Texas-ULM Post Mortem: 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 Xavier 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.

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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 plus 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 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 flowed, 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.