I am still appalled at Texas not showing up hosting UCLA. This was nothing compared to that whitewashing Texas took in 1997 or so, when they lost 66-3 (or whatever it was), but this was damned sad. I think a lot of people now really aren't sold on Texas and think Oklahoma will just run over Texas like a big rig truck on a rampage.
Don't think so. Oklahoma isn't that great either. They've been having trouble with some teams that aren't very good.
As a big longhorn fan I've been very worried about this season, and none of our first three games put that worry to bed for me (obviously game 4 validated the concerns). We're struggling right now with some bad offensive coaching. Greg Davis, and Mac McWhorter are pretty much killing us. Garret Gilbert obviously has an arm and, despite being young and making some rookie mistakes, can win games for us. We've got some OK receiving threats and are developing some new talent (Davis). We've even got some ok running backs (Newton and Whittaker). But our o-line is sloppy, extremely sloppy, and it almost cost us the game against Texas Tech. Another big issue with the o-line is the inability to open holes for the run game.
This is a team that hasn't done anything but pass protect since 2003. Our running game was Vince Young, and it was Colt McCoy. We'd pass protect for those guys, and if nobody was open, they'd scramble for a decent run. It kept the defense honest, and opened the pass. No matter what play was called, they had to be ready for a scramble. Our o-line developed some good pass protecting (and they still are decent at that), but we stink at run blocking.
We've been lulled into complacency in a lot of areas and I'm hoping that the UCLA loss will kick our coaches in the teeth and get them to take things seriously again. I don't see a big problem on defense - Muschamp is more than capable of fixing our problems against the run, but it's going to be a tougher job since our offense can't simulate a good running team for them in practice.
Bottom line, our offensive coaches have failed to adapt to the kinds of athletes they have, and have gotten entirely too spoiled by seniors who know how to play disciplined football, and forgot to instill fundamentals.
I'm not sure we have problems that can't be fixed in one week (playcalling specifically) - at least fixed well enough to beat Oklahoma. But it all depends on how our coaches react. If they don't diagnose the problem correctly, don't take this to heart, decide that UCLA is underrated or something similarly stupid, we could end up with the same crappy philosophy against OU and we will lose badly.
It will be interesting to see where Boise St is ranked on Monday following Bama's loss. I think they probably won't move at all.
