Don't be fooled, this was a tough matchup

So is Charlie Tanner leaving early?

Nice post, CA. I enjoyed reading this.

Kindle is still gone, by that way.

Hook ’em!

errr…‘by that way’ should be ‘by the way’

my bad

Greg Davis doesn’t need a work ethic as long as he has those pictures.

Reed Boyd has just completed his freshman year at safety.

I thought Peter Ullman played a terrific game.

Congrats to the Longhorns and their fans on a well played game. I thought for a while (about a minute and a half, at least) that “my” Buckeyes would pull off the upset. Great game.

Bottom line, I’ll take it. Handicaps and all.

“Jim Tressell would rather play a 6 deep zone than blitz.”

How very, very ironic…

From the stands I thought they blitzed quite a bit.

What is ireonic is that they lost on a blitz play with no over the top help.

Laurinitis made Tanner look like a little girl on one play.

I’m assuming Tanner doesn’t start next year. Surely two of our young talents on the O-line will be ready to fill in at guard next year. Snow and Huey? Ulatoski, Snow, Hall, Huey, Hix. That could be good.
I thought I noticed a new running play in this game pulling a guard between the other guard and tackle. It worked a little but as usual we didn’t execute it consistently well. My vigil waiting for a RB draw play continues. My prayer is that Greg Davis watches Patriots film this offseason and installs their Draw play and whatever else catches his fancy. This doesn’t seem so unlikely that I can’t hope.

Rollo… I just don’t understand our running game. We can blame it on execution, but the coaches can’t stand pat.

And how many times did a sack or pressure result from the OL giving up on their blocks?

I don’t know about giving up but we didn’t pick up the blitz consistently well for 4 quarters. We were alright overall in pass protection. We ran the new power run once and had a great crease for Fozzy but the center got pushed back and Fozzy went into the back of him and was slowed before he could nail the whole. Very disappointing play.
I can only imagine we’ll be better at this next year. Or we’ll flounder with a million different wrinkles, none of which we consistently use well, and rely on Colt to do it all again. It’s not impossible that we could get away with that.
Replacing Roy Miller is my biggest concern for next year. Having a pass rush is less of a worry for me than replacing Miller. Acho, Jones and Co. are plenty good, we need a plug in the middle. I imagine Alexander is in the front of the line to fill that and I’m not confident in him or the freshmen who haven’t played much yet.

My biggest gripe with Colt had nothing to do with his throws, but rather his pocket presence. Too often he looked like Frosh Colt back there tonight. That ridonkulous fumble he had late should have cost us the game, but thank God he and the rest of the team don’t bother with niggling details like momentum and field position.

Our running game continues to be a collection of plays spat out at random. This has been the case with Chris Simms, Chance Mock, half of Vince Young’s career, and now Colt McCoy. Simms and now McCoy have been able to somewhat overcome it, but damn is it infuriating to watch.

You’ll see that frustration often diagnosed as “Why can’t our OL block?” and “Why can’t we seem to find a running back?” Personnel isn’t the problem. We could have every bit as effective a running game as, say, Ole Miss does if we only had someone in charge who understood the importance of having something coherent and replicable.

In other words, something to match our passing game.

We don’t have to have Michael Oher at every line position, and Jamaal Charles in on every snap at RB to have a good running game. The guys we had tonight should have been completely adequate at the task.

IMO, we’re two recruiting classes away from being an elite D. What Muschamp did with this collection of players was pretty astonishing, and a credit to both him and the players involved, even the ones who irritated us from time to time.

As for the offense, I’m just ready for a change. It’s impossible to argue against the stats we rack up, so I’ll just say that it would be interesting to see someone else get a crack at putting up the same stats.

I’m also ready for us to field some actual kick returners for a change.

CJD,

Are you as concerned about our D next year as I am? You don’t easily replace 4 quality D linemen. Miller was underrated all year and will be good pro, Melton flourished and Orakpo was brilliant. I think we have adequate ends but we have real problems at DT.

Be careful using Ole Miss as an example. Most people actually think Nutt is a bad coach. He’s not a lights out recruiter or a guy who will win a NC but he is great coach. And I couldn’t agree with you more regarding this subject. Our running game is pathetic. One need only to look at Selvin Young as a perfect example. How is one more productive in the pros than at the college level?

Only our staff can find ways to shackle a talent like Malcolm Williams rather than unleash him, but I’m very excited about our talent and depth or WR. I love that Shipley is coming back but will definitely miss one of my favorites in Quan.

Hopefully, this staff will find the 4 or 5 best DB’s and put them on the field. If that means Aaron Williams plays safety so be it because nobody can tell me that he is not one of two most talented DB’s on our team along with Chykie.

I’m with you on the return game, but why should this change. We very rarely have had excitement during the Mack era. We shall see if Hales is up to the task.

I found it hard to fault Gideon for not catching the INT against Tech. There were other chances to put the game away.

I have no idea what the kid was thinking on covering Pryor on the TD catch. I think it would have been virtually impossible to deny the catch, but to not turn around and play the ball (he would have at least had a solid shot at it) and to weakly wave your hands in Pryor’s face to try and distract him (that didn’t even work in my shitty HS district) is just disappointing. And at what point to we begin to take a hard look at Akina’s role here?

What about the abuse he took on their next possession during the TD run? And people on other boards say he is a future thorpe winner. Give me what they’re smoking. I’m sure he’s a good kid and smart player but a playmaker he is not. I just can’t believe this is not obvious to others. I don’t know if Scott is a better player because I’m not at practice but nobody can say that Gideon is better than Williams and yes, I know the coaches want Williams to play corner, but he would also make one hell of a safety shoule they choose to have the Browns play corner.

I don’t know what to make of Akina, but we know we can’t play zone. With that being said, he seems to be a good recruiter and plenty of his players go to the pros.

Groundhog, regarding your direct reply above, your points are why I think we’re still 2 recruiting classes from being elite. I do think we’ll be at least competent, barring a rash of injuries in the front 4. Muschamp is always going to make it a priority to limit points, and worry about the general stats much later. I approve of that approach, and think that it allows for a lot of flexibility. I think his greatest quality among many is that he’s pretty adept at making adjustments and arranging his defenses to match its strengths.

So next year I see us having an OK line (but very thin), addition by subtraction at LB, and a significantly better secondary. Just like a great D-line can make a secondary better, a great secondary can make an average D-line look amazing. And it’s not like we won’t have talent there – we’ll just be pretty raw. Our biggest challenges will be – as always – OU, and I’m really worried about that OSU game in Stillwater. I have a feeling we’ll need every bit of offense we can muster to pull that one out.

I think Nutt is a clown, but I also think he’s a better-than-average coach. My point on Ole Miss is that I don’t think they had any better talent than we did this past year, but they still just hammered Tech in the run game. Of course, if they had to play the Raiders in Lubbock, at night, I’m not sure they win.

As I understand it, we didn’t feature Mal Williams as much as we might have because he still has bouts of freshmanitis. Not a fatal case and not nearly enough to keep him off the field, but when you have guys like Shipley and Quan to throw to, you naturally go with them. Collins too – he was much more reliable than Williams was this year. I think with some seasoning, Malcolm is going to be great. He’ll be integral next year, IMO.

I like Akina OK, especially the energy he brings, but it won’t kill me when he moves on. I won’t celebrate it like I will when Davis takes his leave, but Akina’s apparent avoidance of teaching/playing zone really bugs me. His recruiting also hasn’t been ideal – hence our need to play two frosh at safety this year.

Gideon, IMO, was a short-term solution, but it will take a lot to dislodge him from that spot. All I can do here is trust that the defensive coaches see something I don’t – not just in Blake, but in the players that would usurp him. It’s possible we just have some knuckleheads back there at this time (and no, I have heard nothing whatsoever to suggest that’s the case).

‘Our’ safety reminds me of Eric Hall with much more space to get lost.

“Blitzes? We don’t need no stinkin’ blitzes!”

Take heart ChrisApplewhite, you now have 6 months to draw animated running plays for Davis. I looked forward to your next bile filled post of hate.

So in one second you are bragging on how well our well our offense did, what was it, 470 yards passing? You comment how well tOSU tackles and what a tough matchup they are for us, they were the toughest defense we have played all year, mistakes cost us points, etc…. then you rip Greg Davis for holding Colt MCcoy back and for his lack of work ethic.

The vast majority of HS coaches that I know in the state of Texas think Greg Davis does GREAT job but they probably suck at PS3 too.

Oh and by the way, tOSU blitzed just about every down in every conceivable way.

We won despite: 1. Mediocre o-line play. The next guy Dockery blocks will be the first. Horrible. 2. The worst pass coverage technique in D1 football. Akina should give back every paycheck since September. The Gideon coverage of Pryor was embarassing. Thomas is marginally better. Beasley is still in junior high. 3. In case you were wondering, Davis is still an idiot. I bet high school assistant coaches all over the country are laughing about our ‘running game’. 4. Our lack of LB execution is baffling. Bobino get made fun of by announcers, Kindle was AWOL, and Muckleroy got humiliated. 5. Special teams should change their name to “just average” teams.

Oh, and worst. television. coverage. ever.

Unlike the friends I was watching the game with, I was pleased with the victory. Sure, a blowout would have been sweet, but we beat Ohio State. A team with a hell of defense and a rising star at QB. If Pryor was one year older, we probably lose this game.

I’m not sure whose coverage was worse, Gideon’s on Pryor’s TD, or FOX’s coverage of the game. It didn’t bother me one bit that my friends talked over 98% of the commentary. I know I didn’t miss anything, except a few UT plays because the prodcer in the van apparently doesn’t know that UT runs a hurry up offense.

For the love of God, find a freaking running game. Can we have a few thousand T-shirts created that have a carton of milk with a picture of a UT running back printed on it? Maybe now that Adam Walsh’s death is solved, that America’s Most Wanted guy can get on the case of our missing running game. Is Leonard Nimoy still doing “In Search Of?” Maybe Spok can find some logic to our running game.

One more thing. Why the hell didn’t Colt run once in the first half? Were they saving him for the 2nd half? It’s pretty damn odd that your top rusher for the year doesn’t make one attempt in the first half. Oh, and your 2nd leader rusher, Vondrell McGee, doesn’t even touch the ball for the entire game. WTF?

Finally, when was the last time that UT’s top rushing runnning back (excluding the QB position) only had 376 yards for the season????
http://www.texassports.com/sports/m-footbl/stats/2008-2009/teamcume.html

Ponder that in the off-season.

I was going to make the point about Vondrell’a no-show earlier.

It makes me wonder if the coaches have caught wind of him transferring or if there is some other issue.

“I’m assuming Tanner doesn’t start next year.”

Hi, I’m Mack Brown. Nice to meet you.

"I’m assuming Tanner, errr Gideon doesn’t start next year."

Every time Greg Davis runs a shotgun handoff on 3rd and 1 I want to blow my head off.

Agree with Dunstan.

Making Cody run that stupid shotgun 3rd and 1 is maddening. Why bother putting him in the game if you are going to start him in a standstill position?
The play develops on the timing of a sun dial and requires quickness, not power.

“Davis is still an idiot. I bet high school assistant coaches all over the country are laughing about our ‘running game’”

The ones I know here in Texas are darn near unanmious in thinking that he does a pretty damn good job. But I only know a couple of hundred or so.

How did you feel about our running game when Charles, Benson, Williams, etc… were running up and down the field to the tune of a couple of hundred yards per game? Do you honestly think that Greg Davis forgot how to coordinate a running game?

I would not lump Chris O in with Ullman and Bobino.

He averaged 5 yards per carry and ran for almost 400 yards. Hed caught 46 passes at 11.7 per catch for 540 yards. (11.7 per catch for a running back is absolutely outstanding). He was a beast in our conference games before getting hurt late against Mizzou — 9 carries for 71 yards and 6 catches for 116 against CO; 15 carries for 127 and 4 catches for 27 against OU, 13 carries for 65 yards and 6 catches for 68 yards against Mizzou.

He played well last night too — 11 carries for 42 yards and 4 catches for 56 yards. He will be missed. When he got at least 10 touches this year — which was in 5 games due to health or coaching decisions — he was a beast (OU, MU, Okie Lite, CU, and tOSU). In those 5 games he amassed 669 yards from scrimmage. That is averaging 133 yards from scrimmage in 5 of our 7 toughest games. More specifically, 329 rushing at 5.5 per carry and 66 yards per game. 340 yards receiving on 27 catches for 12.6 a catch and 68 yards per game.

When used, Ogby was very valuable. He made quite a few long runs. Not bad for a guy who moved from WR to FB to RB. I am a big fan of student athletes like him who stick with the program after falling down the depth chart early. Dude is also a lot more athletic than he looks and is as tough as nails.

Also, I defend Greg Davis sometimes (some people exaggerate our running game woes because they can’t let go of how pathetic it was from 2000 to 2002). And sometimes I do not. He needs to get rid of the TE in our offense until we have an Irby, Marshall, or Matthews show up.

Gulch: a deep, narrow ravine, esp. one marking the course of a stream or torrent.

Give Blake credit for starting as a true freshman at a powerhouse D1 university and helping the team, generally, except for when he really hurt the team specifically. Yep, definitely more discernable difference here at the end.

Is there a more hilarious counterargument against a position than citing what high school coaches think? Some of the dumbest people I have ever known were high school coaches (I grant for the rest of this post that I’ve known some smart ones that I consider friends as well). Their stupidity is often only surpassed by the college coaches I’ve met. And cafeteria workers. I’m supposed to sit around and wait for the high school coach’s opinion on what works and doesn’t work in a football game? These are people that graduated from Tarleton State or McNeese State, spent 9 years as a junior high track coach, took a summer school course for a HS coaching certificate to get a $3000/year raise, and now they’re wizards. Right.

This remains one of my favorite positions on the Internet. I wait for someone like Yassir Sanchez to show up, and then I point at him and laugh with other people. Yes, I am not a coach. Specifically, I am not a high school coach. I happen to like money and my best days weren’t as a senior in high school that I now can’t get over. Accordingly, I opted to do something with my life as opposed to entering a profession synonymous with “loser” and “Texas State” and “half a year off playing golf and hitting on 16 year old females”. Oddly, Chris Applewhite and myriad other posters on here are likely of the same mindset.

Football is a pretty simple game, usually played and coached by pretty simple people. There is a limited set of variables to account for on any given play and series. The game is not quantum physics. You don’t have to have anything other than an IQ above or around Forrest Gump’s level to understand that Greg Davis is an utter buffoon and his playcalling starkly matches his vagina. We don’t need high school coaches to help us understand that. It isn’t surprising that a good chunk of them can’t.

Great victory, very exciting game. Hats off to Mack and the horns for showing a lot of heart.

It was fortunate for UT that Beanie Wells went out of the game in the 4th quarter. The guy is an awesome runner.

I assumed UT would be forced to play a 4-3 because of tOSU’s running ability and was afraid that Sergio would be less effective playing LB than playing QB rushing DE.

tOSU’s dangerous running game also made life much more complex for UT’s DEs. In the Big 12, DEs can pin their ears back and go after the QB. Against tOSU, they had to worry about defending the run before they could rush the QB. Bye-bye pressuring the QB from a 4 man rush.

UT was hopeless this year covering big guys like Terrell Pryor (eg: Pryor’s TD reception over Gideon). Pryor could have probably caught 15 passes if OSU plays their backup QB all game and they just keep going to the big man. I’m guessing that Pryor can reach at least 18 inches higher than Gideon when they both jump.

It may be time to bring in at least one tall (6’3" or 6’4") DB who can challenge the big men when pass defending.

The UT run game has been a conceptual disaster for a long time. This off season Major needs to take charge. Study best practises and come up with a run strategy that will be effective. GD is obviously not that interested in the running game and Mack’s influence on running game strategy is probably not helping that much. While Major was a QB (i.e. not necessarily very expert in running game strategy), he is a smart guy and is going to have to figure out the running game thing for the horns. It might be time to hire a consultant.

UT recruited one running back (Whaley) for 2009 and it is not clear that he will even play running back (he is listed as an athlete). He is pretty big for a running back and not real fast (6’3", 4.55 40).

Colt was fantastic this year and by far the single most important reason the horns had such an great season. As great as he was, there are still a couple of things that he might work on in the off season. Colt needs to consistently throw the ball away rather than take a sack. He also needs to keep getting stronger and working on his arm strength. Next season is Colt’s last collegiate season so he also needs to operate from under center like the big boys in the NFL do.

Malcolm Williams continues in the twilight zone. My guess is that he has a better pro career than college career.

Greg Davis’ playcalling is pink and rugous?

Some Notre Dame message board posters are floating the idea that Weis/ND shell out money for Davis to replace Haywood.

No. Really. True story.

ND fans with Texas residency talked them out of it.

Perception in college football is like a house of mirrors.

“Malcolm Williams continues in the twilight zone. My guess is that he has a better pro career than college career.”

Tap the brakes, buddy; he’s a redshirt freshman.

I heart “bile filled post(s) of hate” directed towards G. Davis.

I am just glad the we played OSU last night. I hate to think how it would have turned out had we played that way against a team like USC.

Against USC? It would have probably finished the same way. USC has a great defense and a mediocre offense. Big deal. I watched USC 6 times this year and they’re ranked right about where they should be. It annoys me that the idiots are probably going to rank them higher to finish it.

No 1 loss team this year looked worse in victories than USC did against Arizona and Arizona State. Two of the shittiest games I saw all season. How would it have turned out against USC? Probably something like 24-21. Without a scrambling QB to play against, we might have beaten USC worse.

Why in the hell are some of you so committed to your inferiority complex?

Because they constantly pee on their balls?

Dear CTJ,

I eat pieces of shit like you for breakfast.

Help me understand here. It is better to throw two passes to Peter Ullman than it is to force the ball once a quarter to Malcolm Williams deep?

I thought we won last night and that our record was 12-1. Yes, we really suck.

“…to understand that Greg Davis is an utter buffoon and his playcalling starkly matches his vagina.”

Hey, let’s not be insulting vaginas. I’ve yet to meet one that wasn’t infinitely more entertaining than GD’s playcalling.

High School Football Coach -

You eat shit for breakfast?

You eat shit for breakfast?

HAPPY GILMORE, HAPPY GILMORE!!!!

I still got it.

meh:

“Tap the brakes, buddy; he’s a redshirt freshman.”

What is your point? If your point is that he is going to be here for 3 more years, that is not necessarily true. He can turn pro after next season.

The one time UT chose to feature Malcolm (i.e. 2nd half of the Tech game), he performed brilliantly. He was way, way underused this season.

“It was fortunate for UT that Beanie Wells went out of the game in the 4th quarter. The guy is an awesome runner.”
More like it was unfortunate for Ohio State that their star RB got knocked the fuck out.

heh, it’s interesting to look at wells’ 2nd half rushing:

Wells, Chris 4 yards to OHIOST34 (Kindle, Sergio)
Wells, Chris 2 yards to OHIOST36 (Norton, Jared)
Wells, Chris 2 yards to OHIOST47 (Houston, Lamarr)
Wells, Chris 2 yards to UT26 (Norton, Jared)

i think that’s how to say ‘ouch’ four times and really mean it.

Closetojumping…

go ahead and jump.

You’re not any smarter for thinking everyone and everything sucks. Greg Davis isn’t perfect, but somehow we’re rolling up about 40-50 points per game for going on a few seasons now and anyone who’s lived through the lean years is thankful for it.

I wasn’t thrilled with how out of balance the attack got in the first half, but adjustments were made and it was the offense and not the defense that won the game in the second half.

haters.com
/unsubscribe

Born a Horn—

Keep telling yourself that Davis has had anything but a negative impact on the outcome of games that mattered over the years, this season included. If it makes you feel better, by all means, make it happen.

I don’t think hardly anything about this season sucked, with the exception of Davis and Texas fans that rooted for OU to beat Tech. Davis gets a free pass by folks like you and it’s absurd. He pitched a shutout for us with VY at QB in 2004. Last year’s aggie game. This year against Tech. Ohio State. OU for 5 consecutive years. The beat goes on.

“Greg Davis isn’t perfect, but somehow we’re rolling up about 40-50 points per game for going on a few seasons now and anyone who’s lived through the lean years is thankful for it.”

I lived through the lean years and I’m not thankful for it. That’s because I also lived through the glory years of multiple MNCs and conference championships and understand that Texas Football tradition is about winning titles.

Greg Davis has cost us multiple titles because of his ineptitude. And he’s still employed because Mack Brown puts personal friendship before performance. That’s a fact.

I think we’re all pleased about the fact that Mack & Co. have us back in the “powerhouse” category. But I also believe, like so many, that Greg Davis has at times shown greatness but more often has shown ineptitude. Particularly against top notch coaches/programs. I don’t spend enough time on X’s & O’s to tell exactly why, but we obviously have a huge problem with developing a run game. This has been a chronic problem under Davis(excepting years when superfreaks are playing) and it seems to be an area which is holding us back from Conference and/or national championships. They promise to fix it every year and never do. I just hope Will & Major can influence Mack into considering at least a new approach and possibly a new hire or 2 to help figure it out.

Complaining about the lack of passes thrown towards Malcom Williams when we have two legit All-Americans on our roster in addition to 2 other solid, dependable possesion receivers in Collins and Kirkendoll is a major display of douchery. Dude is a redshirt freshman. People have this hard on for the big, tall under armour wearing guy that runs fast.

They never stop to think how vital their blocking ability, route running or catching are in our offense. He will be a major feature next year.

Chill the fuck out.