Postgame by Debbie Downer

17 drops? Holy fuck.

I don’t think it hit me until I read your post – we have massive talent gaps.

WR – Shipley, Goodwin, and Williams (part of the time) – beyond that, not much.
TE – an injured Irby & and an injured & as-yet unproven DJ Grant – beyond that, about 12 stiffs.
OL – does it need to be rehashed?
RB – see above.
QB – a four-year gap between McCoy and Gilbert (thanks, John Chiles).

What the hell have we been doing for the last few years in terms of talent evaluation?

I think last night was the first time in my life I’ve ever wanted to take a knee at the end of a 1st half. I said something like “this could be disastrous, don’t do it”, and then a few seconds later something disastrous happened.

Just the fact that someone could read “17 drops” and not instantly detect the sarcasm does not bode well for the future of our WR corps. I half believe that number, too.

There is absolutely no way to know if you win if colt plays.
Alabama certainly wouldn’t have thrown the ball only 11 times. They wouldn’t have settled for three runs and a punt every drive in the third quarter. The game was fundamentally changed Texas’ fifth play, and there is NO way to tell what would have happened otherwise.

On a different note. If you run your quarterback 20 times per game and have a true freshman as a backup, that is a team weakness that can fairly keep you from winning a national title without it being a fluke. Furthermore, if Bradford doesnt go down in the RRS you likely wouldn’t be playing in the game last night, and if A&M is not on their third string walk-on cornerback who you exploited all night than that game could have turned out differently.

The bottom line is, it doesn’t matter what would have happened if Colt had played all four quarters. Injuries are a part of the game. You benifitted from them this season and they hurt you in your last game.

Can anyone explain why Texas even bothered to recruit Sherrod Harris if he was never going to be developed or given a fair chance at earning any playing time whatsoever?

I basically know nothing about the kid’s skillset, but it seems awfully foolish to essentially ‘blow’ a scholarship at such a crucial position when the future of Chiles as a QB was HIGHLY suspect at its very best from the outset.

“Can anyone explain why Texas even bothered to recruit Sherrod Harris if he was never going to be developed or given a fair chance at earning any playing time whatsoever?”

My guess is that, much like Chiles, they thought that you can put any moderately talented black QB into our system and they will perform like VY.

Any thoughts on how last night affects recruiting? Given CA’s take, it looks like would-be Longhorns might see systematic problems and go elsewhere. Or, do they see a team that played with heart despite the difficulty?

Pretty much how I feel.
Im not sure that I can say that we win if Colt plays but our chances are better.

Garret Gilbert ma be the perfect QB for a Greg Davis offense or at least the closest we have seen. His arm is stronger than Colt’s and he throws a better deep ball.

I know the next part is going to get me flamed but here goes…
My only issue is Colt not playing or attempting to play. He looked to have a little too much motion in his arm not to be playing. Colt could have thrown just as good as Gilbert with nerves. The inspiration to the team is what would have made it a net positive. If it is something torn/broken then I will feel stupid and retract my statement but it seems like Colt had his pass out of the pressure and took it.
If it was a decision that he (and presumably his father) made regarding his future than I can understand that. Who are we to tell him to risk further injury at the cost of millions in future earnings.
I cant help but think that any of the great ones would have come out unless they tried to throw it in the game and just absolutely couldn’t.

It just seems like Colt was always the QB that was almost good enough but just couldn’t get over the hump..

‘Alabama certainly wouldn’t have thrown the ball only 11 times.’

You’re right. They probably wouldn’t have thrown at all.

‘Any thoughts on how last night affects recruiting? Given CA’s take, it looks like would-be Longhorns might see systematic problems and go elsewhere. Or, do they see a team that played with heart despite the difficulty?’

My guess is that they see a team with early playing time opportunities that got to the MNC game. We’re plenty attractive.

“it seems like Colt had his pass out of the pressure and took it.”

I have read this multiple times, and I’m just blown away by this line of thinking.

OK. People that say Colt needed to play…

He couldn’t even complete a 7 yard pas to his dad in the locker room. He could not control where the ball was going.

To question his character is ridiculous. If you honestly think Colt mailed it in because he didn’t want to face the pressure, then you’re pretty much an idiot. The kid has shown nothing but a fierce competitive spirit from the start. If he could have been out there, he would have. That was the whole focus, the entire goal of this season for him. He wasn’t going to sit out because he was afraid for his NFL career.

Hey startsareforlosers, go fuck yourself you know nothing dicksuck.

The loss is squarely on Mack and Davis for steadfastly, year after year, refusing to prepare the backup qb to run our normal offense with the starting personnel, and for refusing to put in any semblance of a Division I running game. Those chickens come back to roost when you combine them with lazy, post 2005 NC recruiting at rb and o-line. That gives you Tre Newton: nice kid but not a D-1 rb and Chris Hall, nice kid but could not start for any other Big 12 team.

A couple more what-ifs for the cauldron:

What if Shipley would’ve gone down and Colt remained healthy? I personally think the outcome would’ve been worse—Shipley is the heart and soul of UT, not Colt. Gilbert looked like a qb in the second half because Shipley made things easy—there was no one within 5 yards of him on his td catches. He’s a stud, and more irreplaceable than Colt—did Malcolm Williams have a catch?

We all know the Bradford what if, but UT wouldn’t have even been in the game if he didn’t go down. OU wouldn’t have either, but they would’ve beat UT.

What if Mark Ingram wouldn’t have got hurt in the 3rd quarter? Would Texas have stuffed them on D? He was carving them up when he was in—great running back.

And here’s one no one is talking about—what if Stanzi wouldn’t have got hurt for Iowa? They most likely would’ve gone undefeated (lost to Northwestern by 10 at home the game he got hurt and Ohio St by 3 on the road) and hopped Texas due to strength of schedule.

Now, my ire toward UT is well-documented, but I really and truly think Colt McCoy is top-notch, as a player and a person. The last thing any college football fan wants is for a team’s great players to go down in the biggest games—it even left a bad taste in my mouth. But these things happen, and it just shows how valuable everyone’s best players are. Sorry Horns, but you’ll be back—you’ve got a factory down there.

@ nordberg:

" I said something like "this could be disastrous, don’t do it", and then a few seconds later something disastrous happened."

I said exactly the same thing. That was really a frustrating decision by our coaches.

Damn it, ransom…would you fucking quit typing negative shit that I agree with!

That said, having a tight end that only blocks, and a tight end that only catches passes severely limits the offense. We were able to re-invent the wheel last season with the flex TE for a while, but eventually that was defended.

We are one solid TE away from greatness.

“We are one solid TE away from greatness.”

Well, if we had either a Richardson or an Ingram it might not matter. Those dudes are really, really good.

I’m looking forward to watching Shead tomorrow in the Army game. I hope he’s more awesome than anyone thinks.

VY’s therapist, if you are certain that a healthy Bradford means OU wins then you must be certain that a healthy Colt wins last night.

Well, if we had either a Richardson or an Ingram it might not matter. Those dudes are really, really good.

True, but they also have a TE that either gets to block or gets attention from a LB…very different than the reads our TEs give to opposing defenses.

Is the white guy in? Okay, he’s blocking, I don’t have to key on him.
Is the black guy in? Okay, he’s going out for a patter, who has him?

Like I told my Alabama friend last night when he said that ‘Bama went conservative because of Colt’s injury; Texas wished McElroy had thrown more. It was to ’Bama’s benefit that they did not have to throw. McElroy was looking more like the freshman than GG. He was being harassed and had happy feet. ‘Bama would have been less effective had they been two dimensional. Running the football was the only way they could have won this game and the turnovers certainly did not help.
Tell me again how good the Tide’s pass defense is. When a freshman QB who has no running game and only one receiver, that everyone knows is the only one, burns them for two bombs.
I said it before the season. Texas red shirted their second best receiver, Greg Timmons.

uthookem,

After last night’s opening drive for UT, I would have to agree with you—however, we’ll unfortunately never know. The reason I say OU would’ve beat UT with Bradford is because their defense made McCoy look like a freshman, and because they only lost by 3. Even with all the turnovers and Landry Jones’ mistakes, they only lost by 3. It seems a Heisman trophy qb is worth more than 3 points, but again we’ll never know. I don’t want you to think I’m on here to discredit Texas—they were well-prepared last night and I’ve been tauting up their D all year. Best defensive backs in the country, no question. When you lose someone like McCoy, it changes the entire game plan—I said earlier in the year that I thought losing Gresham was a bigger loss than losing Bradford for OU. Someone like Gilbert or Jones could use an easy target—now that you’ve seen how losing McCoy effects your team, can you imagine losing him and Shipley? It doesn’t matter how good your D is—if you can’t score, you can’t score. And it was evident without Shipley last night, UT might have not gotten a first down. Anyway, my point is injuries happen, and the timing of this one just extremely sucked.

Re: McElroy. I posit that he wouldn’t start for any Big XII South team, assuming Bradford and Griffin III don’t get injured. He was seriously a Mark Farris clone out there. I breathed a sigh of relief at the wasted down every time he dropped back. The only one he would be in competition for would be Tech, where he committed first incidentally.

Development of backups is a touchy prospect and difficult to do properly. Too many passes by him, and we are running up the score, wasting opportunities for Colt and the receivers to fine tune their games, and taking all-important numbers away from a potential Heisman winner. I don’t think any team preps the back up quarterback well enough that he can come into a game and be effective, let alone a freshman backup in the national championship.

Bighornfan32….uncalled for. The guy may have been off base with his comment about Colt, but you’re way out of line. After all, he might be right… you have no idea and neither does he, so say something useful or just stop saying anything at all.

Nah, it was called for.

With Colt we Mudhole Alabama. The first 4 minutes of the game were a thing of beauty, as we came out and punched ‘bama in the teeth. Then we settle for a field goal with GG and it’s all downhill from there.

Why all the wailing about preparing the backup qb? Even if both Harris and Chiles were available, Gilbert is the rightful #2 and his play showed it. He put us in position to win the game, and that confirms that he was as well prepared as any backup can be in such circumstances.

What “hump” did Colt not get over. His three bowl wins? His three and one record against OU?
His 45 wins? He was spindled and mutilated against Nebraska but kept on ticking. When Colt says he lost all feeling in his arm for some reason I believe him.

Tre Newton on the shovel pass?

bicBenedict,

The only one that really matters.. National Championships.
Big XII Championships and Shared south division titles are grand and all but, if you are UT the only trophy in the case that matters is the Coaches Trophy.

And people misunderstand my comment. I like Colt as a person and a role model for young football players.

I just can’t help that the tonic to him going back in was watching his good friend, Sam Bradford, lose millions at the next level because he went back in out of love for the game and was reinjured. This close to the big paycheck maybe his dad hit him with a dose of reality in the locker room and said “think about your future” as any good father would.
If that was the reason for him not returning I am more than happy for him being wise enough to know that UT isn’t going to pay him for the money lost if he goes back in and tragedy strikes. I can’t fault him.

So quit flaming when i am rationally voicing my opinion. I didn’t know that to post I had to fall into line with the sheep.

I am truly dumbfounded that anyone with a lick of common sense can watch McCoy on the sidelines last night or listen to his postgame interview and not understand that his potential NFL career had little or nothing to do with his not coming back.

He couldn’t throw a 7-yard pass.

And I am 10 feet tall.. Do you believe me..

So you think Colt should have majored in theatre? Because that was one helluva act he pulled if he wasn’t sincere.

srr and stats—

I no longer think this, but I went to bed last night wondering the same thing as statsforlosers. My thoughts were based on 2 things: (1) the purported quotes at halftime from Colt’s Dad that it was not a “serious” injury, that X-rays were negative, and that it seemed to be a mild sprain (They did Colt no favors with the tenor of the reporting, making it sound like not a big deal); and (2) seeing Colt on the sidelines, in pads, clapping. I was pissed and curious, particularly on the heels of the rumors that he considered quitting because of the stress after the OU game.

Having now read the other stories about what went on in the locker room I no longer have any concerns. I’m giving stats the benefit of the doubt — go read the story in the forum explaining what happened in the locker room. It will change your mind.

Srr50,

I watched it too. His sincerity is not questioned. I 100 percent believe that he gave everything he could to UT football. i believe that he was hurt that he didn’t get the chance to finish off what he started and I am sad for him.

But the million dollar question is why could he not finish why he started. Was it because of the risk of his NFL career or because he really couldn’t go. i am sure there have been times in your life that you had to walk away because of the risk was just too high. Doesn’t make it hurt any less to give up on that dream.
Heck, if I was his dad I would have told him his college days were done too. Potential top 12 pick can drop to 2nd or 3rd round if another funny hit happens.

Ghostofagroundgame,

I will go read the forum.

A stretch option play with reach blocking…….Greg Davis finally got Colt hurt. I can’t believe he made it this long and I couldn’t feel worse for Colt not getting to play this game. The man has taken his asskickings and deserved a shot at this.

Colt looked like someone shot his dog as he was walking out of the X-ray room.

He was not faking injury or pussing out. Stop being ridiculous.

StatsareforLosers:

You are a fucking loser. Are you a troll Aggie? Do you call Colt “Cart McCry?” I can’t believe that you are an actual fan of the University of Texas and have the opinion that you do. Did you see Colt’s post game interview? That was a devastated young man. He wanted nothing more than to be on that field and you have the audacity to question his guts?

UNBELIEVABLE!!! So riddle me this retard…if he was sooo concerned with his NFL future, why would he admit that he couldn’t feel his arm. Is that a ploy to up his draft status?

Maybe, just maybe, Colt knew he couldn’t even throw a simple fucking pass, and knew that we were in much better hands with Gilbert in the game. Maybe.

Insinuating that Colt could have played but chose not to is grounds for an intense ass-kicking.

Lol,

rageaholics everywhere.
Just voicing my opinion.
When did this board become so hostile. Usually people could post good or bad and rationally discuss a topic regardless of opinion.
Jinx and Nordberg maybe you two should go to therapy and work out your rage issues.

Stats are for Losers, you must love stats….

It’s like punching a guy in the face, and then asking him why he’s upset.

Preparing the backup QB? Let them play in the real game situations and run normal offense. Chiles got his chances. It does not look good. We will never know about S. Harris.

This game has brought out more than the usual insanity after a loss. What a freak show.

Back to the original theme of the post: Texas lost to an Alabama team that was a little better. Our weaknesses in running game scheme, OL and WR depth have been discussed on this board all season and are the main reasons that Bama is that much better.

Besides the injury to Colt, the key to the game was Bama blocking our defensive front better that we blocked theirs. This played out most meaningfully on the goal line. They scored TD’s all three times they got close and held us to field goals on both of our redzone penetrations. That was a problem for us with or without Colt and the main reason that Scipio and others didn’t think much of our chances coming into the game.

Our reaching the MNC game in the first place and then making a game of it after Colt went down despite these flaws are both testament to the overall strength of the program. I think we ink a kick-ass recruiting class next month and are back in MNC contention by 2011 if not next season.

“I am ten feet tall….Do you believe me….”

No but just about everything you have said makes me think you are short a few inches.

I’m amazed at how Gideon’s weaknesses are just completely glossed over/ignored by Texas fans. It’s sort of like having Rashad Bobino all over again.

Man, I don’t know. Gideon has been roundly condemned here most of the year. But he’s a little better than Brewster and we were kind of short on good options. He killed us last night with his tackling and positioning on running plays, but he was heady on the fake punt (covering the man, if not picking the ball off). He’s a decent college football player and started all season on a top 5 defense. No one ever has the perfect guys at every position. We didn’t lose any games this season because of Blake.

Seriously? Gideon’s weaknesses are a constant major topic of discussion on every longhorn message board.

As you may surmise from my nickname, I couldn’t give a rat’s ass about McCoy except he appears to be just a terrific guy. I truly felt bad for him last night and don’t know how he didn’t cry in his on field, post game interview, because I almost did.

However, anyone questioning his motives about not returning hasn’t been paying attention. This is a stand up kid who worked his whole life not just for a chance at a NC, but a NC at Texas. I don’t believe for a minute that he took his future into consideration and opted out of the second half.

As a die hard Sooner alum, I couldn’t feel worse for the guy. Pure class.

Soonervino, appreciate the post. Echoes my feelings exactly (except for the part about not giving a rat’s ass about McCoy). The kid is 100% class, always has been, and is 100% genuine, unlike St. Tebow.
I feel pretty much the same way about Bradford — don’t like the team he played for but think a lot of him personally. I really hope he can rehab his shoulder and have a good pro career.

“Back to the original theme of the post: Texas lost to an Alabama team that was a little better.”
-— Respectfully, this is an unnecessary statement because A) it’s obvious because they beat us by not that much of a margin when it mattered B) we all know it would be different if Colt had played

“the key to the game was Bama blocking our defensive front better that we blocked theirs. This played out most meaningfully on the goal line.”
-- Absolute drivel. Complete and absolute nonsense regurgitated over and over by ESPN guys sucking up to the SEC! Our defensive front was MILES better than theirs. We sacked them 5 times out of 17 dropbacks; they got us one time out of 45. They ran on us, but ANYBODY would be able to stop a Frosh backup QB that can only hand off. Again, if Colt was in the game, totally different. And in the end, we OUTGAINED them in total yards.

“They scored TD’s all three times they got close and held us to field goals on both of our redzone penetrations.”
--Again, as I saw the game, our 2 times: once stopped us with Colt, once stopped GG when still handcuffed and shell shocked. Their 3 times: one drive was from the 3 yard line and we stopped them on the first 2 downs and almost the third, one was kinda legit with a noncall, and the other was a 3rd down with Mount Cody obviously moving. Hard to win only with good D, too much pressure on them with 5 turn overs.

So I will take a plus 4 in sacks against their one stop and one legit RZ TD without the heart and soul of our offense and team any day. Our D was awesome and obviously better than theirs and if not more physical, then more quick and explosive. BAM.

Thanks for the outstanding post, Soonervino.

yeah, as far as the defenses go, would you trade our defense for theirs, straight up?

They’ve got a terrific defense, and abused a freshman, but I wouldn’t trade. To be honest, their fans probably wouldn’t trade either, which probably means both defenses are pretty darn good.

I will represent Colt for free in his lawsuit against the village idiot

“Seriously? Gideon’s weaknesses are a constant major topic of discussion on every longhorn message board.”

Nope. Not on OB. He’s generally untouchable there. For every vocal critic there, there are 10 rabid, firebreathing Gideon defenders ready to shout down any discussion of his shortcomings.

erndoggiedog,

Respectfully, are you saying you take our offensive line, particularly run blocking, over Alabama’s? Sure, Cody flinched and was allowed to get away with it. I also thought Bama got some help from the refs’ refusal to call offensive holding.

Still, they block the run extremely well. And they did it where it counted—on the goal line with the game on the line. Our OL problems have been discussed here all season. That we have still gone 13-0 and represented as well as we did given all that went against us vs. Bama says a lot about the overall strength of the program.

Agree on our getting five sacks on less than 20 pass attempts also. A key factor there was less the their OL blocking poorly and more the inability of their WR’s to shake our pass coverage. They got dominated by our secondary. It is also true that Greg McElroy is not exactly Peyton Manning in the pocket.

Like all of us, I feel cheated not to have seen what we could do with Colt in the game. My point is that the game is still about blocking and tackling. If you can run the ball when you need to you are at a distinct advantage. They could and we couldn’t and that was hard to overcome.

NVHorn, the vast majority of the posters on Orangebloods are retarded. I go there very rarely.

“NVHorn, the vast majority of the posters on Orangebloods are retarded. I go there very rarely.”

Chris Whaley = the next Mark Ingram!!! In da houze!!!

Confirmed.

I’m not saying I would take our O-line over their’s. I’m saying that in this game, O-line versus opposing D-line is a matchup that we won. Especially if you consider how Colt changes the whole dynamic of the game if he was in. We couldn’t run block, but could for the most part pass block. They couldn’t pass block, but could run block. We even out-gained them in yards and had basically just as many first downs as they did (15 to 16). So no, they DID NOT dominate us upfront. The difference in the game was that our QB got injured and our not quite ready, but courageous, 2nd QB had 5 TOs. Well, that and our receivers couldn’t catch a cold. But we already knew that going in.