It’s over.
When push came to shove in the critical twilight hours of the Charlie Strong era, the Longhorns just couldn’t play any kind of quality football against poor competition.
Translation: Texas isn’t going bowling and for the third straight season Strong has given the Texas program a losing record for its $25-million investment.
6-7, 5-7 and now 5-7. This makes the first time since 1936-38 that the Texas program has endured three consecutive losing seasons.
Honestly, there’s nothing else to say as it relates to Strong and his job. The only crowd-surfing that took place on this day occurred in the fourth quarter when Texas fans raced out of the building in an effort to beat the traffic.
It’s over. It’s time to stop making excuses and start looking for answers.
(Final thoughts on the final game of the season).
1. Let’s take a moment and offer congrats to D’Onta Foreman on another monster game (165 yards on 21 carries) that pushed him over the 2,000-yard mark for only the second time in UT history. The kid is a special player and he had a special season. I don’t know that many players on the team deserved a better fate than a 5-7 season, but Foreman is definitely one of them.
2. Foreman carried the ball 82 times in the span of six days to end the season. It’s time for that young man to go get paid.
3. Outside of Foreman, the Texas offense was pretty awful today, continuing a trend towards the end of the season that took a lot of shine of Texas OC Sterlin Gilbert. After a 12-game sample-size, it’s fair to question whether Gilbert was truly the right guy for such a critical season because it seems clear he’s still learning on the job and not yet an elite college coordinator. In the last two games of the season against Kansas and TCU, the offense scored three touchdowns in 120+ minutes of football. That’s simply not good enough.
4. Shane Buechele still has a lot of work and development in front of him before he’s one of the top quarterbacks in the Big 12. His play in the final few games of the season has me wondering if Sam Ehlinger can take the job from him with a new coach in place and both players standing on equal ground as it relates to a new offense.
5. The defense played pretty damn well today, but eventually the dam was going to break and it did.
6. Texas has had one of the worst red zone offenses in the Big 12 all season and it was a major issue in the first half when the Longhorns only scored six points in three red zone trips, including only three points on two drives that reached the one-yard line. If you want to know why the Longhorns aren’t going bowling this year, this aspect of their game is a major reason why.
7. Speaking of red zone visits that reached the one-yard line, how could Charlie Strong choose to kick a field goal when he’s coaching for his life, especially when you don’t trust your kicking game at all? To say I hated that decision is an understatement.
8. After all of the fuss that was made over the arrival Trent Domingue in the off-season, for him to lose his job in his final game of his career speaks to the kind of season the transfer from LSU had.
9. Part of me wonders if the coaches put Tyrone Swoopes into the game in the third quarter on 2nd and 18 because it was Senior Day and another part me wonders if they just decided to reserve the right to punt because I can’t imagine that Sterlin Gilbert thought back to back rushes by the senior quarterback was his best route to picking up a much-needed first down.
10. It took a while this season before Edwin Freeman emerged as a staple of the Texas defense, but once he was able to get a heavy dose of snaps, he’s proven to be one of the best playmakers on the defense.
11. I’m not going to pile on Dylan Haines too much because ultimately the coaches are the ones who believe he is the best guy they have on the field at safety, but his missed tackle on Kenny Hill’s 41-yard touchdown run just can’t happen, but it did and at this point I have to believe that tackling quarterbacks is merely his kryptonite.
12. How many of you knew who Mitchell Becker was going into the game? If I had told you that he would be UT’s leading scorer in this game, you wouldn’t have believed me.
13. It’s a play that has already been forgotten, but the play that Davante Davis made on the kickoff team in the first quarter saved seven points and kept the Longhorns in the game when an earlier blowout might have otherwise emerged if not for his open-field tackle.
14. Devin Duvernay is going to be a superstar in the coming years.
15. I’ll leave you with this because it was the best part of today.
When push came to shove in the critical twilight hours of the Charlie Strong era, the Longhorns just couldn’t play any kind of quality football against poor competition.
Translation: Texas isn’t going bowling and for the third straight season Strong has given the Texas program a losing record for its $25-million investment.
6-7, 5-7 and now 5-7. This makes the first time since 1936-38 that the Texas program has endured three consecutive losing seasons.
Honestly, there’s nothing else to say as it relates to Strong and his job. The only crowd-surfing that took place on this day occurred in the fourth quarter when Texas fans raced out of the building in an effort to beat the traffic.
It’s over. It’s time to stop making excuses and start looking for answers.
(Final thoughts on the final game of the season).
1. Let’s take a moment and offer congrats to D’Onta Foreman on another monster game (165 yards on 21 carries) that pushed him over the 2,000-yard mark for only the second time in UT history. The kid is a special player and he had a special season. I don’t know that many players on the team deserved a better fate than a 5-7 season, but Foreman is definitely one of them.
2. Foreman carried the ball 82 times in the span of six days to end the season. It’s time for that young man to go get paid.
3. Outside of Foreman, the Texas offense was pretty awful today, continuing a trend towards the end of the season that took a lot of shine of Texas OC Sterlin Gilbert. After a 12-game sample-size, it’s fair to question whether Gilbert was truly the right guy for such a critical season because it seems clear he’s still learning on the job and not yet an elite college coordinator. In the last two games of the season against Kansas and TCU, the offense scored three touchdowns in 120+ minutes of football. That’s simply not good enough.
4. Shane Buechele still has a lot of work and development in front of him before he’s one of the top quarterbacks in the Big 12. His play in the final few games of the season has me wondering if Sam Ehlinger can take the job from him with a new coach in place and both players standing on equal ground as it relates to a new offense.
5. The defense played pretty damn well today, but eventually the dam was going to break and it did.
6. Texas has had one of the worst red zone offenses in the Big 12 all season and it was a major issue in the first half when the Longhorns only scored six points in three red zone trips, including only three points on two drives that reached the one-yard line. If you want to know why the Longhorns aren’t going bowling this year, this aspect of their game is a major reason why.
7. Speaking of red zone visits that reached the one-yard line, how could Charlie Strong choose to kick a field goal when he’s coaching for his life, especially when you don’t trust your kicking game at all? To say I hated that decision is an understatement.
8. After all of the fuss that was made over the arrival Trent Domingue in the off-season, for him to lose his job in his final game of his career speaks to the kind of season the transfer from LSU had.
9. Part of me wonders if the coaches put Tyrone Swoopes into the game in the third quarter on 2nd and 18 because it was Senior Day and another part me wonders if they just decided to reserve the right to punt because I can’t imagine that Sterlin Gilbert thought back to back rushes by the senior quarterback was his best route to picking up a much-needed first down.
10. It took a while this season before Edwin Freeman emerged as a staple of the Texas defense, but once he was able to get a heavy dose of snaps, he’s proven to be one of the best playmakers on the defense.
11. I’m not going to pile on Dylan Haines too much because ultimately the coaches are the ones who believe he is the best guy they have on the field at safety, but his missed tackle on Kenny Hill’s 41-yard touchdown run just can’t happen, but it did and at this point I have to believe that tackling quarterbacks is merely his kryptonite.
12. How many of you knew who Mitchell Becker was going into the game? If I had told you that he would be UT’s leading scorer in this game, you wouldn’t have believed me.
13. It’s a play that has already been forgotten, but the play that Davante Davis made on the kickoff team in the first quarter saved seven points and kept the Longhorns in the game when an earlier blowout might have otherwise emerged if not for his open-field tackle.
14. Devin Duvernay is going to be a superstar in the coming years.
15. I’ll leave you with this because it was the best part of today.
