Texas Longhorns

AUSTIN, Texas – It took only a few days for the 2013 Texas football promotional video to go from polished to parody.

It took the actual program several years to make the same transition.

But that’s the space Texas occupies now, just to the right of the punching bags, to the left of the gag gifts, nestled right in there with the leftover, used-to-be-oh-so-cool 2009 gadgets.

Texas, which regularly topped college football’s marquee from 2000-09, has two wins in the past three years that anyone even dared shined a light on. And even those wins are highly questionable. The first came in 2010, before the cracks became chasms, when Texas beat then No. 4 Nebraska on the road. (Nebraska finished the season 10-4. Texas 5-7.) Texas finished 2012 with a win over No. 13 Oregon State, which started the season 6-0 and finished 3-4.

It’s that last win, perhaps coupled with the fact that this could be the last gasp for Texas, that has many desperately, and perhaps even eagerly, pointing to 2013 as the year the jabs at Texas’ expense stop being thrown. Or, at the very least, that Texas gets up off the mat.

"All the energy and work that we put into the last two years are going to start showing results," says coach Mack Brown, like a voiceover from the Almighty, in the opening sequence of the aforementioned promotional video.

As the reel flickers to life, lighting with it some tenuous hope that this isn’t all smoke, mirrors and a movie, it is difficult not to notice there are only two highlights from the 2012 Oklahoma game (a 42-point loss), none from the Kansas State game (an 18-point loss) and none from the TCU game (a seven-point loss).

Clearly Stewart Wade, the Aggies fan and creator of the aforementioned video parody, noticed as well. His 2013 Texas video -- what’s the opposite for promotional? -- video features six lowlights against OU, four against KSU, five against West Virginia and two against TCU.

Texas’ true identity is hidden somewhere in between Brown’s celluloid dream and Wade’s mocking nightmare. It’s this fact that makes Texas’ 2013 so completely confounding to forecast.

Every positive Texas produced in 2012 or can produce either through YouTube or another press release naming another player to some breathlessly anticipated watch list in this offseason can easily be juxtaposed by a negative.

For instance, ESPN Insider's Travis Haney recently labeled Texas the second-most talented team in the country based on recruiting and future NFL projections that included Jackson Jeffcoat being the No. 1 "senior" player at his defensive end position, Quandre Diggs being a top-50 projected draft pick and David Ash being the top five of quarterbacks for the 2015 NFL Draft.

But Jeffcoat and Ash both have their share of issues. Jeffcoat has had two pectoral surgeries and had a bad ankle his freshman season. That’s three injuries in three years. He also is not the "overall" No. 1 defensive end, Jadeveon Clowney is. Mel Kiper actually has Jeffcoat projected fifth among defensive ends.

As for Ash being the fifth-best prospect at quarterback in the 2015 NFL Draft, well, Wade surely will be happy to produce a video of the TCU, Kansas and OU games for GMs.

Now there is merit to the argument Texas is loaded with talent. Nineteen starters return. Most were highly sought-after recruits, including two of the nation’s three top running backs from the past two recruiting classes (2011 and 2012). There is a new offense. A new playcaller. A renewed sense that Texas once again understands it has superior speed and skill that it can and should deploy.

It all sounds so ... 2011.

See, optimism meets pessimism. It’s the yin and yang of the college football offseason. Definitive answers, particularly in the head-scratching case of Texas, are not doled out until the season is well underway. (Oct. 12 being the due date for Texas.)

So while it might serve to a program well to swell the masses with philharmonic-backed highlights and omniscient voiceovers -- "You want to get back to being one of the top football programs in the country where we deserve to be and where our fans deserve to be," Brown said in Texas’ video -- right now that is, at best, just the white noise of the offseason. It can be comforting, even soothing. But, in the end, it carries no weight when the lights actually come on and the real action begins.

Colleague Travis Haney ranked his list of the nation's top 10 "most talented" teams , and a certain burnt orange team you might have heard showed up at No. 2 on his list.

It's an interesting approach to ranking teams, and Haney looked at NFL draft lists, colleague Mark Schlabach's top 25 and the past four years of recruiting rankings to put together his list.

A lot of the ranking is thanks to those recruiting rankings, where Texas' class averaged a ranking of 6.5 among players currently suiting up for the Longhorns.

I agree that Texas is the Big 12's most talented team by a long way, but what does that really mean, besides more pressure on Mack Brown? The Longhorns beat a rebuilding Oklahoma State team in September that was a shell of the team it became late in the season, and did so narrowly with J.W. Walsh making his first career start for the Pokes. You've got to take all that into consideration, and when you look back at the last two years, Texas' best win was either its Alamo Bowl comeback against Oregon State or a road win against Texas Tech, who ended the season tied for fifth in the league.

A pair of embarrassing blowout losses to Oklahoma are the biggest reason for skepticism surrounding the Longhorns, who plenty of folks will pick to win the Big 12 in 2013. They've certainly got talent. Look no further than super recruits like DE Jackson Jeffcoat, DT Malcom Brown, and running backs Malcolm Brown and Johnathan Gray for evidence of that, not to mention defenders like CB Quandre Diggs and linebackers Peter Jinkens and Jordan Hicks.

The Longhorns have talent all over the field, and that has been the case the past three seasons, which have featured just 22 wins. Now, though, that talent has experience and Texas is preparing for it to pay off.

On paper, it should. Texas has every reason to be one of, if not the, Big 12 favorite. Still, the Longhorns have got to prove it on the field, and it takes a lot of big wins to make that happen. Texas has been short on those wins of late.

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 -- A big-time Texas recruiting day got even bigger right before the start of the spring game.

Cornerback Jalen Campbell (Corpus Christi, Texas/Flour Bluff) became the third member of the Longhorns’ 2015 class after making a commitment on Saturday afternoon.

The 5-foot-11, 175-pound prospect received an offer from Texas last weekend during the Longhorns’ first-ever Sophomore Day and pulled the trigger on his return visit. He confirmed his decision in a text message prior to the game’s kickoff.

Texas was the only school to offer Campbell, and he had early interest in LSU, Oregon and Georgia. He joins offensive lineman Aaron Garza (Sherman, Texas/Sherman) and defensive tackle Bryce English (DeSoto, Texas/DeSoto) in Texas’ 2015 class.

The pledge is a rare one in two ways. Texas has never taken pledges this early in Mack Brown’s tenure until Garza became the first last Saturday, and Corpus Christi is an area the program has not recruited much in recent years.

The secondary should be a priority for Texas with the class of 2015, considering starting corners Quandre Diggs and Carrington Byndom will both be out of the program by the time Campbell steps foot on campus.

Despite his size, Campbell is being recruited as a corner, though he could play eventually a variety of roles in the Longhorn secondary.

AUSTIN, Texas – Quandre Diggs wants to quell all the rumors.

"I feel like we can put those rumors to rest about me playing safety this spring because that’s not what I’m doing," said the junior defensive back. "I’m playing nickel and corner. I don’t have a problem playing safety, but that is not where I’m needed right now."

There was a thought back in December that -- with Kenny Vaccaro leaving and the remaining safeties underperforming throughout 2012 -- Texas could move Diggs to safety. He even took some reps at that spot in bowl practice. Texas appeared to be deeper at corner and therefore could afford to make the move.

But there has been steady improvement, and as a direct result much more faith, in returning safeties Adrian Phillips, Mykkele Thompson and Josh Turner. Phillips is expected to be the leader of that group and the one certain starter. Many of his problems in 2012 were pinned on a shoulder injury that hampered his development.

"I have a lot of faith in those three guys in safety so we can put those rumors to rest," Diggs said.

(Read full post)

AUSTIN, Texas -- Texas has its pro day today and, yeah, Vince Young will be there, but so, too, will someone more important. Seriously.

In fact, make that much more important. It’s Kenny Vaccaro.

The former Texas safety represents a chance for Texas to put a player into the first round of the draft for the first time since following the 2009 season. His selection -- which should be right around the middle of the first round -- will signal an end to a two-year draft slide in which Texas produced one second-round player, a third-round player and five others selected in the fourth round or higher. Before that slide, Mack Brown had not gone two consecutive years without producing a first-round pick. (Defensive end Alex Okafor is currently not in either of the first-round mock drafts done by ESPN’s Todd McShay or Mel Kiper.)

So let’s see here: Brown had two of the worst years of his tenure at Texas in 2010 and 2011. And then neither of those drafts produced a first-round pick. Anyone else see the correlation?

(Read full post)