orangebird

So how has that Big Ten affiliation been working out for y'all for the last ten years? Must be a real shame that you guys haven't recaptured your former glory and knocked Ohio State off its perch yet.

It was always going to end this way. It was just a matter of when. The Big XII has been dysfunctional for almost a decade now, if not longer - pretty much from the point that Colorado, Nebraska, Missouri, and aggy abandoned the conference. Almost every other fanbase still in the conference hates us, yet all of their programs would be shit without us. Did they think that gravy train was going to last forever? Did they really expect Texas to sit around and continue to take it, while they continue to shit all over us year after year? And now they're mad that we're leaving? I thought that was what they all ultimately wanted! I'm not expecting miracles for Texas by joining the SEC. I doubt we're going to go into the SEC and dictate shit from day one, the way some of the scrub programs in the Big XII seem to think we always do. I do think the opportunity to settle some of the long, tiresome debates over whether Texas is "SEC good" is exciting, though. I am looking forward to competing against more programs that are closer in stature to ours. I think Tech, OSU, KU, WVU, and maybe ISU will be fine, as they will probably get invites to other P4 conferences looking to expand to keep up with the SEC. Good luck to the rest of you, though. You're going to need it.

I don't think that most of these things are nearly the negatives that this guy seems to think that they are...

Does not have to be unanimous, but 3/4 of the member schools have to approve. This is according to Article 3 of the SEC Constitution and Bylaws. aggy gonna aggy, but I don't see most of the rest of the SEC turning down an extra $30 million in annual revenue. My guess is we are in by a 13-1 vote.

I'll allow it. But I have a feeling it's just dumb shit like they're going to try and sue the SEC because...reasons. IDGAF.

aggy delusionally thinking that the SEC would always keep their pinky promise to not allow UT in the SEC is quite possibly the most aggy thing ever. Did they really think the SEC was going to pass up the money and influence that UT and OU would bring to the conference? I'm sorry, even if Greg Sankey is on the can taking a shit, a phone call from UT to the SEC gets patched through immediately, no questions asked.

I know I jumped in the thread early yesterday, but I had a few more thoughts to share. I have dealt with my share of loss in my life. A lot of us have. One of my best friends died back in 2018. He was a real funny dude, and I had known him since I was about 12. He was the guy who got me hooked on fantasy football eons ago. After he died, I stayed off most social media and fantasy football for the better part of two years, because I just couldn't log on knowing that I would never see one of his funny jokes or posts again. You never get over loss, though the sting may fade a bit over time. Even still to this day, sometimes I run across something that I want desperately to share with him, and I start to...and then I remember. It sucks. He had teenage kids, and I can't even begin to imagine what it must be like for them to lose their dad. I can only imagine that losing a child, a sibling, or a parent must be even many times worse than this. Like many who are parents here, I hugged my kids a little extra today. I even took my youngest son out to the local minor league ballpark where we live for a game last night. It was our first time to catch a game in nearly two years, due to the pandemic. I enjoyed every minute of it, and I know full well that the day will probably come someday when we won't be able to do that anymore. I hope not for a long time, though. Nobody ever regretted spending too much time with their kids. I've met tons of people who wish they had spent more, though. To Jake's family and friends, wherever you are - I did not ever have a chance to meet Jake, nor even any of you personally. He seemed like a wonderful young man, and I am deeply saddened by his loss. I cannot ever feel his loss quite the same way as you do, nor would I ever even presume to. But as a member of Longhorn Nation and a proud UT alum, I will stand beside you in spirit, shoulder to shoulder, and mourn with you along with thousands of others in this crazy extended family. I hope you will lean on those in this family who are closest to you at this time for comfort and support.

Awful news. Keeping Sam, the Ehlinger family, and his teammates and coaches in my thoughts today. RIP.

I don’t subscribe to any of the $9.95ers, and I don’t feel like I have missed out on a single goddamn thing. I was just as surprised as they all were when Herman got the axe yesterday, and I didn’t have to spend $9.95 to be misinformed beforehand. Come to think of it, I should take that money and buy a McRib for lunch. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

So, how do you identify that coach ahead of time? I think there are only a handful of people in the world that could fit your definition of a "great coach." We might be able to pull off hiring Urban Meyer, but if not, then what? Saban has already proven that he isn't willing to leave Alabama for any amount of money. I suspect the same is probably also true of Dabo. So now we have to move to a tier of coaches that have potential, but are not yet proven to be in that elite category, should Urban not work out. And even at that, Urban is not necessarily guaranteed to be the guy. There are plenty of examples in history of formerly great coaches who stayed around too long, past the height of their career arc. Suppose Urban doesn't turn our hot mess around in three years - are you going to bail on him, then? I'm all for no excuses, but at the same time, coaches are human beings and not God. At some point, you have to be realistic about what they can accomplish.

I don't disagree. And I think there are enough red flags with Cristobal that he is not my #1 choice. All I was trying to point out is that there are a lot of unusual factors at play here. TBH, I think Oregon royally screwed up with the Taggart hire. That alone probably set their program back about five years. I do think Cristobal is solid, but there are issues endemic to the program stemming from the Taggart hire that are going to take time to sort out. Cristobal hasn't been on the job long enough for me to form a definitive opinion on whether he is the right man for that job at this point, but yeah, the issues with Oregon's defense are very, very concerning. No excuse for giving up 41 points to Oregon State.

Agreed. Which is why I think Campbell is a better choice, if we can't make Urban work.

Well, in my defense, I did say that Cristobal wasn't my #1 pick...and I wasn't sold on him being a slam dunk at Texas. I was just saying, it's a weird year. I guarantee you, though, that if he makes it a habit to lose to Oregon State, he won't survive very long at Oregon, either.

My son goes to Oregon, so I have watched a fair amount of their games. I wouldn't read too much into Oregon losing the Civil War game to Oregon State on Friday. That is one of those heated rivalry games for in-state bragging rights - throw out all the records, etc. It has a lot of the same feel as when Texas used to play aggy, although on a smaller scale, as Oregon is a much smaller state than Texas. Plus. this was kind of considered a rebuilding year for Oregon anyway, after losing Herbert to the NFL after last season. Throw in all the weirdness with the Pac-12 and the coronavirus pandemic this season (they didn't start playing until the beginning of November) and it's hard to take away anything meaningful from this season, when it comes to Oregon. Having said that, I think Cristobal is a solid coach, although I am far from certain he would be a slam dunk at Texas. His biggest strength is coaching the O-line. I have always been very impressed with the way Oregon's O-line blocks under Cristobal. I'm kind of meh about his X's and O's - I think Herbert would have probably thrived more back when Chip Kelly was running the show, and Oregon was more aggressive on offense. However, the biggest red flags for Cristobal so far have been defense. Oregon's defense has been bad, especially this season. I'm kind of giving Cristobal a pass on that for now, given the recent turnover in Oregon's head coaching position. They went through three head coaches in three years: Helfrich, Taggart, and now Cristobal. It's really hard to build any kind of consistency with that much turnover, and I think Cristobal deserves a bit more time to see if he can fix the issues on defense. But so far, the early returns are...not great. I think if it's not Urban, Campbell would probably be my #1 choice. Iowa State used to be one of the worst teams in the country, and he has not only managed to make them respectable, but actually put them in position to compete for the conference. That is the mark of a damn good coach. We need a guy like that around here.

Well, it's all relative. OU > UTEP, probably. But, point taken.

What's really sad is that after 30+ years of watching Texas football, I have mostly just stopped caring by this point. It's really just the same old shit anymore, year after year. Nothing ever changes. We can (mostly) routinely beat the sisters of the poor, but all too often, we get exposed whenever it comes time to play a good team. Don't bother waking me in 2021, it will just be more of the same.

I think some of the dead weight we jettisoned in November might be the answer to this question.

I'll say I'm cautiously optimistic about 2020. Last night's bowl win was fantastic, but a lot of it will come down to scheme and execution next season. We have the athletes to compete with OU and potentially win the conference. But will we put them in a position to do so? That remains to be seen. Last night was a positive step, but it was just a step. When we can consistently produce results like last night through our conference schedule, then great things will be in store for us.

Well, Looch, that tweet certainly aged poorly, didn't it?

Agree to a small extent, especially with the injuries this season. But the results last night speak for themselves. We gave up way too many 1st downs on 3rd and long plays this season, because Orlando loved to blitz and left our DBs on islands. With proper scheme and technique, our defense caused all sorts of problems for Utah on offense. I live in Pac-12 country, and the conference this year is mostly a giant dumpster fire outside of Oregon, Utah, and maybe Washington. Now you could argue that Utah was down after getting blown out in the Pac-12 CCG by Oregon, and missing out on the playoff spot. On the other hand, perhaps Utah could have showed up to the Alamo Bowl with a chip on their shoulder, expecting to prove to the world that it should have been them and not OU in the playoffs. I've watched a few of Utah's games this year, and their offense is no slouch. Huntley is a good QB who can scramble. They can put up lots of points, especially against mediocre to bad teams like Oregon State, Cal, and UCLA. Going into this game, I honestly thought for Texas to have a chance to win, our offense would need to outscore Utah in a shootout. Our defense showing up and mostly completely shutting down Utah was a shock to me, albeit a very pleasant one. I agree it's probably too soon to tell whether our defense will be legit next season, with all the changes. Big XII spread offenses are a different beast entirely, and present a monumental challenge for any defense to scheme against. But if (and I suppose right now, it's still a big if) - the defense is set up to succeed with proper scheme and technique, look out. I will say this, though: I'm not sure we would have won last night's game if Orlando was still the DC. So to that end, it's good that we have moved on.

Proud of our guys last night. Looked like a completely different team than the one that lost five games this season, including to a down TCU team. Ossai was a grown ass man out there, imposing his will all over the Utah line. Man, that was fun to watch. Naivar did a hell of a job with installing the new defensive scheme and putting our guys in positions to succeed. I think blitzing is a good call in certain situations, but Orlando's over-reliance on it burned us far too many times this season. I really liked what I saw on D last night. Utah had no answers for it. I'm hopeful Naivar had some input into the hiring of Ash, and they will align well into next season. If the guys can continue to bring it like this next season, I think some really good times are ahead. Sadly, I thought this after we kicked Georgia's ass last season, too, and we all know how that turned out. But this feels different somehow. Like a much younger team where the light has finally started to come on. Here's hoping...

See, here's the thing I have about Baylor and the rape scandal: If Baylor had taken tangible steps to change the culture that led up to the rape scandal in the first place, I could accept that. Sure, mistakes happen. It's how you grow, learn, and change for the better that ultimately matters in the end. But that didn't happen. Instead, the fanbase blamed the victims, and the administration terminated the head coach and the athletic director, mainly as CYA moves to defend against the civil suits. I don't see any reason not to believe that another rape scandal will happen there at some point down the road, probably sooner rather than later. And because of that, I still have a bad taste in my mouth when it comes to Baylor. So, pretty much...fuck 'em. Furthermore, nothing would make me happier than for Texas to claim the only Big XII bowl win this season, especially for recruiting purposes. I don't particularly like having to root for Georgia in this game, but I will hold my nose and say GO DAWGS. Now with that out of the way, I see that Georgia got thrashed by LSU, and barely scraped by several other teams with a pulse, including aggy. They also somehow inexplicably managed to lose to Muschamp's Gamecocks this season. I haven't really followed Georgia enough to know what the underlying issues with them are, but they are going to have to pick it up if they plan on defeating Baylor in the Sugar Bowl.

Holy fuck. Where has this team been all season? (I know, I know...hurt and poorly coached.)

Glad we won today. Still a disappointing season, though.