Texas-Texas Tech 2010 Post Mortem - Offense

Yep. I’m finally pretty firmly in the “fire Greg Davis” camp. The things he has traditionally done well are not being done well right now. The things he has traditionally done poorly are as crappy as ever.
There isn’t anything particularly wrong with the running scheme but it’s executed horrifyingly bad.

I have little hesitation in saying that Air Force, with their 260 pound OL, has a better offense than Texas. If we had their offense, we win the Big 12.

The emperor’s new running game. Yes, GD sucks ass, but where is Mack Brown?? He sees the same thing everyone else sees, and does nothing to correct poor play. This is what I can’t understand. It’s like wiping your ass with a wagon wheel—no end to it.

I was watching the Colts game last night and they talked about how they put Moore, their old offensive coordinator, in some kind of “Emeritus Role.”

I hope Mack was taking notes.

The “emeritus” implies merit for getting a cushy salary for doing nothing. Has Greg really earned that?

Hook ’em!!!

The lack of accountability really troubles me. We have had far too many false start penalties on our linemen, something that goes directly to discipline. Our line continues to make the same mistakes — like Mitchell and Snow as you reference above — but we continue to roll them out there. Receivers drop balls and make no effort on blocks. Tight ends completely whiff on blocks. Greg Davis continues to call screen plays against 2 and 3 man rushes, end arounds against outside run blitzes, and inside dives with no misdirection. The problem with all of this is that these are issues of accountability and discipline.

We are not good at anything. And we do not have a scheme that allows for any adjustment.

Gilbert gets nervous in the pocket on a 3-man rush when Tech has 8 dropped in coverage for a reason — we are in a max protect, two tight-end set, which means GG has two targets being covered by 8 guys. That’s bad scheme and gives GG no chance to succeed.

At some point you have to wonder if WM is going to unleash the dogs at practice and expose the emperor without clothes. Obviously, this could cause a lot of internal conflict and most likely have an overall negative effect on the team.

However, it’s got to kill him watching this offense knowing that if they were just slightly better this team would have a legit shot at the national championship. Look at our schedule and it’s a reasonable expectation now. If our offense can just play without screwing up so much, Nebraska should be our only serious hurdle to clear.

I am at a loss as usual after a poor offensive performance against a team we don’t have a huge talent advantage over (although we do have a signifigant one versus tech). Does not Mack:

 A) Not see the offense as a failure?

B) See it but not care?

C) See it, but care more about his friendship/loyalty to his buddies?

It can only be one of those three. I think he sees it, and lets his loyalties convince him its not as bad as it is. He is incapable of objectively evaluating his friends. How is Mack’s entire tenure viewed if Hunter Lawrence misses that field gaol agasint nebraska? I submitt that nationally he would be thought of as an underachiever.

It’s pretty sad that I don’t get really worried that we’ll lose because of how great our defense is. I figure they will hold the line, and keep giving the offense opportunities. At some point we will get lucky and cash in on those opportunities based on talent alone.

I am now numb to Greg Davis. The best way to understand it is that scene from Office Space where he hides his hatred for work “deep down” and walks out numb and happy. If it surfaces at this point, I will probably need an ambulance.

Damn, this was a depressing Monday morning read.

Not much more to add other than you nailed it perfectly. Going into the season, I told the GF that I’d just rather watch the defense all game than the offense. Yup.

Over at Burnt Orange Nation, ElongatedHorn has a nice series up about our issues going into the season. Three of them were about the offense; one about the defense. Guess which problem has been fixed so far? Yup.

Garrett Gilbert needs to get in the face of his linemen and scream. If GD and Mac aren’t going to install accountability, your QB needs to. Do it, sir.

One thing I’m curious about besides one of the worst coaching jobs I’ve ever seen, is special teams.

First of all, is it not taught to shy away from a kickoff obviously headed out of bounds?

Secondly, why is the blue hell would you call for a punt block at 4<5?

“But I don’t hike on an exposed ridge line when a storm is blowing in. "

Pussy.

I welcome every UGA defeat. May the Fighting Richts never taste victory again. It may be our only chance at killing the Albatross provided that Will really wants to be the man in Austin.

It’s clear that Mack/Greg’s offensive philosophy is to recruit offensive war daddy’s who can improvise their way to victory. If one can create an identity for us to build around then so much the better. Which why we’ve gone out of our way to recruit arm talents with less than Davisian offense saving mobility and a hodge lodge of ill conforming talent to surround them.

Wi

Nothing ever changes on offense, and yes, it always requires extraordinary talent operating outside the confines of our system for us to have success against good defenses. Contrast that with the last three games against Tech, all coached by Muschamp.

2008: We get our doors blown off. Poor performance all around on defense.

2009: We improve substantially in the most important area (points) but still give up quite a bit of yardage. Huge improvements overall.

2010: We shut Tech the F down in a way that no team has in decades.

There’s a tangible and obvious feedback mechanism on defense. Muschamp is capable of seeing what works and what doesn’t and taking the necessary steps to correct the things that need fixing. Davis continues to flail away with no idea what to do about it. Worse, it’s not clear that the organization even senses a systemic problem and instead treats each successive failure against a good defense as a random event buoyed by our handsome statistical averages that are built at the expense of inferior opponents.

Thanks for putting this in perspective, Scipio. Now I know why I went through as much Guinness as I usually do on St. Patty’s day.

Tech also had a lot fewer yards per paly against us then either Wyoming or Rice. Not that that means or offense doesnt’ suck, just thought i’d throw it out there.

Muschamp will certainly not measure up to to Mack in some areas. I suspect that immolation of reporters asking inopportune questions at a press conference via his steely stare might be a problem.

I am ready for competence and accountability throughout our program though. That or a Ryan/Gilbride moment in our lockeroom.

We need a new RB coach. GDGD can only do so much by himself.

The Texas offense, brought to you by Massengale, reminded us again of what we’ve come to expect against defenses with a pulse in a pressurhttp://barkingcarnival.fantake.com/2010/09/20/texas-texas-tech-2010-post-mortem-offense/e environment.

Well, as bad as the offense is, at least it only performs against quality defenses, right? Just take a look at how Texas’s performance against Rice and Wyoming ranks compared to those teams’ other opponents:

 Offensive Performance vs. Rice

1. Northwestern (451 yards, 5.8 YPP)
2. UNT (420 yards, 5.3 YPP)
3. Texas (369 yards, 5.3 YPP)

vs. Wyoming

1. Boise State (648 yards, 7.5 YPP)
2. Texas (389 yards, 6.1 YPP)
3. S. Utah (384 yards, 4.9 YPP)

Oh. Oh shit. Seriously?

The ONLY team we’ve outgained this year against any of our opponents is Southern Utah, a 1-AA team with an uninspiring 1-2 record. Texas’s offense has been outperformed by SMU, UNT, Northwestern, and the University of New Mexico. New Mexico, for Christ’s sake!

In the past, we dominated the scrub teams on our schedule but then stumbled against quality defenses. Our troubles aren’t limited to games against quality defenses anymore. We’re fucking up against everybody. If we can’t dominate Rice, what the hell should we expect against Nebraska?

“The humorous thing is that our own coaches believed we’d been sandbagging, as if a -8 yard James Kirkendoll sack on an end-around pass was key to our offense being able to run for more than 93 yards on 43 attempts against a defense that New Mexico and SMU handled better than we did.
Speaking of:
SMU 5.0
New Mexico 5.5
Texas 4.1
That’s what each team averaged in yards per play against that Tech defense. "

Maybe it is Chicken Little day, but I’d like to point something out.
Rice – 3.7
Wyo – 4.2
Ttech – 2.7

That is waht each team averaged per play against our defense. By your line of reasoning, does that mean we should think Rice and Wyoming are better offensive teams than Tech? Or could this have something to do with a very amped Tech team and crowd?

I’m not saying that aren’t things to improve. Our OL has a lot of problems and the plays called for the running game need to improve. But we did see 3 long drives in the first half that featured intermediate to long throws. Unfortunately, 2 ended with ints because of (mainly) bad OL play. Then we had one VERY long drive at the end of the third/start of the 4th.

Then we went into clock kill mode. I don’t think we attempted another pass on the next 3 drives. We could have called some better running plays, but I think this is a result of the Muschamp influence (and possibly the fact that we had already had 3 fluke-ish ints). If we have a 2 possession lead in the 4th, we will play VERY conservatively. Meaning no more pases, which also means almost no more first downs with our running game.

Again, still a lot to improve, but I’m not about to start screaming that the sky is falling.

Nebraska is going to be a woodshed beatdown spanking. If we can get by UCLA & OU somehow, then we can write-off that game and play with nothing to lose.

we could have jim brown as rb and he would have the same stats against tech. it aint the fucking rb or the rb coach. no mortal man can run through a wall of defeated texas linemen.

“If we can’t dominate Rice, what the hell should we expect against Nebraska?”

I’ll give you a hint: We saw it last December.

I am sad. Running the football at Texas really shouldn’t be this hard. You should be able to average 3 ypc without ever pushing anyone of a hole, but you do have to have linemen put a hat on someone. This is the Chris Simms offense, and there is no Vince Young coming to the rescue. :(

Eyes,

“The ‘emeritus’ implies merit for getting a cushy salary for doing nothing. Has Greg really earned that?”

Doesn’t he already hold this position?

I can’t imagine how frustrating it must be for Muschamp to see the chronic failures and lack of accountability on offense, while he and his squad are engaged in continuous improvement. The defense makes this team at least 3-wins better than it would be otherwise.

At some point, you have to begin to wonder when the frustration over the sliding scale of performance & expectations between offensive and defensive performance will be too much for Muschamp to put up with. We all know that Mushchamp’s repuation continues to improve, and he continues to solidify his position at the top of the prospective Head Coach candidates. I see no change in this trajectory.

The main question is this: if push comes to shove, and it comes down to a decision between Muschamp leaving and fundamental changes on the offense, what will Mack do?

My gut tells me that Mack would let Muschamp leave.

Credit where credit is due – aside from the one pose-up that I saw (which fortunately was not flagged), Kirkendoll had a very good game. He needs to show more of that to justify a continued meaningful role and playing time.

“…we will see more individual playmaking and freelancing, which is what real offensive production at Texas has always been based on against any real defense.”

Bingo!

The ability to make lemonade out of dogshit blocking and shitbird schemes was the hallmark of both Vince and Colt in the GD offense. Now we have a QB more similar to Simms than either Vince or Colt, and that scares the shit out of me.

Any criticism pointed toward Greg David is wide right of the root cause. This is Mack Brown’s offense. Always has been, always will be. He is the one that lets this mess continue to happen. Every head coach has a background on one side of the ball or the other. Mack’s background is on the offensive side of the ball.

Greg Davis is obsolete. The game passed him by years ago. He’s as innovative as tootsie roll at this point. (Any physical resemblance to said tootsie roll is a mere coincidence) This much is obvious to everyone.

We’re just as bad on offense at this point as we were on defense when Carl Reese was shown the door. Mack hasn’t seen fit to do anything about it. That’s on him.

I fear that Muschamp is going to say the hell with it, and take whichever SEC job fancies him after we wrap up a 10-2 campaign, featuring 2 losses where we fail to crack the 17 point barrier.

No telling where the program goes from there, but I think it would be foolish to think it goes anywhere but south. The only question is the extent of said decline.

Wood Shed – that is such a great point. I wish I’d have thought to say it. :)

Hook ’em!!!

What’s the deal with Mac Whorter? While Davis remains the subject of much ignominy, most of it deserved, Mac Whorter has remained relatively free of individual scrutiny.

I was struck by the sight of Mack dressing him down on the sideline after the deflected screen interception where Smith should have been cut. It’s not that Mack isn’t capable of showing his anger at players or coaches, just that he’s mostly disciplined about keeping from public display. That kind of boiling over on the sideline at an assistant makes me wonder if there’s more heat there than we’re aware of.

A more revealing point would be whether or not Davis is equally as angered and expressive towards his same assistant as Mack. If not, that is a bigger concern to me than dumb play calling.

I put myself through 3 quarters of masochism watching Duke play Alabama Saturday. One thing I dd see was an undersized Duke o-line creating holes against the ‘Bama d-line to the tune of 100 first half rushing yards and 140 or so overall. Sure some of that is ’Bama giving Duke the run to an extent, but it just magnified the fact that our o-line is schemed horribly. Our RBs have no holes to run through at all. Duke was popping off 5-8 yard runs against ’Bama’s defense with regularity. Any remote possibility we could pull that off?

And I agree also with the people pointing to Stanford, as well.

I literally had to get high to watch the second half. It was much more enjoyable that way. I highly recommend.

@triplehorn:

I think MacWhorter has received plenty of heat for OL performance, not to say that he hasn’t deserved it. A reasonable person could argue that Kennedy and Chambers (and even Applewhite, for that matter) have not done that much to elevate the play of their respective position groups. Which leads back to the common thread among them…

On your comment about GD’s means of expression – note the observations of how the coordinators interact with the players halftime against Rice from the Pat Forde series. Nothing more needs to be said.

@A-Tex:

I had a similar reaction after watching the Boise-VT game. The Boise OL knows how engage and drive the guys that they block. I reacted with a blend of admiration, emptyness and rage.

As many on here have posted ad nauseum, the most effective blocking schemes use angles and leverage. We don’t.

Agree with pretty much everything you wrote. Love the hiking example.

Mack really likes to emphasize trick plays in practice because it is fun for both the coaches and the players and breaks the monotony. The reality is that a huge part of football is getting everybody on the same page and executing. That means lots of repetition.

The play where the center hiked the ball directly to Malcolm on the end around was insane, especially given that the horns were shaken at the time.

Malcolm can catch the ball OK when he focuses on just catching the ball instead of YAC. I’d like to see him lined up on the same side with another WR (Goodwin, for example) who can really run. Malcolm would be great at blocking the WR screens and shield blocking the OLB on outside runs and roll outs. He also has the body to handle the tough hits on passes over the middle (assuming he can just forget about YAC until he has caught the ball and tucked it away).

After Gilbert had the 3 picks, he lost his composure a bit, which is completely normal for a true sophomore starting his 3rd game. That was partially why he got sacked instead of throwing the ball away. Gilbert still made a bunch of excellent plays. The TD pass to Matthews was a helluva play.

Gilbert isn’t completely blameless for the 2 picks that were deflected at the line of scrimmage. If the DE wasn’t already going down from a cut block when Gilbert released the ball, why would Gilbert expect that the DE goes down in the blink of an eye between when the ball leaves Gilbert’s hand and when it zips over the DE? The timing of the cut block has to be just right (because the DE can pop right back up) but the OT can’t see when the QB releases the ball so how does he time his block perfectly? BTW, after the cut block, the OT is on the ground and there is a good chance the DE is standing after the temporary inconvenience.of the cut block (i.e. not good if the QB hasn’t yet thrown the ball). Mack yelled at the OL coach but it is difficult to perfect what you don’t practice (i.e. no cut blocks in practice). It is probably more reliable when pass blocking for the OT to keep his feet and attack the DE, forcing the DE to defend himself. Anyway, Gilbert needs to glance at the DE right before he releases the ball to make sure there is a clear path for the pass.

In a recent poll, drivers were asked what their reasons were for their failure to signal when making a turn. The third most common response was, “It makes things more exciting.”

I believe this is why Mack keeps Greg around.

I finally reached acceptance this game and started laughing at our offense. I mean, that’s what it is: Laughable. After watching Air Force give OU everything they could handle with a very disciplined triple option, the ineptitude we are seeing just breaks my heart. For the mouth breathers on the site: I don’t want to go to a triple option, I just want to see some order to our offense. Something that resembles a plan. Either open up the offense and throw the ball all over the yard, or just live with running clock and running the ball out of the I, but this mis mas of garbage is just sad to watch.

It’s beyond comprehensible at this point, because there are some good football minds on this squad and their must be a sense that something is dreadfully wrong despite the fog of war.

RichUT said:

September 20th, 2010 at 7:37 am

Any criticism pointed toward Greg David is wide right of the root cause. This is Mack Brown’s offense. Always has been, always will be. He is the one that lets this mess continue to happen. Every head coach has a background on one side of the ball or the other. Mack’s background is on the offensive side of the ball.

Greg Davis is obsolete. The game passed him by years ago. He’s as innovative as tootsie roll at this point. (Any physical resemblance to said tootsie roll is a mere coincidence) This much is obvious to everyone.

We’re just as bad on offense at this point as we were on defense when Carl Reese was shown the door. Mack hasn’t seen fit to do anything about it. That’s on him.

I fear that Muschamp is going to say the hell with it, and take whichever SEC job fancies him after we wrap up a 10-2 campaign, featuring 2 losses where we fail to crack the 17 point barrier.

No telling where the program goes from there, but I think it would be foolish to think it goes anywhere but south. The only question is the extent of said decline.

You’re right, we suck and will probably lose the rest of our games. You should find a new team to “support” immediately!

You guys are some miserable bastards and deserve each other.

RichUT said: I fear that Muschamp is going to say the hell with it, and take whichever SEC job fancies him after we wrap up a 10-2 campaign, featuring 2 losses where we fail to crack the 17 point barrier.

Chris responded: You’re right, we suck and will probably lose the rest of our games.

Do you want a do-over on the whole “accurately reading RichUT’s post” thing, Chris?

Tally Ho!

Dreamwagon sighting at 10 o’clock!

“Stats are for losers — I like winning games.”

Wait, now… who said that again? Seems like problematic quotes come from many sources.

I agree with those who feel Mack’s loyalty to his friends is a curse to this team, but it’s also a blessing. His sincerity and kind-heartedness make his recruiting life the spectacular success it is.

Another way to put it: If it weren’t these traits, we would not be in a position to underutilize some of the best talent in the nation… year after year after year.

I hope this puts an end to the “we’re an SEC team — just accept it” concept. We’re not, and we’re not going to be at any point this season. We do not have the talent, and we certainly don’t have the coaching.

It’s a rebuilding year, folks. We will lose to Nebraska, possibly Oklahoma, possibly others. If you’re going to accept something, it should be that.

There’s a really good chance Texas wins the Big 12 South, plays for the conference championship and maybe even the national title. I think this is a good team, mostly because of the Defense.

But Rich is right: Georgia, Muschamp’s alma mater and located in one of the best college towns in America, lost again this weekend. The chances of Muschamp leaving at the end of the season are growing with each Georgia lost and each weak Texas offensive performance. And Muschamp is the future of Texas football as we can currently envision it.

that’s sobering, but dead on analysis. The offense does nothing well. For a moment there, before the first Gilbert Int, I thought G Davis had a gameplan that was working. Obviously, the Tech coaches adjusted, and G Davis put his head in the ground.

I’ve been happy with the increasing evidence that our defense will keep us in any game we play.

I’m increasingly alarmed that our offense will keep the other team in any game we play.

I’ve learned from reading and the radio that the offensive right side of the line is a weakness, so I understand why the running plays go to the left. What I’ve always disliked about the running play calling is that Davis seems to repeat a running play immediately after it has worked. Of course, the subsequent effort is stuffed by a good team because they’ve just seen the play. Then Davis seems to be afraid to run the play at all for too long, then repeats the process.

The offense is Mack’s one blind spot. He is a numbers guy and smart. He can read the numbers the way he wants to see what he wants to see. Or, at least, he has been able to do that in the past when we padded our season statistics with blowouts of the weak. The only way there are changes on offense is if we over the period of maybe two years have indefensible numbers. We may be in year one.

I was encouraged by the play action on the goal line out of the jumbo set to Matthews, probably the first time we’ve done that in year’s. Which probably means we will never, ever see it again.

#72, after playing two bad defenses and one somewhat average one.

http://www.ncaa.com/sports/m-footbl/stats/ncaa-m-footbl-fbs-team-total-offense.html

Our entire 2-deep on defense could have collectively torn their ACL’s before the season and our defense wouldn’t rank #72 under Muschamp.

I know it sucked. But part of me will always be an optimist.

I went to bed with visions of the 2008 OU game dancing in my head. In hindsight it seems almost certain that we will never again see Greg Davis so thoroughly pants a competent defensive staff with similar talent on the field as he did that day. Of course, before that game it seemed almost certain that it would never happen. It was a glory to behold and in the glow of the aftermath of that game I was ready to forgive Davis for years of agony.

A man can dream. I am all aboard the Dream Wagon, you fuckers. Despite the fact that early returns from my stats calculations put our offense at around #80 in the country in adjusted performance so far. Whatever Davis ate during OU week 2008 needs to be fed to him via IV if necessary.

Despite the fact that early returns from my stats calculations put our offense at around #80 in the country in adjusted performance so far.

I’m curious where the Horns’ offense would rank in terms of recruited talent. Odds are it’s well north of 80, and probably in the top 15 at worst.

Brutally accurate Scip.

No coaching accountability does lead to no player accountability. Mack treats his offensive staff like a high school team. No consequences, no demotions, no demerits, no singling out in the press, just show up and teach Health Coach Greg and Coach McWhorter.

It pains me to agree with your bleak offensive forecast for the rest of the season Scip, but I have to agree. Boom is making adjustments from play to play, while the offensive is making “adjustments” from off season to off season. That in a nutshell is the difference between our defensive and offensive staffs.

I think no drastic changes on offensive occur unless we lose to OU. The offense has adjusted after a loss to OU, but it’s usually too late to salvage a BCS game season much less a Big 12 Title.

“Do you want a do-over on the whole "accurately reading RichUT’s post" thing, Chris?”

Yes please. I was quoting the wrong guy. RichUT is absolutely right that this is Mack’s offense and GD just does what Mack tells him.

As far as you guys being miserable bastards, I stand behind that.

Just to put the performance of the Texas defense in perspective, below is a clip from an AP story (via Yahoo! Sports):

“The Longhorns handcuffed Tech’s usually potent offense, getting three-and-outs or a turnover on nine of the Red Raiders’ 15 possessions in the 24-14 win Saturday night. Texas Tech was held to 144 total yards, it’s lowest output in 20 years.”

Behold – the results of continuous self-evaluation and improvement.

“As far as you guys being miserable bastards, I stand behind that.”

But are we wrong?

I’m with Huck L. Berry, though I’d rather be with Hal E. Berry. We’re going to run the motherloving table. You’ll see. You will all see.

Greg Davis and Mac McWhorter are like Coach Klein from the Waterboy. Will Muschamp is Bobby Boucher. I’m waiting for Boom to jump up and down emphatically while yelling, “Mr. Coach Davis…you got yo manhood! You got yo manhood!” Sadly, I don’t see it happening. Our defense is getting scary good and our offensive game plan continues to disappoint. We don’t look prepared and, worst of all, we don’t adjust.

"
magnusbleuveigner said:

September 20th, 2010 at 8:49 am

"As far as you guys being miserable bastards, I stand behind that."

But are we wrong?

I’m with Huck L. Berry, though I’d rather be with Hal E. Berry. We’re going to run the motherloving table. You’ll see. You will all see."

Anyone can see we have an o-line that is struggling and a very young QB that is trying to figure things out. Out team hasn’t come close to their ceiling. And what’s the benefit of bitching and moaning constantly? At the end of the day you can be happy for the win against Tech or brooding about a potential loss that won’t even be played for 2 weeks!

Oh, and Huck – that 2008 Sooner defense was BY FAR their weakest in the Stoops era. http://barkingcarnival.fantake.com/2009/10/23/piling-on/ Greg never had a problem trouncing shitty defenses. That’s what happened in 2008.

This season’s Sooner defense is currently ranked #89 nationally, around 20 spots worse than the 2008 unit. So, there’s certainly hope that our offense will break out of this funk in Dallas. Unfortunately, the Horns are struggling to rack up yards and points against terrible defenses: Tech’s YPG minus the Texas game is right around where OU is currently sitting; take it’s game against Texas away, and Rice is hovering around #100 in total defense; and Wyoming is currently ranked #112 in total defense. So, there’s really no comfort in OU’s defensive ineptitude thus far. No matter how inept the opposing defense has been this season, our offense has been worse.

They were 24th in adjusted yards per play.

Linky

Not nearly their best, but they were a decent defense that got humiliated that day. And by humiliated you have to remember that the context we’re dealing with is Greg Davis versus Oklahoma.

Hey Chris, go bury your head back in the sand, pal. Otherwise, I would recommend Hookem 24/7 if you’re looking for 24-hour-a-day sunshine.

Per Mack’s PC – the problem is that the fans haven’t supported/gotten behind the offense yet, because they are spoiled from last year’s masterwork.

I’m happy with the Tech win, Christopher. You can sugar coat things with “we haven’t come close to our ceiling” all you want. You might notice however, that save for having VY at QB, our offense never comes close to our ceiling. Do you know why? It’s because Greg Davis is a shitty coordinator with an equally shitty ability to develop the abundance of talent that is routinely dropped in his khaki’d lap.

“Per Mack’s PC – the problem is that the fans haven’t supported/gotten behind the offense yet, because they are spoiled from last year’s masterwork.”

No. No way. He didn’t say this.

Sounds just like him to me, nordberg. I’d love to see the transcript for confirmation, though.

I literally agree on all accounts. Some auspicious predictions I see coming true:

• The NU game is going to be UGLY.
• We very well could be picking Cotton this season.

He indeed said that the problem was that people haven’t gotten behind it, people were spoiled, etc.

 And the only problem with the offensive line was that it was just one guy having a bad game each game, and it just happened to be a different guy each game, so there’s nothing to be done other than to coach and play better. Anybody whining about a win in Lubbock, which is apparently like fighting blaster-master in Thunderdome, is a spoiled brat, I think he actually said it was “stupid” to not commemorate it.

Also the kids…did you know it’s all about the kids? It is indeed all about the kids.

Literally.

Scipio:

“As Gilbert matures, we will see more individual playmaking and freelancing, which is what real offensive production at Texas has always been based on against any real defense.”

Wow. It’s amazing how that one sentence really encapsulates the entire 12 years of Greg Davis offense at UT. I wish we could have had Mackovic stay on as offensive coordinator. He had some faults for sure, but he sure could direct a running game.

They were 24th in adjusted yards per play.

Away with thine statistical trickery, witch!

“He indeed said that the problem was that people haven’t gotten behind it, people were spoiled, etc.”

And maybe, just maybe, Mack has gotten spoiled by having some of the best defenses in the nation and monumental performances by his last two QBs that overcome fundamental shortcomings in offensive scheme and playcalling.

Mack has built up so much goodwill (and deference) over the years, and especially so in the last few. Why does he insist on trying to piss it away with statements like this? The antagonism is neither necessary nor productive.

Regarding Gilbert’s sacks on Saturday, I recall there being 3 total.

One sack happened when Matthews got whipped one on one by Duncan.

Another happened towards the end of the first half when we tried to run a screen but Mitchell got whipped again. GG, fresh of an interception as result of an identical situation just one quarter earlier, decides to peel it and eat it instead of trying to lob the ball over Smith.

I don’t really see either of those sacks as concerning, at least as it relates to Gilbert’s own actions.

You watch, sometime in the next year or so you’re going to hear Mack tell a story about how mad he was about our offensive performance over the first few games of 2010. This has happened numerous times before. “Damn fans, quit your bitching! Spoiled brats!”
(fast forward 6 months)
“I couldn’t sleep the next night I was so angry about our inability to ______ against ______”.

nordberg said:

September 20th, 2010 at 7:04 am

"If we can’t dominate Rice, what the hell should we expect against Nebraska?"

I’ll give you a hint: We saw it last December.

The problem is, NU now has a QB perfectly fit for their system.

“You might notice however, that save for having VY at QB, our offense never comes close to our ceiling.”

I seem to remember a good year or two with Colt.

Anybody whining about a win in Lubbock, which is apparently like fighting blaster-master in Thunderdome, is a spoiled brat, I think he actually said it was "stupid" to not commemorate it."

I know I’m guilty of not giving not giving Lubbock enough credit. They had (barely) over 60,000 fans, setting a new record in their newly remodeled little cracker-box of a stadium. Their fans ignored the plea for silence and were actually yelling at our kids. It can get cold on the plains AT NIGHT. I bet it was down in the 70s by the time the game ended. Miserable conditions to have to play in, for sure. So yes, we were lucky to get out of there alive.

I get that Mack doesn’t want to blast his players or team publically.

That said, snapping back on the fanbase is not the right way to handle it. Given how much Mack claims to consider the fans’ support as integral to team success, he should recognize that covering up for obvious chronic shortcomings on the offense while taking digs at critcal fans is a tad hypocritical.

UT-06, yeah “good” years. Had we been able to run, they would have been great.

Nordberg, the second blank is the only variable, the answer to your first blank will always be ‘run’.

“I seem to remember a good year or two with Colt.”

A good “year” is exactly right. 2006 we inexplicably wasted JC’s running abilities. 2007 McCoy was just bad (OL definitely to blame, to an extent). 2009 was laughable IMO.

Scipio: What a brilliant write up. I feel exactly the same way about basically every word you typed. So I’ll just add one thing: I can “live” with having a shitty OC and OL coach. If you’re bad at your job, and you try hard to fix it but still fail, well, at least you’re trying. But our offensive staff other than Major (including Mack) is the model of complacency. They honestly don’t give a shit about how utterly embarrassing their performances have been of late (the last two years) and continue to ride Muschamp’s voodoo-like coaching acumen to almost completely undeserved success. We are imbecilic on offense, and nobody seems to give a shit outside of the fans. If I were Muschamp, I would have ended all of them by now. ACCOUNTABILITY. Have some pride in your work and at least admit when you are not doing your job. If Mack actually had the audacity to say those quotes listed above, I’m going to flip shit.

As usual, great write-up.

As usual, Greg Davis and this offense are not even worthy of such spot-on analysis.

I’d hire Blake B.

I seem to remember a good year or two with Colt.

If you’re including 2008 in that recollection, then you might want to consider how pathetic were the defenses Texas faced that season:

http://barkingcarnival.fantake.com/2009/09/01/beating-shitty-defenses-the-2008-texas-longhorns/

HJ said: " ."

One of HJ’s greatest contributions.

Ah, crap. Looks like the prairie aggie sister site is going with “the refs threw the game” explanation again.

Old, stale, and sad.

Deja vu all over again. You think he is thin skinned now. Just wait. What Mack really meant was that on most plays there was one guy doing his job.

I’m with Huck L. Berry, though I’d rather be with Hal E. Berry. We’re going to run the motherloving table. You’ll see. You will all see.

I also still see the possibility, anyway. The only problem with this Ohio State impression is that I would foresee a Floridian-style beatdown in the BCSCG.

Ah, crap. Looks like the prairie aggie sister site is going with "the refs threw the game" explanation again.

Heh. If the game were still going on, Tech still would not have scored again, unless there was another interception.

Assuming reporters still get to ask questions at a Mack presser, why doesn’t someone stand up and say “Coach, your offense is horrible and your OC is a pussy. What are YOU going to do about it?”

“The chances of Muschamp leaving at the end of the season are growing with each Georgia [loss] and each weak Texas offensive performance. And Muschamp is the future of Texas football as we can currently envision it.”

It sure enough seems like a good possibility that Boom might heed the call of Alma Mater if (more likely, when) it comes. It probably hinges not so much on Mack shitcanning Davis as on Mack being ready to ascend to the Right Hand of Saint Darrell and toss the keys to Will. Will might not ask him to, but then again, he might. I can imagine a conversation going something like “Mack, I’m done ‘waiting’ – I’m gonna step up. Where… well, that depends on you. I’d like to do it right here – my wife loves Austin, we’ve got a good thing going, and I’d like to run it… but if not, well, I’m gonna go on back to Georgia. It’s your call, Mack… what say?”

Will might not ask at all, he might just pack up and leave. Thanks for everything, hope we can play each other soon. And Mack seems likely to let him go, I agree with that. Back at the start of the year, I said that I kinda thought Mack would let go if we brought home the Xtal Ball, but it didn’t happen.

Boom leaving would not necessarily be the end of civilization as we know it. It does change the picture, of course, but it becomes bigger rather than smaller… for instance, would Chris Petersen tell us to fuck off if we offered him everything short of an orange turf? I think not.

Chinese curse or not, we do live in intersting times.

I think that Mack continues to chalk his team’s offensive foibles as a bunch of kids playing at football, after all. Can’t much fix immaturity and lack of attention span, you know..

My real worry at this point is that Muschamp’s frustration at the built-in permanent offensive systemic flaw here at UT will cause him to jump ship when the call go out for Mark Richt’s head at the end of the season.

"Mack, I’m done ‘waiting’ – I’m gonna step up. Where… well, that depends on you. "

Good morning, Tex Long, what color is the sky in your world today?

Right. Because Mack who is in the middle of the Salad Days of Texas Football is going to just step aside and let Boom take over and fire his best friend.

We also won stuff before Saint Boom arrived, or at least I’d guess that’s the soundtrack in Mack’s head right now.

HenryJames works out to the St. Elmo’s Fire soundtrack.

Yeah, a ‘W’ is a ‘W’ is a ‘W’.

And GD is sucking the joy out of it.

I need to develope a new coping mechanism to deal with our OC. Man does that suck!

Scipio, I didn’t read all of the responses, too depressing.

I would like to mention something that one of our message board legends told me early in the Mack Brown era. He said that we would never again have a head coach at Texas that stayed for 20 years, and he didn’t believe that someone could handle the job for 10 years. He felt that the job had become too big and the pressure too great.

Mack has handled it and handled it well since 1998, specifically because he delegates. I think Davis is in charge of the offense with input from Mack, and if Davis and Mack have been together for 18 years how would you differentiate one offense from another?

There is no question that Mack was upset on the sideline. McWhorter should be accountable for the performance of the linemen, unless he is telling Davis he needs to avoid certain types of plays to account for limitations and Davis doesn’t listen. A great coach fits scheme to talent. Davis did that for Vince. Is he working on it for Gilbert and the transition simply not complete?

According to the SI article, any bloodbath of coaches is held behind closed doors on Monday afternoon. They may call the paramedics today. Mack and Muschamp know how good this team can be. They have both had one before. I think heads will roll today, and they should.

Nothing can be done about past recruiting mistakes, right now, except work with the personnel we have. What we can do is recruit lights out for the future, and I haven’t seen any recent complaints.

I think Gilbert played a really nice game, as did Jeffcoat, and Davis. The defense, as a whole, was stellar. Now, it’s on to UCLA.

Hook ’em!

On Saturday I went to my son’s football game at 9 AM, took him to see the Washington-Nebraska game at 12:30, and made it home in time to see the Texas game in Lubbock in its entirety. I can’t imagine feeling worse after a day the teams I care about went 2-1. The best offensive execution I saw all day (from the teams I was rooting for, anyway) was from the Eastlake Rookie White team.

I still find it amusing that there were people who figured that the Texas offensive staff had kept things vanilla up to this point, so as not to tip their hand. I remember clinging to that belief in the early part of aughts, only to be rudely disabused of such fantasies by shocking pictures which were beamed into my living room from Dallas. This offense looks exactly like the Chris Simms iteration of the offense, circa 2002-2003. Except that there are no Ced Bensons and Roy Wiliamses in sight. Oof.

Little Bill waxes nonsensical about the Tech game and informs us that we had a balanced attack:

The balanced Longhorn attack mixed a total of eight players with rushing statistics and seven players with receptions, led by James Kirkendoll’s 122 yards on six catches.

And it was the stifling late summer heat of Lubbock and their vocal fans we had to overcome. Thankfully, our kids withstoood it:

In the stiflingly steamy opponents’ dressing room beside the tunnel where the vocal Tech fans had greeted them several hours before, the Longhorns celebrated their third victory in their last four trips to Lubbock. Mack Brown talked about his team as one which was close to exhaustion in the late summer heat, but one which had met the challenge and withstood it.

But Bill always saves the best (Read: corniest) for last:

Observers, on the other hand, talked about the strange things that always happen in Lubbock. How a game on the brink of a possible runaway had turned into a neck-and-neck race with but thirty minutes to play on a moon-lit night on the South Plains. “Easy,” in fact, might have been fun and might have been cool, and there might even have been some hollow payback in that.
But the truth is, it is the horse who is challenged and then holds off the challenger, who not only wins the race, but becomes the champion. It is then that the kid in all of us comes out to play, and shows that character is not built, but revealed.

We actually pay this guy to write this shit.

http://www.mackbrown-texasfootball.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/091910aae.html

You know what else is cool – problem solving and talent maximization.

Damned Rummy.

“Eastlake Rookie White team.”

Redmond, the ‘eastlake’ doesn’t refer to Lake Union does it? My old man lives in Seattle. Wallingford, imo.

I’m loving this. We’re looking at one great post and something like 80-90 comments confirming (in great detail with convincing logic and supporting evidence) that Greg Davis is a completely incompetent retard, and yet many of you continue to point to the 2008 RRS game as proof that there’s hope while ignoring the obvious fact that Davis had nothing to do with it. No, Huck, Greg Davis didn’t “pants” the OU defense. Greg Davis got flat-out lucky.

First of all, Blaine Irby’s injury that year was the best thing to happen to Greg Davis. He literally had to be dragged, kicking and screaming, out of his little box to think creatively. By the time the RRS came around, all that was left for him was a 4 wide set. Even that wasn’t working in the first half. 4 yards per play at halftime, and UT was only down one at halftime because of atrocious kick coverage by OU that hasn’t been seen before or since that season.

Second, Brent Venables made the mother of all personnel management mistakes. Instead of having a solid backup prepared for a MLB who had blown out a knee twice, he put all his focus into prepping his starter. For those of you who don’t know, Venables runs his front 7 through one guy, usually the MLB. At that point, our MLB was a 5th yr senior flanked by a true freshman and a converted safety. We went from a MLB who was a B- to a backup who was, at best, a D-. What’s worse, now none of the LB’s understand or know where to be in coverage. Hell, OU spent the next 3 weeks trying to prepare a backup, and our next MLB after the RRS was SS Nic Harris. Kansas put 35 on us just by running Dez Briscoe on drag routes. Note that this problem could’ve been fixed by spending the offseason preparing a solid backup. This is an utter and complete failure resting solely on the coaching staff.

Finally, despite OU putting up 35 points, Muschamp figured out how to clamp down the OU offense in the 2nd half, and he prevented UT from getting into a shootout. By the middle of the 4th quarter, long drives where UT could convert 3rd and long at will with the Shipley Slant, combined with the no-huddle turning into the no-points offense, gassed the only thing keeping OU in the game: the D-line. And that was that.

In short, the 2008 RRS was fool’s gold with respect to the Greg Davis offense. It wasn’t a product of good coaching and good adjustments, it was a confluence of good fortune and timely defense. Watch the 2009 RRS game. Greggy tried that offensive attack plan (almost the exact same plan) last year in the RRS, too. And, wouldn’t you know it, the slant was suddenly gone! Fool’s gold, gentlemen. Fortunately, Muschamp’s D is exponentially more stout than it was in 2008, and UT may not need Greg to be competent to win the conference.

“Good morning, Tex Long, what color is the sky in your world today?”

If you opened your eyes, you’d see it’s the same color as it is in yours.

Is Greg really Mack’s best friend? I’da thought Sally filled that role. I always figured Greg must have pictures of Mack doing… whatever… something to explain why Mack (apparently) absolutely refuses to even consider dumping him (or at least kicking him upstairs or sideways). Remember, Greg had his shot at HC, and turned what Mack started at Tulane into a complete pile of shit in four years. Maybe Mack just feels bad about leaving him there…

I still think Mack woulda moved up with the Xtal Ball in hand. Why not? He woulda had nothing left to prove, and he coulda stayed right where he was, with a different sign on the door, and enjoyed all the perks, privileges, and outright adulation – hell, he prolly coulda even stayed out front as the Face of Texas. And still been heavily involved in recruiting and bigshot fan grooming.

Now? Who knows? This team looks to have a possibility of pulling together and getting past 0u and Nebba, and maybe getting to the MNCG. Prolly not, but it could happen. The D is good enough, no doubt. If the O can gain some measure of competence, it could happen. Fortunately, we’ll know in a week or two whether to even contemplate it, and two more weeks after that, we’ll know for sure how seriously to contemplate it.

Either way we go, if Georgia doesn’t pull out of the toilet, Boom’s going to be hearing that call. Saint Darrell didn’t go back to Norman, that’s true – but by the time he was Boom’s age, he’d already been HC in Austin for seven years and won an MNC.

Nothing else on Matthews? I thought he played pretty poorly as well. On one wide receiver screen pass in particular, he completely whiffed on blocking the DB, who made a TFL. There’s no reason we should have screen plays losing yardage. It just can’t happen.

I understand the frustration with GD GD – but Garret Gilbert is the man. He did not get rattled. He is composed. He will improve every week. And I completely disagree that we do not do anything well on offense. Garret Gilbert is a very effing dangerous downfield passer. And we have speed to take advantage of it. If Gilbert throws three times to open the game and goes 1-3 – we are likely to pick up the first down. Colt would have to go 3-3 in that situation. This kid will be lethal this year.

The Forde piece depicts Davis mired in the minutiae of an obsolete system, as if arcana provided the man a sense of refuge from an unimpressed world.

For this reason, I hereby coin the derisive phrase “The Autistic Offense.”

That is all.

I hate agreeing with sooners…

“There is zero accountability on this staff offensively and with a head coach that measures offensive efficacy by a W if the team wins 6-3 or 10-7, there’s no reasonable reason to expect real systemic improvement. We’re not good at anything.”

Bingo…not that it is news. If we could display that message on a banner during games, Mack would have a good chuckle. $10,000+ a day buys you one stubbornly oblivious head coach these days.

So, not that it means anything, but I wanted Greg Davis fired a long time ago. My frustration was so great, that it even spurred me to action: I developed a web-based petition for the singular purpose of canning GD, and collected several thousand names. It did not have the intended effect. But it made me feel better, that I was actively doing something about it (short of acts of terrorism and random violence).

But the clamor died down. GD was given a pass, because we were winning 10 and 11 games per season (sometimes more). I always thought that we could be doing better offensively, than we were. Always. And then, it all kind of…went away. I stopped getting angry. I came to accept mediocrity. I came to accept that GD will always be with us, as long as Mack is.

Just saying, that you all will be better off, when you come to accept the situation for what it is, not what it should be. We shouldn’t even talk about the offense, unless it is to celebrate individual performances.

Wow…the sky is falling in Texas.

I think the deal is that we’ve seen this all before. We know what this looks like and where it’s headed.

Give us a defense of similar quality and we go 6-6 this year.

Don’t worry about Neb, we’ll have a bye week to practice the Fumblerooskie.

Nate -

I clearly said that the pantsing was within the context of Texas against OU. And as you should know by watching Davis for over a decade, even if from afar, is that just because something is working and attacks a vulnerability in the defense is no guarantee that Davis will continue to pound that weakness into submission.

As I said, Davis pantsed OU that day.

When an opposing defense is able to diagnose exactly what Davis is doing and destroys his offense with it and he fails to adjust (read: frequently), we consider Davis to have been pantsed in that game. Well, that’s exactly what happened to Venables and OU 2 years ago. Obviously the OU coaches fucked up, that much is clear when Greg Davis’ offense schools your defense.

Our offense averaged 8.0 yards per play over a 7-drive stretch in that game. That is humiliating for a #1 ranked team against a Greg Davis offense.

http://firegregdavis.com/

I just listened to Mack’s press conference. A bunch of you are taking his comments out of context. He’s clearly disappointed in the offense and he’s not blaming the fans. He’s saying when he goes through rough stretches, the fans need to say behind the offense.
 
And we should. I yell my ass for the team during the game and I go into analytical mode after. If you’re a boo-bird, then fuck off.

“If you’re a boo-bird, then fuck off.”

Somewhere in rural Oklahoma, ransom stoddard is fucking off.

Don’t get me started on booing.

Being at the game, I’m actually going to come to Greg Davis’ defense on this one. Gilbert started off hot and I was frightful of a blowout. However, once he got rattled with a couple of bad plays, I can’t describe how horribly he played. It was actually way worse than Potts relative to the amount of pressure he was getting and open receivers he had. The seem routes to Mike Davis were there and he couldn’t ever find him. After Scott Smith went nuts, then Greg D seemed to reel things in and the troubles began. I think Mack got a little scared the offense was going to blow the game, and given the way the defense was playing, they weren’t going to need many points in the 2nd half to win. An offense playing not to blow the game is exactly what you get in production.

Boo-bird’s infuriate sports fans.

Hey boys…the real problem here is that Muschamp’s soon to be opportunity(ies) come without baggage in the form of an offensive “system” or worse yet a clueless coordinator. Especially in light of the fact that our offense actually makes Booms job more difficult than it should be. Could this be the catalyst for Mack to wake up and make the change? Doubtful however,one thing i am sure of is that Mack does not want to leave the program in poor shape. That would precisely be the case if Muschamp leaves and we start from scratch. I will acknowledge here that Texas would essentially have its choice of the Harbaughs etc of the coaching world. This is too bad and avoidable, sort of like watching an accident in slow motion…thoughts?

Mack needs to choose wisely among the issues – his friendship with Greg (or the pictures), his place in the Longhorn Pantheon (assured as of now), his desire for another Xtal Ball (before Saban gets a third one)…

After reviewing the film, I would say the line did fine, however Tech was often shooting the gaps. 5 lineman on 7 defense personel spells a STUFF.
Do we not have A Thumper FB? if not why the hell not!

Whatever happen to other sets, I feel like I know the whole playbook by heart now.

With regards to the WR, you’ll get more drops if they feel like they need to make a big play because the offense can’ t sustain drives.

Yes Greg Davis needed to go a while back…

I said this last week and RICH nailed it further. The problems on offense lie at the feet of Mack. Offensively Texas recruited poorly on the offensive side of the ball. There are classes that were complete wash-outs at receiver and in the offensive line, talent was not selected to mesh together, there has been poor player development, and in many cases there were too many bodies taken at some positions and not enough at others. Consider that there really aren’t any other options at this time at offensive tackle simply because there are no experienced bodies. That isn’t Davis’ fault. Nor is the poor job of identifying and developing talent by Kennedy. The track coach and Christian Scott have brought in better talent than B.K. That is all a byproduct of the head coach letting this shit go on for too long.

If you’re a boo-bird, then fuck off.

I’m at every home game cheering my ass off. But I’m sick of this shit and have been for years. It’s criminal neglect on Mack’s part and the ones being short-changed the worst are “the kids.”

Mack needs to choose wisely among the issues – his friendship with Greg (or the pictures), his place in the Longhorn Pantheon (assured as of now), his desire for another Xtal Ball (before Saban gets a third one)…

I guess it’s not assured then, is it?

How about Mack’s gutsy call on fourth and one in the third on our own 29? No?

I know… ya’ll should use the same arguments with your wives…

“Honey, you are subpar and fairly predictable in the kitchen and with the kids… frankly, you suck compared to other moms and most other girls I watch on the porn sites. It’s the same ole same ole every Friday night. You’ve got the body but you aren’t developing to maximize your true potential…. so I’ve got to hold you accountable here and let you go before you shortchange the kids and my life too badly. I know I’m choosing between my friendship for you and what’s best for team family, but its a tough call my buddies say I have to make. Besides, I don’t want to miss out on that hot single chick that moved in down the street’. Good luck.”

Buzzard Lips –
 
Perhaps you will find very favorable commentary on the 4th and 1 call under the thread titled Defense and Special Teams Post Mortem.
 
This is titled Offense Post Mortem. That’s also why I don’t talk about our outstanding defensive play either. This is what is known as a context clue.

Buzzard,

So a covenant between a man and woman is the same as an employment contract?

I don’t think Mack was discussing boo-birds, I mean they were in Lubbock in a stadium full of the detritus of the panhandle, I doubt the vocal anti-Greg Davis crowd could be heard booing lustily over the Raider Power masses, as Greg Davis dialed up multi-leveled reverse/fake handoff WR screen plays within plays straight out of “Inception”.

His “we all need to get behind the offense” is part of a long sequence of explaining why their production isn’t so hot, and it appears that his admonishment may be a preemptive warding off of boo birds (and media critics) for next Saturday for the inevitable repercussions when the horns check down to a 4 yard curl to Greg Smith on 3rd and 12 (after a false start and 2 no gain runs).

Summing up:

For reasons known only to him, Mack tolerates mediocrity among his staff on the offensive side of the ball, an attitude which his OC follows. Result: sluggish starts, underachievement and struggles against teams which are better coached or have near comparable talent.

On the other hand, Mack’s DC has higher standards. better skills and, notwithstanding Mack’s less intense approach, is demanding of accountability and performance from all under his charge. Result: the defense improves year to year and game by game during the season.

If Richt is fired and Muschamp is offered, he will leave regardless of Mack’s reshuffling of the offensive staff. The only means by which Muschamp stays is if Mack irrevocably commits to leave within a period acceptable to Muschamp. If Muschamp departs, Mack will be hard pressed to find a DC of his equal and recruiting on the defensive side will immediately suffer to a degree.

As for the offensive staff, GD is not leaving until Mack leaves. As for the others, Kennedy is probably the worst member of the coaching staff. Despite being a tremendous improvement over Nunez, who was retained far too long, McWhorter has expended his usefulness. I don’t know if the MNC inspired complacency or sloth, but the OL has struggled for years and the OL recruits have not lived up to their billings, not to mention the tremendous losses due to grades, lack of playing time, bad luck injuries (Nader, case in point) etc.

offense has taken on the personality of the offensive coordinator. bleeding vagina
defense has taken on the personality of the defensive coordinator. gangus f**king king kong

when i look at the offense i see maybe one NFL caliber player.
on defense i see 8-9 NFL caliber players running around out there.

Interesting reading as usual. at the risk of being cursed by most of the posters here, I though I would try to be a little contrarian.

1. I suspect that if Greg Davis were ever head coach (we can only hope he gets that opportunity) he would run a spread passing attack similar to Mike Leach. My point is that our current offensive strategy is almost certainly Mack Brown’s (and if you are to believe some posters, even Muschamp might have had some input). Mack wants to model ourselves after Alabama- not be overly dependent on our quarterback- we don’t really have the personnel to do that right now but if we want to recruit the right type of players (Malcolm Brown etc.) we need to prove that we are committed to that scheme. I don’t know if that is the best decision but it is way too early to tell (given that we have been to four BCS games running the spread and none in a more traditional offense, count me as very dubious, but that is on Mack to be sure)

2. No doubt the tactics of the offense, the actual playcalling are on Greg Davis and to say the least there were a lot of pathetic calls during this game. But some of them were actually pretty good calls that just went awry. I think running a screen over an aggressive defensive end is a good call- just executed extremely poorly (I’m sure plenty of people my age remember the 49ers doing that against Charles Hailey and the Cowboys in the NFC championship a few years back). The other point is that I would guess (and feel free to correct me if I’m wrong) that the offensive plays are called before the defense gets set. In other words, I doubt Davis has any idea if Tech plans to rush three or eight when he sends down the play call. I think it is up to Gilbert to recognize if the called play is unlikely to work against a specific defense and then audible. I have no idea how much latitude a very inexperienced player like Gilbert in his first road game is given to call audibles. I’m not sure what percentage of offensive play callers in college are in the pressbox versus the sideline but I wonder if having them on the sideline might be better especially with a less experienced quarterback

3. while I don’t think Tech has a very talented defense, lets give Tuberville some credit. He has a long history in the SEC of playing against more talented teams and making them close low scoring games.

4. having an inexperienced quarterback is huge. It doesn’t matter how talented they are and how talented the rest of the offense is. Look at Florida with Brantley right now (ranked 11th in the SEC on offense) or look at USC last year with Barkely (despite having 5 star players seemingly at every position). I have no idea how good Gilbert will turn out to be, but expectations for so early in his career seem to be wildly unrealistic in many cases.

5. obviously, we have much more talent on defense than offense. Some of this can be attributed to better defensive coaching but a lot is that they are just more talented kids. And what offensive talent we have is very young. Whether the lack of offensive talent is due to poor recruiting, poor talent evaluation or bad luck or all of those things, the blame has to be placed on not just on Greg Davis but all of the offensive coaches.

6. while I don’t have much hope that our offense will be great this year, I think if we can get even mediocre right tackle play and a little more from tight end then the defense may be able to get us to the Big 12 title (now I’ll quit smoking my crack pipe and be depressed like everyone else!)

Hookem

Buzzard -

Do you have my house tapped? That was eerily accurate.

In the interests of fairness to Greg (hey – I’m feeling magnanimous this morning), and with regard to some of the untimely play calling (i.e. screens against 2/3-man rush), how much of this is a result of Gilbert not being able to recognize when to check out of certain play calls?

It doesn’t explain the blocking problems or dropped passes, but it could explain why we ran some of the anti-blitz plays in non-blitzing situations.

Thoughts?

LW —

GG can’t check-down to a different play — like a running play — out of that set because he has the wrong personnel package on the field. He could, conceivably, call a timeout.

Regarding 2008, Texas did hang 468 yards and 33 first downs on an Ohio State defense that ended up 14th in total defense in the country that year.

http://scores.espn.go.com/ncf/boxscore?gameId=290050251

Davis has a lot to account for regarding our current offense but I think it’s fair to say that in 2008 he did a good job.

Toad:

That’s what I was afraid of – serves me right for giving Greg the benefit of the doubt.

I shoudn’t be surprised that all of the hope about position & personnel flexiblity would be for naught, e.g. Matthews as the TE/H-back and being able to adjust pre-snap. After all, this is the man who gave us the Tony Jefferey / Slot Reverse special.

Come on guys we’re holding back our O for the

Wyoming game, errr the Tech game, errr the UCLA game yeah the UCLA game

Toadvine,

GG might not be able to check into a running play because of personell group i.e. 5 wides and our lack of any semblance of motion in our offense , but he should be able to check into a different pass play.

Often college QB’s have 2 pass and 2 run plays available at the LOS, (I’ve heard GD express a similar philosophy numerous times). Now GD might not be giving GG that option to keep the game simpler for him, or GG might not be correctly recognizing the defense, or he might have checked into the screen. Don’t know, but I would think that our offense should have SOME way of getting out of a bad play.

Peter Bean has a nice recap / drive breakdown of the first half on BON.

There are several examples of specific problems occurring with specific individuals at the player and coach level.

One other thing that I hope I’m worrying about for no reason:

There ain’t one single scrap of paper anywhere on the 40 Acres with Malcolm Brown’s signature on it. This season’s run game could be looked at as an inevitable mishmash of subpar play while awaiting for the savior to arrive in 2011. It could also be looked at as a season-long audition to ensure that said savior’s pledge remains solid as he evaluates his college and pro prospects. Nick Saban is unlikely to take the gentlemanly approach and is, in fact, more likely to compare and contrast an 80 yard rushing day against Texas Tech with a 120-yard first quarter by a single back against Duke should the topic come up in conversation. I hope our remaining games provide us with something better in terms of counterprogramming.

Roach,

The problem is that when we were in max protect sets we didn’t have enough WRs on the field to change into anything viable and we weren’t situated to switch into a running play. When they only rush 3 and drop everyone else into coverage (and I think it was zone underneath) flipping one of our “H-backs” into a short crossing route isn’t going to help.

Similarly, checking into a running play on 3rd and 6 from a set-up screen gives us no shot at the first down, even if we have a RB on the field (and frequently we didn’t).

The blame in those situations falls squarely on GD.

Bob in Houston wrote “I guess it’s not assured then, is it?”

You have guessed unwisely. The fact that it’s assured as of now does not mean necessarily that it might not be disestablished by future actions. Let us hope that Mack chooses wisely and maintains his place.

No, that was exactly my point. If he can still screw it up, then it’s not assured.

From a purely objective standpoint, Alabama has a hell of a lot more to offer MB than we do. They have two backs showcased and rolling.

dedfischer
“Being at the game, I’m actually going to come to Greg Davis’ defense on this one. Gilbert started off hot and I was frightful of a blowout. However, once he got rattled with a couple of bad plays, I can’t describe how horribly he played. It was actually way worse than Potts relative to the amount of pressure he was getting and open receivers he had. The seem routes to Mike Davis were there and he couldn’t ever find him. After Scott Smith went nuts, then Greg D seemed to reel things in and the troubles began. I think Mack got a little scared the offense was going to blow the game, and given the way the defense was playing, they weren’t going to need many points in the 2nd half to win. An offense playing not to blow the game is exactly what you get in production.”

Lot of good insight in your comment. The whole UT team (including Mack) seemed rattled after the picks. For some reason almost all the UT fans and Mack now seem to be claiming that Gilbert wasn’t rattled.

Scott Smith looked good vs Mitchell but probably won’t look so great vs other OTs.

Obviously some of the plays called in the press box are going to turn out to be bad calls. Normally it is up to the QB to check out of those calls. When you have a rookie QB with 4 games under his belt, calling an audible to a better play may not be his strong point. Maybe the solution is for Major to override the GD call with a play call that takes into account the D formation. This will reduce the stress on Gilbert while still enabling the horns to get out of a bad play call.

Bob in Houston said: “No, that was exactly my point. If he can still screw it up, then it’s not assured.”

No, you’re pointless – you’ve missed the point. It is assured as of now. If he is run over by a truck tomorrow, he’ll be honored forever, in the same tones as Saint Darrell. If he brings in another Xtal Ball or two and hangs up his cleats, ditto, On the other hand, if he pulls a Bowden… well, you get the drift.

Actually, I think you got it before, but for some reason you want to quibble about “assured” and/or “as of now”. I’m not sure why you want to do this – maybe you’re still looking for the WMD’s of whose existence we were assured, maybe your assured pension evaporated… whatever.

Old dog, you’re welcome to your own interpretations, be they good, bad, or indifferent, but they’re yours and not mine.

Here, let me fix it for you, and we can quit bothering the others with this trivial bullshit: “If he can still screw it up, then it’s not assured, according to my definition of the meaning of ‘assured’, well that, and the fifty-seven dictionaries, thesaurii, and various learned works of reference to the Anguish Languish I could quote. See? I’m right and Tex is wrong. Nanny-nanny-boo-boo.”

I’ll go you one better: “It’s assured, as of now, if he don’t screw the pooch ‘tween now and cain’t.”

You mean like where the QB stops and looks over at a coach on the sideline after he has had an initial look at the defensive personnel and formation and gets signals?

Naaah…never been done and will never work. (Insert sarcasm emoticon here).

@Kafka, that is.

Mack Brown and Greg Davis got away with a shitty offense because they had Vince Young, who won them that 2005 crystal ball. They got away with it again because Colt McCoy was one tough SOB and was slippery to boot. They ain’t getting away with it now with Gilbert and they have absolutely no idea what to do, but being that they’re both old farts, they’re going to keep banging their heads into the wall until it finally works — or they bleed to death. In this case, they’re going to keep having Fozzy or Johnson or that other guy run headfirst into the asses of their unmovable linemen at least twice on every fucking possession then throw a 2-yard screen on third down. And when they try something “creative”, it’s so fucking half-assed, the players know it, and can barely bring themselves to pull it off with any conviction.

The lesson here? Never, ever bet on Texas if they’re favored by more than 10.

’NUFF SAID.

You know what is infinitely more depressing than Greg Davis’s offense? Dave Yost working his floppy hair half to death attempting to replicate it at Mizzou. Just our luck that we chose the wrong goddamn side of the ball to mimic.