2010 Longhorns - A Look Back to Look Forward..

[beevomav]

Been shirking my duty..Lollygagging..or just plain lazy? Pick one, but it's past time for another addition of SWUB!

2010 was a lost season.

This from the Austin American:

In the fall of 2010, University of Texas football fans witnessed a horrific 5-7 season and one of the most extraordinary collapses of the second-winningest college program in history, triggering an intensive review by head coach Mack Brown and a nearly total makeover of his staff.

It all started with that damn loss to Alabama. You know the one where every Longhorn fan is convinced losing Colt McCoy cost us another National Championship? It's too bad Mack Brown didn't see the same thing. Over reacting to Alabama, in 2010 he installed an offense that the team was not prepared to run, and quit doing the things that great programs do to get better.

Make no mistake, 2010 was a hangover from the Alabama loss. One ex-Longhorn player was quoted on that infamous season.

"UT was just unprepared for the 2010 season. Coaches and players alike."

A lot of people point to the 2010 close win over Rice as a warning sign, but there were other warnings that were ignored. After this failed season Mack was quoted:

"I felt like I had a hangover after the national championship game, and I don't know if I've ever taken a loss as hard," Brown said. "I don't think I did a good job of coming back out of it and getting a spark and getting the energy back to where I needed it to be, and I didn't realize it. I just pouted for a while, and when you're pouting at 13-1 that's pretty stupid."

Mack would later admit he thought the program was bullet proof. Never was this more evident than the Iowa State game. Before the game coach Brown told the team:

"Oklahoma just beat these guys 52-0," Brown told them, according to a source who heard the lines. "We have to match that. We have to make a statement."

They did make a statement. Losing 28-21 and scoring only a field goal in the first half makes a statement. A statement that the team was not very talented and the coaching staff got lazy and arrogant. Brown even told the team that "it's a given we win this game."

The culprit was the insistence on dumping one of the most prolific spread offenses to go with a power running game, with no power runners. No offense to Tre Newton, but he didn't exactly strike fear in the hearts of our opponents.

How many listened to the coaches that raved about Garrett Gilbert hadn't thrown an interception all spring? Then he goes out and throw 5 against Kansas State.

Vince Young used to rally the players by writing on the black board:

Meet me at 6:30 if you want to beat Ohio State.

Colt McCoy used to knock on the door of young receivers in the summer to get them out to work out. None of that happened with Garrett Gilbert. This from Mack Brown on his 2010 team:

"They weren't in shape when they got here," Brown recalled recently of the 2010 class. "And they didn't get in shape in the summer. They relaxed and enjoyed their spring and came in out-of-shape and weren't ready to play."

"The blame goes straight to Mack Brown. a former Longhorns quarterback said. "Players and coaches sensed that Mack was preparing to ride off into the sunset, possibly to TV, and that the ride was over.

Consider this Mack rant after the Iowa State Loss.

"This team is '07 all over again," Brown told the media that Saturday of the defense-challenged, 10-3 season three years earlier. "You don't ever know who's going to show up, and it scares you to death."I'm fighting my guts out to get 'em turned. You've just got to stay after them every day. You can't trust your team. You can't trust your coaches when they're not getting things ready to go."

One guy who was not happy was Will Muschamp. He fumed after Mack Brown called out the team and coaching staff, and all the while acting like he was alone in fighting for the team. He was not available for comment after being called out by the head coach, but the word was he was mad the entire season and became detached.

He also grew tired of the "Head Coach in Waiting" crap, and although he never spoke out it, according to many, he fumed at the talent evaluation and thought the coaching staff had done a poor job of evaluating recruiting prospects at offensive line, receiver and running back.

Muschamp also was said to be furious on how Coach Brown went out of his way to heap praise on running backs coach Major Applewhite. Brown would go so over the top about Major. To the point that to some it became an embarrassment.

A few people didn't get the message about 2010. Consider these quotes.

"I'm so proud of Mack," said UT President William Powers Jr., who attended every game, home and away. "This is a frustrating year for him. He rolled up his sleeves and re-energized the program. I think we've come out of this the way people ought to come out after a tough season."

Proud? Then DeLoss chimed in:

Added men's athletics director DeLoss Dodds: "A little humility is not bad, and change is not bad. You get something out of that."

After that horrendous season, Mack went to work. He studied every game tape and made wholesale changes. Old coaches were gone and in came Daiz and Harsin. Then Harsin left and in comes Major Applewhite. Yes the same guy who Coach Brown praised during the 2010 season.

2010 record 5-7

2011 record 8-5

2012 record 9-4

Some times it helps to look back and get some perspective on where we have been and where we're going. I am optimistic on the 2013 football season. I see a double digit win season and am encouraged by the return to an offense that got us a national championship and an injury away from two.

I like the players, the coaches and the University of Texas.

 

[UTK66]

Good stuff Beev. Mack changing the offense to a power run team was the down fall, along with the entitlement of the coaches and players. It's turning around, just not as quickly as we would've hoped.