Texas talks special teams, W's

Texas would, arguably, have two more W’s if not for abysmal special teams play and punch-less 3rd quarters. UT coach Charlie Strong vowed changes on special teams units Monday, but conceded the early 2nd-half woes have him perplexed.

“We probably need to do something different at halftime,” Strong said. “I don’t know what it is. We have to do a better job. The 3rd quarter is just sitting there, and we’re not getting anything out of it. Even on defense, they’re moving the ball on us. It’s not so much that we’re relaxing, but we need to come back out and play a complete game. There’s 30 minutes of football left.”

Texas has gone scoreless during the quarter after halftime in each of the past four outings and has just 14 total points in that frame all season. Likewise, the 49 points Texas has yielded during the 3rd period makes it the most porous of any quarter and more than Texas has surrendered in the first half (33) this season.

“I honestly couldn’t tell you what the problem is,” QB Tyrone Swoopes told Inside Texas. “We just have to come out of the locker room and keep going like we have been in the 1st half. If we start putting our 3rd-quarters together, we’ll start getting wins.”

And not just two more wins during the first half of the season. CB Quandre Diggs includes Baylor — in addition to UCLA and Oklahoma — as among the could-have-beens, should-have-beens in the victory column.

“It continues to hurt us each and every week,” Diggs said of special teams play. “It’s things that should be fixed. You’ve got just 10 or 11 special teams snaps (per game).”

The personnel changes remain to be seen, but Strong believes the problems are related to a lack of depth.

There is an abundance of 1st-teamers filling special teams rosters — the list includes S Mykkele Thompson (punt return), John Harris (punt block), Jordan Hicks (punt team), and Jaxon Shipley (punt return) — who then must quickly catch their breath when their respective unit takes the field.

But Diggs largely attributes the special team gaffes to the non-starters. The offensive and defensive starters “bust their tails” on special teams, he said.

“I wouldn’t say it’s the guys who are starters on offense or defense,” Diggs said. “It’s the guys that we expect to be key special teams players who need to go out and make their mark. If they can make their mark on special teams, they could get on the offense or defense.”

Wins that could have been a shot in the arm for the program have been torpedoed by the weekly shot in the foot from special teams.

“The past couple of weeks it hasn’t been other teams beating us,” said RB Malcolm Brown. “We’ve been beating ourselves.”

You can trace special teams blunders back to UCLA’s 45-yard punt return to the Texas 33 that set-up the winning TD pass on the next play at AT&T Stadium last month. It’s been a litany of little things that came up big, coaches and players have said, in essence.

“Special teams win and lose games,” said Harris. “I think the guys get it, but it’s going to become more important to them this week. I think special teams will be fixed after this week.”

Oklahoma’s 91-yard kickoff return for a TD comes courtesy of Dylan Haines colliding with Adrian Colbert after the Horns scored on their opening possession. Colbert also drew a personal foul when he inexplicably careened into return-specialist Sterling Shepherd on the first play of the 2nd quarter. It led to a field goal drive that covered just 19 yards.

The blocked FG-attempt that Baylor returned for a 1st-quarter TD can be directly attributable to Nick Rose’s failure to get any lift on a line-drive ball. The dagger was when punter Spencer Roth rushed 19 yards on 4th-and-5 to the Texas 48 midway through the 3rd, setting up Baylor’s first offensive score of the TD.

DB coach Chris Vaughn wears the label of Special Teams Coordinator, but different coaches take ownership of various components of special teams play. For example, the defensive-minded Strong takes ownership of the punting team since he considers punting as a de facto 5th-down for the defense.

“The coaches are going to fix it,” said Brown, “because I know it’s being stressed.”