Let me sum the offensive problems up like this. I don't know one damned thing, not one damned thing, about cooking. I can grill dead stuff outside, and that's that.
What I can do is eat something and say, "hey, this tastes like Hell." The second time someone cooks me the same thing, the exact same way, and it tastes like Hell, I can say, "say, is this
supposed to taste like this? Cause if it is, it ain't worth a damn. If not, you're doin it wrong." If they taste it and say they cooked it right but it tastes wrong, well I can tell you you need to start to
thinking that maybe you're doing it wrong.
Now the third time someone serves me that same thing and says, "its supposed to be good if you cook it like this, the last two times it just hadn't come out right," if I taste it and it sucks, I can
say "you ain't cooking it right," even though I don't know a damned thing about the culinary arts. I might not know how to cook the damned thing, but I know it ain't right cause it tastes like ***
and you said it wadn't supposed to. If you told me the first two times that you think you're doin it right and for some reason it isn't tastin the way you thought, I would hope you would have the
good sense to cook the damned thing some other way that third time. If you keep doin it the same way and it keeps comin out wrong, you might need to give up cookin'.
Somethin don't taste right with the Texas offense. They CAN NOT stop a team with defensive team speed from getting pressure, and can not stop the blitz against any but the most average
opponents. They can not run the ball, for all the many reasons we discussed and probably more. So, while I don't know exactly what the Hell to do about it (although I have my ideas), I do know
somebody ain't doing somethin right and they keep doing the same damned wrong thing over and over and over again. That's either arrogance, stubborness or just plain stupidity and I can't say
that any one is any better or worse than the others.
B.) The defense - great against bad teams, but that's basically it.
1.) The corners. I have three bitches with this.
a) Maybe I'm not as smart as I think I am, but I bet you think the exact same thing I do. Why in the Hell is Quentin Jammer, maybe the best safety in the Big12 conference, still at
corner when he continues to get burned?
I LOVE Quentin Jammer. The guy is an animal. But, at 5'9", 180, 4.35 we have Doc Pearson at safety and Jammer at 6'1", 205, 4.5 at corner. Jammer got torched against Houston,
against Lafayette, and Saturday. He's a great player who is being asked to do something that isn't his natural position. He's going to end up just like Joe Walker. A wasted talent. If he moves
back to safety next year he won't have enough experience there to land in the pros and what could have been an All-Pro career at safety with the proper training will end up being just a free
education and a lot of hard work.
b) Who is in charge of teaching the corners to turn and look for the ball. When I was a kid we didn't have a great team and I was stuck playing both ways. I played corner on defense.
About the only thing I remember about that is that when you have to turn your back on the QB, the receiver is your eyes. You look at him. When he turns his head back to look, you turn back and
look. He's your cue. Otherwise you can run along in his hip pocket for 100 yards and by the time you see the ball it's in his damned hands.
Texas' corners are not turning and looking for the ball. I see it. Evey fan I talk to says they see it. Babers is the only one who looks. Someone needs to teach them when and how to look
for the ball.
c) On third and 4 why do the two shorter corners, Brooks and Hill, line up 5 yards off and then back up on the snap? This is plainly obviously nuts. The guy does a hitch at 4 yards and
that's it. First down. Who is teaching them to do this, and if no one is teaching that, who isn't teaching them that it's wrong?
2.) The coverage scheme. - Does it make any sense whatsoever to leave a 5'8" corner out on an island with a 6'5" wideout/tight end? Several times in the OU game Trent Smith or another
Stretch Armstrong type would line up tight, and then split out wide, only to be followed out there by a guy who is better suited to covering a waterbug. Maybe I'm nuts but in that situation I have
Brown or Jackson rotate up to cover him cause they're nearly as big, and certainly as fast, and probably jump higher to cancel the height advantage, and I let Hill or Brooks shift back to safety for
a play. I damned sure don't keep giving them an 8 inch height advantage.
I do know that after the first time I got burned on that I'd have a different plan for the second time.
3.) The adjusments. - Like I said upstairs there, I don't know a lot about coaching, but here's one thing I know. If I trot out offense A, and the opponent drives right down my *** and scores,
I think, "damn, that wadn't too good, maybe I better look at some aerial photos here or figure somethin out."
When they get the ball back and proceed to beat my defense into the dirt again, I am comin up with something new, right there on the spot. Whether it's an extra DL or an extra corner, or
switching to a zone coverage, while my offense is on the field for 32 seconds of game time I'm spending that 3 and a half minutes of real time changing what I'm doing. There is no damned way,
none that I send the same damned people out ther edoing the same danmed thing to get marched on again, and after the third tme I consider doing something completely wierd.
The stubborness to change the defense was confusing. I sw tha tend around work three straight times to the same guy on the same play and evey tie he had about 3 acres to run. OU never
tried tha tplay that they didn't kick Reese's *** with it. Maybe just maybe after that second long gain we should have started thinking about another way to stop that play.
C.) The Head Coach - well as the guys out in the pins say, we're down to the nut cuttin of it.
I have told you that I believe in Mack Brown. That is still a fact. I have also told you that I believe in letting a man do his job without interfering with him. When I go to the mechanic I just
want my car back in working order. I dump it off and that's that. I trust they'll do it right.
When the guy who owns the shop gives me back a car that is in pieces, well then I've got a prolem with the shop as a whole.
My problem right now is this; Mack Brown needs to realize that things aren't working. I'm not saying he has to fire Greg Davis or Carl Reese. Im not saying he has to hire a Special Teams
coach.
What I am saying is that Texas punted for an average of about 35 yards this weekend. Ryan Long had a 40+ yard average last year. Texas recruited two kids who I have seen punt about a
quarter of a mile. If Stockton, who I love as a place-kicker, isn't getting it done as a punter, sitting these other kids on the bench isn't going to help any.
Texas has had 5 or 6 or more punts blocked in the last few years. Our punt blocking teams aren't getting close to the other guys' punters. Something needs to be fixed. I feel like Im
beating myself over the head with a ammer over and over and over again. The same crap can't continue to happen if you want to keep a job. It took two years to move the punter back an extra
yard and they are still getting close on every punt. Something ain't right. Fix it.
At this point it is painfully obvious that there are some huge changes that need to be made in the way this team plays football. In less time, with less original talent, and with two lower
rated recruiting classes Bob Stoops has hired a staff that outcoached Texas in every single phase of the game, from having wide receivers so open they tied their shoes before the ball got there,
to having a QB whip up a ham sandwich in the pocket, to having defenders arguing in the huddle over who was going to get the sack, all to the point that it was an ***-whipping for the ages.
Texas shouldn't give up 68 points to the Minnesota Vikings, and there should never, ever be a game played by The University of Texas where the coach has to say "we just couldn't get
our running game going." Ever.
The stubborness to change things is really hard to understand, and the inability to change is what always leads coaches South.
The problems...
are obvious. The line scheme sucks. The constant four yard pass isn't getting it done. The fullback is a waste of a name, call him the nothing-back. Hodges Mitchell is not Jerome Bettis.
Now the question is this: Does this staff keep up with business as usual, beating the ULs and UHs of the world, while suffering through the occasional disaster, or does Mack Brown do
something to change things drastically? If Tim Nunez, the OL coach, gets fired you can bet Texas is back in the toilet, because that will be a symbolic, "get the fans off our butts" deal.
What you want to see next week is something different. Two backs all the time with Ike and Williams, or Williams and Mitchell. No more linebackers as fullbacks and not having them as a
running threat. Or maybe no more three yard hitches. Just something different. It doesn't even matter what.
As a matter of fact, my personal opinion, for whatever that's worth, is that it would be better for the long term health of the program if you saw something ridiculous in an effort to find a cure
and Texas lost 68-14 again, than if you saw Texas go in with the same crappy offensive "can't run ball" scheme and win.
I'm not...
a mutineer, and I already told you I'd go down with the ship and Captain Blythe, so that's that. I've said my peace and I'm falling back into line. Now we can only pray that we aren't being led
up Boulder Hill on a suicide mission.
I think our Captain knows our concerns, and now the question facing us is this: Do we trust the man to lead us or do we continue to complain? I am going to have faith. I am going to believe that
Mack Brown wants desperately to win at Texas and wants to win a National Title, and will do what is necessary, whether that's nothing, or firing everyone and starting over, to bring us one.
So now if we want to achieve our goal and continue forward we need to fall back in line, or the unit is screwed.
As some of you probably know...
I was what you might call a not so pleasant surprise. My folks were just out of high school when I unexpectedly came along.
We were poor. I mean dirt ***, no money for nothing, eating oatmeal three times a day, poor. We used to say we were "po" cause we couldn't even afford the extra "or". We qualified for food
stamps but my Dad wouldn't take em.
So my old man got a few jobs and such and started trying to raise a family. After a while he got a job at National Life and Accident insurance company cause my Mom's Dad had worked there.
Dad was a Hell of a salesman and vaulted right up to management. We could actually pay some bills and eat. But Dad hadn't finished college and we were just sort of mucking along.
Well, one day my old man finally decides he's going to give up this "cushy 15 thousand dollar a year job", or whatever it was he was making, and go back to college and then medical school. All
while working part time. With Mom working in a day care so we could stay there free and she could get a paycheck.
What does that have to do with any of Texas football's problems? Well, someone told my Dad he was crazy. The guy above him at the insurance company, Italian guy named Joe, said, "Bobby,
by the time you finish all that school you'll be 32 years old before you make a dime as a doctor."
My Dad said to him, "Well Joe, that day is gonna come and one way or the other I'm gonna be 32 anyway. When that day comes I'd rather be 32 and a doctor than 32 and doin' this."
My old man understood that the rest of the world was going to happen around him whether he took every opportunity to make things better or not. One day he was going to be there, looking
back on that day with Joe, and he could either say "thank God I busted my *** and did the right thing," or he could say "I wish I would have done something to make things better."
This season...
is gonna roll on. There is gonna be a game this Saturday whether you like it or not and whether you prepare for it or not. There will be a Big12 Title Game, and there will be Bowl Games.
Here's the way I look at this: The Big12 Title Game is gonna come, and when it does I'd rather be in it than doin this. I'd rather pick my chin up and do what little I can to make sure that Texas
believes it can count on its fans than sit around and bitch. I am going to make my effort to get where we want to be, instead of wasting my time whining about where we are.
You just read what I had to say and there wadn't any of it rosy. But now that I've said it continuin to do what we've been doin the last few days ain't gonna help any. I'd rather try to make sure
that tomorrow is better. I don't want to look back at the end of the year and wish we as fans had done the right thing. I'd rather say, "thank God we busted our asses."
My Dad has often told me that my Mom and Ritch and I helped him through it by being there behind him when he needed it.
Mack Brown is...
a lot like my Dad. I think he understands that a year from now there will be Texas football games to be won or lost. There will still be an Aggie game this year. The first weekend in December
someone will be in Kansas City representing the South. I think he'd rather do what needs to be done now to get there, to win those games, than live with it the way it is right now. I think he'll bust
his ***, cause I believe in him. My Dad's Chief of Staff of his hosital, and he used to work in a 7-11. Mack dudn't have that far to go. The least we can do is help him along.
I will be...
in Boulder this Saturday. I will be in orange, and I will be loud. And I will be in Kansas, and I will be in Austin and Lubbock and a bowl game. I hope I will see you there, and I hope you will fall
in line behind the Captain with me, because I know you, and you don't want to look back regretting either.
Til Thursday...
and the CU Preview, God Bless, keep your chins and Horns up, and Hook 'Em.
Wheeler