burdine

if he can accurately diagnose the problem(don't know yet) and legitimately make that change and make it stick and be effective that would be actual positive head coaching and dare I say . . . growth . . . ?????? Is that even legal????

I think a reasonable goal for this group of players is a Big 12 average defense. We are falling well short of that. I think coaching has to be the main factor.

nobody came into the year thinking we had a dominant OL and yet we have the No. 2 scoring offense in the Big 12. The DL came into the year with much higher expectations and have well underperformed them. Context is important. Offense has been flawed but flashed brilliance at times with a pretty bad OL and basically one WR. Defense has consistently given ground and ranks very poorly in most stats with more veteran players.

Plus the defense was theoretically more experienced than the offense coming into the year. It's mostly Juniors and Seniors underperforming. That's a bad look.

The offense is not near dominant or elite but they do show flashes of it. The offense shows knowledge of our personnel and the opponents. We are flawed at OL and WR so there is a ceiling. The defense looks ignorant of our strengths and the opponents. We did show a different look vs Ok State so that is something but my expectations are higher than that.

I think the offensive staff has done a solid job of know themselves and their weekly opponent (excepting Arky) and tried to maximize their gameplan. The first half performance provides a fair amount of evidence supporting that. The defense has been the exact opposite. They have come out each week (except Ok State) pretty much the same and to do what PK did at UW. It also displays a pretty profound lack of self knowledge of our defensive talent. I need to see pretty strong improvement on defense the rest of the way or I'd like a change. This team is 6-1 and in the driver's seat for the Big 12 Championship with a Big 12 average defense this year. Now that would be some fool's gold because the Big 12 seems pretty lacking in top end elite teams but it would be a solid narrative to go forward with. I guess I'm still hopeful overall because if we had offensive issues then that would reflect even worse on Sark.

Agree that was ugly. I still think there are defensible reasons for optimism about the offense. The defense is a mess though. It needs a lot of work.

Hey maybe so but that still rates as improvement from where we were last year I think. Again, I'm not saying he is the guy, just saying I see improvement on offense where he knows the most which I think is the minimum to hope for from a coordinator hire.

More support for our offense being improved. We rate by this guy's metric as "efficient, likes to run"

Anything specific you want to add or subtract from my list other than his record at Washington and USC? I guess I see improvement on offense, Sark's area of expertise, despite limited OL and WR play. Defense has been a pretty big disappointment and is the biggest negative so far I think.

I'm encouraged by: the attempt to build an impressive staff with developmental chops esp. compared to Herman and Strong staffs the quick starts in games show strong preparation focus and knowledge of opponents and not just going "to do what we do" the consistent attempts to feed playmakers on offense the use of motion to help the QB seeing the defense seriously attempt to course correct by playing more single high and actual 3-4 this past game the aggressiveness to go get Xavier Worthy at a position of need the overall level of recruiting success in 2022 the demonstrated ability to be explosive on offense in spite of our limited weapons special teams has been a net plus I'm discouraged by: the stubbornness on defense to run a scheme that pretty obviously didn't fit our best talent the whole dang Arkansas game, they are decent but they whipped us the slow start to OL recruiting, our biggest position of need the inability to craft a Big 12 average OL during the offseason we have one of the best players in all of CFB and we are 4-3 I guess overall my expectation is that coaches will make mistakes along the way and their tenures will mostly be defined by their ability to course correct quickly and reliably (think Saban having Major as his first OC in 2007). We have not had a "magical" first season which was semi-possible with a bit of luck but I am now watching to see what changes Sark makes to address any mistakes and take this team forward. I think Sark is a reasonable bet to succeed here but no sure thing. To my mind, I like what he has done to this point more than what Herman and Strong had done to this point specifically I like this staff much better than either of those coach's first staffs. The offense, Sark's specialty, is markedly more explosive even with mostly Herman's players. But there have clearly been missteps as well. Just have to see how it plays out.

The Defense is the biggest disappointment this year. Deemphasizing big DL which we have a good supply of, and conversely, emphasizing LB and Edge guys which we have in short supply, seems really shortsighted. It's cost us one or two games so far.

Those pressed hams are going to leave a nice condensatory imprint though.

It made me laugh out loud. Nothing but respect to a master. That is funny!!!

I will post no more on the thread title. Anybody wanna talk about the year Xavier Worthy is having and how it might help recruiting? Probably not. Sorry I screwed the pooch.

Yeah fair enough. Closetojumping is usually pretty funny. I am not.

Sorry it just stands out to me as not near as funny as most of the others and the title does not reference recruiting at all basically. May I suggest "Where's the Beef?"

I was blaming the mood/fighting on the board on the thread title. Agree we have risk on with the OL but do not agree it says failure yet. Maybe that happens but so far we remain solidly in the mix as far as I can tell. DL, RB, LB, WR meet or exceed so far I think. DB, OL and probably QB need to get firmed up.

I'm still going with the Seven Win Steve thread title being bad juju. I know there is a lot that is not right with the program but I think recruiting is actually one area where Sark is at least meeting expectations and could be cut the littlest bit of slack. But don't get me started on the obvious fail of not playing Alfred Collins more earlier in the year.

RYPTPA explained I found this explanation.

I don't really know what RYPTPA is but I bet this is dang good. also was followed up with Julio Jones at the same point . . . I think we have a really strong sell to give Evan Stewart.

Lucky to get a door slam or rolled eye look here.

One of the areas where UT has fallen short in the last decade or more is in development of players and schemes. We have more talent than almost anybody we play yet our record does not reflect that talent. I think this staff now has enough real world looks at this team to see what should be improved. And we now have the bye week to work on those things. This should be a good opportunity to adjust some things and develop some kids. If we come out of the bye with some things addressed then I think we can take some confidence in that and if we don't well . . .

Yeah I get that you are down on the staff etc. Hell I might agree with you on a lot of it. But aren't there a ton of other places to put that sentiment. You are a pretty clever guy. I guess a lot of expectations aren't getting met.

I know I'm just a lowly Legacy poster here but I really am not loving the new thread title about Seven Win Steve. The Oh No We Suck Again was pretty funny actually and it made fun of us as message board weirdos and our emotional swings. I know the owner of this thread can do what he wants but aren't there a million other threads to hammer Sark for the losses. Why have the main recruiting thread harp on the same theme? Something more original and way less pouty. I know the thread owner likes to punch back hard and I'm cool with that when he does. Because that's fair . . .