AUSTIN, Texas -- Mack Brown and Texas, after two years of attempting to play the SEC's smashmouth style, have decided to join college football's whiplash crowd.
Maybe the Longhorns won't play at the same breakneck pace as Oregon, at least not at first. Think Oklahoma State -- that type of speed, that type of physical offense, and that type of scoring ability.
"[Up-tempo offense] has changed our game completely, and we are going to get right in the middle of it," Brown said.
Texas used to be the team that was at the top of the scoring charts. With Colt McCoy and the spread offense, the Longhorns were fifth and third, respectively, in offense during the star quarterback's last two seasons.
But Texas was 23rd last season, averaging 35.7 points per game. That wasn't enough for a defense that had to face six of the top-20 offenses in the country.
"I just thought, in watching the last two years, as much as we packaged things as we were sending in different personnel groupings, they were resting or they were sending in personnel groupings," Brown said. "And what I saw from us is that our big guys would be looking over at us and West Virginia would be snapping the ball."
The Mountaineers scored 48 points against Texas, a contest that was part of a three-game stretch during which the Longhorns allowed 161 points to up-tempo teams.
"What we're seeing is defensive coordinators can't call defenses," Brown said. "They look at their wristbands and call the defense, and the kids are looking down and the ball is being snapped. You can't substitute and you really can't call defenses."
While Texas does want to go up-tempo, it does not want to get tagged with the label of being a finesse team. That is the main concern of this drastic switch in philosophy from the one Texas went all in on just two years ago.
"You still want to be physical and some people aren't, and that is what is getting them beat," Brown said. "So we're still going to keep our physical presence. We're going to run the football. But at the same time, we are going to do it up-tempo and try to keep the same personnel on the field."