Texas Longhorns Minus David Ash Against the BYU Cougars
The Texas Longhorns host the BYU Cougars Saturday night. The Longhorns will be without their starting quarterback David Ash and that caused considerable movement in the point spread.
Last season BYU easily defeated Texas 40-21 in Utah. In that game, Ash had 251 yards through the air, but the BYU offensive line steamrolled the Longhorns. The Cougars running attack had 259 yards on the ground by BYU quarterback Taysom Hill and Jamaal Williams at running back added 182 yards.
Texas opened last Sunday as a favorite in this matchup by 4.5 points, but by midweek the spread was only -1.5 and now it has flipped as BYU is now favored by 1 point. All of this movement is because of Ash not playing.
Two of the Texas offensive tackles were also suspended this week by the team and that did not help with the point spread either.
Last week Texas was strong in its opening game under new head coach Charlie Strong, with a victory at home of 38-7 against North Texas.
The victory however came with a big price, as their quarterback was hit to the head and was ruled out by doctors for Saturday’s game.
Last season, Ash missed Texas’ last 9 games due symptoms that were concussion related.
The Longhorns coaching staff will turn to Tyrone Swoopes a sophomore. Last season he attempted just 13 passes and has more strength running the ball than throwing it.
The Longhorns will look to run the ball as much as possible to take pressure off Swoopes. Running backs Malcolm Brown and Johnathan Gray will carry the load for Texas.
BYU played on the road last week as well. The Cougars opened their season with a 35-10 win at Connecticut.
Hill starred again for the Cougars with 308 yards passing and 3 touchdowns, and 97 rushing yards and 2 touchdowns.
Williams was suspended for that game, but returns for this one to help Hill on the ground.
Texas has a strong defense that could stifle the BYU run putting more pressure on Hill to pass. The Cougars will be facing much tougher competition in Texas than they did against Connecticut. Last week North Texas could manage only 94 total yards of offense against the Texas defense.
BYU will not only have Williams back from suspension but cornerbacks Robertson Daniel and Jordan Johnson and Marques Johnson a defensive lineman are all expected to return from suspensions.
Besides Ash, the Longhorns will be without Dominic Espinosa their center.
With Ash out, the Longhorns will likely employ a very conservative approach to their offense. BYU loves to run the ball as well and that could make for a close game with a low scoring total.
The game will be close. I like Texas in a mini-upset and the UNDER.
