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According to Pro Football Focus, Texas left tackle Samuel Cosmi is the top returning offensive lineman in the Big 12.
It’s not even close. Continue reading “Texas has the top returning offensive lineman in the Big 12”
If you could put together a team of Avengers using the Texas Longhorns football team, who would make the cut?
With no football going on, we decided to take a little different approach and bring some pop culture into sports talk. Over the last decade or so, Marvel’s Avengers movie series has been one of the hottest things to hit the theaters. Setting box office record after box office record. Here we compared current Texas Longhorns to their Avengers counterpart.
Nick Fury’s job is to lead his team of Avengers (Longhorns) against the evil group known as Hydra (Oklahoma). With Fury there is often times a plan in place but the end game is quite unclear on how to achieve it. The same can be said for Herman. At one point Fury disbanded the entire Shield team only to build it back up gain, Herman did the same with his new staff for 2020.
Hawkeye is the archer of the group who is all about his pinpoint accuracy. No one fits that better than Dicker the kicker. Cameron Dicker nailed 77.8 percent of his field goal attempts and 98.2 percent of his extra points in 2019. Poised for an even better year in 2020.
The Longhorns Wire writers discuss their top five returners on offense in the latest roundtable discussion.
Three Longhorns Wire authors rank their top returners on the offensive side of the ball.
Cami:
Samuel Cosmi chose to stay with the Texas Longhorns in 2020. Could a huge season propel him to the NFL aft next season?
At one point following the Alamo Bowl there was growing speculation that Samuel Cosmi might forgo the rest of his college career and head to the NFL. Cosmi chose to return to Texas for his senior season. Coming out of Atascocita in Humble, Cosmi wasn’t a highly recruited offensive tackle. According to 247 he was a three-star lineman with offers from Memphis, Houston, Texas Christian and the Longhorns.
The former 6A second team all-state tackle is looking to protect quarterback Sam Ehlinger this coming season and open holes for the running game. If Texas is struggling in the red zone, they could go with the ever popular offensive tackle screen play for a score.
WE GOT A BIG MAN TOUCHDOWN!!!! SAMUEL COSMI!!! #HookEm pic.twitter.com/l9xjJbTqAO
— LandGrant Gauntlet (@the_LGG) October 5, 2019
Cosmi’s return is huge for the Longhorns as he is viewed as one of the top offensive lineman in the country returning to college football in 2020. Pro Football Focus College has him ranked as the fifth-best to return next season just head of Oklahoma’s Creed Humphrey.
1. Penei Sewell
5. Samuel Cosmi
7. Creed Humphrey@PFF_Anthony:https://t.co/1Ck2QSbIcg— PFF Draft (@PFF_College) January 20, 2020
Cosmi is viewed as the top offensive tackle in the Big 12 and no doubt he will be looking to climb the ranks as one of the top in all of college football. In the bowl game against Utah, Cosmi drew the assignment of Bradlee Anae who recorded 13 sacks this season. Anae viewed as one of the top edge rushers heading into the draft was limited to just 0.5 sack. Cosmi helped lead the way limited Anae as Texas walloped Utah.
In 2020 it is very possible that Samuel Cosmi will be the highest drafted Longhorn following the season. As he continues his high level of play, Cosmi could be a big reason why Sam Ehlinger could be in for another big season for Texas.
For the birthday of the big guy, relive Bevo’s meeting with the Georgia Bulldog in 2018-19 Sugar Bowl.
Today the Texas Longhorns celebrate the birthday of Bevo, Texas most beloved mascot. His lineage dates all the way back 1916, the current mascot if the 15th Bevo in school history. Originally named Bo before the Thanksgiving game in 1916.
Happy Birthday to the big guy 🎈
We love you 🧡🤘 #HookEm pic.twitter.com/Sfo8U9uFXF— Texas Longhorns (@TexasLonghorns) January 24, 2020
On the birthday of the big guy, we remember a moment from the Sugar Bowl in 2019. During the pregame festivities, Bevo got a chance to meet the Georgia Bulldog mascot and it would be fair to say the big guy wasn’t a fan.
Bevo is not here for this mascot meeting. #HookEm pic.twitter.com/KXgaQzGm0W
— Danny Davis (@aasdanny) January 2, 2019
So here’s to the birthday of Bevo and hope that many more of them are on the horizon.
Pro Football Focus has come out with their list of the top 101 players of the 2019 season. Three Texas Longhorns were among the best.
The Texas Longhorns had a good season that was capped off with the Alamo Bowl victory. Three players were highlighted by Pro Football Focus College for their individual performances. Of the 101 players mentioned in the article, three Longhorns cracked the list. Best news is that two of them will be suiting up in Austin for the 2020-21 football season.
The Top 101 College Football Players@PFF_Cam:https://t.co/sCVBVV78yJ
— PFF Draft (@PFF_College) January 23, 2020
Top 101 Players for Texas.
Devin Duvernay, WR, Senior
Possessing perhaps the nation’s best set of hands, Duvernay has dropped just five of the 180 catchable passes thrown his way over the years at Texas, and he capped that with career-highs in targets, yards, touchdowns and grades across the board in 2019. For the year, Duvernay hauled in 105 catches for 1,392 yards, nine scores and another 59 first-down receptions, the latter leading the nation. He also broke 23 tackles after the catch and finished third in the nation with 719 total yards after the catch. Duvernay also showed off his hands and ball skills with a zero in the fumble column as he went his entire career at Texas without a fumble on offense.
Sam Ehlinger, QB, Junior
The nation’s sixth-highest passing grade at the quarterback position belongs to none other than Ehlinger, who shook off some midseason rust to cap what became a career-year in Austin. Despite upping his overall attempts in each season, he has now increased his yards per attempt average every year over the past three years, and 2019 was his best yet, as he finished the year with an 8.0 yards per attempt with a whopping 456 passing attempts to his credit. He threw 32 touchdowns and finished with an elite passing grade of 87.1, nearly a full six points ahead of his previous career-best. Ehlinger can hit any level of the field but really did shine in the intermediate range (10-19 yards) of the field, as he completed 67 of his 108 attempts for 1,083 yards and 13 touchdowns against just four interceptions on such throws. Save for an ugly performance against TCU, the Longhorn signal-caller finished 2019 as the best passing quarterback in the conference.
Samuel Cosmi, OT, RS Sophomore
An anchor on the Texas line and an anchor for Ehlinger’s blindside, Cosmi dominated in 2019. Allowing just one combined sack or hit all season long, Cosmi’s 14 total pressures allowed look even better when you realize that 13 of them were just hurries. He finished three games with a clean sheet in pass protection and had another seven outings with just one hurry surrendered. He set a career-high in every grade facet this season and was even dominant among his peers in run-blocking, fielding the Big 12’s second-highest run-blocking grade in 2019.
The updated injury report for the Texas Longhorns and Utah Utes in the Valero Alamo Bowl.
The Texas Longhorns are over 72 hours away from their Valero Alamo Bowl matchup with the Utah Utes. The Longhorns will need a 2018 Sugar Bowl like level of play to pull off the upset of the Utes in hopes of ending the 2019 season on a two-game win streak. The Longhorns have one player listed as probable (Collin Johnson) and the rest on the list are questionable to play per the latest injury reports.
The Longhorns have 13 players listed on the injury report to the Utah Utes three players. It will be next man up for the Longhorns searching for their first Alamo Bowl victory since 2012 under Mack Brown.
The wrap up of the Texas Longhorns All-Decade Team with all of the selection on offense.
For the better part of the last two weeks, Longhorns Wire has been providing the best players at each position for Texas from 2010-2019. Here are the selections for the All-Decade team. Each position will have a link below with the original articles.
Sam Ehlinger
Ehlinger was the clear favorite for quarterback of a decade. His junior season saw the Austin Westlake product throw for the second-most yards in school history just behind Longhorns legend Colt McCoy. With a bowl game left to go, he has an opportunity to close in on the single-season mark of 3,859 yards set in 2008. Ehlinger only needs 398 yards to break it.
Ehlinger currently sits second all-time in Texas history for career passing yards (8,669) and touchdowns (65). Sam also sits third in rushing yards by a quarterback but is closing in fast on McCoy for second-most at 1,571.
Outside of the top four, the Texas Longhorns have a few other names to consider for the NFL Draft.
With the college football season winding down more and more there will be plenty of chatter with the Texas Longhorns’ football team in regards to who will be making the jump to the NFL following the bowl game on December 31st in San Antonio. The names that you know about as prospects are Collin Johnson, Brandon Jones, Devin Duvernay and Malcolm Roach.
The four mentioned are all going to be participating in offseason bowl games in hopes of impressing NFL teams as they chase their dreams of playing at the next level. However, these four aren’t the only ones who will have NFL aspirations.
Texas’ OL has been impressive in the second half of the decade. The Longhorns have turned around their offensive line play in recent history
Being the most important unit in all of football, the offensive line for Texas has been impressive in the second half of the decade. Currently with three guys playing in the NFL, the Longhorns have turned around their offensive line play recently.
Connor Williams, Trey Hopkins, and Calvin Anderson are the three guys in the NFL, with Williams and Hopkins declaring after their junior year. The two started in a majority of the games the played, being consistent performers for the Longhorns. They also both helped Texas have some monster games on the ground, each having a 400-yard rushing game during their time at Texas.
Anderson was a graduate transfer from Rice who only spent one year with the Longhorns. He was a big get for Texas in 2018 and made an instant impact the minute he started to play. Starting in all 14 games he played in, Anderson was the left tackle for quarterback Sam Ehlinger. Protecting the blindside, he was a reliable blocker for the team.
Two players who are not in the NFL just quite yet are Zach Shackelford and Samuel Cosmi. The two have been the best players on the offensive line for Texas in 2019. Shackelford is a four-year player with 39 career starts, mainly at center. Cosmi redshirted in 2017 but has been a breakout performer for the Longhorns in his two years on the line.
Here is the Texas offensive line of the decade for the 2010s:
