Bodacious Bevo

Bobby had this to say about 5 stars under Sark so far I went to fact check and hit him with an "akshually..." but those are actually all the guys that were 5 stars either by the On3 rankings or the On3 composite. All have played and shown promise. Let's take out Ewers and only look at Worthy, Sanders, Banks, Campbell, and Brooks since those are the guys that signed with us out of high school and entered the program as freshmen. Sanders is the only one that didn't play notable non-ST snaps as a freshman. 2/5 were immediate starters (one each season) and another 2/5 were in the two-deep their first year. 5/5 will start this year and at least 3/5 will be all-conference. Those three will be early NFL draft picks after their third years. Campbell and Brooks could conceivably join them. Through his first three cycles, Sark has increased the number of 5 stars he signed by one each year: two in '21, three in '22, four in '23. Let's look at the '23 class. 3/4 are likely contributors while Manning's snap count is TBD and Hill is a likely starter (imo). The rate of early contributors remains high. Meanwhile, there is again one starter even though the total number of 5 stars increases (1/2 started in '21, 1/3 in '22, 1/4 in '23). That's also a good sign. Those that are drinking the crootin koolaid will say that Sark might continue the +1 trend in the '24 class. Simmons, Baker, McKinley, Wingo, and Black currently qualify and Mack will earn his fifth star in the On3 rankings if he holdings onto his #19 spot with them. It's premature to believe that we will land five of those, but four would be a good haul. The hit rate on five stars being early contributors, stars, NFL guys, etc. at this level isn't sustainable; Sark is quite literally batting 1.000 (if I might be a bit presumptuous on Arch Manning's behalf - but also he's a three star with a different last name so we don't have to count him anyway). The hit rate for five stars should be high, of course, but not having a single miss our of nine is impressive. That speaks to the mental evals, at least in part. If Sark does ultimately get this thing turned around in the next couple years, this staff's ability to land enough top talent early on and maximize that talent will be a big reason why. A couple lucky bounces on the trail helps of course. But once you've got the ball rolling, you don't need luck anymore.

Well that sucks for Jake. Though I'm not really sure how he hasn't managed to graduate even if transferring messed with his credits.

Voted 10-2 and putting my reasoning for future posterity. It basically boils down to my belief that we'll have at least 8 draft picks next year. I was thinking 9-3 because of Sark's record, but it's hard to put that many guys in the league and not win 10. The offense hinges on Quinn Ewers and DJ Campbell. I have faith in Quinn. Stagnation is a common part of learning. Sark let Quinn struggle down the stretch of last season knowing that it could cost us games, but believing that the reps would help him grow this year. I think the OL will be improved but still have some down games (meaning run blocking struggles at LG/C) while showing general improvement over the course of the year (just as it's improved over time the last 2 years). I'm not buying Gbenda or Crawford, but it's hard to worry about the defense. They'll be good enough and potentially elite. Will and WDE are the obvious points of concern, but they should be good enough. Maybe we see some 3-3 defenses with Hill and Blackwell as SAMs if needed. We've got a lot of pieces that we can move around and I'm a PK truther. Miscellaneous takes: Xavier Worthy eats up a lot of Keilan's snaps, Brooks has 1k rushing yards while Baxter has less than 400, Worthy finally gets 1k in a season, Byron Murphy leads the team in sacks, Jahdae Barron is our highest drafted defensive player

I'm being super avoidant with work so here's a chart on the year 3 record predictions. The surly win poll does show slightly more optimism for 2019 than 2023 with 77% predicting 10+ wins then compared to 72% now. Overall I'd say the expectations were generally pretty similar. In 2019, there was lots of belief in the offense as you mention with Sam emerging, Hand fixing our OL problems, and lots of young skill position talent. The defense was up and down in 2018 but we believed in addition by subtraction, even accounting for youth. No more Kris Boyd tax! I won't rehash all the institutional changes in our favor the last four years, but the end result is that everybody seems much more confident in the current roster than the one in 2019. It's doubt in the head man that's giving us pause. Herman and Sark had differing reputations going into their third years and they're both deserved. For my part, I voted 9-3 in 2019 and 10-2 this year.

Woah man slow your roll. You forgot one of the three ways he misspelled narrative. It's TheNaritiv. The second a should be an i. And he does have a website https://www.thenaritiv.com/ But the website only has one page with twelve total words and no information about the company lol. But hey if you click the email in the bottom right it refreshes the page. That's a feature

First scrimmage. Sark dials up a swing pass. Catalon sees it coming. JWhitt executes a great block, as expected, but Catalon’s pure violence blows him up. Every tendon in JWhitt’s body snaps. Catalon can feel his shoulder tearing but knows to finish the play. Boom, big hit on Brooks. Catalon’s other shoulder tears and Brooks spontaneously develops seven hernias in his thigh. Worthy and Neyor are closest to the action as the two play side receivers. They come over to help. Neyor trips, tearing his ACL. X extends his hand to help Brooks up. It breaks on contact. Amidst the carnage, a loud shrieking erupts. Players and coaches turn towards the noise. Is that a monkey running towards the field?

The better relationship analogy here is that CU and the old big 12 were living the comfy suburban lifestyle. Good careers, successful friend group, boujee couples brunches. But then the friends realize they hate each other and shit blows up. People are cheating, punches are thrown, and the brunches are ruined by squabbles over the bill. Ralphie moves out to the West Coast and meets a new girl. She supports him but the move's tough and he's down on his luck. Life's still good overall -- that is, until he finds out the girl's in massive amounts of debt and her parents are cutting her off. She's stopped taking care of herself, lost her job, and is moving to the tenderloin. CU moves back home. His ex also just went through a breakup. She's left the corporate world to live on a farm. There's no more white picket fences, but she's stable and available. Good enough company and plenty of fields to graze ain't so bad in old age.

I'm thinking Jackson was using tape from Jacksonville's WRs last season since those are the guys he coached

Wow, I can’t believe we let Clemson out-Clemson us

Woah woah guys, let’s not make too much fun. Last year they got Anthony Hill to commit at the pool party

Texas athletes have earned over $15.5 million in NIL deals (On3)

I'm actually kind of with you on the OOS recruiting red flags, but Bo and Flood are much more trustworthy than Giles and Hand. And guys like Baker and McKinley would completely make the point moot. Plus, Herman just straight up never had access to guys like Simmons. Let's revisit this in January. But that's kind of where the real similarities end. 2019 was coming off better results, but we return a lot more experience, production, and proven talent than that team. In 2019 we replaced a bunch of starters: 2 OL, 2 WRs, 2 LBs, 3 DL, and 2 DBs. This year we replace our RB, a LB, 3DL, and 2 DBs. So, 1) we're replacing less and 2) we generally have more experience stepping into those spots (RB, LB, and WDE being the exceptions). We're not looking to improve through addition by subtraction (e.g., not having to pay the Kris Boyd tax because Jamison will be so awesome now that he's moving back to corner). I get you have a rep for taking the negative side, but there's a lot less projection this year compared to 2019. That said, the expectations are much higher. It's very possible we can be a better team by not imploding to go 7-5, but still disappoint this year.

Chryst’s director of player personnel left and he didn’t hire a replacement for eight months. Seems like Wisconsin saw his ceiling, incoming decline, and Fickell sitting there so they made a move.

Let’s get him in the boat before worrying about the numbers

Seems like Hills is a take so it’s get him and Janurary, grab Robinson, split the IMG guys, and shoot for McKinley late

Gerry made a comment on IT a bit ago that they don’t want to do anything to hurt their chances with Lindsey and that might come into play for Blocton

Every kid has different buttons to push and it sounds like the staff got it right with Washington (and Bussey). He talks about the first practice in the context of not being intimidated. That makes sense to me given he's a kid whose recruitment blew up 2 months ago. I imagine some staffs were saying that he'd get lost in the depth chart at Texas. And I don't see anything wrong with wanting to be hosted by Sanders, who he likely looks up to (calling him the second best TE in the country). Anyways, I really like the personalities of all the kids in their IT interviews so far, Washington included. I'm so ready for the season.

I don't think there's anything bad in there. Being told you can start seems like pretty standard recruiting stuff

Billy Embody (on3 LSU) had updated on McKinley and Mack yesterday for those interested in a non-Texas pov

Your story and these screenshots (spoilered below) are probably different recruits but it cracks me up because there's two scenarios: A) They're both Livingstone and the texags version is just so off base. And they think getting rid of Mashack will fix the problem B) They're different recruits and they somehow manage to screw up lots of visits in entirely different ways Side note - I'm working on my PhD in a field adjacent to organization theory. Would there be any interest in a write up on organizational culture with a focus on sports? Like what culture actually means, how to establish it, maintain it, etc. An example that stuck out to me recently was Kibble's commitment interview with IT where he said that what drew him to Texas is how committed the players were to working during his visit. That's a big deal - culture is established for prospective members of any organization before they join e.g., during job interviews (or in this case during an OV). Are croots seeing a culture of work or weed?

Wells is saying the player is committing today but going public in the next few days So I guess nothing today

hmm yes I wonder where that notion comes from

ATHs we've taken since 2018: Jelani McDonald, X'avion Brice, Savion Red, Ja'Tavion Sanders, Juan Davis, Kelvontay Dixon, Jaden Hullaby, Bru McCoy, Jordan Whittington, Michael Williams 1 All-American, 1 good contributor, 2 guys contributing at other schools, 1 bust, and some young guys with the jury still out. Not too different than the rest of our recruits in the same time period.

Subtitle says one good, one bad ETA: TFB says it is probably a decision date for this weekend. And that although they've long felt comfortable about JJR, that has changed and they now think Texas may need a hail mary to win the recruitment. If that's the case, props to Gideon/TJ for keeping Myles Davis and Josh Lair as options.