Monday Press Conference

[Harrison Wier]

Charlie Strong and several players will meet with the media for the weekly Texas Football Press Conference at 11 a.m. CST on LHN. Follow me on Twitter @harrison_wier, as I will be covering it as it happens. After the press conference, I will post a recap with some thoughts added in. 

 

[texasdalton]

I can sum it up.

STRONG: i think we didnt play good football.

Reporter: are you going to fire bedford.

STRONG: i cant blame him for the entire defense for playing awful. Must be the players.

------------------------------

Strong isnt going to fire his friend just like he didnt fire Watson.

 

[texasdalton]

Fyi im still PISSED.

This team has so much potential but needs someone that has the balls to make the correct and tough calls.

 

[Bear19]

Fyi im still PISSED.

This team has so much potential but needs someone that has the balls to make the correct and tough calls.

I'm right there with you. When CS brought back Watson for year two I knew right then he was not the long-term answer. I hoped that was just an overreaction on my part but it was not.

 

[Royal 60]

You score 43 THE only reason you ever lose is your Defensive performance !

 

[Harrison Wier]

You all need to take a deep breath and calm down. The season is far from over. Coming into this season, everyone thought a 2-1 start was the best case scenario. Wait until conference play starts. Give Strong a chance to make some changes, even if they aren't ones you will see from the outside looking in.

 

[shotime73]

My thoughts exactly Harrison we ALL need to support our team. That game itself was a sign that if we haven't figured this s''''t out yet You cannot underestimate an unranked team. PERIOD. I said this awhile back that The needed to bring there A game against Cali. They will bounce back from this

 

[texbound]

Every year teams lose to teams with lesser talent because they either overlooked them, got cocky, or just had a bad night. Ohio State lost to a Virginia Tech team that had no business being in the game, especially in the horseshoe. They went on to win the National championship that year. It happens. This defense does need to be corrected, no doubt. However, it's much easier to fix a football problem when you have talent to fix it with. Just my 2 cents in being calm and rational.

 

[Bear19]

"You all need to take a deep breath and calm down."

That sounds condescending. I think each of us is quite capable of forming our own opinions, right or wrong.

 

[North Texas Golfer]

You all need to take a deep breath and calm down. The season is far from over. Coming into this season, everyone thought a 2-1 start was the best case scenario. Wait until conference play starts. Give Strong a chance to make some changes, even if they aren't ones you will see from the outside looking in.

You're right. Everyone did think that a 2-1 start was the best case scenario.

But that changed after beating ND. Then 3-0 became the best case scenario and 2-1 became a worst case scenario.

 

[tejasrulz]

 

[Randolph Duke]

You're right. Everyone did think that a 2-1 start was the best case scenario.

But that changed after beating ND. Then 3-0 became the best case scenario and 2-1 became a worst case scenario.

2-1 and having played good football is one thing. 2-1 with the defense having been massively exposed as incapable of slowing down any halfway competent passing attack is another issue altogether.

No UT secondary player on the roster has a working knowledge of the scheme the defense is running or where they are supposed to be on the field at any given moment, save and except when the team huddles.

There simply has been no player development whatsoever in the defensive secondary and, as typical, Charlie Strong was totally clueless to that fact until it has created a crisis and he may well have to fire the coordinator he put in charge.

Charlie is a great recruiting coordinator. As the head of a major college program, he has shown himself unable to assess the performance of his offensive coordinator, now unable to assess the performance of his defensive coordinator, unable to find a special teams coach and unable to show he understands game management.  He has a losing OOC record, a losing conference record, has delivered some of the most lopsided losses in the history of the program and he could go 25-0 from this point on and still barely match the long term winning percentage for the UT football program. Let's start talking facts. Charlie Strong ain't no thoroughbred.

 

[Sirhornsalot]

"You all need to take a deep breath and calm down."

That sounds condescending. I think each of us is quite capable of forming our own opinions, right or wrong.

I don't know Harrison, but I don't think he was trying to be condescending. At least I didn't take it that way.

He's just seeing things a bit differently than most of us, thats all.

There's still a lot of football left to play. It would be wrong of me to not give the team the benefit of the doubt and perhaps the Cal game is a turning point. Defensively, I'm not real confident in that statement but I'll go with it anyway. What else do I have to lose?

I think Harrison's statement was just a friendly gesture, reminder that this may be a small bump in the road. Except, this is a bye week and we left Cal on bad terms. So that "cheer up" thing never goes very well. lol

We'll all understand if you want to call him or me a "rat bastard" though. lol

 

[Sirhornsalot]

Aren't you glad you're not Florida State today? lol

 

[Harrison Wier]

"You all need to take a deep breath and calm down."

That sounds condescending. I think each of us is quite capable of forming our own opinions, right or wrong.

You are correct, you have the right to your opinion. I'm in no way trying to be condescending, just stating that there is a lot of football left to be played and Texas is still very much in the hunt for a Big 12 title.

 

[Randolph Duke]

I don't know Harrison, but I don't think he was trying to be condescending. At least I didn't take it that way.

He's just seeing things a bit differently than most of us, thats all.

There's still a lot of football left to play. It would be wrong of me to not give the team the benefit of the doubt and perhaps the Cal game is a turning point. Defensively, I'm not real confident in that statement but I'll go with it anyway. What else do I have to lose?

I think Harrison's statement was just a friendly gesture, reminder that this may be a small bump in the road. Except, this is a bye week and we left Cal on bad terms. So that "cheer up" thing never goes very well. lol

We'll all understand if you want to call him or me a "rat bastard" though. lol

The issue with Charlie is that the same problem that was unquestionably present with Shawn Watson seems to be present with Vance Bedford - Charlie failed to realize he wasn't getting the job done until it created a crisis within the program.

Mistakes are a part of sports. But the head coach making the same critical mistake repeatedly is not something you just laugh off. This isn't a one-game issue. It is a critical flaw in Charlie Strong's skill set. he brings in people he has a loyalty to and is unable to understand the individual is holding back the entire program and costing the players a chance to develop their potential. Charlie's loyalty should be to the players and to the program, not to the friends he hires.

Charlie is just in over his head. Other than his inability to evaluate the performance of his staff, I don't think Charlie shows good game management skills. Special teams suck and it seems Charlie has no plan to change that. These are problems that were evident in year one and still haven't been addressed. To claim the team wasn't ready to play because they wore sweats on the plane?! Are you kidding me? Charlie didn't have a clue how to get the team mentally prepared against UCLA in year 1 and he didn't do the job getting the team ready for Cal in year 3.

I will tell you what we will see for the rest of the season - a team that shows up for games unprepared to play, poor special teams, at least three more games when the defense gives up over 40 points, poor game management skills and more than a few instances when we realize what just happened to the Horns doesn't happen to well coached teams.

 

[Harrison Wier]

You're right. Everyone did think that a 2-1 start was the best case scenario.

But that changed after beating ND. Then 3-0 became the best case scenario and 2-1 became a worst case scenario.

I completely get that. I was in that boat as well. Sometimes, these losses happen. Instead of harboring on it, you have to move on. Now if the defense looks just as bad against Oklahoma State after having two weeks to prepare, that's a different story.

 

[Harrison Wier]

2-1 and having played good football is one thing. 2-1 with the defense having been massively exposed as incapable of slowing down any halfway competent passing attack is another issue altogether.

No UT secondary player on the roster has a working knowledge of the scheme the defense is running or where they are supposed to be on the field at any given moment, save and except when the team huddles.

There simply has been no player development whatsoever in the defensive secondary and, as typical, Charlie Strong was totally clueless to that fact until it has created a crisis and he may well have to fire the coordinator he put in charge.

Charlie is a great recruiting coordinator. As the head of a major college program, he has shown himself unable to assess the performance of his offensive coordinator, now unable to assess the performance of his defensive coordinator, unable to find a special teams coach and unable to show he understands game management. He has a losing OOC record, a losing conference record, has delivered some of the most lopsided losses in the history of the program and he could go 25-0 from this point on and still barely match the long term winning percentage for the UT football program. Let's start talking facts. Charlie Strong ain't no thoroughbred.

I tend to agree with a lot of this. Strong is not a good in game manager. The secondary being clueless is on the coaches. I'm not a X and O guy, but I never thought the 3-3-5 would work in the Big 12. It hasn't so far. I don't think you can change the scheme mid-season, but something must change.

 

[Harrison Wier]

I don't know Harrison, but I don't think he was trying to be condescending. At least I didn't take it that way.

He's just seeing things a bit differently than most of us, thats all.

There's still a lot of football left to play. It would be wrong of me to not give the team the benefit of the doubt and perhaps the Cal game is a turning point. Defensively, I'm not real confident in that statement but I'll go with it anyway. What else do I have to lose?

I think Harrison's statement was just a friendly gesture, reminder that this may be a small bump in the road. Except, this is a bye week and we left Cal on bad terms. So that "cheer up" thing never goes very well. lol

We'll all understand if you want to call him or me a "rat bastard" though. lol

Thank you for the support, sir. I've been that angry fan before and it does me no good. I'm just trying to see things rationally. We will see how it goes. Haha