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SamMan

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Everything posted by SamMan

  1. Thread title could use a *ahem* buff. Might I suggest: Transfer Cycle 2024-2025: Fluff Bothwell Isn’t a Name, It’s a Strategy or Transfer Cycle 2024-2025: Helobious’ Fluff Bothwell Gambit
  2. I’m of the opinion that Mendoza, or more likely the Cal training staff, fucked that situation up. The kid jogged out of the tent with his helmet on while the targeting call was still being reviewed. ESPN had its cameras trained on it and the crowd responded to seeing him. They aren’t going to apply the penalty when that happens at a critical juncture in the game. I was happy to see Miami eventually shit the bed because the officials definitely gave them a couple of games early. I appreciate these posts because they (PFF) are the only poor schlubs who have actually watched (and evaluated) all these kids play, and can add at least some context to their raw performance numbers, even with a very limited sample size. Thank you, sir. You know, I figured B12 would be good for he and Arnold. Weigman needs to stay upright and Arnold needs time to process what he sees. Not entirely sure either offensive line is remarkably better at UA or MSU compared to OU for Arnold, but the Tigers have a ton of skill. Without Coleman, he would be walking into a situation in Starkville that resembles the one he just left in Norman. I have no idea what’s going on at UH on that side of the ball. If I was Hudson, I’d be taking a good look at returning to CenTex. Spav and that offense figured some shit out in the back half of the season. I’m interested to see if Lebby really wants to tempt fate with a second occurrence of the Guyer QB Curse. His former boss passed off his QB commit like the kid was that spooky ass video tape from The Ring a couple of weeks ago. Clearly, he didn’t want that evil. That said, I suppose Arnold has more SEC wins currently than that entire QB room. One more thing (SIAP):
  3. Who knew the Coen brothers were telegraphing exactly what would happen to the aggie football program some twenty years in the future, while absolutely nailing both the aggie character archetype + the essence of aggie absurdity in their film Intolerable Cruelty? *spoilers below*
  4. Can one of you smart fellows blend Sark’s face with Snoop’s and maybe just stick an SEC logo on Tyrese? Is Alan Sager still around? I remember loving something in that recruitment..
  5. Can’t wait for the ND game. Hannah Hidalgo is my favorite player to watch going back to her days as a recruit (another player I’ve enjoyed following over the years is Harvard’s Harmoni Turner, from Mansfield—also a fearless lead guard with plenty of swag). I absolutely love her game. If there is a player, outside of Rori, who exemplifies the type of player that Vic’s system demands, it’s Hannah, imo. She’s great. You guys are going to call me crazy, but I view Hidalgo and Caitlin Clark similarly…just not how you think. Everybody wants to talk about “generational talents” and “can’t miss prospects”…in 2020, that player was Paige Bueckers. She was that player even after her freshman year, when she won National POY. In 2023, JuJu was that player. And she has gotten all of the ESPN love, which I am pleased to see because I was certain that the only black girl (also from Sierra Canyon) that would command Sabrina/Paige/Caitlin-level coverage tragically lost her life nearly five years ago. If you go back and look, the superlative freshman campaigns that JuJu and Hannah had last year were very similar to what Paige and Caitlin turned in as freshmen. Though both were top five recruits, Caitlin and Hannah were mostly overlooked by stargazers. It’s why I am as excited for the Aaliyah C. Texas already has signed as the one whose commitment is still outstanding. And why (pedantically) I don’t particularly care for the Chavez-Clark comparisons—though they may be somewhat similar stylistically, it’s still not really fair to compare the two. Anybody looking for a “can’t-miss generational talent” would have likely missed Caitlin altogether, because Paige was considered that player by a wide margin (which was largely warranted, imo). Hell, there were some who thought HVL was the second best guard in that loaded class. I’ll admit that I was higher on Lexi Donarski than most if not all of the guards behind Paige and Caitlin (Turner was also in that class). Nobody expected Hannah to win the Staley Award (sure, they didn’t want to give it to Clark four years in a row, but still), ACC POY, and be the best perimeter defender in the nation last year. Likewise, nobody expected Madi B to be the best Texas freshman to take the floor since my friend, Tiff Jackson (RIP), much less for her to win B12 POY. If you watched the SC-ND game, it would be hard to argue that Hannah wasn’t the best player on the floor (particularly in the first half), despite the presence of JuJu, plus three other gals predominantly mocked to go in the top five-ish picks of next year’s draft (Kiki, Miles, Citron), and all the pregame fanfare. I guess my point is that the strength and quality of the women’s game has grown exponentially over the past decade, and it has been great to see the depth of talent increase year after year…and Hannah needs more love. As for Notre Dame itself, they laid an egg vs Utah, but as stated previously, I think Texas will get their best version. They are a very good guard-oriented team, who are still missing Westbeld. Gonna be a great matchup. I’m of the opinion that a talented two-way big (Stewie, A’ja) is still way more valuable than an offensive dynamo (Diggs, Plum) at guard currently. At least until the skill level reaches the threshold where pace and space are more ubiquitous, which is where things are moving, albeit not as quickly as the men’s game. They just have an outsized effect on the margin for error on both ends of the floor at present, which I think is kinda what you are getting at. Most college teams can’t score consistently away from the basket, and don’t move the ball efficiently enough to get good shots (NC State could). Cardoso/Boston, Reese, Brink, Cox/Brown are a huge reason why their teams have gotten rings the last five tourneys. They are efficient scorers, effectively suppress the opponent’s ability to get high percentage looks around the basket, and eliminate second chance opportunities. I think Vic would tell you that as good as Victoria Vivians was, and how great Morgan William’s shot was, his teams made back-to-back finals because McCowan was down there cleaning shit up on both ends. When you have two really talented bigs that contribute on both ends, your gunner can go 1 of 19 in a winner-take-all championship final and still walk away with the trophy. I really like the team Vic has put together. Jones is an efficient big. I think Oldacre has all the tools to be dominant inside if she keeps working. I’d like to see those two stay out of actions away from the basket as much as possible, where they don’t have to extend and move laterally too much. I love what Moore and Carlton bring overall, they can move a little bit, and I might be the higher than anyone around here on what Jordan Lee can be. I’ve been super high, maybe too high (I don’t know), on her for a long time. She and Justice are only going to get better. We know what the other guards can do. Great squad. Apologies for the length of this. I didn’t mean for it to be a dissertation. I don’t post in here a ton, but I appreciate the updates and discussion.
  6. I was going to ask this question in the OU thread on the FB board last night.
  7. I truly hope he does better than the last one with a similar recruiting storyline.
  8. Respectfully, a reasonable player of his stature wouldn’t go to Tech in the first place. Like CTJ said, this result was fairly predictable. I’d argue that decision alone provides some insight into his overall mindset and competitive character. From that perspective, it is a bit easier to believe at least some of the blame for his underperformance resides with Micah. Frankly, I fail to understand how a kid (with such immense talent) who took a fair bit of money to walk into an advantageous playing situation, somehow couldn’t earn any reps, his bankrollers somehow didn’t inquire as to why one of their biggest investments wasn’t getting any burn (or were given a satisfactory explanation), yet somehow it is clearly the coaches’ fault that this super stud couldn’t get on the field even when he was healthy. Coaches aren’t in the habit of deliberately not playing the players that give them the best chance to win. That makes as much sense as the “Joey was restraining Kittley to protect his defense” argument. Correct me if I’m wrong, but one of the persistent postgame questions I heard was, “why didn’t you feed your All-American RB more to control TOP and maintain field position consistently throughout the game?” Another was, “why do you keep going for stupid fourth downs in your own territory? Don’t you know how tough that is on your defense?” I imagine their last two games coming against two of the very worst P4 defenses in nearly every metric played a significant role in their increased output. That’s harsh. They haven’t cracked the top 25 since Alan Bowman was a true freshman (he just finished his sixth season). Alan Bowman spent more time in the top 25 (one week) at Tech than Mahomes did in his entire collegiate career (never). The last guy to spend consecutive weeks there was a true freshman walk on named Baker Mayfield in 2013. Joey had a chance to break through two years ago, but he promptly shit the bed vs Wyoming in the opener. They were a poorly thrown fade route away from losing to ACU (filled with a bunch of Tech castoffs) in regulation to open this year. With that in mind, I think they might give a lifetime contract to the first coach who can achieve the seemingly unattainable feat of being a top 25 team for at least one week…or maybe just not shit down his leg vs a powderpuff in week one.
  9. Dude looks like a middle-aged drag mother whose wig is in the shop…or maybe I’m just seeing this resemblance from the bitch tits up:
  10. Same guy (on Quinn Saturday): Life comes at you fast (~22 hours)…
  11. Guys, I am a Mack Brown defender. Why? If you are interested, see below:
  12. (SIAP) I saw this clip (only need the first 2:18) and thought about the conversation Sark had with Johntay (love the Permian uni btw): [spoilered for space]
  13. Big shout out to Lexi Missimo on her superlative Texas career. Same to Trinity Byars. Two of the very best to ever do it. I wish things could’ve gone better for them in the postseason, but I’m glad they both decided to come to Texas and stick around for four years. Excited to see what they will accomplish going forward. Best wishes to all the outgoing seniors, as well. That’s a good group of girls. No comment on the coaching situation.
  14. I’m a sucker for HC press conferences. I watch a ton of them. My top two pressers every week are Kenny Dillingham and Neal Brown. I don’t know either of them, but they strike me as more accessible than most HCs, and fairly thorough and direct in their responses to questions. I’m actually surprised at how much hate that man receives in Morgantown constantly. I like the guy, but I also don’t really care if they win or lose. On a side note, Kirby Smart is a total asshole in his pressers, but sometimes I wish Texas fans would watch them and apply what he says about his team and football in general as if he was speaking about the Longhorns. Lexington and Columbia, SC are the two games I can’t wait to attend. I second the notion that Seattle and Madison are desirable. I have a half sister who lives in Seattle, and her mother is a UW Law grad (huge Warren Moon/Oilers fan which made January 1993 in my family interesting, but that’s a story for another day), so that would be fun, especially if Texas could actually beat them. I wouldn’t mind Bloomington now that they are respectable. I also wouldn’t turn down an opportunity to go to SLC or a return to Provo or Boulder if they showed up on the schedule. I really like Louisville. Went there for the Derby several years ago and had a great time. Back on the topic of Kentucky, or on Texas this week, at least, I’d like to hear Sark’s assessment of the punt game. Seems like they are ceding a lot of hidden yardage there this year.
  15. I was under the impression that UTBOY was a middle aged white guy from Desoto who wears tall tees and starched jean shorts? Maybe I was hallucinating, but I could’ve sworn he showed up on one of the streams at Terry Black’s in Dallas a year or two ago. I seem to remember laughing when Gerry identified him.
  16. Lucky for her, nobody is willing to schlep to Lubbock to put a chair in front of the door… I’m anxious to see which school she chooses. She has until the 20th, no? I’ll likely post some thoughts once she is signed.
  17. I’d actually not be surprised at all to learn that Kenny D passed on Johntay. Anybody who knows about him and what he has brought to the Valley would have guessed that would be his position on a kid like that. Man, there’s not a great track record of success for the top rated WR in the state here recently. Demas, Earle, Stewart, Cook, and Hudson. Earle might be questionable but I think the next guy was a kid who now plays at SFA. I’ll never understand why anyone would think becoming a malcontent in the middle of the season is a wise choice even if you do have eyes on the portal. It looks even worse when the other two WRs in your class got zero burn last year, had much more reason to explore other options in the spring and summer, decided to stay, one literally added extra responsibilities at a brand new position to help the team with depth, and the other dude committed to filling the big shoes JWhitt left behind as a leader/glue guy. I mean, I suppose somebody could’ve been in his ear saying his position coach is giving preferential treatment to a kid from his HS alma mater, but all you would need to refute that is film and first hand accounts of Moore’s habits and demeanor. If he’s thinking his talent exempts him from following that example, he better hope to God that other programs only look at his HS highlight reel and don’t bother to find out what he has done since then. He should also hope they don’t take a look at how Sark treated Maalik and other players who had to decide to enter the portal at the end of last year ahead of the CFP, and how he handled Juan Davis when he asked to return to the team. Seems to me like he is fair and makes his decisions based on merit. If I was a coach, my response would be: “so, you played as a true freshman on CFP semifinalist, you were on the field in Tuscaloosa at critical moments in your second collegiate game, spent spring and fall camp at the top of the depth chart, got plenty of snaps to start the season, eventually got passed by two dudes who got far less handed to them, and you decided to just check the fuck out because you felt you were being treated unfairly? You didn’t appreciate the team taking three older players out of the portal, but you are asking us to bring you in ahead of the young guys we already have…and pay you handsomely to do so? The second to last relevant snap you have on film is you dropping a wide open TD in a one score game and laughing about it? You left a place with the most talented QB room in the country, where they just put three dudes at your position in the league, and you want us to believe your lack of success isn’t your own fault? Who is your advisor, again? Actually, it doesn’t matter. Thanks for your time.”
  18. You nailed it. They are consumed with appearances, partly because they have no idea wtf it actually takes to be successful.* I’m not sure they ever truly want to win big because so much of their identity is steeped in bs try-hard, perpetual victimhood mythology. I’m convinced they’d rather lose for pity than win for pride. It’s who they are. The acceptance part is particularly true. Weak, neglected people take comfort in a sense of belonging and the relative security of shared responsibility for outcomes, be it tragedy or triumph, among the community. Self-sufficient people are never afraid to lead, regardless of who follows, and are always willing to accept a greater burden of responsibility in order to do so. Neither is inherently bad, but expecting assimilation either way is. [*Note: I have a similar theory about Tom Herman and some of his disingenuous “father-figure” bullshit.] As always, the biggest hindrance to aggie success is their own misplaced pride. They are proud of their traditions…part of that tradition is never being good enough to win and gain validation from others. They seek to prove that their way works, when it hasn’t. They are unwilling to accept that their outdated, ineffective methods and beliefs are to blame for their eight-decade era of ineptitude. It’s much easier to blame their hardship on batshit crazy conspiracy theories or just chalk it up to being the most “unlucky” people in the entire universe. @closetojumping had a great observation a while back that the time to worry about the aggies is when they finally realize they aren’t fucking special. I think I’ve said it before, but they are a victim of their own disordered thoughts. If they ever decide to stop feeling sorry for themselves, and actually begin to take responsibility for their lot in life, they will become a much more formidable opponent. This is a bit of a tangent, but that whole acceptance issue is also why the stupid fucking SEC hat making the rounds on another thread is so repulsive to me. Who the fuck thought Texas fans would even consider buying that shit? We don’t need their fucking approval. Being a fan of this team, our team, is rewarding in and of itself. No assimilation required. Texas didn’t come to the SEC for a participation trophy, and we certainly don’t need other people’s acceptance. Texas came to the SEC to kick their fucking ass from sun up to sun down, every goddamn day…and if the others aren’t doing the same, that’s their fucking problem. That’s what the SEC is supposed to be about—the highest level of competition, which is derived from assembling a group of the most competitive teams available. The teams make the conference, the conference doesn’t make the teams. Fuck that hat and any microdick motherfucker who chooses to wear it. It’s funny that the exact same people who were bitching about “loyalty” with Schloss, were the ones calling for their AD, HC (“he’s fat and ugly!”), and OC to be replaced before the very first game of their collective tenure was even in the books, AND they had already resorted to cyberbullying the QB they were hyping as a Heisman dark horse a few hours earlier. Best fans in the world. Just wanted to say that I look forward to three things when I come to this site: your markups, @Getafix’s well-formatted summaries, and @Armybrat’s self-deprecating old man jokes. Great work. That’s no slight to the always informative @Js1 and @texifornia, @Longhornfrenzy for his stream of updates, or the rest of you fine people.
  19. I think there should definitely be a 30 for 30 that takes a retrospective look at the last six weeks of 2021 if Texas somehow manages to win a National Championship this year. The entire trajectory of the program changed drastically in that period of time. It would also be great to contrast that with where the aggie program was at that point. My shitty title would be: “Three Years and a Cloud of Dust: How a Perfect Storm Awakened College Football’s Biggest Sleeping Giant and Exposed Its Greatest Imposter”. Anyway, I think it would also serve as a nice amuse bouche for the point where Texas wins the CWS with Schloss at the helm, and we get to relive CDC dragging his nuts across aggie nation’s collective face in another riveting documentary chronicling the “downright dastardly” summer of ‘24. I already can see the promo montage showing Flores’ errors, LaViolette’s game-saving catch, a&m taking game one, Tennessee dogpiling on the mound with the ESPN audio…and then it cuts to an aggie saying, “I wish that was the worst part of the story..” as he stares blankly at the camera. A tribute to competent management and decisive leadership in two parts. I hope it comes to pass.
  20. His responses make a lot more sense when you realize that he told Imma this entire forum was stale because nobody’s sense of humor is as refined as his.
  21. I love the loser mentality this dipshit is channeling while trying to philosophize on how running off a sixth-year all-conference QB was actually the right move regardless of the fact that the dude they handed the fucking job to has already played himself out of it. I’m sure the players who came back, you know the ones who have way more blood/sweat equity in the program, are totally cool with the idea of punting their final season because some mythical window may open in the future, but only if Jackson Arnold doesn’t have to compete with that all-conference QB who, by the way, probably would have been more motivated to prepare and perform well the entire offseason than a guy with a true freshman behind him. Awesome message to send. I feel a little bad for @ChiTownDoc, in particular, because he was one of the more supportive posters on this site when shit was somewhat dismal here this summer, which freaked me out a little. I think he was expecting a loss but still. That defense is legit. I’ve known both of OU’s offensive coordinators at various points in my life, and I have zero confidence that they will ever perform up the minimum standard you guys have grown accustomed to. I’ve stated before that I’ve never been too jazzed about Jackson Arnold’s prospects, so I’m not really surprised by this latest development. That said, I was hoping it didn’t get to the point where Hawkins made his inevitable ascent before the game in Dallas. Ikard and Lehman said they didn’t want to see Arch in the Cotton Bowl, and I have somewhat similar feelings about Hawkins. I don’t think it will make a huge difference, but the kid has juice..way more than Arnold. That’s all I’ve got. The defense played well enough to win, even if Heupel took his foot off the gas. Losing Dolby sucks. That offense is dogshit and I have no idea what they are doing. *Final note: while I enjoyed watching OU lose, the game reminded me of 2014 when Baylor came to Austin and Texas wasted a superlative defensive effort. They absolutely shut Bryce Petty down that day, but it didn’t matter because Briles and everybody watching quickly realized Texas wouldn’t be able to execute on offense and they cruised to victory, essentially on a blocked FG returned for a TD (Swoopes fumbled a QB sneak at the goal line on a 99-yd drive, too).
  22. My favorite Alan Bowman stat is that he spent more weeks (one) in the top 25 at Texas Tech than Pat Mahomes (zero) did in his entire collegiate career. In fact, the last time Tech was ranked, Bowman was a true freshman, and their starting QB…he is now in his seventh college season. Interestingly, the last time Tech spent consecutive weeks in the top 25, Baker Mayfield was a true freshman walk-on. That was 2013. They’ve been ranked for exactly two weeks in over a decade…and Bowman is responsible for half. Impressive.
  23. It was just a reference to the Ewers thread on the recruiting board. Those guys were discussed when Tech emerged as a serious contender for Quinn.
  24. Hate to interrupt your stargasm, sir, but I’d just like to point out that the great Karen Aston once fielded a team with TEN (10) 5-stars (including seven top seven recruits) on it (with some services’ #1 recruit in the next class on the way). I imagine it will be tough to retain all of that talent these days, when other highly motivated programs have starter minutes and generous NIL packages to offer to highly coveted rotation players at their current school, but that would be a great lineup. Do carry on.
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