No. 22 Texas lost at Oklahoma State, 49-31. The Cowboys piled up 392 yards passing and another 163 on the ground and even scored when Texas was kicking one of its many doomed extra points.
Texas’ defense is a total disaster, and Charlie Strong’s options are all lose-lose
Shake up the coaching staff yet again and look unstable, or leave things the way they are?
Before this, Texas gave up 47 points in an overtime win against Notre Dame (which has since been confirmed to be mediocre at best) and 50 on the road at Cal (which would’ve been 57, if a Cal player hadn’t dropped the ball at the goal line).
Last year, the Longhorns ranked No. 70 in yards allowed per play and No. 68 in Defensive S&P+.
This was supposed to be the year things would get better, on both sides of the ball. The Longhorns’ best players throughout the Strong era have been the younger players, many of whom have now ascended the depth chart. Entering Saturday, Texas’ top four tacklers were all sophomores, with only one senior in the top nine.
This is Strong’s roster, and Strong has a long record as a successful defensive coordinator, sooo ... the defense should be nowhere near bad.
Two weeks ago, our Texas blog wrote this:
Defensive coordinator Vance Bedford has been embattled this season, to say the least. And things like this were happening in the first few minutes against OSU:
But is canning yet another coordinator going to improve Strong’s standing?
Even if it works, and the defense improves somewhat as Oklahoma, Baylor, and TCU appear on the schedule, this would still be a major midseason change on the side of the ball that was supposed to be Strong’s specialty.
The other side of the ball has been a constant source of drama, but in Bedford, Strong has a former Texas Longhorns defensive back who cares deeply about the quality of the product in Austin. The two coaches have been together for years, back to a national championship defense at Florida.
“Right now, you’re three games into it, and I just didn’t see at this point how that would help us,” Strong said Monday about the idea of the coaching staff making a big change this early on. “I just thought more than anything, it would hurt us.”
Altering one of the few things about the coaching staff that has resembled stability would make Strong look as desperate as ever, but keeping the defensive staff exactly as it is? Hard to imagine.
A lot of things about this job worked against Strong, but his early coaching hires painted him into this corner.
Mack Brown’s depleted and undisciplined roster, the athletic department’s turmoil, and boosters immediately complaining about Strong’s hire made it clear it’d be on Strong to actually make this the “best job in the country” it’s supposed to be.
His doomed early OC hires not only put him on the hot seat by costing Texas wins, it also made his current predicament that much worse. If he hadn’t had to change coordinators midseason in 2014 and 2015, doing so in 2016 wouldn’t look nearly as bad.
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