Let There Be Rock -- Here's to the Future

I agree that Muschamp leaving isn’t in and of itself the end of the world. He has to own up to the D’s failures just as much as GD GD does for his side of the ball.

There are other kick ass DCs out there. Maybe even better than Muschamp.

However, I have zero faith in Mack getting it done. The sooner Mack leaves, the sooner Texas can right the ship.

My favorite DBT song. My wife won’t let me play it any more.

 (close second Women Without Whiskey)

But I’ll bet on Muschamp having big success at Florida. I think he’s the real deal. The two years before, all that success you allude to was a healthy portion of Will.

Looking forward to seeing who are guys are so we can get on with this.

I hope you’re right about the Portly Pooch, and Kennedy.

Southern Rock Opera renewed my faith in rock music…..I’m not smart enough to relate that back to the horns…..

as DBT says, “I guess the price of being sober is being scared out of your mind”

So..when are we going to get Fatdog gone?

I agree 100% with this post, and came to the same conclusion after drinking the second cup of coffee this morning. This year held more strife than we have seen during Mack’s tenure, and it makes no sense. Quite possibly it is no one person’s fault, but the wrong mix of people.

Everyone is looking for a proven head coach, and we have one. How incredibly foolish we would be if we didn’t give him an opportunity to fix this Texas-sized mess.

Now, Mack could you fix it really quick, please?

Isbell solo >>> Current DBT

Finally… A logical article!!!

Thank you, toadvine

“He had a bad year”

His teams have won all of 2 conference titles in his 20+ years as a head coach. He’s had more bad years than good, Miss Congeniality awards aside.

Hefty Hound
Tubby Terrier
Corpulent Canine (From Scipio Tex)
Podgy Puppy
Rotund Rottweiler

mr. sunshine,

That’s just flat-out untrue. There may be other coaches who have had more success, but it’s hilariously stupid to claim that Mack has had more bad years than good. In fact, that’s such a bizarre statement I don’t even know how to unpack it. Do you think a year is only good if you win a conference of national championship? Define your metrics — whatever they are, they must be impossible. This was the only BAD year Mack has had. I’ve been disappointed before, sure, but ther years have been overwhelmingly good. Let’s not forget that, however butt-hurt we may currently be.

Sailor —

Agree and agree on 1 and 2. But also, “Get Your Ass on the Plane.”

Drew —

Yeah, probably. Although I don’t love either. And DBT sells more records now, somehow, than ever before.

Amen. Mack’s biggest fault to date has been hanging onto dead wood when it should have been pruned long before. HOWEVER, when changes have been in order, he has had a great track record of making better hires – often MUCH better hires – to fill the vacancies. Muschamp will be hard to improve upon, but I doubt there will be much of a dropoff when the dust settles on the defensive side of the ball. Offensively…..well……the sky’s the limit.

He had a bad year

Disagree. Several years of failure in recruiting and the hiring of assistant coaches culminated in a really bad year on the field. I’m struggling to think of a similarly poor season from any of the college coaches commonly thought of as Mack’s peers.
  
He has to own up to the D’s failures just as much as GD GD does for his side of the ball.

Let’s put those “failures” in perspective. This was a top twenty defense. It just didn’t carry the team like a lot of us had hoped it would.

My only conclusion there is that they hear the greatness of the old stuff and go buy the new albums, expecting more of the same. I enjoyed maybe three songs off the first post-Isbell record and I didn’t hear anything from the new one that made me even want to get the full thing.

Andy Staples from SI:

“At Texas, Muschamp could have waited three — five? 10? — more years and succeeded Brown. He would have inherited a wealthy program with great facilities and excellent fan and administrative support that sits smack in the middle of a recruiting hotbed. Instead, Muschamp will immediately take over a wealthy program with great facilities and excellent fan and administrative support that sits smack in the middle of a recruiting hotbed.”

So, basically, Texas isn’t God’s gift to college football, and we actually need to do more than just tread water to stay competitive?

Thoughts?

O/U on next conference championship – 2015?

Just like I don’t see Muschamp leaving as the end of the world I am not ready to say I blindly trust Mack to fix this.

I’m Missouri with this. Show me action and several new hires that show me he has what it takes to turn this around.

Replacing Muschamp the coordinator is not the issue. Replacing Muschamp the recruiter, and doing it before this year’s class falls apart, is the issue.

Mack Brown has been God’s gift to Longhorns for 13 years. We know his work. For whatever reasons, the talent level is down and we did not win 10 games. The talent level was down his first year and we did not win 10 games.

Things will get a lot better if he has not lost his ability to recruit really top talent.

Time will tell and I for one am willing for the powers-that-be to give MB another 4 or more years to get it right again.

Drew and SR —

True story. SXSW 2003, New West showcase at Cedar Street, on 4th. I got in as crew, helping load in for another New West act (I was put on the crew list as a favor because I had no ticket or wristband, essentially). I’m carrying a couple of guitars in for one of the acts when I see Patterson Hood standing to the side of the stage at the end of one of those brick hallways there. I walk up to him, shake his hand, and tell him how much I love the band. I mention that their old song, “The Living Bubba” is one of the best songs I’d ever heard. The song had come out in 1999, possibly earlier. This 2003 show was in front of TONS of big-time industry people following the band because of SRO and eagerly anticipating the first New West record. Like all showcases, the band has only a one-hour (50 minutes) set. Anyway, DBT comes out and kicks off their headlining set with a 10-minute version of “The Living Bubba,” confusing everyone but me and a couple of other “crew” members. After that I mentally agreed to forever purchase anything Patterson Hood ever did because the guy is a bad-ass.

t1 -

My favorite is “Heavy Mutt”.

Yep, that’s one’s mine. Ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha ha!

Toadvine – I’ll stand by the stupid comment. I don’t recall the 10-win season stat being played up so much until it was being used to gloss over 13-14 game seasons, typically highlighted by prison rapes at the hands of the dirt burglars, who Stoops just coached to a 7th conference title in 12 years.

But conference titles don’t matter. Neither does titty fucking that redhead on Mad Men, which I’ve also chalked up as blasé, based on the infrequency at which it happens.

But were the Joneses. No, I think they’ve got a bowl to go to.

Fuck 10 win seasons…its a crappy metric of success. Give me OU’s 7 conference championships and no losing seasons this decade to our 2 conference championships and 1 losing season any day, any time. There is absolutely no reason why OU should be pushing our shit in year after year. Even when we beat them we manage to shit the bed and gift them another trophy. I don’t want to ‘right the ship’ if it means waiting another 4 or 5 years to win another conference title. Give me someone who will win two or three conference titles sandwiched by a couple of 8 win seasons.

I usually read quietly, because I’m barely football literate compared to most of y’all here, but I need help with wrapping my head around this argument.

I mean, as desperate as I am for silver linings, I can’t stop thinking that, if Muschamp weren’t so great, why did Florida chose him?

It’s not like they couldn’t take the pick of the litter, is it? So, wouldn’t that mean we lost the pick of the litter?

So in just simple math, either we or Florida screwed up, right?

Yes it’s awesome that we lost Muschamp! Clearly we will be better next year because Muschamp quit! He wasn’t that good a coach anyway, he “shit the bed”. Those guys at Florida must not know anything about football…..

Seriously, WTF? We are not going to be " fine". We are going to suck, because no one worth a shit will want to work for “just keep clapping” MB. Or play here, because MB and his new yes men retreads will be Bowden all over again. There, I said it.

er, that would be “choose” – not “chose.”

I do like Patterson Hood. Despite my general tepid feelings toward Brighter Than Creations Dark, Righteous Path was a great song.

Mack Brown has won 133 games as the head coach of the University of Texas. Surely all of you will agree that not all of those games were won in despite his being coach?

Hyperbole fueled by emotion is easy to do. Maybe Muschamp will be the greatest head coach ever. And maybe he’ll struggle to fill Urban Meyer’s shoes and get run out of Florida on a rail.

My point is that Mack is a proven commodity as a head coach and Muschamp is not. You cannot argue with that statement. You can guess at Muschamp’s future success or Mack’s future failure, but the record stands as it is for the time being.

A Muschamp led crew going into 2011 would give me a lot more confidence than the what we have now, in spite of Will’s inexperience.

Oh, I agree the past wasn’t horrible and had the ball bounced our way a couple of times, maybe our 2 conference championships are 3 or 4 (of course, a missed field goal or a second less on the clock and we only have 1 CC).

My problem is that Mack seems too obsessed with 10 wins and not winning the conference. Its like he is looking for excuses rather than truly looking in the mirror (or hell, just looking north to Oklahoma) to figure out why a program with all these advantages that he has built up can’t bring home the hardware. Mack wouldn’t have been fired if he only won 125 games but had 4 conference championships. In fact his legacy would be even stronger, even if that meant we didn’t win 10 games every year for a decade.

Muschamp seems like he is more than capable of continuing the overall winning nature of the program, but he also seemed less beholden to the silly, self-serving metrics that Mack trumpets to cover up his inadequacies.

Yanking Eyes of Texas’ uncomfortable truths and replace them with StuartSmallingVine is supposed to improve the product?

You can berate us all you want (because, ya know, you’re trying to improve the discourse here) but I still bet 2 conference championships in 13 years is unacceptable to most Longhorns, and a Right Track/Wrong Track survey of where the program is heading would poll strongly ‘wrong’. Ultimately it isn’t that we are failing to recognize the good things Mack has brought, but rather asking if he in the future can likely bring the program back up to an acceptable level, and how that level is defined. Put it to a vote, and I bet conference championships would be the most popular metric, and Mack’s track record in that does not inspire confidence. (Though surely a poll is beneath the dignity of this superior blog…)

Toad, that’s the sort of attitude that would never see talented coordinators given a shot at the big chair. It’s much too conservative for my taste. Surely prior head coaching record isn’t the only tool we have at our disposal to extrapolate a coach’s future prospects.

For example, I’d contend that Muschamp has a number of points in his favor. For starters, given that he’s a Saban disciple, I’m sure he understands the difference between process and result (Saban is obsessed with this). As such, he’ll work to ensure that the proper processes are put in place at every level of the program. Such a systematic approach is something that I don’t see at Texas right now. Second, he’s younger, hungrier, and is a safe bet to work harder than Mack going forward. Third, he has actual on-field coaching acumen.

What Mack’s track record and Will’s lack thereof might tell us is that Mack is a safer bet not to fail completely going forward. It is possible that despite his obvious abilities as a coach Muschamp is a failure as a head coach, which Mack is obviously not. But Muschamp’s upside is higher for the reasons I outlined in my second paragraph. Would anyone here really wager on Mack winning another MNC before Muschamp?

My question is what does fixed mean?

We know exactly what Mack is at this point. If you don’t let me do a quick rundown:

Mack Brown @ Texas
Years: 13
Overall Wins: 133
Overall Losses: 34
Overall winning %: 79.6
Big 12 Wins: 82
Big 12 Losses: 21
Big 12 winning %: 79.6
Record against Top 25: 33-22
Top 25 winning %: 60
Record against Top 10: 10-15
Top 10 winning %: 40
Record against OU: 6-7
Record against A&M: 9-4
Big 12 Championship Appearances: 4
Big 12 Titles: 2
National Championship Appearances: 2
National Championships: 1

So after looking at that he’s successful but if he does “fix” this what is he fixing us to? A ten win team that might compete for a Big 12 championship every 4 years or so? Because that’s what Mack is. He’s a good coach but not a championship coach.

Ultimately I think that’s where the angst comes from. I don’t think our standards are being met by Mack. Unless you want to argue that mine and many others standards are set too high. But if you admit that a Head Coach at the University of Texas has more built in advantages than any other position in the country than Mack simply doesn’t bring home the bacon on a consistent enough basis.

So again based on his career what exactly does “fix” mean?

Here is the fear, Toadvine:

Muschamp is the real deal and he was going to rebuild at Texas with young, hungry, and energetic staff which I think we would all agree is the way to go in football coaching. That’s the kind of staff DKR worked with.

With his departure, we lose the plan for our future that gave his reason and security in our hope of competing for championships in the ought-teen decade.

Not only that, we don’t have anything left here to see that vision through with except an aging head coach who was going to retire soon, an aging defensive backs coach, and and up and coming young offensive coach.

We knew we could build around Muschamp and counting on an identity as a defensively strong team. Now? We have to build an awesome staff of guys who will agree to come to Texas without any certainty about what will happen in the next few years if Mack retires.

We’ve gone from “awesome future built around talented youth” to “whatever Mack can scrap together for an indefinite period.” I see that combined with what’s happening at Texas A&M and I get worried.

Judge Holden:

“Would anyone here really wager on Mack winning another MNC before Muschamp?”

That’s an interesting question. But yeah, I would.

Your other points are totally fair ones. I don’t disagree, necessarily. Muschamp may be a great one. But it’s really hard to flush a great one you know for the possibility of a so far unproven one who might be even greater.

If I were Dodds then I do not know what I would do if I were directly forced to choose between Mack and Muschamp right now. I really don’t. My point is that we no longer have that choice and it’s not the end of the world because we still have a really good coach who has rebuilt us before. and he’s done it by finding good coordinators, like Muchamp.

I’m not pumping sunshine, just inhabiting our current reality and trying to be objective about it.

Speaking of which, I’d like to talk with you about some scalps…

Nickel:

I understand. I’m just choosing to see the glass as half-full. We’ve still got a great, albeit an aging, head coach.

And I think many of us are less confident in Applewhite as OC without the safety net of Muschamp’s defense. We need a splash hire at OC now, who is going to agree to come here and hold Applewhite’s hand for yet another indefinite period of time?

Maybe Muschamp is not the greatest coach we’ve ever had. Maybe we are annointing his genuis prematurely. But the one thing that no one can dispute is that the attitude and work ethic vomitted all over the program by Mack’s washed up buddies was counteracted by Muschamp.

His intensity was sorely needed on the sidelines and in recruiting. It’s contagious. Similarly, the lack of that intensity is also contagious, as we’ve all seen firsthand. Losing Muschamp is more than X’s and O’s. It’s losing a state of mind we’re trying to instill and a culture we’re trying to correct.

It also changes the timetable to replace the dead weight we finally fired. We need a move now. Between the pissed off sophomores-to-be and the antsy recruits who have been talking to them, another year of Mack’s attitude will not work.

Muschamp was a brand, one we needed.

Anytime a team don’t have a HCIW on staff, that team will be bettter. I’ll guaran-damn-tee you Muschamp won’t have one at FLA.

Oh yeah, bring on new OC Holgerson, ASAP.

Toadvine, I agree that “hyperbole fueled by emotion” is coming through in a lot of arguments. I have a soft spot for Mack, and as angry as he’s made me, I cringe at a lot of the really hostile or unfair (imo) attacks on his character and record lately.

But all of this is understandable under the circumstances, and to be fair, emotions are affecting both the pessimists and the optimists, as always.

As a handy example, ;) note the last paragraph of your article, which is another common argument I’ve seen today from the optimists:

“I’m going to trust Mack to get it right. He’s done it before. I was as pissed as everyone else about this season. But Mack has done the things he needed to do since the season ended. You wanted Davis gone and he is. […]”
--

That doesn’t seem logical or objective either, considering Mack apparently had to be strong-armed into it, does it?

Add in that Muschamp wouldn’t have needed to be forced, and, well…

Anyway, what’s done is done, so I’m looking for ways to sweeten the medicine too, but we need the sweeteners to be convincing.

just an awesome spectacle, really. From a pure entertainment point of view, the three best off seasons over the last 12+ years were 97, 03 and this year. Everyone complains about the boring off season and we get this. The last three of this variety went great and were a helluva lot of fun to watch, this one is too.

Re: We all know there was internal dissent this year. Is it possible Muschamp undercut Mack with the players? Sure. Is it possible to have an insurgent in your own camp and succeed? I’d wager not. Now I’m not saying Muschamp did anything wrong, but if there were opposing internal sides then it is safe to say that they have now both been purged.

I’ve cogitated on this going back to the UCLA game. I was concerned about a ‘split’ forming roughly along the lines that have been chronicled at BC. A word like ‘insurgent’ suggests intent in generating a split. I don’t take your remark to make a claim of intent, but as far as ‘splits’ are concerned, the difference between a split by design and one that happens organically (and largely unintentionally) through raw emotion is an important distinction to make.

Splits are damaging to a team as a whole and is a net negative for both sides when it happens more organically. If it’s by design, it would typically be with the intent of acquiring more power for one side (a coup). When I look at Muschamp, I see a guy who taps unfiltered emotion. To the extent that he contributed directly to a split, I don’t think it was to gain more power, though I believe a lot of fans wished for that outcome.

To be an effective HC, it serves you well to be able to have self awareness about this stuff, recognize it, and dimish the negative impact of real differences to the whole team when it percolates.

Boiling it down, events of this season within the team (the details of which are incomplete for me) has raised some significant questions about how Muschamp is wired. I think being an HC might place him in a position of being responsible for certain challenges that he has yet to master. If he goes to FL and finds himself in a position of needing to hire a staff consisting of coaches he is less closely associated with, the challenge of managing the facets of a program could very well mushroom for him in an unexpected way.

No disrespect meant to Major, but initial reports of WM wanting to name MA as Florida OC make me wonder about WM’s comfort level mananging new people he doesn’t have a close bond with, even if those new people are much more experienced and proven.

Hitler does Texas

H/T to the Spence Park guys

Put it to a vote, and I bet conference championships would be the most popular metric, and Mack’s track record in that does not inspire confidence. (Though surely a poll is beneath the dignity of this superior blog…)

Hmm, yes, it is a bit ironic to hear about metrics on this most qualitative blog, which is fond of trotting numbers out to discuss teams, coaches, or players, but can’t be bothered in the case of the experts who do the writing.

I can’t count how many times the leading contributors told us, first, that we should trust Mack, the downhill running game, and the defense, which was going to be the best Mack had ever fielded. That happened all summer.

These guys had been to the practices, they’d seen the players, and they knew, and that was that. It was all going to work.

Then, for each and every game, the leading contributors refused to predict any game’s outcome or ballpark the final score in advance (because, of course, they might be wrong, and that would be embarrassing).

Then we were told that it was premature to call for Greg Davis’ head (again).

Then they told us that it might not be premature, but it wouldn’t happen, ever — it was totally inconceivable, because — this was absolute gospel — these two men were players in each others’ weddings, and might even have married each other. Period. The end.

Then Recruitocosm started yapping about Davis getting fired.

And then, as usual, Barking Carnival changed its tune.

The writing’s good, but really, guys, if you want my respect you need to get your stories straight. This is an area where the Mandels of the world are streets ahead of you: accountability.

That’s one of the better Hitler rants I’ve seen. The looks on the General’s faces when Hitler talks about Applewhite was priceless.

I’m going to enjoy reading the response to your post Louis.

Yes, BC isn’t perfect, but score predictions? That is fucking stupid, man.

I have been saying to anyone who will listen, that Muschamp and Davis both (sub- consciously at least ) let this 5-7 shit happen for different reasons.

See, what they did was wait until we were all well on our way on a Saturday night. Gasoline on a nice winter camp fire, imo. Never tell a Texas fan bad news when they are half lit. They will proceed to get raging drunk and cuss to anyone who will listen. At least the ones I know.

I’m having trouble with the idea of “he’s done it before, he can do it again”. I think the idea that Mack Brown can resurrect Texas this time feels like dumb equivalence (figure of speech, please do not be offended). I hope I’m wrong, and I really, really mean that. I would love to see it happen, but:

- Mack was what, 46 when he woke the Texas sleeping giant? He’s a silver haired 59 now, and showing some of his age.

- Mack rebuilt Texas in the company of strong support from his personal and professional network. I’m afraid he depends on that for direction and motivation. A great deal of that network is eroded or fractured now. Mack’s mother died, Cleve Bryant has his situation, several of Mack’s oldest associates/friends are done, and the new blood will now actually be competition for recruits and staff. The confidence of the UT boosters and Bellmont staff is not where it was in 1997. Does Mack have the stomach for that?

- North Carolina and Texas had problems for which Mack was an ideal tonic. This time, many of the problems are of his own making. In what measure is a matter of opinion, but he is the head coach, so he owns them all no matter the cause. He’ll have to own all the solutions too. Was he the one who made the diagnosis and the call on the fact that changes were needed on offense? If not, then can he really avoid making a “comfort” hire? Are the goals for the new staff about championships and dominating rivals, or are a vague 9-10 wins going to be the mark?

- The field of competition is different now, with a different set of challenges. Some of them are going to be trouble. The Big 12 is in decline, not a shiny new conference. OU owns what’s left of it on the field. LSU and other SEC schools are always ready to poach. It also seems that aggy, Oklahoma State, and fucking Baylor can do significantly more than just nip at our heels right now. We still haven’t solved our Kansas State issues, and the team we owned just left for the Big Ten, so we can cross that win off our total for the near future. It could be worse, but there’s a lotta blood in the water right now and the sharks are circling.

Being Texas, a turnaround is completely possible. But this is going to take some doing, and mediocrity is just as real a possibility. Texas needs better than whatever mode of thinking that got us to this point. Mack better be ready to bring hell with him, or somebody does.

It’s not like Muschamp was a world-beater whose defense would have single-handedly won a national title but for the anemic offense.
 
How soon we forget 2010.
 
We played for a MNC because of our D and special teams.

NR, hiring a big OC means that he would probably be a coach on the way to somewhere, which would fit the hand-holding model you allude to, as long we can get two years out of the rent-a-name coach.

Scip, there is no disputing a great defense takes you a long way towards the promised land, especially if we struggle in big games, like Nebraska last year. However, if we can field a proficient offense that will still produce close to normal output even during big games, we don’t need to rely as much on a stellar defense to take us places. A C+ offense paired with a A- defense will go far, but could arguably get as far with a B+/B+ combo. I admit that it is an over-simplification but I think that is what TV is talking about.

Don’t disagree.
 
Pairing two A-‘s would be kinda cool too. Would love to see it at Texas. We haven’t had it since Emory Bellard and Mike Campbell.

Agree, it has been a long time. That is why I went with the B+ combo. :-)

Thanks Nickel, well said.

That is the biggest issue right now, uncertainty. It is hard to put together a top tier “cutting edge” program now. The best of what we had going on, just left.

Most people trying to find optimisim in this situation keep telling themselves we just lost a replaceable DC. We didn’t, we lost our Head Coach (in waiting).

He was much more than a defensive schemer, he was the future that we were building the program around. So, back to what Nickel was saying, the staff hires turn to being limbo hires without a visionary future.

The goal will be to retool and rebuild, not reload. The vision is to not be as sucky as last year and try to win 10 games. Think of how this “interim” setup affects recruiting confidence as well as staff hires.

That’s vastly different than what we had prepared to do with Will. When one prepares for retirement, even if he doesn’t leave, he may as well be absent. The high school coaches have been dealing with WM more and more, and MB less and less.

With Will, we had a transition taking place. Now we are left without vision. It has been replaced with uncertainty. When you lose a HCIW, you are losing a Head Coach.

The only “splash hire” that would have a long term postiive effect right now is the Head Coach. I say that will the highest regard and respect for what Mack Brown has done for this program.

Complete turnover is required to reinstate “future” to the program. Anything less is delaying the inevitable.

Then again, I could be wrong. I hope to hell I am.

Great music! i just want to dedicate “Wrap-U-Up” by Randy Crawford to XXmale and Merry Christmas to the fans of Longhorns. Great blog . Muschamp and those tunes -a great match, too.

Nuthin’ rocks like Suthern Rock. I have alot of faith in Mack. Alot of us do. Alot of people kicked him when he was down. I know its difficult sometimes to get behind a Coach when people think he or she is fuckin’ up. See how things turn out.

Shhh-thx for the shoutout. How did you know that I love Randy Crawford? Hugs are strictly reserved for “my kids” (nieces and nephews) , my pets, and the rest of my immediate family.