What to watch for as Texas readies to play Florida at home

I wrote this a little too close to kickoff. I’m one part the night from before and one part game day. That’s 100% ready to go for what promises to be an amazing day of college football.

Jimmy Buffet has a song called ‘The weather is here, I wish you were beautiful’. The weather is indeed here in Austin, I hope the game follows suit.

Here’s what I’m looking for today.

Confident Quinn Ewers

I don’t give a flying Farrah Fawcett what his stat line is today. I’d prefer to not see an early pick but if it happens while pushing down the field I’ll live with it. I want to see him forced off schedule then getting himself back on schedule while climbing the pocket. 

ADOT has become a meme in two directions but Texas isn’t winning a national championship by throwing to the perimeter. Texas needs a fully evolved passing game. 

Chicken and egg. Sark wants to run to open up the pass but you can pass to open up the run and then pass off of that. 

Here’s hoping the return of Isaiah Bond creates some elasticity in the defense and Ewers can exploit the tension. 

Play like a veteran team 

We can’t discuss experience and culture in good faith if it doesn’t present on the field. I’m not worried about assignment busts, at least on defense, but after 18 penalties in the last two games we need to see a sound overall performance. 

There are a combined 1,592 starts on the Texas offense. While that’s exaggerated, they need to play like it’s real. The point of being experienced and having a disciplined team is to create margin of error, not relinquish it. We need less Ann Selzer. While you complain that’s politics I’ll assure it’s just math.

This can only be a coaching point. We have rarely seen meritocracy to the point a player screws up and is pulled. So what gives? Are these guys well coached or not?

Trench warfare

This is a great game to measure Texas’ lines. Florida has a large and in charge defensive line at the same time Texas needs to assert the run game. In addition, the Gators’ only path to making this game interesting is to assert a run game of their own.

Out-athlete the DL fats with sound outside zone running and rally hats to their tough running backs on the other side of the ball. We should hear some thumping today.

This game is simple. 

Punish their injuries 

I have a lot of sympathy for Billy Napier beyond the fact he’s a grown man who goes by Billy. Based on what I saw of his team against Georgia last week I hope they bring William back. His team never quit and even made it interesting after everyone thought they were done. This team clearly plays for its coach. 

Break their spirit by working over replacements in the secondary. We need to see a reincarnated passing game anyway. Their injuries, as unfortunate as they are, need to be exploited.

Consistent run game

Against an active and true SEC defensive front I would be thrilled with a ‘blocked it for four and got four’ type of game from the running backs. That written, this sets up more like a Barry Sanders binary day of 0, 1, 0, 0, 1, 1, and then the 35-yard game. Okay, I’ll take that, too. 

I’m hoping we see signs of life from Jerrick Gibson because the run game hasn’t been consistent during his absence. A consistent 4-8 yard runner is what this offense is missing.

Anything that helps spark offensive identity in November is certainly welcome. Maybe Bigson can play a part.

Blitz pickup

Texas had a bye week to work on perhaps its number one offensive issue — blitz pickup. Critiquing the offensive malaise requires nuance. By no means are the issues monocausal. This fan base is too smart to scapegoat QB1.

Right? Guys, are you there?

The offense needs to create the conditions for Ewers to succeed. If a play is blown due to a missed running back assignment that’s a big opportunity cost because the RB wasn’t left in support so they could dink and dunk. That’s an intended explosive play.

I’d be happy with an average day from the line, tight end, and running back. At that point we’ll get an idea if Ewers is playing confidently or not.

*****

Sark said games in November are the ones you remember. That all starts today for the 2024 Texas Longhorns.