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I’m tired of hearing it. Mack Brown has come under more scrutiny for “missing” on recruits than he has for his last three dismal seasons as head coach of the Texas Longhorns. It has been well-known that Brown slighted Robert Griffin III and only wanted Johnny Manziel as a defensive back, and now, because of one performance, Brown is being taunted about “missing” on Florida State redshirt freshman QB Jameis Winston.
Isn’t it funny, though? We sit back and criticize Brown questioning if he is really that good of a coach or if he was just a success by way of two tremendously talented QBs in Vince Young and Colt McCoy, but then blow up message boards and blogs about how he has blown it on three program-changing guys as if he has Mrs. Cleo’s terot cards.
If you can read at a first-grade level and add one-plus-one, you should know better.
How many guys year in and year out show up on campus hardly recruited or sought after and end up becoming one of the best players on their respective team? And vice-versa, how many show up on day one with expectations through the roof and become busts that even Ryan Leaf would laugh at?
Of course, Brown didn’t offer RG III, and why should he have? He was riding the gravy train with McCoy and just inked the No. 1 ranked QB Gatorade High School Player of The Year Garrett Gilbert, who was supposed to come in after a year under McCoy and flourish as the next one to take Texas to the title game and in the end, he ended up at SMU after transferring.
Are you picking up what I’m putting down? Nobody has a sure-bet beat on every one of these kids until they step onto a field and showcase their stuff. We are spoiled by the recruits who turn into NFL talent even more so if they are underclassmen.
The fact is, when it rains it pours, and right now in Austin it’s close to flooding. Brown is quickly becoming the scape goat for a lot of things and there are some he can’t control. Sure, there has been undeveloped talent and neglected potential — i.e. D.J. Monroe — but Brown can’t hold every player’s hand.
In the result of three rocky years since the ‘Horns last title appearance, there have been bigger issues shuffling through coordinators, and trying to find a QB after the one you thought was going to be your guy crashed and burned is not easy.
If Gilbert lived up to half of his potential and hype, the Longhorns wouldn’t have played QB musical chairs for two seasons amidst their baffling downfall from the top of college football, and most likely would have prevented exactly that, a downfall. Add to that if Texas doesn’t fall off and Gilbert was slinging touchdowns left and right, nobody cares about passing on RG III or Manziel.
Things could be a lot worse, Texas fans. Instead of pointing the finger at the other recent successes across the country — two of which nobody saw coming — and crying over the fact Texas said “no thanks,” why don’t you all be thankful for the fact you’ve had a head coach instead of playing the three-and-out coaching carousel.
You have a head coach who talked Ricky Williams into staying for his last year entering Brown’s first year as head coach, recruited and coached Texas back into relevance between the 2000 and 2003 seasons, and ultimately prepping them for an eventual 2004 BCS bowl campaign that ended with a Rose Bowl win which propelled them into their 2005 national championship season, and furthermore led them to another BCS bowl and BCS national championship game.
I know some of you Longhorn faithful won’t look at the glass half-full because you have to win and you have to win now. I get it. But if you’re going to continue to sit and stew over the hardships and hang ups crying about the players Texas could have had while envying Texas A&M, please, just do it quietly and away from the rest of us. There is a damn good Texas Longhorns team with arguably one of the best offenses in the country that we’d all like to watch this season without listening to you gripe and moan.
Get over it.
