BEVO BEAT Football A closer look at Texas’ offensive coordinators Posted January 5th, 2016


Last month Texas hired Sterlin Gilbert as its new offensive coordinator. Let’s a take a look at the men he’s following at Texas.

TEXAS’ LAST FIVE PLAY-CALLERS

1998-2010: Greg Davis


Davis was connected to Mack Brown going back to the mid-1980s, when he served as Brown’s assistant head coach at Tulane. He rejoined Brown at North Carolina as the Tar Heels’ offensive coordinator in 1996, and followed him to Texas in 1998. He ended up being the country’s second-highest paid offensive coordinator in 2008, but resigned after the 5-7 season of 2010. Blessed with solid quarterbacks to work with at Texas, from Major Applewhite and Chris Simms to Vince Young and Colt McCoy, Davis’ time in Austin was marked by high success.

2011-12: Bryan Harsin

Harsin arrived at Texas as one of college football’s rising coordinators, following a successful four-year stint running Boise State’s offense to a 61-5 record and two undefeated seasons. But there was a dropoff at quarterback – the on-again, off-again era of Garrett Gilbert, David Ash and Case McCoy – and Harsin left prior to the 2012 Alamo Bowl to succeed Gus Malzahn as Arkansas State’s head coach. He’s now coaching Boise State.

2013: Major Applewhite

When Harsin left for Arkansas State, it was Applewhite who called the plays in Texas’ 31-27 win over Oregon State in the 2012 Alamo Bowl. His one full season as the Longhorns’ play-caller was 2013, Brown’s final year. Texas was 8-5. He left when Charlie Strong took over the program at the beginning of 2014 and is now Tom Herman’s OC at Houston.

2014: Shawn Watson

After developing Teddy Bridgewater into a first-round NFL selection, expectations were high. But Ash was lost for the season in the opener, and the offense went south as Tyrone Swoopes learned on the fly; Texas hovered near No. 100 nationally for all major offensive categories. And his final two games calling plays were disasters – an effort of only 59 total yards in the 2014 Texas Bowl loss to Arkansas and this season’s 38-3 opening loss at Notre Dame.

2015: Jay Norvell

Norvell, who came to Texas in the offseason from Bob Stoops’ staff at Oklahoma, took over play-calling duties the week of the second game. The running game enjoyed a bounce back, and Norvell is credited with reinventing Swoopes into a short-yardage specialist. Still, Texas was 5-7 and Norvell was also there for a 7-point effort at TCU, and the shutout loss at Iowa State on Halloween.

Recent Texas offensive rankings How Texas has ranked nationally in key offensive categories, beginning with the season following the 2005 national championship win over USC, and who spent that year calling the Longhorns’ plays Year Offensive Coordinator Won-Loss Scoring Rushing Passing Total offense 2006 Davis 10-3 6th 34th 33rd 22nd 2007 Davis 10-3 14th 17th 39th 13th 2008 Davis 12-1 5th 41st 7th 9th 2009 Davis 13-1 3rd 61st 22nd 29th 2010 Davis 5-7 88th 66th 50th 58th 2011 Harsin 8-5 55th 21st 86th 54th 2012 Harsin 9-4 23rd 53rd 41st 40th 2013 Applewhite 8-5 65th 36th 79th 64th 2014 Watson 6-7 106th 98th 88th 110th 2015 Norvell 5-7 83rd 18th 117th 92nd

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