It's going to be UGLY - UTSA Key Matchups

CodyCarpentier · Sep 11, 2024

Key Matchup vs. UT-San Antonio

UTSA Offensive Line vs. Texas Defensive Line

Vernon Broughton is the highest-graded Texas Defender in Run Defense, according to PFF with a 73.7 grade. That is good for 47th overall in the SEC. As far as overall team Run Defense, Texas is graded as the 89th team in the country, out of 134. UTSA is graded as the 81st overall, for those wondering. Texas allowed 118 yards in week 1 to Colorado State, and 82 yards in week 2 against Michigan. UTSA has 143 total rushing yards in its first two games, against Kennesaw State and Texas State.

UTSA is the 123rd-ranked offensive line in Pass Blocking according to PFF.
The Two lowest-graded OL for the Roadrunners, Tackle Jaylen Garth has a 42.4 grade, allowing 6 pressures on 24 pass sets, and Tackle Kamar Missouri has a 42.8 grade, allowing 5 pressures on 26 pass sets. They are ranked 280th and 277th out of 317 offensive tackles in all of the FBS.
There is only One UTSA Offensive Lineman inside the Top 70 of the American Conference in Run Blocking Grade, according to PFF. That is Center C.J. James Jr.

Players to Watch for UTSA

Devin McCuin, WR - 17 receptions on 22 targets, 108 yards 2 touchdowns. (Average Depth of Target: 3.4 yards, is 54th of 56 receivers in the American Conference)
Houston Thomas, TE - 4 receptions on 8 targets, 70 yards 0 touchdowns. (40 yards after the catch, averaging 10 YAC/REC, 1st among 11 Tight Ends in the American Conference)
Jimmori Robinson, EDGE - 6 pressures, 4 hurries, and 1 sack on 40 total pass snaps.
Elliott Davison, S - 1 pass break-up. (UTSA as a team, has one singular pass break-up, CB Zach Morris has an interception, but no PBUs)

Notes from UTSA HC Jeff Traylor's Media Availability

Asked about Steve Sarkisian's thoughts that "wounded teams that are backed into the corner are the toughest teams to play". Traylor said, "I can see what his point is, when you are the team that is wounded, you don't feel good when you are wounded."
Preparing for the environment at DKR: "It was really impressive the last time we were there, it's as good of an environment we've ever played in front of."
On former Roadrunner and current Texas Longhorn, Trey Moore: "We still stay in communication, I have a lot of respect for Trey - he handled everything right, it was a tough decision for him, he came into my office with his father, they did everything right. I would hope he has the same admiration back - I know we do for him."
Traylor was asked, "Looking at that tape from Saturday against Texas State is that something where your first couple days of practice this week you're looking to fix anything that stood out to you that you thought maybe went wrong or is it all just now quickly turning the page because you've got such a talented opponent next Saturday?" - he responded,

"Well you've got to evaluate their talent and schemes no doubt, but blocking on the perimeters is blocking on the perimeter, double-teaming the 3-techniques is double-teaming 3-technique, you know slide protection is slide protection. When you call a certain defense, and you have two guys in the B-Gap and it's 4th and 1 and they run the ball to the A-Gap and score a touchdown, it's always little things. I told them before the game, that when you play big games you find out about yourself during the game but you find out a lot about yourself after the game and you find out you weren't ready for the moment and I'm the head coach so it's no one's fault but mine. We weren't ready for the magic moment and I gave the analogy that "You know when you go downstairs in your Cellar and turn on lights you know and the Rats scatter, well the rats are always there, the lights expose the rats and I understand I'm the head coach I'm supposed to know already the rats are there, you need to play big games, the lights come on and you get exposed". That's something C.S. Lewis said many many moons ago, and it speaks in many aspects of life but to me, it always spoke into the aspect of, why you need to play big games early in the year, the fan base didn't really like it. When I was an A.D. early in my career I found every easy game I could get because I liked padding stats and winning games early and everybody thought I was great, but as you progress through life in order to win championships, you got to play really good teams, and sometimes you got to take your medicine to figure out where you really are, and I'd say the lights came on and we got exposed. Now we have to fix it. And I didn't mean like we have like little Rats on our team, our kids are wonderful, I mean like schematic some problems, some things we're asking our kids to do that we can't do so we've got to ask them to do different things.

Top Remaining Quarterbacks on the Texas Schedule

Tier 1
1. Carson Beck, UGA - (41-58 520 yards, 7 td 0 int) - 185.8 Rating (6-37-0 Rushing)

Tier 2
2. Taylen Green, Arkansas - (42-68 645 yards, 3 td 1 int) - 153.06 Rating (24-149-2 Rushing)
3. Jackson Arnold, Oklahoma - (36-57 315 yards, 6 td 1 int) - 165.57 Rating (22-62-0 Rushing)

Tier 3
4. Conner Weigman, Texas A&M - (23-44 225 yards, 2 td 2 int) - 101.14 Rating (11-65-0 Rushing)
5. Diego Pavia, Vanderbilt - (22-29 273 yards 2 td 0 int) - 177.7 Rating (39-155-2 Rushing)
6. D.J. Lagway / Graham Mertz, Florida - (21-31 487 yards, 3 td 1 int) - 225.18 Rating (9-36-0 Rushing)

Tier 4
7. Blake Shapen, Mississippi State - (33-48 515 yards, 5 td 0 int) - 193.3 Rating (14-22-1 Rushing)
8. Brock Vandagriff, Kentucky - (15-28 199 yards, 3 td 2 int) - 134.3 Rating (14-6-0 Rushing)

Cody's Week 3 Prediction (2-0) with a 4-point Texas (+/-) and 14-point opponent (+/-) through 2 weeks.

Texas 55
UTSA 3

This is Texas's opportunity to build on a phenomenal first two weeks of the season, with a combined score of 55-3 in the first half of the last two games (no that is not why my prediction is 55-3, that was totally random and predicted before I wrote this). Look for Texas to bounce back to domination in run defense, the Roadrunners have averaged 2.5 yards per carry on 64 attempts during the first two weeks (Texas State, Kennesaw State).

Player of the Game: *layup* Trey Moore Texas Breakout.... 3 Sacks, 6 Pressures, 2 TFL and 1 FF

The line in the game is Texas -35.5 with a game total of 54.5. This implies a score of 45-9.5 in favor of Texas. Which is interesting, given that UTSA lost to Texas State 49-10 last week and was trailing 42-10 at the end of the 3rd quarter. I would like someone to make that make sense. Tennessee is favored by 49.5 against Kent State this week while Georgia was 53.5-point favorites over Tennessee Tech last week.

Checking in on the Consensus NFL Mock Draft Database Big Board/Mock Draft ADP

15th - Kelvin Banks, OT
24th - Quinn Ewers, QB
31st - Isaiah Bond, WR
78th - Jahdae Barron, DB
93rd - Andrew Mukuba, S
139th - Matthew Golden, WR
158th - D.J. Campbell, OG
169th - Trey Moore, EDGE
176th - Jaydon Blue, RB
214th - Alfred Collins, DT
234th - Barryn Sorrell, EDGE
377th - Jake Majors, C

ICYMI - Football with Friends Defensive Deep Dig Recap vs. Michigan was on Monday

rjenk · Sep 11, 2024