Part 1 of 3 Parts

Jerry Scarbrough's True Orange
The Newsletter for the True Texas Longhorn Faithful

Volume 11, No. 15, April 9, 2001

Spring Shows UT Has Fine Passing Offense,
Defense, but Questions Persist Elsewhere

The Longhorns wrapped up spring football practice last week and the best news
I can give you after watching all 15 practices is that the passing offense
and defense should both be very good this season.
The run defense probably won't be as good as last year's rock-solid group,
but it will be a faster group that should be good against the run and much
improved at rushing passers.
The running offense still looks spotty, but coach Mack Brown says it is
improved and will look much better in the fall when injured offensive guards
Antwan Kirk-Hughes and Tillman Holloway return.
When they return, by the way, look for the team's other fine guard, Derrick
Dockery, to move to left tackle.
The one huge problem that surfaced in the spring was in the kicking game. JC
transfer Brian Bradford and redshirt freshman Justin Smith both did a good
job of punting, but the place-kickers had a tough spring.
Redshirt freshman Matt McFadden showed fair consistency on field goals up to
35 yards, but struggled mightily on the longer ones.
Brown expressed concern about the kicking and said three walk-ons will be
reporting in August and will get chances to win the job.
So, looking at the big picture, I see the last year of the softer schedule
(no Nebraska or Kansas State) as one in which the Longhorns will have a
passing game that will strike terror into opposing teams' hearts, and a pass
defense that should be one of the best around, too.
But UT teams don't usually win big games unless they can run fairly well (13
yards at Stanford, minus 7 against Oklahoma and 54 in the Oregon game in the
Holiday Bowl). Those were the three games the team lost.
Brown says one of the tailbacks needs to jump out of the pack and give the
team a go-to guy. If one of them doesn't do it, look for super recruit Cedric
Benson to be a factor very quickly.
Brown doesn't like to talk about Benson because he doesn't want him to put
any extra pressure on him.
But Benson is a guy who thrives on pressure. Fifteen touchdowns in three
Class 5A championship games shows how pressure affects him.
Hopefully, he will do for the running game what true freshmen WRs Roy
Williams, B. J. Johnson and Sloan Thomas did for the passing game last season.
With junior QB Chris Simms and five or six outstanding WRs to go with two
extremely gifted TEs, the Longhorns should have at great passing attack.
If Simms continues to make progress in looking away from his target, Texas
will have a great passing attack. He hit 56% of his passes and averaged 16
yards per completion last year, but he had only eight touchdowns and four of
his seven interceptions were run back all the way.
He was much better this spring about concealing his intended target.
I think he will continue to improve and, if he does, the passing game will be
so potent that it will make it easier to run.
The other key to getting the running game jump-started is getting better run
blocking from the line.
The line worked more on run blocking this spring than it has in previous
springs under Brown, and he thinks that will pay off with a better running
attack when the season starts.
I'll make a prediction right now that if the Horns can run for 100 yards in
every regular-season game, they won't lose any of them.
Brown says he isn't concerned about the yardage, but is concerned about the
ability to pick up short yardage on third downs and about being able to run
the ball in the fourth quarter to protect a lead.
I'll second that. The Longhorns don't have to run for 100 yards if they can
run it successfully when they really need to run it.
Many teams, and particularly teams in the Big 12, are stacking the line of
scrimmage to force teams to throw.
After Simms and Company show how they can stretch a defense, I don't think
many teams will want to force Texas to throw.
The defense, meanwhile, is much faster than last season. Strong safety Lee
Jackson is primarily a strongside linebacker now, and converted cornerbacks
Ahmad Brooks and Nathan Vasher are two of the top three safeties.
Former outside linebacker O. J. McClintock is a pass-rushing defensive end,
and defensive end Maurice Gordon is at defensive tackle.
Sophomore Marcus Tubbs had a strong spring at DT, and Lee, if he returns
healthy in the fall, should team with sophomore Adam Doiron, the other spring
starter, to give the Horns three good tackles.
Gordon is already an outstanding pass-rushing tackle, and Brown said he will
try to bulk up a little in the off season to be better at handling the run,
too.
Starting DEs Kalen Thornton and Cory Redding return, as do all three LBs and
three of the four DBs.
Against Oklahoma, the best team the Horns will face in the regular season,
this type of lighter, faster defensive unit should have a better chance to
succeed.
It should be better against the passing teams and it might be almost as good
against the running teams.
The Achilles heel could be the place-kicking unless McFadden, walk-on Dylan
Becker or one of the three incoming walk-ons takes charge.
Here is a projected depth chart for the start of 2-a-days in August (this is
my projected depth chart because the coaches didn't release one):
OFFENSE
TE - Bo Scaife, Soph.; Brock Edwards, Soph.
SE - Roy Williams, Soph.; Sloan Thomas, Soph.; Montrell Flowers, Sr.
LT - Derrick Dockery, Jr.; Robbie Doane, Jr.
LG - Antwan Kirk-Hughes, Jr.; Beau Baker, Jr.
C - Matt Anderson, Sr.; Jason Glynn, RS-Fresh.
RG - Tillman Hollway, Soph.; Trey Bates, RS-Fresh.
RT - Mike Williams, Sr.; Lionel Garr, RS-Fresh.
FL - B. J. Johnson, Soph.; Kyle Shanahan, Jr.; Tony Jeffery, RS-Fresh
QB - Chris Simms, Jr.; Major Applewhite, Sr.; Chance Mock, RS-Fresh.
TB - Victor Ike, Jr.; Brett Robin, Jr.; Kenny Hayter, Soph.
FB - Matt Trissel, Jr.; Chad Stevens, Jr.; Will Matthews, RS-Fresh.
DEFENSE
LE - Cory Redding, Jr.; Adam McConathy, Jr.or  O. J. McClintock, Jr.
LT - Adam Doiron, Soph.; Stevie Lee, RS-Fresh.; Maurice Gordon, Sr.
RT - Marcus Tubbs, Soph.; Miguel McKay, Jr.
RE - Kalen Thornton, Soph.; Adam McConathy, Jr.; Jermain Anderson, Sr.
SLB - Lee Jackson, Sr.; Marcus Wilkins, Sr.; Tyrone Jones, Sr.
MLB - D. D. Lewis, Sr.; Austin Sendlein, RS-Fresh.
WLB - Everick Rawls, Sr.; Reed Boy, Soph.
LC - Quentin Jammer, Sr.; Ervis Hill, Sr.
RC - Roderick Babers, Jr.; Nathan Vasher, Soph.
FS - Dakarai Pearson, Soph.; Nathan Vasher, Soph.
SS - Ahmad Brooks, Sr.; Phillip Geiggar, Soph.
SPECIAL TEAMS
P - Brian Bradford, Jr.; Justin Smith, RS-Fresh.
PK - Matt McFadden, RS-Fresh.; Dylan Becker, Jr.

900 Number Updated Frequently

I update my 900 number at least twice a week with football and football
recruiting news. The number is 1-900-288-8839. It costs $1.59 a minute. You
must be 18 or older to call.

Coach's Corner

Coach Mack Brown had to juggle spring football practice this year because of
the tragic death of Cole Pittman and a series of thunderstorms, but he says
it was  "the most physical and successful spring in our four years here."
"One of our main goals was to be tougher, more physical," he said after
spring practice concluded last Wednesday. "We worked harder, we had our ones
go against our ones more and we worked on being tougher and on getting better
every day.
"We didn't have a bad practice," he said. "They worked hard every day, and
that's when you get better. We did get better."
Brown said he was very pleased with the progress the team made during the 15
spring workouts but said there are still some problems heading into the
off-season program and fall workouts.
"We still have some unanswered questions such as developing depth along the
defensive line and we need a tailback to step forward," he said.
He said "Victor Ike would start at tailback if we played tomorrow and Brett
Robin would be second team."
"Our running game has improved, we've continued to improve our protections
and our throwing and catching with our receivers is getting better," he added.
While he isn't pleased with the production at tailback, he said the running
game will be better this season because of improvement in the offensive line.
"Mike Williams at tackle and Derrick Dockery at guard played as well as any
offensive linemen have played in the spring since we got here" he said.
"Even though we lost two great defensive players in Casey Hampton and Shaun
Rogers and an outstanding safety in Greg Brown, our defense has continued to
improve and has better team speed than last year," Brown said.
He said strong senior leadership gives the team a chance "to be really
successful on defense next season."
Sophomore OG Tillman Holloway and redshirt freshman DT Stevie Lee were the
only Longhorns who suffered serious injuries in the spring.
Holloway sprained a knee during the first week of workouts,and Lee had
surgery on the same foot that sidelined him for the last 10 games of the 2000
season, which qualified him for a medical redshirt season.
Seniors Antwan Kirk-Hughes (shoulder) and Mike Jones (knee) missed the entire
spring season while recovering from offseason surgery and sophomore tight end
Artie Ellis sat out with a stress fracture in his leg.
"We were able to get through the spring without any significant injuries that
would keep someone from missing time in the fall," Brown said. "All the guys
who missed this spring because of injuries last fall should be back to full
strength when we start up again in August."
He said he was tremendously pleased with progress of sophomore TE Bo Scaife,
who returned after missing the entire 2000 season with a knee injury.
Scaife tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee during the first
pre-season practice last August.
"I was really pleased with Bo's improvement toward the end of the spring,"
Brown said. "We held him out of the majority of contact drills, but the more
he played, the more you could tell he was getting physically ready to play.
"He should come back with great confidence in the fall after having a solid
month of practice this spring."
He also said one big spring goal was to develop more depth, and he said the
team made good progress in that area.
With Lee out with his foot injury, it left the team really thin at DT, but
moving Gordon over helped a lot.
"If Stevie hadn't been injured, we probably wouldn't have moved Maurice from
end to tackle," Brown said.
"Maurice looks really good at tackle and, when Stevie comes back, we'll have
a lot better depth there."
"The program is growing at the pace we'd hoped it would when we came here
three years ago," Brown said.
"Each year we have developed more depth and experience and from top to bottom
have become an improved team with a better grasp of our overall program.
"Last year, we played more players across the board than we had in our first
two years and that is what saved our season in the end.
"We had so many players injured that it took a lot of guys stepping up for us
to be successful."
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