As kickoff between Texas and North Texas approaches, Texas Football fans have more than a few simple questions about the team they’ll see. None will be more prevalent than, “will this season be different?”
Things will be different, no doubt. Charlie Strong will lead the team onto the field, a team he’s spend the better part of eight months breaking down to rebuild in his own vision.
[s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)]
“To say it’s not different would be crazy,” senior linebacker Jordan Hicks said in a Dallas Morning News story written by Chuck Carlton, “because everything about this program is different.”
When situations call for coaching changes, usually the new coach is the polar opposite of the coach he’s replacing. Strong’s not so much the anti-Mack Brown as he is someone who understands why he’s here and Brown isn’t. The players have seen it as well. Since the disastrous 2010 season, Brown spoke non-stop about returning Texas to the top, a job he didn’t get to finish. Strong gets his chance and he’s wasted no time implementing his plan. Strong, like his senior class, has no time to waste.
“Then when you get this class that came in, and this was kind of the class that said, ‘Hey, we’re going to reestablish a foundation, put the pride and the tradition back into this program,’” Strong said at Monday’s press conference. “Then it didn’t go so well when you look at the last three years. The thing about it is they have a chance now to really put a stamp on this program and leave their mark, which is great, because you have a season to get it done.”
Whatever Texas accomplishes this season – Strong offers no prediction other than to compete hard and do things correctly – will be accomplished the hard way. Strong and his staff put the Longhorns through a very hard off-season and pre-season camp, and he promises the Longhorns will play a hard-nosed brand of football, even if it flies in the face of the fast-paced Big 12, as ESPN’s Max Olson pointed out this week.
“Football is football. It’s still about fundamentals and technique and that’s what it comes down to,” Strong said. “Everyone thinks it’s about scheme. When you have players, scheme looks really good. It doesn’t matter. If our kids go out and do what we ask them to do, you always have a chance.”
The Big 12 has long been about hurry-up offenses and lots of points. Baylor’s Art Briles can’t get Bryce Petty and his cadre of offensive weapons snapping the ball quickly enough. Where Brown embraced the fast pace and tried to employ a tempo-based offense to wear down defenses, Texas will take a different approach on offense, as Olson writes, and try to beat them into submission.
“What Texas players will be asked to do could resemble what Stanford, Alabama, Michigan State, LSU and even Big 12 foe Kansas State have come to master. Those programs are winning on old-school beliefs about running the ball, defense and power.”
Sometimes, though, the best defense is a good offense. Strong’s Louisville teams exemplified that, Olson discovered. While Baylor looks to score quickly, Texas may not. An offense that eats up time and possession – and scores – can make a defense better. Louisville’s numbers prove the theory.
“Louisville’s offense wasn’t just No. 2 in time of possession nationally last year,” Olson wrote. “The Cards had 17 scoring drives extend 5-plus minutes (second-most in FBS only to K-State) and 21 exceed 10-plus plays. This was, on average, a two-plays-per-minute offense, one of the comparatively slowest in the country, and it won 12 games….[Offensive coordinator Shawn] Watson’s offense kept Strong’s defense off the field. The Louisville D played 779 snaps in 2013. Texas’ defense played the same number of games and finished at 966. The rest of the Big 12 averaged 937.”
In Monday’s Austin American-Statesman, Kirk Bohls wrote about the need to improve Texas’ defense.
“When asked if the Longhorns have ever played great defense in his time here, senior defensive end Cedric Reed said, “That’s a hard question to answer. We were part of some great players on defense like Kenny Vaccaro, Alex Okafor and Jackson Jeffcoat. I played with Keenan Robinson and Emmanuel Acho. We’ve had some pretty good athletes on defense, but that was about as close as we got to a great defense.””
When the Longhorns’ defense is on the field, the hope is that talent and fresh legs can help it make the last few years a distant memory.
“I expect us to have a great defense,” senior cornerback Quandre Diggs told Bohls.
[/s2If]
[s2If !current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)]
[article-offer]
[/s2If]
Discover more from Horns Illustrated
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.