Informed, Devoted, Haters and Diaper Babies

Discussion in 'On The Field' started by Chinstrap, Oct 7, 2015.

  1. Chinstrap

    Chinstrap 1,000+ Posts

    Having lived in the shadows of Memorial Stadium for over 70 years, with too many games to remember, all of the way back to Coach Price and the knothole section, I have a few observations with the Texas program.

    First of all, I put many of the fans in social media into the above categories. Some post because their intent is to tear down the program and are probably fans of other teams. Some have never put on a football uniform and never even played any game their mother considered too physical, so all they know is what the scoreboard tells them. Most are loyal fans who love their school so much they take it personal when the team plays bad and in turn some of them react poorly. But many of those in social media have one thing in common; they do not have any real knowledge of the game.

    Those of us who have some level of experience in the game, at whatever level, and have studied the game, know this, Texas is struggling for multiple reasons, but the main one is a lack of talent. And that is the biggest key to winning college football games. We think we know football until we get into a discussion with a real coach and then we find out how little we know. And, Coach Strong and his staff may not know as much as one or more other staffs, but they know enough to win with better talent. If you want to see how bad the talent is at Texas, just watch the upcoming Texas A & M game against Alabama. Those teams have real talent. I am not sure that at their present level, more than two of the Texas players could play, much less start, on either of those two teams. With development, that will change.

    And if you want to blame the play of the talented young players at Texas on the Strong Staff, such as failures by defensive backs on coverage assignments, bad tackling angles, not knowing how to run for first downs when they need one yard, bad technique on pass defense, bad tackling techniques, catching the ball in your chest instead of with your hands, and many more, you might want to consider this; the staff has only had these freshmen for two months and the others for one season. Those of us who have played the game had 6 or more years of coaching before we entered college. Six or more years of learning the above mentioned fundamentals. So where were all of these great high school coaches while these kids were playing the game? Because they were better athletes than anyone else on the field, were they allowed to get by on their athleticism and not forced to learn these basics? I think so. Bad habits are hard to break and some high school studs are not coachable, even when they get to college.

    So those of you who want to blast the team over the scoreboard and do not want to accept the fact that this is not going to be a good year because the talent pool is not going to change overnight, you must understand that you will hurt recruiting and add to a downward spiral, resulting in another coaching change and a future deterioration of the program. Perhaps one that is not recoverable (that can happen). And as you do this, you will get plenty of help from the haters, some supporters of the likes of A&M and the Sooners, pretending to be your comrades, who will throw gasoline on the fire you are building.

    Last year the Aggies went eight and five while playing SMU, Rice and Lamar, and three and five in their conference, with a nationally televised blowout by Alabama, 59-0. They may very well be in the playoff within the next two years because their young talent is beginning to emerge. Their fans stayed with them and all is good in Aggie Land. So be at least as good as Aggie and give this Texas team a chance. If things do not change with better talent and internal coaching adjustments (give Charlie credit for making a major change already in offensive coaching, as Stoops and Sumlin also had to do) your critique may be justified. Not saying that you do not have a right to your opinion, but make it an informed opinion and be fair. If you do not like this team, don’t watch! And stay away from the naysayers, including the Austin Statesman.
     
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  2. LtSwtCrude

    LtSwtCrude Guest

    Interesting point I had not thought of.
     
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  3. Htown77

    Htown77 5,000+ Posts

    And yet, some coaches win without talent and others lose with talent. Look at Florida, Muschamp, and McElwain. This Texas team DOES have talent. The coaching is suspect.

    Also, I did play football in high school. Personally, I think the people that are trying to tear down the program are those that keep repeating the propaganda lie that there is no talent to excuse bad coaching. That lie kept Shawn Watson as OC and Swoopes at QB through the Notre Dame game when Watson should have been gone after the Texas Bowl. It did not HELP Strong.

    My position remains Strong (and any coach) should get 3 years. Years 4 and 5 depend on the results of the first 3 years.
     
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  4. mdmumme

    mdmumme < 25 Posts

    I agree wholeheartedly. Texas' lack of talent at the Qb position since Colt left has not been hard to miss. Although, I thought a big mistake was made when we kicked Gilbert to the curb in favor of David Ash.
     
  5. Detective Shilala

    Detective Shilala 2,500+ Posts

    I also prescribe to the 3 to 4 year plan, that any new coach should get.

    The trouble for us is if talent is the issue, can Strong recruit on the heels of an abysmal season? If not (and its not looking promising that he can) we may get caught in a negative feedback loop.
    Plus you just cannot really count on addition by subtraction. We don't necessarily become more talented just by graduating seniors and adding freshmen.

    Sure Charlie's true freshmen look talented (and raw), but how many of them pan out or wash out? You can never tell
     
  6. Brad Austin

    Brad Austin 2,500+ Posts

    I played in college (only mention because it's part of the topic)...and guarantee you it's a combination of lacking talent mixed with poor coaching.

    Any technical football person will tell you that our in-game adjustments for the most part have been non-existent or bush league.

    Lesser talented offenses scheme their way to points. Several have done so this year against the very two teams that beat us 88-10.

    If it's just talent, are we supposed to believe SMU has more talent than Texas and can put up a MUCH stronger fight against TCU? That Tech is so much more talented than Texas it takes TCU the whole game to barely beat them.

    That Rice has better talent to outgain us by a ton. How about the fact everyone including UMass scored over 20 on ND and we score 3.

    The absurd 3 TD+ *ss beatings we have taken 7 times by better teams is a classic example of being unprepared and out-coached. Sure we should have lost most of those, but the complete inept performances and dominance we suffered is a lack of preparation and adjustments by coaches, just as much as talent.

    Unless we feel this team has sunk as low as Kansas on the talent level...and that's simply false. As a staff from top to bottom, Texas is easily inferior to AT LEAST 4 Big 12 teams...and honestly that's being quite generous.

    Do I think CS's staff can win with a team as talented as Baylor? Sure. Do I think his staff would beat Art Briles' staff with the exact same level of talent? Not often.

    But that's all moot, because when we finish 4-8, this team will still be 2 years away from any chance of having Baylor like talent. That long 4-year duration needed to accumulate winning talent...that's on the staff too.
     
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  7. bmbb

    bmbb < 25 Posts

    I am so, so tired of the players being thrown under the bus. The OP sounds like Strong's press conf each Monday.

    While there is a lack of experience/overall talent especially in the OL, LB, and DB positions, it does not equate to the performance against TCU, Notre Dame, and Arkansas. The coaching staff did not have the team ready for those games. It was not talent, it was effort and pride. No one expects this team to win every game. They are expected to compete every game.

    As discussed ad nauseam, Strong has divided this team by publicly demeaning the upperclassmen. The upperclassmen should be challenged in the locker room and not in a press conference due to the head coach's insecurities and lack of communication skills.

    The coaching staff is dysfunctional. You can tell by their actions on the sideline they are confused and not working together. Three members left last year and likely more will leave at the end of this year, hopefully one will be the head coach.
     
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  8. Vol Horn 4 Life

    Vol Horn 4 Life Good Bye To All The Rest!

    No talent, no talent, no talent......blah, blah, blah. I played ball into a semi-pro league so I've seen some action in my day.

    Well coached poor talent keeps games closer than 20 points. Poorly coached poor talent results in a 50-7 beat down which could have easily been 80-7 if TCU hadn't put in scrubs. Once is a fluke, but we're habitually getting blown out by more than 20 on a routine basis. We can fix talent issues with better recruiting, but there's only one thing that can fix poor coaching.

    I'll go out on a limb today for the first time to say UT will not win a conference championship much less a national championship with Charlie at the helm. He makes too many bad decisions to accomplish either of those goals.
     
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    Last edited: Oct 7, 2015
  9. shaggy refuge

    shaggy refuge 500+ Posts

    Tl/dr
     
  10. Creek

    Creek 1,000+ Posts

    The OP says we lack talent. If that is true, then why did Baylor, TCU, and ATM also offer these guys? If a guy can't get off a block is that lack of talent or lack of coaching?
    You get a coach in here and he'll turn it around in 1 year.
     
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  11. shaggy refuge

    shaggy refuge 500+ Posts

    No question about it, Creek. Witnessing what Harbaugh is doing at Michigan makes me want to cry!
     
  12. Creek

    Creek 1,000+ Posts

    Yea man here is a bakers dozen that got aggie/ Baylor offers and many got Big offers out of state as well. Pretty much the whole team got Aggie offers,Baylor Offers and we usually got first dibs.
    Jinkens
    Gray
    Daje
    Ridgeway
    Boyette
    Shiro
    Duke
    Tim Cole
    Marcus Johnson
    Desmond Jackson
    Boyette
    Colbert
    Oliver
     
  13. The Apache

    The Apache 25+ Posts

     
  14. AustinBat

    AustinBat 2,500+ Posts

    After the Big XII media day, on one of the local stations someone (I think it was Chip Brown) said that if you were really listening to what Coach Strong said, it was "We don't have much talent on this team". And coaches can only coach up kids who wanted to be coached. I hope our young players want to be coached, but the older ones..who knows?
     
  15. Statalyzer

    Statalyzer 10,000+ Posts

    The "outgained by Rice" thing is way overblown. Yeah our D let them chew up a bunch of clock, and yes that's a problem, but our offense lost 3 possessions due to 2 D/ST scores plus a fumble by our D on a pick runback, and had a 4th possession where their max gain was 6 yards.
     
  16. Chinstrap

    Chinstrap 1,000+ Posts

    It appears that my appeal to give a young football team with a new coaching staff support further angered some already angry fans. First of all, please do not confuse my comment on talent with athletic ability. Charlie recruited pretty well during his first full year of recruiting. So give him credit for that. However, with limited college experience, they are not as talented as they will be as football players. The two deep rosters at SMU, Rice, A & M, TCU, TECH, Baylor and even Kansas, since they were mentioned, do not include more than one true freshman. Most of the Texas young players will become very talented football players. The question should be why is Charlie playing so many true freshmen? Is it because he does not want to win with better, older players?

    The offensive line has always been considered one of the more difficult positions in football and coaches tried to develop those players for at least a year before they saw real playing time. This line has two true freshmen. Dan Niel, who was one of the greats to play that position for Texas, has said that in time these two freshmen will be very good and that they are getting some very good coaching by Wickline. Texas has a “can’t miss” stud at linebacker who is also a true freshman. But if you ask him about his game he will be the first to tell you that he is still struggling with pass coverage. That also goes for the young secondary. Great high school athletes often need time to pick up the complicated offenses in college, especially those in the Big XII. Quarterback is another position where great athletes need time to become great football players because they need to learn to read the defenses. Having said that, some can look great with a great offensive line, which we can all agree Texas does not have. The “Boo Birds” were all over Tony Romo at the Cowboys when I heard Aikman say that he thought Tony was one of the best in the league. Dallas had a terrible offensive line. Dallas fixed the line problem and Tony looked great. Heard is going to be a good one and I give the coaching staff credit for what they have done with Swoops, but as of now, he is not a Division I quarterback. Last year he was all they had because their starter went down and Heard was right out of high school.

    And by all means there have been problems with the coaching staff. But why are some still kicking a dead horse by bringing up Watson? They made a change in the offense to better mirror the players in Texas and the Big XII and Shawn was not successful in making the change. So Charlie removed him from some of his duties. Those still using Watson against Charlie are digging pretty deep. Then there is the issue of the punters and place kickers who do well in practice and screw up in the game. This is not a coaching issue, unless they are given too many chances, and this week coach has opened the place kicking job up to all comers. Patterson, the coach many think should be at Texas, could have played in the playoff last year if he had not set on a lead against Baylor. And there was that call in the Super Bowl on the goal line (coaching at the highest level). One could go on and on. In time, I may be the first to say that it is time for a change. But for now I will support what we have, because in the near future, he is what we will have. Strong is our coach and tearing him down will only hurt recruiting. Surely nobody wants that? I do understand the fan passion for the team. That is a very good thing, but a few seem to measure their self worth by how well the team does and then vent in social media. I will give credit to those fans (?) who seem to have have a lot more football savvy than this entire coaching staff. But why the harsh disdain for Charlie by a few after such a short time? Makes one wonder if this disdain started when he was hired; and for what reason?
     
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  17. eastexhorn

    eastexhorn 250+ Posts

    Watson is Strong's albertross. And you lost creditablity with me with the knock on Patterson. Who IMO can out coach and espically out organize, not to mention pick better assistants.
     
  18. dukesteer

    dukesteer 5,000+ Posts

    Because I didn't play high school, college or professional football I am probably not qualified to ever again render an opinion on this Board so, forgive me for this one. (Sorry chinstrap, but your assumption in the OP really annoys me although I know that it was well intended. I suppose that, because I have never held office, I am not qualified to possess an informed opinion about politicians, or, because I am not a doctor, I suppose that I am not qualified to express an opinion about a medical professional...?)

    Based on my observation of football for almost 55 years, I would confidently draw two conclusions:

    1) Great coaching with mediocre talent will often if not usually defeat average coaching with great talent. The examples are simply too numerous to mention.

    2) Great talent without good coaching will almost always disappoint.
     
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  19. Chinstrap

    Chinstrap 1,000+ Posts

    eastexhorn,
    Gary Paterson is a great college coach. My only point was that any and all coaches have their moments when they make bad coaching decisions and it is my opinion, and that of many others, that had he not gone conservative with a big lead against Baylor, he wins and they have to put him in the playoff BS. I like TCU and I was more than a little upset that they did not get selected. Paterson should have had a shot at that series. As to my credibility with you, it means nothing to me. But thanks for reading!
     
  20. Htown77

    Htown77 5,000+ Posts

    Haha Romo. How many playoff games has that boy won?

    My problem with the staff began (and you can look it up in my post history) when he hired shawn watson. Watson was fired from Colorado. Watson was fired from Nebraska. Watson stuggled to score points with bridgewater and superior talent against the likes of Temple and Houston (not undefeated 2015 versions of those teams either) at Louisville. Strong made Watson his OC but dececptively claimed it was Wickline. My further problem is all the records Strong is setting. He set the record for 20 point losses in a single season. He set the record for 20 point losses at home in a single season. He delivered us our first loss to Cal in school history. He is halfway to setting the record for most 20 point losses in a career by a head coach only 18 games in! He set the record for worst home loss on Thanksgiving. He gave us a shutout (first in 10 years) against a Kansas State team that did not have an amazing defense. He set most of these records with 6 NFL draft picks on the roster. He was a few points away from setting the record for worst loss to TCU. He got completely embarrassed by a 6-6 arkansas team with a mediocre coach after having 3 weeks to prepare. There has been no improvement year 2 so far and our players look worse. Some look worse than they were in 2013.

    My question to you is... what has this staff done to make you think they are coaching? What has this staff done to give you hope? I hear excuses for failure but I do not hear reasons for success. It's like the assumption is "they would win but these excuses happened." However since they have not won, I do not know why that is being assumed.
     
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    Last edited: Oct 9, 2015
  21. LtSwtCrude

    LtSwtCrude Guest

    On the page with Htown here.
     
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