When we hired Sark, I was immediately disappointed. Then my fan powers of rationalization kicked in and I worked to come up with the rationale for being optimistic to get me through the next few years.
What I came up with was that Sark has shown he can put together some formidable offenses when he has a talent advantage over everyone else like he did at Bama. I thought, “Texas is always able to recruit a talent advantage relative to the rest of the Big 12,” so if he is able to recruit reasonably well and hires a competent DC, we could win a lot of games with that formula, even if we would likely lose a majority when the talent was even with our opponents. Basically, the Mack Brown, Phillip Fulmer, Mark Richt formula of winning 9-10 games a year by getting the best Jimmies and Joes on campus. You do that long enough, and every once in a while you get lucky and break through.
Two years in, I think that optimistic scenario is still on the table. Sark has recruited better than I had expected, and is building the team the right way, by stacking up blue chips on the lines and at QB. These are also the positions that take the longest to mature and develop, so we should all expect (and insist upon) improvement next year and 2024. Sark seems to have the disposition that will serve him well in the portal era, his players seem to like him, and his approach should attract and retain talent in a way that a Harry Hard-Ass like Tom Herman would not. We are stepping up in competition going to the SEC, but with that comes access to better athletes in recruiting who want to play in that league.
I don’t have much hope of consistently beating teams like UGA and Bama at their current levels, or LSU or Florida if those programs get things rolling again. But a Texas program winning 10 games a season will almost always make a 12 team playoff field, even if we don’t advance beyond the first or second round very often. Maybe Arch or some generational player down the road comes in and takes us further.
IDK. TLDR: last night didn’t crush all my hopes and dreams, which weren’t stratospheric to begin with.