Charlie Strong blaming himself, not Mack Brown, for struggles at Texas
Would you look at that, panic has set in at Texas after all of one game.
Changes to the coaching staff, changes in the starting lineup. And the same stinking drama of years gone by.
Yep, it’s all Mack’s fault.
You want to blame someone, Texas fans? Blame Charlie Strong. Because that’s exactly who he’s blaming.
While Orangebloods are seething this week over former coach Mack Brown’s comments about the state of the program — and according to the narrative, not taking responsibility for Strong’s 6-8 record — let me explain what Strong told me this spring:
“You’re never going to hear me say the guy before me didn’t leave us anything,†Strong said. “We’ve got players here. It’s up to put them in position to win.â€
That’s why Strong eliminated the title of play caller from offensive coordinator Shawn Watson, and gave the job to Jay Norvell. It has nothing to do with players or what the roster looked like when Strong arrived in 2014 or what he thinks of Brown.
It’s what he thinks of Watson, one of his closest friends in the business. When you’re at the point where you’re demoting one of your own, it’s about your business — not what happened years ago.
When you’re at the point where you’re talking about starting over this week in practice, analyzing every part of the process of coaching and who can play for you and who can’t, it’s about you — not what happened years ago.
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The biggest problem at Texas isn’t Brown telling the San Antonio News-Express that he doesn’t feel responsible for Texas’ struggles, it’s that this current Longhorns coaching staff had 10 months in the offseason to find a way to play better on offense after last year’s atrocious effort.
And then played worse in Week 1 against Notre Dame.
That’s why Strong, while discussing the state of the team after one week, flatly said, “we can’t go through another season with a bad offense — no, that cannot happen.â€
Texas is bad on offense because Watson and the offensive staff thought they had a plan to change the fortunes of the unit, and nothing worked against a Notre Dame defense that, the last time we saw them, gave up 28 points and 436 yards to an LSU team that — if you can believe this — throws the ball worse than Texas.
The plan was to use more tempo, get more plays and expand the offense to include more quarterback run game and more of talented tailback Jonathan Gray — all in an effort to put quarterbacks Tyrone Swoopes and Jerrod Heard in better position to make plays and win.
Gray had eight carries, Swoopes and Heard combined for 12 and Texas ran 52 plays. That, everyone, has nothing to do with Mack Brown.
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So Strong sees what unfolds Week 1, and instead of blindly forging ahead, he makes a shocking change to let everyone associated with Texas football bathe in two undeniable things: he’s in control, and if it fails, blame him.
I ask you, Orangebloods, who doesn’t want a coach like that?
He’s not blaming Swoopes or Heard, and he’s certainly not blaming Brown. He’s blaming the guys he hired to run the offense, and because he hired them, he’s blaming himself.
“Things can always get fixed,†Strong said. “We have the players to get it fixed. If you didn’t have the players, then I’d say, yeah, you have issues. But we can get it fixed.â€
If they don’t, we’ll know whom to blame.
http://www.sportingnews.com/ncaa-football/story/2015-09-10/charlie-strong-texas-longhorns-football-record-struggles-offensive-coordinator-play-call
