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Hey Fate – F*ck you!

Posted by BrickHorn on January 8th, 2010 under Football

Wow. Fate sure swooped in and pulled the rug out from under Texas last night. Well, fate coupled with a few bad decisions, some instances of poor execution and a history of whistling past the graveyard of a potential Colt McCoy injury.

That said, I couldn’t be prouder of this team. Hit below the belt with a devastating injury to its most important player, the rest of the team stepped up and went toe-to-toe with a great Alabama team. They put themselves in a position to march downfield for the win, but three late-game touchdown drives against one of the nations’ best defenses was simply too much to ask of a true freshman quarterback with no meaningful in-game experience and little help from the Texas running game. Outside of a few dropped balls and a couple of weak first-half series by the defense, the Longhorn players have nothing to hang their heads about.

Congratulations to the team on a great season and an inspired effort last night.

It’s easy to say Texas would have won the game if not for the McCoy injury, but the claim is difficult to prove and, honestly, meaningless. Texas lost, in large part, because our starting quarterback got hurt and our team wasn’t prepared for that most dire of possibilities. The coaching staff’s failure to recruit and prepare a second string quarterback is inexcusable. Colt’s a 5th year senior, and our best back-up option is four years behind him. There’s no justifying such a wide age gap at such a critical position. And not only is Gilbert young, but he went through an entire 13-game season without seeing the field in any meaningful situations. Quite simply, our coaching staff trained him to hand the ball off. So it should come as no surprise that, when Gilbert was forced into action in the first quarter of the national championship game, that’s all he was capable of doing.

Yes, Greg Davis and the rest of the offensive staff made some nice halftime adjustments. Kudos to them. The second half game plan was impressive, and that should be applauded. But it was too little, too late. In my line of business, you learn early on that it’s important to prepare your witnesses for depositions and trial testimony. They need to understand what to expect, and how to not allow an opposing lawyer to distort the story through misleading questioning. Cross-examination of an unprepared witness can prove fatal. Sure, a good lawyer can fix some of the damage with a clever redirect examination. But, typically, the damage is already done and can never be fully repaired. The same logic applies to managing a football team. The long-term failure to develop a quarterback (and a bizarre bout of pre-halftime panic) put the Longhorns in an 18 point hole from which they were unable to escape. Texas was forced to concede the vast majority of the first half to Alabama, and unable to completely recover in the second half despite admirable effort and play calling.

Texas lost this game over the last four seasons. Bad luck and poor preparation for a singularly disastrous possibility made winning last night impossible. But damned if I wasn’t proud of the players, including a true freshman quarterback, who came this close to doing just that. Congratulations to the 2009 Texas Longhorns. And, fuck you, fate.

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39 Responses

  1. BEHorn said:

    January 8th, 2010 at 9:00 am

    I couldn’t disagree less.

  2. Levander Williams said:

    January 8th, 2010 at 9:05 am

    That just about covers it.

    Luck is when preparation meets opportunity. We clearly were not prepared as well as we should have been.

  3. magnusbleuveigner said:

    January 8th, 2010 at 9:05 am

    If you would have told me yesterday that we lose this game, and I wouldn’t be that upset, I would have thought that I must have banged Alyssa Milano or something. Sadly, I didn’t, but still not too upset.

    Bama fans were fairly cordial. Did you guys experience anything different?

    Mark Ingram IS good, if not deserving of the Heisman.

    In-N-Out is clutch after an entire day of drinking. Although, I would have preferred the ol in-n-out with the aforementioned broad.

    P.S. We win it all next year.

  4. uthookem said:

    January 8th, 2010 at 9:08 am

    Again with the Alyssa Milano!

    Still a nice go-to hottie.

    I’ve got some thoughts on this WRT the QB and backup QB situation…but trying to get off of a teleconference.

  5. BrickHorn said:

    January 8th, 2010 at 9:08 am

    Those are good burgers, Walter. Though not as good as Whataburger.

  6. Turn the Page, Fred said:

    January 8th, 2010 at 9:11 am

    A more apt analogy would be you preparing the case for trial and getting into an accident that puts you in the hospital, and a junior associate having to try the case for you.

    Putting this loss on the coaches for not playing Gilbert “enough” (whatever that amount is) doesn’t do it justice. This was a football game. Our go-to guy got knocked out. His backup had to play.

    Shit happens.

    ‘Nuff said.

  7. Pangloss said:

    January 8th, 2010 at 9:15 am

    Eh, they tried to re-create Vince with Chiles and it didn’t work out, leaving them w/o a true backup for a year – it happens every now and then. I mean had Vince gotten injured in 2005, you think Matt Nordgren was ready to take the reins?

  8. BrickHorn said:

    January 8th, 2010 at 9:19 am

    Nordgren would have been a step down, but he was prepared to come in and caretake. Gilbert wasn’t prepared for anything but overseeing a doomed running game. That lack of preparedness led directly to 21 Alabama points. 3-and-outs and poor field position killed us in the first half. We needed to survive by moving the ball, giving the defense a rest and making adjustments at halftime. That didn’t happen, and it’s directly attributable to the staff’s inability – for whatever reason – to prepare our second string quarterback for this possibility.

  9. magnusbleuveigner said:

    January 8th, 2010 at 9:23 am

    I’ve loved Milano since ‘Commando.’ I’m younger. I can say that.

    Nothing trumps Whataburger when it comes to mass produced burgers. Brick, as a political operative of some sort, you can appreciate that we have now found “common ground.”

  10. johnnymac said:

    January 8th, 2010 at 9:23 am

    Whataburger and In-n-Out are two different animals. Both outstanding for what they are. I am favorable to I-O and always have to make a stop when I’m on the West Coast because it’s a novelty to me living in Houston, but they’re both damn good.

  11. Harsh said:

    January 8th, 2010 at 9:28 am

    Thank you 2009 Horns. It was a hell of a ride.

  12. derryl said:

    January 8th, 2010 at 9:32 am

    It is plainly evident to me that a lot of you blogging have never worn a jock strap much less played in a football game at any level…how in the motherfuck can you think for a nanosecond that Colt would take himself out of this game?
    We had all the momentum and he was getting down to business..you could see it in his body language early that he was “All In”. He looked like he a was about to vomit when he realized he would have to watch…totally speechless in the post game interview.
    Many have stated that the hit didn’t look that severe but the nerve was probably affected by the whiplash….watch the replay…slow motion doesn’t represent the impact…ala the replay of Dale Ernhart’s crash into the wall.
    We fucked up by pushing Colt for the Heisman…saw this coming in September…we needed to get GG experience not only for this year but next year as well.
    The key here is we need to rebuild this team…we are presently built to win the Big 12 and we must take the next step and become more physical. Make the Big 12 play to us and actually increase our domination there as well as taking the next step on the national stage.

  13. Colby said:

    January 8th, 2010 at 9:33 am

    Question. Was Chiles benched for the fourth quarter? Didn’t see him out there after that sulking prima donna quit on the deep route.
    If so, that’s very gratifying. I’ve never liked that player.

  14. uthookem said:

    January 8th, 2010 at 9:33 am

    Colt should not have played, he would have been nothing more than a decoy, and Alabama would have realized very quickly that he had no idea where he was throwing the football. It’s not like we had a solid running game for him to rely on.

    Pangloss stole my thunder.

    I’ll agree that the gap between Colt and his successor should not be redshirt senior to true freshman. Unforgivable. Chiles was supposed to come in and recreate what the offense looked like with Vince…it didn’t happen. Before Chiles, Snead was supposed to come in and take over for Colt…it didn’t happen. All that is left is Harris.

    I would like to see us continue to recruit the best QB available, and if this happens again then fate will screw us again.

    However, does anyone else think we’ll continue to look more and more like an SEC-type team with Will Muschamp around? Stout, game-changing defense coupled with some semblance of a run game and serviceable QBs? Mack and GD will be around two more years – through the GG years – win one national title, hopefully two Big XII titles, and then pass the torch to Will.

    Hook ‘em!

  15. derryl said:

    January 8th, 2010 at 9:39 am

    Not to mention that the receivers didn’t help GG at all! I can distinctly remember 7 drops..3 on Shipley, 3 on Williams, 1 on Buckner, not counting the couple of screen pases that were dropped thankfully because we would have lost yardage on the catch.
    Kirkendoll was ambling around downfield like he was lost.
    Heard someone say that their timing may have been off with a different QB but it didn’t stop Bama’s DB’s from catching the goddamn ball!

  16. Oedipus said:

    January 8th, 2010 at 9:50 am

    Ya’ll got off easy, trust me.

  17. BrickHorn said:

    January 8th, 2010 at 9:51 am

    It is plainly evident to me that a lot of you blogging have never worn a jock strap much less played in a football game at any level

    Look, it’s not fair to assume that we Barkers don’t regularly wear jock straps simply because none of us play football or are even remotely athletic.

  18. AZHorn said:

    January 8th, 2010 at 9:53 am

    I love the changes to the defense Mushamp has brought. I hope he doesn’t turn our future quarterbacks into anything resembling McElroy, that would just be too fucking boring to watch all season.

  19. bigdukesix said:

    January 8th, 2010 at 10:01 am

    However, does anyone else think we’ll continue to look more and more like an SEC-type team with Will Muschamp around? Stout, game-changing defense coupled with some semblance of a run game and serviceable QBs?

    No. Alabama plays that way because their personnel (mediocre QB, good RBs, and good defense) dictate that they do. It’s not as if SEC coaches don’t want to throw the ball effectively.

  20. n-ea said:

    January 8th, 2010 at 10:08 am

    I’m sorry, but Colt’s injury is entirely on Greg Davis. Why is GD calling a sprint option on a shrunk down field? The misconception about Colt is that he’s a great runner. Thats not true. He’s an exceptional scrambler and improvisor when things break down. Have you ever seen Colt run the option or Zone read where you thought to yourself…”Wow, there’s not a team in the country that can stop this.”

    Greg is an idiot for putting Colt in a situation where there’s almost a 100% chance that Colt is going to take a hit. Completely un-necessary. We don’t have the personnel to run that play effectively and in no way shape or form does it feed off of anything we try to do. So lets recap the play call.

    In the National championship game, where your opponent has just gift wrapped a short field for you, Greg Davis calls a play that

    1) has no chance of suceeding
    2) we don’t have the personnel to run it
    3) does not build on anything
    4) and exposes your QB to getting hurt

    Greg Davis has many strengths that I won’t go into, but he chugs when it comes to play calling duties and creating a scheme that fits his personnel. I really hope he retires.

  21. BatesHorn said:

    January 8th, 2010 at 10:14 am

    Five guys. Period.

    I have mixed emotions right now that are hard to qauntify. My pride about this team is amazing.

    The coach panicking, combined with Muschamp realizing just a bit too late that he could stuff 8-9 in the box and not worry about McElroy are easy to point at as coaching errors.

    I’m sanguine about the senior-freshman qb gap. If Harris had managed to stay healthy, he’d be that junior bridge we were missing. Should GG have played more? Sure, but hindsight, blah, blah, blah.

    In the end, the dropped passes were the dagger, if you absolutely have find a goat..IMO. Now we know why Mal Wiliiams didn’t play early in they year.

    The takeaway is we lost McCoy. After that, placing blame on really anything is just a coping mechanism.

  22. OldTimeHorn said:

    January 8th, 2010 at 11:21 am

    I can disagree. We had a highly touted older qb in Chiles. Gilbert’s better. We also have Harris. Gilbert’s better. Last night, he was the rightful number 2. Now, he’s number 1, and we should be thrilled.

    As someone pointed out above, there were way too many drops including the shovel pass that turned into a pick and a gimme TD and one that floated right to Williams at the end zone. That freshman came in, brought us back and put us in a position to win the game. Hell, absent the two drops just mentioned, we DO win the game.

    The new incoming receivers have to be tickled to see such a high-caliber passing performance and none of the current catching corps having any hands. Yes, last night was disappointing, but Gilbert stands out as the third great quarterback in a row. Let’s hope Whaley or Shead is a running back. Let’s hope Goodwin, Monroe and the new receivers make up for the Buckner-Collins-Kirkendall-Williams bust. And let’s hope there are changes in the offensive coaching. But even if none of that materializes, we’ve got an exceptional three years of Texas football coming our way.

  23. Topo Gigio said:

    January 8th, 2010 at 11:48 am

    Old Time Horn — You are quick to dump Malcom WIlliams. His drops last night were bad, but he and goodwin have shown promise.

    Agree that Buckner & Kirk may have to fight for starting time next yr. Their performance is perplexing to say the least.

  24. BrickHorn said:

    January 8th, 2010 at 12:37 pm

    OldTime –

    I can disagree. We had a highly touted older qb in Chiles. Gilbert’s better. We also have Harris. Gilbert’s better.

    If an unprepared, inexperienced true freshman is better than our other options, then that is a failure in one or all of scouting, recruiting, and development at the position. There is no excuse for not having a player prepared to fill in at the most important position on the field. Gilbert did more than could be expected of him given the staff’s season-long neglect. It’s unfair to call upon him to save the team’s ass without any live-action training for the job.

  25. TristeHorn said:

    January 8th, 2010 at 12:44 pm

    We lost because our offense isn’t balanced. Colt’s running compensated for this weakness in many games, but his physical constitution is not ideal for the kind of punishment one is subjected to as a running QB. This fact doomed the Horns in ‘06 against KSU. Thereafter, Colt bulked up in the weight room and showed remarkable resiliency, especially in ‘07, when he was smashed repeatedly. Ultimately, we discovered that his coat of armor has a leak or two. It wasn’t fate, but, rather, the laws of probability that spelled doom for the Horns yesterday.

  26. BrickHorn said:

    January 8th, 2010 at 12:46 pm

    It wasn’t fate, but, rather, the laws of probability that spelled doom for the Horns yesterday.

    Well, then, fuck Blaise Pascal.

  27. EddieTheAlbinoSquirrel said:

    January 8th, 2010 at 1:01 pm

    Not sure I see where GG was “unprepared.” I thought he played a freakin’ fantastic game. Take away the dropped passes and the tips that led to interceptions, and he had an amazing game.

    Yes, it took him a while to settle down. But geez, wouldn’t most backups take a while to settle in against the country’s No. 1 defense in the MNC game? A quarter’s worth of snaps against Baylor or Utah would NOT have changed that.

  28. 3_from_the_corner said:

    January 8th, 2010 at 1:37 pm

    Are you guys all stupid?!? The issue here isn’t the backup QB. Gilbert can throw. You don’t get to be the All-time Texas HS passing leader by having a rag arm. The issue is we HAVE NO RUNNING GAME. The running game is football is like ‘Sexy Dexy’ is to our basketball team. When we can’t hit from the outside, when the game is crazy, when we need a positive, we dump it down to him and let him stabilize us; young kids get comfortable again. The running game does that for a football team. It stabilizes the game. Every play cannot be a 75-yard touchdown bomb. Football isn’t that kind of sport. It’s a chess game, methodical and tactful. We couldn’t stabilize the game when Colt went out because he’s our running game. His highly-accurate and quick trigger on short routes is our running game. Gilbert isn’t that (Yet?!?). Not through much fault of his own, or even the coaches. It’s an experience thing that comes with reps. You don’t come out of the womb knowing how to add. You don’t show up on college campuses knowing how to read a well disguised defense like Alabama.

    We needed a running game and it was absolutely nowhere to be found. We should learn a lesson from bama on this one. Their QB would have had an even worse problem throwing than ours if they would have had to throw the ball. How many times did they even drop back for a pass let alone complete one? I mean, Christ! We had 5 sacks and they only completed 6 passes. Almost as many bad things were happening for them as ‘good’ things in their passing game. If we could have stabilized that game in any way after colt went out, we could have maybe found a way to win.

    Despite all that, ‘bama left us numerous opportunities to win/tie. They couldn’t close the deal on us. We all can pick a dozen plays (other than the obvious one – Colt getting hurt) that if any of them don’t happen/go Texas’ way then it’s a ballgame (my personaly favorites are M. Williams TD DROP and the missed false start by fat-boy when bama was 3rd and goal from the 1 – we were up 6-0 at that time – that would have made it 3rd and goal from the 6 – that missed call totally changed the face of the game). That means we fought hard. You can’t fault our effort. It was championship quality. But not having a running game is Mack’s fault. We need a back that can tote the rock and an attitude to go with it if our bad-boy QB goes down. If we had that last night, it could have won us the game. It’s super sexy to throw the ball around the yard, just like it’s amazing to hit 3’s all day in B-ball. But what do you do when your shot’s not there?!? Pray you have a big many like D. Pittman to throw it into. In football, you pray you’ve got a rushing attack.

  29. The Bobs said:

    January 8th, 2010 at 1:40 pm

    well, not having an elite backup ready hurt for sure. You could add Brantley’s change of mind to the list of Harris w/his injuries, , Snead w/his transfer, and Chiles w/his inabilities. But… name me another quarterback-centric team who would have been ready to lose their starter 5 plays in and had no similar issues … hmmm, none spring to mind.

    We certainly could have done more earlier in the year to “prepare” Gilbert, but truthfully, how many passes do you have to throw against UTEP to prepare you for Bama in the Rose Bowl for the championship? I saw a really good post on Better Off Red (I think) where he defended Brown’s heavy usage of Colt this year – I think it was titled something like All in on Colt (sorry about not taking the time to find it and link, but it’s worth looking for).

    The simple truth of the matter is sometimes things happen… it would have been nice to have a seasoned backup who would have stepped in and done better. Few, if any, teams in college ball have that luxury. We didn’t either. The recruiting angle certainly seems to have been corrected, with Wood and McCoy coming in on the heels of Gilbert, but nobody really knows whether either of them will pan out or if they do, whether they’d stay. That’s just the way it goes…

  30. BrickHorn said:

    January 8th, 2010 at 1:43 pm

    3,

    Part of the reason we had no running game with Gilbert behind center is because Bama didn’t have to respect the pass. They got to load up and stuff the run. I’m no defender of the Texas running game under Mack and Greg, but to argue that “the issue here isn’t the backup QB” is simply inane.

    Of course, you then make the following remarks:

    Gilbert isn’t that (Yet?!?). Not through much fault of his own, or even the coaches. It’s an experience thing that comes with reps. You don’t come out of the womb knowing how to add. You don’t show up on college campuses knowing how to read a well disguised defense like Alabama.

    That’s the point. We should have had a back-up available who had taken enough meaningful snaps at some point in his career. The fact that we have THREE backup quarterbacks (counting Chiles) and none could be counted on to come off the bench and offer a legitimate passing threat to keep Bama honest in the first half is a strong indictment of the coaching staff. Gilbert’s going to be a stud. His second half heroics showed that. I just hope we recruit – and train – someone behind him in preparation for another worst case scenario.

  31. Soonervino said:

    January 8th, 2010 at 3:44 pm

    Pangloss, I hope you weren’t dissin a fellow Bishop Lynch alum in your Nordgren comment!

    I think one of the most devastating things to happen to Gilbert, other than being thrown into an almost impossible situation, was the early drops that had to just kill his confidence coming out of the gate. Having no preconceived notion that he was playing in this game, suddenly scared shitless staring an incredible defense in the face and the passes that he did put into position are dropped.

    Cudo’s to the coaching staff for the second half. I was telling my child bride that Mack is one of the best at halftime adjustments and that UT would come back (she was the one rooting for UT, not me), and lo and behold, come to within 3. Brilliant.

    I hate for you that it came down to that. Not terribly sorry that you lost, but hate that it happened that way.

    Congrats for getting there and you have a lot to look forward to in GG.

    Finally, had my first I&O during an October trip to Napa. Damn Good.

  32. Sailor Ripley said:

    January 8th, 2010 at 5:28 pm

    Here you go The Bobs. Better off Red – Texas Hold ‘em: All-in on Colt McCoy

  33. F. Lee Bailey said:

    January 8th, 2010 at 6:46 pm

    how in the motherfuck can you think for a nanosecond that Colt would take himself out of this game?

    There’s no question he took himself out of the game; we all saw him do that. The question is the extent of his injury.

    Now, I am sure there must have been some sort of injury. He’d have had no motive to leave otherwise — even if you assume he is greed-motivated only, which seems doubtful in the extreme, this move had a crushing effect on his PR and likely draft spot.

    However, there are still peculiarities to the story as it exists now in the form of his post-game speech and media reports. To wit,

    1. Colt takes the hit from Dareus.
    2. Colt pulls self out of game.
    3. Colt then spends an hour desperately messing with his “limp, dead” arm that “has no feeling.”
    4. At halftime, Colt lies to doctors, claiming he is fine, and asking to be put back in the game.

    Now folks, this makes no sense.

    He has just spent an hour messing with his arm and persuading himself it doesn’t work.

    Surely, he must be aware that given a limp, dead arm that has no feeling, being put back in the game is not going to help Texas. He will instantly fumble the ball. He certainly will never be able to throw it.

    Asking to be put in is therefore the last thing he would do, unless he is eight and believes in wonderful, invisible fairies that will heal his arm if he can only get back on the field, and he is not eight. He is a grown man.

    So how do we reconcile this situation?

    Possibly he never asked to be put back in the game. In this scenario, the media reports that said he did were filed by blatant liars.

    The only real alternative is that he did ask to be put back in the game, because his arm was not in fact limp and dead, and he was capable of using it effectively.

    And at that point, he was persuaded by his father and by medical professionals that in playing, he might exacerbate his injury and destroy a professional career worth tens of millions of dollars.

  34. chitwood said:

    January 8th, 2010 at 8:19 pm

    F Lee, you are a fucking idiot.

  35. The Bobs said:

    January 8th, 2010 at 8:27 pm

    F. Lee, don’t you have an ambulance to chase? Or are you too busy concocting some grand theory here? He tried to talk himself back into the game because guess what? that’s what competitors do sometimes, even when it’s clear they can’t go, and would probably only hurt the team if they tried. Have you really never heard of that particular phenomenon before? I’d call you a nitwit, but frankly, that’d be an insult to honest nitwits everywhere…

    Sailor – thanks. That’s a good article by Farmer Ted. I think he really captured it, and when you stop and think for just a nanosecond, it’s easy to see why the coaches did it all that way, and why they were right to do it. Back in ‘05 we did the very same thing, only we were lucky enough to never need the backup. This time, not so lucky.

  36. EddieTheAlbinoSquirrel said:

    January 8th, 2010 at 10:23 pm

    F. Lee Bailey, I do not like you.

  37. Texas_Dawg said:

    January 9th, 2010 at 12:02 am

    It’s not fate. It’s what often happens when you slam your QB into defenses. Running McCoy into a defense cost Texas a Big 12 championship in 2006 on a very similar play (stood up and pounded by a defense at the line). Same thing here.

  38. Texas_Dawg said:

    January 9th, 2010 at 12:05 am

    Are you guys all stupid?!? The issue here isn’t the backup QB. Gilbert can throw. You don’t get to be the All-time Texas HS passing leader by having a rag arm. The issue is we HAVE NO RUNNING GAME. The running game is football is like ‘Sexy Dexy’ is to our basketball team. When we can’t hit from the outside, when the game is crazy, when we need a positive, we dump it down to him and let him stabilize us; young kids get comfortable again. The running game does that for a football team. It stabilizes the game. Every play cannot be a 75-yard touchdown bomb. Football isn’t that kind of sport. It’s a chess game, methodical and tactful. We couldn’t stabilize the game when Colt went out because he’s our running game.

    Well put.

    It’s a major flaw of the 5-wide offense. That works great with a good QB and good WRs against bad defenses… but it was a total failure against all 3 good defenses Texas played this year.

  39. Ike said:

    January 9th, 2010 at 8:47 pm

    AZHorn said:
    I love the changes to the defense Mushamp has brought. I hope he doesn’t turn our future quarterbacks into anything resembling McElroy, that would just be too fucking boring to watch all season.

    McElroy isn’t Colt McCoy, and will never be a Heisman-caliber guy, but he’s not horrible at all.

    He does what he needs to do, and manages the game.

    As it happens, the best deception of the game was Alabama hiding the fact that McElroy has suffered from cracked ribs for several weeks, even having a major setback with them in mid-December. Your guys weren’t that far away from knocking him out of the game, too.

    That certainly explains a good bit about why Alabama was so quick to “throttle down” the offense. Why keep throwing the ball and risk Greg being knocked out of the game. Every drop back to pass was another chance, another unnecessary risk.

    Texas has heart, and as a Bama fan I now have a new Big-12 team to root for. You guys showed me something.

    Hook ‘em.

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