What We Learned -- Week 4

It was Rice, but that sure as heck felt good. In reality, not since beating Rice in week 3 last season has Texas come in and thoroughly dominated a (I-A) opponent from start to finish. After playing poorly in 5 of their first 6 halves, the Horns came out and took advantage of the fact that Texas players were bigger, stronger, and faster. Here's what fasting during week four taught us:

• Appy State lost to Wofford. That should close that argument.
• Cross Florida off the untested list. Only USC, LSU and OU have shown thus far to be a cut above the rest. The great thing about college football, however, is that Florida and Texas both get their shots on October 6th to replace LSU and OU atop the national standings.
• Notre Dame is 0-4, and that makes us really happy.
• LSU has, statistically, the worst red zone defense in the country; think about that one for a minute.
• Arkie St gave Tennessee a scare and UCF blew out Memphis. See what Texas playing crappy the first three weeks has reduced us to?

Our Texas lessons:

• Ryan Bailey, wow. We didn't think he had that in him.
• We know that it was Rice, but Texas needed put a large number on the scoreboard in the worst kind of way. Hopefully Limas found some of his old form, and we really hope this will transfer into next week.
• Speaking of next week, this should be an emotional revenge game for the Horns. Here's to putting up another large number on the scoreboard (just like last year) with KSU putting up a considerably smaller number (unlike last year).
• The best part of this week by far is that Texas found its vertical passing game. Sure, it was Rice, but Texas had been unable to successfully throw down field against Arkie St or UCF either.
• Finally, apparently Texas does have some backups on the roster. John Chiles is fast and elusive, but there probably isn't going to be that much of a role for him in the offense...yet. We knew Vince Young as a redshirt freshman and John Chiles is not yet VY at that stage. That said, we suspect that no matter what happens on October 6th, many Horn fans will decry Greg Davis for not using Chiles as though he is some sort of golden bullet. We REALLY liked that all 11 Longhorns on the field were freshmen or redshirt freshmen on offense for a few series. Hopefully Chiles and Vondrell McGee can get a few touches against KSU.