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For a second straight week, a Texas Longhorns player took advantage of a Monday media availability to call out his teammates.
After senior left guard Sedrick Flowers blasted senior right tackle Marcus Hutchins last week for a lack of prepation, junior Dylan Haines made similar comments Monday about young players on the team:
Haines said there's not a "strong resistance" between young players and old players, but said, "Everyone's not on the same page."
— Mike Finger (@mikefinger) October 5, 2015
Haines on young players: "They just want to go out and play the game on Saturday. They don't want to put in the work on (the other days)."
— Mike Finger (@mikefinger) October 5, 2015
But that wasn't all, as Haines continued to lay into his teammates, spending a full 10 minutes doing so, according to Finger.
"People need to step up and grow up and I don't want to get into specific names," he said. "We need the extra work like film study."
Freshman defensive end Charles Omenihu, who was quite outspoken on Twitter during his recruiting process, responded directly to the Instagram post that included the above comment from Haines:
Texas' 2015 team, y'all. This is freshman DE Charles Omenihu referring to Dylan Haines' comments. pic.twitter.com/f7twBECDfJ
— Chris Hummer (@chris_hummer) October 5, 2015
And then:
@mikefinger #FallingApart? pic.twitter.com/NXaD8lftdO
— Chris Pitts (@PITTSedOFF) October 5, 2015
Freshman wide receiver DeAndre McNeal weighed in, too:
#LetsRide #HookEm pic.twitter.com/s67osCbjJb
— The DeAndre McNeal6⃣ (@tbhmcNEal) October 5, 2015
So...yeah.
Head coach Charlie Strong said that he didn't think Boyd's halftime retweet of a fan's Texas A&M transfer plea was a sign of splintering in the locker room, but the comments from Haines and the response from Omenihu would seem to signal a divide between the older players and the younger players.
All this despite the seniors holding a team meeting on the Sunday following the Oklahoma State game and Strong himself holding one of the only post-game meetings of his coaching career after last Saturday's debacle. And then another Sunday meeting.
If all of that wasn't enough to get the team on the same page, is there any chance that Strong's own optimism on Monday actually carries through into the rivalry game against Oklahoma this weekend with players openly airing their grievances against each other all the time?
Former pitcher Austin Woods, the hero of the 25-inning regional game against Boston College in 2009, added his plea to the proceedings, asking players to start keeping this stuff in-house:
#Texas football players, please shut up and handle your business in the locker room. You're embarrassing ... http://t.co/wcmWdbYipu
— Austin Wood (@AustinTx_wood) October 5, 2015
Indeed.
But even that might not be enough to save an already-disastrous season that is currently tettering on the edge of total and absolute collapse.