lots of good info ... I did not know Todd Orlando was on staff at Utah State with the new Texas Tech coach. Let's get this party started. A tour of Texas’ 2019 schedule, from Tech to Tech (Louisiana and Texas) and everything in between | Hookem.com
Thanks for posting. I see trap games all over the schedule this year. Baylor, OSU, Tech (with Bowman back), TCU, La Tech (we've been slow starters...), even KU (with Miles). And ISU shouldn't be considered much of an underdog any more, they're very good. I hope we break our recent habit of playing down to the level of the competition against the lower ranked teams--many of which present very real threats this year.
I've seen this posted over and over and over in the past few months. I 100% agree that we've been or played like we were unprepared for a few games since Herman arrived. Quite frankly we had some dud games. I also worried and commented here he was overly protective of Beck who seemed like he was out of his league. Maybe Herman took over play calling or maybe Herman developed Beck or a hybrid of the two, but the offense improved significantly last year because I believe he had the foresight not to change offenses again which had been changed several times in the previous seven or eight years. I may be the only one here who believes this, but I believe taking mostly mediocre teams with a few very talented players takes time to instill discipline and consistent performance. I was one who questioned Herman's "Mensa" abilities, but last year was an indication to me of progressive improvement combined with progressively improved recruiting. I completely stopped worrying about that. Herman did what was necessary to improve our #1 weakness On-line and make it into a strength by bringing in JuCo players, transfer players, recruiting and hiring Hand and turned it into one of our strengths. He also changed our annual QB debacle into another strength. He's had a vision on defense and set us up with one of the best secondaries in college football in a pass happy conference. I guess I say all this because I now absolutely believe he looks at every detail and has a plan for each one. I also believe the dud games we had were due to him driving his expectations and trying things that we as fans may not have understood. He motivates teams to win in the biggest games, because he understands that results in better recruiting and keeping the fan wolves off his ***. At some point he also had to work on other things while building for the future which unfortunately ends in unfortunate results. With excellent recruiting filling in the weaknesses over the last two years and moving foward he will have to take those chances less and less resulting in much more consistent excellent play. I hear on local radio almost daily how committed the team is and that we now have great team leaders who step up which hasn't happened in over a decade. Anyway, my preaching is over. While we will probably lose a game we shouldn't from time to time I believe our progression is to the point we will sustain excellent play and not see the team just not "show up" to games. Hook 'Em!!
Herman is a very, very good coach. We're fortunate to have him, and are on the right trajectory. Lowlier teams often get sky high emotionally when they play UT. They circle the game on their calendars, and prepare with great effort and intensity for us. Some of these teams (i.e. Baylor, Tech, OSU, KSU, TCU) are what I'd classify as "giant killers." They may or may not break the top 25, but they're dangerous enough to take the big boys down. And, OSU/OU Bedlam rivalry aside, there's nothing they'd like better than to take UT down. Also, OSU has had our number in recent years. So yeah, there's a lot of trap games on the schedule this year. Perhaps KU may suck for another year or two (due to a gross lack of talent). But it's only a matter of time before Miles brings them up a few levels (they never should have fired Mangino).
This year is a good time for fans to watch how well Texas can play to a standard of excellence no matter who the other team on the field may be. That's the next step in the re-evolution of the program under Herman. He has populated the field with a very high level of talent (though not all that talent is mature yet), he has instilled a culture of toughness, and he clearly has a schematic vision for the program that the players have bought into. The results so far are very promising. The next step for the team is to learn how bring their A game pretty much every week. That's what I'll be looking for. Mack got his best teams to play to a standard - can Tom do the same?
I miss Mangino and Leach. Those are two real characters, and very good football coaches. Both fired for non-on-the-field reasons.
