Game Week Thread Week 2, 2024: Texas at Michigan

[jdhorn92 1535]

1 hour ago, JOSEYWALES66 said:

I still don't understand how that kick wasn't blocked.

 

 

Earnest Shazor tipped it iirc

 

Edited September 3 by jdhorn92
Found an article

[Gut Wagon 8046]

29 minutes ago, LTtxfan said:

Sark better have a plan to protect against sign stealing by michigan

Horns up = pass or run

Horns down = run or pass 

 

[6th Street 6324]

30 minutes ago, LTtxfan said:

Sark better have a plan to protect against sign stealing by michigan

Preferably something more sophisticated than CSU holding up a giant bed sheet in front of Jay Norvell

[Codaxx 5533]

1 minute ago, 6th Street said:

Preferably something more sophisticated than CSU holding up a giant bed sheet in front of Jay Norvell

Texas is going to sending plays in through the helmet radio 

[Longhornlove 4766]

1 hour ago, 6th Street said:

Also need Quinn to adjust his arm angle higher to keep those big DL from batting down passes.

He has had the same throwing motion forever, it won't change and even if he did, it would make little difference. He has to use throwing lanes on short passes just like every other quarterback on the planet.

[MNLonghornFUKM 8791]

Sark better have a plan to protect against sign stealing by michigan

It’d probably be more tapping into the headset frequency.

[sith_horn 2330]

25 minutes ago, Noozak said:

If Michigan wants to blitz Quinn that's a good place to start, but it seems like the obvious gameplan choice for Michigan. Sark should be prepared for it. Texas made a lot of money last year with running back swing passes and WR screens. If we're smart enough to ditch the slow-developing plays then we should be able to move the ball consistently.

Doesn't matter if it's obvious and Sark can do whatever but it will be the OL and Quinn that have to handle it. Quinn gets the yips if pressured enough. Or at least, he has in past, so hopefully he does better with that this season. One should certainly expect that he should, but until he proves it ...

I also hope he doesn't start slow. He didn't against Bama last season, so that's encouraging, but it's been an issue for him in the past. He did take some time to get into his groove last Saturday, but I figure that was probably just rust.

@6th Street, I doubt he will adjust his throwing motion. At this point, it is what it is.

[Hank_Hill 18260]

Bama had 2 DEs and 2 corners taken in the first 2 rounds last year. Ewers will crush. 

[Burt Macklin 18979]

3 hours ago, Codaxx said:

I was thinking if Michigan should play 2023 Texas defense. Play coverage and ask their 2 beasts in the middle to handle the run game. I just do not think that is in Wink's DNA. Some blitzes will get home but give up a couple explosives (especially early) and the game could get out of hand for Michigan. 

Only change I could see offensively out of Michigan is a heavy option game plan using Orji. Warren was in start 1, so he will probably be better, but I cant see him improving enough to make the passing game anything more than a C-. If Texas contains the run, I cant see Michigan scoring 20 without turnovers/special teams. 

That would be an extremely stupid way to play it. Their offense is terrible. The only way for them to win is for their defense to be aggressive and create negative plays, especially against a QB like Quinn who doesn’t handle pressure well. If they went for your strategy, they’d still get picked apart because they have too many coverage holes at LB and in the secondary, and they’d be playing into Quinn’s hand. 

2 hours ago, JBJ said:

They had a 60% blitz rate vs Fresno.  They weren't holding back.

Yeah, they played a pretty standard Wink defense. Definitely not vanilla showing nothing. I’m sure Wink will have some wrinkles, but he showed us their normal defense last week. The big question is if Quinn can diagnose the rushers and handle it, and if Sark can catch the Michigan D out in blitzes with screens and the like. 

Edited September 3 by Burt Macklin

[Bullneck 18892]

 

 

[Brisketexan 104194]

So, most of my typical game-watching pals are actually going TO the game.  I will not (been out of town for 5 weekends in a row, so wasn't going to make another one happen).  Any of y'all gonna watch somewhere in central to NW Austin area (I'm in NW Austin).  Would be happy to connect with a Surly game-watching crew.

[AeroHorn 735]

6 hours ago, Mitch Cumsteen said:

I also get the Alabama parallels from last year, but it takes a different of a mentality to go in as the favorite instead of going in as the underdog. I don't care how many players they had to replace or how many coaches have moved on, anybody expecting anything but a dogfight is either a massive homer or hasn't been following college football for very long. 

Exactly. The better analogy could be the Alabama game one year earlier. Alabama had the GOAT, had won an NC 1.5 seasons earlier, had played for another NC 2 games earlier, with a Heisman QB, coming to a team with a decade of losing and a new HC in his second season; and they were a missed sack from losing on the road. 

 

we are not as good as those Alabama teams and Michigan is not as bad as our 2022 team, for us to be sanguine about an away football game against a very good team. 

[BornAndRaised 12213]

8 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

So, most of my typical game-watching pals are actually going TO the game.  I will not (been out of town for 5 weekends in a row, so wasn't going to make another one happen).  Any of y'all gonna watch somewhere in central to NW Austin area (I'm in NW Austin).  Would be happy to connect with a Surly game-watching crew.

I've heard word from @immamac that there will be a local watch party. Just waiting on the details.

[BornAndRaised 12213]

Also, sorry if already posted.

 

 

 

[HtownHorn 14365]

12 minutes ago, AeroHorn said:

Exactly. The better analogy could be the Alabama game one year earlier. Alabama had the GOAT, had won an NC 1.5 seasons earlier, had played for another NC 2 games earlier, with a Heisman QB, coming to a team with a decade of losing and a new HC in his second season; and they were a missed sack from losing on the road. 

 

we are not as good as those Alabama teams and Michigan is not as bad as our 2022 team, for us to be sanguine about an away football game against a very good team. 

Wtf is this bullshit.

Your comparison is we are 2022 Alabama, and Michigan is 2022 Texas? Michigan doesn't have a fucking QB as good as Hudson Card. There is no comparison after that.

[AeroHorn 735]

5 minutes ago, HtownHorn said:

Wtf is this bullshit.

Your comparison is we are 2022 Alabama, and Michigan is 2022 Texas? Michigan doesn't have a fucking QB as good as Hudson Card. There is no comparison after that.

The point was about the mentality of the teams, whether visiting as a favorite (Alabama 2022, Texas 2024) or an underdog (Texas 2022, Michigan 2024), and not analyze the team makeup, matchups etc. The overall nature of the teams (top ~10) is close enough for this to hold true. 

[Dahobbs 17314]

20 minutes ago, AeroHorn said:

we are not as good as those Alabama teams and Michigan is not as bad as our 2022 team, for us to be sanguine about an away football game against a very good team. 

I'm not so sure about either of the bolded statements, but I agree with the overall conclusion. 

[Park Gothic 4915]

28 minutes ago, AeroHorn said:

we are not as good as those Alabama teams and Michigan is not as bad as our 2022 team, for us to be sanguine about an away football game against a very good team. 

The internal logic here doesn't make sense. 2024 Texas is not as good as 2022 Bama, even though a clearly inferior 2022 Texas team almost beat Bama but for some extreme ref fuckery? And 2024 Michigan is not as bad as that 2022 Texas team? How do you project that after one game?

I understand the vibe of your comment, but the logic makes no sense. Yes, Texas is going to go into Ann Arbor with a lot of confidence, comparable to Bama coming to Austin in 2022. We should keep in mind that an 8-5 Texas team in 2022 took Bama to the wire. That is a cautionary tale worth noting. But Michigan just won the fucking national championship. In 2022, Texas was coming off a 5-7 season with an embarrassing loss to Arkansas. Of course Bama was overconfident. It's not even remotely the same situation. 

[thunderlounge 7674]

 

[AeroHorn 735]

You all got the main point I was making, which is that Texas 2022 home against Alabama is more relevant than Texas 2023 away at Alabama. On paper, a weaker team (2022) almost/did win at home. Looking at 2023 is probably not as relevant because we were both playoff teams. Also, was Alabama an underdog last year? I don’t remember. 

[HtownHorn 14365]

1 minute ago, AeroHorn said:

You all got the main point I was making, which is that Texas 2022 home against Alabama is more relevant than Texas 2023 away at Alabama. On paper, a weaker team (2022) almost/did win at home. Looking at 2023 is probably not as relevant because we were both playoff teams. Also, was Alabama an underdog last year? I don’t remember. 

No, they were not the underdog, they were Top #3-4, we were #11.

[AeroHorn 735]

2 minutes ago, HtownHorn said:

No, they were not the underdog, they were Top #3-4, we were #11.

Which further proves the hypothesis that the underdog carries an advantage (moxie? Gumption? Can-do spirit?) that we won’t have this time. 

[Doc Daneeka 6769]

9 minutes ago, AeroHorn said:

Which further proves the hypothesis that the underdog carries an advantage (moxie? Gumption? Can-do spirit?) that we won’t have this time. 

If you presume that Alabama came to Austin with the same mindset Texas takes to Ann Arbor, maybe, since part of the “moxie” equation is a somewhat overconfident and self-satisfied favorite. 

I doubt, but cannot prove, that Alabama took Texas more lightly than Texas is taking the defending national champions. Sarkisian is hammering that championship. And 41-3. And 26, or whatever, in a row at home. This isn’t a “roll the Longhorn helmet out there and expect good things” kind of staff. Or team. 

I understand the comparison, I just don’t think it holds. 

Edited September 3 by Doc Daneeka

[AeroHorn 735]

I hope so. Sark has enough experience under Saban/Carroll coaching championship teams to be vary of overconfidence. I was just pointing out that a very good team with recent success and at home would still be dangerous even with a depleted roster. 

[The Ace of Aces 5099]

I think this will be a close game and low scoring because there won’t be that many offensive snaps.

But Sark has prepared a gameplan for 9 months for this game and I trust he and Quinn know how to counter how Michigan will prepare for them. The thing that gives concerns is turnovers. That can quickly make Texas’ offense in this game go sideways. 

[msucolt45 3978]

56 at kick now

Chance of rain around 40% too.

Hook’em!!!

[msucolt45 3978]

I still stand by my 8+ margin of victory for the Horns.

Hook’em!!!

[BachelorTrek 2908]

20 minutes ago, Doc Daneeka said:

If you presume that Alabama came to Austin with the same mindset Texas takes to Ann Arbor, maybe, since part of the “moxie” equation is a somewhat overconfident and self-satisfied favorite. 

I doubt, but cannot prove, that Alabama took Texas more lightly than Texas is taking the defending national champions. Sarkisian is hammering that championship. And 41-3. And 26, or whatever, in a row at home. This isn’t a “roll the Longhorn helmet out there and expect good things” kind of staff. Or team. 

I understand the comparison, I just don’t think it holds. 

Meatchicken is 2-6 against Top 5 opponents in Little-Annie Arbor, including a much-faster FSU team that waxed them there by 20 in '91, 51-31.

Edited September 3 by BachelorTrek

[LTtxfan 48761]

5 minutes ago, The Ace of Aces said:

I think this will be a close game and low scoring because there won’t be that many offensive snaps.

Yeah, michigan is much more comfortable in lower scoring competitive games where they limit offensive snaps of their opponents.  

Turnovers, special teams, penalties, and red zone execution are likely to be important in this game.  Weather might be a real factor too.

 

Edited September 3 by LTtxfan

[Doc Daneeka 6769]

6 minutes ago, BachelorTrek said:

Meatchicken is 2-6 against Top 5 opponents in Little-Annie Arbor, including a much-faster FSU team that waxed them there by 20 in '91, 51-31.

Forgive me if I don’t think a 1991 game will mean fuck all on Saturday. No one playing was even born. 

[TotallyLegit 3050]

3 minutes ago, Doc Daneeka said:

Forgive me if I don’t think a 1991 game will mean fuck all on Saturday. No one playing was even born. 

Yeah, but..."Little-Annie Arbor"

[Texasborn91 888]

Don’t turn the ball over, don’t give up chunk plays. We will win by 10+. The weather is going to help us big time… we are going to be fucking flying around the field

[texifornia 56180]

16 minutes ago, BachelorTrek said:

Meatchicken is 2-6 against Top 5 opponents in Little-Annie Arbor, including a much-faster FSU team that waxed them there by 20 in '91, 51-31.

It's a quiet stadium. That big bowl looks neat, but it disperses noise and keeps the crazies in the cheap seats miles from the actual field.

[Funk Doctor Spock 11728]

Our secret weapon is Barron. The dude even lined up next to Ant as a LB. He's a cheat code at this point with playing a more modern Tampa 2 defense with some new wrinkles thrown in. Gbenda ain't afraid to woodshed their RBs. Ant is a freak, Moore, Sorrell, Collins, and Burke can be freaks. Collins and Broughton together is a nice combo. Collins is even dropping back. And that's just the vanilla stuff. Having 3 safeties out there to nullify the middle stuff, Holmes and Muhammed are sticky. I feel really, really good about this game. Not even a little bit nervous which I usually am. It's crazy just how different this team is. 

We also have the advantages of Quinn in year 3, a stacked and talented roster of WR's, 3 capable backs, with 2 speed backs and Gibson as a pounder. 2 TE'S that can catch, and Shannon who is a long ass hard nosed blocker. I think Texas wins this game by 2 TD's or more. After Michigan subs their first team D, Sark will hit them in the middle or deep, doesn't matter. Wingo, Golden, Bond, Bolden, Cook, Moore Jr is absolutely filthy. Our o-line, especially the tackles are great, and Quinn can get the ball out quick over t by the top. 

Edited September 3 by Funk Doctor Spock

[Pancho 44004]

28 minutes ago, BachelorTrek said:

Meatchicken is 2-6 against Top 5 opponents in Little-Annie Arbor, including a much-faster FSU team that waxed them there by 20 in '91, 51-31.

Don’t do this 

[PTINS 3425]

6 hours ago, Fondren & Main said:

Quinn gets a boner for these games and Rod Babers who is usually Mr. Negativity  is absolutely giddy about this team.

6 hours ago, mwaadeeb said:

We haven't had this much depth since I can remember (other than RB, which is fine but thin). If we stay relatively healthy and our secondary plays well I don't see a weakness. We ought to wreck fucking shop.

5 hours ago, HenryJames said:

I think Rod likes seeing the secondary actually play well.

Rod earned playing time along side multiple AA's and Thorpe winners. He knows what good DB play and players look like. He's also watched Texas, as an analyst, for the past few years. 

What Texas has now is light years better than 2 or 3 years ago.  Having a DB room that grades from B+ to- C- is a big reason to be "Mr. Negativity."

What Texas has now is light years better than 2 or 3 years ago. Too early to call it a strength, but definitely improved from years past.

45 minutes ago, AeroHorn said:

I hope so. Sark has enough experience under Saban/Carroll coaching championship teams to be vary of overconfidence. I was just pointing out that a very good team with recent success and at home would still be dangerous even with a depleted roster. 

very good team ... with a depleted roster?

Does not compute.

23 minutes ago, Texasborn91 said:

Don’t turn the ball over, don’t give up chunk plays. We will win by 10+. The weather is going to help us big time… we are going to be fucking flying around the field

Yes, yes, yes, yes, and HELL YES!

Turf field and cool weather will showcase the Texas team speed Saturday.

Salk always praises the team as fast and violent.

Texas wins.

[Biff Tannen 45384]

3 hours ago, sith_horn said:

He did take some time to get into his groove last Saturday, but I figure that was probably just rust.

This is something that cannot continue to happen if we want to be a championship caliber team.  He has to fix this.  This week.

[Carl Spackler 3460]

4 hours ago, Hermanator said:

It's not in isolation. Their 2 longest runs were due to LBs missing gap assignment, the longest run being on Anthony Hill. As far as I could tell the DTs held up inside and didn't give up much push at all. They didn't really make many plays either which could be a negative but I'm not sure what they're expected to do based on scheme the majority of the time. It's a difficult position to judge if they aren't getting blown off the ball without the aid of knowing scheme responsibilities and All 22 film. 

I felt our OL and running game was actually worse than the DL and run defense. The raw numbers look pretty good but their run efficiency was poor given the opponent. The percentage of runs that went for 3 yds or less without getting either a first down or TD was around 55 percent. Need to get that down to about 40 percent to get a great running game going. 

I agree that it's almost impossible to be certain about player performance without knowing the play call and individual player responsibilities within that call/scheme.  There will always be a certain amount of conjecture in that regard.  It's possible that Savea, Lole, et al. did exactly what they were tasked to do within the scheme.  If I have time (ha ha, things are busy right now), I'd like to go back and focus on the interior D-line and see how they fared in terms of stacking up blockers and avoiding getting turned or pushed off the LOS.     

I also agree with you that our running game efficiency wasn't that good against CSU.  Lots of stuff to clean up.  The interior O-line getting beat on several occasions is somewhat worrisome given that both Grant and Graham of UM's defensive line will be playing on Sundays in the future.  That's a critical matchup. 

[Codaxx 5533]

2 hours ago, Burt Macklin said:

That would be an extremely stupid way to play it. Their offense is terrible. The only way for them to win is for their defense to be aggressive and create negative plays, especially against a QB like Quinn who doesn’t handle pressure well. If they went for your strategy, they’d still get picked apart because they have too many coverage holes at LB and in the secondary, and they’d be playing into Quinn’s hand. 

Yeah, they played a pretty standard Wink defense. Definitely not vanilla showing nothing. I’m sure Wink will have some wrinkles, but he showed us their normal defense last week. The big question is if Quinn can diagnose the rushers and handle it, and if Sark can catch the Michigan D out in blitzes with screens and the like. 

You clearly have your opinion and state it in your typical fashion. If Sark hasn’t been prepping for Wink to blitz, then he is negligent. Your opinion also presumes that Michigan is incapable of getting pressure with 4, which is certainly debatable. If you want to bring 5 and 6 defenders consistently, I will bet on some big plays for Texas. Sark is going to run a bunch of quick game and screens, because he isn’t an idiot. 

[Biff Tannen 45384]

Fuck the off season week before big games.

[texifornia 56180]

21 minutes ago, PTINS said:

Rod earned playing time along side multiple AA's and Thorpe winners. He knows what good DB play and players look like. He's also watched Texas, as an analyst, for the past few years. 

Everyone knows former players turned analysts are always very smart and definitely know their stuff. I know I loved listening to Spencer Tillman when he was in the booth with Tim Brando.

[GreenspointTexas 9478]

Ah, ol’ Annie Oakley-Arbor

[BERT 4311]

21 minutes ago, texifornia said:

Everyone knows former players turned analysts are always very smart and definitely know their stuff. I know I loved listening to Spencer Tillman when he was in the booth with Tim Brando.

Now you’re just being mean 

[TotallyLegit 3050]

25 minutes ago, GreenspointTexas said:

Ah, ol’ Annie Oakley-Arbor

Or Annie Get Your Gun Arbor, which is what the called it in those days.

[Codaxx 5533]

Interesting stat from Fresno State game. Fresno targeted Will Johnson 8 times. Completed 5 passes for 77. 29 yards after the catch. 4 of the 5 receptions went for 1st downs. He also had a pick 6.. 

[Hank_Hill 18260]

57 minutes ago, Biff Tannen said:

This is something that cannot continue to happen if we want to be a championship caliber team.  He has to fix this.  This week.

Actually, many championship QBs are not on for the entire game. He had one bad drive (pass?) last weekend. 

[hook me 2039]

9 hours ago, perfectchaos007 said:

Yeah as much as I want to believe that this game will be a double digit Texas blowout given what we’ve seen so far from both teams, I’m hesitant for a few reasons. For one, teams improve most from week 1 to week 2, but that’s even more true when pertaining to a team with as much turnover as Michigan had. As it was with last year in most Texas games, Michigan likely will use a different defensive scheme that isn’t currently on film to catch us off guard, how will we adjust? Donovan Edwards put up poor numbers against Fresno St and probably won’t have back to back poor showings unless he’s dealing with a lingering injury. Back in 2021 I also have PTSD from watching Arkansas look awful against Rice in week 1, only for Arkansas to blow out Texas in week 2. 
 

I still think Texas wins, but I can’t preemptively pencil in this W because I’ve been burned before 

Sometimes, when a team loses all of their playmakers, they just suck for a year or two while they rebuild. Not everyone has the UGA/BAMA recruiting to just fill holes left by NFL talent with even better NFL talent. Florida State seems like a good example of that, though Michigan doesn’t look quite that bad (yet). They lost their HC, lost 6 assistant coaches, don’t have their sign stealer, & replace 18 starters (10 on offense).

Barring 4+ turnovers UT will win & cover whatever the spread ends up being.

[closetojumping 62029]

2 hours ago, AeroHorn said:

I hope so. Sark has enough experience under Saban/Carroll coaching championship teams to be vary of overconfidence. I was just pointing out that a very good team with recent success and at home would still be dangerous even with a depleted roster. 

The notion that this game is potentially being overlooked or already counted as a win by the Texas program is fucking baffling. 

13 minutes ago, Hank_Hill said:

Actually, many championship QBs are not on for the entire game. He had one bad drive (pass?) last weekend. 

Yeah, criticisms of Ewers for last week are just people trying to conjure worries. 

[BachelorTrek 2908]

1 hour ago, Doc Daneeka said:

Forgive me if I don’t think a 1991 game will mean fuck all on Saturday. No one playing was even born. 

I didn't say it did. I was providing historical context on these Meatchicken chokers in big games at home.

Also, they are still part of the BIG SLOW TEN.

[D3zii 3623]

It’s a lot of rat poison out there!!! 
 

I hope Sark has the boys heads right!!!