Stock up

Kendall Sanders

There wasn’t much to be proud of on either side of the ball Saturday night in Provo, but Kendall Sanders’ first collegiate game was a bit of a bright spot. Following his Week 1 suspension for a DUI last spring, Sanders hauled in four catches for 36 yards and flashed a few of the traits that had everyone so high on him coming into the season. Sanders’ possesses elite speed, good hands and solid route running abilities. While David Ash was under siege most of the night preventing him from getting the ball out on time, Sanders did prove that he could be a big piece of the offense heading forward. 

Anthony Fera

Fera averaged 43.8 yards per punt on his eight (not a misprint) attempts and tried valiantly to give the Longhorns a field position edge against BYU. After losing Duke transfer Alex King this offseason, there was a bit of concern heading into 2013 as to how the Longhorns special teams would be able to replace his average 45.3 yards per punt. Anthony Fera seems like a more than viable option two games into the season, even if he got more face timeSaturday than anyone would have liked to see. 

Stock Down

The offensive line

David Ash and the running backs had no chance Saturday night as the BYU front stayed in the Longhorns back field nearly all night. Texas averaged a measly 3.4 yards per carry and allowed four sacks, eventually forcing Ash to tap out of the game in the fourth quarter with an apparent head injury. Mack Brown said going into the BYU game that he wanted his team to be physical and the offensive line failed over and over again. All-American linebacker Kyle Van Noy couldn’t be blocked and the offense never really got anything established. If last week was the litmus test, the offensive line failed with miserable grades. 

Steve Edmond

Edmond went into the season as the starting middle linebacker, and he did nothing on Saturday to calm any of those concerns. Blown assignments and missed tackles were prevalent in his game, and while he certainly wasn’t the only one responsible for the school record 550 rushing yards given up, he did nothing to help. Consider the middle linebacker job a question mark until someone steps up to fill the void.