 "Photo: Chris Kominczak; The Daily Texan")
If Mack Brown has a VIP newsletter similar to the one Coach Fran had last year, then please let us know if you receive it and tell us whether Foswhitt “Fozzy” Whittaker will play Saturday.
As desperate as it sounds, it could be a last resort. Brown is guarding Whittaker’s status like Fort Knox.
The redshirt freshman has been listed as “questionable” each week after the UTEP game. Every week since then, we’ve expected him to play, and yet he hasn’t.
Are Brown and offensive coordinator Greg Davis trying to save Whittaker for Oklahoma? Is Whittaker more seriously hurt than the coaches are letting on? Is he actually healthy to play but in the doghouse for some reason?
Perhaps the biggest question is why a running back that has only played one college game is drawing so much attention from fans and media?
The answer to that, though the coaches don’t want to admit it, is to say Texas will not beat No. 1 Oklahoma without Whittaker. The Longhorns need some kind of rushing attack other than Colt McCoy, and the other running backs in Texas’ rotation haven’t been getting the job done.
The last time Texas didn’t have an explosive running back for the Red River Rivalry was 2001. We all know how that turned out.
Does Roy Williams flying over Brett Robin to get his hand on Chris Simms ring any bells?
Every year since then they’ve had Cedric Benson or Jamaal Charles for the game.
Whittaker has the ability to make people miss that none of the other running backs have. After carrying 12 times for 76 yards in the UTEP game, Whittaker’s six-yard-per–carry average is a vast improvement over Cody Johnson (3.9) and Vondrell McGee (3.7). Chris Ogbonnaya had his best game of the season last week against Colorado, but he is, and always will be, a glorified receiver. Bob Stoops isn’t having nightmares over him.
McCoy has been the leading rusher so far with 386 yards, but most of that has come against inferior competition. It will be much harder to rush for big gains against an Oklahoma defense with Ryan Reynolds, Auston English and Gerald McCoy.
Colt can’t do it all by himself. You can’t be one dimensional against a defensive mastermind like Stoops. He’ll make you pay. He certainly made Texas pay in 2001. Oklahoma held Texas to 27-net yards rushing in that game and won 14-3. To be fair though, Colt McCoy is no Chris Simms. And that’s Texas’ hope — that McCoy will keep up his stellar performance against Oklahoma.
It’s not like they have a choice.
“When you have a guy that makes good decisions and is as accurate as a guy like Colt, you can’t sit there and let him throw the ball 14 or 15 times a game and force-feed the run game. That would be foolish,” said running backs coach Major Applewhite. “You have to let your best players do what they do. And for us, that is throwing the football and doing things in the passing game with the running backs and picking our spots with when to run.”
But when they’ve picked those spots to run, it hasn’t really worked out. And against a defense as good as Oklahoma’s, they’ll be at wit’s end.
Let’s hope that leads to Foswhitt’s end — of his time on the injured list.
