Coach V: Texas Longhorns football is fun again

By Coach Venable: That was exactly how I remember the Texas Longhorns playing football back when I was still hitting growth spurts. There was a certain kind of excitement in the air for the players. 105,000 can-I-get-a-witness crazed fans and millions more on TV got treated to a special event. It’s been a decade or more since our guys provided real entertainment from opening kick to final whistle. Thank you players and coaches — it was a genuine pleasure watching the game played the way it should be played.

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I have to admit it was a damn shame to lose this war but the sad truth is they made plays at the end. Yes, we helped them but the game of football depends on teammates picking each other up when miscues are made. They brought a Heisman winner with them and he made semi-unbelievable adjustments against our best efforts toward the end. Take your hat off to them for snatching victory from us but keep how well we are capable of playing in your memory banks.

You always lose a edge when a front line starter goes down with injury. I think the thing that bothers me the most is I honestly believe it was a busted play when Quinn Ewers (3) suffered the injury. It seems easier to accept when they just outplayed you. It hurt almost as bad when Hudson Card (1) lost his quickness to injury. I think we did well considering the circumstances but it was obvious Quinn and Hudson don’t share many of the same strengths so we lost that deep edge that kept defenders from overplaying quick support against the run.

Several offensive players had banner games. Xavier Worthy (8) is worthy of star status. Casey Cain (88) has proven to be a big play artist along with steady blocker. Jordan Whittington (4) is still a winner and the good news is he’s staying healthy. JT Sanders (0) has improved his blocking and just needs to keep his feet in the open field. Bijan Robinson (5) was the best player on the field period. That catch and run on our last drive was something else—not many can fade adjust with their feet off the ground. WOW—just WOW.

I’m calling banner games for the OL in pass protection despite a few breakdowns. When one considers the front four Bama brought most thought they would break school records against our fresh meat youngsters. Well, that dog didn’t hunt. We might have lost the LOS to penetration at times due to backside edge chasing us down. The ability to keep the ball (QB) was lost when both our QB’s were injured. We could have slowed down pursuit long enough for Bijan to plant cut with just the threat of a keep.

Christian Jones (70) played as exciting as I have witnessed from him. He even came to Sanders (0) defense after a late hit penalty. Kelvin Banks (78) had a solid game. He was a tinch hesitant when he couldn’t decide who to block but he always found the correct guy. With experience he will be firing out confidently—pass blocking superb. Jake Majors (65) fought the good fight but was out-bigged a few times. Snaps and line calls were positive. Hayden Conner (76) seems to be the steadying force for Banks—he can be seen communicating on most every play. Solid performance.

Cole Hutson (54) is my pick for fun to watch award this week. Hutson can be seen pulling on a variety of assignments and he wins (my opinion) most of those battles against Bama’s edge’s on those pulls. Must mention Andrej Karic (69-92) taking two jobs every week. This week it was mostly TE and he couldn’t change the LOS but he did block his man. Gunnar Helm (85) is a good player that probably will develop into a excellent player before he’s called it a career. I really like this O-Line and more is coming.

That was the closest thing to the old UT defense’s in a long time. It was like the old saying—we got there because everybody wanted to get there. Even the guys on the bench wanted a shot at old number one. Once again injury knocked out a starter. D’Shawn Jamison (5) went down with a foot injury after almost picking off a curl route.

Let’s talk DT. We rotated six big guys and they all had penetration advancements to help force Bama out of their ground game. The best accomplishment (my opinion) was the push upfield to bust the pocket and force the QB into an early decision. Keondre Coburn (99), Moro Ojomo (98), T’Vondre Sweat (93), Byron Murphy (90), Vernon Broughton (45), and Alfred Collins (95) gave better than they took. Thank you indeed.

Let’s talk DE/Edge, and various assignments. Barryn Sorrell (88) had one horrible play where as a 9 technique he got reached by an OT. This is a cardinal sin for a DE. The end result was a 80 yard TD. It’s not all his fault mind you but he started a chain reaction that led to a poor angle and a miscommunication of who forces and who contains. Just one different reaction by any of them and it’s a ten yard gain. Stuff happens.

We need to talk about pass rush from the edge. We are still running too far upfield. Ovie Oghoufo (18) hasn’t learned from last year nor has he been effectively coached to brake when he gets even with the QB and find the best path to the ball. He got credit for a sack despite going too deep once the QB fell leaving the pocket. Coverage sack all the way. He got beat bad in coverage by the RB on the last drive. Both Edges (88) and (18) also fall victim at times to ducking inside when the OT invites them in. Losing contain is not acceptable especially when you have a QB that has run ability and smart like the Bama QB. I didn’t see any of the young guys, Justice Finkley (1), J’Mond Tapp (17), or Jaray Bledsoe (94) get any worthwhile snaps.

The LB’s played better than last week but still have warts in their game. Jaylan Ford (41) had a terrific sack and ten tackles. That’s ten more than last week. Diamonte Tucker-Dorsey (2) and David Gbenda (33) got some snaps but can’t seem to find the ball very often. DeMarvion Overshown (0) had a bunch of good hustle plays but still overshoots his gap or undercuts his pursuit too often. I will say this group pursued the ball with reckless abandon. Want-to makes everyone better.

The secondary played extremely well with two exceptions. The 80 yard TD was careless and unnecessary. The corner blitz and miss was the key in their last drive. I found no fault in Ryan Watts’ (6) blitz technique. Young is a great QB for a ton of reasons. Avoiding a bullet blitz was one athlete winning that particular play over another. Anthony Cook (11) had another good game except for the long td run. Jerrin Thompson (28) played well with some big hit tackles leading the charge. Jamier Johnson (31) played well except for giving too much cushion on one completion. Jaylon Guilbeau (13) had a poor angle attempt on a tackle and was replaced. Jahdae Barron (23) played well with two good tackles. Austin Jordan (4) had a nice game. All in all, this bunch flew to the ball better than I have seen in a long time. Their tackling has improved—not perfect but getting better.

I have to mention Daniel Trejo (35) punting—one 60 yarder with zero return and another killed on the one foot line. Bert Auburn (45) hit a pressure FG (45) in the last two minutes but we still had one loser (fault??) right before half.

I hope you had as much fun watching UT play the game like it was meant to be played as I did. Let’s get well, keep developing, and load up on fun again this week. It will be UTSA’s Super Bowl—another little brother to discipline.