DDT

Fifteen minutes that shook Austin 
And the virtue of patience

by SAM•U•L

Beginning of the fourth quarter at DKR/Memorial Stadium in Austin Saturday night, fifteen minutes to go in the contest, Texas leads Kansas State 24-7 and is playing well, in spite of losing quarterback David Ash. But the Wildcats make a comeback, score and are threatening to score again and cut the lead to three.

KState has the ball on the Longhorn five, Texas digs in, but then the Wildcat ball carrier drops the rock. Texas recovers, moves away from the goal line, eventually scores again. KState answers, but it’s not enough. Final score: Texas 31, KState 21, and 15 minutes that seemed like an eternity for Longhorn fans has passed.

            This was considered a must win for Mack Brown because Texas still has to face OU, Oklahoma State, Texas Tech, Baylor and TCU. There’s a good chance that the ‘Horns could lose two, three, maybe more, of those games, which, combined with the early losses to BYU and Ole Miss, and with a loss to KState, could leave Texas at 6-6 or even 5-7 on the season.

            This would, of course, mean that the wolf who made camp at Brown’s front door after the BYU loss would send out for reinforcements and set up a louder howl, and the rumormongering would get worse.

            The most ridiculous rumor of last week was Texas’ alleged flirtation with Nick Saban. That fairy tale made for a couple of good headlines on slow news days, and, since ‘Bama was tooling up for their weekend tilt with that Mountain West powerhouse Colorado State, there wasn’t a lot of hard news coming out of Tuscaloosa. Scribes in Alabama and in Austin had their fun, but now they’ll have to find something more substantial to chew on.

            There aren’t a lot of candidates out there who could replace Mack Brown, who is the second winningest coach in Longhorn history after Darrell Royal. David Shaw at Stanford might be coveted, but he’s a west coast guy and it is doubtful that he’d move. Gary Peterson at Boise State is a name that always comes up with every significant coaching vacancy, but, even though he has an impressive record, he’s not a real fire breather, a shake-‘em-up guy who would kick butt and take names like some Texas fans think they want. He, like Mack Brown, is a gentleman, and it’s hard to see if he would really bring anything new to the 40 acres.

            In the “what have you done for my lately” world of college athletics, fans and alumni have become like spectators at the Roman Coliseum: Win now, win big or it’s thumbs down and off with their heads.

In a sense, Texas has painted itself into a corner by outspending their opponents, not to mention by dominating some of them on the playing field. Nebraska and Texas A&M, both of whom lost to Texas more often than not, used the The Longhorn Network as an example of the disparity between their programs and the one in Austin—and as an excuse—to cut and run to other conferences.
          Texas has money, no question, but to bring in another higher paid hired gun like Nick Saban wouldn’t solve anything, and with the recruiting classes Texas has signed it’s not a matter of getting the talent, it’s a matter of coaching it up. Last year, Brown shook up his offensive staff. This year the defensive staff got the remake, even if it had to be after the season started. Brown won’t be able to go on dumping his assistants forever, but, for the time being, the answer is the new look on O look coached by Major Applewhite, and the new energy on D brought by Greg Robinson, who coached the Longhorn defense successfully once before.

Dumping Mack Brown and his staff and starting all over is not the answer.

The answer is patience.