I’ve seen enough

Discussion in 'On The Field' started by mchammer, Mar 25, 2023.

  1. mchammer

    mchammer 10,000+ Posts

    of the Texas Longhorn teams this academic year. For the 2nd year in a row, the football program is the worst performing sport in the athletic department (this is not exaggeration - it’s the undeniable truth). How far we have fallen. No longer the bell cow - more like the cow chips that follow the bell cows.
     
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    Last edited: Mar 25, 2023
  2. Run Pincher

    Run Pincher 2,500+ Posts

    So the 2nd best coach in the history of Texas FB is fired for crap and we wonder why Texas FB sucks. Thank you administration idoits. Even the interim BB coach has the sense to bench an overhyped Freshman when he's not performing. I have to wonder if we'll ever get another really good coach in my lifetime.
     
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  3. SabreHorn

    SabreHorn 10,000+ Posts

    Run,

    Ain't like there's a truckload of quality candidates out there
     
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  4. CreakyHorn

    CreakyHorn 500+ Posts

    Wow! Hyper-ventilate much?
     
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  5. mchammer

    mchammer 10,000+ Posts

    It’s called putting things into perspective. Most of our programs are winning national championships or finishing as runner-ups. It’s nearly too many to keep up over the last 2 years (volleyball, M and W indoor track, M and W swimming, M and W outdoor track, softball, W tennis, M golf, rowing, etc). This year M tennis will likely finish 1 or 2. The point is that we have a single program if compared to our other programs based on performance would be destroyed if faced on the court, on the field, on the track, on the course, etc. Of course, the previous year the program were losers. It’s not hyper-ventilation but the sad truth.

    You could argue it takes longer to turn around the football program relative to the other sports but not sure if that is entirely accurate. I think the better argument is that the program was a lot worse than folks on this board could imagine. It’s obvious now in hindsight when you see how the other programs at Texas are doing.
     
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    Last edited: Mar 25, 2023
  6. mchammer

    mchammer 10,000+ Posts

    I’ll sum it up. I see stellar play in practically every sport that the Horns participate in, and then I dutifully attend the games at DKR-TMS to see less than stellar play on the field (to put it mildly). Not talking last season specifically, but approximately 8 seasons out of the last 10. Maybe you are content with that, but I am not when I see nearly everyone else in the program winning natty’s or finishing runner-up (again not an exaggeration).

    For years, the football program could at least look down on women’s soccer, but now W soccer has passed the football program by winning post-season games. Oh, the ignominy!
     
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    Last edited: Mar 25, 2023
  7. dukesteer

    dukesteer 5,000+ Posts

    Wow. This thread caught me by surprise. Hard to argue with the crappy performance assessment over the past decade or so. But that’s old news to
    me. I am very optimistic about the coming season, and the future.

    I think we all will be singing a very different tune by mid-September.
     
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  8. moondog_LFZ

    moondog_LFZ 5,000+ Posts

    I expect the coming season to be better than last.
    And I expect the 2024 season to be outstanding.
    Yes, it's takes longer to turn around a football program.
    And injuries really screw things up until you get some depth.
    Mack only won two conference championships and his first came the same year as the MNC.
    We seemed to be okay with 9 and 10 win seasons and getting our *** kicked by OU when he was coach.
    But he was right about one thing.
    You have to move into the neighborhood first.
    I think we do that beginning next year.
     
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  9. dukesteer

    dukesteer 5,000+ Posts

    I’ll admit that I could be delusional. It wouldn’t be the first time. But I see the talent on this team as being excellent, and in some position groups, elite.

    Not accounting for injuries, the starting 22 plus several more we will put on the field in September should rival any team in the country IMHO. I would not hesitate to take Sanders, Whittington, the wide receiver room, Banks, and Ford over any players around the country in their positions. (Not saying they’re indisputably the best, but I am saying that they are very good.) And there are a half dozen other players that are probably the best at their positions in the Big 12.

    What we may lack, when compared to a Georgia, Alabama, or Ohio State, is depth, and confidence. However, in the case of a number of positions, depth is not only good, it is near elite. For example, unless the OL stagnates and makes no progress, that would be a good example.

    Can we have a great 2023 campaign? I do believe it’s possible. Of course, Ewers needs to emerge, and I think that he will. More than anything else though, it could come down to the head coach, and how he calls the plays, makes adjustments, and takes advantage of what the defenses give him. In that area in 2022, I thought Sark did not perform particularly well. Too often he did what he wanted to do rather than take what the defense was giving him. So, just like his team, he needs to grow this year.
     
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  10. theiioftx

    theiioftx Sponsor Deputy

  11. mchammer

    mchammer 10,000+ Posts

    I take it all back. It appears that our other sports are cratering too: Men’s swimming team last night tied for their worst season in the last 29 years: they finished 3rd at nationals.
     
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  12. Chop

    Chop 10,000+ Posts

    I think we'll get better and better at football, but yeah, the performance on the gridiron has been substandard for a long time now.
     
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  13. Texadelphia

    Texadelphia 1,000+ Posts

    Optimist here - enjoying the sh*t outta Texas sports right now, so not gonna complain when we have so much going for us around the proverbial Horn. Mo’ is in our corner and I see bright lights with the football team. Wish we could win it all in everything, but just gonna watch and enjoy Women’s VB, Men’s and Women’s BB, baseball, softball, Directors Cups…..aggy would give both nuts to be us in any 1 of these - so pardon my mile-wide smile.

    When given a sack of cash, ain’t gonna ***** about the sack.
     
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    Last edited: Mar 26, 2023
  14. huisache

    huisache 2,500+ Posts

    Re the OP:

    The second best coach ever was Fred Akers and I don’t think the mediocrity of today can be attributed to his firing
     
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  15. Horns11

    Horns11 10,000+ Posts

    While it's true that football is the worst-performing of our sports, I think there's kind of a double-edged sword at play with regards to men's basketball and then the nonrevenue and Olympic sports.

    1. Men's basketball: with fewer scholarships and only 5 on the floor at a time, there's a lot more opportunity to have quick turnarounds and build a "season" instead of a program, which I think we'll witness in 2023-24 with virtually a brand new team. So call it parity or whatever, but I think we can watch a team go far in the NCAA tournament and then not perform well the next season.

    2. Nonrevenue and Olympic sports: We're the Joneses for many of these activities, so it's kind of unfair to compare football to any of them. Like finishing 3rd in swimming at the NCAAs was a mediocre result for us. Our rowing team went from nonexistent to 1st in the nation in a matter of 15 years. Finishing 3rd (or better) in the nation in football is something we've only done 10 times since the polls started. As much as people want to say we're the Joneses, we're really not in football.

    Our football downturn (starting in 2010) coincided with a "changing of the guard" and far less parity in college football than there was from the 90s-00s. There were 15 different national champs in the 20 seasons from 1990-2009, and only 7 have won since then.
     
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  16. Statalyzer

    Statalyzer 10,000+ Posts

    Losses by season before winning MNC with Mack:
    3, 5, 3, 2, 2, 3, 1.

    Six of those first seven years would all be superior to any season we've put up since 2009, with the possible exception of 2018 which might have been better than some of the 3-loss seasons (since the extra loss was a conference title game that those teams didn't even make, and since we had 2 top-10 wins).
     
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  17. moondog_LFZ

    moondog_LFZ 5,000+ Posts

    Yes, that's what I said we were okay with.
     
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  18. Sangre Naranjada

    Sangre Naranjada 10,000+ Posts

    No, I think Mack had a better career than Fred, just due to the natty.
     
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  19. WJHorn

    WJHorn 25+ Posts

    I think all but the most naive Longhorn fan would have to agree that the results in Football, Basketball, Baseball and Women's basketball have been mediocre (at best) since about 2010. Given the tradition and resources in our Athletics program (and in all of those sports in particular, with the exception of Men's Basketball) we probably have to rank at or near the top of underachieving programs, which is embarrassing. I am optimistic about the future though, with the exception of baseball. One thing is for sure, with the advent of NIL and the portal, there really are no excuses any more. For the richest athletics program in the country, it should almost be unfair.
     
  20. Sangre Naranjada

    Sangre Naranjada 10,000+ Posts

    Look at the clusterf... in the higher administration at UT during that time frame and it might help you understand the underachievement.
     
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  21. WJHorn

    WJHorn 25+ Posts

    No doubt, the administration has been a fustercluck, but at the end of the day, the blame doesn't matter. It is still a fact that our FB/MBB/Baseball/WBB programs have massively underachieved over the past decade plus. Hopefully CDC finally has us set up to change that soon.
     
  22. BLucky

    BLucky 250+ Posts

    What I see is improvement over the past several years. Notwithstanding the football record, other sports are making it into post season and doing well. There isn't one school that has every program playing for national championships in every sport. I believe that the Director's Cup award for the past two years absolutely shows that overall improvement. And as Sark said sometime last year, he'd like to contribute to earning that Cup.
     
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  23. UT Horn Fan

    UT Horn Fan 500+ Posts

    In the 2021-2022 academic year, the Horns finished:

    NCAA National Champions
    -Men's Indoor Track and Field
    -Women's Tennis
    -Rowing
    -Men's Golf

    NCAA Runner Up
    -Women's Indoor Track and Field
    -Women's Swimming and Diving
    -Men's Swimming and Diving
    -Softball
    -Men's Outdoor Track and Field
    -Women's Outdoor Track and Field

    NCAA Top 10
    -Volleyball
    -Women's Basketball
    -Baseball
    -Men's Tennis

    NCAA Top 25
    -Women's Golf
    -Men's Cross Country
    -Men's Basketball

    Receiving Votes
    -Women's Cross Country
    -Women's Soccer


    Results like those above = back-to-back Director’s Cups
     
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  24. Horn6721

    Horn6721 10,000+ Posts

    GREAT list:hookem:
    Thanks
     
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  25. guy4321

    guy4321 2,500+ Posts

    Winning the conference is about to get a lot harder, I suppose in every sport, but most certainly in football. And, I'd say winning the Big 12 was harder than winning the SWC.

    In other words, it won't be fair to compare the number of conference titles Royal won to the number Akers won to the number Brown won to the number Sark wins to the number coaches after Sark will win.
     
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    Last edited: Mar 30, 2023
  26. Hookem G

    Hookem G 25+ Posts

    At Texas the standard of success is excellence (not average or good). Excellent athletic programs have a simple formula. Great coaches who can recruit, develop and game plan......and great facilities. In our secondary sports all of the above exists. For the most part that has existed in baseball. Football and basketball are another story.

    No need to regurgitate the Mack Brown downfall/failure after the NC, but the reality is the football program has been soft, complacent and unable to compete on a consistent basis since 2010. The administration failed miserably in selecting coaches and holding them accountable. This is completely inexcusable, but the facts are what the facts are. Until CDC came aboard our AD leadership was laughable-Dodds checked out years before he retired and who in the world believed Steve Patterson was the answer? Critical personnel choices set the football program back a decade (and to a lesser extent basketball).

    There should be no excuses for any of the athletic programs not to achieve excellence every year.......assuming we have excellent leaders running the programs who can recruit, develop and game plan. As a third generation Longhorn, I stopped watching UT football many years ago because it was simply to painful to see the Baylor's and TCU's of the world winning conference championships and UT stuck in the middle of the pack. Maybe one day things will be turned around and I can once again football in the fall...for the time being I simply observe after the fact.
     
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  27. Horn6721

    Horn6721 10,000+ Posts

    It is frustrating but for many of us we still think the kids who became Longhorns and played their hardest for Texas deserved support.
    Kinda surprising you would come to a Texas football thread to point out you " stopped watching UT football many years"
     
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  28. moondog_LFZ

    moondog_LFZ 5,000+ Posts

    Man, I feel sorry for you.
    You miss out on some great games sometimes.
     
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  29. Horns11

    Horns11 10,000+ Posts

    Yeah, I hear similar stories from Longhorns and my first thought is that they couldn't possibly have given up recently knowing how bad the team was in the late 80s.
     
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  30. NRHorn

    NRHorn 2,500+ Posts

    Don’t ban me.
    I’ve been a rabid, orange kool aid drinking, burnt orange glasses proud fan since roughly 1977.
    A long time ago I decided not to be disappointed in a non National Championship team.
    I only speak for me.
    If the team plays hard, stays out of the “ The U” Jack assery or the criminal activity as OU/Fla St in the past, and win ~10 games.
    I’m good.
    Yes- a NC IS the goal, but the joy is the journey.
     
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