Can Mack Brown's "Change" at Texas Go Smoother Than Rich Rod's at UM?

Larry Burton (Panama City Beach, Fla.) Rich Rodriguez is not a bad coach. He's actually a fine coach with an offensive philosophy that he swears by. The problem, however, is that he was trying to fit a round peg in a square hole at Michigan.

It was as if he was trying to get his team to learn the playbook in German. They flopped miserably and this year may be his last to see it work.

Now Mack Brown says he's going from the pass-first offense he's been so successful with at Texas to a more run-oriented offense.

Now, whether he's saying this in an attempt to sign the state's top running back, Malcomb Brown, or whether he's actually serious is open for debate. But let's just say it's not for Malcomb and he intends on making the switch to a more power-based game.

Did anyone remind him of how well it worked in the last game when Colt McCoy went down and they tried to run?

No running back went over 40 yards total while Alabama ran roughshod through the Texas defense with both backs going over 100 yards.

The point is, Alabama had an offensive line that could open holes. Texas did not. And if they were to line up today for their first 2010 game, they still don't.

Sure they can look good against the stepchildren in the Big 12 running, but against a quality team, Texas running backs may as well be running in molasses. They just look pitiful.

So is Mack Brown going to ease them into this running attack or go all or nothing like Rich Rod did at Michigan?

That question needs to be answered.

Last year Texas didn't have a running back average over 50 yards a game. Pathetic. And its second highest average rusher was, you guessed it, its quarterback. Not a very inspiring statistic.

Here are the rest:

Rushing
	Name	G	Rush	Yds	Y/G	Avg	Lng	TD
	Tre' Newton	12	116	552	46.0	4.8	45	6
	Colt McCoy	14	129	348	24.9	2.7	65	3
	Cody Johnson	14	87	335	23.9	3.9	20	12
	Vondrell McGee	9	56	300	33.3	5.4	51	2
	Foswhitt Whittaker	11	53	212	19.3	4.0	23	4
	D.J. Monroe	7	23	143	20.4	6.2	28	0
	Jeremy Hills	2	9	86	43.0	9.6	34	0
	John Chiles	12	8	37	3.1	4.6	34	0
	Jamison Berryhill	2	9	34	17.0	3.8	18	0
	Justin Tucker	2	2	9	4.5	4.5	5	0
	Marquise Goodwin	11	2	8	0.7	4.0	7	0
	Garrett Gilbert	9	11	5	0.6	0.5	12	1
	Sherrod Harris	1	1	4	4.0	4.0	4	0
	Antwan Cobb	1	1	3	3.0	3.0	3	0
	Jordan Shipley	14	1	0	0.0	0.0	0	0

And Mack is going to reverse all this with a statement? I don't think so.

The Texas linemen aren't equipped to be run blockers right now, and a change like that could take two seasons to accomplish. That's not a knock on the Texas linemen. They are a fine bunch. They've just been trained in pass blocking and were brought in because that's what they do best.

It will be interesting to see how this works out or if Mack was serious with this statement. One thing's for sure Mack, Malcomb Brown will be watching.