The changing state of Texas football

[Harry]

WACO, Texas -- Imagine the incredulous looks you would have drawn a decade ago had you been brazen enough to forecast the current football landscape in the state of Texas.

Instead of lining up a trip to the next game, your friends would have staged an intervention and lined you up for a trip to the shrink.

Think about it. The 10-year anniversary of Texas' 2005 national championship season is approaching. The Longhorns were on top of the college football world after their unforgettable 41-38 win over USC in the title game. They were in the midst of a glorious nine-year stampede under Mack Brown that saw them win 10 or more games every year and five straight bowl games, including three BCS bowls.

Read more: http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/12737468/baylor-bears-texas-longhorns-show-how-much-changed-lone-state-state-10-years

[DallasGreen]

The attitude of Briles is light years ahead of MAC. Did not see him say a thing about Waco being a hard place to recruit to ---- not so with MAC and little"d"

[UNTLifer]

Seems like an article "rah-rah'ing" little ol' Baylor.

[Ben Gooding]

Yeah, I expected to read about CFB in the state of Texas, not Baylor. I love Art Briles though. I like his moxy, swag, self determination, football philosophy, expectations, etc. etc. He took a seriously historically delaputated football program and has them annually competitive. He's recruiting at a level that Baylor has never dreamt of and he's winning. What he's doing is truly amazing. However, the state of social media and the fall of Texas including the rise of ATM (harping the fall of Texas) has helped Baylors rise significantly. The old mantra of "if Texas offer I'm done with my recruiting" is a thing of the past and that's seriously opening the doors for not just Baylor but other programs as well.

[SilverEagle]

The attitude of Briles is light years ahead of MAC. Did not see him say a thing about Waco being a hard place to recruit to ---- not so with MAC and little"d"

Ok then. Has Baylor University historically suffered with the same culture that North Texas has,(for decades), suffered with trying to overcome? Or more to the point, even recognize? Whenever coach Dickey and Coach Mac mention/talk about this being a hard place to recruit to, in my mind they are talking about that very thing. Without going into a long diatribe (like I usually do) let me paraphrase an old saying.

Baylor may have been, for decades, the "Red Headed Step Child" of the old SWC/B-12, but they were at least part of a very respected family. We haven't been part of any sort of respected sports "family" in like.....never. But to make it even worse, our sports programs, but in particular Football, have been the "Red Headed Step Children of our University"! And until such time as we get around to changing that fundamental thing about OUR CULTURE, all current and future coaches will continue to say the same thing......and they will be right.

AND, once again, It is not the job of our head coach to change our University's culture.

Looks like I did a diatribe anyway........sorry............

Edited April 29, 2015 by SilverEagle

[Harry]

Ok then. Has Baylor University historically suffered with the same culture that North Texas has,(for decades), suffered with trying to overcome? Or more to the point, even recognize? Whenever coach Dickey and Coach Mac mention/talk about this being a hard place to recruit to, in my mind they are talking about that very thing. Without going into a long diatribe (like I usually do) let me paraphrase an old saying.

Baylor may have been, for decades, the "Red Headed Step Child" of the old SWC/B-12, but they were at least part of a very respected family. We haven't been part of any sort of respected sports "family" in like.....never. But to make it even worse, our sports programs, but in particular Football, have been the "Red Headed Step Children of our University"! And until such time as we get around to changing that fundamental thing about OUR CULTURE, all current and future coaches will continue to say the same thing......and they will be right.

AND, once again, It is not the job of our head coach to change our University's culture.

Looks like I did a diatribe anyway........sorry............

I agree with what you are saying Silver with one exception. Dickey would have KILLED to have the facilities and conference affiliation Mac does.

[SilverEagle]

I agree with what you are saying Silver with one exception. Dickey would have KILLED to have the facilities and conference affiliation Mac does.

Probably so. But he would have been shocked to see (or maybe not) that those two things have not magically changed our culture. For many years leading up to those two events, just about every person coming to this board who ventured an opinion about how things could change for us listed those two things as major hurdles......plus winning. Well, in 2013, we had a new stadium, a new conference affiliation, a D-1 coach with skins on his wall, and a 9-4 season ending with a bowl win. We had SMU (our most hated opponent of all time) scheduled for our first home game for 2014.

The formula was perfect for a sell out. So, where was the sell-out?

I don't know how many times i have to say this but "THINGS" will not change our culture. PEOPLE WHO FUNDAMENTALLY AND DEEPLY CARE ABOUT THIS SCHOOL MUST BE PART OF CHANGING OUR CULTURE. AND IT CANNOT HAPPEN AT ONE OR TWO EVENTS.

[Eagle1855]

It's a nice story, but the top recruits in the state are still going to Texas and Texas A&M. So while it's been impressive to watch TCU and Baylor do what they've done "with less," the idea that there's been a changing of the guard is little more than fantasy from the fans of private programs that have been the beneficiary of dumpster fire in Austin and a conference change in College Station. In other words, everything fell into place at the perfect time for both programs. And there's nothing wrong with that, at all. Briles turned UH back into a winner, did the same for Baylor. Patterson is, in my opinion, the best coach in Texas.

[untjim1995]

I agree with what you are saying Silver with one exception. Dickey would have KILLED to have the facilities and conference affiliation Mac does.

Dickey might have killed for them, but none of it even remotely happens without Dodge being here. Dickey's persona was horrible to fans and the media--plain, boring, generic, etc...Todd Dodge came here with a flashy record in Texas HS Football and a promise from the admininstration--that he reminded the media about often--that new facilities were coming. Obviously, that was proven to be a stretch until UNTFlyer took over and made it happen thru the SGA.

Coach Mac has been refreshing and positive, up until the losing got to him in the middle of last year. I've posted it before and I will again. I completely believe that Mac saw this place as a USF or UCF starter-kit, that talent abounded around him and that we were a huge school in need of a leader to bring them up from the doldrums. He never imagined that recruiting here would still be this hard, especially after winning the HoD Bowl in 2013. BUt the history of apathy and losing has been too much for McCarney to get over, at least so far. So the Dickey-like quotes started popping up late last year. People want to blame Mac for being negative, but they forget that for his first three-plus seasons, all he did in public or with the media was act like a motivational speaker about this place. The real question is whether the negativity has set in for good now or if the positive and motivational Mac will show back up here--because the latter is what is badly needed here, just to convince a few of the newbies that are in school or just graduated to stick around and feel good about this place still, not to mention the very few alums from the lost decades that might be willing to come back around if they feel like they have someone and something worth following, maybe even for the first time ever in some cases.