First Look: Texas Longhorns

The 4-0 Baylor Bears travel to Austin on Saturday for a 2:30 matchup with the Texas Longhorns on ABC. If we wanted a time to shine, we've got it.

By Mark C. Moore Sep 29, 2014, 8:46pm CDT

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7/6 BAYLOR (4-0, 1-0) at NR/RV TEXAS (2-2, 1-0)
Oct. 4, 2014 | 2:30 p.m. CT
Austin, Texas | DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium (100,119)
TV: ABC

Listen | Gametracker | Notes | Tickets | Gameday Central

Texas Blogs

Texas Longhorns

TEXAS BLOGS

Texas Longhorns blog Barking Carnival Texas Longhorns blog Burnt Orange Nation

OPPONENT: Texas Longhorns
ODB GAME HUB: Baylor Bears vs. Texas Longhorns 2014
ODB PREDICTS: Baylor vs. Texas
MEET THE PRESS: Baylor vs. Texas
OFFICIAL WEBSITE: TexasSports.com
LONGHORNS MEDIA GUIDE Click for .pdfs
LONGHORNS DEPTH CHART: vs. Baylor
LAST MEETING: 30-10 Baylor win in 2013 | ODB Game Hub
LAST GAME (for UT): 23-0 W @ Kansas
SB NATION BLOG: Two, at right
SPREAD: Baylor -16.5 (Open: Baylor -12.5)
TV COVERAGE: ABC
WEATHER FORECAST: High Saturday of 85F
BAYLOR UNIFORMS: Unknown

SB Nation Texas Preview
BaylorBears.com Preview
Bears vs Longhorns coverage

The Texas Blogs

As I mentioned above, Texas has two different blogs on the SB Nation network. Both are worth visiting, should you choose to leave the friendly confines. Throughout this week, I will port various things from their coverage into the hub linked above.

Texas Longhorns' 2014 Schedule

August
North Texas Mean Green	Saturday, August 30 2014	win 38-7	coverage
September
BYU Cougars	Saturday, September 06 2014	loss 7-41	coverage	Tickets
UCLA Bruins	Saturday, September 13 2014	loss 17-20	coverage	Tickets
@ Kansas Jayhawks	Saturday, September 27 2014	win 23-0	coverage	Tickets
October
Baylor Bears	Saturday, October 04 2014	3:30 PM EDT	coverage	Tickets
@ Oklahoma Sooners	Saturday, October 11 2014	12:00 PM EDT	coverage
Iowa St. Cyclones	Saturday, October 18 2014	8:00 PM EDT	coverage	Tickets
@ Kansas State Wildcats	Saturday, October 25 2014	12:00 PM EDT	coverage	Tickets
November
@ Texas Tech Red Raiders	Saturday, November 01 2014	12:00 PM EDT	coverage	Tickets
West Virginia Mountaineers	Saturday, November 08 2014	12:00 PM EST	coverage
@ Oklahoma State Cowboys	Saturday, November 15 2014	12:00 PM EST	coverage
TCU Horned Frogs	Thursday, November 27 2014	7:30 PM EST	coverage

Injuries/Dismissals/Suspensions:

Probably the biggest story of the Texas offseason/season thus far is not what has happened on the field but who hasn't been there in the first place. Over the last few months, new Head Coach Charlie Strong has cleaned house in Austin, dismissing or suspending nearly a dozen players. To make matters worse, starting QB David Ash suffered yet another injury forcing him to retire from the sport altogether. As nearly as I can tell, UT is missing the following players to various things:

QB David Ash -- retired
RB Joe Bergeron -- dismissed
RB Jalen Overstreet -- dismissed
RB Chet Moss -- dismissed
WR Montrel Meander -- dismissed
WR Miles Onyegbule -- injury (knee)
OL Kennedy Estelle -- dismissed
OL Dominic Espinosa -- injury (ankle)
DT Desmond Jackson -- injury (foot)
DB Chevoski Collins -- dismissed
DB Leroy Scott -- dismissed
LB Kendall Thompson -- injured
DB Erik Huhn -- injury (knee)

Each of those players will miss the entire season. In addition, three others have been suspended for all or part of the year thus far: RB/WR Daje Johnson, OT Desmond Harrison, and S Josh Turner. Rumor has it that Johnson and Harrison could return for our game.

On the other side, today's news that WR Levi Norwood has been cleared means that Baylor is finally fully healthy once again. RB Devin Chafin will also be ready to play Saturday after sitting out against Iowa State. The coaches said today that he could have played, if necessary. This past week, WRs Antwan Goodley, Corey Coleman, and Clay Fuller returned to action, though Goodley didn't exactly look 100%.

Texas' Individual Statistics:

For some reason, Texas' Sports-Reference page does not include Tyrone Swoopes at all, so their stats are almost entirely useless. My apologies for the substitute stats below courtesy of Texas' official AD website.

Quarterbacks

PASSING	GP	Effic	Cmp-Att-Int	Pct	Yards	TD	Long	Avg/G
Swoopes, Tyrone	4	128.3	63-99-1	63.6	590	5	48	147.5
Ash, David	1	112.5	19-34-0	55.9	190	1	28	190.0
Total..........	4	124.3	82-133-1	61.7	780	6	48	195.0
Opponents......	4	87.1	60-110-9	54.5	562	2	35	140.5

When Ash went down again this season, true sophomore Tyrone Swoopes took the reins as QB with true freshman Jerrod Heard as his only backup. UT would love to redshirt Heard the rest of the way, but should something happen to Swoopes, he's the one we'd see.

Running Backs

RUSHING	GP	Att	Gain	Loss	Net	Avg	TD	Long	Avg/G
Gray, Johnathan	4	50	225	3	222	4.4	0	42	55.5
Brown, Malcolm	4	53	207	16	191	3.6	2	26	47.8
Foreman, D'Onta	1	2	37	0	37	18.5	0	34	37.0
Foreman, Armant	3	1	30	0	30	30.0	0	29	10.0
Swoopes, Tyrone	4	24	67	42	25	1.0	1	14	6.2
TEAM	4	4	1	7	-6	-1.5	0	0	-1.5
Ash, David	1	7	2	19	-17	-2.4	1	1	-17.0

With Joe Bergeron, UT's 2012 hero against Baylor, gone from the team, UT turns to its pair of former-5* recruits, Malcolm Brown and Johnathan Gray. Neither has really gotten going so far this season due to severe issues with UT's offensive line, which is extremely inexperienced, particularly at the tackles.

Receivers

RECEIVING	GP	No.	Yards	Avg	TD	Long	Avg/G
Shipley, Jaxon	4	26	225	8.7	0	48	56.2
Harris, John	4	25	336	13.4	4	33	84.0
Johnson, Marcus	4	8	76	9.5	0	16	19.0
Brown, Malcolm	4	7	9	1.3	0	10	2.2
McFarland, M.J.	4	4	10	2.5	2	7	2.5
Warrick, Jacore	4	3	45	15.0	0	15	11.2
Swaim, Geoff	4	3	32	10.7	0	18	8.0
Gray, Johnathan	4	3	11	3.7	0	5	2.8
Joe, Lorenzo	4	1	22	22.0	0	22	5.5
Templin, Ty	4	1	7	7.0	0	7	1.8
Foreman, Armant	3	1	7	7.0	0	7	2.3

Like at RB, UT basically has just a pair of wideouts, Jaxon Shipley and everyone's favorite John Harris, leading the way. Those two have combined for 51 receptions. The rest of the team has 31. My guess is that Xavien Howard will draw the taller Harris while Ryan Reid takes Shipley, who is also a weapon on punt returns.

Texas' Team Stats and Rankings

Statistic	National Rank	Conference Rank	Value	National Leader	Value	Conference Leader	Value
3rd Down Conv. Pct	115	10	0.311	Alabama	0.630	Baylor	0.530
3rd Down Defense	48	5	0.353	Tennessee	0.208	TCU	0.241
4th Down Conv. Pct	53	5	0.571	7 teams tied	1.000	Baylor	0.909
4th Down Defense	29	5	0.375	5 teams tied	0.000	West Virginia	0.000
Blocked Kicks				Northwestern Rutgers	4 4	Oklahoma St.	3
Blocked Kicks Allowed	80	4	1	79 teams tied	0	Iowa St. Oklahoma St. Texas Tech	0 0 0
Blocked Punts				Rutgers Maryland North Texas	2 2 2	Oklahoma St. Kansas St. West Virginia	1 1 1
Blocked Punts Allowed	1	1	0	110 teams tied	0	9 teams tied	0
Completion Percentage	47	6	0.617	Oregon	0.759	West Virginia	0.282
Fewest Penalties	49	6	26	Clemson	11	TCU	17
Penalties Per Game	67	6	6.50	Clemson	2.75	West Virginia	4.50
Penalty Yards	53	6	225	Clemson	94	Kansas St.	147
Penalty Yards Per Game	69	6	56.25	Clemson	23.50	Kansas St.	36.75
First Downs Defense	43	6	79	TCU	40	TCU	40
First Downs Offense	116	10	66	Texas A&M	141	Baylor	122
Fumbles Lost	112	10	6	9 teams tied	0	Kansas	0
Fumbles Recovered	71	5	2	FIU Virginia	10 10	TCU	5
Kickoff Return Defense	68	6	20.33	Tulsa	12.60	Kansas St.	14.50
Kickoff Returns	90	8	19.00	Oregon St.	32.50	Oklahoma	29.00
Net Punting	60	6	38.08	BYU	46.33	Iowa St.	42.42
Passes Had Intercepted	7	1	1	6 teams tied	0	Texas	1
Passes Intercepted	2	1	9	Louisville	10	Texas	9
Passing Offense	99	9	195.0	Washington St.	480.8	West Virginia	401.8
Passing Yards Allowed	8	2	140.5	Stanford	74.0	TCU	127.0
Passing Yards / Comp	120	10	9.51	Georgia Tech	19.06	Oklahoma St.	16.84
Punt Return Defense	77	7	8.91	Purdue	-3.50	TCU	-1.00
Punt Returns	47	4	10.57	Auburn	30.71	Iowa St.	29.25
Red Zone Defense	51	5	0.800	Mississippi St. Temple	0.444 0.444	TCU	0.500
Red Zone Offense	76	8	0.800	7 teams tied	1.000	Oklahoma	0.947
Rushing Defense	87	7	179.3	Louisville	58.2	Baylor	80.0
Rushing Offense	102	9	120.5	Navy	358.4	Baylor	239.8
Sacks Allowed	80	6	2.25	New Mexico St. Baylor	0.00 0.00	Baylor	0.00
Scoring Defense	20	4	17.0	Stanford	6.5	TCU	7.0
Scoring Offense	104	9	21.3	Baylor	56.8	Baylor	56.8
Tackles for Loss Allowed	63	7	5.75	Baylor	2.25	Baylor	2.25
Team Passing Efficiency	82	8	124.30	Oregon	211.28	Baylor	172.85
Passing Effic. Defense	8	2	87.10	Ole Miss	74.19	TCU	79.64
Team Sacks	8	3	4.00	North Texas	4.75	Baylor	4.50
Team Tackles for Loss	11	3	8.0	TCU	10.7	TCU	10.7
Time of Possession	77	5	29:13	Michigan St.	37:29	Kansas St.	31:20
Total Defense	24	4	319.8	Stanford	198.0	TCU	218.7
Total Offense	110	9	315.5	Baylor	641.0	Baylor	641.0
Turnover Margin	16	3	1.00	Florida	2.67	TCU	2.00
Turnovers Gained	14	1	11	Virginia	18	Oklahoma Texas	11 11
Turnovers Lost	58	7	7	Washington Oregon UTEP	1 1 1	TCU Oklahoma St.	4 4
Winning Percentage	66	6	0.500	17 teams tied	1.000	Baylor Oklahoma TCU	1.000 1.000 1.000

The story told above is pretty clear and well-supported by advanced stats: Texas, a strictly average team at #54 in F/+, is relatively good on defense (37th by S&P+, 6th by FEI) and terrible on offense (73rd by S&P+, 104th by FEI). They are 110th in Total Offense above, 104th in Scoring Offense, 102nd in Rushing Offense, and 99th in Passing Offense. When they throw, it's almost always short and poorly: they are 120th in passing yards per completion and 82nd in team passing efficiency. As Swoopes continues to develop and gain experience, I expect a lot of those numbers to go up, but until they protect him better (despite their slow pace, they are allowing 2.25 sacks per game), he won't have much of a chance.

QUESTION TIME!

FIRST -- Do you have any specific questions about Texas that we can have answered?
SECOND --Give me your best reaction gif to John Harris' "They're still Baylor" quote today.
THIRD -- What is our biggest concern coming out of the Iowa State game?
FOURTH --Give me a turnt rating from 1-10 coming off Iowa State. 1 = You just got dismissed from your job by Charlie Strong. Define 10 yourself. Use gifs, if you like.
FIFTH -- Levi Norwood is back. Does he score a special teams TD this week or just catch a pass for a TD?
SIXTH -- We've already seen stormtrooper this season and white-white-green. Yes/No: Chrometrooper for Texas?