STOCK UP:
WR Marcus Johnson (So.)
After managing a pedestrian six catches over the first five games of the season, Johnson burst onto the scene two weeks ago against Oklahoma, hauling in a 59-yard touchdown pass from senior quarterback Case McCoy. His encore performance last week was even better — he caught three passes for 120 yards, including a 65-yard bomb that gave Texas a 17-7 lead before play was stopped due to inclement weather. Keep an eye out for the sophomore speedster this week, as he should have plenty of opportunities to break out against an overmatched Kansas defense.
CB Quandre Diggs (Jr.)
The most talented player in the Longhorns secondary has added another dynamic to his game: rushing the passer. Over the past several games Diggs has coupled his elite coverage skills with an ability to come off the edge in exotic blitz packages, recording a sack against TCU to give him 2.5 sacks in Texas’ last three contests. Although he has yet to haul in an interception this year, that is largely a product of teams fearing him too much to throw in his direction. Despite a lack of play-making opportunities, Diggs is continuing to find a way to help this defense.
K/P Anthony Fera (Sr.)
Serving as both the kicker and the punter for Texas, it’s hard to ignore what Fera has done this year. He’s made 11 of 12 field goal attempts, including all four tries of 40 yards or more — not too shabby for a guy who only made two out of four field goal attempts all of last season. Fera has twice set a new career long for field goals this season, making a 47-yarder earlier this year before nailing one from 50 yards out against Oklahoma. Although his longest attempt against TCU was “only” from 43 yards, he still went 3-for-3 while averaging 40 yards per punt.
STOCK DOWN:
Case McCoy’s Completion Percentage:
Although McCoy has never been known for the deep ball, he’s been slinging it lately: he finished with 208 yards through the air on Saturday despite, completing less than 50 percent of his passes. Considering 120 of these yards came on three completions to Marcus Johnson and he threw two interceptions, it’s clear the senior signal caller wasn’t exactly Mr. Consistency against the Horned Frogs.
Johnathan Gray’s touchdown total:
No, his number of touchdowns didn’t drop against TCU, but they didn’t go up either. Despite averaging 19 carries and 94 yards a game, Gray only has four touchdowns this entire season and has been held out of the end zone in four of the Longhorns’ seven games. While this isn’t so much of a knock against Gray as it is a product of Texas choosing to spread the ball around, he’d like to see that number go up against the Jayhawks.
