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
Here are a few immediate thoughts and reactions following Tom Herman's weekly press conference leading into the season's most pivotal game as it pertains to Big 12 Championship eligibility, and following a nail-biter of a win against Texas Tech and backup QB Jett Duffey:
Just a quick pre-PC rant as Alex Loeb gives his opening spin on Longhorn Network: This game is going to be on LHN? Great. Just great. The most important game of the season thus far and we're likely to miss at least 4-5 plays due to jackassing around by the broadcast crew along with hot-air coach-speak from Lowell Gallindo and the like. The game will be on mute during the 20-30 hours I'll be breaking down the broadcast next week.
"(Tech is a) really good football team with one of the top offenses in the country, and now we know why."
- While Herman isn't lying, Texas Tech is not one of the best offenses in the country with Jett Duffey under center. That's kind of like coming off a win versus the New Orleans Saints in which Taysom Hill was filling in for Drew Brees and still claiming your defense was able to stop the same Saints everyone else struggled against. Herman is just trying to shine the best light on his currently failing DC, but the fact remains that the defense has been pretty awful for three-straight weeks now.
"Davante Davis got a bone bruise on his knee and a strained muscle in his ankle."
- Davante Davis was having his best game of the season before going down, so it was clearly a little bit of a loss for the Texas defense, but as I wrote about last week, Anthony Cook's snap sample size is now large enough for us to say that Cook is as good or possibly a better option that Davis. Davis' availability for the ISU game should not be something that Texas fans have to sweat through the course of the week. They'll be fine with either player.
"Our defense has played fine the last few weeks."
By "fine" he must mean Charlie-Strong-era fine. Like "fine" compared to historical incompetence or maybe to the former Rice Owls defensive units he'd see in practice as a GA under David Bailiff. Herman rattled off how good the scoring offenses the Texas D has faced over the last few weeks were; and said they had faced them with a "MASH unit." Excuses. Herman does not believe the defense has played well and if he does, then Texas is in trouble because you cannot set a bar this low publicly. The defense has been abysmal. Jett Duffey of all people almost kicked their ass and ruined their season.
"We don't have that right now - especially in this league."
This was Herman's answer to Anwar's question about Kris Boyd being targeted more recently. Herman talked about how, at Houston, UH had William Jackson, current shutdown corner for the Bengals (hard to call him 'shutdown,' I suppose, after what the Saints did to that secondary yesterday, but you get the point). Herman said that, back then, Jackson would only get thrown at 2-3 times a game. "We'd tell him to go follow that guy around and we'll see ya after the game with his pizza." Herman said he doesn't have a player like that at Texas. As Jackson was a first-round pick, Herman doesn't seem to believe that Boyd comes with anywhere near that lofty draft status that some "media outlets" (using the term loosely) had bestowed upon him coming into this latest stretch of the season.
"I don't expect any juniors (to be leaving for the NFL)."
This is part of Herman's initial defensive strategy against the forthcoming conversation that is sure to be had with at least Lil'Jordan Humphrey. Get it out there early that the expectations are that everyone stays so that making the initial move to speak with him about it feel all the harder. With that said, it doesn't seem like Collin Johnson is on quite the track to move on as we may have assumed earlier and neither in Brandon Jones. I'd set the Over/Under on juniors leaving as of now at .5, but would put the juice on the over. If I had to bet my mortgage on it, I wouldn't feel comfortable doing it as it's clearly probably still up in the air, but I'd place the bet on LJH being gone next year.
"He was our offensive MVP."
Jerrod Heard? 6 receptions for 54 yards? I understand how it must have been hard to play at a different WR position than he's used to and then fill in well, but the offensive MVP to everyone, including the football team and anyone with two eyes, was Lil'Jordan Humphrey who dominated and singled-handedly murdered the ghost of Michael Crabtree in Jones Stadium -- (if a ghost can be murdered, which I'm not sure is technically possible).
The Absolute BEST in family and cosmetic dentistry for the Houston-Memorial Area
Now Accepting New Patients --- 281-293-9140
Here are a few immediate thoughts and reactions following Tom Herman's weekly press conference leading into the season's most pivotal game as it pertains to Big 12 Championship eligibility, and following a nail-biter of a win against Texas Tech and backup QB Jett Duffey:
Just a quick pre-PC rant as Alex Loeb gives his opening spin on Longhorn Network: This game is going to be on LHN? Great. Just great. The most important game of the season thus far and we're likely to miss at least 4-5 plays due to jackassing around by the broadcast crew along with hot-air coach-speak from Lowell Gallindo and the like. The game will be on mute during the 20-30 hours I'll be breaking down the broadcast next week.
"(Tech is a) really good football team with one of the top offenses in the country, and now we know why."
- While Herman isn't lying, Texas Tech is not one of the best offenses in the country with Jett Duffey under center. That's kind of like coming off a win versus the New Orleans Saints in which Taysom Hill was filling in for Drew Brees and still claiming your defense was able to stop the same Saints everyone else struggled against. Herman is just trying to shine the best light on his currently failing DC, but the fact remains that the defense has been pretty awful for three-straight weeks now.
"Davante Davis got a bone bruise on his knee and a strained muscle in his ankle."
- Davante Davis was having his best game of the season before going down, so it was clearly a little bit of a loss for the Texas defense, but as I wrote about last week, Anthony Cook's snap sample size is now large enough for us to say that Cook is as good or possibly a better option that Davis. Davis' availability for the ISU game should not be something that Texas fans have to sweat through the course of the week. They'll be fine with either player.
"Our defense has played fine the last few weeks."
By "fine" he must mean Charlie-Strong-era fine. Like "fine" compared to historical incompetence or maybe to the former Rice Owls defensive units he'd see in practice as a GA under David Bailiff. Herman rattled off how good the scoring offenses the Texas D has faced over the last few weeks were; and said they had faced them with a "MASH unit." Excuses. Herman does not believe the defense has played well and if he does, then Texas is in trouble because you cannot set a bar this low publicly. The defense has been abysmal. Jett Duffey of all people almost kicked their ass and ruined their season.
"We don't have that right now - especially in this league."
This was Herman's answer to Anwar's question about Kris Boyd being targeted more recently. Herman talked about how, at Houston, UH had William Jackson, current shutdown corner for the Bengals (hard to call him 'shutdown,' I suppose, after what the Saints did to that secondary yesterday, but you get the point). Herman said that, back then, Jackson would only get thrown at 2-3 times a game. "We'd tell him to go follow that guy around and we'll see ya after the game with his pizza." Herman said he doesn't have a player like that at Texas. As Jackson was a first-round pick, Herman doesn't seem to believe that Boyd comes with anywhere near that lofty draft status that some "media outlets" (using the term loosely) had bestowed upon him coming into this latest stretch of the season.
"I don't expect any juniors (to be leaving for the NFL)."
This is part of Herman's initial defensive strategy against the forthcoming conversation that is sure to be had with at least Lil'Jordan Humphrey. Get it out there early that the expectations are that everyone stays so that making the initial move to speak with him about it feel all the harder. With that said, it doesn't seem like Collin Johnson is on quite the track to move on as we may have assumed earlier and neither in Brandon Jones. I'd set the Over/Under on juniors leaving as of now at .5, but would put the juice on the over. If I had to bet my mortgage on it, I wouldn't feel comfortable doing it as it's clearly probably still up in the air, but I'd place the bet on LJH being gone next year.
"He was our offensive MVP."
Jerrod Heard? 6 receptions for 54 yards? I understand how it must have been hard to play at a different WR position than he's used to and then fill in well, but the offensive MVP to everyone, including the football team and anyone with two eyes, was Lil'Jordan Humphrey who dominated and singled-handedly murdered the ghost of Michael Crabtree in Jones Stadium -- (if a ghost can be murdered, which I'm not sure is technically possible).
