Texas vs Rice: Inside the Numbers
by Wescott Eberts (GoBR) on Sep 5, 2010 2:10 PM CDT
in Texas Longhorns Football
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Bullets? Bullets.
- Why does Rice play Texas? Not sure. The Longhorns have won the last 11 meetings and 39 of the last 40. The last loss to the Owls was in 1994, when the 12th-ranked Horns fell in Rice Stadium, 19-17. Shame on you Mackovic.
- The 17 points given up to Rice accounted for half of the points Texas has allowed in four total games at Reliant stadium. The overall count in the home of the Texans? 204-34, Texas.
- Halftime adjustments: On 11 plays in the first quarter, Rice picked up one first down and zero total yards.
- Another Acho forced fumble/recovery. This time Acho Ocho Uno, forcing the fumble recovered by Keenan Robinson and turned into a touchdown.
- Garrett Gilbert still hasn't lost a game as a starter since September of 2007.
- The fumble recovery and interception by Keenan Robinson were both the first of his career.
- Rice ranked 102nd last season against the run, giving up 4.7 ypc and more than 190 ypg (and over 7 ypc against UAB and Houston). Texas averaged 4.3 ypc and 197 yards.
- Texas had two negative runs, a loss of four yards by Marquise Goodwin on a reverse and the toss sweep on 4th and goal.
- The Longhorns failed to pick up a 3rd and 2 in the third quarter.
- The average starting field position for Rice following Texas kickoffs was the 29 yardline. Justin Tucker failed to drive the ball into the end zone even once.
- After starting nine of 12 in the first half, Garrett Gilbert failed to complete passes on each of three third downs in the second half and finished five of 11 overall after the intermission.
- Gilbert attempted only one pass down the middle of the field, the 31-yard strike to John Chiles.
- On his 51-yard field goal at the beginning of the second quarter, Justin Tucker became the fourth Longhorn to make a 50+-yard field goal on his first collegiate attempt (Kris Stockton, Phil Dawson, and Mark Schultis).
- Rice gained more than a quarter of their total yards for the game on their opening drive. Remove the fluke 47-yard touchdown pass (go for the ball Blake Gideon!) and the number jumps to 35%.
- Zero. The number of times Rice running back and YouTube sensation Sam McGuffie (aka the Leaping Supa Wigga) tried to hurdle a Longhorn defender. Wanted to see that.
- 3A. High school classification several Rice players, including McGuffie, must have thought Texas played in after failing spectacularly to reverse field against one of the fastest defenses in the country. The days of playing La Grange are over, fellas.
- Texas left a number of points on the board -- seven for failing to score at the goalline on the toss sweep, three for missing a makable 44-yard field goal, and 14 total for failing to corral two interceptions that would have gone for easy touchdowns. In all, the Longhorns left 24 points on the board. Take away the tipped pass for Rice and Texas would have won 51-6. And fans would be feeling much better today. However, Texas didn't take advantage of those opportunities, revealilng just how far they have to go as a team.
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•Why does Rice play Texas?
Lotsa orange alums in Houston who can’t, or choose not to, get to DKR
Motivates their (Rice’s) kids
Bucks . . . Owls play 2-3 “money” games every year. That doesn’t cause the sea of red ink that is their athletic department to turn black, but if lightens the red to pink. Tulane and UAB don’t pack ’em in at Rice Stadium.
Amazed at the lack of Rice presence at the game.
I kind of expected there to be two or three sections of rice fans with the rest of the stadium painted orange (Like the visitor’s section at DKR). But there weren’t any purple sections at all, just a dozen fans here and a dozen fans there. In fact, I’m pretty sure Rice brings more people with them when they play in Austin.
Heard from a few reliable sources...
That Rice alums and fans sold a good many tickets to the Horns faithful.
"Stats are for losers. I like winning games." ~ Will Muschamp
"I always felt like, and I paid a price for it, that it didn't seem right for one guy to bring me down." ~ The Tyler Rose
"I'm Colt McCoy and I Am Second." ~ Colt McCoy
by Mulliganville on Sep 5, 2010 3:27 PM CDT up reply actions
Rice's largest TV audience of the entire season!
--- All roads to the Big-XII Championship lead through OU/RRS. It's not just another game! We're all about championships here. ---
This game reminds me of the Arkansas State game 3 years ago.
For those of you who dont remember we beat them 21-13 but was frustrating to watch like yesterday.
1. Orakpo went down that game and so did Randall yesterday.
2. An opening day game with an expectation of a blowout that didn’t happen.
3. A talented sophmore quarterback that didn’t play his best game.
4. A highly ranked texas team being threatened by an upset.
Hopefully none of this points to an above average season like 2007.
“Why does Rice play Texas?” (JFK reference perhaps?)
I wasn't frustrated yesterday
The difference between this game and other recent early season disappointments is that this time I could actually see what the coaching staff was doing and where this team is going. Mack looked like he knew what was going on, and he never flinched, as though all of what had transpired was within his realm of expectations going into the game.
Think back to past Septembers when Mack looked like he was losing his mind with frustration, and there was no reasonable sense of what in the hell Greg Davis had spent the offseason doing. Yesterdays game had nothing in common with those games, except for the score.
I agree.
From all perspectives, it looked like a pre-season scrimmage. OC GD was trying to force some square pegs through round holes in trying to force the running game to work. Had it been a closer / bigger game / opponent, I think the coaches and the gameplan would have been a bit more creative. Hopefully, everyone was able to work out some kinks.
this was nothing like that game
Never ask a man if he's from Texas. If he is, he'll tell you soon enough. If he's not, don't embarrass him.
Why does Rice play Texas
But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas?
We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.
Although I'm not a Jets fan, and most certainly not a USC fan, I'll root for any team that Mark Sanchez plays for. Mark Sanchez for Superbowl MVP and President 2012. The change that only I can believe in.
by NYHorn on Sep 5, 2010 3:50 PM CDT reply actions 1 recs
An editing courtesy
Halftime adjustments: On 11 plays in the third quarter, Rice picked up one first down and zero total yards.
And yes, the Horns D looked really good in the third quarter.
You'd think
Somewhere in the State of Texas there would be a kid who wants to play big time college ball bad enough to learn how to do this one thing. If he out there, maybe he knows another kid who could become a reliable long snapper.
Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in their shoes. If they get mad, you're a mile away AND you have their shoes.
Tech is toying with SMU
I think it’s pretty safe to say @ Tech is going to be our barometer game.
by goingforthecorner on Sep 5, 2010 4:36 PM CDT reply actions
Tech dodged a bullet
If Padron doesn’t grossly underthrow that ball, they SMU could have pulled within a touchdown.
by TheElusiveShadow on Sep 5, 2010 5:02 PM CDT up reply actions
My gosh
SMU could win this game if Padron wasn’t worthless.
by TheElusiveShadow on Sep 5, 2010 5:07 PM CDT up reply actions
Heard the broadcast team say at the top of the telecast
that the first thing Tuberville did when he got to town was call Craig James and invite him back into the program. That’s about all I need to know about Tommy Tuberville’s character.
After Jetgate
I would say that is more indicative of Tuberville’s value of PR and the media than a pure statement of character
proud to swim home
Sure
hence I said “than a pure statement of character”. And personally, after jetgate, I wouldn’t exclude a slight machiavellian intent from any of Tuberville’s public statements
proud to swim home
Man... maybe we should have created a live thread for this game.
Hate to hijack Big Roy’s post.
by TheElusiveShadow on Sep 5, 2010 5:43 PM CDT reply actions
Jumbo package needs to be abandoned..It was pitiful
Iam starting to cringe everytime I see the jumbo package like I did when I saw the wild horn last year. Just leave Tre in and let him get the TD.
Weird thing is that it normally works so well
I don’t know why it failed against Rice, but it’s been a pretty consistent package for us for years.
Yeah, it has worked pretty well in past...
Definitely need to throw more out of it though to keep the defense honest.
You're not playing La Grange anymore?
Next time pick on another 3a team. Johnnie Johnson didn’t like that reference. Go Leps.
I've watched the game 3 times...
The Offensive/Defensive scheme was as expected very bland. I remember watching the Pitt/Utah game from Thursday night, and remember thinking the the game plan would probably look very similar to Pitt, with their 1st yr QB. Very conservative and basically threw maybe 2-3 passes down field in the 1st 3-quarters. The run game still scare me a little, mostly because of consistency. The “new and improved CJ” looked slower for some reason. I, unfortunately, expect a similar game next week with Wyoming, hopefully letting GG loose a little more. He showed good decision making for the most part. I expect that Mack will continue to force the run to make the D repect it. The D is going to be flat out sick, and almost expect them to tear someone in half in the near future. Special teams really concern me, especially the Punt return game… and no one wanting to kick to Marquise or DJ.
by LonghorninRaiderland on Sep 6, 2010 11:09 AM CDT reply actions
After re-watching the game - a couple observations and a couple questions on CJ
CJ did everything asked of him in the 1st half with the exception of scoring on that first goal line situation.
- He had 7.2 ypc until that goal line failure
- On goal line, 1st down for positive yardage, 2nd down another 3+ up to the 1 yard line with 8+ in the box
- If he would have elevated on 3rd down he would have scored, a missed block by Walters and CJ ran right into his blockers who did not get a good push
- 4th down play call was a bad call, that is on GD
After that CJ starts alternating with Tre and had a few nice three yard pops a 6 yard gain and a little swing pass for little yardage, but after half-time, CJ is MIA for the most part – why?
I think he runs for about 100 yards if he stays in the game, assuming he was healthy and fit. After looking at the blocking on Tre Newtons scores, I believe Cody would have scored on at least two of the three. The one where Tre snuck in behind Snow was a great read on his blockers and Tre does this better than Cody, but chances are we score on the next play with CJ or maybe CJ just runs them over and scores anyway. All-in-all CJ did pretty well.
The question is why didn’t the coaches stick with him:
Were the coaches pissed with CJ after not scoring on that first drive?
Was he dinged up in early 3rd quarter?
Did the coaches see he was fatigued? In that case, he is not the 25+ carries guy we need.
Are the coaches saving him for next week – avoid injury. Let’s see if he remains the starter.
Are the coaches still feeling out who will be the best option at RB so they give Newton and Whitaker some time?
Is it going to be running back by committee this year? again.
Apart from the failures on the first drive, I think Cody did well and if he had another 10+ would have at least 2 TD’s himself and possibly 100+ yards. A healthy and fit RB like CJ will get better as the 3rd quarter drags on and explode late in the game as everyone fatigues. He had a couple of 5+ yard runs late in Q4 under Case McCoy.
Makes me wonder why the coaches had him in the game on the goalline stand
if he had a sprained ankle.
"Well, a guy did a Horns down to him. You just shouldn’t do that."
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