This is not meant as any smack or anything demeaning to Texas or MB, but...
all I hear is how 1) there are 25 million people in Texas, so a lot of talent to choose from, 2) MB doesn't have to recruit, and does very little out-of state, only for the top recruits (Simms was a semi-bust, I know).
So, in almost 12 years, they are playing for the BCSC only for the 2nd time? Sure, I know he has had a great record (128-26 at UT, up until now), but with so much supposed talent, I would have thought they would have played in the title game more than they have (OK, there is an argument for one more title game for them, but it leads down the rabbit hole).
What my question is: with all of the "talent" UT has access to, is it that they aren't signing the best, or is it the coaching that is falling short? With a school that reportedly doesn't "have" to recruit to get top talent, does it have to be one or the other, or is it just bad luck? Although I think the losing streak they had to OU (which has now been reversed somewhat) can't be defined as bad luck.
Thoughts?
Wow. Obviously, the original poster doesn't like my Horns, which is fine, but let's examine a few of these assertions.
1. Simms was a "semi-bust" by what measure? That he didn't win a national championship? If that's your yardstick, are you willing to give the semi-bust label to Sam Bradford? Phillip Rivers? Every Bama QB who didn't win an MNC?
Simms was a really good QB who had most everyone rooting against him coming out of high school (including a high % of the Texas fanbase) because of his privileged upbringing and pedigree, and because he competed for playing time with an "underdog" folk hero (Major Applewhite). In contrast to his reputation, he's a tough kid. At UT, I saw him dislocate a finger, run to the Texas bench between plays so the trainer could pull it back into place, then run back to the field and try to run a play (UT was forced to take a TO since it's against the rules to get medical attention without the player coming out of the game). In the NFL, Simms got whacked and ruptured his spleen in a playoff game, yet stayed in and led a drive that gave his team the lead -- then went to the hospital and got emergent surgery.
I'd like to compare the "semi-bust" of Simms to the other top-ranked high school QB's of the decade. Simms might not be at the top in terms of career achievement (hello, Vince Young), but he's nowhere close to the bottom.
2. You really want to hold Brown accountable for not playing for a national championship from the day he stepped onto the UT campus? You say it's only our 2nd championship game in "almost 12 years." The talent level that Brown inherited at UT in 1998 was not even on the same level as the top teams in the Big 12 (Nebraska, A&M, KSU) at the time -- much less teams like Miami or Florida State. We were having game-day tryouts at cornerback for the first half of Mack's first season (1998). We had one brilliant player (Ricky Williams) and a bunch of guys that wouldn't have started for half the teams in their own conference, especially on defense.
The recruiting season was already mostly finished when Brown signed at UT in 1998. His first class was ranked 15- or 20 nationally, if I recall correctly. But Brown's first few teams had some serious dead weight in the upper classes. Very slow and very, very average. No coach in the history of college football would have had Texas in the MNC in 1998 or 1999.
3. The perception of Brown as an underachiever was the product of signing a monster class in 1999 -- the one that included Simms -- and then watching Stoops catch lightning in a bottle at OU in 2000. Their reputations since that season eight years ago are still reflected in posts like the original one here -- that Brown wins recruits but Stoops wins national titles.
That was a long time ago.
4. Our losing streak to OU hasn't been reversed "somewhat," as you say. It's been reversed. Period. We've won the last two, including a fierce comeback in 2008 against an OU squad that was ranked number one and had NFL players all over the field. We've won 4 of the last 5. Our returning team will be favored against OU in 2010, and everyone associated with the UT program expects to make it 5 of 6.
That said, I agree that the 2000-2004 streak vs. OU wasn't bad luck. They were better than us.
5. The previous posts really go a long way toward answering the question. Brown can take 20-25 kids a year. That's it. And there are a LOT more high school seniors than that who can flat out ball. A LOT of them are great ball players who you KNOW are going to be really solid at the next level, but you just cant offer schollies to all of them. Example: Greg McElroy. Similarly, Bama couldn't find a schollie for Major Applewhite, and he turned out to be a hell of a player.
Missing out on a kid who turns out to be a great player happens in Southern Cal, in Ohio, in Florida, and in Alabama. A lot of those kids line up against you for 4 years. It happens.
6. We're playing for our second national championship in 5 years. Since 2001, we've been really close several other times, but couldn't close the deal. In 2001, we choked in the Big 12 championship (the one game where Simms deserved the criticism he received, IMO). We were a late roughing-the-punter call from playing Miami for the MNC (who likely would have whipped us). In 2008 we got jobbed by a ridiculous Big 12 tiebreaker (the other 5 BCS conferences would have sent UT over OU based on their tiebreakers). In other words, we're two snaps from playing in our 4th championship game in the past 8 years.
7. In the years that I haven't mentioned, we've had some pretty good teams. In 2004 we went 12-1 (only loss was a very close game to OU) and won the Rose Bowl against a very good Michigan team that was only a few years removed from their own national championship. It was before their collapse.
8. A lot of Brown's recruiting classes this decade were also ranked in the 10-15 range. Those teams often finished in the top 5 or 10 of the final rankings. They overachieved.
There have been a lot of teams who, on average, have recruited as well as Brown this decade. None of them has won more games. A lot of them have won less. A lot less.
Hell, Carroll has absolutely cleaned Mack Brown's clock in recruiting for the past five seasons. How'd he do this year? For that matter, how did Stoops do? I mean, Stoops signs a boatload of talent every single year, yet he has more losses this season than any Texas team this decade. Fact.
If Texas wins this game, and that's a big "if," because you guys have a great team, Mack Brown has as many crystal footballs as any coach in the game. He'll also have two undefeated national championships (Florida and LSU have zero). He'll have more wins than any coach this decade. He'll be 4-0 in BCS games. He'll have won at least ten games every season this decade, and be 8-2 in bowl games, including bowl wins over MNC coaches Tressel, Saban (once at LSU, once at Bama), Carroll, Carr, and Dennis Erickson. Texas will be the team of the decade and Brown their coach for all of that time.
It's amazing to me that people still repeat the "Brown can recruit but he can't coach" mantra. That's just crazy.
By the way, I'm not blind to Brown's faults, but I just couldn't NOT respond to a post that pretends that he has a talent edge on everyone else. He doesn't. He's got his faults, but he's among the very best coaches in the game (as is Saban).
