Five Questions – Rice | Horns Illustrated

In the years to come, folks will likely remember Texas’ 42-28 victory over Rice Saturday as the coming-out party for quarterback Jerrod Heard, who earned his first college start.

But the real stars of the Longhorns’ home-opener win was the special teams — namely the punt return unit — and the defense that forced five turnovers to help thwart the Owls. With the team coming together, Texas escaped with its first win of the season, before 86,458 fans at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium.[s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)] 

There’s no doubt that Texas got a much-needed spark from Heard, who blazed away on a 35-yard scramble on the second offensive snap of the game. With the Longhorns’ offense simplified this week after Jay Norvell took over as offensive coordinator and play-caller from Shawn Watson, Heard took advantage of the times when things broke down. He hit just enough of his passes (4-of-7, for 120 yards and two touchdowns) to keep the Owls’ defense honest.

“Heard gives us some juice at quarterback and that’s what this team needed in this game,” head coach Charlie Strong said. “He can beat the defense with his feet and you never know what will happen once he gets around the corner.

“We had to make the change [from former starter Tyrone Swoopes to Heard] for the team,” he added. “We needed to get a spark and we needed to give Heard a chance.”

After an early Heard-to-Armanti Foreman 32-yard touchdown pass, the Longhorns (1-1) created some separation in the first quarter with two huge punt returns. Daje Johnson spun and sprinted his way to an 85-yard punt return touchdown and later in the period Duke Thomas’ 56-yard return led to a 2-yard touchdown plunge by Johnathan Gray and a 21-0 Texas lead.

“Coach has been after me pretty hard to make something happen so I’m glad that I was able to get loose and get us rolling,” Johnson said. “There’s an attitude to this team that we’re still working to reveal, but getting this win and getting some momentum was a good start toward our goals.”

Rice (1-1) got back in the game with two touchdown runs by Samuel Stewart from 22 and 16 yards, respectively, and the Owls trailed just 21-14 at the half.

Texas added to its lead on the first offensive snap of the third quarter as Heard hit freshman John Burt with a 69-yard touchdown pass. Later in the period, the Longhorns’ freshman linebacker Malik Jefferson scooped a fumble and raced 26 yards for a touchdown that pushed the lead to 35-14.

The fumble was caused by freshman Kris Boyd, who blew into the backfield and disrupted the timing of the option pitch between quarterback and running back.

The Longhorns pushed across a 2-yard touchdown run by D’Onta Foreman before Rice cut into the lead on a 4-yard pass from Driphus Jackson to Temi Alaka, ending an 18-play drive. The Owls scored again on a 14-yard pass from backup quarterback Tyler Stehling to Luke Turner with 36 seconds left.

Stewart led Rice with 130 yards on 25 carries. The Owls outgained Texas 462-277, ran 96 plays to the Longhorns’ 38 and had a whopping 44:02 to 15:58 edge in time of possession.

Rice, however, suffered five turnovers.

“We had to take care of the ball and we didn’t,” Rice coach David Bailiff said. “We believe we had the better football team and came in here expecting the win but we made too many mistakes.”

Strong lamented about the amount of tackles the Longhorns missed and sacks they let slip away. Rice converted 14 of its third-down opportunities and it’s only attempt on fourth down.

“We have a long way to go before we’re the team we need to be,” Strong said. “We have to get off the field on third down; we didn’t because we missed about 20 tackles and 10 chances to sack the quarterback.”

 

Can Texas continue to win with Heard?

Yes, but only if the offense can be better than it was against the Owls. Ten passes by the two quarterbacks and 11 runs from the position spread across the Longhorns’ 38 snaps isn’t enough to beat the offensive-minded teams Texas will face the rest of the season.

The Longhorns were only 3-of-8 on third down conversions. Perhaps Heard will improve this week as he practices as Texas’ bona fide starter going forward.

“Jerrod has been working hard and he deserved the right to start,” Strong said. “I didn’t tell him until right before the game that he was going to be the starter. I knew that he’d be ready to play.”

Heard didn’t expect to start but knew he would see more playing time than the six snaps he played against Notre Dame.

“I felt like Coach was going to use me in a situational third down role or just to move the sticks,” Heard said. “When my number is called I just have to be ready.

“I had a blast,” he continued. “I’m trying to amp my game up, understand football more and understand defense at the college level.”

 

What did Norvell do to help the Texas offense?

In his post-game press conference, Norvell talked about the way the Texas staff worked together this week to not only make the transition into his role easy, but to instill confidence in the players.

“Our kids deserve the best coaching,” Norvell said. “We sat down and found the way we want to communicate in order to get the response we needed. Our players and coaches were embarrassed about how we played last week [at Notre Dame] and we wanted to respond.”

Texas will play better offensively as the team learns to play with confidence — an aspect that comes from knowing what to do and that the play calling will work.

“We have to be mindful that we’re not running schemes just to run schemes,” Norvell said. “We have to run schemes that are kids are confident in and can execute, and that we can find a way to get first downs. We have to build on what we did and find more ways to get chunks of yardage. We’re still not running the ball the way we need to, and somehow we need to do a better job there.”

Heard’s penchant for breaking out of the pocket puts added pressure on an opposing defense. Norvell said Heard’s ability to make something happen off schedule will be a big part of what Texas will do offensively.

“The quality of a good player is making something happen because the play isn’t always going to be blocked or executed perfectly,” Norvell said. “Jerrod has an ability to break from the pocket when the pocket breaks down and turn a bad play into a big run, a conversion or a first down and that’s huge.”

 

What was the biggest play?

Most people will vote for the two huge punt returns and Jefferson’s fumble return touchdown as the biggest plays of the game, but the nod here goes to Heard’s 69-yard scoring pass to Burt to open the second half.

At that time, the game was still up for grabs. Texas was only ahead 21-14 and was struggling on offense.

Burt said he approached Norvell at halftime and suggested the play.

“I told [Norvell] that I didn’t think the cornerback could stay with me and that I could get behind him for a big play over the top,” Burt said. “When I saw the ball in the air, I just attacked it and ran full speed into the end zone.

“It’s cool that the coaches got together and decided to run the play, to take a shot right out of halftime like that,” Burt added. “They’re listening to our input and that makes us feel good about what we’re doing.”

Strong said Texas expected Rice to blitz and to be in press coverage, which played right into the Longhorns’ plan to go deep.

“Burt ran a good route and beat [his opponent]; Jerrod laid it out there and let Burt run to go get it,” Strong said. “It was a good throw and catch.”

This was exactly the type of pass Watson has continually said Heard could not throw, which is one of the reasons Swoopes held onto his starting position for so long.

“I don’t know if I could’ve thrown that pass last year or even earlier this year,” Heard explained. “I have worked hard. I have a lot of confidence in the way I can throw the ball now and where I’m going with it.”

 

What are the concerns coming out of the victory against Rice?

After the shellacking Texas took at Notre Dame, any movement forward that results in a win is a positive step, especially because it proves to the young players that make up the most important set of this team that their work is producing something tangible.

But in order to keep winning the Longhorns need to improve at two fundamental phases of their game — running the ball and stopping the run.

Texas rushed for just 149 yards, with just 45 of those yards coming from its running backs. Gray, who Strong has planned for as many as 25 touches a game, got just nine carries for 17 yards against Rice and caught one pass for eight yards.

“I can’t remember playing a game like this where we scored so many points and ran so few plays,” Norvell said. “Our kids have to learn from this.”

Rice’s running attack abused Texas for 228 yards on 58 carries and its three running backs averaged 4.8 yards per tote on 43 touches.

“We had to get off the field on third down,” Thomas said. “Basically, when it gets down to it, you have to tackle and play within the defense. They converted third downs because we weren’t doing our job.”

 

What’s next for the Longhorns?

Texas will move forward with a needed infusion of momentum and confidence thanks to a win against a better-than-expected Rice squad.

Next up is Sept. 19th’s home contest against undefeated California, a 35-7 winner over San Diego State Saturday and — with its Air Raid-style offense — a better test for the Longhorns’ defense. Texas will need more from Heard, its running game and its front seven than it produced against Rice to beat the Golden Bears.

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