Texas Longhorns Insider: Up Next, Iowa State

The Texas Longhorns, currently ranked 17th in the Top 25, weren’t expected to do as well as they are.  The Longhorns were coming in with pretty much the same offense as last year, and there were some serious concerns at the quarterback position. 

Now, the Longhorns have been forced to make a change at quarterback thanks to a season-ending injury to starter Garrett Gilbert.

The new starter is now Case McCoy, brother of former Longhorns star quarterback and current starter for the Cleveland Browns Colt McCoy.  Case came in and played pretty well in the Longhorns' win against the UCLA Bruins.  It now appears he will be the starter for the rest of the season.

The Longhorns will face the Iowa State Cyclones, who have been on a bye week as well and last faced the Connecticut Huskies, winning the contest 24-20.  The Cyclones, like the Longhorns, come into this game undefeated.

So which team has the edge in this match-up?  Will the Longhorns relive the same result that they had last season when they faced the Cyclones (a 28-21 loss) or will they be able to beat them?

The Longhorns have had good success on offense so far this season, and McCoy looks like the real deal as the starter. 

The top wide receivers on the Longhorns so far this season are Jaxon Shipley (139 yards and one touchdown on ten catches), D.J. Grant (82 yards on seven catches and three touchdowns) and Mike Davis (192 yards and no touchdowns on six catches).  It appears as if Josh Harris is going to be out for this game (he currently has two catches for 13 yards and no touchdowns) so the Longhorns will be minus one pass catcher against the Cyclones.

At running back, Malcolm Brown is leading the way with 268 yards on 52 attempts for a 5.1 yard rushing average and one touchdown.  Fozzy Whitaker comes in second with 101 yards on 21 attempts with an average of 4.8 and three touchdowns. 

The running game should help take some of the pressure off of the passing game, and could help the Longhorns control the ball better.

The Longhorns' offense is gaining an average of 427 yards per game while the Cyclones defense is allowing opposing teams to gain 364.  So the Longhorns should be able to gain some yards and score some points against Iowa State’s defense.

On defense, the Longhorns have been allowing teams to gain an average of 258 yards per game so they are doing well at keeping opposing offenses at bay.  The Cyclones are averaging 380 yards per game so the Longhorns will have their work cut out for them, but with a defense as good as their, they should be able to stop them.

Iowa State’s offensive stars include running back Shontrelle Johnson (41 carries, 206 yards no touchdowns averaging 4.9 yards per rush) and quarterback Steele Jantz, who has 666 yards on 61 completions with six interceptions and six touchdowns.  They also have Darius Reynolds at wide receiver, who has 13 catches for 240 yards and two touchdowns.

So can the Longhorns win this game?  With the way that they are playing now, strong on both sides of the ball, they should be able to defeat the Cyclones.

But don't forget what happened to Texas last season. Despite the fact that the Longhorns weren’t doing as well as they usually do, no one thought that the Cyclones could beat them, but they did.

Prediction

Both of these teams come into this game undefeated and are on a roll. 

The Longhorns are still breaking in a new quarterback and may struggle just a bit on offense but their defense will be able to rise up to the challenge and help them win this game.

Texas 35 Iowa State 21