Texas Football| Norvell To Call Plays For Texas Offense

By Steve Lansdale

Maybe Texas football head coach Charlie Strong watches baseball, because after three strikes, he decided that Shawn Watson should be out as play caller for the Longhorns’ offense. Wide receivers coach Jay Norvell would take over calling plays, Strong said Tuesday. (Continue reading below…)

(…Continued from above.) Now in his second season in Austin, Watson had shared the reins of the offense with offensive coordinator/offensive line coach Joe Wickline. But the Longhorns, whose offense was anemic enough to finish next to last in the Big 12 last year, has hit a considerable skid in recent games. They coughed up five turnovers in the regular-season finale against TCU, mustered just 59 yards of total offense in their loss to Arkansas in the the Advocare V100 Texas Bowl and then sputtered to 163 yards of total offense (to rank 123^rd in the country after one week) and just eight first downs in their season-opening loss at Notre Dame.

At that point,  [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)]Strong had seen enough.

“What was key is we have to get this program on track,” Strong told the assembled media after Tuesday’s practice. “We have to do a better job coaching. We’ve got to get our players better prepared, and there’s no reason for us to go out and perform at the level we’ve been performing — there’s no reason at all.”

Relieving Watson of his play-calling duties was difficult for Strong, who brought Watson with him to Austin from their previous coaching jobs at Louisville, where Watson had served as the Cardinals’ primary play caller since 2011. Watson will remain on the staff, coaching the Longhorns’ quarterbacks.

In Norvell, the Longhorns will have a new play caller who spent the last seven seasons at Oklahoma, including four in which he was the Sooners’ primary play caller. He previously filled the same role at UCLA, and spent six years in the NFL, where he worked with legendary receivers like Jerry Rice, Marvin Harrison, Tim Brown and Reggie Wayne.

Furthering the confusion around the Texas offense is the question of who will start at quarterback. Tyrone Swoopes, the incumbent returning starter from last season, started and played most of the game against Notre Dame behind a young offensive line that allowed little time to throw and minimal rushing lanes. Strong said that he has not yet decided who will start under center, but said that Swoopes and redshirt freshman Jerrod Heard both will play.
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