dude, you sound bitter. chill. what's with the generalizations? Sure some UT fans are like that, but not nearly all. And every school has some group of fans that live their life wearing school colored-tinted glasses.
First let me say that I am a casual fan of UT, I did not go to UT and live in Austin so I follow them because I live here. Chris Simms is NOT a big time quarterback, and the reason I believe this, is that he is too one dimensional. He has the WORST balance of any QB I have ever seen, anytime someone's pinky brushes him he goes down. Simms is ok if he has all day to throw the ball, but his lack of balance will hurt him in the NFL, I think he will be a bust at the next level too. Quite simply he goes down WAY too easily, the hope for UT is on the bench as a redshirt this year, Vincent Young, he can get you out of tight situations with his legs and his arm....Chris Simms can not, and when the game gets tight, Simms loses his accuracy as well. I am not blaming him for the loss, just commenting on some major definciencies in his game. As for coaching and play calling the longhorns offense is simply boring, it has no creativity at all, and it does not have an identity are they primarily a running team, or a passing team? They try to do so many things and leave out simply basic plays that work...like draw plays, and screen passes etc..... Mack Brown is a GREAT ...GREAT recruiter, but as a coach, Stoops kicks his A$$ all over the country. DaDakota
Another possible veiled or accidental jab by a player at the coaches. This could get interesting this week: <I>Stoops' troops avoided a Missouri upset bid last week by faking a field goal and throwing a touchdown in a 31-24 win. With 10 seconds left in the quarter and no timeouts remaining, he rolled the dice once again. "Our intention was to draw them offsides,'' Stoops said. "We had a hard count like everybody does in those situations. If we didn't make it we were set to kick a field goal." The gamble did not come as a shock to the Texas players. <B>"It didn't surprise me that they went for it,'' said Texas cornerback Nathan Vasher. "Great teams do those kind of things. </B>Both teams played well, but it was unfortunate that we came out on the short end of the stick.'' </I>
My thoughts, as a UT alum, are this: 1. Chris Simms is not a big game quarterback. All you have to do is look at his record against top-10 teams. 2. The offensive coordinator has to go. If Mack Brown isn't willing to replace him, perhaps he should be replaced as well. Bottom line: UT has some of, if not the best talent in the nation. The fact that they can't get it done against top ranked teams is pure coaching. I've said it before, and I will say it until I'm dead and buried: Mack Brown is a great recruiter, but he has yet to prove himself to be a great football coach.
You know, even with the man Vincent Young, we still won't go anywhere if they don't use him to his full potential. We have athletes as good if not better than every school except maybe Miami, but as everyone knows, our offense is pathetic. I don't think Mack should go, but he better take care of Davis.
You know, even with the man Vincent Young, we still won't go anywhere if they don't use him to his full potential. We have athletes as good if not better than every school except maybe Miami, but as everyone knows, our offense is pathetic. I don't think Mack should go, but he better take care of Davis. I'm still not sure how much of this is inability by Davis vs. fear/lack of confidence. Keep in mind from 1998-2000, we set most of UT's offensive yardage, passing & scoring records. We did it with and without a good RB, we did it using the run to set up the pass ('98) and the pass to set up the run ('99). We did it with a mediocre collection of receivers ('98 & '99) as well as some stud receivers ('00). We threw deep, short, middle. We threw screens, shovels, fades, posts, everything. It's only the last two years (and more so this year than last) that we've basically shut down the offense. It's still not clear whether it was Applewhite ignoring Greg Davis (and audibling) or Greg Davis calling a more aggressive gameplan or Applewhite simplying seeing the deeper routes better. I'd like to see what he does next year with a new QB that they don't feel like they have to protect or coddle for some reason.
Davis has shown glimmers or hope at times, but they have been few and far between in the last two seasons. I wouldn't be surprised if Major just called his own plays. After this game, if nothing changes for KSU, I don't even want to know what kind of meltdown is going to happen. I hope this was a final wake-up call, and we won't see this crap anymore.
I think we have enough threads on the topic of UT, so I won't start another one even though I want to ask a semi-related question: How many 100-yd INT returns have you seen in your lifetime of watching football? Just wondering. Our staff seemed really concerned by that prospect right before the half (ergo, no Hail Mary), even though 100-yd INT returns are about as rare as anything in football.
BK--I think it was more about protecting Chris from getting another INT. They were coddling him and playing not to lose. Hybl had 4 INTs, but Stoops didn't back down and put his team in a position to win. Pussying out before the half is a perfect example of the difference in our mindsets.
How many 100-yd INT returns have you seen in your lifetime of watching football? Just wondering. Our staff seemed really concerned by that prospect right before the half (ergo, no Hail Mary), even though 100-yd INT returns are about as rare as anything in football. Yeah, that's one play I don't understand. Mack blamed it (1) on the wind confused: ) and (2) that they didn't want to put Simms in a compromising position (whatever that means). If they are afraid of giving Simms a meaningless INT, they are morons. If they are afraid of a 100 yard INT return, they are morons.
It's irrelevent if they didn't kneel. They would have thrown a 4-yard out to Brock Edwards that would have been incomplete anyway.
actually, it would probably have been one of those horizontal 1 yard passes to Roy Williams, hoping he would shake-and-bake his way down field. In all my years of UT football watching, there's nothing I hate more than that play.
Maybe I don't follow UT closely, and I hear the resounding complaints about Greg Davis. I know his conservative playcalling pisses UT fans off to no end... So with that in mind, what specifically, would you guys change about the UT offense? From the OU game, I thought UT should have used more play action, especially on 1st and 2nd down, when OU KNEW UT would run. However, OU only had the standard 7 in the box, meaning that it wouldn't be as effective, compared to if OU had sold out on stopping the run. Regardless, I guess it wouldn't have hurt, looking in hindsight. Or why not run some rollouts? If the pocket is collapsing against OU's 4-man rush, why not get him out of the pocket? Put him in a position to where he could run for some cheap yardage, or dump it off near the sideline. The argument against rollouts, is that it limits your # of progressions. If anything that is an argument FOR Simms to rollout. Simms hardly ever makes more than 1 progression anyhow. At least he would be out of relative pass rush.
So with that in mind, what specifically, would you guys change about the UT offense? One big complaint that we have is that we never throw downfield. We actually threw down the field about 4 times yesterday, which is well more than average. However, with our receivers, we should be launching the ball up in the air and letting them make be playmakers (see the 2001 Holiday Bowl). Instead, we have a bad habit of throwing really short passes that go nowhere. We also, on 3rd and 10, tend to throw 3 yard routes. The problems yesterday, I think, were different from the normal complaints though. We just quit trying to make plays yesterday. The entire second half, we ran the same setup: run, run, incomplete short pass; punt. We had *2* first downs the entire second half like that, and one was after the game was over. Yesterday, it was just a lack of trying *anything* different. Or why not run some rollouts? If the pocket is collapsing against OU's 4-man rush, why not get him out of the pocket? Put him in a position to where he could run for some cheap yardage, or dump it off near the sideline. The argument against rollouts, is that it limits your # of progressions. If anything that is an argument FOR Simms to rollout. Simms hardly ever makes more than 1 progression anyhow. Simms isn't great on the run though. He's a much better pocket-passer and he actually had plenty of time to read through his progressions yesterday, but he does like to lock onto one guy. That's one reason I'm not convinced the problem is primarily the playcalling, although that could certainly be improved.
MAjor-Good points. IMO, it seemed like the offense took way too long to finally scrap trying to establish the run. I think the gameplan was to wear down the OU defense for the 4th Q, but if you have 3 and outs, they will not be worn down. Is it just me, or did UT have less 5-WR sets than usual?
we've got such a great corral of WR's and an allegedly cannon armed QB, but we never get to see its full potential. All of these quick-outs are used to utilize the breakaway talent of our WRs. I wish we would package this offense along with the use our qb's arm and develop a vertical game. We did it with applewhite and brown. Simms supposedly has a better arm than both. as for the rushing game, i don't have any complaints. Our o-line could do a better job opening holes, but thats more coaching than offensive philosophy. it just feels like we've wasted one of the best arms in the nation over the past 4 years. i think simms had the potential to be a david carr type passer if he was just given the opportunity.
If Texas Runs the table. . . how far up the polls will they get? Do they have a shot at the championship . . luckily this happens early in the season . . . or sorts. I'm a AGGIE but I have to say . . that MACK is looking like RC like Fran said. Rocket River
