Fellow Hornfans, I used to think that the 1986-1989 years were the worst wasteland we ever had in modern times but.......... THIS? THIS is W O R S E. Here we are with less than a week to go to the Cotton Bowl with our arch enemy and we perform like THIS? If we lose again, the margin of win/loss to the Sooners tightens AGAIN. AND DAD GUMMIT- STUPID IDIOTIC MISTAKES GAVE THE GAME TO THEM LAST YEAR!! Two things are wrong. Chemistry in the locker room and the schemes we are running. Go back a few years ago when Manny Diaz made our defense look like a joke with his endless blitzes. He told you that guys would be " dropping outta helicopters and popping up out of the ground". Looking back, we all know that was all pure horse manure. Thank goodness Mack had the intuition to bring in Greg Robinson who changed the defense in one week. We need you now ( again) Greg. I feel like we are Mr. Bill and we are going to have a meeting with SLUGGO AT 11:00AM NEXT SATURDAY. OH NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO PLEASE GOD MAKE THIS STOP
Have been thinking the same thing for awhile now. Charlie will need to make wholesale changes especially at DC. May as well do it now. There's no excuse for the defensive play this year. A team has to hang their hat on something and right now there isn't anything.
Can you imagine the boost this program would get from a win over OU? But.. They know we are bad and they are thinking about the times we came in as the underdog and won. They will be ready. THIS time.
ou hasn't been ou for quite awhile now. I think this year they are getting back on track. I still think we can win this game.
The key to a win is defense. The key to the defense is having a defensive tackle that can " take over a game". That man is Hassan Ridgeway. The OU line is young. Gotta take advantage of that. Here's hoping he has the game of his career!
If you want to change the culture and have a winning defense, forget Greg Robinson and bring back Dick Twomey. It was Dick who changed the mindset in 2004, and although he was gone in 2005, his shadow lingered over that team. Go back and look at the tapes of the 2004 games, where Dick is roaming the sidelines; ever so often he would stop in front of MB, with his hand over his mouth and say something. Dick Twomey is a difference maker. Next in line is Rick Lantz, but I don't know how Rick is doing healthwise. Rick is the only man who ever successfully changed his entire defense for one game. Barry tried it in OU's game against the convicts. We did a betting pool for when Barry would abandon his "experiment" - for the record it was about 8 minutes left in the second quarter.
Sabre Dick Tomey was part of " desert swarm" that stopped a powerful Husker team out in the desert, back in the mid to a little later ninties. And Duane Akina also. Am I correct?
Dick was the Arizona HC and is a defensive genius. I'll reserve my comments about Akina since he is so beloved and can do no wrong around Austin.
at least throw in some opposite play calls so when the stoops brothers are stealing the signals, on o and d, they will throw into coverage and blitz the wrong way. Keep them guessing so they aren't T'ing off and knowing where the soft spots are respectively.
Akina was a horrible DC but was great with the secondary. Robinson has turned around crappy defenses twice at Texas already, he may not be up for a third.
Good post - this team and CS need something. Greg Robinson would be a step in the right direction but as was stated, I am not sure he would return for a 3rd gig at UT.
Bedford doesn't have a clue. When I heard that he was going to be DC, I remembered how the camera kept showing him sulking and looking dumbfounded on the sideline at the Texas - Oklahoma State game after OSU blew that huge halftime lead and VY and the gang torched them in the second half.
1996 it was Arizona State that whipped Nebraska not Arizona, the Desert Swarm was circa 1993 and 1994 then nothing after that......
Charlies downfall will be bringing Bedford and Watson with him, he could have chosen anybody he wanted and he stayed loyal to his boys......He needs to jettison those boys and as quickly as possible and move on otherwise he will be gone. John Blake is to OU as Charlie Strong is to Texas. Or would Howard Schlamburger(SP) be a better comparison?
I just hope we dont have a defensive player celebrating when the OU qb kneels at our 5 yd line to keep from scoring 90.
Major I did not want Strong as a HC. I think he is doing a horrible job. I said at the time the Red was right. All that to preface this - comparing Strong to Blake is defamation & slander plain and simple. I shall never forget sitting in a coaches office over 15 years ago, and a very well known TV analyst said in my presence, "John Blake is the stupidest head coach in the country". Blake destroyed the UNC program and Butch Davis' career. As for Schnellenberger, to my knowledge, Strong has yet to show up at the home of a third generation Longhorn recruit drunk and insult his family to the extent that they showed up in the president's office the next day demanding their names be taken off all the buildings on campus. Neither have any of Strong's teams been the dirtiest in the country.
Strong's aloof answers are always telling. They ask him a specific question about using 3 or 4 DL, and he responds by listing all 8 DL players and their positions. Now they ask him if he will change DC's and instead he lists specific plays that broke down. Those who can't see he's in way over his head against the superior coaching at this level...just aren't paying attention. Those are the type micro answers that coordinators and position coaches give. I used to cringe at his press conference answers, but gave him a pass hoping his on-the-field results were more his forte than speaking to crowds. Now it's plain to see he's just out of his element at this level. His answers are confusing, and his players look just as confused against better coached teams.
Brad, Except for Virginia, which teams aren't "better coached"? Yes, we beat Rice, but their coaches still did a better job with what they have. The Mack Brown Rule - put more talent on the field and you'll usually win.
On the other hand, that was what VY and the gang did for 2 halves against most of the other competition they faced.