Game Two: Texas 25, Ohio State 22 (final)

[jwinslow]

Can you give us some insight into your WR corps? We know all about the youngs, and the OL should be good... but none of us have really heard a whole lot about who you have out wide

[High Lonesome]

our recieving corp is very young and very deep, quan crosby is the newest addition although he will be the oldest player(he played minor leage baseball for the past 2 years) he has blazing speed and was a 5 star recruit when he came out in 2002(maybe highest ranked reciever in texas, cant remember) Jordan shipply is another name to keep in mind. He will be a rsfresh next year after injuring his knee before the season last year. In high school he set state records for most receiving yard and touchdowns for any clasification. The kid can flat out play. Limus Sweed was the 6-4 guy wearing #4 last year, he is fast and can jump out of the gym, his problem i(which happens to be the biggest weakness of this entire recieving corp) is that he is very un pollished. His routs leave something to be desired and he seems to lose concentration at times. Many of VY's interceptions last year were as a result of recievers running bad or flat out wrong routs. any mention of the texas recieving corp has to also metion David Thomas, their all big 12 TE, he isnt the best blocker ever but he is a matchup nightmare for any defense and if im not mistaken was the leading receiver for texas last year. The depth chart goes very deap this year and I only touched a couple of points but thats the short story.

[Buckeye86]

It seems like they put most of the "away" fans in the top right corner of the south stands (if you're facing the stands). I always thought it was kinda funny that they get (what seems to me as) the worst seats in the stadium. Accidental I'm sure.

They're also in a good position to get slammed by Block-O for any cheers that they may feel like starting.

[HorninFortWorth]

Can you give us some insight into your WR corps? We know all about the youngs, and the OL should be good... but none of us have really heard a whole lot about who you have out wide

Honestly I don't think many Horn fans really do either. The best pass receiving weapon right now is David Thomas who plays tight end. This guy can play.

As far as receiver last season Texas entered an odd phase that came about from recruiting a couple of the previous years where no high school receiver for a couple years wanted to come in and play behind Roy Williams, B.J. Johnson, and Sloan Thomas. They were quite a haul of receivers in the 2000 recruiting class who stayed the entire duration of their career. Then around 2003 and 2004 you started to see the receiver recruiting really pick up again. Last year was quite a work in progress for the passing game however with Benson and Young running the ball, losing Roy Williams, and bringing in a very green group of receivers aside from one senior who came in with the other three in 2000 in Tony Jeffrey.

The list of receiver canidates is very long to get into but one name that I think will be very prominent is Jordan Shipley. He is a redshirt freshman who did not play at all last year due to going down in August with a knee injury. Everywhere you look though you are reading something very positive about the way he is coming along. I read an estimate today saying he thinks he is at 90%. Still it is quite evident that the coaches are very impressed with his work ethic, his route running, everything about him. I would think he will be ready to roll in 6 months and it would surprise me if he is not on the field a lot by Columbus. Limas Sweed is a 6'5 sophmore returning starter who showed some progess later last season but still needs to come into his own.. I would also like to think he could be a factor.

Quan Cosby is the wildcard here. He is an exceptional athlete who has been out of football for five years but brings a mature body to the collegiate level. He was an amazing high school athlete. Still there is just no way to know where he will be or to know his impact. He doesn't start practicing until the fall. I am not sure how much he will figure into the game with the Buckeyes with it being so early but he is a short and very stout receiver who should also see time returing kicks.

Texas has got to get better on offense at utilizing the receivers. They need to take more chances downfield and hopefully as Vince continues to gain experience as well as working with this group of young receivers this will happen. There is a long list of prospects that can step up but almost all of them are unproven at this time.

[EngineerHorn]

Don't worry, 86, we'll reciprocate by giving you folks equally [censored]ty seats in 2006.

[jwinslow]

As someone alluded to before, this game will be won in the trenches. Our OL showed vast improvement once we stripped our ineffective OL coach of his duties and moved him strictly to OC. We all hope to continue the success we had in the latter portion of the season, including against a venerable UM DL.

We have the luxury of having one of the better LB crews that tOSU has seen (and that's saying alot considering that we've had tons including Spielman, Pepper Johnson, Katzenmoyer, etc)...

Those guys give us the ability to match up with most possession WRs or TEs as Hawk is 250 and Carpenter is 260 and both run 4.5's and are excellent in coverage (check out the MSU Video Clips for the hawk interception). They should also do a good job not overpursuing and keeping Young inside the pocket (along with the DE's not rushing too far around the end) instead of the stupid approach we saw UM take against you guys... just begging a freak like Young to run outside for free.

We should matchup pretty well in the secondary, especially cuz the strength of our safeties is in supporting the run. Salley was thought to have a shot at an AA award last year but ended up missing most of it due to injuries. Both safeties play bigger than they are, as Salley showed when he flattened 350 lb David Baas in The Game (still one of my favorite moments, especially cuz it happened right in front of me).

Also, our #1 corner Youboty is a pretty good lockdown guy. He made big plays and nabbed interceptions from the minute he earned the starting job partway thru last year. He also shutdown AA's Stubblefield and Edwards in successive games (Edwards' two big catches were against an ailing Dustin Fox).

The other corner is a mystery, tho we have a lot of safeties with almost a full season of experience. Sounds like Whitner will be moved to corner, but many of us are hoping it is Everett so that Donte's big hits from SS will not be lost. I also have my fingers crossed that Jamario O'Neal will be able to step in early as he showed a lot of skill at corner in the Army AA game and once he has learned the scheme and bulked up he could play early.

And then there's some ted ginn fellow that Tressel will never reveal anything useful about. Whatever you do, make sure Mack Brown doesn't play poker with Tressel, cuz the guy is a master with controlling what everyone else knows... which infuriates the press and merely keeps us dying with curiosity during offseasons like this.

[thackattack]

I agree, this team is too classy for that. A while ago I would have loved that kind of celebration, but now I respect the back-to-work, we've-been-here-before attitude so much more. I love it when Carpenter or Hawk levels somebody, gets up, bumps a chest or two, then gets everybody back together and gets the play in. Shows we're hard workers and good players, but good people as well. That's very important.

[Buckeye86]

Originally Posted by EngineerHorn

Don't worry, 86, we'll reciprocate by giving you folks equally [censored]ty seats in 2006.

I would expect nothing less.

If by some twist of fate I make it down for that game, I really won't care were I sit as long as I'm in the stadium.

But seeing as I am but a mere college student (aka I have no money) I doubt I will be making it down for that game. Plus I will have already blown my money for the trip to the Rose Bowl (I hope I hope I hope).

[jwinslow]

Hey, do you Horns have any good picture gallery websites out there? I'm looking for larger pictures that I can use to put together a Texas-tOSU game wallpaper to add to our Graphic Forum collection.

On a separate note, OilerBuck made a sweet medal for you guys to add to your posts... he's working on getting a mod to add the medal to the list of medals so you can have this next to your name:

[Jaxbuck]

I'm sure we will all get to know the UT players by name as the year goes on, and I'm sure they are all super talented. I'd like to discuss what John Coop....errrr Mack Brown has shown a history of doing with that talent when he's faced with a team thats not completely out classed physically.


-Here are the 4 times since 1998 that UT has gone on the road for an OOC game vs a BCS school and the results(opp final record):

1998: L 31-49 @ UCLA (10-2)
2000: L 24-27 @ Stanford (5-6)
2002: W 52-21 @ UNC (3-9)
2004: W 22-20 @ Arkansas (5-6)

-Now overall in Bowl games since 98:
4-3 with the total score being 214-201

-I won't even bring up the OU thing because rivalry games are just different.

-JT is 4-0 at home vs BCS schools from outside the B10 and 3-1 in Bowl games.

All in all, if I were a Texas fan, my main concern would not be if the next HS AA will step up and be great but if my coach can get them prepared to go on the road and play a team just as talented as they are.

Not trying to flame the UT guys, we sufferd the same [censored] with Cooper, but its a point worth making imo.

[High Lonesome]

in years past you would have had every orange blood on here agreeing with you, but since the rose bowl people have gotten off of macks case, right or wrong(or just plain wrong if you want my opinion) What most longhorns will still tell you is that greg davis is the most near sited, uninventive, offensive coordinator in recent memory. Coaching is clearly an edge for tOSU. That being said, no one knows what chizik will do on Defense with this group.

The sad fact is that we have seemingly the only coaching staff left in america that doesnt know that ou can be scored on by the deep ball and they consistantly are too conservative in the big game. Even benson is now on record saying that the coaches need to stop coaching not to lose in big games. I still want some hs aa's to step up though

[thackattack]

Damn, I don't care what team you like, that is a sweet picture of Texas coming out onto the field! Reminds me of an awesome picture I saw of Chad Greenway in the 2004 issue of The Sporting News magazine College Football preview. Doesn't matter who you cheer for, some pictures are just awesome from a football standpoint in general.

[Jaxbuck]

HL, as an outsider to UT football I would say you are correct in not giving brown a pass based on the RB alone. I think the Rose Bowl was Greg Davis meets Jim Hermann and finally found someone worse at big game coaching than he was.

Again I'm not ripping UT as much as I am Mack Brown. The guy reminds me so much of Cooper I hate him for you guys, lol.

BTW some ammo for you when next faced by Brown fans; his coaching record career:

Appy State: 6-5 (.545)
Tulane: 11-23 (.324)
UNC: 69-46-1 (.595)
UT: 70-19 (.787)

Career: 156-93-1 (.624)

How in the hell does a guy with a (at the time) career mark of 86-74-1 get a job like UT??

[Taosman]

Lots of questions on both sides.

Who starts at QB for us?
Will either team have much of a running game this early?
Will Tress stay with the spread or go conservative?
Does Texas have a better pass rush than last year?
Will Texas have much offense other than Young running and dumping short passes?
Will Texas punt to Ginn?
Who will punt for us?

This looks, at first blush, like a some what low scoring game. Probably a real close game till the 4th quarter. The difference could come down to special teams play. I think....OSU 24....TU....20

[osugrad21]

On a separate note, OilerBuck made a sweet medal for you guys to add to your posts... he's working on getting a mod to add the medal to the list of medals so you can have this next to your name:

Last I heard, he was contacting VRB concerning the transparent background hence the hold up...but I will add them on the list for now.