How Fast Can An Elephant Run

Brown, Longhorns looking to hit the reset button after 5-7 nightmare

AUSTIN, Texas -- When the Texas football team reconvened Jan. 17 after a longer-than-usual winter break, coach Mack Brown ordered his assistants to introduce themselves to the team. Whether it was a coach's first year or third year or 13th year, each introduction followed the same script.

My name is [insert name here], and it's my first day at Texas .

By the end of the meeting, all the players, from the early enrollees to the rising seniors, had proclaimed Jan. 17 to be their first day at Texas. As symbolic gestures go, Brown's reintroduction to his team achieved the desired effect. "I thought we all needed to start over -- including me," Brown said. "I thought after 13 years, if I can't reinvent myself and this place and reset our goals ... then that's not fair to Texas."

Great gimmick, but those were only words. The reboot forced by a mystifying 5-7 season didn't truly become real until later that week, when players' bodies littered the floor for a half-hour as they recovered from their first taste of new strength coach Bennie Wylie's workouts, which somehow managed to cram the Longhorns' lifting and running routines into one hellish package. The new order didn't really present itself until the first day of spring practice, when defensive players noticed new coordinator Manny Diaz was wearing the same cleats they wore and was sprinting to the ball every play. "If I get to the ball first, then we're absolutely in trouble," Diaz said. "If I have to run far, then something really bad has happened."

Something really bad happened last year. Texas, a program better positioned to succeed than any other thanks to geography, history and wealth, couldn't even crack .500. Texas, which had won at least 10 games every year from 2001-09, stunk.

Why? So much ink and so many pixels have been used to try and explain how an elite program that can handpick top talent could take such a nosedive. It can't be explained in a few sentences. But some factors played a bigger role than others. On the field, Brown points to turnover ratio. The Longhorns were plus-three in their five wins and minus-15 in their seven losses. Off the field -- and this probably helped that turnover ratio get so lopsided -- complacency had invaded Austin like hipsters headed to the South by Southwest music festival. People in the program began to believe double-digit wins were a birthright instead of a goal to strive toward. "All of us probably thought we were going to win 10 games in the bad years," Brown said. "And in the good years, we were going to win 13 or 14. We started talking more about winning than the process.

Elephant Hunts | ELK AUCTION

Evolution would make them the only predators that can hunt,kill and eat elephants.

I would reckon so. But remember that elephants run around in herds. Also, I don’t know how fast hippos can run, but I would have thought elephants could run faster. So hippos would probably hunt baby elephants or weak elephants. And even then, only with great caution.

Cabelas Dangerous Hunts 2 : Hyena and Elephant Hunting.