Coach V's grades: Arkansas 31 Texas 7

Coach Venable delivers his grades after UT’s 31-7 loss to Arkansas in the Texas Bowl on Monday night. If it was a movie, it would be rated R.

OFFENSE

I’m pretty sure Allen, Trinity, or Cedar Hill high school offenses could have made 60 or more yards in 43 plays against this razorback defense. The reason I’m convinced is they actually have 11 offensive players that want to play the game of football.

UT can’t find near that many and that’s being kind.

Here is the one passing grade plus a few details of the other pretenders that didn’t face up to a closeup:

18—Swoopes—sad

13 of 25 for 57 whole yards—one interception—9 poor passes—good run for td—management of audibles, blitzes, play clock, and over-estimating his speed are becoming lengendary as we speak.

28—Brown—C+

7 rushes for 25 yards—one catch for a negative 7 yards—missed hole on lead—missed hole on sweep when he cut up too quick—tough runs on zone—good run on counter—slipped on one blade of grass.

32—Gray—B-

6 rushes for 9 yards—part of a fumble that cost us a td—good block on jet—great block in pass protection—BPB—great tackle on interception (extra effort)—good run zone.

7—Johnson—C+

one catch for 9 yards—fast start then disappearing act.

8—Shipley—C+

one catch for 6 yards after we arrived at 31-7.

9—Harris—C+

4 catches for 36 yards—drop pass on 3rd down—good catch slant—good catch curl—one good block.

11—Warrick—C+

3 catches for 13 yards.

83 Foreman and 84 Joe evidently didn’t figure in the game plan this week.

82—Swaim—B+

great block on cutback—GBZ—GB sweep—dandy block on td run—good tackle punt—BRB on jet??.

66—Flowers—C-

BPB (stunt)—good block on pull—GBZ—chop block penalty—BPB—BPB—BRB.

76—Perkins—B-

GB pull—GBZ—GB sweep—BPB—BPB.

74–Doyle—C+

BRB zone—GBZ—BPB screen—chop block penalty—GBZ—BRB.

65—Hutchins—C

GBZ—BRB td fumble—GBZ—BPB—false start penalty—BRB.

50—Raulerson—C

false start penalty—GBZ—GB sweep—BRB—false start penalty—mental mistakes put him on the pine.

71—Hughes—sad

BRB zone—BPB—BPB—BPB—BPB—BPB.

47—Beck—C

avoided most contact whenever possible.

43 total plays. 7 first downs. 59 total yards. Jobs should be open across the board. Coach Strong might need to check his hole cards on play-calling while he’s overseeing the fruitbasket turnover.

Hard to watch this game, even harder grading the damn thing.

DEFENSE

We have a few that stood the test of time against an honest, power blocking attack—not enough but at least a few stood up and were counted in the death challenge match. We had some fight the good fight for four quarters. We had some give it their best shot early but eventually wore smooth out. We had others that didn’t want any part of the fight. Unfortunately, that’s the status of the personalities wearing the burnt orange for UT until coach Strong can weed out the grocery sackers and shoe clerks and replace them with warriors that love the Strong way of life.

Here are the grades:

88—Reed—B-

9 tackles—2 QBH’s—GTZ—MTzone—GTZ—blocked and lost contain on draw—took tremendous rib shot on crack back block on sweep—GT stretch—GT sweep—lost LOS on draw—lost LOS on draw—MT space contain vs. bootleg—GT power.

1—Davis—C+

5 tackles—very good chase tackle on flow away—good pursuit tackle—good pursuit tackle—blocked and lost contain counter toss—hooked sweep—lost contain counter toss—GTZ—blocked GL.

40—Hughes—C

2 tackles—face mask sack penalty—blocked sweep—MT draw—blocked power—lazy pursuit.

91—Bryce Cottrell—B-

4 tackles—GTZ—GTZ—blocked zone.

90—Brown—B+

8 tackles—tfl—2 QBH’s—2 big pressure play action rushes—GT draw—GT draw—GTZ—good hustle until last of 4th quarter.

98—Ridgeway—B+

5 tackles—tfl—good pursuit tackle—GTZ—great effort GL on QB snaek—good zone tackle—good hustle until last of 4th quarter.

93—Boyette—B-

3 tackles—tfl—GTZ—GT draw.

95—Ford—C+

1 tackle—too high—GTZ.

3—Hicks—B-

9 tackles—GOFT—late hit penalty—good stack vs. lead—good play jet—poor scrape on power—pinned inside vs jet—GT draw—GTZ—GTZ—GOFT curl—GT draw—blocked zone—GT draw.

33—Edmond—B-

9 tackles—tfl—sack—GTZ—GT lead—GT jet—GT sweep—GTZ—GTZ—blocked 5 times—good blitz sack—GTZ—poor coverage zone.

19—Jinkens—C

3 tackles—tfl—edge stunt whiff—blocked draw—MT sweep—blocked zone—GT sweep—good tfl on sweep—good tackle slant—MTZ—blocked counter toss.

11—Jackson—C

3 tackles—poor edge stunt on stretch—GTZ—poor edge stunt chasing dead soldier the wrong way—MTZ.

2—Thompson—B

4 tackles—forced fumble—GOFT—GT sweep—GT draw.

6—Diggs—B

5 tackles—good play jet—GT draw—GT draw—GTZ.

21—Thomas—C

6 tackles—poor edge stunt vs. reverse—beat deep for td—GT power—MT draw—GT counter toss—poor coverage on 3rd and long—GT draw.

44—Haines—B-

7 tackles—PBU—GOFT—GOFT—GT sweep—poor coverage vs. TE on flag route—good coverage vs. TE in end zone—beat for td pass in zone coverage—GT draw—GT draw.

31—Hall—C

2 tackles—MT draw—trucked on MT vs draw—GT zone—beat deep in end zone—mainly stayed away from most of the action.

32 J Gray had a terrific tackle on the interception — the game means more to him than it sometimes appears.

82 Swaim had a terrific tackle on a punt return that was about to break for 6 — we will miss Geoff much more than we realize.