Adding Injuries to Insults - Plugging Holes in the Longhorns' Psyche and Depth Chart

I so wish this were satire.

But to the word, it's the exact same thing Mack Brown said in 2001, 2003, and 2011. He even jumped in and answered a question for Jeffcoat and Okafor in last week's post game press conference, just as he did for Chris Simms. Were there anything left in my bowels after last week's game, they would have shifted violently at this nauseatingly Deja Vu moment.

Even Major Applewhite, who vehemently despises all things Sooner, has imbibed some of Mack's Participation Brand Kool-Aid, delivering this gem to the Austin Longhorn Club yesterday:

You find out a lot about your friends and family during a loss like that, but you find out a lot about your teammates, you find out a lot about your college (or colleagues), your coaches, you find out a lot about your players and what you find out about people really, in general, is two things. There's people that thrive on the negative and there's people that get over it and they go back to work. And that's the bottom line.

Whether he actually believes that or not, it's obvious who he heard it from. It's basically another verbatim quote from Mack Brown and at this point these Post Annihilation Talking Points may as well be pumped through speakers in Bellmont year round. That kind of pre-loss emotional contingency planning comes in really handy when getting your ass handed to you, which was in the back of your fragile mind all along.

Mack said on the radio yesterday that he hasn't received ONE piece of negative feedback from any friends, family, or boosters.

And that's because he's insulated himself with a positive reinforcement feedback loop, going all the way up to Deloss Dodds. To hear Mack tell it, and yes he actually believes it, "This was just another game, a bad loss that the team will have to learn from and move on."

QuickMeme

Bill Powers is the only one who can save us now.

It would be easier to process what happened last Saturday if there was a shred of accountability coming from anyone in Bellmont, but the Thought Police are out in full force, demanding positivity when faced with the delusional pragmatism befitting of a Tony Fucking Robbins seminar. Wait, didn't he speak to the team once?

So yeah, it's been a shit week to live in Austin.

And now the best team in the country is coming to town for the eighth week in a row.

As part of the Red River fallout, the Texas two deep is a mash unit, colored in crimson.

• Malcolm Brown (ankle) is likely out for a few more weeks with a high ankle sprain / aversion to pain syndrome.
  
• Joe Bergeron continues to play through multiple injuries and the effects are obvious. He needs to be relegated strictly to short yardage and goal line situations until he's fully healed. Johnathan Gray and Daje Johnson are your starting running backs.
  
• Brandon Moore (neck) returned to practice, amazingly, and is likely to play Saturday. This is huge news. He was one of only a few competitive players on the field for Texas.
  
• Jordan Hicks (hip) is probably out for the season. Whether the rumors of a full muscle tear from the bone are accurate or not, it's clear this isn't your average groin or hip injury. He was the one player in our entire defense we could not lose to injury this year and that happened. Expectations were not adjusted accordingly. The human comedy that is the LB position will continue through season's end.
  
• Donald Hawkins (ankle) returned to practice and is probable for Saturday. He missed the second half last week to injury, and apparently the first half as well. The same can be said for the rest of the OL. Expect a return to form against Baylor's weak DL with surprisingly inspired play that was conspicuously missing last week. Effort will appear, holes will open, pancakes will happen. Is Texas back?! No, it's Baylor.
  
• Jackson Jeffcoat is out for the season for a torn pectoral muscle. I didn't rewatch the game (or even finish the first viewing) but I assume he was trying to fight through a hold by a Sooner tackle. Opportunity knocks for Reggie Wilson, Cedric Reed, and perhaps Shiro Davis. Remember, Mack said we'll do whatever it takes to fix this. By this he means burning a redshirt half way through the season and clapping harder. Red assed Mack is back!
• David Ash apparently fixed his own broken wrist after the game and downgraded it to a bruise by Monday. We need more guys like David Ash on our team. If you saw that brief camera shot on TV, the wrist injury looked pretty bad. Luckily it's on his non-throwing arm and he's been at practice all week with a little extra fire as you might expect from our lone leader on offense.

Sitting at 4-2 with the Dreamwagon sputtering on hot air fumes, I'm not going to call this game a crossroads, but this is Mack's Antietam, Waterloo, Zama, Stalingrad, Hastings, and Yorktown - combined.

Let's hope we see Texas Football tomorrow, regardless of who is temporarily leading us into battle.

Hook'em.