Texas Longhorns

2012 record: 9-4
2012 conference record: 5-4 (third in the Big 12)
Returning starters: Offense: 10; defense: 9; kicker/punter: 1

Top returners: QB David Ash, RB Johnathan Gray, WR Mike Davis, WR Jaxon Shipley, LT Donald Hawkins, RT Josh Cochran, G Mason Walters, DE Jackson Jeffcoat, LB Jordan Hicks, CB Quandre Diggs, CB Carrington Byndom

Key losses: P Alex King, S Kenny Vaccaro, DE Alex Okafor, WR Marquise Goodwin

2012 statistical leaders (*returners)

Rushing: Johnathan Gray* (701 yards)
Passing: David Ash* (2,699 yards)
Receiving: Mike Davis* (939 yards)
Tackles: Kenny Vaccaro (107)
Sacks: Alex Okafor (12.5)
Interceptions: Quandre Diggs* (4)

Spring answers:

1. Under center: Texas has finally ended all the debate about its quarterback situation and settled on David Ash. While Ash has yet to be stellar in his first two years at Texas, the junior has steadily improved -- he was top 25 in pass efficiency rating in 2012 -- and has won the trust of new quarterbacks coach Major Applewhite. Applewhite believes Ash is the quarterback best suited to run the new up-tempo, spread attack.

2. Loaded at linebacker: One year after being the worst tackling team in the Big 12, Texas went into the spring looking to shore up its linebacker position. And it had plenty of options. Texas has seven linebackers who have started at least one game. Included in that group is Jordan Hicks, who is back after missing 10 games last year because of a hip injury. Hicks will team with true sophomores, Dalton Santos and Peter Jinkens for what should be a much faster and aggressive unit in 2013.

3. Along the lines: While there were a sprinkling of injuries along the offensive line this spring (Josh Cochran and Trey Hopkins), Texas appears to have finally solved the depth riddle at that position. Tackle Kennedy Estelle was able to get quality snaps and should prove to be a solid backup and Sedrick Flowers finally emerged as an option at guard. While Texas returns all five starter from a year ago along the line, the Longhorns know that in the new up-tempo offense it will have to lean heavily on these backups.

Fall questions

1. Speed thrills: Texas wants to move the ball fast. So fast that the offensive players were even taught how to quickly get the ball back to the official so that they could put it down and Texas could line up and run the next play. But Texas only decided it wanted to play this way in mid-December when there was a change in playcallers from Bryan Harsin to Applewhite. So Texas has only had a handful of practices to get up to speed. With a schedule that has Texas at BYU for the second game of the season there doesn’t appear to be much time to get things perfected.

2. Safety dance: Texas’ defense was the worst in school history and that was largely due to the play of the back seven on defense. And now the best player in that back seven, Kenny Vaccaro, is gone. He was a first-round draft pick. That has left Texas wondering who will step up and make some stop at the safety position. Adrian Phillips takes over for Vaccaro, but he was inconsistent last season. The coaches blamed a shoulder injury and the fact he missed the spring. Mykkele Thompson and Josh Turner also missed their share of tackles but both are being called on to be possible starters.

3. Receiving praise: Texas has not had a 1,000-yard receiver since Jordan Shipley in 2009. Mike Davis had 939 yards last year and appears poised to break the 1,000-yard mark this season. But to do that he will need help. And right now there are some questions as to where that help will come from. Texas wants to go with four wide receivers but two of the four players expected to fill those roles -- Cayleb Jones and Kendall Sanders -- are currently suspended because of legal issues. Both will probably be back. But even then, Texas is very thin at wide receiver and needs some other players to step up to help take the double teams away from Davis.

AUSTIN, Texas -- The Texas defense, which has suffered many blows in the past few weeks, just took another to the gut.

Jackson Jeffcoat is out. Gone for the season. He tore his pectoral muscle. This time it was the right one. Last year it was the left one. So much for Texas having the top two defensive ends in the Big 12. Instead Texas is just left with big questions at a time when it is searching for answers.

The foremost is: Can Cedric Reed or Reggie Wilson even come close to producing at Jeffcoat’s level? The answer is no. If they could, they would have had the starting spot.

Wilson showed a flash against Ole Miss when he jumped a diving blocker and sacked Bo Wallace.

Jeffcoat does stuff like that every game. The junior had four sacks, 11 tackles for loss, two forced fumbles and a fumble recovery for a touchdown already this season. Reed and Wilson have a combined five tackles for loss and one sack.

But Jeffcoat’s game went beyond stats. He, along with bookend Alex Okafor, was able to pin in quarterbacks and shrink their options. The reason Geno Smith was unable to roll the pocket and therefore roll Texas was because he had Jeffcoat to his left and Okafor to his right every time he dropped back. It was the combined pressure of the two that forced Smith to take four sacks and be stripped of the ball twice.

Without that type of pressure the Texas secondary, which already has issues in coverage, is susceptible to being picked apart by a quarterback like Baylor’s Nick Florence. Florence, the FBS leader in total offense, just so happens to be the next QB Texas faces.

The Longhorns might consider pulling the redshirt off someone like Shiro Davis in order to get more speed on the edge. But, as Texas has proven in the past two losses, it is very tough to play fast as a defensive player when you do not know where you are going.

Without Jeffcoat, Texas, a team that has allowed 111 points and more than 1,100 yards in the past two games, might be wondering where it is going.

Ash not ruled out
Texas has prepared itself since the spring to use two quarterbacks. Now the Longhorns might have to do just that.

While quarterback David Ash has not been ruled out with a bruise to his non-throwing wrist, he has not been cleared to play, either. That means Texas might once again be turning to backup Case McCoy.

The junior, who was 3-2 as a starter in 2011, lost out on the starting job after what was an eight-month competition. But the Texas coaches qualified their selection of Ash by stating, repeatedly, that they felt McCoy was more than an adequate backup and that they would not hesitate to play him.

Well, now the time might have come and it might be against Baylor, which happens to be the last team McCoy started against. In that game, McCoy was responsible for five turnovers. That, as much as anything, is what led to his demotion.

The coaching staff could not abide a quarterback who played fast and loose with the ball. They wanted a game manager. Ash better fit that role. McCoy, on the other hand, is much more of a draw-it-up-in-the-dirt player.

But McCoy has matured. He has added 15-20 pounds and put more zip on his intermediate throws as well as length on deep throws.

If he is the quarterback, it is almost a certainty that co-offensive coordinator Bryan Harsin will play it close to the vest and try to get McCoy to distribute the ball to playmakers such as Daje Johnson, Marquise Goodwin and Johnathan Gray. That has been when Texas is at its best. And to beat Baylor, a team that is No. 2 in total offense and No. 4 in scoring offense, Texas’ offense will have to be at its best.

AUSTIN, Texas -- Texas has so many issues in so many facets of the game it is hard to know where to begin.

Or if you happen to be a Texas fan, if it will ever end.

But of all the stats, and there are reams, the most startling might just be this provided by the crack researchers at ESPN Stats & Info: If Texas makes it to a bowl game -- while the last two games have not been good, that is a pretty safe assumption -- the Longhorns are on pace to allow 5,846 yards this season. That would break the program record for most yards allowed in a season by more than 1,000. Texas gave up 4,825 yards in 2007.

The assumption would be that since Texas has played the meat of the schedule in terms of offensive juggernauts, there might be a chance that Texas does not break the aforementioned dubious record.

But there are still a few teams who can move the ball up ahead. Baylor, which had a down day against TCU and only scored 21, scored 63 against West Virginia. Remember that’s a defense that Texas’ offense only scored 38 against. (Seven came via fumble recovery.)

Texas has to go on the road to Lubbock and Texas Tech just put 49 on the Mountaineers.

(Read full post)

Manny Diaz compares developing a football program to running a company.

Last year, Texas started true freshmen at quarterback (David Ash), running back (Malcolm Brown), receiver (Jaxon Shipley), left tackle (Josh Cochran) and cornerback (Quandre Diggs).

That over-reliance on rookies was far from ideal.

"We'd really still rather somebody show off in the mailroom before we promote him to the next job," Diaz said on the Longhorn Network last week. "Texas, in the last few years, has not had that luxury. We had to start a true freshman at corner last year. We had to promote him already to executive vice president."

The boardroom shouldn't be filled with fresh faces. This season, that isn't an issue. The critical roles are filled this fall, mostly by sophomores and juniors.

Texas played a combined 30 true freshman to start off the 2010 and 2011 seasons. Against Wyoming, 15 newcomers saw the field. Two were junior college transfers who started. Another was senior punter Alex King, a Duke transfer.

That leaves 12 freshmen. Of that dozen, only kickers Nick Jordan and Nick Rose played prominent roles in the 37-17 victory. The rest saw limited snaps or late mop-up time.

If nothing else, that seems like a sign Texas is finally getting away from the depth issues that plagued its previous two seasons.

"I think you're right," Texas coach Mack Brown said. "We're not desperate like we were last year to have to have a freshman win for us."

Expect to see more freshmen hit the field against New Mexico on Saturday. Brown said Texas will need to get Kennedy Estelle snaps to build up depth at the tackle position, and receiver/back Daje Johnson will make his debut after serving a one-game suspension.

Top recruit Johnathan Gray is also expected to earn a bigger workload. Co-offensive coordinator Major Applewhite said Texas continues to develop packages that highlight the five-star freshman.

After being relied on so heavily last year, Malcolm Brown is glad to see the Longhorns' depth is expanding. And he knows from experience that the more Gray can be eased into the offense, the better he'll develop.

"We all have to be patient in some way with playing this game," Brown said. "Johnathan is doing a great job in practice, and I know once he gets thrown in there he's going to do great."

Same goes for wide receiver, where Texas has three new potential difference-makers who saw limited time against Wyoming. At nearly every spot in Diaz's defense, he has at least one freshman who could contribute.

Right now, Diaz isn't singling any of them out as future stars. He doesn't have to.

They're showing flashes in practice. They're getting second-string reps in games. Over time, they'll earn their role on the field. That's the natural progression of a football player who isn't thrust into the fire from day one.

Diaz thinks highly of his newcomers. This season, though, he doesn't need them on first and 10. He just needs a few good interns.

"If they can get the coffee the right way we want it," Diaz said, "then we can get them on a bigger job.
"That seems like a small thing. That's a big thing for the development of our football team."

Luke Poehlmann's days as a blocking tight end, and occasional pass threat (heavy emphasis on "occasional"), could be over.

The 6-foot-7, 275-pound senior, who was often brought in as a blocking tight end last season, has emerged as a pleasant surprise in camp and has earned a more prominent role at tackle because of it.

"He's the only senior on the offensive line, he's playing really hard and he's playing with confidence," Texas coach Mack Brown said. "He's smart and he can play either guard or tackle."

Much of this could be because he is finally fully recovered from a knee injury he sustained after playing in only two games as a sophomore.

"We thought he was about to be really good when he hurt his knee against Baylor two years ago," Brown said. "Last year I never thought he was well.

"So he gives us immediate depth. And [offensive line coach] Stacy [Searels] really likes him now. He never got to see him last year. It usually takes more than a year, year and a half to get that knee well, and he's seeing him well right now, so he's doing a good job."

Poehlmann's rise in camp couldn't be happening at a better time. When starting right tackle Josh Cochran had his leg rolled up on during Monday's scrimmage, Texas coaches didn't have to look far for a replacement.

They simply turned to the player that already has a degree in applied learning and development, and had confidence that he'd apply what he's learned and develop into a trust-worthy backup.

Cochran returned to practice on Wednesday with the team in shorts and appeared to be moving just fine. So Poehlmann's roll will likely stay the same when Wyoming comes to Austin. But with the revolving door mentality Searels displayed last season, he should still see his fair share of snaps throughout the season.