Another Mack Brown Football Debacle: BYU-40, Texas- 21

BYU - 40, Texas - 21. And it wasn't that close.

This was a toughness test and the Horns filled in a whimsical petunia on the Scantron.

Gutless, soft, undisciplined, horribly coached, and scared. Those are just a few of the kinder descriptives that came to mind while watching Texas embarrass itself on national television. That's Texas Football after the "rebuild" under Mack Brown. When do we end this charade?

A BYU team starting two cornerbacks at a position they considered weak before their starters blew their ACLs out physically mauled the Texas offense while a BYU offense featuring a QB that can't throw a forward pass (and didn't need to) dominated and humiliated Manny Diaz's defense with simple dive plays and option reads that turned Taysom Hill into Cam Newton on speed and a BYU OL crushed by lowly Virginia into the San Francisco 49ers.
349 rushing yards allowed in a half. 550 rushing yards allowed for the game. 679 total yards allowed. What else can you do but laugh? Please follow this BYU offense over the course of the year. I can promise you'll never see it produce like this again.

Offense

Bronco Mendenhall owned Applewhite on 3rd and 4th down (Texas was 5 of 20) despite playing with two cornerbacks that wouldn't crack the two deep at Dallas Skyline and two safeties that are more smart and disciplined than athletically blessed. That written, BYU's front 7 was fantastic and their physicality, aggression, and discipline was a stark contrast to our own defense's softness, incoherence, and weakness.

To be fair, Applewhite - unlike Diaz - actually had a challenge on his hands. And though he consistently lost on 3rd down and we let Van Noy and Fua game us constantly, we weren't completely awful on offense. Just one dimensional and soft. Watching us on 3rd and short is, of course, excruciating. But you expected that. You bought our preview, right?!?!

Applewhite's plan to injure Ash with QB runs in a blowout (16 carries) was also notably bright. Glad we could get those Case McCoy reps. Always appreciate his poise in the pocket.

QB

Rarely in a Burnt Orange defenestration can you say that your QB played fine (I'm more used to Shannon Kelley vs. U of H stat lines circa late 80s), but that's the unique ecosystem of Mack Brown football. Ash was under constant pressure and he played well enough for us to win with very little help from his OL, the headsets, or his indifferent teammates. Anyone blaming him for this loss is a twit.

OL

BYU abused them physically and it was a fairly equal opportunity affair, as each one of them had their very own special highlight where they quit on a play or were stood up more often than a Match.com chick with a ten year old profile pic.

Mason Walters continues to play with the pad level of a WNBA center on her period. In our OL's defense, BYU is incredibly physical and nothing we see in practice from our defense can prepare them for that. Imagine confidently rocking your Thai-Bo class three times every week and then stepping in the Octagon with a MMA fighter, absolutely sure that you're well prepared. It must be shocking. "He...he....hit me! That....hurts. I'm going to go unconscious now."

RB

Gray had some solid runs once BYU started defending the LOS with 5 men and layering their zone and we realized that the backside was a gift. Joe Bergeron might have been useful for us as a pass protection/receiving/run option when BYU was playing games with Fua and Van Noy, but we prefer him at 3rd team RB where he can rest. None of them could pass protect Van Noy, but neither could our OL.

WR/TE

Losing Daje Johnson was a killer, but we had more than enough talent to abuse the BYU secondary if their front 7 hadn't dominated the game and we hadn't consented on offense to playing the game in a broom closet instead of on the open plains on so many downs.

Kendall Sanders was unprepared to play. He blew a hot route on 3rd down and got a silly penalty in addition to running a couple of other routes best described as unusual. Davis did what he was supposed to do to a scrub CB on his scores and Shipley was solid. Harris showed again that he can be an asset when other guys are getting attention.

The TE position is a net negative, as always.

Defense

Manny Diaz's defense allowed the most rushing yards to an opponent in Texas Longhorn football history.

550 yards.

Marvel at that number. Look at it. Consider it.

BYU averaged 7.6 yards a carry. Their QB dropped 259 on us with 3 TDs. HE AVERAGED 15 YARDS PER CARRY. He converted four different 3rd and longs on called QB draws. Williams added 182 and a rugby player added another 87. How can you not smile at the awfulness of it all? I posited a long time ago that it looked like Diaz had no understanding of simple option football - particularly in accounting for the QB. I'm going to move that feeling written in pencil over to a certainty scrawled in ink.

Let's just say that our defense, aside from being Charmin soft, has a rather uncoordinated feel.

DL

Mauled and owned, particularly once Taysom Hill started his Jim Brown impersonation. Saw a number of snaps where Brown fired off with technique that would get a junior high kid chewed out. Desmond Jackson has actually gotten worse each year here. Whaley made a play. One play.

Cedric Reed and Jeffcoat were non-factors, mostly because BYU just ran inside them. The backside of the play half-jog from Jeffcoat starting in the 2nd quarter was...interesting. Shiro Davis is just out there running around randomly.

LB

I want to thank Jordan Hicks for not injuring himself and thus disallowing Manny Diaz and the Longhorn fanbase any excuses or delusions about what's happening out there. We have some clarity on this now, yes?

Steve Edmond was awful. Dalton Santos was only bad. Is Peter Jinkens on the team anymore?

Who did a worse job in this game - Manny Diaz DC or Manny Diaz LB coach? Serious question.

DB

Good coverage! Hill was 9 of 26. Of course, a half dozen of those balls were thrown to hallucinations, but still.
No tackling or run support, of course. No understanding of the QB as a run-eligible entity. Terrible eye discipline on option runs. But solid coverage! Great job, island-master Akina. Why participate in the larger defense when there's one-on-one man coverage drills to be run every day in practice? Keep rocking your little world divorced from the rest of the defense and you can keep churning DBs into the pros despite the defense stinking.

Special Teams

Bryson Echols' play was a perfect encapsulation of the uselessness and cluelessness of our coaching staff. He committed two roughing penalties (one of them actually called, directly leading to a BYU TD - and why are we trying to block a kick there given the previous Echols effort and the game situation before the half?) and a bizarre tackling/hugging encounter session that ended in a gentle missionary position with the BYU punt returner as the ball plopped gently fifteen yards behind them.

Our return games are net negatives, despite having better athletes for the second straight week and potentially exploitable advantages.

Overall

What a farce of a program. This team has actual talent. They're just not being coached, led, or developed.
I'm not even angry. Just resigned.