Damn.
Damnit.
Nothing screams of the Texas football program breaking out of the shackles of the last decade-plus in an emphatic way on Saturday against Ala-Freaking-Bama, only for it to lose its starting quarterback to a clavicle injury (which could sideline him for 4-6 weeks) and potentially its back-up quarterback Hudson Card to a high ankle sprain.
Damn.
Damnit.
It's not the reality that should exist today. We should be talking about letting it all hang out after THAT performance against the No. 1 team in the country, but as Little Bill learned at the hands of William Munny In Unforgiven...
It's almost unfathomable that at a moment that the program seems to be on the verge of playing with anyone in the country this season, the most important position on the field gets completely wiped out.
Let's face it ... for at least the rest of the month, the Longhorns are going to be living day by day, week to week.
It might not be said tomorrow at Steve Sarkisian's press conference, but if Card has a true high ankle sprain as a source with knowledge of the situation told me on Sunday, it's hard to imagine he's definitely going to play against UTSA.
I mean ... when was the last time you heard of a football player not missing weeks to the dreaded "high" sprain? Typically, it can be aggravated by almost any bad movement if you chance it, typically doesn't heal without complete rest and could leave him hobbling around like a gimp in a much more bothersome way if he tries to play through it.
I'm not close to being a doctor, but I've watched and covered football closely my entire life and kind of have an idea of how long a guy is out when that injury occurs. Maybe it's a very minor high ankle sprain. Maybe he's got a crazy pain tolerance that would allow him to play through it.
Yet, it feels like the Longhorns will be getting Charles Wright and Maalik Murphy ready to play as fast as possible this week.
Given that the coaching staff has gone out of its way to be very careful with Murphy, limiting his work in scrimmages and not playing him in the season-opener against La-Monroe, the smart money is probably on Wright being first in line if the team needs one of those two to play this week.
I don't know what that means. I don't have any sense of his readiness for such a moment.
Also, I don't know what is inside the heads of this staff with regards to Murphy, so I can only guess to the time frame of when they think he can be ready to play.
Ready or not, they have to get him ready. That's where we are at the moment. The instinct to talk about this team looking as good as any team in the conference through the first two weeks of the season has to be put on hold while the coaches are fighting fires at the quarterback position.
Day to day, week to week.
No. 2 - About Charles Wright ...
For those that didn't know who Wright was or had forgotten that he was even a scholarship player in the program, let's see if we can inform you a little on a young man that might be center stage this week.
1. He was THE quarterback in the 2021 recruiting class, which means that he is the player that came one season after Hudson Card and one year before the arrival of Ewers and Murphy.
2. The 6-1, 202-pound Wright was a mid-three-star prospect by Rivals and no one else had him rated higher.
3. His committing to UT was one of the biggest things to ever happen in a very proud Austin High community, which has very strong ties to UT. Wright completed 222 of 345 passes in nine games as a senior for 2,759 yards and 35 touchdowns, along with nine interceptions. He also carried the ball 112 times for 442 yards and 5 touchdowns during his senior season.
4. While working with the scout team last season, Wright was pretty generally described during his freshman season as a player that would never play at Texas. The people that OB spoke with just didn't feel like he was on the level upon early inspection.
5. The scouting report on Wright has somewhat changed over the last six months, as almost everyone I've talked with for the last six weeks has mostly described him as a much-improved player. One person I spoke with in August felt like Wright was pretty solid in one of the scrimmages that he had seen, with the context that he was playing mostly with the scout team and could only really play well to a certain level because of his supporting cast. He's probably elevated himself to "capable" status behind the scenes.
He can move around well, doesn't have elite physical tools, but has always been viewed as a gamer by those that have watched him closely.
That's pretty much the book on him.
No. 3 - An ode to Big 12 officials ...
Death, taxes and horrible Big 12 officiating in football.
If there's anything that should make Texas and Oklahoma pay whatever needs to be paid to get the hell out of the Big 12, the officiating should be enough. It's been a joke for years. It's not just in Texas games, it's all of them. Everyone knows that if you wait long enough, it's going to be your turn to lose a game because of general incompetence.
It was Texas' turn on Saturday. I don't need to say that the officials cost Texas the game with an assortment of officiating disasters. Everyone knows.
Let's recap the most impactful.
1. The non-interference call.
Second and goal at the Alabama 8-yard line in the first quarter. If this gets called, the Longhorns are sitting at the 1-yard line and in a first-and-goal situation. Instead, Texas faced a third and goal from the eight that it didn't convert. It's a potential four-point swing.
2. The non-safety call on third and seven from the Alabama 4-yard line in the third quarter For all of the time the officials spent looking at the play on replay, they apparently didn't check to see if he was down.
He was.
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Despite admitting that the officials talked to each other to such an extent that the lead official mentioned that what they had officially announced no longer mattered because they communicated poorly with one another, but they came out of the situation without someone acknowledging that if you weren't going to call him down, you have to call Bryce Young for intentional grounding.
But, it's the Big 12 we're talking about.
3. The non-face mask call in the red zone in the fourth quarter. This should have set Texas up with a first and goal from the 3-yard line, but the Longhorns ended up with a second and five from the 8-yard line, which finished with them having to settle for three points.
4. The non-holding call in the final minute.
This was the most important play of the final two minutes of the game. On first and 10 from the Texas 37-yard line, Young avoids a sack and scrambles for 20 yards. Somehow, some way, the officials missed this blatant hold as Young scampered right by the crime.
Please, Texas officials, get us all the hell away from this.
No. 4 - Scattershooting on the last night ...
* It sucks that Ewers didn't get a chance to play four quarters on Saturday. No matter what would have happened, it would have been great for his overall development.
* Card was clearly bothered by the ankle injury, but I think he deserves credit for taking the Longhorns down the field after falling behind 17-16 and putting the team in a position to win the game. If nothing else, he's got grit.
* I'm old enough to remember Ricky Williams winning the Heisman Trophy after a poor start to his senior season, but Bijan Robinson's chances of getting to New York took a hit on Saturday.
* Kelvin Banks was sensational on Saturday. Whatever Will Anderson got in the game, it didn't come by going through Banks. I thought he was better against Alabama than he was against La-Monroe.
* The Longhorns have to be incredibly creative moving forward to make sure they get the ball to Xavier Worthy more. I'm not sure they did enough of that on Saturday, while acknowledging the quarterback situation was less than ideal.
* Jordan Whittington looks like a guy that is on his way to leading the team in catches this year. He played his guts out against the Tide.
* Consider me really surprised that Tarique Milton is barely mentionable through two games after the start to camp that he had.
* Card looked like a player that hasn't played much football with Ja'Tavion Sanders in the last few weeks. As soon as Ewers went out, Sanders became a non-factor in the passing game. The coaches have to add that to the list of things that have to be worked out this week.
* This team feels very Worthy/Whittington dominant in the passing game at the receiver position.
* How big has the return of Anthony Cook been for one final season at safety been? He's been nothing short of outstanding through two weeks. The only thing missing is the game-changing plays.
* Jaylan Ford needs to play like he did in the second quarter for the rest of the season. Bottle that up and use it every week.
* DeMarvion Overshown was quieter on Saturday than Texas needed him to be.
* Gold star for Ryan Watts, missed sack late in the fourth quarter or not.
* One week after a monster start to the season, sophomore Barryn Sorrell had one assisted tackle and one quarterback hit. He'll believe he should have created more than that, I'm guessing. I'm curious to see what we see from him this week.
* True freshmen that played on Saturday according to the official stats: Kelvin Banks, Cole Hutson, Jaylon Guilbeau, Austin Jordan, Will Stone, Jamier Johnson and Cameron Williams.
No. 5 - Mr. Negativity for just a brief moment ...
Upon reflection, it feels like a few areas of the team do need more improvement/evolvement.
1. Texas led another ranked team going into the fourth quarter and didn't finish the deal again. Yes, the circumstances suck, but this was a story all year in 2021 and in the first chance to put this closing thing against a ranked team behind them, it didn't happen.
2. The running game wasn't good. The running backs averaged 2.6 yards per carry. The good news is that Texas won't play that Alabama defensive line again this season (we think), but the bottom line is that the line didn't really ever open up holes to let one of the best group of running backs in the country to ever get loose.
3. As solid as Danny Trejo was as the punter and Bert Auburn was in knocking down a potential game-winner, the kicking game cost this team a chance to win the game with the missed 20-yard field goal at the end of the first half. The deep-snapping issue has to get fixed. This area of the team remains a work in progress.
No. 6 - Random Recruiting Stuff...
* Your weekly Arch Manning Highlight clip:
* If Arch had any doubts at all about Texas, and I've never heard that he has, they were surely put to rest coming out of the Alabama game.
* You'd have to think that Saturday made a very big impression on Longview wide receiver Jalen Hale, who was already leaning towards the Longhorns before the game. Any questions he might have still had would have been answered in a very serious way. Of course, the No. 2 school is Alabama and he probably left that game thinking he could be a walk-in day one starter after watching the Tide on Saturday.
* Future Longhorn on future Longhorn crime right here.
No. 7 – BUY or SELL …
(Sell) No, I don't know that Texas needs to play that level of defense every week to play for a conference title. It needs to play at that level to compete for a national title, but a slightly lesser version of Saturday's performance can get it done at the Big 12 level.
(Sell) I think this week is going to be the Charles Wright Show.
(Sell) I'm a little more bullish on Texas' chances until Ewers returns than that.
(Buy) That's kind of where my head is.
(Sell) 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
(Buy) He's going to be a first-round draft pick in 2025.
(Sell) It's been a couple of years now. It's hard for me to think he'd be the best option.
(Buy) Plus, I think they wanted to create some separation between Ewers and him. I think the last thing they wanted was for Murphy's name to be called if Ewers had started slowly.
(Sell) Absolutely not. I don't think it'll be six weeks and I don't think the soft portion of this schedule proves to be overly tough.
(Buy) That wasn't some fluky game of big-play luck. That was a man's game of football. Texas went toe to toe with Alabama. That's not an accident.
(Buy) By any means for the next few weeks...
(Sell) What the hell...
(Buy) Yes. Just a gut feeling.
(Buy) There's plenty of room for credit. Both guys deserve some.
(Sell) Nope, that's not really where my head is at all.
(Sell) I have to believe the struggles in the running game will ding the scores to some degree.
(Sell) I'm not sure he's good enough to win the biggest games left on the schedule, but he's good enough to win what's coming in the next three weeks, if healthy.
(Sell) I haven't heard about any smoke there just yet, but we'll all be watching.
No. 8 - Scattershooting on anything and everything ...[/B][/B]
... Shout out to the Texas volleyball team ... excuse me ... the No.1-ranked volleyball team. It was a ho-hum weekend in defeating both UC Davis and Denver this week after going through No. 7 Ohio State twice, No. 4 Minnesota and No. 12 Stanford in the previous two weeks. The Longhorns have lost two of their first 20 sets this season.
... If I had a vote that counts...
1. Georgia
2. Alabama
3. Ohio State
4. USC
5. Michigan
6. Michigan State
7. Kentucky
8. Oklahoma State
9. Arkansas
10. BYU
... I already had UGA in the top spot going into this weekend, but after seeing Alabama up-close on Saturday, the Tide feel like a team that gets knocked off before the regular season is over. It feels like the Dawgs might be in a tier of their own.
... Jimbo Fisher embarrassed his school on Saturday. Simple as that. Not only did Appalachian State come into College Station and take the game right to them in beating them 17-14, but they took Game Day away from the Aggies in the process. Flat out had their cornbread taken.
... Jimbo was supposed to be a QB guru, but now he feels like a coach you want away from the quarterbacks. Woof.
... Casey Thompson did everything he could to save Scott Frost's job, but nothing was going to keep that hammer from dropping.
... I don't know what to think about Oklahoma right now, but leading 7-3 at halftime at halftime against Kent State ain't going to cut it.
... Texas is the best looking team in the Big 12 when using the eye test.
... It's crazy to me watching USC two games under Lincoln Riley that OU fans have convinced themselves they came out ahead after he left.
... Michigan State is a team people are sleeping on.
... Baylor ain't the same Baylor from last year based on the early start to the season. The defense is still very, very good, but it looks like they've taken a step back in the offensive game-changers, even if they are better at quarterback.
... Kansas isn't going to be a pushover in November. As we all know, Jalen Daniels can play some quarterback.
... Iowa State beat Iowa. I know that had to feel good.
... Kansas State absolutely mollywhopped Missouri by four touchdowns.
... The Houston Texans played for a tie in overtime on Sunday with the ball at midfield on fourth down and time running out in overtime. This occurred after blowing a double-digit lead in the second half. Woof.
... Oh, Atlanta. How on earth did you blow that game?
... Baker Mayfield almost had his revenge against Cleveland ...
almost.
... I'm convinced the Steelers/Bengals game took at least three years off the lives of every Steelers and Bengals fan.
... Three of the four teams in the Final Four of the NFL last year face-planted in week one. The NFL man ...
... Shout out to Albert Pujols. Three more to 700 ...
... Shout out to whomever won the men's and women's championships at the US Open. Sorry, tennis. Football happened.
No. 9 - The List: Top 10 Elvis songs ...
I watched the new Elvis movie this week and it might be the first time I've ever wished Tom Hanks wasn't in a movie.
But, it did create the motivation needed to include Elvis in the week's column.
Here's the list.
10. In the Ghetto
One of two truly iconic songs from the second successful chapter of his career. This is probably the most socially aware and focused track he ever recorded.
9. That's All Right
It has been argued that this is the first song in rock and roll history. This is where it all started.
8. Don't Be Cruel
For most of the second-half of the 20th century, this song ranked as the longest running No. 1 song of all-time, dominating the top slot for nearly three full months.
7. Blue Suede Shoes
It has to be on the list and I'm just as shocked as you that it only ranks sixth.
6. Can't Help Falling In Love
My single favorite Elvis ballad of them all.
5. Heartbreak Hotel
His first No. 1 hit and million-selling single, Elvis showcases his roots in the blues with this classic that was inspired by a suicide.
4. Jailhouse Rock
For a 50s rock song, it's as tough as it gets. The combination of his lyrics, with the piano and a killer guitar solo makes for one of the truly iconic songs in rock history.
3. If I Can Dream
Elvis recorded this track right after the assassinated of MLK and sang this to close off his comeback special in 1968. It's about as good as Elvis gets.
2. Hound Dog
Ladies and gentlemen, this is the song that defines rock and roll in the 50s. When Elvis performed this on the Milton Berle Show, the world changed and was never really the same.
1. Suspicious Minds
It's the song that paved the way for the comeback era in the late 60s and early 70s.
No. 10 - And Finally ...
Everyone really should take a moment to soak in what happened this weekend. It's as good of a home atmosphere as I've seen people talk about.
It was the best of what this program can be when the program is firing on all pistons.
They'll be talking about the atmosphere in the stadium in future decades.
