 (5-3, 2-3) |
Date | November 5, 2011 |
 (5-2, 2-2) |
Apologies for no morning links, although there's really nothing new out there today. Today will be the Monday press conference and there will be some news tomorrow. This was written last night after trick-or-treating with the kid.
OPENING LINE | The Longhorns open up as 10 point favorites and has already moved to 10.5.
PRIOR OPPONENTS | Texas got off to a fast start, winning the first four games against the Rice Owls, a relative blowout, the BYU Cougars, a one point win, a whipping of the UCLA Bruins and beating the incredibly difficult to beat Iowa St. Cyclones by 23. UT was handed their first two losses of the year by the teams directly to the north of Texas, a blowout loss to the Sooners and a 12 point loss to the Oklahoma St. Cowboys. Texas very much got back on the winning track against Kansas, beating the Jayhawks 43-0 last weekend, coming off of their bye week.
WHAT TEXAS TECH CAN EXPECT | Let's see, perhaps a heavy dose of RB Malcolm Brown would be in order here. The Longhorns boast the 17th best rushing offense, largely behind the freshman running back, but feel free to add into the mix RB Fozzy Whitaker and RB Joe Bergeron, a load of a running back. Right now, UT isn't asking too much of their quarterbacks and are still playing Case McCoy and David Ash, although Ash is getting most of the snaps. Ash only passed for 145 yards last week, but there's no reason to really put a ton of pressure on them as the running game is carrying the load. Defensively, the Longhorns only allowed the Jayhawks to hold onto the ball for 15 minutes, only allowed 48 yards passing and had a net of -2 yards rushing. That's right, overall, Kansas rushed for a negative two yards last week. If you wanted to point to one reason why the Longhorns are doing okay this year, it's the defense, which is 13th in the nation in total defense, 19th in rushing defense and 21st in pass defense.
OPPONENT PLAYER SPOTLIGHT | QB David Ash was largely on the bench for the first three games of the season, while QB Garrett Gilbert was still a Longhorn (he's since transferred) and starting against Iowa St., Ash has seen his more and more time. He's still struggling a bit, only completing 62% of his passes, which isn't bad, and his touchdown to interception ration, 3 to 5, isn't great, but he's not turning the ball over in large bunches, but the two games where he struggled, Oklahoma and Oklahoma St., 55% with 1 touchdown and 4 interceptions, were both losses for UT.