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If it wasn’t official already, it certainly is now: the Texas Longhorns are officially at the mercy of their Texas college football brethren. They were embarrassed 50-7 by one of their big brothers, the TCU Horned Frogs. It was another pathetic and lethargic performance by the Texas offense and team as a whole.
The game was a microcosm of what life has pretty much been like for Texas from 2010 on, where another state of Texas college football team showing flash and excitement while the ‘Horns just look bland. Teams like TCU, Baylor and Texas A&M have modernized their offenses with up-tempo and spread play, while Texas has simply struggled to find a QB since Colt McCoy left way back after the 2009 season. Baylor and TCU figure to be in the National Title discussion in the final weeks for the second straight year, while Texas will be on their way to off-season workouts as they are a lock to miss a bowl game.
It all began with recruiting. Starting with legendary coach Mack Brown and continuing with Charlie Strong, Texas has struck out or missed many stars from the state. Whether they have been turned down by recruits or just simply scouted them badly and wrongly passed on them, the Longhorns have been atrocious in recruiting. Transcendent star Johnny Manziel slipped through the cracks to go to the Aggies and eventually won a Heisman Trophy. Like Manziel, Baylor’s Robert Griffin III slipped through Texas’s grasps and won a Heisman elsewhere. Another thing in common for those two? Texas recruited them as defensive backs. Talk about scouting failure.
TCU has taken off as a program in recent years. From Andy Dalton in the program’s mid-major days to the current explosive scoring days of Trevone Boykin, the Frogs have risen mightily since they joined the Big 12. Boykin is yet another super athletic QB from the state to end up anywhere but with the Longhorns.
What should scare Texas the most is the fact that those three teams aren’t going anywhere. Their coaches are offensive geniuses and they know how to succeed in today’s game. They have the fun style of play that will attract recruits and the ‘sexiness’ of the Texas name has dramatically fallen as these three have risen. Even if Texas is able to get back to a top 15 or top 10 level, they won’t have the monopoly on the state like they were used to. They will never be alone in Texas again. It will be interesting to see what the future holds in Austin.
Andrew Frosceno is a New York Giants beat writer and college football writer for www.Rantsports.com. You can follow him on Twitter and Google.
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