 "Photo: Jeffrey McWhorter")
Mack Brown thought defensive coordinator Will Muschamp and secondary coach Duane Akina were going to go crazy. The two had the daunting task of coaching a defense with three new starters in the secondary, including a true freshman at left safety and a redshirt freshman at right safety.
"I'd keep hearing them yell, 'Back up, wider, wider, move up,'" Brown said. "I thought they were going to wear my ears out."
By the end of the game, the young secondary started figuring things out. It didn't look pretty early on, though. The Texas defense gave up 229 yards passing to Florida Atlantic quarterback Rusty Smith in the first half.
The coaches raved about redshirt freshman safety Earl Thomas in practice, but Thomas got burned once in the first half on a pass play and then missed a tackle on a 62-yard pass play from Smith to tight end Jamari Grant.
"Our players are obviously going to make some mistakes," Muschamp said. "We're going to watch film and work to correct those mistakes. The effort is on them; the execution is on us."
Thomas, from Orange, Texas, quickly redeemed himself. With the Owls threatening after getting another first down, the safety tipped a pass that landed in the hands of senior cornerback Ryan Palmer.
"It was just exciting," Thomas said. "I'm just trying to do everything I can to help this team."
Thomas brought the crowd of 98,000 to its feet in the third quarter when he blocked a punt that teammate Ben Wells recovered at Florida Atlantic's 17-yard line. It was the second forced turnover of the game for Thomas.
"We've been working on it all week," Thomas said. "We just try to do what coach [Akina] tells us to do."
The defense limited Smith to 24 yards in the second half, and Smith exited the game in the third quarter after the game was out of reach.
"After the coaches figured a couple of things out at halftime, I thought the young secondary got settled and played really well," Brown said. "They listened, and they got better."
The other starting safety, true freshman Blake Gideon, turned heads when he snuffed out a tight-end screen to Grant and hammered the tight end in the backfield to force an incompletion.
"For a young safety to recognize that and shut it down was wonderful," Muschamp said.
Sophomore cornerback Chykie Brown got the starting nod over junior Deon Beasley at cornerback opposite Palmer. Beasley got plenty of playing time though, as did sophomore Curtis Brown.
While the learning experience wasn't quite the same for the corners as it was for the safeties, the 5-foot-10-inch Palmer said going up against targets like Cortez Gent and 6-foot-3-inch Chris Bonner was a helpful experience.
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