Everyone is still trying to figure out where it all went wrong.
"It's been fun for 12 years. We've had a lot of great moments. We've lost those right now," said Brown, who earns $5 million a year and hasn't had a losing season since 1989 at North Carolina. "You'v e got to fight your guts out to get them back."
The stunning part of the collapse is that no one thought it could happen here.
There was too much coaching experience on the sideline. Too many blue-chippers in the recruiting pipeline to have to suffer through a dreaded "rebuilding year."
DMN's Chuck Carlton has the four reasons the Horns' season is in disarray.
Our secondary has faced 205 pass attempts this season. Is that because teams are leery of our DBs? No.
"No, I think it's because teams have been able to run the ball against us and haven't had to pass," Texas coach Mack Brown said. "I'm not sure how you judge the secondary because it's difficult. We're weak up the middle of the defensive line, so we've asked our safeties to play up and take a bigger part in the run game."
The result?
"Our corners have been on an island all year," Brown said. "They really haven't had any help."
ESPN may be sending some love our way very soon.
University of Texas regents on Wednesday gave their blessing to the school's pursuit of a so-called Longhorn network of cable TV sports programming.
Regents met behind closed doors with school President William Powers Jr. to discuss the plan. The regents' academic affairs committee then publicly voted to allow Powers to pursue and sign a contract.
ESPN has confirmed it is in talks with Texas to distribute the proposed network. ESPN and school officials have declined to discuss how much it would be worth or other details. Fox Sports, reportedly interested in developing the network, declined comment Wednesday.
Past history has nothing to do with Saturday's game.
Of all the matchups involving South Division teams, this one involves the most mental residue. A Psychology 101 class at either school could spend weeks exploring why Texas has won these matchups in lopsided fashion (2009, '06) or with outrageous comebacks from huge deficits (2003, '04, '05, '07) in recent seasons.
Regardless of how you spin the evidence, the bottom line looks like this: UT coach Mack Brown is 12-0 against the Cowboys. OSU coach Mike Gundy is 0-5 against the Longhorns.
NewsOK has a profile piece on Poke offensive lineman Jonathan Rush.
Dana Holgorsen is his own man.
He may not be as freewheeling in his play-calling as Leach, but which offensive mind is as out-there as the former Red Raiders guru who made a living on fourth-down tries from his own territory?
"I like to call run plays more," Holgorsen said, noting he did so 33 percent of the time in Houston and 45 percent of the time at Oklahoma State.
It's a mental game.
Unless the Cowboys ace that mental test, they won't win enough physical battles to walk away with their first victory in Austin since 1944. It's really that simple for a team that has lost its last 12 meetings against Texas and owns a career record of 2-22 in the series.
Of all the matchups involving South Division teams, this one involves the most mental residue. A Psychology 101 class at either school could spend weeks exploring why Texas has won these matchups in lopsided fashion (2009, '06) or with outrageous comebacks from huge deficits (2003, '04, '05, '07) in recent seasons.
Basketball
CBSSports' Gary Parrish has Texas coming in at No. 5 in the Big 12 season preview.
Dogus Balbay is solid, sure. But Cory Joseph is special and the player who needs to be UT's primary ball-handler if the Longhorns are to avoid another disappointing season. A trio of Joseph, J'Covan Brown and Jordan Hamilton could be really good with Gary Johnson and McDonald's All-American Tristan Thompson serving as frontcourt possibilities. If the chemistry problems from last season don't resurface, these Longhorns can be better than those Longhorns even though Texas lost two first-round draft picks in Damion James and Avery Bradley.
NCAA tournament? Yes
Names are being thrown around to fill the Buffs' vacancy.
There is a lot riding on the Aggie-Bear game.
Both teams have secured a spot on the postseason with a sixth win, but neither is going to be satisfied without more as the season draws to a close. Respect comes easier with nine wins -- still a possibility for both teams -- than with six or seven, which is where the Aggies and Bears sit heading into the weekend.
And with both teams never having finished in the top half of the division under their current coaches (neither has finished higher than fifth in the South, actually), a win Saturday would go a long way to earning that respect.
The Land Thieves have enough rivals, thank you very much.
Despite the mutual musical antagonism from both sides, Oklahoma says there's no budding rivalry here.
"We just feel like they’re just the next opponent. We have a chance to be playing in the Big 12 championship and we know that. To do that, we need to beat Texas Tech," Lewis said.
This stuff just doesn't happen at OU.
Bob Stoops said during his time as a coach he's never been aware of a situation in which players were paid in an attempt to get them to attend a certain school.
"I haven't heard one of those in I can't remember when," Stoops said. "To be honest with you, I don't know of one in my whole recruiting history that I've heard of and thought, 'Hey, that's part of the deal. I've gotta get out.' I haven't been around something like that. Or even heard of it from someone who's recruiting someone."
True statement. The Sooners just let boosters and car dealers take care of that.
The newest Big 12 bowl in Texas.
Barking Carnival has some fun with the Aggies.
Boston College Law School hosted a symposium examining the legal issues about the growth of the NCAA over the last 100 years and the impact on amateurism, academic standards, and student rights.
We translate coach-speak.
"We didn't execute."
What he is really saying is that he and the rest of the staff have no idea what to do now.
Oregon's o-line work hard to dispel all those pretty boy rumors. (Note to Mack: See paragraphs on physical line play, please.)
Nothing like trashing a school, player, etc. just for the sake of readers, truth be damned. Consider the source before giving too much credibility to this story just yet.
Auburn quarterback Cameron Newton had three different instances of academic cheating while attending the University of Florida and faced potential expulsion from the university, according to a source.
Newton, considered the front-runner for the Heisman Trophy, attended Florida in 2007 and 2008 before transferring to Blinn College, a junior college in Texas. He first violated Florida’s student honor code by cheating in a class during his freshman year, according to the source.
Even if Cam Newton is cleared, this taint will never go away.
Texas isn't the only school unhappy with their football program.
We don't get paid nearly enough.
As the daily newspaper has died its slow, screaming death, cut off at the knees and the wallet by digital alternatives, it should seem that as the auto industry once went, there should be the same sort of shift. People didn’t stop buying cars; they stopped buying crappy American gas-guzzlers. People didn’t stop reading the news either; they just shifted from Walter Cronkite to Matt Drudge. The rapid disintermediation made possible by the internet empowered a new wave of writers, people that once held court on corner bars or talk radio and allowed them the same kind of voice. From about 2002 until now, the shift has been rapid, seismic, and continual. Websites and blogs have beaten newspapers for the most part. The gatekeepers were pushed aside, especially as Twitter allowed the athletes and newsmakers to cut out yet another step in the process of getting information from point A to brain B.
But find me a blogger and I’ll show you someone who’s likely not getting the same money as someone at a newspaper, even the shells of newspapers that we have today in most markets. Bloggers have every opportunity to become respected and widely read, but few have the chance to put together a package of monetization that would allow them to do this as more than a hobby. Fewer still – in fact, almost none – will be the next Bill Simmons, signing the million dollar deal. Even that wouldn’t be possible if the large organizations that bloggers symbiotically compete with didn’t occasionally reach down and snap someone up.
And finally...
We would be remiss if we didn't say a fond farewell to Dan Hawkins.