Where We've Been, Where We're Going

Thank you nobis, sir.

In summation: Hook’em, motherfuckers!

Good post.

Objects in the rear view mirror may appear closer than they are. With objects = past failings.

There is definitely a whiff of hope drifting past that pile of crap left at the Cotton Bowl, and that optimistic scent emanates from the youthful and hungry staff.

IMO, the litmus test for this “hope” will occur in College Station, and hopefully in whatever bowl game we play in.

Superbly said, sir.

efff the haters. having said that, i hope we can keep it within 2 scores against okie lite.

Nice. Hopefully, this will pull some of us from the ledge.

Heated, violent agreement across the board. Thanks for the read.

I concur, Sir. The message is authentic.

Well done, and love the quote at the beginning.

Off topic, but regardless of what the score was, how do we drop eleven spots in the polls after one loss, but the flaming pile of crap that is auburn is still ranked?

And a&m for that matter

My fear is Where We’re Going won’t include several of these coaches when we get there as they may get other jobs. We know what we’ve got with Mack but he will never be the equal of Stoops who would have never allowed our 2010 on his watch. Mack’s good & he may be what Bellmont wants but he’ll always be #2 as long as Bob’s on the job.

Awesome post.
 
That’s exactly where I am mentally.

It’s not just coaching, but recruiting as well. You guys have put too much faith for too long on home-grown talent. Recruiting services are enamored of the near-religious fervor of HS football in Texas, along with the near-college quality of many of the programs. As a result they overrate many of these players, most of whom seem to end up at UT. Since the Longhorns appear to always have the state’s 10-15 top-rated players committed by their junior year, they don’t seem to do much outside recruiting. Texas ends up with a lot of overhyped players, and others with no signicant upside, having been coached up at one of the power programs. Scrutinze more closely which in-state players have upside potential, offer them, and go nationwide for the rest. Only then will the Longhorns be a consistent top 5 team.

Great post. I didn’t expect to win that game, but I was embarrassed walking out of the Cotton Bowl on Saturday. In the end, nothing that happened Saturday PREVENTS Texas from keeping this thing on track to 8-10 wins this year, be a contender next year and a juggernaut in 2013. The coaches have their work cut out for them, but last year’s team is 2-3 right now or maybe 1-4.

Now, sure, we also could lose 6 games this year. After UCLA last year that was the first thing I thought leaving DKR (it was worse). I don’t feel that this year. Even with Saturday’s debacle, I’m still seeing this as an 8-10 win team.

Although it will bring solace to anyone, programs go thru these cycles…
Case in point. Not one Florida team is in the AP top 255 this week.
I still fully expect improvement throughout the season along with more than a few wins
Dial &Diaz &Dizzy Harsin will settle for nothing less.

Nobis: Thanks for describing word-wise — term wise — what we should be focused on. The Where We’ve Been vs. Where We’re Going is a perfect way to define what we should be looking for. And what it’s time we stopped beating up GD and the other departed staffers for.

I’m less ticked at what GD did schematically than what he — and the offensive assistants, and the HC — recruited on the offensive side of the ball from 2006-09. What in hell were our well-paid coaches looking at? We’ve ignorned or been too ignorant to see Texas-grown NFL-level talent than now plays for Oklahoma State, A&M, TCU, even Baylor. Our O-line and WR signings prior to 2009 were at the Iowa State level. As to tight ends, I won’t even touch that area! We’re paying for that. But I believe we’re pulling in the kind of talent to stick it in Stoops’ ear very soon.

I fervently hope Mack Brown doesn’t stand pat with his current staff. He needs to make a change after this season, another 1 or 2 after 2012, and so on. We need new blood, new ideas, something different EVERY YEAR.

what we need is jermichael finley

Mack will always be #2 as long as Bob’s on the job, unless he beats Bob again 4/5 years and then he’ll be #1. The level of sophistication of your analysis is dizzying.

If it were solely up to me, I would’ve kicked ol’ Mack to the curb last season. I still hold out hope that his plan is to hang around just long enough to burnish his legacy a bit by stabilizing the situation with another glorious 10 win outing and then immediately riding off into the sunset. Waiting around for this thin-skinned, avuncular nincompoop to win another natty risks the whole goddamn thing coming apart at the seams again IMO. He will NEVER, and I mean NEVER, be Texas good and the opportunity cost of keeping this marshmallow man around is simply too depressing for me to ponder and something that I avoid as I cannot singularly effect the change at the top that is so sorely needed.

I will grant you that he is still a pretty good closer in recruiting, but I wholeheartedly believe that any asshole could get great results just selling Austin, TX. The ATX is absolutely enchanting through 18 year old eyes and I think Mack gets WAAAAAY too much credit for this aspect of his “game”.

Please Mack, for the love of God, hang around just long enough for the coaching staff and their schemes to gel and then pass the baton to Major Applewhite before you fuck it up all over again. Major has the intensity and pride to take us to the next level and keep us there IMO and he has earned his burnt-orange loyalty stripes the hard way so his Longhorn karma is set up for success.

Beat it, Mack!!!

Excuse the “word” errors. Smart phones and this site do not “get along”.
We’ll be fine folks. I expect a concerted effort this Saturday and who knows, we may beat Oakie Lite.
I bet more than a few folks thought we were toast at the half of the BYU. game and anticipated a bad outing at UCLA..
even Iowa State was thought going in to be a severe test for us.
So we take the good with the bad and OU was really bad in every way possible
now it’s time to be positive again.
I felt our team was a bit “heady” after Iowa State and that showed up in dallas

Start DAsh the rest of the season and live with the growing pains involved in playing a true freshman at quarterback
The risk/reward will be self evident this season and should prove rewarding going into next year.
Hook’Em

Nice work, #60. I’m a pissed off sumbitch but I’ve been trying to view it in this light.

The QB shuffle continues the “where we’ve been” hangover. Resolve that and maybe I’ll be more open to buying “where we’re going.”

The downfall of all 3 Florida schools plus OSU this year all point to one thing. If a team doesn’t have an all world D. (Ala/LSU) you must have a QB.

Anyone who thinks that Case/Ash are competent QB’s for a top 10 team is insane. Play after play we ran Saturday would have been checked out of by more seasoned QB’s. Keep in mind these 2 also split reps with the QB the coaches rigged a competition for in the fall practice time. The QB’s need experience and growth. The OL needs time to physically grow. The secondary lost 3 NFL corners and people assumed we’d be fine?

This year’s target was/is 8-4 for me. Nothing that happened Sat. changes that. My only complaint is that we should have run the ball more in order to lessen the final of a game we knew was out of our reach mid 2nd quarter.

Well put. Thanks for the read and perspective.

How did Mack let it get to that point? Is that even worth discussing? Was Were We’ve Been just inevitable given Mack’s personality and the way his type of personality responds to success? Did Vince and Colt and Muschamp just stem the decline?

Billy -
 
We have lots of archives here. We’ve exhaustively detailed how it got to this and we’ve been doing it for years. Take a week off from work and starting reading.

Thank you Nobis 60. Fact of the matter is, if the baby Horns had not given up 5 turnovers, 3 returned for td’s and 10 more points directly caused by the turnovers. the game would have been close. 22 first downs and 37 minutes of offensive practice time against that Sooner defense will pay dividends,maybe as soon as saturday.

Almost total agreement… almost…

“Texas’ first top-to-bottom excellent coaching staff in recent memory” following close on the heels of offering throat-lozengial toddies for bayers thirsting for Chambers’ blood, seems slightly incongruous. Maybe I’m missing something, but it sure enough looks as though Chambers is not getting the job done, despite having slightly over half the scholarships given to players designated “TE” – 43 or 44 of ’em, right?.

I’d have to hope, since it seems like TE is a fairly serious a problem, the next words out of MackHarsinWhite’s mouth should be along the lines of “CHAMBERS! Get your head out of your ass and get a tight end on the field, one who can block AND catch. Fucking NOW!” McFarland looks to be on the right track (245 last I saw), so maybe that is a light up the tracks, yonder. How many TEs are we going to see signing in February? Or should we just hope DISD gets its finances in order and steals Bruce from us?

MONTY, you’ve earned it, amigo:
 

Other than the fact that zero out of three in the picture have a face and a palm together, good call.

More like Triple Nose-bridge-pinching, imo. Sounds def like German.

Tex Long -

Fair point – Chambers is indeed incongruous. Maybe I was subconsciously hoping that he’ll get ushered out to DISD/Sam Houston State/the French Foreign Legion in the off-season.

Dreifach schnozzenpinchen, imo.

I’m with GM Platter on the whole “Where We’re Going” prognosis being somewhat in question until we get some resolution on the starting QB. This is the present test for the avuncular nincompoop. It is crystal clear to me that the only QB capable of growing into something that scares the opposition is David Ash. We have seen what Case can do and it is obvious that there is just not much more there than he’s shown up to this point. His physical limitations are what they are and, worse, they initiate a negative feedback loop into his mechanics (the happy feet, throws off the back foot, wounded ducks when he tries to muscle a deep ball). David Ash can be a baller for us in November and going forward but we need marshmallow man to bite the bullet and commit to him NOW!

Here’s the problems I saw. Slow developing plays that allowed the fast Sooners to get up the field and cut off the outside lanes. A Sooner defense that was patient and maintained their outside positions to beat the reverses and double-reverses. An offensive line that had players going for double-teams while a Sooner defensive lineman sat on the scrimmage line and just waited until a clear path to the QB or RB was open.

Scipio LOL

I’m glad to see the barkers “get it” regardless of the mouth breathing Texas fan base that seems to think 2011 is the same as 2000. It’s not, we did not have the horses to keep up with OU this year. Although our undefeated record going into the RRS gave me an overly optimistic view of our chances going in, deep down I new if this broke wrong we were in trouble.

We put a ridiculous amount of young players on the field and it was clear Ash and McCoy were looking at the line play and not looking for receivers early in that game. No amount of scheme can replace that type of experience. My hope was that we could run the ball, keep the Sooner O off the field and keep the game close till late and steal one. Although we did have some small success running the ball, Bob Stoops is going to make a freshman QB beat him. It wasn’t our year.

I was encourage that the OU defensive line was “confused” early in the game. According Erin Andrews at least. Our D was doing ok early, but they needed help from the O and instead they got short fields to defend.

I like our young players, I like our new coordinators and I think our future is bright.

I’m not sure who is more retarded the Texas “fans” who are done with this team, or the Denver Bronco fans who think Tim Tebow is a better talent than Andrew Luck because Luck has never won anything in college.

nobis, really spot-on post. Echoes my sentiments exactly, except coming out of the Cotton Bowl I wasn’t overly pissed but rather whimsically dejected. The Keenan Robinson quote put it half-best: it was a snowball effect that was enhanced by how bad we’ve truly been over the past year and change, and hid how good we can be if we stick to our current course. There’s potential here, and I truly believe Mack’s hired the right coaching staff to mine the gold.

Also, great flashback to the Muschamp news. I was at a friend’s place getting ready to go out to Lights in the Heights in Houston when I saw the “Muschamp Takes UF Job” stream flash across my Twitter feed. It hit me like a ton of bricks. I literally had to sit down and pound a beer to stop from shaking.

I’m with GM Platter on the whole "Where We’re Going" prognosis being somewhat in question until we get some resolution on the starting QB.
 
Right. But the situation we’re at with respect to QB is a function of Where We Were. Nobis60’s point. Anointed Gilbert as our starter, refused to recruit competition in his class, didn’t sign a QB the class previous, and then Wood/McCoy, Ash.
 
No question one of Ash or McCoy panning is essential for our future.

It seems like a lot of people are happier with last year’s shambolic veteran team and its 20-28 loss against a bored, mistake-prone OU team than this year’s youngster team that got it’s ass kicked in its first real showdown mostly ever… 5 games into its post HS career. I’m perplexificated.

Try as I might, it’s still harad as hell to resign myself to another shitty season record wise and futrue ass kickings coming Texas way, including another probably loss to that shit eating, scum sucking, son of a bitch in Norman. All the while knowing it could have been avoided.

I want to badly let the reality just wash over me and acceptance to set in and try and enjoy football until it’s back to bein really competive, but damned if it isn’t a bitch to actually happen.

Thanks for the great write up and thoughts. Excuse me, another wave of nausea is coming.

Looks like someone left the cupboards bare for Muschamp at Florida.

Scip,

No sarcasm, you are right, I should have just posited my synopsis of all those archives and asked for confirmation rather than just ask the question outright. I’ve read every word you’ve written (and most of what everybody else has written) here for the past two years—and enjoyed the heck out of it. I genuinely feel like what I’ve read here has made me a better fan. Stuff here’s so good it’s even intimidating to post in a thread sometimes. I know that makes me sound like a 12 year old but it’s the truth. Anyway, it helps to know that Where We’ve Been was a complex series of failures/inadequacies/personalities/etc. and that I don’t have to rely on conventional wisdom, i.e. MACK IS SOFT!, to understand it. Thanks again, and know that I have lost many weeks of productivity browsing the Carnival.

Florida is like Texas. Good young talent, spotty QB situation. They developed a pretty significant thug/attitude problem under the last years of Meyer. Muschamp is still washing that all out.

Billy Parham -
 
I know we can be sarcastic here, but I’m glad you posted. All of us together are much smarter than any one of us and much of the value of a thread is reading the competing and complementary ideas from our readers.
 
Thanks for reading and I’m glad you like it here.

Scip, that may be the most ingenuous thing I’ve seen you write here. I appreciate the encouragement and will post when I can add value.

Got a little touchy-feely in here…I’m gonna go scratch my balls and eat a rare steak. In that order.

Scip,

I agree that our current QB situation is still in large part a function of “Where We’ve Been”.

However, the picture at QB is coming into focus a bit in that it is clear that we’ve got two pups to work with – one is a pit bull, the other a poodle. As such, there is a glaringly obvious decision that needs to be committed to right here, right now if winning football games this year and going forward is truly the primary basis driving decisions these days.

If I am to believe that “Where We Are Going” is materially different than where we have been, particularly as it relates to the $5 million avuncular nincompoop, David Ash needs to be invested in as the future of the program. I am optimistic, though not certain, that Ash pans out. If he does, then we are cooking with gas sooner rather than later. On the other hand, I am convinced that Case has essentially already maxed out. and there is no more to tap from him. The jury should not still be out on the QB rotation.

Why does everyone, like Nobis60 still think Muschump was such a great coach. He did a TERRIBLE job coordinating our defense last year. We were getting killed in the run game because we were playing a d-end at d-tackle and he never adjusted or run blitzed or changed personnel or schemes. We just sat back and had folks run it up our butts.

And it is not like he is going to turn the SEC on its heels any time soon. Oh, I guess that means that Urban “Jesus” Meyer must have had a bad recruiting class or two as well. How could that be? Isn’t he now the one to save us from Mack’s crappy 137-34?

Muschump was the wet dream of the internet bed wetters because he dropped some F-bombs on the sidelines of a game with an over-matched Auburn team.

Good riddance from the 40 Acres and for God’s sake, please forget about him. He ain’t that great.

Felonious -
 
Avuncular Nincompoop – worst rap name ever?

“Going forward, if you are depending on Mack to out-scheme an opponent then you are in trouble. If you are depending on Mack to whip the boys into a frothing, blood-and-guts pre-game rage then you are in trouble. And if you as a fan are depending on Mack to offer press-conference catharsis through a soul-bearing mea culpa, then you are in trouble. "

I omitted part of it on purpose, but this paragraph is the sum of all our fears and the reason we didn’t just get beaten but got ass raped on Saturday and two other times by OU since Mack has been here. Think about the cold reality of acknowledging that your head man couldn’t schematically or philosophically coach his way out of a paper bag! It certainly begs the Florida State/Penn State question. More importantly, it’s the antithesis to how the Nick Sabans of the coaching world begat the Will Muschamps of the coaching world who begat the Kirby Smarts of the coaching world. Substitute Chris Petersen and Bryan Harsin and maybe you get the idea in a clearer way. Throw in the ugly experiment with Duane Akina as a DC and the point is even more clear.

Nobis, in the post I put up that you commented on, I was searching for some way to make more sense out of a beautiful but brief question parlin put up about the Where We are Going Side about our fearless leader. Unfortunately, you have brought further clarity on the root cause of Stoops’ dominance of Mack. I was completely focused on Mack’s old habits of cronyism, meddling, and complacency and the fact that the continued existence of Fatdog and Chambers led me to believe he isn’t in full recovery mode from those issues. While I’ve no choice but to live with that and can if I see this team bounce back from another brutalizing at the hands of our tormentors from the North, you have opened my eyes to the more glaring issue—-Mack Brown is not only not a great football coach, he isn’t even a good one. He is, IMO, a less eccentric version of Les Miles.

I love Texas football—-maybe too much. Mack, through his great public awareness and the ability to maximize the natural resources he saw through vigourous recruiting and high school coach relationship building when he first came here reawakened a sleeping giant. I thank him for that but I wish he’d move on soon so we can bring in someone who can keep that part of the infrastructure thriving but who can also perpetuate process and internal coaching excellence to mold the enormous talent available into (I hate like a motherfucker to say it) a team like OU. By that I mean a team that even in a “down” year can still whip or at worst give its biggest rival a close game, and that delivers conference championships at what should be, by December of this year, a 61.5% clip. I believe it was Scipio who posted a great piece a couple of seasons back about the lack of internal coaching process (or something like that) having prevented us from hiring young studs like Muschamp as position coaches and molding them into coordinators. I had forgotten it. Your pararaph above reminded me of it in a way that was like pouring a bucket of ice cold water in my face. It’s a scary issue in that it’s something Mack can never have and manifests itself in his relatively meager number of championships as a coach and stompings by OU.

I’m still all in with this group of kids while being very disappointed at what are probably the same “usual suspects” as you. I strongly believe these coaches have a solid schematic base and energy to get it turned around in a couple of years and I’ll be in Austin on Saturday cheering for them at the top of my lungs. But God help us if they find themselves in need of a head coach who can walk into a game planning meeting and solve a schematic isssue they are debating in the way I can picture Saban doing with Smart and his staff during the week before this year’s LSU game. If Mack stays too long, Manny, Harsin, Davis, et al, will leave. I hope he has the good sense to go before that happens. I fear he won’t leave until it’s too late.

Well said, nobis.

Looking ahead to the immediate Where We’re Going:

OSU (home)
open date
Kansas (home)
Tech (home)
Missouri (away)
K-State (home)
aggy (away)
Baylor (away)

I feel confident we will beat Kansas and Tech at home and suspect OSU and Missouri (road) will be too much. That would leave us at 6-3 facing the last three, all of which are very losable unless we continue to improve.

Long story short, we ain’t done dealing with Where We’ve Been by a long shot. Reaching pre-season predictions of 8 or 9 wins would be a huge accomplishment for this young team.

nobis60:

A-fucking-MEN!

best and most timely post i’ve come across in a long time. this should be repeated on every longhorn site.

don’t let the fact that This Never Should Have Happened to Texas make you think that It’s Going To Happen From Now On. Don’t get lost in the fear that the shortcomings of the past are fated to sabotage our future. And while everyone is due some venting – at Mack if you so choose – regarding Where We’ve Been, every one of us only has so many Longhorn Football seasons left. And you’ll probably have more fun if you focus on Where We’re Going.

My concern isn’t that past sins will occur again. My concern is that Saturday will create a PERCEPTION with recruits that they will happen again. If this becomes their perception of the future they will have second thoughts about whether this is really where they want to come. And of course if the recruiting falls off (even if it’s only due to perception) the end result will be the same on the field.

Yes the 2011 class LOOKS great right now but not a single one of those players are signed, sealed, or delivered. If we hang on to them then that’s a big step forward, but there’s a lot of time between now and signing day. A lot of time for them to percieve things as the same old shit, and I’m sure there are some other coaches that will be glad to help them acquire that perception. And don’t even dream of any of the still available big names to come our way after Saturaday’s debacle.

I agree but my buy-in will depend on whether or not we start playing to be a better team in 2012. Ash over McCoy and Cochran over Allen is a start. Save Fozzy I don’t know why we would play any of the seniors, even if they are better players. Won’t we be better prepared at Safety next year if Gideon rides the pine this year? What have any of the seniors done for this program to deserve to be on the field?

This might get me chased right the fuck out of here and it may make me what an ag would call a 2%er, but I’m going to say it anyway. For those of you who have espoused PERSONAL embarrassment over what transpired Saturday and ranted ad nauseum about how you are personally offended and shamed by what took place, what do YOU have to be embarrassed about? Why should WE as fans be embarrassed about the thoroughly embarrassing ass whipping that occurred at the Cotton Bowl. Why be embarrassed when facing the obnoxiously gloating Sooners while leaving? Assuming you are a Texas fan becuase you attended Texas and graduated, you were still leaving that stadium as a graduate of a damn fine institution of learnin’. You attended a tier-1 academic institution and ground out the hours required in front of a computer, at the library, and in a stuffy, poorly climate controlled (ESB for the win) classroom to earn a degree that you should have framed on a wall somewhere. None of us as graduates or simply as fans did anything to cause what occurred. We can be embarrassed FOR the football program, but as to having trouble facing the gloating sooner fans. Fuck ‘em. They did nothing to make their football program a top 5 team this year other than funnel a little cash into the program. Who are they as fans to judge us as fans? Don’t give them the god damn satisfaction, because the fact that the football team of their school embarrassed the football team of our school in a game of put- the-oblong-ball-in-the-painted-rectangle.

That being said, I love football as much of the rest of you, but at some point you have to keep it in perspective that fanhood amounts to living vicariously through 18-45 year olds (Weeden) for a little rousing entertainment in the form of reading about them on fine blogs such as this one and watching them go at it on the weekend. It’s awesome when your team is winning and it has a way of making you feel part of something special, but when it sucks like Saturday… fuck it. Don’t internalize it so much. Have some self worth based on YOUR own actual achievements in life… assuming you have a life outside of football fanhood.

Nobis, you did a damn fine job of putting this all in perspective. I just think some people get ridiculously wrapped up in this and turn fanhood into something pathetic.

^^ Correction: "because the fact that the football team of their school embarrassed the football team of our school in a game of put- the-oblong-ball-in-the-painted-rectangle *means nothing in the overall scheme of life.

"because the fact that the football team of their school embarrassed the football team of our school in a game of put- the-oblong-ball-in-the-painted-rectangle *means nothing in the overall scheme of life.

A little over 25 years ago the entire athletics budget for the University of Texas was $10 million. This year it will surpass $150 million. It is doing so because those in charge did a very good job in convincing a lot of fans (and donors, alumni, advertisers and media) that it actually does mean something in the overall scheme of life.

The tenor of demanding a return on investment is perhaps oversized, but it is hardly surprising.

Dreifach schnozzenbruckenpinchen, ja?

the avuncular nincompoop Perhaps you mislaid your Secret EmailTM? The Secret Name A. N. “Mack” Brown is not to be revealed, and you are very close to a transgression.

Jake -

I think the perspective you just laid out surprises me because it’s one I’ve taken for granted so long that I’m surprised when it seems to be a revalation to someone else.

I don’t know if I’d say that Mack isn’t a “good coach” as there is SO much that goes in to building and sustaining success at the top of the D1 mountain and he’s done that to a degree that 99% of head coaches would really envy (we obviously have a ton of built-in advantages at Texas, but still). I am dead certain that at this stage he would be a horrendous abortion of a coordinator, which is the position where I think 90+% of the X-and-O tactics and offensive/defensive system development reside. That part of the game has long passed him by, and depending on who you believe his meddling may have caused significant problems for some time in that regard and may have caused ol’ GD to get a little bit of a bad rap (I think he was still an imbecile tortoise of an OC, but still).

My PERCEPTION of a coach like Saban is that he’d be able to jump in and provide schematic wisdom as you envision, but I have no idea as to the dynamics and makeup of his staff. I’d be willing to bet that Bobby Bowden provided little and less schematic input even during the Charlie Ward/Shade Tree Jones heyday.

Maybe it’s possible that years of GD torment combined with this offseason/early season celebration of Harsin and Diaz has given me an overly coordinator-centric worldview, but it seems to me that the situation we seem to be building now – where the coordinators handle just about all the heavy lifting and the head man is a recruiter, organizer and face of the program – is a model that certainly CAN work. I think we have the right coordinators in place, and I seriously doubt that we’ll go through another full coordinator cycle with Mack at the helm. Even if we did, Chizik (Auburn)/Muschamp (Florida)/ Harsin and Diaz (Attractive HC Positions) / Bags of Cash (Substantial) make the odds very strong that we attract top talent to replace them.

The head coach is (often) the prime motivator and standard-setter, (sometimes) the ass-kicker and (rarely) the schematic and tactical prime mover, but if those jobs are being handled by assistants whose authority in those matters isn’t undermined by the head man I think you can still field a top-notch team. Our big problem in years past was that Mack wasn’t enforcing accountability on underachiving players or coaches – if our assistants are achieving, demanding excellence and in control of the playing-time hammer then the machine can hum along.

Should we expect more for $5MM a year? Yeah. Would we get better results over the next three years by tossing Mack in the offseason, likely losing Harsin and Diaz and starting from scratch? I greatly doubt it. I’m willing to give our OC and DC their head and see what they can build – my hunch is that it will be a conference contender in 2012 and a MNC contender in 2013/2014, at which time Mack will head into the sunset.

“"because the fact that the football team of their school embarrassed the football team of our school in a game of put- the-oblong-ball-in-the-painted-rectangle *means nothing in the overall scheme of life.

A little over 25 years ago the entire athletics budget for the University of Texas was $10 million. This year it will surpass $150 million. It is doing so because those in charge did a very good job in convincing a lot of fans (and donors, alumni, advertisers and media) that it actually does mean something in the overall scheme of life.

The tenor of demanding a return on investment is perhaps oversized, but it is hardly surprising."

Agreed. I was countering perceived overreaction with what was very clearly overreaction, and I overdid it.

^^ but I stand by my point that some people take fanhood way too far and wrap up their personal sense of self-worth in it, which is plainly ludicrous.

Translation
Dreifach= 3 cheers
schnozzenpinchen [SIC] but here goes= Dig trenches you self important little pip squeak
geez, i think i prefer the triple face palm.

Jake sez: … the sum of all our fears and the reason we didn’t just get beaten but got ass raped on Saturday and two other times by OU since Mack has been here.

It is also the reason we inexplicably lose games to Tech and agy… and KSU…

… the continued existence of Fatdog and Chambers led me to believe he isn’t in full recovery mode…

Not to mention the handling (or lack of) of the Old Freak Nasty Affair…

I’m still not convinced that Muschamp didn’t swing his HCIW dick around and convince the Big Dogs to have Mack ditch GDGD… and then find out that Mack still had enough jizz to shoot down Holgorsen and send Boom packing.

…a less eccentric version of Les Miles.

And a less successful one.

Yes the 2011 2012 class LOOKS great right now but not a single one of those players are signed

The ass-raping may have made up the mind of Mario Edwards. I question whether it affected DG-B. I would think it would have a dampening effect on the enthusiasm of other undeclared OOS fence-sitters like Peat and Agholor. Even the “committed” ones… if this year turns into less than 7-5, I think we’ll see some “uhhhhh, never mind” messages.

This sort of a death spiral may have been in Chryst’s mind, if he really made that statement about the HC along with the whole staff getting axed two years after the HC cleaned house.

I mostly agree with the viewpoint that we have some good coaches, and that given the right support, they will be able to recruit well and train well and build a shiny new Texas Longhorns Football Team. If we pull together right now, and make that 7-5, 8-4, 9-3 season most of us were projecting, I think that’ll likely happen.

The problem that I see is the Attitude one. Someone needs to be in charge of the psychological side of building the team, and I’m not sure who that is… I am pretty sure of some who it ain’t, but that’s not much help.

Well, what the fuck – if we already knew what was gonna happen, it wouldn’t be any fun, would it?

Dreifach= 3 cheers

Nah. It means “three-fold”, or “triple”…

“three/drei/tri” is pretty universal. The “fold/fach” is Northern European Language Family (Englisch) , the “ple/ply” is Southern European Language Family (FrogTalk).

nobis, I just have difficulty getting past the brutal ass kickings Stoops gives Mack when everything isn’t just right on our end. Mack has obviously overestimated his ability to dictate schematic philosophy and playing time to his coordinators, so the problem, as I see it, isn’t that he isn’t up to speed as a coach, but that he doesn’t know it. That’s dangerous and although it’s not a revelation to me, its relative importance in the current RRS was on full display and I had momentarily overlooked it as the most likely root cause—-not of our losing, but of our getting thoroughly brutalized again .

Saban, Stoops, Spurrier in his heyday, Meyer and others I can name are guys who have been schematic innovators as coordinators and are hands-on guys as head coaches who seem to be able to handle the other niceties quite well, too. We don’t need a figurehead; we need a coach. I agree with you to the point that if we get back to even playing for the conference title by 2012 or 2013, Mack needs to say, “I’ve righted the ship, now I need to let someone else come in and take over”. However, if he is intent on not leaving until he wins another MNC, it will be our worst nightmare, IMO. If the right guy is hired, he’ll keep the right coaches and bring in the right ones for those he doesn’t. It’s been done before at other programs that don’t have our advantages and Alan Shivers is long dead. Mack, to his credit, has laid the structural groundwork for keeping the talent pipeline flowing when the effort is there. The next coach we hire, whoever he is, will be vetted in a major way and I’m confident he will be able to take it from there.

The basics or mechanics of running an offense has to be the groundwork, before resorting to trick play reverse wild horn passing plays. I still dont understand why Texas insisted on passing the ball and not committing to the run. They dont have the experience to pass on the OU defense. The line did what they could, but didnt keep it simple, alot of Oline notable missed assignments. What happened to the stable of studs on the roster, and utilize the power I to gash em at the line, wear the OU D down and control the clock? As fans, we have to let go, the “what could have been”, and move on to what is next, or “what has to be”. However, the coaches need to realize that maybe its too complex what they would like to do, execution-wise, and keep it simple for what they should be doing, the basics, run, block, tackle.

Bleed Orange til the casket drops.

YES!!!!!!! Mine eyes have seen the glory. Somebody give the Governor a haumph!

I’m going out now to bite the head of a gerbil….

Did anyone else picture Nobis wearing a chrome army helmet, riding crop in hand, in front of a floor to ceiling American flag when they read this?

“I do not want you to die for your country. I wan’t you to go out and make those boys die for their country!” Or something like that.

I hope we stomp a mudhole in OSU’s collective chests.

I am not in the secret email circle of trust as of yet though I am not above obsequious cult worship of all of the contributors on this fine, fine blog to facilitate my entry. Hint, hint.

Have I been insulted in a dead barbarian language for almost letting the A.N. “Mack” Brown moniker out of the bag?

Yo! Yo! Yo! The Avuncular Nincompoop is in the house, Boyeeeeee! Scipio, you are spot on as always, that has got to be the worst rap name ever.

From here on out, let it be known that I will dutifully substitute the pseudonym “A.N. Brocktoon” for “Avuncular Nincompoop ‘Mack’ Brown”. As in, nobis60, yes – I do believe that we currently have the coordinators in place to pick up most of the pieces and take significant positive steps and we should let that play out for now, but we should absolutely not be satisfied with things as they now stand as the tremendous opportunity cost of maintaining “A.N. Brocktoon” as the man in charge makes it risky and untenable.

I have not advocated shitcanning A.N. Brocktoon this offseason as that ship has, unfortunately, sailed and I fully recognize that there is no sense blowing up what appears to be an otherwise constructive set up for the time being. But, when A.N. Brocktoon once again reaches his glorious 10 win pinnacle, we should immediately build that effete sumbitch a statue and hurry up and get on with worshipping him as one of the finest former coaches ever to roam the hallowed sidelines of DKRTMS.

Only Saban, Stoops, Meyer, and Bowden have had more success than Mack in the BCS era. Had 2008 or 2009 turned out slightly differently, Mack could very reasonably be called the most successful coach of the BCS era.

I think OU will make a lot of teams look bad this year. You’re not as bad of a team as you looked on Saturday. Looking at the remaining schedule, only Kansas is a sure win. If I pencil in OSU as a probable loss, that leaves 5 toss up games. You have the potential to win any or all of these games, and also the potential to lose them. In years, past you only really had 1 – 2 games per year that would potentially fall into this category (OU always being one of them). My Aggies are sadly not as good as I’d hoped they’d be this year, but we are hopefully getting better and should be a tough test for you this year in College Station. Tech & Baylor have lousy defenses but they can score. A few turn overs could swing those games away from you. I think your best path for success would be to start Ash, and risk McCoy transferring. Not sure exactly which D-1 program would make him their go to guy – especially after seeing his arm in action. Your schematic path to success would be to take the air out of the ball and really stick to the run game. Beat them up and then use play action when they over commit.

Nobis- thanks for the post. I agree with everything except your conclusion. Mack is old and his testosterone half life is accelerating. His Neville Chamberlain heart is not going to inspire a Rocky Balboa heart in his team or assistants. I’m not suggesting hiring Dabo Swinney; but, listening to him inspire his team makes me realize that we are speeding in the wrong direction as long as Mack is allowed to age at the helm. When is too late to make a change? Do we wait until we find the ship tattered and adrift in a fog bank with the skeleton of Mack Brown draped over the wheel? We’re closer to this than anyone thinks. I’m not so naive as to believe that the addition of any level of assistant can overcome the baggage of a poor HC -and I am a huge fan of Harsin and Diaz.

If Mack does end-up turning this around for good, I’ll be the first to kiss his backside. But, Mack did not arrive, then stagnate a la Rocky 3. He has never arrived. If you believe he has, I suggest you re-assess your own standards. If you can live with the number of conference championships and OU beat downs we have endured under Mack, I would hate to have your bank account or look at your wife/girlfriend.

So, if you believe that a 60 year old head coach who has never arrived can magically find the way, get there, and fortify the legacy before he’s buying diapers, you are more gullible than I.

With age comes wisdom. Its apparent that some on here are still in diapers.

This echos my sentiments fairly precisely, although I’ll admit that I “got over it” a little quicker ;)

The prevailing thought in my mind after the game was the sinister desire to call Davis, McWhorter, Kennedy, and (what the hell) Cleve and fire them again. Their sloth and arrogance is inexcusable and they needed to be reminded of that one more time.

Monty,

That’s a nice thought and all, but Mack has gotten none-the-wiser since becoming head coach of this time. The major decisions he has made over the past year are decisions he had no choice but to make.

Wisdom only comes with age when there are those wiser than you to instill that quality in you. Unfortunately, Mack doesn’t realize that he drew the short stick when it comes to football wisdom.

Maybe now that he has coordinators around that know what they are doing, he will begin to think twice about his role as head man.

Or maybe not.

I don’t know that another 5-7 or 6-6 necessarily kills recruiting. Players want playing time. Usually recruits have to choose between a top school with a deep depth chart and a lesser program with fewer bodies ahead of them. Texas can plausibly offer the best of both worlds at the moment. Call it a silver lining.

Another 5-7 doesn’t necessarily kill recruiting, but it loses some recruits for us, I suspect… Unlike the first one, which only lost one committed recruit. Whether that leads to the death spiral probably depends on having yet a third shit sandwich show up on our plates. The team as a whole thing needs to stay together and not become factionalized. It sounds as though there may be some discontent brewing, but hopefully it’s just angst over the blowout, and will turn around with a continued progress.

“David Ash didn’t rifle balls into coverage because he had never been hardened by Bob Stoops’ steely-eyed gaze.”

This sentence may or may not be true, but I want Thujone to recreate it in MS Paint so I can better analyze the situation.

Getting older and having kids has made me put Texas football in perspective. I was livid on Saturday, and I’m still embarrassed to discuss the game with my SEC contingent of friends here in Florida, but I’m ready to see what happens next Saturday.

Your post was excellent nobis!!

My version in Cliff’s notes version would be a comparison to my weight gain associated with too much work and kid chores. I have begun working out again to get back into shape, but looking in the mirror doesn’t reveal any of this first month’s work. Probably got another 6 months before I’ll like what I see. I can quit or keep going. Think I’ll keep going.

People talking about where they were when they got the news of Muschamp leaving made me think how different things could have played out.

Imagine Colt is not injured, Mack wins a second NC and rides off into the sunset. Muschamp takes over and of course fires GD and Madden, but given the rotten core left behind manages to only go 7-5 or 8-4 in 2010 (assume that with good coaching and motivation we beat 2 or 3 of ISU, UCLA, Baylor and KSU). We are all indignant and wonder why Muschamp is busy rebuilding after his predeccessor won 2 NCs in 5 years.

So in this alternate universe we are all asking if this new guy who had the nerve to break the sacred 10 win streak is ever going to make it, and thinking maybe GD was not so bad after all. I think Boom made the right decision for himself.

It canNOT end up 5-7 this year. We have to get to a bowl game, if only so we have the extra practice time and a springboard opportunity for next year. Can we please stop talking about another 5-7?!

^^Don’t make me go full BurntOJ!!

Not even close to wigged out about the OU game.

OU is an elite team pretty much across the board. You dont beat teams like that running freshmen and sophs out there at so many critical positions.

I have said all along I am watching the process as much as the results. As much as I wanted to believe we could paper everything over with schemes, I dont think that is reasonable. Inexperience really caused a lot of turnovers Saturday and that negated any scheme solutions.

I wish we didnt have to take ass-kickings as part of rising from the ashes but when you play the big boys, that is part of the deal.

Overall, I still think the Texas rebuild is way ahead of schedule and I will be saying that even if, as I expect, we get another beatdown from the Pokes.

Mark it down, Texas is going to kick a ton of ass no later than 2013 for a solid four or five year stretch at least but expecting a complete transformation from 5-7 and everything that entailed is foolishness.

Eight wins, a solid bowl game, and marked improvement is what I want out of this year and that is all still in front of this team. No worries at all.

Jinx said: “Getting older and having kids has made me put Texas football in perspective. I was livid on Saturday, and I’m still embarrassed to discuss the game with my SEC contingent of friends here in Florida, but I’m ready to see what happens next Saturday.
. . .
My version in Cliff’s notes version would be a comparison to my weight gain associated with too much work and kid chores. I have begun working out again to get back into shape, but looking in the mirror doesn’t reveal any of this first month’s work. Probably got another 6 months before I’ll like what I see. I can quit or keep going. Think I’ll keep going.”

Jinx — you nailed my sentiment with both of these statements. I walked out of UCLA last year with real worries about the rest of the season which, unfortunately, were on the nose.

UCLA was 34-12 better than UT last year. It was clear. OU wasn’t 55-17 better than UT this year. Shit just got out of hand, as Scip pointed out. Saturday sucked, but I don’t have the same feeling of dread for the upcoming schedule that I did last year. Our offense matches up well against OSU’s defense next week, especially if we can run it like we did on UCLA and BYU. Also, Ash made 2 bad throws and has to learn to get rid of the ball, but I see a real QB in him.

Case on the other hand - if the BB gun shot 10 yards short of a wide open Mike Davis doesn’t tell you what you need to know…. well.

Looking at our remaining schedule, we can pencil in KU as a win – that’s 5. I’m gonna hafta wait ‘til after the OSU game to feel good and confident about any of the rest of the games – but I can say without waiting that I’m not real pumped about our chances to stop OSU. Looks to me like we’ll need to put up a lot of points if we’re gonna outscore the bastards, by which I mean winning 42-38 as opposed to 17-13.

Heck, I’m still excited about our chances, but I’m definitely past the irrational exuberance stage.

"It’s impossible to become a champion without getting your butt kicked."

Renzo Gracie

A lot of good thoughts, guys.

I for one have no fear of 5-7 this year – I’m looking for 8 wins and still think a 9- win upside is possible.

Jake -

There’s no question that it’s painful to now look at a slate of three outright beatings from our #1 rival, but enough of the factors that engendered the first two are gone or mitigated that I’m trying to hold them out of my evaluation of where we are now and where we’re going. I think our view of Mack’s capabilities is probably pretty similar, and I’ll freely stipulate that I may be engaging in sunny optimism to think that his negatives can be mitigated by the right staff, but barring unforseen circumstances he’s with us through 2013 and I think we can get where we want to go with him at the helm as long as our first mate, bo’sun, etc stay on board. May our next head man have all the qualities you’re calling for.

Zzzizzzy -

Like Jake, you and I probably think more alike than not on Mack’s strengths and weaknesses. My big thesis here is that those weaknesses can be marginalized by the right staff (which we have) and that I don’t see the magic bullet hire out there that would make it worth likely jettisoning the majority of the staff and FUBARing at least one recruiting class because we took a beating during a major rebuilding project. He may still have the same ‘softness’, casual attitude towards accountability and lack of X-and-O acumen that contributed to our first two massive beatdowns, but I think we’ve got smart, fiery and demanding guys who wield the playing time hammer that keep those weaknesses from disabling the team. The fact that we’re young in some spots and undertalented/under-developed in others isn’t acceptable, but many of the sluggards responsible have been fired. Mack’s conference title record and the OU shellackings are his big black marks and no, they aren’t ‘acceptable’ but we can’t go back and change them. It would appeal to a lot of people’s sense of justice if Mack were truly and finally called to account for those sins, but that’s not going to happen outside of circumstances (read: two more losing season) that will damage the program far more than any sense of vindication would be worth.

And if anyone is just still pissed off about the bad Saturday they had, I:

- Bought three tickets to the game – not cheaply.
- Got paid about half face value for one by my buddy (no problem there, he’d been out of work and needed an assist)
- Sold the other one for about half face value to a co-worker because the girl I’d bought it for ‘got other tickets from work’ and ended up spending the weekend hooking up with a SOONER personal injury/meth defense attorney from OKC (she’s a Longhorn, btw) including a trip to fucking Sfuzzi because apparently he caught an episode of Most Eligible Dallas on his meth-bartered TV up in Indian Country and wanted to try and meet Matt Nordgren, AND
- While at the Fair, lost my wallet containing the $ I’d gotten paid for the two other tickets.

Top that one.

bullzak,

I am not worried about the rebuild at this stage. I am scared to death of $5M A.N. Brocktoon hanging around too long once things start to turn around. The Big Cigars really need to be greasing his wheels into the Longhorn Hall of Honor so he can be ushered out just as soon as he gets back to 10 win territory.

I for one have no fear of 5-7 this year – I’m looking for 8 wins and still think a 9- win upside is possible.

My view has been (since Spring) anywhere from 7-5 to 9-3. I’m still in the “it could happen” camp, but without definite progress, only KU looks like we can put that W in ink.

Man, oh man, were we spoiled by having those years of NFL-caliber quarterbacks, who literally pulled some W’s right out of their asses. I want some more of that shit.

As if anyone needed more proof as to how bad the recruiting got, here’s where we stand over the last 4 years at WR. Marquis is not there for some reason. Track? Anyway, he is our only contributing WR who didn’t attend prom in the last 18 months.

I hope the formatting works.

Year Name Pos Stars ?
2008 D.J. Grant4 stars WR 4 stars POS switch
2008 Dan Buckner4 stars WR 4 stars Transfer
2009 Greg Timmons4 stars WR 4 stars Transfer
2010 Chris Jones4 stars WR 4 stars DNP
2010 Darius Terrell4 stars WR 4 stars POS switch
2010 Darius White4 stars WR 4 stars 2-deep
2010 John Harris4 stars WR 4 stars 2-deep
2010 Mike Davis4 stars WR 4 stars Starter
2011 Jaxon Shipley4 stars WR 4 stars Starter
2011 Miles Onyegbule3 starsWR 3 stars 2-deep

I’ve only found some post game quotes from stoops and his players, not an official transcript, but I didn’t see one instance of them giving any credit to Texas or any of its personnel. I know we got waxed, but hearing our coach and players gush about how great OU is getting old.

Should have looked like this:

Year Name Pos Stars ?
2008 D.J. Grant4 stars WR 4 stars POS switch
2008 Dan Buckner4 stars WR 4 stars Transfer
2009 Greg Timmons4 stars WR 4 stars Transfer
2010 Chris Jones4 stars WR 4 stars DNP
2010 Darius Terrell4 stars WR 4 stars POS switch
2010 Darius White4 stars WR 4 stars 2-deep
2010 John Harris4 stars WR 4 stars 2-deep
2010 Mike Davis4 stars WR 4 stars Starter
2011 Jaxon Shipley4 stars WR 4 stars Starter
2011 Miles Onyegbule3 starsWR 3 stars 2-deep

SARed,

If that’s all it cost to find out you’ve been chasing the wrong woman – sorry, but you have no beef. You should consider it a very good weekend indeed.

Saying we have a 9-win upside is the same kind of thinking that had everyone convinced we were good enough to play Oklahoma within a touchdown. It’s as though nobody learned anything this weekend. You mean that game wasn’t enough to convince the “10 wins are possible” crowd that we’re going to have to fight and claw against the remaining opponents we have, all of which will be more difficult than the first four we faced?

You find me five more wins in this schedule:

Oklahoma State—Hell no
Kansas—The best shot we have
Texas Tech—Can we score by then? I don’t care if their defense sucks…our offense sucks.
@Missouri—Played Oklahoma MUCH closer than we did, and we’re away.
Kansas State—Need I remind you people about our history with Kansas State? These dudes have a coach who can…you know…coach.
@Texas A&M—The only reason I give us a shot is due to pride.
@Baylor—Coin flip IMO.

The majority will say, "We’ll beat Kansas, Tech, KSU, and two of Missouri, A&M, Baylor.

MY ASS we will. Don’t feed us that shit about a nine win upside. That’s the same shit we heard last week about “scaring Oklahoma.”

Look…I will gladly, GLADLY, ENTHUSIASTICALLY, eat crow if we win nine games. I will publicly repent to the masses on BC and proclaim myself a hopeless pessimist, while imposing a restraining order on myself.

But open your eyes and use your brains, or the shock you have now will pale in comparison to early December.

“With age comes wisdom. Its apparent that some on here are still in diapers.”

This coming from Mr. Triple face Palm. But if it’s accurate, then you must be sperm.

Nobis:

I hear you and appreciate your reading my drivel and actually responding ti it. As my last comment on the subject, I’m very much in line with OB79 that Bellmont needs to establish an internal timeline (2013 seems about right) wherein Mack can get us back to 10 or more wins and leave with the fanfare he richly deserves. If he hasn’t done it by then, he’s not going to so he’d need to just step down so we can move on. One caveat: any losses to OU during that timeframe on the order of magnitude of this last one should be his last.

BTW, thanks for your usual insightful post. I’m looking forward (sort of) to your write up on ’Da Boys versus The Patriots and the “Evil Genius”.

Saying we have a 9-win upside is the same kind of thinking that had everyone convinced we were good enough to play Oklahoma within a touchdown.

But that’s what “upside” means. It’s the realistic best-case scenario, not the most likely scenario. We could easily lose to any team apart from Kansas left on the schedule, but we’ve definitely got more than a fighting chance against KSU, Mizzou, KSU, Tech, and Baylor. You’re just looking at the negative side of things, as all of those teams have as many warts as we do.

I’m looking forward (sort of) to your write up on ‘Da Boys versus The Patriots and the "Evil Genius".

As a Pats fan who hasn’t seen the Cowboys play yet this year, I’m also looking forward to this writeup.

but we’ve definitely got more than a fighting chance against KSU, Mizzou, KSU, Tech, and Baylor.

Yeah, we’re going to beat KSU twice this year. Subtract the “S” from one of those KSUs.

Well hell, using that line of thinking, we have eleven-win upside!

Well hell, using that line of thinking, we have eleven-win upside!

Nope. Point missed again.

Everyone just ignore my posts. It’s obvious that, whereas many of you have moved on to depression and acceptance, I’m still stuck on anger.

Though I must say I’m going to have difficulty with the “acceptance,” stage, because I’m just flat-out unwilling to accept our current predicament.

‘79, if it’s any consolation, I have no idea how many games we’ll win other than Kansas and most likely Tech. FWIW, I get Duke’s point and I get yours. I think you guys are just flailing away at each other because of the obvious frustration with, not the score but the manner in which we lost on Saturday. I know I’m still feeling it, but it’s beginning to subside. What I’m fighting now is any feeling of being resigned to some low standard and hoping that the team and coaches won’t settle for less than busting their ass every game from here on out. It will be up to the staff, and not Mack, to make that happen, IMO.

Duke, I too love the Pats. I use the term “Evil Genius” purely out of respect for BB’s coaching acumen. If you missed it and they rerun it, there is a two part segment on Belichick that is a must see on the NFL network. It’s one piece in a series they are doing called “A Football Life”, featuring current and past players, teams and coaches. It’s well done, IMO.

Nobis – look at the bright side. The fact that you sold the tickets for 1/2 face value means you lost a lot less money when you lost your wallet!

Don’t you feel better now?

I fear my rant from last night will forever cement my legacy on this site as “that guy.”

OB79, don’t sell yourself short. You have bring up good points. Your intensity just makes it hard for those of us who distance ourselves as a coping mechanism carry out such mechanism. Therefore, we must cope by distancing ourselves from you by pretending that you are being unreasonable.

“You have bring up good points” Apparently, English is my first AND second language.

Texas has been getting top ranked recruiting classes for a decade and this is what they do with it. Seems that no matter how much perceived talent Texas signs in February the battle call by mid October is “wait until the new kids get here and get their feet wet!” Your cancer starts at the top and as long as the AD has entitlement issues it will trickle down to his coaches, their staffs and the athletes. Texas will be doing good this year just to beat aTm, Baylor and OSU.

“Texas will be doing good this year just to beat aTm, Baylor and OSU.”

Thank you for that bit of sublime wisdom. You Sir, are a true genius.

Darren,

It is the fact that one would even have to consider “distancing himself” from this abortion that is so astounding. This is the University of Texas. Look at the line Jake wrote above. “I have no idea how many games we’ll win other than Kansas and most likely Tech.” He used that line as a Longhorn fan in the context of our Longhorn football team.

I am a Cowboys fan. I have distanced myself from that team because its owner, passionate as he may be, isn’t as smart as he thinks he is. The quarterback, talented for sure, seems to care less than I do, and his actions back that up. I must distance myself because they have proven to me, over and over again, that they are fool’s gold.

And now I’m beginning to wonder if Mack Brown is any different than Jerry Jones. A passionate, meddling, coddling, figurehead with no clue that he is his biggest problem.

Take a break driver 8.

OB79,

I can’t believe you confused me with Darren. You, sir, are in my doghouse. And in my dog’s shithouse.

To get to 7-5, we need 3 wins. KU and two more. I’m not entirely convinced we’re just plain old shit and don’t stand a chance with any of the others. I think OSU and agy stand out as teams against whom we’ll have to have a more-or-less perfect game (no turnovers, no untimely penalties) if we’re gonna put up a W.

OSU, definitely unlikely from this vantage, yeah?

agy? That’s a long way off and many things can happen in the meantime, so I’m not willing to simply write that game off just yet.

The rest of them don’t look a tremendous amount better than we do, so I’m leaning toward still looking for 7-5 or upwards.

If we – players, coaches, fans – learned from BigD, and we can do something about what we learned, I think we’ll make it.

Some of that is up to Harsin and Diaz and their players. I think a lot more is up to A. N. “Mack” Brown.

Juice—

My apologies to both you and your dog. God knows that was a mistake fueled only by rage. Ok, maybe the rage phase has passed. I’m down to a “simmering boil.”

I should be good by January.

OB79 -

January will be a good time to have recovered, that way you will have plenty of energy to fuel hate for Barnes and his yearly meltdown.

So, I guess we’re going with “In Brocktoon We Trust”. If that’s the case, I better get cracking on getting “detached”.

Texas is going beat Oklahoma St. this week.

Saying we have a 9-win upside is the same kind of thinking that had everyone convinced we were good enough to play Oklahoma within a touchdown.

Umm, according to your incredibly sophisticated model, we were within a touchdown of Oklahoma last year, however we also promptly got waxed by Iowa State and UCLA, who were dispatched with ease this year. I’ll take 2-1 over 0-3.

As Larry Merchant has drunkenly rambled 100 times, styles make fights, and transitive bullshit approach to mapping out the rest of the schedule is not helpful to the cause of furthering enlightened discourse

Some of Tommy Frasier’s attitude without the criminal element would be nice to see and hear sometimes.

Thanks for the reply Nobis. Very good take on our reality.

If Mack can get us to another NC game, I’ll be stunned. Frankly, I’ll be surprised if we ever win another conference title with Mack at the helm. Like you, I don’t want to even contemplate the damage two more losing seasons could have on our program. I do, however, see the possibility of a 10-win season by 2013, and since a 10-win season is such a magnificent accomplishment to Mack, I hope he takes the opportunity to retire after the next one.

There had been talk of Mack eventually moving into the AD’s chair. Heaven help us if he gets to pick his successor. If he’s not forced out due to poor performance this is very likely to happen. Talk about your lose-lose scenario.

USC 55- Oklahoma19 that was the score in 2004 . Oklahoma had a heisman QB and Adrian Peterson, got dismantled/ dropped punts, played scared, soft, plus the team quit on Stoops, in the first quarter no less.Should that have happened? no, and why? because He is Bob Stoops. LOL.

Texas didnt play scared or soft in Dallas. Texas made 5 mistakes that cost them. nothing more , nothing less.
Texas wont be turning the ball over 5 times this weekend, that will make the outcome of the game much different.

USC 55- Oklahoma19 that was the score in 2004 . Oklahoma had a heisman QB and Adrian Peterson, got dismantled/ dropped punts, played scared, soft, plus the team quit on Stoops, in the first quarter no less.Should that have happened? no, and why? because He is Bob Stoops. LOL

Until USC (or anyone for that matter) does it to them a 2nd or 3rd time there is no comparison. Get back to me then.

Arriviste,

If you’re looking for enlightening discourse on a blog, you have enough concerns already. I’ll try not to add to them by positing logical and credible arguments, furthering your delusion of intellectual superiority.

Nunna ,Once was enough, he lost five straight bowl games in that run, before finally winning one last year. Young players do dumb things, Stoops had no excuse in that one.

If you’re looking for enlightening discourse on a blog, you have enough concerns already.

Obviously this frame of reference is relative, enlightened discourse within the fooball realm is a lower bar than most; of course when people post “Missouri only lost to oklahoma by X texas lost to oklahoma by Y THEREFORE Mizzou will probably beat Texas by Y – X” – it’s just plain stupid on an absolute scale.

OB that you worst case scenario is a possibility. Get ready for MB part duex. 10 win seasons w annual loss to OU here we come!

Muschamp takes over and of course fires GD and Madden, but given the rotten core left behind…

… he channels Saban, dumps 14 TE schollies, talks to a Certain Big Cigar, who sends an emissary with a bag full to visit the Rev. Newton and another with a trunk full of cash to follow Bill Snyder from one JC to another. Wailing and gnashing of teeth are heard from Family Centers across the SouthWest. Bob Stoops is found in an Airstream trailer parked at the Club 69, dead drunk and snoring, next to Uncle Slaton’s Asian bride. Holgo the Barbarian finds Old Freak Nasty’s Xmas List, and festoons the practice field with Trophy Thongs.

Okay, that wasn’t so bad.

Frazier: never played in the NFL

Fat Boy Sapp: seven Pro Bowls and a Super Bowl ring.

What was the quote again?

Moses -

Amazing that everyone but you failed to focus on that obviously salient point. Well done.

I’ll try not to add to them by positing logical and credible arguments

Add “logical” to the list of terms you should have someone explain to you.