Um, No

by Peter Bean on Sep 12, 2006 4:15 PM CDT in Football Comment 27 comments

Well, damnit. I just didn't want to see this. I'm as opposed to the clock rule as every other college football nut, and I lament fewer plays per game as much as any new rule I can remember.

I would even normally nod in agreement if I heard Mack Brown talking about the new clock rules. But not right after a loss. It's just not the right time. And it's especially not the right time when it comes right after a decisive defeat. Texas lost the game because of a young quarterback, because of a negative two turnover differential, and because of a defense that was exploited by the opponent.

Texas did not lose because it didn't have enough time to come back. Jim Tressel, in fact, went into serious Lead Protect Mode in the second half. Had Texas started to climb back in the game, they would have opened things right back up. And I don't know what anyone else saw, but I certainly saw a secondary that couldn't keep up, linebackers that couldn't get to the spots quick enough, and a defensive line that wasn't penetrating. 20 more plays in that contest might have only served to widen the margin of victory.

There's no reason to panic about this loss, and this particular Texas team ought to be significantly better by the end of the season than they were Saturday night. But there's simply no reason to even comment on the clock rules immediately following a loss like this one. It just looks bad, and I say this as someone who really loves Mack Brown. Of course, the longer your winning streak goes on, the more sour you're likely to be when the party finally ends.

Take two Tylenol, Mack, get back to work, and just forget about Saturday

--PB--

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It was bad timing

for him to bring it up. He tends to do that in the heat of the moment.

13 - 0 and being critical of fans saying Davis didn't do a good job comes to mind.

Yes, even Mack Brown has faults. He doesn't wield the power of baby jesus like Tressel, Stoops, Carroll and Weis, but in general he is a class act.

Back to the clock thingy.

He is dead right though. I was looking at the drive charts and play by plays of several games.
If a team is up by two scores (which Texas was not, but lets pretend) and there are only 6 -7 minutes left, the game becomes meaningless.
The other team has almost NO time for two decent drives and scores of any kind, much less a TD.
Texas only had time for maybe 10 plays the last 6 minutes. Change of possession and the continual play clock eat up all the time.

The new rules have made these games almost unwatchable with so many commercials too. That game was hard to sit through with the ads.
If you take away the ad timeouts everyone is home by 9:00 - 9:30.

Cats and dogs sleeping together.

by EYESofBEVO on Sep 12, 2006 4:28 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Damn.

Anyone have a feeling that this is going to be the second coming of the "Mack whined his way into the Rose Bowl" argument again? Yeesh.

If you buy a ticket to the game, 1. Stay Loud, and 2. Stay the whole time.

by bendj on Sep 12, 2006 4:47 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

looks to me

like a bit of a case of ESPN taking comments a little out of text and making Mack look like a whiner. you get asked questions, you answer them. he probably should have bit his toungue and now he's going to pay for it, but i don't think his opinion is too off base. i do however agree that if this game were any longer, it only would have gotten uglier. i was actually hoping for it to end in those last few minutes before OSU had a chance to score again and make it look worse than it was, and our offense wasn't operating in quick score, explosive yardage mode at ANY point in the game, much less the end.

by littlevisigoth on Sep 12, 2006 5:04 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

exactly

should he have said ask me again after we win?

by the other Andrew on Sep 12, 2006 6:06 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Original headline was:

"Ticked off: Brown faults clock rule in loss to OSU"

so yeah, there was some editorializing by ESPN.

by the other Andrew on Sep 12, 2006 6:09 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Then other clasics like

Mack Mad at Clock rules and stuff that came before that

by inVINCEable on Sep 12, 2006 6:51 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

better

I would expect better out of BON than to buy into the controversy-seeking ESPN and the way they can twist around comments in a post-game interview as they see fit.

Mack's simply answering the question the same way every other coach and pundit is answering the question. The new clock rules are a joke. But Mack is one of the media's favorite whipping boys, and he can't even make an honest statement without being unfairly lambasted.

It's true, OSU scored and before you knew it, the game was over. Obviously, Mack was not saying that the Horns would have been able to come back in that amount of time normally.

Come on BON, from this to the unfair lynching of Greg Davis (there was a lot more to that loss than playcalling) to the inability to recognize Colt McCoy's shortcomings (his arm, which will never get much stronger), I'm afraid to wonder what direction this site will go in should Texas lose another one.

by Jason Mayer on Sep 12, 2006 8:49 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Please

Jason: for one thing, they quotes aren't twisted. Maybe ESPN saying Brown's a whiner is twisting, but the timing of the quotes is really, really unfortunate, you must admit. I'd bet bottom dollar that if Mack could take back those comments, he would. I don't think he intended for it to sound like excuses, but it did. That's regrettable.

And that's the only real point here.

BON still adores Mack Brown. The post says as much.

by Peter Bean on Sep 12, 2006 9:14 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Peter,

Reporters asked Mack a question and he answered it honestly. The new clock rules suck. There's nothing "unfortunate" about the timing.

If Mack really wanted to make it a point of contention he wouldve brought it up in his Monday press briefing rather than the Big 12 Teleconference.

by the other Andrew on Sep 12, 2006 11:41 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Re-read his Monday press conference

and here's what he said:

- "Then they put the game away pretty much with six minutes left because with that clock running and a 24-7 deficit with six minutes left -- you don't have near as much time as you did before, and it makes it much more difficult [to make those comebacks]. You look at it and you lose about 10 percent of the game from the time it was before. It was 22 minutes shorter than last year's game. You need to get ahead and you need to stay ahead. You need to be more aware that the comebacks are not going to be done as they were in our past."

That's pretty much the facts. That's not an excuse. He also said a ton of comments before that about how OSU made the plays and we didn't both on offense and defense.

This is simply a quote taken out of context to create something that just isn't there. Don't help the MSM spread poop all over the lawn. I'd rather see BON use a grocery bag as a glove to pick it up and put it in your neighbors trash.

by the other Andrew on Sep 12, 2006 11:53 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

I am confused.

"If Mack really wanted to make it a point of contention he wouldve brought it up in his Monday press briefing rather than the Big 12 Teleconference."

The ESPN article says that the Big 12 Teleconference was on Monday. Did he have a different Monday press briefing besides his Monday Big 12 Teleconference? If so, does anyone have the transcripts readily available so we can read them?

by Red Blooded on Sep 13, 2006 12:19 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

The quote above

in italics is from the press conference (I guess I figured "press conference" was different from "teleconference", i.e. one is live while the other is over the phone).

But to answer your question, check here for a transcript:
http://www.mackbrown-texasfootball.com/index.php?s=&url_channel_id=40&url_article_id=2388&am p;url_subchannel_id=&change_well_id=2

Fourth paragraph down

by the other Andrew on Sep 13, 2006 12:30 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

found it

teleconference and press conference are different.

The teleconference is over the phone and can be listened to here:
http://www.big12sports.com/media/big12-telecon.html

Fast forward an hour and 22 minutes to get to Mack's questions.

The clock was not addressed in his opening statement.

It was the third or fourth question asked by the AP and I think all Big 12 coaches got the question.

I suggest everyone go to 1:27 and listen to his comments.

by the other Andrew on Sep 13, 2006 12:40 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Thanks for that

Love hearing Leach's thoughts on it:) Tune in around 51:30 to hear that.

by Red Blooded on Sep 13, 2006 1:08 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Brilliant!

classic Leach

by the other Andrew on Sep 13, 2006 1:18 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

stretch

I still think it is an extreme stretch and extremely disingenuous to call this whining or making excuses:

"Then they put the game away pretty much with six minutes left because with that clock running and a 24-7 deficit with six minutes left -- you don't have near as much time as you did before, and it makes it much more difficult [to make those comebacks]. You look at it and you lose about 10 percent of the game from the time it was before. It was 22 minutes shorter than last year's game. You need to get ahead and you need to stay ahead. You need to be more aware that the comebacks are not going to be done as they were in our past."

What am I missing here?

by Jason Mayer on Sep 12, 2006 10:02 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Then the media gets it right

Did anyone see this picture of the infamous roughing the passer?

I thought it was bogus until this. It is reminiscent of the Klat broken jaw hit.
http://statesman.mycapture.com/mycapture/enlarge_remote.asp?remoteimageid=81619

IMO -- and I was literally saying this in the 1st qtr to my guests, tOSU was pushing the limits of physical play with the refs (I think the coaching staff at OSU encourages this).
They did this with ND and they did it with Texas. The DBs were just flat out shoving the Texas WRs before the ball was even thrown.
There were some very quetionable late hits too.

This isn't a whine or complaint. The Texas WRs need to get a pair and shove back. The RB's need to take that free arm and just stick someone. Colt needs to growl more and Texas needs a new tude.

Cats and dogs sleeping together.

by EYESofBEVO on Sep 12, 2006 10:13 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Sun rises in east

Fans rip Greg Davis for play calling.

Mack whines.

Same old story. It's depressing. We as Texas fans are so predictable, as is our coach.

What happened Saturday is simple. The better team won. Our game plan was fine. We should have lost. Right now, they are better.

Now Mack is whining. Again. I only hope he continues to do this to take the negative spotlight off of his players.

Here's what I would like to hear, from Mack and our fans ...

"We played a great team. We were confident our plan would work. Had we not made mistakes, we might have won. The season is young. We still expect to win every game we play. And we hope we win out and see Ohio State again in the BCS title game. Next question."

Instead we get the same old story. No one is to blame. We lost. It happens to half the teams every week. No different play calling or clock rules would have helped us.

Why do we have to revert to whiny Texas fans and coaches? Didn't last year change anything?

Apparently not.

by T Keaton on Sep 12, 2006 11:10 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Yeah, I'd hope Mack would say something like this:

"So the things that happened Saturday night are really on the group of us as coaches, not the kids, and we told them that. Coaches lose games and kids win games."

Oh wait... he did.

by the other Andrew on Sep 12, 2006 11:56 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Not fair to Mack

He was asked a question about the clock rules and he answered it. He never blamed the clock, he just expressed his dislike for the new rules as many other coaches have before him. Why is he the only one who gets ripped for it?

I'm an avid reader and I expected better from my fellow horns.

by ImBobbo on Sep 12, 2006 11:28 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Put's Leinart in a little different light doesn't

it?

To quote/paraphrase almost all of you, and the other Andrew in particular "Reporters asked Mack (Leinart) a question and he answered it honestly."

Just to consider how much you've been badmouthing Leinart for the past 8 months, and how a college kid or coach can say something that comes out very poorly in a highly emotional moment.

Fight On! Beat the Razorbacks!

by USCLink on Sep 13, 2006 12:36 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

What if his comments stay the same...

weeks later after he's had time to digest the question?

Then he's still an idiot. We got beat by a better team on Saturday just like USC got beat by a better team in the Rose Bowl.

That's not to say that the better team always wins games, but in these two instances, they did.

by the other Andrew on Sep 13, 2006 12:51 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

And honestly, 9 out of 10?

Cmon Reggie, you're smarter than Matt.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/barron/4161137.html

Reggie Bush, speaking to Bob Costas for Costas Now at 8 p.m. Wednesday on HBO, says if the 2005 USC team played the 2005 Texas team, the Trojans would win nine out of 10 times " 'cause they (Texas) got that one (the Rose Bowl)."

If our coaches or players say something stupid, I'll call them out on it just like I'll call your players out on it.

by the other Andrew on Sep 13, 2006 12:55 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

I don't think so, Tim.

Mack was asked what his impressions on the new clock rules were. Leinart was asked "What is it like to go out like this after you came back?" I'm sure I don't need to remind anyone of his reply, but just in case:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=a7As_O5i2WI

by ImBobbo on Sep 13, 2006 12:56 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

And he responded honestly

And he responded after going from on top with just 19 seconds left to losing the last game of his collegiate career. According to Mack, the game was over with at least 6 minutes left...that gave him an awful lot of time to say something that sounded less like he was blaming the loss on the new clock rules than this.

PB was the one who posted it to say it wasn't what he wanted to hear. Mack said it. I'm just drawing attention to the fact that its hypocritical to condemn a college student who was arguably in a much more stressful situation he had never been in, without considering what a seasoned veteran coach did in arguably the same circumstances. That is my point.

Fight On! Beat the Razorbacks!

by USCLink on Sep 13, 2006 2:52 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

I think you missed the message

He wasn't asked "Who do you think is the better team, even though you just lost 41-38 to Texas?" He was asked how he felt.

Mack, on the other hand, was doing an ordinary Big 12 conference, where this question would have popped up whether we won or lost the Ohio State game.

Mack Brown expressed the same displeasure with the clock rules that numerous other coaches have. He never once placed the blame of the loss on the clock rules. He never said "We didn't lose, we just ran out of time." And, he certainly didn't claim that Texas was the better team.

Don't compare Matt Leinart's classless comments to a coach answering questions at a weekly conference.

by ImBobbo on Sep 13, 2006 3:42 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Maybe he

shouldn't complain about the time, which you can say he didn't do, and focus more on the clock management. While I doubt they would have came back from 24-7 with 20 minutes left, Brown can't look at the clock to blame (once again, not saying he blamed the clock), but when you get the ball w/ 6 minutes left, down 17, run THREE plays and 2 minutes, 25 seconds off the clock, you don't deserve to blame the clock. With the new rules, teams have to be ready to go after a punt, know to run out of bounds, and know to get up to the line of scrimmage.

by bhors on Sep 13, 2006 1:03 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs