First of all, Mack, don’t invite UCLA back to Austin. Second of all, fire Greg Davis and Mac McWhorter. This offense has too much talent to be this bad, and there needs to be some accountability.
And given the number of Longhorn players with hands on their hips early in the game, it may be time for Mad Dog to go as well.
The offense was bad from top to bottom, but it starts with the coaching and play calling. I lost count of how many third down plays resulted in passes just short of the first down. This is pop warner crap. In real football, you run patterns that are long enough for the first down.
There were too many sideways plays, the offensive line blocked worse than my 1987 LBJ Jaguars, the running backs fell down at first contact, and the receivers dropped everything thing that came their way. The Longhorns managed to record 349 yards of total offense, but shot themselves in the foot with an interception and four fumbles.
It’s too early to start referring to Gilbert as Chris Simms, as some are wont to do, but he’s not progressing the way we’d like. He’s staring down his receivers, and it burned him on the interception before the half.
Special teams wasn’t much better. One of the basic rules of punt returns is that your returner plants his heels on the ten yard line. If the ball goes over your head, so be it. Curtis Brown put his heels on the five before the punt, backed up to catch it, and then fumbled it over to UCLA.
In fact, that was the only punt return we were able to attempt, out of four punts by UCLA.
The good news is that the defense was only mediocre. They actually played a decent first half, although they were clearly wearing down towards the end of the second quarter. The offense and special teams simply put them in a bad position too many times.
That first drive of the second half was all quit, though. They destroyed us on that series, and Muschamp’s boys never recovered.
And how pathetic is it for Blake Gideon to talk smack after running someone out of bounds after they go for a first down, when you’re losing by three touchdowns. Not much to be proud of there.
It’s never a good thing walking out of DKR-TMS listening to the victory chants of your opponents, although the yells of “Beat SC” were amusing on a number of levels.
It’s going to be a long season.