CURT McKEEVER / Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Tuesday, October 17, 2006 7:00 pm
THE OFFENSE
Base formation: One-back spread
2006 per-game averages
Points: 42.7
Total yards: 393.7
Rushing yards: 187.4
Passing yards: 206.3
Turnovers lost: 1.3
Time of possession: 30:38
THE DEFENSE
Base formation: 4-3
2006 per-game averages
Points: 13.7
Total yards: 258
Rushing yards: 47.7
Passing yards: 210.3
Turnovers gained: 2.7
THE COACH
Mack Brown
Year at Texas: Ninth
Record: 89-20
Worth noting: While Brown won his first conference championship in 22 years of coaching last season, his nine-year, 57-10 mark in Big 12 games is easily the best in the league. Oklahoma comes in next at 51-15, followed by Nebraska at 43-24.
THE GAMERS
Michael Griffin
Position: SS Year: Sr.
Height: 6-0
Weight: 205
Worth noting: Probably the most versatile player on the team. In addition to being the ringleader of the Longhorns’ secondary, Griffin has blocked seven punts in his career, second on the NCAA all-time list.
Tim Crowder
Position: DE Year: Sr.
Height: 6-4
Weight: 270
Worth noting: You’ll be seeing this guy on Sundays next season. In Texas’ last five games, Crowder has recorded 13 tackles for losses.
Colt McCoy
Position: QB Year: Fr.
Height: 6-3
Weight: 195
Worth noting: His development has been rapid. In Texas’ past five games, McCoy has completed 70 of 96 passes for 14 touchdowns and just two interceptions.
QUARTERBACKS
Colt McCoy has the nation’s fifth-best pass-efficiency rating, and he likes to air it out downfield. Against Baylor last week, he averaged nearly 29 yards on his school-record six touchdown passes. His 18 touchdown passes are the most by a Longhorn freshman. Appears to becoming more comfortable as a runner, and why not? In high school, McCoy ran for 1,575 yards and 21 scores. McCoy outdueled true freshman Jevan Snead, a Parade All-American who enrolled at Texas last spring, to win the starting job.
RUNNING BACKS
Texas has had a 1,000-yard rusher for 11 straight seasons. It looks like that streak will end this year, but don’t think the Horns can’t run. Sophomore Jamaal Charles (489 yards) and fifth-year senior Selvin Young (353) are each averaging 5.7 yards per carry. Last season, they combined for 1,339 yards and 19 touchdowns. Plagued by injuries throughout his career, Young was out for nearly two full games earlier this year with a rib injury. Charles, the 2005 Big 12 Offensive Freshman of the Year, is the speedier of the two. He won the 100-meter dash at the Big 12 Outdoor Championships last spring and finished fifth at the NCAA meet. Both backs get the majority of their carries out of the shotgun formation. Both are capable receivers.
RECEIVERS
The Horns have a nice mix — big wideout target in Limas Sweed (6-5, 219) and shifty flanker in Bill Pittman. Against Baylor, they combined for nine catches, 193 yards and four scores. Sweed has a team-high 27 catches and 476 yards and eight scores. Pittman, a high school quarterback, led Texas last year with 750 yards on 34 catches. Three of his 13 grabs this year have been for scores. Jordan Shipley has worked his way back from injury to rotate with Pittman, and has a team-best 21.3 yards-per-catch average on his six receptions. Former minor-leaguer Quan Cosby (14 catches, 153 yards) also is becoming more prominent in the attack.
O-LINE
Bevo was probably envious of these corn-fed beasts. Right tackle Justin Blaylock is a preseason All-American who’s made 45 straight starts. Last week, though, Blaylock slid to guard in place of Cedric Dockery, who suffered a season-ending knee injury. Redshirt freshman Adam Ulatoski moved into Blaylock’s old spot. Left guard Kasey Studdard has made 32 straight starts. Center Lyle Sendlein was first-team All-Big 12 last year and now is up for the Rimington Trophy. This unit has allowed just six sacks and has paved the way to the nation’s 20th-best rushing attack.
D-LINE
Texas might have the most active set of ends in the nation. Tim Crowder has started 41 games in a row. Last week, he forced a pair of fumbles and had four tackles behind the line of scrimmage. Former linebacker Brian Robison has made 33 straight starts. He finished second in the shot put at last spring’s NCAA Outdoor Championships. Then, there’s Brian Orakpo, named The Sporting News’ National Defense Freshman of the Year in 2005. These guys don’t stay blocked and are a big reason why the Longhorns have forced 10 fumbles in their last two games. Tackle Frank Okam missed last week’s game, but Texas hardly missed a beat with sophomore Roy Miller making his first start. Nose tackle Derek Lokey has good enough feet that he’s been used as a blocking back on goal-line and short-yardage plays.
LINEBACKERS
This group is solid across the board, and a driving force behind the Longhorns having limited opponents to a measly 1.9 yards per rush. Strongside starter Robert Killebrew returned a fumbled 31 yards for a score last week. 2005 weakside starter Rashad Bobino has moved back to the middle and is the team’s third-leading tackler. He had 11 stops against Oklahoma. Scott Derry has filled in for Drew Kelson (on his way back from an ankle injury) and Roddrick Muckelroy (out with a finger injury).
SECONDARY
How did the Longhorns replace last year’s Thorpe Award-winning safety Michael Huff and first-team All-Big 12 cornerback Cedric Griffin? With lightning-quick speed. Michael Griffin is a stud strong safety who has seven fumble recoveries in his career and leads this team with 62 tackles. Texas played without third-year starting right cornerback Tarell Brown and Griffin’s twin brother, Marcus, the free safety, last week. Baylor picked on Brown’s replacement, Deon Beasley, burning him for a touchdown on the first play. Griffin’s fill-in, Matt Melton, returned a interception 34 yards for a score. Left cornerback Aaron Ross leads the way with four interceptions and 10 breakups. He’s also No. 2 to Michael Griffin with 46 tackles.
SPECIALISTS
There isn’t one area here where Texas doesn’t have someone capable of swinging a game its way. Aaron Ross holds the school record with three punt returns for a touchdown (one this year), and his 2006 average return of 13.2 yards ranks 15th in Division I-A. By the way, the Longhorns haven’t given up a punt return for a score in 92 games. Brian Robison has blocked five field goals in his career. Selvin Young is averaging 26.3 yards on kickoff returns. Greg Johnson, a transfer from Vanderbilt, has handled the kicking duties. He’s never missed a PAT, is 1-for-2 this season on field goals (missing from 45 yards and connecting from 46) and has landed 13 of 24 punts inside the opponent’s 20-yard line to help the Horns rank No. 7 nationally in net average (40.1 yards). True freshman Hunter Lawrence was pulled out of a redshirt last week to handle kickoffs, and he hit five of his 10 boots for touchbacks. Like Nebraska, Texas is apt to pull out a trick or two. Last week, Jordan Shipley ran 15 yards for a first down out of a field-goal formation.
SCOUTING REPORT
From Baylor coach Guy Morriss, whose team jumped to a 10-0 lead in the first quarter, but then gave up 28 points in the next period and lost to the Longhorns 63-31 in Austin last Saturday. The Bears did produce the most yards and points against Texas this season, but allowed Colt McCoy to pass for a school-record six touchdowns. The game swung on three second-quarter turnovers by Baylor, two of which Texas returned for scores.
“McCoy’s a good quarterback. … I don’t think (he) can beat you with his feet like Vince (Young) could. He’s got good pocket feet, but, I mean, he’s not the athlete that Vince is. Texas has the best offensive line we have played against, (so) I knew it was going to be a challenge to get pressure on McCoy. But I did not expect him to have six touchdowns on us.
“We did a little bit more cut blocking early in the game kind of to try and slow down their (pass) rush, because they’ve got a good front four, you know, and tried to level the field a little bit with that — kind of rattle their guys a little bit. You know, every coverage has got its weaknesses, and we just did a good job of studying their personnel and their coverages and just tried to go attack some of the holes. We throw it a lot, so I’m not surprised that we had more passing yards than anybody else.
“(As for Texas being No. 2 in the nation against the run), they get off blocks well. They’re just, individually, really talented young men. There was the whole first quarter and a half where we were doing a three-step drop and cutting, but we just didn’t get them down. … So then we had a sack, fumble, two penalties. I think there were a handful of times that we got outphysicalled. … You’re playing against great athletes, but still, your techniques will nullify the difference in athletic ability if you do what coach asks you to do.
“What they did to us a couple of times (with late defensive line movement) is they’d start out with a (five-man) look. All they did was walk the (middle linebacker) up on the center’s nose and then stem back to an even front with two tackles in the A gap and two linebackers in the B gap. And both times we let one of those tackles come free right through the A gap. We had the right call made. We just brain-farted.
“It frustrates the heck out of you when you jump out as quick as we did and things are rolling pretty good. … (But) great teams like Texas force you into mistakes.”