Longhorns Update: Red October

Much as the trees change color in the fall season, the Texas Longhorns have also changed color – from top 5 BCS contender to not-yet bowl eligible – in the month of Red October.

What a difference a month can make – and it’s still not over. For all intents and purposes, October has been as bad as I’d projected. After the UCLA loss at home, it looked like October had the potential to be abysmal at best. And guess what? When Mack Brown calls it “unacceptable”, well, imagine what the fans think.

It has become readily apparent that the #5 pre-season ranking was a little, how would you say it, over-rated. And there have been a laundry list of problems to contend with in the meantime. I would have thought at the start of the season that Texas would have at least 3 losses this season, most of which would come from the month of October. If you had to decide who Texas would be beaten by in the month of October – Oklahoma (at Dallas), Nebraska (at Lincoln), or Iowa State (at home) – which teams would you have selected?

Oklahoma? Maybe. Nebraska? Especially Nebraska with a chip on it’s shoulder? Sure. But Iowa State? Are you kidding me?

The Oklahoma game is always a coin toss. This year, the toss favored Bob Stoops. Nebraska? The Longhorns have a great record against them just about everywhere, Lincoln included. I certainly didn’t expect them Horns to go into Lincoln this year and pull the upset with the way they had been playing. I think the Huskers were more focused on their anti-Texas-Big-10 angst (with the aforementioned chip on their shoulder) than they were about actually winning. Bo Pelini’s decision to pull Taylor Martinez looked desperate, to say the least. When will the Huskers learn that yes, the quarterback does throw the ball and yes, when he does, you must catch it?

Note to Tom Osborne – have fun in the Big 10, and don’t let the door of the Big 12 catch you on the way out. Arrivederci, Huskers.

A win against the number 5 team in the land – on their own turf – should have righted this sinking ship, yes? Isn’t that something that helps to lay the foundation for a strong second half of the season?

But just one week later, the Horns experienced something beyond a let-down, beyond a melt-down: a 28 – 21 loss to Iowa State. At home. This is the first time that Iowa State has beaten Texas – ever. And it occurred on our own field. The score was 14 – 3 at half time. This was the same team that was beaten by 52 points by Oklahoma!

Is the sky falling?

Here’s a quotable from Mack Brown after yesterday’s loss to the Cyclones:

“I thought they were better coached than we were.”

How about this quotable from Greg Davis:

“One of the things we did was spread the field with a bunch of short throws … some of the first half was a little bit by design. We didn’t stretch the field as much as we should have.”

I love it when coaches re-state the obvious. Just like shampoo: lather – rinse -repeat.

Though the players need to show up and play – and have that “win at all costs” attitude – I still maintain that the coach’s role is create an environment in which the players can succeed. They call it a game plan. There is no issue with a lack of talent at Texas – at any position. The problem is beyond this – it’s a coaching issue. Plain and simple.

There are plenty of people calling for the firing of Greg Davis – other than myself:

Greg Davis is an incompetent Offensive Coordinator—end of story. Worse, he is stubborn in his ignorance.  If you doubt it, you haven't watched a lot of Texas football. Orange bloods know the story all too well—Bubble Screens, throwing under the chains on third down, idiotic plays galore...moreover, he coaches the QB's!  What a horrifying thought!

Garret Gilbert was 34 of 57 for 344 yards. Sure, he made some poor decisions and was intercepted 3 times. But when your game plan includes 2 yard screens and a lot of east-west throws, what can you expect? When your position coach is the same guy that runs the offense, what should we expect? Especially when this quarterback knows how to go north-south – and in a big way. The coaches have raved about his big arm – so when do we get to see it in the game plan? I can see shades of all the bad coaching decisions made with Chris Simms, if you ask me.

When you can recruit the best high school offensive lineman in the state of Texas, I don’t know how you can’t establish a running game. Period.

When you have a running back like DJ Monroe, you need to use him. After one carry for 10 yards, he was never to be seen again. I will go back to my conspiracy theory - ‘nuff said on that one.

While we’re at it, the “power running game” (with Monroe on the bench) accounted for 96 total yards. If that is power, then what is Cam Newton of Auburn? Nuclear energy? Fission? Fusion? Our next national energy resource?

And as for the projected sainthood of Will Muschamp – I think we can put that idea on hold. A fairly good defense with great talent, nothing more, nothing less. Game plans? Inconsistent at best this year.

The worst part is that October can still get worse. Baylor comes to town next weekend. It’s been 1997 since the Longhorns lost to Baylor. That was the same year that the Horns last lost two in a row at home. Remember, that was the last year of the Mackovic era. That thought alone makes me shudder.

But right now, the Bears – now bowl eligible, I might add - lead the South Division of the Big 12 with a 3 – 1 conference record and games against Texas, OU, and OSU looming. They have their destiny in their hands. And they have a quarterback in Robert Griffin that knows how to go north-south in both the passing and running games.

Better yet, it’s right before Halloween. Trick – or treat – for the Longhorns?

Photo credit: m.gifford