This thread is touching on exactly my thoughts of the game. Complete coach fail. Why are we the team that does all the dumb things? We are supposed to have the best coaching. Choose to kick after other team defers? That is a ridiculous mistake to make in junior high. Two running into the kicker penalties. One is ridiculous. Two is unfathomable. The first one wasn't so bad as it was 4th and greater than 5 yards. The penalty didn't give them a 1st down. But the second one was 4th and 3. You can't be as aggressive there because it's basically a turnover if you slightly graze the kicker. The coaches have to tell them to chill out a bit when its 4th and 5 or less. It's like they have never played or seen a football game before sometimes. How can they go out there so oblivious to the situation? Nick Rose has been kicking the ball out of the end zone all season. After the last touchdown how come its all of a sudden short and out of bounds? Somehow I think he was instructed to try to kick it in play towards the sideline to try to pin them back behind the 20. Nothing else makes sense. If he blasted every kick out of the end zone we should be grateful. It's ridiculous we gave it to them on the 35 there. UCLA then basically hands us the game with the fumble. Except a 3 and out running 2 minutes of clock isn't going to do it. The 2nd down play was the absolute worst call possible. They knew we were going to run and were stacked up for it. We run some slow developing draw play with multiple pulling linemen. The DLineman just walked through the gap left by the pulling guard and blew up the play. In that situation, the play had no hope of being anything except a 4 yard loss. Horrible play call. We didn't have any hope for a 1st down on that series the way it was called. It's like the coaches were just trying for a worthless 3 and out. The punt coverage had been so great all game. Why when we need it most is it so horrible? It was like the intensity from all the other punt coverages just got turned off. Guys were jogging after the return man. Were they tired? I don't get it. So UCLA just got a big 3 and out stop. And then they got a big punt return. What does everybody do next? Momentum has swung so you go for the big play. Before the snap I'm telling the TV, "Watch for the deep throw." We get gashed by the run all day playing 5 and 6 in the box, and the one play when they are very likely to go deep, our corner gets toasted on a stop and go and there is no safety help. It was so obvious it was coming. When we were good, we did it to other teams all the time. How could we be unaware and unprepared?
On the bright side, we played a good team well enough to win, but for too many bonehead plays. It's an improvement to being regularly blown out by good teams.
Great coaches don't lose games like UCLA. Great coaches don't kick off both halves. Great coaches don't have the worst loss in at home in 17 years. Great coaches recruit top level talent. In earlier posts I opined to wait and see Strong's coaching performance before making a decision about him. I have seen enough. Strong had a clear slate to choose his coaching staff and he came up with Watson and a DC that cant make adjustments. He talks about discipline and yet the team seems to be in constant chaos in setting defenses, getting offensive plays in, special teams being out of position and even the coin toss decision is discipline issue. He has the talent to be 3-0, but he is now 1-2 because of his performance as a coach. He still has the high powered offenses of OU, Baylor, West Va and Okla State to play with his own choice of OC Watson to counter with. Strong's recruiting has been abysmal, but I am still not calling this part of his performance a failure until Feb. But as it stands, he has the best talent on this team this year than he will have for the next three years. We have been through this before in the 80's and 90's and hopefully we will make the change sooner than later. Strong is never going to get it done. Like "Red Said" he probably is a really good position coach.
Swoopes has been a welcome, pleasant surprise. Whatever criticisms one may have of Strong and Watson, and they deserve some after the play calling and time management in the last three minutes against UCLA, they have done a masterful job of bringing Jalen up to speed. His biggest problem now is the inability of the O line to pass protect. They will be struggling mightily against good front sevens all season. His accuracy from the pocket and also when he rolls has been above average. Arm strength plenty sufficient. Jalen will be good enough to take this team to the top after the O line gets where it needs to be. Watson perhaps should be the QB coach, not the play caller.
Watson has no business ever being a coach at Texas. Every defensive coordinator in the Big 12 has Texas circled on his calendar for his career game. Watson's offense is a laughing stock and has been for years. I really like and admire our offensive players for their effort. Swoopes, our running backs, receivers and line are running plays that the defense knows are coming and are giving maximum effort to make them work. Even North Texas knew the pass routes and where the running back were going.
Yes, I get it, "the offense was clicking in the hurry up". Stipulated. But there is a big difference between the previous series where we scored and the next series. The difference was we had the lead AND the ball and the biggest enemy was the clock. I do not see how we get around what HORRIBLE strategy it was to run off 40 seconds when you could have run off two minutes... and maybe more if we had taken a little more time and care to get just one first down. I'm not going to comment on Watson in general, but that was a bone-head strategy. DKR was rolling over in his grave.
Looking through the play-by-play, we actually performed fairly well on 2nd down for most of the night. There were a few botched plays (J-Gray dropped a sure first down flats pass in the 2nd quarter on 2nd and 8), but other than that, some of Brown's biggest runs and Swoopes' biggest throws were on 2nd down. I think we were sitting there at 2nd and 5 (or 6 depending who you ask), had the momentum, had a play that worked earlier in the game, and it just got blown the f**k up. So instead of 3rd and short, or even a 1st down, the coaches couldn't slow down to create a kind of "panic mode" and just stuck with whatever the scripted 3rd and 10 hurry up play was supposed to be. I agree that it didn't matter in the long run because of our punt coverage and Jason Hall's inability to watch the QB on the pump-fake TD, but you'd have to think that Watson would want that 2nd and 5 back after the fumble. Maybe some type of rollout from the hurry up would have killed more time and at least kept the 3rd down manageable.
So.... yes, there appear to be some problems... coaching or young players? As for the offense, a stranger would have no idea that we lost three offensive line starters, our only quarterback with experience and a couple of wide receivers (right?). You'd just never know that would you?
"Chip & Chad" on 104.9 (Austin) this morning backed up my very thoughts. The offense needed to show an attack mode. Is what they said. To be in that situation with 4 min to play and the game in your hands, and plod out with a grinding "attitude" of a run game is backpedding and soft and passive. What is required is hitting them in the face with a sense of "we're going to attack you and mess you up real bad and keep you wondering what the hell came right at you." Fast & Loose. Right at you. Attack, attack, attack. The snap count wasn't as important as what happened after the snap. Even a flea-flicker would have been better than what happened. A specially designed play in the hip pocket for airing it out. Anything but a freaking off-tackle slow-motion handoff. Good lord. The defense in that situation would be ready to rip car doors off. You have to off-set that with the totally unexpected. Even a quick hurry up.... real quick hurry up, right out of A&M / Baylor play book. Fast, fast, fast. Add to that, the coin flip call. I wonder now if the team is way too tight from Summer Camp under the ruthless camp counselor. The coin flip could be a sign of a team that just can't get out of their own way of UpTight Rules. I may be now more in the camp of loose, not tight. Loosen up. "Trust the Force" like that. Just go with it. Quit bogging down over-thinking everything.
"So.... yes, there appear to be some problems... coaching or young players? " 20 Seniors, 15 Juniors. I count 35 upperclassmen after the purge. It's the coaching. As to the ballyhoo about the offensive line, we have talent. As has been seen in the past with Watson at Colorado, Nebraska and Louisville, his offensive lines are stuffed by good teams because of his offense. It will get no better as long as we are in this offense. When the defense knows what is coming, good teams and average teams will stuff the run and sit on the pass routes. 7 points against BYU and 17 points against UCLA. Our line, QB, receivers and running backs are better than 17 points against UCLA and 7 points against BYU. The coaching cost us both games.
Sumlin took over a 6-6 team (program) that had I think a two-year history of blowing double-digit halftime leads. Took that program in year one with the initial move to the SEC, to a 10-2 regular season record and a bowl win, and a Heisman trophy. Lost his OC after that first year, went 8-4 in regular season the second season, but no real drop off in offense, and now off to a good start with a new QB doing as well or better than the other QB. So no problem with offensive coordinators there. Bob Stoops seems to keep right on trucking with a fast-moving, well run offense, regardless of OC changes. Why wasn't the Texas hire predicated on Texas having the most competitive offense in the land? Even THE offense of all offenses? Why wasn't that THE priority of the hire?
Brad, You really need to ease up on Shawn Watson.. He obviously is a lot smarter than any of the fans for a couple of reasons. With the opportunity to run out the clock, he let Swoopes snap the ball with 20 seconds on the clock. Then he throws the ball eliminating another 40 second runoff. In the end, it didn't matter, but conventional wisdom at any level of football, dictates burn the clock. He is also smarter than any fan because he has a three year contract with The University of Texas making 3-4 times what he has ever made. Either he is that "smart" or our AD and Korn Ferry are NOT! So sit back and enjoy, because NO school is going to hire him, and we get to enjoying his play calling and wealth of football knowledge for three years.
Hu fan left out some facts about atm and sumlin. Sumlin came to a program that had perhaps the best O line in the country, and a QB who won the Heisman. Two O linemen were first round NFL picks. Johnny Football was a pretty nice player to inherit to start every offensive play. Our o line will be out manned every time we play an average to above average front seven. Our QB is good, it seems, but no Heisman candidate. Watson made mistakes in the last three minutes vs. ucla I think. But Strong has got this team playing tougher and better. And Watson's development of Teddy Bridgewater was excellent. I'm optimistic for the long term. And if Watson's offense doesn't show improvement then I'll be the first in line calling for an upgrade.
Just starting to sober up and plug back in after my Sat. night anger and complete disgust over the loss of a winable game. I too place most of the blame at the feet of the coaches. After the turnover - priority A is run as much clock as possible and priority A1 - find 3 plays that by themselves or cumulatively get you at least 1 first down. If you run the clock down between plays and get at least 1 first down, you leave them very little time and a long distance to get points IF you get a decent punt and decent coverage. You also significantly increase the chances you WIN the damn game. The play selection by Watson was predictable, we run the hurry-up offense - thus failing to run off much clock between plays - I was dumbfounded and yelling at the TV! 3 and out, the punt team unforgiveably kills us by giving up a 45 yard return and then Thomas bites and we give up the winning score... JUST F...... DISGUSTING!! Unfortunately, we are going to see more of this... it is going to be a long, long season folks.
Yeah. We could have run, what..a minute and a half more off the clock, gained three of four more yards? Then punted. After the long return, how long did they need to score? One play. Three of four seconds. So IMHO, that whole idea of coaches lost the game because they didn't run the clock down is moot. Special teams still need to tackle, defenders still need to defend. What if Swoopes keeps instead of hands off on the zone read play and runs free for a long gain or a touchdown? We had many chances to win or lose that game. The reason for the loss is simply players just didn't execute down the stretch. As coach said, they simply need to learn how to finish. On Watson: Do any of you remember Tyrone Swoopes from last year? From the spring game? How many of you had decided that this kid didn't have it and Heard should start instead? Don't hear from any of you now. Why can't we give Watson credit at least for Swoopes' development thus far? He actually looks like a quarterback...and he will get better. And another thing...I've seen the Big 12 competition and I'm NOT that impressed. So yeah, I believe we will get better, especially if those guys we're missing (especially Daje) gets out of Coach Strong's doghouse. And yes, I think we can win the Big 12. Staying positive. Hook 'em.
That decision to run hurry up w/ 4.5 minutes left leaves a bad taste. Shows the coaching staff is not as sharp as I thought...I was fully behind the staff and 100% patient until i saw that....these guys are clearly over their heads. That was bush-league
SA, I agree and disagree. Patterson knew exactly what he was getting - KornFerry! He was and remains clueless as to football and what Charlie Strong could or would be. Not a slam on Strong, just this will all land at Patterson's feet when Powers is no longer around to accept the abuse.
Viper, I have major issues with KornFerry and the way they "play the game". They got paid six figures by Bill Powers to get him the phone number of Steve Patterson, whose number was listed in information and on the ASU website. I realize that Bill had to "make it look good" while he was hiring Oliver Luck. Once Powers totally screwed that up, he hired Patterson a couple of hours later. Arranging an interview with a candidate wanting the job is not worth $150,000! Then Patterson pays KornFerry even more cash to get Strong to interview for the job. Was he KornFerry's only candidate? Was anyone else interviewed? Two people hired, both of whom would have crawled on their hands and knees to Austin to get the job, and The University pays through the nose for a bunch of Cali-prunia hacks to get them two phone numbers, both of which were listed. Not worth it. Yes, you can make a case that neither Powers nor Peterson had the experience of hiring at this level, but in each case, they had hundreds of knowledgeable people to call on for free. Did The University pay for anyone's expenses to get to Hartsfield to interview and offer Mack Brown? I like Bill, but Powers screwed this up and rushed to cover it up. Maybe you can get KornFerry to find a buyer for that apartment project on Beltway 8.
"If I could find a sheriff who so offends the people of Rock Ridge that his very appearance would drive them out of town! Wherever will I find such a man?"
