IRVING, Texas (AP) -- Mack Brown thinks defenses are starting to
catch up to the spread offense.
He's noticed how much his defense has struggled against
powerful, traditional running teams in bowl games.
And with a young quarterback replacing Colt McCoy, the Longhorns
probably shouldn't throw as much as they have been anyway.
Brown stacked it all up and came to a simple conclusion: Texas
needs to spruce up its running game.
So the Longhorns spent the spring changing their blocking
schemes and dusting off some old formations. They are determined to
have new quarterback Garrett Gilbert line up under center more
often than McCoy did and to have him hand off more than McCoy did.
But don't get the wrong impression.
"We're not going to be three yards and a cloud of dust," Brown
said. "We're just changing our personality. We're not going to
change it entirely, but we are going to tweak it some."
That's about the extent of the particulars thus far. Brown
doesn't even know whether his lead back will be Tre Newton or Fozzy
Whittaker.
"We're not going to have a magic wand and just say, 'OK, we're
back to running it again,"' Brown said.
Texas is the birthplace of the Wishbone under Darrell Royal, the
coach who said only three things can happen when you throw the ball
and two of them are bad. But things change, sometimes pretty
quickly.
Brown pointed out Wednesday that when Vince Young was rising to
prominence in 2004, the Longhorns were among the nation's best
rushing teams and near the worst in passing. They were almost
evenly balanced when they won it all the following season.
But by last year, when McCoy was wrapping up a career with the
most wins and one of the top accuracy rates of any quarterback in
Division I-A history, the Longhorns had become pass-happy.
"When you've got a kid who is completing seven out of 10
passes, you lose your patience," Brown said. "You sit there and
say, 'Well, shoot, we're not moving it -- throw it! Let's just get
this fixed.' And all of a sudden you look up at halftime and you've
run it four times and made two yards. You're saying, 'We need to
pick up the running game,' but you're ahead 24-0 so it's OK."
The McCoy era ended, and the Gilbert era began, after Texas'
fifth snap in the national championship game against Alabama.
Forced into action because of an injury, Gilbert couldn't find
his helmet right away, then played like a true freshman.
"My head was kind of spinning a little bit," he said
Wednesday, laughing.
But in the second half, Gilbert looked like a worthy heir to
McCoy, Young and their recent predecessors, Chris Simms and Major
Applewhite. The Longhorns were down only a field goal in the final
four minutes. Although Gilbert didn't pull out the rally, he
certainly won over his teammates.
"Last year, there were times I would say, `Garrett, you're not
very vocal. You're not leading as well as I expected,' and he said,
'This is Colt's team. I'll lead as soon as Colt graduates and moves
on' and he did that (in the spring and summer)," Brown said. "I
do think his presence in the national championship game gave him
instant credibility with the older kids."
Gilbert said the last time he routinely took snaps standing over
the center was in Pop Warner ball. It took some getting used to
during the spring.
"The biggest thing is getting my feet out of there so linemen
don't step on them," he said. "As the spring went on, it kind of
jelled a little bit. We got more comfortable with it."
Can a young quarterback win it all?
"I think you can," Brown said, "but you've got to be really
good around him."
Brown said Texas' defense "could be as good as we've had,"
which is why the progress of the offense is so pivotal.
In addition to finding a lead running back, the Longhorns need
to replace Jordan Shipley as the primary receiver. John Chiles,
Malcolm Williams, Marquise Goodwin and James Kirkendoll all have
shown they can make plays, but not when everyone knows the ball is
headed their way.
"Somebody has got to step up and be that guy," Brown said.
Brown believes that if he can find the right plays for the right
players, this could be as good of a season as 2008 -- when Texas was
supposed to be in transition but became No. 1 in mid-October and
finished 12-1, missing a chance to play for the conference
championship and possibly the BCS championship because of how the
Big 12 decided a three-way tiebreaker.
"So," Brown said, "we're trying to sell the kids on, 'It
doesn't matter what we do (style-wise), you've got to win and
you've got to win every game. That's who we are and who we want to
be. If '08 had a chance to get to the national championship game,
so do you. Let's be smart but let's work really hard in two-a-days
to figure out who we're going to be at Rice (in the opener) and
build on it."'
