In all fairness, he was probably fooled by the fact that we were playing against us all spring and fall, so we probably looked a lot better.
Watched the game. Then watched the post game on LHN. Ricky - "you (Strong) say we need to run the ball to win this game so you run your number one RB twice in the first half?" Pat T - "embarrassing loss, it looked the same as in the TCU game and Texas Bowl". Vince - "Swoopes was one the sideline hanging his head. Needs to be talking to the guys telling them we're going to be alright. But he didn't. This is embarrassing." Swoopes is not a leader, bench him. The DBs were awful. Played way off receivers, were chasing instead of running with receivers. I could go on but I have a meeting next April. Bright spots: Deja, Hager, Burt, Jefferson. I put Brecklyn in because of the attitude, just like his dad!
Sadly, I don't know that he was wrong. I didn't see anything from Heard that suggested he'd be any better.
I don't think we saw enough of him to know for sure. I KNOW I saw enough of Swoopes to know that in no way did he give us the best chance to do anything positive.
All I know about Baker Mayfield is that Mack Brown and Greg Robinson destroyed him in 2013. In fact, he did not score a single touchdown on us.
Heard got popped on his second snap and looked woozy. We need a tough qb. Swoopes admitted last year he is afraid of being hit, and apparently Heard can't take it either. Before I get bombarded with posts about how hard it is for these poor kiddos to get hit, that is part of the job and what you take on as being the Texas quarterback.
I am willing to give Heard a shot but I do not know what any QB could do with no offensive plan and an offensive line that has made zero progress. Swoopes's best option half the time was to abandon the play and run.... and he's not even as good as a runner as Garrett Gilbert. I still do not understand what our offensive plan even was.
I want to say something useful, but .... I wouldn't have thought that the coach interviews could make me feel worse, but they did. What Shawn Watson actually said was that Heard did not go back in because Swoopes was playing so well. Really? The only thing that could explain that (rationally) is that they are trying not to admit he had a concussion or something. Our highlights were: couple of good tackles; a single long pass that led to a FG; and... and... Just like the whole board here, I feel duped. I think Charlie Strong is going to be in more trouble sooner than I ever thought. We have no visible offensive scheme, or even plays. Haines was awful. If he can't be in position, why not play Colbert? Wow, so frustrating.
If I was a script writer, I'd have the line go ... Wondering how to go forward from here -- rhetorically: "Where do you start?"
Honestly, I just don't think the coaches want Swoopes or Heard. Neither are a good QB. I think the talent on this team is, sadly, well below what we have come to expect. If they were honest, I bet the coaching staff would admit they came into Texas, looked around, and said "this is it? Oh boy..." If Strong can go recruit a QB, I'd be ok giving him time to make it work. I do not believe Swoopes or Heard will win games for us.
'bout ready to quit for the night... leave on this... Would it be correct to say that Mack's success for the long stretch was that he had really good assistant coaches -- coordinators and position coaches? DKR did. The Campbell brothers, Zapalack, Emory Ballard... etc. Something about the right combo of assistants... like flavors of quarks. Right combo makes it all work. Just wondering...
You need a head coach willing to be a head coach. Not a coach that doesn't watch the offense because he's too busy yelling at the defense because he's pissed off. I saw Mack go yell at a group of players before, so I know head coaches will do it from time to time, but Strong seems to care MUCH more about the defensive side of the ball than the offensive side. My bet is that he really could give two shits about the offense. Which goes a long way in explaining why Watson is the OC.
Vance sucks, that I can say with assurance now. Defense supposed to be our strong point, and we suck complete ***.
Harsin - Boise State upsets Chris Petersen and Washington 16 -13 Applewhite - UH beats Tenn Tech 52 -24 Muschamp - Auburn beats Louisville 31 - 24, got close at the end because of 3 Auburn turnovers, but Auburn was in control the entire game. Auburn D also got an int, 4 sacks, and a defensive TD on a forced fumble recovery. Davis - Iowa beats Illinois St. 31 -14, passing - 221yds 8.8 y/a 1 TD 0 ints, rushing - 210 yds 4.8 avg 3 TD Robinson - San Jose State beats New Hampshire 43 -13, 186 total yards allowed
No question, and to me it's stupid for fans to keep talking about Heard not playing. He looked just like Swoopes, and it doesn't matter who the QB is with that abomination of an offensive line. And I don't care about Coach Strong not going over and talking or yelling at the offense, as if that really would have mattered. Was it going to make that soft offensive line that can't run block or pass protect play better, absolutely not.
Heard looked like he got hurt on the second play he ran where he ran to the right. Took a shot to the head it looked like.
Now I hate to differ because I also do not believe that we have a satisfactory QB on campus, but to be fair, Swoopes had had consecutive 3 and outs when Heard went in. With Heard, we promptly gained several first downs and were driving in the first series when Flowers got the big penalty which killed the drive, and then in the 2nd when he got hurt and left the game. Not saying he was great or the answer, but I do want to be fair here.
38-3 Prison rape and it could have been worse. We were out coached, outplayed, out schemed from the get go. Start with the OL not blocking, RB not blocking and pin the tail on the Swoopes. Sorry but he is not the leader the team needs, in this game - he was barely better than 2014 IMO.
If by "several" you mean "two." And part of that was that we actually had a couple of decent runs. Then look at Heard's next possession, which ended in him jumping around in the pocket until he was blasted at the goal line. I'm at a loss how Gray - supposed to be primed for a breakout - isn't taking more snaps. Is it really that important to play your 3rd-team running back and spell Gray when he's touched the ball eight times in the game??
He got the wind knocked out of him on a play which should have been a penalty because he gave himself up which mean the qb can't be touched but They said he was fine they just wanted to swoopes to play