AUSTIN, Texas -- Mason Walters, all 6-foot-6, 315 pounds of him, was beat up.
David Snow, all 6-foot-4, 305 pounds of him, was bruised.
And Trey Hopkins, the 6-foot-4, 298-pound tackle, was battered.
Collectively, Texas’ offensive line was a shell of itself following the 2010 season.
“The offensive line has been bashed for the last couple of years,” Texas coach Mack Brown said.
Each and every one of their egos took a beating last year. The line was more pratfall than powerful. Everyone knew it. Even the linemen knew it. And as the weeks and losses mounted, their skills eroded right along with their confidence.
Brown did what he had to do. He brought in Stacy Searels to coach the offensive line. Searels did the only thing he knew how to do, infuse a toughness and attitude by building confidence in scheme and technique.
“We’ve always been a mean group,” Walters said. “The scheme we had would allow for that in the past. However you are not going to be very mean or nasty if you’re not very good at what you do.”
Make no mistake, the line was not good. Texas couldn’t protect the quarterback or create holes in the running game. Their technique was sloppy and their scheme was more wait-and-see, than downhill blocking.
“They've always been mean,” agreed running back Fozzy Whittaker. “It’s just the type of offense we've been in. This type of offense, it's a lot more different, more downhill, more in the I, more fullback, using tight ends. It's more of the offense that has changed and allowed them to get some of that exposure.”
It’s also allowed the offensive line to expose the opposing defenses. Texas has rushed for 880 yards in the last two games. It’s the first time since 1977 that a Texas team has had back-to-back 400-yard rushing games.
Sure, it was against Kansas and Texas Tech, but this line gets it now. It is better than it has been in the past because the techniques are more sound and they, as a unit, are operating with confidence.
“You know, we've had the ability in these games to run a lot of plays, a lot of run plays, and so that's just more opportunities for those guys to keep honing their skills out there on the field and just building more confidence in what they're doing,” co-offensive coordinator Bryan Harsin said. “And the experiences they have, too, will carry over into practice, whether they got beat on something or they did a really nice job on it. They're going to know how to attack that next time versus the new looks they're going to see against these upcoming opponents.”
Those upcoming opponents are far superior in run defense than Tech and Kansas. They are also likely to stack the box with eight and nine players, daring Texas to throw.
The mean streak in Walters tells them to bring it on.
“If we go out and execute we can run on a lot of people,” he said.
