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Mack Brown thinks defenses are starting to catch up to the spread offense.
He's noticed how much his defense has struggled against powerful, traditional running teams in bowl games.
And with a young quarterback replacing Colt McCoy, the Longhorns probably shouldn't throw as much as they have been anyway.
Brown stacked it all up and came to a simple conclusion: Texas needs to spruce up its running game.
So the Longhorns spent the spring changing their blocking schemes and dusting off some old formations. They are determined to have new quarterback Garrett Gilbert line up under center more often than McCoy did and to have him hand off more than McCoy did.
But don't get the wrong impression.
''We're not going to be three yards and a cloud of dust,'' Brown said. ''We're just changing our personality. We're not going to change it entirely, but we are going to tweak it some.''
That's about the extent of the particulars thus far. Brown doesn't even know whether his lead back will be Tre Newton or Fozzy Whittaker.
''We're not going to have a magic wand and just say, 'OK, we're back to running it again,''' Brown said.
Texas is the birthplace of the Wishbone under Darrell Royal, the coach who said only three things can happen when you throw the ball and two of them are bad. But things change, sometimes pretty quickly.
Brown pointed out Wednesday that when Vince Young was rising to prominence in 2004, the Longhorns were among the nation's best rushing teams and near the worst in passing. They were almost evenly balanced when they won it all the following season.
But by last year, when McCoy was wrapping up a career with the most wins and one of the top accuracy rates of any quarterback in Division I-A history, the Longhorns had become pass-happy.
''When you've got a kid who is completing seven out of 10 passes, you lose your patience,'' Brown said. ''You sit there and say, 'Well, shoot, we're not moving it - throw it! Let's just get this fixed.' And all of a sudden you look up at halftime and you've run it four times and made two yards. You're saying, 'We need to pick up the running game,' but you're ahead 24-0 so it's OK.''
The McCoy era ended, and the Gilbert era began, after Texas' fifth snap in the national championship game against Alabama.
Forced into action because of an injury, Gilbert couldn't find his helmet right away, then played like a true freshman.
''My head was kind of spinning a little bit,'' he said Wednesday, laughing.
But in the second half, Gilbert looked like a worthy heir to McCoy, Young and their recent predecessors, Chris Simms and Major Applewhite. The Longhorns were down only a field goal in the final four minutes. Although Gilbert didn't pull out the rally, he certainly won over his teammates.
''Last year, there were times I would say, `Garrett, you're not very vocal. You're not leading as well as I expected,' and he said, 'This is Colt's team. I'll lead as soon as Colt graduates and moves on' and he did that (in the spring and summer),'' Brown said. ''I do think his presence in the national championship game gave him instant credibility with the older kids.''
Gilbert said the last time he routinely took snaps standing over the center was in Pop Warner ball. It took some getting used to during the spring.
''The biggest thing is getting my feet out of there so linemen don't step on them,'' he said. ''As the spring went on, it kind of jelled a little bit. We got more comfortable with it.''
Can a young quarterback win it all?
''I think you can,'' Brown said, ''but you've got to be really good around him.''
Brown said Texas' defense ''could be as good as we've had,'' which is why the progress of the offense is so pivotal.
In addition to finding a lead running back, the Longhorns need to replace Jordan Shipley as the primary receiver. John Chiles, Malcolm Williams, Marquise Goodwin and James Kirkendoll all have shown they can make plays, but not when everyone knows the ball is headed their way.
''Somebody has got to step up and be that guy,'' Brown said.
Brown believes that if he can find the right plays for the right players, this could be as good of a season as 2008 - when Texas was supposed to be in transition but became No. 1 in mid-October and finished 12-1, missing a chance to play for the conference championship and possibly the BCS championship because of how the Big 12 decided a three-way tiebreaker.
''So,'' Brown said, ''we're trying to sell the kids on, 'It doesn't matter what we do (style-wise), you've got to win and you've got to win every game. That's who we are and who we want to be. If '08 had a chance to get to the national championship game, so do you. Let's be smart but let's work really hard in two-a-days to figure out who we're going to be at Rice (in the opener) and build on it.'''
