TX/OU Edition

My long winded rant on Texas and the Game
Before the season everyone was picking OU to win the south even though they went 8-5 last year and Texas went to the National Championship Game. Before the season I said Texas would win the South and go to a BCS Bowl. Not necessarily the championship game but their really wasn't anyone on the schedule that scared me too much. If we were to lose a game I figured it would be against a North opponent mainly Kansas State. Well a lot has changed since the preseason polls came out and Texas made a drastic fall to 21st. A lot was lost last week against UCLA. What little hope we had of winning out was flattened. The home win streak was gone. The amount of time in the Top 10 in rankings gone. More importantly, Mack lost his team in that game. For the first time since Will Muschamp came to town our defense quit in a game.

With all that said, I don't think Texas is done for. If there was a game to lose it would be early and would be out of conference, preferably to opponent of higher caliber than UCLA but this is the hole we are in. Right now, Texas sits atop the Big XII standings. After today, they will still be there as I think we will beat OU.

I am not trying to be a sunshine pumper cause I just said Mack lost his team last week but I do believe in Mack Brown after a loss. I don't know the record but Mack has rarely lost two games in a row at Texas. Texas has won 4 out of the last 5 versus OU. A Texas win takes Mack Brown's record against OU 7-6 and Stoops will be relegated to a 6-6 record against Texas. Garrett Gilbert will shine in this game. DJ Monroe will run in the spread and Will Muschamp's defense will be relentless. Texas knocked out Sam Bradford on the first play of OU's second series last year. Expect Landry to get happy feet and have difficulty moving the ball. Its clear with OU, shut down Broyles and shut down Murray and the Horns will have great success on the defensive side of the ball. If the defense can not do these things Texas will lose. We have all the talent that any team would want to have in college football but we do not have an identity. Texas is starting the fourth running back in five games so it is obvious Texas has issues. We have failed to score a TD in the first quarter three times this year. What is clear for OU is not so clear for Texas. I am not sure how OU prepares for this Texas team. I don't think there is one thing OU can look to say, if we do this we will be successful on defense. OU has had one complete game this year and it was against Florida State. Well Florida State is not as good as we thought.

I think OU will plan on using a zone blitzing scheme to stop Texas. The best thing about this scheme for Texas is Gilbert excels against the blitz and he always makes the right reads while hitting his hot receivers. The problem is our receivers have not caught the ball and they seem to be in the wrong position against the zones and blitzes. On the offensive side of the ball Texas has a ton of talent. The problem is our coaches have failed to identify the how to use the talent. I don't want to be an armchair coach but if I was coaching I would have made damn sure our offensive line unit could explode off the ball and hit the man in front of them. Screw the zone blocking scheme, screw the pussy footing around when no one has an idea of who they should block without knowing where the ball carrier is going. Texas stated they would go under center this year and run the ball more. Problem is we have a QB that has played his entire career in the spread offense and now has to go under center and hand off the ball when we have a line that has been ingrained in the zone blocking philosophy. You cant have a couple of different philosophies with a new QB. Even more so, it is highly predictable when we go from a shotgun to under center. For years, Stoops and his d-coordinators could predict what Texas was going to do based on our base formation. Our offense has never been complicated because I don't think Greg Davis is capable of complicated. He substitutes a horizontal passing game for a run game, which has never worked.

“We started the ballgame with the idea that we wanted to make (UCLA) work from side-to-side,” Davis said. “When you do that, you’re not going to be as vertical as you are with play-action or whatever. All of that (horizontal passing) was play-calling because of the way we wanted to start the ball game. The idea was we wanted to go at a fast-tempo going from side-to-side. We felt that would work to our advantage.”

Well Greg, the idea in football is to go forward and score TD's not go 1 yard, 2 yards, 2 yards and punt. Sometimes the horizontal passing game works when you have athletic lineman who can get out and chase, wr's that can hold a block for more than .5 a second and you have wrs moving forward when they receive the ball.

For years, OU, Tech, Missouri, etc have all been able to run this play because they have their WR's moving when the catch the ball, not stationary like Texas'. They have WR's that clear space, not stop two yards up field. As good of athletes as Texas has, they dont have the personnel to accomplish this play. Never have and hopefully never will. If you are going to throw the ball 25 yards across the field, why not throw it 25 yards down the field. It puts a lot more pressure on the defense than running them "side to side."

While, I am spending part of my time ripping Greg Davis, at the end of the day it is about the players. The players have to step up when their number is called and they have to execute the plays that are called and they have to concentrate and have to lead. I saw Kirkendoll scored a TD late last week and celebrated and tried to get the UT fans amped up. Dude, you are losing and you are losing badly. Make a play earlier in the game.

I am worried that the coaches have pumped up Gilbert too much in the media and failed to give him much criticism. I have mixed feelings here. Yes, he is a very good QB and will be elite some time soon, but you need to let Gilbert speak for himself and you need to let Gilbert do what he does best. This has Chris Simms written all over it. Didn't you learn anything the first time.

When you coddle players you hold them back. In addition, you are calling out other players on the team, mainly the WR's. You have failed to light a fire under your offensive line and have been very protective of them as well. We have a lot of experience on the line but they just are not playing well. Let them speak for themselves.

I absolutely love Mack Brown but he is becoming too controlling. He doesn't know what he has on offense and he should. The defense is taken care of. The offense and the special teams have not been taken care of. You have to let go and let these players come into the players they are supposed to be. They are pressing and it is because you are pressing. The players no and can feel it. The play on the field is a direct result of your persona and your persona seems crushed from the loss of Colt McCoy in the national championship game. I believe the coach has not let that game go and he needs to. He needs to put the past away ala Sean Peyton and bury the past behind the stadium.

With all that being said. I think Texas wins because they have to win. The fallout would be epic and would crater this team. The biggest game of the season is in two weeks and you can no go into Lincoln Memorial Coliseum two game losers. The huskers won't to be Texas so badly that they are auctioning off the team uniforms after the game. They made a preseason video about beating Texas. Bo Pelini hates Texas and so does Tom Osbourne and they don't fear Texas right now. They should fear Texas because when the light switches on and the coaches let the players play it will be trouble.

Texas is better than OU and OU has proved nothing to me this year. The proved that they have the same system but just like any other team that turns the ball over, ordinary at times. Mistakes had been a key factor in this series. In the five losses Texas has had against Stoops, the Longhorns have committed 20 turnovers.

The Horns have committed the about as many turnovers in the past two games as they did all season last year. What it means is that ball security will be at a premium this week and if Texas wins the turnover battle they will win the game.

The nation is 91% on OU right now (unofficial poll). ESPN has been mocking Texas all week. OU is a 4 pt favorite.

I have never really taken a hard line on the Texas/OU game before but I am willing to put it on the line this week. Regardless of my feelings on the Texas offensive coaching staff and the play calling, Texas has always been vanilla before this game and it never caught up with them in previous years but it did last week. The coaches are looking for redemption because their is a lot of fire on Mack and mainly Greg Davis. Not many people like Davis around UT, but they put up with him because Mack always sites statistics. We are consistently in the top five in scoring, but that has been very skewed since Muschamp came to Texas. Davis needs to bounce back this week and get a commitment from his players to execute and lay it all out on the field. If Texas moves the ball against the sooners and gets a first quarter offensive score we will win. If Texas does not score an offensive TD in the first quarter it will come down to the 4th quarter. If OU scores a defensive TD in the first quarter, the route will be on.

This is the most important first quarter in the Longhorns season. Come Early, Be Loud, Wear Orange.

Hook 'em