Its safe to say that the state of Texas belongs to TCU and Baylor now. Its almost sad to see how far the Texas Longhorns have fallen. I think that if Texas has another 5 win season, that the Charlie Strong experiment will be over with in Austin and they'll be looking for another Coach in the off season.
Longhorn fans are a lot like us in that they want to win now....not later. They want to see instant results and being the LONGHORNS, they should be getting instant results. The issue that the Longhorns have though, is that they are stringing a few bad years in a row together. Which means TCU and Baylor and to a lesser extent, A&M are becoming the sexy places that Texas High School talent wants to go now and meanwhile, the Longhorns are looking like a bad destination while TCU, Baylor and A&M keep fattening up on all the Texas talent. The Horns are riding on a slippery slope right now.
And well, people keep saying when Texas finally gets a QB to watch out......
The problem that I have with the Longhorns QB situation, is that if you look around the country, there are teams out there with mediocre QB play that still compete and look good every year. Look at LSU for example, their QB situation is probably one of the worst in the country, yet they continue to push for double digit win seasons and bowl appearances and sometimes, even National Championships.
To expand on what I said above, perhaps its the system in place at Texas that is the issue. Some Coaches are hard headed and wont make the system fit the player, but instead, they make the player fit the system. It doesn't always work that way. Maybe they are trying to make Swoops into a QB he really isn't. In other words, they are trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.
Honestly, I think Texas' main issue is that they are having an identity crisis and they have no clue what they want to be on offense....are we ground and pound? are we up tempo? I bet thats the main problem in Austin. You have to fully commit to a system and stick with it. In the end, Texas being Texas isn't enough anymore to recruit the best talent. Their logo alone used to sell itself...that isn't happening anymore. Texas alumni and the big suits down in Austin wont put up with another losing season. Strong is sitting on a very very hot seat right now.
As I said though, Texas being Texas will want results soon. If Texas doesn't get results in a timely manner, then the natives will get restless. I think at some programs, you can be patient with a rebuilding process. But at the same time, there are programs out there that are not patient and they want results fast. Texas is one of those programs. It takes a different type of guy to Coach at these programs like Texas, Alabama, USC, Florida State, Ohio State, Michigan, Florida and Notre Dame. The leashes are short at these places if you're not producing results fast. Its almost becoming like keeping up with the Jones's. Texas see's what Baylor and TCU are doing, and its putting them into high urgency mode. When this happens, Coaches tend to get out of their element and things snowball.