Scoop27
09-19-2013, 11:38 AM
AUSTIN, Texas – There shouldn't be any confusion about the comments of Kansas State linebacker Tre Walker over the summer.
Cedric Reed
Cedric Reed said the Longhorns need to start punching people in the mouth.
He said what he said. If you need a refresher, this what he told me when I asked him a simple question at Big 12 Media Days.
Why is it that the Wildcats have had so much success against Texas?
“I don't want to call Texas, by any means, soft because they're a great team and they've got great athletes. I think at the end of the day we want that game more than anything. It's the ability to go out and fight. They have a lot of four and five-star athletes. You can have all of those things, but if you don't know how to knuckle up and fight in a phone booth then you won't make it.”
Call it what you will. What it was was Walker calling Texas' manhood into question.
“It's a hard thing to hear,” Cedric Reed said when asked this week about Walker's comments back in July. “I'm not going to talk too much about it. I'm just going to show up on Saturday.”
The Longhorns haven't done much to show up this season and dispel the notion that they lack that something inside them to win a bare-knuckle brawl. BYU was the first test Texas had to shed the “soft” label so many have placed upon them and they failed it miserably.
As long as I've followed and been around football, calling someone soft is pretty much the worst thing you can call some. It means you're weak. It means you're timid. It means you lack testicular fortitude.
No matter what the Longhorns do on Saturday in the Big 12 opener when Walker and the Wildcats come to town, it won't change anything that happened in Provo nearly two weeks ago. It won't erase a 1-2 start and it won't shed the “soft” label for this team.
Mack Brown
Mack Brown's team needs to show some pride this weekend when it takes the field against K-State.
What it will do is show if this team has the one thing that everyone has been waiting to see from this bunch.
Pride.
When someone questions your manhood, at some point pride has to kick in and take over. At some point you have to be tired of being put down that you bare down and do what Reed said the Longhorns need to do this weekend.
“You've got to go out and hit people in the mouth,” Reed said. “Do the opposite of what they say you are. It's annoying to hear it but we're going to come out Saturday and play.”
It'll be annoying until the Longhorns knock off an opponent like Kansas State that prides itself on playing tough, physical football by hitting them right between the eyes.
*****
No matter who is coaching the Longhorns ten, 20 or 30 years from now there should be an inspirational sign handing somewhere on the path from the dressing room to the playing field at DKR. I've always liked a good motivational sign, but it's got to mean something.
The perfect sign for the Longhorn football program? WWKSD
Chris Whaley
Chris Whaley took something from Kasey Studdard's recent speech to the team.
What Would Kasey Studdard Do? No matter the question, his answer would probably be in the form of needing to inflict pain upon someone.
On Wednesday night's edition of All Access on the Longhorn Network, Mack Brown told his team Studdard was the probably the toughest player he and his staff have ever coached. Studdard addressed the team prior to the Ole Miss game and told them that football was great because, “It's the only sport where you can get in a fight for 60 minutes and not go to jail.”
Here's a little bit more of what Studdard told the team during his visit.
“If you're just sitting there in your pass protection and the center has his man locked up and you're sitting there with nobody to block, go break the nose guard's ribs,” Studdard said. “It's little things like that I haven't seen on film.”
“This is football,” he later stated. “You're supposed to play this game pissed off. That's the only way I've ever played it. That's the only way I see it.”
I asked multiple players this week if anything Studdard said hit home. Chris Whaley gave one of the better answers I heard.
“He was talking about the way they played and the mindset they'd hit you hard no matter what,” Whaley said. “On the offensive line he said if he wasn't blocking anybody then he'd go help the next man block his guy.
“That stood out to me because when you play together there's not too much anybody can do to beat you.”
Jaxon Shipley
Jaxon Shipley said it doesn't matter the opponent, the Longhorns need to win this weekend.
One thing I haven't seen from this team through three games is I haven't seen them play angry. If the Longhorns really are wiping the slate clean entering Big 12 play then a new attitude should be visible.
Maybe it's me being naïve, but I refuse to believe that a team that's got a game like BYU sticking its craw, took advice from Studdard – who as legend has it wore a tank top for warmups in the snow at Nebraska in 2006 – and has been openly mocked in public won't punch back at some point.
*****
I've seen where some of the player's comments haven't been sitting well with fans. To tell you the truth, with the way things have gone this season, I'm not sure the players know what to say.
Nobody in that locker room could have thought they'd be 1-2 at this point in the season. Carrington Byndom said this week he'd be lying if he said he wasn't shocked by the fact that Texas is off to its worst start since Mack Brown's first season at the helm in Austin.
I covered Baylor during the Guy Morriss era, so I've seen what happens at this level when a team stops believing it can win. I don't feel that this team is ready to collectively throw in the towel, but it could be headed that way with another crushing loss.
Media members will have their slants on this game like why Texas is just 2-7 against Kansas State since the inception of the Big 12. My slant for this game is that this team needs a win in order to have something to believe in going forward.
Everything about this team has been negative so far this season. They can talk about it getting better or things getting fixed, but in this situation the only thing that fixes anything and gives the players hope is something tangible.
David Ash
David Ash and the Longhorns have lost ten home games since the start of the 2010 season.
“It's not really just about K-State,” Jaxon Shipley said. “It doesn't matter who you're playing, your goal is to get a win.”
The bottom line is no matter what's being said about their head coach or the state of the program, the players have to want it for themselves. At the end of the day the players have to forget about everyone else but the guys who will put on a burnt orange jersey and pads alongside them on Saturday and do it for each other if nothing else.
*****
One thing that would be nice to see the Longhorns get turned around is their record in home games in recent years.
From 2001-2009 the Longhorns lost just four games at DKR. I can still remember the shock of Arkansas coming in and beating the Longhorns in 2003, at the time Texas' first home loss since the 1999 home loss to Kansas State.
You remember the Ohio State and Texas A&M losses in 2006, the latter of which that cost Texas a shot at the Big 12 title, which was the first since that 1999 campaign that Texas lost more than one home game in a season. You remember the 2007 loss to Kansas State that helped Jordy Nelson get drafted.
Now, home losses happen so frequently they run together.
There were five home losses in 2010 and two each of the past two seasons. The class of 2010 will be the first class of four-year seniors who will have finished their Texas careers without experiencing an undefeated season at home.
It's not like DKR has ever been home to a historically hostile crowd or has been a feared place to play. Lately it's been a place where visitors can come, admire the 100,000-plus seat palace and hang around Austin afterwards to celebrate a win over the home team.
That, like a lot of things going on with this program right now, needs to change.
Cedric Reed
Cedric Reed said the Longhorns need to start punching people in the mouth.
He said what he said. If you need a refresher, this what he told me when I asked him a simple question at Big 12 Media Days.
Why is it that the Wildcats have had so much success against Texas?
“I don't want to call Texas, by any means, soft because they're a great team and they've got great athletes. I think at the end of the day we want that game more than anything. It's the ability to go out and fight. They have a lot of four and five-star athletes. You can have all of those things, but if you don't know how to knuckle up and fight in a phone booth then you won't make it.”
Call it what you will. What it was was Walker calling Texas' manhood into question.
“It's a hard thing to hear,” Cedric Reed said when asked this week about Walker's comments back in July. “I'm not going to talk too much about it. I'm just going to show up on Saturday.”
The Longhorns haven't done much to show up this season and dispel the notion that they lack that something inside them to win a bare-knuckle brawl. BYU was the first test Texas had to shed the “soft” label so many have placed upon them and they failed it miserably.
As long as I've followed and been around football, calling someone soft is pretty much the worst thing you can call some. It means you're weak. It means you're timid. It means you lack testicular fortitude.
No matter what the Longhorns do on Saturday in the Big 12 opener when Walker and the Wildcats come to town, it won't change anything that happened in Provo nearly two weeks ago. It won't erase a 1-2 start and it won't shed the “soft” label for this team.
Mack Brown
Mack Brown's team needs to show some pride this weekend when it takes the field against K-State.
What it will do is show if this team has the one thing that everyone has been waiting to see from this bunch.
Pride.
When someone questions your manhood, at some point pride has to kick in and take over. At some point you have to be tired of being put down that you bare down and do what Reed said the Longhorns need to do this weekend.
“You've got to go out and hit people in the mouth,” Reed said. “Do the opposite of what they say you are. It's annoying to hear it but we're going to come out Saturday and play.”
It'll be annoying until the Longhorns knock off an opponent like Kansas State that prides itself on playing tough, physical football by hitting them right between the eyes.
*****
No matter who is coaching the Longhorns ten, 20 or 30 years from now there should be an inspirational sign handing somewhere on the path from the dressing room to the playing field at DKR. I've always liked a good motivational sign, but it's got to mean something.
The perfect sign for the Longhorn football program? WWKSD
Chris Whaley
Chris Whaley took something from Kasey Studdard's recent speech to the team.
What Would Kasey Studdard Do? No matter the question, his answer would probably be in the form of needing to inflict pain upon someone.
On Wednesday night's edition of All Access on the Longhorn Network, Mack Brown told his team Studdard was the probably the toughest player he and his staff have ever coached. Studdard addressed the team prior to the Ole Miss game and told them that football was great because, “It's the only sport where you can get in a fight for 60 minutes and not go to jail.”
Here's a little bit more of what Studdard told the team during his visit.
“If you're just sitting there in your pass protection and the center has his man locked up and you're sitting there with nobody to block, go break the nose guard's ribs,” Studdard said. “It's little things like that I haven't seen on film.”
“This is football,” he later stated. “You're supposed to play this game pissed off. That's the only way I've ever played it. That's the only way I see it.”
I asked multiple players this week if anything Studdard said hit home. Chris Whaley gave one of the better answers I heard.
“He was talking about the way they played and the mindset they'd hit you hard no matter what,” Whaley said. “On the offensive line he said if he wasn't blocking anybody then he'd go help the next man block his guy.
“That stood out to me because when you play together there's not too much anybody can do to beat you.”
Jaxon Shipley
Jaxon Shipley said it doesn't matter the opponent, the Longhorns need to win this weekend.
One thing I haven't seen from this team through three games is I haven't seen them play angry. If the Longhorns really are wiping the slate clean entering Big 12 play then a new attitude should be visible.
Maybe it's me being naïve, but I refuse to believe that a team that's got a game like BYU sticking its craw, took advice from Studdard – who as legend has it wore a tank top for warmups in the snow at Nebraska in 2006 – and has been openly mocked in public won't punch back at some point.
*****
I've seen where some of the player's comments haven't been sitting well with fans. To tell you the truth, with the way things have gone this season, I'm not sure the players know what to say.
Nobody in that locker room could have thought they'd be 1-2 at this point in the season. Carrington Byndom said this week he'd be lying if he said he wasn't shocked by the fact that Texas is off to its worst start since Mack Brown's first season at the helm in Austin.
I covered Baylor during the Guy Morriss era, so I've seen what happens at this level when a team stops believing it can win. I don't feel that this team is ready to collectively throw in the towel, but it could be headed that way with another crushing loss.
Media members will have their slants on this game like why Texas is just 2-7 against Kansas State since the inception of the Big 12. My slant for this game is that this team needs a win in order to have something to believe in going forward.
Everything about this team has been negative so far this season. They can talk about it getting better or things getting fixed, but in this situation the only thing that fixes anything and gives the players hope is something tangible.
David Ash
David Ash and the Longhorns have lost ten home games since the start of the 2010 season.
“It's not really just about K-State,” Jaxon Shipley said. “It doesn't matter who you're playing, your goal is to get a win.”
The bottom line is no matter what's being said about their head coach or the state of the program, the players have to want it for themselves. At the end of the day the players have to forget about everyone else but the guys who will put on a burnt orange jersey and pads alongside them on Saturday and do it for each other if nothing else.
*****
One thing that would be nice to see the Longhorns get turned around is their record in home games in recent years.
From 2001-2009 the Longhorns lost just four games at DKR. I can still remember the shock of Arkansas coming in and beating the Longhorns in 2003, at the time Texas' first home loss since the 1999 home loss to Kansas State.
You remember the Ohio State and Texas A&M losses in 2006, the latter of which that cost Texas a shot at the Big 12 title, which was the first since that 1999 campaign that Texas lost more than one home game in a season. You remember the 2007 loss to Kansas State that helped Jordy Nelson get drafted.
Now, home losses happen so frequently they run together.
There were five home losses in 2010 and two each of the past two seasons. The class of 2010 will be the first class of four-year seniors who will have finished their Texas careers without experiencing an undefeated season at home.
It's not like DKR has ever been home to a historically hostile crowd or has been a feared place to play. Lately it's been a place where visitors can come, admire the 100,000-plus seat palace and hang around Austin afterwards to celebrate a win over the home team.
That, like a lot of things going on with this program right now, needs to change.