After the Debacle: Texas Longhorns 2011 Season Preview, Pt 2

Jul 30, 2011

A new mindset – and it starts at the top.

Mack Brown has said as much: Last season’s team entered the season with an air of entitlement. It started with him, was mirrored by his team, a team without strong leadership, a team that failed to put in the necessary work and discipline over the summer. For Mac, it started with another BCS Championship game against Alabama in January of 2010. The ‘Horns lost that game to a pounding, bruising ‘Bama running game led by Heisman Trophy winner, Mark Ingram and stablemate Trent Richardson. More than that, they lost QB Colt McCoy after the game’s first possession, after the opportunism of the defense set up the Longhorn offense deep, deep in Crimson Tide territory twice to open the game. When Colt went down, the team fell too. Enter QB Garrett Gilbert, freshman, into the biggest game, on the biggest stage of his career. Surviving a horrid first half, the young QB, at last unshackled after the half by coaches, relaxed a bit, made some throws, finally lit a fire underneath the Longhorns, brought them back to within a field goal of catching the Tide, well, at least before a pair of turnovers closed the deal for Alabama. The stinging loss, and particularly, the Longhorns’ utter conviction that a healthy Colt McCoy would most certainly have wrapped up another title for Brown and Longhorn Nation, lingered in Brown’s head, a year-long hangover for the 2010 squad, a hangover that, coupled with a lack of team leadership, and, well, some highly disappointing seasons at key positions, led to the debacle.

That was last year, and Coach Brown had a long, unpleasant off-season to look in the mirror, accept the blame, and move on from it. He freely admits the focus was wrong, that it began with him, and that it led to the dismal showing of last year’s team. With a fierceness in his gaze, Brown vows that won’t happen again. I believe him. If there has been one constant of the Mack Brown era, it has been that his teams have always played their best when they played with a chip on their collective shoulder. And this year, they are toting one huge chip on the shoulder. It starts at the top; if for no other reason, this squad will be vastly improved over a year ago.

Part 3 will continue our examination of the 2011 Texas Longhorns with a look at the wholesale coaching changes in “Heads Rolling …”