Tom Herman Fired as UT Football Coach

2 minutes ago, WinningIsHard said:

Lol.  Baylor is a better football team than we are. Period. Ok state and Oklahoma have beaten us regularly for years so those aren’t surprising. I’m just not as shocked as you are that we suck man. Kansas is beatable, Kansas state has been struggling much like tcu of late, and West Virginia is a mess. It’s very possible in Morgantown we shit the bed but I’ll stay as optimistic as I can until the very end. In the event we never turn it around and become Stanford, well at least we kept our souls. It is what it is. 

It’s amusing that you made your posting handle to mock Tom Herman, and now you embrace it.

 

I agree we likely beat the brakes off of Kansas, but it’s hardly a lock. Call it 75% chance we win.
 

KS and WVU are 50/50 games. I have no confidence we can defeat either.

Edited November 7, 2021 by lilMAC25

I find the Beard comparisons to be invidious.  Basketball has a roster of what 15 players, only 5 of whom are playing at any given time and 10-12 of whom see any playing time at all in a game, or season?
"Cleaning house" and replacing deadwood is a lot easier.
Plus, there's more parity in basketball that makes portal talent more plentiful.
Just a whole host of reasons that it's a bad comparison.

If you read between the lines, I used Beard as an example of having a sense of urgency. Not saying that Sark should have replaced 70% of our roster(lol), but if reports are true of him knowing our talent deficiencies after spring camp, then that’s a critical error not being more aggressive with the portal being up there with Strong hiring Watson.

45 minutes ago, Stunns38 said:

If you read between the lines, I used Beard as an example of having a sense of urgency. Not saying that Sark should have replaced 70% of our roster(lol), but if reports are true of him knowing our talent deficiencies after spring camp, then that’s a critical error not being more aggressive with the portal being up there with Strong hiring Watson.

Fair, I have just seen it several times.

51 minutes ago, Stunns38 said:

If you read between the lines, I used Beard as an example of having a sense of urgency. Not saying that Sark should have replaced 70% of our roster(lol), but if reports are true of him knowing our talent deficiencies after spring camp, then that’s a critical error not being more aggressive with the portal being up there with Strong hiring Watson.

he brought in edge defensive guys, they've proven why they weren't starting at ND and Bama, we tried to get one of the Tennessee olineman, he went to OU. Who were the other guys we even had a prayer of getting to come here?

he brought in edge defensive guys, they've proven why they weren't starting at ND and Bama, we tried to get one of the Tennessee olineman, he went to OU. Who were the other guys we even had a prayer of getting to come here?

Don’t know and it’s not my job to identify who to pursue from the portal. Seems like other programs identified problems and hit the portal aptly. Sark gets paid millions to identify and address this, so I’m hoping that he struck out but most likely he and the staff overestimated our talent and/or their abilities to coach them up. It’s going to be an interesting off-season.

4 hours ago, Atticus said:

Being negative without context is useless. Texas is a bad school for football and is rapidly heading toward ruin. Even as a fanbase, this group is always ready to say things suck when things aren't going well. Much of that is merited this year, but I'm more interested in understanding why. That comes across as being an apologist because it isn't nearly as blindly negative as the masses, but a lot of solid, up and coming coaches seem to become shitty once they come here. 

Steve Sarkisian was not a solid up and coming head coach.  the context is that his record was well known.   He was a panic hire when Urban said no.

Edited November 8, 2021 by dcar00

1 hour ago, Stunns38 said:

If you read between the lines, I used Beard as an example of having a sense of urgency. Not saying that Sark should have replaced 70% of our roster(lol), but if reports are true of him knowing our talent deficiencies after spring camp, then that’s a critical error not being more aggressive with the portal being up there with Strong hiring Watson.

Not bribing in a single transfer o lineman is just fucking unreal 

9 minutes ago, Fletch said:

Not bribing in a single transfer o lineman is just fucking unreal 

get burnt ends on it!!

3 minutes ago, bschoolprof said:

get burnt ends on it!!

they just need to report as eligible to immamac before the season

19 minutes ago, Stunns38 said:

Don’t know and it’s not my job to identify who to pursue from the portal. Seems like other programs identified problems and hit the portal aptly. Sark gets paid millions to identify and address this, so I’m hoping that he struck out but most likely he and the staff overestimated our talent and/or their abilities to coach them up. It’s going to be an interesting off-season.

Who were the teams with brand new coaches that brought all these transfers in that worked out immediately?

I never thought I’d miss this, but here we are...

17 minutes ago, hookem48 said:

Who were the teams with brand new coaches that brought all these transfers in that worked out immediately?

Not Kansas. We lost 22 guys to the portal. The portal give the and the portal take the away

17 minutes ago, Goredho said:

I never thought I’d miss this, but here we are...

funny thing is the players ate that shit up, but maybe not funny haha, funny like we're fucked

1 hour ago, dcar00 said:

Steve Sarkisian was not a solid up and coming head coach.  the context is that his record was well known.   He was a panic hire when Urban said no.

I was in the Urban or bust camp, too. Why even bother making a change for 7-win Sark?

This program is a clusterfuck

3 minutes ago, DFW Horn said:

I was in the Urban or bust camp, too. Why even bother making a change for 7-win Sark?

This program is a clusterfuck

I don't think that was ever really an option.  you don't talk to Urban unless you are already going to fire Herman.  like when we fired Mack I thought hey any coach we get should be able to win 8 games in this shitty conference.  yeah, I was wrong...twice.  what Herman did was basically what I thought the floor was 8-9 wins.

1 hour ago, JayhawkRPh said:

Not Kansas. We lost 22 guys to the portal. The portal give the and the portal take the away

I wish we could lose about 50 guys to the portal.

4 minutes ago, Nivek said:

I wish we could lose about 50 guys to the portal.

Ain't enough teams desperate enough to take those 50 losers.

Who were the teams with brand new coaches that brought all these transfers in that worked out immediately?

Again, you’re missing the point. My issue is that Sark may have identified that we had major deficiencies in talent post-spring , especially offense which was his expertise and he only addressed that side of the ball with our most loaded position in DJ Monroe lite. At least the staff tried somewhat on D. No excuses for year 2. And no, I’m not expecting a Big 12 championship next year after he hits the portal, I’m sure that’s your next argument point for the sake of arguing.

11 minutes ago, dcar00 said:

what Herman did was basically what I thought the floor was 8-9 wins.

Right. We hear so much about “unrealistic expectations” and blah blah blah. To me, any average P5 coach should be able to go 8-5 at Texas, based on the resources, conference, etc. That’s exactly what Herman did. Strong was worse than that. Mack averaged 10-3 over 16 seasons, so he was +2 wins better than that. Mackovic hit just about that average, but had that 97 season where the wheels came completely off.

Admittedly, I have become a pretty casual fan at this point - I can’t say I make a point to watch the games much anymore, though I tune in at times. So, not sure where Sark will net out - I guess I expect him to settle in around 8-5, same as Herman. I’ve seen enough bad passes and dropped balls and missed tackles this year to think that roster upgrades will get him there. But I’ve also seen the same second halves that you have, so I doubt he’ll be a plus coach. He seems like he may be a more likable Herman.

I think year 2 is when you really know what he is as a coach. He’s shown nothing in year 1 to make me think he’ll be anything more than an average HC at Texas. 
 

 

1 minute ago, Hank Chinaski said:

Right. We hear so much about “unrealistic expectations” and blah blah blah. To me, any average P5 coach should be able to go 8-5 at Texas, based on the resources, conference, etc. That’s exactly what Herman did. Strong was worse than that. Mack averaged 10-3 over 16 seasons, so he was +2 wins better than that. Mackovic hit just about that average, but had that 97 season where the wheels came completely off.

Admittedly, I have become a pretty casual fan at this point - I can’t say I make a point to watch the games much anymore, though I tune in at times. So, not sure where Sark will net out - I guess I expect him to settle in around 8-5, same as Herman. I’ve seen enough bad passes and dropped balls and missed tackles this year to think that roster upgrades will get him there. But I’ve also seen the same second halves that you have, so I doubt he’ll be a plus coach. He seems like he may be a more likable Herman.

I think year 2 is when you really know what he is as a coach. He’s shown nothing in year 1 to make me think he’ll be anything more than an average HC at Texas. 
 

 

yep.  that's 8-9 wins in a 13 game season(bowl).  which is like 7-8 in the old 12 game season(bowl).  He's more competent at the mic and doesn't see to be a douchebag.

The guys that call plays(O or D) tend not to do that well as it relates to NC's at least.  the ones I can think of are Spurrier/Fisher.

 

3 hours ago, dcar00 said:

Steve Sarkisian was not a solid up and coming head coach.  the context is that his record was well known.   He was a panic hire when Urban said no.

Sark wasn't a panic anything. Urban said no a long time ago, we didn't have to fire Herman when we did. We followed through at the time we did because we landed Sark.

Sark was definitely an up and comer, turned down a few jobs, including Auburn iirc, and was by multiple accounts the guy tabbed to step in for Saban when he retired at Bama. 

So no, not a panic hire. He was very highly thought of in the coaching world. His ability to bring in multiple guys from Bama is a testament to that.

Unless you can go back and find more than one o-lineman who was in the portal for us to get, this "he should have gone to the portal and conjured a whole new OL" is just stupid.

Charlie got the same shit for allegedly not getting a QB. He did get one -- kid out of USC named Max Wittek, but Wittek was such a dumbfuck at USC no grad school at UT would take him, so he wound up at Hawaii, and led them (partially, he got hurt) to a 3-10 record, throwing for 7 TDs and 13 picks. Somehow, he was even worse than what we already had on campus.

And yet some people still say why didn't Charlie get that Wittek kid? Or they will invent a legion of phantom QBs Charlie failed to pursue in 2014. All while also forgetting he had a better-than-adequate QB-1 in David Ash -- whose absence for all but 1.5 games of Charlie's first two seasons seems to be forgotten. 

And now we see the same thing going on with Sark in real time. Times have changed since 2014 and now there is the portal, and I will be very disappointed if we don't land a minimum of three guys of rotational quality for the OL but relying on the portal is terrible for long-term success and the restoration of anything like a football program here, as opposed to a team. At best you end up like vintage K-State; Snyder was a master of the old-school transfer market.

6 hours ago, Stunns38 said:

Again, you’re missing the point. My issue is that Sark may have identified that we had major deficiencies in talent post-spring , especially offense which was his expertise and he only addressed that side of the ball with our most loaded position in DJ Monroe lite. At least the staff tried somewhat on D. No excuses for year 2. And no, I’m not expecting a Big 12 championship next year after he hits the portal, I’m sure that’s your next argument point for the sake of arguing.

I think your right but I also think Sark got a taste of humble pie. He probably thought he could scheme up plays even with the talent deficit 

Right. We hear so much about “unrealistic expectations” and blah blah blah. To me, any average P5 coach should be able to go 8-5 at Texas, based on the resources, conference, etc. That’s exactly what Herman did. Strong was worse than that. Mack averaged 10-3 over 16 seasons, so he was +2 wins better than that. Mackovic hit just about that average, but had that 97 season where the wheels came completely off.
Admittedly, I have become a pretty casual fan at this point - I can’t say I make a point to watch the games much anymore, though I tune in at times. So, not sure where Sark will net out - I guess I expect him to settle in around 8-5, same as Herman. I’ve seen enough bad passes and dropped balls and missed tackles this year to think that roster upgrades will get him there. But I’ve also seen the same second halves that you have, so I doubt he’ll be a plus coach. He seems like he may be a more likable Herman.
I think year 2 is when you really know what he is as a coach. He’s shown nothing in year 1 to make me think he’ll be anything more than an average HC at Texas. 
 
 

We need an average team to get average results.

19 hours ago, TwiceHorn said:

With the fullness of hindsight, it was pretty absurd to predict any better result this year than last, with the talent loss.  Hope springs eternal.

I didn't buy Scipio's book this year, but he's usually pretty clear-eyed about the roster and the potential for deployment in a coach's schemes. Maybe I can go buy it still.  Was he predicting doom?

He was higher on the O-line than other writers. He thought they’d be one of the better units. And after game 1, he sounded giddy on his podcast, saying something along the lines of “I think we have a coach.” Which was was also a dig at Herman.

He was also very pleased with Yurcich after UTEP last year. You could buy it as a reminder that nobody really knows anything.

4 minutes ago, CurlyDumps said:

He was higher on the O-line than other writers. He thought they’d be one of the better units. And after game 1, he sounded giddy on his podcast, saying something along the lines of “I think we have a coach.” Which was was also a dig at Herman.

He was also very pleased with Yurcich after UTEP last year. You could buy it as a reminder that nobody really knows anything.

i think Sark's ability to scheme up an offense is pretty apparent. The issue happens after you burn through that and players have to play. 

2 minutes ago, Codaxx said:

i think Sark's ability to scheme up an offense for a quarter or two is pretty apparent. The issue happens after you burn through that and players have to play and he has to adjust to the opponents' counterpunch. 

FIFY

9 minutes ago, bschoolprof said:

FIFY

did you see that picture somebody took of oklahoma state having all 11 players within 3 yards of the line of scrimmage on our own like 11 yard line? There is 0 fear of casey thompson or the wr's we have. None. It's justified too. We can't win 50/50 balls, worthy is 160 lbs soaking wet, our tackle breaker is hurt yet again, and bijan is now injured. Our TE's can't catch or block consistently. You guys keep acting like we have a bunch of plays that work lol. OZ is all we can block. IZ gets blown the fuck up. We can't even run bubble screens effectively because thompson does that hopping and throwing horse shit so the pass is errant, on top of having no one to block for the screen in the first place. 

17 minutes ago, bschoolprof said:

FIFY

I think it is hard to swallow, but ISU and OU are just better and I dont think it is close. 

Still relevant with the team we have this year with Sark... 

24 minutes ago, WinningIsHard said:

did you see that picture somebody took of oklahoma state having all 11 players within 3 yards of the line of scrimmage on our own like 11 yard line? There is 0 fear of casey thompson or the wr's we have. None. It's justified too. We can't win 50/50 balls, worthy is 160 lbs soaking wet, our tackle breaker is hurt yet again, and bijan is now injured. Our TE's can't catch or block consistently. You guys keep acting like we have a bunch of plays that work lol. OZ is all we can block. IZ gets blown the fuck up. We can't even run bubble screens effectively because thompson does that hopping and throwing horse shit so the pass is errant, on top of having no one to block for the screen in the first place. 

This explanation can't really account for our repeated pattern of moving the ball early on, even with our inept athletes, only to be shut down completely later in the game. It's happened more frequently and consistently as the season has gone on.  (Also, as a side note, my recollection is ISU had us in a two high safety look most of the night).  

More broadly, you'll get no argument from me that our offensive talent is limited - outside of Bijan and Worthy, we've got JAGs.  O-line is dogshit.  But that should hamper us right out of the gate, and it doesn't.  Sark is a good enough OC to move the ball early on; he's struggled this year with adjustments. Personnel contributes to that, but it's not the whole story.  We see the same thing on the other side of the ball. It's a staff wide problem - they struggle both within-game and within-season to make adjustments.  It took Sark and Co several games before they realized OZ was our bread and butter - it should have been obvious in training camp. It took our defensive coaches way to much time to realize that Bush was never gonna hold up as an edge lineman.  We still - STILL - have not adjusted on how we defend the speed option on the perimeter.  There's a systemic hardheadedness about this staff that is frustrating.  

3 minutes ago, bschoolprof said:

This explanation can't really account for our repeated pattern of moving the ball early on, even with our inept athletes, only to be shut down completely later in the game. It's happened more frequently and consistently as the season has gone on.  (Also, as a side note, my recollection is ISU had us in a two high safety look most of the night).  

More broadly, you'll get no argument from me that our offensive talent is limited - outside of Bijan and Worthy, we've got JAGs.  O-line is dogshit.  But that should hamper us right out of the gate, and it doesn't.  Sark is a good enough OC to move the ball early on; he's struggled this year with adjustments. Personnel contributes to that, but it's not the whole story.  We see the same thing on the other side of the ball. It's a staff wide problem - they struggle both within-game and within-season to make adjustments.  It took Sark and Co several games before they realized OZ was our bread and butter - it should have been obvious in training camp. It took our defensive coaches way to much time to realize that Bush was never gonna hold up as an edge lineman.  We still - STILL - have not adjusted on how we defend the speed option on the perimeter.  There's a systemic hardheadedness about this staff that is frustrating.  

This is a good post and I agree with quite a bit of it, but somebody earlier mentioned that in the OU game we had a 75 yard one play TD, short field and score, and a blocked punt followed by a score. 9 plays and we were up 21-3 or 21-7. I haven't checked ok state or baylor but I'm betting this offense doesn't have an affinity for long, clock killing drives. In the second half this gets exposed when they decide to shut down OZ and force our passing game to maintain drives. Bad throws, bad judgement, bad blocking, and bad catching all lead to 3 and outs which lead to an already thin depth chart on defense having to play more minutes. The truth is we are so inept that with the best player in college football we can't manufacture first downs. One yard in the 4th quarter playing any opponent is fucking atrocious and Sark should feel bad. PK and his staff have shit the bed repeatedly but without knowing what's going on in that locker room I try to reserve judgement from what I see on the field and what I see are a bunch of kids pissing down their legs in the moment. If you are blocking for a potential heisman candidate and you let him get hit in the backfield multiple times a game then fuck you. You don't deserve a free ride in my opinion. If Casey gets the ball anywhere near you with while putting his own life on the line and you drop it then fuck you too. 

15 hours ago, dcar00 said:

Steve Sarkisian was not a solid up and coming head coach.  the context is that his record was well known.   He was a panic hire when Urban said no.

Football people liked the hire. I tend to take their opinions more seriously than angry pissed off fans.

9 hours ago, MaybeACoordinator said:

Unless you can go back and find more than one o-lineman who was in the portal for us to get, this "he should have gone to the portal and conjured a whole new OL" is just stupid.

Both Oklahoma and A&M's current starting LTs came from the portal this offseason. Jahmir Johnson and Wanya Morris.

It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity we won't get again. The odds of grabbing a high-quality OL starter from the portal are already pretty slim, blOU and A&M tookadvantage of the chaos in the wake of Pruitt's departure while we lost out. Next year we probably won't find enough in the portal to turn this O-line around, and then you and the rest of Sark's sunshine pumpers can throw up your hands and proclaim "it's not Sark's fault! There just weren't good options in the portal." while we struggle again next year.

Edited November 8, 2021 by satyanash

1 hour ago, bschoolprof said:

This explanation can't really account for our repeated pattern of moving the ball early on, even with our inept athletes, only to be shut down completely later in the game. It's happened more frequently and consistently as the season has gone on.  (Also, as a side note, my recollection is ISU had us in a two high safety look most of the night).  

More broadly, you'll get no argument from me that our offensive talent is limited - outside of Bijan and Worthy, we've got JAGs.  O-line is dogshit.  But that should hamper us right out of the gate, and it doesn't.  Sark is a good enough OC to move the ball early on; he's struggled this year with adjustments. Personnel contributes to that, but it's not the whole story.  We see the same thing on the other side of the ball. It's a staff wide problem - they struggle both within-game and within-season to make adjustments.  It took Sark and Co several games before they realized OZ was our bread and butter - it should have been obvious in training camp. It took our defensive coaches way to much time to realize that Bush was never gonna hold up as an edge lineman.  We still - STILL - have not adjusted on how we defend the speed option on the perimeter.  There's a systemic hardheadedness about this staff that is frustrating.  

I think it is simple. This offense needs to have a good environment to succeed.  They need field position (one of the worst offenses in the country when starting inside their 20). They need to rely on the big play, because the player execution is just unreliable. You cant expect 11 guys to do their job for 8-10 plays, that shit isnt happening. They need to stay in front of the chains. Take anything away and the actual players are exposed. Sark has a few wrinkles to go into every game. Those tend to work. Eventually a defense will be aware of those.  At that point you need some execution to make plays. Only game the offense really died was in the 2nd half was OSU. Texas had scoring drives in 3 of the 6 vs OU (one stopped at the ~20 on downs). To be completely honest the 2Q is probably what cost Texas wins vs Baylor and OSU, not the second half. 

The morning show on ESPNU radio (Ch. 84 on SiriusXM) was arguing today that if UT kept Mack the whole time, it would be in better shape now.

No, Mack would've melted down by now. He was burned out and couldn't keep up with where CFB was headed. We would've had the same type seasons that Charlie had. Mack's mentality was part of the problem. Go look at the 2014 schedule and see how it goes in any way differently with Mack at the helm. Maybe Mack lucks into a win against a down by their standards OU team. Maybe he beats UCLA. He would've averaged maybe 7-8 wins a year but there would've been losing seasons mixed in. 

Edited November 8, 2021 by mdmost

1 hour ago, satyanash said:

Both Oklahoma and A&M's current starting LTs came from the portal this offseason. Jahmir Johnson and Wanya Morris.

It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity we won't get again. The odds of grabbing a high-quality OL starter from the portal are already pretty slim, blOU and A&M tookadvantage of the chaos in the wake of Pruitt's departure while we lost out. Next year we probably won't find enough in the portal to turn this O-line around, and then you and the rest of Sark's sunshine pumpers can throw up your hands and proclaim "it's not Sark's fault! There just weren't good options in the portal." while we struggle again next year.

38 minutes ago, mdmost said:

No, Mack would've melted down by now. He was burned out and couldn't keep up with where CFB was headed. We would've had the same type seasons that Charlie had. Mack's mentality was part of the problem. Go look at the 2014 schedule and see how it goes in any way differently with Mack at the helm. Maybe Mack lucks into a win against a down by their standards OU team. Maybe he beats UCLA. He would've averaged maybe 7-8 wins a year but there would've been losing seasons mixed in. 

It would have been even worse. Go look at the recruits Charlie ran off and who Mack had in the pipeline for the next couple years. We were headed toward four-win territory and not even with good kids who graduate, but punks who suck at football and life. 

 

16 hours ago, Deej said:

Ain't enough teams desperate enough to take those 50 losers.

USC says “hold our beer”

3 hours ago, Codaxx said:

i think Sark's ability to scheme up an offense is pretty apparent. The issue happens after you burn through that and players have to play. 

That was his issue during his short time at USC (without relying on Lane for help)… they’d hang 30+ at halftime just by out-tenting teams, but they would not put another 30 on the board in the second half. Pete Carroll’s teams were known for second-half adjustments (PC on defense, Chow on offense), Satk not so much

18 hours ago, Goredho said:

I never thought I’d miss this, but here we are...

That might be one of the few things he ever did that I appreciated. I know I'm in the minority but I liked the troll.  Fuck Mizzou and that QB- they deserved the ridicule...

3 minutes ago, Wulaw Horn said:

That might be one of the few things he ever did that I appreciated. I know I'm in the minority but I liked the troll.  Fuck Mizzou and that QB- they deserved the ridicule...

Same. Herman is definitely a douchebag but he was having a good time with the players on the sidelines.

That entire thing was blown out of proportion. 

I said rationale people. This board is far from that bud. IQ is lacking too lol 

The irony of this post lol

1 hour ago, USC_TMB said:

That was his issue during his short time at USC (without relying on Lane for help)… they’d hang 30+ at halftime just by out-tenting teams, but they would not put another 30 on the board in the second half. Pete Carroll’s teams were known for second-half adjustments (PC on defense, Chow on offense), Satk not so much

Give him credit, he schemes the hell out of teams in prep. But his teams stop scoring once other teams adjust or whatever the case may be. It was generally like that at Bama too. His teams put up a ton of points early and usually hang on at the end. Better than the always coming from behind stuff we dealt with before, but still underwhelming.

28 minutes ago, Atticus said:

Give him credit, he schemes the hell out of teams in prep. But his teams stop scoring once other teams adjust or whatever the case may be. It was generally like that at Bama too. His teams put up a ton of points early and usually hang on at the end. Better than the always coming from behind stuff we dealt with before, but still underwhelming.

I'd say he slowed down at Bama b/c they were so far out in front they stopped trying.  That would be my guess. My guess is here we just aren't talented enough to make adjustments.  

5 hours ago, satyanash said:

...while we struggle again next year.

You wish

5 hours ago, Wulaw Horn said:

That might be one of the few things he ever did that I appreciated. I know I'm in the minority but I liked the troll.  Fuck Mizzou and that QB- they deserved the ridicule...

Yeah. The thing lost in all the finger wagging was that it was a fucking awful, cringey "move" that fully deserved, nay needed, to be mocked.

4 hours ago, Atticus said:

Give him credit, he schemes the hell out of teams in prep. But his teams stop scoring once other teams adjust or whatever the case may be. It was generally like that at Bama too. His teams put up a ton of points early and usually hang on at the end. Better than the always coming from behind stuff we dealt with before, but still underwhelming.

True, but from the little sample size at SC, it was usually a big pass play or long run, then a defensive turnover leading to a short field and a TD… not so much a coherent scheme. His scheme was: bubble screen, deep toss, off-tackle run.

Rumor mill: Fickell to USC, Herman to Cincinnati