Wednesday Scrimmage Report, Part 1

by Peter Bean on Aug 23, 2007 3:10 PM CDT in Texas Longhorns Football

Chip Brown has filed one of his always excellent practice reports, this one from Wednesday night's scrimmage. He's packed a lot of info into his notes, so we'll take this in two parts.

Mack Brown sounded iffy after Wednesday night's scrimmage about when receivers Limas Sweed (wrist), Billy Pittman (shoulder) and Jordan Shipley (hamstring) would return.

"Projections are very tough for doctors and trainers," Brown said. "How do they know? Different people heal at different stages."

Lumping the two injuries in together isn't particularly helpful, and I've no doubt Brown and his staff have every intention of being deliberately vague. Now and in the future. In the meantime, prepare for lots of unfounded speculation from fans who talked to a friend of the player's sister, who relayed that Billy Pittman was spotted moving a ladder at Home Depot. Which is a good sign for his shoulder. Right?

Because of the absences at receiver, senior Tyrell Gatewood, who started as a receiver, moved to linebacker and then safety, is now back working at receiver. Brown said he made a nice catch by jumping up in the rain to grab a ball.

Why receiver? Is it possible that Sweed and Pittman could be out for an extended period of time? Let's hope this has to do with what's best for Gatewood and not a sign of serious injury for Sweed and/or Pittman. Sigh.

Brown said K Ryan Bailey was 4-of-4 on FGs into the rain.

Bailey may not have the kind of leg that would make scouts turn their heads, but he's been nothing but nails since his game winner in Lincoln. What a terrific diamond in the rough Texas stumbled into.

Brown said, "Colt was the same he’s been all camp. He’s so confident, so consistent and such a good leader. He’s trying to get perfection in everything he does."

Is anyone honestly worried about Colt McCoy at this point? There are injury concerns, sure, but I'd be utterly shocked if he had a sophomore slump. It's hard to feel 100% confident in your quarterback. But I do. I really do.

For the record, this is another area Greg Davis doesn't get enough credit. The man is one of, if not the finest quarterback coaches in the country. Say what you will about his gameplanning and playcalling, but Davis is The Man when it comes to developing kids into great QBs.

Brown said freshman QB G.J. Kinne would redshirt and that backup QB John Chiles is progressing well.

No surprise here on Kinne. Of course, if Harris takes some time to come back and Texas is pounded by injuries to Colt and/or Chiles, then... Wait. Let's not even go there. Dear God.

Brown said CB Deon Beasley made a nice play on a sweep during the scrimmage and continues to say there is great competition in the secondary between the veterans (seniors CB Brandon Foster, S Erick Jackson, S Drew Kelson, S Marcus Griffin and junior CB Ryan Palmer ) and the youngins (sophomore CB Beasley, redshirt freshman CB Chykie Brown and freshmen CB Curtis Brown, S Ben Wells, CB Earl Thomas.)

If there's any separation among all these DBs for starting jobs, we aren't being told about it just yet. Once the depth chart is released, we'll get a much better idea of what the coaches really think about all these players.

The team met with Big 12 officials for an hour to talk mostly about the new kick rules this season. Brown said it's no longer a no-brainer that you defer the kick option until the second half. He said with teams kicking off from the 30 and the chance to make a huge play on a kick return, you have to seriously consider taking the ball if you win the toss.

Hmm. This is probably worth a post of its own. At the least, this will be something worth studying closely in the offseason once we have more data. This is a good time, though, to point you to Brian Cook's Fanhouse post on the potential impact of the kickoff rule change. As noted by CFBStats, kicking from the 30 will give teams five yards of extra field position and, Mack's right, some more big plays on returns.

Whether it should affect a coach's decision to defer or not is up for debate, the answer to which depends on why you're deferring in the first place.

Part 2 to come.

--PB--

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injury soup

From my experience, shoulders and hamstrings have a mind and clock of their own, so I wouldn't look for Pittman and Shipley until Kansas State week. Sweed is on record saying that his wrist is no big deal, so I would expect him for Arkansas State. Reading between the lines of MB-TF reports, I think the freshman receivers are one of the big surprises of camp (along with Chris Hall on the OL) and probably good enough to get us through to Big 12 play.

by burnt in ny on Aug 23, 2007 3:43 PM CDT reply actions

What was the point..

of deferring in the first place? I always wondered.

by jc25 on Aug 23, 2007 8:42 PM CDT reply actions

deferring allowed you to control the wind

in the fourth quarter, because you could take the ball or the side of the field you wanted to play the third quarter with and thus the fourth as well. Even in the absence of any wind you could decide whether you needed the ball right away in the second half (if you were behind) or whether your defense was dominating and you could gain favorable field position by kicking, stopping the other team, and getting the ball on your 35 - 45 yard line. Deferral works especially well if the latter scenario is true, and this is even more likely if you kick off for a touchback. At least that's what I always thought was the reason for deferring.

by burnt in ny on Aug 24, 2007 7:09 AM CDT up reply actions

I always defer

when playing Madden or Tecmo bowl. My favorite move was to score right before the end of the first half, as it would deflate my opponant to have to kick off to me seconds after I scored on him.
And like the post above said, deferring is huge in windy/bad conditions. I remember the 2004 NFC championship between the Eagles and Falcons. The Eagles deferred and forced Atlanta to play into a 35 mph wind, which they couldn't do. Philly, meanwhile, had the wind at their back and jumped all over Atlanta in the first quarter. ATL never recovered, and lost the game.

by DogTown on Aug 24, 2007 8:18 AM CDT reply actions