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The Sunday Pulpit (via Loewy Law Firm): Bevo vs. Uga (Part II)

Anwar Richardson

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Apr 24, 2014
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Adam Loewy is one of the top personal injury lawyers in Austin. Adam is a proud graduate of the University of Texas School of Law and started his law firm in 2005. Adam helps people who have been injured in car crashes, slip and falls, dog bites, and other assorted ways. He is actively involved in every case he handles and is always available to talk or text. If you or a loved one has been injured, call the Loewy Law Firm today at (512) 280-0800.

Texas Longhorn fans love to say "OU Sucks" and they were correct on Saturday.

This year, Danny Stutsman’s creative work will say, “I went to the Red River Rivalry, and all I got was this lousy t-shirt.” Bob Stoops and Lincoln Riley knew how to recruit and develop quarterbacks and maintain a solid run game, but Oklahoma entered Saturday’s game with the 125th-ranked offense out of 134 teams, and it could drop when the statistics are updated. Texas football coach Steve Sarkisian has defeated Oklahoma coach Brent Venables by a combined score of 83-3 in two of the past three seasons. Venables said he never tried a Fletcher’s Corny Dog and may have one more season to try it on Oklahoma’s dime before he’s run out of Norman. Oklahoma is 4-2, and here’s its remaining schedule: South Carolina (away), Ole Miss (away), Maine, Missouri (away), Alabama, and LSU (away). Outside of Maine, is there another win on the schedule for Oklahoma? Is this team bowl-eligible?

Reporter: Is the difference between your team and Texas alarming?

Venables: “I don’t know. I don’t know if it alarms us.”

Good luck in the Texas Bowl.

It is time to move on.

Texas is ready for Bevo vs. Uga Part II – This time it’s personal.

“We enjoyed the win, don't get me wrong,” Sarkisian said. “The locker room was fun and all that. But it's almost like our team knows there's more work to do. Two years ago when we won the Golden Hat, you kind of thought we won the Super Bowl. This year, it was like, okay, we got the Golden Hat back. Let’s put it in the trophy case and keep grinding. Let’s keep going. I think that’s the mentality of our team.”

The critics of this team will say, “Texas has not played anybody.” Paul Finebaum threw that at me when I was a guest on his show this past Friday. If you missed the segment, I’ll share what I told him.

You still have to make those teams look like nobodies.

Great teams are not in life-or-death battles with inferior opponents. They show up on Saturday, run up the score, brag about being able to play backups in the second half, and move on. We’ve seen teams throughout this season struggle against inferior opponents or even lose to those squads.

Meanwhile, Texas is arguably the most dominant team in the country.

Before Saturday’s game, the only other team that was dominating like Texas was Ohio State. Texas and Ohio State were seemingly the top two teams in the country.

Until Oregon knocked off Ohio State.

Oregon has entered the conversation.

However, so many other teams have exited the conversation.

Alabama, Ole Miss, Tennessee, Notre Dame, Michigan, Florida State.

Texas has remained in the conversation.

Georgia has an opportunity to reenter the conversation with a win in Austin on Saturday after a life-or-death battle against Mississippi State.

Here are some important numbers via UT (fingers crossed it does not have errors that will require me to say, “It wasn’t me” all day).

• Earning the 34-3 win vs. No. 18/16 Oklahoma on Saturday, the Texas Longhorns are off to a 6-0 start for the first time since the 2009 season. It's the fourth time since 2000 that Texas has started the season 6-0 (2024, 2009, 2008, and 2005).

• Texas' point differential (+221) through six games is its best since 1915 (+288).

• The Horns have allowed just 38 points through six games, their fewest since 1964 (30).

• Texas' 259 points through six games are their most since 2005 (274).

• The victory marks the program's 954th all-time win, the fourth-winningest program in college football history.

• Head coach Steve Sarkisian picked up his 78th win as a head coach and 31st at Texas in his 126th career game as a head coach.

• UT now has two AP Top-25 wins this season after defeating No. 10/9 Michigan, 31-12, on Sept. 7 in Ann Arbor, Mich.

• The Longhorns move to 2-0 in SEC play, which also clinches the second straight year the Horns have started conference play 2-0.

This is not a fluke.

And the Longhorn defense is playing on another level.

“There’s a lot of credit that can go around to some of our veteran players, Michael Taaffe, Anthony Hill, Barryn Sorrell, Alfred Collins, Vernon Broughton, Jahdae Barron,” Sarkisian said. “There's this influx of some new faces. Whether it’s Trey Moore, Andrew Makuba, Collin Simmons, getting Jaylon Guilbeau. We're a veteran defense when you really look at us, and these guys have played a lot of football. They may not have all been the stars a year ago, but they've grown into playing really good football individually. I think more importantly, they're playing really good football collectively. The communication on the defensive side of the ball right now is better than we've ever had it in four years, and I think that's a byproduct of Michael on the back end and Anthony [Hill] in the front, just communicating, getting everybody on the same page, and then playing really well together.

“Again, I don't think defensively we rely on one guy to go get three sacks to play good. It's everybody playing well together, and getting the call. We're tackling really well. We're not missing tackles and giving up explosive plays, and we're staying on top of the back end. We're just not letting balls get thrown over our head. We can make it hard on teams to drive it the length of the field.”

Realistically, arguing who is the best team in October does not matter.

Texas needs to win those battles in December and January.

However, after enduring years of insults and jokes, you deserve to have a little swagger on Sunday.

Enjoy the win against Oklahoma.

Feel free to laugh at their pain.

Venables, you’re running out of time to get that corny dog.

Get ready for Bevo vs. Uga Part II.

Individual Notes (via UT)

QB QUINN EWERS


• Ewers has led Texas to 20 wins in 26 starts during his time on the Forty Acres. Ewers completed 20-of-29 passes (69 percent) for 199 yards and a touchdown. Ewers accounted for two touchdowns on the day after scoring on a one-yard run in the fourth quarter.

• With his seven-yard touchdown pass to TE Gunnar Helm with 11:20 remaining in the second quarter, QB Quinn Ewers has thrown at least one touchdown pass in 17 consecutive games.

RB QUINTREVION WISNER

• Wisner notched his first career 100+ rushing yard effort after finishing with a career high 13 carries for a career high 118 rushing yards and a touchdown. Wisner averaged 9.1 yards per carry and had also had a career-long 43-yard run for a touchdown.

• Wisner is the second Longhorn rusher to go over the century mark this season, joining RB Jaydon Blue who ran 25 times for 124 yards vs. ULM on Sept. 21.

• Wisner had two runs that went for 30+ yards: a 36-yard run and a 43-yard run that both happened in the second quarter.

• Tallying four receptions for 12 yards, Winser finished the ballgame with 130 all-purpose yards.

LB ANTHONY HILL JR.

• LB Anthony Hill Jr. carded his second career double-digit tackle effort after finishing with tying his career high in total tackles with 11 (seven solo), a career high 3.5 tackles for loss, one forced fumble while also tying his career high in sacks with 2.0.

• Hill recorded his second career forced fumble with 1:51 left in the second quarter.

TE GUNNAR HELM

• TE Gunnar Helm reeled in five receptions for 91 yards (18.2 ypc) and a touchdown.

• Registered his fourth career touchdown reception and second of the season after he caught a seven-yard touchdown pass from QB Quinn Ewers in the first quarter.

DB DEREK WILLIAMS JR.

• DB Derek Williams Jr. forced and recovered a fumble with 1:32 left in the second quarter. It doubles as his first career forced fumble and first career fumble recovery. Williams finished with four solo tackles and a forced fumble. WR Silas Bolden

• WR Silas Bolden had four punt returns for 70 yards, including a season-long 55-yard punt return in the fourth quarter.

• Following a 36-yard rush by Quintrevion Wisner and a forced fumble, WR Silas Bolden recovered the fumble in the end zone with 2:21 remaining in the second quarter to push Texas' lead to 14-3.

• Bolden had one catch for three yards.

Funniest Things You Will See This Week

No mustard, just OU tears


Alabama is in trouble


He nailed it again


Back to the basement for this son (bad language alert)


Sports On A Dime

1. Somebody close to Michael Fasusi needs to ask him a simple question – “Are you sure about Oklahoma?” I give Texas all the credit in the world for its 34-3 victory against Oklahoma on Saturday. Texas was the better team. Nevertheless, Oklahoma offensive coordinator Seth Littrell has seemingly done the worst job of developing talent we have seen in years. Littrell failed at developing Jackson Arnold during the offseason and Michael Hawkins Jr. is limited as a passer. Sure, Oklahoma had receiver injuries, but the Sooners have one of the worst rushing offenses in the SEC. Oklahoma football coach Brent Venables may need to part ways with Littrell after this season to save himself. Meanwhile, Venables will be on the hot seat after this season. Fasusi will walk into chaos the day he steps foot on campus.

2. This was a great hustle play by Texas receiver Silas Bolden. However, I can guarantee you that Tashard Choice is not happy about another fumble by one of his running backs.


3. Anthony Hill took keep receipts after last year’s loss against Oklahoma.


4. Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers will likely end his Longhorn career with a 2-1 record against Oklahoma. That is not a bad way to go out.


5. I know most of OB thought I was taking crazy pills for ranking Vanderbilt third and Alabama fourth in the staff’s recent power rankings. Even if you think my Vanderbilt ranking was ridiculous, maybe I can finally convince some of you that Alabama is not a great team. Alabama struggled for three quarters against USF, struggled against Vanderbilt, and South Carolina, one of the SEC’s worst teams, nearly defeated the Crimson Tide on Saturday. Alabama seemingly has another loss or two in them.

6. SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey’s response when asked if he would like Texas-Oklahoma to be played at 2:30 p.m. annually: “It’s up to TV, but yeah, I think people like to stay out a little bit later last night for dinner. [That] is what I heard walking around, and sleep in a little bit more before heading out to the State Fair of Texas.”

Sankey was in the pressbox during Texas-Oklahoma.

7. Sankey on the potential of sticking with an eight-game conference schedule: “Well, we're at eight this year. We're at eight next year, and we're at a question mark for 2026? We're working through that. There's always been interest within our room in eight games, and there's interest in nine games, and there remains interest. It's a majority vote.”

When asked what is the benefit of a nine-game schedule, Sankey said, “Seeing this kind of thing over and over and over. What I saw in Tuscaloosa. What you saw in Nashville last week, I was in Oxford for the Kentucky, Ole Miss game. I was in Lexington for Georgia-Kentucky. Seeing those games more frequently.”

8. Sankey’s response when asked if the coaches are against a nine-game conference schedule, “No. They're going to ask questions. My view is there are no hard positions. There's interest in seeing, for instance, this year you have within our 16 those very interested in college football playoff selection. So, let's go through the year and see what happens, and that was part of my summer communication. There are those who are very attentive to bowl eligibility. So, think about that. We've run analytics on that reality.

“We'll work with TV to see what that means for games and opportunities. We have some rivalry games, but for those to continue every year, you're going to change our current schedule. We did a really good job in 24/25 honoring those annually expected games, but unless we have some change, that's going to become a bit of a hurry for us.”

9. Sankey on the additions of Texas and Oklahoma to the SEC: “All positive in my experience. I've seen Oklahoma open on a Friday night. That felt like an SEC game. It was pretty cool for me, personally, to see the SEC logo on them, on the jerseys, and on the field. I was up in Ann Arbor, real quality win there. I spoke before about it being seamless. I think it's been seamless. The presidents have worked well with their colleagues at the presidential level and the athletics directors as well, including a Finebaum appearance yesterday.”

10. Sankey on adding the Red River Rivalry to the SEC: “It's rewarding. We’ve a three-year lead-in for this to be an SEC game. I was here for the first half last year and then went down to College Station for the Alabama game. That was my first time to experience it. I think the people make it special. It's moved to a different league. The game was special. It is special. It will be special.”
 
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