The Winner who could not win - Why Garrett Gilbert was set up to fail

[TheScoreJoseph]

January 7th, 2009, #2 Texas vs. #1 Alabama for the BCS National Championship. After intercepting a fake punt pass by Alabama, legendary Texas quarterback Colt McCoy took the field to begin his chance at finally leading Texas to a National Championship.

1st and 10 at the Alabama 37 - Colt McCoy completes a 5 yard to Jordan Shipley

2nd and 5 at the Alabama 32 - Colt McCoy completes a 4 yard pass to Malcolm Williams

3rd and 1 at the Alabama 28 - Cody Johnson runs for a 1 yard gain for a Texas 1st down

1st and 10 at the Alabama 27 - Tre Newton rushes for 16 yards for a Texas 1st down

1st and 10 from the Alabama 11 - Colt McCoy would rush for no……

Colt is down on the sideline, Longhorn head coach Mack Brown takes a timeout to give him time to recover. He then realizes he may not return and tells true freshman quarterback, Garrett Gilbert, to put his helmet on.

Having one of the best defenses in recent memory, Alabama made life difficult for Texas and Gilbert for the rest of the first half. Going into halftime up big.

But something happened that may have been the beginning of the end for Garrett Gilbert….

The kid who threw only 26 collegiate passes coming into the game, rallied the ‘Horns from being down 18 at the break, to 3 points late in the fourth quarter. Alabama’s defense would finally flex their muscles and crush any hopes the freshman had created for Texas.

Final score Alabama 37 Texas 21

Garrett Gilbert 15-40 186 yards 2 TDs and 4 interceptions

Every Longhorn fan throughout the country, including me, was heartbroken for Colt McCoy and the rest of the team, but at the same time was given a sense of hope. Watching Gilbert grow up right in front of our eyes and nearly rally his team left us with high expectations for the 19 year old kid from Lake Travis, Texas.

Even though what Garrett did in the face of adversity was heroic and inspiring, the fans, media and coaches would take what he did and actually would set up Garrett Gilbert to fail.

Living in Austin for eight years and personally being able to attend school with him at Lake Travis, I was able to witness first hand how all of us as fans, still including me, unfairly load heaps and heaps of expectations on someone who would graduate two years my senior. Texas fans expected Gilbert to continue what Vince Young and Colt McCoy had done the previous seven years. As we look back at Garrett’s career as a Longhorn, he has been labeled a bust and a loser but both of these are, in truth, inaccurate.

Before the beginning of the 2010 season, Mack Brown and offensive coordinator Greg Davis had expressed their interest in returning to a more conventional, pro style offense. As Colt McCoy’s ability as a passer had transformed Texas’ offense to a pass happy spread that showed time after time could not line up and run the ball against formidable opponents. My first thought was, “Awesome! Now Garrett can continue to develop behind a power running game”. Though, once the season began it was prevalent that this new pro-style running attack was going to take some time to become a true threat because the personnel for this offense were not there yet. The offensive line was not physical enough to consistently get a push. Their was also problems with the running backs: injuries and lack of talent caused Texas to have to run by committee. This help opponent defenses see Texas’ tendencies based on which back was in the game. Right away Greg Davis was forced to put the load of the offense on Garrett Gilbert’s shoulders, like he had done with Vince Young and Colt McCoy before. But the problem was Gilbert was not quite ready for it and he did not have the help around him to be successful.

When Vince Young took the reigns as Texas’s quarterback, he had a tremendous supporting staff. Cedric Benson at tailback. Limas Sweed, Billy Pittman, Quan Cosby, David Thomas and Bo Scaife were just some of the targets he had. He also had an offensive line that would mostly end up in the NFL.

When Colt McCoy took over for Vince Young. He had most of the team that had won a National Championship the year before such as Sweed, Cosby, and Jordan Shipley. Add tight end Jermichael Finley to that group and Colt had an extraordinary amount of support. He also had one of Texas’s all time greats at tailback with Jamaal Charles. After throwing 18 interceptions in his sophomore season, even Colt had people that wanted to see him holding a clipboard on the sideline, but thanks to having two outstanding wide outs, Quan Cosby and Jordan Shipley, and being the most competitive player in college football he was able to lead Texas to a Fiesta Bowl victory.

Compare the 2004 and 2006 Texas teams to the 2010 Texas team. No comparison:

Both the 2004 and 2006 team had a tailback that, if needed, could carry the load. In 2010, it was believed Tre Newton had the potential to do this but was forced to quit football because of frequent concussions. In a program like Texas, you would expect someone to step up and take control of the tailback position but that never happened. Since 2008, the Longhorns have not had one guy they could count on to get 20 carries every week; so even before GIlbert arrived, there was trouble brewing with the running game that would eventually rear its ugly head.

Along with the inconsistent ground attack, the receivers of Texas were mediocre at best. During the 2009 season, Jordan Shipley caught 77 more passes than their second leading receiver. 116 of the total 362 passes thrown in 2009 were completed to Shipley. That alone shows the depravity of playmakers at Gilbert’s disposal in 2010 after Shipley would graduate. Its almost a miracle that a team lacking in playmakers was able to go 13-0. Even in the National Championship, it seemed the only player that could do anything right was Shipley. In the first half of the game, Gilbert threw a beautiful pass to Malcolm Williams in the end zone, only to watch him drop it. Later on what looked like a promising drive for Texas, Dan Buckner dropped a wide open pass that would’ve been a first down. Then the final play of the half, on a simple shuffle pass, DJ Monroe could not find a handle on the pass and Marcell Dareus would intercept it and take it for a touchdown. It was amazing how “great “ Texas recruits are said to be, only to find out none of them can make plays when they need to. Gilbert can only do so much when his receivers can not do their basic function: catch the ball.

In 2010, Gilbert threw a total of 17 interceptions. If you go back and watch all of the interceptions there were obviously a few throws that he threw into coverage or after staring down a receiver, but the majority of them were either tipped at the line of scrimmage, dropped or bounced off a receiver’s hands (Greg Smith anyone?). Yes, Gilbert may be at fault for a few of the balls that were tipped at the line, but it is more of a combination of bad timing of routes, offensive line not cutting taller defensive linemen and the inability to run the ball. In 2007, Colt McCoy had an Eli Manning-esque season throwing for 18 interceptions. A lot of people forget about that because of what he has done since then. One thing that really helped McCoy bounce back was the lack of another possible quarterback. Mack Brown did say that every position was open, including McCoy’s, after the 2007 season, but do you seriously think the coaching staff would’ve put John Chiles or Sherrod Harris, who never took a snap in his career, in for McCoy?

In 2011, Gilbert had three promising young quarterbacks competing against him: David Ash, Connor Wood and Case McCoy. Even then he would still win his job back and had the support of the team BUT not the fans. In my opinion Texas fans are among the worst gameday fans in the game. Coming from the perspective of a lifelong ‘Horns fan’, Texas fans don’t show up and make noise on gameday. They all think they can run the team, and they never stop with the criticism of Texas’ players and coaches. If you were able to watch or listen to any of Texas’ home games this year, it was louder in my living room than it was in DKR. In order for any team to upset a contender, they are going to have to feed off of the crowd. Against Oklahoma State on October 15th, the crowd was embarrassingly quiet. In a stadium that can hold 100,000 fans this should not happen, it seemed as if the fans in attendance had given up on the team sometime in the 3rd quarter. All 2010, DKR gave the Texas football team as much of an advantage as Wallace Wade Stadium give the Duke football team. That may explain why the ‘Horns have played better on the road in the past two years.

Garrett Gilbert did not fail. The Texas football program failed him. He did basically all he could as an inexperienced quarterback in one the best conferences in college football, played well but could not do it alone. Garrett Gilbert could have been special, but his environment stonewalled him. If you don’t agree with any point I made yet, this one is almost indisputable.

The arrogance of the Texas Athletic program. Mack Brown admitted that even he believed “because we're Texas and we'd won so much, we're just going to win.” This quote basically sums up how the people within Texas. It is not only the players and coaches though, just turn on ESPN and they will be discussing how Texas wants a bigger piece of the TV revenue or The Longhorn Network. It begins at the top. The leadership of the university see themselves as the king of the Big 12 and feel like they would be nothing without Texas.

I wonder why Nebraska and Colorado left? (rhetorical question)

This arrogance passed down into the rest of the school and then reflected onto the football field in 2010. It is sad, that one of the few players that did not reflect the poor character of his school is the one who is flat out murdered by the media and fans.

Garrett Gilbert made many plays and has potential to be great. Just watch this video

Youtube search: Garrett Gilbert 2010 Highlights (Original Audio)

Garrett Gilbert is a great leader, a great quarterback and IS a great winner.

[Scott]

Sorry but Gilbert is a system QB.

[ex carrabba fan]

Dude said like three words in reply, lol

[Chrisksaint]

I give you props for defending your ideas/statement very thoroughly, not done often here in OS lol

[TheScoreJoseph]

Quote: Originally Posted by Scott

Sorry but Gilbert is a system QB.

I fail to see what that was supposed to mean

[SuperBowlNachos]

Quote: Originally Posted by TheScoreJoseph

I fail to see what that was supposed to mean

He over achieved in Lake Travis' system. The fact that they won 2 more state championships after he left kind of shows that.

"Even then he would still win his job back and had the support of the team BUT not the fans."
Not really. There were a lot of quotes from players saying how Ash was the most vocal leader of all of the quarterbacks. So it's not like they were all on board with him. He was very quiet it last year too. He had his chance to get it all back under a new exciting offensive coordinator and some big weapons coming in as freshman, but Gilbert just couldn't get it done.

Gilbert was a mental midget. I've heard from his own dad that he would sometimes read the message boards and it would really bring him down.

Texas having no one reliable at RB or WR last year didn't help him, but he was as much of a problem as anyone else.

He never should have been put into the national championship, not his fault, but Sherrod Harris should have been out there.

[K-train]

I don't get it. With all of the Plethora of talent the state of Texas has, how come you have such inconsistent play at RB and WR?

Is it more of the line of coaching?

Or just bad recruiting/scouting?

[TheScoreJoseph]

Quote: Originally Posted by K-train

I don't get it. With all of the Plethora of talent the state of Texas has, how come you have such inconsistent play at RB and WR? Is it more of the line of coaching? Or just bad recruiting/scouting?

one problem may be that alot of these players come from stable back grounds. Such as their parents are successful financially so they havennt faced very much adversity

another idea is the culture surrounding the program. The players may feel because they attend the University of Texas they are on another level as everyone else. This may cause them to not work as hard