Victory over UTEP reveals little about 2016 Texas football team

By Steve Habel, Senior Editor

AUSTIN, Texas — Football coaches often point to the second game of the season as a true indication of the talent and desire of their teams and as an insight into how their players need to improve and who will shine when the lights are their brightest.

But the Texas Longhorns’ 41-7 win Sept. 10 over Texas-El Paso was not that indicator for the UT staff. With so many UT players held out of the game because of either injury or just to get a little rest against an obviously overmatched Miners’ squad, it’s difficult to judge the just how consistent the Longhorns’ starters will be.

“I’m excited about the win Saturday [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)]and the fact we got to play so many young guys to see where we are with our depth, but this week’s game will be the true test of our consistency and the focus of our top players,” Texas coach Charlie Strong said Monday at his weekly media availability.

“The Cal game will be a real transition game for us, and we’ll see how our senior leaders will handle keeping us focused on the road against a team we lost to last year.”

Freshman quarterback Shane Buechele was one of the starters who played, and played well, against UTEP. Strong lauded his young signal caller’s improvement from week his first collegiate game to his second.

“You look at how the team is playing for Buechele and how they respect the things he brings to the team, both on and off the field,” Strong said. “We have enough great players around him now and that’s helped him. He just has to be himself.”

The Longhorns are 2-0 for the first time since 2012, when they won their first four games of the season. Strong reiterated that this year’s team carries a different, better attitude than those of the past two seasons.

“We can always get better and improve, but I like the way we are moving the ball and the many weapons we have on the offensive side of the ball,” Strong said. “We have to improve our fundamentals and technique and we have to stop getting so many silly penalties, and we’ve only created one turnover in two games. That’s not enough.”

Other items addressed by Strong included:

• Strong said that all the starters that missed the UTEP game will be available for Cal.

• Buechele was named Big 12 Newcomer of the Week for the second time in as many weeks after becoming the first true freshman Texas quarterback ever to start the first two games of his career. Buechele completed 22 of 27 passes for 244 yards and four touchdowns against UTEP and finished the game with an efficiency rating of 206.28. His 81.5 completion percentage tied the single-game record by a true freshman quarterback at Texas, matching the standard James Brown set in 1994.

• Texas is just 5-8 in games away from Austin (and 4-5 in “true” road games) during Strong’s two-plus-year tenure on the 40 Acres.

• Cal quarterback Davis Webb threw 68 times in a 45-40 loss Saturday at San Diego State. Texas has passed 55 times as a team in its first two game this season.

• Saturday’s win was a game of firsts for many UT players. Safety Kevin Vaccaro and offensive linemen Alex Anderson and Elijah Rodriguez each started for the first time as a collegian. In addition, offensive linemen Terrell Cuney, Garrett Graf and Garrett Thomas, quarterback Matthew Merrick, linebacker Johnny Tseng, running backs Trenton Hafley and Tristian Houston and true freshmen Denzel Okafor, Lil’Jordan Humphrey and D’Andre Christmas all appeared for the first time in their careers against the Miners.

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