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Post by mayor on Sept 8, 2013 11:58:57 GMT -6
Though I think TCU might also get things together.
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Post by fatmenace on Sept 8, 2013 12:05:05 GMT -6
Baylor vs OK St is going to be for the championship, whenever that game is.
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Post by mayor on Sept 8, 2013 12:23:00 GMT -6
If you're Texas, why wouldn't you offer Art Briles $10 million a year to move to Austin?
I don't think Briles is going anywhere, but Texas definitely has the best shot at him.
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Post by fatmenace on Sept 8, 2013 12:33:05 GMT -6
Patterson is the coach most Texas fans want.
Briles hasn't really shown anything in the defense department yet. We've had enough of bad D's. I want a coach like Saban or Belichek who can diagnose the problem on either side of the ball and know how to fix it. Mack doesn't know X's and O's. He hires who other people tell him are the best coordinators and if they fail...there's nothing he can do.
Plus...I don't think a coach has ever left a school to go directly to another school in the same conference. Spurrier and Saban did, but they stopped in the NFL in between.
Patterson already makes about $10 million a year. Few believe he would leave.
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Post by mayor on Sept 8, 2013 13:49:29 GMT -6
Yeah, I think Patterson and Briles are the best hope for Texas, and I don't think either are leaving. The only chance is if Texas can outpay Baylor or TCU to some ridiculous degree (which doesn't seem out of the realm of possibility). Maybe $15 million is the number for Patterson?
Personally, I don't think Patterson has proven anything yet either. Let's see if he can win in a real conference--let's see if he can win this year.
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Post by mayor on Sept 8, 2013 13:50:45 GMT -6
Briles hasn't really shown anything in the defense department yet. True, but I'm hopeful this is changing at Baylor. I think our defense is much improved and recruiting has picked up significantly the past couple years--so hopefully even better things are to come.
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Post by fatmenace on Sept 8, 2013 14:29:16 GMT -6
Post from "insider" on OB:
As some of you know, I sit at the kids table in the world of UT politics. I am not a rich entrepreneur, nor a CEO, nor am I related to anyone. But I do give a lot of money to UT and I am on the board of one of big UT schools. I talk to BMDs all the time. I know Powers, but am not close to him. I know a couple of current and a number of former members of the BOR. I am a MMD.
I actually get paid to help very senior people to make decisions. Including if we should hire or fire. At 12:30 last night, during an email screaming match people stopped talking to me. Maybe because they were tired or sick or didn't like my diction. Or because i said manny needs to be fired today and Mack and the AD need to be replaced by Jan 1...Its raw and emotional now
Background on Decision Making: 1. We have a President that is both fighting for his life and is also trying to retire. In effect, he wants to make sure that Perry's cronies don't burn the place down. Powers might have given up long ago, but the BMDs, the staff, the administration, the students and the government of Texas all want him to stay until the institution is safe (presumably perry is out of office) 2. We have an athletic director that helped create a powerhouse (there was a time a few years ago that all our major programs were humming) and he certainly created an economic powerhouse. With the major cable outlets picking up the LHN, it looks like it will work. But the athletic programs are all doing poorly, and its time to replace the AD. 3. The plan to replace the AD has always been right about now, as he is at retiring age. 4. We have a BOR at war with itself, as Perry has a witches brew of people who understand education and political sycophants.
Conclusion: This is not a particularly good set of circumstances for good decision making. We don't have a protected and empowered leader. The BOR is a functional joke (there are some great people on it, but it doesn't function), and the president and AD are lame duck. We have a massive structural problem.
Our Style 1. I know its hard to believe for some, but Texas does not cheat at sports. There is an absolute ethos among anyone with any stroke that we will tolerate no cheating. And, if anyone does it, they will be blackballed and ruined. This is entirely different than some of the SEC schools, where its business as usual. 2. No clown shows. A clown show is where 30 people roll out of an old mini car (like a metropolitan), with makeup on, floppy shoes and clown noses. There are no clowns at Texas. The way things have gone down at A&M and TT with their coaching changes is not how we are going to do things here. We may suck, but we suck with dignity. 3. Mack Brown: Like it or not, he restored the program, so he is going to be given too much leash.
Conclusion: Our style is not particularly conducive to firing a coach mid season, but that a longer term plan will be put in place.
ADs and Head Coaches 1. Every AD in the nation knows that the UT job is coming up. ADs want job security and they want to know who their boss is. Its an open question if the very best AD will come to UT with a lame duck president. I simply do not know the answer, but I think its a qualified maybe (perhaps you put in a huge golden parachute to mitigate the risk...) 2. Head coaches want to know who their AD is. DD is gone within a year, so we don't have an answer to this question. 3. It gets even worse for us because if we fire Manny, we need a new defensive coordinator. And it appears our head coach is a lame duck.
Conclusion: We have a perfect storm of needing change-over at the AD and coach level, combined with the fact that we don't even have a president or a functioning board with full authority. Nightmare.
The BMDs. 1. BMD means big money donor. It does not mean "person with decision making authority". BMDs don't typically have an obligation to do anything other than write checks, make speeches and buy suites and be big shots. 2. People on this board are saying that the BMDs don't care because they are fat, lazy, stupid, don't care and that they have access. Well, most are in perfect shape, work 75 hours a week, have high IQs, and care more about UT than anything else. And the access point is nothing special...these guys will always have access. This point is actually beside the point. 3. There is a misconception that all of the BMDs know each other and hang out with each other, which is far from the truth. Sure the Dallas gang knows the Dallas gang, and same for Houston...but the further you get a way,the further from the truth that is. So the BMDs are a disorganized mob. 4. but some of the very senior, very rich and very giving BMDs were Mack protectors. At first they were fighting to keep Mack, then they were fighting to give him "one more chance", the question right now is where are they? Are they in denial or are they where they need to be?
Conclusion: Regardless of this sideshow on if they care or not, with the administration incapable of making a decision, there needs to be BMD pressure for change. We need the BMDs to put pressure everywhere to make a change.
The team 1. I think its safe to assume that this team will not run the table. They looked bad, our QB is hurt, our best offensive player is hurt, our defense looks beyond repair. Even our boy wonder Applewhite had little answer. So, its safe to say we lose more games and this season will be viewed as another crummy season (call it 8 or 9 wins...if we are lucky)
Conclusion: Again? What did i do to deserve this?
What I think happens: 1. Mack needs to do something. The only way he can save his job is to win almost all of his games (like 10 wins) and not get blown out again. 2. Mack doesn't want to fire Manny because he doesn't want to end Manny's career. Mack will be counseled today and tomorrow that he has to fire Manny. He will be told this because i) manny is terrible and everyone knows it, ii) this allows mack to buy some time to right to ship and iii) I THINK THAT EVERY BMD NOW KNOWS THAT MACK IS DONE, and that its merely a matter of execution, not result (so they will start to threaten mack finally) The "heated discussions" are from the second generation BMDs screaming at their fathers that "its over, the ship is sunk." I am talking about Red and Jamail and guys like that. Sunday dinner tonight will not be a happy place to be. 3. If Mack does not fire manny and we lay another egg, Mack will be in danger of being fired mid season. I actually have always thought that it would be impossible for Mack to get fired mid season, but now I am not so sure. Most of the BMDs dont want to do this. Again, we hate clown shows. 4. We can not snap our fingers and get an AD and great head coach. Its hard. 5. I don't see what the big deal is about firing Manny. Our defense is beyond terrible. Just bring Robinson back and do it his way. It could not be worse than it is now. Is it a great solution? No, but its better than keeping manny
Conclusion: Fire manny, limp through the season, and then replace Mack. Mack can only save himself if the team wins out or nearly so, and that seems impossible at this point. If mack is intransigent, then we fire him mid season and you can paint our face and put on your big floppy shoes.
Conclusion II: As painful as it is to read about people on OBs saying that the BMDs "don't care", I actually agree that its a reasonable way to kick the hornets nest to get the BMDs to force change. The organization is structurally impaired from making and executing decisions, so we need people with de facto power to force change, as those with de jure power cannot get out of their own way....
I feel like a person with the flu, half asleep, watching Lifetime channel movies, blowing my nose, napping, watery eyes, sneezing and looking terrible. I simply cannot wait to be well again.
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Post by mayor on Sept 8, 2013 14:38:47 GMT -6
It must be tough to be a Texas fan.
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Post by fatmenace on Sept 8, 2013 14:41:55 GMT -6
Manny Diaz has been fired.
Robinson is replacing him.
Just delaying the inevitable, which is the departure of Mack.
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Post by fatmenace on Sept 8, 2013 17:59:54 GMT -6
For me, you have to make David Shaw say no first, then you can move on. I know he grew up at Stanford and probably is one of the few coaches who wouldn't leave for money, but he's still my number one. Make him turn us down.
Charlie Strong is another good candidate.
Surprisingly, Art Briles is leading by a considerable margin on Shaggy. He seems to be the favorite.
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Post by fatmenace on Sept 8, 2013 18:12:17 GMT -6
Craig Bohl is another interesting one. He's built a pretty good program at NDSU. We missed out on the Utah St guy, since Wisconsin snatched him up Fritz at SHSU is another one to keep an eye on.
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Post by "Redneck" Johnson on Sept 14, 2013 22:45:00 GMT -6
Long season for Texas. I think we'll show massive improvement if we reach 5 wins. I can see us losing to OU, OSU, TCU, Baylor, and Tech easily. Throw in a choke to K-state or West Virginia and Morgantown and its pretty ugly.
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Post by fatmenace on Sept 15, 2013 6:46:52 GMT -6
K State is always a given loss until proven otherwise.
I watched the OU game yesterday, all of it. The Belldozer looked like a senior QB out there. If that OU teams shows up to Dallas....yikes.
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Post by fatmenace on Sept 16, 2013 6:54:18 GMT -6
The SEC is really amazing. When their scores are 9-6, it's because the defenses are so filled with incredible athletes and coached by such amazing tacticians that the low scoring is simply a reflection of the impossibility of moving the ball on or scoring against an SEC defense. And when the scores are 49-42, it's because the offenses are so filled with incredible athletes and coached by such amazing tacticians that the high scoring is simply a reflection of the impossibility of stopping the scoring of an SEC offense.
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Post by fatmenace on Sept 16, 2013 11:25:07 GMT -6
Because I know everyone is breathlessly awaiting news on Texas..
eloss Dodds and Retirement
Say what you will about the man but he’s turned the University of Texas Athletic Department into a money making machine and one of the most popular properties/brands in all of sports. Has Deloss made mistakes along the way, sure, but no one can deny the financial gains he’s brought to the University of Texas. I’m not going to get into his mistakes here because they’re obvious and what’s done is done. For our purposes the only relevant item is Deloss Dodds’ retirement because it’s the absolute most important component to getting the University of Texas football program back to prominence.
To that point and make no mistake, Deloss Dodds has already retired effective 12/31/2013 as we reported last week. This is a done deal despite what some have reported to the contrary. There are other unfortunate reasons that make this an absolute certainty but we won’t get into that here because it’s not appropriate. Just wish the man well and thank him for all of the good he’s brought to the school.
An interesting aside to all of this is Dodds’ announcement that he’s retiring. A source close to the situation tells us that Dodds’ is waiting for the Bev Kearney EEOC investigation and subsequent private lawsuit to show its cards before announcing he’s stepping down. Why? Because it gives the University of Texas cover in the form of showing a change in direction at the highest level of the athletic department if that strategy is needed. It’s also one of the reasons Bellmont and those who message for Bellmont were so aggressively denying our report and Chip Brown’s follow-up report.
If you’re handicapping the timing of the announcement look for the first couple of weeks of October as the Kearney allegations of sexual impropriety and misconduct in the AD start to get leaked. Don’t be surprised if a head coach, a former head coach, and one the highest ranking positions of the AD get name dropped in this deal.
Deloss’ Exit Strategy And Mack Brown
Deloss’ retirement announcement not only serves as a powerful counter to any Kearney allegations, but it also gives Mack Brown a reason to retire. Deloss’ announcement will be a sentimental event and Mack Brown will be able to hang it up without many hardball questions from the media as a result. Oh, and if you’re asking, yes, we’re told Mack Brown will step down at the end of the season which is certainly the most important bit of information to our readers—we just wanted you to know the mechanics of this deal. The only question is when the announcement will be made and how much input Mack is going to have into the new coaching search, but we’ll have more on that later. For now, let’s get to Saturday night’s debacle and the legion of examples of why the program is in the hole it is today.
Mack Lost the Coaches.
Reason number 1 is accountability. There isn’t a whole lot and that exclamation point was pounded into the coaches’ minds when Manny Diaz was retained in 2013 after it was evident things weren’t working out. Remember our report last season when sources told us Bo Davis and Duane Akina basically started taking over coaching responsibilities as sort of a collective defensive coordinator and that helped improve the play of that side of the ball. A healthier program would have moved another direction after this chain of events but Mack Brown still brought Manny Diaz back to keep up appearances that Texas was stable after the other coordinator Bryan Harsin had bolted. Sources tell us that Mack Brown did not want to explain to his bosses why he was replacing two coordinators in the same season especially when he was telling everyone, “We’re fixin’ to be good again.”
Fast forward from last season to last week. Sources close to the staff tell us that both Bo Davis and Duane Akina were furious when Mack fired Diaz two games into the year because they knew this was something that should have been done last spring. We’re told that Bo Davis is coaching hard and keeping his head down, but he is still disgruntled. Duane Akina is different story, however. In the Sunday coaches meeting things got heated again between Akina and the head man. We’re told that Duane Akina told Mack to fire him if he did not like the job he was doing once again laying blame at the head coach’s feet for having a soft team that is coddled way too much.
Probably the most bizarre situation on Saturday was the demeanor of Bruce Chambers who’s usually much more quiet and reserved on game days. A team source says that Chambers seemed to have a chip on his shoulder especially when taking orders from other coaches on the staff on the offensive side of the ball including Mack Brown. “He was definitely no himself,” the source claimed. “He acted like he just didn’t give a damn and that’s not Bruce. He typically just quietly goes about his business but Saturday night he was yelling back at coaches and outwardly defiant at times.”
It leaves you to wonder if someone has told Chambers something about his future or if he’s been given his notice to start looking for work. If you remember 2010, this happened in the months of October and November with various coaches being told they needed to find a soft landing or they were going to be fired--the results were a disastrous 5-7 record that culminated in the staff opening up a big giant “can of quit” in the last game. In the week leading up to the finale against TAMU, sources claim Major Applewhite was the only one coaching in practice on the offensive side of the ball while guys like Kennedy, Davis, and Macwhorter did nothing knowing they were already toast. This could be the beginning of a similar situation according to our source.
Another item of discord, especially considering the dreadful offensive adjustments made in the second halves of the last two games, is play-calling disputes. We’re told that Major Applewhite evidently continues to overrule Darryl Wyatt on play-calls and this has created a schism in the offensive staff. In back to back weeks, half time adjustments weren’t forth coming and some feel Applewhite needs to take Wyatt’s advice to heart more often because Wyatt seems to have a better feel for what levers to pull at various points during the game. Remember Wyatt was a play caller at Kansas and had significant offensive input at OU.
In fact, we’re told that Bryan Harsin was more apt to take Wyatt’s input to heart and it resulted in a pretty high success rate in the form of big plays last season. According to one source, “Major may be trying too hard to be the man. He keeps blowing off input from Coach Wyatt. He needs to lean on his staff.”
It will be interesting to see if Wyatt gets more in-game input as the season wears on. Keep in mind, these guys are coaching for jobs after this season so they won’t take kindly to going to down with the ship without input knowing their careers are being damaged.
Schemes Are Easy
We spoke with a source with ties to Ole Miss who was on the sidelines during the game. Here’s what we were told. Ole Miss coaches were shocked at Case’s lack of arm strength and made significant adjustments at half time which resulted in a shut out after the second quarter. They had prepared for David Ash all week so they were caught off guard by Case and took a while to adjust according to the source. “Once they realized Texas couldn’t challenge them down field they blitzed the power looks and shut down the running game. They were surprised that Texas was starting a guy that couldn’t challenge outside the hashes because of lack of arm strength. In terms of big games, they said it was the easiest game they’ve ever had to coach. They were laughing on the side lines.”
Player Led Team
We’re told that the players called a players only meeting after the BYU game and only part of the team showed up. To make matters worse, the players that did get up to say something weren’t all that convincing. According to a player, “I don’t think any of the guys believed what they were saying when they stood up. This team doesn’t seem to have any direction. It’s embarrassing.”
So Where Do We Go From Here?
On the coaching front we reported that Shaw and Saban were the names we were hearing at this time which is still early in the process. Obviously things can change and it turns out they have in the last week. One of our best sources thinks that David Shaw and Bowlsby are just a smoke screen to placate Mack Brown. Mack has an approved list of coaches to replace him and those would include Shaw, Fedora, and Boise State’s Chris Petersen. A name like Nick Saban would definitely not sit well with Mack Brown and Mack has pretty much said as much.
If you recall, we reported last spring that a handful of Dallas Big Cigars (one of which hunts with Saban) had worked out a tentative deal to bring Saban to Austin with the proviso that Mack Brown would announce his retirement. Mack had discussed retiring a handful of times in the last few years so this group thought they could talk Brown into doing what was best for the program. Right or wrong, they set up a lunch meeting to make the pitch to Mack so the program to take the next step. I’m not sure that’s the way I would have handled things and I would expect Brown to be royally pissed but these gentlemen are captains of industry and figured they’d roll the dice. Much to their chagrin, the lunch meeting went horribly bad and Mack was angry and defiant which tells you how he would feel about Saban taking over.
So what’s the point? How does Shaw figure into the story?
The Big Cigar tells us that Shaw is going to be pitched to gauge his interest in the Texas job and it’s highly unlikely the Stanford man will leave his alma mater to come to Texas. In other words, our source claims the Shaw and Bowlsby duo may be something that’s being floated as a smoke screen. Nick Saban is actually the only other name we heard this weekend as a serious candidate which was surprising. In other words, we feel Saban is the first choice of large faction of power brokers at UT.
New Athletic Director Tidbits
Oliver Luck’s name is back on the tongues of some of the most influential folks at UT. They’re willing to overlook the financial issues at West Virginia because Texas is a different animal I’m told. Luck’s polish and presence along with his home-state ties have put him back on the radar with guys with their names on buildings at UT along with President Powers. It will be interesting to watch as Powers will have the final say.
Sundays Meeting—Does Mack Announce Today?
Prior to workouts on Sunday, our source indicates there was yet another meeting with Powers, Dodds, and Mack Brown as well as a group other folks that my source could not identify. Is it a meeting to change the drapes in Moncrief-Neuhaus or to negotiate Mack Brown’s retirement—our source was unclear. “It was certainly out of the ordinary, but I haven’t heard he’s going to announce retirement in Monday’s press conference. I will say this, President Powers is not happy one bit and wasn’t there show support on Sunday. As for the other suits, I’m not sure who they were.”
I guess we’ll have to stay tuned for the 11 o’clock presser but my sources indicate Deloss would have to retire first before Mack would step down so I doubt it happens today. Regardless, changes are afoot, it’s just a matter of timing at this point. Then let the Athletic Director and Coaching searches commence.
Hook ‘Em
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