Five Questions – North Texas

Horns Get Stingy on Defense, Rout North Texas In Season Opener

By Steve Habel/Associate Editor

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The brisk warm breeze felt in Austin and across the Lone Star State on Saturday evening might actually have been a collective exhale from the Longhorn faithful as Texas easily beat North Texas 38-7 before a crowd of 93,201 fans at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium.

With the win, the Charlie Strong era on the 40 Acres began [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level1)]on a mostly positive note as the Longhorns manhandled an overwhelmed North Texas team thanks to a dominating defensive performance and opportunistic plays from Texas’ bevy of talented offensive performers.

If beating the Mean Green could be considered an off-Broadway debut for the 2014 Longhorns, Texas did just about all it needed to do to earn rave reviews.

“It was a great team victory,” said Strong afterward, when he almost broke a smile. “We just dominated on defense and made some plays that we needed to to score on offense. From day one nine months ago when we started this process it’s been all about making improvement every day and in every way. We did that tonight and it feels good to get the win.”

Texas (1-0) allowed North Texas just 94 total yards of offense and only 15 passing yards. The Mean Green were anything but in never gaining more than eight yards on any single play – North Texas had three eight yard runs in the game while its longest pass completion was for just seven yards.

“When you take away explosive plays from a team you take away their heart,” Texas senior cornerback Quandre Diggs said. “We went right after North Texas and made sure they never got a chance to get anything going in this game.”

Texas is now 102-17-3 in season-opening games and has won its past 15 season openers. UT has never lost to North Texas and has now outscored the Mean Green 186-14 in the past five games.

The Longhorns racked up four interceptions, all by players – Jordan Hicks, Dylan Haines, Demarco Cobbs and Adrian Colbert – who had never picked off a pass before. Those interceptions were aided by a blitzing Texas defense that sacked the Mean Green’s two quarterbacks four times and was constantly a disruptive force.

“We knew they were going to blitz us, but we didn’t know they were going to blitz us like they did,” North Texas quarterback Josh Greer said. “They blitzed us on 26 of the 28 plays we ran in the first half. That made us throw the ball early, and sometimes that backfired on us.”

It took the Horns until their fourth possession of the game to break through, as they took advantage of a dubious personal foul call on North Texas to keep a drive alive before marching to 1-yard scoring plunge by Malcolm Brown that gave them a 7-0 lead with 4:06 to play in the first quarter.

Key on the drive as well was a 27-yard Ash to John Harris pass on a scramble off a broken play that put the Horns into the red zone and converted a third down.

Texas expanded its advantage to 14-0 just under six minutes into the second quarter when Brown scored again, this time on a 3-yard run after a 28-yard catch and run by Harris to set the table. The first career interception by Hicks gave the Horns the ball at the UNT 31 and paved the way for the touchdown.

The Horns’ other running back, Johnathan Gray, did most of the heavy lifting on another march in the waning minutes of the first half, dashing off left tackle for 42 yards to the UNT 3 before failing to get into the end zone on three tries. Ash eventually rambled around right end on a bootleg and dove across the goal line to push the UT advantage to 21-0.

Texas outgained North Texas 190-31 in the first half, including a 108-4 discrepancy in passing. The Horns intercepted the two North Texas quarterbacks three times in the first 29 minutes of the game, and the defense’s domination set the table for a feeding frenzy in the second half.

Ash found Harris again on an 8-yard touchdown pass to punctuate the Horns’ opening drive of the second half that pushed the Texas lead to 28-0. Brown was a key cog in the drive, carrying four times for 38 yards.

Harris caught seven passes in the game, two more than he did in all of 2013.

Texas lost its chance at a shutout midway through the fourth quarter when Ash fumbled an exchange from backup center Jake Raulerson in his own end zone and the loose ball was pounced on by North Texas’ James Jones.

The Horns responded with a Nick Rose 34-yard field goal and Cobbs’ interception and 28-yard return for a touchdown.

Texas ended up with a 353-94 advantage in total offense.

“We tackled well and stayed intense throughout the game,” Strong said. “We are gonna enjoy this win tonight and go to work tomorrow on BYU. We will take every game one at a time, then look at the next one and the next one. But I’m happy to get this one behind us and to know a little more about what we have to work with.”

1. How was Ash’s performance?

UPDATE: This story was written before today’s Press Conference – For up-to-date information on David Ash please CLICK HERE

Perhaps the biggest question surrounding the Texas offense was how Ash would respond to getting hit after suffering from concussion syndrome last season and missing all but two and a half games.

Ash took his share of hits, including a sack in the third quarter when his head bounced off the ground, and came out unscathed.

“You have to remember that you’re going to get hit in this game,” Strong said. “It’s all about just him getting the ball (in time) to protect himself, and even when he took off once a couple of times he slid down or just ran out of bounds.”

Strong and quarterbacks coach Shawn Watson have said since the day they arrived in Austin that they want Ash to manage the offense and not try to win games on his own. And, for the most part, Ash did just that, hitting on 19 of his 34 throws for 190 yards and one TD and rushing seven times including his bootleg run for a touchdown.

“He had good moments and he had some not so good moments,” Watson said. “He’s sporadic. I know he’s very anxious to have a chance to play again after being gone for a year. He settled down, got in a nice rhythm and then kind of went in and out of a rhythm. We’ll get him fixed – he knows what he’s got to do.

The heat will be raised on Ash this Saturday when BYU – a team of men who know how to play the game the right way – comes to town.

“David has been his own worst critic at times and sometimes I’ve got to back him off himself,” Watson added. “The game, when you’re away from it, you know, the game, I’m sure went fast for him at times tonight.”

2. Were there any surprises in the game against North Texas?

It took one play for Strong to show that he’s capable of holding his cards close to the vest when it comes to personnel. When the Horns defense trotted out to the field for the first offensive snap sophomore Adrian Colbert – listed as a second-teamer at free safety – was instead the starter at strong safety.

Throughout the fall camp Strong told the media that walk –on Dylan Haines and true freshman Jason Hall were battling for the strong safety spot with no mention of Colbert. But it’s hard to question Strong and defensive coordinator Vance Bedford’s decision, especially after Colbert intercepted a pass and made three tackles for the Horns.

Colbert ended up starting, but they are all going to get plenty of opportunities. It’s just been one game, so you really can’t measure just how good that group is going to be because you want to see them improve each and every snap.

String said Colbert probably should have had another interception but he fell down and didn’t get back up in time. “The ball was thrown probably a yard from him but didn’t get off the ground,” he said. “[I told him] ‘(go) intercept the ball, don’t just lay there.’”

Haines, who said he signed a scholarship letter two weeks ago and is no longer a walk-on, also had an interception and made a tackle and was the fifth secondary member when the Horn went to the nickel defense.

“The kid is tough and he’s smart,” Bedford said of Haines. “His dad played here. I actually played with his dad. And so he has a lot of football in him, a lot of football awareness, and that’s important.”

Things in the secondary may change a lot when safety Josh Turner, who was suspended for at least the first game, is reinstated.

3. What went wrong for the Horns?

Not much went wrong. Playing a game against an inexperienced and undermanned North Texas team was exactly what the Horns needed to start the season.

The Texas defense didn’t allow North Texas to get closer than the UT 33 in the game (even that was on the final drive) but the Horns lost the shutout when Ash’s fumble in the end zone handed the Mean Green their only points. The two plays leading up to that miscue – two incomplete passes from its own end zone – are what actually cost the Horns.

Both of Texas’ fumbles were a result of bad exchanges between backup center Jake Raulerson and Ash. Raulerson was forced into the fray when starting center Dominic Espinosa injured his right ankle midway through the third quarter and left the stadium on a motorized cart.

Espinosa’s status for the BYU game was not disclosed but losing him would be a tough situation for the Horns’ young offensive line to overcome.

Nick Rose, the Horns’ new placekicker, missed a 38-yard field goal in the first quarter but subsequently hit one from 34 yards in the fourth quarter. His inconsistency has been a hot topic in fall camp and has to still be after the season opener.

4. Is Gray back to 100 percent at running back?

Both Gray (16 carries for 82 yards) and Brown (65 yards on 13 totes) were on top of their games against North Texas and worked together well. The balancing act between the two will be a key part of the Horns’ success this season.

Gray showed no ill effects from the ruptured Achilles that kept him out of the final four games in 2013.

“I said that if I was to pick an MVP from (fall) camp, it would be Johnathan Gray because of his total work ethic,” Strong said. “It wasn’t surprising when he broke that long one down the sideline because of how hard he works. “It’s just so fun to get him back.”

Gray said he felt great after the game and was focused on pushing forward and just getting better as a player.

“You know each and every year you have to grow and get better at everything,” Gray added. “The system we are using now is more balanced with the run and the pass. (We’re) getting the running backs in, they are getting their carries and getting their playing time. It’s more balanced and more systematic.”

5. What’s ahead for the Horns?
Everyone knows that BYU game is on that Strong has been pointing toward since the first time he met with his players in January.

BYU opened the 2014 campaign with a 35-10 road win over Connecticut on Aug. 29 that the Longhorns players watched intently.
“It’s going to be a tough game because last season we kind of gave Texas a good whooping,” BYU defensive back Michael Davis said of the Cougars’ 40-21 upset of Texas in Provo.

Strong said the Horns will take the preparation for BYU a day at a time.

“We’ll go into practice this week and correct what we didn’t do right in the first game,” he said. “We will work hard and take it day by day.”

Strong said he’s looking forward to the game with BYU but wanted his team to enjoy the win over North Texas and realize how far it’s come in the past eight months.
“Nine months ago, I walked in and saw a team that had no identity,” Strong said. “I saw a team that was all individuals, a team that just really didn’t care about nothing, didn’t care about themselves or who they represented and had no pride.

“We worked harder in preseason camp than we’ve ever worked before, and it was a challenge and they answered the challenge.
Everything we have asked of this team they have done.”

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