Tag: Moro Ojomo

Red River Showdown: Going Behind Enemy Lines with Longhorns Wire

As the Sooners and the Longhorns prepare to face off in the Red River Rivalry, we’re going Behind Enemy Lines with Longhorns Wire.

The Oklahoma Sooners and the Texas Longhorns will meet for the 117th time this Saturday in a game that will be a hotly contested matchup between two of the better teams in the Big 12.

While the Oklahoma Sooners may come in as the “favorite” in this matchup, what we’ve witnessed over the last decade is that it doesn’t really matter who the favorite is. The rivalry provides high drama and games that go down to the wire more often than not.

For both sides, this game carries a ton of weight as the Oklahoma Sooners look to prove they belong among the top four teams in the country. For the Texas Longhorns, they’re trying to work their way back up the rankings after a disappointing loss to Arkansas a few weeks back.

As if they didn’t have enough to play for, pride is on the line in one of the most storied rivalries in all of sports. We’re excited to help you get ready for this year’s playing of the Red River Showdown with Longhorns Wire’s Griffin McVeigh as he takes us through the ins and outs of the Texas Longhorns ahead of Saturday’s matchup.

How do Oklahoma and Texas stack up statistically heading into the Red River Showdown?

As the two teams get set to face off for the 117th time, how do Oklahoma and Texas stack up statistically heading into the Red River Showdown?

The Oklahoma Sooners and the Texas Longhorns will meet for the 117th time this Saturday at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Texas. The Red River Showdown is one of the great rivalries in all of sports. The atmosphere, the history, the accomplishments of the two sides, and the back and forth nature of the rivalry makes the build-up and excitement to this game second to none.

Both teams are coming in off of big wins on the road. Texas outlasted their nemesis TCU in Fort Worth and the Sooners avenged two straight losses to Kansas State in Manhattan.

This season hasn’t been without adversity for either side. The Longhorns suffered a defeat at the hands of the Arkansas Razorbacks and switched starting quarterbacks in the process. The Sooners, though 5-0, have had to scratch and claw to stay undefeated.

In order to get you ready for OU-Texas, we’ve put together a little statistical tale of the tape to look at how the two sides matchup heading into this weekend’s Red River Rivalry game.

247Sports views Texas DL Moro Ojomo as a player set to make a jump in 2021

Moro Ojomo could take a significant leap in 2021.

There are interchanging parts all over the Longhorns roster, which means that there will be fresh faces who have an opportunity to be a key contributor for the first time.

247Sports recently released a list of players that they believe will make a leap in production for this 2021 season, and Texas defensive lineman Moro Ojomo was included.

Ojomo has seen a gradual increase in numbers every year, as during his redshirt freshman season he accounted for 13 total tackles and 2.5 tackles for loss in eight games played. Last season, where he had a larger role, Ojomo compiled 21 total tackles, 2.5 tackles for loss, and two sacks in nine games.

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Ojomo has been one of the standouts during offseason workouts under the new coaching staff, and especially during the spring game where he registered three sacks. He has made a little bit of a position switch as last season he was used as an edge rusher, but in new defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski’s scheme, Ojomo is being utilized on the interior defensive line. A role that feels much more comfortable for him in comparison to the edge position.

Texas’ defensive line is expected to be one of the strongest position groups no the roster this season, as it is one of the most experienced groups. The Longhorns will have two juniors and two seniors across the line, who will likely be in much better position to be constant disruptions in the backfield.

Four most important players on Texas’ defense this season

New defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski has a plethora of weapons to work with on the defensive side of the ball this season.

Texas’ defense lost several core players to the 2021 NFL draft and the NCAA transfer portal this offseason.

Going into the new season with the third defensive coordinator in three years, Texas will be without Joseph Ossai, their star pass rusher who led the team in sacks with five last season. Although the Longhorns are without their do it all edge rusher, it provides an opportunity for other players to make a name for themselves.

New defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski is coming in and expecting to generate sacks and turnovers. During his last full season at Washington, the Huskies had four players with three or more sacks, whereas Texas only had Ossai with more than three. The Longhorns clearly need to establish a better pass rush this season, and players like Moro Ojomo and LSU transfer Ray Thornton are looking to make up for the absences of Ossai and others.

Let’s take a look at who I believe are the four most important players for Texas’ 2021 defensive unit.

Five standout defensive players from Texas’ 2021 spring game

Texas’ defense seems as if they have not missed a beat from last season. Here are five defensive players who stood out from the spring game.

Throughout much of spring practice, reports surfaced of how well Pete Kwiatkowski’s defense was performing in comparison to the offense. Even with Juwan Mitchell entering the transfer portal and DeMarvion Overshown dealing with surgery, Texas’ defense seemingly didn’t skip a beat.

Caden Sterns and Joseph Ossai add to the major losses from last season. Ray Thornton out of LSU has stepped up to replace the pass rusher, while Jerrin Thompson and Brenden Schooler are battling it out to replace Sterns. Everywhere else across the defense, especially the secondary, will return players who made significant contributions last season.

Saturday’s spring game was a successful one for both the first-team and second-team defenses. Kyle Flood’s offensive line played so poorly because of how dominant Texas’ defensive line was. Some current backups may have opened some eyes heading into the fall.

Here are five defensive players who stood out from the spring game:

Roundtable: Which Texas player helped themselves most in the Orange-White game?

Which Texas player helped themselves most with their performance in the annual Orange-White game?

Texas held their annual Orange-White spring game on April 24.

While fans didn’t necessarily see one of the two quarterbacks separate from the other, there were several other players who stepped up and proved their case.

Longhorns Wire staff members chose three players who seemingly helped their case most throughout the Orange-White game.

Surprisingly, each selection was on the defensive side of the ball. Take a look at the choices on the next page.

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Texas Longhorns vs West Virginia: Game grades from the 17-13 win

Following the Texas Longhorns win over the West Virginia Mountaineers, we are handing out grades in the virtual report card.

It has been more than 48 hours since the Texas Longhorns defeated the West Virginia Mountaineers. So why are we still discussing this game? Frankly on a bye week you can let things marinate a little bit before pointing the game firmly behind you. With the Longhorns not set to play again until next Saturday in Lawrence, Kansas we take one final look back as we hand out game grades.

The Quarterback

Grade: C+

Sam Ehlinger didn’t look his best in this game against West Virginia. Let’s be fair he has looked inconsistent at best. Ever since the game against Texas Christian, it hasn’t looked like the first two games of the year. During that first stretch Ehlinger threw for 10 touchdowns while completing 71.2% of his passes. He was looking like a Heisman Trophy candidate. Since then, Ehlinger has completed less than 50% of his passes twice. Against TCU and then on Saturday against WVU.

He has throw for 12 touchdowns and four interceptions over those five games. His completion rate has dropped to 53.7% over that five game stretch with an average of 229.2 yards per game. Before this run, he averaged 344 yards and five touchdown passes per game. Sure UTEP and Texas Tech aren’t exactly doomsday defenses but the fact remains, Ehlinger is struggling.

Against WVU he did complete less than 50% but Ehlinger did have two touchdown passes. Plus he didn’t turn the ball over. The passing game struggled when they asked the senior to throw 20+ yards down the field. He threw incompletions on three consecutive attempts. The wide receivers didn’t exactly help him.

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Texas Football vs UTEP: Areas of concern for the upcoming game

With the Texas Longhorns set to kick off the season on Saturday, Longhorns Wire takes a look at areas of concern for the opener.

Image courtesy of Texas Sports

The start of the Texas Longhorns football season is finally upon us. A little over 24 hours away from the UTEP Miners and Texas Longhorns kicking off at Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium. Recently the Texas Longhorns named their team captains for the season, really no shocking selections. It just means that we are that much closer to 18,000 fans piling into DKR. Hopefully this is a Big 12 Championship contending season for the burnt orange faithful.

This game is not expected to be one that is even relatively close. The UTEP Miners are coming off a 1-11 season in 2019. They struggled to defeat a FCS foe in Stephen F. Austin, in which they fell behind early 14-3. While they were able to rally from behind, if the Miners and quarterback Gavin Hardison find themselves down early it could be over before the first quarter ends. Texas is clearly the more talented team, it is just a matter of if the Longhorns buy into their own hype and overlook UTEP.

Even being heavy favorites according to BetMGM, there are still areas for concern in the upcoming game. This is the first live action for many of these Longhorns. The incoming freshman class such as Bijan Robinson and Alfred Collins getting their opportunity to prove their value and why they were 247Sports Composite five-star recruits.

We start with Longhorns Wire’s areas of concern with the health of the team.

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Texas football’s highest-graded returners on defense per PFF

New DC Chris Ash will have a ton of returning talent to work with. Here are the highest-graded returners on Texas’ defense per PFF:

Texas’ defense struggled last season, being the reason for a couple of the Longhorns’ losses last season. However, there is hope and optimism for the defense going into 2020.

Most of that is due to how many contributors are returning this season. Texas is expected to have nine starters back, including Caden Sterns, B.J. Foster, and Joseph Ossai. The roster is full of studs.

However, the implementation of defensive coordinator Chris Ash will be the biggest reason for the hoped success. Former defensive coordinator ran a base 3-3-5 defense and Ash will be switching over to a base 4-3 defense.

Ash will have a ton of returning talent to work with, hoping to make the Longhorns’ defense one of the best in the Big 12.

Here are the highest-graded returners on Texas defense per PFF:

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Countdown to Texas Football: Greatest 99 and 98 in Longhorns history

In a countdown to the 2020 season, we remember the best players in Texas Longhorns history. Who were the best to wear 99 and 98?

College football is set to kickoff the season on September 5th. For the Texas Longhorns they are scheduled to host the South Florida Bulls at Darrell K. Royal-Memorial Stadium in Austin. That kickoff is set for 98 days (at time of publishing) from now. In a kickoff series we remember the best players in Texas Longhorns history.

Continue reading “Countdown to Texas Football: Greatest 99 and 98 in Longhorns history”

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