On Texas Football: Inside passing game will be an asset for the Longhorns
In the latest video episode of On Texas Football, Inside Texas’ Bobby Burton and Ian Boyd give us a look at the Longhorns’ passing attack and how getting better on the outside will help unleash a pair of underutilized receivers between the hashmarks, as well as some other X’s and O’s of the Texas offense.
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Boyd and Burton break down the inside passing targets – namely tight end Ja’Tavion Sanders and receiver Jordan Whittington, who moves back to the slot for his fifth year on campus and is in line for a huge campaign.
Boyd explained that to a certain degree Whittington and Sanders have almost been overlooked.
“Texas has AD Mitchell (at wide receiver) coming in as a big-time transfer and I think he will have a very big impact on the season,” Boyd said. “If he doesn’t, then Isaiah Naylor will right from the outside with Xavier Worthy. But in the meantime, they have at least this year for Jordan Whittington, a proven former five-star, a very versatile team player who’s actually going to get to play his natural position.
“And then they have (Sanders) who right now is being mock drafted in the second round of next year’s NFL Draft. I think that as Texas moves to more of a spread offense next season, which we anticipate, you know, much of the time, that actually leads to an offense that could be extremely productive throwing inside to (Whittington and Sanders).”
Burton pointed out that if you take away Xavier Worthy (who was the Longhorns’ leading receiver last year) the most catches Texas got from an outside receiver was eight by Casey Cain.
Over past three years, Texas has had receivers that were really productive if you could play them in the slot but they’ve lacked guys that can play outside and handle getting press man-coverage from cornerbacks or the top cover defenders from an opponent.
“We don’t need to relive it – it’s been a regular problem for Texas and last year it was a problem again,” Boyd added. “That was the reason Texas had Sanders flexed out. There were times that Whittington played outside receiver because they would use two tight ends and they wouldn’t really have a slot. That meant that neither of those guys were really featured in their in their NFL roles, so to speak.
“Another big factor was that (quarterback) Quinn Ewers was a redshirt freshman – he didn’t know the full offense yet. It’s hard to have a really thorough, deep passing game if your quarterback is inexperienced,
Boyd explained that the how an offense attacks the middle of the field is what gives a team its identity but that Sanders and Whittington will have to work hard to get more catches than they had last season, when they racked up 54 and 50, respectively.
“It gets harder to project the totals because we know Texas wants to spread the ball around,” Boyd said.
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There’s plenty of additional info on the video so go check it out in its entirety.
