So based on your standard, all coaches are good and we should never criticize them. After all, they all make a living doing it, right? Great logic there!
I've never understood this "we won" thing as argument anyway. If there's a problem developing, do you want to wait until you lose to address it? Or do you address it when you see it? Waiting until you lose is a dumb thing to do. Not that anything we do has any impact on that, but it's dumb to just say "we won, so who cares?". If you're looking forward, it does impact what the team will do. What does this have to do with anything either? Would it make a difference if he might be fired? You act as though a message board conversation will have an effect on something? I suppose we should never complain about anything that we can't actually change?
Again - read what I wrote *multiple times* of Davis's abilities with a QB that he trusts (ie, Vince Young). I give Davis full credit for his play-calling against the likes of Baylor and Sam Houston State (you'll notice we even tend to run a fake punt or FG or whatnot against Baylor every year) and even OU in the 2nd half this year. That's *exactly* what I want to see against the good teams. Davis has a lot of talent - he just has a bad habit of playing scared in big games. Outside of last year and with Applewhite, he always has. And we've seen a whole lot of it this year. We likely would have lost OSU even with better playcalling, but it could have been more competitive. We nearly lost yesterday due to it. We would have lost vs OU if Mack Brown didn't interfere with it. It's a problematic pattern, and in a sport where 1 loss can ruin a season, it's something that should be addressed.
Ha major,, so your criticism has now evolved to the fact that you wish Texas would employ more "short forward passes"? Like the kind right into the teeth of zone coverage that a not very strong armed QB like McCoy has thrown before? LOL, yes that five yard curl route to Neale Tweedie I'm sure would placate highly objective posters like yourself, who start chanting "GREG DAVIS IS TEH SUCK" from about the time you get up on Saturday? Why don't you just admit that you hate the guy and will never give him a fair shake? Or is it easier to have a message board meltdown and start spewing douchebaggy insults about literacy? The funny part is I don't even think Davis is that great, maybe I'd rate him average to slightly above. it's just that the unwashed masses let loose with a knee jerk reaction every time anything goes wrong.
you can if you want, go ahead it's just a question of one's sanity...are you going to spend the next 10+ years of UT football getting super pissed off and high strung about Davis each week? as in, do you get more enjoyment and entertainment value out of criticizing him that way every future game? if you do, then that's what you should continue doing. personally I don't, so I decided to just chill out about Davis after we won the NC and it became clear he will be here as long as Mack is
Greg Davis sucks!!!!! We essentially beat Michigan in the rose bowl on 4 busted plays and we won the national championship with one play; Vince in the shotgun and let him do whatever the hell he wants. That is not what I call good play calling. Major Applewhite called his own plays and Simms looked liked crap in big games because he couldn't. Greg Davis gets by because he has superior athletes. When is the last time we beat a team when we were a true underdog? I can think of only two games. Last years rose bowl and when major beat Nebraska in Licoln.
first of all, only Mack alone makes the decision whether to fake punt and fake FG. head coaches always do this, not assistant coaches or coordinators. they only make the play design call once the decision to fake it has been made. so this will add to your list of things to get pissed off at Davis about second, regarding yesterday's game what cost us was the 7 guaranteed points that Greg Johnson left on the field. the game would have been in hand in the 4th quarter with those points
Umm - what exactly are you trying to argue here? All this shows is that the wind wasn't the issue, unlike what you claimed - unlike Nebraska, Texas was just as absurdly conservative with and against the wind.
But Urban Meyer admits he tools systems to player, not the other way around. That is why he said he has been sticking by Chris Leak. With a staple of great skills players and the best returning Oline but a fresh QB you simplify the system, you run the standard TOSU/Mich power pro form type offense. Don't set up an offense where the QB has to make so many decisions during the course of the play, and be creative in getting Charles and Sweed involved, your playmakers. The whole year was not set up to take advantage of Texas's offensive strengths. Two players have kept offense unprectiable and aggressive, VY and Applewhite. Texas offense has been poor in the big games for past 7 years or so, despite having lots of excellent players. (With the exception of those QB'ed by the above players who themselves add an improvasional element to the offense). Even Bob Stoops thought they way underutlized Roy Williams, given the fact no one in the pros really stops him you can see his point. I am hard on him two things. 1) One is overall philosophy given the returning talent had (not retooling with more of a power set with a TE and fullback). The spread and the short passing game puts a lot pressure on the QB, and allows the defense to play a small field. Now put 1-2 extra blockers, and UT still might have overwhelmed defense playing short field with a between the tackles running game. Then your screens and ocassional deep ball really work well because the safeties are playing run 1st. 2) Two is tactical. This is play calling. Texas tends to be very predictatable based on formation. The CU players admitted it about 5 years ago. The pretty much knew where we were going with each play and that was the only way they stopped us. Once Applewhite came in an added some corrections, the defense had no chance. The also have a knack for just dumb calls. The fade to Sweed when you need a FG win was dumb. The obvious call was an inside run to center the FG and take more clock. Not only was the pass almost an INT, but it made the kick angle much harder and saved NU some time. Now the fade to Sweed is a good (underutlized) play in of itself, this was the exact call they should have called the previous drive when they got in the 10 and called 2 runs and screen I believe, when they had a 2 point lead and were trying to salt the game. So part of my problem is Davis's seems to value scheme more than the personnell to run it, 2nd is just a really terrible rythum for the play calls that are recent. That last pass to Sweed was a perfect example. We have finally used Sweed, this is good. He really is an impossible cover. In this way we have learned from TOSU. However 10 touches to the most explosive player on the field, Charles, just doesn't make sense. Seems like our salvation will be when/if Colt can turn a bad play into a good one, a la VY or Applewhite. I didn't let Davis off the hook last year when everyone was singing his praises (b/c I thought VY masked a bunch of stuff). I still think I am correct that he is a below par coach for a D1 elite school. Texas's offense by and large is less effective than it should be based on future NFL talent.
Evolved? Please tell me when it wasn't that. You seem to have missed the 5 times I mentioned that my problem with Greg Davis is the undying love for the *sideways* pass - a problem that he has had for at least 7 years now. What exactly about that is so difficult for you to understand? An aggressive offense does not mean Steve Spurrier chucking the ball for grabs. Douchbaggy insults? You mean like I'm sure would placate highly objective posters like yourself, who start chanting "GREG DAVIS IS TEH SUCK"? You probably shouldn't ever talk to others about childish insults.
this is the typical arrogant ut fan rant. as bassfly pointed out, with the exception of Mock, all of the starting qbs under mack and davis have gone to have a chance at the nfl. these guys know how to coach, lay off. you would think that a national championship would be enough, but hey according to Major, winning is nothing. you have to put up the yardage
dude, even Urban Meyer does not retool his offense to *this* degree...to imply so is complete BS. Florida still runs the spread, there are multiple forms of it ok now this section really made me laugh. first you complain that we're too predictable. then you criticize that last fade play and say that we should have ran the obvious run call. hilarious
What on earth are you talking about? Of course winning is the goal. But if you're critiquing the *offense*, then, no winning is not the goal. And if you're looking at future games, then the quality and functionality of the offense is important. I think is the perfect summary problem with GD (posted by someone on another board after the OU game): I don't want to dump all over GD after such a good day, but I will say this. Mack Brown specifically said that at halftime he thought Davis was being too conservative with McCoy and told him to loosen up. What disturbs me is that, after it hasn't worked the last 19 times in a row, GD thought it would be a good game plan to play conservatively. He is like a machine that is incapable of learning; experience literally teaches this man nothing. It was just a few weeks ago that he said "perhaps I was a bit too conservative" against tOSU, but he thought for some reason that it would be a good idea to play that way again yesterday. What is so infuriating every time he does this, is that each time, he acts as if this is the first time he has ever tried that approach. "Oh, perhaps we were a bit too conservative...oh well." And then he'll do it again next time, we all know he will. Without Mack's intervention yesterday, he would have called the same plays in the second half. We need to give all the credit to Mack. Of all the games we have lost over the past 8 years, has there been a single time when you could say "you know, maybe we were too aggressive and it cost us" ? You can consistently say we were too passive, but never the other way around. Why is that?
the most ridiculous thing about the complaing about the fade call is that I bet everyone wanted them to take a shot at the endzone, because running the ball would have put them in a rushing mode to get the field goal unit, who had sucked the whole game, on the field. the only problem with that play is that mccoy probably should have thrown the ball away once the safety dropped into coverage. but it wasn't a bad call. that is the one route when you have the advantage in receiver over cb that should never be intercepted.
From SF: Davis is the whipping boy so he gets the blame; so does the defensive coordinator Chizik (who does not have a week-armed rookie QB throwing into the wind and is playing in a game where defenses should flourish) gets a free pass for obvious mental mistakes by all americans like Michael Griffin (he was responsible for the first and last TD's) or nearly game destroying penalites by Marcus Griffin and Orapko, or the fact that in the second half his defense's effectiveness went WAY down? I fault the defensive players a lot. Texas secondary have chucked a lot of plays this year. Ross got burned on a big TD in the OSU game, and shared blame on the last NU TD, and Mike Griffin IMO was resposible for at least 2 TDs yesterday, maybe the half back throw too (not sure if it was him or Ross or both). Then Marcus Griffin does an incredible stupid mental play (PF). The secondary, which should have been the best in the land with 3 all-america caliber players returning, just havn't been that tight. But it has seemed more like the players making individual mistakes when they were in position to make plays, not really scheme issues. Also Texas offense scored a pitiful 7 points versus OSU. Yet they had over double OSU's rushing yardage and split the TOP. Texas defense played well, OSU's lowest point total of the season, they shouldn't have need to have a near perfect defensive effort to have a chance to win and the way the offense played a perfect defensive game is what it would have taken. 90% of the blame has to go to the offense. The TOs and lack of execution in the Red Zone pretty much killed their chances. Texas was and probably still is an inferior team to OSU, and IMO much of it is because our offense wasn't tooled to its strengths.
desert scar: we have no timeouts, running the ball would have not been smart. i dont know about you but i wanted the TD, the FG unit was the last thing i wanted to see out there. pgab: mock plays in the arena league, which is a fine accomplishment as well. what does this say about greg davis when all qb's were able to move on in football? for all the doubts that freshman colt mccoy had, he is looking polished and composed. greg davis should get credit for his ability to groom and develop quarterbacks. all GD haters: my ultimate arguement is the W-L record in the last 5 years. the coaches are getting the job done. (period) you can say texas has superior athletes, they are favored to win blah blah blah. that goes for any elite college football program. upsets happen ALL the time. offensive production is not one of our pressing problems imo.
i agree, our defense is more of a concern for me. i know we've had some injuries, but we're so aggressive against teh run that it makes us vulnerable to big plays. but i think its interesting that you fault the defensive players, but not the defensive coaches? why do chizik and akina get a free pass? i think this says alot about you and your arguement against greg davis
The issue is they have lost a lot of games they never should have been in a position to lose. Let's look 5 years out the number of pros of NU and UT and you will see what most of saw, the game never should have come down to what it did. The fact Roy Williams and Simms have been so good makes you wonder how an offense with them (and many other good pieces) was ever held under 20. I don't question Texas's talent, just the utilization. On the 1st point, it was strait out of Urban's mouth that he is playing to Leak's strengths, and that are not the same as Alex Smith. On the 2nd point. Timing is everything. The pass was nearly picked off, that is a fact. It left a difficult angle on the kick, that is a fact. A fade to Sweed is a good play--should have been used earlier, but not a % play in that situation. It is like we were 2 steps behind with the right play call, those of us to watch UT a lot know it. See above. The ball was almost intercepted. What more proof do you need it was an unnecc risk in that situation. I actually like the fade to Sweed call, but after the Cosby's KR (1st series) or on their 2nd to last drive (when you were ahead trying to cement the game). There was 32 seconds left before the Sweed fade. You run the ball to center to make the kick much easier, plenty of time to get the team out there for an extra point equivalent. In fact you probably force NU to use their last TO. That is just a basic % play that unless you are incompentent you make. You have a 95%+ chance to get your squad out there in 25+ seconds and kick a centered ball from the 2. The fade, and not centering the ball, and leaving more time for NU, all just made the odds something could go wrong go up. The almost int and giving NU two Hail Marys was proof.
