You Are What Your Record Says You Are

As good as Mack has been to us, he’s never given us an easy team to watch.

Texas will not play for the nat’l championship this year (let me go out on a limb). The realistic goal, for me, is to win a nice bowl and just sustain momentum for what ought to be a good year in 2011.

Have already reconciled myself to a Nebraska loss.

And thanks for pointing out that tipped balls are not just, despite what people kept claiming, flukes and nothing to worry about. I am plenty worried.

In addition to what you said, I would add that Gilbert is increasing the odds of a tip via his style. First he advertises with his eyes where he’s going to throw, then he advertises with his sluggish windup when he’s going to throw.

Given a party invitation like that, a good defense is gonna RSVP for a pick six sooner or later.

“Thank you so much for the actionable intelligence you repeatedly donated to our team, Mr. Gilbert. We found your society delightful, hope you came to no harm when we shook off the ludicrous tackle you attempted as we raced to the end zone, and look forward to many happy returns in the years to come.”

As good as Mack has been to us, he’s never given us an easy team to watch.

Huh?

Watching the Texas offense on the field is just painful. Utterly and completely painful. Now I know how Nebraska felt last year — lights out D, but a bumbling O.

“First he advertises with his eyes where he’s going to throw, then he advertises with his sluggish windup when he’s going to throw. "

This. Along with GD’s stupid “two-man” passing game that cuts the field in half for the defense, and his utter disdain for any over-the-middle pass routes, it’s a wonder we don’t suffer more interceptions.

Sloppy play is not the thing I’m most worried about. The thing I’m most worried about – which actually creates sloppy play – is that there is no leadership on offense. Who are the real leaders on offense? [….crickets….]

It would not surprise me if the ‘Horns went 13-0. It also would not surprise me if the ’Horns went 9-3. I’ve watched ou and Nebraska play, and, while they don’t strike fear in me, both teams are certainly capable of rising up and beating us, particularly if we’re having a bad day. I can also see us dropping one of KSU/OSU/aggie just from not paying attention.

My expectations this year are low; the defense gives me great hope, but the offense just makes me sigh. We probably have good enough players on offense to be a top-five team, but it doesn’t seem like anybody on the coaching staff knows it, or knows what to do with it.

We need help as a fan base. I have never seen a road win at Lubbock spur more angst and criticism. We beat Tech in Lubbock dammit. Statistics are for losers – just win.

Having lived in Ohio for a long time now, and seen plenty of Tressel-coached teams, Texas in 2010 (and even to an extent in 2009) is a pretty familiar animal to me. We are playing Tressel-ball circa 2002-2003. If you’ll recall, the 2002 version of Tressel-ball rode some improbable finishes, great defense, and one controversial penalty to a title.

I think we’re gonna be more like the 2003 version, though. Ohio State 2003 had a fantastic defense but the offense struggled against every single team not named Indiana. That group lost on the road to their determined archrival (Michigan) and also got upset, on the road, against a jacked-up rival that had been building to that game for months (Wisconsin). Nebraska is likely our Wisconsin this year, and although there’s no clear parallel to Michigan, OU is obviously a concern. Actually I am paranoid about KSU….

We are not a national title contender, and I’m not sure we’re a Big XII title contender. 10-2 and a berth in the Cotton Bowl feels about right for this team—the defense is great but the offense is frankly bumbling, and I doubt that changes. There are no Vince Youngs or Cedric Bensons coming off the bench. Any coaching changes probably won’t happen till after the season because that is Mack’s way. I suggest heavy drinking and resignation; it will make this season more bearable.

“We are not a national title contender, and I’m not sure we’re a Big XII title contender.”

This is silly. We look better than OU to this point, and if we beat OU after already winning in Lubbock, our chances of winning the south go to about 90%.

There are absolutely no stars in this offense. No all Big 12 type of performers. Call it lack of experienced talent, recruiting, coaching, scheming, whatever….they are not there. The other contenders have stars.

The defense has stars at different levels of experience, great coaching, scheming and lots of talent.

We clearly have not hit recruiting wise on O like we think we have over the last 5 years because in years when we do hit, we garner enough talented players to override Greg Davis’ inability to coordinate an offense.

“We probably have good enough players on offense to be a top-five team”

No, you don’t. The UT RB corps is an embarrassment of wretches. There’s not a guy on the UT offensive roster you have to gameplan your defensive front 7 around, and the only guy even heading in that direction is true frosh Mike Davis. The OL is recovering from the staff’s failure to capitalize on the national title in 2005 and go get the elite talent they were capable of getting. You know, the guys they’re getting right now. And Garrett Gilbert looks exactly as I expected: occasional flashes of brilliance interspersed between extended stretches of average play.

Mack Brown has finally built a foundation for an elite future offense. Of course, as things look presently, he’ll be doing so after Will Muschamp is named as the head coach at the University of Georgia.

Our defense will keep us in every game we play. Unfortunately, our offense will ensure they have to do so.

embarrassment of wretches

Thank you, Nate. Thank. You.

I celebrated the win in Lubbock and believe that road wins pay team dividends in later contests, period. But I also feel unusual angst and think it’s part due to higher preseason expectations for performance than what we’ve observed so far and part due to struggling with real anticipation of potential losses in the next several weeks. I’m fending off the creeping dread that this season could be the low water mark of the last decade. Pairing a current undefeated record with the scent of a potential trough of the decade, you might feel a little twitchy right about now.

But all statistics aside, think how it will feel if this team wins the next 3 games to be 6-0.

“If the personality of this year’s team is to play to the level of their competition”

This would seem to be a recurring trend for us.

This CRAP that you apologists keep spouting is pure BS. Things like “wins are what counts” etc miss the damn point. Making excuses doesn’t get your football team to 12-0. Making adjustments, utilizing better schemes with a cohesive thought process, and coaching your players to fix obvious recurring mistakes DO get you closer to 12-0. We’re not spoiled complainers…we are the optimists and realists who know how good we SHOULD be and how far short this team is from that.

If things don’t change with regard to our offensive coaching/gameplan, I’m going to love hearing what you apologists say after a 9-3 season.

I fail to see the offensive difference makers that point people to the contention that this team somehow “should” be 12-0 or rolling through our schedule like a rolling ball of butcher knives.

We aren’t talented in the backfield, our best receiver can’t catch (or maybe our best receiver is a freshman- I don’t know) our starting QB has played in exactly 2 games with any level of pressure and our OL is more known for being good guys then ass kickers.

We can complain all we want about how we got to this state of affairs, but this Offense doesn’t seem to be particularly underperforming to me, rather we seem, not very good.

Maybe we will get good by the end of the year. Maybe we don’t lose any b/c our defense is salty and our coaches know how to win. At any rate, we don’t have a jugernaught on the schedule and I think we will probably be favored to win them all (maybe not nebraska, but if we roll in there 5-0 I think Vegas favors us) so it could happen, but Nate isn’t too wrong about our O.

You guys are FOS if you think Texas is not worthy of contending for the Big XII. First of all, the defense is really, really, effing sick. Good enough to carry a slightly better than mediocre offense to a Big XII championship and a MNC date.

Now, I will agree with you that the offense is not better than mediocre. But how can you tell me we do not have talent on offense. Goodwin, Monroe, Williams, are flat out freaks. Gilbert is an effing assassin on the deep ball. Davis a very promising frosh. All these guys are underclassmen – are you telling me we do not have the potential with these afoletes to be slightly better than mediocre? Obviously, GD and Mac will have to pick up their game – but getting a win in Lubbock is not an “apologist booby prize” – it was a key road test passed in red neck heaven.

Man, you guys are pessimistic. The offense has some problems, but let’s look at the good things:

1) The OL has been very good to excellent in pass protection and mental errors like false start penalties usually lessen over the course of a season.
2) Gilbert’s shown mental toughness in two unusual situations that he could’ve lost it (vs. Bama, and THREE tipped ball interceptions).
3) We may be ineffective at running the ball, but at least we’ve used it in game situations. Hopefully that will pay dividends in the coming weeks.
4) Even though we’ve gotten uneven performances from some receivers (Mal-Will, Goodwin), others are stepping up (Kirk & Davis).
5) Our RB’s are nothing special, but we do have a nice diversity of styles among them. Also, they’re all pretty experienced (blitz pickup, general awareness).
6) The TE’s are… well… um… really trying hard. OK, so our TE’s suck.

,,,what you apologists say after a 9-3 season…

It’s already been said: “We were rebuilding…”

How many years have we heard about “fixing the running game” and how many years has Lucy pulled the football away just as we were about to kick it into the endzone?

Maybe it’s true: Greg Davis is essentially nothing more than a sock puppet for Mack… he fell on his HC ass at Tulane after Mack left, was about .500 as OC at Arkansas and Georgia before he rejoined Mack. He can’t be fired because he’d be too difficult to replace with another marionette.

realmccoy – I admit I’m focusing on one sentence rather than your thesis, but I can’t agree with this:
“Goodwin, Monroe, Williams, are flat out freaks.”
Goodwin and Monroe are PLENTY fast – I will give you that. Freakishly fast (especially, or maybe exclusively, when they’re running on a track). They’re also 5’9"- 177lbs and 5’9"-171lbs, respectively. Which – when paired with GDGD’s shortcomings in play-calling, namely short & expect-the-hit-after-the-catch passing and millisecond-long holes in the running game – means that these guys are taking a licking and WILL NOT keep ticking. There’s probably not a single player that will attempt to tackle them this season who weighs within 10lbs of them. So I think they’ve got plenty of talent and ability to be brilliant, but they’re not players that we can turn to 40, 20, or maybe not even 10 times a game.

Williams… bless his heart, he plays hard. He blocks well, he’s got the physicals, but he just.can’t.catch. If being big and blocking and occasionally catching a pass were all you needed… well then I guess we’d have a decent flex-TE. But as has been previously mentioned here on BC, he’s not being utilized correctly (his INT against TT came on a LOS-throw, not a deep ball where at least we’re used to him dropping it), and despite his best efforts, he has no consistency whatsoever. Maybe relegating him to blocking on special teams only would make him work harder, but I’m pretty sure that’s been done before to no avail.

So yes – there’s raw talent. But it’s not talent that fits easily into any of those three – or even a mix of those three – being our stars on offense.

This post has a very BON feel to it.

Thanx TXinDC -
I agree with all your points on the Goodwin, Monroe, and Williams. I would not classify any of them as a “go to” kind of guy. But they are certainly dangerous at any point in time, and would keep me up late at night if I was a DC. I am really hoping that GD finds some inspiration, either from self analysis or a well placed foot up his rotund arse. I personally think this offense is more underachieving than under talented. And I really wonder how a defense could cope with Williams (substitute Davis if a preference), Goodwin, and Monroe on the field at the same time in well developed and designed packages. Urban Meyer rode guys like Monroe and Goodwin to the MNC. GD cannot seem to find a way to use them.

worry worry worry worry fret fret tug hair drink coffee worry worry worry did I pay my electric bill concern worry rub vag worry worry tipped passes chris simms again worry worry worry muschamp’s leaving worry worry supervolcano in wyoming oh my god o shit o shit o shit it sucks it will never get better worry worry deficit worry fret fret giggle from stress heave heave pant o shit asteroid on collision course with earth no bruce willis to help we

                  are

             so

                                            fucked

“… leaving worry worry …”

Looks you need you one of them damitol yellows, for that hazy, golden “Nothing At All” feeling. Maybe a prolaxitate, and wash it down with a nice cold Shiner Suckerpunch.

Some of us ain’t worried, old dog, just puzzled.