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Blake Gideon - tried to fight Holgo back in 2011 at our indoor facility and now in 2019 is Coog High’s special teams coordinator

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GHOSTUSER

GHOSTUSER 361

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https://www.houstonchronicle.com/sports/cougars/article/Blake-Gideon-brings-fight-to-UH-coaching-staff-14271484.php

Back in the summer of 2011, Blake Gideon was not thinking about future job prospects.

All he wanted to do was fight.

A self-described “young, arrogant, cocky” Blake Gideon began yelling at an unsuspecting visitor to the University of Texas’ indoor facility.

“I walk in and Blake says, ‘What are you doing here?’ ” University of Houston coach Dana Holgorsen said. “He tries to fight me.”

Gideon was participating in a players-only 7-on-7 practice the summer before his senior season. Holgorsen, meanwhile, was entering his first season as head coach at West Virginia and had been invited to the Austin campus by Bennie Wylie, the Longhorns’ strength and conditioning coach.

“You can’t be in here, it’s a closed practice,” Gideon shouted at Holgorsen.

Then Gideon rounded up a few teammates.

“A few buddies that looked bigger and stronger than I do,” Gideon said. “We start walking over to try and intimidate him.”

Not long after, Gideon got a phone call. Coach Mack Brown wanted to see him in his office.

“What are you trying to fight a head coach for?” Gideon recalled Brown telling him.

All Gideon could remember is Holgorsen’s part, as Oklahoma State’s offensive coordinator, in a 33-16 win over the Longhorns the previous season.

“Well, that guy beat our tail,” Gideon said. “He shouldn’t be watching us.”

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Randolph Duke

Randolph Duke 4034

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24 minutes ago, ztejas said:

Love being reminded about players that potentially cost us a national championship. 

Two, not just one.

Let's not forget on Alabama's opening drive in the national championship game, Alabama went for it on 4th and 23 from their own 20. Being Blake Gideon, he intercepts the pass on the Alabama 37.

Texas gets the ball on the Alabama 37 and goes 26 yards on four plays. On 1st and 10 from the Alabama 11, McCoy runs for no gain and gets hurt.

Texas starting that drive from the Alabama 37, instead of the Alabama 20, made a significant difference in the game.

Thanks, Blake.

Quote

    • 1st & 10 at ALA 33

      (14:48 - 1st) Mark Ingram rush for no gain to the Alab 33.

    • 2nd & 10 at ALA 33

      (14:15 - 1st) ALABAMA penalty 5 yard false start accepted.

    • 2nd & 15 at ALA 28

      (13:45 - 1st) Greg McElroy sacked by Lamarr Houston for a loss of 8 yards to the Alab 20.

    • 3rd & 23 at ALA 20

      (13:05 - 1st) Greg McElroy pass incomplete to Marquis Maze.

    • 4th & 23 at ALA 20

      (13:01 - 1st) P.J. Fitzgerald pass intercepted by Blake Gideon at the Alab 37, returned for no gain to the Alab 37.

  • 1st & 10 at ALA 37

    (12:50 - 1st) Colt McCoy pass complete to Jordan Shipley for 5 yards to the Alab 32.

  • 2nd & 5 at ALA 32

    (12:30 - 1st) Colt McCoy pass complete to Malcolm Williams for 4 yards to the Alab 28.

  • 3rd & 1 at ALA 28

    (11:57 - 1st) Cody Johnson rush for 1 yard to the Alab 27 for a 1ST down.

  • 1st & 10 at ALA 27

    (11:30 - 1st) Tre' Newton rush for 16 yards to the Alab 11 out-of-bounds for a 1ST down.

  • 1st & 10 at ALA 11

    (11:25 - 1st) Colt McCoy rush for no gain to the Alab 11.

  • https://www.espn.com/college-football/playbyplay?gameId=300070333

 

Edited by Randolph Duke
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ztejas

ztejas 43272

Posted
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1 minute ago, Randolph Duke said:

Two, not just one.

Let's not forget on Alabama's opening drive in the national championship game, Alabama went for it on 4th and 23 from their own 20. Being Blake Gideon, he intercepts the pass on the Alabama 37.

Texas gets the ball on the Alabama 37 and goes 26 yards on four plays. On 1st and 10 from the Alabama 11, McCoy runs for no gain and gets hurt.

Texas starting that drive from the Alabama 37, instead of the Alabama 20, made a significant difference in the game.

Thanks, Blake.

 

So you're saying he caught the wrong ball?

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SwanderedTalent

SwanderedTalent 5761

Posted
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2 hours ago, Randolph Duke said:

Blake Gideon and Craig Curry both deserve a special place in UT football history books.

I don't really think of them as similar people, at least in terms of how Curry responded to his mistake.  Will post articles in separate post since this site fucked up the CTRL C CTRL V.

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SwanderedTalent

SwanderedTalent 5761

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https://sportsday.dallasnews.com/college-sports/texaslonghorns/2012/01/24/archive-texas-craig-curry-knows-what-49ers-kyle-williams-is-going-through

UT-ex Craig Curry haunted by fumble that let '83 title slip away

The following appeared in the Oct. 30, 2005 editions of The Dallas Morning News. 

* * *

HOUSTON - Twenty-one years later, the anguish on Craig Curry's face is fresh. His emotions are raw. His recall is painfully vivid.

He hears the thump of the punt. He sees the football spinning in slow motion, suspended against the chilly, overcast Dallas sky. He feels three Georgia Bulldogs closing in and hears Texas teammate Jitter Fields holler from behind.

"You, you, you!"

Every Longhorns fan older than 30 remembers what happened next, at shortly before 4 p.m. on Jan. 2, 1984. Curry muffed the punt. Georgia recovered, punched across a late touchdown and stunned No. 2 Texas, 10-9, in the Cotton Bowl.

Curry left the stadium sobbing in his mother's arms, not realizing that his flub was about to magnify into a life-altering nightmare. That night, No. 5 Miami toppled No. 1 Nebraska in the Orange Bowl, stealing a national championship that could have been Texas' first since 1970.

The Longhorns' title drought now has stretched to 35 years, and as it happens, this year's team is the first to start a season 8-0 since the 1983 squad did it.

"I am hoping and praying that they win the national championship this year," Curry, 43, says. "Please, because I am just dying."

"I don't even go to games at this point. I'm afraid that my presence will be like a taboo. Somebody will see me there and throw rocks or something like that."

Through the years, Curry had declined all media queries, but he agreed to sit down recently with The Dallas Morning News in his Houston office, where he is senior vice president of a financial planning firm.

Revisiting "that thing" remains painful, he says. Until a few years ago, he avoided alumni functions, despite invitations from concerned teammates, former coach Fred Akers and ex-defensive coordinator David McWilliams, who oversees the T-Association.

It troubles Akers that Curry still is "tied up in knots," adding, "I'm really pleased that he talked to you about it. That will help."

Seven years ago, Curry and Akers crossed paths at an airport. As they exchanged pleasantries, Curry's eyes welled. "Coach, I'm so sorry," he blurted.

Akers told Curry he was being too hard on himself. Former coaches and teammates make it a point to remind Curry of at least half a dozen what-ifs from that day.

What if Texas had scrounged a touchdown out of its seven penetrations inside the Georgia 33? What if Jeff Ward, 15-of-16 on field goal attempts entering the game, had not missed from 40 and 43 yards that day?

What if Akers had gone with nine-game starter Rob Moerschell at quarterback rather than Rick McIvor?

"I know it and I feel it and I love 'em for it," Curry says of the consoling efforts. "But the bottom line is that [expletive] happened. I'm not psychotic or suicidal or anything like that. It's just the pain and hurt of letting the Longhorn family down."

Humble background

The '84 Cotton Bowl was Curry's last game at Texas. That spring, the defensive back was one of 17 Longhorns selected in the NFL draft.

He played five seasons for Tampa Bay and Atlanta, not bad for a 6-foot, 190-pounder who never aspired to play college football.

Growing up in inner-city Houston, all he wanted was to become a businessman, wear a suit and carry a briefcase.

His father, Melvin Curry Sr., worked for Cook's Paint on weekdays and was a handyman on weekends.

Craig often accompanied Melvin Sr., whom he calls "my buddy, heart and soul." Melvin and Craig's mother, Eddie C. Casimere, divorced when Craig was 5. Craig split time between homes, with Mom stressing education and Dad supplying a spiritual base.

Curry intercepted 10 passes and made All-State as a Houston Kashmere senior while also earning a 4.2 grade-point average and graduating eighth in a class of 500.

At Texas, he stepped into a starting role as a sophomore and played all four secondary positions. But what teammate Jerry Gray most remembers is Curry "living" in the library, often returning to Jester dormitory at 2 a.m.

Curry earned a BBA in engineering management, a five-year program, taking courses such as physics, thermodynamics and advanced calculus. By all accounts, he was a model teammate.

Yet most Texas fans solely remember him for one infamous play, in the waning five minutes of his career.

Curry and Gray, the Buffalo Bills' defensive coordinator, were best men in one another's weddings. To this day, Gray tries "to get him to understand, that's one play. We had numerous other plays where we should have blown the University of Georgia out of the water."

Other miscues forgotten

Fans and reporters, however, rarely focus on Texas' three other turnovers that day. Or the end zone pass that Terry Orr dropped late in the third quarter, forcing Texas to settle for a 27-yard field goal and a more tenuous 9-3 lead.

In 1999, Curry's drop topped the Austin American-Statesman's list of 25 most heart-wrenching moments in a century of Texas sports, ahead of Houston's loss to North Carolina State in the 1983 NCAA basketball final and the Cowboys' 1967 Ice Bowl loss to Green Bay.

Ward, a sports talk host on Austin's KLBJ radio, told The Miami Herald six years ago that fan sentiment toward Curry bordered on hate, adding, "I don't know what it's like to be Craig Curry over the years. I wouldn't want to know."

Ward, who has always maintained that too much blame was heaped on Curry, says that these days fewer fans harp on the '84 Cotton Bowl. He senses a "whet appetite" among fans that a national title this year would erase that disappointment.

"Well, it would make it go away for everybody who wasn't in that game," Ward says.

'Unsure punt'

Texas' offense sputtered often, but the Longhorns maintained a No. 2 ranking all season with exceptional special teams and one of the most dominant defenses in college history.

In the regular-season finale at Texas A&M, rifle-armed McIvor came off the bench to spark a 45-13 comeback win.

Still, it was a surprise to many when McIvor started the Cotton Bowl, amid swirling wind and a kickoff temperature of 38 degrees.

Despite an afternoon of blown scoring chances, Texas' 9-3 lead entering the final five minutes seemed ironclad.

When the Bulldogs lined up to punt on fourth-and-17 from their 34 with 4:44 left, they had 66 yards passing and had only twice crossed midfield.

"We did not think they were going to punt," Akers recalls. "So we called an 'unsure punt.'"

Texas kept its first-team defense on the field, inserting only Jitter Fields, the regular punt returner.

Why Curry remained on the field, in what coaches called the searchlight, or center field, position, is somewhat of a mystery.

Michael Feldt typically filled the role. Unlike Curry, he practiced fielding punts every week. McWilliams recalls that Feldt may have been hurt on the previous play.

Akers says he simply wanted his best defenders in the game to guard against a fake. "We didn't care if the ball hit the ground, but just in case it was a clean punt, Jitter Fields was there to catch it."

Curry remembers thinking that it might be the last play of his college career.

"What I really wanted to do was go hit somebody. I figured it would be my last hit.

"And I'll be doggone, the ball came to me."

The punt is muffed

McWilliams says the searchlight player typically lines up 18 yards from the line of scrimmage. Curry, however, lined up deeper, about 10 yards in front of Fields.

The punt was poor, traveling only 35 yards beyond the line of scrimmage. Curry backed up a few steps, but at the last moment realized the ball was dropping to his right. By then, Georgia's Clarence Kay was two yards from Curry.

Curry reached out but the ball dropped through his arms.

"I've played this a million times in my mind," Curry says. "Honestly, as I see this ball, I don't know if the wind shifted ... I have no earthly idea."

Before Texas fans could let out a gasp, it seemed Curry would be spared goat status. The ball bounced at the Texas 29 and straight to Fields. He fell on it, but it squirted out to Georgia's Gary Moss, who recovered it at the 23.

"We still had an opportunity to do what we did best with that team, and that's play defense," Akers says.

Two plays later, Georgia faced third-and-4 from the 17. At that point, it had converted one of 13 third-down opportunities. Quarterback John Lastinger ran an option to the right. Bulldogs blockers sealed off two Texas linebackers, leaving Curry in a one-on-two against Lastinger and the pitchman.

Lastinger ran untouched until Gray hit him as he dived for the pylon and the winning touchdown with 3:22 left.

Minutes later, Georgia players carried coach Vince Dooley off the field while the Longhorns and their fans stared in shock.

Too distraught to talk

Reporters searched the Texas locker room for Curry, but he was hidden away in the equipment room, crying. UT officials ushered in his mother to comfort him.

"I knew Craig had pretty much had a meltdown," Ward says. "But the thing is, at the time, we didn't know what was going to happen that night."

Texas sports information director Bill Little gathered a couple of quotes from Curry - "I just don't know why I did it. ... I have no excuses" - and distributed them to the media.

Little and Akers regret that they did not persuade Curry to address the media. "Stand up and do it," Akers recalls telling him. "Because if you don't, you're liable to carry this around with you the rest of your life."

Curry says he was far too distraught. "I just wanted to disappear." He continued to cry as his mother drove him to the airport that evening, so he could fly to Palo Alto, Calif., to play in the East-West Shrine Game.

He did not learn of Miami's 31-30 victory over Nebraska until the following day. "That was the nail in the coffin," he says.

Putting play behind him

Coping, Curry says, has gradually become easier.

He always had the ability to focus on the present, the task at hand. These days, he and wife Regina focus on the hectic school and athletic schedules of 9-year-old Craig Jr. and 7-year-old Chelsea.

Occasionally, he meets people who blurt, "You're the one!" Reporters leave messages a couple of times a year, especially those seasons when Texas starts strong.

It didn't help when Curry made news in 1996. An Austin grand jury indicted him on a bank fraud charge stemming from a sports-agent scandal at Florida State.

The following January, jurors concluded that Curry, without proper authorization, used the credit line of Cincinnati Bengals defensive end John Copeland to obtain a $29,000 loan for Seminoles player Corey Sawyer in 1993.

Curry was sentenced to three months in a halfway house and three months of home detention. He also was fined $4,000 and ordered to perform 150 hours of community service.

Curry declines to comment on that period, but notes that "I've got wide shoulders," in part because of the Cotton Bowl muff.

Two years ago, his father died, sending him into a 24-hour tailspin. The spiritual foundation laid by Melvin Sr. had helped Craig endure the Cotton Bowl nightmare. Now ...

"If it wasn't for me dropping this punt, there's no telling what I might have done. I literally went back to that place and said, 'Man, you remember that night? You thought the world had come to an end.'"

Today, he still wears Longhorns pajamas. He watches Texas on TV whenever he can. But he recalls attending only two UT games in the last 21 years, neither in Austin.

The most recent occasion was in 1995, when Texas came to town to play Houston. Curry went to the game alone, and got caught up in the excitement of the game and the crowd. A calmness settled over him.

That is, until Texas quarterback James Brown entered the game, wearing No. 5. Curry's jersey number.

"Shew, I lost it," he says, eyes watering, his voice trailing to a whisper. "I got up. Left."

First look at replay

Perhaps talking about that day and that play will bring Curry closure.

Two hours into the often emotional sit-down, the reporter mentions that he brought a videotape of the 1984 Cotton Bowl's final five minutes. Curry says he has never seen a replay of his drop.

"Damn you," he laughs, reaching for the tape and inserting it into his office VCR. "Are you kidding me? I've got to see it."

He watches intently, rewinding the punt and Lastinger's touchdown run several times. He says he is surprised at how close he is to Fields on the punt play.

"I should have let Jitter catch that [expletive]," he mutters.

Curry asks for a copy of the tape. He wants to show it to Craig Jr., who takes soccer losses too hard.

Curry says he'll root hard for the Longhorns, from afar, the rest of the season. Not that he wants to put undue pressure on those kids.

"If that national championship happens, I'm pretty positive that I'll just be a distant memory. God knows I pray for it all the time."

 

https://www.upi.com/Archives/1984/01/03/There-was-no-way-Craig-Curry-could-be-consoled/1476441954000/

There was no way Craig Curry could be consoled....

 
 (0)

DALLAS -- There was no way Craig Curry could be consoled. Long after his fumble had become the focal point of Georgia's 10-9 Cotton Bowl upset of the Texas Longhorns Monday, Curry was sobbing.

'I just don't know why I did it,' he said.

But despite the huge disappointment suffered by the Longhorns, many of those who played key roles in the game were able to look at it as just one of those things.

'This really hurts right now,' said offensive lineman Doug Dawson. 'But I love the University of Texas and I love these guys I played with. Overall, I will have some great memories.'

'Give Georgia credit,' said defensive lineman Tony Degrate. 'They stayed in there and found a way to win. We have no excuses. This is what happens in sports sometimes.'

The Texas Longhorns brought a perfect record into the Cotton Bowl Monday and they had achieved that mark with a ground-oriented offense directed by quarterback Rob Moerschell.

It was expected that Moerschell would start for the Longhorns against the Bulldogs, but instead coach Fred Akers gave the starting assignment to Rick McIvor.

McIvor had came in during Texas' last regular season game to rally the Longhorns from a 13-point deficit to a 45-13 victory with four touchdown passes.

No one, except Akers, knew McIvor would start until the players came out for pregame warmups.

'That's when he told me,' said McIvor. 'Actually, everything they did I felt comfortable with. I just can't understand. We moved the ball up and down the field. We did have some plays that we mishandled. I had two interceptions myself.'

McIvor completed just eight passes, but they went for 168 yards and in a defensive struggle that was not all that bad. The chief problem was that when the Longhorns had a chance to score, they usually did something wrong.

'I felt we had the better team entering the game,' said Akers. 'And we played well enough to dominate statistically. But you have to admire Georgia. They hung in there and did what they have done the last three or four years. They found a way to win the ball game.'

And the thing Georgia found was a loose football with 4:30 to play. Curry tried to field a punt by Chip Anderson when he could just as well have let the ball hit the ground.

'I have no excuses,' said Curry. 'I don't know what happened to me. We were expecting a fake and we had no idea it would be a short punt.'

'Normally, we wouldn't try to field a punt in that situation,' said Texas' return specialist, Jitter Fields, who was lined up behind Curry on the return team.

The Texas defense, as it had done all year, did its job against Georgia. In light of that, middle linebacker Jeff Leiding could join many of his teammates in pointing out that life will continue.

'I feel like I have been out shooting birds all day without a miss and then at the very end I finally miss one,' said Leiding, who was voted the game's outstanding defensive player. 'But it's over. We had a great season. We just came up on the short end this time. Such is life.'

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mr. sunshine

mr. sunshine 2824

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Posted (edited)
9 hours ago, TwiceHorn said:

It seems that Texas has a penchant for semi-psychotic safeties.  Gideon.  Vacarro.  Hagy.  

I share the common distinction of being sucker punched by Hagy back in the day. He was a tough guy but what a bitch move 

Edited by mr. sunshine
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gmr548

gmr548 16533

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3 hours ago, BabaYaga said:

Let the pain slowly creep back in and overtake you.  Let it in.  Deep breaths....don't think about how we would have mudholed FL that year, won a MNC.  Transitioned away from Mack.  And all gotten laid.

utnopick.gif

triggered GIF

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MirrOlure

MirrOlure 14638

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https://www.houstonchronicle.com/sports/cougars/article/Blake-Gideon-brings-fight-to-UH-coaching-staff-14271484.php
Back in the summer of 2011, Blake Gideon was not thinking about future job prospects.
All he wanted to do was fight.
A self-described “young, arrogant, cocky” Blake Gideon began yelling at an unsuspecting visitor to the University of Texas’ indoor facility.
“I walk in and Blake says, ‘What are you doing here?’ ” University of Houston coach Dana Holgorsen said. “He tries to fight me.”
Gideon was participating in a players-only 7-on-7 practice the summer before his senior season. Holgorsen, meanwhile, was entering his first season as head coach at West Virginia and had been invited to the Austin campus by Bennie Wylie, the Longhorns’ strength and conditioning coach.
“You can’t be in here, it’s a closed practice,” Gideon shouted at Holgorsen.
Then Gideon rounded up a few teammates.
“A few buddies that looked bigger and stronger than I do,” Gideon said. “We start walking over to try and intimidate him.”
Not long after, Gideon got a phone call. Coach Mack Brown wanted to see him in his office.
“What are you trying to fight a head coach for?” Gideon recalled Brown telling him.
All Gideon could remember is Holgorsen’s part, as Oklahoma State’s offensive coordinator, in a 33-16 win over the Longhorns the previous season.
“Well, that guy beat our tail,” Gideon said. “He shouldn’t be watching us.”

People don’t really use those words. Only thing missing is “golly gee whiz!”
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markstanco

markstanco 12526

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Let the pain slowly creep back in and overtake you.  Let it in.  Deep breaths....don't think about how we would have mudholed FL that year, won a MNC.  Transitioned away from Mack.  And all gotten laid.
utnopick.gif
That spiral went to end over end after the tip. Possibly and probably over more than one axis.

Did you ever play football jackass?
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Sgt Hulk

Sgt Hulk 13648

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11 hours ago, Randolph Duke said:

Two, not just one.

Let's not forget on Alabama's opening drive in the national championship game, Alabama went for it on 4th and 23 from their own 20. Being Blake Gideon, he intercepts the pass on the Alabama 37.

Texas gets the ball on the Alabama 37 and goes 26 yards on four plays. On 1st and 10 from the Alabama 11, McCoy runs for no gain and gets hurt.

Texas starting that drive from the Alabama 37, instead of the Alabama 20, made a significant difference in the game.

Thanks, Blake.

 

God fuck I’m having nightmares again worse than Gideon’s drop. We err going to curb fuck their faces and send Mack off 

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