A lethal combination of youth, depth and health issues had Texas, which lost three of its last four games, limping into the Holiday Bowl against Cal this evening.
Hours later, they emerged from a 21-10 win over Cal (7-6) as a team that has plenty of momentum and potential for the 2012 season.
The Longhorns (8-5) were so inexperienced on offense this year and weren’t able to find any consistency at the most important position -- quarterback. Freshman David Ash got the start this evening, and for the first quarter and a half, I’m sure there were thousands of armchair coaches -- I was one of ‘em -- begging for Mack Brown to pull Ash for Case McCoy.
But the Longhorns got some things moving with the running game -- at least enough for Cal to have to respect it -- and it’s pretty amazing how much better any quarterback looks once that gets going. Ash didn’t have an amazing night statistically, but he threw his first touchdown since the Red River Shootout in October against Oklahoma and didn’t turn the ball over (he had six interceptions after the OU game).
The raw athleticism and potential is there with Ash; you have to think the UT coaches are looking in his direction heading into spring. If they weren’t, we would have seen McCoy play at least a minor role tonight.
Bryan Harsin is a good offensive coordinator and he has a lot of young talent with which to work. The Texas offense will be one of the units to really watch nationally over the next eight months. Can they progress from the highlights tonight and play at a higher level on a consistent basis next year?
Likewise, there will be a lot of interest surrounding Texas’ D after they forced five turnovers and recorded six sacks against Cal. Some of that is, and rightfully so, directly attributed to the mediocre game quarterback Zach Maynard had, but Texas DC Manny Diaz deserves a ton of credit for putting his players in positions to force turnovers and make plays.
And they executed.
Now, UT has to build off that. They have two young, bright minds heading the offense and defense, not to mention plenty of talent, and there’s enough turnover in the Big 12 next year at Oklahoma and Oklahoma State that Texas can at least compete for another conference title.
As we noted a couple days ago, contract extension discussions were underway between Brown and Texas. For a team that had gone 12-12 in the past two years, and really looked bad at times this season, the idea of an extension was met with cynicism. But, Brown was willing to make changes after last year’s 2010 disaster, and perhaps those changes are beginning to reap dividends.
It’s tough to be patient when the coach is raking in a $5 million salary and the program is built on success. Now that Texas has achieved some again, the expectations are only going to get higher.
More than just the eyes of Texas will be on the Longhorns over the next year. Count on it.