Change
In a previous life I managed convenience stores. At the peak of my responsibilities I was in charge of three stores with a total of 18-20 employees. I had no retail management experience when I took on these responsibilities. I wish I could say that I was a fast learner, particularly when it came to managing employees. But I wasn’t. Maybe it was out of wanting to believe the best about people or maybe it was just in desperation that I believed certain employees when they said they would never be late again for an opening shift. Or that they would never be rude to a customer again, or lock the doors so they could go to the bathroom again. Or trade beer for a blow… uhh never mind, you get the idea. Eventually I did learn that when an employee was late for work at the beginning of their employ, they would be chronically late to work. If I told a manger to let an hourly employee go and then I would see that employee behind the register a couple of days later, I learned that that manager was going to have a problem with my authority across the board. My experience in the convenience store business didn’t make me so cynical that I believe people are incapable of change, but I do believe that a real, definable, change in habits or character is rare.
That’s why I enjoyed the surprise and then the near outrage of fans and bloggers when Mack Brown didn’t play Tyrone Swoopes in the Iowa State game. I even suckered almost all of the Over/Under contestants into answering yes to the question about playing time for Swoopes. Mack Brown has a consistent history of not including real game playing time in his training of back-up quarterbacks. In 2000 and 2011 Brown played two quarterbacks on a regular basis so Major Applewhite in 2001 and Case McCoy last year, as number two quarterbacks, had ample experience. Vince Young had regular playing time as a back-up and eventually became the starter in 2003. Other than those three out of Mack Brown’s 15 years at Texas, the paucity of playing time for back-up quarterbacks is amazing. Here are some highlights.
2010: Back-up Case McCoy appeared in two games. He had zero pass attempts for the season.
2009: Back-up Garrett Gilbert had 26 pass attempts before he was called on in the national championship game.
2008: Back-up John Chiles had 13 pass attempts in his second season as the back-up.
2007: Back-up John Chiles had 9 pass attempts.
2006: Back-up Jevan Snead appeared in three games and threw 18 passes before coming in for the injured Colt McCoy in the first quarter of the 11th game of the season versus Kansas State.
2005: In blow-out after blow-out after blow-out, back-up Matt Nordgren attempted 11 passes for the season.
2004: Chance Mock appeared in five games and attempted 21 passes.
My point is, if you expected Tyrone Swoopes to get meaningful playing time or even play at all against Iowa State, you were expecting a 62 year-old to change his habits forged over 28 years as a college football head coach. Not bloody likely.
What do you think the likelihood of Brown’s team starting out the Oklahoma game very conservatively, or dare I say scared?
OU Week Extra Points
The combined record of the teams Texas has beaten this season is 3-12. For Oklahoma, 12-16.
Oklahoma is 17th nationally in rushing offense, 6th in scoring defense.
Texas is 48th and 77th respectively in those two categories.
Since Bob Stoops has been at OU the team that has scored first in the Texas-OU game is 10-4 in the series.
Oklahoma is ranked #10. Texas hasn’t beaten a top 10 team since 2008. The highest ranked team Texas has beaten since 2008 was #13 Oklahoma St. in 2009. Texas beat #14 Oregon St. last year in the Alamo Bowl.
HooK eM,
W.E.
Over/Under Results
Mitch Frink, even though he predicted that Tyrone Swoopes would play, wins this week with eight correct answers. Good to see Mitch back in the winner’s circle. Rick Mosher, the only player to correctly answer the Tyrone Swoopes question, finished second with seven correct answers.
I’m not sure but there may have been a glitch in the system so I may not have received all the entries for the Iowa State game. Either that or there was a lack of interest in the game because we had a record low turnout for Over/Under.
If you entered and believe you answered eight are more correctly please let me know so I can work on correcting the glitch.
