After BYU sliced through the Texas defense for 550 rushing yards last Saturday, embattled Longhorns head coach Mack Brown‘s solution was to fire his defensive coordinator, Manny Diaz, and replace him with Greg Robinson.
Guess that didn’t help.
Mississippi stormed back from a 23-14 second-quarter deficit to score 29 unanswered points as the Rebels buried Texas in their own stadium, 44-23.
Rebels quarterback Bo Wallace went 17 of 25 for 177 yards and two touchdowns and also added 57 rushing yards (with a score) as Ole Miss (2-0) beat Texas (1-2) for the first time since the 1958 Sugar Bowl.
The Longhorns defense was better against the run this week (could it get much worse?), but it still yielded 272 yards and 6.0 yards per rush to the Rebs. Jeff Scott had a game-high 164 yards on 19 carries and also added a back-breaking 73-yard punt return for a touchdown late in the third quarter.
Meanwhile, the Texas offense was mostly tepid after getting off to a good start in the first half. The Longhorns put up 234 yards of offense and held a 23-17 lead at the break, but totaled just 86 yards and zero points in the second half. Case McCoy started in place of the injured David Ash and went 24 of 36 for 196 yards and one touchdown. Johnathan Gray led the Horns with 91 rushing yards and a touchdown on 19 carries.
The question for Texas now is: How bad is this going to get? Neither side of the ball is clicking and a downward spiral appears to be forming. This team has too much talent to get blown out by 21 at home against a team like Ole Miss, but what’s going to happen when Texas takes on the likes of Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Baylor? Is there a path to a winning season?
It doesn’t appear that Brown has any answers, unless he feels like firing offensive coordinator Major Applewhite and replacing him with another old hand. But maybe the real answer is for Brown to finally understand that after an illustrious career in Austin, it’s time for him to surrender his title with grace and ride off into the sunset.