Time for this loudmouth Longhorn to eat some crow...

Davis' nuts shrivel up in big games.

 

Horrendous QB's don't win ten games in a season. You can point to the schedule all you want, but Major had the same schedule and he couldn't get it done. (see losses to Stanford, NC State, etc.)

Major overcame the offensive coordinator because he was a rare player in his understanding of the game and his intelligence on the field. 95% of quarterbacks, including starting NFL quarterbacks, are like Simms. They aren't necessarily great improvisors, but rather quarterbacks who have strong arms, good accuracy, a good deep ball, and an ability to do what the system dictates. Major Applewhite has a Brett Favre type ability to improvise, and at times that made him better in the system because he admittedly went away from the plays that were called.

Simms is not good at improvation, but in most systems a quarterback doesn't have to be to be effective. On a team with as much talent as Texas, a quarterback should be able to succeed without abandoning the system. Yeah, one of Simms flaws is that he's not great at at audibling out of bad plays and making something happen, but on a team with this much talent there shouldn't be the bad plays in the first place.

 

You don't get remembered for beating Missouri, OSU, Baylor, NMSU, etc. Simms has been given every opportunity to succeed at UT. He has failed.

 

Well, I'd prefer to win ten games a season and finish in the top 5 (with no top 10 wins) instead of winning nine games in a season, finishing in the top 15, and beating OU and Nebraska. Maybe you remember it differently, but I think in terms of how many wins we got, and where we finished the season, not "who we beat".

 

You can thank Major Applewhite for the top 5 finish. Simms would not have been able to engineer the comeback.

 

Or, maybe Simms doesn't throw three first half interceptions so we aren't in that hole to begin with. Please, don't give any excuses on how "one or two INT's weren't earned" unless you are willing to accept the obvious reasons for Simms INT's like I've stated.

 

Tell me what happened versus NC State a few years ago. . . .

Or K-State later that year. . . .

Or the final ten quarters of that year, including the Big XII championship game . . . .

Or Stanford the following year. . . .

Or 2000 Oklahoma. . . .

It doesn't matter who the QB is, the result stays the same - our offense sucks it up. And its directly caused by Greg Davis.

The difference is that those years, we were outmatched in all of those games talent-wise, except Stanford & NC State. Those Texas teams didn't have the quality of players at any position that we have now. Against Stanford & NC State, our offense wasn't the problem. We lost NC State because of 3 blocked punts returned for TD's (all of NC's points, basically). We lost Stanford in the last minute because we couldn't stop their offense. Regardless, Applewhite was sub-par in many of those games, but he was at least asked to make plays to win. Now, Simms is basically asked to not lose games.

Simms would have and should have struggled against Nebraska, K-State, and OU those years because those teams were simply better than us across the board.

However, lets not get into an Applewhite-Simms comparison. TheCat -- ignoring the interceptions, the other consistent problem with Simms is that he doesn't get many yards - big games or not. He put up sub-200 yard performances against OU this year and last, along with A&M and North Carolina last year. He's put up a couple of sub-200 yard games this year. I don't know what he did against Oregon two years ago or Colorado #2 last year (he only played a half there, of course). The interceptions this year vs OU didn't bother me too much -- it was more the fact that he can't accumulate any positive yards either. No truly good QBs consistently get under 200 yards in a game like Simms. With the WR corps we have, its hard to understand how this happens. My argument has always been that he never hits people in stride, so no one gets Yards-After-Catch. I don't know statistically how that shakes down though. Ultimately, though, Simms now ranks:

#58 in pass efficiency
#44 in passing yards

He's nowhere near the top in completion % and is way down there in yards per attempt (under 7.0). Applewhite, Brown, and Morenz (that's as far back as I watched UT) all were substantially better, with or without a running game. <b>The offense as a whole now ranks 61st in total yards.</b> We're normally top 15-20 at worst. We're simply not moving the ball this year. We're 57th in passing offense - A&M is ranked higher than us here! And we've only played 1 good defense in that span.

I'm not saying Simms *can't* perform, because we've certainly seen him do it. I'm also not saying its entirely his fault, but he shoulders a reasonable part of the blame. I think someone else said it best (not sure if it was here or Hornfans) -- the game seems to speed up for him against good defenses. Against bad defenses, he reads through progressions and does what a QB is supposed to do in making good decisions and finding the right receivers. Against good defenses and in tight games, he loses that and returns to his panicky mode. I have no earthly idea why. Then the coaches seem to lose faith in him and dumb down the offense like the 2nd half yesterday, compounding the problem.

 

Four blocked punts. I was there.

Joe Montana couldn't have beaten NC State with that kind of

A complete inability of the O-line to pick up the blitz, resulting in our QB getting his ACL torn.

 

What has Simms done to show you that he would not have thrown 3 first half picks?

At least Major has thrown a TD pass and defeated a top 10 team. If wins and losses are so important to you over TD-INT ratio, what is Simms record vs. the top 10? He even had Cedric Benson vs. OU this year.

 

Well, he threw 3 TD's and 0 INT's and 250 yards against Colorado in late October, a team with a similar defense and ranking to Washington.

I didn't say that wins come above TD-INT. I said what is earned comes over TD-INT. Wow, one of Major's receivers didn't step out at the one yard line so he gets credit for touchdowns, what a better QB he is.

You can throw out as many top 10 stats as you want; I don't care. I'd rather win 10 games a year and lose every big game than win 9 games a year and win every big game.

 

VINCENT YOUNG will lead us to the promise land soon...

 

No he won't, unless he is put in the opportunity to do so...

The season is far from over, and it's nice to think of what we may have in store, but there are certains things that need to be resolved regardless of who's our qb

 

deja vu.......replace Vincent Young with Chris Simms and we're back in 1998!

 

A sign of a good coach, IMO, is to shake off a disappointing loss like the one to OU and get his team ready for a big game aka KSU in Manhattan.

Although KSU is not in the top 10, I still think that is a big game.

It will be interesting to see how Texas plays in one of the toughest places in the country.

 

That's just it. What other quarterback needs this kind of explanation of his lack of production...? "Well, sure, he has zero TDs, but he ALMOST had one in this game and almost had one in that game and almost almost almost".

The point is, personally speaking, I am sick of Simms' "almosts". As was pointed out, he's had his chance, repeatedly, to succeed in big games and he has not come close to performing at an acceptable level. All of the machinations and justifications for his poor performance aside, he's not gotten it done. I accept that there are external factors, Cat, but every quarterback operates under them. Applewhite, to name the one most often compared to Simms, had performances every bit as bad as Chris' play yesterday, but he was able to counterbalance those with terrific play in huge games. Chris has not been able to do that, and I'm tired of defending him to people who say he never will.

 

They should play Selvin Young more. He is a stud.

 

I've read some Longhorn boards and some posts on this site and I can't believe some people are calling for the coach's head. Damn, Mac turned your program around and has put together a couple of top ten teams! I would think some of you would have a little more gratitude! Us Aggies haven't finished in the top ten in almost a decade, and we still have the same coach. So, it's a little tough to feel much sympathy for you UT fans and your top ten teams. Yes, Mac hasn't been able to meet expectations yet, but then again those high expectations probably wouldn't exist if he never got those great recruiting classes. I think there definitely should be some tweaking, but a complete overhaul of the program? Do any of you really think that's neccessary?

 

Damn, Mac turned your program around and has put together a couple of top ten teams! I would think some of you would have a little more gratitude! Us Aggies haven't finished in the top ten in almost a decade, and we still have the same coach. Yes, Mac hasn't been able to meet expectations yet, but then again those high expectations probably wouldn't exist if he never got those great recruiting classes. I think there definitely should be some tweaking, but a complete overhaul of the program? Do any of you really think that's neccessary?

I think the biggest problem is expectations vs. performance. It's much more fun to watch a team of OK players overperform and pull upsets like Nebraska '96/98/99 than watch a team of studs consistently underperform.

Perhaps that's just me, but that's where my frustration comes from. I want to be excited about a win for once, and 49-0 over Tulane doesn't do it.

 

I can agree with that. So, you'd be okay with a coaching change?

Does anyone really think Mack is "in danger" right now, or will he definitely be the head coach next year? The season's not over yet by any means...UT still has a slim chance of winning the Big 12 South. But, let's say they finish 9-3. Will Mack still be at Texas after that? I'm not familiar with UT's history in giving coach's the hook.