I believe it was Roger Daltrey who sang "Meet the new Texas. Same as the old Texas."
The Longhorns started a new era with first-year coach Tom Herman. With that new start came promise that things might actually be different this time around. However, the result of a 51-41 season-opening loss against Maryland resembled more of what Texas fans have endured for the past several years.
While it wasn't the closest game, it had entertainment value. Texas opened the game with a pick-six and there were not one, but two blocked field goals returned for touchdowns -- one for each team. The Longhorns also returned a punt for a touchdown and Maryland nearly returned a kickoff for a score. In the third quarter alone, there were four touchdowns on four consecutive possessions.
With one game in the books, here's what we learned.
Maryland, even with injuries, has a lot of promise
The Terps won't win the Big Ten East -- I don't think, anyway -- but they might knock off someone they're not supposed to. Maryland looks fast and dangerous on both sides of the ball. Receiver D.J. Moore was an absolute assassin with seven catches for 133 yards and a score. He fought off defenders in one-on-one battles and showed a combination of great concentration and body control on some downfield catches that weren't always thrown perfectly. No matter who is throwing to him, he should be a factor.
The "who" is an important qualifier. Quarterback Tyrrell Pigrome left the game in the second half with an apparent leg injury after he fell awkwardly on a run and had to be helped off the field. He had 239 total yards of offense with three scores on the day. Freshman Kasim Hill came on in relief and excelled. His 3rd-and-19 completion to Moore in the fourth quarter led to a touchdown that took the life out of Texas.
On defense, Maryland was able to get pressure rushing just three or four down linemen. Maryland wasn't in terrible shape when coach D.J. Durkin took over, but the step from Year 1 to Year 2 is noticeable.
The stat sheet was deceiving for Texas
There were 955 yards of offense in this game, but it wasn't your traditional offensive shootout. Namely, Texas' offense didn't have a lot of diversity or firepower. That belonged to the Terps. The Longhorns scored 21 of their 41 points on non-offensive plays: a pick-six on a tipped pass (which can be a 50-50 play), a scoop and score on a blocked field goal (after Texas gave up one of its own) and a 91-yard punt return.
The rest was a mixture of poor run production (3.2 yards per rush), short passes and a few big plays sprinkled in between. Maryland dared Texas to throw on them and overall won that matchup. Quarterback Shane Buechele averaged 7.2 yards per completion on a lot of dink and dunk throws, mostly because that's all Maryland allowed. The Terps also got tremendous push with their defensive front and the Longhorns had to resort to some other other options, including Jerrod Heard, to try to shake things up in the run game. Nothing worked. Maryland forced Texas to be one-dimensional from the start.
This Texas still has a lot of shades of old Texas
Watching the Longhorns on Saturday felt a lot like watching the Longhorns over the last few years. That's ... not a good thing. There are a lot of issues that still haven't been rectified. The offensive ones were noted above, but the defense remains a liability. Among the issues on both sides of the ball were: poor tackling, defenders getting beat off the ball, defensive backs losing on deep-ball throws, special teams miscues, penalties, turnovers ... the works.
It's Week 1, which means pretty much every team gets some kind of mulligan for sloppy play because there's no preseason to get sharp. Usually, however, there's a transition from the first half to the second, as we saw this week with Ohio State, Washington and the like. For Texas, it's a lot of the same miscues that have showed up over the past few seasons.
Herman, for whatever reason, took some chances of his own that didn't pan out. The Horns were 0 for 4 on fourth-down attempts and called some cautious or otherwise slow-developing plays, which didn't work against Maryland's speed.
Herman deserves time to build things in Austin his way. But as Saturday showed, this program has a ways to go before it's truly a new team.
Texas fans just hope they won't get fooled again.