The Texas Longhorns Will Be National Champs
Balanced Texas Team Looking to Avenge Last Year’s Disappointment
Aug 30, 2009
The year of the quarterback, that is how the 2009 NCAA football season is shaping up. Of the top three schools in both polls, Florida, Texas and Oklahoma, each has a quarterback on the Heisman watch list. Texas’s Colt McCoy is the most unheralded of the three as the Gator’s Tim Tebow and the Sooner’s Sam Bradford each have Heismans to their name.
While McCoy does not have the hardware yet, he may be the most rounded quarterback of the three. He throws better than Tebow and runs better than Bradford making him a true threat in the backfield. And it is appropriate that a well rounded quarterback is at the helm of the Longhorns as Texas puts a complete team on the field both offensively and defensively as it looks to reclaim the National Title.
Longhorns Look Back to Move Forward
Texas lost one game last season on a last second play to Texas Tech. Deprived of a shot at the Big 12 championship and a run at the National Title, Texas settled for a BCS win over Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl.
But the National Championship game slight has not set well with Texas, and this year the Longhorns are using that as a rallying cry.
Texas is McCoy’s Team
Like the other two quarterbacks at the top schools, McCoy is the engine that drives the Longhorns and will be a big part of whatever Texas can accomplish this season. McCoy passed for 3,859 yards last season and his favorite target from a year ago, Jordan Shipley, returns. Shipley collected 1,060 yards last season.
More importantly for McCoy, four starters return on the offensive line which allowed just two sacks per game last season.
The only thing missing from the Texas attack is a ground game but if a running back emerges, it would take pressure of McCoy. If need be though, McCoy can run with the ball and is elusive, amassing 561 yards on the ground last season.
Defense Will Lead Texas to the Title
While McCoy and the offense will be in the spotlight most of the season, it could be the Texas defense that has the Longhorns hoisting the Championship Trophy at the end of the year.
Although, the Longhorns need to replace most of their defensive line, the linebackers and defensive backs are talented and experienced. Despite the new defensive line, Texas is not expecting any drop off in putting pressure on the passer. Linebacker Sergio Kindle returns and led the Longhorns in sacks last season with 10. This year, Kindle could split time between linebacker and defensive end.
Kindle can play both spots due to the talent and depth in the linebacker corps where Roddrick Muckelroy and Jared Norton round out what could be the best linebacking group in the country.
In the defensive backfield, Texas returns a strong group of corners in Deon Beasley, Curtis Brown and Chykie Brown. Blake Gideon and Earl Thomas played well last season and are expected to do the same this year.
How Can the Texas Longhorns Lose?
With so much balance on both sides of the ball, Texas is in good shape to have another successful season for head coach Mack Brown. Brown is 115-26 as Texas head coach, earning a national title in 2006 and amassing a 3-0 record in BCS Bowl games.
But Texas plays in the Big 12, the only other conference that can even stake a claim of being the toughest conference in the country over the SEC. The Longhorns will face Texas Tech, the only team to beat Texas last year, early. Texas will also have to face No. 3 Oklahoma, No. 9 Oklahoma State and No. 25 Kansas. The schedule also includes a trip to Missouri to face a tough Tigers team.
If the Longhorns survive all that, it would be followed by a trip to the Big 12 championship game where No. 25 Kansas or No. 24 Nebraska could be waiting.
Florida is currently ranked as the top team in both preseason polls, followed by Texas, Oklahoma, USC and Alabama, but with the taste of last year’s lost shot at a title and a strong group coming back, the Longhorns could vault in to that top spot come January.
