Wow, the freaking Longhorns were not supposed to get this bad. After letting go of Coach Charlie Strong because he seemed to coddle the players, this new coach, Tom Herman was supposed to be different. Coach Strong came from Louisville and prior had been doing defensive coordinator duties prior to that. I believe he cleaned house too cleanly. Strong did not want the "troublemakers", the kind of kids who make news on and off the field. Herman kept up the charade of only bringing in squeaky clean kids. I'm sorry, but football is a game of animals. If the next football team is comprised of pitbulls, you aren't going to win with a bunch of golden retrievers.
Let's look at exhibit A. This sham of a game, against a team the Longhorns had not even allowed to score in the previous three games. These band of ragamuffins from Maryland came and looked like they belong in the SEC thanks to UT's weak ass game. By halftime, Maryland was up 27-14, thanks to the defensive team that scored on an interception in the first quarter and a blocked field goal and subsequent return for another defensive score in the second quarter. Buechele, UT's sophomore quarterback started his season with an interception when last year he went the first 6-7 games before experiencing his first interception as a freshman.
I could not even focus on the game, nobody looked dominant in the first half. Honestly, I was thinking about Coach Mack's teams and what was different. He constantly had personnel problems with his kids. In the off season, they were fighting over Playstations, allegedly raping other students, and carrying on like the troublemakers that they were. They were not necessarily removed from the team like Coach Strong did when he cleaned house the first season. I know it sounded bad, but these guys are running around on steroids and I'm sure experimental meds to make them more aggressive. Filling your team with a bunch of do-gooders that help little old ladies cross the street ain't going to help when going up against monsters of the SEC.
I cannot imagine how they are going to walk off the pain this game will have inflicted on the team, which was unfairly ranked in the Top 25. Big programs bring in shitty teams to fine tune and even pay them, up to 1 million dollars as I have read. So not only did they beat on a "top tier" team, Maryland also gets to take a chunk of change to boot. This is akin to when Michigan lost to the Appalachian State Mountaineers, a game where an FBS ranked team should never have lost to an FCS team.
It is going to be a long season. Maybe it was just a matter of weak special teams. Buechele did eventually pass for over 300 yards and a couple touchdowns, but it looks ugly when you just look at the raw score. We shall see if there is anything in the belly of these boys, such as pride and fire or if they were just running on expectation and history.
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