 "Photo: Sara Young/Daily Texan Staff")
The renovations to Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium didn’t include the re-addition of a track. At times, though, it looked like there was one out there, with running back D.J. Monroe and receiver Marquise Goodwin blazing down the sidelines for the Longhorns.
The speed shown in the season opener gives Texas a dimension it didn’t have last year.
While the Longhorns lived up to their motto of being consistently good in 2008, one area they seemed to lag in was explosive plays (plays that Texas coach Mack Brown and Co. define as 15 yards or more).
Sure, they had Jordan Shipley, but other than that, they had no real game-breakers.
What a difference a year makes.
With 9:54 to play in the first half and Louisiana-Monroe just scoring on a 75-yard touchdown pass to cut Texas’ lead to 11, the momentum was shifting. Enter D.J. Monroe.
The redshirt freshman took the kickoff, ran through some nice blocks and then took the ball down the sidelines and was off to the races for an 89-yard kick return touchdown.
“D.J. looked like he was at a track meet,” Brown said.
The 5-foot-9-inch, 170-pound speedster wasn’t done. He went on to rush for 64 yards on 9 carries, a 7.1 average. On a team with powerful running backs such as Cody Johnson and Vondrell McGee, Monroe’s speed is a nice change of pace.
“He’s got really good vision,” said Texas offensive coordinator Greg Davis. “He’s a much tougher running back than his size would indicate. He provides a spark and can do some special things for us.”
Brown realized how special Monroe was last year when Monroe played on the scout team as running back before the Colorado game.
“Nobody could tackle him,” Brown said. “I thought maybe we should have used him that year on the kick team.”
Right now, Davis said the team is only using Monroe in certain situations and working on creating more packages for him to play in. He doesn’t think he can be an every-down back — yet. But give him time. It wasn’t until the fifth day of camp that the team moved Monroe from receiver to running back, though he played running back at Angleton High School.
“When it wasn’t working for him at receiver and we had some depth at receiver, that’s when we said, ‘What the heck, let’s put the ball in his hands,’” Brown said.
And as scary as it may seem, Monroe might not even be the fastest player on the team.
True freshman Marquise Goodwin, a track star from Rowlett, Texas, could hold that distinction. Goodwin is here on scholarship not for football, but for track; he earned two gold medals (in the long jump and 4x100-meter relay) at the IAAF World Junior Championships in Poland last summer.
“I don’t know who is faster, but I wouldn’t want to race against either of them,” said junior receiver John Chiles.
Goodwin took a short pass from Garrett Gilbert in the fourth quarter and raced down the sideline for 29 yards before falling down. He finished with 3 catches for 39 yards.
Since last year’s team broke several records and went 12-1 without a speed threat besides Shipley, there’s no telling what this year’s team can do with the new additions and Chiles switching to receiver.
“It makes a huge difference because defenses can’t guard all of us at once,” Chiles said. “It’s hard to match our speed.”
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