I started this series a few weeks ago, but then things like work, finals, and graduation happened, so... yeah.  In any case, I'll wrap it up with a brief overview of special teams and then stuff like the schedule and incoming freshmen.  The gist of this series is to do a simple comparison between '04 to '05 and '08 to '09 to see parallels that might suggest a great shot at a national title run.  Here's part and part 2.

I'll start with special teams:

Place Kicker

Mangum:  11/15 FG, 50/51 PAT
Hunter Lawrence:  10/12 FG, 60/60 PAT

Beyond simple numbers, I think we all know Lawrence is a better kicker than Mangum was, even though Dusty will live on in Longhorn history for his awkward looking field goal to win the Rose Bowl.  We also had Ryan Bailey, whom we know is a capable kicker although he was displaced by Lawrence this season.

Going into 2005, this was actually a concern; Mangum, who wasn't great in the first place, was leaving, which left us with David Pino.  Pino was... okay, but our kickers were far from a strength on that '05 team.  Pino only hit 77.8% of his FG in '05 and missed six PATs, although at least most of those were in the beginning of the season and some were blocks.  Pino also did not win any fans when he missed a short FG and a PAT in the Rose Bowl.  Because our offense was so great, it could easily cover up for a mediocre place kicker, but while Bailey is leaving (I think), you have to like our place kicker situation much better this upcoming season.  Easily.  Pino should be the most thankful that VY scored on that fourth and five, because if we had a better kicker, we have four more points and a short field goal would have easily won that game at the end.  In other words, if we lost that game, Pino would have had to move out of Texas for a while.

Nobody is a big fan of kicking field goals; personally, I despise kicking field goals inside the 20 or if we start out with great field position.  But it is a necessity and it's often the smarter thing to do, since real life is not NCAA football as Charlie Weiss seems to think.  Thus, despite our great offense, it is nice to have a decent kicker in Hunter Lawrence coming back.

Punter

This is a more difficult comparison because we often utilize the rugby style punting (which I personally don't like), but here are the numbers.

Richmond McGee:  39.71 yards per kick

John Gold:  45 ypk
Justin Tucker (rugby):  45.21
Colt McCoy :) :  34.5

I prefer Gold's normal punting, and he was fairly good at it, averaging over five yards per kick more than McGee did.  However, I do understand the logic of the rugby punt if you aren't that confident in your coverage abilities (which I'll get to below).

McGee returned for the '05 season, and he was actually a little worse, punting for an average of 37.79, although to be fair, he punted 15 less times because our offense was awesome.  I think I'd take Gold, and I guess Tucker's rugby style, over McGee easily.

In 2008, we actually punted 13 less times than 2004 did (including all kickers), although three more than 2005.  Hopefully, a decrease in punting means we're scoring and not turning the ball over this upcoming season.  In any case, this would be another area where I feel better about going into 2009 than I did going into 2005, with two different styles of punting that can be effective.

Kick coverage

2004 opponent punt return avg:  6.29 (#18), 0 TD
2004 opponent kick return avg:  23.15 (#101), 0 TD
2004 blocks:  4

2005 opponent PR avg:  7.00 (#31), 0 TD
2005 opponent KR avg:  18.95 (#35), 0 TD
2005 blocks:  9

2008 opponent PR avg:  6.73 (#34), 0 TD
2008 opponent KR avg:  23.16 (#98), 0 TD
2008 blocks:  4

As much flak our kick coverage thought this season, they weren't too bad compared to 2004 and actually statistically better, although we can probably blame Steve Breaston for ruining our 2004 stats and we seemed to have used rugy punting a pooch kicking a lot more this past year.  In 2005, our special teams improved (except for a slight jump in PR coverage), more than doubling our amount of blocks and slicing down on kickoff return yardage, which is great for a team that scored so much.  I remember being very confident about the speed and athleticism of some guys on special teams, such as Griffin and Huff, and since the likes of Earl Thomas will be on special teams, hopefully we'll see a similar jump in our special teams coverage that sometimes was not as strong as we would have liked.

This is very important because of the potency of the offenses in the Big 12.  It probably will not be as strong as last year, but we'll still be facing teams that can put up points and we don't want to give them cheap yards.

Returning

2004
Ramonce Taylor KR:  23.64
Aaron Ross PR:  7.56

2008
Quan Cosby KR:  20.59
Jordan Shipley KR:  26.27, 1 TD
Quan Cosby PR:  6.33
Jordan Shipley PR:  10.67, 1 TD

2005
Ramonce Taylor KR:  29.4
Aaron Ross PR:  14.71, 2 TD
Quan Cosby PR:  15.33

As we all know, the return game was a much debated topic in the early parts of the season, with many questioning why Quan Cosby was our main returner on both kickoffs and punts.  The numbers show why; Cosby, except for his impressive 15.33 average on his six punt returns in 2005, did not impress on most of his returns.  However, what Cosby did give us in 2008 was security; I can't recall him muffing a punt or fumbling the ball like Ross did at the Rose Bowl or do something inexplicably silly like Ramonce Taylor did against Ohio State, although Taylor would somehow wiggle his way out of the endzone for a good return.

Jordan Shipley was a different matter.  Sure, you can argue his averages are skewed because of two return touchdowns, but the fact that he had two return TDs in the first place is pretty impressive.  Look at the big improvement both Ross and Taylor had as returners in 2005.  Shipley doesn't need as big a jump but if he can keep that kind of production while being good at ball security, I'll be more than happy to keep him as our main returner.

The problem, obviously, is that he's right now our most valuable receiver, and to many, it was senseless jeopardizing both him and Cosby in return duties.  I partially agree that we should protect our best players, so I think Shipley needs to stick with one or the other.  I personally vote for punt returning because I have more faith in him to secure the football, unlike what we saw in the spring game.  As far as kick returns, having Malcolm Williams, Aaron Williams, or even Hales do that should be enough, with the former two showing great signs at the spring game.

Going into this season, we are probably less secure than we were going into 2005, mostly because we will most likely have new returners.  However, I'm confident in the abilities of Shipley and both Williamses, so I think we'll have a pretty competent return game that can make opposing teams pay dearly for lazy coverage.  The difference between starting at the 25 or the 30 can mean a field goal.  We don't need somebody like Ross helping Texas be the #5 punt return team in the country or someone like Taylor helping us be the #3 kickoff return team (by the way, take a moment and appreciate just how darn good that 2005 team was), but as anyone knows, a good special teams is often the X factor in big games.  The main reason Michigan kept up with us in the 2004 Rose Bowl was Steve Breaston's returning, and this past season, we all know Shipley's return TD changed the complexion of the OU game.

Schedule

2008 had a tougher schedule than 2004, facing four Top 11 teams in a row, although you can argue 2004 faced a tougher Oklahoma team.  We'll get that out of the way.  I'll instead look more at our 2009 schedule as it compares to 2005.

2005 schedule

Louisiana Layfayette
@4 Ohio State
Rice
@Missouri
vs. 22 Oklahoma
Colorado
20 Texas Tech
@Oklahoma St.
@Baylor
Kansas
@Texas A&M

2009 schedule:

Louisiana-Monroe
@Wyoming
Texas Tech
UTEP
Colorado
vs. Oklahoma
@Missouri
@Oklahoma St.
Central Florida
@Baylor
Kansas
@Texas A&M

Nonconference:  Because of Ohio State alone, our '05 team faced a much tougher non-conference slate.  With the likes of Arkansas and Utah bailing on us, our nonconference schedule looks pretty meek, but what can you do.  We just have to make sure we take care of business in those games.

As far as our conference slate, however, we may be facing a tougher path than 2005 did.  That 2005 OU team was only decent, getting clobbered by us 45-12.  Texas Tech had a good team but we got them at home, and we all know how Tech performs on the road, getting walloped by the score of 52-17 despite having a top ten ranking at the time (and how did this year's Tech perform away from home again?  Oh right...).  Furthermore, while A&M was better than they are now, they still weren't very good.  Colorado was actually pretty decent at the time they faced us in the regular season, being ranked in the top 25, but all the drama with Coach Barnett seemed to take its toll and they collapsed at the end of the season, culminating in that ugly game against us in the Big 12 title game.  Therefore, looking at the 2005 schedule, there simply was not another great Big 12 team.

This season, while we won't face that ridiculous stretch like last season, we'll have some tough games.  I'm not very concerned with Tech; they are coming here and they are breaking in a new QB.  The only thing I'm afraid of is that since it's unusually early in the season, we might come out a bit sloppy.  In addition, while Baylor is much better than they have been, it would still take a miracle of gigantic proportions for them to win; hopefully, we don't play them like we played A&M those two years.  However, OU will again have a good team, and if both teams win the games they are supposed to, they will both be undefeated going into Dallas and sporting rankings in the Top 3.  After that, we go to Mizzou; they no longer have Daniel or Maclin, but as teams like OU and USC have learned, you don't want to overlook road conference games.  Then we go to what looks to be our toughest road challenge of the season, going into Stillwater to face the Cowboys, who are probably sick and tired of us beating them in our creative ways.  OSU may very well have a top 10 ranking or close to it when we face them.

Overall, our schedule is not a killer, but we do have some tough games.  Furthermore, going undefeated, no matter how good your team is, requires a ton of focus, preparation, and luck.  Contrary to the belief of some Horns fans, Oklahoma will not suck next season; they should still be very, very good.  Even if their preseason ranking proves too high, they aren't going to be a crap team we can just walk through.  I think we should be better than every single team on our schedule, but that doesn't mean we will win every single game.  Furthermore, a game like Missouri arguably fits the bill as a trap game, being sandwiched between our two biggest games of the year and being at their place. 

Incoming freshmen

Very briefly, I'll look at a couple incoming guys who may very well have an impact.  In 2005, people like Okam, Charles, and even Henry Melton were new and contributed nicely, although Melton was arguably more for entertainment than anything.  In 2009, names like Barrett Matthews, Chris Whaley, Alex Okafor, and Calvin Howell have people wondering.  We've already seen Okafor, and he looked pretty good in his first collegiate activity in the spring game.  Howell is unlikely to be ready to play DT, as with our other freshman, but we are holding out hope that him or somebody else can help out Lamarr in the middle.  Matthews and Whaley may have very important roles because they will help fill two of our offense's biggest needs at RB and TE.  I like our runners now, but if Whaley is a monster right from the start, he should get carries.  There's no need to talk about how much we need a competent tight end.

Conclusion:

Strengths going into 2005:
Athletic special teams
Explosive returners

Strengths going into 2009:
Athletic special teams
Talented returners
Solid kickers

Question marks for 2005:
Kickers
Ohio State game
Shoring up kickoff coverage after getting wrecked by Breaston

Question marks for 2009:
New returners to help Shipley
Shoring up kickoff coverage a bit
Tough games against the Oklahoma teams

Although our return game and our coverage may not be as good as 2005, we do have better kickers and I think we can field a very capable special teams that can make big plays and help us win the field position battle.  A good special teams just makes it tons easier on both the defense and offense to do their jobs, and while this is the less sexy thing to talk about, it will be a very important thing to keep an eye on as we seek another national championship.  If we are going to face a team like the Gators in the title game, winning field position battles could be the key.  I need not remind you of the K-State game of 2007, where 2 special teams touchdowns against us were a killer.

And now... still three months away from football.  Sad.