Whenever you hear a coach say 'We didn't execute,' you know what he means. It's a catchall answer. There were a variety of reasons his team lost, but it's easier to just to give that one. Like when people ask me why Doperbo doesn't write more, and I say 'because he's a douchebag.' Not really. No one asks me why Doperbo doesn't write more.
But too often the phrase is used by Texas fans to excuse whatever schematic jackassery our coaches rolled out that game by placing the blame on the players.
'Our line can't block.' Yeah, Jason Glynn should have been able to reach block Brandon Kennedy playing a 2 technique.
'Our secondary sucks.' Yeah, Aaron Ross should have been able to support the run and play man with no deep help at the same time.
Sometimes it is the player's fault though. Like when that player is Eric Hall. Adrian Peterson owes his Heisman Trophy to that guy. Oh wait.
But it's up to the coaches to put the players in position to succeed. That's why I liked this quote from Will Muschamp that I ran across today.
"It's easy to look back and say what you could've and what you should've done, and the most critical person of me, is myself. There are obviously things you'd like to have done a little differently. But, these kids have played hard and they've played with great effort and passion. I told them from the beginning that the effort is on them and the execution is on me. As long as they play hard, everything else is on my shoulders. If we don't execute well, then it's my fault."
Easy to see why his players go all out for him.