Longhorns Had Right Plan, but Wrong Personnel

Texas had two guys at the Rose Bowl on Saturday who had a clue how to stop UCLA’s offense.

The problem: They were wearing headsets, not helmets.

Texas did what it could off the field to correct last year’s hide-the-children, 63-point home loss to the Bruins in Austin.

The Longhorns ousted coach John Mackovic and hired Mack Brown, whose man-to-man defenses at North Carolina had become state of the art.

Three Tar Heel defenders from last year’s team--Greg Ellis, Brian Simmons and Vonnie Holliday--were first-round picks in April’s NFL draft.

Brown, in turn, made one of the off-season’s best hires in luring defensive coordinator Carl Reese from Louisiana State.

Reese has been a defensive coordinator for 26 years. Last year, his LSU defense allowed opponents an average of 15.3 points per game, 11th in the nation.

In one of the year’s masterstrokes, the LSU defense stymied Fun ‘N Gun Florida in a 28-21 upset in Baton Rouge.

In a perfect world, with their choice of players, Brown and Reese knew how best to slow down quarterback Cade McNown: blitz him with future NFL draft choices and blanket Bruin receivers with All-American cornerbacks.

Unfortunately, Brown and Reese inherited nine starters from last year’s Texas defense, which pretty much explained the “49” in UCLA’s 49-31 victory against the Longhorns on Saturday.

It wasn’t a fair fight.

At one corner, Texas started Jeremy Jones, a walk-on who converted from wide receiver last spring. The other corner was Joe Walker, who started only three games last year as a freshman.

The Texas defensive front was undermanned and outmuscled by the UCLA offensive line.

Afterward, Brown mused about the thought of playing UCLA with last year’s North Carolina defense.

“That would have been a fun matchup,” Brown said.

Of course, Brown has to make do with Mackovic’s leftovers, so it was all he and Reese could do to save face against McNown and the potent Bruin offense.

“You’ve got to be good enough in the secondary, play man-to-man defense and blitz,” Brown said.

Texas tried the blitz strategy in the first half and got burned by McNown on big play after big play. With UCLA leading at the half, 35-3, Brown said he lambasted his players.

“I challenged them because I didn’t want to stand out there like that the rest of the year,” Brown said. “I wasn’t going to put up with it, and I said, ‘If any of you are going to put up with it, go do something else.’

“Sixty-five hundred people came from Texas to see us play and they missed the first half.”

Texas won the second half, 28-14, which was some consolation for a team that was routed by UCLA last year.

Brown and Reese knew that McNown, who burned the Texas defense for 339 passing yards and three touchdowns, was more player than they could handle.

“That quarterback is a great player,” Reese said. “He does a great job on the move, and they get him on the move by design.”

Reese was referring to the 79-yard, fourth-quarter scoring pass McNown threw to Freddie Mitchell while McNown was rolling left.

“We never really challenged him,” Reese said of McNown. “We handled the run game OK, but we didn’t have an answer for him.”

Reese knew at the half that blitzing McNown was a mistake.

“If you get after his fanny, he looks a little different,” Reese said. “But we did not do that today.”

Texas defenders ended up in helpless situations against Bruin receivers.

“If you’re going to come after him, you’d better be able to match up on the wide receivers,” Reese said.

Reese and Brown switched to a more basic scheme in the second half and at least prevented a repeat of last year’s “Rout 66.”

It was a game in which the Texas defense could, at best, stop the bleeding and congratulate the victors.

How good is UCLA’s offense?

“They’re great,” Longhorn free safety Quentin Jammer said. “Cade McNown is a real good player. He kept making big plays.”

Texas’ star tailback Ricky Williams admitted afterward that he found himself paying close attention to the UCLA offense, which totaled 584 yards.

“It was fun to watch, I can’t lie,” said Williams, who put on his own show with 160 yards and three touchdowns in 29 carries. “It’s almost perfection.”

Dusty Renfro had an even better view. The Texas middle linebacker finished with eight tackles and an appreciation for his opponent.

“They just got a lot of long bombs on us,” Renfro said. “I thought our defensive scheme was solid, but Cade McNown always found the creases. He just kills you when he goes to the air.”

There was one good thing about having played against McNown.

“We don’t have to play him every week,” Reese said.