2016 Texas Longhorn Football: The End of the Beginning

Kremlin Watcher

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Spring football is behind us, but the Charlie Strong recruiting machine moves forward unhindered by conventional deadlines. Texas gets four Baylor refugees as the baptists' football program crumbles to ashes, moving this Texas recruiting class ranking up to number seven nationally. Phenomenal haul for Charlie.

New additions:

WR Devin Duvernay **** - number three-rated receiver in Texas (Sachse). Runs a 10.27 100. Makes the Longhorn FR/SO receiving corps of Burt/Johnson/Duvernay/Foreman/Curtis/Joe/Newsome look pretty hard for Big 12 DBs to contain. He's also Kyler Murray's cousin, giving it a nice aggy twist.

OT JP Urquidez **** - 6'5", 300. Number 22 rated OT nationally (Copperas Cove). Huge add to the offensive tackle position as we were pretty thin there.

OG Patrick Hudson **** - 6'5", 325. Number one- or two-rated OG nationally (Silsbee). Major coup for Charlie, as Hudson chooses Texas over the land thieves and aggy.

ATH Donovan Duvernay *** - Devin's brother. Package deal. No idea if he'll contribute or not, but getting his brother makes it worth it.

There has been noise about RB Kam Martin and CB Parrish Cobb also signing with Texas, but probably more smoke than fire there given the depth we have at those positions right now.

So Charlie now has:
  • three years of his recruiting classes
  • an offensive staff installing and running a pinball scoring machine offense
  • a QB in Buechele who appears to be capable of running said offense
  • a pair of brutes at RB in Foreman and Warren
  • a real TE for the first time in almost forever
  • the biggest and fastest young WR crew in the conference
  • a stacked offensive line with talent and depth (finally)
  • a massive talent infusion at DL (but not a lot of depth there)
  • probably the best underclassmen LBs in the country
  • tremendous underclassmen talent and depth at DB
All the pieces (except for PK) are there now. Time to stop complaining about a bare cupboard and look forward to some Texas Longhorn football being played in January.

Hook 'em.
 

canderson

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Hudson trolled the land burglars hard therefore he is my favorite current Longhorn.

If Charlie doesn't win at least 7 games this year there's trouble for him. The cupboard is young - I think they'll be again the youngest team in the country by a wide margin - but the talent has arrived.

In other news your buddy left Texas to OU?!?! Blasphemy!
 

Bozo Texino

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Any thoughts on how freshman Sam Ehlinger will fare with the Longhorns? He was doing pretty impressive stuff when I was teaching at Westlake.
 

Kremlin Watcher

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Any thoughts on how freshman Sam Ehlinger will fare with the Longhorns? He was doing pretty impressive stuff when I was teaching at Westlake.
Ehlinger is class of 2017. He's ranked the number eight QB nationally by Scout and number three by 24/7.

If he sticks he should be the real deal, but Buechele's performance this season may have some influence on that.
 

Bozo Texino

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Ehlinger is class of 2017. He's ranked the number eight QB nationally by Scout and number three by 24/7.

If he sticks he should be the real deal, but Buechele's performance this season may have some influence on that.
Oops. I could've sworn he had just graduated, but you're right - he was a sophomore when all my students were juniors.

Apologies!
 

Bosoxen

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As I was lamenting the hellacious heat we're currently experiencing earlier today, I was at least comforted by the fact that summer means football season is starting to get closer (small comfort when you're mowing the lawn in 100 degree heat, though). I can't wait to see what this team can do with a little more experience under its belt. And maybe something resembling competent QB play?

Wrong guy. Skip is another poster's buddy. I would never associate with someone capable of that.
Skip is my wife's uncle, so I'm the guilty party. We're not really happy about it but there's not much we can do. All we can do is root for the dirt burglars to lose a lot of 1-0 ballgames so Skip still looks good in the process so he can get the fuck out of Dodge as quickly as possible.
 

rguilmar

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Hudson trolled the land burglars hard therefore he is my favorite current Longhorn.

If Charlie doesn't win at least 7 games this year there's trouble for him. The cupboard is young - I think they'll be again the youngest team in the country by a wide margin - but the talent has arrived.

In other news your buddy left Texas to OU?!?! Blasphemy!
I mostly agree that Charlie needs 7 wins but I can see a scenario that a six win season buys him another year. Rough early season losses due to youth and inexperience followed by growth and wins could do the trick. There could be a lot of "the QB is only a true frosh" talk that could help him survive a six win season.

However if he starts Heard or Swoopes and only wins six games (or less) he's gone. At this point we need to see light at the end of the tunnel, not more of the same old stuff.

Nabbing all of those Baylor commits is really going to help. Not only are they talented, but they can step right in and play because they're in positions of need.
 

canderson

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Speaking of wins, let's take a look at the 2016 schedule. First glance I'd guess the following:

Sept. 4: Notre Dame LOSS
Sept. 10: UTEP WIN
Sept. 17: at California LOSS
Oct. 1: at Oklahoma State LOSS
Oct. 8: vs. Oklahoma LOSS
Oct. 15: Iowa State WIN
Oct. 22: at Kansas State WIN
Oct. 29: Baylor WIN
Nov. 5: at Texas Tech WIN
Nov. 12: West Virginia WIN
Nov. 19: at Kansas WIN
Nov. 24: TCU LOSS

I think Cal, while without Groff is probably a shell of itself, is tricky for the first road game with a young QB and all.

I am assume OK State's horseshoe is firmly implanted in its ass still.

Oklahoma is a toss up, after the win last year I figure karma gets us back.

But the schedule opens up pretty nicely for a chance to roll off some wins. WV will be a dogfight and TCU is the best team in the Big XII by far so there's a loss.

This puts them at 7 wins, if they can beat Cal or OK State or land burglars again Charlie has serious momentum headed into 2017.
 

Bosoxen

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So it looks like Swoopes may be the starter against Notre Dame - or at least there's strong indication of it being a distinct possibility. I'm sure they'd have a good reason to go that route but I can't help but be reminded of this little gem from the movie Dodgeball:

It's a bold strategy, Cotton. Let's see if it works out for them.
 

canderson

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If Swoopes is the starter, I'll be convinced they win no more than 5 games again this year and I'll be pretty furious.

They'll lose to ND anyway, but Swoopes is the wrong person to lead this team IMO.
 

Bosoxen

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It still chaps my ass that Mack burned his red shirt. Of all the dumb things he did, that may have been the worst.
 

canderson

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I'm going to go as far - and I'm being irrational here - if Swoopes starts Strong won't be Texas' coach in 2017.

I want to punch something. /rant
 

Kremlin Watcher

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Yeah, if it's Swoopes I'm going to choke a puppy. Charlie will be betraying a sense of stupid as a coach that he will never be able to shake.

Fuck, man, I lived through Shea Morenz and Shannon Kelly on campus. This would be worse.
 

rguilmar

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I'm thinking this is nothing more than deliberate noise. Swoopes and Buechele are about as different as possible in terms of skill set. Give the Irish something else to think about.

If I'm Charlie, I start the freshman based purely on the sense of self-preservation. He knows everyone wants to see Buechele start. Starting a true frosh comes with growing pains. Hell, I think coach gets another year from the (rational) fans by doing this. Start the kid, and even a six win season can be explained away by his growing pains.

I'm not saying that would or should be the reasoning. Just another reason to not start Swoopes if in Charlie's mind it's a coin toss.

For the record, I am very excited for the direction the team is going and I hope Strong is there when Texas reemerges as a conference and national power. We are on that path.
 

canderson

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@JeffFisher_FWST
Manager Jeff Banister said bench coach Steve Buechele is excused from Sunday's game to watch son Shane's Texas debut. Could start at QB.
 

Bosoxen

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Bevo XV ushering in a new era of Longhorns football. Maybe the kids are ok after all.
 

canderson

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It's been more than four hours, I need to consult a doctor.

Two things:

1) DKR appeared to be a different beast last night. Maybe it was the mics but I can't remember ever hearing it that loud. It looked incredible.
2) Strong played the two QBs as perfect as you can hope for. He was on that Florida team where Meyer unleashed Teblw as a freshman and rotated QBs, I think Charlie learned a few things from him.
 

Kremlin Watcher

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Still trying to pick my jaw up off the floor after that one. I was in New York at my brother's after dropping off the elder sprog at Columbia.

I have seen like a million Texas football games since I was a little boy. Apart from the VY MNC game, this was the most exciting one I have ever seen.

Yeah, that was the loudest I have ever heard at DKR.

This team has something that we haven't seen in Austin in a long time. They are going places.
 

Bosoxen

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Yeah that was definitely the loudest I've ever heard it. And I really don't think it's ever been close.

That game was definitely up there. As non postseason games go, it's right up there with beating Ohio State at the Horseshoe.
 

Bosoxen

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The Week 2 poll yielded some wacky results. The AP poll has the Horns at 11, while the coaches has them at 20. I think the latter is a little more accurate reflection of where they are, considering we have a sample size of one game.

With that said, I'll still be rubbing it in the noses of all my friends who are fans of rapey - one in particular who gets rather mouthy when it comes to Texas. It'll irk them to no end that Texas is now ranked ahead of them in one of the polls.
 

canderson

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A froggy friend got into a spat with me on FB how ND is the most overrated team in the country and Texas still will struggle to win 5 games.
 

Bosoxen

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The delusion there and at rapey is strong. Guess it comes with the territory of being new at this whole college football thing.

Notre Dame isn't as overrated as these people are claiming they are. They would have won if Brian Kelly hadn't tried that failed two QB system. Kizer would have inflicted more damage on the Texas D had he played the whole game.

Then again, John Burt created a 14-point swing in their favor with just two drops, so playing the what if game is pointless.
 

Bosoxen

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ND is overrated - and I know it's en vogue to hate ND - but they're not the most overrated team in the country. And even if they were, it's waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too early to say that definitively.
 

Kremlin Watcher

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We have very tough games left against the pokies and the land thieves.

We have pretty tough games left against Cal, the baptists, and the cockroaches.

The rest are fair to middling tough. We could be in for quite a season.
 

Bosoxen

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You're being far too kind by classifying UTEP and Kansas as "middling".
 

Kremlin Watcher

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Can you guys post a Big 12 nickname translator, please?
Ha ha. I grew up with these nicknames, some from the old SWC, some from other rivalries:

Oklahoma - the land thieves, the gooners, the dirt burglars.
A&M - aggy.
TCU - the cockroaches (comes from an old Coach Royal quote - good story).
Baylor - the baptists.
Oklahoma State - Okie Lite, the pokies.
SMU - pony.
Arkansas - piggy, hog.
Texas Tech - Tceh (comes from an old picture of a Texas Tech uniform with the name misspelled like that - could be apocryphal).
Houston - Cougar High (from a quote by DeLoss Dodds from ages and ages ago).
Nebraska - corn.

There are more salacious ones, but let's keep if SFW for now.
 

Bosoxen

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Texas Tech is also known as Taco Tech and sand aggy.

I don't know how original this is but my brother and I have also been known to refer to Oklahoma as the paperclips (because the intertwined logo on their helmet looks like a paperclip if you squint just right).
 

canderson

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Ha ha. I grew up with these nicknames, some from the old SWC, some from other rivalries:

Oklahoma - the land thieves, the gooners, the dirt burglars.
A&M - aggy.
TCU - the cockroaches (comes from an old Coach Royal quote - good story).
Baylor - the baptists.
Oklahoma State - Okie Lite, the pokies.
SMU - pony.
Arkansas - piggy, hog.
Texas Tech - Tceh (comes from an old picture of a Texas Tech uniform with the name misspelled like that - could be apocryphal).
Houston - Cougar High (from a quote by DeLoss Dodds from ages and ages ago).
Nebraska - corn.

There are more salacious ones, but let's keep if SFW for now.
I grew up with TCU as froggy, Texas Tech as the tortillaville and Houston as Little Cougar, but the rest are in my vocabulary as well.
 

mauf

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My son is excited that Froggy and Piggy are playing tomorrow. I have you guys to thank for that. [emoji3]

He thinks his nickname for OU ("sneaky cheaters") is better than "dirt burglars," though.
 

Bosoxen

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My son is excited that Froggy and Piggy are playing tomorrow. I have you guys to thank for that. [emoji3]

He thinks his nickname for OU ("sneaky cheaters") is better than "dirt burglars," though.
That's evidence of some solid parenting right there.
 

BigSoxFan

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I think ND's performance yesterday showed that the ND win wasn't as ground breaking as Longhorn fans hoped it would be.
 

Kremlin Watcher

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That was just awful. This is a work in progress to put it mildly.

I know it was a late, west-coast game with a young team on their first road trip against a sophisticated offense and a good QB after two good home wins - all the ingredients of a let-down game. But this was an epic defensive collapse. The "oh they're so young" excuse has worn out its welcome. Charlie has a lot of work to do, and we are nowhere near the team I thought we were. If we play like this against Okie State it will be just as bad.