By the time I got around to writing the top 5 of the HLSTNHT25-PE, I stopped reading as much Phil Steel and started going more by memory because the programs are pretty well known commodities. But now I’m at #2 and I’m back to paging thru Phil’s work, trying to commit plagiarisms provide you with anything useful because, well, they’re pretty unknown to me. All I know is that they should be good this year. Very good.
And how’s that work, exactly? After all, they did lose to KSU and Texas A&M in back-to-back games to finish the season. And then they barely got past Iowa in a bowl game. I didn’t even realize Iowa had earned a bowl game last year!
Maybe it’s just the fact that they have their pick of the most fertile recruiting ground in the world that causes our over-enthusiastic #2 ranking.
Offense: They get back a healthier and more seasoned Colt McCoy at QB. They’ve got a young RB that averaged 7.4 yards/carry last year. That’s not bad. Not bad at all. And they get back a lot of experience at receiver while giving up a lot of experience at the OL.
Defense: After giving up just 18.3 points a game last year, they lose about half their manpower. Good news: They get back all of their guys at linebacker. And they’ll be standing behind one of the best DLs in the country (allowed 61.2 rush yds/game).
Special Teams: VaTech gets all the special teams hype, but have they blocked at least 4 punts in each of the last 6 seasons? Have they? I dunno. I don’t have that information. If you know, feel free to let us know.
Facts:
- The ‘Horns get back 13 starters this year.
- Last year’s offense averaged 35.9 points per game. Pretty good until you realize that’s a 2TD drop off from the previous year.
- Before Mack Brown took over, Texas had only 3 winning seasons in the previous 7.
HLS Top 25 Meta:
- Highest spot on a HLS Ballot: 1
- Lowest spot on a HLS Ballot: 4
- Average ranking on HLS Ballots: 2.5
Why Alex Trebek Loves Them:
- The Eyes of Texas is sung after every Texas sporting event, whether it’s swimming, golf, or badminton.
Around the Web:
HLS Tracker 10 Forecast Technology Says:
The Horns find themselves in that delectable position of being in a one-mighty conference that pollsters often forget ain’t no longer so mighty. As a result, they can go a cream a bunch of non-cons, then beat up on the rather sorry members of their conference, and it all looks pretty good while it’s happening. They don’t run into Oklahoma until late in the year, so expect a lot of NC talk until at least then.
- HLS Tweets for the Week of 2009-11-15 - November 15, 2009
- HLS Tweets for the Week of 2009-11-08 - November 8, 2009
- HLS Tweets for the Week of 2009-11-01 - November 1, 2009
