Postmortem: Texas staggers off the mat

A season in review. • Be careful what you ask for. The general consensus on the starting quarterback in August was "Anyone but Garrett Gilbert," and the wish came true: Gilbert was benched in the second quarter of the second game, never to be seen again after being ruled out with a shoulder injury. (He eventually settled on a transfer to SMU.) Immediately following Gilbert's exit from the lineup, the Longhorns a) Rallied from a 13-0 hole against BYU behind sophomore Case McCoy and true freshman David Ash, b) Trounced UCLA in the Rose Bowl, 49-20, on a 13-of-15, two-touchdown effort by McCoy, and c) Won comfortably at Iowa State to extend their record to 4-0 heading into the annual date with top-ranked Oklahoma on Oct. 8. Five turnovers and three defensive touchdowns later, any illusions about the "chemistry" of the Ash/McCoy ticket had been permanently shattered. The back half of the season was a chaotic pas de deux that resolved nothing and repeatedly answe...