The mediocre nature of special teams under mack brown must be exactly why he can see his team struggle in the offseason and then miss an unthinkable 3 extra points (you really have to try to pull that off)... and then say that their special teams are fine. Many, many people think this will be a close game and having issues on special teams with kicking extra points, let alone long clutch field goals is not a way to beat OSU. Josh Huston is the latest in a long history of great specialists. We followed up an AA punter with a ray guy punter followed by a very good punter last year. Then we had some guy named nugent who won the groza award, who went to OSU (not really related, but still fun).
If you want to understand the difference between the two head coaches, watch the end of the 3rd quarter while OSU was blowing out Miami. They put in Carpenter, Hawk, Salley and other defensive stars on punt coverage. If I had to guess, they figured a dangerous returner like Robinson would provide excellent practice to defend against Ramonce. As for this concept that Texas will enjoy playing in the shoe, that is BS. I'm sure they will rally as a team to fight the hostile environment, but I'll believe it when I see WRs who struggle enough with catching balls handle that deafening environment. Same goes for the young WRs if Selvin is gimpy. Texas clearly will not roll over and play dead due to the crowd, but it will make a difference.
As for the battle in the trenches, I firmly believe that their DL will give us trouble, which is precisely why Smith has to be our starter. Zwick still has not proven he doesn't panic when under pressure (he was barely pressured in the last two games, and the one time things broke down he threw an awful pass that was intercepted). As for Tressel's quote, they will both play b/c Zwick will get some good PT in the 4th after we are leading by about three TDs :-p I don't buy the hype over the OL. I think they are great, and I think they are headed to the pros for lots of money. But if they are so good, then how was UM able to get into the backfield so often? Why were they unable to run the ball at all from the RB position? Maybe Benson was a little gimpy, but there simply was nowhere for him to run either way in that game.
I expect both DL's to win the trench battles. I do not expect a rushing attack from either team. Back to the UM game, Texas did a pretty good job shutting down the running attack, forcing UM to rely on the passing game. If UT has this great secondary, where was it in that game? Who cares if they started near midfield everytime, they still could have been held to a few field goals. Avant was not playing in that game, therefore they were a two good WR attack + TE. OSU should be able to feature at least that many weapons at wideout (Hall at TE will be a mismatch on passing downs), plus the versatility of Smith's running.
I think this is a 10 point game. I have no idea if it will be 17-7 or 34-24, but I don't think the DL and VY will be enough to overcome their youth at RB (I think Selvin sounds gimpy) and WR. They will hang with OSU until late in the 3rd, IMO.
