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Texas: Blame Charlie, Not Refs or Special Teams

By Curry Goff

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As I left DKR Memorial Stadium on Saturday evening dejected and frustrated, the excuses were ringing out all over the crowd.

“I can’t believe he dropped the blanking snap.”

“Another special teams meltdown. What terrible luck we have.”

**Important note: Not one person I talked to coming out of the stadium made any mention of how awful the refereeing was. After watching the tape, while I do think some calls were questionable and probably, ultimately wrong, the officials did NOT lose this game for Texas.**

While these excuses only scratch the surface and represent a small, PG version, of the uproar created by 80,000 fans leaving the game on Saturday, they also represent a fundamental error in the breakdown of just what is wrong with the football program at the University of Texas.

Sure, the kicking game seems an appropriate scapegoat in what has been an incredibly frustrating last two weeks. When the games were on the line, UT missed an extra point and botched a punt. That much you cannot deny.

However, to say that special teams lost the game for UT on Saturday, or even last week against Cal, would be to grossly underestimate the other deficiencies in the program. First on my list, especially in Saturday’s loss to Oklahoma State, is an issue that comes straight back to the feet of Charlie Strong.

If Texas doesn’t take that timeout, they can run 40 seconds off the clock, effectively ending the game and sending it into overtime.

The clock management in the fourth quarter by Texas was beyond awful. Their last four drives, all coming in the fourth quarter, lasted an average of one minute and eighteen seconds (1:18). All of those, with the exception of the very last drive, were when Texas had a lead.

That last drive, which was when the game was tied, lasted a whopping 57 seconds and included a timeout taken by Texas after a sack on second down with 48 seconds left on the clock.

I’m sorry, but if I’m pinned back near my own endzone and my offense hasn’t moved the ball more than 30 yards in a drive the entire second half, I am not going to bank on moving it 90 yards with a minute remaining, especially after taking a sack on second down. If Texas doesn’t take that timeout, they can run 40 seconds off the clock, effectively ending the game and sending it into overtime.

Devil’s advocate: say that Oklahoma State then elects to take a timeout after second down. Then they’re left with only one timeout that they would probably take after they stop Texas on third down.

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That would have left them with no timeouts going into their game-winning drive. I like that much more than one timeout and 42 seconds. If I’m Charlie Strong, not only am I telling Jerrod Heard to snap the ball with 1-2 seconds left on the playclock, I’m also not calling a timeout with 48 seconds left, deep in my own territory. At that point, I’m playing for overtime.

If the clock were handled more appropriately by Strong, there wouldn’t have been a botched punt because the clock would have already been down to zero.

And don’t get me started about the unsportsmanlike conduct penalty that led to the game-tying field goal from Oklahoma State.

I understand frustration when a call doesn’t go your way or when you feel the ref made a poor judgement. But, as every player/fan/coach should fundamentally understand about any sport, refereeing mistakes happen. Many times, they can dictate the result of a game.

For me, the referees did not dictate the result of this game. Instead, Strong chose to lash out at the refs and, ultimately, affected the result much more than the referees. Getting an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty in a drive that means as much as that one did is unacceptable, as is losing at the University of Texas, according to Charlie Strong.

Both happened on Saturday, and both can be largely traced back to the head coach.

Next: Jerrod Heard Is The Starter

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