Longhorns Update: A Quarterback Drama Unfolds

The BYU Cougars arrived in Austin on Saturday and appeared to have done their homework. At least that is what you would have thought in the first half.

Ahh, a tale of two halves – again. It’s a common theme in Longhorn football and has been for quite some time now.

Against Rice, the first half offensive plan had shades of (yawn) Greg Davis in it; the second half looked more like sandlot football (aka Boise State). We all know which half was most effective and certainly most entertaining. With that in mind, I thought that the Longhorns coaching staff would watch some video, learn some lessons, and enter the game against BYU with the most effective of the two options right out of the gate. I was sadly mistaken.

The first half against BYU was the same as the first half against Rice. The Horns struggled. Garrett Gilbert struggled, completing just 2 of 8 passes. The receivers struggled. The running game struggled with Fozzy Whittaker. Malcolm Brown barely played a down. Frankly, the whole offense struggled – as much because of the game plan and play selection as any one player’s performance. And when the time was right, the Longhorn Nation, who had waited in the wings to unleash their fury, rained down upon one player. His name? Garrett Gilbert.

Not only did the Longhorns then change quarterbacks, but they changed offensive game plans at the same time. When the coaches finally put a few wrinkles into the offense – those wrinkles that actually gave them a much better second half against Rice – the game plan was far better. I just don’t understand why they didn’t start the game with that game plan instead of pulling it out at half time.

I suspect that the Longhorn Nation has officially lost its patience with Garrett Gilbert. I also suspect that in order to appease them (and to keep the heat off himself and his new coordinators), Mack Brown will start anyone but Gilbert from here on out, barring injury to McCoy and Ash.

These are the same fans that seem to have forgotten the 2010 National Championship game when Gilbert – a freshman with virtually no snaps during the regular season – came in and almost stole the game for the Longhorns.

When Gilbert was a sophomore, the offensive coordinator refused to build an offense around the skill set on the team (DJ Monroe being a prime example). When Gilbert had a bad game, he was left in the game, even when it could have been used as a “teachable moment” to give McCoy some reps and let Gilbert step back and take a look at the game from a broader perspective. His confidence eroded further when they kept him in games even when he had two or three interceptions. His numbers suffered with dropped balls by the plethora of freshmen surrounding him.

In short, the same quarterback that stepped up and lead the Horns under incredibly difficult conditions, who rallied the team to start believing they could actually win when their leader was injured, who was just one or two pass receptions away from a National Championship, was now set up for failure. I, for one, still believe that his raw skills were squandered last season, and that the coaches let him down. Entering this season, he was relegated to a “wait and see” by the coaching staff regarding his role as starting quarterback. I am sure that didn’t exactly build confidence either.

Good coaching involves molding an athlete and giving him a game plan in which he can succeed. If this was a solitary occurrence, we could shrug it off and move forward. But it’s not. How many quarterbacks in the Mack Brown era have come out of UT as better, more evolved athletes than when they arrived? The Garrett Gilbert saga sounds remarkably similar to none other than Chris Simms. Simms was another incredibly talented and highly regarded high school athlete. The expectations were high from the moment he set foot on the Forty Acres. He was another quiet performer. Neither of them was perhaps the most “rah-rah” quarterback. I guess you could fault them for that if anything. But you do have to wonder about the similarities. Did the coaches ever get the best out of Simms? And will they ever get the best out of Gilbert?

I hope I am wrong, but I suspect that Gilbert may have seen his last start as a Longhorns quarterback, for perhaps all the wrong reasons. Such is the world of college football at times.

Oh, and while the drama unfolded, the Longhorns won 17 – 16. The score was just one drama that unfolded that night. We’ll see what happens in a few short days on the road against UCLA.

Photo credits: speedye