Longhorns Football

[Tatonka]

I went to the game. I saw some friends and had some fun but the game sucked. Can't say it was much of a surprise though.

I expected the offense to struggle some this year with the lose of Colt, Shipley and the other Seniors but God they are boring and predictable. The O line isn't opening holes for the run game and have had injuries, the RB's are not doing much, the QB is still developing (slowly), the WR's are dropping more passes this year then I have ever seen and the Tight Ends are invisible.

But what happened to the Defense. They can't stop the run, they don't get pressure on the QB, the secondary is struggling, they aren't creating many turnovers and they are not making plays. They were supposed to be scary good this year, instead they are just plain scary.

It is hard to imagine how a team that recruits 4 and 5 star players every year, year after year can have fallen so hard so fast.

Greg Davies should go, give Major Applewhite a shot at OC or bring in somebody else. Maybe Mike Leach could come in as OC and bring his wide open offense with him. At least the offense wouldn't be boring.

[Guest020916]

If GD is let go, it'll probably be Applewhite getting a shot at his OC since he's pretty close to Muschamp. You know Muschamp is being groomed for head coach position.

Mike Leach would be interesting alternative but not sure his persona would gel with the staff.

[derek303]

With Muschamp being the "head coach in waiting" and his Defense failing, he might be hurt in this. What a differance a year makes. I agree Leach's personality not a good fit for Texas.

[sixxbach]

I love controversy. I think Leach would be a good choice but does not gel with the image UT seems to want with their coaches, nice guys like Barnes and Mack. I like Mack, hope he stays around.

Leach! Leach! Leach!

sixx

[theaustinescorts]

There is an inverse relationship between the academic reputation of a University and the success of it's football team.

When I went to UT it had a losing football team that few people cared about, but the University itself was ranked among the top ten or fifteen in the nation.

Recently it's had a winning football team, it's football merchandising is hawked everywhere from the "Co-Op" stores found everywhere to Wall-Mart. But the most recent academic ranking I've seen for the University puts it somewhere around number FOURTY-THREE FOR ACADEMIC accomplishment.

UGH!

The last time I was in Wall-Mart I saw huge Longhorn displays for everything from Longhorn foot slippers to Longhorn tampons.

This merchandising is a disgrace, particularly since NO ONE WHO SHOPS AT WALLMART even finished High School much less is a real Longhorn.

I am a real Longhorn, graduated in 198*, and only myself and others alums of that University have the right to call any team from that school our own.

I wish Longhorn football would go the way of Harvard and Yale's teams - into obscurity. Maybe that way we might once again approach the academic reputation of schools such as they.

[derek303]

You can't have both?

[Insano]

ive actually stopped watching. i can't stand Greg Davis' play calling. even when we were winning i couldnt stand it. totally dreading the A&M game.

[austin_guy08]

Can't stand Greg Davis, but Muschamp has really hurt his chances at a HC position this year. They were supposed to have a great defense, but a questionable offense. So far, they both suck. I think Davis is gone after this year, and Muschamp lost a bunch of credibility with folks after this debacle of a season. Aggy will slaughter them with the way they've been playing and the Horns won't even be Bowl eligible. With as many bowls as they have now, that's pretty damn bad!

[sixxbach]

I think the defense just wore out. The offense's job is to stay on the field and score. Too many 3 and out's on offense. The defense has been on the field way too long this year. If you can win the time of possession battle, you have a great shot at winning which means you are scoring, something that has been lacking this year. Bye Greg Davis, the game has passed you by...

sixx

[Rand Al'Thor]

Originally Posted by theaustinescorts

There is an inverse relationship between the academic reputation of a University and the success of it's football team.

When I went to UT it had a losing football team that few people cared about, but the University itself was ranked among the top ten or fifteen in the nation.

More than a few people cared about UT football program even in the 80s and 90s.

Recently it's had a winning football team, it's football merchandising is hawked everywhere from the "Co-Op" stores found everywhere to Wall-Mart. But the most recent academic ranking I've seen for the University puts it somewhere around number FOURTY-THREE FOR ACADEMIC accomplishment.

UGH!

Without looking at the criteria for both rankings, it would be hard to compare apples to apples.

The last time I was in Wall-Mart I saw huge Longhorn displays for everything from Longhorn foot slippers to Longhorn tampons.

This merchandising is a disgrace, particularly since NO ONE WHO SHOPS AT WALLMART even finished High School much less is a real Longhorn.

You are wrong, and displaying an attitude that is entirely elitist for someone who shops at Goodwill and bargain racks, or anybody, for that matter. I shop at Walmart...

I am a real Longhorn, graduated in 198*, and only myself and others alums of that University have the right to call any team from that school our own.

..and I was at UT when it had the top 5 program in the nation for the discipline of engineering I was studying.

I wish Longhorn football would go the way of Harvard and Yale's teams - into obscurity. Maybe that way we might once again approach the academic reputation of schools such as they.

The Volcanic rumble is not a sign that the gods are angry with us. I tend to think the fact that Harvard and Yale can be more selective in their admissions while UT has to try to admit all state student who meet minimal baseline standards has a bit more to do with their respective academic ranking than the success of their football programs.

[Rand Al'Thor]

Originally Posted by sixxbach

I think the defense just wore out. The offense's job is to stay on the field and score. Too many 3 and out's on offense. The defense has been on the field way too long this year. If you can win the time of possession battle, you have a great shot at winning which means you are scoring, something that has been lacking this year. Bye Greg Davis, the game has passed you by...

sixx

I would agree with this, except that there have been too many games where the defense has not shown up in the first quarter, even first half.

I do agree that time of possession battle could tip the balance toward UT if the offense could keep the ball longer by wearing out the opposing defense.

This whole season makes me wonder how accurate the grading of recruiting classes have been the past couple of years.

UT has had their pick of talent, especially coming from Texas, yet we are getting burned by Texas players on the opposite side of the field game after game. Makes me wonder about talent evaluation within UT.

[theaustinescorts]

No school that was really serious about their academic reputation would permit their "mascot" to be paraded around on such products, or to encourage their image to be so highly associated with something as vulgar as sports entertainment.

That's why the best school in California, UC Berkley, has a sports program nobody's ever heard of....just like the University of Chicago, Columbia, Johns Hopkins, NYU, Princeton, MIT, Cal-Tech, etc.

All serious schools don't promote themselves by selling silly merchandising or glorifying sports entertainment. Additionally the third-rate "students" that perform as entertainer/athletes in sports oriented schools could never hack it in any real school. At UT the football players live in their own elitist quarters, and are pretty much except from any real classes or study. They are paid entertainers - NOT real students. When I used to watch college football and I would see the kind of people who comprised the football teams of schools like Alabama or Oklahoma I would laugh - those are NOT the kinds of people who are real college scholars. They looked like they probably couldn't really graduate from high school.

I used to hang here in Austin with a UT football star from my class in the 1980s. He went on to play for Green Bay and other pro teams. He graduated from UT with a degree in Art. I used to tease him because he didn't know the names of ANY notable artists. He didn't even know who Jackson Pollack was till I told him LOL!!!!!

When I went to UT there wasn't 5% of the Longhorn marketing and promotion that there is now. The University Co-op was a department store for students, and had every kind of item that a University student could use from art and drafting supplies to record albums and text books. Now it's nothing more than a Longhorn merchandising emporium for tourists, and has nothing at all of use to any student.

Sports can be fun, and I liked playing football when I was in grade school. But college is a time to grow up and start belonging to the adult world.
Undo emphasis on sports entertainment detracts from the purpose of any University.

[derek303]

Gee...it's a lot of fun watching Harvard play football. When I was up in Boston recently Harvard shirts were in in my hotel gift shop and in the airport.

[theaustinescorts]

The white and crimson t-shirts for sale in Boston are not sports related and have nothing to do with the Harvard mascot or sports teams. They are for Havard and MIT [both are available all over Boston] and of course MIT has no sports program. They are just for the schools themselves, not their athletics. I lived in Boston at 150 Huntington Ave. in the 1980s when in graduate school.

Tommy Lee Jones used to play football at Harvard, and a good film was made about one of his 1968 varsity games. 1968 was a long time ago.

The fact is really good football players don't have the brains or the time during the football season to be scholars at a rigorous University. That's why the really good schools have sports programs that are un-accomplished, if they have them at all. Sports entertainment is a distraction from the purpose of a college. The schools that promote it I think do so for the media proceeds, and the advantages of recruiting money-paying sports-fan students and contributors. It's a business, not a sport. And because it's motivated by money there will be compromises everywhere along the line. It's just a joke that the athletes at these schools never are required to do any real work, and are treated like stars. Most of these athletes have no professional sports career when they're out, but many of them can find jobs with sports-fan employers so long as they are the right color [white sports fans like to hire white athletes]. If the athlete is a minority he can have a very hard time finding work after school [assuming he graduates].

My friend from UT/Green Bay played pro for about 6 years then had to retire from an injury. He wasn't able to save much money from his football career.
He was a minority and was only offered jobs in the public sector, so he coached HS and got a civil service job. His football injury gets worse and worse every year and I wonder how much longer he will be able to walk.
He did learn how to paint with oils when at UT, but they didn't require him to learn anything about the history of art or painting that they otherwise would.

It's sad. UT shouldn't be about that.

[Rand Al'Thor]

Originally Posted by theaustinescorts

No school that was really serious about their academic reputation would permit their "mascot" to be paraded around on such products, or to encourage their image to be so highly associated with something as vulgar as sports entertainment.

Sports, or sports entertainment being vulgar is your opinion, one not shared by many even in academia. Both Western and Eastern cultures advocate developing mind and body as a way to a balanced life. You're right, no school that was so serious about academic reputation would associate themselves to sports that much, but a school that was more concerned with academic performance may not care that their mascot is associated with sports.

That's why the best school in California, UC Berkley, has a sports program nobody's ever heard of....just like the University of Chicago, Columbia, Johns Hopkins, NYU, Princeton, MIT, Cal-Tech, etc.

You might be surprised to know that UC Berkeley fields a pretty good basketball team every few years. As for UC Berkeley being the best school in California, I think you’ll find a few who would argue that point with you concerning Stanford. By the way, Stanford does compete seriously in football and basketball.

All serious schools don't promote themselves by selling silly merchandising or glorifying sports entertainment. Additionally the third-rate "students" that perform as entertainer/athletes in sports oriented schools could never hack it in any real school. At UT the football players live in their own elitist quarters, and are pretty much except from any real classes or study. They are paid entertainers - NOT real students. When I used to watch college football and I would see the kind of people who comprised the football teams of schools like Alabama or Oklahoma I would laugh - those are NOT the kinds of people who are real college scholars. They looked like they probably couldn't really graduate from high school.

Not all serious schools, as evidenced above. As for the ‘third rate’ students who couldn’t hack it in ‘real’ schools, there are many athletes who have succeeded after their sports career. These few students also do not affect the rankings of the entire school. Consider UT with 50,000+ students, how much is their academic ranking lowered by admitting a couple of hundred athletes? Compare that to the state of Texas public educational system and the quality of the student they put out every year that UT is forced to admit by the thousands. Which do you think is the real cause of the decline in UT’s academic performance?

I used to hang here in Austin with a UT football star from my class in the 1980s. He went on to play for Green Bay and other pro teams. He graduated from UT with a degree in Art. I used to tease him because he didn't know the names of ANY notable artists. He didn't even know who Jackson Pollack was till I told him LOL!!!!!

How is this pertinent? Anecdotal stories are fun, but hardly practical when evaluating large institutions and their performance year-over-year. I’ve met many Harvard graduates who didn’t know who Oppenheimer was or could engage in conversation about pop-culture, film, or sports. This didn’t make them less intelligent, just less informed. The fact that your friend couldn’t name any notable artists tells me that he probably didn’t have much interest in art, not that he was dumb.

When I went to UT there wasn't 5% of the Longhorn marketing and promotion that there is now. The University Co-op was a department store for students, and had every kind of item that a University student could use from art and drafting supplies to record albums and text books. Now it's nothing more than a Longhorn merchandising emporium for tourists, and has nothing at all of use to any student.

In fact, Co-Op does have many things of use for students. Let’s stay away from blanket absolute statements, while they seem strong, they tend to take away from credibility. Merchandising is a profitable endeavor, but you forget the benefit of sports merchandising. UT football is a profitable franchise, the football program does not spend nearly all of the money it generates. Where do you think that money ends up?

Sports can be fun, and I liked playing football when I was in grade school. But college is a time to grow up and start belonging to the adult world.
Undo emphasis on sports entertainment detracts from the purpose of any University.

Is college the time to grow up? I agree that it’s a time to learn - maybe even a time to start becoming responsible. There are many out there that would argue that fun has a place in everyone’s life no matter the age. To think that an institution the size of UT cannot focus on more than one thing (sports) at a time is a bit ridiculous. While there is much attention given to football, that is the job of the coaches and athletic director to manage that program and business. There are others tasked with the job of managing the academic performance of the university.