View from the Cheap Seats-Kansas

[echeese]

View from the Cheap Seats-Kansas

 

The Bijan Show, Toto, can we play in Kansas every week?

 

 

Let’s be clear, Bijan LOVES him some Kansas.   After logging 30 carries for 216 yards in Manhattan 2 weeks ago, Bijan has a ‘hold my beer and watch this’ night going off for 243 yards and 4 TDs on 25 carries.   TEXAS went to Lawrence and simply blew out Kansas like it was 1999.  By far the best and most complete game in the Sark era on both sides of the ball.   

 

TEXAS got off to a slow start with a 5 and out then they would take off, responding with scores on their next 9 drives, 7 of them touchdowns on their way to a 31-0 lead at halftime. Meanwhile the D set the early tone with back to back 3 and outs, a turnover on downs a missed FG, an INT, a punt and another turnover on downs leading to a 1^st half shut out.    Our D has gotten dramatically better since last season.  More on that in a second.

 

It was clear early that Sark had committed to the rush game, 27 1^st half rushes to 14 pass attempts.  We will offer our only criticism of this week’s Cheap Seats, where has this game plan been?   Sark gave Ewers short passes to build his confidence and it paid off.  And he was back to attacking the edges with the TEXAS rushing attack, putting Bijan in a position to showcase his skills.  It should be mentioned, thanks to a collection of issues (poor play calling, poor execution, dropped passes) TEXAS could not effectively use temp vs TCU.   They used it and used it well again the Jayhawks.  

 

Let’s talk about Bijan for just a second as he nears the end of his TEXAS career (he’s expected to jump to the show this spring).  With this monster night, Bijan has moved into a 5^th place tie with Chris Gilbert and is only 97 yards behind Jamaal Charles in the #4 spot.       Gilbert was a brilliant running back for the Longhorns (though before our time) from 1966-1968 and would be the 1^st D1 RB to gain 1000 in each of his 3 seasons.   Back then Freshmen were not eligible.   Not much chance of Bijan catching #3 Earl Campbell as he’s 1200 yards behind with 2 games to go (sorry, we know it could be 3 but longshot at best to get to the conference title game).   With tonight’s game, he became the 7^th TEXAS running back to reach 3000 yards in his career.   With his 4 TD performance, he has scored a TD in 20 of 23 games at TEXAS.   Coming into the game he had gained 784 yards after contact of his 1158 yards this season.   He also had forced 74 missed tackles, leading the nation.   That number will jump up again this week.

 

Since he arrived, Coach Pete Kwiatkowski has been under fire.   This year’s D significantly better than last year and his young charges stepped up in a big way on the road.   Kansas would not score until late in the 3^rr quarter with the game already out of reach.   Some interesting stats were posted during the game:

                       

2021              2022

 

Rush D           114^th              39^th

Total D           100^th              59^th

Scoring D      99^th                32^nd

Sacks              101st             48th

 

Tonight’s efforts should improve those numbers.   Kansas’ best weapon was Devin Neal and their RB came into the game having rushed for 414 yards in the previous 2 games.   He would leave gaining just 55.  Defense stepping up in a big way.

 

Offensive Player of the Game

 

Bijan Robinson.    He will be missed badly when he leaves, tonight was his show.  4^th TEXAS RB with 250+ yards in 25 carries or less.  Had he been featured all year like this, he’d be a shoe in for NYC.  Doak Walker award in sight?    Perhaps

 

Honorable Mention:    Offensive line.   They were impressive coming off their worst night of the season.   

 

Defensive player of the game

 

Jaylan Ford     He made a great play to undercut a route to record another INT, snuffing out a late 2^nd quarter Kansas drive and setting TEXAS up to record another touchdown.

 

Honorable Mention:    The entire D played well but we’re going with Morice Blackwell, tied for the team lead in tackles and a tackle for loss

 

 

Stats that matter

·       0-2      KSU on 4^th down  Jarren Thompson with 1 and Alfred Collins with the other 4^th down stuff.

·       3-4      TEXAS on 4^th down

·       2          Sark/TEXAS on a 2 game road winning streak

·       5-6      TEXAS red zone TDs + a FG

·       539     Total TEXAS yards

·       12-11 Sark’s record at TEXAS

 

 

Conclusions

 

Great game and a great game plan on both sides of the ball.   In what should/could pay big dividends in the future was so many young players logging time in the 4^th quarter.   Johnathan Brooks took advantage of his 11 carries to log his 1^st 100 yard game of his career.    Always a sad time of the year, another college football regular season is down to its last game.   TEXAS can finish on a high note but the season will be remembered best as what could have been.

 

On Deck

 

Baylor snatched defeat from the jaws of victory and now faces traveling to Austin, we hope more than a little hung over from a game they should have won.   TEXAS shows up like they did vs Kansas, TEXAS can go to sleep Friday night as YUGE Kansas fans.   A TEXAS win and a Kansas win puts TEXAS in the Big XII title game.   We don’t see it but that’s why they play the games.   Beat Baylor, finish 8-4 (which was our pre season floor) and let the chips fall where they may.  

 

Fighting Mack Brown’s

 

Mack’s guys have been playing with fire all season and it caught up with them this weekend.   Up at halftime, they would give up the lead, go for it on 4^th down late in the game only to have their All American WR drop an easy pass in the endzone to take the lead.  Defense could not get a stop and UNC went down to lowly Georgia Tech.   Mack still has his ticket punched to the ACC title game where he needs to beat Clemson for a New Year’s 6 bowl bid.   Otherwise, he might be facing TEXAS in the Cheez-it Bowl

 

 

Ranking the BigXII

 

#1  TCU         Kept the dream season alive with a miracle comeback vs Baylor.   Needs to get past cellar dweller ISU then KSU or maybe TEXAS in the CCG to make the playoffs

 

#2  KSU          Beat Kansas and they face TCU again in the CCG

 

#3  TEXAS      Need Kansas to upset KSU to have a chance at CCG.

 

Next 5 can go in any order

 

#4  Okie Lite  

 

#5   Baylor    Could have pulled a huge upset, going bowling

 

#6   TT            Going bowling

 

#7   Kansas   Going bowling

 

#8   OU          Going bowling

 

#9  WVU

 

#10  ISU

 

We care about bowling as we have ties to the Armed Forces Bowl and for the 1^st time in a while, the BigXII will have a representative, likely TT which means better turn out.

 

If we had a vote that matter.   

No style points this weekend but the picture coming into view

 

#1  Georgia   sluggish win vs Kentucky

#2  tOSU       late defensive TD obscured the closeness of the game

#3  TCU          very late FG to take a 1 point win

#4  USC          UCLA gave them everything they wanted, one of the better games of the day

 

 

Just a bit outside

 

#5   Michigan   faces tOSU for a spot in the B1G title game

#6  Clemson   set to face the fighting Mack Brown’s for the ACC title

#7  LSU          Can a 2 loss SEC champ make the playoffs?   Over 1 loss champs from other conferences?   And where would that leave a 1 loss Georgia?

 

 

Game highlights

 

https://youtu.be/dQ1NCyBBiDo

 

Bijan Lights, every carry, thanks Nash

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYnqSQAv9LE

[North Texas Golfer]

@echeese

Great writeup as usual 

A few thoughts about your thoughts.

It should be mentioned, thanks to a collection of issues (poor play calling, poor execution, dropped passes) TEXAS could not effectively use temp vs TCU.  They used it and used it well again the Jayhawks. This part was absolutely spot on.  

Gilbert was a brilliant running back for the Longhorns (though before our time) from 1966-1968 and would be the 1^st D1 RB to gain 1000 in each of his 3 seasons. As a teenager, I loved watching watching Chris Gilbert. And, yes, I said as a teenager 

Honorable Mention: The entire D played well but we’re going with Morice Blackwell, tied for the team lead in tackles and a tackle for loss. Thought I saw Blackwell out there quite a bit. Interesting since he had only played in 4 games and never played more than 13 plays in any of them. 

Always a sad time of the year, another college football regular season is down to its last game. TEXAS can finish on a high note but the season will be remembered best as what could have been. Same here on both.

[North Texas Golfer]

One other thing. 

Pete Kwiatkoski has done a hell of a job. Give the man his due. 

[NEOkHorn]

Great stuff as always.
 

With this kind of result, I may opt to travel and miss the broadcast every game day…. Just kidding, looking forward to watching the recording when I get home. Loved the effort and result from the entire team and staff. After a decade plus long period of football darkness, it takes a little time to learn to believe again. At the risk of moving more toward the O perspective, here’s hoping we took another step toward the light today.

[82Horn]

Good write up as always.

[oldhorn2]

up in the stands for Chris Gilbert's first Longhorn game, I was just like everyone else in the crowd. We had ALL come to see Bill Bradley in his first game at QB. Bradley after all had been on the cover of SI before he had ever played a snap.

What happened was that every time Chris Gilbert touched the ball he just took off seemingly forever. I among many had never even heard of him before that game.

[TXFF]

2 hours ago, North Texas Golfer said:

One other thing. 

Pete Kwiatkoski has done a hell of a job. Give the man his due. 

Absolutely. Those of you who had been calling for PK's job need to learn a lesson here. It takes time to build a consistently effective unit so be patient and let the man do his job.

[Johnny Depp]

3 minutes ago, TXFF said:

Absolutely. Those of you who had been calling for PK's job need to learn a lesson here. It takes time to build a consistently effective unit so be patient and let the man do his job.

His job should be safe, the D has held almost every team to half of their normal scoring, avg 21.5.

It's that offensive coordinator not upholding his end of the bargain. 

[Soldierhorn]

good write up.

"Gilbert was a brilliant running back for the Longhorns (though before our time) from 1966-1968 and would be the 1^st D1 RB to gain 1000 in each of his 3 seasons.   Back then Freshmen were not eligible."

I know you know this but the numbers really dont put what the RBs did in context back in the day. In the wishbone offense, there were three RBs that shared the carries and a fourth if you count the QB. Even Earl wasnt isolated as THE running back until his senior season and played fullback early on. For Gilbert, Leaks, Worster, Bertelsen, Koy, Earl and so on to still be in the conversation 50+ yrs later is kind of amazing.   

[Hiwood]

People have no idea how great Chris Gilbert was, he played on some mediocre/crappy  teams and they didnt switch to the Wishbone until the 3rd or 4th game of his senior season ...and he still made many 1st team All American squads playing ten game seasons

[Eastexhorn]

Remember his forward lean  before hitting hiting line of scrimage.

[Dillohorn1]

12 and 11...wow!      Good read again.

[UTfish]

6 hours ago, oldhorn2 said:

up in the stands for Chris Gilbert's first Longhorn game, I was just like everyone else in the crowd. We had ALL come to see Bill Bradley in his first game at QB. Bradley after all had been on the cover of SI before he had ever played a snap.

What happened was that every time Chris Gilbert touched the ball he just took off seemingly forever. I among many had never even heard of him before that game.

And Bradley wasn't a great qb because his hands were too small and he fumbled a lot, but he was a great db.

[Eastexhorn]

On missing Bjian baddly, might not be so bad. Brooks is looking good and OL should improve for next year.