The first weekend of college football brought a lot of mismatches, but for teams of interest in Houston, it also brought some clarity.
It's impossible to know how good some of these teams will be after week 1, but we were able to get some questions answered.
TEXAS -- The Longhorns were methodical in a 34-17 win over Rice, but the defense will be every bit as good as expected. The Owls had one sustained drive that led to an early field goal. The touchdowns came after a fluke catch near the half and a fumbled punt near the end of the game. The defense will be among the best in the country.
Offensively, there is work to do. Garrett Gilbert has all the tools at quarterback but spent a lot of time locking in on his primary receiver, a common mistake for young QBs. They played a fairly conservative game plan, focusing primarily on running the ball. Expect the Longhorns to open it up a little as Gilbert gets more comfortable.
What we learned: They are who we thought they were, a top five team with a talented defense and a work in progress on the other side of the ball. They look to be the class of the Big 12 again.
RICE -- Give the Owls some credit. .They played hard against a superior team and did not embarrass themselves. Taylor McHargue is going to be a good one at quarterback, and he won't face a tougher defense this season. Sam McGuffie is quick and exciting but needs to learn to stop giving up huge chunks of yardage reversing field against a superior defense.
What we learned: Rice has better talent and a better team than last year's two-win group, and they could be a factor in C-USA when all is said and done.
TEXAS A&M -- The Aggies spent the offseason trying to fix one of the worst defenses in the country. In the opening 48-7 win over SFA, that unit played very well. However, it's hard to gauge anything against a Division I-AA school (I don't care what they call that division now. It will always be I-AA to me). To be fair, we aren't going to know anything about the A&M defense until week 4 at Oklahoma State. Before Aggie fans get too excited about the defense after one game, we would remind you the Aggies opened up with a 41-7 win last year over New Mexico and the defense played well then, too. It doesn't matter until you get to big boy football, and SFA, Louisiana Tech and FIU are not fair indicators of what A&M will be. All we know is the Aggies will be 3-0. More importantly. Jerrod Johnson looked good, completing 28 of 40 and alleviating fears about his shoulder.
What we learned: Nothing yet. The Aggies have high expectations, and dominating a lesser opponent should be part of the deal. They did what they were supposed to do.
HOUSTON -- Much like the Aggies, the Cougars are trying to fix an abysmal defense. Much like A&M, physical dominance over a lesser opponent -- in this case Texas State -- doesn't tell us much. It was nice seeing Matt Nicholson get a touchdown return on an interception after blowing out his knee against Texas Tech last year. Other than that, it's impossible to judge. We should know more about the defense after Friday's game with UTEP. At the risk of sounding negative in a 68-28 win, however, there were some old concerns. The first-team defense got pushed around a little by Texas State early, giving up a touchdown, but they did adjust. Case Keenum threw five TD passes in a half, but two interceptions, a bugaboo that reared its ugly head last last year. And they also missed two extra points. Those things don't matter against the Texas States of the world, but when the water gets deeper, they can be real problems. Expect coach Kevin Sumlin to get those problems fixed.
The good news is the Cougars are deep at running back despite the loss of Charles Sims. They also have some quality depth at other key positions, so unlike past years one or two key injuries should not cripple the entire team.
What we learned: Nothing yet. We should know more on Friday when UTEP -- a team that ran all over UH last season -- visits Robertson Stadium.
LSU -- The Tigers are at a bit of a crossroads year for Les Miles. They have talent, but they have not seemed to be able to put it all together the past two years. The opener against North Carolina should have been a walkover against a depleted team, but the Tigers lost focus after opening up a 20-point lead and had to hold on for dear life.
The offense has been inefficient in that stretch, and last night was more of the same. Jordan Jefferson was 15 of 21 for just 151 yards and threw a pick. The Tigers fumbled the ball four times. Five turnovers will not cut it in the SEC. Neither will allowing 436 yards on defense.
What we learned: The Tigers have talent, but they have a long way to go, and will need to improve quite a bit to challenge Alabama and fend off Auburn and Arkansas in the SEC West.
Other games of note: Did Oklahoma really just beat Utah State by 7 at home? The Sooners are notorious for struggling in opening games, but that has to cause some concern...TCU looked good in knocking off Oregon State. The Frogs have one real test left on their schedule -- at Utah on Nov. 6 -- that could keep them from another unbeaten season...How about all three of the Mountain West's best knocking off BCS teams? Besides TCU, BYU beat Washington and Utah knocked off Pitt. Too bad BYU is bailing on that league...Florida looked pedestrian in a win over Miami of Ohio...Jacksonville State's win over Ole Miss featured two of the best plays you will ever see to end a football game...The Big 12 would have gone unbeaten (pending Tech-SMU today) if not for Kansas' loss at home to North Dakota State....And how about Lamar? First game in 21 years and they give McNeese all it wants in a 30-27 win.
Comments
Its jerrod JOHNSON. And you are starting to write and sound like a tsip homer (aj).
#2. huh? we won't know squat about tamu until after they finish their cream puff non-conference schedule.
They played an error free game. Little to no penalties with little to no miscues. What dont you understand about that statement?
Playing I-AA schools does mean nothing. The vast majority of I-AA schools are vastly inferior to I-A schools, especially in football. I'm expecting the Coogs to get pushed around once again by UTEP this Friday but I think they'll still win.
The Horns? It was an away game at Rice so no matter how bad the Owls may be they played the game of their life here. Still, Texas looked a bit off and I'm expecting at least a couple losses this year. They are not a top 5 team though.
I wouldn't call Texas-Rice an "away" game for Texas. Rice averaged 13500 home attendance last year, and yesterday's game had over 70000 in attendance. Guess which school they were mostly rooting for. And what kind of "Top 5" team wins by only 17 against one of the worst teams in the FBS, a team that went 2-10 last year and finished in the bottom 20 in the nation in both offense and defense?
but, but, but....it was the longhorns. /snark
I think your bias is showing. You didn't learn any more about tu after Rice than you did about A&M after SFA...but your paragraph on the horns sounds a lot like a cheerleading session.
Oldagg
Ok so it's not just me, LOL
A&M and OU will beat texas this year no doubt
"I now think TAMU can take the Big 12 south if they dont implode."
Being polite and not questioning your thought processes, in recent years when have the Aggies not imploded?
Plus, the Texas defense will take away the big plays the Aggies will see against lesser defenses. Plus, the Texas offense will be so much better by Thanksgiving. I know what turkey will be carved that weekend.
Saying all that, only one game week has been played! Rather than predicting winning the conference, just sit back and enjoy a great sport, college football.
"Saying all that, only one game week has been played! Rather than predicting winning the conference, just sit back and enjoy a great sport, college football."
Here here!! That being said, why's sports without the trash talk.
Re the article, the UT bias makes it worthless and unimportant. Sucks because I can't get enough football talk.
How is every other team's opponent not important, but RICE gives us a lot to learn about Texas? And I'm sorry, I'm not impressed with a defense that let them score 17, "fluke" or not. By the way, good defenses don't let 17 points of "flukes" get by. That's what separates the great from the good.
I think he meant to say " the longhorns WERENT methodical in their offense," but anyways, the texas running game did not look great. Neither running back averaged more than 4 yards per carry. They did score touchdowns, but they didn't turn the corners and run for huge gains again and again like they should have against Rice. Now that the Texas offense is "running based," at least until Gilbert gains the faith of his coaching staff, Texas fans have much to worry about. They simply did not look like a top 5 team. Watching Texas play Rice helped me learn this.
Also, this guy seems to have more of a bias towards Rice than anything. He is Houston based, and he says that "they"(TEXAS) are who "we"(RICE) thought they were. He probably is a fan of rice and thus thinks they are better than they actually are, which leads to his conclusion that Texas beat a really good team, his team, and that they deserve credit.
Haha, I like many of you sense a bias. I think the aggie D will get a little better as the year goes on, and hopefully it plays pretty good against good teams. We'll see starting with oklahoma state, which looks to have a great offense. With as many points as oklahoma let Utah state score on them, I think OU will have problems this year, and thats not good because they are going to go up against plenty of passes.
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