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How Texans incessant focus on culture points to a much larger issue

Texans Cal McNair, David Culley, Jack Easterby
Do the Texans have a culture problem, or a Culley problem? Composite image by Jack Brame.
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This past week saw another step in the ongoing attempt to change the culture on Kirby. Safety Justin Reid, one of the Texans' best defensive players, was a healthy scratch. Coach David Culley called it a disciplinary issue they handled internally. Rumors quickly came about stating there was a disagreement in a team meeting following the win against the Titans. So now the public is left to wonder what's going on over there? ESPN's Ryan Clark shed some light on the situation this past Sunday.

If the public paid close enough attention, you'd know what was going on. This suspension was a part of all the moves they've made over the last several months to establish a culture of falling in line. The trades, the releases, the suspensions, all of them point to the organization laying down the law. Let's be honest. David Culley isn't the kind of coach that can command the type of power and respect to shift the organization's focus while also galvanizing the locker room. He didn't even know where to stand and when to run a team meeting in training camp!

While admirable in thought, the execution is falling short. Nick Caserio, and others to a certain extent, are the ones most feel are truly running things on Kirby. Culley is the figurehead. He's the one that's out in front of the cameras and mics that people see. He's also the one that'll take the blame for things appearing to fall apart. That's what things are looking like now. There were too many moves made that speak to a new direction the team is taking. The difference is, when this has happened before and been successful, the coaches have had a previous track record of success. They even had top tier talent in most cases.

Bill Belichick had Tom Brady and won six rings with different surrounding casts. Pete Carroll turned the Seahawks into a perennial contender with Russell Wilson as his trigger man. Andy Reid is the one that sticks out the most because he did it with Donovan McNabb and Michael Vick with the Eagles, then again with Alex Smith and Pat Mahomes with the Chiefs. Belichick and Brady built multiple dynasties with the same team. Carroll chose to start Wilson over their prized free agent signing that same offseason and the rest is Seahawk history. Reid did it twice each with two different teams! They all established their credibility, then culture. They all had franchise quarterbacks to work with. They all were coordinators and/or previous head coaches prior to finding the ultimate success.

The Texans are attempting to replicate this model with a coach who's never been a coordinator. A franchise quarterback that wants out no matter what. A first-time general manager. An owner who was supposedly groomed for this but isn't up to snuff. All the while their character coach chaplain turned EVP of football ops is lurking. Nobody really commands a room, except Caserio, but he's in the midst of his first run as the guy. Culley seems like a squire who does Caserio's bidding. The message isn't coming in clear because I feel there's a lack of respect behind the actions. Why else would players feel frustrated in this situation? Sure, the losing is detrimental, but perceived lack of direction and respect is more damaging.

Once this team gets the right pieces in place, they'll be fine. From coaches, to players, to personnel, I think it'll get put together sooner rather than later. Meaning, I think they'll be in the playoffs within the next three years. There will be players in place with the pedigree of talent to execute the organization's vision flawlessly. Questions still remain though: Will Culley be around to enjoy it? Will Caserio be allowed to see his vision to completion? Will we ever know what video game Cal was playing? Hopefully we get the answers whenever we see this team winning again.

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Houston defeats TCU, 60-45. Photo by Chris Gardner/Getty Images.

Kelvin Sampson knows how to win a Big 12 Tournament, leading Oklahoma to three straight titles in the early 2000s.

He has Houston two wins away from its own.

The Cougars ramped up their suffocating defense on TCU, Emanuel Sharp had 14 points and Big 12 player of the year Jamal Shead scored 12, and the No. 1 team in the nation rolled to a 60-45 victory on Thursday in the quarterfinal round of its first tournament in its new league.

“They're all good. All the teams are really good,” said Sampson, whose team was beaten soundly on the boards by the bigger Horned Frogs yet still won with ease. “You win by 15, you move on to the next one, man.”

In this case No. 25 Texas Tech, which romped to a victory over No. 20 BYU earlier in the day.

“Texas Tech is good enough to beat us,” Sampson said. “We're going to have to play a lot better than we did today.”

Hard to imagine it on the defensive end, where the No. 1 seed Cougars (29-3) held eighth-seeded TCU without a point for nearly 10 minutes to start the game and was never threatened the rest of the way in winning its 10th consecutive game.

Micah Peavy had 13 points and 11 rebounds to lead the Horned Frogs (21-12). Leading scorer Emanuel Miller followed up his 26-point performance in a second-round win over Oklahoma by scoring just three points on 1-for-10 shooting.

TCU wound up going 17 of 73 from the field (23.3%) and 2 of 20 from beyond the 3-point arc.

“It wasn't our day to make shots,” Horned Frogs coach Jamie Dixon said. “I don't know how many were tough shots. I thought there were layups, we had a couple of kickout 3s off rebounds. It's probably something to do with them, because you can't take away from what they've done game after game. Their numbers are off the charts.”

Longtime rivals in the old Southwest Conference, the Cougars and Horned Frogs were meeting for the first time in the Big 12 Tournament — otherwise known as a neutral floor, where Houston had never lost in eight other games with TCU.

The Cougars never left a doubt that it would be nine.

Fresh off a 30-point blowout of Kansas, the regular-season Big 12 champs scored the first 16 points of the game, shutting down Dixon's team with the kind of in-your-shorts defense that has become the Cougars' hallmark over the years.

TCU missed its first 16 field-goal attempts and did not score until Peavy's bucket with 10:25 left in the first half.

“That's a whole other level of not making shots,” Dixon said.

Even when Houston went through its own offensive dry spell in the first half, it continually hounded the Horned Frogs. They were 3 for 23 with six turnovers at one point, and during one possession, they missed four consecutive shots at the rim.

TCU trailed 31-15 at halftime, missed its first eight shots of the second half and never threatened the rest of the way.

“The past four years I've been here,” Shead said, “we've approached every game the same. We said at the beginning of the year the Big 12 was a lot harder competition at a consistent level, but our preparation is usually the same. It's just about going out there and executing what we work on.”

UP NEXT

TCU should be safely in the NCAA Tournament field for the third consecutive year.

Houston routed the Red Raiders 77-54 in January, when Shead poured in 29 points in the win.

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