Sunday, November 26, 2006
I'm back finally
Well, work has been kicking my tail and I've spent all my free time on 2-3 music projects, so haven't had a chance to make many posts.
First, with the college football regular season all but over at this point, I'll update you on how my college football picks have gone for the season. I have picked 10 games every week for all 13 weeks of the season. In the 13 weeks, I have won my 5-7 person office pool FIVE times, including this week, when I went 7-3. For the season, I went 71-56-3, which is 56%, well below my goal of 65%. I still have the office bowl season pool, where we will pick all 32 bowl games. So all I need to do is go 32-0 in my bowl game picks against the spread and I will be up to 65% on the year.
Now for my thoughts on the season of the 9-3 Texas Longhorns. Obviously an extremely disappointing end to the season, with Texas playing themselves out of the Big 12 Title game with back to back losses to Kansas St and Texas A&M. The worst part about the loss to A&M was this old A&M lady fan who was a total {censored} who yelled the following phrase the entire game... "Let's go army!!" This speaks to the pure ignorance and delusion that aggy fans live under. Does she really think that her school is a real military institution? Anyway, I instructed her that if she wanted to be accurate she should refer to them as the kiddie corp or the fake army. The worst part of Texas losing was knowing that this fat old {censored} got the satisfaction of seeing her team win.
There are many reasons being debated right now trying to diagnose why Texas lost their last two games, but I have a different theory. The cardinal sin in sports is to assume victory before the clock reads 0:00. Before the Kansas St game, I received an email from the UT ticket office reminding me to purchase my Big 12 Championship game tickets. They should have never sent this email out before Texas actually qualified for the game. On top of that, my brother bought his title game ticket the week before the KState game, but he wasn't the only one. His friend Tommy not only bought a game ticket, but he also bought a plane ticket to Kansas City the week of the KState game. My co-worker also pre-emptively bought tickets to the game before Texas won the Big 12 south.
I forgive them, because it's only a game. Besides, the money they will lose by buying tickets early and the guilt they must feel for commiting the cardinal sin of sports is punishment enough. Hopefully they all learned their lesson and we won't have this problem in future years.
Now, I want to close this post with my thoughts on the UT coaching staff and the job they did this season. I give each coach a grade based on expectations, performance and player development. It isn't very pretty, but I think it's fair and accurate.
WR coach Bobby Kennedy: (A-) - There is not a single senior in the group, and this is the best our WR's have played at least since the Big 3 (Roy Williams, BJ Johnson, and Sloan Thomas), and an argument can be made that as a group, they outdid the Big 3 as a group in any season they played. Very few drops this year. The only negative is it's possible that better WR run blocking at times could have resulted in breaking long runs at some point this year. When looking for an answer why we broke no long runs, that could be a part. I think that's a stretch though, and it's tough to find anything bad to say about any of the WR's this year.
QB Coach/Offensive Coordinator Greg Davis (B+) - The bad is that the gameplans were highly ineffective in both the Ohio St and A&M games. The good is that we had a RS freshman 3-star recruit at QB who was a legitimate heisman finalist up until the moment he got hurt in the first quarter against Kansas St, and when he is hurt, the backup true FR QB comes in and puts 42 points on the board. From a QB development standpoint, how can Greg Davis not be thought of as the best in the country right now? You have more highly recruited QB's all over the country that are not playing even close to the level that McCoy played at this year.. among them are the following highly recruited QB's within one year of McCoy in classification are the following: Kyle Wright, Drew Weatherford, X. Lee, Ryan Perrilloux, Mark Sanchez, Matthew Stafford, Mitch Mustain, Tim Tebow, Bobby Reid, Rhett Bomar (compare his freshman year to McCoy's). Anything less than a B+ for Davis is a joke when you take a look around the country and see how all of McCoy's more highly regarded classmates are playing. The most disappointing part of the offense to me has been red zone efficiency, but I put that more on the OL play than the playcalling/QB play (see OL comments below).
TE coach Bruce Chambers: (B) - Not much to say here, other than RS FR JerMichael Finley had what you would have to call a very successful freshman campaign (23 rec, 326 yards 3 TD's). If Finley has 3 more years identical to his first, he will leave Texas ranked #2 all time in career receptions, yards, and TD's by a tight end in school history. There were some inconsistencies early in the year dropping balls, but I feel good about Finley going forward and his improvement from September to now is clear.
DE coach Oscar Giles: (B-) - The DE position seemed to take a step backwards at the moment when Brian Robison got hurt and was slowed the rest of the season, but Tim Crowder and Robison probably had their best seasons at Texas, with Brian Orakpo doing well in pass rush situations. The emergence of Soph Aaron Lewis this year was also a good mark in Giles' favor. The negative here is the lack of a good pass rush the 2nd half of the season and the poor job of defending the option against Texas A&M, where a large responsibility falls on the DE. If the DE is hitting the QB on the option every play, it frees up the outside LBer to take the pitch man, and the option gets contained.
DT coach Mike Tolleson: (C+) - The good here is the run defense as a whole throughout the season (A&M game removed), the play of Derek Lokey up until he got injured, which you can't blame on Tolleson, the short yardage stops against Texas Tech by the DT's saved us that game. The bad is clearly getting physically manhandled by A&M throughout the game and the lack of plays made in the backfield as a whole, but mostly from Frank Okam. You have to call Okam a disappointment to this point in his career.
It's hard to say much good about the guys that are left, so here goes..
OL coach Mac McWhorter (D+) - This begins with our problems all season long in short yardage and in the red zone. Our inability to run the ball effectively in the red zone led to numerous possessions in the red zone where we could not get the ball in the end zone. It all starts with the OL in the red zone, because you need to run the ball effectively to score in short yardage situations. The pass blocking was decent this year, and that's about the only thing that keeps this grade from being an F. Expectations are a little higher than other positions because we have 3 seniors on the line. The lack of big runs is a big problem that has a lot to do with the inability of the OL to ever get to the 2nd level this year. This stat pretty much sums it all up for me... we averaged less than 4.0 ypc in 4 of our last 5 games. When you have 3 OL who are pre-season all conference (one preseason AA), you should rank higher than 22nd in the nation in rushing offense, ESPECIALLY when you have a coach who would much rather run the ball than pass it. The secondary played poorly enough to save this group from being the most diappointing on the team.
After McWhorter is where I draw the line between coaches I have no problem with being in the program next year and coaches that I don't care one bit if they are somewhere else next year.
RB coach Ken Rucker: (D) - Fumbles fumbles fumbles. Fumbles are one thing, but a majority of our fumbles seem to be of the variety where it's more the result of poor ball security technique and carelessness than they are great defensive plays or big hits. Fumbles have been a consistently bothersome problem that appeared the moment Rucker arrived on campus and has not improved one bit since. The lack of big runs is the 2nd major problem here. The play of Melton is the 3rd major problem here. Why does a RB with the physical attributes of Henry Melton run like he has a vagina? Texas Rivals moderator Geoff Ketchum summed it up in his pre-A&M game chat when he labeled Melton as the biggest waste of talent on the UT roster.
DB coach Duane Akina (D-) The only thing keeping Akina from getting an F is that the secondary made their share of big game-saving and game-changing plays to go along with the countless coverage breakdowns and big plays given up at critical times. The lack of development of Brandon Foster, Ryan Palmer, and the backup safeties is a major cause for concern. Ranking in the 100's in pass defense with four 4th year players, three of whom will play on Sundays, is absolutely 100% inexcusable regardless of the scheme they are forced to play under or the number of injuries they sustain.
LB coach/Defensive Coordinator Gene Chizik: (F) - Most overrated coach in the country at this point if his name is up for any head coaching jobs right now. The LBers were completely non-existant the entire year. Linebackers are not the most disappointing position group because they weren't expected to be great, but they are still the worst position group on the team, and they pretty much have been both years Chizik has been the LB coach here. Chizik's stubbornness and complete ineptude in making in-game adjustments is embarrassing. This was supposed to be the most talented defense Mack Brown ever had, and it was pretty much the worst defense Texas has had under Mack Brown. To compare Chizik to 2004 Texas DC Greg Robinson... Robinson gave up THREE! 3rd quarter points ALL REGULAR SEASON in 2004 (17 to Michigan in the Rose Bowl). Chizik's defense has given up 55 points in the 3rd quarter this year and we still have one more game to go against a tough bowl opponent.
I hope Chizik gets a head coaching job somewhere, but I don't know who's stupid enough to hire him at this point.
First, with the college football regular season all but over at this point, I'll update you on how my college football picks have gone for the season. I have picked 10 games every week for all 13 weeks of the season. In the 13 weeks, I have won my 5-7 person office pool FIVE times, including this week, when I went 7-3. For the season, I went 71-56-3, which is 56%, well below my goal of 65%. I still have the office bowl season pool, where we will pick all 32 bowl games. So all I need to do is go 32-0 in my bowl game picks against the spread and I will be up to 65% on the year.
Now for my thoughts on the season of the 9-3 Texas Longhorns. Obviously an extremely disappointing end to the season, with Texas playing themselves out of the Big 12 Title game with back to back losses to Kansas St and Texas A&M. The worst part about the loss to A&M was this old A&M lady fan who was a total {censored} who yelled the following phrase the entire game... "Let's go army!!" This speaks to the pure ignorance and delusion that aggy fans live under. Does she really think that her school is a real military institution? Anyway, I instructed her that if she wanted to be accurate she should refer to them as the kiddie corp or the fake army. The worst part of Texas losing was knowing that this fat old {censored} got the satisfaction of seeing her team win.
There are many reasons being debated right now trying to diagnose why Texas lost their last two games, but I have a different theory. The cardinal sin in sports is to assume victory before the clock reads 0:00. Before the Kansas St game, I received an email from the UT ticket office reminding me to purchase my Big 12 Championship game tickets. They should have never sent this email out before Texas actually qualified for the game. On top of that, my brother bought his title game ticket the week before the KState game, but he wasn't the only one. His friend Tommy not only bought a game ticket, but he also bought a plane ticket to Kansas City the week of the KState game. My co-worker also pre-emptively bought tickets to the game before Texas won the Big 12 south.
I forgive them, because it's only a game. Besides, the money they will lose by buying tickets early and the guilt they must feel for commiting the cardinal sin of sports is punishment enough. Hopefully they all learned their lesson and we won't have this problem in future years.
Now, I want to close this post with my thoughts on the UT coaching staff and the job they did this season. I give each coach a grade based on expectations, performance and player development. It isn't very pretty, but I think it's fair and accurate.
WR coach Bobby Kennedy: (A-) - There is not a single senior in the group, and this is the best our WR's have played at least since the Big 3 (Roy Williams, BJ Johnson, and Sloan Thomas), and an argument can be made that as a group, they outdid the Big 3 as a group in any season they played. Very few drops this year. The only negative is it's possible that better WR run blocking at times could have resulted in breaking long runs at some point this year. When looking for an answer why we broke no long runs, that could be a part. I think that's a stretch though, and it's tough to find anything bad to say about any of the WR's this year.
QB Coach/Offensive Coordinator Greg Davis (B+) - The bad is that the gameplans were highly ineffective in both the Ohio St and A&M games. The good is that we had a RS freshman 3-star recruit at QB who was a legitimate heisman finalist up until the moment he got hurt in the first quarter against Kansas St, and when he is hurt, the backup true FR QB comes in and puts 42 points on the board. From a QB development standpoint, how can Greg Davis not be thought of as the best in the country right now? You have more highly recruited QB's all over the country that are not playing even close to the level that McCoy played at this year.. among them are the following highly recruited QB's within one year of McCoy in classification are the following: Kyle Wright, Drew Weatherford, X. Lee, Ryan Perrilloux, Mark Sanchez, Matthew Stafford, Mitch Mustain, Tim Tebow, Bobby Reid, Rhett Bomar (compare his freshman year to McCoy's). Anything less than a B+ for Davis is a joke when you take a look around the country and see how all of McCoy's more highly regarded classmates are playing. The most disappointing part of the offense to me has been red zone efficiency, but I put that more on the OL play than the playcalling/QB play (see OL comments below).
TE coach Bruce Chambers: (B) - Not much to say here, other than RS FR JerMichael Finley had what you would have to call a very successful freshman campaign (23 rec, 326 yards 3 TD's). If Finley has 3 more years identical to his first, he will leave Texas ranked #2 all time in career receptions, yards, and TD's by a tight end in school history. There were some inconsistencies early in the year dropping balls, but I feel good about Finley going forward and his improvement from September to now is clear.
DE coach Oscar Giles: (B-) - The DE position seemed to take a step backwards at the moment when Brian Robison got hurt and was slowed the rest of the season, but Tim Crowder and Robison probably had their best seasons at Texas, with Brian Orakpo doing well in pass rush situations. The emergence of Soph Aaron Lewis this year was also a good mark in Giles' favor. The negative here is the lack of a good pass rush the 2nd half of the season and the poor job of defending the option against Texas A&M, where a large responsibility falls on the DE. If the DE is hitting the QB on the option every play, it frees up the outside LBer to take the pitch man, and the option gets contained.
DT coach Mike Tolleson: (C+) - The good here is the run defense as a whole throughout the season (A&M game removed), the play of Derek Lokey up until he got injured, which you can't blame on Tolleson, the short yardage stops against Texas Tech by the DT's saved us that game. The bad is clearly getting physically manhandled by A&M throughout the game and the lack of plays made in the backfield as a whole, but mostly from Frank Okam. You have to call Okam a disappointment to this point in his career.
It's hard to say much good about the guys that are left, so here goes..
OL coach Mac McWhorter (D+) - This begins with our problems all season long in short yardage and in the red zone. Our inability to run the ball effectively in the red zone led to numerous possessions in the red zone where we could not get the ball in the end zone. It all starts with the OL in the red zone, because you need to run the ball effectively to score in short yardage situations. The pass blocking was decent this year, and that's about the only thing that keeps this grade from being an F. Expectations are a little higher than other positions because we have 3 seniors on the line. The lack of big runs is a big problem that has a lot to do with the inability of the OL to ever get to the 2nd level this year. This stat pretty much sums it all up for me... we averaged less than 4.0 ypc in 4 of our last 5 games. When you have 3 OL who are pre-season all conference (one preseason AA), you should rank higher than 22nd in the nation in rushing offense, ESPECIALLY when you have a coach who would much rather run the ball than pass it. The secondary played poorly enough to save this group from being the most diappointing on the team.
After McWhorter is where I draw the line between coaches I have no problem with being in the program next year and coaches that I don't care one bit if they are somewhere else next year.
RB coach Ken Rucker: (D) - Fumbles fumbles fumbles. Fumbles are one thing, but a majority of our fumbles seem to be of the variety where it's more the result of poor ball security technique and carelessness than they are great defensive plays or big hits. Fumbles have been a consistently bothersome problem that appeared the moment Rucker arrived on campus and has not improved one bit since. The lack of big runs is the 2nd major problem here. The play of Melton is the 3rd major problem here. Why does a RB with the physical attributes of Henry Melton run like he has a vagina? Texas Rivals moderator Geoff Ketchum summed it up in his pre-A&M game chat when he labeled Melton as the biggest waste of talent on the UT roster.
DB coach Duane Akina (D-) The only thing keeping Akina from getting an F is that the secondary made their share of big game-saving and game-changing plays to go along with the countless coverage breakdowns and big plays given up at critical times. The lack of development of Brandon Foster, Ryan Palmer, and the backup safeties is a major cause for concern. Ranking in the 100's in pass defense with four 4th year players, three of whom will play on Sundays, is absolutely 100% inexcusable regardless of the scheme they are forced to play under or the number of injuries they sustain.
LB coach/Defensive Coordinator Gene Chizik: (F) - Most overrated coach in the country at this point if his name is up for any head coaching jobs right now. The LBers were completely non-existant the entire year. Linebackers are not the most disappointing position group because they weren't expected to be great, but they are still the worst position group on the team, and they pretty much have been both years Chizik has been the LB coach here. Chizik's stubbornness and complete ineptude in making in-game adjustments is embarrassing. This was supposed to be the most talented defense Mack Brown ever had, and it was pretty much the worst defense Texas has had under Mack Brown. To compare Chizik to 2004 Texas DC Greg Robinson... Robinson gave up THREE! 3rd quarter points ALL REGULAR SEASON in 2004 (17 to Michigan in the Rose Bowl). Chizik's defense has given up 55 points in the 3rd quarter this year and we still have one more game to go against a tough bowl opponent.
I hope Chizik gets a head coaching job somewhere, but I don't know who's stupid enough to hire him at this point.
