View from the Cheap Seats-Florida
Can you say “Explosives”? Sure, you can
Can you say “Explosives”? Sure, you can
On a crystal clear Saturday afternoon at DKR, Sark put on an offensive play-calling clinic to take a wounded and completely outmatched Gator team and turned them into Gator Bait. Not to be outdone, Coach Pete K and his defenders more than matched TEXAS' offensive efforts. Perhaps the best 1st half of “complementary football” in Sark’s almost 4-year career on the 40. Came at a great time too as many feared a Vanderbilt hangover following that very sloppy game.
Let’s get the first-half blemish out of the way. TEXAS’ 1st drive into the red zone only to see a 9-yard tackle for loss, the only sack on the Horns in the game on back-to-back plays. This forced a 53-yard FG that sliced right. Sorry, but both plays were caused by poor execution on the right side of the offensive line. The good news, the OL largely settled down and played well afterward.
Sark and Ewers said, “no worries, we got your back”. TEXAS would score touchdowns on their next 2 drives, then we saw back-to-back punts before the Horns put the game out of reach with touchdowns on their last 3 drives of the 1st half.
The mark of a great coach is putting his players in a position to succeed. This offense is built to stress a defense horizontally and create that one mistake, that one missed tackle which springs uber-talented Wide Receivers and RBs into big plays. Sark kept the Gators off balance with his play-calling. He used motion and some impressive route combinations to work pass catchers open.
We should also say, this is why we’ve been saying “Trust Sark”. (our told-you-so moment) He knows what he has in Ewers and he’s a really good QB.
1st half explosives
-Gunnar Helm with a 20-yard completion on the 1st drive. This drive ends in a missed FG attempt
-2nd down finds TEXAS 4th and 2 at their own 24. NO WAY Sark goes for it right? Nope, Baby Rhino, Jerrick Gibson gets his 1st carry for 2.5 yards and a 1st down. OK, not an explosive but Sark was setting the tone. MASSIVE GAMBLE that deep in your own end but Sark has faith.
-Next play, Quinn fakes a reverse, fakes a handoff, gives to Bond, Isaiah Bond on a double reverse (never seen it before), and with Nisbett (the original fake reverser) throwing a great block, goes for 44 yards.
-Same drive, Quinn hits Matthew Golden in the end zone for a 29-yard TD.
7-0 Lead
-Following an Ant Hill forced fumble recovered by Trey Moore, TEXAS starts drive 3 of the game at the Florida 22.
-Quinn hits Gunnar Helm wide-open up the middle for a 22-yard TD
14-0 TEXAS lead
-Following 2 drives ending in punts, TEXAS is set up at the 50 for it’s 5th drive of the game. A flat pass to Quintravion Wisner, who weaves through the Gators D for a 50-yard TD reception. Of note were big blocks downfield by Jake Majors and Gunnar Helm.
21-0 TEXAS lead
-Following a Florida punt, TEXAS starts at its own 20.
-Jayden Blue takes a short pass 45 yards to flip the field
-From the Florida 32, Quinn hits Matthew Golden in the endzone
28-0 TEXAS lead
-A Ty’Anthony Smith interception of a ball that Alfred Collins tipped gives the Horns the ball at the Florida 45. 58 seconds remain in the half.
-On 1st down, Quinn hits Silas Bolden over the middle for 20.
-Quinn hits Jayden Blue with a short pass good for another 20 yards to the Florida 5 before Blue punches it in from the 5.
35-0 TEXAS lead at the half
We hope you like explosives because the game featured a ton of them. Some with deep passes, many with short passes where defenders missed tackles or were blocked, leading to big plays. Put your people in a position to succeed and let them do what they are good at. Short passes are great for mitigating heavy pass rushes.
All the while, the defense was playing lights out and created 3 turnovers, which the O would turn into 21 points. Our offense is good, our defense has been great.
2nd half would see both teams largely trying to run out the clock. TEXAS would add 2 more touchdowns and would drive into the Red Zone before going into the Victory formation. We finally got to see more of Baby Rhino, Jerrick Gibson. We also saw why he hasn’t been getting much of a run. One lost fumble and another fumble he recovered. Also, the freshman is reportedly neither a strong pass blocker or a pass catcher. If you want to play RB for Sark and Coach Choice, you better be able to catch, pass block, and NOT turnover the ball. He’s young, he’ll learn. But along the way, he recorded his 1st 100-yard game on 16 carries with a late touchdown.
History
TEXAS and Florida have played only 4 times with TEXAS winning all of them. We started playing 100 years ago in 1924. We last played 84 years ago in 1940, before the US entered World War II.
TEXAS is the only team among the Power 4 schools that has kept the same Head Coach, Offensive and Defensive Coordinators over the past 4 seasons. Continuity can be a very good thing.
Before Sark, TEXAS had 2 head coaches and 6 different offensive coordinators in the prior 7 seasons. Think we’ve had 5 DCs but not sure about that count.
Offensive Player of the Game
Quinn Ewers shook off the criticism to record his best SEC game to date. He was 15 of 22 for 297 yards and 4 TDs. . . . IN THE FIRST HALF. Would finish with a career-high 5 TDs on the day. This one was an easy call.
Honorable Mention: The offensive line. They have squandered any real shot at the Joe Moore award this season but vs Florida, only allowed one sack, giving Quinn time to throw.
Defensive Player of the Game
Trey Moore, his 2 tackles for loss set the tone early in the 1st quarter. On the 2nd, he broke off his rush to track down a TE screen. He would add a 13-yard fumble recovery, forced by Ant Hill leading to a touchdown.
Honorable Mention: Welcome back Andrew Mukuba, our most important transfer player with an INT and finished 2nd on the team in tackles. Worried we had lost him for the year, he’s a key part of the secondary.
Special Teams Player of the Game
Silas Bolden’s lone punt return gave TEXAS excellent field position leading to a touchdown.
Stats that Matter
- 3-21 TEXAS turned 3 turnovers into 21 points
- 2-3 Touchdowns in the Red Zone, too many big plays. The Horns got into the Red Zone 4 times but went into victory formation on the 4th. Not going to penalize them for doing the right thing.
- 11-16 TEXAS Touchdowns vs Red Zone trips in SEC play. Improved from last year
- 13-12 Sark’s record in his 1st two years at TEXAS
- 20-3 Sark’s record his last 2 years.
On Deck
Strap your helmets on tight boys & girls, the Pigs on the road await. They don’t call it Fayette-Nam for nothing. For you not familiar with this rivalry, it was every bit as nasty as our rivalry with the Dirt Burglers and little brother. This will be the 2nd most hostile environment the Horns will face this year. Which makes this game great prep for the last game of the season. Make no mistake, the Pigs hate us with a passion. And they will be coming off the bye week so 2 weeks to focus on nothing but TEXAS. Sam Pittman may also be coaching for his job. Arkansas is #33 in scoring offense averaging 33 points a game (and not a typo) to our #16 ranking at 37 ppg.
- The defenses compare with the Pigs ranked #81 allowing 26 ppg while TEXAS checks in at #2 in the nation only allowing 11 and a half points a game. For all Sark's offensive pub, this team wins with defense.
- You can throw on the Pigs, they are #120 in the Nation allowing 286 yards per game.
- The Razorback’s offensive strength is running the ball, they are #31 in the nation just under 200 yards per game while TEXAS allows just half of that total.
- Expect them to try to grind the clock to keep the Horns O off the field. On defense, they will do their best to get after Quinn while they feed off the home-field emotion.
- Expect more of what we saw today from the offense, the short/quick passes, lots of motion with plenty of misdirection. On paper, this one should not be that close. In reality, we’re calling for a 17-point TEXAS win late as it takes time for the Horns to handle Razorback emotions.
- Standard caveat, as long as we do not lose the turnover battle.
Looking forward, we still see Kentucky as a “trap game” with the Horn's final game essentially being an SEC title “play in” game. Don’t get caught looking ahead Sark.
Fighting Mack Brown’s
On the bye this week. Need to win one of their last 3 to go bowling. We are massive fans of Mack Brown but we hope he hangs it up after this brutal season.
If we had a playoff vote
Oregon, BYU and Indiana are now the only unbeaten teams among the Power 4 schools. With Army the only unbeaten of the Group of 5. This has created chaos with almost every conference.
#1 tOSU-their biggest game left will be Indiana in which amounts to a B1G play in game. Winner gets Oregon.
#2 TEXAS-hope this isn’t a jinx but we’re calling for TEXAS to win out.
# 3 Clemon-ACC champ
#4 Colo-sucks to put Neon Deon in the playoffs but we think they will handle BYU in the BigXII title game
The above 4 teams get a “bye” in round 1. All teams will get 2 weeks from the conference title games till the start of the playoffs. #5 thru #8 will host a home playoff game
#5 Oregon-we’re calling it a close loss to tOSU in the B1G title game
#6 Tennessee We think they beat Dawgs this week knocking Georgia out of the playoffs
#7 Indiana The surprise team of 2024 and they play really good football
#8 Norte Dame-
#9 BYU Needed some very late-game heroics to remain unbeaten but we see them losing in the BigXII title game
#10 Ole Miss-they are peaking at the right time
#11 SMU
#12 Army-cuz it’s our poll and they will be unbeaten representing not just G 5 but the nation.
We have to confess, we were wrong. We thought expanding the playoffs to 12 teams would be bad for College Football. We are two weeks into November and there is drama in every conference now. Who gets invited to the title game, and how many get in, the interest in College Football has never been higher. And look at all the upcoming “play-in games” to get to the conference title games. tOSU v Indiana, TEXAS and the Aggies, Tenn v Dawgs looks like a playoff/play in game. 3 more weekends of college football before the playoffs begin.
Game highlights.
