After consecutive season-opening losses that turned Texas into a punch line, the goal for the Longhorns Saturday night was simple: start 1-0.
Louisiana Tech, not Maryland, was the opponent and UT accomplished its mission with a boring 45-14 victory that mattered only to the bettors in terms of the line and over/under. Boring is good when you avoid drama.
Texas faces another team from the Bayou State when it hosts LSU next Saturday in a prime-time contest that will bring ESPN’s “GameDay” to town. The Tigers were a bit gaudier in their season opener, trashing Georgia Southern 55-3. LSU totaled 472 yards and allowed just 98. Quarterback Joe Burrow was 23-of-27 for 278 yards and five TDs.
The game with LSU provides another chance to beat a Southeastern Conference team and help determine the Longhorns’ status in the national picture. Texas coach Tom Herman said (and believe what you want) that his team has ignored all the offseason talk.
“The letters L-S-U never came up since we left New Orleans,” he said in his postgame media session. “We’ve made sure we didn’t look forward to that game. Our leaders have known how the openers have turned out the last two years. Our analysts and grad assistants and have been breaking them down and will give us a detailed scouting report tomorrow. Other than that, we have done zero work on LSU.
“We’re going to celebrate for one hour and then we’re moving on to Sunday’s preparations.”
The added hoopla of the GameDay presence – its first trip to Austin since 2009 – comes with a caveat.
“We’ve got to play well,” Herman said. “The atmosphere that brings is great for recruiting. This will be a big recruiting weekend and a lot of unofficial visitors will get to experience it. It’s big for recruiting, big for the exposure of our program, provided we play well.”
Running backs
The biggest question/concern was the depth and health of the running backs. Sophomore Keaontay Ingram spent the last two weeks of practice in a no-contact green jersey because of a knee bruise. Freshman backup Jordan Whittington, who is still bothered by a sports hernia injury, saw limited snaps. Freshman Roschon Johnson, was moved to running back from quarterback to add some depth.
Ingram didn’t have a heavy workload against the Bulldogs, but gained 78 yards with a touchdown on 11 carries. He also had three receptions for 43 yards. Whittington didn’t have a carry but caught two passes for 17 yards.
“We’ve got to work on his patience and vision, but he did a really nice job of making something happen when there wasn’t much there,” Herman said of Ingram.
Whittington re-aggravated his hernia injury making a cut on his second reception. Herman said he was cleared to return but the decision was made to not risk further injury.
Johnson, who appears to have made the transition easily, had seven carries for 26 yards and two catches for 14 yards. He’s 6-foot-2 and 220 pounds and appears capable of contributing in a backup role. On Friday, Herman was informed Johnson had a stomach virus and was quarantined at the team hotel Friday night.
“When it rains, it pours,” Herman said. “Luckily it was a night game and he had time during the day to recover enough to play.”
A sharp quarterback
Junior Sam Ehlinger played just three quarters but tied his career high with four touchdown passes. Perhaps the best part of his stat line was that he only carried the ball seven times, gaining 34 yards (he was sacked once).
Ehlinger was 28 of 38 for 276 yards. He missed on a couple of throws to Smith that, if accurate, could have been big-play TDs. Texas was the only Power 5 team without a 50-yard play last season. The Longhorns’ second TD capped an 11-play drive. They had 17 TD drives of 10 or more plays last season.
Late in the first half, the offense sputtered when Louisiana Tech went blitz crazy and disrupted the offensive flow. That defensive scheme will be something that LSU might dial up Saturday.
“Sam managed the game really well,” Herman said. “Sam checked us into some really good plays against the blitz and it was good to see him and our staff make so many good in-game adjustments.”
Replacing Lil’Jordan Humphrey
Last season’s leading receiver, Lil’Jordan Humphrey, was a powerful 6-foot-4 force who operated out of the slot in UT’s offense. His replacement is cut from a different mold but had an outstanding debut in his new role.
Senior Devin Duvernay, 5-foot-11, had a career-high nine receptions for 55 yards. He scored the Longhorns’ first touchdown and helped jump-start that opening drive by returning the opening kickoff 36 yards.
“He has taken to the slot position better than any of us could have better imagined,” Herman said. “We knew they’d load the box to stop the run so we flipped it out to him on the edge a lot. That’s gonna be his deal. He’s difficult to tackle, you saw that on the kickoff return.”
Freshman Jake Smith, who is Duvernay’s backup, had four catches for 31 yards.
Defensive assessment
Texas is replacing eight starters from last season’s team. Even with that experience, the Longhorns allowed a total of 51 points on opponents’ opening drives. They blanked Louisiana Tech until early in the fourth quarter.
“We forced three turnovers and had two fourth down stops by our defense,” Herman said. “That’s five big stops.”
Defensive coordinator Todd Orlando praised linebacker Joseph Ossai, defensive end Malcolm Roach and defensive back Chris Brown for their play. Sophomore safety Caden Sterns had eight tackles and a pass breakup while sophomore corner back, making his first start, had five tackles (four solo) and two pass breakups.
The Bulldogs finished with 413 total yards, 340 through the air. Falling behind early and being stuffed in the run game (just 2.8 yards per carry) led to Louisiana Tech to throw it 54 times.
Texas debuted a third-down package called “Cowboy” that features eight defensive backs. The Bulldogs converted five-of-14 third downs.
“From our offense facing that package, it’s complicated in terms of setting your protection.,” Herman said. “There’s a lot of speed on the field.”
Backups get playing time
With a 38-0 lead going into the fourth quarter, Herman was able to go to the bullpen for the first time in his time in Austin. The last two seasons, Texas has not had the luxury of playing a backup QB unless because of injury.
Redshirt freshman Casey Thompson played most of the fourth quarter, directing three drives. After Texas forced its third turnover, Thompson capped a five-play, 27-yard drive with a two-yard scoring run for the game’s final points.
“It’s learning and it’s full-speed learning,” Herman said of getting playing time for the reserves. “I’m glad we’ve got those backups a chance to play in the fourth quarter. When we got up 38-0, that’s a pretty big lead and we felt comfortable pulling the starters.”
Final thought
Sophomore receiver Brennan Eagles had three catches for 59 yards and two touchdowns. He’s listed at 6-foot-4 and 225 pounds and according to Herman can run “21 miles per hour” which we assume is fast.
“He’s about as selfless a player as we have on this team,” Herman said. “After his first touchdown, he sprinted to go hug a big guy. That was … friggin’ awesome.”
The Texas coach appeared to really want to use another word that start with “f” but audibled to the cleaner word.