Texas Football: Loss reveals Longhorns far away from top tier of college football
It’s been 24 hours since reality smacked Texas Football hard in the face Saturday afternoon against Maryland.
Unfortunately, Texas’ game was in the first timeslot of the day, which meant Longhorns fans had to think about, stew over, get mad again, and repeat for the rest of the day.
And, if Longhorns fans watched any more college football on Saturday, they had to see that score over and over on the bottom of the screen:
How do you give up 51 points at home in a season opener under a new head coach, Tom Herman, and one of the most respected Defensive Coordinators in college football, Todd Orlando?
That just should not happen. It can’t happen. But, why did it happen?
Here are three reasons.
1. Tom Herman Had Not Seen Lack of Mental Fortitude Firsthand
New head coach Tom Herman took over a team that struggles mentally when faced with adversity.
Until he saw it firsthand in a live game setting, Coach Herman probably did not fully appreciate the size of the problem.
It’s essentially a cancer that started at the end of the Mack Brown era.
First, it was entitlement. “Hey, we’re Texas. We won a National Title and just played for a National Title in a game where we would have beaten Alabama if Colt McCoy were not injured in the first quarter.”
The entitlement then fed into complacency. Suddenly, a bad 2010 season rolled into mediocre seasons. And, it was clear that Mack Brown could not turn around a ship that had drifted too far out to sea.
Enter Charlie Strong. Coach Strong inherited players who were too far removed from the winning years. They knew mediocrity and losing. And the newer players were dropped into a culture without leaders connected to the winning years.
Charlie Strong just could not right the ship due to a number of reasons. And, he experienced the same lack of mental fortitude that was passed down to his teams.
Enter Tom Herman taking over a team that was excited about a fresh start but had not put their new training into practice yet.
The result Game 1?
- Maryland scored 27 straight points in the first half.
- The defense gave up way too many explosive plays.
- The offense could not convert short yardage situations.
- The offense went 0-4 on fourth down.
- Field goal attempt blocked and returned for a TD.
- The Longhorns could not finish a team that was fading in the fourth quarter.
Longhorns fans have seen this movie over and over the past seven years. Now, Tom Herman has seen it firsthand. Can he do something about it now? Here are the other two factors that he will have to overcome.
2. Texas Football Just Seems Out of Sorts
A pattern of losing produces a lot of issues, especially when you’re talking about a program that has the most brand recognition in college football and contributes to the biggest revenue-generating athletics department in college sports.
The expectation is to win games. Along with that, there are a lot of things and people that surround Texas Football. That support is great when Texas is winning. But, when Texas is losing, those things turn into distractions.
Simply put, Texas has struggled in recent years just to play winning football. That includes the preparation that goes into football, the practice habits, the game readiness, the mental fortitude to push through, and the attention to detail.
There are just too many things surrounding Texas Football that past Longhorns teams may have been able to work around or push through because they were just so good. Now, the Longhorns don’t have the winning culture to just go out there and play football with the confidence of a winning program.
One bad play, one bad turnover, one missed field goal means doom and gloom on the field and in the stands for these Longhorns.
As Tom Herman said in his post-game press conference on Saturday, he can’t just sprinkle fairy dust and make the on-field problems go away. The players have to pay attention to detail and focus on doing their jobs correctly to rebuild a winning culture.
Perhaps that will happen this season, especially after the Longhorns got a huge wakeup call Week 1. But, Week 1 also exposed a larger problem with the Texas Football team.
3. What is the Texas Football Identity?
Since Colt McCoy graduated in 2010, the Longhorns have lacked an identity. It’s not just at the QB position. It’s across the board.
In the past seven years with multiple OCs and DCs, the Longhorns have tried to play uptempo, hybrid, no-huddle, run game-heavy, and pass game-heavy. Meanwhile, Texas defenses have been shredded with players out of position and lacking discipline to execute their assignments.
On Saturday, the Longhorns played uptempo on offense and the defenders were embarrassingly out of position throughout the game.
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The uptempo offense hurt the Longhorns in short yardage situation. They hurried through four plays inside the five yardline during a critical stretch of the first half. Then, they were out of sorts trying to execute a 3rd and 2 and 4th and 2 at midfield down only three points in the fourth quarter.
Last year, we saw the uptempo offense backfire because Texas would go three and out so quickly that the defense was back on the field without an extended rest.
On Saturday, the uptempo offense was in too much of a hurry to snap the ball that the offensive line never seemed to be set on executing their blocks in the passing or running game. That cost Texas a lot of points against Maryland.
It also seemed to carry over to the defense. Todd Orlando’s defense was out of sorts throughout the game, as if they were playing in too much of a hurry to where DBs were not communicating with each other, LBs were not filling their gaps, and lineman were not using their techniques to attack the quarterback.
If you watched other college football games on Saturday, you could tell which teams have a clear identity and follow a pattern of success.
- LSU’s smothering defense did not allow BYU past the 50 yardline.
- Alabama’s machine-like efficiency shut down Florida State in the second half.
- Defending National Champion Clemson was completely overwhelming.
LSU has a system, Alabama has a system, and Clemson has a system. They own their identity and put their personnel in a position to play with confidence and dominate opponents.
The keys are Alabama has a long-term coach Nick Saban, Clemson has a long-term coach Dabo Swinney, and LSU’s official first-year coach Ed Orgeron is expanding on Les Miles’ system for success.
The Longhorns do not have a successful system, not a long-term coach. Tom Herman is trying to figure out what Texas Football should look like. And, does he have the personnel to make it happen?
Right now, the Longhorns are light years away from the top tier of college football. If Texas wants to get back to where everyone believes they should be, Coach Herman has to figure out what the modern version of Texas Football looks like.
Giving up 51 points to an unranked team in the season opener at home is inexcusable. The way in which the Longhorns surrendered 51 points was sickening. There must be an identity. And, Coach Herman does not have much time to figure it out after Texas Football received a huge wakeup call against Maryland.