Editors Note: This segment of the Texas Tour was written by guest blogger Daniel Durany. Daniel is a graduate of TCU where he studied journalism.
For the 2009 Texas Longhorns football, their one remaining goal left to accomplish is winning the National Championship. Even though the Longhorns felt snubbed last year in the opportunity to play in the BCS national championship game, they have plenty of momentum to build on for the upcoming year.
They finished the 2008 season 12-1 overall, 7-1 in the Big XII Conference. That includes three consecutive weeks beating Oklahoma, Missouri, and Oklahoma State, all who were were currently ranked in the Top 15. Their only loss came to the hands of Texas Tech, mere seconds away from pulling off one of the biggest comebacks in the program’s history.
Last year, the Longhorns averaged a tad over 475 yards of offense and over 42 points a game. Dating back halfway during 2007, UT has scored at least 30 points in nineteen out of the last twenty games. What is scary about their offense is the nucleus of players that are returning, starting with last year’s runner up for the Heisman Trophy quarterback Colt McCoy
McCoy set school season records last year in various categories such as passing yards (3,859), most 400-yard games (one), most 300-yard games (six), most 200-yard games (twelve), completions (332), touchdowns (34), total plays (569), and combined total of running and passing yards (4,420). In addition to his school season records, he became the team leading rusher with 561 yards and 11 touchdowns, and led the NCAA with a blistering completion percentage of 76.7%.
While Colt McCoy is accumulating his passing stats, Jordan Shipley is receiving the majority of his passes. He broke the school record in a game last year with 15 receptions against Oklahoma State. Shipley had 89 receptions for 1,060 yards with three games of 100 yards receiving and 11 touchdowns last year while contributing in special teams with both a punt and kick return touchdown.
Helping to repeat Colt’s success last year, offensive lineman Adam Ulatoski (Tackle) and Center Chris Hall are back for another year to pave the way.
While the offense is nearly unstoppable, the defense must come up big for the Longhorns to win a national championship. They were ranked 104th on pass defense with only six interceptions. Their key returning starters are both seniors, Defensive End/Linebacker Sergio Kindle and LB Roddrick Muckelroy. Sergio provided 10 sacks last year while Roddrick had 102 tackles overall.
Returning starters in special teams are senior Kicker Hunter Lawrence and junior Punter John Gold. Lawrence made 10 field goals out of 12 attempts with his longest of 46 yards while Gold averaged 45 yards in both distance and net yardage.
UT will have some big games this upcoming year. Starting in the evening on Sept 19, they play Texas Tech who is the only team to defeat Texas and result in being knocked out of the BCS National Championship. Then for a three week stretch in October, UT plays Oklahoma in the Red River Shootout, road games against Missouri, and Trick-or-Treat special with Oklahoma State.
Their final game is against Texas A&M University during Thanksgiving which will be different compared to previous years because Texas will not have the bye week to prepare for their in-state rivals.
