Texas Football: Five Questions — San Jose State

By Steve Habel 

Now this is more like it.

There’s nothing like a blowout win over an overmatched opponent to rekindle hope. Texas’ 56-0 victory over San Jose State on Saturday before a sun-splashed crowd of 88,117 at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium, however, was more than the token beat down.

The contest was an awakening of sorts — just a week later than the Longhorns, head coach Tom Herman and the fans expected. [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)]

This win also acted as a rebooting of Texas running back Chris Warren III, who scored twice and racked up 166 of Texas’ 406 yards on the ground. With his help, the Longhorns shrugged off a ragged start and swamped a clearly-out-of-its-league San Jose State team.

The victory was Texas’ first of the Herman era, as the Longhorns’ overall depth, size and talent overwhelmed San Jose State. Texas outgained San Jose State 623-171 and had six rushing touchdowns.

“That’s what it should look like when you’re playing well on both sides of the ball,” Herman said. “I’m proud of our guys for tuning out the noise and the distractions they could’ve allowed to creep in after last week’s showing.

“They came to work ready to go, focused, locked in, but relaxed,” Herman added. “There was a quiet confidence in them.”

The Longhorns (1-1) struggled early on but used its rushing attack — and namely sophomore Warren III and third-string quarterback Jerrod Heard — to take control of the game with three touchdowns in the first half.

Heard, who has worked mostly as a wide receiver this season, ran 9 yards for Texas’ first touchdown at the 2:56 mark of the first quarter as the Longhorns forged a 7-0 lead.

Warren III then ran 41 yards for a score at 2:12 into the second quarter to push Texas’ advantage to 14-0. Heard added to the lead with a 3-yard touchdown run with 16 seconds to play before halftime as the Longhorns built a 21-point cushion at intermission.

True freshman Sam Ehlinger (15-of-27 passing for 222 yards and a touchdown) got the start for the Longhorns in favor of sophomore Shane Buechele, who bruised his throwing shoulder last week in Texas’ 51-41 loss to Maryland. Buechele was ruled out of the game 30 minutes before kickoff.

Montel Aaron led the Spartans (1-2) with 104 yards passing. Fans would be hard-pressed to find anything else remotely positive about San Jose State’s performance.

“Texas is better than us,” San Jose State coach Brent Brennan said. “There were some chances for us in the first half when we could’ve made it interesting, but the Longhorns kicked our butts, fair and square. Texas called some good plays in the run game and we missed tackles at the point of attack.”

Texas outgained San Jose State 310-100 in the first half, including a 186-38 advantage on the ground, and owned 19:48-10:12 edge in time of possession before halftime.

The Longhorns kept their foot to the pedal in the third quarter, driving 92 yards in 16 plays to a Kyle Porter 3-yard touchdown run that extended their lead to 28-0. Texas held the ball for 6:35 of the quarter during the march, which featured 12 runs and two short completions.

Texas’ defense also got in on the fun, scoring on a 45-yard Holton Hill interception return with 48 seconds remaining in the third quarter. The score marked Hill’s third touchdown this season on a return (he had touchdowns after an interception and a blocked field goal in the opener against Maryland). Texas didn’t have a single defensive or special teams score in the 2016 campaign.

Warren III added his second touchdown of the game early in the fourth quarter, carrying a defender and guard Patrick Hudson into the end zone on a 9-yard touchdown run.

Ehlinger got the first touchdown pass of his Texas career early in the fourth quarter on a 1-yard shovel pass to Armanti Foreman. Another true freshman, running back Toneil Carter, scored the final points of the game on a 4-yard run with 2:46 to play.

 

Who was the game’s most important player?

The nod goes to Warren III, who showed the combination of hard-nosed running and athleticism he first showcased at the end of the 2015 season, when he broke freshman rushing records and led the Longhorns to wins over Texas Tech and Baylor.

Warren ran through San Jose State defenders, jumped over them and sprinted past them.

“It was playing ball — that’s all it is,” Warren said. “It’s good to come out and play ball, because that’s why you’re here. Today, I saw us executing better than we did last week. We played a lot harder this week too. We played for each other and that helped us get it today.”

Asked if the Longhorns needed the kind of win they produced against San Jose State, Warren had an interesting response.

“I don’t know because last week we needed that too,” he said. “We needed both games. We needed the adversity and the success. We needed both. Last week and this week. You need adversity because you need to know how to respond when the games get tougher. Not every game will be easy and not every game will go your way.”

Herman said afterward that Warren showed flashes of brilliance in practice but expects even more from the 6-foot-4, 250-pound running back.

“We all knew his ability was there, but he’s been banged up and missed some time for us,” Herman said. “He’d be the first to tell you that he’s not a finished product. He made a lot of yards on some runs because he’s a [big] guy that ran hard. He still has work to do in terms of seeing the holes open up.

“But I was really proud. Chris is a guy that, in nine months, has made a commitment to running tougher, stronger and lower. You saw that today. That was good, to see him take his training to the game field.”

 

Do the Longhorns have a quarterback situation on their hands?

Buechele had started all 13 previous games since arriving on the 40 Acres, but couldn’t go Saturday because of an injured shoulder. In stepped Ehlinger, who made the plays he needed to against a team Texas was able to beat in virtually every phase of the game.

“Sam played well … for that being his first collegiate start,” Herman said. “He was poised in the pocket. However, there were times he wasn’t seeing the coverage as well, and there were some throws to be made and he hung on to it a little bit too long.

“But he wasn’t sacked, so he got himself out of some trouble. When he did hang on to the ball too long, at least he made up for it by scrambling around, throwing it away or scrambling for positive yardage.”

For Ehlinger, who grew up in Austin and watching Texas football games in Royal-Memorial Stadium, being the starting quarterback for the Longhorns was a mind-blowing.

“It’s one of those things where it’s so surreal that it takes a long time to settle in,” Ehlinger said. “There are a lot of things that I can improve on.”

Buechele’s status is still up in the air, and with what the Longhorns will face on Saturday at USC, practice time will be essential for whomever gets the start.

“I don’t know about Shane,” Herman said. “Obviously, he wasn’t able to go. I thought we were on track to get something out of him today. He’s progressing. But still, that shoulder, I would be hard-pressed to say if we played tomorrow that he could go. He’s a couple days away.”

Herman said he would wait to make his decision on the starting quarterback moving forward.

“It would be premature of me to say that today,” Herman said. “We have to see how healthy Shane can be. He played well against a good team in Maryland. We have to make sure.

“We know we have a capable one in Sam. We have to make sure Shane can do everything he’s capable of doing and doing it at an elite level before we throw him back in there because, you don’t want a setback from a health standpoint from him. Also, you don’t want the pride of getting him in to inhibit the offense’s production. We’ll know more about what kind of decision we have to make based on Shane’s health on Tuesday and Wednesday.”

 

Which unit showed the most improvement against San Jose State?

The defense — without a doubt. The Spartans came into the Texas game averaging 475 of offense per game (including one contest against Charlie Strong’s top-25 ranked South Florida team) and just missed getting to that average against the Longhorns ― by over 300 yards.

“They were embarrassed by the loss to Maryland and they knew that that wasn’t them,” Herman said. “Coach [Todd] Orlando and his staff put them in a great position and got them right mentally. Hats off to the kids for cutting it loose today and playing aggressive and without hesitation.

“We had a couple of coverage busts so we have to address that. But for the most part, I was proud of them.”

 

What was the difference in UT’s intensity between this game and in the loss to Maryland?

Playing a San Jose State team that Texas could dominate physically and overwhelm with its depth only helped the Longhorns. The team showed a different level of focus, displayed cockiness and played with confidence.

Maybe there was something to Herman’s statement this week when he said his team played “too hard” against Maryland and that they wanted it “too much.”

“Man, did our guys fly around?” Herman said. “They cut it loose and played with confidence and swagger. That was something that was missing.

“This is a smart team, a team that saw all of the errors from last Saturday and vowed to correct them. The way we do that in our culture is to go out and work our tails off and make sure we do things so intensely at practice that eventually it becomes habit in the game. I saw a lot of good habits being reinforced today, whereas there was a lot of bad habits that crept back into our team against Maryland. So now we’ve got to do it again. We have a real one this week.”

 

What’s next for Texas?

The Longhorns take a lot of momentum (and a week-too-late-wake-up-call) to the West Coast next Saturday when they battle No. 4 Southern California in the storied Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

How Texas plays against USC — and expect the Longhorns to be a two-touchdown-or-more underdog ― will determine the direction of this team, much more than a shutout win over an outmatched San Jose team could.

“We’re feeling pretty good about ourselves,” Hill said. “But not too good because we know we have another great opponent t next week. Everyone is excited to go out there and play a great team.” [/s2If] [s2If !current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)] [article-offer] [/s2If]