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

Volume 12, No. 3, October 29, 2001

 Simms Throws 4 TD Passes, Benson Rushes
For 157 Yards as Longhorns Gore Tigers, 35-16

Junior QB Chris Simms and true freshman RB Cedric Benson had career-best days
and the UT defense held Missouri to just one first down in the first and
third quarters Saturday in Columbia to lead Texas to a 35-16 victory.
On a day when upsets reigned across the country, particularly in the top 10,
and five of the eight previously unbeaten teams lost, the Longhorns took care
of business and ran their record to 7-1 overall and 4-1 in the Big 12.
With Oklahoma's 20-10 loss at Nebraska, the Sooners, Longhorns and Aggies are
all tied atop the standings in the Big 12 South.
But the Longhorns have to win out and Oklahoma has to lose another conference
game for the Longhorns to make it to the Big 12 Championship Game.
Saturday's victory at Missouri was a fairly easy conquest, thanks to the
stout UT defense and a great performance by the offensive line that allowed
Simms to complete 24 of 30 passes (80%) for 229 yards and four touchdowns and
Benson to run for 157 yards on 31 carries, an average of 5.1 yards a pop.
But some strange things happened to thwart the Longhorns in the early going.
On their first drive, for example, they held the ball almost 10 minutes,
rolling 78 yards in 19 plays, but they got zero points because they stalled
at the Tiger 2 and Dusty Mangum missed the chip-shot field goal.
They also drove into Missouri territory on their second possession, but again
stalled.
Missouri finally got rolling to start the second quarter and scored first.
That seemed to wake up the Longhorn offense and it took control and wore out
the Missouri defenders.
Here, briefly, is how the game went
First Quarter
Texas won the toss and deferred. Missouri took the ball and Marcus James ran
the UT kick back to the 38. The Longhorn defense forced a quick three-and-out
and the UT offense had its most time-consuming drive of the year, going 78
yards in a laborious 10-minute, 19-play drive to the Tiger 2, but Dusty
Mangum missed the chip-shot field goal. Missouri went three-and-out again.
The Horns drove to midfield again, but stalled as the quarter ended. Texas
had a huge lead in statistics, with 7 first downs to 0 for Missouri, a 99-24
edge in total offense, and a 12:03 to 2:57 bulge in time of possession, but
the game was all even at 0-0 in the only statistic that counts.
Second Quarter
The Tigers finally got their offense untracked to start the second quarter
and drove 76 yards, primarily on the passing of QB Kirk Farmer, to take a 7-0
lead with 11:12 left. Victor Ike ran the kickoff back to the 36 and the
Longhorns went 64 yards in 10 plays to tie it up. Simms connected with WR B.
J. Johnson on the 5-yard TD toss, but the big play was a 27-yarder from Simms
to TE Bo Scaife on third-and-2 at the Missouri 32. Mangum's kick tied it,
7-7, with 5:44 left. After the UT defense forced another quick 3-and-out and
got a short punt, Simms found Scaife again on the first play for a 28-yard
gain to the MU 13. A WR reverse by Johnson got 5 yards and Benson got 5 more
and a first down at the 3 before Simms faked to Benson and hit TE Brock
Edwards for the final 3 yards and the TD. Mangum's kick gave Texas a 14-7
lead with 1:50 left. The Tigers stormed down the field in the final two
minutes, primarily on the running of 5-10, 225-pound Zack Abron, who gained
37 yards in three carries. His 16-yard tackle-breaking run to the 5 gave the
Tigers a first-and-goal, but his next try gained only a yard and Farmer threw
two incompletions before Brad Hammerich booted a 22-yard field goal to cut
the UT lead to 14-10 with 7 seconds left. The Tigers outgained the Longhorns
in the quarter, 120 to 104 yards and had a 9-5 edge in first downs.
Third Quarter
Texas got the ball and again made a long, time-consuming drive, but this time
it counted because Simms scored from the 1 to cap a 73-yard drive and Mangum
converted for  a 21-10 lead with 8:50 left. the Longhorns overcame a
third-and-11 early in the drive when Simms scrambled and found Brett Robin
for 24 yards. Vasher intercepted Farmer four plays later to give the Horns
great field position at the MU 48. The Longhorns couldn't move, but the pick
kept Missouri bottled up deep in its own territory throughout the quarter and
allowed Texas to start its possessions around midfield in a quarter that was
dominated by defense after Texas' impressive opening drive.  The Tigers made
only one first down in the quarter and Texas, after getting five first downs
on that opening TD drive, managed only one more in the entire quarter.
Fourth Quarter
The Tigers finally figured out their best offense  was to hand the ball to
Abron and he bulled for 16, 19, 3 and then 7 more for a TD. Missouri's pass
for a 2-point conversion failed and left UT on top, 28-16, with 7:41 left.
Not to be outdone, Benson shredded the Missouri defense for 11, 20 and then 4
before Simms scrambled left and found  Robin, who scampered the final 25
yards to complete a 39-yard scoring play. Mangum's kick gave Texas a 35-16
lead with 4:27 left.

Texas and the BCS

The next Bowl Championship Series (BCS) standings will be a lot different
from the first ones that were announced last week and Texas will be a lot
higher than it was in the last one.
In the first standings, which were announced last Monday, Texas was ranked
No. 6 behind five teams with perfect records. The BCS standings are like golf
in that the lowest score is the best score.
Oklahoma came in at No. 1 in the first standings at 3.06, followed by
Nebraska at 6.40, UCLA at 8.34, Miami at 12.01, Virginia Tech at 13.88, Texas
at 15.35 and Michigan at 15.91, to round out the top seven.
But a rash of upsets claimed OU, UCLA and Virginia Tech.
Since OU lost to Nebraska, the Sooners won't tumble far, but Texas should
pass UCLA and VT. Of course, Michigan is so close to Texas that the
Wolverines might pass the Horns if they keep winning.
Under the BCS formula, the top four teams in the final standings are
guaranteed berths in one of the four BCS Bowls, which are the Rose, Orange,
Fiesta and Sugar.
The Rose Bowl will get the national title game this year. Right now, that
looks like a Nebraska-Miami battle, but both teams have some big games left
before making that date.
Texas could make it to the Rose Bowl, but it would require some big upsets,
like Texas A&M or Texas Tech upsetting Oklahoma, and then Texas beating
Nebraska in the Big 12 title game.
But the Longhorns will make it to one of the big BCS bowls if they keep
winning.

Key Games for BCS Watchers

If you want to keep tabs on the Longhorns' chances to wind up in good shape
in one of the big four BCS bowls, the key is that they have to win their
final three regular season games.
Assuming that happens, here are some key games to watch for the rest of the
season:
This Saturday's key games are Michigan at Michigan State, Tennessee at Notre
Dame and UCLA at Washington State.
The big ones the following Saturday, Nov. 10, are Texas A&M at Oklahoma and
UCLA at Oregon.
On Nov. 17, Texas Tech hosts Oklahoma, Syracuse is at Miami, Michigan is at
Wisconsin and Virginia Tech is at Virginia.
On Thanksgiving weekend, Michigan hosts Ohio State, Nebraska goes to Colorado
and Oklahoma State plays at Oklahoma.
The big games on Dec. 1 are Miami at Virginia Tech, Tennessee at Florida and
Oregon State at at Oregon.
If Oklahoma loses to A&M, Tech or OSU and the Longhorns win out, Texas would
qualify for the Big 12 Championship Game on Dec. 8.
The final BCS rankings will be released on December 9, the day after the Big
12 and Southeastern Conference have their championship games.
Texas probably will be fourth or fifth in the BCS rankings to be released
today and the games mentioned above will be big determining factors in where
the Horns wind up.

Jackson, McClintock to Redshirt

It looks like senior LB Lee Jackson and junior DE O. J. McClintock will
redshirt.
Both have been out with injuries all season and head coach Mack Brown said
last week there are no plans to play them.
He said Jackson is still having troubles with his toe and his leg. He said
McClintock won't play unless the team suffers some injuries at DE.

900 Number Updated Daily

I update my 900 number every day with football and football recruiting news.
The number is 1-900-288-8839. It costs $1.59 a minute. You must be 18 or
older to call.

Coach's Corner

The Longhorns, now ranked No. 5 in both polls after a rash of upsets
Saturday, are playing well, but they need to keep working to get better, head
coach Mack Brown said Sunday.
After studying films of the 35-16 victory over Missouri, Brown said he and
his assistants were generally pleased with the team's play.
But he said the defense will work on hard on tackling this week. "We weren't
pleased with out tackling," Brown said. "We weren't pleased one back gained
over 100 yards on us. We've got to get back to work on that."
He also said the defense did a good job in permitting Missouri to get into
the red zone only three times all day "but they scored all three times.
That's not what we want."
The offense played a pretty good game, he said, adding that tackle Mike
Wiliams "played great. He's our offensive player of the week."
Defensively, he said the player of the week is CB Quentin Jammer, who held
the Tiger's nationally ranked WR Justin Gage to two receptions for 14 yards.
He was averaging 7.5 receptions per game and ranked second in the Big 12 in
that department.
Brown also said he is concerned about some aspects of the kicking game. "We
kicked two balls out of bounds on kickoffs," he said. "We've got some issues
there we've got to correct."
He said backup LB Reed Boyd, who plays on several of the kicking teams, "was
our special teams player of the week."
Asked how he prepares his team for games like the next two, against Baylor
and Kansas, when the opponents are losing and struggling, he said, "Baylor
played A&M and Oklahoma tough. Our guys need to play football because they
like playing it. If they can't get excited about playing football, they don't
need to be playing football at the University of Texas."
He also said, "Our guys need to understand that everyone wants to knock them
off."

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