Anyone else still think Shawn Watson has a clue what he's doing? We took about 40 seconds off the clock after the fumble.
i can see why they went tempo, in the fact that the offense clicked better. the 2nd down play is what bothered me. it was a way too slow developing read option play that lost us 4 yards, and put us back in a 3rd and long, after what should have been a 3rd and short.
Junior high level coaching, I still have no concept what the hell they were thinking, you get five yards on first down, run clock and be patient there. It is the kind of thing we would crucify the previous coaching staff for.
No focus. No command. No confidence. No "Carp Diem." Dumb. Dumb. Dumb. Game handed to you, and the coaching did not coach like a champion. Dumbest series of plays in history. UCLA fans probably downed 16 oz beers in ecstasy. Thank you, Texas. Thank you. Like that. The most idiotic couple of downs I've ever seen in my life, screwing up a game you had in your lap. 3 minutes. Handed the game to UCLA. All that work all summer... for 3 minutes of a squandered game.
Bayer I hear ya, but the whole time I'm screaming at the screen. The bigger need was to burn the clock. Take your time, screw that read option, run power and if you can't get the firsts least you put pressure on a UCLA backup QB to maybe go hurry up. To throw the ball was the icing on the cake for me. I know hindsight is 20/20, but good grief! At least roll Seoopes out so you can stay in bounds if no one is open... But wait you csnt really coach up your FR QB when you are hurrying up on 3rd and 8. This was about as bad coaching, and those who know me here never see me say this, that I have seen.
I especially like the play calling when we needed to move down the field. I always throw horizontal 3 yard passes when I need 40 yards to kick a field goal to tie the game. Watson is going to get Charlie fired in two years if he doesn't do any better.
that was the biggest joke. Hurry up with around 4:30 left and you just get the ball........this nightmare is going to last a long time
Everybody in the stadium knew we were going to call vanilla runs up the middle on 1st and 2nd down. The best way to burn clock is to get the first down.
Snapping the ball on BOTH 2nd and 3rd down with 25 seconds left on the play clock after the fumble recovery, with less than 4 minutes left in the game, is INEXCUSABLE. Amateur hour. The boys played too damn hard to let the coaches screw that up like that.
Sorry: in that situation F up-tempo. Two clips on the kick return. If you aren't going to call it then don't make the damn rule. STDR. Hello? The minute the QB goes down you do not give up another running first down. Is it really that simple? A: Yes. A win we should have had. Bitter Pill. Keep fighting. Swoopes is going to be OK.
As idiotic as the hurry-up was (and it was insanely idiotic), I'm not sure it hurt us. If we don't get the first down, it doesn't change the punt return and 1-play drive. If anything it, by sheer luck, gave us more time on our next drive.
Yeah in retrospect, it really wouldn't have mattered. I do get their argument about needing the first down and the fact is getting that first down was more important than burning some of the clock, knowing UCLA is still going to get the ball back. My bigger issue is that this defense once again came out in the third quarter not ready to play. Without Tank in, this defense had no ability to make a stop against their run game, and that's REALLY discouraging, Were they just tired due to poor conditioning, or is our DL just vastly overrated?
Don't forget Watson is the guy who was deliberately snuck in as our OC under false pretenses. Charlie said Wickline would be calling plays soon after Wickline came on board. Then a few months later retracted like it never happened and said Watson was the play-caller. He knew the fanbase would've been very unhappy with our whole team run by Louisville coaches at the top levels...HC, OC, DC. So Watson was brought in as co-OC and not named play caller until the newness of the staff had worn off and they were already entrenched. I remember this 100% correctly as the last time I pointed this out I found the initial Strong quotes where Wickline was said to be calling plays. And the ones a few months later when he said Watson was. It was my first beef with Strong as I knew he hid this on purpose until there wouldn't be as bad of a backlash for it. Like I said over and over before...Texas didn't hire Louisville to run our program. Louisville won games but didn't win when the most was on the line. Their players hated their own stale, conservative offense. The plan was to hire Strong, have him bring a few of his best coaches and go find other top level coaches in their field. For the most part he did that, except the absolute ******** he pulled with Watson. None of us expected that part to go well but we had to be optimistic because we got stuck with it. Now we have officially lost a huge game because of it only 3 games in. Thanks for the 1-2 record...awesome. Strong is doing an overall amateur job running Texas as a whole team. There are parts that are doing great...the ones he specializes in. The rest are floundering because they are short-handed and lead by a mediocre play caller. Either way, I'm pissed at what's going on. The kids served their long suspensions. 3 games is an eternity for college football suspensions. Reinstate everyone and tell the pet play-caller to watch some Offense 101 films and grow some balls. And stop telling the damn QB "we don't need you to be great, just manage". Guess what, you have just planted the seed for him to put limits on himself and not expect great things from his play that can take over games. My only word after watching the play-calling fail after the fumble...COWARD!
" I always throw horizontal 3 yard passes when I need 40 yards to kick a field goal to tie the game. Watson is going to get Charlie fired in two years if he doesn't do any better." Greg Davis called that same play in that same circumstance for 14 years.
There we go moondog pull up some Greg Davis smack to excuse what you saw last night. That makes it all better. I now feel great about our offense now, and our ability to score more than 17 points every Saturday. At least when Greg was here we hung about a half a hundred every weekend.
That half a hundred stopped pretty quick when VY and Colt were gone. I'm not excusing anything. Just saying why would Charlie get fired after two years for running the same play that was around here for most of Macks tenure. I'm with the other posters that say it wouldn't of mattered anyway with the punt return and one play TD. And another post that said it wasn't so much the up tempo but lack of a first down. Get a first down and the clock runs. Again, we burn all the time possible and that punt return and one play TD kill us anyway. Believe me, I was upset when it appeared Greg Davis was back and we throw the sideline pass. Never liked that play, then or now. And again, even Ricky said after the game that this felt like the 98 team that went 1-2 Macks first three games and then went 8-1 after. I'm sure everybody thought we were screwed after the first three games that year as well. The Big 12 is tough and I don't know how many games we can win. But I liked the effort I saw last night. The play calling and Swoopes and our defense seemed to be good enough to win until that last four minutes. I'm rooting for the team and coaches. We stepped it up after the BYU game and could of/should of beat the #12 team in the nation. Going to remain positive. May have to stay away from this board. Hook'em.
Gotcha moondog, great post, I will try to stay upbeat too. I feel strong might be 30 years too late with the way college football is changing. But I will support him and the boys wearing orange...
Yeah we almost beat the #12 team...with their back-up QB playing most of the game in handuffs and limits to short passes. Hell I bet both Virginia and Memphis would've beat them without their star QB. They already gave them all they could handle with him healthy and the QB run firmly on the table. That 2nd half would've been much worse without the back-up playing.
You know Brad. I used to enjoy your posts. But you have become one complaining, negative and whiney poster.
Yeah moondog, I can see how people who make excuses for losing winnable games can view it that way. Whining about what they see as whiney through sunshine 1-2 glasses. But hey thanks for telling your opinion of my posts. I'm sure I'll take note and alter my opinions just for your approval.
I'm not a big Watson fan, but I don't know that I disagree with the hurry up in that situation (though I normally would). The offense moved the ball the best while in the hurry up. Any edge that could be given to our atrocious thin and inexperienced OL (in which I think every starter played every play of every offensive series) had to be taken in that instance. On top of that, UCLA had its timeouts and a lot of clock to play with. Sure, it was a gamble, but I think it would have been a gamble the other way too. Unfortunately, the 'Horns are gonna have to gamble a lot this year. That's my $.02 anyway.
It's not an either/or on the up tempo or first down; it's very possible to do both. If you stay with that up tempo, you have to get more than one first down. Run the closck down, and run your best running plays in that situation. The hurry up also hurt the execution. Nerves, I guess, under the circumstances. Terrible coaching calls, IMO.
