State of the Program: Longhorns' grades after the first quarter of the season
On the latest video episode of On Texas Football’s State of the Program, Inside Texas’ Bobby Burton and Eric Nahlin discuss the Longhorns’ performance over the first three games of the season – the one-quarter mark and all of them wins. The duo give grades for every position and tell us why.
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Nahlin, the publisher of InsideTexas.com, said the Longhorns’ offense has been largely inconsistent, getting high marks across the board in Texas’ scintillating win at Alabama and just okay grades in its victories over Rice and Wyoming.
Nahlin said the “B” grade he assigned quarterback Quinn Ewers has to be taken with a grain of salt. Ewers was spectacular against the Crimson Tide but merely workmanlike versus Rice and Wyoming.
“It’s an enigma I would love to get inside (coach Steve) Sarkisian’s head to try to figure out exactly what’s going on,” Nahlin said. “Sark’s been pretty forthright with the media but there’s a whole lot of stuff that he knows about that we don’t and No. 1 is how much does he have his thumb on the scales gaming the game when it comes to prepping Ewers?
“It seems like sometimes Sark’s got his hand on the throttle and sometimes he’s got his hand on the brakes, and I’m not sure if that’s due to him trying to grow Quinn. Or maybe he’s not preparing them for some of these games like Rice and Wyoming, and then a game like Alabama he can’t leave anything to chance.”
Nahlin said there’s also been some offensive line breakdowns here and there and times when Ewers’ mechanics are letting him down.
“His problems with mechanics are leading to inconsistencies that we see on some of those throws that he makes,” Nahlin explained. “Sometimes they look effortless and sometimes they’re not even close, so it’s really hard to suss out exactly the cause and effect of what’s going on there.
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“You know, I tend to feel like he’s gonna come back and have a really good game against Baylor. They’re not very good at pass defense. But it’s hard to know. And so there’s gonna be a seesaw.”
Burton said the reality about Ewers is that he’s better at this point this season that he was at the same point last year.
Each of the other offensive position groups were given “B” grades for the first three games – with the general lack of consistency keeping the grade from being better
Both of our experts agree that the Longhorns’ defensive line – especially the interior players – have been the best overall unit on the team. That was what was expected coming into the season.
You have to go check out the video for the specifics behind the offensive grades and entire defensive report card. There’s plenty more to glean, so go check it out in its entirety.
