Horns247 Board

Thanks, Blake. It's good to have a reminder of the positive Mack brings to the table while representing our University of Texas. I know this doesn't change the season, but Mack's class is certainly something I hope our next coach also has.

You appreciate the team that Mack has built? Explain that one. How long do you think Mack has been here?

Let me help you. In Mack's 14 seasons, (I'm not counting this year yet, but I fully acknowledged that we're going to a 2nd tier bowl, which should make you happy) we've made it to 13 bowls. If you somehow accept anything less than a 100% batting average here, then you're more tolerant of underachieving than I thought. Here's the breakdown:

2 National Championship appearances, 1 title. This is very good, and yes, I'm rounding up here.
1 Rose Bowl (see above)
1 Fiesta Bowl
3 Cotton Bowls
5 Holiday Bowls
1 Alamo Bowl

Never mind 2010. Of the 13 times that we qualify for a bowl, we end up in a tier 2 bowl 6 times, and this is with me being generous calling Cotton Bowl a tier 1 bowl. Let's also not forget that on average, we get absolutely humiliated by our rival on national TV. Yet, you people refuse acknowledge that what Mack has accomplished is mediocre at best, and some of you would even resort to youth as an excuse! How is YOUTH a legit excuse? This isn't his first 3 year. It's his FIFTEENTH f-ing season! With the way we allegedly recruit, how is youth ever an excuse at Texas?

I suppose you think we ought to throw Mack a party for breaking his 9 game losing streak to ranked teams? Seeing him and Dodds gearing down on each other acting like we just won a national title after beating Tech makes me sick. If that makes me an a-hole, so be it.

I believe blondebomber did call me an a-hole, but that's not really important. Of everything posted here, that's the least offensive part.

I didn't down vote you, but I do have a serious question - how old are you? how long have you been following the team? And less importantly, did you/do you go to UT?

The ironic thing about you calling anyone an Aggie is that you're the one fist bumping the room because we're 7-2. The way this season has gone, being 7-2 and however we finish the season is a shallow victory. Some of us simply don't believe in celebrating moral victories, as an Aggie would. Get it?

Yes, Texas is 7-2.

But in one of those two games, it was yet another lopsided loss to OU.

That is a big deal.

It might as well be four losses right there considering a) how poorly and uninspired Texas played and b) the fact that it's the lone true rivalry Texas has left now that Arkansas and A&M are off the schedule.

I've never said Mack should be fired or that he's lost it. I've always said folks should take the season as a whole and make a determination and I still believe that to be the case.

At the same time, for folks who want to act like this 7-2 is some sort of bottom line number and the only thing to consider, I don't and won't agree.

The state of the program is never about the record. If that were the case, there are plenty of examples out there, from McWilliams to Mackovic, to even Mack Brown, that show one season's record is not always directly correlated to the next season's results.

The most positive thing happening right now for the Horns is that these young players are learning how to win. And they're getting a taste of what it takes to win. They have to make big plays, they have to prepare, they have to go hard every snap, etc.

Because of the relative lack of player leadership the last several years because of poor recruiting, these players have had to learn this themselves. In that way, 7-2 really matters because every win tells Edmond, Jackson, Brown, Gray, Bergeron, Ash, Cochran, Davis, Shipley, Reed, Diggs, Bydom, Phillips, Hopkins, McFarland, etc., what it takes to win.

You can't EVER learn that in a book. It has to happen, you have to see it, you have to feel it and experience it.

Perfect! And I agree 200% (on most.)

I don't like losing to OU 1-0... I understand the frustration and I almost destroyed my backyard patio. However, we have lost badly to them before, and it seemed to work out in the end. I just think that these kids didn't have enough hate built up against OU for that game. After having it done to them two straight years now, they better have some hate going into Dallas next year. I expect that they will. Not sure that they would have if they had lost 6-3 and played it tough. That's my silver-lining that I'll take away from OU.

I (as a fan) committed to Mack when he fired practically his entire coaching staff after a disaster of a year. My patience isn't infinite, but I expect us to be in a BCS bowl and in a NC within the next few years. He had to revamp his entire roster to accommodate a brand new offensive philosophy that deviated from what Davis and Colt were doing. That means, new offensive linemen, new RB's, new TE's, new everything. He has to do that with an entirely group of young, inexperienced, coaches. I trust that Mack/UT have a plan for his departure within the next few years that I hope includes promoting Major Applewhite.

Either way, I just wish that our fans understood that we are seeing positive results on a weekly basis and are building experience for these kids. Perhaps I'm wrong that recruits and players read through these boards, but if they do... wow! Some of the crap on here would be enough to turn off recruits and players.

Diggs, Vaccaro, and Melton all made comments about the "fans." We should be aligned with them... not against them.

Well, I didn't see anything "broken" against Tech last week. Nor did I see anything "broken" against Mississippi (maybe some missed tackles.) I am not a fan of Manny Diaz, and question his experience and overall abilities... besides that, I see a very young team that is growing up together. Getting stronger with every win. Learning how to win together. That's what I see.

Again, I'm not gonna cry anymore about OU. I hate them as much as anyone, but I'm not going to dwell on it anymore. They have the same record as we do and haven't won a NC in over 12 years now. How do you think their fans feel? They underachieve every single year. They were a projected top 5 team this year and we were a projected bottom 25 team.

There is really no excuse for being 7-2, is there. Youth will hurt any team. Bama has had a consistent offensive philosophy and went through their lumps as well. I believe Saban lost to La.-Monroe with an inexperienced team. Has he (Saban) won a NC with 19 of 22 returning starters coming back? Absolutely not.

And Okie Lite was in the top 25 (#22 Coaches Poll) when we beat them in Stillwater. I don't care if you acknowledge it or not. It happened. That win, plus Tech, equals two wins over top 25 teams this year.

Just so you know, being an idiot and ignoring the myriad of positive attributes that Mack has brought to the UT program. Mack has as many BCS Bowl victories and BCS National Championships as any other coach in the Big 12. Give him the rebuilding chance that we signed on for just last year, and be happy that we are going in the right direction.

This is basically what I'm saying. At this point, we have a well established trend of losing to OU by 40+ points and permanent reservations in San Diego. Yet, fans like Chupita refuses to acknowledge the fact that there's something fundamentally broken about the way Mack prepares his teams against top tier opponents. Instead, he chooses to focus on how young we are and how we've won 7 games, some even against #18 and #22 teams in the nation!

Mack was fantastic in 2005, and was even better in 2009. I absolutely tip my hat to him and treasure those achievements. I also gave Mack credit for 2004 and 2008.

Those are 4 very good years. We competed and won, even though we didn't win the Conference in two of those years, let it be know that I gave credit when credit was deserved

What about the other 11 years? What about this downward trend that we're going through? Tech gave me a glimmer of hope, but prior to that, starting with WVU through KU, did you feel like the program is back on the upswing?

Your argument is based on 2 championship years and a bunch of woulda couldas. Why stop at 2008? If Simms didn't have a historically bad game and if Phillip Geiggar didn't rough the punter, we coulda routed Miami. If we woulda avoided getting shutout by OU in 2004, we wouldn't have needed to lobby like a desperate politician to get into the Rose Bowl. We coulda won the whole thing.

Fact remains this:

About 50% of the time, you can expect to end the year in Holiday Bowl or Alamo Bowl
About 25% of the time, you can expect a 40+ point loss to OU
About 13% of the time, you can expect us to win the Conference
Just so I'm not totally negative, about 13% of the time, you can expect us to compete for the National Title. Believe it or not, this is actually the stat that I find perfectly acceptable.

And this is fine with you.

Mack Brown recruited superior talent to his opponents and did little else besides gladhand the media and boosters, talk up how much of a badass his assistants were, and talk down about how stupid the fanbase is. He should wake up every day of his life, get on his knees, and thank God for Vince Young, Colt McCoy, and a bunch of mouthbreathing sycophants who value program access and/or AD revenues more than beating OU, otherwise he'd have been handed his papers about 6 years and would be coaching at Indiana right now.

I'm so sick and tired of watching Texas get its ass kicked by any other team of comparable talent or any decent coaching, especially from OU, that I can no longer abide the post-OU equivocations from pollyannas like you.

You enjoy the game atmosphere and being able to smile after a win, no matter how pathetically Texas played, how much they underachieve, and how unprepared they are to face solid opponents who remain on the schedule. That's fine that you think that is what being a fan is all about. So does my wife. But don't act surprised if the rest of us don't see it that way, see you for what you are, and don't give a shit if you wish it was some other way on the field.

When we mock you for hiding behind stats, just as your icon at the HC does, and that hurts your feelings and makes you angry, channel that into something like knitting or baking a pie, because we're completely uninterested and unsympathetic to the plaintive begging against the truth as you make the case for 4 more years of gutless whining from Brown and his army of Bellmont trolls and spinmeisters.

Oh, and since you bawled about neg votes, I went ahead and used every one I had today on you on this thread. They usually unspent, but if it helps affect your posting behavior, I'll burn them on you every single time I see your handle. I hope all of this helps.

It has nothing to do with blind support. I would like Mack to step down, in fact. It's about being a decent human being.

Schnelly? Really? Really?

Really?

Really?

Pretty clear that you are an avid Mack fanboy, but come on, man. Schnelly?

Really?

Really?

Do you view the Texas vs. Kansas Win as a positive for the program with how the Longhorns came back from adversity and Won the game?

In your mind, would you consider that close Win a better win for the program, than if Texas had gone out and beat Kansas 50-0?