006
11:50amAg Football Preview: #10 texas
This is the big one. The one we wait for all year round.
The 113th meeting of the Lone Star Showdown.
I'm going into this game with some frustration because we came soooo close in our last game from putting ourselves in a position to play texas for the Big 12 South title. That would have been sheer craziness. Maybe not quite tOSU/Michigan craziness on a national level but it would be that crazy on a Texas level.
While we have played/coached? ourselves out of that situation we still have the ability to knock the horns out of the picture and put OU in the Big 12 Championship. That would also completely eliminate texas from any shot at a BCS game. It would also put us in a much better bowl situation. I haven't sat down yet and hashed it out to see if it is, in any way, possible but I would LOVE to play LSU in the Cotton Bowl. I'm sure it would somehow involve Colorado upsetting Nebraska.
Thanks to the great Stacy Reeves of the Batt for the pictureAs you probably know, we've run into a heap of trouble in recent years against the horns....we haven't won since '99. Yep, this is my seventh football season as a student and I have yet to celebrate the pure joy of beating texas. It would be a heckuva graduation gift.
texas is about as good as I thought they'd be this year. They're at the bottom of the Top 10. I said it way back in the BlogPoll Roundtable V2.1 and I'll say it again, Vince Young was why they were great. They were a good team before him and they'll be a good team after him but they won't be a great team without him.
That said, I must admit, Colt McCoy has surprised me. He hasn't wowed me but he has played significantly better than I thought he would. He has completed 69.6% of his passes for 191 yards per game and has 27 TDs to only 4 INTs. I haven't watched too many of their games recently but earlier in the season he played the VY game and his stats have been boosted significantly by throwing short, safe passes while his talented receivers have done the rest. I would say that the offense we're running with McGee is similar to that. Play safe and don't turn the ball over.
Of course, McCoy is coming off of a shoulder injury that he sustained in their loss to Kansas State (?!?!?) two Saturdays ago. He has been cleared to play but there is no telling what we'll see. Reggie McNeal was cleared to play last season after suffering an injury in our previous game and he didn't even dress out.
If we don't see McCoy, not only will the television audience be spared from having to listen to his heroic story of running 100 yards in the dark over some rocks to signal to an ambulance, but they'll get to see true freshman, Jevon Sneed. Sneed took over for McCoy against KSU and played as well as you could ask a true freshman in that spot. He threw for 190 yards and a TD on 13-of-30 passing (43%).
tu Offense A&M Defense =========== =========== 179 (22) Rushing 128 (51) 228 (36) Passing 189 (48) 407 (18) Total 317 (51) 39.5 (4) Scoring 18.7 (37)Really, the guy taking the snaps is just a pawn in the offense when you have Jamaal Charles (140 carries, 756 yards, 5.5 ypc, 6 TDs), Selvin Young (115/536/4.7/6), and Henry Melton (44/193/4.4/6) to hand the ball to. Melton is essentially Jorvorskie stretched out 5 inches taller.
The QB also has the luxury of throwing to Billy Pittman (31 catches, 414 yds, 4 TDs), Quan Cosby (31/399/2), and All-World WR Limas Sweed (42/717/11). They throw a good bit to Charles and Young out of the backfield.
Really, after looking at the numbers, texas's offense is no better than Nebraska's was.
I need to point out that Red Bryant will not suit up. He's done for the season and had knee surgery. He didn't play against Baylor, then tried to play against Oklahoma, and didn't play against Nebraska. His presence will certainly be missed.
The defensive side of the ball is Jekyll & Hyde. They are simply incredible against the run but are trash against the pass. It's like looking at texas tech's offense (but reversed).
A&M Offense tu Defense =========== =========== 207 (8) Rushing 42 (1) 203 (54) Passing 249 (111) 410 (16) Total 291 (24) 30.9 (20) Scoring 18.4 (30)That is staggering. Their pass defense is as bad as ours was last season. Read that again for emphasis. Their pass defense is as bad as ours was last season.
"Wow," said Torbush.I have a feeling that their rush defense is ranked so high because a) they haven't faced many strong running teams, b) everyone takes shots at their pass defense, and c) you have to throw the ball to keep up with their offense. Their opponents only average 23.6 rushes per game.
Here are their opponents from this season and their rushing numbers
Avg (Rk) v.tu %Rush %Rushv.tu ======== ===== ====== ========= UNT 121 (81) 8 64% 60% tOSU 180 (21) 79 58% 53% Rice 144 (52) -12 51% 41% ISU 102 (99) 21 51% 38% SHSU* 146 (--) 87 50% 49% OU 184 (16) 124 63% 57% BU 40(119) 27 32% 19% NEB 183 (19) 38 60% 38% tt 76(113) -13 24% 17% OkS 216 (7) 80 63% 43% KSU 122 (80) 23 47% 42% *DI-AAOur strength is clearly our rushing game and this will be one of the best rushing attacks they've seen all year. They've actually held good rushing teams down better than I thought they would have. It seems that the teams that are really bad running the ball went away from running even more while the teams that were better at it tried to maintain balance.
What will be really interesting is to see how Fran handles the situation. Will he go strength on strength and see who is standing tallest at the end of the game or do we shy away and have McGee throw the ball around the yard. The Fran we've seen lately has shied away from power football, almost afraid to fail, and I wouldn't be shocked if he took that route again. Of course, with Fran, there is no telling. Fran is very concerned with being unpredictable from game to game, almost to a fault. We’ve gone against our strengths in several situations/games this season and I really think it has hurt us. Really, if you think about it, he's got nothing to lose in this one.
One thing we have to do is not give up the big play on special teams. In 2004 we had a punt blocked and returned for a TD coming right out of halftime. Then again, last season we had another punt blocked for a TD. Both were HUGE momentum killers.
This will be my second trip to....deep breath....Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium at Joe Jamail Field. I went in 2004 with Jennifer's dad and brother and even though we lost I still had a good time. I'm looking foward to it again this season. I'm not sure yet when we're heading out but we'll be there wearing maroon and white.
This year there have been a couple of spurs thrown each way from fans. A couple of months ago a story broke that a longhorn student had reserved the steps of the Capital Building in Austin for midnight on Thanksgiving night. He was trying to stop us from having Yell Practice. I didn't really think it was a big deal. We've had Yell elsewhere in Austin before and regardless, this wasn't going to stop us from having it somewhere in the city. Eventually, the horn alum got it overturned just to keep things from heating up.
Then a couple of weeks ago someone burned an aTm logo into the grass on the South Mall in Austin. If that is $1,000 of damage, as claimed, I am going to quit grad school and become a landscaper. It's kind of a shame that rivalry pranks are to the point where they are today. Too much concern with being arrested and sued. Those old stories of how we kidnapped Rice's goat or Bevo are what make the rivalries more intense.
Over at Burnt Orange Nation (BON for fellow bloggers) they sat down with John Lopez, Ag and former Batt staffer, from the Houston Chronicle/SportsRadio 790am and had a really good conversation. I've really enjoyed Lopez's work, and I'm particularly happy he's on the radio now (the show just started last Monday). He is honest and unbiased but because he has an interest in A&M we get to hear about our Ags more often now from a much more credible source than the yahoos over on the other Houston sports radio station.
I can't believe I got through that entire preview without one single wise-crack about half their team getting arrested. Huh.
Sean and I at Bonfire Tuesday nightGig'em and....
B.T.H.O. t.u.! WHOOP!.