Replace University of Texas OC/QB Coach Greg Davis

Petition To Replace University Of Texas Football Offensive Coordinator/QB Coach:
Greg Davis


The Current Situation:

For seven years Greg Davis has been the Offensive Coordinator for the University of Texas Football team. During that time he has routinely done an above average job. To qualify that as a accurate description we offer the following official NCAA stats:

Highest Total Offense Finish: 2004: 7th in the nation out of 117 teams.
Lowest Total Offense Finish: 2002: 48th in the nation out of 117 teams.
Number of Top 5 Total Offense Finishes: ZERO
Number of Top 10 Total Offense Finishes: Two
Number of Top 20 Total Offense Finishes: Four
Average Total Offense Finish in 7 seasons: 23rd in the nation.

Highest Rushing Offense Finish: 2004: 2nd in the nation out of 117 teams.
Lowest Rushing Offense Finish: 2002: 74th in the nation out of 117 teams.
Number of Top 5 Rushing Offense Finishes: One
Number of Top 10 Rushing Offense Finishes: Two
Number of Top 20 Rushing Offense Finishes: Three
Average Rushing Offense Finish in 7 seasons: 41st in the nation.

Highest Passing Offense Finish: 2000: 14th in the nation out of 117 teams.
Lowest Passing Offense Finish: 2004: 106th in the nation out of 117 teams.
Number of Top 5 Passing Offense Finishes: ZERO
Number of Top 10 Passing Offense Finishes: ZERO
Number of Top 20 Passing Offense Finishes: Three
Average Passing Offense Finish in 7 seasons: 41st in the nation.

Highest Total Scoring Finish: 2001,2003: 6th in the nation out of 117 teams.
Lowest Total Scoring Finish: 2002: 16th in the nation out of 117 teams.
Number of Top 5 Total Scoring Finishes: ZERO
Number of Top 10 Total Scoring Finishes: Four
Average Total Scoring Finish in 7 seasons: 10th in the nation.

While Greg Davis has had two top 10 finishes in total offense, only one was with a balanced offense in his first season in 1998. Since 1998 the numbers for the UT Offense have steadily decreased with the exception of Rushing Offense in the past two seasons which can be immediately explained by the addition of Vince Young a running QB. Averaging finishing 41st in both passing and rushing while an extremely unique statistic also shows that he is balanced in his mediocrity. An interesting statistic is that in 2004 the Texas Offense was 2nd in the nation in rushing, but was 106th worst in the nation in passing. Just as interesting is in 2000 when Texas had its best year in passing yardage finishing 14th, the rushing offense was just average at 60th in the nation.

Averaging 23rd in the country might be acceptable if Texas had talent that was equal to that ranking. However Texas has had 2 recruiting classes ranked number 1 in those 7 seasons as well as two more top 5 classes. The other three classes were all ranked in the top 15. Texas doesn't lack talent and the number of All Big 12 players, and NFL players is evidence that the talent has been on campus. Two OL have gone in the top 3 picks in the NFL draft.
Comparing the Texas Offense to the competition in the last 7 years shows that Davis isn't keeping up with the competition who have equal talent, but that Davis does do a good job of consistently having the Texas Offense in the top 20 in the nation in Scoring. His worst season at Texas ranked 48th is better than the worst seasons by most competition in the same time frame. His best season however falls much shorter of the competition.

Greg Davis biggest weakness comes in the form of game preparation and play calling in the biggest games of the season. Davis has an atrocious record against top 10 defenses with only 3 wins under his belt in 7 seasons against a top 10 defenses and only one in the last 3 seasons. Kansas State in 98 & 99 followed by Nebraska in the Big 12 Championship game immediately come to mind right after the 5 straight losses to Oklahoma. The Texas Offense is to blame in 4 of the 5 losses to Oklahoma. This year Texas wasn't even able to score 1 point on Oklahoma while USC was able to find a way to score 55 on them. Its this his worst quality that makes Texas suffer.

Greg Davis is also the QB Coach. In his time at Texas the QB Efficiency Rating for the University of Texas has been mediocre at best. To qualify this description we list the following QB Efficiency ratings for the 99 to 2004 seasons:

1999: Major Applewhite ranked 38th of 117 D1 QBs.
2000: Major Applewhite ranked 18th of 117 D1 QBs.
2001: Chris Simms ranked 38th of 117 D1 QBs.
2002: Chris Simms ranked 11th of 117 D1 QBs.
2003: Vince Young ranked 49th of 117 D1 QBs.
2004: Vince Young ranked 51st of 117 D1 QBs.

As the QB coach Davis has shown the ability to get his QBs to improve with the exception of Young who actually had a slight drop in efficiency in his 2nd season. His QBs average out at 34th in the nation annually under his tutelage. A look at competition at Texas Tech, Boise State, Oklahoma, USC, Miami, and others shows that this is actually the worst part of Davis' coaching.

THE SOLUTION:

We politely suggest that Greg Davis be removed as QB Coach and Offensive Coordinator for the University of Texas Football team. We suggest he be replaced by a proven Coach in the Division 1 ranks who has consistently shown the ability to coach a top 10 ranked Offense. In the last 2 seasons alone Boise State, Louisville, Bowling Green, & Texas Tech have finished in the top 10. In the last 3 seasons: Boise State, Bowling Green & Texas Tech have finished in the top 10. We suggest an OC who has a more balanced offense than Texas Tech. We also suggest a thorough search of an OC from the NFL wouldn't be a bad idea.

We fully believe that replacing Greg Davis is the last step Texas needs to take to get to a Big 12 Championship or National Championship. We believe Greg Davis has been an asset to the program and hope a position can be found for him somewhere in the Athletic Department.