Leaderboard

Be careful. People will never let it go if you say that guy looks just like Tre Watson.

Apparently this didn’t post when I hit send earlier. I’d like to add that I was glad Elliott referenced the 2009 match vs PSU in the postgame presser. I was thinking about that very thing during the match. That might be the most traumatic loss I’ve experienced as a fan in any sport, simply because of how great both teams were that year, the 2-0 lead, and seeing it all slip away. Still the best match I’ve ever seen, but getting this one in Tampa felt good. I was shocked at how much ball-watching Nebraska was doing during the match. Batenhorst probably had the most egregious example, but that whole team looked fucking dazed. No help. No coverage. No communication. I always thought Beason was kind of a spare going back to her UF days, but I was surprised at how little resistance the team put up, even with their youth. I mean, winning a three-set match against the #1 overall seed is really fucking impressive, but that team looked like they wanted no part of the competition from the moment they hit 10 points in the second set. It is incredible to think about how far this program has come when, as recently as a few short years ago, service pressure was a recurring issue that seemed to be holding the team back each and every year. It dogged Elliott’s teams for ages, but the past two seasons have been an absolute fucking masterclass in that very department. I point it out every time I watch a match. I’m sure everybody around me is sick of hearing about it by now, but it’s the goddamn truth. I’m very proud of these young women. I can honestly say that the most pleasant surprise for me these last two matches was Barnes. I thought she played outstanding. The stars showed up in the big moments. I believe Skinner and O’Neal have always had championship character. The team as a whole really developed it over the season, and this entire program has developed it over the past few years. The biggest moments don’t faze them anymore. I can’t believe the run they went on. I can’t believe Texas won a championship with a homegrown setter…a true freshman nonetheless. Swindle was everything we (I, at least) expected Shook to be. Congrats to them all. It’s sweet to win it when everybody expects you to, but it is so much sweeter to win it when nobody expects you to. As they say—never underestimate the heart of a champion. Oh, and John Cook can stay fucking salty. Just a tragic victim of circumstance, I guess. I don’t remember him having a problem taking Lexi Sun back in the day. Bitching about Jerritt Elliott doing his fucking job—optimizing his team—as if it was easy to add, what, six transfers in the spring of ‘22 and get them to gel in 7 months or whatever it was. That’s the same shit he wants to claim credit for with his fucking freshmen, in addition to Beason (his All-American transfer, same number as Texas had this year)..except they all arrived in January. Not to be dismissive of their squad, but the one player that impressed me today was the one not up on that stage—Andi Jackson. She’s good. I’ll close by saying, I actually like Jon Johnston from Corn Nation (his rants from the bathroom are funny), but I have to admit that watching him sob at the end of his video made me smile, if only because he posted a snotty video when they beat Texas a couple years ago. What a great day. Apologies for the length. Happy Holidays and Hook ‘em.

Watching that guy cry at the end of his video is one of the greatest moments of my life as a fan of UT sports. Nebraska thought they’d just show up and roll whomever because that has been the story of the life of those freshmen in competitive volleyball during their youth. Unfortunately for them, they underestimated the time honored tradition of their program shitting itself across sports when it sees the college sports equivalent of the bat signal:

But also, who tf cares?

Probably.

The Nebraska coach is commenting on how Texas built a roster with transfers instead of homegrown players. Sun was a high profile counterexample between the two schools in the opposite direction. That's not obsession, it's relevant to the topic. Go police some other thread.

Today's volleyball victory marked the 10th NCAA Championship claimed by the Longhorns since the start of the 2020-21 academic calendar year (2021 Men's Swimming and Diving, 2021 Women's Tennis, 2021 Rowing, 2022 Men's Indoor Track and Field, 2022 Women's Tennis, 2022 Rowing, 2022 Men's Golf, 2022 Volleyball, 2023 Women's Outdoor Track and Field, 2023 Volleyball). Meanwhile, let’s see how things are going in the hall o’ (meat judging) champion…..🤔👀🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤘🏻

Emaree Winston to Texas!!! https://247sports.com/player/emaree-winston-46135650/

So none of them found quite the demand from the big boys they were expecting. Hopefully this is a learning experience for other prospective portal hoppers. (Assuming they don't need to jump in the motherfucker for reasons of they'll never play a down at Texas) What are you on about? I don’t believe any of these guys thought they could land at another spot like Texas. They jumped in because they were passed by younger players and are going to schools where they can get playing time.

Clicks on link...list has Tennessee, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Oklahoma in the top 4 spots.

SIAP, but I totally missed this article from Dec. 9th: https://www.heartlandcollegesports.com/2023/12/09/texas-am-wanted-collin-klein-and-avery-johnson-as-packaged-deal-report/ Kietzman joined Pete Mundo on 95.7KCMO Talk Radio in Kansas City on Friday morning and mentioned that Texas A&M was interested in bringing in both Collin Klein and his talented sophomore quarterback Avery Johnson as a packaged deal, which Klein immediately shot down. Kietzman spoke on the situation saying, “You know they tried to bring the quarterback along with him, and my people are telling me Collin Klein said, ‘I’m not even talking to you if this involves taking a player from Kansas State. You can talk to me about being a coordinator, but we’re not taking any players from K-State.'”

Allllll that shit Aggy talked when we were down, thinking that wouldn’t have to play us again. Daddy is home Bitch.

Oh great. Now he’s got a gambling problem.

Negged. WTF does that have to do with potholes?

It’s fascinating to watch Texas, OU and TAMU navigate these new waters. The Ikard/Lehman description of the efforts of OU to keep Green gave a peek behind the curtain: OU has a budget, and someone is minding the store, making sure promises aren’t made that can’t be kept, making sure there is a salary structure that won’t drive future dissatisfaction and dissension on the team. The only thing limiting OU is the size of the budget. TAMU might actually have a bigger overall budget, but the slapdash way they throw it around, more to achieve recruiting wins than to set themselves up for on field wins is more indicative of a moron playing fantasy football than a professional GM.

His initial recruitment was a long road, but the portal trip has been pretty smooth. Just need to avoid any potholes this week.

Mike Elko is younger than Sark.

Fong

Found him.

Maybe Klein refuses to be photographed until he and Elko consummate their relationship.

Elko was hired exactly 21 days ago.

EDIT: He's now also 247 Composite 4-star recruit. Looks like 247 & Rivals bumped him to a 4-star.

Husky Explainer: What's up with hardcorehusky.com? It's a close-knit group of Husky fans who have been posting together on a progression of different sites for 20+ years. It isn't representative of the husky fan base in general for a bunch of reasons. It's nominally a place to talk Husky football, and the people there genuinely are fans of the team, but it is primarily a social organization for friends (and antagonists) to take pot shots at each other loosely organized around current events in Husky football. The posters there have a schtick of internet trolling, which is no doubt juvenile. They genuinely do have affection for each other, and a lot of them are knowledgeable about football, but as a cultural matter it's uncool there to be serious, genuine, and hopeful. You can be serious and genuine, but not hopeful. You can be hopeful and ironic. But genuine expressions of positive emotion read as naive and pollyannic in the Pacific Northwest, whereas genuine expressions of angst, depression, cynicism, etc. are treated almost as normative goods in their own right. If you understand that, you'll understand the HH posters coming here. They know they're being dumb. They know you think they're being dumb. They know it's a waste of time. They know it shouldn't be funny. They still think it's funny. Why do UW fans hate Sark? Short version is that they don't, but it is genuinely true that Sark was an alcoholic serial adulterer during his time at UW, though his true sin from Husky perspective is that he let his vices impact his coaching. However much better he was than Ty Willingham, that's a remarkably low bar to clear and it is indisputable that his drinking and cavorting hurt the team's performance. Still, most Husky fans recognize him as a step on the path to a better future. The hate toward Sark tends to come primarily from the Hardcore Husky board, which as noted above is distinct from the broader Husky fan base. Part of that has to do with the fact that HH's existence stems from a break with a different Husky message board during the Sark era at UW, and the people in charge at that board were adamantly pro-Sark folks who shut down criticism of Sark. To this day, there is bad blood between the HH folks and that other board, and Sark becoming a good coach who has reformed himself would mean HH is open to a victory dance from that other board's leadership, which is intolerable to the HH group. Why do people think UW is good enough to beat UT? To start with, it's true. UT is also good enough to beat UW. UT's d-line will probably be stouter than any UW has faced. UW's offense will be more potent and creative than any UT has faced. They're aren't perfect comps for either team on the other's schedule this year, which is good because that's the fun of the playoffs. If you want a read on what makes UW a tough matchup, it obviously starts with Penix. He's got a huge arm, he makes decisions fast, he doesn't get rattled, he's really good when the team is behind the sticks, and he is really hard to sack. To that point, he's a pocket passer who throws a ton, and he's taken very few sacks this year. Same was true last year. UT will get its pressures, but it would be a very big win for UT if the horns can actually get a bunch of sacks. Beyond Penix, UW has really good skill guys. It's not just hard to cover the wideouts, but they're very tough in contested catches. Dillon Johnson is a 1,000 yard rusher on a team that doesn't try to run first. UW isn't going to run up the gut against UT, but something it does well against tough D-lines is use the whole field in the passing game with few substitutions to get the big guys tired, and then run opportunistically. Doesn't mean UW is going to be dominant on the ground, but don't expect them to try to run between the tackles and then abandon the run entirely. If you want to understand the optimism of general Husky fans, it mostly stems from weird quirks in the season. UW's offense looked great the first three games of the year. It then lost Jalen McMillan (knee), Rome Odunze (broken ribs and a collapsed lung (played through it and didn't miss time but obv. not 100%)), Penix was sick through multiple games and looked awful, Bernard and Jackson missed time being hurt, UW played a bunch of crazy weather games, etc. The defense also had tons of injuries in the secondary (particularly safety). In any event, UW won all its games but the wins were unimpressive compared against early season games, and Husky fans themselves openly questioned how good the team was. The Pac12 championship game saw all those hurt players healthy at the same time for the first time since Michigan State and the team came out and looked like its old self against Oregon, which has people feeling optimistic.

Good post. It's ironic that the Aggies claimed to have figured out how to use NIL ahead of everyone else, and we'd all have to catch up. The irony falls in the fact that A&M has bumbled into providing a clear lesson in the ways a program can go wrong. They spent ungodly tons of money on the stadium, facilitiesfacilitiesfacilities, hiring Jimbo then throwing bags of the stuff to players. The initial spending convinced them that they were endlessly rich. How much they spent proved how much they had. Therefore, the more they spent, the more they thought they had. These are Aggies, after all. Now, it's pretty clear that the reservoirs are pretty low. Maybe they should just recognize that, conserve expenditures for awhile, let the reserves build up again, and work on building different culture. Short term pain for longer term gain. But what do I know? Also, it doesn't matter what the wisest course of action is because the Aggies are sure to not take that course. Their Plan 2024 has blown up like the bomb in that guy's ass in Man On Fire. Still, they are desperate to keep up the appearance of being a big shot in the SEC Hermandad. Burton described their situation perfectly; they're little cabin in the path of the massive avalanche. Before Mt. St. Helen's erupted back in the 1980s, there was this old guy named Harry Truman (really) who lived in a scenic cabin in the blast zone. He refused to evacuate. "I lived here for 50 years and it's never blown." He and his cabin were buried under 40 feet of mud. I think this is a picture from that year:

Obligatory Mike Farrell is am idiot post

You clearly haven’t driven in much of the country if you believe this.

What an absolute ass kicking. Their serve receive was somehow worse than Wisky's. I mean, the bestest team in the world couldn't do the most basic of volleyball skills. You could hear a God damn pin drop in that barn after every ace. It was glorious. To top it off, we made it back to the team hotel and my kids got pics with all the girls. It was a great scene and something my kids will always remember. Let's make it 3 next year.

While this topic hasn’t been ignored, the Huskies’ defense is much less discussed than their offense. Let’s start with a summary: UW has some standout athletes on defense but they are getting it done with teamwork and scheme more than with talent. The overall concept is to create doubt and confusion in the mind of opposing players. A lot of effort goes into disguising multiple aspects of the defense. The base scheme is a 4-2 nickel defense. The secondary disguises coverage with heavy (80-90%) reliance on zone. The exact number is hard to pin down because Morrell often employs pattern matching in his zone schemes. The base seems to be Cover 3 with enough Quarters and man to create doubt. Even in cover 3 the corners can play bail technique to alter the pre snap read. There will be holes in the coverage, UW is hoping to delay the read and recognition long enough for the pass rush to get home. The Dabs tend to be big and physical as there is less need for a boundary CB to cover the best WR all over the field. That has helped create INTs and makes them stronger in run support. The D-Line plays with 3 down and a stand up rush end most of the time. In pass defense, they almost always rush 4, only rarely bringing an extra man. They are disciplined in their rush lanes but play a lot of games to create free rushers. Lots of stunting and looping to confuse locking assignments. Ditto with fake pressures. Sometimes they insert a LB and zone drop a DL but they bring 5+ less than 10% of the time. The games mean early pass rush is not very effective and the long path to the QB means stunting free runners lead to delayed pressure. The disguised coverage on the back end is designed to help this delayed rush get to the QB. But they only have 19 sacks despite having an NFL quality DE. The LBs hold this system together. Inge asks a lot of them but the DL play is designed to keep them clean on most plays. Against the run, the line is supposed to absorb blocks and let the LBs pursue the ball. One of them will have force responsibility and RB coverage to the non-nickel side. They will be challenged to force on outside runs, cover inside short zones and fill against inside runs. A see a lot of swing passes and RPO in their future. Note: This is just a basic overview to start the conversation. I’m sure some of our more informed posters can help fill in the details.

Announced at the same time: Xavier Fillisame to Texas and all-conference Trey Jones to Aggieland.

Happy to leave the photography to the professionals