The Texas you saw on Wednesday night was the Texas you saw all season, which was not necessarily surprising news. The defense, as it was for a strong portion of September through December, was stifling. The offense, as it was for all of September through December, was soul-crushing. This combination of strong hand, weak hand yielded eight wins and a relatively thorough domination of the less-talented teams on Texas’ schedule; it also led U.T. back into bowl play and added three wins to last year’s total.
But a look back on this season paints a picture of a team and program in transition. The teams farther ahead than Texas — not meaning in terms of talent, but in terms of overall philosophy and experience — had no trouble taking care of the Longhorns: Oklahoma and Baylor went to town, Oklahoma State cruised, and Missouri and Kansas State had enough in the tank to escape with low-scoring victories.
Rarely has Texas so fully embraced this sort of rebuilding project. Like the rest of college football’s elite, the Longhorns typically eschew rebuilding in favor of reloading: five-star after five-star roll into Austin on a yearly basis, usually allowing U.T. to hit the ground running every August despite last season’s personnel losses.
This year was different, obviously. Mack Brown’s wholesale overhaul saw him jettison several long-standing assistants in favor of several fast-risers: Boise State’s Bryan Harsin took control of the offense, Mississippi State’s Manny Diaz the defense. One hit the ground running.
Diaz’s blitz-blitz-blitz mentality plays well with the program’s speed, putting quick-twitch athletes in space along the second level and putting pressure on the Big 12’s cabal of quarterbacks — not that Brandon Weeden and Robert Griffin III didn’t have their way, however. The sky is the limit for this group in 2012.
Brown charged Harsin with installing a run-first power game; he did the same with Greg Davis heading into 2010, but asking Davis to change his philosophy was akin to asking a leopard to change its spots. Harsin brought more familiarity with this philosophy, and the running game — 24th nationally overall, 35th in touchdowns — was a beacon of light on an otherwise dreadful offense.
Texas’ inability to land top-level quarterback play remains one of college football’s biggest mysteries. You can’t fault the program’s recruiting; the Longhorns missed on a few, like Griffin III, but it’s not like they’ve brought in nobodies: everyone wanted Garrett Gilbert, for example.
But the quarterback position remains the program’s most pressing need heading into 2012. Why? Because the rest of the team is locked and loaded. In terms of youthful experience, the sort that yields dividends a year down the road, few teams in college football can match what U.T. brings to the table.
There are no issues defensively, even with the loss of linebackers Keenan Robinson and Emmanuel Acho, the team’s two leading tacklers. The second year in Diaz’s system will find Texas playing even better, more aggressively and more dangerously — this is a good thing — and, in addition, with more confidence.
The offensive line brings back four starters, and Texas adds high school star Johnathan Gray to the true freshman backfield combination of Malcolm Brown and Joe Bergeron. As it was in 2011, the running game will be the backbone of the Texas offense.
Yet that pesky quarterback situation looms, as the Longhorns will continue to hitch their wagons to further development from David Ash and Case McCoy, who alternated snaps for much of this season. I suppose incoming freshman Connor Brewer can be thrown into the mix, but it’s doubtful that Brown adds a mid-year JUCO transfer in an effort to increase competition.
Based on the fact that he earned the Holiday Bowl start over McCoy, it’s safe to say that Ash has a leg up in the dash for the 2012 starting role as Texas enters the winter. Here’s where Harsin will earn his paycheck: having already remade the running game, he needs to get Ash — or McCoy, or another — to a level where Texas can go toe-to-toe with the rest of the Big 12.
Will Texas be back — italicized, of course — if Ash turns a corner? What is back anyway? Is back a January bowl, double-digit wins, a win over Oklahoma? Nope: back is in the B.C.S., challenging for a national title, and U.T. is just a quarterback away from being there.
The look back reveals a team in transition, but here’s the painful rub: Texas should have started this transition a year ago, not this September. But what’s done is done, and the Longhorns’ quest for national relevance, derailed for 24 months, returns to center stage come next September. Again, based on this season, all Texas needs is a quarterback.
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