Burnt Orange Nation

Tre Newton

Did anyone expect him to see so much action today? I liked what I saw.

Texas Wahoo - September 12, 2009 reply

We're turning into USC with how many running backs we have to use

circa1015 - September 12, 2009 reply

Tre Newton was impressive

PineypointG - September 12, 2009 via mobile reply

WHEW!!!!!!!!

Damn that first half wore me out. This game really reminded me of Utep last year. Wyoming was fired up in that first half. I also liked what I saw from Newton. DJ Monroe was almost ineffective except the big kick return. Hook Em Horns

vivalonghorns05 - September 12, 2009 reply

Defense was lights out today. All 10 points came on special teams mistakes.

Phenomenal job handling Wyoming’s spread. All in all, I think it was a good game for us. The second half proved that this offense can operate the same as last year’s offense when it’s humming as Buckner, Kirkendoll and Chiles keep stepping it up. And the scare put into the boys this early in the season is probably a welcome development (well, in retrospect anyway, considering we ended up winning by 31).

I’m not too worried about Tech because of how well the defense played today. Plus it’s in Austin.

billyzane - September 12, 2009 reply

Thanks Oklahoma teams...

for screwing up our strength of schedule. This could be a huge story as this season unfolds with these early choke jobs by 2 teams we were depending on to bolster our already weak schedule.

I guess we better hope a team like Nebraska has an unexpected great season and goes into the big 12 title game with one loss or something like that. Or just hope we’re one of two undefeated teams left standing at the end.

silky51 - September 12, 2009 reply

Wyoming's D was good

Honestly I think we just wore them out. That team’s going to win some games. Go Bucks!

That and it seemed the thin air was messing with Colt’s accuracy. He was over/under throwing people all first half

notsofst - September 12, 2009 reply

Ohio State

The guy who just dotted the I had a camera following him…and proceeded to yell “Watch out!!!” to the camera man, only to ding the camera with his tuba while bowing nanoseconds later.

Looking for video.

The Mack Attack - September 12, 2009 reply

Thoughts on the game...

THE FIRST HALF

Definitely didn’t put me in a good mood at all, although I realized by halftime that the defense was playing as well as could be expected. All ten Wyoming points came on short drives created by offensive mistakes. So, hats off to the defense for a great first half (and second half)

Where to begin with the offense? Colt was obviously having an off half. I noted that our two attempts at screen passes in the first half both failed to materialize, Colt was overthrowing receivers, pehaps due to the altitude, wind and temp…and perhaps a bit of rust. While Colt certainly deserves some of the blame for a terrible first half offensively, his drop-off in perfomance was complemented by the mediocre running game and the lack of creativity in the offensive play calls from Greg Davis. I’m no Greg Davis hater, but when our team has speed like that, you must get the ball moving vertically down the field on some slant routes and downfield passing plays.

The running game in the first half, while mildly acceptable, continued the trend of decent but not impressive gains by Vondrell McGee. More about him the second half.

I was unable to determine how much of the blame for the first half slow start went to the offensive line, but could definitely tell that something was up. Even with only three or four rushing, Wyoming was able to get penetration on Colt.

Kudos to Wyoming’s secondary and the twins from Dallas back there. They played an excellent first half and gave Colt no options. I’d love it if Colt never had to run the ball again, but it is a strength of our offense that Colt is able to advance the ball so well on broken plays and designed quarterback runs. He’s a tough kid and seems to be able to take the beating. We didn’t see much running out of him in the ULM game, but when it became necessary in this game, Colt stepped up and gained critical yardage.

THE SECOND HALF

I would not have wanted to be the offensive line during that halftime. I’m sure they got the wakeup call of their lives. I still felt confident that after the final scoring drive of the first half, Texas would come out guns blazing and take the game over. I was fortunately vindicated in this belief.

The hurry up offense works really well for us, especially against teams with a lower level of talent who need to out-scheme us to stop our progress. The offensive line still made plenty of mistakes in the second half, including false starts, critical holding penalites and allowing WAY too much penetration and pursuit of Colt. Colt’s legs fortunately got him out of a few potential sacks…like on the touchdown play to Buckner that is currently making the highlight reels.

The running game seemed to improve greatly when McGee was hobbled, although McGee cannot be faulted too much as he averaged over 5 yards a carry and advanced the ball all day. I still don’t see great vision or explosive speed from him and think that Texas needs to move the emphasis towards Tre Newton and D.J. Monroe for speed plays, with Cody Johnson taking the short yardage duties and Fozzy Whitaker filling in when he’s healthy. It’s not that there’s so much wrong with Vondrell, just that there’s so much right with the young’uns.

Way to go Greg Davis and Colt for getting more agressive with the passing game in the second half. It made all of the difference in the world. My confidence that Kirkendoll, Chiles and Buckner can make up for the loss of Quan Cosby continues to grow. Great TD plays for all three today! Still waiting for Williams to amaze me, physical specimen that he is.

The defense continued a stout performance in the second half. I enjoyed the play of Houston and Muckleroy. Acho continues to be a beast, perhaps becoming the great #2 guy that Kindle played opposite of Orakpo last season. Does anyone think that Kindle is underperforming, or is he instead drawing the heat and opening things up for Acho on the other side?

The secondary was awesome today. Keep it up guys. Would like to have seen Gideon and Thomas hold on to some of those potential INT’s, but they did a great job all day. This gives me great confidence going into the Texas Tech game next week.

OVERALL

We came to life at the very end of the first half and never let up, making what could have been a “hrmmm” type of game into an acceptable stomping. Colt again had a “pedestrian” 330 yard game (with some rushing to go with that), keeping him firmly in the lead of the Heisman race. Amazing to think of how well this guy plays on his off days. It’s also nice to know that Texas can play a terrible half offensively and still but up 41 points. If the defense plays as well as they did today, we’ll be in the hunt in every game this season.

Of course, looking at the upcoming schedule, we SHOULD be in every game this season. With the failures by OkieLite and the Dirt Burglers up north, it becomes even more critical that Texas go undefeated this year and “Leave No Doubt”. While I realize that the losses by the two aforementioned Oklahoma teams do nothing good for Texas, I do get a bit of pleasure out of their collective shaming and also breathe a little easier knowing that they have already showed such signs of weakness. This does mean that Texas may not have a game against a Top 10 team all year, though, unless someone from the Big XII North goes wild (i’m looking at you, Mizzou and Nebraska).

A final thought: looking at the stat sheet at halftime, I couldn’t help but notice that the game was a lot closer than the stats would indicate. I looked for any reason to resolve this paradox, and came to the conclusion that Texas was moving the ball, yet repeatedly failed on critical third down plays. Wyoming really stepped up in the first half on all of the big plays, and their intensity was enough to do the job. Texas was a bit un-excited for this game and I think it showed.

That’s all my thoughts from an obsessed fan…going to go swallow my pride and root for the Buckeyes now.

brownf - September 12, 2009 reply

Newton

is a shining star for this game. The depth chart for this game not even has his name on it. Who would thought that he actually has more yardages than Cody and DJ?

I also would give a prop to Lamar Houston. Without his couple offside mistakes, he has done quite good for the D on this game. He was always able to pressure the QB and even knocked down the ball couple times. On the other hand, I don’t see Kindle making any great play. Hope, he is not injure or anything.

Horns98 - September 12, 2009 reply

Terrell Pryor = Big Freaking Fail

Brandon Worley - September 12, 2009 reply

things we learned today

tre newton should start and vondrell mcgee should be benched. greg davis is still
an idiot. how many times in the 1st half did he call horizontal plays instead of down the field plays—a million??. the first half was painful to watch. can you imagine being
a heisman voter seeing that!! it was awful.
fred akers no longer coaches at wyoming or texas. there is a good reason why.
lou holtz campaign for ND is a dream in his own head that will never go away.

next saturday night should really be fun in our “big house”!!! and okie light OMG!!

ut1ou2 - September 12, 2009 reply

Help

I haven’t seen a play yet. No Versus at work today (any replays?) Web,tv,anything helps……….sound like I should be on the corner panhandling.Denver access if it makes a difference.Thanks in advance

hunghorn - September 12, 2009 reply

My thoughts:

Wyoming did a great job, and while they didn’t win, they should be proud of how they played. They were overmatched, but they didn’t let it show until the difference in depth chart showed itself when the starters wore down.

Texas faced some adversity, which was nice. Practice not folding when the cards are looking a bit unfavorable.

Tre Newton and James Kirkendoll were nice contributors today. While Buckner and a few others had nice games, those guys did far more than I expected. It will be nice to see this offense grow as the season progresses.

McGee started growing on me. It’s too bad about that injury.

burntorangehorn - September 12, 2009 reply

what happened to the pontiac game changing performance voting????

MJY6087 - September 12, 2009 reply

My pennies

I think the best thing I saw from Newton was the blocks he got. When he was left in the backfield, he found the block quickly and then took care of whoever he had to. Also, i think Colt has a designed run up the middle, and he followed Newton who got a good block to get Colt a few more yards.

2nd. I would like to see the stats of how often Malcolm Williams was on the field for the offense. I think I remember 1 catch and also 1 ball McCoy threw over his head. I havent seen him on any 4 or 5 wr sets this week or last. Chiles is always on the outside. We know he is healthy, he fielded one of our punts at Wyomings 6 inch line, so, why is he not on the field destroying secondaries?

Last: Last week, we gave the ball to ULM inside our 10 yard line, and they get 3. This week, Tucker gave the cowboys the ball at our 14 and then the officials gave them an extra 7 yards after Chykie was caught waving at his mom. The offense still only got 3. There wasnt much heard about Sergio, but, I can remember a few times that he got to the QB right after a pass and they had to get some shovels to find the QB. I think this contributed to the non-existance of offense later in the game, the fear of Kindle sending some cowboys to the center of the earth.

future_longhorn_dad - September 12, 2009 reply

M Williams

2 catches for 15 yards, with a long of 11. 1 other pass thrown his way.

2 KO returns for a total of 61 yards (KO’s this year have been pretty impressive between him and DJ Monroe).

Horncasting - September 12, 2009 reply