Horns247 Board

I am trying not to be too negative, so hopefully I can bring some objective (and hard) thoughts to the table.

Greg Davis and Mack Brown have consistently stated that they adapt their offensive philosophy to best utilize their personnel (ie, QB). They have made good on this promise:

Vince Young. Texas went to a zone read offense that took advantage of VY's obvious skills that don't need to be rehashed here.

Colt McCoy. Texas went to a spread offense that utilized Colt's accuracy on shorter range passes and his scrambling ability.

Lets stop the discussion right here and take a step back. Texas was forced to adapt its offensive philosophy and the results were nothing short of fabulous. It is easy to say 'well we won because of VY and Colt' and thats partly true. But I truly believe Greg Davis has to be given a lot of credit because while he did have good players at the helm, its hard to argue that he did not get the maximum amount out of those guys. What could he do better than get the most out of those guys? Said another way, when Texas has run the spread, the case can be made that no team did it better than Texas and Greg Davis deserves a lot of credit for that.

Now to the second group of QB's. Chris Simms, Major Applewhite, and Garrett Gilbert. Given their skill sets, Texas basically implemented the same offense with all 3 guys. That being, Texas has tried to make itself into a more pro-style team. The problem is that time and again, Texas has continually been mediocre to woeful under this offensive scheme.

I understand the logic of adopting your offense to your personnel, but I think there is equal logic in recruiting the personnel that best fits what your coaches excel at. The obvious problem is that Texas has made a concerted effort in recruiting (at least at the QB position), to bring in players (Gilbert, Wood, McCoy, Ash), who are all more suited to run a pro-style offense...something that potentially Greg Davis is mediocre at running.

Maybe this is an over-reaction...but I honestly don't believe VY/McCoy completely overshadowed Greg Davis' faults as an OC. I think he is simply a very good coordinator when he gets to run a spread based offense. The results were beating OU almost every year and continually being in BCS games. On the other hand, his resume with the 3 pro-style QB's has been one that has resulted in Texas losing to OU almost every year going to the Holiday Bowl or Cotton bowl.

Thoughts?