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09-19-2004, 02:04 AM
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Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: L.A. (Lower Arkansas) Posts: 29,968
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This season, Texas will whip OU
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By RICHARD JUSTICE
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle
AUSTIN — Outside the stadium, someone handed out signs that cut to the chase: Beat OU.
North Texas players surely saw one or two of them as they filed into Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium on Saturday. They probably understood, too.
No use fretting about the preliminaries when almost no one remembers them anyway. Mack Brown's seventh season at Texas is about one game.
He's annoyed by this notion. He'd like some credit for a .769 winning percentage, for going 33-7 since 2001 and for two top-10 finishes.
He also knows better. He knows his legacy at Texas will be defined by Bob Stoops and the Sooners.
Brown turns up the heat
The Longhorns have had other stumbles in recent years, but fans mostly remember four straight losses to Oklahoma. They remember the average margin of defeat: 31 points.
Those games have become the fuel for the program's engine. They're the reason Brown has focused practices on getting players mentally tougher and physically stronger.
They're the reason he says these Longhorns will once and for all be built around two basics: running the ball and stopping the run.
They're the reason Brown brought in former NFL assistant Greg Robinson to run his defense. Robinson has brought an unforgiving approach to a program that needed it.
He has made the offseason workouts tougher and vowed to make players more accountable for their mistakes.
The Longhorns know you're probably skeptical. They know you watched Saturday night's 65-0 victory over North Texas for what it was: a scrimmage.
They know you might not be much more impressed by a victory at Arkansas next week or anything else that happens before Oct. 9, when the Sooners and Longhorns play again.
Sooners' talent superior
For the first time in years, the Longhorns have less talent than the Sooners. NFL personnel experts say the Sooners have 14 players likely to be taken in the first three rounds of the 2005 draft. The Longhorns have two — running back Cedric Benson and linebacker Derrick Johnson.
This time, a Texas victory really would be an upset. And this time, Texas is going to win. Texas is going to win because of Brown. He has restored the program's lost luster with his terrific recruiting and organizational skills. No coach is better at schmoozing alums and making them feel empowered.
Behind that public face, though, is a coach who is as fiercely competitive and as determined to succeed as any in the country.
He gets through seasons on catnaps and coffee. He does not sleep in his office, but he takes practice tapes home and spends hours looking at the defensive and offensive schemes.
Brown is so good at public relations, some have mistakenly labeled him a coaching lightweight. One problem is that he has not allowed fans to see how badly the Oklahoma defeats have stung.
He constructed one of the best programs in the country, but he has not been perfect. Brown has been too soft on his players, too concerned about his image.
Like a lot of us, he has learned from his mistakes, and what this season will be about is putting the finishing touches on what he started in 1998.
There's one other reason Texas is going to defeat Oklahoma: sophomore quarterback Vince Young.
Brown has recruited an array of dazzling talent, from wide receiver Roy Williams to Benson.
With Brown committed to a power running game, Benson will run right into the Heisman Trophy race. He started his final season with 181 yards on 15 carries against a helpless UNT defense. Benson might also carry the load against the Sooners.
But Young is the reason the Longhorns will win. His skills are the kind for which an opposing defense can't prepare.
He's at his best when he's allowed to roll out and react. He's at his best when he's a runner and a passer.
He was both Saturday in rushing eight times for 49 yards and completing 14 of 21 passes for 153.
His performance is hard to evaluate because the Longhorns scored on their first five possessions and led 24-0 after a quarter.
"We got about everything out of an opener we could get," Brown said.
What's clear is Young is vastly more poised than he was in his first season. He finally seems comfortable with the college game, confident in his ability and what he can and can't do.
"He got comfortable toward the end of last season," Benson said. "Now it's second nature to him. He knows he's the man."
The Longhorns opened only a few pages of their playbook. Still, it was enough to worry Arkansas coaches as they prepare for next week's game in Fayetteville.
They'll notice Young ran the ball wide and up the middle. They'll see he threw from the pocket and on the run.
Coaches call players like Young "difference makers."
This season, he'll be the difference in Dallas.
"It's starting to feel more like high school," Young said. "I'm a whole lot more comfortable. It's coming."
richard.justice@chron.com | | |
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