Game week is finally here. After nearly nine months—spent wondering about transfers, speculating upon returns and predicting what’ll happen come September—we finally get to see a football game.
And the 2015 season kicks off not just with an ordinary football game, but a showdown between two of college football’s proudest programs. Notre Dame will receive a visit from Texas on Saturday night, with the Irish kicking off their home season in style with a primetime affair on NBC.
After a difficult first-season that saw Charlie Strong take some lumps as he fought tirelessly to rework the Longhorns in his image, Texas looks to build off a six-win season. Strong has hit the recruiting trail hard since arriving in Austin and brings with him a young team that’ll have two dozen true or redshirt freshmen on the depth chart.
To get us up to speed on the state of the Longhorns, Wescott Eberts of Burnt Orange Nation rejoins us. Nice enough to get us up to speed on things earlier this summer, Eberts cleared some time in a busy week one schedule to answer some questions for us before the games begin.
Hope you enjoy.
It looks like quarterback Tyrone Swoops is the man who’ll lead the Longhorns offense into South Bend. How has he been during fall camp? And what do you expect out of him in a night game on a very big stage in a fairly hostile environment?
By all reports, Tyrone Swoopes has been the better of the two quarterbacks, with particular development in his leadership ability. Normally a low-key guy, he’s been much more fiery and demonstrative in practice.
However, head coach Charlie Strong said back during the spring that while he thinks Swoopes is improved, he didn’t know how much better the Texas quarterback will be until he steps on the field. I think that’s still the case and there’s no question that much of his success will depend on improved play from the offensive line and consistency from his wide receivers, a position currently suffering from a lot of drops in practice.
I’ve been reading about some of the shakeups on the Texas offensive line. Charlie Strong has sounded complimentary when discussing his running backs, but how will the line be in front of him?
The early returns from practice are that the offensive line is much more physicality in the running game. In pass protection, the Horns may be a little bit more suspect, especially if freshman offensive guard Patrick Vahe remains a starter and pushes junior Kent Perkins out to right tackle, where he struggled last year. The flipside is that Texas will use run-pass options on a number of plays, which will reduce the number of pure drop-back situations for Swoopes.
How does Strong’s defense look as it prepares for an offensive opponent that should be one of the more explosive units in the country? Also — what’s the scouting report from Texas’ POV on quarterback Malik Zaire, who has really only played six quarters of football.
There are a lot of question marks for the Texas defense right now, which was missing a couple of key pieces at defensive tackle through much of fall camp. There will be six new starters against Notre Dame and several of them will likely be freshmen, including potential star linebacker Malik Jefferson and maybe even one of three cornerbacks who are making waves. If the linebackers can play well, then the Horns should be okay, efforts that the defensive line could enable by consistently occupying blocks.
Fill in the blanks. For Texas to win on Saturday night, the offensive key is ________________. For Texas to win on Saturday night, the defensive key is ________________________.
For Texas to win on Saturday night, the key offensively is to produce explosive plays and avoid three and outs. While that may sound simplistic, the Horns struggled mightily in both of those areas last year, ultimately affording the defense little rest and poor field position to defend.
For Texas to win on Sunday night, the defense has to turn Notre Dame over and keep Zaire from making off-schedule plays with his feet, especially in long down-and-distance situations. Like most teams, there was a major difference in turnover margin in wins and losses — Texas was +9 in wins and -12 in losses.
What position group or specific player’s progress are you most interested in monitoring on Saturday?
The quarterback position is the obvious one and the offensive line’s development will factor heavily into the team’s success this season, but the freshman class may be an even bigger key this season. Two freshmen could start on the offensive line, one could start at wide receiver, and several could start on defense.
Seeing Jefferson in action will be particularly interesting — he made plays in the spring game, but also suffered from some inconsistencies that ultimately resulted in a poor grade for his efforts. The guess here is that he’ll have some growing pains in his first truly live action in college, but will also flash that playmaking ability that resulted in so much hype around him during his recruitment.
Not to put you on the spot, but do you have a prediction for Saturday night’s game? And if you’re calling the Longhorns’ getting the victory, who is your offensive and defensive MVP?
Not really too into predictions, but this looks like a game that Notre Dame should win, perhaps even handily. If the Horns do pull it off, I think that Tyrone Swoopes has to be the MVP offensively, while junior defensive tackle Hassan Ridgeway will need to create some serious disruption inside.
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For more from Wes and the crew at Burnt Orange Nation this week, check out the site or follow him on Twitter @SBN_Wescott and the site @BON_SBNation.
