Texas Longhorns Football: Five Keys To Victory & Defeat Against Texas Tech.
Get ready to see that photo from either that famous play (if you're a Texas Tech fan) or infamous play (if you're a Texas fan) of Texas Tech wide receiver Michael Crabtree crushing Texas' chances of playing for a National Title in 2008.
Yes, that photo that you clicked on to enter this slide show is of a play that will be shown over and over and over and over and over again till your eyes bleed out on ABC Saturday night.
But for those who are not familiar with the back history of the last time that Texas traveled to Lubbock to play the Red Raiders let me bring you up to speed.
On Nov. 1st 2008 the Texas Longhorns went into Texas Tech after playing three games against top 25 teams. Three weeks before the Tech game, Texas won a thrilling game against number one Oklahoma 45-35. The following week, number 11 Missouri came into Austin and was destroyed by the Longhorns 56-31. The third game in this four game stretch was number seven Oklahoma State. The Cowboys came to Texas and almost ruined their run to the National Title; as Texas survived winning 28-24. The Longhorns had their last game of this four game stretch on the road against number six, Texas Tech.
The game was entitled a "black out" by the students and fans of Tech. Over 60 thousand people all dressed in Darth Vader and other Halloween black outfits made this an intimidating environment to play. The rabid fan base helped Tech to come out of the gates strong and lead the game at half time 22-6.
Tech was rolling and the stadium could feel the excitement of not only beating a long time rival in Texas, but also defeating a number one ranked team. The start of the second half saw Texas score 10-unanswered points to bring Texas back within six. Then an interception from Texas quarterback Colt McCoy turned into touchdown for Tech and the lead for Tech was back to double digits.
All of a sudden McCoy and Texas caught fire, scoring two straight touchdowns. Tech answered with a field goal. Texas with the ball back in their hands with fewer than three minutes to play marched down the field and scored with less than two minutes left putting them in the lead for the first time.
The season looked to be saved by this Vondrell McGee touchdown run. But Tech quarterback, Graham Harrell and wide receiver Michael Crabtree had other plans. With less than 90seconds on the clock, Graham led the Red Raiders down the field for at least a field goal to win the game.
The game seemed to be over when a pass from Harrell was deflected at the line of scrimmage and floated through the air towards then Texas defensive back freshman Blake Gideon. Texas fans across the country saw Gideon under the ball and thought the game was over.
But the ball clunked off of Gideon's chest and fell to the turf. Incomplete pass, one more chance for Harrell and the Red Raiders.
On that next pass, well, the picture above shows what happened. Harrell found Crabtree down the sideline. Crabtree broke not one, but TWO tackles and walked into the end zone for the winning score.
Game over, season over, National Title dreams over!
Click through the slides to see the five keys to victory and defeat for Texas so that they do to not repeat the 2008 season.
Key to Victory: Establish The Running Game
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For now, Foswhitt Whittaker is the starter for the Longhorns heading into this game. Then again this could change by the time the game starts on Saturday night.
The running game has been a big part as to why Texas has won big in their first two games. In those first two games Texas has averaged 182. Whittaker has led the Horns in rushing in those two games rushing for 113 yards on just 16 attempts.
And it was Foswhitt's rushing touchdown last Saturday against Wyoming that gave Texas the lead. He needs to have one of those runs this Saturday where he breaks away from the secondary of Tech, breaking open the game.
Foswhitt was on the Longhorns the last time that they played in Tech in '08 rushing six times for 44 yards.
Key to Defeat: Garrett Gilbert's First Road Test
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This is the first real test of Gilbert's young career as Texas' quarterback. However, for arguments sake you could say that his first real test was the National title game.
But, so far what has Gilbert done to show that he can win a game by himself? On the season he only has one touchdown pass, 394 yards passing and has gone 36 for 58.
With 60,000+ in Lubbock this Saturday will they get into his head? More importantly does Texas trust Gilbert with winning the game by himself the way they trusted Vince Young and Colt McCoy?
Key to Victory: Sam Acho and The Texas Defense
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The Texas defense has been on fire this year. In two games they are averaging just 13 points given up and are coming off a seven point performance against Wyoming.
The defense is led by Sam Acho (pictured above) who last week got after the Wyoming quarterback on which seemed every play.
The defense will need to rush the passer heavily this week, as Tech is known for being a pass happy offense. On the season Texas has six sacks with Acho leading the team with two.
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Key to Defeat: Brian Duncan and The Texas Tech Defense
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In years past the Tech offense has gotten all of the praise. This year this Red Raiders Brian Duncan leads the nation in sacks. The Red Raiders as a whole on defense are tied for second in team sacks (nine) and are fourth in the nation in interceptions with five.
As stated before in the key to defeat, Garrett Gilbert will see his toughest defense since Alabama in the National Title game.
Key to Victory: Taking The Crowd out of The Game Early
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This place maybe small compared to other venues in the Big 12, but boy can it get loud! Colt McCoy felt it last year as the 'Horns struggled to find a rhythm early in the game in '08.
Come Saturday night, the Texas Tech bell will be ringing loud and the students will be all dressed in black. Texas needs to get out to an early lead to quiet this home crowd down. If they fail to take this crowd out it could end up in a route for the Red Raiders.
Key to Defeat: Mack Brown's Record at Texas Tech
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Mack Brown is a great coach. He is one of the best coaches to walk on the Texas sideline. But for some reason he just has a hard time winning football games in Lubbock.
In his career playing at Texas Tech he has a .500 winning percentage at 3-3. In those three losses it resulted in Texas missing out on the Big 12 title game.
In 1998 Mack brought the Horns' into Lubbock with a chance to play for the Big 12 title in a showdown two weeks later against Texas A&M. This would not be the case as Tech beat Texas 42-35.
Then in 2002 Texas was ranked fourth in the country looking for a Big 12 title game and possible a National title game. But Tech ruined those chances, again defeating Brown 42-38.
And finally in 2008, well, if you need to remember then just go back to the introduction slide.
Key to Victory: Tommy Tubberville and His First Game in The Big 12
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In his first conference game in the Big 12, Tubberville has to go up against the defending conference champion. Quite the welcome to the conference huh?
Tommy has this Tech defense playing at a level never seen during the Mike Leach era. However, in year's past these two teams do not play a "defensive" type game.
For example over the last five years the scores have been as such:
2005: 52-17 (Texas W)
2006: 35-31 (Texas W)
2007: 59-43 (Texas W)
2008: 39-33 (Texas L)
2009: 34-24 (Texas W)
Key to Defeat: Blake Gideon and The Ghosts Of 2008
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Two of the three Texas players are still playing defense from that faithful 2008 drive that ended Texas' season.
Blake Gideon has emerged as one of the leaders on the Texas' defense and the other player - Curtis Brown - have gone on to forget that play.
Curtis was one of the defenders who tried to bring down Crabtree but failed.
Gideon has said to Rivals.com “Lubbock is an awesome place to play. The whole environment is crazy" “It’s going to be a blast.”
However, it seems that Gideon has gotten past the failed interception, the same cannot be said about Brown as he sees replays of the catch “every time I turn on the TV” but says it doesn’t bother him.“It was just a play made by a good player. He just made it against me,”
(Quotes from Rivals.com)
Key to Victory: Mike Davis and The Rest Of The Texas Receiving Core.
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If Garrett is to have a good game and Texas is to get out of Lubbock with their season still in tact it will be on the receiving core shoulders. They cannot drop balls, give up on routes, or cause turnovers for this Texas offense.
As it has been proven in the previous years, this game turns into a shootout. It is on Malcolm Williams, and Mike Davis to be the deep threats. It is on John Chiles (pictured) and Marquise Goodwin to be slot receivers.
This core needs to find holes for Texas to be successful on Saturday night. Because, if they start to drop balls, miss-run routes, or fumble; it will cause Garrett's confidence to start to fade thus resulting in a loss.
Key to Defeat: Garrett Gilbert (Again)
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Yes Gilbert is on this list twice. Yes this is not really a fifth reason why Texas may lose. But this one player can sink this Texas team worst than Mark Sanchez on Monday Night playing for the Jets.
This Tech team can get after the quarterback and force turnovers. This Tech team can also carve a defense up like a Thanksgiving Turkey.
Garrett cannot under throw receivers, miss check downs, or force throws into double or even worse triple coverage. He needs to just manage the game and not try to be a Colt McCoy or Vince Young.
If Garrett tries to win this game through the air by throwing 35-40 times then Texas will lose.
Call it nepotism or call it being unfaithful, but first year quarterbacks have failed this year (see for example: Florida’s John Brantley, Pitt's Tino Sunseri, and Tennessee's Matt Simms).
You can always get Texas and other updates from the world of Sports by following me on my Twitter page http://twitter.com/tjmcaloon
Thanks for reading!
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