Mack Brown has seen what happens when Texas football becomes a weekly argument about what the team should be doing. He also knows what it looks like when talented players start pressing because the results do not match the expectations.
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That was the point he made while speaking with Vince Young on The Stampede podcast on October 7. Brown brought up Cam Coleman, the Auburn transfer who arrived in Austin with the kind of reputation that usually comes with a heavy target share.
“I think it’s a lack of confidence that the expectations are so high, and that’s all you hear,” the former Texas head coach said. “It’s all you see. We should score 50 points a game like Vince did.
“And that team that averaged 50 points a game ruined it for everybody else because it’s not a video game. If we start a little slow, you get tight because it’s not working. I think about Cam Coleman.”
Coleman had four touchdown catches through Texas’ first few games, but his role has not been consistent. Against Tennessee, he caught one pass for 30 yards. Texas won 20-17, but the offense was hardly convincing.
Arch Manning completed 14 of 19 passes for 201 yards, threw an interception, and took six sacks. Coleman was not the only player left waiting for the ball. Texas struggled to protect Manning, managed little on the ground, and converted only three of 12 third downs.
“He doesn’t get balls, he gets tight, he gets frustrated,” Brown described Coleman’s situation. “Vince can tell you these are great athletes. So, they have very high expectations of themselves. And when it’s not working, they get frustrated.”
Coleman finished first in SEC contested catches at Auburn, entering Texas in the same conversation as Jeremiah Smith, a compliment that also set an impossible standard. He has not yet been involved often enough to make that case on the field. So far, he has notched just 208 receiving yards. But that’s not the worrying part.
Arch Manning has a part in that. When a receiver is isolated against a cornerback, the quarterback has to recognize the matchup and be willing to throw before the window closes.
Manning has shown he can make difficult throws, but Texas has not consistently found a rhythm in which those opportunities appear naturally. Pressure in the pocket and a struggling running game have made it harder to stay ahead of the chains.
Tennessee’s pass rush kept Arch Manning under pressure and made it hard for Texas to get the run game going. Manning had to get the ball out quickly, and the offense leaned on short passes and extra blockers to keep him upright.
That left little time for longer routes to develop, especially on the outside where Coleman usually operates. Texas also did little to get him involved through screens or other quick plays. As a result, one of its biggest receiving threats spent long stretches on the edge of the game.
“What Oklahoma’s got to do is keep Texas from breaking out offensively and keep the game tight,” Mack Brown said. “Because as long as the game’s tight, it’s in Oklahoma’s favor because everybody’s expecting it not to be tight.”
Brown knows that because he helped turn Vince Young into a quarterback who could hurt defenses with both his arm and his legs. Their best season came in 2005.
Young led Texas past USC in the Rose Bowl in January 2006, finishing with a performance that became one of the defining moments in college football. His fourth-down touchdown run in the closing seconds sealed a 41-38 win.
That gave Texas its first consensus national championship since 1969. Oddly enough, that historic season is still the benchmark in Texas, and people expect a similar excellence from a QB with the ‘Manning’ name on his shirt.
Oklahoma has the personnel to put pressure on opposing QBs and make every throw difficult. Its defensive front can disrupt the pocket, and the secondary does not give up easy completions. Texas has its own problem to solve.
The Longhorns have struggled to run the ball, ranking 88th nationally before the rivalry game. That has been a concern even with several talented running backs on the roster.
Arch Manning does not have to live up to what the 2005 team achieved, just as Coleman does not have to put up Jeremiah Smith’s numbers every week. Texas needs both players to focus on their roles and deliver when the game calls for it, rather than measure themselves against the players who came before them.