Accountability Matters

This was like one of those boxing matches where one person thru all the punches and the other person just sat there getting their ass get kicked. Texas didn’t even care enough to try and block a punch or throw a punch back. Talk about a lifeless team with no passion or fire. First game in a while I had to turn off before the end. It was that bad.

and if we have any hope to beat OU or Nebraska (hell K State or A&M too) we have got to recognize the problem with our offensive line, PUNT RETURNERS, and apparently our run defense. I think something significant needs to be done, while I agree firing a coach is typically not appropriate during the season it may still need to be done. Look we know GG and GD have problems but we are going to stick with them for better or worse because Mack is that kind of guy, but something needs to be shaken up….

much like duane akina made one hell of a defensive backs coach rather than a defensive coordinator

I agree with everything you said and really hope since Mack cannot hide mistakes behind a win he will be quick to change things up.

The most frustrating thing is that I really could handle the struggles and even the loss if I thought it was leading somewhere, but we have even less of an idea of who we are on offense now than we did at the beginning of the season. If we had struggled early and loss this game while committing to running the ball downhill with an h-back or fullback, as promised, then at least I could live with the fact that we know who we want to be and are going there. Instead we’re stuck right back where we were last year with a team that throws the ball 45 times a game and has the QB be the leading rusher (GG led in attempts today), and this time we have no Shipley to bail the offense out in tough spots.

That said, Mack usually does a great job of rallying the troops so I’m not giving up yet. Let’s hope the issues get addressed quickly and appropriately.

is Greg Davis delivering a scheme that Mack wanted? Go back to the MNC loss. The starting QB goes down who is also one of our leading rushers. There is nobody to come in and take up the slack. In other words, in Mack’s eyes, we lost that game because our offense was one dimensional.

Coach says, “I want to run the ball.” Coach Davis says, “Ok.” He dusts off a scheme to do primarily that but fails to tell Mack the truth, “Mack, you don’t have the personnel to run the ball.”

So they both end up lying to each other, and themselves. All because the emperor has no clothes.

You recruited lousy RBs and OL, or you have bad RB and OL coaches. Which is it?

In progressive order:

1. Turnovers-Fumbles deflate the team. If you want the defense to keep us in the game, don’t fumble the ball giving great field position to UCLA.
2. Scripted play-calling was nice to start the game but completely fell apart once again- Thanks GD- your imagination has spurts of brilliance but generally is unproductive and uninspiring.
3. Receivers- IN PARTICULAR Barrett Matthews drop way too many balls. What’s the point of having a tight end if he can’t catch? Might as well have another lineman.
4. The ole desire fire died in the second half. The defense was sluggish and looked confused. The offense showed no sense of urgency to even try and make a come back. Down by 3 touchdowns and still checking down to the RB for a 1 yard gain. Why? I’d rather see a team making mistakes trying to win then a team trying to not make mistakes but producing no significant and necessary points.

Mack Brown takes the blame for the unsettling performance, but that doesn’t work for me. What now? So he slaps himself on the wrist and we move on?

OU is not that good. I still think we have a favorable shot next week. Nebraska is whole different story.

Extended thought on TE: Sure would be nice to have a Jermichael Finley or Bo Scaife or David Thomas now. We have at times underutilized our athletic and capable TEs in the past and now we are trying to over utilize a not so good TE.

And the D is coached by a Sabanite.

Differences in mental toughness.

“Accountability” is not the problem. It’s not about “motivation” or “discipline” either. What we are seeing is less a failure of character or leadership than preparation. Our players seem uncertain because they are not moving naturally within a system they know. Juniors and seniors ought to be comfortable taking over for graduates, but we’re not seeing that. The stupid, pointless penalties continue to mount, which means either our players lack self-control or they do not understand the rules or strategies of the game. In short, our program is failing to develop players to play at a championship level.

You said a lot. Just hope we can see some growth and have an enjoyable season. Chins up. Hookem

Like Simms, I see Gilbert as a talented player with much upside, but again forced into that god-forsaken horizontal game plan. He has a great arm, but like Simms, he locks in on receivers, and thanks to coaching philosophy, will NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, fully explore his talent, because GD doesn’t believe in passing for over 10 yards downfield. I fear the kid could be damaged, not only physically, but also mentally. I mean, his first game was the national championship, and he’s now thrown into a system that’s run by a pathetically uncreative, and conservative play-caller, and his enabler. I’m starting to see shades of 2000, but with a team that lacks very basic skills and discipline, if not talent. Not much yelling at players on the sidelines today, very bad sign. I fear that our prized RB recruit will bolt, as will Muschamp, who may be seeing the writing on the wall with this one. Mack, you’ve done a wonderful job with the program. You’ve resurrected it, and put us in with the elite again. You can still salvage your legacy, but your hubris I fear will be your undoing. Your personal bias and frienship to Davis is ultimately going to bring the program down. It’s time to step down (or aside i.e. AD), and give Muschamp the reins. However, I’m not optimistic. This is what 5 million a year will do when paid to a stubborn, stubborn man. He’s no longer hungry (and is now very rich), and basically has lost sight of the objective. We’ve become an NFL farm system that manages, but no longer coaches players to win the college game. We’re a great place to play because of the resources, tradition, and visibility, but the college magic is going. I see the dark late eighties just around the corner. I don’t want to go back there, it was bad, very bad.

It’ll take getting whupped by OU and Neb to do that. And even then, I have my doubts. There’s a reason he loves GD so much. They’re both old men who do not care to change with the times. He’ll keep carrying on until he can’t carry on anymore, which is a shame, because he’s done great things at Texas, but there you have it.

He really acted like the CEO that he is. In the end, it’s all on him.

However, it’s one thing to say the right thing and another to do the right thing.

It’s frustrating that the philosophies of our football and basketball teams are identical in ways. Excellent recruiting, but dirt poor player development. What a complete comedy of errors we saw today.

http://insidetexas.com/news/story.php?article=2683&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

"It’s disappointing and stunning," Brown said. "In fact, I’m shocked."

This is the problem. Mack, why are you shocked at this performance when the red flags have been there since Game 1? It’s time to wake up and smell reality.

Justice tweet:

I understand why Texas fans boo. Their team has lost 4 of its last 38 games. Can’t tolerate that kind of mediocrity.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoZ1IG9uT_c

Our defense in the 1st half was AWESOME, and continually bailed out the team from the game blowing open to due our offensive ineptness.

Because I’m a masochist, I wanted to see how the ESPN college football shows reacted to the game. It’s quite a shame that they are spinning the game to look like UCLA and their running game dominated Texas’ defense. If that were really the case, wouldn’t UCLA have been able to successfully run the ball in the 1st half when our defense was fresh?

UCLA 1st half running stats: 24 carries for 71 yards (this includes sacks) – an awesome 3 yards per carry.

With that said though, how can you not be disturbed our inability to stop UCLA’s running attack in their long TD drive that involved like 20 straight runs in the 3rd quarter? In that drive, the defense lost their mojo and intensity.

It feels like a long time since Texas has lost a regular season game so there is some shock to get over here. I do see some glaring issues with this edition of the horns. For one, we lack an offensive leader or a personality that brings the party together. For more than half a decade we have had the good fortune of having 2 very good, and also very charismatic signal-callers. Gilbert may have the talent but he is not the field general (yet) that VY and Colt always seemed to be every Saturday. This wouldn’t be a huge issue if we had some senior leadership at some other offensive positions, but lets face it…we don’t. The O-line is full of talented softies. The wide recievers are varied in their talents but none is a bonefide offensive leader or play-maker. Malcolm Williams should have had a Roy Williams like career because he has all the talent in the world but he is either too soft mentally or simply doesn’t have NFL hands. Ahh, on to the RB crew. Cody Johnson is not anywhere near a dynamic enough runner to ever be named the starter for a school that has produced 2 RB Heisman winners and the one time NCAA leader in Career rushing yards. How the staff ever came to that conlcusion in the first place scares the hell out of me. I know he is no longer the starter but its the principle. Secondly, DJ Monroe and Fozzy are basically the same back. Both are very quick but don’t seem to change direction as fast as guys like Noel Devine, Trent Richardson, LaMichael James, Kendall Hunter, or Quizz Rogers. I mention the last 3 guys specifically because they all played high school football in the great state of Texas. They have what I would call dynamic speed or more plainly, football speed. I wonder how or why we couldn’t land atleast one of them. Is it poor scouting, bad recruiting, or just bad lack? Maybe we need to be looking more to Florida and the Southeast for the perimeter and skill positions. All that being said, DJ and Fozzy could be mildly successful if our line was alot nastier and more geared to run block. It starts and ends in football with the heaping mass at the line of scrimmage. The Defense is fine and has the leadership it needs in Sam Acho, Aaron Williams, and suprisingly Keenan Robinson. JJ is going to be a stud especially if he can get a tick faster and stronger. Overall, im proud of the way the defense played against a tough scheme. They kept us in the game for quite a while and maybe lost a little passion late in the game. Mack said in a team meeting earlier this year, “there is some entitlement on this team, there is some selfishness on this team.” It’s time to get that stuff cleaned up. Fortuneatly, we didnt lay this stinker in conference play so we can still whole-heartedly go after one of our major goals every year and that is to first win the Big12 south and then win the conference. That journey begins next saturday in Dallas where I expect the horns will come out with a much different mentality. What this team must realize (and all of us for that matter) is that uniforms, emblems, and block letters that spell out TEXAS do not win football games and never have. Players that are lucky enough to be adorned with those uniforms win games. Players have to come out and play like they deserve to wear that uniform and they have to play up to a standard that represents the emblem on the helment. If they dont, we are just your average college football team and are hence very suceptable to upsets like this. Anyhow, always proud to be a HORN. Hook ’Em.

they spent 75% of spring practice with it, and most of game 1. We have seen more shotgun and 3/4 wide the last 2 games….and we have had 9 turnovers.

I just get the feeling, Mack and Davis are going to reel in the offense………..and go back to this.

There is no reason Texas shouldn’t be able to run the ball. They get first dibs at the best recruits in one of, if not thee, best football states in the country. Heck, they should be able to get enough good walkons from the state to be able to put up a good running game.

What’s the problem then? If they have the best talent available, then there is something missing from the coaches.

Because as the game began, and the boys started doing GD’s “plays”, I knew he and Mack had learned nothing from the previous three games. Us bumbling our way into wins against Rice and Wyoming, or lucking out in Lubbock, where we needed two major phantom calls to sustain our “long and magical final drive” that sealed the game. When the game started and we were doing the exact same things, only less competent (if such a thing was possible) against a much better D than we’ve faced before, I knew it was going to be a long, long day.

We struggled with Rice, Wyoming and Tech….all 3 in the same areas. I think we are an average team this year that will be struggling with runs up the middle and an offense trying to be something it isn’t without star talent in the RB, WR, TE and O line positions (Basically the entire offense). Face it, we’re young and dumb. It happens! Let’s just hope by losing 4-5 games this season we don’t have star recruits starting to look at emerging Big 12 teams.

Also, at what point do we give Lil McCoy some playing time? See what he can do?

Whether that’s the Leadership intangible, where you can see that he’s definitely the leader of the Offense, if not the team, or the belief in his abilities to “make something happen” when a play breaks down, or enough of a grasp of the Offense/Defensive Schemes to make adjustments.

Certainly not giving up on him, but the things above I saw with VY/Colt in one form or another as they morphed into the Elite QBs they became.

I just haven’t seen one thing yet this year so far that says…“he’s on the right track”.

I’m frustrated with Turnovers/Penalties as well, but Gilbert’s play is bothering me the most, because it sets the Tone for the rest of the things happening on the field. I understand that Play Calling, state of the O-Line, Running Game, TEs, Receivers are factors, I’m waiting for SOMETHING to this point that gives me hope for the future.

I knew we would struggle, but who would think that every single Flaw in this team would show at the same time.

Just felt like in the first three games, things went wrong, but other parts of the team picked up the slack.

Today, things went wrong, and instead of the defense stepping up, or Gilbert making a clutch pass things just went even wronger.

Look, I’m not thrilled with what I saw yesterday either, and it’s clear that there are some coaching/personel issues with this year’s team which need to be addressed quickly.

 But some of the comments here an elsewhere on BON since yesterday are rather silly. One loss does not mean that we’re reverting to the 1980s. A QB not playing well in his fourth career start does not mean that he will NEVER NEVER NEVER be good.

And since I’m typing this on a Blackberry and will have a limited amount of time to respond, I’m a bit leery of raising this issue, but I’m a bit perplexed by the arguments I seem to be reading that GD is such an awful coordinator that he somehow made our defense look like crap as well. (Arguments around the line of "the defense was sooooooo tired and “the defense couldn’t just keep bailing the offense out”.)

To paraphrase Mike Gundy, Muschamp is a man, and he shouldn’t be immune to criticism when the players under his command have a subpar game. I’m surprised to see arguments suggesting that Muschamp is above criticism when a team which was shut out at home two weeks earlier managed to run up 34 points on us while passing the ball a mere nine times. That’s embarrassing.

Yet I keep seeing arguments which assert that the defense would have been better if only the offense had a better game.

I know everyone hates GD, and I’m certainly not defending him today, but I think implying that he’s to blame for the failings of Muschamp’s troops is taking things a bit too far.

I still feel just sick to my stomach about that game. Haven’t felt this way since 2007, and the Chris Simms era. Gross.

Have we talked about that one play where Hix came out and Hopkins went in in the 3rd quarter? There were 2-3 guys on Hopkins’ side, and he hesitated and blocked absolutely nobody, resulting in Gilbert taking a big hit completely unnecessarily.

Allow me this .. hahahahahahahahaha!
Wheres that hot shot new york city lawyer now!
I watch a ton of football, it was as clear as the day is long this texas team just wasn’t that good.

How ever I’ll be pulling for you against OSU, a team you should be because they also ain’t very good ..

By the way there is nothing wrong with supporting a non confrence quality team when your team is down come join Bronco nation if only for a year.

It’s almost as if they know how to play football.

Offensively we let the defense down today, by having NO game… at all. We let UCLA play 3 yards (or 12-20 in some cases) and a cloud of dust on us. The when we got the ball we do NOTHING with it, except drop it when passed or fumble it when handled. This can all be rectified and we can still have a good season. Changes need to occur and many have outlined some of them, one thing that does need to occur NOW, the O-Line needs to start blocking, that is the funadmental precept of any offense, if you cannot block anyone, you cannot run or throw. You cannot score. We were the perfect illustration of that today, and it rippled out to the defense. One poster above made a good point, we have one functioning unit, the defense, and if they have a bad day right now or get worn out like in this game, we have no chance to win. That needs to change, we have to produce and at least manage the ball on offense.

Penalties can be eliminated, blocking schemes can be improved, and if we can CATCH and know where the sticks are, we can move the ball. All of those things are fixable. Mack is a smart man… I do have faith that he and Will M. and GD and Applewhite can figure this out.

One more thing… GG is young and in his fourth start. I think he has massive potential, and I believe at some point we will see it click for him the way it did for Vince in 2004. At least I hope so and I am optimistic about that.

I had a feeling we would experience 2-3 losses this year… I just did not expect one to come from UCLA on our home turf so I was supremely disappointed, however there is a lot of football to still be played and I think we get up for a run at the MNC next year. I always thought that way anyway. I just want to see progress… next week and the week after will tell us a lot.