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If true, interesting indeed
Having finally made the courtesy call to Mayflower for his best friend and best man, Greg Davis, Mack Brown says that he’s still in the midst of performing his post-mortem on the season.
Nobody expects him to share the autopsy report with us, or anybody else for that matter. That would violate the Bellmont Code of Omerta, however ephemeral we’ve shown it can be. Whenever the topic of 2010 comes up in interviews, the response will consist of the standard output from Bill Little’s Flotsam & Jetsam Dispensary.
“Life lessons were learned …”
The palace guard, perhaps astutely, assumes that the opiate of OC regime change will leave us all feeling like Elvis at a Dilaudid buffet. Everybody will either assume that the cancer has been removed or will be too focused on new innovations like involving the tight end in the passing game to even care.
But for the Cosmonauts, school is still in session on the abortion that was 2010. What you’re about to read will at times leave you feeling infuriated, enlightened, and at last, thankful that something is actually being done about it.
Mack can say whatever he wants about 2010 as long as he didn’t insult anyone’s intelligence by calling it a fluke, or even a series of explosive flukes that worked against us, aided by wind and a fired up bunch of guys that live to beat Texas. To his credit, he owned up to a shitty job on and off the field. It doesn’t happen often around here but it does happen.
Deals like this aren’t hallmarked by bad bounces, bad circumstances, or bad luck. Darrel Royal always said luck is what happened when preparation met opportunity. But what of disaster, coach?
Well, now we’ve got an idea. At the request of multiple key sources, we’ve been sitting on some sensitive information for over a week: insights provided to those sources from a few freshmen and sophomore players that tell us just how bad things really were at season’s end.
Here’s what we learned right after Turkey Day:
• The issues start with some friction between upper and lower classmen. The freshmen were universally concerned with the lack of leadership displayed by upperclassmen. When impressionable 18 and 19-year-old kids described their peers as having too much “entitlement” you have a recipe for disaster. Then you have the actual disaster when these younger players know that they’re more talented than the older guys playing ahead of them, yet they can’t seem to earn the coaches’ trust and crack the ironclad seniors-who’ve-bled depth chart.
• To give you an example: Is there any sane reason why Jordan Hicks didn’t get more PT after Acho was dinged? Especially after notching ten tackles in one half against Nebraska. What about the offensive tackles? You saw it and I saw it. Those guys were getting worked in practice by the second team. The problem is our opponents also saw it on film, but our unwillingness to self-evaluate while protecting upperclassmen instead of holding them accountable for mistakes made this team pretty damn easy to scheme against: Target the weak spots at OT, 2nd DT and Safety.
• The dissention amongst the coaching staff, young vs. old, offense vs. defense, had spilled into the open for the players to see after the Iowa State game. Most players thought that some of the assistants already knew they were gone and they acted like they didn’t give a damn in position drills, meetings, you name it. And it was evident to them that they weren’t all on the same page from the beginning, especially on offense.
• This will knock you on your ass but there was no real, coordinated game plan for A&M – at least not like we were used to. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t the first time the game plan didn’t seem to make sense, but Aggie week was just weird. Some thought it was because of the short week, but some of the upperclassmen knew better. In fact, no one on the offensive side of the ball was really involved in coaching that week except for one coach—Major. He ran the drills and busted his butt trying to get us ready, but he didn’t really have any help that we could see. It’s the main reason we thought the coaches figured they were fired.
• Some of the older guys were worried that ‘they were ruining Gilbert like they did Chris Simms.’ What confidence he started the season with eroded quickly as the season wore on. We had his back on the depth chart because he kept putting his body on the line taking some licks. But in the passing game, he displayed none of the confidence he showed prior to the season in workouts. Just an all around clusterfuck managing the QB position this year, highlighted by keeping Gilbert in the game in Manhattan after five picks because “Case wasn’t warmed up”. The good news is there is still plenty to work with provided Gilbert is given an actual scheme to execute as opposed to drunk dialing Greg’s phone book o’ bubble screens for third down salvation.
• The younger players started to ask themselves if they really learned anything this year or improved on the skills they brought to the 40 Acres. Some felt they had actually learned more in High School — pretty sobering stuff to hear for family, friends, fans, and potential recruits. Is this what it was like to play for Texas? Thankfully it itsn’t and the changes announced yesterday reflect that. And the kids are all excited about getting back to work in the Spring.
• Brown’s stature in the eyes of his players was damaged by going back on his message. Some of the freshmen and sophs felt like he was right to call the team out for a lack of effort and emotion at the beginning of the season, since that put the seniors and upperclassmen on notice. Then it seemed like he never backed his actions by replacing the problem guys.
• At the end of the season everyone looked to Muschamp for leadership in terms of position coaching. He was the anchor, and there was a fear of losing him. High caliber kids can tell the difference between coaches who are still hungry — Muschamp, Giles, Major, Akina — and the ones looking at the calendar for season’s end.
• Mad Dog is not well respected by a majority of the team. Some of our guys worked harder in High School, which is damning considering most Texas high schools don’t even have functional S&C programs. Guys would just time their workout to coincide with when Madden wasn’t there. Then they’d get someone to sign off on the workout without any real oversight. There weren’t enough upperclassmen that gave a shit to police this, so unless you were motivated to get stronger individually you skated by. Guys would even brag about it.
This didn’t happen with guys like Casey Hampton, Roy Miller, Brian Orakpo, and Lamarr Houston on campus. The leadership void was bigger than we thought. Counting on Gilbert to come in and be that guy without the defensive enforcer was shortsighted. Sam Acho is a good kid who gave his all on the field and will always be a great Longhorn but he was never going to be the enforcer on this team, making sure guys stay accountable in the weight room or film study.
• Something had to be done quick or there would have been big trouble on the recruiting front. All of those incoming kids have bonded with the freshmen. This is obviously the biggest red flag considering how fast this whole thing could disintegrate if there’s even a mini-exodus. The coaches staying onboard did a good job of reaching out to the 2011 kids and keeping them in the fold, and letting the 2012 guys that they’re badly needed to help get Texas back where it belongs. It’s easy to sell PT after going 5-7.
• Major and Muschamp have a very close relationship with the kids, genuinely care about how they’re doing, and work their ass off when things aren’t going well to make it better. Unfortunately we only had about 30% buy-in this year from the coaching staff and that bled over to the players. Those two guys and a couple others were the only ones that seemed to care towards the end. “We’d run through a brick wall for those guys.”
Truly eye-opening stuff. We were all set to run with this after just after Thanksgiving but then we got word of the ball starting to roll with the Regents meeting and the Athletic Council, and the rest, as they say, is history. Regardless of the timing, you can see something had to be done.
Say what you will about Mack Brown, but he hasn’t forgotten how to run a program and he’s a master at reading the feelings and emotions of his team. He knew changes would need to be made. Going 5-7 gave him carte blanche to make the tough changes and point to the season record as the reason. It actually helped separate his friendships from what just turned into a tough business decision. And he deserves some praise for actually making them.
Regardless of who we bring on at OC, don’t expect to see any empty suites around the 50 yard line come next September.
Keep the faith, disciples!
Recruitocosm.fantake.com is the site. Boy i butchered the spelling in the thread title lol
Having finally made the courtesy call to Mayflower for his best friend and best man, Greg Davis, Mack Brown says that he’s still in the midst of performing his post-mortem on the season.
Nobody expects him to share the autopsy report with us, or anybody else for that matter. That would violate the Bellmont Code of Omerta, however ephemeral we’ve shown it can be. Whenever the topic of 2010 comes up in interviews, the response will consist of the standard output from Bill Little’s Flotsam & Jetsam Dispensary.
“Life lessons were learned …”
The palace guard, perhaps astutely, assumes that the opiate of OC regime change will leave us all feeling like Elvis at a Dilaudid buffet. Everybody will either assume that the cancer has been removed or will be too focused on new innovations like involving the tight end in the passing game to even care.
But for the Cosmonauts, school is still in session on the abortion that was 2010. What you’re about to read will at times leave you feeling infuriated, enlightened, and at last, thankful that something is actually being done about it.
Mack can say whatever he wants about 2010 as long as he didn’t insult anyone’s intelligence by calling it a fluke, or even a series of explosive flukes that worked against us, aided by wind and a fired up bunch of guys that live to beat Texas. To his credit, he owned up to a shitty job on and off the field. It doesn’t happen often around here but it does happen.
Deals like this aren’t hallmarked by bad bounces, bad circumstances, or bad luck. Darrel Royal always said luck is what happened when preparation met opportunity. But what of disaster, coach?
Well, now we’ve got an idea. At the request of multiple key sources, we’ve been sitting on some sensitive information for over a week: insights provided to those sources from a few freshmen and sophomore players that tell us just how bad things really were at season’s end.
Here’s what we learned right after Turkey Day:
• The issues start with some friction between upper and lower classmen. The freshmen were universally concerned with the lack of leadership displayed by upperclassmen. When impressionable 18 and 19-year-old kids described their peers as having too much “entitlement” you have a recipe for disaster. Then you have the actual disaster when these younger players know that they’re more talented than the older guys playing ahead of them, yet they can’t seem to earn the coaches’ trust and crack the ironclad seniors-who’ve-bled depth chart.
• To give you an example: Is there any sane reason why Jordan Hicks didn’t get more PT after Acho was dinged? Especially after notching ten tackles in one half against Nebraska. What about the offensive tackles? You saw it and I saw it. Those guys were getting worked in practice by the second team. The problem is our opponents also saw it on film, but our unwillingness to self-evaluate while protecting upperclassmen instead of holding them accountable for mistakes made this team pretty damn easy to scheme against: Target the weak spots at OT, 2nd DT and Safety.
• The dissention amongst the coaching staff, young vs. old, offense vs. defense, had spilled into the open for the players to see after the Iowa State game. Most players thought that some of the assistants already knew they were gone and they acted like they didn’t give a damn in position drills, meetings, you name it. And it was evident to them that they weren’t all on the same page from the beginning, especially on offense.
• This will knock you on your ass but there was no real, coordinated game plan for A&M – at least not like we were used to. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t the first time the game plan didn’t seem to make sense, but Aggie week was just weird. Some thought it was because of the short week, but some of the upperclassmen knew better. In fact, no one on the offensive side of the ball was really involved in coaching that week except for one coach—Major. He ran the drills and busted his butt trying to get us ready, but he didn’t really have any help that we could see. It’s the main reason we thought the coaches figured they were fired.
• Some of the older guys were worried that ‘they were ruining Gilbert like they did Chris Simms.’ What confidence he started the season with eroded quickly as the season wore on. We had his back on the depth chart because he kept putting his body on the line taking some licks. But in the passing game, he displayed none of the confidence he showed prior to the season in workouts. Just an all around clusterfuck managing the QB position this year, highlighted by keeping Gilbert in the game in Manhattan after five picks because “Case wasn’t warmed up”. The good news is there is still plenty to work with provided Gilbert is given an actual scheme to execute as opposed to drunk dialing Greg’s phone book o’ bubble screens for third down salvation.
• The younger players started to ask themselves if they really learned anything this year or improved on the skills they brought to the 40 Acres. Some felt they had actually learned more in High School — pretty sobering stuff to hear for family, friends, fans, and potential recruits. Is this what it was like to play for Texas? Thankfully it itsn’t and the changes announced yesterday reflect that. And the kids are all excited about getting back to work in the Spring.
• Brown’s stature in the eyes of his players was damaged by going back on his message. Some of the freshmen and sophs felt like he was right to call the team out for a lack of effort and emotion at the beginning of the season, since that put the seniors and upperclassmen on notice. Then it seemed like he never backed his actions by replacing the problem guys.
• At the end of the season everyone looked to Muschamp for leadership in terms of position coaching. He was the anchor, and there was a fear of losing him. High caliber kids can tell the difference between coaches who are still hungry — Muschamp, Giles, Major, Akina — and the ones looking at the calendar for season’s end.
• Mad Dog is not well respected by a majority of the team. Some of our guys worked harder in High School, which is damning considering most Texas high schools don’t even have functional S&C programs. Guys would just time their workout to coincide with when Madden wasn’t there. Then they’d get someone to sign off on the workout without any real oversight. There weren’t enough upperclassmen that gave a shit to police this, so unless you were motivated to get stronger individually you skated by. Guys would even brag about it.
This didn’t happen with guys like Casey Hampton, Roy Miller, Brian Orakpo, and Lamarr Houston on campus. The leadership void was bigger than we thought. Counting on Gilbert to come in and be that guy without the defensive enforcer was shortsighted. Sam Acho is a good kid who gave his all on the field and will always be a great Longhorn but he was never going to be the enforcer on this team, making sure guys stay accountable in the weight room or film study.
• Something had to be done quick or there would have been big trouble on the recruiting front. All of those incoming kids have bonded with the freshmen. This is obviously the biggest red flag considering how fast this whole thing could disintegrate if there’s even a mini-exodus. The coaches staying onboard did a good job of reaching out to the 2011 kids and keeping them in the fold, and letting the 2012 guys that they’re badly needed to help get Texas back where it belongs. It’s easy to sell PT after going 5-7.
• Major and Muschamp have a very close relationship with the kids, genuinely care about how they’re doing, and work their ass off when things aren’t going well to make it better. Unfortunately we only had about 30% buy-in this year from the coaching staff and that bled over to the players. Those two guys and a couple others were the only ones that seemed to care towards the end. “We’d run through a brick wall for those guys.”
Truly eye-opening stuff. We were all set to run with this after just after Thanksgiving but then we got word of the ball starting to roll with the Regents meeting and the Athletic Council, and the rest, as they say, is history. Regardless of the timing, you can see something had to be done.
Say what you will about Mack Brown, but he hasn’t forgotten how to run a program and he’s a master at reading the feelings and emotions of his team. He knew changes would need to be made. Going 5-7 gave him carte blanche to make the tough changes and point to the season record as the reason. It actually helped separate his friendships from what just turned into a tough business decision. And he deserves some praise for actually making them.
Regardless of who we bring on at OC, don’t expect to see any empty suites around the 50 yard line come next September.
Keep the faith, disciples!
Recruitocosm.fantake.com is the site. Boy i butchered the spelling in the thread title lol