Daily Short #120, December 27th, 2017: GAMEDAY - Missouri
presented by the Dental Offices of Wendy Swantkowski, DDS
The Absolute BEST in family and cosmetic dentistry for the Houston-Memorial Area
Now Accepting New Patients --- 281-293-9140
Scheduling Note: This will be the last column of the week. I'll be doing the film work for the game on Thursday and Friday. The Daily Short will return on Monday with offensive and defensive game breakdowns from the Texas Bowl.
FROM THE TEXAS SID
The Opening Kickoff
• The University of Texas will represent the Big 12 Conference in the 2017 Academy Sports + Outdoors Texas Bowl. The Longhorns will square off against former Big 12 foe, Missouri.
• The Texas Bowl will be played on Wednesday, Dec. 27 at NRG Stadium in Houston.
• The Longhorns finished the regular season 6-6 overall and 5-4 in conference play. The Tigers finished 7-5, winners of their final six, and 4-4 in Southeastern Conference action.
• Both schools will be making their first bowl appearance since 2014.
National Game Coverage
• The 2017 Academy Sports + Outdoors Texas Bowl will kickoff at 8 p.m. CT and is set to air on ESPN. Adam Amin (play-by-play), Dusty Dvoracek (analyst) and Molly McGrath (sideline) will call the action.
• Longhorn Network's Texas GameDay show begins two hours prior to kickoff. Following the game, LHN will also host Texas GameDay Final with interviews and analysis.
• A Longhorn IMG Radio Network broadcast can be heard nationally on SiriusXM ESPNU Radio Channel 84.
• ESPN Radio will have a national radio broadcast of the game. Bill Rosinski (play-by-play), David Norrie (analyst) and Ian Fitzsimmons (sideline) will call the action. The ESPN Radio broadcast can be heard on SiriusXM channel 80.
The Academy Sports + Outdoors Texas Bowl
• The Texas Bowl began in 2006 and the 2017 version will mark its 12th game.
• Texas played Arkansas in the 2014 Texas Bowl, while Missouri's lone appearance was a loss to Navy in 2009.
• The game will be played at Houston's NRG Stadium, home of the Houston Texans. The Stadium has hosted two Super Bowls - XXXVIII on Feb. 1, 2004 and LI on Feb. 5, 2017.
The All-Time Series
• Texas and Missouri meet for the 24th time in the history of the series. UT holds a 17-6 advantage all-time.
• The Longhorns have won 15 of the last 17 meetings dating back to 1931.
• The two schools played nine times as Big 12 Conference foes, with Texas winning seven of those games.
• The two schools have met once previously in a bowl game, a 40-27 Longhorn victory on Jan. 1, 1946 in the Cotton Bowl.
Longhorn Bowl History
• Texas makes its 54th all-time bowl appearance, second-most in the nation behind just Alabama. The Longhorns own a record of 27-24-2 all-time in bowl games.
• The 2017 Texas Bowl marks the 22nd time the Longhorns will play a current SEC opponent in a bowl game. UT is 12-8-1 in such games.
• This year's bowl marks the eighth time Texas has played a bowl game in Houston. The Longhorns made six appearances in the now defunct Bluebonnet Bowl, with a record of 3-2-1.
• With the 2017 Texas Bowl, Texas makes its 37th all-time appearance in a bowl game played in the state. UT is 18-16-2 in such games, having played in the Cotton Bowl 22 times (11-10-1), Bluebonnet Bowl six times (3-2-1), Sun Bowl four times (2-2), Alamo Bowl three times (2-1) and Texas Bowl once (0-1).
Head Coach Tom Herman
• Tom Herman is in his first season at Texas and his third season overall as a head coach. He is 6-6 thus far at UT and 28-10 overall as a head coach. In just three seasons, Herman has guided his teams to a record of 7-4 against Top 25 opponents, 3-3 against Top 10 foes and 2-1 against teams inside the Top 5.
• For the third time in three seasons as a head coach, Herman's program will appear in a bowl game. At Houston, he guided his team to the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl in year one and the Las Vegas Bowl a season ago.
• Herman went 22-4 in his two seasons at Houston prior to taking over the Longhorns' program.
• In his first year at UH, Herman led the Cougars to a 13-1 record and a win in the Peach Bowl during his first season. He was just the fourth head coach in NCAA history with at least 13 wins in a rookie season (Chris Petersen, George Woodruff, Walter Camp) and just the fifth to win the first 10 games of his career (Petersen, Woodruff, Camp and Larry Coker).
VEGAS
Line: Texas +2.5
Open: Texas + 3
Money Line: Texas +125
O/U: 61.5
Sharp Money: The late move is usually the sharp move and if we go by that old adage, then it would appear that some sharp money is on Texas in this one. The line as of 9:00am this morning moved from Texas +3 to Texas +2.5 on Sportsbook.ag - not only coming off a really important number at 3, but also -- at least on Sportsbook -- shifting the juice from -110 to -115 on the Mizzou side and from -110 to -105 on the Texas side.
5 THINGS I'LL BE WATCHING
1) Elijah Rodriguez - As Geoff Ketchum said recently in his 10TFTW column, Rodriguez has reached near-mythical status in his absence from the program as the staff continues to mention his name (and absence) as one of the reasons the 2017 football season went so terribly sideways. The last time we saw Rodriguez in real-football action for the Horns in 2016, it might be an overstatement to say he was "O.K." To his and the staff's credit, Rodriguez did look much improved through the fall of 2017 and did appear to be a big loss when he went down. Today, we'll get to see how he looks alongside most of the pieces Texas will have in place for the 2018 OL unit that must improve (along with the play calling) if the Tom Herman tenure at Texas wants to stay off the rockiest of starts. Good, bad or ugly, it's going to be a somewhat of a sneak peek of how the group should project to look to start 2018.
2) The Quarterbacks - Shane Buechele is slated to start, but will it be a situation where packages exist for Sam Ehlinger? How long is the leash on the starter? If the offense peters out and can't get things done with Buechele does the staff yank him?
3) The Kyle Porter/Daniel Young snap counts - With Toneil Carter suspended from the game due to a violation of team rules along with Chris Warren's transfer from the program, Texas will only have two main running backs in tow for the game. It actually might be better as it will force RB coach Stan Drayton's hand to stop with so many substitutions and allow at least the opportunity to exist for one runner to establish a hot hand (assuming play caller Tim Beck does not turtle up and abandon the run completely halfway through the first quarter). Daniel Young has shown that he's a nice player and in fact, the best running back that Texas currently has on campus from a true, pure-volume back perspective. He was even before Chris Warren left. Maybe the offense can get kickstarted by a sustainable and useful run game due to the fact that Young is going to be forced to be on the field more. If Kyle Porter gets the majority of snaps on traditional run downs, it's likely that the run-game will sputter and get abandoned.
4) "The punter" - I hope Tom Herman is finally calling the guy by his real name by now even though he hasn't graduated because Michael Dickson deserves it. He's the best punter I've ever seen in my life. I don't claim to know a thing about how to evaluate these specialists (very few in the traditional scouting and evaluation realm can ... it's a whole different ball of wax talking about kicking motions, etc.) but I do know that my eyeballs tell me the dude is just so money. He's been the best part about Texas football in 2017 which is unbelievably sad in some ways, but that shouldn't be reason not to appreciate the magic of what Dickson does. He's going to go on to be one of the best punters in NFL history and we'll be seeing him in his last game at Texas tonight. It'll only be for a few more bombing punts sure to hit the ground and die inexplicably inside the opponent's five-yard-line, so I for one will be enjoying it.
5) The preview of the 2018 defense - How's the unit going to look? We'll get a nice preview in the Texas Bowl. No Holton Hill, No Deshon Elliott, perhaps most noticeably to most, no Malik Jefferson. Those are three of the four most impactful players on the Texas defense from 2017 with the fourth, Poona Ford, also on deck to be gone following this last game of his senior season. How does a duo at ILB of Wheeler and Johnson look? How does P.J. Locke fit in at safety? Does he look better there than at nickel where he'd been burned a few times in 2017 when opposing slot WRs were given a two-way go at the route's transition point? Will Jeffrey McCulloch be back and healthy enough to get run at the B-Backer position? If not, will the staff limit Naashon Hughes' reps by wisely getting a look at younger options like Marquez Bimage who didn't play on defense in 2017 but still had a redshirt burned due to special teams duty? Will we finally see any D'Andre Christmas getting some game-reps before he's likely to have to step into a more immediate backup role the minute Poona Ford leaves campus or has he just fallen completely out of the mix behind guys like TaQuon Graham and Jamari Chisolm?
So many questions, all of which will be answered in mere hours before we turn into pumpkins, only to emerge on the other side when a new Longhorns football season starts. Grab a beer, throw a brisket on the smoker, maybe even take a puff of the whacky tabacky if that's your thing -- but whatever it is, it's important to get your mind right. The Horns play the Missouri Tigers tonight in a bowl game down in Houston and then they won't play again for 248 days until Tulsa comes to town. This is it for Tom Herman's inaugural season at Texas. This is Gameday.
presented by the Dental Offices of Wendy Swantkowski, DDS
The Absolute BEST in family and cosmetic dentistry for the Houston-Memorial Area
Now Accepting New Patients --- 281-293-9140
Scheduling Note: This will be the last column of the week. I'll be doing the film work for the game on Thursday and Friday. The Daily Short will return on Monday with offensive and defensive game breakdowns from the Texas Bowl.
FROM THE TEXAS SID
The Opening Kickoff
• The University of Texas will represent the Big 12 Conference in the 2017 Academy Sports + Outdoors Texas Bowl. The Longhorns will square off against former Big 12 foe, Missouri.
• The Texas Bowl will be played on Wednesday, Dec. 27 at NRG Stadium in Houston.
• The Longhorns finished the regular season 6-6 overall and 5-4 in conference play. The Tigers finished 7-5, winners of their final six, and 4-4 in Southeastern Conference action.
• Both schools will be making their first bowl appearance since 2014.
National Game Coverage
• The 2017 Academy Sports + Outdoors Texas Bowl will kickoff at 8 p.m. CT and is set to air on ESPN. Adam Amin (play-by-play), Dusty Dvoracek (analyst) and Molly McGrath (sideline) will call the action.
• Longhorn Network's Texas GameDay show begins two hours prior to kickoff. Following the game, LHN will also host Texas GameDay Final with interviews and analysis.
• A Longhorn IMG Radio Network broadcast can be heard nationally on SiriusXM ESPNU Radio Channel 84.
• ESPN Radio will have a national radio broadcast of the game. Bill Rosinski (play-by-play), David Norrie (analyst) and Ian Fitzsimmons (sideline) will call the action. The ESPN Radio broadcast can be heard on SiriusXM channel 80.
The Academy Sports + Outdoors Texas Bowl
• The Texas Bowl began in 2006 and the 2017 version will mark its 12th game.
• Texas played Arkansas in the 2014 Texas Bowl, while Missouri's lone appearance was a loss to Navy in 2009.
• The game will be played at Houston's NRG Stadium, home of the Houston Texans. The Stadium has hosted two Super Bowls - XXXVIII on Feb. 1, 2004 and LI on Feb. 5, 2017.
The All-Time Series
• Texas and Missouri meet for the 24th time in the history of the series. UT holds a 17-6 advantage all-time.
• The Longhorns have won 15 of the last 17 meetings dating back to 1931.
• The two schools played nine times as Big 12 Conference foes, with Texas winning seven of those games.
• The two schools have met once previously in a bowl game, a 40-27 Longhorn victory on Jan. 1, 1946 in the Cotton Bowl.
Longhorn Bowl History
• Texas makes its 54th all-time bowl appearance, second-most in the nation behind just Alabama. The Longhorns own a record of 27-24-2 all-time in bowl games.
• The 2017 Texas Bowl marks the 22nd time the Longhorns will play a current SEC opponent in a bowl game. UT is 12-8-1 in such games.
• This year's bowl marks the eighth time Texas has played a bowl game in Houston. The Longhorns made six appearances in the now defunct Bluebonnet Bowl, with a record of 3-2-1.
• With the 2017 Texas Bowl, Texas makes its 37th all-time appearance in a bowl game played in the state. UT is 18-16-2 in such games, having played in the Cotton Bowl 22 times (11-10-1), Bluebonnet Bowl six times (3-2-1), Sun Bowl four times (2-2), Alamo Bowl three times (2-1) and Texas Bowl once (0-1).
Head Coach Tom Herman
• Tom Herman is in his first season at Texas and his third season overall as a head coach. He is 6-6 thus far at UT and 28-10 overall as a head coach. In just three seasons, Herman has guided his teams to a record of 7-4 against Top 25 opponents, 3-3 against Top 10 foes and 2-1 against teams inside the Top 5.
• For the third time in three seasons as a head coach, Herman's program will appear in a bowl game. At Houston, he guided his team to the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl in year one and the Las Vegas Bowl a season ago.
• Herman went 22-4 in his two seasons at Houston prior to taking over the Longhorns' program.
• In his first year at UH, Herman led the Cougars to a 13-1 record and a win in the Peach Bowl during his first season. He was just the fourth head coach in NCAA history with at least 13 wins in a rookie season (Chris Petersen, George Woodruff, Walter Camp) and just the fifth to win the first 10 games of his career (Petersen, Woodruff, Camp and Larry Coker).
VEGAS
Line: Texas +2.5
Open: Texas + 3
Money Line: Texas +125
O/U: 61.5
Sharp Money: The late move is usually the sharp move and if we go by that old adage, then it would appear that some sharp money is on Texas in this one. The line as of 9:00am this morning moved from Texas +3 to Texas +2.5 on Sportsbook.ag - not only coming off a really important number at 3, but also -- at least on Sportsbook -- shifting the juice from -110 to -115 on the Mizzou side and from -110 to -105 on the Texas side.
5 THINGS I'LL BE WATCHING
1) Elijah Rodriguez - As Geoff Ketchum said recently in his 10TFTW column, Rodriguez has reached near-mythical status in his absence from the program as the staff continues to mention his name (and absence) as one of the reasons the 2017 football season went so terribly sideways. The last time we saw Rodriguez in real-football action for the Horns in 2016, it might be an overstatement to say he was "O.K." To his and the staff's credit, Rodriguez did look much improved through the fall of 2017 and did appear to be a big loss when he went down. Today, we'll get to see how he looks alongside most of the pieces Texas will have in place for the 2018 OL unit that must improve (along with the play calling) if the Tom Herman tenure at Texas wants to stay off the rockiest of starts. Good, bad or ugly, it's going to be a somewhat of a sneak peek of how the group should project to look to start 2018.
2) The Quarterbacks - Shane Buechele is slated to start, but will it be a situation where packages exist for Sam Ehlinger? How long is the leash on the starter? If the offense peters out and can't get things done with Buechele does the staff yank him?
3) The Kyle Porter/Daniel Young snap counts - With Toneil Carter suspended from the game due to a violation of team rules along with Chris Warren's transfer from the program, Texas will only have two main running backs in tow for the game. It actually might be better as it will force RB coach Stan Drayton's hand to stop with so many substitutions and allow at least the opportunity to exist for one runner to establish a hot hand (assuming play caller Tim Beck does not turtle up and abandon the run completely halfway through the first quarter). Daniel Young has shown that he's a nice player and in fact, the best running back that Texas currently has on campus from a true, pure-volume back perspective. He was even before Chris Warren left. Maybe the offense can get kickstarted by a sustainable and useful run game due to the fact that Young is going to be forced to be on the field more. If Kyle Porter gets the majority of snaps on traditional run downs, it's likely that the run-game will sputter and get abandoned.
4) "The punter" - I hope Tom Herman is finally calling the guy by his real name by now even though he hasn't graduated because Michael Dickson deserves it. He's the best punter I've ever seen in my life. I don't claim to know a thing about how to evaluate these specialists (very few in the traditional scouting and evaluation realm can ... it's a whole different ball of wax talking about kicking motions, etc.) but I do know that my eyeballs tell me the dude is just so money. He's been the best part about Texas football in 2017 which is unbelievably sad in some ways, but that shouldn't be reason not to appreciate the magic of what Dickson does. He's going to go on to be one of the best punters in NFL history and we'll be seeing him in his last game at Texas tonight. It'll only be for a few more bombing punts sure to hit the ground and die inexplicably inside the opponent's five-yard-line, so I for one will be enjoying it.
5) The preview of the 2018 defense - How's the unit going to look? We'll get a nice preview in the Texas Bowl. No Holton Hill, No Deshon Elliott, perhaps most noticeably to most, no Malik Jefferson. Those are three of the four most impactful players on the Texas defense from 2017 with the fourth, Poona Ford, also on deck to be gone following this last game of his senior season. How does a duo at ILB of Wheeler and Johnson look? How does P.J. Locke fit in at safety? Does he look better there than at nickel where he'd been burned a few times in 2017 when opposing slot WRs were given a two-way go at the route's transition point? Will Jeffrey McCulloch be back and healthy enough to get run at the B-Backer position? If not, will the staff limit Naashon Hughes' reps by wisely getting a look at younger options like Marquez Bimage who didn't play on defense in 2017 but still had a redshirt burned due to special teams duty? Will we finally see any D'Andre Christmas getting some game-reps before he's likely to have to step into a more immediate backup role the minute Poona Ford leaves campus or has he just fallen completely out of the mix behind guys like TaQuon Graham and Jamari Chisolm?
So many questions, all of which will be answered in mere hours before we turn into pumpkins, only to emerge on the other side when a new Longhorns football season starts. Grab a beer, throw a brisket on the smoker, maybe even take a puff of the whacky tabacky if that's your thing -- but whatever it is, it's important to get your mind right. The Horns play the Missouri Tigers tonight in a bowl game down in Houston and then they won't play again for 248 days until Tulsa comes to town. This is it for Tom Herman's inaugural season at Texas. This is Gameday.
