Akers was a fun coach to watch in a lot of ways. He could be maddeningly conservative and surprisingly innovative. He held his own against Switzer and then some but he didn't do too well in bowls. When you consider he coached against OU, A&M and SMU at possibly the very height of their egregious disregard for recruiting regulations, it's amazing he was as competitive as he was.
But for me, the biggest mistake of his career at Texas came on the Oklahoma 15 yard line in the waning moments of the rainy 1984 Oklahoma game with the Sooners up 15-12. He sent in Jeff Ward to kick a chip shot and tie it up.
Win or lose, he should have taken a shot at end zone.
Twenty years earlier, Darrell Royal took a similar chance. With 1:27 left to play against Arkansas and down 14-13, DKR opted to go for a two point conversion. It failed and Arkansas won. The Horns were the defending national champion and it was Texas' first loss in 16 games. The Razorbacks would go undefeated that year and Texas would beat the National Champion Alabama in the Orange Bowl 21-17.
Texas could've settled for a tie on October 17, 1964 but they didn't. When asked about it afterwards, Royal quipped, "I play to win."
That became a source of great pride for Texas fans but on October 13, 1984 with #1 ranked Texas riding a 14 game winning streak against #2 ranked Oklahoma, Fred Akers, an otherwise seemingly good man, lacked the balls to play to win.
He settled for the tie. He settled for mediocrity. He sealed Texas' fate for next 14 years.
Texas lost four of its next eight. Within two years Texas had its first losing season in 30 years. It was the first of five Texas would endure over the next 12 years.
It was a sad, sad, terrible fate.