Shawn Watson as a play caller

Blah, blah, blah, blah......

Words and promises mean NOTHING to this 1969 old dog

Been there, seen it, heard it, lately sick of it..

Coach Strong has only one job to do...

Don't tell us about it Coach...

SHOW US!
 
I'm not against Watson as play-caller, but not thrilled whatsoever either. I'll let him earn his recognition or disapproval on the field with the talented Texas players.

What I'm not happy about was when Strong came on it was eluded to that Wickline was calling plays. That kept the naysayers at bay which I think was the plan. Nobody here was desiring our team to be UT-Louisville. But now they reveal that all the plays on both sides of the ball, as well as overall team decisions are made by the top 3 guys at 2013 Louisville. We can call Wickline the OC all day long, but Watson is now the one controlling our offensive success.

They purposely didn't present it like that from the start, knowing full well Texas fans would not be happy with the same main Louisville staff just switching over teams intact and running our show. Watson may do well, he may not, but they should've been upfront about it and not used the Wickline card to trick everyone. The decision doesn't bother me all that much, but the 'bait and switch' used was bush league. It's a side of Strong I didn't expect to see.
 
^^^For the most part, I don't disagree with what you said, but I think the stuff about Wickline being the offensive coordinator had more to do with him getting out of Okie State than anyone trying to sell Watson to the 'Horn fan base. I'm not all that enamored with Watson as the OC either, but I'm going to give Strong the benefit of the doubt for now.
 
Watson doesn't have any skins on the wall that would engender excitement. Strong does. We all will be hoping for the best, while being nervous as the season nears and plays out.

I like the comment above: "Charlie hasn't been beaten by ou by 7 touchdowns even once." Let that sink in. I am so sick of not knowing from year to year if we will even compete with ou or not. Blow outs by 40+ points should be a thing of the past. I think Charlie will go at least .500 against Big Bob. And if he does that, he will win more than 2 Big 12 titles over the next 17 years.
 
Look, I said I am not thrilled about Watson, so I don't know how that qualifies me as unrealistic or an optimist.

As for "hyperbolic derision of realists", the market used to be cornered by some people who have now found that it is actually reasonable to have a critical discussion of the coaching staff. Just pointing that out.
 
I can see every ones point about Watson and it doesn't bother me. I remember when Bryan Harsin was hired there was a lot of excitement and that quickly fizzled. I don't care if they are upfront about who is calling plays or how contracts are handled I just want to see an improved football team that number one plays tough and doesn't quit, a coach that doesn't get out coached by OU and Baylor and team that win some 12 championships. The rest will all fluff.
 
I don't give a damn who calls the plays as long as there is no confusion for the players and the plays work. I could even stand some confusion if the plays are successful.
 
When **** gets ****** up, I just want to know who to blame so I can
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What if......
Coach Strong knows EXACTLY who's going to call the plays, but doesn't want to make it easier for the competition to game plan?
Right now, he has the advantage, as long as he's vague and evasive about the type of offense or defense we're going to run, then at least initially, it'll make it harder for the competition to prepare for us.
And what about the fans? Don't we all have a right to know who's going to call the plays, what kind of offense we're going to run, etc?
As far as I'm concerned: Nope.
Just win baby!
 
There's no competitive advantage to disguising a play-caller and that's not what's happening. If you said Wickline was the play-caller, you'd have just as much guessing as what he will run as you would if you left it unanswered. Just because Okla. St ran a spread doesn't mean o-line coach Wickline would run the same thing if he had his way. Guy has been either an OL Coach, OC, or Head Coach in different programs over the last 30 years. Last time he called plays was MANY years ago. Who knows what offense he ran at Delta State.

Bottom line is Charlie Strong point blank on Jan. 15 said "Joe Wickline will call plays on offense". He didn't say SOME plays as now he's saying. And he didn't say Watson will ALSO call plays then. That is a direct quote when asked who is calling plays on Jan. 15. And that's all he answered with was Wickline. Watson was never mentioned in the answer.

Now that answer is very different. Now Watson is the guy he will ultimately turn to if he needs a play as he said he is more comfortable with Watson. And when he said that he had a tentative tone in his voice where you could tell he knew it was a backtrack.

Right choice or wrong choice, this wasn't the way we were firmly led on in January. The bait and switch has been pulled now that we've settled in. Go back and listen to the Jan. 15 addressing that question. Then compare it to the answer this past week. There's no way you can see it other than flipping the script.

And it's foolish to think it's for competitive advantage. What are we going to fool North Texas? No one is prepping for our offense now. They wouldn't know the true system regardless of who we said was calling plays. There are many minds creating it as we speak. If BYU can't prepare for us in a week after seeing the offensive alignments vs. North Texas...they'd deserve to lose. No competitive advantage being sought, it's simply not following through on what we were adamantly told was the deal in January. Trust me, it was the hottest topic in Longhorn nation and Strong put it to rest naming Wickline. Bottom line. There were even Wickline as Playcaller threads here to prove it.
 
I'm sorry, let me clarify the actual quotes...

JAN 15:

"Joe Wickline will call plays on offense," Strong said then. "He’s the offensive coordinator; he will call plays."

"He's (Watson) going to be involved, so he's not just totally out of it".

Anyone hearing this had to comprehend that as Wickline is the main play-caller and Watson is involved. That is what the man said.

TUESDAY:

"Wickline is going to be involved in it. He's going to make some calls. Shawn is going to make some calls. When we go down the stretch and we have to have a call made, I think Shawn, because he's been doing it for a long time and I'm comfortable with him."

Ummm, now isn't that Strong saying Watson is the main play-caller and Wickline is "going to be involved in it"? There's that word again, "involved". Except this time it's used in regards to Wickline's role instead of Watson as before.

I'm not making a plea that Wickline would do a better job. All I'm saying is read the quotes and tell me it's not a flip-flop in explaining the play-calling responsibilities.
 
He definitely flip-flopped but I'm not sure we can then make the leap that he was intentionally deceitful, a.k.a. lying.
Perhaps he changed his mind for legitimate reasons. Maybe he saw something that caused him to feel this is the right move for the team.

But I can see how he opened himself up to that criticism.
 
Bait and switch eh? To what end?

The only person who has a right to be indignant about the change of plans / bait and switch or whatever you want to call it is Joe Wickline, and apparently he is OK with it.

(OK - Maybe OSU can can have a beef with it too)
 
Man can't we even give this staff one game before we start slinging the mud. I am 100% behind Strong and his staff, He was the guy I wanted from the beginning, and I will not sit by and listen to people dog him before he even losses a game. His slate is clean and he should be treated with some simple respect until he deserves to treated other wise. Thanks to the internet we get all the crap ten days before it even happens and then someone has to defend them self's for something that either didn't happen or for something that doesn't even matter.
 
I don't give a crap what he's done with other teams. I only care about what he's going to do with THIS team. It ain't what you did before, it's what you've done lately. Ask Mack.
 
I thought we all already knew when we made the hire that we were getting Fred Akers 2.0. We will have monster defenses; in a year or two our kicking game and special teams will be top 5 in the country; the offense will snap the ball 65 times a game instead of 95 plays a game, and we will win alot of games 17-3. OU & A&M will continue to get better and better, and when the SEC makes deeper recruiting inroads into Texas, we will fire Strong for not cheating, just like we did with Fred.

What will piss people off reading this, is not what I wrote, but They just had a 1980's flashback.
 
The OL is very young and inexperienced with the exception of Espinosa. I was clear last night they need more time working together to gel as a good unit. With Espinosa out we just lost our OL anchor, leader and key to the unit coming together. The O is going to struggle this year because of Watson, the youth and especially the OL - IMO.
 
Something else to consider:

2007: Texas 21 Arkansas State 13
Texas had 340 yards of offense that game.
Texas finished the year 10-3 and our offense generally put up 30 or more points.

2002: Texas 27 North Texas 0
Texas had 214 yards of offense that game.
Texas finished the year 11-2 with a great offense.

We've had vast improvement after game one before offensively. It was ugly last night, but it is possible our offense just was not clicking game one.

On the other hand, north texas only returned one starter from their front seven last year and should have had, at least theoretically, learning issues there as well.
 
I'll put an edit up at the front of this. For time before this game, I've always remembered one thing about Royal's years, especially the early ones... the average score was typically something like 35-7. Last night was 38-7. Very typical of a Royal team. Just saying. Now.. the post.
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What people need to remember is Jake Raulerson was not a center in high school so this is a new position for him. Let the coaches do their thing this week and I'll bet we see a lot of improvement from Jake.
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