burdine

Pretty solid move by Tech. Transparent as to their NIL effort. Also, by everyone getting something respectable probably helps the locker room.

On Addison, Bama has the best one year QB situation which I would think, all else equal, would be my deciding factor.

Austin alone has a bigger pop than Baton Rouge and New Orleans combined for instance. And not much pro competition for opportunities.

Longhorn Foundation being pretty preeminent is a solid indication. Another factor is Austin. How many college towns have a Lambo dealership and other similar NIL opportunities? Even if our alumni are not super interested, Austin itself may help as well.

Yes, the number of programs with a big amount of super wealthy alumni that care about athletics is not large. Texas should do well.

LSU OL was actually pretty mediocre. They made it work. Our QB situation seems much less experienced. Now I am totally in favor of upgrading our OL if those prospects are in the portal because it does seem pretty helpful. But LSU does show it can be worked around at a high level.

Both Choice and Marion seem like solid upgrades, especially in recruiting acumen. Sark deserves credit for course correcting. Now do the defense next year.

I'm happy to root for Sark and the team to succeed. I don't think Sark was a slam dunk hire and I don't think he is an automatic disaster either. He knows offense and is a good playcaller. If he can keep recruiting up and get the defense fixed then he may succeed. I don't think success or failure is written in stone yet, though I do think more coaching hires fail than succeed. In the era of the portal, hard ass coaches might not even work well anymore. Who knows? Things change. Also, I don't recall a lot of unanimity that there were obvious better choices available. In hindsight, Brian Kelly looks gettable and a more proven hire. Personally, I just enjoy rooting for the team and the coach to succeed until they have proven they can't. I know some are already there and they may be right. I remember being all in on Gary Barnett back in the day. Since then, I recognize it's really difficult to know how a coaching situation will play out. Also, FWIW I think the two new coachees seem like steps in the right direction. It would have been better to get the first staff right though.

Just a lil' sip of orange kool aid for the thirsty fan. But some decent film analysis actually.

Very well said.

That doesn't explain the Kansas loss either where their putrid offense drove the length of the field multiple times in the first half on our defense. Or the multiple 3rd and longs given up to Jarrett Doege and West Virgina.

With an average defense last year, we would probably have been 10-2 or 9-3 and in the Big 12 Championship game. That is how bad our defense was last year. I'm not all in on Sark's bet on continuity but I hope like hell it works.

Is there a story behind why he was a 2 star kid coming out of high school?

Looks like we will be rolling with another first year starter at QB, no experienced portal OL, and uncertainty at WR besides Worthy. It might turn out great but I think it's a good bet the offense stills shows quite a bit of inconsistency next year. That's not a knock on Sark. The offense was reasonably productive last year at times yet also inconsistent. It's sort of where we are at given the lack of experience in his system. Ewers wasn't even here last year. Almost all the OL additions won't be here in the Spring. That just seems like a setup for not taking the next step on offense right away. We were above average in scoring offense already last year. Defense just has to get better. We don't lose much production because there wasn't much to lose. Hopefully, a few key additions and a year of continuity in coaching pays off. FWIW, out of conference schedule of Bama and UTSA could be bumpy too. However, I would guess Iowa St, Okla St and OU all take steps back so Big 12 looking a bit easier maybe.

I think everybody should be expecting growing pains with Ewers and the offense. Not terrible but also not consistent. The biggest room for improvement is on defense. We were abysmal. If we can get to average, that would be a big improvement. Sark has made a bet on consistency and continuity. Let's hope it's a good one.

Driving distance the same but Lubbock is probably an easier flight from Houston. Arizona schools are a pretty easy flight too. The hard part about the SEC schools is they aren't mostly near big airports. Tuscaloosa is a loooong drive. We will be going down this path in a couple of years.

As an Old, I will miss a small school being able to compete every now and then with the bigger schools. Hell, personally, I still miss the SWC. Glad to get Arky back btw. I just don't see things going backwards and players do deserve to be compensated. It's also going to be impossible to regulate everything to be fair to every kid. Given that, it seems like a roughly free market should do the best job at allocating the $$$ over time. Sure it will miss on some and over compensate others, but what scheme would legitimately do better??

The conference path should be a little easier next year. A lot of Big 12 teams had extra depth/pieces this past year due to the extra covid year. Bowl results also show the Big 12 had a solid set of teams this year. The offense won't be hitting on all cylinders but it should be pretty good a lot of the time with the occasional misfire. We were also probably a little better then 5-7 this year given we had substantial leads over quite a few good teams. The defense needs to improve a lot year over year for us to contend. I think getting the defense right in the next 2 years most likely makes or breaks Sark's tenure here.

Bama is doing this now. They have such a good track record of putting guys in the league that it's an easy sell. We need to start putting guys in the league again. Hopefully, this staff really is a developmental staff. I have quite a bit of hope on offense. Defense seems a long ways away.

Sark is probably most comparable to Mackovic. Solid offensive mind that will likely get that side of the team going in the right direction. With this type of hire, the DC is the most important position. Mackovic failed at this part of his job but he left Mack some great pieces to work with. Sark is off to a pretty rough start. One last thought: Maybe the question to ask is not "Is Sark the guy?" but "Can Sark be the guy if we get him the right DC?" I will feel better if big changes are coming to the defensive staff. However, the tea leaves show disappointment I guess.

Let's dig down a level from 5-7 or we lost to Kansas. I think except for Bijan and Worthy, we can agree on a pretty limited offensive roster. With one offseason, and no solid starting QB, we put up these offensive numbers. Also, except for WR, we have a solid influx of offensive talent incoming. I think it's reasonable to say the offense is headed in the right direction. The defense is a terrible mess. They underperformed the talent on the roster by a lot IMO. It is Sark's job to fix it. If he doesn't he fails here.

Also, I saw some bright spots on offense, Sark's specialty, despite limited personnel to help keep me patient. Just looking at wins and losses in the short term is outcome oriented thinking. That works well with a lot of data (multiple seasons, cue CTJ with Sark's UWub and USC records) which I don't think we have at Texas. IMO, Sark succeeds or fails on if he can get the defense playing right because I think the offense is headed in the right direction. Despite a need for continuity, I'd like to see defensive staff changes to better align that side of the staff.

I think there is merit in taking some things off Sark's plate like strength and conditioning, some defensive strategy stuff, self scouting stuff, etc. Saban has built an off the field machine that supports the on the field machine. If something like that is the vision and GP is a good fit, then I could see that. I would be very happy with GP as co DC or DC for sure. If I'm Sark, I might not be thrilled about GP's long standing relationship with my boss however. Best I can tell, Sark has solid support among Hartzell and Eltife. I don't see why they would let a culture/personality "grenade" go off in their signature athletic initiative. So if they are sold, then maybe the kinks have been worked out. For a football GM role, I'd probably prefer someone from Sark's background with Carroll or Saban. I'd also prefer some defensive staff changes too. Overall, I'm still in the camp that one year is not enough time to judge changes in culture and development which have plagued our program. Most coaching hires fail at this level, but I think it's too early to call it especially given our long standing culture and development woes.

At least they still have a pie and a relatively decent one at that. Getting anchored on the past is one way to ruin. I'm glad the other Big 12 members have a solid home. Should be a solid football conference with excellent basketball and baseball.

I think our exit will most likely be timed to coincide with the new teams coming into the Big 12, so that means 2023 or 2024 at the latest. That makes sense for all parties.