Blowout Losses Mounting Under Charlie Strong
Of the 11 losses the Texas Longhorns have in the Charlie Strong era, seven have been by 21 points or more.
Charlie Strong was expected to come in and shake up a program that was in disarray. Things had become stale under Mack Brown and athletic director Steve Patterson was looking for someone to do what was needed to right the ship.
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Eighteen games later, the ship is listing badly.
In 2014 Strong removed several veteran players who didn’t want to buy into the program. Fans understood the moves, even as the losses mounted. Strong needed to get his players on campus and build his brand of football. Texas was undermanned and out-gunned all season.
BYU steamroll a Longhorn squad missing its starting quarterback – David Ash. Tyrone Swoopes stepped in but it was clear he wasn’t ready for the spotlight. The Cougars amassed 429 yards of offense as the Texas defense simply wilted in the second half of a 41-7 rout. The same thing happened two weeks later as Baylor wore down the Longhorn defenders in the second half for a 28-7 win.
The offense seemed to find its rhythm versus Oklahoma and Iowa State, but then Texas was blanked 23-0 by Kansas State in a game that wasn’t as close as the score indicated.
Sitting at 6-5 and with a modest three-game win streak, Texas battled TCU on Thanksgiving. In front of a national audience the Horned Frogs came to town and crushed the Longhorns 48-10. TCU capitalized on six Texas turnovers that night. A month later the Longhorns were manhandled by Arkansas in the Texas Bowl 31-7. Texas managed just59 yards of total offense in that game.
The bowl game loss made for a long, agonizing offseason for fans. An influx of talented freshmen and an impressive showing by Jerrod Heard in the spring game energized the fanbase and got people excited about Texas football again. Things were beginning to look up.
Then this team stepped onto the field for real.
Texas Longhorns
The season opener at Notre Dame looked like a replay of the 2014 season. The Fighting Irish pummeled Texas 38-3. Notre Dame rolled up 527 yards of total offense as fans caught a glimpse of a defense that was a shell of the 2014 version and an offense that was just as listless as it was to close the 2014 campaign.
The defense has struggled all season and TCU showed no mercy in abusing the young Texas defenders on Saturday. Trevone Boykin, Josh Doctson and a host of other skill players showed why they may be the class of the Big 12 by rolling up more than 600 yards of offense. A week after allowing 52 points to Texas Tech, the TCU defense shut down Heard and the Texas offense. Heard has been a bright spot, but on Saturday he wasn’t able to sustain drives and keep Boykin and Co. on the sideline.
To be fair, Strong has been forced to play a larger number of true and redshirt freshmen. Most coaches would not be comfortable doing this. Strong doesn’t really have a choice.
The end result is inexperience at too many key positions. They are learning on the job and mistakes are being made. This is leading to more blowout losses than Texas fans are used to seeing.
The scary thing is the schedule does not cut Texas any breaks. Powerful offensive teams like Oklahoma, Texas Tech and Baylor are still to come. This may not be the last lopsided loss this team is dealt this year.