Maryland at Texas

[BrownCounty]

It was cute when you initially denied this a few years ago.

I never denied it without a tongue in cheek.

[Mr Tulip]

Sounds like Herman needs to take them on a corporate retreat and do some trust falls.  
Did those from a 6 ft platform on a youth retreat one time.  Scared the hell out of me.  

The problem isn't the actual trust. The problem is muscle memory. When the going got tough, they panicked and resorted to what they knew - which was, well, to panic. 
The great thing is, muscle memory works both ways. Those Texas teams that got down to oSu by like 50 points in the 1st half only to storm back and win knew they wouldn't lose even when they had no right to expect not to. They never really lost before. They just did their job and waited for the breaks to even out. Luckily, that usually happened with enough time left. 
Trying to turn losing muscle memory into a winning one? That's where great coaches earn their money.

[BrownCounty]

Trying to turn losing muscle memory into a winning one? That's where great coaches earn their money.

Muscle memory.  Who knew?

[CharleyHorse46]

I was hopeful Texas would do better.  I was hopeful that Tom Herman and his staff would be able to assess their players and put the best on the field in schemes to exploit their strengths and mitigate their weaknesses.

Instead it looked like none of the Texas coaches had ever seen any of the Texas players on film.

I can understand forgiving the past and not looking back if you're in a romantic relationship.  Who wants to think about their little angel having once sucked somebody else's johnson?

But football teams are different.  Glaring weaknesses, tendencies and inabilities are something coaches need to be aware of.

I hate system coaches.  Mackovic was a system coach.  He took a team two years removed from the Cotton Bowl and a 10 win season and we had to sit on our hands through 1992 and 1993 while he hammered square pegs into round holes and waited for "his players" to run "his system."

When Mack Brown was successful it was because he was adaptable enough to build his schemes around his talent - running with Ricky, Benson and Young, while passing with Major, Simms and Colt.

Ironically, it was when he stopped doing that in 2010 and insisted on smash mouth football with spread players that everything came unglued.

I could harp all day about how Herman seems to be putting the wrong people in the wrong schemes but I'll just say two things.

1. Forcing a power spread with QB runs on Buechele is like ruining Major Applewhite by putting him in offense better suited for Vince Young than one better suited for Applewhite.

Is anybody surprised he's injured this week?

2. As Charlie Strong learned the hard way, you can't have our DL contain blocks and leave it to the LBers to make the tackles.  You have to cut the DL loose, let it penetrate and create havoc.

Last year if Texas did anything right on D, they penetrated to get sacks and TFLs.  

So this year we start off the season against the crappiest OL in the B1G and what happens?  We get exposed.

It's just pitiful to see the hubris of a coaching staff imposing its preferences in opposition to a team's abilities.  I honestly hoped we'd see good, smart, better coaching this year.

[longhorn320]

Good points CH

But like the saying goes youre never as bad as you think you are and

youre never as good as you think you are

I think we are a much better team then we saw last Saturday

I still think we have good coaches and they will make the changes needed

we are a very young team and just need more experience

[utee94]

Good to see you around, Slick.

Sadly I have to say I agree with every word you posted.

Not sure where we go from here, kids might be able to change their spots but I'm uncertain coaches can.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

[847badgerfan]

Not a fan of Hermie blaming the 4/5* kids for the failure. Fairy dust and all that. 9 months is a long time to get your shit together.

Big fan of Urban Meyer calling him out on it.

Hermie is supposed to be a great coach (he's paid as such). Great coaches win with superior talent, or even with lesser talent.

[longhorn320]

Not a fan of Hermie blaming the 4/5* kids for the failure. Fairy dust and all that. 9 months is a long time to get your shit together.

Big fan of Urban Meyer calling him out on it.

Hermie is supposed to be a great coach (he's paid as such). Great coaches win with superior talent, or even with lesser talent.

UM needs to worry more about his own house
He might have something to cry about after this Saturday

[847badgerfan]

We are actually in a discussion about Meyer on the B1G board. He is keeping a very clean house in Columbus - much more so than what was there before him and what he had in Florida.

You almost never hear a peep out of that place now, and when you do, a player is no longer with the program.

I've been impressed. I really thought he would bring the cesspool North.

[utee94]

I'm no great defender of Tom Herman right now, but the fairy dust comment was taken way out of context.  All Urbie did was take a shot at Texas and kick the program while it's down, in an obvious attempt to undermine our recruiting and make himself look better.  

He might not have as many criminals on his team these days but he's still a major a-hole.  I'm honestly quite surprised to see you defending him, bf.  You've got a B1G blind spot on this one, my friend.

[BrownCounty]

I'm no great defender of Tom Herman right now, but the fairy dust comment was taken way out of context.

So it wasn't just me...  Urban really spun Herman's words against him and Texas.  Did they split on bad terms or something?  What a richard.

[longhorn320]

My first take on the Meyer statement concerning TH was - man does this guy have a huge ego.

[847badgerfan]

He lit up Muschamp too guys, who also had it coming.

No B1G blinders with the Urb fellas. I couldn't stand him up until recently. There is no trouble in CBus anymore and that's on him. He cleaned it up.

Now, the previous guy.. yuck. I can't believe he's a school president right now.

[Mr Tulip]

You know how you say "I hate it when people..." when what you really mean is "I hate it when that person right there..."?

I think Meyer wanted a rejoinder to Muschamp's accusation that Meyer cut and ran leaving the Gators in a sorry state. He didn't want to just single him out, so used the whole "coaches who use excuses" and needed more than 1 as an example. 

Either Texas is the unluckiest team over the last 3 seasons (unlikely), the players stink (almost universally recognized as untrue), or the previous coaching staff had them doing things that lost football games. I'm going (largely) with the last option. Herman just pointed out that it takes more than 9 months to fix that.