Texas Longhorns

Meet Texas' new play-caller Jay Norvell

Published Sep. 9, 2015 2:41 p.m. ET

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Jay Norvell didn't call plays for Oklahoma, but that didn't save his job after last season when Sooners coach Bob Stoops decided to clean out his offensive staff and his struggling offense to make way for a spread attack.

It didn't take long for Texas coach Charlie Strong to hire Norvell at the same position he held at Oklahoma, coaching wide receivers. He replaced the fired Les Koenning. Now one game into his time at Texas, Norvell is taking over as the Longhorns' emergency play-caller, asked to rescue a ship that's taking on water fast.

On Tuesday, Strong relieved co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Shawn Watson of his play-calling duties following last week's embarrassing 38-3 debacle at Notre Dame, another in a long line of offensive stinkers since Strong and his staff could control last season.

“It’s about fixing the problem,” Strong told reporters. “You either accept the problem or divorce yourself from it, and you just let it go. I couldn’t let it go.”

So what exactly should Longhorns fans expect to see from the 52-year-old Norvell.

Well, first off it's been a while since he called plays, like eight years, back in 2007 when he was with UCLA. The Bruins hired Norvell from Nebraska, where he didn't call plays either, only helped to formulate the game plan with then-head coach Bill Callahan, according to the Austin American-Statesman.

The Longhorns had talked up a more up-tempo, spread offensive scheme for this season, but none of that was evident against Notre Dame. Norvell's expertise is in the West Coast offense, and not the spread.

But at this point, anything would seem a better option than the status quo. The Austin American-Stateman noted that In Texas’ last three games, (the final two of 2014 against TCU and Arkansas) the offense has gone three-and-out on 21 of 40 drives. The offense had zero or negative yardage on 47 percent of its plays.

"It's embarrassing," senior running back Johnathan Gray told the Statesman. "It's the University of Texas. Those are not our standards. We want to be the best offense in the country."

(h/t Austin American-Statesman)