burdine

It was a Paul “Christ”-like performance.

Milroe reminds me a lot of Braxton Miller the old Ohio State QB. Easy to see why Tom Herman recruited him. He would have been perfect for that era OSU offense.

Watched a bit of Bama/MTSU. Both OL's are a work in progress. Neither QB has established a consistent high level of play. Both defenses look pretty stout. I think we have better overall skill talent but Milroe is a wild card. On the first series, there was a bad snap but he picked it up and housed it thirty yards for a TD. He is a talented, powerful runner with a cannon arm but prone to mistakes. Sets up as a low scoring defensive affair. Whoever makes the most of their limited opportunities probably wins. Take the under. Oh and if we let Milroe extend drives by running on 4th like Tech did last year then that will be very bad.

Thanks for bumping this. This is the year Sark shows he has learned to manage both Head Coach and OC or we look for a OC to take some of the load. Either way, a full program reboot looks pretty unnecessary to me.

I like Sark's staff better than Herman's. I like his OL/DL philosophy and recruiting better than Herman's. I like his player development way better than Herman's (Ojomo, Coburn, Overshown, Christian Jones, and more) I like his QB room better than Herman's. I like what he did as OC at Bama. So why is the win/loss record nothing special so far and why has the offense had mediocre 2nd halves? My guess is that he is having trouble being BOTH a Head Coach and an OC at the same time. That is why our opening scripts look great and then we trail off some later in the game. It feels like a bandwidth issue for Sark. This could continue to be a problem or it could get fixed by: Sark learning to manage it better with 2 years of experience. Sark hires an OC and focuses on being a head coach. Both of those solutions seem plausible and do not require another program reboot. I'd rather have to go find a capable OC than find a replacement head coach and do a full program reboot. So basically, to me, this is the year we find out if Sark can do both or we need to get an OC to run the offense and free Sark up to just be a Head Coach.

Chryst seems like a good hire to really get the run game working well.

This was Katy Jordan's first year in 6A. Only it's third year in existence.

Most CFB coaching hires fail. Almost all are bets with big unknowns on how they play out. Sark is no exception. I like the plan to play big boy football a lot. I like the game week preparation a lot. I like the way a fair amount of players seem to have been developed. I like coaches getting hired away for better jobs a lot. I expect next year's OL to maybe be our best since 05-06. And yet I can see issues with in game management. Maybe he is having issues balancing calling plays and being head coach. So some good and some worries too. We should know a lot more in about 24 months. It's a good thing Longhorn fans are known for their patience.

Yes my bad. I heard it from a good student source. I thought it was legit. Mea culpa.

I get that there is a lot of heartburn over some questionable gameday play calling and this staff. A fair amount of that is deserved. I also think this staff is doing a very good job of maximizing what UT brings (NIL and everything else) to the table off the field and they deserve credit for that when things go as well as this class did. I have concerns that being both a play caller and head coach might not be the 100% right way to go with Sark. Especially, if they get rid of the coaching staff limits which makes the benefit less. It seemed like we got squeezed on coaching bandwidth a few times this year late in games. I also have very few concerns with the broader program. Those parts of the program seem to be in good hands with this staff. I loved seeing the player development this year as that has been one of our biggest nightmares. Eventually, it has to translate to consistent winning and conference championships so we will see down the road how it goes.

I don't think Tom Herman and Co. get to sniff Manning or the Hawaii kids no matter how good our NIL game becomes. NIL is important. Staffs also have to develop and use relationships (Choice in the Southeast, PK and Choate on the West Coast) and show on the field development and growth. The staff did enough of that IMO to be a large part of the reason for this class's outcome.

And I don't know if NIL would have been the thing if the defense had cratered again two years in a row. Does NIL matter? Yes, it does. Is it the only reason this staff achieved a great, balanced class? I'm going with no.

Hard to think we out-NIL'd Georgia and Bama for Manning. Hard to think we out-NIL-'d Miami and Florida for Baxter. And thinking PK and Choate's west coast roots went a long way with Hawaii kids. But if I'm wrong, I'll be happy to learn about it.

Hey fair enough. Texas may become a NIL Deathstar at some point but I don't think it's the deciding factor yet. This class had star power and balance. The national cherry picking (Manning, Baxter, Lefau, Akana) had a lot more to do with this staff (PK, Choate, Milwee, Choice) than NIL in my opinion.

I think grabbing guys from G5 schools that have verifiable on the field production, like Neyor, is going to be the mainstay. Plus, guys caught up in coaching staff changes.

I think this rule change is a pretty big deal and obviously favors a place like Texas. I think it will be really interesting to see who gets added to the staff and what their responsibilities are going to be.

While 6 - 3 in Big 12 play was our 2nd best result in 9 years, it did feel like the staff left one or two more wins on the table drawing legit criticism. Now reflecting on this recruiting class, I think this is easily our best class in a decade. I know folks say anybody can recruit at Texas and there is some truth in that. Yet, for balance across the board between defense and offense and lines of scrimmage and skill players, this class just plain looks great. We did well in Texas and cherry picked very high end talent nationally. The defensive turnaround on the field led to tremendous success in recruiting. Numerous defensive players DEVELOPED and played well beyond expectations. We are also probably about to have our best NFL draft day in over a decade as well. As the staff deserves criticism for some of those in game decisions, they deserve real praise for this recruiting effort. My hope is that it reflects real changes in culture and development behind the scenes that I think have been at the root of our inconsistent results.

Plenty have won multiple conference championships doing that. We have 2 conference championships in the last 25 years. If we hit that ceiling, things will have become quite a bit better.

I'm looking for our draft day to look like our recruiting rankings. This year should be our best in a decade. If we start consistently pipelining guys to the league then I think the wins are going to come.

Seeing Christian Jones and Keondre Coburn become very good players and contributors after years of disappointment and stagnation, makes me okay with being patient. Aren't you pretty surprised by the year those two had? I am. Edit: Both these guys made 2nd team PFF All Big12. Who saw that coming? We have gone a decade with wasting talent and it has been our core problem, not game day playcalling. Could the gameday playcalling be better? Yes for sure. Is it what has kept Texas in mediocrity for a decade? No. He can always hire an OC to improve the playcalling. Getting culture and development right is not near as easy to fix with a quick hire.

Card is leaving the State of Texas. A pretty big time program with a very good B school.

I would also give credit to Sark for quite a bit of unexpected defensive improvement, quality OL play with 2 true freshman starting, and clear signs of player development. These are some of the right things to be doing and they seem to have been done. And how long have we waited for a coach that could do those things? Biggest disappointment to me, was our passing game. Which Sark addressed in his press conference as one of his main priorities.

Just pointing out that we have had multiple coaches that had a hard time even saying the right things. Mack was very thin skinned and Herman just had the script he cribbed from Urban. Agree, that now doing the right things is pretty important.

Yeah, somebody like Bryce Young. Pass first guy for sure but can get you yards when the defense gives them.

I like Sark's vision for our program quite a bit. Physical team. Running the ball well and stopping the run. Play action passes off the successful running game. I like what he calls our "brand" of football. It seems like it all starts with a dominant offensive line. This is a lot like Georgia is built but maybe with a higher end passing game. It's a good strategy and a good goal for a place like Texas. I think Ohio State shows some of the weaknesses with being too pass happy. I just need to see better execution. Does anybody really dislike Sark's goal or vision of how the team should be constructed?