beevomav
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Friday Edition
The 2012 Texas Longhorns finished 9-4 with a nice come from behind win over Oregon St in the Alamo Bowl. Along the way we suffered with losses to WVU, a disappointing loss to TCU and another blow out loss to OU. Sandwiched in there were some good wins against OSU, Baylor and a really nice win on the road against Mississippi.
Last season is gone and what do can we do to get better in 2013?
Some background:
Spring practice started on Thursday and runs through March until the Orange White game on the 31st. Yepster Easter Sunday!
The offense and defense both return 9 of 11 starters. The team also has some red shirts to watch in OL Curtis Riser, DB Bryson Echols, DT Alex Norman, QB Connor Brewer, OL Camrhon Hughes, DT Paul Boyette, DL Hassan Ridgeway, QB Jalen Overstreet and LB Tim Cole.
The Longhorn have (4) early enrollees in LB Deoundrei Davis, OL/DE Jake Raulerson, TE Geoff Swaim and QB Tyrone Swoopes. Add JUCO transfers TE Geoff Swaim and OL Desmond Harrison and you have players who will get a jump on the fall enrollees.
We should be 5-0 when we come to the Red River Shoot Out. We have games against New Mexico State(Aug. 31),
at BYU(Sept. 7), Ole Miss(Sept. 14 ), Kansas State(Sept. 21) and at Iowa State(Oct. 5). We need to get back to beating OU and we might not have a better chance than this season.
Early word is David Ash may have become the player the Longhorns hoped for when he was recruited. Oregon State may have been what this kid needed to get his confidence and take the next step. He has always been talented but just seemed to not perform at key times with OU and Kansas coming to mind. Ash is a Junior and I might remind everyone that a Sophomore Vince Young came of age in the Rose Bowl, against Michigan. He followed that confidence gaining game with a win the in the National Championship game against USC in his Junior year. No pressure on Ash here, right?
On offense UT has as good a skill set of running back as any team in the country. Jonothan Gray, Malcolm Brown and Big Joe Burgeron are all lead backs on a lot of other teams. The receiving corps is in good shape with the return of Mike Davis and Jaxon Shipley, while Daje Johnson, Cayleb Jones and Kendall Sanders are promising options.
Defensively the Longhorns need to get better at stopping the run. Texas returns standouts in defensive end Jackson Jeffcoat and cornerback Quandre Diggs, while linebacker Jordan Hicks is back after missing most of last season with an injury. The secondary ranked 36th against the pass last season and should be a strength with Diggs, Adrian Phillips and Carrington Byndom returning. The 2012 Longhorns were hamstrung with the 88th ranked rushing defense. This needs to improve to have a chance of getting to elite status.
For the defense to imporve sophomore Malcom Brown has to have a huge season and redshirt freshmen Paul Boyette, Alex Norman and Hassan Ridgeway need to work their way into the mix. Fixing the rush defense starts with interior play, so the spotlight is on Desmond Jackson, Brown and Ashton Dorsey this spring. Keeping Jackson Jeffcoat healthy won't hurt either.
The Longhorns need to see an improvement in Major Applewhite over Harspin. Mack Brown says the team will use the same offense but will go no huddle. Major showed in the Alamo Bowl he likes to keep his skill players on the field so gone is the substitution by package pattern of last season.
I think it will come down to a few key questions. Can the defense stop the run? Can David Ash make a Vince Young type improvement. Can Jordan Hicks be the guy we need at linebacker and can Jackson Jeffcoat stay healthy?
Time will tell but I like their chances.
