Texas Longhorns

AUSTIN, Texas -- David Ash no longer looks over his shoulder or even to his left or right.

Instead, everybody else is looking right at him. The junior is Texas’ quarterback now. And, because of that, he is also the team’s leader.

"There’s no other guy to do it now," Ash said. "It’s all on my shoulders and it is my responsibility and I’m for sure going to take that seriously."

Of that there is little doubt. Ash is a worker. Reared bailing hay and throwing footballs, he has always been of the belief that sweat drips along the path to success. But the role he has chosen now demands more. A quarterback must lead. Ash has only inconsistently done so in the past.

Maybe that was, in part, because of youth. Few become leaders as freshmen and sophomores.

Undoubtedly the trap door he danced over as he played those first two seasons contributed to his inability to find a foothold as a leader as well.

Now those obstacles have been removed. Ash stands on solid ground with knowledge and history at his sides, talent laid out before him and expectations within arm’s reach.

For Ash, and Texas, to grasp those expectations, the quarterback must first comprehend what it means to be the leader of this team. It’s not a difficult concept, although it can be a difficult one to master, particularly when the natural instinct is not inherent.

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Looking back at Texas' recent recruiting misses:

1. Garrett Gilbert, quarterback, 2009: He was the quarterback that everyone wanted and he was in Texas’ backyard. The Lake Travis (Texas) High school product got his first shot to shine in the national title game as a true freshman. While there were some positives, the four interceptions he threw were a sign of things to come. Taking over as the starter in 2010, Gilbert led Texas to a 5-7 season and threw 17 interceptions in the process. Gilbert started the first two games of 2011. He was benched after throwing his second interception in the second quarter against BYU. He soon announced that he would transfer, ending up at SMU.

2. Ramonce Taylor, running back, 2004: Taylor was the other state of Texas back in 2004. The one not named Adrian Peterson. The one Texas could sign. But Texas never could figure out what to do with Belton (Texas) product. He was an athlete coming out of high school. Texas thought he would be ideal to give Vince Young another weapon either running the ball out of the backfield or slipping into the flat for a pass.

He rushed for 797 yards and 13 touchdowns in his Texas career. And as a sophomore he did catch 27 passes from Colt McCoy.

But the police caught Taylor in the spring of his sophomore season and charged him with felony drug possession. Shortly thereafter he elected to transfer from Texas.

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We're grading each Big 12 team's season right now, and we'll move on to the next team on the list: The Oklahoma State Cowboys.

OFFENSE: It was obvious from the start that this offense would only go as far as David Ash would take them, and the offense looked really, really strong in the first four games, including wins on the road against Ole Miss and Oklahoma State. He played well against West Virginia, but the wheels came off for everything in a blowout loss to Oklahoma. Ash was benched against KU and Case McCoy rescued a win, and McCoy got some run against TCU and K-State when Ash suffered a rib injury. Ash was OK this year, but has to eliminate the rough outings. The receivers were solid, but the running game still has yet to become the force that the raw talent at running back suggests it should be. It's been good, but the Longhorns still keep their backs healthy. The offense was better this year and earned Bryan Harsin a head-coaching job at Arkansas State, but there's a lot of room for improvement for this unit. GRADE: B-

DEFENSE: This is where it could get ugly, considering we generally grade these units on a curve relative to the talent present. Texas looked like a runaway candidate for the Big 12's best defense. The defensive line was beastly and deep at defensive tackle, and the linebackers were young, albeit promising. The secondary returned all of its best talents and Kenny Vaccaro and cornerbacks Carrington Byndom and Quandre Diggs could arguably be considered the Big 12's No. 1 and No. 2 corners. That was in the preseason, though. Texas never found much ability to slow the run, and Diggs and Byndom were disappointments compared to their 2011 seasons. The linebackers had to deal with the loss of leader Jordan Hicks for most of the season, so they get somewhat of a pass, and the defensive line recovered well from the loss of Jackson Jeffcoat. Alex Okafor was one of the Big 12's best defenders, but that inability to stop the run cost the Longhorns. GRADE: C-

OVERALL: That 4-0 start had plenty of folks, myself included, thinking Texas was back. The loss the following week to a top-10 West Virginia team (back then, anyway) was nothing to be ashamed of. That Red River loss, though, cast a huge shadow over the season and even a late four-game winning streak and a big win on the road at Texas Tech couldn't erase that. A Thanksgiving night disastrous loss to TCU might have repercussions on the recruiting trail in the future, and the Longhorns weren't ready to play 60 minutes with Kansas State, who ran away in the second half. The bowl win over Oregon State was Texas' best win of the season, but in a season in which Texas hoped to be back, it simply wasn't enough. Nine wins doesn't cut it at Texas. GRADE: C+

More Big 12 report cards:

• Baylor
• Iowa State
• Kansas
• Kansas State
• Oklahoma
• Oklahoma State

AUSTIN, Texas -- Bryan Harsin was the rebound.

Yep, after the coaching relationship between Texas coach Mack Brown and his former offensive coordinator Greg Davis over those oh so many years, wins and a national title, there had to be one. It was only natural.

Naturally that is not the way Brown explained it when given the opportunity to talk about the departure of his most recently departed co-offensive coordinator, Harsin, and the promoting of another, Major Applewhite.

"I told Major two years ago that I felt like it would be unfair to put him in the [offensive coordinator] position right after Greg Davis," Brown said. "He played for Greg. He coached with Greg and I didn’t think he would ever have a chance for it to be Major’s input. It would always be, 'Well, he’s still doing what Greg did.' And that’s not fair to him or Greg, very honestly.

"When [Applewhite] and I really thought about it -- and I didn’t know it would be two years -- but I thought probably whoever we brought in if we had some success, usually our guys get head jobs around here pretty quickly if they want them," he continued. "Bryan was a guy who came here to get a head coaching job. It’s the only reason he left Boise. I told Major you need to put yourself in the position of play caller every day because that day is going to come and it’s gong to come fast."

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AUSTIN, Texas -- Success in the red zone, right alongside ball security, was one of the touchstones of every preseason assessment for success given by Mack Brown and Co.

Texas was marginal, at best, when it came to getting the ball into the end zone from inside the 10s in the subsequent two years, largely because its offense had been marginalized by poor blocking, ineffective runners and shaky quarterback play. In 2010, Texas scored touchdowns just 44 percent of the time it entered the red zone. In 2011, it ticked up to 51 percent; still way below the national leader Wisconsin, which scored 64 touchdowns in 75 trips.

"We were not good in the red zone offense and usually with young and inexperienced quarterbacks, that's where you'll struggle the most because they are afraid to take chances, and we had too many turnovers," Brown said prior to 2012.

So with a year more experience it stood to reason Texas would be better, much better. And the Longhorns were. They scored touchdowns 74 percent of the time they made it into the red zone against Ole Miss, Oklahoma State, New Mexico, Wyoming, Iowa State, Kansas, Texas Tech and Baylor.

But in Texas’ four losses, three of which were games against defensive fronts now known to be far superior to Texas’ offensive front, Texas scored red zone touchdowns 58 percent of the time it made it inside the 20. (Remember against Oklahoma, Texas didn’t even make it across midfield until the second quarter and finally embarrassingly stumbled to the OU 19 on the last drive of the game. From there Case McCoy flung a 19-yard touchdown.)

In all, Texas scored just 10 red zone touchdowns against West Virginia, OU, TCU and Kansas State. Four of those were on desperation drives all of which came with 3:07 or less on the clock with Texas trailing by two or more scores. (Three –- the TDs against OU, KSU and WVU -- were with less than a minute left with Texas trailing by 10 or more.)

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AUSTIN, Texas -- Texas offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Bryan Harsin has moved on to Arkansas State, sources told ESPN Dallas 103.3 FM's Ian Fitzsimmons.

Now the time has come for co-offensive coordinator and running backs coach Major Applewhite to move up to the role of playcaller.

That’s right, for once a coaching search at Texas should be short-lived and equally as short on drama. That’s because Applewhite is already in the building and has half the title in front of his name. So it goes to reason in this silly season of college sports when there oft times is no rhyme or reason to whom is hired, that Texas will remove the "co" from in front of offensive coordinator and promote the former Texas quarterback.

It would provide the smoothest transition for an offense that returns all of its integral pieces from 2012, including all four quarterbacks, three running backs, two starting wide receivers and the entire offensive line.

In addition, Applewhite has had his finger on the pulse of the quarterback situation for the past two years and understands this position far better than any outsider could. That also means he understands the importance of getting the right player into that position so that Texas' offense, which produced in fits and spurts in 2012, is able to build on whatever gains it made as the Longhorns move toward 2013.

Of course the first question that will be asked of Applewhite is about the aforementioned quarterbacks. That is until he calls a play that doesn’t work. But for the time being the focus will be on how Applewhite judges and ultimately selects a Texas quarterback for the Valero Alamo Bowl and beyond.

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