Can the Horns escape uncharted territory?

The picture cast an image that resonated across the Big 12 in general, and the city of Austin in particular - that of Texas coach Mack Brown walking dejectedly off the field, arm-in-arm with his wife Sally, each with an expression conveying their mutual struggle to absorb yet another Longhorn loss in a disastrous 2010 season. Sally's expression was arguably even more telling, if for no other reason than to convey the frustration in her own inability to help, except to share the pain.

The question for Longhorn faithful going into 2011 is whether that painful picture stands to be repeated. Brown, who enters his 14th season as Texas' head coach, embraced the failure of 2010 with an overhaul of his coaching staff. Brown lost defensive mastermind Will Muschamp to Florida, and released nearly everyone else on staff not waving pompoms. Texas will enter 2011 with new co-offensive coordinators, a new defensive coordinator, a new wide receivers coach, a new defensive tackle coach, and a new strength and conditioning coach.

Texas' biggest problem, however, is that this new staff will be working with largely the same team. Despite what most termed a lackluster spring, Garrett Gilbert is still on tap to return as the Longhorns' starting quarterback in their revamped offense. Colt McCoy's brother Chase stands waiting in the wings, with his family legacy making him the automatic fan favorite. Rumors also hold, however, that this latter-day McCoy doesn't hold the same skills as his famed older brother, leaving Gilbert as the de-facto starter.

The next-biggest problem is an area that has proven a sore spot for Texas in the Brown era - the lack of a star running back. While several high-profile names have gone through Austin with varying degrees of success, none has been a legitimate mention among the nation's elite. Not surprisingly, neither has the Texas running game. As a result, huge hopes are being pinned on incoming freshman tailback Malcolm Brown - but whether it is fair or even reasonable to pin the hopes of an overhauled offense on the back of a kid just out of high school may be unrealistic.

Defense arguably minimized the bleeding for the Horns last year, finishing 7th in the nation in total defense. Contrast that against the 57th-place finish for Big 12 champ Oklahoma in the same category, and it makes Texas' offensive woes all the more painful. That makes the departure of defensive coordinator Will Muschamp just that much more painful, and leaving new DC Manny Diaz with big shoes to fill and bigger expectations to master.

Turning around the fortunes of a 5-7 program in a single season with one of the most extensive staff overhauls not involving the departure of a head coach is almost certainly asking too much. New systems, new people, new personalities, and new attitudes with the change of even one or two staff members can take a season to resolve - let alone those covering a half-dozen major staff positions. Combine that with the thinly veiled expectations that Malcolm Brown will revive the nascent Texas running game speaks volumes about just how bereft of offensive answers Texas was last year, and, to a degree, still is going into 2011.

Brown, to be sure, was caught off guard by last year's failure, and put in a position of having to do something to appear involved and concerned - particularly with the constant strength of Big 12 rivals Oklahoma, resurgence of Texas A&M, and emergence of Oklahoma State. In contrast, a coaching staff overhaul in response to a single seven-loss season could be seen as reactionary. In that vein, with new philosophies on both sides of the ball, but many of the same faces on the field - especially at quarterback - it's hard to see drastic improvement ahead for the Longhorns in 2011.