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I like Charlie. A lot.

TeamMayhall said:
Random note:

JGray might fall at first contact every time he carries the rock, but he can block his tail off
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Good observation ... I think it is obvious that he is not the same player as he was before his achilles' tendon tear.  That injury has ended the career of many a player.  It is a testament to his "want to" that he has been able to rehabilitate himself to where he can play as well as he does.

 
BudreauReye said:
Good observation ... I think it is obvious that he is not the same player as he was before his achilles' tendon tear. That injury has ended the career of many a player. It is a testament to his "want to" that he has been able to rehabilitate himself to where he can play as well as he does.
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Yes sir. I agree

 
TeamMayhall said:
Yes sir. I agree
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You know ... I have been a Longhorn fan since I was a kid in the fifties and sixties.  I was lucky enough to go to The University in the late sixties/early seventies.  Somebody said on another thread that we are not who we think we should be.  Well ... as much as I hate to admit it, that really does describe our present situation.  I have no doubt that this current anomaly shall be short lived.  In the meantime, I shall enjoy every example of Longhorn excellence that I can find.  Our running back, Mr Gray, is one of those examples of perseverance that represents what we think the Longhorns should oughta be.  Remember that these cycles affect every college football program.  We should be thankful that ours tends to gravitate toward the top.     

 
I ran across this while perusing the web this morning.  This is someone who gets it.  I am certainly bookmarking this blog site - The University of Texas Edition of THE FOOTBALL BRANIACS.

Linky

"Why Winning (Right Now) Shouldn’t Matter

By: Super K Posted on: September 30, 2015

Everyone wants to win…now. Most fans from most fan bases recognize that when change happens winning may not be immediate. But what most fans want to see is a reason to be optimistic for the future. Folks looks for clues that may indicate future success. The most obvious indicator is winning. It’s common to believe that if you win today more than you won yesterday then you’ll probably win even more tomorrow. But that isn’t always true. And perhaps more importantly in Texas’ case, losing today doesn’t mean Texas will lose tomorrow.

When scouting talent, there are good scouts and not so good scouts. In my own experience, the not so good scouts aren’t good at noticing the details that give hints about a players future success or failure. They obsess over generalities like…is he explosive? Is he tall? Is he fast? And even in answering those questions they often can’t answer those questions in a way that is a meaningful indicator about how those qualities will translate to the next level in that particular athlete.

Texas fans are going to need to be good team scouts real quick.

In last weeks game, the announcers said the stadium was only 60% full. The AD was just forced out. The refs weren’t kind (to put it mildly) to Texas. Strong’s special teams unit is breaking his back right now. And Texas has a record of 1-3.

Boosters Millions

A very good friend of mine here in Texas is very well connected all over the country. He knows money people…he knows coaches…he knows players…he knows a lot of people. He called me earlier yesterday and proceeded to tell me something that, while I can’t validate myself, I have no reason to doubt. I’ll tell you why I don’t doubt it. Then I’ll tell you what he said.

When coach Strong was hired there was some opposition from the ever important booster crew at Texas. As most of you know, one prominent booster was particularly critical of the hire. In my experience (especially in the football world) people tend to want to prove themselves right. So I’ve long been under the assumption that whether it’s the particular booster that came out against Strong or the boosters behind the scenes that weren’t happy about the hire, it was a matter of time before some folks would try to prematurely end the Strong era.

So when my friend told me that there is currently a group of money folks who are quietly gathering support behind the scenes in order to ensure that, not only is Strong’s stay in Texas is brief (I mean VERY brief), but also that they can fund and hand-pick the next coach at Texas, it came as no surprise to me. For the record, he did not divulge who the boosters are.

Will Strong win this season? Will he win next season? I obviously can’t say definitively. But should Strong’s current record help the opposition party garner support? I don’t personally think so but if the losses continue to mount, it very well might.

More to the Story

If all the information one had to look at or all the information that mattered to a particular person was wins and losses, then you’d think things are moving in the wrong direction. And that doesn’t give the fan base much to be optimistic about. But for those who are paying closer attention and don’t have an agenda one way or another, the wins and losses this season don’t tell the full story and I don’t believe the final record this season will either.

Why? Here’s a few reasons.

– Bad Luck Runs Out:

A few calls go his way and Strong would already have a win over a top 25 team. Two special teams blunders don’t happen and he is perhaps 3 and 1 with two wins over current top 25 teams and his lone loss is against a current top 10 team (when they were at full strength). Luck, good or bad, runs out. Don’t be surprised if Charlie’s squad ends up beating someone this year that they aren’t supposed to beat

.

– Strong is Tough:

But even more important than what the record “could†be, is how Texas is playing the game.

Back when I was young and perhaps a little dumber, I was a pretty good amateur boxer…athletic, good defense, good instincts. And since we didn’t have a ton of guys in our area that were in my weight class I often fought exhibitions with guys much bigger than myself. There was one guy who would frequent our gym that people hated to fight. He was similar to me in that he was a light weight fighter…we were both good defensive fighters…both long limbed…both explosive. But he had something that very few people have…an unbreakable will. You didn’t want to fight him because you knew either he was going to hurt you or you were going to have to dang-near kill him to make him quit. As amateur fighters, that really wasn’t our MO. Most of us just want to score.

I know a lot of Texas folks may not like to hear this but for a long time Texas was seen as a soft, country club-type program. You got the sense that if you hit Texas in the mouth, they’d drop. Strong made it clear he’s not that kind of guy and he doesn’t want that type of player. On the night of Texas vs. Cal game, for the first time in a while, Texas was the scrappy guy in the fight. The guy who wouldn’t quit. The guy that you felt like you had to dang-near kill to make him quit. To me, that’s valuable and is a metric worth considering when trying to determine how successful this coach will be if given time.

– Willingness to Change:

I know there are a lot of people that were critical of Strong’s decision to keep Watson. But let’s be fair about this. The man was in the trenches with Strong for years and they had success together at Louisville. What does it say about Charlie as a man, as a coach, as a friend, as a boss if after one year he replaces him? If nothing else, it would tell me…I’m not working for that guy. So Strong trusted him. And as soon he saw the rest of the “fool me once shame on you…fool me twice…†saying playing out, he made a change. He elevated Jay Norvell (which by the way looks like a brilliant hire right about now) to OC. He did it so fast that it almost seems like Charlie intentionally went after a guy like Norvell as a potential contingency plan. Charlie isn’t a stubborn guy. He obviously didn’t get everything right immediately. But, coming into the wild wild west (AKA the Big 12) it’s hard to know who the right guys are. It’s a world with no rules. No code of ethics. No standard run downs. You can get shot on 3rd and 1 or 1st and 10.

– Youth:

Texas fans are sick of hearing about how young Texas is. I get it. The old regime lived by that sentiment. So much so that the excuse lost any form of substantive meaning. But I’m hear to tell you, Texas is young and that means something! We aren’t talking red-shirt freshman and sophomore young. We are talking true freshman at critical positions like OT, CB and LB! Most folks cannot appreciate how difficult it is early on for true freshman regardless of their talent. It’s common to hear folks say, “young people have difficulty adjusting to the speed of the game.†You might think that means, the actual speed of the players and to some degree that’s true. But what it often means is speed at which you need to process information such as changes in alignments and calls from the other side and changes in calls and technique from your side.

In college, a cornerback can be as fast as he wants, if he opens the gate early, if he can’t control space, if he can’t widen a receiver on a go or keep him parallel on a slant, he’s done. It takes time to learn those techniques and then get enough repetitions to make them second nature so that the player goes back to doing and not thinking. You saw an example of a bust by Malik Jefferson last weekend in quarters coverage where he had to pick up the #2 receiver on an inside route. Can he physically or athletically pick up that guy? Sure. Did he? No. Why? Again, you’re getting all these calls and the other team is going so fast (again, the Wild Wild West) your brain sometimes doesn’t process it.

Despite that youth, Texas is fighting and they’re turning games against good teams (3 of the 4 are undefeated) into bar brawls and they’re landing plenty of punches.

– Defense:

There are a lot of good offensive coaches. Especially nowadays. There are very few good defensive coaches. More than that, there are very few head coaches that take defense as a point of honor. Everyone loves a win but for me personally, I love defense and I’m always impressed by coaches who clearly feel that part of their brand identity and their honor is built on playing defense. It doesn’t always work out but they never stop searching after that great defense…even if they’re winning.

Strong strikes me as one of those guys. He adjusts quickly and he plays aggressive. He has fielded one of the few defenses that slowed (nearly to a halt) the Baylor offense. Last year he was primarily a cover 3 guy. This year, with some inexperience at the CB and LB positions, he shows a pre-snap 2 high look that ends up being quarters, man 1 or cover 0 most times and then sends the wolves up front. This past weekend, once a certain CB was pulled and Texas started run blitzing, Oklahoma State really struggled to put together much on offense. In fact even in the first week against Notre Dame, many of the defensive struggles came from personnel issues. You’ll recall Texas trying to play 2 man under on third and long multiple times only to have a particular cornerback unable to control space and give up the completion. They then attempted to address that by having him play a cover 2 technique and the young underneath LBs didn’t widen. But they’re starting to put things together and they’re giving everyone a shot to prove they can succeed on the field.

I say all that to say this, a team can always find a good offensive coordinator to come in and get the offense right. But finding a defensive guy that understands how to adapt in this league is very difficult.

Wrap-Up

The point of this post is pretty simple. Most times a record tells you the story but in the case of this season for the Longhorns, I don’t think it will. To find the truth, folks will have to look deeper. Just my opinion."
 
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Here is another blog from one of the free sites ... Burnt Orange Nation.

Linky

 "Belldozer-like package providing opportunity for Texas QB Tyrone Swoopes

By Wes Crochet @WesKCrochet on Oct 1, 2015



 
 

Perceived as an afterthought, a former starter now is back on the field thanks to new play caller Jay Norvell.


What seems to have been lost a bit in all of the post-game commotion regarding penalties, special teams woes, premature coaching-search talks, etc. this past week has been the way in which Texas Longhorns head coach Charlie Strong, play caller Jay Norvell, and the rest of the offensive staff deployed a could-have-been forgotten man, Tyrone Swoopes, the junior who began the season as the team's starting quarterback.

After a dismal start to the season in South Bend, combined with the redshirt freshman Jerrod Heard's splash onto the quarterback scene the following week, most of us were ready to put Swoopes on the shelf and let the dust begin to collect. But, to Strong and the staff's credit, they had other plans.

First, some background -- earlier this week, I was contacted by a former Texas athletic great. For now, I'll leave the identity of the former Longhorn athlete anonymous, though, I will say he was part of a National Championship team during his time at Texas.

During our time on the phone, we skimmed over a few different topics; one being that we both agreed it was very much too early to start closing the book on the Strong era at Texas. But while discussing Strong and his situation with his team, we naturally progressed to the quarterback position.

As we began talking about quarterbacks, the Longhorn alum highlighted the fact that Strong is seemingly a loyal coach who also tries to get the best from his athletes. Though loyalty can sometimes have a negative effect in certain situations (see former play caller Shawn Watson), loyalty can also create another chance for someone to find success in the right situation.

The more we learn about Strong, his strengths, and his ambitions as a coach, the more evident it is that he (with the help of his staff) will work to try to get the most out of his players by highlighting what those players strengths are and what they can bring into a game. The best example from last season was wide receiver John Harris. And this season, senior wide receiver Daje Johnson has become the main subject of that story.

But another example that could continue to develop before our eyes each week is the way the Strong and his staff deployed Swoopes against the Oklahoma State Cowboys.

After benching Swoopes for Heard, Strong and his staff simply could have left Swoopes on the sideline as an afterthought. Instead, Swoopes was deployed in a Belldozer-type roll at quarterback against Oklahoma State that the staff installed during the week of practice leading up to the game. And it appears that the "Swoopesdozer" (for lack of a better name) is here to stay.

If the series looks familiar to Texas fans, it's because it's the same look that Norvell used at Oklahoma to help Blake Bell score four touchdowns on 11 carries back in 2012. Here are the two plays the Horns used in the package last weekend:

It's pure, smash-mouth football that forces an opponent to win blocks at the point of attack or give up first downs. Or touchdowns, as the case may be.

Regardless of how you personally feel about Swoopes, deploying him in this type of role is a smart move. Walk with me as I discuss my thoughts below.

1) This allows the Longhorns to add another wrinkle to their playbook. Having a big quarterback back there, like Swoopes, forces the defense to defend against a different running style than the quick and elusive Jerrod Heard.

2) Used in the right situation, the Longhorns could also catch a defense off guard and use Swoopes' strong arm to throw a bomb to a streaking receiver on a run-fake or some form of a play-action play.

3) Having Swoopes out there to pick up some tough yards on the ground also a) gives Jerrod Heard a breather and B) reduces the amount of times he is getting hit in the open field (this helps, even if it's just a few plays each game). Listed at 244 pounds, Swoopes has about two inches and around 50 pounds on the current starter, so stopping him in an 11-on-11 situation with a jumbo package that includes an extra offensive tackle and all three healthy tight ends/H-backs is extremely difficult.

4) Deploying Swoopes successfully engages him back into the offense. And it instills confidence back into a quarterback that needed his confidence back (who at any point could still be called upon to take ahold of the starting job should Heard get injured).

Strong and his staff are not inventing the wheel with their new usage of Swoopes. We see this type of package across college football. But they are giving all of us more reason to believe that he and his staff will not give up on their athletes as long as they are willing to continue put forth the effort and put in the work.

With Swoopes, it's already paying off -- he looked more demonstrative after his three carries than at any other point in his career.

More than that, it's energizing for the team that Swoopes supposedly won over during fall camp.

'When he got those first downs and that touchdown, it was a really big spark for the team,' Heard said on Tuesday. 'I get so excited when I see him go out there and run everybody over. It's exciting for us.'

There's no question that Heard is still the man at quarterback. But used with the right frequency and in the right situations, a player many of us had written off will likely continue to be given the opportunity to make a positive impact in games the rest of the season."
 
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  BudreaueReye;

 Good read, but Charlie had a good DC who knew how to handle Big 12 defenses, and let him go. He needs to rectify that mistake and bring Greg Robinson back. If he wants to keep Bedford he should make him the DB coach. It sounds like Bedford is playing both ends against the middle. he wants the players to be physical and just play, but then he has them doing so much they have to think. Thinking is not good when you are on defense. Also Just running to the ball without keeping gap integrity opens you up to gapping holes and cutback lanes, which is what we are seeing in droves. Bedford is in over his head i the Big 12. It takes him too long to adjust, and b then we are half way through the season and have 2 or 3 losses, or we have given up 30 points by halftime...sheeeesh.... Granted our last two losses were ST blunders, but the fact our defense gave up so many points prior put us in a situation to lose with the blunders. Those blunders don't beat you if you are up 24 -14 or 40-21. We give up too many points and usually have terrible field position for our offense, due to the defense not being able to get off the field on third down until the opponent crosses the 50. The defense had a few takeaways the last game, so pat them on the back; but other than that we can't win a field position battle. Greg Robinson had good defenses at Texas even though he was under Mr SOFTY Mack Brown. Can you imagine his defenses under Charlie Strong !!!!!!!!?????

 
Hey, GBT!  I appreciate your comments.  In retrospect, I think that Coach Strong has made some mistakes in being too loyal to those coaches that he brought with him, but in all fairness, he inherited a dumpster fire and basically had to burn down the house to start over.  I am not qualified to get too critical in my thinking about football or any other sport.  My active involvement in football ended about forty seven years ago in high school.  I don't even consider myself a fan in the way that some folks are fans.  Shoot, I did not even buy any team associated apparel until maybe three years ago.

That being said, I have followed the Longhorns football team since the late fifties early sixties  . I haven't been to a football game since the mid eighties, but I HAVE had men's basketball season tickets for more than twenty years  and I have attended basketball games with regularity since Leon Black was coach.  I really do not follow any other sport except in passing.  I guess I see Longhorn football and basketball more as entertainment than anything else.

Maybe because of my own peculiar perspective, I tend to see things from a long view.  I do not get too excited if we lose a game or even have a losing season.  I just move on and look to things hopefully getting better.

Again, that being said, I do not want to see us go through a cycle of three coaches before things get turned around.  I think Coach strong should get at LEAST four years before anybody even thinks about about replacing him.  In addition, I think that our return to where most think we rightfully belong would be best served by having as little turnover on the coaching staff as possible.  Coach Watson will probably be gone after this season, even though history seems to indicate that he is a pretty good QB coach - it seems that to stay in that capacity would seem like too much of a demotion for most folks.  On the other hand I am very interested in seeing how the Norvell/Traylor regime works out on offense for the rest of the season, and in the pursuit of stability, I would be very happy if they do well, to see Coach Strong NOT bring in a new OC next year.  As far as I am concerned, the judge is still out on our defensive staff.  Just look at our two deep on defense - we are extremely inexperienced, yet we seem to be making strides on that side of the ball. Two words.  Two more years! ... Oops!  ;)

Your comments on Coach Robinson are well taken.  I was really impressed with what he did when he came in with such short notice in his last year here.  Maybe that situation could work ... maybe not.  I have a notion that it might not work out for similar reasons as to why some folks do not want Mack as AD.

As little as I know, I would be surprised if anybody is still reading this ... and if anybody IS, all I can say is that you have WAY too much time on your hands!  ;)   Bottom line for me ... I want to see what Coach Strong can do with four years of HIS recruits, and I think the best results can be had with minimal turnover in coaching staff, notwithstanding any tweaks needed at the end of the season.

Now, if you think that this a lot blather from a self professed Know Nothing ... well, you just wait till we start talking about basketball!  ;)

 
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