FanPost

Mac McWhorter: Half a Decade of Mediocrity

I was front and center at the game on Saturday, amidst the masses of UT fans screaming at the coaches and amateur athletes.  This fanbase gets restless quickly.  As of late, the popular Longhorn line is, "Fire Greg Davis."  And, for the time being, I'm fine with that rhetoric.  However, I've come to believe that at the root of our problems lies this man:

Vmetvvpsopdcrph

Kiss the ring.  I'm not going anywhere.

via image.cdnl3.xosnetwork.com

After the game, I sat in my hotel room flipping between the Florida/Alabama and Oregon/Stanford games, all while combing through the late open game thread on BON.  I watched three teams establish excellent run games out of two different styles of offense.  Stanford and Alabama ran the more traditional power run game from under center, while Oregon produced a nasty run game out of the shotgun. 

For sometime now, it seems that a large faction of the fanbase has been convinced that our spread offense was the problem with the run game.  Hell, it appears that's Mack's belief as well.  However, it's evident now that it's not scheme.  It's not zone versus man blocking.  It's a complete lack of execution and development of our offensive linemen. 

Follow me through the jump for some appalling statistics.

2006 Rushing YPA

2007 Rushing YPA

2008 Rushing YPA 2009 Rushing YPA 2010 Rushing YPA Average Sacks/Game from '06-'09
Texas 4.38 5.01 4.29
4.03  3.98
1.91
NCAA Rank
33
10
54 68
72
59.5

*Stats from cfbstats.com

Note that the sacks statistic isn't entirely accurate.  I've just taken the average of the four years in both ranking and sacks/g.

Pretty disgusting, huh?  And, the natural follow up questions is, what's the talent like?

Via Rivals.com

2004 - One 3*, Two 4*

2005 - Two 3*

2006 - Two 3*, Two 4*

2007 - One 5* (Tray Allen), Three 4*

2008 - Two 4*, One 3*

2009 - One 5* (Mason Walters), Two 4*, One 3*

2010 - Two 4*

Total - Two 5*, Thirteen 4*, Seven 3*

Has any positional coach in the country done less with more?  I watch as teams all over the country continue to produce a run game with clearly inferior talent.  Yet, year after year, Mac McWhorter continues to under develop players even though he has pick of the Texas talent.  The guy gets a pass presumably because he manufactured back to back top 5 running teams on the back of a quarterback that could run for 100 yards a game without anyone blocking for him.  Well, that was five years ago, and the statistics show that it was an anomaly.

When we look at the Greg Davis arguments, it's at least possible to find rational reasons for the guy to stay on as offensive coordinator when we look at the statistics.  While we might not agree with his playcalling at times, it's at least possible to understand how Mack can look at the numbers and convince himself that Davis is right for the job.  However, the same can't be said for McWhorter.  Over the past five years, I've seen nothing that would compel me to keep him on as a positional coach.  That's not hyperbolic.  I've literally seen, nothing.

After this season, I'd expect to see some heads roll.  McWhorter should be at the top of the chopping block.

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