1. This was a thorough ass-kicking from top to bottom. I'm not sure much more needs to be said than that. It was an embarrassing performance for Texas on both sides of the ball.
2. The Texas offensive line was completely manhandled by the Notre Dame front seven. All preseason, we heard (and sometimes saw) that the offensive line was winning the battles against the Texas defense. I'm not sure the UT o-line won more than three snaps all game.
3. The defensive line wasn't any better. Notre Dame could have probably won this game by 30 points without even throwing a pass all night. Texas was manhandled at the point of attack. Notre Dame's o-line is very good, but the Irish also looked like they just wanted it more than Texas did.
4. If No. 2 and 3 above don't change in a hurry, it's going to a long, long year.
5. Tyrone Swoopes was terrible. Let's get that out of the way. The stats don't lie: 7-of-22 for just 93 yards. But I'm not sure I've ever seen a QB running for his life on every snap the way Swoopes was tonight.
6. I hate to make too much of a sweeping statement after just one game, but there's nothing that I saw in this game that gives me reason to believe the Longhorns will even be a .500 team this year. Everything was that bad. Everything.
Oh by the way, Cal hung 73 points on Grambling State today. Sure, it's Grambling, but does anyone think Texas could have put up half the point total Cal did?
7. Malik Jefferson was a bright spot (9 tackles), but his performance almost seems lost after a game like this. John Burt flashed his talent on his long catch and Kris Boyd made some plays on special teams, but it was a pretty quiet night for the freshmen.
8. Charlie Strong said Jerrod Heard got the wind knocked out of him but it sounds like Heard could have come back. The coaches decided to go with Swoopes in the second half. May be time to re-think that strategy.
9. Strong also said he doesn't think the program is going backward. We'll know for sure in the next few weeks, but I think it's safe to say the jury is vey much still out on whether or not Texas is actually making any progress.
10. Notre Dame totaled 530 yards of offense, and that's with the Irish taking their foot off the gas in the fourth quarter. Malik Zaire may have kicked off his Heisman campaign tonight: 19-of-22 for 313 yards and 3 TDs.
11. Charlie Strong said in his post-game press conference that he's tired of being embarrassed. At least he's honest. Every person on the team should be embarrassed of this performance. Hell, I'm embarrassed that I actually thought the game would be close.
In hindsight, I guess we should have suspected that there were defensive issues when the offense was busy lighting up the defense in a couple of the pre-season scrimmages. The fact that the D let the same offense we just watched put up some big plays does not bode well for the Texas D moving forward. Vance Bedford and Charlie Strong are two of the best defensive coaches in all of college football, but they've got their work cut out for them with this group.
12. I thought Johnathan Gray actually ran well in his limited carries (8 for 40 yards). He had some tough runs and ran through some tackles. I know the game dictated to a large degree that he wasn't a big part of the game plan, but Shawn Watson needed to find a way to get Gray more involved.
13. Dylan Haines did not have a good night. He was solid last year, but this was a rough start to the 2015 season.
Truth be told, the entire secondary was pretty bad. I'm not sure what happened on the blown coverage that resulted in a Will Fuller's 66-yard TD (how do you let THAT guy run free?) but Duke Thomas and/or Haines clearly blew that one. John Bonney, who has been lights out in the pre-season, was picked on early. Bryson Echols looked like me after about 10 beers on giving up a TD to Chris Brown. Bad play by the DBs all around.
14. Texas' night in a nutshell - Nick Rose nails two 50-yard field goals but Brian Kelly called a time out before each kick. On the third try, the only one that really mattered, Rose was wide left. Pretty much sums up the night.
15. Maybe it's a good thing UT commit Reggie Hemphill-Mapps was at the Texas A&M game instead of watching the Longhorns. Let's hope his DVR is broken
16. Take away Daje Johnson's 6 catches, and one other wide receiver caught a pass (John Burt). If you're not running the ball well and you're getting the crap kicked out of you on the scoreboard, who is that even possible? Marcus Johnson got hurt early in the game, but this was a complete disaster of a performance from the offense.
Player of the game: I'm not sure anyone really deserves this award tonight, but I'll go ahead and give it to Malik Jefferson. He was part of a defense that struggled quite a bit overall, but Jefferson flashed his amazing talent on several plays. It was a very good debut for the true freshman.
Best position group: Another one I should probably skip this week, but the linebackers were the least of all the evils.
This game was over when ... the Irish went up 17-0 midway through the second quarter. Texas cut the lead to 17-3 in the third quarter, but there was no way the Longhorns were going to come back from three scores down.
Should have seen coming ... The offensive struggles. I bought into what we saw from open practices and what we heard from the closed practices, that the offense (and Tyrone Swoopes in particular) was playing better. But doing it in practice and doing it in a game against a quality opponent are two different things. After the way the offense finished the 2014 season, I should have been telling my brain that this year's group needed to actually show me something on the field before I gave it the benefit of the doubt.
Couldn't see coming ... The overall ass-kicking that occurred from beginning to end. Usually it's pretty easy to find silver linings, even after a loss, but there's not much to build on after this game. Texas was completely outclassed.
Best decision: I honestly cannot think of one. Starting a true freshman at middle linebacker? Does that count?
Head-scratcher: Both Charlie Strong and Shawn Watson said post-game that they stuck with Swoopes because he had the best chance of giving the offense some sort of spark, even when the game was out of hand. If Jerrod Heard was available, as they said, why not let him play those last couple series and see what he could do? I'm guessing he's more dinged up than the coaches were letting on.
What's next?: Rice comes to Austin next week (I can sense your excitement). It should be an easy win for the Longhorns, which will help. But the type of loss Texas suffered tonight, on national TV, after having such high expectations, is going to be tough to bounce back from. If Texas plays flat against Rice and then really struggles against Cal in week three, I'm not sure this team has the ability to bounce back over the long run. It's only one game, I know, but Charlie Strong and his assistants are going to have to coach their asses off to get this thing turned around.
2. The Texas offensive line was completely manhandled by the Notre Dame front seven. All preseason, we heard (and sometimes saw) that the offensive line was winning the battles against the Texas defense. I'm not sure the UT o-line won more than three snaps all game.
3. The defensive line wasn't any better. Notre Dame could have probably won this game by 30 points without even throwing a pass all night. Texas was manhandled at the point of attack. Notre Dame's o-line is very good, but the Irish also looked like they just wanted it more than Texas did.
4. If No. 2 and 3 above don't change in a hurry, it's going to a long, long year.
5. Tyrone Swoopes was terrible. Let's get that out of the way. The stats don't lie: 7-of-22 for just 93 yards. But I'm not sure I've ever seen a QB running for his life on every snap the way Swoopes was tonight.
6. I hate to make too much of a sweeping statement after just one game, but there's nothing that I saw in this game that gives me reason to believe the Longhorns will even be a .500 team this year. Everything was that bad. Everything.
Oh by the way, Cal hung 73 points on Grambling State today. Sure, it's Grambling, but does anyone think Texas could have put up half the point total Cal did?
7. Malik Jefferson was a bright spot (9 tackles), but his performance almost seems lost after a game like this. John Burt flashed his talent on his long catch and Kris Boyd made some plays on special teams, but it was a pretty quiet night for the freshmen.
8. Charlie Strong said Jerrod Heard got the wind knocked out of him but it sounds like Heard could have come back. The coaches decided to go with Swoopes in the second half. May be time to re-think that strategy.
9. Strong also said he doesn't think the program is going backward. We'll know for sure in the next few weeks, but I think it's safe to say the jury is vey much still out on whether or not Texas is actually making any progress.
10. Notre Dame totaled 530 yards of offense, and that's with the Irish taking their foot off the gas in the fourth quarter. Malik Zaire may have kicked off his Heisman campaign tonight: 19-of-22 for 313 yards and 3 TDs.
11. Charlie Strong said in his post-game press conference that he's tired of being embarrassed. At least he's honest. Every person on the team should be embarrassed of this performance. Hell, I'm embarrassed that I actually thought the game would be close.
In hindsight, I guess we should have suspected that there were defensive issues when the offense was busy lighting up the defense in a couple of the pre-season scrimmages. The fact that the D let the same offense we just watched put up some big plays does not bode well for the Texas D moving forward. Vance Bedford and Charlie Strong are two of the best defensive coaches in all of college football, but they've got their work cut out for them with this group.
12. I thought Johnathan Gray actually ran well in his limited carries (8 for 40 yards). He had some tough runs and ran through some tackles. I know the game dictated to a large degree that he wasn't a big part of the game plan, but Shawn Watson needed to find a way to get Gray more involved.
13. Dylan Haines did not have a good night. He was solid last year, but this was a rough start to the 2015 season.
Truth be told, the entire secondary was pretty bad. I'm not sure what happened on the blown coverage that resulted in a Will Fuller's 66-yard TD (how do you let THAT guy run free?) but Duke Thomas and/or Haines clearly blew that one. John Bonney, who has been lights out in the pre-season, was picked on early. Bryson Echols looked like me after about 10 beers on giving up a TD to Chris Brown. Bad play by the DBs all around.
14. Texas' night in a nutshell - Nick Rose nails two 50-yard field goals but Brian Kelly called a time out before each kick. On the third try, the only one that really mattered, Rose was wide left. Pretty much sums up the night.
15. Maybe it's a good thing UT commit Reggie Hemphill-Mapps was at the Texas A&M game instead of watching the Longhorns. Let's hope his DVR is broken
16. Take away Daje Johnson's 6 catches, and one other wide receiver caught a pass (John Burt). If you're not running the ball well and you're getting the crap kicked out of you on the scoreboard, who is that even possible? Marcus Johnson got hurt early in the game, but this was a complete disaster of a performance from the offense.
Player of the game: I'm not sure anyone really deserves this award tonight, but I'll go ahead and give it to Malik Jefferson. He was part of a defense that struggled quite a bit overall, but Jefferson flashed his amazing talent on several plays. It was a very good debut for the true freshman.
Best position group: Another one I should probably skip this week, but the linebackers were the least of all the evils.
This game was over when ... the Irish went up 17-0 midway through the second quarter. Texas cut the lead to 17-3 in the third quarter, but there was no way the Longhorns were going to come back from three scores down.
Should have seen coming ... The offensive struggles. I bought into what we saw from open practices and what we heard from the closed practices, that the offense (and Tyrone Swoopes in particular) was playing better. But doing it in practice and doing it in a game against a quality opponent are two different things. After the way the offense finished the 2014 season, I should have been telling my brain that this year's group needed to actually show me something on the field before I gave it the benefit of the doubt.
Couldn't see coming ... The overall ass-kicking that occurred from beginning to end. Usually it's pretty easy to find silver linings, even after a loss, but there's not much to build on after this game. Texas was completely outclassed.
Best decision: I honestly cannot think of one. Starting a true freshman at middle linebacker? Does that count?
Head-scratcher: Both Charlie Strong and Shawn Watson said post-game that they stuck with Swoopes because he had the best chance of giving the offense some sort of spark, even when the game was out of hand. If Jerrod Heard was available, as they said, why not let him play those last couple series and see what he could do? I'm guessing he's more dinged up than the coaches were letting on.
What's next?: Rice comes to Austin next week (I can sense your excitement). It should be an easy win for the Longhorns, which will help. But the type of loss Texas suffered tonight, on national TV, after having such high expectations, is going to be tough to bounce back from. If Texas plays flat against Rice and then really struggles against Cal in week three, I'm not sure this team has the ability to bounce back over the long run. It's only one game, I know, but Charlie Strong and his assistants are going to have to coach their asses off to get this thing turned around.
