Morning Coffee Tries To Get Back On Track

Way back in June, when Roy Watts and J'Marcus Webb transferred from the program, we lamented the sudden lack of depth at tackle. That depth is more relevant than ever after Adam Ulatoski's injury against TCU.

Mum's the word on the extent of his injury, but the plan right now is to slide Chris Hall to right tackle while inserting Cedric Dockery in at right guard.

It's hard to say exactly what that means for the line. Chris Hall wasn't doing well at guard and, according to those who know line play far better than I do, performed much better at tackle. There's also the return of Dockery, who is probably Texas' best pure run blocker right now. And, of course, we should note that Ulatoski just hasn't looked very good in his young career at Texas. Could this be a net plus? It's too early to say, but the depth questions are as relevant as ever. If the coaches think Tray Allen is close to being ready, they need to find times to get him in the games.

Chip Brown says it's "official": Texas is a pass-first team. During Mack Brown's Monday chat with reporters, he indicated that he understood this team couldn't be a run-first group like the Vince Young-led offenses were.

"Whether you throw it to run or run it to throw, it's unimportant to us. We've usually tried to run it to throw it. And if it's more important for us to spread people out and hit some creases, we'll do that."

This is a more important development than it might appear, especially if you believe that what Greg Davis does in the booth has a lot to do with what Mack Brown thinks the offense needs to establish. It very well might be, for instance, that Mack Brown was the one who thought Texas needed to open the TCU game with two offset-I formation run plays to try to "establish" some sort of running presence.

We'll find out this week how much of all this is just talk, and how much is actual evolution.

LD's weekly ESPN Gameday show review is up for perusal. Those of you who may be new to these parts may not know of this outstanding feature, but LD is brave enough to annotate each week's ESPN Gameday show, with analysis on what CFB's most influential pundits are saying.

Why does it matter? For a primer, go back and read LD's 2005 college football narrative essay. Whether we like it or not, the talking heads still set the college football agenda. And that agenda influences voters. And voters, of course, still send two teams to play for the crystal football.

This week's ESPN Pick 'Em League games are up and ready for selection, and my are there some tough ones. As noted in the previous thread, FSU @ Colorado is no easy game to call, nor is Notre Dame-Michigan, Tennessee-Florida, or Arkansas-Alabama. Entries must be submitted by 11 AM Saturday.

--PB--