Texas Football: Analysis and Observation from the Rice Game

The Texas Longhorns opened their 2011 campaign with a 34-9 win over the Rice Owls on Saturday night, setting the stage for what many hope to be the program's redemption season.

Bryan Harsin and Manny Diaz got to strut their stuff in front of 100,000-plus fans, and the Longhorn faithful have to enjoy what they saw.

While there were plenty of positives to take away from the season debut, there are a bevy of eye-openers that will have the coaching staff paring down as the season goes on.

Here is some analysis and game observations from Saturday evening in Austin.

Offensive Analysis

One facet of Bryan Harsin's offense that immediately comes to mind is the pre-snap motion. Running backs, wide receivers, H-backs, tight ends—you name it, they will be in motion.

All of this movement is intended to create an imbalance for the defense, giving the Horns leverage on a number of plays.

What was successful for Texas on Saturday was the execution of misdirection.

Jaxon Shipley and D.J. Monroe were involved most often in sweeps and reverse-type motion plays, and it opened up some holes along the sidelines and spread the Rice defense to create seams up the field.

With the explosive athletes at Mack Brown's disposal, expect more misdirection and expect increasing results as the season goes on.

The several illegal shift penalties are to be expected. Given the newness of the offense and the litany of pre-snap movement, there are bound to be antsy twitches and ensuing flags.

In a sentence, the offense showed flashes of brilliance, but there are distinguishable kinks to hammer out.

More on the Offense

All three of Texas' quarterbacks saw time on the field, though Case McCoy was reserved to mop-up duty in the fourth quarter.

Garrett Gilbert got increasingly better as the game wore on, a premium positive for Texas moving forward. David Ash, as reported throughout the summer, was inserted to run a particular package of plays. There were no earth-shattering plays from the true freshman, but getting his feet wet at the college level has to be a positive.

Harsin and Major Applewhite even conjured up a couple of Wildcat packages. One had Ash lining up as a receiver, while another featured no quarterback at all. Two of Texas' touchdowns came on misdirection type plays. One was a direct snap to Whittaker, who raced in for six, another with Ash handing off to Whittaker, who flipped the ball to John Harris, who connected with Shipley in the end zone for a 36-yard score.

This has to be just the tip of the iceberg in Harsin's bag of tricks.

Defensive Analysis

The most striking thing to take away from Saturday was Texas' inability to stop Rice from consistently running the ball through the heart of the Longhorns' defense.

Defensive tackle has been a vulnerable position for the Longhorns over the past year, and the position was exposed.

Nevertheless, Texas kept the Owls out of the end zone, holding them to just three field goals. When it mattered the most, Diaz's defense kept the opposition from getting six.

Like the offense, the Longhorns were constantly shifting players around and providing multiple looks. Texas' base defense is a 4-3, but the players seemed comfortable shifting to a 3-4 style.

Overall, it was an encouraging defensive performance given the end results. Maybe one or two big plays were given up, but the defense never appeared to be drastically out of position.

Still, there will be plenty of things to gripe about come Monday morning.

More on the Defense

Rice put out a very balanced offense, throwing the ball 30 times and rushing it 30 times. Although Texas has been criticized for its young cornerbacks and overall questionable secondary, the Longhorns were outdone against the run.

The Owls put up 130 yards on the ground, good for 4.3 yards per carry. Against better opposition, the run defense will have to be much better, including drastic improvement up the middle.

One disappointment was the lack of turnovers. The Horns gave up none, but created two, one on special teams and one fumble late in the game. Texas simply didn't create enough pressure in the backfield, but the answers should come.

Random Observations on Offense

Jaxon Shipley is going to be something else. Chants of "Shipley" echoed through the stands on multiple occasions.

Big brother Jordan—the former Longhorns great at wide receiver—was in attendance, along with former Longhorn Quan Cosby. Basketball icon and one-year Texas wonder Kevin Durant was also in the stands.

The wide receivers struggled early with some drops, but they really smoothed out their game as the night went on. Consistency from the receivers will do wonders for this offense.

Gilbert showed improvement. His release is higher, and he is showing more patience and going through his progressions to find open receivers downfield. There were a couple if hiccups here and there, but Mack Brown and Co. have to be encourage by his development throughout the contest.

Fozzy Whittaker was as good as advertised. He looks stronger and faster and will be an asset in both the running and passing games.

The freshmen backs, Joe Bergeron and Malcolm Brown, were also as good as advertised. Just wait until these two have a couple of seasons under their belts. Brown led all rushers with 16 carries and 87 yards. How about that for a true freshman?

The offensive line looked good, not great, but a definite upgrade over last year. The unit can only get better.

There were tons of motion coming out of the tight ends of H-backs, most notably Blaine Irby, who made his comeback after a three year absence. 

Seeing two touchdowns come out of a formation where there was no quarterback behind the center has to be encouraging for this offense.

Random Observations on Defense

Rice did a good job staying away from Jackson Jeffcoat and Alex Okafor. Both of those defensive ends had relatively quiet nights.

Jordan Hicks is on the brink of becoming a very special player.

The young cornerbacks, Adrian Phillips, Quandre Diggs and Carrington Byndom, did a splendid job of keeping the Owls in check in the passing game, holding them to just 94 yards on the night.

Blake Gideon got another personal foul flag, ho-hum. What else is new?

The Longhorns will have to find answers up the middle against the run.

If we're going to nit-pick, perhaps more credit should be given to the defense for not giving up any touchdowns.

Lots of young players got to see time, which is very encouraging for depth. Steve Edmond, Cedric Reed, Josh Turner, Desmond Jackson, Tevin Jackson, Sheroid Evans, Mykelle Thompson, Leroy Scott and Chris Whaley (a RB-turned-H-Back-turned-DT) all saw some snaps.

Overall Grade

The Longhorns started the game pretty sluggishly, reminiscent of last year. But enough cannot be said of the resolve of the offense. The players stuck with the scheme and showed patience, and it paid off with a couple of touchdowns at crucial points in the game.

Defensively, it could have gone better, but it is hard to argue with the nine points allowed on just field goals.

Special teams were hit and miss, but mostly hit.

Texas fans should prepare themselves for the excitement that lay ahead.

Overall game grade: B+. The Longhorns weren't dominant, per se, but they held their ground effectively when it counted the most. A better, more comfortable start would have created a much larger discrepancy later on, but you have to take what is given.

Texas will host BYU next Saturday at 6 p.m. Central Time.