Disco Missile

I got sucked into this trial by accident because of a YouTube rec on a lunch break. I saw the moment when Grosskreutz admitted on the stand that he ran after KR and wasn't shot until he pointed his loaded gun at KR's head. My jaw hit the floor and I was hooked. Watching the prosection's case unravel and ultimately blow up in their faces was one of the most amazing things I've ever seen. I really can't understand how they looked at the evidence and talked to their witnesses and made the decision to charge him with murder. And then to double down once the trial went pear shaped and they should have dismissed the charges. Incredible stuff. The media has made a total mess of everything surrounding this case, but the trial itself was about as clear cut a thing as you could ask for. Glad the man got the verdict he deserved instead of a mistrial or some other oddity that would drag this out unnecessarily.

Bob Stoops resigned and Musberger left and no one knows why, and no one talks about Mixon or the time he broke a girl's jaw and had to red shirt for a season.

Reminds me of the Joe Mixon punch, and I'm equally revolted by it.

Is going to? As in, Sark could fail even more than he has and is up to this present moment?

The only ones off the wagon are the ones who still think it's our roster after we lost to Kansas. That argument isn't credible at this point. It's the coaching. We saw this with Strong. He inherited a middle-of-the-road team and made it terrible. Some people blamed the roster and culture then, too, and defended Strong for the better part of 3 years. When we finally fired that lump and hired Herman, we saw immediate improvement and won four straight bowl games. We fired Herman and hired Sarkisian thinking he could improve, and we're right back in Strong territory.

None. You hire a proven coach with a long track record of success and watch him go. Even if he doesn't win immediately you'll see improvement across the board, and you keep faith because you trust in his abilities to get the job done. The Kansas loss destroys the argument that the players are the main problem. It's the coaching.

You're poking fun at beating Colorado after we just lost to Kansas??? You've achieved an impressive level of delusion. It's clearly the coaching. No argument about our players being the problem can overcome losing the Kansas.

First you call Paul Chryst, Matt Campbell, James Franklin, Kyle Whittingham, Luke Fickell, and PJ Fleck and express serious interest. If any one of them bite, you fire Sark and get the deal done before January. I'm leaving Traylor off the list for now because anyone that hasn't either turned a major program around or had an unreasonable amount of success against stiff competition can gtfoh.

Keeping a shitty coach because firing him might be worse is like staying married to a whore that fucks everybody but you. It's cheaper than a divorce but you're not getting anything out of it either. Rip off the bandaid and ditch the loser. We can do better.

Don't worry guys, we're a second half team

There are no obvious good leaders and it hurts. You need good player leaders for two reasons. One, because good player leaders get their teammates out practicing and thinking football when the coaches aren't able to or aren't allowed to. I remember Colt and VY working summer drills and Sam getting guys to put in extra time and effort. Two, because they keep them motivated in games either through their ability to carry the team on their shoulders or to motivate and encourage them when shit goes bad. The real problem is that there are always leaders in any group of people, and especially in young men. And if the leaders aren't the right kind of leaders, it can be a huge negative.

Kerstetter has been an asset as a utility lineman. He doesn't excel anywhere but he's good enough and he is very good when he's matched with someone reliable by his side. We'll certainly miss him when he's gone. There are no good answers this year. It would've helped to pick up a good transfer but all the preseason media said our OL would be a strength. Likely the coaches thought so too. Joke's on us. We probably need to grab a T and G for next year. Karic may develop but is he solid as a game 1 starter next fall? Maybe. Conner will be a soph and could be solid at G, but he's young. Those two can maybe hold down the right side, but we need answers for the left. Angilau is serviceable at LG, but we'll definitely need a reliable tackle. I don't see one on the current roster.

We get one of those guys and put Kerstetter at LG and I would consider that a workable left side OL. Like Anderson/Vahe in 18. Angilau and Jones on the right side may work out better than they do on the left side. QBs wouldn't have all day but Bijan would have plenty of holes opening for him. Sucks Cosmi left early. We're hurting for talent and depth. Herman had some good OLs and I was hoping we had turned the corner during his tenure. This year is definitely a regression to late Mack/Strong era OLs.

I see things like that and it makes me question everything. I believed that the real nuts and bolts of coaching football was to perfect player mechanics. Right way, right results. I question that now, but if that's not what coaching is then what is it?

We saw the same lack of improvement with Sam, who had a high work ethic and more natural ability. Sam spoke about wanting to improve as pocket passer for 3 years, but didn't take it seriously until his senior year. That shows it was more on the player to develop than the coaches developing players. I generally supported Herman because he was better than Strong, but Herman did not develop players well. We see that with Casey. Edited to add that the jury is out on Sark, but I don't see much individual improvement under him either, but he hasn't been here very long. If we want to get top level recruits we'll need to prove that we can develop them into first round draft material in their time with us.

Most of the problems Casey is having can be fixed with time. Unfortunately there probably isn't time to fix them.

Good coaches take the talent they have and improve it over time with discipline, fundamentals, and work ethic. Take a moment and watch Aikman's thoughts on the difference between playing for Jimmy Johnson and Switzer, and then look at their coaching records with the Cowboys. Link One coach improved his players, the other coach didn't. The results speak for themselves.

Sarkisian looking more like Strong than Herman at this point.

Herman took over a team from the worst coach in Texas history after 3 straight losing seasons and went 32-18 with 4 consecutive bowl wins. We lost 3 games by a total of 13 points last year. Sarkisian has taken that team and gone 4-4 with 4 brutal losses by a total of 39 points. That's not the same trajectory AT ALL.

Fast-forwarding to the end and wanting the payoff without putting in the work is how we keep ending up here

A friend of mine connected to the program a few years ago made a joking comment that we recruit some 'dumb' players. He meant that they were football dumb, as in they lacked fundamentals and an understanding of the game. They were physically talented but mentally not where they needed to be. To make it worse, fundamentals weren't and still aren't a core focus of our coaching activities at Texas. There are two paths to success that I have seen. Some successful college coaches teach fundamentals until the players are sick of it. They hate it, but they learn it, and then they go execute. That principle holds true in business, the military, and every other enterprise. Talent carries you a long way but having the discipline to do the basic fundamental stuff is the foundation for success. Then you create a culture around it. You learn the basics and build out from there. Then one day with proper leadership you're a well-oiled machine destroying the competition. I liked Tom Herman because he seemed like that type of coach. I don't care if he's an a**hole. He seemed like a perfectionist committed to creating a culture around fundamentals. Unfortunately that wasn't true. The second way is to recruit a ton of talent and scheme to it. Unleash the raw ability of your players and let them dominate through sheer talent. Mack found success here in this way. Unfortunately when he came up against disciplined teams with comparable amounts of talent, his approach fell short. Then his recruiting fell off and we know how that ended. All that to say that we'll see which type of guy Sark is soon. I'm hoping he is the former, although honestly I'd be happy with the latter.

I agree with you except about Strong and Riley. Remember when Strong told everyone our offense was going up-tempo all summer going into year 2 when it wasn't, and didn't know his own zip code? Strong didn't have a firm grip on anything but barbells. Riley was never coming here for a year to work for a HC like that.

That's a fact. But Texas, state or U, isn't a united entity working towards a common goal. In reality it's a huge conglomerate of petty fiefdoms that loathe one another to the point they would rather see their neighboring rivals fail than succeed together. It's a rare thing indeed that will bring us together for more than brief moments. Oklahoma, state and U, are comparatively simple: hate Texas and win. Doing so gives them purpose and validation. It's vital to their existence. Texas doesn't have that. We're the Roman Empire. They're the barbarians. DKR told Mack to put all the bb's back in the box, and that's how Texas wins. Get everyone on side. Those two had success because they weren't simply coaches - they were talented gladhanders as well. They could politick well enough to make all of those petty lords feel important and involved and get them to work together to bring in top level recruits and donate money. That's why Texas isn't easy to coach at. And that is - like it or not - the type of coach we need to have success.

We can make him an offer once he's done working out of the Oval Office. OHHH ba-doom-cha /cr 100% would be happy with Franklin. Liked him since Vandy (although I wanted Andersen more than him, so my judgment isn't perfect). I think we need a proven HC with a track record more than a coordinator with big ideas and hype.

Casey is beat up and isn't playing with any confidence at all. He was hesitant, rattled, and making bad decisions most of the 2H. OSU realized it and loaded up the box and played aggressive D because they only needed to get pressure and stop the run. The answer for Sark should have been quick hits, screens, and occasional deep shots. But he didn't call many and the ones he called weren't executed well. Defense played well enough, even though they did get tired and got gashed at the end. But it's hard to play inspired D when the O isn't gaining enough yardage for a 1st down for an entire half of football. The defense is what it is. Our offense can do much better and it can be fixed. Will it be? Different question.