Music to listen to: Leave My Girl Alone by Stevie Ray Vaughn
The start of the 2011 college football season is less than a month away so its time to start the Sports Inquirer Top 25 Preseason Ranking. Next up is #24 Texas.
Last season: Last season was a disappointment on many levels. Texas’ record of 5-7 was the first time that the Longhorns had a losing record in a season under Mack Brown. Texas hadn’t won less than nine games in a season under Mack Brown dating back to 1998. Heck, Texas had won at least 10 games a year since 2001…you get the idea. Furthermore, the Longhorns lost to Oklahoma and Texas A&M in the same season, which couldn’t have sit well with the fans.
Offense: Texas has always had talent under Mack Brown (just look at the NFL rosters in 2011, there are plenty of Longhorns in them). However, the lack of a replacement for Colt McCoy at quarterback for the 2010 year served as the biggest reminder of the ineffectiveness of the entire team. Garrett Gilbert underperformed behind center last year, throwing 17 interceptions. For 2011, it looks like he’s still in a four-way battle at quarterback with Connor Wood, Case McCoy and David Ash. Brown said that every starting position is under an open competition so while the assumption that Gilbert will most likely start the season at quarterback, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see one of the other three get a shot early in the season.
Texas will look to replace three offensive lineman starters and try to find a playmaker at receiver but the biggest changes were to the offensive staff. The new offensive coordinators are Bryan Harsin, who previously worked at Boise State, and Austin’s favorite son, former Texas quarterback Major Applewhite. Both men are under the age of 35 and hope to install some energy and innovation to an offense that had become stagnant last season.
Defense: The defense should be better this year with the hiring of new defensive coordinator Manny Diaz from Mississippi State.
The Longhorns do return their two two linebackers from last season, Keenan Robinson and Emmanuel Acho as well as talented safeties Kenny Vaccaro and Blake Gideon. However, the defensive line must be rebuilt and while its great to have talented players coming back on the squad, this was the same unit that gave up 34 points to offensively challenged UCLA, 28 points to Iowa State and 39 points at Kansas Stt. all in losses. Major work still needs to be done to the defense.
Coaching: The expectations in Austin are that if the team doesn’t at least make it to the national title game, the year is a disappointment. That’s the reality that Mack Brown has set for the program, which has been a good and bad thing. He has access to one of the top-five high school talent bases in the nation and all of the resources that a coach could ever hope for.
However, last season became a low point in Brown’s tenure at Texas because of the losses on the field and the internal battle in the coaching staff between him and former defensive coordinator and coach-in-waiting Will Muschamp. Brown isn’t at the stage to retire in the near future so it made little sense to have a talented assistant like Muschamp in the program set to take his job.
Brown used the departure of Muschamp to Florida to not only re-establish himself as the head man in charge in Austin but to revitalize the program with the hiring of an entire new coaching staff as detailed earlier in this post. Brown felt that everyone in the Texas program became spoiled and felt a sense of entitlement about being able to win just because they were Texas. Brown hopes that last season’s humbling 5-7 record will change that.
Schedule:
9/3 vs. Rice
9/10 vs. BYU
9/17 at UCLA
10/1 at Iowa State
10/8 vs. Oklahoma*
10/15 vs. Oklahoma State
10/29 vs. Kansas
11/5 vs. Texas Tech
11/12 at Missouri
11/19 vs. Kansas State
11/24 at Texas A&M
12/3 at Baylor
While the Oklahoma contest will be the toughest contest on the schedule, the rest of the games are manageable. The Longhorns get Oklahoma State at home but also have tricky road contests at Texas A&M and Missouri. I know that Texas lost to Kansas State, Baylor AND Iowa State but I doubt this will happen for another season.
Best case: Texas gets it’s act together, figures out the quarterback situation, the talent finally produces on the field, the change in coaching staff is a success and the school returns to having a double-digit win season.
Worst case: None of the quarterbacks produce, the coaching staff changes provides too much transition to translate into success this season and the team finishes with a 7-5 record which will get Texas to a low-tier bowl game but means another year of frustration.
Alumni Crush: Texas has many, many, many choices but I’ll stick with two athletes who I’m a fan of. It’s a tie between Cat Osterman and Sanya Richards-Ross.
Both are winners but if I had to choose Sanya Richards because her husband is currently the starting cornerback for the 2008 Super Bowl Champions, the New York Giants, Aaron Ross. When the Giants make the playoffs this year, this selection will feel even better.
For the ladies and non-traditional sports fans, enjoy Matthew McConaughey…
Uniform grade:
Texas has had the same thing going for decades so a change shouldn’t be expected. I would love for the Longhorns to wear orange pants one game, just to see how it looks. The uniforms needs more creativity. I’ve seen the black practice jerseys and hope that they don’t break those out for an actual game. Grade: B-
Favorite football alum: Its hard to go against Ricky Williams, even though former quarterback James Brown came in a close second based on name alone.
I’ll throw a bone to Major Applewhite as well. He should have been starting for Texas the whole time he was there, screw Chris Simms.
Overall Analysis: Texas isn’t going to compete for a national title this season but the program is going in a different and most likely positive direction this season compared to the 2010 campaign. After Oklahoma, the rest of the Big 12 can finish in any order and there isn’t a reason that Texas shouldn’t be in that mix.
Prediction: 8-4
Those are my thoughts, what are yours?
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