I have been on the Earth through over 20 thousand revolutions. I have been a construction worker, a teacher, a social worker, a student, a husband, a father, a computer programmer. For all that time and experience on the Earth it seems like I should know more than I do. Oh, and I'm a recovering philosopher.
Right after the Kansas State Wildcats ran over the Longhorns 39 - 14 in week 9, and with three games left to play, I blogged that the beloved Texas Longhorns would have a 7 loss season, losing both to OSU and A&M, and, of course, avoiding a loss with Florida Atlantic.
The Oklahoma State Cowboys did whip up on the Longhorns 33 - 16 in week 10, which was our 6th loss, and our 4th Home game loss this season. For some silly reason, before the Florida Atlantic game in week 11, I started playing around with some of the stats and saw that the particular match up between the offensive and defensive teams between Texas and A&M might open up a possible advantage for Texas. I guess my orange blood went to my head and clouded my vision of reality, but I revised my prediction, and blogged that we could possibly take A&M, and changed my original prediction of a 7 loss season to a 6 loss season.
Then, I watched the Nebraska Cornhuskers take on the Texas A&M Aggies game in week 11 and was hit with the realization that the Longhorns have a better chance of putting a camel through the eye of a needle than beating the Aggies.
Of course we took the week 11 Florida Atlantic game, but even that game was not outside the realm of being lost, given our habitual pattern of mishaps, mistakes, and blunders this season.
I watched Greg Davis call the exact same play 5 times in a row early in the Florida Atlantic game from 3 and 4 yards out in the Red Zone, with no touchdown. That’s when it struck me. I realized that there’s very little chance that our offense can play with any kind of intelligent offensive strategy or without the usual mishaps, mistakes, blunders, penalties, missed catches, dropped balls. That’s just not going to happen.
During the FAU game, there were some nice throws, some good runs, but beating this team 51 - 17 is not exactly a confidence builder for a team that has had 162 consecutive weeks on the AP top 25. I mean, FAU was beat by North Texas, which was the 2nd worst team in the country last year. The only purpose this win served is to minimize the number of losses Mack Brown will be credited with this season, and it was a good work out. We need to stay conditioned for Thursday’s game. The win against FAU doesn’t say anything at all about who the Longhorns are as a team, they haven’t made a break through with their playing. We beat a pretty low rated team, which we should have done.
The 63 yard touchdown pass to Kirkendoll in the 2nd quarter was awesome. It reminded me of McCoy and Shipley. It was great to see Gilbert connect with such an accurate pass, and not be dropped.
The team that’s coming to Austin on Thanksgiving Day is bringing a collection of evil football eating monsters in their defense, and there is very little chance that our mistake prone offense will be able to put even one point on the board against that defense. So, it will be sorta difficult to win the game with no points on the board. They are also bringing a pretty good running game, which our defense is capable of stopping. Whether we will stop their runners or not is a guess. We have played some top 10 defense this season, and we have also botched at least two games with defense, UCLA and Kansas State. We’ll need to play defense like we did with Baylor, except without the 3 missed touchdowns Baylor snuck past our defense. I was not impressed with Tannehill’s passing game against Nebraska.
The Nebraska - A&M game was mostly a stalemate, between two very tough defensive teams, where no touchdowns were made, and it was really a matter of who finished with the most field goals when the clock ran out. It didn’t help the Cornhuskers that Martinez was out most of the game with an ankle injury, and when he was playing he was not at 100%. Should I mention that Bo Pelini does not like losing. He walked across the field, shook Mike Sherman’s hand from about 10 feet away, didn’t say a word, and headed straight for the locker room.
Anyway, so now, the Nebraska - A&M game has me in a dilemma. There’s maybe a 5% or 10% chance that Texas can take the game on Thanksgiving Day, maybe 1% or less, negative percentage, heck, I don’t know if it’s even in the realm of possibility. And there’s about a 95% chance that A&M will beat up on us pretty bad. I hope it’s not more than 20 points.
The Longhorn in me wants to believe that maybe the miracle will happen, and A&M will play bad like Nebraska did when they played the Longhorns, or that we’ll get lucky and make some big plays, maybe like the Hail Mary throw Gilbert did with a few seconds left in the 1st half of the FAU game. Was that kewl or what?
But, the logical in me already knows the game is lost.
So, my dilemma is which way to go. Do I concede the loss which my logical self knows will happen, or do I throw logic to the wind and say that out of the slight possibility we have to win, that we will indeed win?
If you’re a real Longhorn, you have to go with the right thing to do, and that is to say the Longhorns are going to take the day. No one may really believe that, but that’s how I’m calling it. Hook Em’ Horns. Bring it on Mike Sherman and company. A&M is on a 5 game winning streak, against some tough competitors, and their cups runneth over with testosterone, but we are the Texas Longhorns. Since 1894 we have lost 36 games to Texas A&M. We have won 75. So, even if they beat us this Thanksgiving, A&M has quite a way to go before they’re even close to measuring up to the mighty Longhorns.
One thing that might help is to install special security at the stadium gates for detecting any attempt for a 12th man or 12th woman to enter the sacred DKR Memorial Stadium, and if detected, have them immediately arrested as terrorists. Let em’ try playing without that 12th man and see how they do.
What About The 2011, 2012 Season?
Mack Brown took over as head coach in 1998, and had a 5 loss season in 1999. Since then, and until now, 2010, all of his seasons have been 3 or less losses. He has 9 consecutive 10 or more win seasons. He took us through a 2005 National Championship. Well, I guess I should say that Vince Young gave us that championship in the last seconds of a game that looked like a certain loss.
Mack Brown also took us to another National Championship in 2009. One that I believe we would have won, if Colt McCoy would not have been taken out of the game with a shoulder injury at 4 minutes into the game. We were already dominating the field. Our backup QB, Garrett Gilbert, had to play the remaining 56 minutes, which he did courageously, against the toughest team in the NCAA. Before that championship game we had played Alabama 7 times, and won every game. The 2009 Championship game was our first loss to Alabama ever.
The Texas Longhorns are the 2nd most winning team in the history of the NCAA. We started playing football in 1893, and played that season without a coach. We played 4 games, and held 3 opponents to zero point games. The next year, 1894, we held 6 opponents to zero point games.
We have 162 consecutive games on the AP top 25, and 9 consecutive years with 10 or more wins. We are 4 time National Champions, and have the 2nd most all time NCAA Bowl appearances. We are number 5 in all time NCAA Bowl wins. Mack Brown holds the highest win percentage in 117 years of Texas Longhorn football. Darrell K. Royal holds the next highest win percentage. In season 2005 we scored 652 points in 13 games, which is an average of 50 points per game.
In the 13 years that Mack Brown has been head coach, 1998 - 2010, and if things come out as I’ve predicted, the Texas Longhorns will have won 138 games, and lost 35 games, and Mack Brown will walk away with only a 6 game loss season. If A&M takes the field, then Mack Brown will be among the very few Texas coaches ever to have seen 7 or more losses in a given season. That has happened only 4 other times in 117 years of Longhorn football.
The record is 9 losses in the 1956 season. We saw an 8 loss season in 1938. Then we saw two 7 loss seasons in 1988, and 1997. Mack Brown took over then, in 1998, and hopefully he will not become a member of the 7 or more loss club.
The most losses per season that Fred Akers ever saw was 6 in 1986, which was also the year he retired as head coach after 10 years of coaching. Coincidentally, coach Darrell Royal also retired after the year of his most losses. He had a 5 loss season in 1976, and retired after 19 years of coaching.
Whether this season ends up a 6 or 7 loss season for Mack Brown, what I’m suggesting here is that the timing seems right. Call it intuition, call it the winds of change are blowing, call it the Great Fathers of Football are gently speaking a message.
There could not be any better timing for Mack Brown to step down than at the end of this season. Not because he lost 6 or 7 games this year, and not because anyone thinks he’s a bad coach, or because people are hot about things and want heads to roll, but because it makes sense. It’s the right thing to do for the entire collection of the Texas Longhorn community, including the team.
Coach Brown is not a hands on coach like Will Muschamp. Brown’s strengths have been as an organizer, a general manager, more like Tom Landry. His strengths are in organizing his recruiting staff to do great work, in thinking ahead enough to keep Muschamp on staff, and on making sure all of the supportive mechanisms are top notch, for a top notch team.
Let’s give Muschamp a chance as head coach for the 2011, 2012 season. He’s a seriously hands on coach, and knows football inside and out. He’s got the drive, the determination, and he’ll just need some excellent scouting for coordinators.
Coach Brown has served us well, and there’s no reason in the world why he wouldn’t step down now, except for pride. Muschamp is ready to take the reigns, he’s ready to go at it fiercely, the Longhorns are ready for new blood, the new recruits want to know they’re coming into something different. It’s the new and different that will energize the Team.
Coach Brown will retire as one of the best coaches in the 117 year history of our football program. Fred Akers and Darrell Royal had no shame to retire on their worst seasons. They knew it was time for a change, and they certainly had no doubts whatsoever that they had been some of the best coaches in college football.
Coach Brown missed a great deal of detail this season, starting with Spring training. He is quoted after the Florida Atlantic game as telling his entire staff that he gives them an “F” for the season. I agree, the worst thing that went wrong this season is that the details for training and preparing a new team for college level football did not get attended to, but who’s fault is that? If it’s the staff’s job to attend to the training detail, isn’t it the head coaches job to see that the staff is doing that work. Mack Brown missed this season by a mile or more, but I’m not suggesting he step down because he was an “F” rated coach for 2010. I’m suggesting it because Muschamp is the better person for the job, and Mack should step down because it is what will give the 2011, 2012 Texas Longhorns the best chance of returning to a top 25 rated team.
I strongly believe that Mack should step down, and give Muschamp a chance with the 2011, 2012 recruits, but he won’t do that, although it was not beneath both the highly respected Darrell K Royal and Fred Akers for them to step down after their worst seasons, Mack Brown somehow believes he is better, and will not do what would be best for the team and entire Longhorn community. Shame on you, Mack Brown.
Best of Luck Thanksgiving Day, Mighty Texas Longhorns.
First of all, let me say that it is very refreshing to have the fans, press, and bloggers start to calm down about this years losing trend. Losing does not come easy to the Longhorn brethren, and the trend of losses this season has brought down seemingly the fury of Hell itself. Orange blood is winning blood, but we do have a newly re-organized team, and plenty of mistakes were made to facilitate the losses with UCLA and Iowa State, especially.
I thought Mack Brown did a very good job with his Monday evening press conference after the Baylor game. He was humbled, honest, knew his facts, and was talking like a head coach should speak, instead of showing frustration like he did after the Iowa State game. He was clear about expectations, that we can now focus on work, instead of worrying about Titles, Championships, school records, or even a Bowl Game. I’m glad to see him take hold of this situation and realize that it’s up to the coaches now to do the work of fixing some of the mistakes being made consistently. I think the coaches, trainers, and staff have been a little slow to pick up on the fact that it was time to start earning their pay starting with Spring training. I think they all thought Garrett Gilbert was going to come out somehow and just be amazing, which makes their job so much easier. So, I was pleased to see Coach Brown speak like the head coach he is made of.
I thought Texas played a much harder, and more determined game against Baylor, than I have seen all season. So, at least for that game, the whole issue of morale and commitment to playing their best, the Texas Longhorns showed a great deal of improvement, which means the coaches have already started to get serious about working with things.
Baylor has an explosive offense, having racked up 683 total yards in their previous game against Kansas State, whom we will play this Saturday. In that game, Baylor RB Jay Finley set a new school record of 250 yards on the ground, with 2 touchdowns, and QB Robert Griffin set his career high with 404 passing yards, and 4 touchdowns.
The Texas defense came ready and prepared, and I think Muschamp did his homework well, with his defense holding Baylor to 328 yards total. That’s half of what Baylor is capable of doing. It’s very hard to criticize the Texas defense, given the fact they held Finley to 116 total yards on 15 carries, and also considering they held Griffin to 239 total passing yards on 39 attempts. The Texas defense played furiously, for exactly 58 minutes of the game. During those other 2 minutes of the game, the Texas defense let through 3 touchdowns, (1) in the 2nd quarter, a 59 yard TD pass, (2) in the 3rd quarter, a 69 yard TD run by Finely, and (3) in the 4th quarter, a 30 yard TD pass.
Before that 69 yard run by Finely during the 3rd quarter, our defense had held him to an embarrassing 47 yards on the ground, and without the two TD passes by Griffin we had managed to hold him to a little over 200 yards. Very, very impressive Mr. Muschamp and team. However, with an offense capable of racking up almost 700 yards a game, even one mistake can be a costly one. So, while the Texas defense played better than I’ve ever seen, the 3 TDs that came through, were clearly misreads, or mistakes, with the Texas defense. That’s the painful part of a game like Baylor played. They get 62 plays during the game, and 59 of them are met with a top notch defense, then 3 of those 62 plays turn into a Big Play because that furious defense just missed their man.
(1) On a 3rd and 10, outside field goal range, and with 0.43 left on the 1st half clock, Griffin hits Terrance Williams, wide open, who runs in a 59 yard TD pass. Our defense has one tackle that can’t quite grab him, there was no coverage on Williams, and you can see the footage in the background of about 3 Texas players standing still, watching the ball fly through the air. They don’t even try to move in the direction where the football is flying. Who was supposed to cover Williams? Blake Gideon? With 0.39 left on the clock, Texas was able to get within field goal range, and Justin Tucker set the half time score to Texas 12 - Baylor10. If someone would have covered Williams, Baylor would have had to punt, and we would have gone into the half Texas 9/12 - Baylor 3.
(2) Late in the 3rd quarter, the score is Texas 19 - Baylor 17. We had been struggling offensively, mainly with Red Zone conversions. 12 of our 19 points were from Justin Tucker field goals. On a 1st and 10 after a Texas punt, Finley slips through the Texas defense for a 69 yard TD run. On a blitz, he split through two linebackers, neither one was there to plug the hole. The linebackers just didn’t look for the hole, or see it. Once Finley is clear, he’s gone, you don’t catch him, like our runners can be caught. Baylor goes for 2 and misses.
(3) With about 8 minutes left to play, on 3rd and 9, on the UT 30 yard line, Baylor 23 - Texas 19, the Texas defense is set to force a field goal, which would have left plenty of time for Texas to tie the game, and push it into overtime, but Kendell Wright slips through uncovered and catches a 30 yard TD pass. Where was the coverage on Wright? I think that was the play that sealed the game. It’s feasible we could have caught up to a one touchdown lead, but not 11 points. Tucker does manage one more field goal for a Final score of Baylor 30 - Texas 22.
The Garrett Gilbert Syndrome
Now that I have all that out of the way, and with very mixed feelings, pointed out where our most excellent defense just messed up on 3 plays out of 62, opening up a whopping 21 points on the board for Baylor, I’d like to address my most serious concern. I call it the Garrett Gilbert Syndrome.
This syndrome manifests itself in the thinking process of sports writers, bloggers, and many Longhorn fans. Characteristics of the Syndrome appear to be a sort of fixation that Garrett Gilbert is somehow responsible for the success or failure of the entire Texas Longhorn team. The syndrome had mutated to infectious proportions between the UCLA game and Baylor game. It does appear to be calming down some after the Baylor game, but still very prevalent.
The underlying premise with this Syndrome is that Garrett Gilbert is young, still maturing as a QB, and does not demonstrate much leadership ability, which has had a negative effect on the performance of everyone on the team. This syndrome began to manifest itself after the UCLA game, where Gilbert’s lack of offensive leadership and performance, demoralized the Texas defense to the point where they just couldn’t play, if Gilbert’s offense was going to keep making mistakes.
I did not say this syndrome was based in reality, but victims of the Syndrome are plagued by this fixation that every problem somehow can be traced back to Gilbert himself. In the above scenario, note that Gilbert doesn’t even play defense, and so he’s not even on the field. He’s over on the sideline, sitting down, with headphones on talking to Greg Davis, but those afflicted with this Syndrome can easily see that just looking at Gilbert’s facial expressions, or maybe the way he holds his head, can infect all 11 players on the defense to where they just can’t even play anymore.
Likewise, with the Baylor game mentioned above, sports casters could not refrain from mentioning that Gilbert just doesn’t have the leadership that he needs to win games. Again, probably not based in reality, since the 3 big plays our Texas defense let through, was completely unrelated to anything Gilbert could have done. Nevertheless, the Syndrome tends to see Gilbert as responsible for losing the game, even though he doesn’t coach the defense, or wasn’t on the field. With more leadership Gilbert should have made up for those 21 points our defense put on the board, but he didn’t.
We had a real problem with Red Zone conversions with the Baylor game. Those with the Garrett Gilbert Syndrome translate this into Gilbert just not making the right decisions. Case in point. Opening drive for Baylor, where Sam Acho forces a fumble, and eventually recovers it on the Baylor 39. Within 4 or 5 plays Gilbert has us at 1st and goal, on the Baylor 9 yard line. He attempts two passes. I can’t remember which one it was, the first to Matthews or the second pass to Kirkendoll, but he made the pass under tight Red Zone pressure, with the receiver under very tight coverage inside the end zone. It was probably one of the best throws I’ve ever seen in college football. It hit the receiver dead center of his chest, and he had both hands touching the ball, then he just drops the ball. A beautiful TD pass, but for one with the GG Syndrome, the pass was thrown too hard, or had the wrong spin, or the receiver didn’t like the way Gilbert looked when he threw it. That was 7 points my man, instead of the 3 we had to settle for. The pass was ruled incomplete.
The very next Texas drive, it’s 3rd and 11, we’re in field goal range on the Baylor 40, Gilbert throws long to Kirkendoll, who had both hands around the ball, but doesn’t keep it. The pass was ruled dropped. We settle for 3 points. Those afflicted with the Garrett Gilbert syndrome clearly see that Gilbert’s timing was off, or too much spin again, or maybe Gilbert forgot to wipe the ball and it was slippery with sweat from Gilbert’s hands, all possible consequences of someone who is lacking leadership. Again, we settle for 3 instead of 7.
I thought it was the quarter back’s job to deliver the ball to the receiver, then it was the receiver’s job to catch and hold onto the ball. Considering that the previous two passes were thrown perfectly, and hit their targets with total accuracy, I fail to see how the loss of those two touchdowns can be Gilbert’s fault.
Also, Kudos to the officials. They really got a workout this game. Heck, Curtis Brown put them through two official reviews that probably took overall 15 minutes. Brown fumbled not one, but two, punt returns. Somehow, that is Gilbert’s fault, although Gilbert doesn’t play on special teams. To Brown’s credit, neither of the fumbles were game changing events. Texas recovered each time. Brown even ran back a punt return to the 50 yard line at one point.
You can credit Baylor’s defense with our lack of Red Zone conversions, and low 3rd down conversion rates. They basically took 6 Red Zone opportunities, a possible 42 points of touchdowns, and turned them into 6 field goal attempts, of which Justin Tucker made good on 5, giving us 15 points, instead of the possible 42. If Tucker had not stepped in to save the day, those with the GG syndrome would have had some way of pointing out Tucker’s performance was infected with Gilbert’s lack of leadership.
We also recovered only one of five Baylor turnovers. One of those 5 fumbles resulted from sacking Baylor QB Griffin, where our Texas man falls completely on the ball, his whole body covering the ball, the ball pops out, and is recovered by Baylor. Even when we’re laying right on top of the ball we can’t seem to hold onto it. A Texas recovery would have left us on the Baylor 20 yard line. Again, kudos to the Texas defense, forcing 5 fumbles to our 1.
Mid 3rd quarter, Griffin pass intercepted by Christia Scott, with only small return, but left us with good field position on the Texas 40 yard line. Flags thrown, two penalties against Texas, block in the back, and personal foul, result is 25 yard loss. We’re now on the Texas 15, when we should have been mid field. Again, Gilbert wasn’t even on the field, but he now has to start a drive from the 15 instead of the 40, and not from anything he did, both penalties preventable.
Also 3rd quarter, 4th down and 3, on the Baylor 33. This late in the game I guess Brown decides to go for it. Nice throw, complete pass to Williams, who promptly steps out of bounds. We have the first down, except there’s a flag on the field, pass interference against Williams, 15 yards. We’re now at 4th and 18, so going for it is out of the question. Another game changing penalty against Texas, Williams pushed his coverage down, then caught the ball. I fail to see how Gilbert made Williams do that.
Texas was set back by over 100 yards of penalties, several of them were game changing penalties. None of them committed by Gilbert. One of the false starts was costly.
The only interception Gilbert is being credited with is seriously questionable. Late in the 3rd quarter, Gilbert throws about a 15 - 20 yard pass, I think to Greg Smith, which hits his target so perfectly in the chest, and he has both hands around the ball, but Smith is hit, and forgets his job is to hold the ball tightly after catching it, the ball pops up in the air and lands in the hands of an all-too-willing-to-catch-it Baylor Bear. That was clearly a someone-didn’t-hold-onto-the-ball, not an interception. That was a game changing play, as it set Griffin up on the Texas 11 yard line, and an eventual touchdown resulted. Nevertheless, Gilbert is credited with an interception, even though his accuracy was perfect, and the receiver caught the ball.
Gilbert is being credited with one sack as opposed to Griffin’s five. I suppose that’s Gilbert’s fault though, even though that’s why he has an offensive line in front of him to hopefully keep him from being sacked. Bad decision making, he just didn’t get out of the way quick enough. To Gilbert’s credit, I’ll point out that in the Baylor game he took more than a few hard hits, waiting for the last 10th of the second to throw the ball, which is the mark of a quarterback that deserves some respect.
We’re under the 2 minute marker on our own 19, 3rd down, a false start moves us back to the 14. Gilbert throws a nice 21 yarder, 1st down stuff, to Goodwin who catches it, he just forgets to hold it. Goodwin get’s slightly bumped for the tackle and the ball goes flying out of his arms. Baylor recovers. I’m thinking wtf, even when we catch the ball we can’t hold onto it. He didn’t get hit hard, just bumped a little. Gilbert’s fault.
Now, I’m not saying Gilbert is Heisman material, or that he’s perfect. He did overthrow one pass, and under throw another pass. He attempted a very difficult end zone TD pass to the side line, and was about 6 inches too long. The receiver was well covered, and those 6 inches could have meant a deflection. The receiver had his left hand on the ball, just couldn’t real it in. Officially 6 passes were dropped, 2 of those were TD passes. A few of his passes were tipped, some just covered too well, and others ruled incomplete when they were catchable. He threw away one, maybe more.
What I’m trying to clear up with this Garrett Gilbert Syndrome going around, is that Mr. Gilbert is not the problem with the Texas Longhorns. The 22 points Texas put on the board against Baylor were put there by Justin Tucker and Garrett Gilbert. Not one of our receivers, or one of our runners put a point on the board. And then, our defense, for as well as they played, they did help put 21 points on the Baylor side of the board. Garrett Gilbert did not lose the game to Baylor, his teammates did.
I see this as a year of re-organizing and training, which means the work that needs to be done lies at the doorsteps of the coaches. I am glad to see Mack Brown taking that seriously. We will continue to gain some experience as a team, since Kansas State, Oklahoma State University, and even A&M are playing good football this year, and any one of, or all of those, teams could be another potential loss for the beloved Longhorns. The losses show us what to work on, and now that the coaches are taking their jobs more seriously, with the work we do this year, and the recruits coming in next year, we will be back on top very, very soon. Hopefully all of our 2011 5-star recruits will stick with us.
The University of Texas Longhorns * 161 consecutive games on the AP top 25 * 9 consecutive years with 10 or more wins * 4 Time National Champions (almost 5) * The most 5-star recruits for 2011 than any other NCAA team * Playing Orange Blooded Football since 1893 * 2nd most wins in the NCAA (849) * Number 2 in all time NCAA Bowl Appearances (49) * Number 5 in all time NCAA Bowl Wins * From 2000 - 2009 we won 114, lost 21 Games * That period, Mack Brown, has the highest win percentage (0.844) * Darrell K. Royal holds the next highest win percentage (0.810) * Season 2005 we scored 652 points in 13 games
This Saturday, Baylor is coming to Austin with a stronger passing game than Texas, but the Texas defense, if they will come out and play instead of whining, has the ability of a number 2 defense, which should effectively shut down Baylor’s passing game. Which leaves the game up to the Texas Offensive. Oh No! What will the Texas Offensive do, or be able to do. I say the game is up in the air, Baylor at 4 - 3, Texas at 4 - 3. We’ll just have to see, I’m making no predictions. This is one season where Texas predictions just aren’t winding up the way people hope or want.
There’s been lots of commentary on how the Texas season has gone so far. I’d like to take a little different angle, and suggest some possibilities, another way of looking at things.
I have refrained from adding to the over-blogged opinions on my beloved Longhorns since the UCLA game, where I did pretty much what everyone else did, outlined play by play all the mistakes made by the team. I even attempted an alternate score possibility if all the mistakes would not have been made, but now that we are approaching Week 8, playing Baylor at our own University of Texas Stadium, the mistakes and alternate possibilities are part of history.
Everyone can see where mistakes are being made. It’s all in high definition. The coaches see it, the players see it. Coaches and players alike know what is happening to help create the undesired and even unexpected losses ( 4 - 3 ) going into week 8. Every blogger has their run down on the details of why, and I’ve read quite a few of them, so I will try not to be redundant.
The University of Texas is a prestigious, World Class University, with an outstanding, if not World Class Athletic program. We have an especially prestigious football program that has enjoyed Top AP 25 status for 161 consecutive weeks of football games. We’ve been blessed during the past 7 years to have some very talented players, mostly quarter backs, and other’s like Shipley, Lawrence, the Acho Brothers, Ultalaski, Earl Thomas for 2 years, and other dedicated players, which took us to two National Championships, with one win in 2005, and a would be win in 2010 had we not lost McCoy 4 minutes into the game. We have enjoyed some fantastic football from this team. The Longhorns have a long a prestigious history. One bad season cannot diminish that.
So, first off, back off my Longhorns. Especially in bad taste is any Booing from the stadium, cause a Longhorn player didn’t exactly meet your need for entertainment. They are out there playing rough football, and even in a down season, they keep showing up, trying mostly to play their best game. You get down there and do what they’re doing, then you have the right to Boo. If you’re a weenie, who never exercises, and overweight, stuff a hot dog in your mouth and shut up. You wanna see them give up on the game, just start Booing from the stands and you’ll create a powerful psychological sense of losing.
This season, we have a brand new team, and no one really knew what to except going into the season. I’m not carried away by wishful thinking, and tend to be a realist, and so, my biggest hope for the Longhorns this season was that they get 10 wins, which would set a school record of 10 consecutive wins of 10 or more games. With our third loss to Iowa State, that possibility fell apart, but so what. 9 consecutive years of 10 or more wins is world class football. So, we dropped off of the AP Top 25 for the First Time in 161 consecutive weeks of football games, 161 consecutive AP top 25 rankings is a serious accomplishment.
I’m saying it’s time to stop all the criticism and pressure towards a completely re-organized team, with some players that have not quite made it to “playmaker” status yet. The team has to do the work of maturing and perfecting their playability together, blaming the players is not the way to go. What they need most is the trainers and coaches that can hep them get there.
And so, I’m gonna start with where the coaches are making big mistakes, then get more into what exactly the players need, since the coaches seem to be missing a big part of the relevant issues. The responsibility for coaching, training, and teaching, some of the best recruits around how to win games, is the primary job of the coaches, not the players. The coaches are the trainers. They are the ones that must see what is really happening, and come up with correct interventions to help the players achieve their full potential. This is true with everything from motivation, moral, playmaking, psychology, sportsmanship. This is what coaches do. This is what coaches are hired for. They’re not in a coaching job so they can profit by getting a $5 million dollar raise, when several breakthrough players like Vince Young and Colt McCoy take the Longhorns all the way. They get paid to do the nitty gritty work of making a football team losers or winners. That’s why they are coaches, otherwise we wouldn’t need them, we’d just hire coordinators and organizers.
The Greg Davis issue has been batted around with impunity, and as much as I like to be the nice guy, I must unequivocally declare myself a member of that faction. There is just no way Greg Davis is going to create a break through in Offensive Strategy. I didn’t start out thinking that way, but have arrived at that solid conclusion over the last 3 games. Through the UCLA, Oklahoma, Nebraska, and Iowa State games, I have seen perhaps a handful of well executed offensive plays called by Davis. The best we have seen of Davis was in the 1st half against Nebraska, there appeared to be some well thought out Offensive Strategy, and a few very well-executed offensive plays. The touchdown pass where Gilbert runs into the right, while the Nebraska defense is chasing left, was very well-executed. It was a Red Zone play, required some creative thinking, and a risk. Thank God, at least it was something different than send Cody Johnson up the middle. Outside of that, I have not seen anything that looks close to a dedicated, passionate, or creative Offensive Strategy, or that suggested a weeks worth of hard work had gone into studying the opponent, and customizing Offensive Strategy to suit.
Also, someone has missed the boat in the offensive coaching departments. They’re folding under the pressure, and going the wrong direction, thinking that we need to come up with more chalkboard plays, learn more patterns, drill more drills, memorize more plays, so the runners, receivers, and quarter back can have the play down that is called. They’ve got the players freaked out, thinking their job is to execute the play exactly as it was drilled and practiced, and the receivers, runners, and quarter back are doing just exactly that, executing the play as it was called, drilled, practiced, and memorized. Big, Big, mistake, coaches.
What you’re going to get out of that is a whole bunch of plays that were executed exactly as practiced. The problem with that is you have probably a 20% chance that the play as exactly drilled and executed will produce anything, because of the element of the other team doing something unpredictable. You can’t run a rote memorized play and expect the tackles, the receiver coverage, to do what your mock up team did at practice.
The touchdown interception Gilbert threw with Nebraska was the result of the receiver and quarter back playing out the very exact play that was drawn on the chalkboard, drilled exactly at practice, and called by Davis. It was a potential touchdown pass for Texas, the receiver hit the end zone, then cut left (what he was drilled to do), only thing is, when he cut left he cut right in front of his coverage, and Gilbert, ready to throw the pass as drilled, threw it perfectly into the hands of the Texas receiver who had cut left. What Gilbert missed, was that someone was in front of the Texas receiver. Interception. Texas, Zero points. Shipley would have cut to the right quickly, seeing the coverage, McCoy would have made the quick adjustment to the play, and threw high to Shipley’s new position, which would have been completely different than what the play called for.
That, right there, is where the coaches are messing up. Teach the play, but equally teach improvisation. If the play doesn’t unravel as planned, then play football, find a spot, improvise, switch something up in a split second, and find an opportunity on the field that is different than the play called. The quarterback will adjust, and see the new position.
Coaches, you must teach these players to play smart, and sometimes to play with the gut, and intuition, to learn to trust some of that intuition. Shipley was probably the most covered receiver in the NCAA last season, yet fifty percent of the time he managed to shake his coverage just enough for McCoy to see what was unraveling, and shoot the ball accurately into a new position than what the original play called for.
Coaches, you’ve got plenty of plays, you’re drilling enough, what you have to do is teach these players how to improvise. If you don’t know how to do that, then dammit, hire someone who does, a consultant. Runners, Receivers, and quarter backs need to know at least half as much how to switch up a play, improvise, than they need to know what play to run. Improvising is an internal mental process that happens, you don’t get it by drills, you get it by making a breakthrough in your own performance, some of it is confidence in you intuition, some of it is just acting quickly with skill, and not knowing where that came from.
So, here’s the bottom line on the coaches. The buck stops with you, not the players. If someone can do the job better, then it’s the University you serve, not your personal alliances. If Mack Brown can’t fire Davis, then someone a little higher needs to step in and fire Mack Brown. Muschamp can step in, who still holds some credibility, and take the job seriously of finding an offensive and defensive coordinator. It’s football folks, it’s not golf. If you don’t have skilled coaches, you will not have winning teams.
As for the players, I continue to have the upmost respect. I understand why the offense is not up to potency, so I won’t be harsh with that, but I am going to be harsh with the defense. This is a top notch defense, one of the best in the country, and fortunate to be coached by one of the best defensive coordinators in the NCAA. Attitudes not allowed. You stop a hot shot Nebraska quarter back to 23 yards, when he’s been averaging over 100 running, and 100 passing, yet you can’t stop Iowa from putting 23 points on the board. If the strongest part of our team this season is our defense, then we play strong, no room for cry babies about having to do all the work, when the offense looses anyway. We are counting on you to give us your very, most excellent, best.
And by the way, the fans and coaches got way too big headed about the Nebraska win. It was a fluke. Texas did not dominate that game. We had what looked like some solid, well thought out, offensive strategy for the first half, then I didn’t see anything during the second half that looked like well planned offensive strategy. So, we got a jump on the score board, but couldn’t go much past that early jump with offense. Our defense played very well, stopping Martinez running yards, and on paper it looked like Martinez passing yards were stopped as well, but a closer look shows that Martinez’s receivers dropped five touchdown passes that I counted. Two of those passes were well covered, but three of those passes were not covered at all, the ball was just dropped, right through the hands of his receivers. Those Nebraska mistakes gave us the game, we didn’t take it, and we especially didn’t dominate it. Without those three dropped touchdown passes, we’d be looking at Nebraska 28 - Texas 20, and that’s not counting that overwhelmingly stupid punt call at the end,or the fact that special teams couldn’t stop a 95 yard punt return. Add that up and you get Nebraska 34 - Texas 20. Then Nebraska blew the hell out of that onside kick, which could have possibly been another 7 points for Nebraska 41 - Texas 20.
Be very clear, Texas did not dominate that game, or make any kind of come back. Nebraska blew the game, and so we got it. There was too much false celebration around that one. To their credit, the defense did play furiously against Martinez, otherwise, there would have been no Texas win.
To summarize, the accountability for Texas playing a down season belongs overwhelmingly to the coaches. I’m calling out the coaches to do a world class job, and that doesn’t mean lecturing the team on how poorly they played. That’s not a coach, that’s someone who doesn’t know how to coach.
A coach is a highly skilled teacher. You don’t tell the players how embarrassed you are and expect them to gain any skill out of that. A coach that does that is doing it because they don’t know how to be a teacher, and so they resort to stupidity.
Coaching occurs on the training field, as with ice skating, it occurs on the ice rink, everyday, where much of it involves rote routines, world class coaching requires an understanding of how to help the skater, or player, break through to the next level. That is not an easy skill to teach. It requires an individual understanding of each player, and what might be keeping them from advancing to the next level, and quite often some sophisticated psychology.
With snow skiing, there are very different levels of skill. The mountain is marked with Green, Blue, and Black trails. If you are a beginner, you do not go to the Blue trail until you are ready, or you will make lots of mistakes, fall down constantly. You usually go with a class to the Blue. Most people ski blue and stay there. If you want to move onto the Black trails, you take what’s called a 10 day “Break Through” class. The Break Through instructors know that not only is the Black very hard to do and keep your balance, it requires something more than rote practice. It requires some psychological process, and they have little exercises to help get your mind to the point of making a “break through.” Only after the Break Through, do Black level skiers seem to handle it with far fewer mistakes.
I’m standing by Gilbert. If Chase McCoy or Conner Wood would have out performed Gilbert at Spring training, then let them step forward and take on Baylor. Gilbert is one of the most potential playmakers we have, he’s just not getting the training he needs to make a “breakthrough.” He needs some coaching on how to stop watching for Davis’ plays to materialize, and how to make plays happen on the field that he knows. He knows the football field.
Gilbert needs some coaching and skill building on how to make a Break Through. He’s on a much faster field than he was at High School. Many of the college football players can ski black, some can ski black very well. Gilbert is on a Black level course, but hasn’t mastered the speed, the chaos, the need to watch for interceptions, and changed up plays. It is the coaches job to figure out how to help him get there, and it’s not by using more chalk on the board Mr. Davis, or not by yelling at them, or telling them they’re over confident, or arrogant, or the defense played with no passion. That stuff doesn’t help one bit.
Teach them how to find passion. Teach Gilbert how to play with more improvising. Teach the runners to change up the play dammit if the one drawn on the board isn’t working.
Stop expecting the players to justify your $5 million dollar paycheck, and begin to see that you are being paid $5 million dollars to know how to teach players to be winners. Figure it out. Don’t expect them to just automatically know how to ski the Black trails, and fuss at them if they fall down.
First few games of the season, I was watching the game. Now, I’ve got my eyes on the coaches. When the coaches start doing their jobs, you’ll see the games start changing.
We have Oklahoma State, Kansas State, and even Texas A&M in our upcoming schedule. It we win those games it won’t be because you came down hard on the players and fussed at them for not playing with enough passion, it will be because the coaches of the Texas Longhorns earned their money, and found the skills, ways, and teaching methods, to help our team play smarter. You have to teach those skills, fussing at them is a cop out. It’s the easy way out. It’s doing exactly what you’re fussing at the players about, not having enough passion. Get some passion for coaching. Just Do It.
Whomever you are, your days are numbered. We are looking for you. Someone, some poor misguided soul, somehow, was able to get past the security at the Longhorn’s Memorial Stadium on Saturday, September 25, 2010, and on the day of the planned game against UCLA. This person smuggled into our sacred grounds, our hallowed astro-turf, a Big Ol’ can of Whup-Ass. That is strictly against DKR Memorial Stadium rules, no Whup-Ass cans, no 12th men, are allowed to enter the beloved Longhorn’s home turf. We will find you, and when we do, it will not be pretty.
Actually, I do not believe any Whup-Ass was delivered on Saturday. Whup-Ass is where two teams are playing head to head, all out, each putting their best game into it, and one team just whips the tar out of the other team. That does not fit the picture of what happened at Memorial Stadium on week four of the 2010 NCAA Football season in Austin.
If one simply looks at the score, UCLA 34 - Texas Longhorns 12, it may appear that some Whup-Ass was delivered by the UCLA Bruins, but a closer look at the actual details of the game show quite a different story. We did lose the game, and I’m not altogether sure how that happened. So I did some investigation, some conjecture.
Going into the Texas Tech game (week 3), I was thinking that the Red Raiders game would be the Longhorn’s first real challenge. Relieved at the win, I skipped right past UCLA, didn’t even look at their stats, and gave the game to Texas, as did the forecasters who had Texas as the favorite by 17 points.
When the media introduced the Longhorn’s defense as the top defense in the nation, they were looking at only one set of numbers, average yards allowed per game. The Longhorn’s defense may have had the lowest allowed average yards per game, but those low numbers came from playing 3 of the bottom 20 worst running teams in the NCAA. Heck, Texas even set the Raiders back -14 yards in their running game, but the raw stats show that Texas Tech has the 2nd worst running game in the nation.
UCLA coaches knew they were bringing a top rated running game to a Texas defense that had only played poorly performing running games, and they knew that Texas was going to bring a Passing game, so they prepared defensively. It was some of the best receiving coverage I’ve seen. They had done their homework, and Texas had probably not done enough homework on the game, instead, looking ahead to OU and Nebraska, just like I was doing.
UCLA came to Austin with a well planned game strategy, but even so, they would have had trouble beating the Longhorns on that alone. It should have just made for a very exciting game. What wasn’t part of either UCLA’s game plan or UT’s game plan, was that the Longhorns, ranked number 7, would bring their worst game, instead of their best game.
Too many things went wrong for Texas, and it just sorta snowballed, true to form, right down to the very last minute of the game, when DJ Monroe fumbled a kickoff return, leaving UCLA with the ball on the Texas 22 yard line and 0.46 seconds left on the clock, which they just ran out on 2 downs.
The first half ended with only a few mistakes, and UCLA leading 13 - 3, a deficit that the Texas Longhorns have certainly overcome in the past many times over, but a strong opening 2nd half TD drive by UCLA, which resulted in a 20 - 3 score, a 17 point deficit, probably just left everyone a little stunned, and the 2nd half went downhill from there.
The two biggest mistakes of the 1st half was Gilbert overthrowing a wide open Kierkendoll for a touchdown, which cost us 7 points, and then the kickoff return fumble on the Texas 4 yard line, which gave UCLA an easy 7 points. Some other minor mistakes were made, but didn’t translate into much. Without those two biggies, the half time score would have been Texas 10 - UCLA 6.
On Further Review, Our Mistakes and Weaknesses
I reviewed the footage, and the mistakes that were made were pretty evenly distributed across the team. I remember thinking at first that Gilbert was making too many mistakes, but actually he made only a few mistakes, an overthrown touchdown pass, which cost us 7 points from a touchdown, an interception that returned no points, a fumbled hand off with Monroe, which cost us 3 points from a field goal. Gilbert was actually the strongest player out there that day.
The offensive line let 4 sacks through for 34 yards lost, but overall, I thought they did a very reasonable job of giving Gilbert plenty of time to work with. Our receivers were too well studied, and too well covered. That’s because every coach out there knows that Texas has to play a passing game, so they put most of their preparation into covering the pass. This is a very big problem, knowing that Texas must play a passing game. Every opponent can put their energy into pressuring Gilbert, and covering the receivers. The only thing that can compensate for that is a very strong offensive line.
Also, in the 1st half, we had that kickoff fumble, which gave UCLA 7 easy points.
The defense played strong, and even covered up some mistakes made by the offense, preventing UCLA from scoring from some of the offensive mistakes, but the defense let two powerful running drives take over the field for UCLA touchdowns, 14 points on the board. Opening the 2nd half, UCLA drove 80 yards to a touchdown in 8 plays, 7 were runs. And what about that 45 yard kickoff return and 3 play 50 yard touchdown drive, where we let the QB through the defensive line for a 38 yard touchdown? I mean he was so open, he could have just walked the ball in.
It must be said, that except for those two touchdown drives, our defense played very strong against a top 20 rated running team. But, those two touchdown drives, coupled with other mistakes across the team, gave UCLA well over 20 something points on the board.
Some of it was plain old misfortune, like the probable touchdown pass to Goodwin in the 3rd quarter. We were on the UCLA 17 on 3rd down and 7, and Gilbert attempted a deep pass to Goodwin in the end zone, who was knocked down, unquestionably pass interference, otherwise, Goodwin would have had a TD. But as fate would have it, the ball was tipped “after” Goodwin was knocked down, therefore, it null and voided the pass interference penalty, which would have put Texas on the UCLA 3 yard line, with 1st down and goal. Texas had to settle for a field Goal. The ball was tipped very slightly and was still on course into the path of where Goodwin would have been had he not been knocked down.
The onside kick out of bounds penalty was probably a mistake, should have not been kicked out of bounds, or better coordination between the kicker the players to surround the ball.
Unquestionably, our weakest links are our runners and receivers. Our running backs don’t have any skill at improvising, and they’re not going to this season. We just don’t have any big play-makers in the rushing department. I like DJ Monroe in there, even though he made some mistakes, he’s got a good running back in him. Our receivers seem to lack some of the basic qualities of receivers, like catching and holding onto the ball. The receivers also lack the kind of creativity that Shipley had in outmaneuver the coverage. In reviewing the play by play, and looking at the footage, many of the “incomplete passes” were actually dropped, or not caught. Even when Gilbert is throwing into tight coverage, he is looking awesomely accurate. Steady play-making from runners and receivers would rack up the yards, make those 1st downs, and put points on the board. The Texas Longhorns have put many times over quite a few more points on the board than 34. Texas Longhorn tradition does not consider that a very high score. Many of our teams the last decade usually achieved that level of score by the 3rd quarter, and coach Brown was putting in the back up QB by then.
I don’t know how one trains receivers to shake coverage and catch the ball, or how one trains running backs to improvise, and find the break through points in the defensive line, with split second timing. But it seems there could be some kinda knowledge base for coaching on how to do that. Coaches, use every resource you can to work on those issues. Drills, exercises, affirmations, whatever. You are University of Texas coaches, you have anything you want at your disposal. Heck, call in Tony Robbins. Do what ever you gotta do to do a better job of coaching these runners and receivers. The University of Texas is a World Class University. What is it you need ? It will be given. At the end of the season, do not allow your coaching to have been the biggest mistake of all. Where you think there may not be a resource, find someone who can create it for you. You gotta make it happen, by providing the coaching, the properly matched training and drills for the tasks. Just Do It.
An Interesting Scenario, Texas 33 - UCLA 7
Factor out the UT mistakes. Subtract the 14 points our defense gave UCLA on those two dominating running drives during the 2nd half, then subtract the 7 points we gave UCLA when we fumbled the kickoff return, then factor out the 3 points we gave them during the second quarter, because we went for a 4th and 3, which we didn’t make, and turned the ball over with very good field position. Then factor out another 3 points we gave UCLA when Gilbert and Monroe fumbled the ball, giving UCLA a field goal out of it. What you get is UCLA = 7.
Factor out the UT mistakes. Add to Texas’ 12 points, 7 points where Gilbert simply overthrew Kirkendoll with hands open for a touchdown. Then let’s factor in 7 points for a touchdown, or at least 3 for sure, had we made the 1st down during the second quarter when we went for the 4th and 3 on the UCLA 41, but failed. Add 4 points for the Goodwin pass interference being canceled out because the ball was tipped, it was tipped, but not by very much, and would have still been well within catching range of Goodwin had he not been knocked down, and Goodwin is one of our better receivers. We had to settle for a field goal instead. Then add another 7 points for the touchdown forthcoming had we not come up short of that last yard on the 4th and 4 pass to Chiles in the 4th quarter. What you get is Texas = 33.
What happens now?
A team can have weak areas and they can make mistakes, but not in the same game, and expect to win. You can only do one of those at a time. If you have a mistake prone game, you must have the team strengths to counter the mistakes. If you have weaknesses in your game, then you can’t make many mistakes. It’s quite a quandary for Texas.
Predictions are very difficult without consistent performances, so we’re really guessing at this point. The next games for Texas hinges on whether the team can minimize the number of mistakes they are making. They are also at a disadvantage without a running game, and every coach knows that, so Gilbert’s job and the job the offensive line must do to protect him becomes even more difficult. Texas is lopsided, which makes their offensive scoring more difficult, especially when they come up against well trained defense. And the last thing we can afford are receivers dropping the ball. I don’t know how to fix that one, but it has to be fixed. Gilbert is getting them the ball, the receivers aren’t shaking the coverage, and holding onto the ball. And then, lastly, we must, I emphasize must, have the number one defense in the nation. We have been shown they are up to the task. We must have a zero mistake defense. And they must keep it up, regardless of how the rest of the game is going. Many games were won by the defensive during the Colt McCoy, Vince Young years. If our defense has to step up to win the game, then that’s what your job is. Just do it. No whining about it.
If we’re going to have a lopsided offensive game this season, making it far more difficult to score, then as an offset, we must have a defense that does not allow points on the board. That’s going to be hard, I know. I watched the A&M vs OSU Cowboys game last night, and it’s clear OSU has a very strong passing game, the top rated passing game in the nation, which may be okay, because I think our defense has been stronger in covering a passing game than a running game. But A&M and OSU, both, played a very high octane game, without many mistakes, both putting high points on the board. And A&M played that at Boon Pickens Stadium, not a home game.
Remember, allowing an average 44 yards rushing per game does not make you number one, if the teams you played have the worst running games in the nation. Yes, even much worse than Texas. Texas doesn’t have a “bad” running game, I mean they don’t get set back - 14 points, they can hold the ball and do some good, it’s just not play-making rushing.
On Saturday, October 2, 2010, (#21) Texas will take their team to Dallas to play the (#8) Sooners. I think the sooners are overrated, but that is always an interesting and over-hyped game. The media will milk the UCLA loss at every commercial return. At every available opportunity, the commentators will comment that the ghost of UCLA hangs in the air. The sooners have one of the leading receivers in the nation, but I think they are struggling with new players also. Sam Bradford will not be there, at least not as QB. But, Texas has shown good defensive skill at covering passing games.
Texas has been on the AP top 25 list for 162 consecutive weeks now, that’s one week shy of 10 consecutive years. Ten wins this season would also set a school record of 10 consecutive seasons with 10 or more wins. I would like to see them stay there, but the fact is, as much as a Longhorn fan as I am, I realize they are struggling with a new team. They are playing well, I think, as a new team, making some mistakes, and they seem to lack cohesion. This may be a wash out year for them, who knows, but they still have to play, and build together, and they still need fans that think they are the greatest things since corn flakes. NO BOOING ALLOWED !! I mean it. If this is a year of sowing, next year will be a year of reaping. We will cheer them on to do the best sewing they can, knowing it is our job as Longhorn fans to do that.
If you are just a Longhorn good time fan, faithful and satisfied only when they are on top, then give your ticket to someone who is a real Longhorn fan, and knows what to do.
We have great recruits coming in 2011, 2012, 5-star quality, and Gilbert really is good. If you rerun the footage of the game you will see just how good he is in dealing with what he was to work with. I like that he almost always appears cool-headed in all situations.
I like that quote from the movie “Bull Durham,” where Costner says, “You throw the ball, you catch the ball, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, and sometimes it rains.”
If it’s gonna rain, it would sure be nice if they were playing in that new Cowboys Stadium instead of that open stadium at the Fair Grounds
Good luck Longhorns with the OU game Dallas.
Recap of Major plays, for Reference, UCLA - Texas, Sept. 25, 2010, Austin, Texas
Texas recovers a fumble end of the first quarter on UCLA 13. Texas Penalties set the ball back, but eventually the ball makes it back to about the UCLA 14. At this point Gilbert is 8 for 8, but on 3rd down and 5, Gilbert overthrows Kirkendoll who is hands open wide and clear in the end zone. Texas has to settle for field goal.
The second quarter opens with the Texas defense forcing UCLA to punt, excellent defense. The punt, however, was fumbled by Curtis Brown on the UT 4 yard line. If that wasn’t close enough for UCLA, the next play, Texas draws an offsides flag, which moves the ball to the UT 2 yard line. The Texas defense holds them two downs at the UT 2, then UCLA’s only touchdown pass of the game was completed.
The returning Texas drive, Gilbert is sacked for a 30 yard loss, and can’t make it down field into field goal position. On the UCLA 40 yard line, 4th down and 3 to go, Texas decides to go for it, but is unable to grab that first down, which puts the ball in UCLA’s hands on the UCLA 41 yard line. Nice field position, but, despite two 19 yard runs, and first downs, by UCLA, the Texas defense stops a touchdown, and UCLA has to settle for a field goal from 39 yards. Again, very nice job defense, but what were those two 19 yard rushes about? And, maybe a punt would have been better than giving the ball up at the UCLA 41. Or, even better, making the 3 yards for a Texas 1st down, for a possible touchdown by Texas.
So, after the UCLA touch down from that 41 yard field position, let’s do that Texas return drive again. DJ Monroe has a great return, 27 yards, then a 5 yard run, then the next play, the Gilbert hand off to Monroe is dropped, recovered by UCLA on the Texas 33. Again, most excellent Texas defensive work here, because UCLA is unable to obtain a TD out of it, and settles for a field goal.
Alrighty then, one more time, let’s try that kick off to Texas after a UCLA score. Great 32 yard return by Monroe. Gilbert completes three short passes, bringing the ball out to the Texas 47. Gilbert’s next pass was a perfect throw to Akeem Ayers, who was center field, reading Gilbert’s play, and stepped directly into the pass. The problem is that Ayers is on the other team. Gilbert just didn’t read that Ayers was reading him for his throw. The clip shows Ayers obviously watching only one thing, completely uninterested in any thing else going on the field, but trying to step into Gilbert’s pass. Gilbert just never saw him. Heck, he’s got 21 dudes to watch.
Fortunately, UCLA is unable to make good on the interception. Three runs later, UCLA has the ball on the UT 21 yard line, when their Quarter Back, Kevin Prince, is sacked, and fumbles the ball, UT recovering at their own 29. Once again, most excellent job by the Texas defense, holding back the run, and sacking QB for fumble. They did let a 13 yarder and 1st down through, but remember, Texas has not been playing top 20 running teams. Without the fumble, UCLA had all 3 time outs, 2nd down and 8, and on the UT 21, with 2 minutes left on the clock, probably a touch down, at the very least another field goal.
Texas is able to move the ball up to the UCLA 40 yard line. A deep down field pass to Davis looked perfectly thrown, but Davis is tripped before the catch, and eats some astro-turf. We got the 15 yards from pass interference, but if that play had followed through, Davis stood a good chance to catch it, which would have put UT on the UCLA 20 yard line, ready for a TD. The clip of that throw shows just how strong and accurate Gilbert’s throwing arm can be. It was a strong, accurate deep pass, which may be his specialty. It was also thrown on the run. Next play, we get another 15 yards on a UCLA personal foul. Next play, Gilbert can’t find a target, but makes it to the side lines to stop the clock at 0:05. UT takes their two remaining time outs to decide what to do — a 56 yard field goal attempt, or a TD pass attempt, or even try to get in one more play for better field goal position. They go for a deep pass into the end zone with two man coverage, incomplete pass.
The second half opens with kickoff to UCLA, who runs in a touch down in 8 plays, 80 yards, with four 1st downs. All but the first of those 8 plays was a run. UCLA 20 - Texas 3. What happened to the Texas defense?
The Texas return drive had a quickly done short throw to Whittaker who then made good on 25 yards. Then one bad lateral pass was bad because Gilbert was under pressure. Gilbert’s next pass hit Chiles down field, which would have been a first down, but Chiles just did not hold onto the ball. A good catch there would have put Texas into UCLA territory with a 1st down, instead, they had to punt.
The Texas defense did an awesome job stopping UCLA’s return drive, which consisted of 7 runs and only one 1st down. After the punt, Gilbert threw 6 complete passes, with two 1st downs, and had us down to the UCLA 17 on 3rd down and 7, when he attempted a deep pass to Goodwin in the end zone, who was knocked down, unquestionably pass interference, otherwise, Goodwin would have had a TD. But as fate would have it, the ball was tipped before Goodwin was knocked down, therefore, it null and voided the pass interference penalty, which would have put Texas on the UCLA 3 yard line, with 1st down and goal. Texas had to settle for a field Goal.
One of those 6 passes was a beautiful throw on the run to Chiles for 22 yards, another was a short pass to Kirkendoll for 16 yards after a UT 10 yard penalty, and then the Goodwin TD pass attempt looked thrown perfectly, there was just the mess up at the receiving end, not Gilbert’s fault.
Special Teams and our defense just botched the next UCLA drive. The kickoff was returned 45 yards, then 2 plays and one 1st down later, QB Kevin Prince runs 38 yards through our top rated defense for a touchdown. A 3 play, 50 yard drive, in about 2 minutes. Like I said, he was so open, he could have walked the ball in.
DJ Monroe did another good job of returning the kick. Gilbert completed 3 passes, one a 32 yarder to Goodwin, made 2 short runs, 2 first downs, 2 passes were dropped, clearly thrown well, just dropped. One hit Whittaker dead in the chest and he just dropped it. The other went right through the hands of Matthews, perfect throw. Gilbert had us at the UCLA 23 with a 4th down and 4. It’s already into the 4th with a score of 27 - 6. What do you do? You go for it. Gilbert completes a pass to Chiles, but he is 1 yard short of the 1st down. Arrgggg!
The ball goes to UCLA on their own 20. They don’t make it far, only 7 yards and they’re at 4th down and 3, an obvious punt, but somehow, fate came to haunt us, and a substitution infraction penalty against UT gave UCLA the 3 yards they needed for a 1st down. They never scored from the drive, but were able to get two more 1st downs, and more importantly, burned up 6 minutes off the clock.
Texas gets the ball at their own 20 with 5 minutes left in the game. Twelve plays and four 1st downs later, UT makes their only touchdown of the game. 11 of those 12 plays were passes. Seven were completed, 2 were dropped, 1 was thrown away, and 1 was questionable, thrown a little low, but I think it was catchable. Of the completed passes, one was to Goodwin for 19 yards, another to Williams for a great sideline 1st down pass, another a perfect 30 long pass on the run to Chiles, and the touchdown pass to Kirkendoll was perfectly thrown. Texas went for a 2 point conversion, and Gilbert threw what I thought was a catchable pass, just slightly over the head of the intended receiver, who was covered very closely. Texas covered 80 yards in 12 plays, with four 1st downs, in about 6 minutes.
As fate would have it, the onside kick, which had the possibility of coming up in our possession, was turned over to UCLA at the Texas 37, by way of a free kick out of bounds penalty. Three runs later, UCLA had another touchdown. Coleman ran all three rushes. UCLA 34 - Texas 12. I guess our defense was just worn out by then. It was 3 easy runs.
One would think that would be the end of the UT fiasco, but no, there’s more. The kickoff by UCLA was caught and ran 19 yards by DJ Monroe, before he fumbled it, and UCLA took possession of the ball again on the UT 22 yard line. I do believe if they wanted to totally humiliate the Longhorns for all time, they could have sent Coleman those 22 yards across the goal line with 0:46 seconds left on the clock, but they chose instead to show some mercy, and just ran the clock.
Congratulations, Texas, on the 24 – 14 victory over the Texas Tech Red Raiders on Week 3. A win is a win, and whatever else may be said about the performance, the scoreboard is the ultimate authority.
Astute and compulsive Texas Longhorn fans have been watching during the two season opening games, and then, especially, during the Texas Tech game, in an effort to get a deeper feel for just exactly who the new Texas Longhorns are. The Longhorns showed significant improvement between the Rice game and Wyoming game. The Texas Tech game was on the road, in Lubbock, which always seems to jinx Texas, and with a more evenly matched team. This is the one I was waiting for to see what the Horns really had. It was the Longhorn’s first pivotal game.
I’m happy to report that the ghosts of Michael Crabtree or Mike Leach were nowhere to be found. The Raiders were not raiding this evening, but Longhorn mistakes re-surfaced throughout the game, which was probably due to them playing a more difficult team than Rice or Wyoming. I still see progress between the Wyoming game and the Texas Tech game. Fewer mistakes were made in the Wyoming game, but Tech is a seriously more competitive team to play.
Muschamp’s Texas defense was rock solid, spectacular, even with a handful of freshman. This defensive performance was one of their finest ever. They kept Texas Tech to 144 total offensive yards. Tech hasn’t performed under 150 yards in one game since 1990, and the Longhorn defensive team hasn’t done anything like that since 1982. Earl Thomas was not around, but you could not tell it in this defensive performance. I say the game ball goes to the Texas defense. Taylor Potts, QB for the Raiders, actually passed 158 yards, so if you’re wondering why they only have 144 total offensive yards, it’s because the Raiders running game actually set them back -14 yards. Talk about lack of a running game. Our defense not only held them to 144 total yards, but four sacks, one where Potts looked like he wasn’t getting up, two interceptions, and one fumble.
Texas QB Garrett Gilbert and his handful of average, but capable, receivers, blasted their way through two early TDs, and Gilbert was poised to throw his third TD pass, which would have put a 21 – 0 Texas lead on the board within the first quarter of play, when his pass was intercepted and ran back 87 yards for a Texas Tech TD, creating a 14 – 7 lead, instead of the 21 -0 lead. That was a game changing disappointment. The 21 – 0 lead, without the interception, would have had a dramatic psychological impact on the Red Raiders. The second quarter started 14 – 7, Texas, and it should have started 21 – 0. A successful 15 yard pass by Tech QB Taylor Potts early in the second quarter tied the game 14 – 14, which is where they started the 2nd half.
What started out with a very strong performance by the Longhorns in the first quarter looked a little shaky at the half. In my last blog, I was exclaiming that Gilbert is not watching the interception potential, even though he threw zero interceptions in the first two games; he wound up throwing three against the Raiders, then a fumble caused UT’s fourth turnover of the game. Overall, though, Gilbert is holding steady, and I believe gaining strength and confidence. He passed for 227 total yards and two TDs, completing 21 of 36. He is cool headed, whether he just threw a TD pass, threw an interception, or was sacked. That is a very big asset. Kirkendoll caught six for 122 yards. John Chiles was out on practice injury. Davis, Goodwin, and Williams also showed some good catches, but our receivers need work. They are capable, good runners, but we dropped the ball on six passes, all well thrown and catch-able.
The numbers do not make sense. At this point, any fantasies about getting a running game going needs a little reality testing. Vondrell McGee is out for good, thanks to the NCAA, and we get 93 yards from 43 rushing attempts, a 2.2 yard average per carry. Our passing game, even with the dropped balls, is averaging 6.3 yards per pass, yet we call 43 runs and 36 passes. You can obviously tell that Coach Brown is seeing the light, and working up the passing game. He knew he had to come out strong on the deep pass first quarter of the game.
Somehow, we’re going to have to beef up the deep passing game even more. Any set up for a run should only be used as decoy, or for close 3rd down conversions, or some red zone conversions. Then a few runs just to keep the opposing defense guessing. But, the passing game is our only hope for a 10+ game season.
Gilbert is steadily progressing, he is a top rated QB, with a strong arm, and shows good accuracy. The deep pass should be dominating our games, with work on understanding interception potential, work on a strong offensive line, and work on how to hold onto the ball. That’s where work needs to be focused. Get that offensive line strong, help Gilbert evaluate turnover potential, and work with our many receivers, running patterns and holding the ball. We should also be switching out as many receivers as we can as a strategy to keep the opposing defense guessing. Perhaps Brown is not switching out because the freshmen receivers we have may not be ready, or perhaps he is saving them for Nebraska.
Our defense held the Raiders at no score the entire second half. Potts was visibly frustrated. Justin Tucker was able to pull in a 3 point FG in the 3rd quarter, then toward the end of the 3rd quarter, Texas started a drive from their own 20 that ran out about 10 minutes off the clock, and by the end of the drive, and resulting TD, the Raiders defense looked very worn out. Once Texas got to the red zone, Tech’s defense had been fighting them for 9 minutes, and Texas implemented a round of about 4 or 5 hurry up offense plays, where the Raiders’ defense were barely able to get on and off the field. They were completely worn down, beat. With Tech’s defense worn out, Potts visibly frustrated, and our defense playing their best in 28 years, it was just a matter of running out the clock. Gilbert finished with plenty of energy.
Where is Texas Headed Now?
In lasts weeks blog I started to talk about how Texas may measure up to some of the top 25 teams in their schedule. I didn’t do much research, except for scores and standings. This week I committed myself to actually following the games of those coming up in the Longhorn schedule who pose a threat.
Those teams, listed in order of potential threat, are: Nebraska, Oklahoma State, and Oklahoma. I have placed Oklahoma State ahead of Oklahoma based on how I saw Oklahoma play this last game against the Air Force. I do not believed they played that well. Also, Oklahoma State trumps Oklahoma in season stats so far in points per game #2 (57), passing rating #2 (187), and receiving yards #1 (1175)
Then, I believe we should keep A&M and Kansas State on the watch list, depending on how they do over the next few games. I originally had A&M on the potential threat list, just because their QB, Jerrod Johnson, is moving up the ranks, and up until this last game against the Florida Panthers, the media was even talking Heisman hopeful. After 3 quarters of the worst football Jarrod Johnson has ever played, I was ready to take them off the threat list and off the watch list completely, however, that spectacular last quarter comeback put them back on the watch list. Baylor was on the slightly watch list, until the game against TCU. Of course, TCU ran away with the game, but I thought Baylor had a better game this season, and was expecting more of a fight. The Texas Tech win was a turning point for these new Longhorns, and I see them encouraged and gaining strength. The UCLA game I give to Texas. After that, Oklahoma and Nebraska will require our very best games of the season.
Oklahoma is on the road, but at the Dallas Cottonbowl. OU did not dominate the Air Force game, which they should have. OU, a #7 ranked team playing a #40 ranked team. We should consider though, that the Air Force, holds the #1 spot in rushing yards so far this season, 1197. It was also a home game for Oklahoma, which should have encouraged a better performance. Oklahoma just did not look as tough as I thought they should be. Nevertheless, I do believe they are one of three threats to a Longhorn win. I am speculating the spread on the Texas – OU game in Dallas will be Texas by 3.
Texas gets a one week break, before taking on the mighty Cornhuskers in Lincoln Nebraska. Texas will have to bring their very best game of the season for this competition. I’ll speculate that the spread will be Nebraska by 7 – 10 points. I hope we prove that wrong.
In last weeks game against Washington, the top three Nebraska rushers carried for over 100 yards each. Rex Burkhead picked up 104 yards on 13 carries, with 1 TD. Roy Helu Jr. racked up 110 yards and 2 TDs on his 10 carries. And, Taylor Martinez had 19 carries for 137 yards and 3 Tds. Martinez has racked up 421 rushing yards for the three games played so far this season, the 7th highest rusher nationally, averaging 10.53 yards per carry. But wait, Martinez is not even a running back. He is the Quarter Back, also completing 7 of his 11 passes for 150 yards, 1 TD, and no interceptions. Martinez is the first ever freshman starter as QB for Nebraska. The game was such a run away game, 56 – 21, that ABC actually switched to another game during the last part of the final quarter.
Some think the Nebraska offensive guards will be up to giving the Longhorns a serious challenge by game time, but I dunno, we just saw a Texas defense shut down Texas Tech allowing less yards than the Raiders have logged in the last 20 years. If the Texas defense continues to play that way, Mr. Martinez and his entourage of running backs and receivers will have to work for their points. It will not come easy. Nebraska’s 8th rated overall offense will have much trouble moving that ball through the number 2 rated defense in the country.
The Texas offense has more work to do before the Nebraska game. We hope to see new strength and skill with each new week as the season progresses. Nebraska is holding the 20th rated defense nationally, and the Texas offense is rated 65th overall nationally.
So, we’re looking at a very though challenge offensively, especially since we have no running game to use. Our defense can hold back Mr. Martinez and company, and keep points down there, but our offense will have to make no mistakes, no interceptions, no dropped balls, and rely on a deep passing game. Gilbert is ready for that, but our receivers need to break through to the next level, shaking off that coverage, not dropping any balls. The game will also be a serious challenge for our offensive line. Gilbert’s image will be tattooed on the inside helmets of each one of the Nebraska defense. Their plan will be to blitz Gilbert, and to stop his passing game.
I had Baylor and A&M on the threat watch list until this last week of games. Who knows what direction A&M will go. After watching their game against the Florida Panthers, who knows what to expect. A&M will take this weekend off, then play Oklahoma State, whose offense is rated number 2 nationally on three measures, but rated 65th in defense. This will be a revealing game to watch, both to see if A&M can bring back some consistent play, and to see how top rated the Oklahoma State offense is. This game should be offense against offense, a race to see who gets the most points in 60 minutes of play.
If Oklahoma State keeps their current offensive strength and defensive weakness, then that will be a perfect match for Texas, who has the defense to stop their top rated offense, and the offense should show us a run away passing game, and perhaps even running, against the weak Oklahoma State defense.
If you’re an orange blooded Texas Longhorn football devotee like me, then you probably started reading the blogs, speculation, and commentary about three weeks before the season opening game against Rice University, September 4, 2010. Most of the writings validated what us close followers already knew. I didn’t see anything in the preseason blogs that surprised me.
The question of the day was just exactly what does a Champion Team like the Texas Longhorns look like with seven of their Key players missing. We just didn’t loose seven players, we lost seven Key Play-Makers. We watched for three and four years what the team looked like with Play-Makers like Colt McCoy, Jordan Shipley, Hunter Lawrence, Adam Ulatoski, Roddrick Muckelroy, Sergio Kindle, and Earl Thomas? But, what will the Longhorns look like without them.
Now that the Longhorns are two games into the season, we can start to add some observation to our speculation. For me, the Texas 34 - Rice 17 game went pretty much the way I expected it to go, with the exception of Gilbert’s performance. I expected Gilbert to come out strong and confident. Instead, he played pretty much like an average QB. Gilbert is a 5-star recruit. He’s not a regular player. Gilbert is a play-making QB, but it was his first official game as starting QB, and I guess he needed to play the part, although I thought the January 7, 2010 game where he stepped in after four minutes and took on the Nation’s #1 Alabama in a National Championship would have morphed him to the next level, strong, confident, and ready to dominate.
Gilbert is one of the few Play-Makers the Longhorns currently have . I would have given him a 70% against Rice, but he looked much better, more in control, confident, stronger during the Wyoming game, which deserved a 90% showing.
The coaches have a lot of investment in trying to do something with the Longhorn’s running game, and I think they were trying out their new ideas with the run against Rice, which went about as well as it has gone the past three years, basically nowhere. You could see the shift in the second game against Wyoming, with Gilbert and the pass dominating the game. That was a very smart decision to make. Unfortunately, most of the remaining seasons’ games will rest on the passing game.
There’s lots and lots of talk and speculation about the Texas Running game, and it is beginning to sound like a broken record. Texas has not had any Play-Making runners for at least four years now, and it’s time to wake up and smell the coffee. McCoy was the leading rusher for Texas for several seasons. Vince Young, the same thing. San Antonio sports writers are all fired up because Greg Davis called the offense in for a special previewing of new chalkboard activity on runs and plays. The Austin paper is testosterone fixated, claiming that the coaches have come up with some new miracle speech that will morph average running backs into “Play-Making” running backs.
Dump the chalkboard lessons, get a grasp on the futility of testosterone pep talks, and bring in the footage of Malcolm Brown’s 33 touchdowns during his Junior year in High School. Malcolm will be at UT soon enough, but not in time to help our running game this year, but let’s look at that footage, and you’ll see something that cannot be drawn with lines on the chalkboard, and you’ll see something that doesn’t come from testosterone talk-a-thons.
Sure, he’s a high school kid, and can he do that on a college playing field? Malcolm does two things well. First, he can sprint like the devil. He can outrun anyone on the field, which is a nice attribute for a running back, but it’s basically useless if you are tackled. In order to run, you need an open space, and open field. Newton, Magee, Johnson, and Whittaker can all run. That’s not the problem with Texas’ running game. The problem with the Texas running game is they can’t get past the defensive line like Malcolm can, and into an open space to run.
That’s the part that Malcolm does very well, and the biggest muscle operating to make that happen is his brain, not his legs. Malcolm can improvise. He doesn’t just run the lines that were drawn on the board.
When a Malcolm Brown play is set up, Malcolm is already sizing up the field well before he even grabs the ball. He’s got a fast brain, and while the play may start out the way some offensive coordinator drew a line on the board, Malcolm is not thinking at all about those chalkboard lines. Within one to three seconds Malcolm has accomplished some amazing stuff inside his brain. He’s somehow looking in all directions at once, and looking at least 10 - 20 feet in front of him. That’s where he launches into improvisation mode, and starts to systematically move through the defensive line, 1/10th of a second at a time, jumping, turning, pushing, dodging, sliding off, one by one until he’s through the line. I don’t know where he learned it, but he’s practiced it now so many times, it’s almost intuitive, he can smell where the line is going to open, how to fake his direction, and when to move.
If you watch the footage of our present running backs, they’re trying to follow the line on the board that Greg Davis drew, and when they see someone in their path of the line, they bend down with helmet ready for the push. They’re looking 2 feet in front of them. Malcolm is looking with head up 20 feet in front of him, and completely to both sides of his periphery.
Vondrell McGee has been the only one that has come close to improvising several runs toward the end of last season. All of our other running backs attempt to play the play, without split second improvising. How did Malcolm learn to do that? He taught it to himself somehow, but how. Those are the questions we need to be spending our time on, not more chalkboard lines, not more testosterone pep-talks. Pumping someone up to be “tough” and just get “tougher” is really worn out. They’re already playing as tough as they can. What our running backs need is coaching on how to run smarter, not tougher. How do you do what Malcolm does?
Enough of the “we’re getting tougher,” we’re drawing more chalkboard lines. It’s old hat. If something is not working, you don’t do more of the same, or try the same thing harder, you vary your approach. And what’s with that Cody Johnson up the middle in practically all red zone conversions. We’re on the 3 yard line, 3rd down, Cody Johnson runs onto the field, you might as well just broadcast it on the Big Screen, “Hey, Johnson’s coming up the middle.” That’s an easily read play. It does work at least a few more times than that lateral pass play, which I’ve never seen work. Why is that play even in the play book? Instead of calling that play, why not just walk over to the official, hand them the ball, and say move us up one down, we’re calling a lateral pass.
The weakest links the Longhorns will have this season is with the Run. It’ been one of the two major weaknesses for the last three years. So, coaches, let’s put some action into teaching how to improvise, drills, skills, technique, practice, until they have the intuition for how to do it. Let’s figure out how to do it smarter, not tougher.
We haven’t had to criticize anything about the offensive line so far. While that was not necessarily a weakness last season, it was inconsistent. The reason we’re not seeing much fault with the offensive line so far is because Rice ranks #116 on the CBS 120 rankings, and Wyoming ranks #66. Our current Texas offensive line has not had to deal with a top 25 defense that will Blitz Gilbert at least 30 percent of the plays. I think I counted 1 solitary blitz from both the Rice and Wyoming games. I think Gilbert is up to that kind of attack. He’s a fast thinker. He can doge the incoming, and still keep his eye down field for opportunities.
I am expecting to see some weaknesses or at least some inconsistency with the offensive line as we move into playing out top 25 teams. I do think the NCAA gods have smiled on Texas with their schedule this season. It couldn’t be better for breaking in a new QB and a new team. Our only top 25 ranked games are in October against Oklahoma and Nebraska.
I think Gilbert is going to catch up pretty fast, and start showing Play-Making football. The Rice game probably showed him at his lowest. He threw a nice 31 yard pass to Chiles, inches from the goal, then hit Williams perfectly three times for 77 yards. He finished 14 of 23 for 172 yards, 60% accuracy, nothing to brag about. Those were his high points. He made some mistakes.
He threw two passes at least 20 yards shy of the intended receiver, and he wasn’t throwing the ball away either. He threw three passes that were too close to possible interceptions, which Rice couldn’t get hold of, but Nebraska or Oklahoma won’t miss those opportunities. He’s haphazard at evaluating interception potential with his plays. There’s some fast judgment flying through a Quarter Back’s mind at the snap, multitasking to the max, reading down field, watching the line and blitzes, and each option must also be evaluated for interception potential, which means looking at the coverage and reading them as well. In the Rice game he came away with zero interceptions, but it would have been at least three playing Nebraska. A QB has got to read those interceptions as well as the delivery.
Gilbert is not watching Interception potential The obvious one in the Wyoming game was the long down field pass to the goal line where the intended receiver had double coverage. There were 6 hands that were within reach of that ball. Beautiful throw, just a bad decision to throw into that kind of coverage. At the very least the ball would be deflected, or at worst intercepted. He was throwing a one shot in a hundred, bad judgment, unless it’s the last play of the game and you have no other choice.
As I said, Gilbert is going to catch up very quickly. He’s 5-star material, and once he gets a few things tweaked out, he’s going to be our play-maker. He won’t be taking the Longhorns to a BCS title game this year, but he does have the potential to get our 10+ wins for a school record of 10 consecutive 10+ wins. Gilbert is certainly BCS title game material, he just doesn’t have the correct team around him to do that this year. We’ll leave that for next year, when our 5-star recruits show up as starters.
This recruiting season Mack Brown took in 5 more 5-Star recruits than Alabama, Ohio State, and Oklahoma combined. One of them, Malcolm Brown, will finally give the Longhorns a running game to count on. And with our Longhorns making good in the NFL, Texas will be an easy sell for 2012 recruits.
With two and three years of experience under Gilbert’s belt, and 5-star recruits all over the field, 2011 and 2012 will be big seasons for the Texas Longhorns. The mere mention of Texas Longhorns will strike fear in coaches and players alike.
And how about that Colt McCoy. He struggled during the preseason, but as the rookie starter QB in the Brown’s first game, he was 13 for 13 and 131 yards in the first half. Then Earl Thomas, the second best safety in the nation, snatches a pass from seasoned veteran Brett Farve, and runs it in for an 86 yard TD.
We’re going to miss Thomas. He was one of our biggest Play-Makers. You could count on him to make almost one interception per game, eight interceptions his sophomore year. Muschamp will probably switch out several players in that position, with Blake Gideon playing safety much of the time. And as far as the Texas defense, we lost Earl Thomas, but our defense is the least of our worries. They’re going to come out as a top 5 rated defense. Muschamp could take the cheer leading squad and turn them into a top rated defense.
The Passing game is going to dominate this season. We don’t have a Jordon Shipley, who just never dropped a pass, but with Kirkendoll, Chiles, Malcolm Williams, Marquise Goodwin, D.J. Monroe, and at least five freshmen receivers, we can switch them out enough to keep the opposition guessing, which is excellent strategy for dominating in the passing game.
The last key big time “Play-Maker” we’re going to miss is Hunter Lawrence. This guy just never missed, regardless of the pressure. This guy takes 1 kick, with 1 second on the clock, and makes good for a 1 point win. I didn’t know what we had in Justin Tucker, and then he came out with that 51 yard Field Goal, impressive. Then missed two, one was blocked. But the extra points he made all passed way too close to the left goal post.
So, to summarize where we are after two opening games:
We have a strong QB performer, who will get stronger with every game. He needs to watch interception potential. We have motivated receivers, enough of them to switch out plays for surprise. Watch the Shipley clips and figure out how he shakes off the coverage. The other thing Shipley did well was catch the ball whether in a dive, jump, or dead out run down field. Receivers, catch and hold onto the ball. We’ll probably have some inconsistency with the Offensive Line as we have had for the past several years, especially the closer we get to playing Oklahoma, Nebraska, even Baylor and A&M, and opposing teams start the blitzes. Next year’s recruits on OL are 6’4”, 6’7” 288 and 300 pounds, respectively. We don’t have a Hunter Lawrence, but a very capable Justin Tucker, who just needs a little work. Get that ball to the center of the posts. Our running game, well, I’ve already covered that. Get smarter, not tougher. The only running back who became a big time play maker being tougher was Earl Campbell, because he had 300 pound legs, and just drug the defensive line down field. The defense will be fine, although Earl Thomas was a very serious asset. In Muschamp we trust.
We’ll need to bring everything we’ve got to the Oklahoma and Nebraska games, and we’ll need to bring our best game to the Baylor Bear, A&M Aggie, and Texas Tech Red Raiders games. Everything else we can make a few mistakes and still win.
What’s ahead for Texas?
September 18, 2010 Texas Tech Red Raiders at Lubbock.
Texas Tech is rated 40th with CBS 120 rankings, but they’re winning games, 52 - 17 against New Mexico, the 3rd worst team in the CBS 120 rankings, and 35 - 27 against SMU, who ranks 61 in the CBS 120. So, the Red Raiders are performing below a top 25 team. If Texas improves as much between Wyoming and Texas Tech as we did between Rice and Wyoming, then the Red Raiders are going down. They’re breaking in a new coach, and lost much of their Play-Making talent as well, so my money is on Texas, although, the Red Raiders love to take down Longhorns, so they will bring their best game. Expect to play hard with few mistakes.
September 25, 2010 UCLA Bruins at Austin.
The UCLA Bruins has lost both of their season openers, hammered 35 - 0 by Stanford, who has moved into #19 of the AP top 25, and lost 22 - 31 to Kansas City, ranked #72 in the CBS 120. This should be a no-brainer for Texas, also.
October 2, 2010 at Dallas Cotton Bowl, Oklahoma Sooners October 16, 2010 at Lincoln Memorial Stadium, Nebraska Cornhuskers
It’s the first two games in October that Texas will have to show up with all their mistakes and kinks ironed out, as they take on Oklahoma and then Nebraska, who are both running neck in neck with Texas in the top 25 rankings. These two games will be the first games of the season where Texas is evenly matched with opponents, and these will be the two games Texas will need to show up with everything they’ve got.
The Longhorns get a one week break between those two games, and too bad, Nebraska gets their week off between the 4th and 5th game. Nebraska will have to play Kansas State on October 7, 2010, while Texas is resting and eating tostitos. Kansas State CBS #47 took #74 UCLA, but struggled with a 31 - 22 win against a team that lost their next game against Stanford 35 - 0. Kansas State also took their second game against Missouri State 48 - 24. Expect Nebraska to deliver a pretty good whippin’ to the Kansas State Wildcats.
October 23, 2010 Iowa State at Austin October 30, 2010 Baylor Bears at Austin
Iowa state is currently #78 on CBS 120. The Baylor Bears rank #68 on the CBS 120, but they are winning their games by very good margins. I expect the Baylor Bears and A&M to move up the ladder, and become possible threats to Texas. The good news with A&M is that we don’t have to travel to that darn Kyle Field, they’re coming to our turf. Baylor could possibly get lucky and become a threat to Texas, but it’s a home game which is in our interest, and as long as the Longhorns show consistent improvement as they have between the first two games, the Baylor Bears are going down.
November 6, 2010 Kansas Wildcats in Kansas
Kansas State Wildcats are rated #47 in CBS 120, but won both their season openers. All are non top 25 rated teams. Low rated teams are gaining good points on the board against Kansas State. That should be a Texas win.
November 11, 2010 Oklahoma State in Austin
Oklahoma State rated #44 on CBS 120, opened their season with a whopping 65 - 17 win over Washington State, ranked #99 in CBS 120, then a small margin win of 41 - 38 against Troy, who ranks #60 in CBS 120. Oklahoma State could gain in the ratings and refuse to become an easy win for Texas, but the game should go to Texas, especially if Texas keeps up the steady improvement they’ve already shown.
November 20, 2010 Florida Atlantic at Austin
Florida Atlantic Owls at #103 in CBS 120 are at 1 win and 1 loss, playing like a non top 25 team. So, again, another easy take down for the Horns.
November 25, 2010 Texas A&M Aggies at Austin
This will be our 12th game, but there won’t be any 12th man around, since the game will be played in DKR Memorial Stadium in Austin, home of the championship Texas Longhorns. A&M is currently rated #31 in CBS 120, and playing well, with a 48 - 7 win in their season opener against Stephen F. Austin, and a 48 - 16 win in their second game against Louisiana Tech. They have a very competent QB, and are taking games. They will be moving up the ranks, probably into the top 25 before they play Texas. Our advantage is that it will be a home game, but we will need to bring our best game.
The games against Oklahoma and Nebraska will definitely be evenly matched games, and Texas will have to bring their best game. Between now and then, both Oklahoma and Nebraska will be improving as well. The Baylor game and A&M game could end up being challenging games, because I expect both of those teams to advance in rank and skill. If Texas keeps with their current rate of improvement, then Texas Tech next week should not be a problem. If Texas drops back to the mistakes of the first game, expect Texas Tech to attempt a win.
Overall, I’m giving Texas their 10 games this season, which sets a school record. They could get lucky and make 11, but 12 would be a little too lucky. In either 2011 or 2012, I expect them to win 14, maybe back to back.
1. Make sure that your house or apartment is clean, tidy, and warm and cozy for the family and guests. If you can have it professionally cleaned by minimum wage laborers, all the better.
2. For your particular Religion of Choice, attend to the suggested rituals for the Season. Any devotion and time you can give toward honoring the Religious leaders of thousands of years ago, will be well spent.
3. This one was actually difficult to decide on. Should it be number 2 or 3? Anyway, priority number 3 applies only if you have a favorite football team. Be somewhat preoccupied with any of the holiday games your team may be involved in. For the truly faithful, purchase air line tickets if needed, purchase unusually high priced game tickets, get involved, make it a fun time.
4. Make sure you have a great meal planned for family and guests. American super markets are overflowing with goodies of all kinds, and there is practically nothing that you can’t buy in America. So, get only the best for your family and guests.
5. Now that your religious duties are taken care of, and your family and guests have a great meal planned with all the home comforts, you should do what you can for the local charities. The holiday gift programs to the needy, the holiday meal programs to the needy. Angel trees, donations, meal delivery, anything that will help the less fortunate and those in need.
6. Now that your home is ready for guests, meals are planned, religious duties are attended to, and thought has been given to the needy in your area, you should put some earnest thought into your own happiness and well-being. Splurge here if you can, it’s the holidays. The better you look and feel, the happier your family and friends will be. New clothes, new hair done, nails done, new makeup, extra lights for the house, whatever your fancy, just do it, says Nike.
7. Put a little forethought into the New Year celebration. Don’t wait until the last minute on this one. Wines, beers, liquors have to be purchased. Parties have to be planned, or scheduled. Again, splurge on this one, it only happens once per year.
8. Don’t worry about the upcoming taxes for this next year. There is practically nothing that happens in America which a little borrowing can’t take care of. There is no end to the borrowing limit in America. Don’t believe what the newspapers say or it could interfere with Priority Number 6, your happiness and well-being at the New Years party.
9. Put some serious thought into New Year resolutions, things you could improve about yourself, how you could look prettier or more handsome, what your financial goals are for the upcoming year, how you can buy that new house, new car, or afford the best schools for your offspring. How can you work in that extra vacation. If you’re a business person, think about increasing profits. Don’t let the do-gooder liberals get in your way. It really is about money. Those that have it, have more choices, and more comforts in the world.
10. Now, with all the important things out of the way, you should sit down and talk about the 10 million children that will die in the upcoming year 2010 because they lack access to clean water.
But, a word to the wise, talking about this could upset your happiness and well-being, and you may find few people willing to discuss this with you, some may call you a kill joy, or even worse, some may think you are mentally unstable. This item is last in priorities, because the holidays are an especially happy time, and you want to be careful not to cause any discomfort. Comfort is a very important priority in America, and many may feel you are being unpatriotic, or ungrateful for your blessings, if you bring up such serious matters as children that die every 15 seconds in the world due to lack of access to clean water.
Many people will feel confident that they have already done their fair share of solving the world’s problems by attending to priorities number 2 and 4. Others will feel that it is not their responsibility to solve the world’s problems, that their particular Religious deity, or deities, is in charge of that. Many will feel that if they released the burden of solving the world’s problem by praying about it, praying for the 10 million children that are slated to die in 2010, due to lack of access to clean water.
And still, others, will argue that it is the plan of the Universe, that so many children will die in 2010, else the world could become overpopulated, and their level of comfort could be damaged in some way.
Remember, as an American citizen, the Constitution entitles you to “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Should anything or anyone get in the way of that pursuit, just kindly remind them that you are an American, with rights and certain privileges, that you have worked hard to be where you are, and that your rights were fought for and obtained through many wars for freedom.
You have the freedom to do what you want, and you don’t have to do anything at all about those 10 million children who will die in 2010 because they lack access to clean water. You have the freedom to just put them out of your mind and conversations.
The Texas Longhorns took the Big 12 Title Saturday night with a hair raising 13 - 12 win over the Nebraska Cornhuskers. This Longhorn fan came away from the game thrilled, but a little bewildered. I’m thrilled the Longhorns won the game and a Big 12 Championship. I’m also pleased beyond words the Longhorns are going to Pasadena on December 7th to play in the National Championship game. I’m a little bewildered about how they got there.
This game was a complete stalemate. When you have two of the best defenses in the NCAA effectively shutting down the offensive game on both sides, you get no yards, no points, and a battle of defense versus defense. Most of the game was volley after volley of punts after unrealized third down conversions.
With 2 minutes left in the first half, Texas finally takes to the board when McCoy’s offensive line pushes 2 yards through a pile of Nebraska linemen for the first touchdown of the game. The half time score is Texas 7, Nebraska 6.
Nebraska never made good on a touchdown, they just couldn’t score against the Texas defense. They had to settle for 4 field goals. Alex Henery, Nebraska field goal kicker, almost single handed, won the game. He was the only player to put points on the board. He kicked 2 field goals in the first half, one of them from 52 yards out, and 2 field goals in the last quarter.
It was his last field goal that set the Nebraska crowd cheering. Henery kicked it with 1:44 left on the game clock, which put Nebraska firmly in the lead 12 - 10. I say “firmly” because in an offensive stalemate, a 2 point lead under the 2 minute warning is usually a win.
Neither offense was moving the ball. Third down conversions were shocking, 6 of 19 for Texas, and 2 of 16 for Nebraska.
Late in the third quarter Nebraska had collected only 43 total offensive yards. Nebraska barely broke 100 total offensive yards by the end of the game, and that was due to 2 kickoff returns late in the game by Niles Paul, each for 43 yards.
Texas didn’t fare much better, collecting only 202 total offensive yards for the game. Compare that to 597 total offensive yards against A&M last week.
When the Nebraska crowd finally stopped cheering, and the kick to Texas landed out of bounds, Texas found themselves on their own 40 yard line, with 1:44 left in the game. Jordan Shipley had been covered like a hawk all night, but he managed to get free for a 19 yard reception, and added to that was a 15 yard penalty against Nebraska. In a game where neither offense was moving the ball at all, Texas just moved to the Nebraska 26 in one kick and one play. It turns out, that was the best field goal position Hunter Lawrence was ever going to get. Texas still had one time out.
For reasons that may never be known, Brown, McCoy, or Greg Davis, or maybe all three of them, or maybe the devil, decided that McCoy needed to run three more plays. With the BCS computers already warming up to try and figure out just who is going to play Alabama, McCoy takes the snap at 1st and 10 on the Nebraska 26, sacked for a 2 yard loss by Ndamukong Suh.
Now, that’s someone who’s going to the NFL. On one play I watched Suh wrestle McCoy to the ground with his right arm, and hold off a Texas Lineman with his left arm. Another sack, he slung McCoy airborne across the field about 10 yards.
Anyway, back to the game. 2nd and 12 on the Nebraska 28, McCoy rushes for a 1 yard loss. The game clock is down to about 11 seconds at this point, and Texas has 1 time out remaining. Why on God’s green earth they didn’t use the time out and set up the field goal will baffle football analysts for centuries to come, but they didn’t. 3rd and 13 on Nebraska 29, McCoy takes the snap, clock running, and starts an aversive run to the deep right, still running, looking for receivers that haven’t been there all night, and finally, he throws the ball away, out of bounds. In a moment of heart stopping realization, people began to see the game clock was 0:00. Game Over!
Longhorn fans brains are screaming inside, why would McCoy do such a thing, and before I could even grasp fully what had happened, Mack Brown is running onto the field, yelling, 1 second, 1 second.
While officials are holding back the celebrating Nebraska crowd already filtering onto the turf, Brown’s protest goes to official review. I’m thinking to myself, yea, sure, you know how many times an official review actually overturns a ruling on the field, about 1 out of 200.
The video technology is amazing in these games. As the TV begins to play back the throw in slow motion, game clock juxtaposed, I see the football hitting the ground, with the game clock reading one second! Indisputable video evidence, that what is needed to overturn a field ruling, and that’s exactly what I was looking at.
When I saw that, I knew that Burnt Orange would glow on the UT Tower tonight. Hunter Lawrence never misses a kick, anywhere under 50 yards. With one second on the clock, 4th down, from 46 yards out, one kick sent the football scraping by the inside left of the goalposts. Now, Game Over! Texas 13, Nebraska 12.
Shut down the BCS computers, notify the voters, we have an opponent to play Alabama on December 7.
Epilogue:
However it comes to be viewed over time, I would like to go on record as saying, that the third play, with 11 seconds on the clock, was probably the worst, most unprofessional, judgment I have ever seen made on a football field. One step further, one lingering second longer, and the game would’ve been over. Texas 10, Nebraska 12. Anyone who puts that much on the line for a 3rd play, trying to get closer field goal position, when Hunter Lawrence is fully capable of kicking a 46 yard field goal, or even worse yet, thinking they were getting ready to make a touchdown pass when they haven’t made one all game, well, any piece of that kind of thinking is no where close to championship thinking.
The best the Longhorns can do at this point is humbly thank Hunter Lawrence for winning the Big 12 Title, responsible parties get honest about almost blowing the game, then get on with the business of preparing for a very tough football team that makes very few mistakes.
The biggest priority for the Longhorns in preparing for Alabama is to do something about that offensive line. Put Muschamp in charge of the offensive line for the month you have before the National Championship.
The beloved Texas Longhorns, now 12 - 0, wrapped up their final regularly scheduled game of the season Thanksgiving evening with a 49 - 39 win over the Texas A&M Aggies, at Kyle Field, College Station, Texas.
The Texas A&M Aggies played heroically and valiantly Thanksgiving evening, but the University of Texas Longhorns just flat outscored them.
For the Longhorns, this game was somewhat of a break from what we’ve been used to seeing, strong defensive performances, and sometimes struggling offensive performances. The Longhorns have been trying to jump start a running game all season, sometimes barely getting 100 rushing yards per game. In Thursday’s game, the Longhorns rushed for a total of 293 Net yards, 175 of those yards were from Colt McCoy. McCoy racked up 65 yards and a touch down on a single run up the middle early in the second quarter.
McCoy racked up 597 yards of total offense during the game.
This game was offense against offense, Jerrod Johnson versus Colt McCoy, and Johnson, A&M quarterback, played some impressive football. McCoy just outscored him. Johnson did some running of his own, with 97 Net yards gained. Johnson’s accuracy on the pass was dangerous. He passed for 342 total yards, used nine different receivers, and scored 4 passing touchdowns. The Longhorns passed for a total 304 yards, used 5 receivers, and scored 4 passing touchdowns.
The Longhorns made some big plays — McCoy’s run in the second quarter, Earl Thomas made an interception, which he does usually every game, Marquise Goodwin ran back a kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown. We did not need Hunter Lawrence for this game, no field goals were attempted, only touchdowns. A&M attempted 2 field goals, missed one. Hunter Lawrence is one of the Longhorns’ best assets, he just doesn’t miss.
Of course, the ever reliable Jordan Shipley did his part. One of the Longhorns’ most valuable players, Shipley made 2 touchdown receptions. Yes, he made a little blunder that cost the Longhorns a touchdown, on that fair catch mixup, but Shipley has not missed so many passes, we’ll give him that blunder. He just doesn’t drop passes. The man has glue on his gloves or something.
Looking good and having come along way, are — Tre’ Newton, if UT has a running game in them, then it’s with Newton; James Kirkendoll, with 2 touchdown receptions; Malcolm Williams is looking better and better; Dan Buckner also continues to get better.
And the Longhorn’s defense really has come to be first rate. I think A&M was just very fired up and played very strong offensively. Usually, the Texas defense doesn’t allow that kind of yardage. I think we have a strong defense with Earl Thomas, Curtis Brown, Sergio Kendle, Sam Acho. The media has been ranking them as number one in the nation, but the UT Longhorns site ranks them number three.
The UT Longhorns have continued to get stronger and better as the season has progressed. They have grown tremendously. Have they grown enough to take down Florida at Pasadena on January 7th, 2010? We’ll see on January 7th, after the Longhorns dismantle Nebraska on December 5th.
No tricks, but the Halloween crowd in Austin, Texas, did get a special treat on Saturday night, when the University of Texas main tower was awash with Burnt Orange lighting. What a Halloween treat, an almost full moon, an orange lit tower, and a Texas style stompin’ 41 to 14 against the Oklahoma State Cowboys in Stillwater.
It’s a Texas tradition to light the main tower in burnt orange lighting after a game win. The tower has been aglow in burnt orange every game weekend since the season started, which translates into a perfect 8 - 0 season for the beloved Longhorns so far.
The game on Halloween night in Stillwater, Oklahoma, actually turned into OSU quarterback, Zac Robinson’s, worst nightmare, when he threw 4 interceptions. Two of those interceptions resulted in direct touch downs, as Curtis Brown returned one for a 77 yard touch down, and Earl Thomas returned another 31 yards for a touch down. Those 2 interceptions mark the 8th and 9th non-offensive touch downs for the Texas Longhorns this season.
The Texas defense is playing awesome. This is great Texas football, to watch the defensive team add to the scoreboard as well as the offensive team. This defensive team is getting better and better with each weekend. The Texas defense has hit the number one spot in the least allowed rushing yards per game. In 8 games, they’ve allowed only 433 rushing yards. They are at the number four spot for least overall allowed yardage per game, with TCU, Florida, and Alabama, in the 1 - 3 spots, respectfully.
Malcolm Williams was impressive, with an 11 yard touch down catch, and a 44 yard reception later in the third quarter. These were great catches, the kind you have to stretch and reach for, not the ones that land in your chest.
The Longhorns have moved into the 1,400 points range in the Associated Press Top 25 Poll, placing them in the same category as Florida and Alabama, with the trailing teams ranging at 1,200 points and below. Number 3 Texas trails number 2 Alabama by a mere 41 points, and number 1 Flordia by a mere 56 points. By contrast, number 4 USC trails the leading number one team by 246 points.
Texas has gained in their standings the last 2 games, and FoxSports.com is ranking them number one in their week 8 power rankings, saying they are playing better than anyone else this week, with the top 2 SEC teams struggling.
In short, it’s time to show some Love for those Texas Longhorns.
Right after the Kansas State Wildcats ran over the Longhorns 39 - 14 in week 9, and with three games left to play, I blogged that the beloved Texas Longhorns would have a 7 loss season, losing both to OSU and A&M, and, of course, avoiding a loss with Florida Atlantic.
Whomever you are, your days are numbered. We are looking for you. Someone, some poor misguided soul, somehow, was able to get past the security at the Longhorn’s Memorial Stadium on Saturday, September 25, 2010, and on the day of the planned game against UCLA. This person smuggled into our sacred grounds, our hallowed astro-turf, a Big Ol’ can of Whup-Ass. That is strictly against DKR Memorial Stadium rules, no Whup-Ass cans, no 12th men, are allowed to enter the beloved Longhorn’s home turf. We will find you, and when we do, it will not be pretty.
If you’re an orange blooded Texas Longhorn football devotee like me, then you probably started reading the blogs, speculation, and commentary about three weeks before the season opening game against Rice University, September 4, 2010. Most of the writings validated what us close followers already knew. I didn’t see anything in the preseason blogs that surprised me.