Texas-UCLA 2010 Post Mortem- Offense

The only thing worse than our offense that game was listening to Matt Millen talk about it.

I like DJ within the constraints of his DJness. He’s fast and not a puss. He also consistently shows bad hands (see bobbling near turnover incompletion and fumbled handoff that was 35% of on him), he’s too small to pass protect, and he’s a 10-12 touch per game guy. By all means, lets get him those touches, but that solves no fundamental issues in the running game.

Agreed, but if we have a disfunctional system, we need the best athletes out there the negate all of its weaknesses. Monroe is the best athlete.

As for laying fault on the fumble, that could have been any number of things that are impossible to tell without watching that play in practice. It could be that Monroe took the wrong path to the ball. It could be that Gilbert’s footwork was off so he was not in the right position. One thing that definitely was wrong was that Gilbert did not stick it in the pocket like he is supposed to do (which is what I guess is where the 65% of the fault lies that you mention). As to why that is, and where the other 35% of the blame goes, it is unknowable to a fan.

There it is. The truth. The gold standard for analysis and commentary on our Greg Davis offense.
I wrote this yesterday on IT……

This is 2000-2003 deja vu all over again. At least on the offensive side of the ball but with less talented players because of terrible recruiting decisions and effort. Greg Davis, in his role as a 2 ton anchor on this team, cannot be overcome by off schedule plays because we don’t have any play makers on that side of the ball.

And we have stupid football players scattered throughout both sides of the ball making GDGD bufoonish decisions on the field.

I’m ready for the Will Muschamp era to to begin sooner rather than later simply because his taking of the reins gives us a shot at a cleansing of the offensive staff.

Clendon’s in game tweet suggesting that Davis give Muschamp half his salary was total BS. GDGD should resign and get out of the way with his pathetic gameplans, preparations, play calling and in-game nonadjustments.

But beowulf. GDGD has put up some great numbers over the years and we won a NC with the bufoon as OC.

His all too frequent Saturdays of being a whipping boy to an opponent’s DC are a tantamount to gross negligence and incompetence. As a physician, if a had a series of weeks at work that compromised the health and well being of my patients on a regular basis, I would have been sued for malpractice and would have been stripped of my medical license. And deservedly so, despite the fact that on other occassions I had done well.

All of you that have sold your football souls to this incompetent OC simply need to be ignored (my approach) or summarily dismissed as the dolts that you are become.

And this morning as a reply to a very well written Ross Lucksinger article….

Fair enough. But you didn’t actually need to look at Alabama last year for an example of a defense that kept playing hard with their heads up with an offense that was putrid several times. The OU and Nebraska games last year were classic Greg Davis games that the defense won for us. Just didn’t happen this past Saturday.

The UCLA game exposed a systemic across the board coaching and player failure with a miserable game plan, pathetic execution and effort of that miserable game plan, no player ready yet to make the off-schedule plays that are required for a Greg Davis offense to have any success against good defenses, and in-game adjustments that weren’t worthy of a Pop Warner league. It’s all happened before many times in the Mack Brown tenure and goes back to one man——Greg Davis.

The second half exposed some individual players on the Texas defense that had mental breakdowns and didn’t execute what was expected from them, some pisspoor tackling that will be addressed aggresively this week, and a DC on the sideline that didn’t have his best day at the office when he never really stacked the LOS with 8 or 9 in the box to force the UCLA offense and QB to throw the ball which they aren’t wont to do. No systemic failure. We won’t see that again anytime soon.

I’m with you, Scip, that anyone laying the blame at the feet of the defense and Will Muschamp in a manner that puts them even close to GDGD and his miserable concepts and offense, is off the mark and needs to be mocked.

I look forward to your post on the defense.

It’s a rare team in CF who can win big with youth. We are a young team in terms of playing experience, Even many of our juniors and seniors haven’t played that much. The offense under Mack needs experienced players in order to overcome its coaches. The glaring misses in recruiting at a few key positions, and some bad luck, have led to the situation we’re in with zero playmakers. We can with with this offensive staff but it requires experienced kids who take the process of creating the offense on themselves.

Well said. Mack’s weird symbiosis with GD and resulting lack of accountability on the offensive side of the ball leave us with no good options.

Power running/play action passing is clearly the wave of our future in order to hang onto Muschamp and with the OL and RB recruits we have coming. However, you are right that we currently lack the personnel to run it.

I fear spreading out and slinging the ball will result in an injury to Gilbert in which case we are truly screwed.

With a defense like ours either approach could be managed by a better OC. However, ours is an amphibious shell-dweller as you note. Nothing to be done about that until season’s end, if then. Can Mack make that change, so obviously called for but so apparently against his nature?

Your ability to repaint the same picture with new and vivid imagery is surpassed only by Mack’s utter inability to see it in any of its incarnations – maybe he’s colorblind and you should stop relying so heavily on reds and greens (which poses a particular challenge when painting death and reptiles, I realize.)

Fortunately a vicious new predator has been introduced to the archipelago.

While it may have no taste for the Davis Tortoise, a few too many instances of tripping over it while hunting and having it shit in your burrow may spark an eradication campaign.

If only the god of the island will assent…

Tri Delt scented scratch-n-sniff stickers and ball-hawk t-shirts…the coaches have some awesome tchotchkes this year.

I don’t know if Case McCoy would be any worse than what Gilbert has shown us so far, at least under this abortion of an offensive identity this year. Gilbert can run the spread. The people who pay the bills are very restless.

Scip, dude you are the man. I didn’t even think about you writing a post-mortem for our offense in this game because it was so disgusting. But when I plugged my head in this morning and saw it, couldn’t wait to read it to just see what in the world you were going to say.

And it was masterful. Humorous. Spot on with the tortoise thing. And Xs and Os accurate. And insightful. I probably think I know more about football than I really do, but I 100% agree with you and think most of this stuff is obvious. The sport is what it is and you are right on with what is going on and what we need to do.

Nobody will probably read the novel I put on Trips’ post last night, but you have the answer to our problems right here. We need to throw the ball aggressively and deep. Because Garrett is a gunslinger for one. And two, and just as important, our OC is at his best when he is running a spread out passing attack. It would be like flipping the tortoise over to help him putter along some more. Either Mack is loyal to his friend to the determent of the team, or actually thinks they have done enough together over the years to dig deep and pull it out, or he is going to wake up and do something about the team he is the $5 million head coach of.

He should go 66/34 pass/run, with the running game AS our constraint play, and play for the big play. Our skill positions have speed, but no short game consistency. All we need is two TDs and 2 FGs a game with our defense. They can do that if Mack makes the changes needed. Work within your OC and his peculiarities if you don’t want to fire him.

And the TEs should sit. If you want an EBS, bring in a 3 tackle that could actually seal the corner. But they just can’t catch. My answer is to bring in Cody as a FB with DJ as the primary tailback. Cody can catch better than them on 5-yard slips out of the backfield (please make it at least 5 or what’s the point) and I think with defenses worried about DJ on the corner, Cody will find some 5yard FB room in the middle of the Oline, which just needs to screen a little. DJ is also deadly on the draw delays, which is our best running play option. This would play to their and our offenses’ strengths no?

And I noticed you mentioned that our D is #5 in the country at 3.8 yds/play. What do we average per run? 3.8yds/play What do we average on “completed” throws and screens to our running backs? 3.7 yds/play That’s right. Our running backs make #5 defenses out of Rice, Wyoming, Tech, and UCLA. Holy cow. Please, please,please let us throw deeper more or I might lose an eye.

Our receivers are horrible blockers yet we insist on calling pass plays that are dependent on them blocking for each other.

I hate Greg Davis so much that I don’t care when Mack goes. I know that is pretty juvenile, but it is true. The fact that Mack has to go in order to rid our team of GD tells me a lot about Mack. I recognize how great he is for the team, but his inability to recognize and correct this major deficiency stacks up large against all of the positives.

Achilles Leg, IMO

I don’t generally listen to Mack postgame because it will just irritate me. Plus I’ve found he generally rallies well after a loss even if he should have seen the loss coming based on previous efforts. He subscribes to the “a win is a win” theory and doesn’t seem to truly understand he’s playing with fire until he’s already charred.

That being said, if he honestly found the offensive performance shocking then it’s just one more piece of evidence that it will never get permanently better on offense around here and Greg Davis is here to stay. We need to accept it and move on. We caught lightning in a bottle thanks to personnel in 2005 and a weird confluence of personnel and scheme and momentum in 2008 that turned out to be a lot more about personnel than we first believed.

yep

Get used to seeing this the next two games.

I don’t wanna!

Read this elsewhere but makes a whole lot of sense. Our offense plays slow and scared to make a mistake. Similar mind fucking to what Rick does to the basketball team. To play fast you must be confident and believe in what you are being asked to do.

Agree wholeheartedly, as usual.

Your closing comments, in particular, are right on target. The only thing more maddening than the offense’s impotence is Mack’s inability to ever recognize it (or, at least, admit it publicly).

Had he acknowledged after the Rice/Wyoming/Tech debacles that the offense was miles away from where it needed to be, I don’t think Texas fans would be nearly as apoplectic as they are in the wake of this UCLA bed-shitting. Instead, with a straight face, he continued to place blame entirely on tipped passes and turnovers. As if the offense were a well-oiled machine other than those five or six plays a game that were interceptions or batted balls.

So now, as Scipio and others have been screaming since the Rice game, our offense has been exposed as an absolute fraud. And Mack acts as though no one could have ever seen it coming.

Infuriating.

This is the culmination of terrible recruiting and even worse development on the offensive side of the ball. Not sure where all of that blame goes. We have recruited poorly at OL/TE/RB for the last 4 years. We have one player (Walters) that is not in his first year that has talent and he is in his 2nd. WR recruiting has been good, but the player development has been atrocious. The fact that our QB backup last year was a true freshman tells you all you need to know about QB recruiting.

This is complacency at its finest. No accountability and no foresight. If Mack is truly surprised then he is a turtle as well. Only he isn’t walking toward the cliffs, he has his head in his shell and hasn’t pulled it out in 4 years.

There isn’t much we can do. Gilbert is fine, but he is handcuffed by an OC and head coach that have no idea what their long term plan is going to be. The fact that the talent around him is so average exacerbates the problem. A good coach would go three wide with two backs even if it is out of the spread the way we used to with VY, Hall and Ced. But, we don’t have a good coach on the offensive side of the ball and our head coach obviously doesn’t understand that.

“The cruelest trick in the world is getting Shiva, Destroyer of Franchises Matt Millen as your color guy and then listening to three hours of him being mostly right about your football team. It’s like having Charles Manson give you effective relationship counseling or Lenny Dykstra mocking your 401K allocation.”

This is great prose.

The entire Tortoise thing what inspired metaphor.

Deep down, it’s all good analysis. Well done.

An otherwise good summary, but why no mention of Kirkendoll flexing like some sort of badass for scoring in shit time, just before Coach Brown’s unwarranted 2 point conversion attempt?

Since 2003 and the beginning of the VY era, the GD offensive system owes the success it has achieved to a QB that can run. Whatever it is that the defense gives the offense is rarely exploited by GD’s designed plays; rather, the QB’s ability to improvise on the fly is what saves us more often than not. VY, of course, and Colt could run and I think we depended on their feet more than we realized at the outset of this season. From what I’ve seen, GG has the ability to run, but maybe he doesn’t yet realize that the success of the offense depends on that ability being utilized. Also, he probably understands deep inside that he needs to bulk up in order to survive all the hits.

Sure, a really good defense like NU’s or OU’s could stymie the Horns’ offense even with a good running QB like Colt. But, now an average defense like UCLA’s can stuff our offense because they don’t have to worry about GG hurting them with the run.

GG looks more effective as a passer when he rolls out, thus giving his receivers more time to separate and luring in a LB to defend a possible QB run. I am pessimistic about our offense’s ability to produce when GG stands back in the pocket.

Scipio:

I guess my bridge is built, because I wasn’t even pissed off anymore when the 4th quarter rolled around. I was resigned, because it is what it is.

We all know what the problem is – the entire offensive concept is the constraint. Aside from having Heisman-caliber players as foci (Williams, Young, McCoy/Shipley), this offense will not function. It’s Mack Brown’s major, glaring flaw – and, whether it’s the affinity for Davis or his own background as an offensive coach, I believe this is one flas that he’s fundamentally incapable of admitting and fixing.

Mostly true, but with one glaring exception: the mastermind of this offense is not Greg Davis: it is Mack Brown. Greg is only the front man. Mack is behind the curtain, pulling Greg’s strings. All the slings and arrows are aimed at Greg, most of them accurately, but no change is discernible. Why is this? Some prattle about “best friend”, some speculate on the existence of incriminating photos, some even hint at Greg playing Clyde Tolson to Mack’s Hoover. The truth is simpler than all of that… Greg is a willing marionette, and too valuable in that role to be sacrificed. Greg’s OC record without Mack’s direction is barely .500, and he is well aware of that. Until Mack hangs ‘em up, we’ll always have Clyde – uhh, Greg.

Bingo Tex Long,

I came to the same conclusion and therefore am ready for a change at the very top. I’d rather Mack resign after this year and give Muschamp the reigns, unknown as it might be. I’ve seen what we have and can’t take it anymore.

I think everyone who reads BC knew this was coming. It just came 1 to 3 weeks early.

I was talking to an Aggie after the Wyoming game. I said that Texas won but did not look good doing it and the Offense had many problems needing fixing. The Aggie called me a whiner and arrogant because Texas had won the game that should be enough. Well. He was wrong.

Levander: “It’s Mack Brown’s major, glaring flaw”

This is a bit of a Classical tragedy. The protagonist is a hero, but he has this tragic flaw which brings him down due to his own hubris. Mock the gods and they will drive you insane before they destroy you.

Mack continues to mock the football gods on offense. Only when he had one of the gods playing for him could he avoid disaster (Colt was only a demigod, imho).

Any knews on Davis’s injury? Hope he is OK. We are going to need him.

I would also attribute some of DJ’s fumble to the OL. He was about 1 step from getting hit by 2 DL before he even got the ball. Yes, his primary concern should be on protecting the ball. But what do we expect when we are essentially starting a new RB who’s gotten just a few carries?

DJ was also trying to figure out how that d lineman got in his jock.

When will GD realize when you have an avg. LT you can’t run empty sets on obvious passing downs? I had a flash back to the NC game and ultaskowich whiffing when Ayers came with a pat on the back from Hix.

Lurker:

It does have that sort of element, doesn’t it? Mack does so many things so well – big themes and minor details. Yet he’s got this huge blind spot in an area that matters a great deal, and so many others can see it.

Scip, you failed miserably in one aspect.

You should have warned us before reading this that we would need a box of kleenex to wipe away the tears of laughter and sorrow.

The tortoise analogy was beautifully poetic.

I think we depended on their feet more than we realized at the outset of this season. From what I’ve seen, GG has the ability to run, but maybe he doesn’t yet realize that the success of the offense depends on that ability being utilized. Also, he probably understands deep inside that he needs to bulk up in order to survive all the hits.

The maddening issue for me is that we’ve specifically recruited, coached and schemed away from the exact trait that has been able to overcome GD’s offense in the past. Many of us saw this coming since this time last year, and knew the decisions on offense talked about in the spring would only make matters worse.

I’ve never understood why we didn’t recruit to keep the VY offense, the most prolific in UT history, going. The argument 4-5 years ago was that the offense was based on a once in a generation type player. While there probably will never be another VY, there have been plenty of players in the last 5 years that could have run that offense.

I couldn’t watch the whole game. Did we ever run an end around sweep?

Mack should put the George Costanza rule on GD for the rest of the year…“Whatever you feel like doing or saying naturally, well do just the opposite of that.”

I think GD has the most success with the busted play. Colt worked wonders with this play and the key is the unpredictibility of it. Since GD is nothing if not predictible, this one “play” was generally a killer for you guys. I think OU is beatable for you if you eliminate turnovers and stop Murray. They’ve been struggling against far weaker teams for 3 of 4 games.

exuLT beat me to it – I didn’t watch a second of this game, and won’t. However, your pregrame write-up stressed our speed advantage around the corner – did we attempt any sweeps/toss/anything? I’m hoping our attempts at an outside run were more than just running our only QB with experience straight into a DE on an option….

Very well put and like Levander, unfortunately, the game just made me sad vs. really pissed off. This was coming. And shouldn’t be a surprise. Same conversations during the Simms era. Same results. I am still amazed, however, at how poorly coached we are on an individual basis at each offensive position: WR, TE, RB… mental mistakes, missed assignments, complete confusion as to what matters. And the identity with this offense: it all sums up to me the pictures of Colt being brutalized by Suh (or any other game) and the OL just walking away, no fire, no helping Colt up, just nothing. And exactly how I feel right now.

“An otherwise good summary, but why no mention of Kirkendoll flexing like some sort of badass for scoring in shit time, just before Coach Brown’s unwarranted 2 point conversion attempt?”

Shit like this is pathetic. Really pathetic.

Well done Scipio… I sat here trying to come up with something clever but I couldnt come up with anything worthy. OTOH… you SUCK! now I cant get GD face out of my head. I keep seeing his clueless mug with a beak and tongue partially out poking out of a giant tortoise shell. you have cast a spell on all of us! dam you

My main short term concern is that Mack and GD believe that the turnovers are the major and maybe only problem. They think their scheme and attack is fine.

If anyone doubts that GD needs a running QB in order for his “offense” to thrive, remind them that the most significant offensive play in the modern era of Longhorn football involved a QB improvisation after all of his receivers were (predictably) covered.

“My main short term concern is that Mack and GD believe that the turnovers are the major and maybe only problem. They think their scheme and attack is fine.”

Yes. Be prepared to hear a lot about execution.

Brown has shown adaptability over the seasons. He changed the coddling at the end of the 2007 season, he turned special teams from a glaring weakness (NC State fiasco) into a notable strength. He made the moves to make the defense a strength.

I agree about the GD blindspot about GDGD. However, has Mack ever had to face a 3 game losing streak (or 1-2 streak) at mid season to shake his vision? Has he ever had his legacy on the line in the way that it is now? There was no legacy to protect before 2005 and some of the good years since then. If Mack feels the structure he’s built trembling beneath his feet, will he opt to remain blind?

I may be dismissed as a Pollyanna, and maybe the dismissers will be right, but I think Mack still has it in him to take a hard look at what is going wrong and make tough decisions. Surely, it has been bad offensively before [i]from our point of view[/i], but Mack has always been able to point to season totals and stats to weave his chosen sophistry about the success of the offense. He likely will have few numbers this year to convince himself that what he wants to see is actually there.

Mack will make whatever optimal mid-season decisions can be made right now and we will see improvement in the coming weeks and maybe victory OR he will be faced with some incontrovertible evidence at the end of the season. In the case of the latter, he will be faced with either making his greatest corrective decision ever or tragically making his most vivid statement of his blind loyalty to an old friend.

Longtex’s post is a strong argument that my best scenario is hopeless. We’ll just have to see about that.

As usual, ScipioTex is my favorite writer on the internet.

It’s most definitely NOT fine. Still, if we get 349 yards of offense against Oklahoma, without any turnovers, we’ll win the game. Had we managed something less than 7 turnovers against UCLA, we could have won ugly.

Typically great post-mortem by Scip and an outstanding reply from beowulf. Nailed it.

The tortoise analogy was great. I keep picturing Dana Carvey in Master of Disguise shrugging his shoulders saying, “Tuuurrrtle! Tuuuurrtle!”

http://www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/review/2002/08/02/master_disguise/story.jpg

It’s hard to find a Greg Davis apologist after Saturday’s mess of a game. No Vince Young and no Colt McCoy = Greg Davis exposed. Even my sweet mother (not so sweet when UT loses) has said she wants Davis publicly shot in her most heated moments.

I am all for getting rid of GD, but when can that realistically happen? I can’t recall a OC being fired in the middle of the season?

If all it takes is an 0-3 stretch to flip GD on his back, where do I sign up? Like setting a broken bone, you have to bring on the pain before the healing can begin.

Great stuff as usual Scip. You should have just regurgitated something from the distant past. This is so OU 2002.

Does GD understand that by running a “safe” offense you get off schedule and that creates turnovers?

This was at its worst in the Simms era. Horizontal passing and ineffective ground game led to 3rd and long. Then we would air it out and turn the ball over.

The first few times we played a Stoops defense we never saw the back of a safety’s jersey and they kicked our ass. When we made them play straight up we turned the whole series around.

Muschamp gets it. You have to make them defend the entire field. If you are defending Texas and not cheating your safeties up youre an idiot. Pretty sure OU and Nebraska will not be worried about us going up top until we have no other options.

Moreover, when you have a timid game plan, you will get timid execution. No player worth shit is going to buy into it. So, we got that going for us.

Is everyone else getting an “Adopt a Tortoise” ad at the top right?

OU is bad, we can pull it out in Dallas. NU will skull #$@! us however. Something like 55-10 is more likely than not.

Mostly true, but with one glaring exception: the mastermind of this offense is not Greg Davis: it is Mack Brown.

This is a popular meme among Longhorn fans, but I tend to think it’s bullshit. Maybe it was an elaborate fraud, but Pat Forde’s documentary piece paints Mack as the consummate CEO. He drops into unit and position meetings just to make his presence known, and occasionally suggests higher-level strategies or personnel moves in-game, but leaves the real responsibility for coaching, scheming and personnel decisions to his coordinators.

I could see Mack dictating at a high level (e.g. “You will install an effective running game”), but I believe he leaves the job of implementing his aspirational directions to the two coordinators. One of them is good at it, the other is not. Because Mack covers for the latter, the myth that he is, in fact, responsible for the offense survives. But it is a myth nonetheless.

One last point: everyone please support our sponsors by ordering a live tortoise from TurtleShack.com. You won’t regret it – they’re delicious!

I am just Charlie Brown, having Lucy pull the football.

I believe the coaches when they say that they’ll find a way to run the ball, then find out on the first series of the season that they can’t do it. But they no longer can throw it like they used to. So, I was just waiting for the disaster. I thought it might be at Lincoln or Dallas, but it came early.

“The tortoise analogy was great. I keep picturing Dana Carvey in Master of Disguise shrugging his shoulders saying, "Tuuurrrtle! Tuuuurrtle!"

Just when I start to cheer up you mention Master of Disguise. Now I’m back on suicide watch. Thanks a lot.

“The most surreal play of the game for me was the John Chiles rub offensive interference call as we ran a called play to Greg Smith on 3rd and long. Yes, we’re running a pick play specifically to get the ball in the hands of our 5.0 40 TE who volleyball sets every third reception. "

Hammer meet nail. This was the point at the game where I laughed out loud wildly, and the guy next to me glanced over at me with an alarmed look on his face, maybe because he thought I was having a psychotic episode. He asked me what was so funny, and I replied that I was laughing for joy because our OC was finally getting the ball to a play maker in space. I went into no further detail, but I said it with a smile. I spent some time Sat. night wondering whether Mack Brown is able to see the logical absurdity in setting up a play designed to get the ball to the worst TE in America, or if he’s so much in love with his OC that he’s blind to the truth. I’d be interested to know the answer.

 Will Mack Brown ever be aware of how much of his legacy has been stolen by the Chimp? Worse yet, he’s cheated his players. The HC recruits guys with the understanding that they have to make their grades, work hard, and play up to their ability on the field. In return, they have a right to expect the best coaching the University of Texas can hire. It’s now clear that there is no accountability for the Chimp, nor will there ever be, and he’s going to be there as long as MB. I love what Coach Brown has done for the Longhorns, but his willful blindness to the incompetence of his OC is going to eventually get him eased out the door. That’s a shame.

Any chance we could steal an OC from Auburn for once?

Nordberg – I thought you were going to take a break from the forums in order to step back from the ledge?

I hate Greg Davis.

Sorry to repeat what others have said, but this is great writing.

I am going to go way out on a limb here and just trust Mack. Mack in his last two press conferences has sounded more like a Texas fan than anything else. Just like us he arrogantly expects to win no matter what and the details of why we lost are not really relavent.

I just don’t think he’s going to let his friendship with Greg Davis come between him and his legacy, I’m guessing that the post-game presser scared the shit out of him and reminded him of how it felt after one of those 65 to something OU loses.

Mack has lost back to back games four times since 1998.

‘98 UCLA & KSU, two top five teams, very understandable
’99 A&M, Nebraska, Arkansas, (fluke A&M loss, mad nebraska team, and a really shitty effort against an Arkansas team, looked a lot like UCLA. One of Mack’s worst loses)
‘06 KSU, A&M, Colt hurt, Chizik interviewing, etc… lots of excuses, but Mack’s biggest problem was not having a focused team in KSU and not realizing Colt was still hurt.
’07 KSU, OU. Very similiar situation, but the team comes back and plays OU strong when everyone expected a blow out. Jamal Charles probably cost them the game with a fumble on the six and a tip pass that causes an interception.

Here is the point, this has all happened before and Mack figures out a way to right the ship. I agree GD and Mcwhorter need to go, but I doubt very seriously the season goes off a cliff.

FYI.

Between 98 and ’10, Texas has lost two or more games 4 times.

From ’85 to ’97, Texas lost two games or more 16 times (17 if you count a L then a tie, then L), twice losing 4 in a row.

Well, let’s take a recap of the weekend-
UCLA treated my Horns like a drunk Mel Gibson. I’m so thankful I got my bet in and farmed the second half on Texas, ramens never tasted so good.
The Texans lost to the Cowboys due to the fact our best defensive player is on a steroid sabbatical and our stand in left tackle evidently took notes from Britt Mitchell on how to block Demarcus Ware.
My house is trashed to the point it looks like I live with Booger from Revenge of the Nerds and I’m 50% sure a bum slept in my bed while I was out of town this weekend.

Times are tough. This depresses me more than Tyler Perry’s writing career.

“Nordberg – I thought you were going to take a break from the forums in order to step back from the ledge?”

Sometimes I lie.

Hey, holdem,

Who gives a fuck how many games we’ve lost in however many years, etc etc? HAVE YOU BEEN WATCHING THIS YEAR AT ALL????

Pull your head out of the sand. Or ass. Or wherever you have it.

I’m not here to defend the last 4 games, I’m saying that we’ve seen this shit before, and Mack has found a way to get it fixed. History tells you he’ll do it again. We saw this in 2007 against KSU in ‘07 and it looked like a totally different team against OU. If we get our teeth kicked in next week I’ll be the first off the band wagon…….

I’m saying that we’ve seen this shit before, and Mack has found a way to get it fixed. History tells you he’ll do it again.

This is specious.

Having Vince Young show up from the planet Badmuthafucka isn’t really a duplicable solution.

This is the Chris SImms era again and I mean no disrespect to Simms who was a great Longhorn. The thought of Muschamp running the program in Athens and having Mack and Greg continue on for some unknown number of years makes my teeth hurt.

On the minus side, Galapagos Tortoise are among the champion survivors of all land fauna, with a life expectancy of over 100 years. Consider that.

beowulf –
 
You’re fun to read when you’re fired up. I think you capture a lot of the emotions we feel when we see a guy mailing it in for four weeks straight while being defended by a weird coterie of sycophants. There will always be a crowd that just doesn’t get that 60 points against Rice and 10 points against Nebraska doesn’t mean your offense is outstanding, even if it means a 35 points per game average. They need to drown in six inches of water.
 
For the rest of you, too many fantastic comments to reply to each individually the way I’d like, but heartening at least to see so many others who saw the same game. Some great thoughts all around.
 
TexLong -
 
People go back and forth on the Mack/Greg thing and, of course, all accountability ultimately falls on Mack on both sides of the ball. So it’s all a moot point at a certain explanative level, right?
 
However, as BrickHorn points out, Mack isn’t running the nuts and bolts of the offense. He’s giving general directives.
 
We’ve had five/six defensive coordinators here and one offensive coordinator during Mack’s tenure. Three of those DCs were fired/demoted for incompetence (Reese, Akina, MacDuff) and Greg’s wagon has just kept rolling along.
 
Is it more reasonable to believe that Mack uses Greg as his offensive puppet or, rather, Mack and Greg are really good long-time friends and Mack’s scrutiny of Davis’ performance isn’t quite as exacting as that of his peers?
 
I tend to favor the latter, but I can be persuaded, I guess.

Holdem,

You’re right…we have “seen this shit before” in seasons such as 2007. The only difference is the current Longhorn offense doesn’t have anything remotely close to a gamebreaker like Jamaal Charles who has the ability to single-handedly bail the team out of sure-fire losses the way he did against Nebraska and Okie Lite, not to mention late efforts he made to cleanup the shitbomb GD dumped on the field in Orlando against UC freaking F…a 3 point victory.

Replace #25 with a Fozzy/Newton/Cody/Monroe committe and the team was looking at 6-5 at best and a trip to the Independence/Sun Bowl earned entirely by name recognition. The 2007 ‘recovery’ had absolutely nothing to do with Mack/GD ‘righting the ship’…it was a result of the team’s lone superstar managing to simply outclass the competition despite being given no schematic advantage (or even a lousy distinction as an offensive focal point) by his own coaching staff.

and Greg’s wagon has just kept rolling along.

We live the dream wagon. Truly.

Crown & Coke -
 
That drink was poured strong.

"What happened to those Longhorns?" questions the man in the restaurant. There is neither the time, nor the inclination, to answer. Because sport is human and therefore imperfect, it is impossible to comprehend why good players, both young and old, do something absolutely contrary to what they have been taught for months if not years. We do know when the "want to" is overwhelmed by an oppressive feeling of "have to", it can lead to unexplained mistakes and miscues. I am reminded of an airline pilot who once, when he was headed out to a departure runway, disabled the aircraft by hitting the jet bridge with the end of his wing. As he told us we would have to wait for another airplane to be flown in, his final comment was, "No excuses, no explanation."


Bill Little is in rare form.

Maybe I’m just trying to justify spending $250 on my TX/OU ticket………………

But to argue just for the sake of it. The ‘10 defense is a hell of a lot better than ’07’s. So the team as a whole is at worst equal and Gilbert will probably get better as the seasson goes along. My inner sunshine pumper believes that OU is really not that good either. We find a way to beat OU, lose with out totally embarassing ourselves, then run the table against mediocre competition. Either go the Cotton Bowl or get a BCS bid base upon name and fan base. Probably lose BCS game or beat a similiarly lack luster LSU in the Cotton.

McHorter gets sacrificed at the end of the year, Mack realizes it just isn’t worth it anymore, announces he’ll retire in two years which is good enough for Muschamp. Mack and Davis ride off into the sunset together……..

If Mack Brown is Will Muschamp’s AD with Greg Davis’ job security as one of the conditions of employment, Will may not want our job.
 
Ever think of that?

“If Mack Brown is Will Muschamp’s AD with Greg Davis’ job security as one of the conditions of employment, Will may not want our job.”

I don’t think that is even remotely plausible that Mack would try to make that deal. For a guy that is keanly aware of history that just doesn’t make any sense.

Scipio, I seriously doubt WM stays here with that scenario.

Holdem, that’s an optimistic, but plausible scenario.

After hearing about the tone of today’s press conference, which sounded like a wake, my scenario is darker. Two straight losses with a lot of empty seats at DKR in the Iowa State game, followed by the Baylor game.

That 07 team had an NFL QB, an NFL RB, an NFL TE, and three NFL WRs. And we still sucked for most of the year.

nordberg, i’ve asked the question here and elsewhere, but either missed the answer or didn’t get one.

How many NFL’ers do you see in these classes?

2010? (Srs)
2011? (Jrs)

Is there a chance that those two classes may not put any players in the NFL?

Can’t think if any sure-fire ones off the top of my head. There’s no reason Malcolm Williams shouldn’t end up there one day, besides what’s between his ears.

Hix?

That’s about it.

I’m not sure we could hire any head coach worth a damn if the AD is calling the shots as to who the offensive coordinator. No, wait, Wade Phillips could be available.

Brick:
This [the mastermind of this offense is not Greg Davis: it is Mack Brown] is a popular meme among Longhorn fans, but I tend to think it’s bullshit.
…
…
But it is a myth nonetheless.

Make up your mind: you “tend to think”, or “it is”?

Skip:
Is it more reasonable to believe that Mack uses Greg as his offensive puppet or, rather, Mack and Greg are really good long-time friends and Mack’s scrutiny of Davis’ performance isn’t quite as exacting as that of his peers?

I tend to favor the latter, but I can be persuaded, I guess.

You have to persuade yourself. You might want to start by refining your statement “Mack’s scrutiny of Davis’ performance isn’t quite as exacting as that of his peers”. That’s beneath you. It’s not merely that “it’s not quite as exacting”, it doesn’t fucking EXIST! At all. And that’s not reasonable, not a bit.

Just “good friends”? I’m not arguing that they’re not good friends, but friendship doesn’t really explain the size of the blind spot. I think it has to be more that Greg is Mack’s alter ego (hardly different from sock puppet), and neither of them knows what to do about the offense. I liked the Fredo Corleone analogy, and Mack’s just not quite Godfather enough to send Fredo on a fishing trip… besides, Fredo comes in handy as a target from time to time. Still, you or I would give Greg a golden handshake and open the door for a bright young man. Keep Greg on the staff if the buddy thing won’t let go – make him, oh, I dunno, how about “Assistant Head Coach for Recruitment of Tall White Quarterbacks”? I don’t think Major’s the bright young man we need – he’s too nice, and at this point we need the OC equivalent of BOOM, MOTHERFUCKER!!.

Shit fire, I’m pissed! Not at any of you… I’m pissed at myself, I’m pissed that I was really, really hoping for and nearly believing in our seeing an OL and an RB or two this season that would leave a trail of snot bubbles and torn jocks… and it has, but the trail leads in the wrong direction, and it’s our own snot and jocks.

Okay, RANT MODE OFF.

I am listening to Frank Zappa’s “You Are What You Is”, and pondering the essential truth of that album title.

from the press conference today via twitter:
“Greg Davis says Texas gameplanned its “side to side” passing offense to wear out UCLA."

“I’ve never understood why we didn’t recruit to keep the VY offense, the most prolific in UT history, going. The argument 4-5 years ago was that the offense was based on a once in a generation type player. While there probably will never be another VY, there have been plenty of players in the last 5 years that could have run that offense.” —Horncasting

This is utter truth. The obviousness of it is unsettling. We could have had Russell Shepard run the VY offense. Or Robert Griffen III. Or any number of gifted spread option QBs that the state churns out on a regular basis. They can overcome our offense even if they are less talented than the 5 star pro-style QBs that are available.

Austin, Texas: Where pocket passers go to die.

"Greg Davis says Texas gameplanned its "side to side" passing offense to wear out UCLA."

Ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha ha!

Give that turtle a fucking Darwin Award.

Beowolf, I do not appreciate being called a dolt.

Well, the psychology of the whole thing has got to be the most frustrating part. While the empirical and measurable aspects of football can be listed, analyzed, compared, and mostly understood by a reasonable mind, it seems there are no certain answers for the question of ‘why, how, and what to do?’. Like someone above said, you take the totals and the empirical things, and create your own sophistry (excellent choice of words there sir). I think there are different ones constructed by various groups made up of sections of fans and individual coaches. Each has it’s own troubles reconciling with reality.

At the very least, I get the impression that there are a few more prevalent rationales that are competing for purchase.

First point, resistance to change/coupled with denial. Like most people, the coaches don’t change easily. No matter who you are talking about, it’s as likely as not that you follow a pattern until something bad happens. It’s like we just have to get bitten in the ass, and badly, in order to admit there is something wrong. Otherwise, the ’it’s not broke don’t fix it’ platitude appears to reign.

When my grandparents reached an age where they really required assisted living, one of them had a bad time accepting it. Fought any discussion about anything of the sort. My mother was very concerned, and when I talked to her, I asked her if she thought something bad would have to happen before they would change. Did something have to scare them into acting? She grimaced and nodded and wondered aloud whether it was better to bring them along slowly and risk an accident, or take the decision out of their hands and maybe hurt the relationship with her parents. It’s striking to me how that personal episode seems to connect in my mind to the dynamics of the Texas program right now.

Second, the house divided issue. I get the impression that rallying and making a stand is the earnest hope of even competing rationales. There is an idea that you win and lose as a team, and there is no good in pointing fingers. Finger pointing creates infighting and everything goes to crap. However, I think there is some confusion there. There is a clear distinction between finger pointing and having a rational expectation that everyone is accountable. If one part of the house is not showing accountability, then it is taking advantage of the “no finger pointing” principle. Instead, you’ve created a double standard. That is every bit as divisive as the blame game. From all outward appearances, the diagnosis for which one is going on, and with what rhetoric each is supported is not universal among either fans or coaches. It’s really most apparent on message boards in sunshine pumping vs. sky is falling debates.

Last, there’s a corollary to the first point about denial and change, regarding why it’s difficult to reconcile a view with reality. If something ain’t true, there are two main reasons people will believe it anyway. They are afraid it’s true, or they really want for it to be true. The number of comments that stink of this is pretty numerous right now, from internet posts to press conferences. The “completely shocked” statement stands out, primarily since it comes from the head coach. I can understand a greater level of disconnect from fans outside the bubble of the program. Like you said Scip, overconfidence, fatalism, fandom. Still, it’s no fun to read.

I have some relief in the fact that Mack claims to be shocked. Bold adjustments need to happen, and the only way they do is if the brain-trust stops towing the line that says everything is ok, we just need to tweak this or that. I presume if they are shocked, they will at least try to do something material about it. That remains to be seen though.

Even if WM agreed to keep GD on as his OC, you can bet all the money you have GD’s seat would be hotter than fucking hell. WM would not put up with GD’s incompetent game planning. He might stay on as OC emeritus, but he would not be calling the plays or setting the game plans.

Even so, Greg Davis is gone when Mack is gone, I don’t think he has the sack to put up with the heat from Muschamp as his head coach.

You say “tortoise,” I say “Torbush.”

No Greg Davis didn’t say that. No he didn’t. No. No. No way. No. No!

Starting with the Tech game, I began to count the number of plays we ran before we experienced a TFL, penalty, or turnover. I don’t get to three very many times.

Clendon’s in game tweet suggesting that Davis give Muschamp half his salary was total BS. GDGD should resign and get out of the way with his pathetic gameplans, preparations, play calling and in-game nonadjustments.

But beowulf. GDGD has put up some great numbers over the years and we won a NC with the bufoon as OC.

Careful, beowulf. Clendy banned me years ago for saying the same shit about GDGD. It pays well to cyber-fellate Mack and his boy, so this sort of posting needs to be discouraged on a “premium” site.

nordberg said:
September 27th, 2010 at 1:23 pm

That 07 team had an NFL QB, an NFL RB, an NFL TE, and three NFL WRs. And we still sucked for most of the year.

Texox said:
“nordberg, i’ve asked the question here and elsewhere, but either missed the answer or didn’t get one.

How many NFL’ers do you see in these classes?

2010? (Srs)
2011? (Jrs)

Is there a chance that those two classes may not put any players in the NFL?"

Texoz: I see quite a few NFLers: Acho, Jones, both Browns, AW, Robinson, Randall, maybe Gideon. They may not all be all pro starters, but I bet most of those will make NFL rosters for a year or 2 at least. I know that isn’t what you are asking. Even though the D didn’t play as well as they should have the 2nd half (33 plays, 211 yards, 6.4 y/p, 3 TDs is not good), what I’m trying to point out is that we have a lot of talent and good coaching at least on one side of the ball. I still think the D will keep us in enough games to be better than that team (or at least not have a worse record).

Also, I’m sure someone from the O will make a roster. Surely MW, Huey or Hix will be a 6th or 7th rounder. I know I’d throw a 6/7 at a physical freak like MW to see if I could coach him into something useful. High reward potential, pretty low risk.

I’m scared.

We need an A++++ dual threat QB to succeed with Davis, and I don’t see us able to recruit that player anymore.

We got Vince when our stock was still high, and we got real damned lucky with Colt.

To me, Malcolm Brown is a Cedric Benson, and we weren’t carving up the world with Ced until Vince took over.

Any reason I should take heart for the future?

Scipio
Over several years and multiple web sites you have educated and entertained many fans, myself included. I really appreciate your observations and the creative way you choose to deliver them. Thank you.
I see one of three possible future scenarios
   1) MB makes the hard but necessary CEO move and fires GD. Not likely
   2) MB tires of the bullshit from a bad season (on it’s way) and retires which keeps WM here in Austin. More likely.
   3) MB fires Macwhorter, nothing changes and WM is off to Georgia. We wander in the wilderness for a few years until MB is edged out. Most likely.
Maybe we need scenario 2 for the long term and greater good.

You can’t make this stuff up…

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=372790723496&index=1

I, for one, am going to be a fan!

Great post as usual for scipio.

The Mack Davis offense is nauseating but its here to stay as long as Mack is coach at Texas. I have to admit that I am ready for the Will Muschamp era to begin because I am sick and tired of watching our putrid offense.

Watching our offense against UCLA, OU and Nebraska made me throw up in my mouth repeatedly.

I think we’ve found a new species – Testudo Davei

I’m stealing that.

I respectfully disagree that Gilbert is holding back. I don’t know what he is being told to do by Davis, etc., but he plays very, very well for a starting sophmore QB on the field. He makes a few mistakes here and there, but he is throwing 70% of the game. The incompletes are mostly dropped passes. You could put McCoy (Colt) or Vince Young in Gilbert’s shoes at week four and week five, and, well, they’d be able to run a lot more, but they wouldn’t have any better touchdown ability throwing to receivers that drop the ball 50% of the time, or runners that can’t improvise and get through a defensive line. I think Gilbert is performing well. The problem is at the other end of where the ball is going. We have no receivers or runners that are play-makers, and often, they end up being play-breakers. Gilbert, the Texas defense, and probably the offensive line, are the best pieces of this season’s team. The catchers and runners are our weakest link. Gilbert throws some beautiful stuff that is just not caught, or held onto.

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