View from the Cheap Seats-Colo State
WRECKED IT
WRECKED IT
What an amazing day for football. 57 degrees in Michigan, a blessed 75 in downtown Frisco. Fall is here and the Horns had a message to send. Before over 100,000 ablaze in Maize, and in fairness a great CFB setting, TEXAS tore the heart and soul out of Big Blue. It has been reported (we stopped counting somewhere in the 50s) that Michigan’s August/September home win streak is over 200 games. Considering games in all months, they were on a 23-game win streak. No longer. TEXAS made their 1st trip to the Big House and WRECKED the streak in the biggest game (only battle of Top 10s so far we think?) of the young season.
The game within the game. Despite his funny name, Wink Martindale is an outstanding NFL-quality DC. Today he was pitted against one of the best offensive minds in CFB, our own Coach Sark. A great sub-plot to watch as Sark’s game plan was much more traditional. He leaned heavily on TEXAS’ talent, and Quinn’s accuracy while winning both trenches to wear out Michigan. It wasn’t all ground and pound but an excellent mixture of short passes and rushes relying on TEXAS' talent advantages. Sark made NFL Wink’s defense look silly and TEXAS put the game out of reach in the 1st half.
And Sark showed he is very adaptive as a coach/play caller. His reputation is the big-shot play caller. This Saturday, Sark clearly intended to wear Michigan out with sustained drives. It was a great offensive game plan
TEXAS would not punt in the 1st half. The closest Michigan’s D came to stopping the Horns is when Bert Auburn missed a field goal attempt following drive #1. Might have been the only offensive disappointment of the game. Otherwise on 5 drives, TEXAS would score 3 TDs and a FG while not punting in the 1st half. Taking a 24-3 lead into halftime, it felt like this game was over. Michigan’s offense struggled all day. Much of the credit for that goes to some excellent defensive play.
We entered the season thinking the secondary was the biggest weakness on the team. Through 2 games they have acquitted themselves very well. Full disclosure, we have yet to face a really good passing team and might not until we see the burglars of dirt in the Red River War. And our biggest negative of the game, where was the pass rush? It was midway through the 4th when true freshman Colin Simmons started to show up and wow does he ever have a great future.
True freshman Jerrick Gibson led all TEXAS RBs with 10 carries as Jayden Blue appeared to get dinging again. We are rapidly becoming big fans of Mr Gibson’s play. The stats didn’t show it (3.8 ypc) but good things seem to happen when he has the ball. Knee jerk/way too early hot sports take but we think he is RB1 before the year is up.
Biggest Surprise of the Day
Michigan entered the day boasting one of the best TEs in the nation and an early leader for the John Mackey Award (best TE). TEXAS had a member of the watch list as well. He is not named Gunner Helm and Gunner would have something to say about not being included on the watch list. He led all pass catchers with 7 catches yielding 98 yards and a TD settled.
Joe Moore Award Watch
This award is for the best Offensive Line play of the year. Going up against an excellent defensive line with 2 outstanding interior players, the TEXAS OL simply wore out the Michigan front. Perhaps our favorite play was near the goal line, TEXAS ran a counter (or trap, coaches jump in to explain) where Jake Majors pulled and kicked out the Michigan defender, allowing our RB to walk into the endzone untouched. Watching the replay in slo-mo, everyone made their blocks, including All-American Kevin Banks who destroyed his assignment. On the biggest stage of the early season, the TEXAS OL served notice they are coming for the award. Keep in mind, Jake Majors is our center and centers are not normally lead blockers on trap (counter?) plays.
Offensive Player of the Game
Quinn Ewers (duh) 24-36 and 3 touchdown passes. He would add 4 rushes which yielded 2 1st downs. He kept Michigan’s D off balance all afternoon with both his passing and his ability to move in the pocket and extend plays. Another excellent afternoon.
Honorable Mention: Gunner Helm. As mentioned above, TEXAS top pass catcher and he nicely won the “TE of the Day” battle.
Defensive Player of the Game
Andrew Mukuba His interception in the 1st half stopped a key Michigan drive when the game was still on the line. That turnover led to a TEXAS FG. TEXAS would go up 17-3 with that score.
Honorable Mention: Defensive line. One of the keys to the game was winning in the trenches. TEXAS would win on both sides of the ball.
Special teams Player of the Game
Will Stone Michigan appeared on the verge of a big kickoff return midway through the 3rd quarter. Not so fast said Mr Stone and he seem to come out of nowhere to snuff out the return. One thing Michigan was denied all afternoon was that spark, that big play to give them hope. On the next play, Derrick Williams Jr intercepts the ball and denies Michigan the chance to “make the final score respectable”
Stats that Matter
- 8/10 TEXAS on 3rd down in the 1st half. Sustained drives were the key to success
- 0-3 10 TEXAS v Michigan Turnovers, TEXAS would score 10 points, turnovers were a pre-game key to victory
- 4-4 TEXAS Red Zone trips and Red Zone TDs, a pre-season important area of improvement for the TEXAS O. Note: Bert Auburn’s FG came from the 21, 1 yard outside the red zone but call it 4 of 5, still outstanding
- 3-12 Big Blue’s 3rd down conversions, only 1 in the 1st half. Now that’s great defense
- 9/7/5 TEXAS had 9 drives in the game (we don’t count the last run out the clock kneeling) 7 of them 6 plays or more, 5 of those ending with 4 TDs and 1 FG.
- 7 and 3/4ers Number of Quarters it took before our D gave up a TD.
Next up
TEXAS has it’s 1st night game of the season against UTSA from just down the road. In a battle of two head coaches with TEXAS ties, GJ Kinne’s TEXAS St absolutely throttled Jeff Traylor’s Roadrunners. Pre-season, we called UTSA as the best of our 3 non-conference opponents not named Michigan but today, they may be the worst. Sark’s coaching challenge this week is to keep the team focused both this week and next as the Horns play what now appears a pair of tomato cans before starting SEC play. 2 keys, don’t get anyone hurt and let’s get Arch and the young guns lots of reps.
Fighting Mack Brown’s
Jumped on their tomato can Charlotte going up 21-6 at halftime then outscored them in the 2nd half as well.
If we had a vote in the CFB rankings
- Georgia-The Dawgs are good.
- TEXAS-biggest game of the young CFB season and they won with style
- tOSU-still haven’t been challenged
- Bama-Coach DeBoer doing what he does, winning
- Ole Miss
- Utah-what can we say, we are Cam fans
- Mizzu-quietly winning
- Oregon-they need to announce their presence with authority and they ain’t doing it yet as they fall 4 spots
- Miami-Best team in Florida right now
- USC-LSU win is still impressive, beat up a tomato can
Tennessee with an impressive win vs ranked UNCst is 1st out while Notre Dame wets the bed against a decent MAC team and drops out.
Game highlights
PS, Shout out to my bride of now 22 years. She arranged our wedding in 2002 around the TEXAS football schedule and that year we had an early bye week.
It’s been a great 22 years.
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