Golden: Already time to panic for unimproved UT,
SOUTH BEND, IND. — Tyrone Swoopes was asked last Monday to compare the 2014 offense with the one he captained during summer camp.
“Nothing has changed,” he said. Turns out he was right. Nothing has changed. Still a bad football team.
As a result, the Longhorns are in deep trouble and I have a hard time believing that Charlie Strong and his staff can come up with the suitable answers to prevent another losing season. What we witnessed in prime time on Saturday night was the same thing we witnessed at the Texas Bowl. The same thing we witnessed against TCU last Thanksgiving.
Bad football, pure and simple.
For those of you who are buying into the it’sjust-the-first-game-andthere’s-no-need-to-panic belief, think again. There isn’t a light that will magically flash, turning this moribund group into a team capable of competing with a Baylor, TCU, or Oklahoma.
At best, they will figure out that Jerrod Heard is a better option at quarterback because of his ability to elude pressure that will come from all angles moving forward. Maybe Joe Wickline’s offensive line will arise from its season-opening slumber and start throwing some people around. Maybe play-caller Shawn Watson will figure out that running back Johnathan Gray needs more than one touch in the first 11 minutes of a college football game.
The defense? Malik Jefferson was great in his college debut, but the unit was shredded by a Notre Dame quarterback who looked more like Joe Montana than Malik Zaire.
Time to panic? Damn right, it’s time to panic.
In all fairness, you can’t pin this all on Swoopes even if he appears to be the same player from last season. Dude had zero time to pass the ball. Swoopes spent the night running for his life behind a swiss-cheese outfit that was helpless against unrelenting pressure from future first-round pick Jaylon Smith and Co. Left tackle Connor Williams played like a freshman — no surprise, given the environment — and his more experienced mates didn’t fare much better.
Over their last three games, the Horns have been outscored 117-20.
Texas has scored only 27 points over the last 16 quarters. That’s about 1.7 points per quarter.
Oregon posted 452 yards in the first half against Eastern Washington on Saturday. Texas has registered just 512 over its last three games.
In the same span, Texas is averaging 3.1 yards per offensive play. Unacceptable.