Melton thriving on defense for UT

TEXAS LINEBACKER HENRY MELTON Henry Melton's plan to be the next big running back at Texas ended two years ago on a fourth down against Texas A&M.

Texas Tech kicker Matt Williams wasn't even in football two years ago. He wasn't even in football two months ago.

The two meet on Saturday night at 7 p.m. in a showdown at Lubbock between Melton's top-ranked Texas and the No. 7 Red Raiders.

When a smaller linebacker dropped the 275-pound fullback for no gain in the last regular season game of 2006, it was time to try something else. Melton, whose production had waned after he scored 10 touchdowns as a freshman in 2005 when Texas won the national championship, was moved to defensive end.

The change took a long time to pay off, but with two sacks last week against Oklahoma State, Melton is emerging as a passrushing force to complement Brian Orakpo as the No. 1 Longhorns (8-0) get ready to play Texas Tech (8-0).

"It's probably where he should have been the whole time," Texas coach Mack Brown said.

Melton's uncle, former NFL defensive back Ray Crockett, had tried to tell everyone, Brown and Henry included, that his nephew's future was on the defensive line. Melton, however, wanted to run and score touchdowns.

"He wanted to be Ricky Williams and I wanted him to be. We both worked at it really, really hard and for whatever reason it didn't work," Brown said. "Now, he's become a great player."

Texas fans loved watching him run over smaller defenders at Rice and Sam Houston State. They also saw what would eventually be his downfall.

Too often, Melton tried to run light on his feet, trying to cut and move like he was 50 pounds lighter. Instead of bashing his way over the goal line for the game-clinching touchdown at Ohio State in 2005, he dived for the corner and didn't make it. Texas still won and all was forgiven, but a pattern would soon emerge.

"I was younger. I thought I could jump a little higher than I could," Melton said this week.

His carries were diminishing by 2006. When Melton got popped by the A&M linebacker, his only carry in a game Texas lost was his last. By the Alamo Bowl a few weeks later, he was on defense, leaving behind 625 career yards rushing and 16 touchdowns.

"My coaches told me I could be pretty great. I took the challenge," he said.

Melton has tried to model his game after Orakpo, who is arguably Texas' best pass rusher since All-American Tony Brackens in the mid-1990s.

Texas will need to pressure Tech quarterback Graham Harrell if it hopes to slow down the Red Raiders' passing attack. Harrell has been sacked only three times this season. Oklahoma State's Zac Robinson had been sacked only four times until Texas dumped him five times last week.

"We're going to try to shake it up a bit," Melton said. "We've got something brewing for him."

The first time Williams was called on to kick at Jones AT&T Stadium, he ran onto the field from the student section in shorts and a T-shirt.

Six weeks later he'll be out there wearing the black-and-red home uniform of Tech, possibly kicking to beat Texas in a game that will move the winner a step closer to playing for a national championship.

Williams probably wasn't thinking about such a scenario when he signed up for a field goal contest while strolling into the stadium to watch Texas Tech play Massachusetts in September. When his name was picked, the sophomore hopped onto the artificial turf and, using a kickoff tee, easily hit a 30-yarder between quarters.

The fans went wild, and Mike Leach noticed. Leave it to the pirate-loving, Churchill-reading Texas Tech coach to send a staff member into the stands looking for a kicker. Two days later, Williams was on the team.

"For all I know he had flip-flops on, but he went down there and popped the thing in front of everybody," Leach said. "What got our attention is he didn't take any extra steps and it went straight up."

That was nothing compared to his debut in a game. Williams was 9-of-9 on extra points in Texas Tech's 63-21 rout of then- No. 19 Kansas last weekend. Leach said none of those compare to the contest kick, which came when the Red Raiders (8-0) had already missed two extra points in three games.

"It's not like he warmed up," Leach said. "He wasn't up there in the stands with some little kicking net and a remedial shoe and all that stuff."

Leach, who wouldn't let Williams talk to reporters this week, hasn't ruled out using him for field goals.

Williams' high school coach, Mike Sneed, is surprised Leach hasn't already decided to expand Williams' role.

"Whenever they said he was going to be the extra-point kicker I said, 'Well, they'll start out with that but he'll be kicking the field goals and kickoffs at some point,'" said Sneed, who coached Williams at Weatherford in the Dallas-Fort Worth area before moving to a Houston school.

Williams walked on at Division II Tarleton State but never kicked in a game before moving on to Texas Tech to be a just student.

"Somebody on a campus can kick. Somebody on campus can snap, and so it goes," Leach said. "Sometimes you got to turn over some stones."