golfclap

There are several names on your list (6+) that will not be in Austin next season unless changes are made to the defensive staff. i expect that the current roster will be the high water mark for talent and depth in the Sarkisian era, short as that will hopefully be.

Yes. Even if you ignore the very real problem of the defense clearly not playing it's best 11 - we should GAF because the only way to break the cycle of not having depth is to keep the talented young players and develop them. Or you could also think we should GAF by looking at the current depth chart at the SLB spot - Ovie, Ben Davis, Cooks.

Agreed. There are several guys listed in that article that should have been playing A LOT more already this year that I fully expect to portal out. There are a couple who considered the portal in the spring and were talked back down and it doesn't sound like we should expect them back. If anything that list has grown over this season.

I could see both of them, as well as several of our defensive players, heading further down I-35. Hayes being from Athens makes it feel like a foregone conclusion.

This is headcanon from here on out.

If you reward a player in Bush who is a tryhard over a guy in Collins who is an actual difference maker - because of effort at practice to the detriment of the team -- you aren't instilling a culture of competition, you are instilling a culture of compliance. Period. Instead of ineffective punitive bullshit that doesn't work (starting Bush over Collins - which hurts both Bush and Collins as players - and the entire team) because of practice effort -- they should be identifying the psychology of why the effort wasn't there and finding a way to motivate. That's the actual job. Playing your best 11 guys gives you the best chance to win - do you know what motivates more than winning? nothing. Do you know what's more cancerous to the culture than losing? Nothing. Starting a bunch of fucking spares in front of their more talented peers isn't creating a winning culture and isn't EVER going to result in a "lightbulb coming on" moment because that's not how people are motivated and it's certainly not rewarding competition.

ahh the siren song of the Old School Meathead Coach. Nothing elevates a player's desire to work harder like favoritism in the name of effort. who could imagine Collins giving less than stellar effort at practice in a scheme where instead of using his NFL freakish athleticism to disrupt and destroy - instead they are asking him to catch blocks and try to maintain leverage in 2 gaps by catching the OL and shedding. In essence turning him in to a glorified OG in pass protection. Those of you old enough to remember the proliferation of the 5-2 defense here in Texas will no doubt recognize this horseshit from the NG and the two DL in the 5-2 scheme catching and sliding in much the same way. what's old is new again, I guess. you don't motivate your most talented contributors by rewarding "hard working" lesser contributors with their spots. Imagine doing that in your current workplace. Do you know who wins in that scenario? Literally no one. Neither individual contributor, the leader, or the team as a whole. It's no different than seeing old school brick-and-mortar C-Level execs fucking up a young work environment with old school nonsense. Old school meathead bullshit that people who don't understand motivation and human psychology think is hardass leadership but is instead breeding the actual entitlement that people who don't get it - think it will take away.

All the time. FFS how long have you been a Texas fan. Greg Davis got out coached in a ton of games that Texas win by 30+🤷🏻‍♂️ The genius isn’t having that idea - the genius is in the game plan and execution. Is it any surprise that the two teams that have held Bijan below 100 and nullified his impact were the two teams with the best DCs we’ve faced? Odom and Aranda both outschemed Sarkisian. It’s not even a debate. It’s fact. Becoming one-dimensional isn’t the appropriate response. It’s the path of least resistance. The appropriate response is to add new elements in formation, personnel, and blocking schemes during the week to ensure that when they load the box you can still have a run game, even if it’s lesser, and not be one-dimensional.

They were better prepared in all three phases of the game. I’m not even sure how to address this but let’s simply say that Aranda’s scheme and game plan were to shit down Bijan. They held Bijan to his lowest output this season, by far. By making Sarkisian one dimensional he could control the pace of the game and dial up pressure with little to no risk. It’s just pretty much the definition of out-coaching.

Anyone still blaming the players or talent is wrong and simply hoping that the brutal reality in front of them isn’t true. for those who think this is a talent issue - note this - there is not one single position group that has improved under this staff. Not one. that’s the only thing you need to see. All the talent in the world isn’t going to fix the problem wearing headsets.

There is not one single position group that has improved under this staff. Not one. Most have gotten demonstrably worse — as has S&C, predictably. This isn’t a talent issue - it’s a coaching issue. This is a poorly coached team with a leader that has a career of mediocrity that can only aspire to reach mediocrity right now. Anyone who thinks Sark “just needs to get his guys” in - is absolutely deluding yourself. He has repeatedly shown you who he is. His entire resume is exactly what we are seeing.

This has been known for a year or so — Donati (TCU ad) is sick of Fat Gare’s shit and has made no secrets about it. He wants Traylor and did even before UTSAs current season.

Wait, so we should be blaming the players for not defying the coaches rotating them out of the game? Not the coaches for making the shitty decisions? Is that what you are saying? You think that guys who are barely getting on the field as it is despite being more talented than the spares playing should take a stand and say "you aren't taking me off the field" - and doing so is the player leadership we are missing?

Indeed and the biggest offender of that bunch (Charles O) pretty much owes his entire NFL career to Herman and Yancey and still loves to shit on Herman at any given moment and talk up Charlie despite the fact that he wouldn't have sniffed the NFL if Strong had survived.

I didn't see ctj's post before mine - but yes. This has always been the case but the portal exacerbates it. 100%

I don't know why Nahlin wants to dance around it like he's got some crazy inside info. It's widely acknowledged that there are several guys at DE/DT and at CB/NB that were tempted to portal after spring and talked down. It's also well known that more guys have joined that side of the fence than have gotten on board with this staff. This defensive staff has a personnel problem and the perception among not only the current players on the roster but among trainers and recruits (as well as staffs recruiting against Texas) is that Texas isn't playing it's best 11. You can talk at length about culture, effort, and attitude and yada yada but you can't instill a "true culture of competition" and at the same time reward effort over actual result - cutting off one's nose to spite one's face. Prime example - Jimmy Johnson had an actual true culture of competition and winning in his locker rooms at The U and at Dallas. Attitude, effort, and buy-in mattered but Jimmy also knew that Orwell was right everyone is created equal but some are more equal than others. Emmitt Smith notoriously skipped tons of practices and held out to avoid the off-season grind. Does anyone here think he was a locker room problem for his attitude and effort? Does anyone think Johnson's culture was negatively impacted by Smith? Does anyone think Johnson should've played Sherman Williams over Emmitt Smith? No. Competition means the best guy wins. You can do this ad nauseam with every single sport and it's best coaches and players. Ideally we'd all want the guys to be VY and all 105 guys challenging to working harder than anyone else but that's not reality. It's a hell of a lot easier to hardline it when your depth chart actually features actual depth but when you set your culture by playing full on fucking spares because they give effort - you aren't building a culture of competition - you are building a culture of compliance. Quite simply you aren't teaching Alfred Collins (and to that end the entire roster) that effort matters by playing Jett Bush over him - because Bush at 100% effort is still not better than Collins at 75% effort - you are teaching that being his guy matters more than being good. Ditto with Foster, Brockermeyer, Thornton. It's not teaching competition that's teaching compliance. Kitan, Jaylan Ford, Adimora, Gbenda, T'Vondre, Barron. Here's the great secret to coaching at a Blue Blood vs. coaching anywhere else. Steve Sarkisian wasn't hired to install his offense and Kwiatkowski wasn't hired to install his defense - they were hired to win football games. There is no "wait and get his guys in and get the system in place" at a blue blood. You don't get 5 patient years. Win. That's the job.

the post ::

I think it's more likely Aaron Bryant. It could be a South Alabama assistant with Lewis but I'm guessing with the "might be a 1st round draft choice" line throwaway - I'd guess it's Bryant.

The "lack of talent" viewpoint is being exacerbated by terrible personnel decisions on that side of the ball. for example :: OU with a 3rd and 1 and with Texas holding the lead in the 3rd qtr -- we have Jett Bush in and playing DE to the wide/strong side in a 3-man front. OU of course goes DIRECTLY at him and he predictably gets folded like a wet napkin by Stogner (I think) and the RT in a combo block leaving a hole at least 15 yards wide. That isn't an example of OU being more talented than Texas - it's an example of terrible scheme, adjustment, and personnel decisions combined - all coaching errors. That play was a microcosm of the defensive staff failures for this season and specifically the fucking horrid 2nd vs. OU/OSU There is no reason that on 3rd and 1 we should have Jett Bush in the game at all, much less vs that personnel. Esp while guys like Collins, Sweat, Coburn, et al were on the sidelines. That's a fucking pivotal moment and you have that kind of personnel on the field. That's not bad DL play and that's not a lack of talent. That's a coaching problem. We are seeing the same personnel decisions at each level of the defense. In the short time that both Crawford and Jerrin were both in the TCU game you could see a clear uptick in athleticism. Crawford, Barron, Jerrin, and Adimora should be seeing more and more time and it looked like the coaches were figuring that out in the TCU game only to go back. If the starters are going to make mistakes and blow assignments (which they currently are) why not put the best athletes on the field and let the younger faster players ... wait for it. DEVELOP. Instead we still have Foster et al making the same mistakes and be put in positions of failure (like Bush was) over and over. I was more amped about the PK hire than any other hire but he's rolled out some absolute garbage gameplans, horrible rotations, and shown an inability to adjust to pretty simple concepts as they head to the 2nd half. I suspect that he and his staff aren't on the same page and they aren't communicating effectively in-game and that speaks to the fact that our support staff (QA/QC) were all fucking second-tier afterthoughts as hires with little to no experience in these roles. We don't have a staff with former DCs having their eyes on the changes made. None of this is coming a surprise. If you hire 3rd tier support and S&C staff you get expected results.

The talent excuse is fucking tired. it's pitiful. and it's wrong. If you are excusing that loss to that mediocre Ok State team as a Texas talent problem and not a coaching problem you are wrong. Further, it's clear you haven't actually watched OkState this year. The talent disparity wasn't on the field, it wasn't on the line of scrimmage - it was in the headsets. This is not a good Oklahoma State football team. Excusing Sarkisian's performance, or worse placing the blame at the player's feet, is nonsense. Tulsa :: Boise (check the bullshit fumble call (start at 1:54:37) - and the missed FG in this one) :: Missouri State ::

Yes. Taking the air out of the football and controlling TOP is EXACTLY how a team with less talent approaches any game against a more talented team. Service academies much?

The same OL is absolutely executing when the initial game plan is in place. They are capable of executing a competent game plan to the point that the Horns ypp, points per snap/drive, and team scoring are at the fucking top of college football - esp when broken out by half. They fail to execute when the DC has adjusted and Sark has no answers to those adjustments. This isn’t rocket surgery. you don’t even see that the point you think you are making only further clarifies the coaching failures. And yes, Texas is more talented than Oklahoma State by every measure and if you disagree you are burying your head in the sand.

That’s the fucking job. It’s always the fucking job and yesterday Gundy and Knowles did their jobs exponentially better than Sark and PK. They did it while they have less talent and more holes in their 2-deep than the Longhorns. That is not a good Ok State team - despite their current record. They struggled with Missouri State, Tulsa, and Boise because they don’t have top tier talent. This is 2 losses to inferior opponents (and a historic choke job to a comparable team) and you can try to talk in circles around that but it is absolutely a fact.