One year ago to the date (see blog post below) I wrote that it was time for the Texas Longhorns to part ways with Mack Brown. To be more specific, I stated that from a win-loss perspective, the Texas Longhorns can’t afford to have Mack Brown as their coach. Since their last national championship appearance in 2009, the Longhorns are 25-18 overall and 13-15 in conference (not including yesterday’s win). And during this same time period, Texas A&M has re-surged on the back of a quarterback that Mack Brown passed on.
The Texas Longhorns are losing the war for the state of Texas to the A&M Aggies and General William Mack Brown is a sleep at the wheel!
Admittedly, I have been one of Mack Brown’s biggest detractors during his most recent struggles. I can list countless issues I have with him till I am blue in the face, the biggest of them being his inability to rally a group of 4 and 5 star recruits to achieve their full potential especially against their biggest rival Oklahoma. But today I am stopping for a moment to give him some serious credit for yesterday’s performance.
All week long, Mack was defiant when asked about his future, even going as far as to guarantee that he was not going to be fired from Texas. He was adamant that his Longhorns still had everything to play for and his team was going to get this ship righted (i.e. win the Big XII championship and play for a BCS bowl). He was also very bullish on his team’s chances in the Red River Rivalry game against Oklahoma.
I’d be a liar if I said that I believed him and I’d be lying if I told you that I believed the Longhorns had much of a shot heading into yesterday’s game with the Sooners.
They hadn’t really given me a reason to believe that they were going to be good enough defensively to stop the Sooners run game and Thursday’s last minute victory against Iowa State on the road did little to change my mind. Vegas odds makers seemed to agree with me, listing the Horns a two-touchdown underdog against the Sooners.
But then Saturday, October 12, 2013 happened…. The Longhorns shocked the Sooners with a 36-20 victory in Dallas. And to be fair, they dominated Oklahoma on both sides of the ball. To borrow a line from Burnt Orange Nation: “Texas thoroughly whipped OU up and down the field, on both sides of the football, from start to finish.” The stats of the game do not lie: of the 82 total plays ran by the Longhorns, 60 of them were rushes for a total of 277 yards. The Horns played old fashioned grown man ground and pound offense. And their defense stepped up in a way we haven’t seen since 2009.
But then Saturday, October 12, 2013 happened…. The Longhorns shocked the Sooners with a 36-20 victory in Dallas. And to be fair, they dominated Oklahoma on both sides of the ball. To borrow a line from Burnt Orange Nation: “Texas thoroughly whipped OU up and down the field, on both sides of the football, from start to finish.” The stats of the game do not lie: of the 82 total plays ran by the Longhorns, 60 of them were rushes for a total of 277 yards. The Horns played old fashioned grown man ground and pound offense. And their defense stepped up in a way we haven’t seen since 2009.
Maybe it was Mack Brown’s “Hulk Hogan” like performance the night before that inspired his Horns to show up and play in all three phases of the game:
Whatever it was, Mack Brown and his Longhorn players ignored the media and so-called pundits like myself, showed up and simply played great football on Saturday. They ended their three-year losing streak to Bob Stoops and the Sooners and in the process bought Mack some much needed time … At least for one more week.
So with that I say congratulations to William Mack Brown and the Texas Longhorns for a world class performance on Saturday. You circled with wagons, thoroughly whipped your biggest rival, and have set yourselves up for a chance at something bigger.
