By The Numbers | Post-Oklahoma State

– CJ Vogel

It might not have been pretty, it might not have been easy, but the Longhorns finally beat the Oklahoma State Cowboys at DKR with the 36–30 victory Saturday evening.

A deeper look at several individual performances provide a good understanding as to why the Longhorns were able to hold off on a victory against.

That Dude DevDuv

Texas WR Devin Duvernay’s move to the slot has been nothing but friendly for the senior wide receiver. Another huge week against Oklahoma State and it’s clear just how important he is for the Texas offense.

Duvernay is coming off a performance that included 12 receptions for 108 yards and a touchdown. On the season, Duvernay leads the nation with 39 receptions through four weeks, six more than the man in second place.

Above all of that, Duvernay has 0 drops for his career.

Duvernay graded out as the 2nd best player for Texas against Oklahoma State, behind Sam Ehlinger.

Most missed tackles forced after the catch, FBS WRs:



Devin Duvernay, Texas – 13

Bryan Edwards, South Carolina – 10

Brandon Aiyuk, Ariz St – 9

Sage Surratt, Wake – 9

6 tied with 8 — Cam Mellor (@PFF_Cam) September 22, 2019

The Case for Malcolm Epps

Listen, we’ve all seen the film, the hype surrounding the 6-foot, 7-inch coming out of fall camp certainly hasn’t been justified thus far. However, there is a case for Malcolm Epps to see the field situationally.

I’ll start by saying Epps graded out as the lowest offensive player that logged more than 40 snaps according to Pro Football Focus. BUT, he graded out as the best run blocker of any receiver and the 4th best on the team (Cosmi, Shack, Brewer).

Perhaps there is a hidden usage for Epps in the Texas game plan. After all, Epps was recruited as a tight end, I’m snowballing ideas here and obviously the Texas coaches have done infinite more hours of research than I have, but utilizing Epps’ run blocking skills out of the slot position could basically work as a second tight end on the field for Texas.

Runnin’ Right!

Coming into the year, if you had asked me which side of the Texas offensive line would be the strength of the run game, I would undoubtedly have said run left behind Sam Cosmi and Parker Braun. However, the numbers don’t quite agree with that in the past two weeks.

Between C & RG

Rice – 5 for 55 yards (11 ypc)

Ok State – 6 for 45 yards (7.5 ypc)

Between RG & RT

Rice – 4 for 15 (3.7 ypc)

Ok State – 2 for 17 (8.5 ypc)

In total, when running behind right guard Junior Angilau to either gap has proved to be very efficient. In the last two weeks, the Longhorns rushing attack has racked up 132 yards on 17 attempts (7.76 ypc !!) when running to the A and B gap on the right side.

Not So Sure Tackling

Texas has not been doing well when it comes to finishing tackles. In the Oklahoma State game alone, Texas accounted for 27 missed tackles against Oklahoma State according to PFF. Coming into the game, they had just 29 missed tackles on the season.

LaTech – 14 missed tackles

LSU – 12 missed tackles

Rice – 3 missed tackles

Ok State – 27 (!!) missed tackles

There’s a reason Chuba Hubbard leads the nation in the country, he’s tough to bring down. But 27 missed tackles isn’t going to cut it. Especially when the players missing those tackles are supposed to be the most important guys on the field.

Missed Tackles

Joseph Ossai – 5

Caden Sterns – 4

Keondre Coburn – 3

Brandon Jones – 3

Hidden Gem

I touched on it last week in By The Numbers, but Juwan Mitchell is a player. Dude is making the most of his limited opportunities on the field.

Mitchell graded out as the best tackler on the field against Oklahoma State (78.0) and the second best tackler against Rice (80.5).

Mitchell has played just 45.7% of the possible defensive snaps in those two games, but like I said, he’s made the most of them.

Protection is Key

According to PFF, the top five teams in the nation when it comes to pass blocking grades:

UAB – 92.1 Texas Tech – 86.4 Temple – 85.4 Texas – 84.2 Michigan – 83.2

How about that!

Quick-Hitters | Princely, Collins & Eaton

– Super K

***Texas commit, Princely Umanmielen is taking an official visit to Oklahoma this weekend.

Don’t have a great sense of whether or not they are much of a threat. This was a visit he had scheduled before his Texas commitment.

***Same situation with Texas commit, Josh Eaton. He’s had his OU visit scheduled since the summer.

Eaton does have family in Oklahoma and OU has very little depth at the CB position. So, this would be one I’d watch.

***We are trying to make sense of the Alfred Collins recruitment right now. Will spoke with him at his high school a few weeks ago and felt strongly about Texas’ chances.

Collins took an OV to OU and our sources on the OU side seem confident.

Meanwhile, he’s quoted telling other writers that he’s down to three and OU wasn’t included (Bama, TAMU, Texas).

But he told us that this is untrue just a few minutes ago.

Texas makes the most sense given where he’s from and his family ties but it’s our experience that OU typically underestimates their chances. So, it at least gives us pause.

Texas A&M…I don’t know…they’re imploding. I just don’t see that.

He is coming off a visit to Bama and they’re always impressive. But distance is the question.

We’re all trying to make sense of this one.

Mookie Cooper | Quick Update

– Super K

Texas is still looking to bring a slot wide receiver (or two) in this class and Mookie Cooper remains the top target.

I checked in with a source close to Cooper about whether they are still open to a return visit to Texas.

a) it sounds like the lines of communication between Texas and Mookie are still very much open. Not surprising from Texas side but I get the impression that the communication is being reciprocated.

b) source also said that the family has discussed visiting Texas this season and that remains a possibility.

In other words, while this one may seem dead…it’s not dead yet.

Injury & Redshirt Updates

– CJ Vogel

Tom Herman delivered a bit of good news Wednesday evening regarding some notable injury news and fringe redshirt targets.

Jordan Whittington

The Texas RB may be cleared from his sports hernia the week after WVU. He’ll be able to play out the second half of the season.

Herman added Whittington has yet to have a setback in his recovery so far.

Roschon Johnson

Freshman QB Roschon Johnson and Tom Herman had a conversation the other day that resulted in the decision to keep the PNG product at running back for the remainder of the season.

I asked Herman about his redshirt conversation with Roschon:



“I said, ‘Hey, kid. This is your decision. This is your career, but we’re at the point where we’ve gotta make a decision.’ He said ‘Am I still going to be able to help the team?”



There’s your answer. No redshirt. — alex briseño (@alex__briseno) September 25, 2019

Roschon’s long term position with the team will be decided at the end of the season.

Brayden Liebrock & Kennedy Lewis

Both freshmen are prime candidates to be redshirted this season. Lewis has appeared in two games this season while Liebrock has seen the field in just one.

No surprise here.

D’Eriq King | What the Future Holds

– Super K

As you know by now, Houston QB, D’Eriq King has announced that he will sit out the remainder of the season in order to redshirt.

Houston QB D’Eriq King is confident he made the right decision to redshirt the remainder of the 2019 season. https://t.co/yj4Xp1DRFA pic.twitter.com/NstYKkVivd — ESPN College Football (@ESPNCFB) September 25, 2019

King was recruited by Herman’s staff at Houston. They obviously have a great deal of familiarity with King.

There’s been a lot of light hearted banter online about the possibility of King ending up at Oklahoma next season.

We do not believe there is any chance of that happening. Lincoln Riley absolutely loves Spencer Rattler and based on what we’ve heard in the past, Riley wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize things with Rattler.

Based on additional information, if (and it’s a big if) Ehlinger were to depart early, I’d bet money King ends up at Texas.

Texas to see Kelee Ringo

– Super K

I was told by one of the staff members over at Saguaro High School where Kelee Ringo plays, that Texas will at their game tomorrow night to see Ringo.

Was also told that Ringo still plans on taking an official visit to Texas and is still very much interested in the Longhorns but the date of the visit isn’t known just yet.

2020 WR LV Bunkley-Shelton Drops Top 6

– CJ Vogel

2020 WR LV Bunkley-Shelton (Gardena, CA) has narrowed down his college decision to six schools according to his Twitter post Thursday afternoon.

Top 6 Thank you God 🃏🤡 pic.twitter.com/HUR4zZGrMJ — Lavon LV Bunkley-Shelton🃏🤡 (@LVDeucesWild2) September 26, 2019

Bunkley-Shelton is a known name on Texas boards and has made it no secret that he is very high on the Longhorns.

We mentioned in August that LVBS wants to make a decision in December and it certainly helps the Longhorns’ that the WRs this year have come to play in a big way.

** Worth mentioning that when K exchanged messages with his dad in July following their visit, he called it, “One of the best visits we have had. If he wants to commit he has our blessings. Coach Mehringer, Herman and Beck are awesome”.