Sunday, August 30, 2009

Thoughts on the Depth Chart

The depth chart for the first game against Louisiana Monroe was released late last week, and can be found here.

Here are some of my thoughts on it:

-- First, right off the top James Kirkendoll is listed before Brandon Collins on the Flanker depth chart, despite Collins having a breakthrough year last year. I'm not sure that this is so much of an indictment of Collins as it is praise for the camp that Kirkendoll has had, though, as word is that he might be the offensive star of the camp this summer. Obviously with a group of receivers this talented a lot of guys are going to get on the field and who starts the game isn't that big of a deal, but it is still indicative of where Kirkendoll is in the eyes of the coaching staff.

-- The tight end position is a mess. It was the same mess last year and the offense was just fine, but you would like to have a dependable tight end to rely upon in pressure situations. Freshman Barrett Matthews might be that guy, but Dan Buckner will get plenty of looks at the pseudo-tight end position, it appears.

-- Vondrell McGee has once again "won" the running back job, although he didn't have much competition with word leaking this week that Fozzy Whitaker has once again missed significant practice time with an injury. The Longhorns need improvement from their running game this year, and hopefully this is the year McGee and crew reach their potential. McGee did look quicker in the one practice I saw this summer, hopefully that translates to success on the field.

-- Forget redshirting Garrett Gilbert. Although I would like to see that happen, it doesn't appear it will. How much playing time Gilbert will get, or how many passes the coaching staff allows him to throw is still to be seen, but it would take a dramatic change from past coaching decisions for Gilbert to get a lot of experience throwing the football late in games.

-- I really, really like the four defensive ends. Kindle, Acho, Okafor and Jones might be the best unit in college football. The fact that Acho is starting over Eddie Jones is a bit of a surprise, but from what I understand it is more of a statement on how Acho forced it rather than Eddie Jones losing the job. The waves of pressure that Texas can throw at opposing quarterbacks is exciting, and nobody is more excited than a secondary that is looking to take advantage of another year of experience.

-- One of the most significant questions entering this season for the Longhorns is the defensive tackle position. Kheeston Randall and Lamarr Houston appear to have won starting positions, but the Longhorns need a true freshman to step up this year (Calvin Howell) and had to switch former 5 star OL recruit Tray Allen to NT for depth purposes. There is some great talent in the middle for the Longhorn defense, but any injury to any of these guys would be detrimental to this defense's success.

-- Blake Gideon appears to have lost his starting job to Christian Scott. How significant that is, I'm not sure, but it is interesting that a guy that started every game last year is now the back-up.

-- Earl Thomas will see significant amounts of playing time at Nickel DB this year, and that again is a testament to how much the coaching staff has seen from him this summer. He really looks like he is on the road to being the next leader of this secondary, ala Michael Huff.

-- Jordan Shipley will return punts and kickoffs. Stay healthy, Jordan.

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

10 Days...

Yeah yeah, I pretty much neglected this blog all off-season, but writing about the off-season just makes the off-season longer. So it's the whole see no evil, be no evil thing, right?

10 Days until Colt McCoy and the rest of the Longhorns try to get back to Pasadena...