Revisiting GDGD

[vylegacy]

Hi All,

A newbie here at Hornsports!

I wanted to get everyone's thoughts about Greg Davis. Over the last couple years I think most of us are now realizing that MBTF himself might just be the man to blame for taking the team to where it is today.

So now reflect back on GDGD. While there indeed was shares of blame on the guy (for being too predicable), but his offense has always (ALWAYS) been effective, from Major, Simms, Vince, and Colt, UNTIL MBTF decided that UT wants to be a more Pro-style offense.

Were most of us wrong (myself included) to have too much blame for the guy? He did really well for us when he had the right players running his offense and even though everyone knew what plays are coming up next?

Just want to get everyone's thoughts on this.

 

[Brasky]

Somewhere closer to being good than being terrible.

 

[BevoBlake]

I still don't really understand why we moved to a Pro-Style Offense. Was our Offense predictable? Yes. Was it effective? Yes. Case Closed.

But Greg Davis did have to own some of the blame. Even if he was made the perennial scapegoat.

 

[Oilfield]

He had Vince Young, Cedrick Benson, and a hell of a lot more talent, on the same team. They got shut out by Oklahoma. Shut out. As in zero.

 

[Lord Vader]

Greg Davis isnt as good as advertised, and those barn burning Iowa offenses prove that.

What Greg Davis is, however, is proof that superior talent can excel even with marginal coaching.

 

[Black Scholes]

You're drawing the wrong conclusion from the facts. GDGD - who I still despise to this day - was one of the laziest recruiters on the staff and set the bar for how shitty and half-assed our recruiting became post-MNC. Can't really expect your OL, TE or WR coach to bust their asses if the OC is just taking incoming calls, saying yes to whoever looks good on paper and film and also is willing to come to Austin without much convincing. And coming in late and leaving early. GDGD and Mack for the most part squandered the many advantages they were given. Only a player-led team prevented it from being something of a lost decade IMO.

 

[NLeininger]

Greg Davis always had a competent QB. Applewhite has the f##king shittest QB in Mack Brown's tenure. With Ash, we are probably 8-2 at worst as he could have scored with Ole Miss and OSU. We would also have a shot against BU with an offense that could put 50 on the board.

 

[Brasky]

Greg Davis was a decent offensive coordinator and probably an above average QB coach. The whole "horizontal passing game" is demonstrably false. He wasn't great and he might not have been quite good, but to act like he was some sort of program cancer is totally losing sight of the fact that Mack Brown is responsible for the demise of the program, not Davis. If Davis fell off after the '09 title game then that is on Mack, who obviously never recovered himself.

I was so glad when Davis moved on. It was time. But in the annals of embarrassing scapegoats of UT football Greg Davis is knocking at Chris Simms' door.

 

[DougNTexas]

What part of the horizontal passing attack was false? How many times when it was third and 5 did we throw horizontal and gain three? How many times did we throw all three downs and go out with El Ced in the backfield? How many times when it was third and 10 did we run a 6 yard turn in and GAIN 6. Against average to poor teams GD was a great OC. Against teams with a decent D and a O with a pulse he was so so. His play calling was at times Junior High level. It looked like Stoops D knew the play call before our QB ever got us out of the huddle. Simms was the High School player of the year, but he was just average here. The Big 3 never scored a TD against OU in 4 years. VY was just another QB until he went to Mack and talked him into just being himself. In all those years that he was our OC we just won 2 Conference C's. And he had a ton of talent to work with during that stretch.

 

[austinite]

Hi All,
A newbie here at Hornsports!

I wanted to get everyone's thoughts about Greg Davis. Over the last couple years I think most of us are now realizing that MBTF himself might just be the man to blame for taking the team to where it is today.

So now reflect back on GDGD. While there indeed was shares of blame on the guy (for being too predicable), but his offense has always (ALWAYS) been effective, from Major, Simms, Vince, and Colt, UNTIL MBTF decided that UT wants to be a more Pro-style offense.

Were most of us wrong (myself included) to have too much blame for the guy? He did really well for us when he had the right players running his offense and even though everyone knew what plays are coming up next?

Just want to get everyone's thoughts on this.

AFAIK, Greg Davis was the worst OC in the Big 12, if not Division 1a. Greg Davis didn't really leave Texas - Major Applewhite has inherited his ultra-lame, super-impotent play calling.

I'd nominate Greg Davis for Big 12's Worst Offensive Coordinator Hall of Fame.

 

[Brasky]

What part of the horizontal passing attack was false? How many times when it was third and 5 did we throw horizontal and gain three? How many times did we throw all three downs and go out with El Ced in the backfield? How many times when it was third and 10 did we run a 6 yard turn in and GAIN 6. Against average to poor teams GD was a great OC. Against teams with a decent D and a O with a pulse he was so so. His play calling was at times Junior High level. It looked like Stoops D knew the play call before our QB ever got us out of the huddle. Simms was the High School player of the year, but he was just average here. The Big 3 never scored a TD against OU in 4 years. VY was just another QB until he went to Mack and talked him into just being himself. In all those years that he was our OC we just won 2 Conference C's. And he had a ton of talent to work with during that stretch.

If he gets no credit for letting VY be VY (and he should, because that is good coaching) what about coaching up a 2* or 3* or whatver Colt? His game plan against '09 OU was beautiful. Hes not responsible for the fact that we only had 2 conference titles. Clearly in '01 our offense was there (can't remember the score but we put up #'s against Colorado and everyone knows it was Mack's call to not switch QB's). In so many of the decisive OU games it was our D that was to blame. His offenses were among the most prolific in college football.

If he didn't utilize Ced well then why dod Ced leave with the 6th (I think) most yards as a RB in CFB history? Remember too that Ced took a long time to recover from both the shoulder stinger and the turf toe. Colt McCoy was a what, 3*? Does he get no credit for turning him into the winningest QB in CFB history?

I was not a fan of GD. I was glad when he left. But he wasn't the problem and I think that's more and more evident with each year that Mack has had other OC's, including Harsin who everyone thought was an offensive wizard.

From what I understand, GD's problems was his inability to execute an offense when he didn't have a very specific offensive lineman. I can't really speak to that but what I do nkow is the numbers are there and it seems to me that the argument that he only produced against lesser competition is less and less applicable as we see the teams that have followed.

 

[Brasky]

AFAIK, Greg Davis was the worst OC in the Big 12, if not Division 1a. Greg Davis didn't really leave Texas - Major Applewhite has inherited his ultra-lame, super-impotent play calling.
I'd nominate Greg Davis for Big 12's Worst Offensive Coordinator Hall of Fame.

Totally missing the mark there. Is it Greg Davis' fault that Mack went all in on Garrett Gilbert? Or that Mack likely made a deal with Phil Simms? Or that Blake Geddeon dropped a ball that my sister would catch?

I'm not saying he was great but it seems to me by now we would understand that it wasn't him, or at least not even mostly him. It's the man at the top.

 

[DougNTexas]

Brasky are You Echesse? So his gameplan in 09 against OU was beautiful. What about the years we got our ass kicked by OU? Was that beautiful also? We were winning 10 games out talenting teams and OU was winning Conference C's. I did not ever say El Ced did not get a lot of yards. I said there were times GD forgot he had him in the backfield. I do not give a rats ass about the numbers. I want Conference Championships at a bare minimal. We have 2 under Mack and GD. Two. Colt was what got GD and Mack Brown continued job security. I notice you did not mention Simms. Nor did You mention GG. The player Ketch said that GD had waited his entire career for. He was a average OC with below averege play calling ability. Hell people used to sit up in the stands and call out the play before the snaps. He had a hell of a lot of talent to work with and won 2 Conference C's at the end of the day even with VY and Colt McCoy and Chris Simms and Major Applewhite among others. If you love GD fine with me. I think he was a big part of the problem during Macks time here. We will have to disagree.

 

[austinite]

Totally missing the mark there. Is it Greg Davis' fault that Mack went all in on Garrett Gilbert? Or that Mack likely made a deal with Phil Simms? Or that Blake Geddeon dropped a ball that my sister would catch? I'm not saying he was great but it seems to me by now we would understand that it wasn't him, or at least not even mostly him. It's the man at the top.

I've been watching Mack Brown and Greg Davis since 1998. I started advocating for their ouster in 2001.

Mack Brown the Impostor and Greg Davis the Impotent should never have been hired in the first place. Too bad we had brain dead AD DeLOSSY Dudd in charge back then.

Greg Davis had been less than useless throughout his tenure.

 

[BigPhil76]

Say and blame all you want, Every coach in D1 would have gone all in on the Gatorade Player of the Year. This was just a miss that no one was to blame for. They don't all turn into diamonds.

 

[BigPhil76]

I was happy to see GDGD go as well, I cringe every time I see the bubble screen set up! The program went totally soft after the '09 championship loss. At that point, Mack should have resigned and he would have done so as everybody's hero.

 

[austinite]

Forgot to ask earlier: GDGD = God Damn Greg Davis?

 

[Brasky]

Not giving a crap about stats when evaluating a coordinator is a bit odd. I'd say that stats can and are manipulated but they are valuable nonetheless. You can argue that all GD ever did was roll up #'s against inferior competition and I think the evidence would suggest otherwise. In my opinion, heaping too much blame on Greg Davis deflects from the real problem and does Mack Brown an incredible service. In a way, it makes Brown look like a god for being able to do all that he did in spite of a terrible OC.

Conference championships are on the HC, not coordinators. Even if the OU game was the defacto CCG for the entire time GD was here most of those losses were a team effort, starting at the top. Only a couple were squarely on the offense and several were squarely on the D. All were on Mack.

I don't love Greg Davis. I wouldn't argue with someone who says he was below average even if I think he was probably slightly better than that. My argument is with people who think he was terrible. And I reiterate that that argument is probably one Mack Brown hopes never goes away.

I was glad Davis was gone. I wanted him gone long before he left.

 

[Black Scholes]

... But in the annals of embarrassing scapegoats of UT football Greg Davis is knocking at Chris Simms' door.

That is some weak shit. That speaks volumes that you would even for a moment try and equate the two.

I think coaches who are among the most highly paid in their profession should be held to the highest standards possible. I don't think the same should apply to college kids, many of whom are still teenagers. Particularly when those same kids can only really perform to the level they've been taught and in a system that puts them in a position to succeed.