Texas Football: 5 Longhorn Players Who Must Improve Down the Stretch
It's crunch time for the Texas Longhorns, and everyone needs to answer the call.
In order to reach a bowl game, the Horns must win at least one road game at West Virginia or Baylor. Considering how they've played on the road this season—averaging just over three points per game—their other win would have to involve containing Texas Tech's explosive offense on Thanksgiving.
Two wins in those matchups will be tough, but it's doable. Charlie Strong's team has proven, in spurts, that it has the talent to get two out of three. Doubters need to check what the Longhorns did against still-undefeated Oklahoma State and No. 12 Oklahoma.
To do it, though, these five key players must player better football.
QB Jerrod Heard
1 of 5
Jerrod Heard has proven he has the physical ability to be a fine quarterback. Now his decision-making must catch up with his athleticism.
Heard was excellent in his first two starts after taking over the job. The redshirt freshman completed 24 of his 38 passes for 484 yards, ran for a total of 252 yards and accounted for five touchdowns. In simpler terms, he looked like everything Texas fans have wanted since Colt McCoy graduated.
Since then, the inevitable growing pains have struck. And, at times, they've struck Heard and this team like a freight train.
Heard would go on to clear 100 passing yards once in his next five games, with only one touchdown to his name. Aside from a 115-yard rushing performance against Oklahoma, his play has vacillated between middling and poor. And with just 31 total yards in a 24-0 loss at Iowa State, it became obvious that something had to change.
Instead of kicking Heard back to the bench, his coaches stuck with him against Kansas and he rewarded them with one of his better performances of the season. Heard worked the ball down the field and finally started hitting the quick patterns that defenses have been leaving open all season.
Sure, it was Kansas, but that's the Heard that can get Texas to a bowl game. With his wheels, an ability to quickly read the defense, decide what's there and execute quickly would make him close to unstoppable. Yes, that also means learning to accept when a play is dead.
"Never seen a QB struggle more with understanding when to throw a ball away than Heard. Bizarre.
"
It's time for the young quarterback to grow up.
C Taylor Doyle
2 of 5
Returning starter Sedrick Flowers has already been benched for poor play, and Taylor Doyle could be next on the list if he doesn't pick it up.
Texas' coaches have had it with poor play from their offensive linemen. True freshmen Connor Williams and Patrick Vahe have been starting from the onset of the season, and Kent Perkins has been kicked over to left guard to get Flowers out of there.
With Williams, Vahe and Perkins all playing good football, Doyle's the next domino that could fall. As Horns Digest's Dan Neil notes, the center just gets blown off the ball far too easily. That puts pressure right in Heard's face, and forces him right into the pass rush.
Inside Texas' Chris Hall points out two instances where this happened against Kansas alone. Here he gets overpowered by a nose tackle, which happens. But he also gets smoked by a blitzing linebacker, and that's tough to swallow.
Keep in mind this is Kansas that's doing this to Doyle.
At this point, if Texas had a better option than Doyle, the other guy would be out there. But backup Jake Raulerson has failed to seize the job, and there are no other true centers on the roster. Per 247Sports, Vahe was profiled as a center coming out of high school, but then the Horns would need a new right guard.
In all likelihood, the Horns are stuck with Doyle. He has to do a better job holding up, and the guards need to recognize when he needs help.
S Dylan Haines
3 of 5
Without veterans Quandre Diggs and Mykkele Thompson alongside him, safety Dylan Haines has struggled as a junior.
Haines leads the Horns with four interceptions, but little else has gone well for him. He's dropped other opportunities, has frequently lost track of his man in coverage and will never be known for his athleticism on the back end.
But, as with Doyle, it's going to be difficult to plug in another player. DeShon Elliott had a spectacular debut with two picks against Kansas, and the big-hitter is probably the most complete safety on the team. But he's also a freshman in a secondary that's already starting two in Holton Hill and Davante Davis.
"Strong mentioned not wanting to play both FR safeties together. I've already seen a play where Locke was lined up wrong & Haines saved him.
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Unless the coaches feel comfortable putting Elliott next to sophomore Jason Hall, Haines is here to stay.
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WR Daje Johnson
4 of 5
Finally in the staff's good graces, injuries and drops have limited Daje Johnson's potential in Texas' offense.
The way Johnson began the season, one would have thought he was going to be Texas' best skill player. His first three games saw him reel in 11 passes for 190 yards, and he busted an 85-yard punt return touchdown against Rice.
Since then, Johnson has 113 total yards of offense and has made a minimal special-teams impact. A concussion on the first play against TCU cost him most of that game and the win over Oklahoma, but he hasn't been the same since he returned.
In keeping with his career at receiver, drops continue to plague the explosive senior as well. As a result, freshman Ryan Newsome started digging into his snaps against Kansas.
Newsome's a great talent, but Texas needs Johnson to contribute. He's proven time and again that he's a threat to score every time he touches the ball, and few teams in the country need that more than the Horns.
RB Johnathan Gray
5 of 5
Let's get this out of the way—D'Onta Foreman is Texas' best running back. In terms of power and breakaway speed, he's head and shoulders above everyone else on the roster. There's no debate that he deserves 15-to-20 carries per game.
But Johnathan Gray isn't going away, even if he's making it harder and harder to justify giving him carries.
Texas' senior tailback has earned his keep this season as a leader and blocker, as Strong stated in his Monday press conference:
"When you talk about with [Johnathan] Gray, the thing is we don't count the number of touches. I think the other night he ran seven and the big man ran it 12 maybe, D'Onta. Both of those guys are excellent backs. The thing about J Gray, it's the leadership he provides. He's a senior. So it's not you look at the separation, one is better than the other one. They're both going to play.
"
The problem is Gray's been average at best running the ball. He's averaged less than four yards per carry in five games this season, and has a long run of six yards over his past two games. He's neither powering through tackles nor showing the burst that made him so successful early in his career.
You probably won't see Gray get double-digit carries again this season, but he has to do more with the five-to-seven touches he's still going to get.
Unless otherwise noted, all stats and information courtesy of TexasSports.com.
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