08-12-2018, 01:29 PM
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#57
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MVP
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Re: Tearz49ers Presents: This Is Texas (NCAA Football '14)
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Austin, Texas -- The first victory is always the hardest, or so it is said and last week Texas coach Tom Herman got his first win as the Longhorns head coach in a pretty scrappy 37-19 win over Maryland. Today, the winning mentality continued as the Longhorns took down San Jose State 41-24.
We were no more than two minutes into the second quarter when Texas quarterback Shane Buechele took a 25-yard scamper down to the Spartans 10-yard line before taking a big hit in the lower back from San Jose defensive end Owen Roberts, the sophomore quarterback was eventually helped off the field by the Longhorns medical team after a five minute break and he did not return... In stepped true freshman Sam Ehlinger and the rest was history.
In what was became his first showing at the collegiate level, quarterback Sam Ehlinger guided Texas to 34 points, 354-yards of total offense and threw for four touchdown passes.
"Really proud of our guys for tuning out all the noise and tuning out all the distractions that they could have allowed to creep in after last week's showing despite the fact we won the game," Herman said after the game. "They got back to work and they knew what we had to do. They knew what we're capable of doing, and they did it. I couldn't be more proud of that team in there right now for responding the way they did."
Defensively, the Horns sacked Spartans sophomore quarterback Josh Love seven times and junior cornerback Kris Boyd was on hand to intercept the quarterback, and whilst the Longhorns defense didn't exactly "shutdown" the Spartans offense having given up 24 points and 440-yards of offense these statistics were much inflated by the amount of big yardage plays the Spartans were able to make.
"Coach Herman expects us to be our best on every play," sophomore defensive end Malcolm Roach said about today's performance. "He says its a four down game and each time we go out there make every one of them count. He has big expectations for us, we do need to get better but each week I feel like we are."
The Longhorns started slowly on offense, failing to gain a first down on its first three possessions, while San Jose were able to push the ball downfield and cap off a six play drive with a 14-yard touchdown run from Malike Robinson.
The Longhorn offense began rolling after that, scoring touchdowns on three of its next four possessions with a 21-yard Joshua Rowland field goal breaking up those touchdown possessions.
With Texas down on the Spartan's ten yard line, Kyle Porter took the ball six yards and set up the Longhorns in prime scoring position down at the four yard line, Ehlinger snapped the ball, dropped back and hit Reggie Hemphill-Mapps right in the numbers for six points with his first pass as a Longhorn, talk about believing in yourself! This would give the Longhorns a 14-7 lead.
San Jose wasn't about to give up on this game easily and yet another long drive was capped off by a 34-yard Bryce Crawford field goal. Ehlinger and the Texas offense started their next drive at the UT 37-yard line after an excellent kick return by Devin Duvernay. Two plays later and Sam Ehlinger would find tight end Garrett Gray who would take the ball 32-yards for the touchdown but not before absolutely destroying San Jose safety Maurice McKnight along the way, Texas was take a 24-10 lead into half-time.
San Jose would receive the kick-off in the second half and yet again proved what a shifty outfit they could be when they went on a 14-play, 76-yard drive that featured 10 passing plays and culminated with a 2-yard touchdown run by receiver Tre Hartley, making it 24-17. Another field goal from Texas kicker Joshua Rowland closed out what was pretty much a punt happy third quarter to give the Longhorns a ten point lead going into the final quarter of the game.
Tight End Garrett Gray's scoring day didn't end with his first touchdown reception, the redshirt-junior would once again be found by Ehlinger midway through the fourth quarter this time the true freshman showcased his arm hitting his target from just 13-yards inside his own half right over the head off Spartans linebacker Ethan Aguayo (who had been a thorn in the Longhorns side, recording a sack and a pick on Ehlinger) for a 63-yard touchdown pass, Ehlinger would showcase his arm again later in the fourth quarter. On the Spartans next drive you could see that the amount of big plays they had made were starting to take a toll on the Longhorns defensive backfield because it appeared as if Texas safety Brandon Jones and cornerback P.J. Locke III were confused with who should have been picking up Spartans receiver Bailey Gaither as the sophomore waltzed wide open into the endzone for a 20-yard touchdown.
Texas and Ehlinger were not done with the scoring though, on their next play after the Spartans had just made the game 34-24 it was the turn of star receiver Collin Johnson to get in on the scoring action as he broke free from senior cornerback Andre Chachere ever so slightly and was found with a lovely spiral pass from Sam Ehlinger and the star receiver did the rest taking the ball 72-yards to close out the days scoring, Texas would win the game 41-24.
Ehlinger on the day completed 11-of-17 passes for 265 yards and four touchdown's with a single pick, while also rushing for 13 yards, making a big claim that "maybe" he should be starting.
The Texas defense allowed the Spartans to succeed on 6-0f-14 third down conversions (42%), Malcolm Roach recorded three sacks giving him five on the season. Malik Jefferson, DeShon Elliot all recorded their first sacks of the season with Naashon Hughes finding his way to the quarterback twice.
The Longhorns will look to build momentum next week as they take on #3 USC (2-0, 1-0) for the first time since the 2005 BCS National Championship Game. Kickoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. CT on FOX at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
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Last edited by Tearz49ers; 08-12-2018 at 01:47 PM.
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