Jerry Scarbrough's True Orange
The Newsletter for the True Texas Longhorn Faithful

Volume 10, No. 20, August 7, 2000

Strong Defense, Promising Offense, Favorable Schedule Propel Horns to No. 7
in First AP Poll

Coach Mack Brown says the Longhorns don't rate a top 10 ranking in the wake
of their three-game slide to end 1999, but the Associated Press pre-season
pollsters say the Horns are No. 7.
Brown and his staff have simply done such and outstanding  job of assembling
talent and building a solid foundation to be overlooked in the pre-season
voting.
The Longhorns haven't finished in the AP top 10 since 1983, but there are
four big reasons why they should end that 17-year drought this season.
First, the talent base is young, but it is outstanding. Brown's first group
of recruits will be juniors or redshirt sophomores this year and many of them
have been playing ) and playing well ) since they were true freshmen.
Second, the defense was No. 6 in the nation last season, and it will be even
stingier this year.
Third, the offense will be a lot more consistent throughout this season
because there are so many more weapons at its disposal.
And last but certainly not least is the schedule.
Brown had to play Northern Division powers Nebraska (pre-season No. 1) and
Kansas State (pre-season No. 8) in 1998 and 1999. He went 2-2 against them in
the regular season, winning twice against Nebraska and losing two to K-State.
The 2000 Longhorn schedule is no cakewalk. It includes a road game at No. 24
Colorado, the annual Dallas grudge match with No. 19 Oklahoma and some other
dangerous dates.
But the early line has Texas favored in each of its 11 regular season games,
and that's something no Longhorn teams has had in its favor in at least 30
years.
As good as the Horns should be this year, next season should be their year to
really romp and stomp. Why? Because they have only five senior starters and
Brown will have four straight awesome recruiting classes ready to roll.
But this season can be a very good one, too. In addition to the high national
ranking in the pre-season polls, the Longhorns are heavy favorites to win the
Southern Division of the Big 12 and set up a championship game with Nebraska,
the Northern Division favorite and pre-season choice to win the national
title.
My theory is that the defense will be the best one Brown and his outstanding
defensive coordinator, Carl Reese, have put on the field at Texas. That
should give the young offense time to reload before playing the really big
guys on the schedule.
With the Longhorns first three games against teams that will throw 50 passes
a game (Louisiana-Lafayette, Stanford and Houston) even Reese's young
defensive ends won't be a liability because they are lightning fast pass
rushers, even if their run-stopping techniques do leave a little to be
desired.
Most of the other teams the Horns play during the regular season also are
pass-oriented because Oklahoma and Texas Tech are 50-pass teams, Missouri
probably will be and Oklahoma State, Colorado and Baylor probably will throw
40 or more passes in most games.
I also think sophomore TE Bo Scaife and redshirt freshman WR Artie Ellis with
a little help from dimunitive  sophomore WR Courtnee Garcia, will be able to
slow down a lot of those blitzes that terrorized the Texas offense at the end
of last season by allowing 15 sacks in the final two games against Nebraska
and Arkansas.
The Longhorns have an embarrassment of riches at quarterback where co-Big 12
Offensive Player of the Year Major Applewhite appears to healthy again after
knee surgery, but still might lose his job to immensely talented sophomore
Chris Simms.
Ditto at running back where senior Hodges Mitchell made the All-Big 12 team
last year and is being challenged by big, fast redshirt freshman Ivan
Williams, with sophomores Kenny Hayter and Victor Ike also in mix.
I can remember many past season when the Longhorns started and sometimes even
won with a starting tailback who wasn't as good as any of this group, and
neither the Longhorns nor anyone else in this area has ever had two QBs as
talented as Applewhite and Simms.
If we assume Scaife, Ellis and Garcia can fill the hole left by the
graduation of the team's top three receivers long enough for the talented
wide receiver recruits to start getting comfortable with the offense, then
the only real problem left is the offensive line.
I know it had problems in those final 10 quarters of the season, and I've
explained in detail in past issues while it wasn't all the linemen's fault,
but all of those guys are a year older now and should be a lot better this
year.
The only spot in the offensive line that really concerns me is right tackle.
The O-line did a good job during the first 11 games last year because UT was
No. 2 in the league in total offense until the receivers started getting
hurt, thus opening the door to more all-out blitzes.
The Longhorns even moved the ball well in the two losses in those first 11
games, but the problem at right tackle was exposed in one of those losses
when Kansas State forced six Texas turnovers by applying fearsome pressure
around the Horns' right side on virtually every pass play.
When Simms, a left-hander, is in the game, the right tackle will have to
protect his blind side.
Either Mike Williams or Cory Quye, who both started at times last year, must
step up this season, or the coaches might do what they have done to fix
problems in other areas ) move someone from another position. Fullback to
linebacker De'Andre Lewis and linebacker to fullback Matt Trissel are two
prime examples of moves that are paying dividends.
The prime candidate for a move could be guard Derrick Dockery, who coach
Brown called "the best freshman offensive lineman I've ever coached" last
year. With his quick feet, he would be an outside speed rusher's worst
nightmare.
That could open the door at guard to redshirt freshman Tillman Holloway, who
is the grandson of Longhorn legendary lineman Bud McFadin. Holloway is
talented and, like his grandfather was nearly 50 years ago, is a fierce
competitor. The offensive line could use another player whose competitive
juices run at a fever pitch.
One big problem for blitzers, even if the problems at right tackle persist,
will be Scaife. Nebraska and Arkansas were so good at delaying the Longhorn
receivers at the line of scrimmage that they often brought eight and
sometimes even  nine pass rushers.
If anyone ever brings nine this season, the other two defenders will try to
chuck the two wide receivers, and Scaife probably will score a touchdown if
Applewhite or Simms has a split second to toss him a short pass because there
are few defenders who can run him down.
If they bring eight guys, Ellis is 6-4 and Scaife is 6-3, and both are faster
than Kwame Cavil, the team's ace receiver last season. Cavil was a great
receiver, but, at 6-2, he was the only tall target among the key receiving
corps last season.
Tall receivers are able to take advantage of short cornerbacks in all-out
blitz situations. Remember that third-and-long pass the tall Arkansas
receiver caught over the short Texas cornerback after the Horns' two obvious
safeties didn't count? That was the difference in that game.
So, my contention is that blitzing is not going to work as well against UT as
it did late last season.
The Big 12 had five teams in the AP's pre-season top 25, headed by No. 1
Nebraska. Texas followed at No. 7, one step ahead of No. 8 Kansas State.
Oklahoma was rated at No. 19 and Colorado came in at No. 24.
After facing lots of ranked teams in his first two years at Texas, Brown will
face only two top 25 teams during the regular season this year.
Other than the big games against the Sooners and Buffaloes, the most
dangerous games for Texas during the regular season probably will be Texas
Tech in Lubbock, Stanford in Palo Alto and Texas A&M in Austin.

Freshmen Report Sunday

The freshmen report to campus next Sunday, August 13.
The freshmen will practice Monday through Wednesday, August 14-16, at Frank
Denius Fields (corner of 26th and Red River).
The veterans will report on August 16.
UT's first full-team practice is slated for Friday, August 18, at Whitaker
Field (51st and Guadalupe). The team will continue to practice at Whitaker
Field until school starts, at which time the practices will return to Denius.
All preseason practices are open to the public. Coach Mack Brown has not
released a full practice schedule, but, in the past, his morning practices
started around 8:30 and his evening practices began around 5 p.m.

Brown's Observations

Coach Mack Brown was upbeat about the Longhorns prospects at the Big 12 media
meetings in Kansas City last week, but he also said the team has to get
better in every area.
Here are some of the highlights of his comments:
On last season
"We did not start like we wanted to last year and we did not finish well, but
we had a real good football team during the interim, from game two through
game eleven."
On overall needs
"We need to continue to work to develop depth on our team. The Big 12 is a
physical league and it gets hot in Austin, so we have to be at least two deep
at every position. We played 14 games last season and we got tired. We have
to develop more depth, so we can play more people and not wear down during
the season."
On the offense
"We need to continue to work to run the ball better and we have to be more
patient in games when we're playing against great defenses. We don't have to
score every time, but we do have to make some plays and take care of the ball
better. We don't want to put our defense in bad situations."
On the defense
"We've got a really good defense, but we feel like we gave up too many big
plays at the end of the season. We've got to work on getting better at
cutting down on the big plays and we need to get a better pass rush out of
our front four so we don't have to blitz all the time."
On special teams
"We told your team it's not against the rules to return punts or kickoffs.
We've got to do a better job in those areas, and we're working on it. Our net
punting needs to be better and we need to do a better job in punt-blocking
situations."
On the pressure to win at Texas
"I got more pressure at North Carolina in my last year being 8-0 and then
losing to Florida State than I got after the three losses as the end of last
year. We lost those three games at the end and didn't look very good in some
of them and I didn't do a good job in some of them, but I've gotten more
support from the university and our fans than anywhere else I've ever
coached. The fans want us to win every game, and I want expectations to be
high. If you're at Texas, you want to win the national championship and you
need to have a goal to win the national championship and you need to have a
dream to win the national championship."
On the No. 7 ranking in the pre-season AP poll
"Expectations are high, but that's a good thing. The only reason we're ranked
that high is because we're Texas. We're not as good as the expectations and
the ranking right now, but we hope to grow into it."

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12 Early Commitments Have Texas Among Nation's Elite

The early recruiting blitz coach Mack Brown and his staff have worked to near
perfection in reeling in three nationally ranked recruiting classes in
succession is paying off again.
Texas is up to 12 early commitments now, and appears headed for another top 5
national class after getting CB Cedric Griffin, 6-1, 180, 4.42, of San
Antonio Holmes and OL Terrance Young, 6-6, 340, 5.5, of Longview, both in
July.
The Longhorn coaches can't comment on their recruits until they sign in
February, but Griffin, the top prospect in San Antonio, said the UT coaches
told him they wanted him "because they said I had the size, speed and
athletic ability they were looking for in their cornerbacks."
He had 41 tackles last season, broke up 14 passes and had three
interceptions, two of which he returned for touchdowns.
Holmes' coach, David Sanchez, said Griffin "is the best cover corner in the
district. We went 13-2 last year and reached the state Class 5A semi-finals,
and his ability to take the other team's best receiver out of the game was a
big reason."
Griffin, who has run a 10.5 100 meters, said he had offers from Texas A&M,
Oklahoma, Colorado and Arkansas before he got a scholarship offer from Texas
on an unofficial visit on July 18, and he said he didn't waste any time
taking the UT offer.
"I knew all along that Texas is where I wanted to go," he said. "I really
like Texas' style of play and I was really impressed with the way the Texas
coaches stress academics as well as athletics.
Young also had plenty of offers ) Miami, UCLA, Notre Dame, Arkansas, Texas
A&M, LSU and Mississippi State ) before he drove to Austin on July 29 with
his parents, met with Brown and assistant coaches Darryl Drake and Tim Nunez
and committed. Drake recruits East Texas and Nunez is the offensive line
coach.
Like Griffin, he said the Longhorn offer was the one he was waiting on. "I
really like Texas," he said.
"They have great coaches and great kids, and they are going to do some great
things in the next few years. I want to be a part of that."
Young, who already is a full qualifier with fine grades and and a 980 SAT and
21 ACT score, said the Texas coaches told him they like the way he gets a
quick jump on the defensive linemen and then maintains his blocks.
For those of you who are concerned about that 5.5 time in the 40, don't worry
about it. Young has a very quick start for a big offensive lineman and is
adept at picking off speed rushers from the outside of his offensive tackle
spot.
How fast an offensive lineman gets started is a lot more important than his
40 time, and Young gets started in a hurry.
Longview coach Pat Collins, who coached an NCAA Division II national title
team at Northeast Louisiana before getting back into the high school coaching
ranks, said, "The Longhorns got a great football player and a great young man
with an outstanding family."
Collins said Young "Is one of the best high school prospects I have seen or
coached. he has worked really hard this summer and has excellent mobility and
agility."
Seven of the Longhorns' 12 commitments are offensive linemen. Texas has
signed only three offensive linemen in each of Brown's three previous
recruiting classes and he said heading into this recruiting season that the
offensive line was the No. 1 priority.
Since this is the best group of offensive linemen since I started doing this
back in 1990, he couldn't have picked a better year to clean up on the big
guys.
Here's a list of the Horns' early commitments:

Offensive Line (7)
Jonathan Scott, 6-7, 290, 4.9, Dallas Carter, a national top 100 player.
Abe Robinson, 6-6, 270, 4.9, Jersey Village, another national top 100 player.
Alfio Randall, 6-6, 300, 5.1, Blinn JC, was a national top 100 player two
years ago.
Mike Garcia, 6-5, 280, 5.2, Galena Park, broke the Aggies' hearts by changing
his early commitment to Texas.
Will Allen, 6-5, 300, 5.2, Cypress Falls, is another highly recruited star.
Roman Reeves, 6-6, 295, 5.2, another of the state's top eight offensive
linemen.
Terrance Young, 6-6, 340, 5.5, Longview.

Linebacker (1)
Yamil LeBron, 6-2, 240, 4.7, Killeen Ellison, was the middle backer the
Longhorns targeted early.

Defensive Back (4)
Cedric Griffin, 6-1, 180, 4.42, San Antonio Holmes, one of the state's top
two cornerbacks.
Kendal Briles, 5-10, 175, 4.5, Wolfforth Frenship, a great option QB who will
play safety at Texas.
Braden Johnson, 6-2, 200, 4.5, Euless Trinity, a fine athlete who will play
QB this season.
Brian Carter, 5-11, 180, 4.5, The Woodlands, a two-way star at WR and CB.
* * * *
RECRUITING NOTES: Matt Nordgren, the Dallas Bishop Lynch star who is easily
the state's top QB prospect, is still a big Texas fan, but he isn't through
looking around. He and his parents took an unofficial visit to Texas A&M
Saturday, and he and his father will fly to Colorado this weekend for another
unofficial visit. Nordgren said he liked A&M and had a good time, "but Texas
is still No. 1. I really like the Longhorns." I'm pretty sure he'll commit to
Texas later this month. . . While things are still looking bright for the
state's best QB, it's no quite that rosy for the top RB, Cedric Benson of
Midland Lee. He has been a Texas fan and has talked about committing early to
the Longhorns, but now he says he doesn't want to commit this summer and
wants to wait take some official visits to other top programs before making
his choice. . . The Longhorn signees made good showings in the Texas High
School All-Star Game in Houston last week. QB Chance Mock of The Woodlands
led the North to a 17-13 victory by throwing two touchdown passes and was
named the MVP, an honor his father, Mike, won back in 1974 as a star QB from
Longview. The Mocks are the first father-son duo in Texas history to win MVP
awards in the North-South game. Matt McFadden of Coppell kicked off deep,
booted a field goal and even punted, something he didn't do in high school.
Tony Jeffery of Klein Forest, playing WR, and Nathan Vasher of Texarkana,
playing WR and CB, showed superb athletic ability for the North. C Tre Bates
of Fort Bend Austin and T Lionel Garr of Diboll did a good job of blocking,
and DT Sonny Davis of Austin Lanier, another UT signee who is headed to
junior college, looked great. If you watched the game, you know why Davis was
so heralded. Packing about 30 excess pounds on his normal 6-1, 310-pound
frame, he still was the quickest big man on either team. Let's hope he gets
his JC degree, sheds those excess pounds to get even quicker and returns to
Texas in two years. RB Sneezy Beltran of Abilene was more tentative than he
had been in his games at Abilene, but I have seen enough tape of his exploits
to know he is the real deal. . . So far, six members of the first team on
Dave Campbell's Texas Football magazine's Super Team have committed to
colleges. Running back David Underwood of Madisonville committed to Michigan
and the other five ) Briles, Robinson, Scott, Young and Griffin ) commited to
UT. . . The nation's top FB, James Buchanan, 6-2, 240, 4.7, of Sarasota,
Fla., Cardinal Mooney, ranks UT in his top three with Florida State and
Miami, and one of the top DEs in the nation, Shaun Cody, 6-5, 255, 4.6, of
Los Altos High in Hacienda Heights, Cal., who had 29 sacks last season, says
he will visit Texas. . . Look for the Horns to sign between 22 and 25
recruits.