Texas Longhorn's Insider: A Look Back at the Quarterbacks

When you look at the Longhorn’s 2010 season, you may start pointing fingers (in looking for problems) at the quarterback position.  If you are looking at that as a position of weakness this season, then you would be correct. 

The quarterback play was pretty tough in 2010.

But was it entirely starter Garrett Gilbert’s fault?  

The offense was not well prepared for the trials and tribulations that they would face this season, thanks to the coaching staff, and now there will be changes to boot. 

Offensive coordinator Greg Davis is out and there will be a new coordinator put in place to help bring the Longhorns back to respectability.

Without knowing who the coordinator is going to be right now, or what kind of system will be run, it’s going to be difficult to predict how the offense will look in 2011. 

But we can take a look back and see how things were run in 2010.

The offense that was run by Greg Davis (since he came to Texas) was an offense that required a quarterback to make quick decisions, think on his feet and run with the ball if he had no other option in the passing game.  Gilbert was able to run the ball when he had to, but wasn’t that solid in the passing game.

Davis didn’t really try to adjust the offense to meet the skills and abilities of Gilbert, and that can be considered one of the reasons for his downfall.  Had he made it so the offense was much more “user friendly” for Gilbert, the Longhorns may have had a lot more success than they did this season.

Breaking down the numbers for Gilbert last season, he attempted 441 passes completing 260 of those passes for a completion rating of 59 percent.  He threw for 2744 yards with 10 touchdowns and 17 interceptions.  His longest pass was 63 yards and he was sacked a total of 18 times.

His overall passer rating was 110.99

Despite the fact he had a shaky outing in relief for Colt McCoy in the National Championship game last year, there were some that though that he had a lot of potential and that the Longhorns offense may just be OK in 2010. 

Well as we saw, that didn’t happen and now Gilbert will go through an offseason that requires him to have to learn a new offense which may complicate things to start next season.

But surrounding Gilbert with good tight ends and wide receivers as well as running backs will be a big key to the Longhorns success next season.  If they can build an offense with some great weapons then they may be able to come back strong once again.

They won’t get anywhere though, if they don’t get Gilbert used to the new offense right away.  It’s important for any quarterback to jump right in and start learning.

At this time, the Longhorns haven’t hired an offensive coordinator. 

Rumors have it that Texas is looking at Boise State offensive coordinator Bryan Harsin, as well as Oklahoma State’s offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen and Jim McElwain, Alabama’s offensive coordinator.

They could also stay “in-house” and move running backs coach Major Applewhite, a Texas fan favorite, into the offensive coordinator position.  That may be a popular move but would it be a wise one?

At any rate, the Longhorns need to find someone soon so that they can begin to prepare for next season and get ready to climb back out of the hole they found themselves in.