Steve Patterson is gone from Texas, and some speculate it's a bad omen for Patterson's hand-picked football coach, Charlie Strong.
Strong's Texas is hanging tough, but it's certainly not performing at a level Horns fans have come to demand. It looked better last Saturday against Cal, coming back from a 21-point deficit. With a minute left in regulation, however, kicker Shane Rose — who can apparently "crush" 80-yarders!? — shanked a PAT that would've tied the game at 45.
Head coach Charlie Strong stayed with Rose for hours after the loss, and wide receivers/playcaller Jay Norvell made sure to include the kicker in this week's offensive meetings.
From CoachingSearch.com:
“I made him stay in our offensive meeting on Sunday, but we talked to him after the game, encouraged him after the game. He was really down,” Norvell said Tuesday. “But I made him stay in our offensive meeting, because I wanted him to hear what I had to tell the offense. We had so many penalties, turnovers, missed opportunities on fourth down. There were a lot of mistakes made in that game by a lot of people, me included.
“A kid can’t take that all on his shoulders.”
If Texas can score 45 points a game going forward... they'll be okay. Personally, I'm hoping Charlie Strong can weather the storm. I'm not sure Texas fans are that patient, though.
