Five Questions: Texas Tech

Five Questions: Texas Tech

By Steve Habel
Senior Contributing Writer

What was the difference for Texas in the win over Texas Tech?
This one is simple: the Longhorns were able to run the ball and control the game, especially in the last two-and-a-half quarters. That is something Texas was not able to do the past two weeks in losses to Iowa State and Baylor, and it made all the difference in the world.

“We ran the football … and we didn’t abandon the run,” Texas coach Tom Herman said. “We knew two-, three-, four-yard runs were going to happen. We were going to stay committed to it. The offensive staff had a good plan. We played in a lot of ‘12 personnel’ [one running back and two tight ends] early in the game. Any time you can establish the run the way that we did kind of opens things up.”

Texas [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)]outrushed the Red Raiders, 262-71, with the Longhorns running the ball on 48 of its 76 snaps for an average of 5.5 yards per carry. That led to an advantage of more than nine minutes in time of possession for Texas, and took some of the pressure off of quarterback Sam Ehlinger, who was sacked just once for five yards in losses.

Running back Roschon Johnson led the Longhorns with 105 yards rushing and three touchdowns on a career-high 23 carries. Ehlinger added 83 yards on 10 carries. Most of them, unlike in weeks past, came on designed runs.

“Anytime an offense is running the ball well, you’re going to have a lot of success,” Ehlinger said. “Up front, we played great, and the guys with the ball in their hands were really tough and ran well, so it opened up a lot of things for us in the passing game because they had to come in and try to take away the run.”

What defensive adjustments did the Longhorns make to take over the game in the middle of the second quarter?
Texas, as has become the norm in the second half of the season, basically spotted Tech 14 first-quarter points before something lit a fire under the defense and the script was flipped.

“I don’t think we played harder. We were playing hard,” Herman said. “We played better. We didn’t draw up any magic blitzes or defenses. When you try to be simple, which was the game plan on all sides of the ball today, then you have to adjust a little bit when they poke and prod a little bit, find some areas of weakness. We’re not going to make wholesale changes and start calling different defenses. We’re going to fit what we’ve been repping all week to some of the certain things we’ve seen.

“We gave up some big plays, but I was proud we held them to under 50 percent on third down, and 1-of-4 on fourth down. We still gave up probably too many big pass plays. At the end of the day they got themselves off the field.”

Senior safety Brandon Jones echoed many of Herman’s comments, and said that the key to playing good assignment-based defense was to trust the training from practice and to get it all hang out on the field. That is what the Longhorns did the final two-and-a-half quarters against Texas Tech.

“We obviously we didn’t start well, but I once we just started having fun and just flying, around everybody really not caring about anything else but winning and taking care of each other and playing for the guy next to us, that was the biggest turning point,” Jones said.  “Like I said we were just out there having fun and … when we have fun with me play well.”

What was the game’s biggest plays?
Malcolm Epps’ 36-yard catch after a pinpoint pass into the seam between three Tech defenders from Ehlinger late in the first quarter pulled the Longhorns out of the doldrums and kicked the Texas offense into high gear.

The Longhorns needed a boost and needed someone to make a play, and Ehlinger and Epps came through with a connection that seemed to shock Texas into action.

“You can’t overstate it,” Herman said when asked about Epps’ catch. “You hate to have to rely on somebody making a play to spark some energy, but it certainly did — I know that. It was a great throw in a tight window, obviously a great catch. It definitely did rejuvenate our offense.”

Ehlinger concurred, saying the play sparked the team and Epps personally.

“It gave everybody energy on the sideline and gave him a lot of confidence,” Ehlinger explained. “Epps played a great game – anytime you’re kind of looking around and somebody makes a big play it gets the team going.”

What has wide receiver Devin Duvernay meant to the Longhorns this season?
The stats tell part of the picture:

• Duvernay caught six passes for a career-high 199 yards and one touchdown on Friday in his final game at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium.
• He has made 103 catches for 1,294 yards and eight touchdowns in 12 games this year.
• He is just the third receiver in Texas history (along with Kwame Cavil in 1999 and Jordan Shipley in 2009) to make at least 100 receptions in a season.
• He is just the second Texas receiver (joining Jordan Shipley in 2009) to log at least 1,200 receiving yards in a season.

Ehlinger lauded Duvernay for his production and his leadership.

“When he got moved inside, it helped because he is such a smart player,” Ehlinger said. “He did a great job of coming in and filling that role. Yeah, I can’t put to into words what he’s done for us this year.”

Duvernay is, in our opinion, the team’s most valuable player … and it isn’t even close.

What’s next for Texas?
The Longhorns have finished the regular season 7-5 overall and 5-4 in Big 12 play, and will be watching at home, like the rest of us, when Baylor and Oklahoma play for the conference title next Saturday in Arlington.

Then UT will play in a mid-level bowl, likely either the Camping World Bowl in Orlando, the Liberty Bowl in Memphis or the Texas Bowl in Houston.

It is not exactly what anyone expected of Texas when the season began, but them’s the facts.

Herman said after the win over Texas Tech that Longhorns fans should know that he’s not happy with the overall performance of the team but that the program is heading in the correct direction.

“We’re going to be OK. Things are still headed in the right direction,” he said. “Obviously we’re not happy with the totality of the season. The kids are fighting. We’ve got a lot of young, talented players that will be able to have another year, some of them their first year, under their belt to develop and fill some of these really big shoes that these seniors will leave.

“The future is very, very bright. But we’re not oblivious to the fact that we’ve got to evaluate what needs to be fixed and fix it.”

Ehlinger expanded upon his coach’s thoughts, saying he has “full faith we’re headed in the right direction.”

“Obviously, we would have like things to be different this year,” Ehlinger said. “Since 2011 it’s the first time we’ve produced three (straight) winning seasons, and, I mean, that’s a step, you know.

“Rome wasn’t built in a day. If you had told Texas fans three years ago that we (would have) seven wins and we’re headed to a bowl game and had a chance to win I think people would’ve been pretty happy.”
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