Texas pulled out an ugly win against the Tulsa Golden Hurricanes 28-21 Saturday to even their record to 1-1. The Golden Hurricanes missed three field goals and had two turnovers. Lil Jordan Humphrey took over the offense with seven receptions, one hundred and seven yards, including a touchdown. Sam Ehlinger used his legs to clinch the game in their last drive to convert the much needed first down to win their first game of the season.
The game got underway as Freshman Safety Caleb Sterns intercepted Tulsa’s quarterback Luke Skipper on the first play of the game. Ehlinger took advantaged completing a thirty six yarder to Humphrey at Tulsa’s one yard line then ran it into the endzone on the next play.
After a missed field goal and a few change of possessions Texas offense began to click. Four plays for fifty four yards is all it took to extend the lead. Keontay Ingram broke a tackle scoring from twenty nine yards out to make it 14-0, it seemed like it was going to be a blow out early.
And it sure looked that way as Safety Brandon Foster took the ball away from Skipper. Unfortunately Texas punted on their next two drives failing to keep their explosiveness going. It seemed the Golden Hurricanes were going to put some points on the board after a block punt in Texas territory, but they missed their second consecutive field goal.
Texas had a chance to score before halftime so they handed the start of the drive to the running back tandem Ingram and Watson. Texas was able to rush five times for thirty five yards. This opened up the pass for Humphrey for a tremendous forty yard touchdown to end the halftime 21-0.
Tulsa made some adjustments in the second half putting a scare on the Longhorns. They stopped the offense with two punts and a fumble before they put fourteen on the scoreboard cutting the lead to seven.
The Horns responded with their longest drive in the game going thirteen plays after Watson ran in for a touchdown giving them some breathing room 28-14. Of course it had to get interesting it’s college football. Tulsa came after that possession to cut it again to seven putting the horns into a crucial drive.
It all came down to third and one at their own forty yard line. The game was on the line. The game turned to Ehlinger as he rushed for three yards to keep the game going and the clock moving. Daniel Young entered the game for the Longhorns rushing for 9, 30, 2 clinching the win. An ugly loss but wins are just that wins
Texas allowed one to slip away Saturday to open up the season against Maryland losing 34-29 at FedEx Field home of the Redskins. Maryland freshman Jeshaun Jones showed out with his own hat trick catching, throwing, and running for a touchdown. The game began with a moment of silence for the Maryland’s fallen teammate Jordan McNair who died of a heat stroke in the spring. Once it all started the revenge game from last year’s upset loss slowly went out of reach. Where did it all go wrong?
On their first possession, Maryland exploded with a few big plays that put Texas on their heels with a Taivon Jacobs twenty-three yard pass then Jeshaun Jones capped off the drive with a twenty-eight yard run into the endzone. The defense was unable to figure out what was going on early on.
After back to back punts Texas gained great field position as Brandon Jones returned it to the Maryland’s thirty-nine yard line. The Longhorns on their very first play, Sam Ehlinger connected with Devin Duvernay for thirty-nine yards to tie the game 7-7. It seemed the game was evenly matched with each team creating big plays against the defense early.
Jeshaun Jones would keep it going catching a Kasim Hill sixty five yard touchdown by the eight minute mark of the first quarter. Maryland ran away with the game in the second quarter once Jeshaun Jones threw a touchdown to Jaivon Jacobs to take a 24-7 lead.
The ejection of linebacker Gary Johnson and the first half suspension of Anthony Wheeler contributed to a decimated defense.
Texas responded with a Keontay Ingram touchdown, a Terp’s safety, and a beautiful throw to a leaping Colin Johnson to trim the lead 24-22 that changed the momentum of the game at halftime.
The third quarter went underway as both defenses held firm to force punts. Texas was able to stop the Terps on a fourth down when Hill attempted to run for the first down. Sam Ehlinger came out and completed another completion to Colin Johnson at the two yard line. Kyle Porter stepped into the endzone to give the Horns their very first lead of the game 29-24 towards the end of the quarter.
The elements came at the beginning of the fourth to cause an almost ninety minute weather delay. After mother nature left the Terp’s went on an eleven play drive to take back the lead. Tayon Fleet-Davis scored on a seventeen yard run that took a ton of time off the game clock.
Impatiently Texas tried to come back forcing an interception and a fumble with less than five minutes left in the game.
Maryland was able to squeeze a field goal to go up by five and made the decision to run out the clock that Texas was able to stop with three minutes left to play to give the Horns one more drive for a comeback win.
Ehlinger completed a seventeen yard completion to Lil’ Jordan Humphrey to midfield and a fourth down thirteen yard conversion to Duvernay. It looked like a Ehlinger game winning drive, but on their final play he rushed out to the right side of the field launched it over his intended receiver’s head and was caught by a Maryland secondary player; A gut blowing loss to start the season.
Q: You’re on the most respected coaches in the state. You could probably coach any school in any city but you choose to coach here at Westlake in Austin. What do you love most about coaching at Westlake and living in Austin?
A: My favorite part about coaching at Westlake is just the great tradition that this place has. I love being at places that have tremendous tradition. There have been a lot of great players and a lot of great coaches that have come before us. Just like we did when we were at our run at Southlake Carroll, we wanted to make sure that we honor what came before us by continuing to raise the bar and making sure that we’re keeping this program in the very top five to ten teams in the state of Texas year-in, year-out. It’s not just a team very year. It’s a program that people have built around here and we want to continue to do that.
Q: One of my favorite parts about covering you last year was seeing the extra respect you paid to your opponents after games. After the Niceville (Fla.) game, you brought all the Niceville kids together and thanked them for coming to Texas. After the Lake Travis game, you went up to (Lake Travis quarterback) Matthew Baldwin and gave him a few extra words of encouragement. Why do you go out of your way to do that and how do you feel about the state of sportsmanship today>
A: One of the things is we want our players always to absolutely respect our opponents. We’re going to prepare extremely hard over the course of the week. We’re going to study them. We’re going to know everything that we can about them. One thing that I think is the biggest form of flattery is that you respect your opponent, and you prepare as hard as you possibly can. The one thing that we want to always make sure that never happens is we don’t get beat because we disrespected someone. As far as the stuff after the games, I take a lot of pride in being in the brotherhood of high school football in the state of Texas. This is something very special. Just because you’re not on the same team doesn’t mean your not in the same brotherhood, and so when the game is over with I want our players, I want our coaches to show respect to the people that we played against. I’ve always got something to say. We’ve been watching them all week long and want to encourage those guys for the rest of the year and let them know what we think about them, that they did a good job, and that’s just something that hopefully will permeate through our entire team.
Q: How you do feel senior quarterback Taylor Anderson has grown since he was first thrust into the starting role as a young sophomore?
A: Taylor is a veteran now. Taylor has started 22 games for us. Probably no one ever expected him to start seven games as a sophomore but we were 6-1 in the starts that he had as a sophomore. Obviously, last year, led us to a 14-1 season. It’s not even close. He is truly an outstanding leader because of his toughness and the one thing about Taylor, Taylor is a guy willing to do whatever it takes for his football team. I think the epitome of mental toughness was in last year’s Lake Travis game. He had a really bad first half as far as production. He threw three interceptions in the first half, and a lot of guys could’ve gone in the tank right there. He comes in at halftime and tells his teammates, ‘hey guys, y’all keep playing. I’m going to be alright. I’m going to get my stuff together.’ He rushed for about 125 yards, a couple touchdowns in the second half, led us to a victory. So that’s who he is. There are a lot of dual-threat quarterbacks in the state of Texas right now. He’s one of them. He’s a guy who rushed for 1,100 and threw for 3,000 (yards) last year and he accounted for about almost 50 touchdowns.
Westlake at Pflugerville 2017
Q: What do you think makes Tony Salazar such a special defensive coordinator?
A: He comes from a great lineage of defensive coaches. He learned under Pete Fredenburg and the guys at Mary Hardin-Baylor that play tremendous defense. He’s very intelligent, very passionate. He’s a guy that’s a tremendous teacher of the game. A lot of times people don’t equate coaches as teachers. We’re all teachers. It’s just our classroom when we’re coaching football is a little bit different. It’s out here in the open. It’s here between the white lines. But Tony is (somebody) I wouldn’t trade for anybody in the world.
Q: Name one player that lot of guys might not know but you think has had a great preseason camp and could potentially turn some heads this season?
A: A guy that a lot of people probably haven’t heard of yet or is not a household name is Drew Webster. Drew played a bunch of football for us last year but he wasn’t a starter at safety. He played enough to almost be a starter. So on the defensive side of the ball, it’s him. On the offensive side of the ball, I think that Tripp Graham – our running back – is going to surprise a lot of people in the replacing of Nakia Watson.
2017’s 7-6 season was good for Tom Herman’s first season with the Texas Longhorns, but that’s certainly not the expectation moving forward.
Fortunately for Herman and Longhorn fans all over, should their quarterback play solidify, this could be an excellent season for a variety of factors.
On the defensive side of the ball, Texas lost a metric ton of stellar players to the NFL. They also return two of the most important pieces in a Big 12 defense: both defensive ends. Breckyn Hager and Charles Omenihu can get after the quarterback, which in the pass-happy Big 12 can pay massive dividends. That fearsome defensive front will have to carry a lot of water early in the season, as the defensive backfield is likely to be full of younger players who will need to get used to the speed of college football. Todd Orlando will earn every cent of his 1.7 million dollar salary getting his youthful secondary up to snuff.
Of course, while the defense might take a slight step back due to attrition, the offense has a chance to make a leap forward. Shane Buechele and Sam Ehlinger both return, as do a slew of talented skill position players. The offensive line is harder to predict, but with an influx of talent in graduate transfer Calvin Anderson and a new offensive line coach in Herb Hand, there’s a chance at improvement. All in all, just a little bit of progress might be all the Longhorns need to take a solid season.
The real reason for optimism comes from the rest of the conference: it’s likely to be a down year in the rest of the Big 12. Gone are names like Baker Mayfield, Mason Rudolph, and James Washington, who have terrorized the Longhorns in the past. Essentially, most teams in the Big 12 are rebuilding, and that leaves a bigger space for Texas to strike. If Herman and his boys can strike while the iron is hot, the Longhorns could be looking at a successful season by default due to the relative weakness of their conference slate.
The Longhorns will have a chance to play for a Big 12 Championship this season and possibly boast a 9-2 Record overall. At least that is the hope for this Texas Fan. But, the Horns will be better by a few wins this year due to an improved offense and a defense that is young and building a foundation. As Hunter Cooke pointed out the other day on this site, the Big 12 is the weakest conference out of the Power 5 in 2018.
Herman’s young team needs to improve on the offensive side of the ball this year if they are to get to double digit wins and his pair of young QBs will have to settle down sand have some composure in the pocket for this to happen this fall. The Texas class this spring was #3 in the nation and Herman’s quote from national signing day gave hope for the fan base on the 40 acres.
Key Quote: “There’s going to be a lot of competition on the defensive side. On both sides of the ball really. But I think we all can see, whoa, that side of the ball just got real in a hurry,” Herman said of the defensive outlook on National Signing Day. “To sign the three best safeties in the country (Caden Sterns and B.J. Foster), as well as what we think are the two best corners in the country, Jalen Green and D’Shawn Jamison, then the two best defensive tackles in the state in Moro Ojomo and Keondre Coburn, then the best pass-rusher in the state with Joseph Ossai, then Mike Williams and Daniel Carson as well.”
The defense led by Todd Orlando should be the a nice surprise in 2018. Brandon Jones is a big factor since the loss of DeShon Elliot to the NFL. DBU boast seniors Davante Davis, PJ Locke , & Kris Boyd, along with a several freshman defensive backs in Jalen Green, Anthony Cook, and Caden Sterns, along with Turner Symonds & BJ Foster. While we are optimistic this year after Herman’s first season going 7-6 with a bowl win, Horns fans are hungry for more than a mediocre season after some hard years under Charlie Strong. We think that the record will vastly improve this season and the record in 2018 will go up a few wins.
Our prediction is that Herman’s sophomore year will earn a few more wins in 2018 and gain back fans loyalty at Texas. The Horns should improve to a 9-2 record based on conference strength and a better looking offense and a young defense with several players returning.
If you love football, you will love fantasy football. This is your opportunity to be an NFL team general manager/coach, adding an extra layer of fandom to regular professional football watching. The best way to get started is to join a league. You can play in a league with your buddies, or join by yourself. The most popular leagues are sponsored by Yahoo and ESPN. I prefer the latter. Both use a head-to-head scoring format, in a 13-week regular season and 3- or 4-week playoff bracket system. League drafts are starting now.
Drafting your team is the first step, and participating in a live draft is exhilarating. However, you don’t need to participate in the draft. Last year, I had a schedule conflict and couldn’t attend my draft, so my team was selected by ESPN, via auto pick. If you don’t know anything about the game, auto pick is a good way to start. After you assemble a team, you’ll rely on what your players do in actual games every week to generate fantasy points. The team with the most fantasy points each week wins his/her head-to-head match.
At its core, fantasy football is a math-based game based on the real-life production of players. Each week, you fill out a roster by “starting” players at the various positions allowed based on your league settings. These usually include one quarterback (QB), two running backs (RB), two wide receivers (WR), one tight end (TE), one kicker (K), one defense (D/ST) and one FLEX (usually RB or WR). There are a total of nine in your starting lineup, but you also have seven players on your bench. Bench player stats don’t count.
The statistics your starting players accumulate on the field (yards, touchdowns, etc.) contribute to their point total for the week. The point totals of all of the players in your starting lineup are tallied, and if you have a higher total than your opponent (another member of your league) you win that week. You set your lineup based on your perception of who will play best on a given week. There are standard leagues and PPR (point-per-reception) leagues, where tight ends and running backs receive a point for each reception.
Each week will proceed like this until the end of the fantasy regular season (Week 13). At this point, the teams with the best win-loss records will enter the fantasy playoffs, for win-or-go-home head-to-head matchups. Depending on the number of teams in your league, the playoffs can last three, or four weeks. Whoever wins all of his/her games in the playoffs is the league champion. Last year, I was playing in a 10-team ESPN league, and six made the playoffs. Two teams got a bye in the first week of the playoffs.
Winning is simple (not easy). You choose the best players, through the draft and waiver wire, work around injuries and decide the right players to start each week. Remember, you have 16 players on your team but only nine in your starting lineup. The points scored by the others on the bench don’t count. That’s why it’s so important to choose the right starters. Look at matchups, which are critical. You can spend a little, or a lot of time looking at the stats to determine who to start each week. It can become a second job if you let it.
One mistake you must avoid in the draft is wasting a draft pick on a quarterback in the early rounds. There is large supply of good quarterbacks. If you’re in a 10-team league, there will be ten starting quarterbacks selected, but there are a total of 32 NFL quarterbacks, and most of them are good enough to draft. Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady might get drafted as early as the fourth round. But you will probably be able to get Alex Smith in the 12th round. Smith averaged 18.3 fantasy points last year – the same as Brady.
The most important players to draft in the early rounds are running backs and wide receivers. In my opinion, you will want to select a workhorse running back in the first round. This is a guy who will get a lot of carries each week. If you’re in a PPR league, you want a running back who also catches a lot of passes. Some leagues award a point for each reception, and some just a half-point. This makes a big difference. There is a short supply of really good running backs, so don’t hesitate to load up on running backs early on.
Wide receivers are harder to predict. Antonio Brown is in a league by himself, and you can draft him in the first round with a high level of confidence. He won’t be available in the second round. DeAndre Hopkins, Julio Jones and Odell Beckham are in the second tier. Then you have Michael Thomas, Devante Adams, Keenan Allen and A.J. Green in the third tier. I would predict that all seven of the second- and third-tier wide receivers will be gone in the second round. But I’d still rather have two top running backs on my team.
The middle rounds are also important, and this is where no one seems to agree on the talent. By the time you get to the third round, you’ll see pundits with a variety of opinions on the talent of these players. My advice is to read about the different players and make your own decision based on what sounds right. I will enter this year’s draft with an idea of who I will draft, and who I won’t draft. Then, I’ll let the players come to me, based on my draft order and what other players decide to do. This is not entirely predictable.
The late rounds (12-16) are the rounds where you will want to pick up your quarterback, defense and kicker. You may even select your tight end in one of the late rounds, but you would also be justified to spend a third-round pick to select Rob Gronkowski, the Patriots’ tight end. Gronk is in a class by himself, and he is Brady’s favorite receiver. If I can draft Gronk in the third round, I will do so. However, if someone else gets him first, I will wait. The No. 2 tight end if Travis Kelce, and he is projected to go late in the third round.
After the draft, you take off your general manager hat and put on your head coach hat. Who will you start in week 1? You’ll probably be going with the guys you drafted in the earlier rounds until they prove to be inferior to other players acquired later. But you also need to look at opponent strength and matchups, as I stated earlier. Dig into the statistics because this is the key to your success. You’re going to have injuries throughout the season, and you will also have bye weeks. You need to bench all players during their bye weeks.
I don’t want to minimize the importance of the draft, but you will not win or lose a fantasy championship with a draft. Last season, my No. 1 pick overall in the draft was David Johnson, and he was injured in the first quarter and lost for the season. Andrew Luck, my drafted quarterback, never played a game in 2017. I still managed to win the championship because I worked the waiver wire. I found Saints running back Alvin Kamara on the waiver wire in week three but dropped him. Later, I had to trade to get him, but it was worth it.
You won’t know how good, or bad, your fantasy team is after the draft. They may look good on paper, but the guys you think are studs could be duds. You could also have a rash of injuries. The good news is that there are always undiscovered stars waiting to be acquired on the waiver wire. You must be looking for that talent. Fantasy football is like life – you get out of it what you put into it. The harder you work at it, the luckier you will get in winning games and ultimately the coveted league championship. Have fun, and Godspeed.
Sports betting has been a complicated subject among betters and traditionalists in recent years. In the year 1992 The Supreme Court passed the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act making sports betting illegal across the United States. Nevada, Delaware, Oregon, and Montana were the only exceptions. The law established a protection on the integrity of sports from shaving points to even allowing sports executives and officials to manipulate the outcome of competitive matches.
Most remembered was the NBA referee in Tim Donaghy who was convicted of betting on games he personally refereed for. Donaghy served almost a year in prison before serving the rest of his sentencing in a halfway house.
March of 2018 The Supreme Court ruled that the federal government had no right to determine the laws over states that sports betting is illegal. States now have the power to appoint sanctions, laws, and regulations through the legislature. What does this mean for the future of sports betting?
Just like the passing of legal marijuana a state tax would most likely be applied or even a usage fee based on the sport books and websites. The most known sports betting websites Fanduel and Draft Kings would most likely reap the rewards in the next coming months depending on the outcomes from the rest of the forty six states.
Traditionalist states will methodically approach this wanting to preserve the purity of sports within each league. Gone are the days where you have to be in a Vegas casino and here we introduce the option to make bets and risks from a click on a computer while we drink our morning coffee. Times are changing and mere open mindedness has come to life. We see this in fantasy football leagues and other friendly betting events.
The black market will take a hit based on their billion dollar revenue stream, but just like the legalization of marijuana the economy boomed for states like Colorado and Seattle. This industry will match the marijuana market if not succeed that tenfold. Ad sales through websites and television commercials will spike marketing the average joe to stick their hand into the frenzy.
Ratings will spike with the top tv networks, sports bars will have more revenue coming in, and the intensity will escalate among the bbq watch parties. Apps will be created for easy access and sports will be changed forever.
