Morning Coffee Relives the Glory

KP steps up again. I know it's football season and no one can even remember what basketball is right now, but I'm going to go there. Bear with me here, it's going to be a good journey. Ken McDonald moving on to Western Kentucky and Chris Odgen filling the vacated assistant role left open an administrative assistant position on the Texas basketball team. Kenton Paulino, the hero of the 2006 NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 game against West Virginia, moves into Ogden's former position. Paulino hit a three-pointer as time expired to give the Longhorns the 74-71 victory against West Virginia, after Kevin Pittsnogle had hit a three-pointer to tie the game only seconds before. Paulino will live forever in Longhorn lore as the player who kept the Longhorns from joining the ranks of teams shamed by being "Pittsnogled." Thanks for that, KP!

Texas knocks off West Virginia in the Sweet 16 (via bevosports)

Wrinkles belong in the offense, not on my face. Over at Barking Carnival, the brilliant ChrisApplewhite has a post on the new wrinkles the Texas offense showed against FAU. It's a great read, as are the links to his previous posts about his ideas for diversifying the offense. Applewhite makes a good point about adding false keys to the offense to keep the defense off-balance. The new plays added for FAU could just be a taste of what's to come, especially if Chip Brown is right about the Greg Davis/Mack Brown relationship, and if the Q Package works.

Applewhite also wonders in the post about what impact Major Applewhite will have on the offense. In terms of play calling and selection, it's going to be very difficult to tell. One clear impact, though, will be his presence on the sideline. Greg Davis has been the quarterback coach for years, but spends the games in the box to better call plays, leaving the team without a quarterback coach on the sidelines. Major is relaying the plays from the box, which isn't that big of a deal, but he's also a sounding board on the sideline and an added resource for the quarterbacks as they come off the field. I noticed him talking several times with quarterbacks during the FAU, which could prove invaluable as the season progresses.

Head for the border (town). I think all the Longhorn fans heading for El Paso this weekend are going to be prepared. Not only do they have 54b's Road Trip Travel Tips for El Paso (rendered as only 54b can), but now native El Pasoan Trips Right is weighing in as well. Hey, if you aren't ready for anything El Paso can throw at you after reading those two fine pieces of literature, I think you might be beyond help, buddy. On a serious note, though, if you are going to El Paso and decide to take the trip over to Juarez, be careful. The drug violence in the border town is reaching insane levels as the Mexican drug cartels fight for territory. Also mentioned in the article is that UTEP and New Mexico State University officials have warned their students to stay away from Juarez. Probably a good idea. Stay safe, people.

The tweaking leads to more speed. Hmm, usually works the other way. ESPN Big 12 blogger Tim Griffin has the update on the impact of the new clock rules in college football. Compared to the first week of 2007, game times are down 15 minutes. The number of plays per game is down five, and teams are gaining 31 fewer yards, but scoring is up more than seven combined points per game. Changes to the play clock have made a difference, no doubt, but more teams than ever are going to no-huddle offenses, which probably shortens games almost as much as the new clock rules.

Mike Price is smarter than Howard Schnellenberger. Well, as long as you keep him away from the strippers, that is. Price declined to provide any bulletin board material for the Longhorns, but did get a little cheeky with reporters:

This kind of reminds me of that game in Austin in 1930 where they beat us 28-0. They had 40 players, we only had 14. They're doing the same thing, basically cheating. They did it in 1930. I swear they did it the other night (against Florida Atlantic), they had 14 guys on defense. They'd throw it to a guy, and six Longhorns were covering the guy from Florida Atlantic.

Golly gee whiz, that Mike Price is such a cut-up. It does seem to be a healthy thing for a coach to be able to laugh about the talent disparity going into a game that's probably going to end as a blow out. If it doesn't, I can guarantee all those happy, happy, joy, joy feelings left over from FAU will subside quickly among the Burnt Orange faithful.  

From the land of Miscellany. Throw out Monday's depth chart. Well, not really, but Hunter Lawrence and Ryan Bailey are co-starters after Lawrence missed some field goals in practice...Charlie Tanner and Fozzy Whittaker will play this weekend (same link)...Suzanne Halliburton has your Q Package update...Coaches are calling games against FCS opponents "body-bag" games. Clearly, the comments are tongue-in-cheek, but considering all the violence in the world right now, I think another term would be more appropriate.