The Replacements

Not making a bowl will bring us our changes. A bowl win may allow the spin myster to keep his buddies.

McWhorter & Cleve will be show the door after the season is over but that is all. Muschamp will probably flee the premises for the next HC offer that comes his way & it wil be business as usual in 2011.

This is going to be the first season under Mack Brown in which Texas has had neither a 1,000 yard receiver OR running back. If that is somehow surprising to you I encourage you to look it up.

2006 called …

Why didn’t we give Hales more opportunities versus Baylor. He was one of the lone bright spots in the Iowa St. game. It just doesn’t make sense. They never let the RB’s get in a rhythm. It’s like they hate the production of synergy.

My prediction on next years OL:

LT: Paden Kelley seems to be the most athletic of the kids on campus. I wish Westerman was graduating early, but he’s not. Still, I think he’s on the two deep by the beginning of the season.

Guards: Ashcraft and Walters. The staff doesn’t think Walters is athletic enough to play tackle and that may be evidenced in his pass protection at guard. Still, he provides a good disposition and the ability to drive block. Ditto for Ashcraft. Tray Allen is a wild card here, but who knows what kind of shape he’ll be in.

Center: Snow, of course. Backed up by Porter.

RT: I’m thinking Hopkins here. He’s got great feet and balance but maybe not the measurables you’d look for in a LT. Poehlmann might factor in here or at LT.

Nickel, I’ve also stated that Gilbert is a fine runner. While he’s not as fast as Colt he has a knack of getting yards after initial contact, though that’s not something you want your QB doing often.

We got stats in spades. Correct, there was 2006. Let’s change it to: This is going to be the first season under Mack Brown in which Texas has had neither a 800 yard receiver OR running back. Depressing, no?

In light of Mack’s story about Curtis’ struggles these last few weeks …

Link/explanation?

Must suck for you guys knowing the OU true freshman class is kicking ass!

“In light of Mack’s story about Curtis’ struggles these last few weeks …”

It was in Mack’s presser. Curtis has a very young child that was very ill (and still may be, I’m not in the know) last week in Houston. Curtis happened to turn up on the NCAA mandatory drug test list where a missed test equal a positive test, meaning you don’t play. So, instead of leaving Tuesday night to attend to his very ill child, he stayed in Austin, pissed in a cup Wednesday morning at 6 am, and then went to Houston, where he stayed for two days. Curtis was dealing with a lot last week, for anyone.

So, I ask – why would the coaches put Curtis in a position to do field punts (something that he has struggled with this season) after missing two days of practice? And furthermore – with extra practice reps available due to Curtis’ absence, WHY THE FUCK wasn’t someone else available?

MB can fire all the coaches you want him to and it will mean nada if he does not make serious and EFFECTIVE changes to how he recruits. Sadly, it almost too late to do that for the class of 2012. That sucks canal water big time.

2006…I assumed that Sweed had cracked 1,000.

I discovered that stat, or non-stat as it turns out, when I was wondering when the last time was that Texas lacked having a dominant or game changing skill player. I didn’t look at numbers in 2006 because I think we can all agree that Sweed was fairly dominant that season.

Regardless, Charles and Sweed both broke 800 and after watching some old tape for the “gamechangers” book I can say with confidence that Selvin Young would be starting for this team as well. As would JerMichael Finley.

Magnus: I guess that makes as much sense as anything. Not having seen Kelly I’m not sure how I feel about that tandem, they may be pretty solid in a few years but next year looks fairly bleak. If we aren’t retooling the running game next year, as we should have done this year, to be the emphasis than 10 wins is going to be a struggle again.

“I won’t concede his failure as quickly as I will my own to ignore NateHeupel’s assessment of his surrounding talent. That they are awful.”

Landry Jones is as much a product of guys like Ryan Broyles, Kenny Stills, and DeMarco Murray as Garrett Gilbert is a product of guys like James Kirkendoll, Barrett Matthews and the TE Shuffle!, and Greg Davis. Gilbert will be great in time. But 2010 damned sure isn’t that time.

Nickel, the only thing you said that was really laughable was when you tried to tout Greg Davis’ skills as a QB coach. Considering the comedy of errors that was Vince Young before he became VY and took control, Chris “INT” Simms, and Colt McCoy’s “Saturday Night at the Improv (Offense)”, the evidence was overwhelmingly against such an argument.

Nickel: Great analysis. We share many of the same ideas. My view: I’d play ANYBODY now who can help us win 3-5 more games. That matters more than developing players. Get, for heaven’s sake, bowl eligible. I’d like that to be K-State and Florida Atlantic (with a 50-50 chance against A&M). I still believe a 4-0 finish is more likely than 2-2. Specific areas:

Coaches — We’re all in agreement on the OC. I’ll cut McWhorter some slack; I think the line was bad against UCLA and iffy before that. It’s better now, it has three new starters and the other two (pre Huey’s injury) were at new positions. The talent is average; McWhorter hasn’t done a bad job unless you expected him to take Hix and Mitchell and turn them into Blaylock and Russell Okung. Kennedy needs to go. Applewhite is a keep. The defensive staff is fine. I’d like to see some reassignments in the special teams area. Whatever we’re doing (except for Tucker’s kicking coach) ain’t working.

Offense — We have no choice in the O-line . . . we’re already playing No. 6 on the preseason pecking order (that would be, in my view, 1-5, Huey-Hix-Snow-Allen-Mitchell). Walters is No. 6. No. 7 was Poehlmann, and he’s gone. No. 8 was Porter or Hopkins, who’s now starting. . . . Except on running plays, we need to bury all the tight ends; use Smith to block ONLY. Play a fullback, play two RBs, play 4-5 wide. Get the TEs off the field; they’re killing us, and if GD wants to force the issue, he’s supplying ammo for his removal . . . WR, hell, I don’t know. Chiles and Davis and somebody. Goodwin scares me, despite his speed. Capt. Kirk brings nothing to the table. Darius White has been on the field a bunch, but he either can’t run the right routes or can’t achieve separation. Hales is intriguing. . . . RB is a mish-mash; Cody is solid, the rest I can’t figure out (but I’m not paid to do that job).

Defense — The line is studly . . . healthy, I have no problem with the LB threesome of No. 1, No. 81 and whatever number Drav. Johnson wears. Play Hicks a lot. Lose Earnest. Get Norton some snaps on running downs . . . Try to hide Chykie (he’s gotta play some). I honestly don’t know what to do at safety; Vaccaro and Scott are strong safeties who can’t be paired. Gideon is NOT a strong safety, but he can’t cover or react well enough to be even adequte as a free safety. Play Phillips, I guess, but realize we’re trading Gideon’s skills limitations for Phillips’ total inexperience, and we might be worse off with Phillips in there . . . don’t understand why Mack promised redshirts to two veterans who could help — Brewster at Gideon’s spot and Mims, who’d help at DE with Jeffcoat limited. (It’s possible Brewster, at least, is not physically able to step in at this point.)

Sorry . . . too long.

Wow. This has quickly devolved into a Greek tragedy.
What Defensive Coordinator worth anything would work for Brown?
With what’s gone on at Miami, FSU, and now Texas, hopefully people will start to question the predictive value of the recruiting star system.

What do Malcolm Brown and Desmond Jackson see that keep them committed to UT?

On the Defense:

Obviously, keeping Muschamp is priority numero uno. But aside from that, the success of the defense will be largely predicated on whether Aaron Williams and/or Kheeston Randall return.

Corner: Without Williams, we’re going into the season with true sophs Byndom and AJ White, both of whom have just about zero meaningful coverage experience. Yikes. How good is Turner, Diggs, or Evans? We’ll probably need to find out fast.

Safety: Let’s make the concession that Muschamp’s one glaring flaw is keeping Blake Gideon on the field at all times. Paging Adrian Phillips? Let’s also note that Gideon is coming back, and if Muschamp does the same, Gideon will still be playing. Vaccaro could usurp Scott, but all 3 will see plenty of time in the nickel. I think it’s a little much to expect Vaccaro to be ET-good, although we may need him to be. And I think Scott was hurt from a development standpoint by the year off; I think he comes back strong in year 5. But add Gideon with raw corners, and that’s scary as Bob Stoops’ ass crack.

Linebacker: Hoss group. Robinson and Acho, duh. Hicks should improve and in 2012 be Robinson, circa 2010. Only concern is injury. Expect some Hicks-like contributions from Edmond and/or Thompson. I’m expecting a step-up year from Dr. Johnson, similar to Randall last year. I think he can wreck shop as the SLB/DE hybrid.

Defensive End: Losing Acho hurts; he’s such a smart player and frees up Jones, Randall, etc., to do what they do best. But it’s not like we’re hurting here: Jeffcoat, Wilson, Dr. Johnson, maybe Okafor. And as we saw this year, if Reed (or Rasco) is ready, Will will throw him into the fire.

Defensive Tackle: The other cluster. If I were Randall, I’d genuinely see what Tolly thinks of his draft stock. No point staying if it’s high, but I haven’t seen the pundits talk up Randall yet. They need to decide if Oak’s staying inside or out. If in, he needs to hit the weight room. Todd Wright’s, not Mad Dog’s. Everyone’s talking up Des Jackson, but we were doing the same thing last year with Bible and Dorsey. I’d rather count on one of the existing tackles stepping up. Come on, Tolly…work that magic!

On the Offense:

Pass. Ugh. I can’t even type it out.

Tex Long: The importance of getting to a bowl game is in the 2 weeks of practices you get from it that Texas and everyone else have long relied upon to develop young players. Plus it’s money in the bank, etc. Personally I’d still rather watch more games than less, even though rewatching 4 losses has been unpleasant to say the least.

edsp: The thing about Gideon and alignment is that he made 2 terrible plays on slants that resulted in 14 Baylor points. I’m sure Phillips or Vaccaro could make that mistake just as easily. If we subsituted Vaccaro for Scott and left Gideon on the field I’m cool with that but we need more kenny.

We need to play TEs or HBs for pass protection and because they are approximately 10x better as run game blockers than our receivers. I don’t know the answer here because we don’t seem to have any great ones. Matthews and Smith are fairly solid as blockers but teams are submitting invitations with envoys for us to throw them the ball on 3rd down.

If you switch to a fullback or Halfback 20 personnel look who plays that position? Roberson whom we never see? Matthews or Smith? Whaley? There aren’t easy answers and it’s still the staff’s fault because they recruited and evaluated into this mess that we’ve seen since Irby went down and Finley left early. Friends there was a time when Texas could play 2 NFL tight ends on the field at the same time…

“What do Malcolm Brown and Desmond Jackson see that keep them committed to UT?”

Not sure about Malcolm other than three UT ex’s ran for a 1,000 yards last year in the NFL. As for Desmond, that one is truly mind boggling. Maybe the staff had Casey Hampton, Shaun Rogers, Roy Miller, or Lamarr Thomas give him a call.

“With what’s gone on at Miami, FSU, and now Texas, hopefully people will start to question the predictive value of the recruiting star system.”

No, that’s not it. OU wants the same players but routinely gets their teeth kicked in in Texas. Our problem is player development on the offensive side of the ball. The player rating system seemed to work fine with Jefferson, Clay, and Finch, no?

“Perhaps the sack-o-shit RB coach needs to go with the looming house cleaning.”

You truly are retarded if you think Applewhite is the problem. Is today Oklahoma Cocksucer Day on Barking Carnival?

thegreatkeithjackson:

If you’ve watched any Texas games this year you’ll notice a lack of Power-I formations. See also our discussion of the dearth of talent at TE/FB/HB if you have any interest in taking part in real discussion.

JC25: I want to be clear, I don’t think Vaccaro can do what Earl did as well as he did. I just mean having a safety who can line up on a slot or inside receiver and not yield multiple TD receptions. He doesn’t have to pick 8 passes, just close the wound.

I’m betting Randall could crack the All-Conference lists this year (if he doesn’t…) and be a guy who gets some hype heading into next season along with an early 1st or 2nd round selection. I haven’t really thought about what will happen if he leaves early, it’s a terrifying thought that I don’t think we should worry about just yet. I think he stays though.

I would think we protect our young corners next year with some 2-deep looks and some zone that calls on uno ocho, Robinson, and Hicks to make some drops and plays. We’ve seen a little of that this year and the linebackers look up to it, just need some better support from the back.

I’m curious to what degree the BC Powers That Be think that our recent struggles give Sooner trash license to troll this site.

Good stuff, Nickel. I disagree on the power I. We don’t run it because GD and Mack don’t really want to. You’re telling me our run game would be worse than it is now if we dotted the I? Put EBS at TE. Put Matthews at H-back. Or put Roberson or Berryhill or random LB X at FB. Then put Cody in the rear. That formation can’t run for 10 yards over 3 plays? That formation is worse than puting EBS + Kirk + MW + Chiles. O rly? Hell, if Mack and GD really wanted the power running game, they’d take their lumps this year and get ready to wreck shit with MB1, Cody, and Bergeron going into year 2.

Of course, the power I is full retard in CFB when you could just as easily implement a spread option attack (see: Oregon vs. USC).

How was that, nobis? :)

The problem with Vaccaro in the ET rover role is that we don’t have the cover experience that the Browns + A Will brought to the ‘09 D. We’ll be rolling the dice with two unproven sophs. That’s compounded by the fact that our safeties aren’t really that good in a cover 2 role. I do think Muschamp will roll the LB’s into coverage a bit more, but then that’s predicated on whether we can get the DT’s to step up against the run. Then you consider that if Randall isn’t here, we have no proven commodity on the inside line. The circle of life, imo. It’ll be interesting to see what WM does next year, that’s for sure (if he doesn’t…).

Yes magnus, apparently the Moore, Ok. Trailer Park and Noodling Academy has gone wi-fi.

keith jackson – take the Reynolds Wrap off your window and gaze at the water tower. It reads:
Moore
Home of Toby Keith

Feel free to kill yourself..

With what’s gone on at Miami, FSU, and now Texas, hopefully people will start to question the predictive value of the recruiting star system.

Probably not people with triple digit IQs.

Could Cody be 2nd RB on the field with Fozzy/DJ/Newton instead of a TE? He seems to block his ass off, he can’t catch any worse than our TEs, and that would let us motion into or out of 1 or 2 rb sets.

Just a tip.

If you’re trying to call someone a cocksucker, it’s much more effective if you don’t spell like James Hail.

tfp.

How so? You seemed to know exactly what I was typing. In fact there was a sudty dnoe that stated as long as you uesd the first and lsat lteter correctly people could still discern what you were wirinitg.

Thanks though.

Like the idea of Cody as the 2nd running back on the field. Much more flexibility and much better yac on dump passes. Might be time to give Whaley a chance as the H back. At least he can catch the ball.

Oops – must not disparage the great Major or my posts will be deleted – got it. So you guys want to wallow in your own self-misery and not be open to outside thoughts on your isses? How aggie-ish

“We’ve got the best talent in the world – Mack is a superior talent evaluator”. I’m here to tell you your skill position players are average at best. Maybe it’s the coaching, maybe it’s filling up most of your scholly before the kid’s junior prom and they don’t develop as predicted – maybe both. Don’t know, they’re just not that good. Malcolm Williams with another drop!

your defense is interesting – with every d coordinator change has come a fire that flashes out a year or two later. Does Mack’s persona finally undermine each d coord to where the d eventually begins to under achieve?

haha i love it when sooners come on here and bash our talent evaluation process as if they didn’t recruit about 90% of our entire fucking team.

Nickel Rover said The importance of getting to a bowl game is in the 2 weeks of practices you get from it that Texas and everyone else have long relied upon to develop young players. Plus it’s money in the bank, etc.

Two weeks of practice with MacGregor Brown calling the shots? Pardon me if I’m not elated by the prospect. This is 2 weeks on top of, what is it, 15 or 16, that they’ve already had? Sorry, I don’t see it being hugely important.

The money from a toilet bowl is completely minimal. We get expenses (net zero) and 1/12th of whatever is left over, amounting to well under a percentage point of the annual total. Pardon me if I’m not elated by this prospect either. We’ll get considerably more from 0u and/or Nebs’ Big Ass Bowl games.

Like summer, the players can work on their own, can’t they? See who actually does, and put a gold star by their names.

I truly hope we can go 4-0 the rest of the way, with some real rebuilding happening, and make a Tier 2 bowl. I hope, but I’m not putting any money on it. And if we can’t, I pray fervently that we don’t split ‘em and have to decide whether to take a Toilet Bowl bid. And if we do, and we decide to go, you’d best be praying we don’t dominate Wake Forest or whoever it is and wind up with MacGregor crowing mightily at the Righting of the Ship.

I agree with Tex Long: Two more weeks of practice of what they already do isn’t going to prepare anyone for 2011.

I would hate to see them not make any bowl, but any bowl is not vital to getting them off the ground.

Is it too early to be looking at offensive coordinators like these two guys?

Mark Helfrich, Oregon
http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=3376&SPID=233&DB_LANG=C&DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=204770343&Q_SEASON=2010

Bryan Harsin, Boise St.
http://www.broncosports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=54307&SPID=4061&DB_LANG=C&DB_OEM_ID=9900&ATCLID=578847&Q_SEASON=2010

Any other ideas to replace Greg Davis?

“Priority one has to be keeping Muschamp and priority two has to be overhauling our offensive staff, "

Spot the fuck ON!

Without Muschamp, there is no joy in Longhorn football.

And no, I’m not his catamite.

Andy Ludwig – Cal: http://www.calbears.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/ludwig_andy00.html, successful OC at Oregon and Utah previously
Robert Anae – Tech: http://www.byucougars.com/StaffProfile.jsp?ID=12, bonus points for time spent at Tech under Leach
This guy – http://www.texassports.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/applewhite_major00.html
David Yost – Mizzou: http://www.mutigers.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/yost_david00.html
And of course, Malzahn – Auburn: http://auburntigers.cstv.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/malzahn_gus00.html

Very good post Nickel, but it won’t matter because GD will still be here next year. And when that happens Dodds may as well pack his bags because not only will MB be gone at the end of 2011 but so will Dodds. MB may perceive himself as a CEO but he has exhibited no skills whatsoever in that are. Where MB is talented is in recruiting and that is more than enough if he would exhibit CEO skills and surround himself with good coaches. The presence of GD on his staff will almost guarantee failure for his team and his exit as CEO.

Why would Helfrich leave Oregon for another OC position? Especially one at a school that already has a HCIW at the DC position? Regardless I imagine he will be offered multiple HC positions in the offseason.

Boise’s OC is a more likely hire but its hard to predict to what degree Boise’s offensive success comes from him and not from Peterson, who was the OC when Hawkins was the HC there.

If I were Mack and had made the mental decision to get rid of Davis I would probably transition the play calling to Applewhite immediately and give him an on-field tryout. While this wouldn’t give Applewhite the true benefit of designing and running the offense the way he wants to throughout the off season and in recruiting it will at least allow him to show whether he can put together an offensive game plan that uses plays that build off each other rather than the xbox style random play calls that Davis is famous for.