Texas Recruiting Notes 2023: Strippers, Monkeys, and 5-Stars

[WinningIsHard 4171]

47 minutes ago, NoName said:

this is one of the absolute dumbest things i've read ever

not that we are some sleeping giant based on who is on the team and their fits to the roster/scheme but fuck off with this Kansas bullshit based on this alone.

a backfield of RoJo/K Robinson/Brooks isn't awesome but it's way better than KSU's Devin Neal and Torry Locklin.

Texas is better at basically every position, across the board, than Kansas.

using FEI for comparison:

Kansas: #125 overall, #109 offense, #126 Defense, #105 ST

Texas: #10 overall, #7 offense, #35 Defense, #16 ST

go post dumb shit like "If you take Bijan and overshown off this team we are Kansas" over on BON, but that shit is borderline too dumb for them even.

That FEI table shows we are better than oklahoma, clemson, notre dame, and kentucky. It's going based solely on stats and possessions against average opponents. We aren't in the same stratosphere talent wise as clemson or notre dame. When herman was fired there was a story ran about how he used his influence to add stars to players in the rankings. Our team is full of jags just like kansas, except we have the best player in the country in our backfield who has almost 1,000 yard rushing already. You take his stats away and give those carries to RoJo we have significantly less stats and then our passing game is worse for it also. You think we got manhandled by arkansas and ok state because we are full of "blue chip" recruits. I guess I'm dumb. Sorry. 

Edited October 21, 2021 by WinningIsHard

[Sir Ulrich 5337]

3 minutes ago, Tex-19 said:

That sucks. Looks like we'd owe $3.4mm. So Muschamp will go somewhere else in the meantime after we hired all these assistants for him. Great.

If the D doesn't show improvement, I'd really hope someone ponies up and tells Sark he can make the move if Boom is in. 

PK was at Washington with Woodward. Maybe we get lucky when they hire a DC soon..

[SydneyCarton 49504]

4 minutes ago, Tex-19 said:

That sucks. Looks like we'd owe $3.4mm. So Muschamp will go somewhere else in the meantime after we hired all these assistants for him. Great.

If the D doesn't show improvement, I'd really hope someone ponies up and tells Sark he can make the move if Boom is in. 

Yep. Nope. I don't think Sark is willing to show coordinator level uncertainty this early into his tenure, for a guy who by all accounts was a great DC everywhere else he's been. I think the only move one can expect is to jettison some coordinators and let PK bring in his own guys. Not sure if that's going to fix some of his head-scratching calls, but I mean having even a minimum pass rush at this point might have covered up a lot of issues. 

[SydneyCarton 49504]

1 minute ago, WinningIsHard said:

That FEI table shows we are better than oklahoma, clemson, notre dame, and kentucky. It's going based solely on stats and possessions against average opponents. We aren't in the same stratosphere talent wise as clemson or notre dame. 

This is a cute equivocation. Nice backtrack. No one said we were in the same stratosphere of talent as certain other programs.

Everyone is calling you a fucking idiot because you equated us to Kansas. It's a bad take, and you should fucking feel bad. 

[Scholz 12306]

12 minutes ago, WinningIsHard said:

I guess I'm dumb. Sorry. 

You're not dumb, you just said a dumb thing.  It's OK we all do it.  Just take the L and stop digging.  In no universe are we Kansas talent wise.

[NoName 17148]

12 minutes ago, WinningIsHard said:

That FEI table shows we are better than oklahoma, clemson, notre dame, and kentucky. It's going based solely on stats and possessions against average opponents. We aren't in the same stratosphere talent wise as clemson or notre dame. When herman was fired there was a story ran about how he used his influence to add stars to players in the rankings. Our team is full of jags just like kansas, except we have the best player in the country in our backfield who has almost 1,000 yard rushing already. You take his stats away and give those carries to RoJo we have significantly less stats and then our passing game is worse for it also. You think we got manhandled by arkansas and ok state because we are full of "blue chip" recruits. I guess I'm dumb. Sorry. 

guess what? Oklahoma, Clemson, ND and Kentucky aren't fucking Kansas.

Quote

If you take Bijan and overshown off this team we are Kansas.

based on blue chip ratio alone, Texas is actually "better" talent wise than ND and below Clemson. This isn't perfect but don't post dumb shit and then expect not to get called out.

Where was that Tom Herman article you mentioned, as someone who pretty closely followed recruiting I don't remember this at all.

Quote

Our team is full of jags just like kansas, except we have the best player in the country in our backfield who has almost 1,000 yard rushing already.

go post dumb shit like this on the football board where I am sure you will get a bunch of +recs and can feel like you are brilliant.

again, this is one of the absolute dumbest fucking things posted on this website, ever.

Quote

You think we got manhandled by arkansas and ok state because we are full of "blue chip" recruits. I guess I'm dumb. Sorry. 

The only one who said that, dumbass, is you.

and yes, you are fucking dumb. go peddle your dumb bullshit literally anywhere that isn't here.

[WinningIsHard 4171]

2 minutes ago, Scholz said:

You're not dumb, you just said a dumb thing.  It's OK we all do it.  Just take the L and stop digging.  In no universe are we Kansas talent wise.

Yeah it was a bad exaggeration out of frustration about what Sark, PK and company have to work with. Arkansas man handled us, ok state stayed steady and outlasted us, oklahoma freshman qb half ass abused us physically, and all I hear is how we won't beat baylor, or iowa state and kansas state is a toss up. Our coaching can't be that fucking bad, so what is it? I think we aren't very talented. 

[Hornlover 8945]

1 hour ago, MonkeyDoughnut said:

You keep bringing this up like the portal had a bunch of studs in there at OL. Who in the portal would you have liked them to take over our current guys that Texas had a chance at?  Might answer your own question.

https://247sports.com/Season/2021-Football/TransferPortal/?positiongroupkey=4

Wanya Morris was probably a take, but it seems like he was already committed to OU before he even hit the portal.

[SydneyCarton 49504]

17 minutes ago, WinningIsHard said:

Yeah it was a bad exaggeration out of frustration about what Sark, PK and company have to work with. Arkansas man handled us, ok state stayed steady and outlasted us, oklahoma freshman qb half ass abused us physically, and all I hear is how we won't beat baylor, or iowa state and kansas state is a toss up. Our coaching can't be that fucking bad, so what is it? I think we aren't very talented. 

No, we told you to STOP saying dumb shit. You're basing the above statement on...what, exactly? It certainly isn't the myriad of assignment busts we've seen, bad situational playcalling we've seen, or the fact that these players don't seem to be noticeably improving (being coached up)...so tell me again why the coaching can't be that fucking bad, again?

Lots of guys can have great coaching resumes, go somewhere, and suck. Also we can suck for multiple different reasons at once that come together and combine an epic shit stew of suckery. It doesn't have to be "just coaching" or "just talent." 

Personally, I think our players are shitty because of a combination of multiple shitty coaches over multiple years creating soft mental toughness and just general roster ruin, COMBINED with the fact that the coaching thus far...has not been fucking stellar. If we'd finished off 2 of the last 3 games, I bet players would have bought in and maybe be improving. But we didn't, much of it due to really bad coaching choices, and you know what? The same roster of guys who've literally seen this shit before (IT'S A PATTERN!) are probably tapping out yet again. And while I won't go so far to say I don't blame them, I can kind of understand it. You ask guys to buy into something new only lasts so long as the results are actually, you know, are new results.

Edited October 21, 2021 by SydneyCarton

[Burt Macklin 19230]

30 minutes ago, WinningIsHard said:

Our coaching can't be that fucking bad, so what is it?

The only reason you and other yokels on the Football Board keep saying this is because you can’t handle that reality. Our coaching can be that bad and has been poor in many aspects. 
 

Flood moving Kerstetter to Guard and putting Karic at Tackle was monumentally stupid. Kerstetter is a worse G than he is a T and Karic is worse than him, so Flood managed to make two spots worse against OU and that was a huge factor in costing us the game. Sark’s O has blown the doors off bad teams, but he gets way too vanilla in the middle of games, which we’ve seen the last two games now. 1 yard in the fourth quarter against OSU is a coaching deficiency, not a talent deficiency. 
 

On defense, I don’t even know where to begin. There’s been a laundry list of bad coaching and bad decisions. Our talent on defense isn’t great, but it’s nowhere near as bad as the D is performing right now. That’s on coaching.  

There’s a ceiling on this team due to talent issues, but CTJ could get closer to finishing a 100 yard dash without a couple water breaks than our coaches have gotten us to that talent ceiling. 

Edited October 21, 2021 by Burt Macklin

[Tex-19 3013]

1 hour ago, Longhorn94 said:

His system is NOT that unique. We are playing very basic schemes right now. We do really well until late third and fourth quarter. Conditioning maybe? fuck if i know. but its not because of scheme. its execution and conditioning. and yeah, i know both of those are attributable to the staff as well. 

Fair point. The D has actually done well in the first half of pretty much every game. Second half has been yikes. 

[Skipper 6411]

1 hour ago, SydneyCarton said:

She wanted for him to take a break. 

And their son is a walk on at UGA I believe.

[closetohumping 17818]

1 hour ago, SydneyCarton said:

Yep. Nope. I don't think Sark is willing to show coordinator level uncertainty this early into his tenure, for a guy who by all accounts was a great DC everywhere else he's been. I think the only move one can expect is to jettison some coordinators and let PK bring in his own guys. Not sure if that's going to fix some of his head-scratching calls, but I mean having even a minimum pass rush at this point might have covered up a lot of issues. 

Crappy pass rush, but we 're not gonna replace Bo right?  Hopefully his recruits are better than what we have now.

[JesusSweatDuck 18113]

6 minutes ago, Tex-19 said:

Fair point. The D has actually done well in the first half of pretty much every game. Second half has been yikes. 

Well in the OSU game it was because they were on the field all fucking half.  Besides the first drive for a TD, the offense didn't do a damn thing.  I don't care how much conditioning you have, if you're out there that long you're going to get tired.  We're also not super deep at some positions (LB) so you can't rotate as much as you might want.

[SydneyCarton 49504]

1 minute ago, Skipper said:

And their son is a walk on at UGA I believe.

I mean, I guess you missed it when I said it on the last page:

 

5 hours ago, SydneyCarton said:

Uh, we attempted to money whip Muschsmp. He opted to go to his alma mater where his kid is playing instead. 

 

 

[SydneyCarton 49504]

1 minute ago, closetohumping said:

Crappy pass rush, but we 're not gonna replace Bo right?  Hopefully his recruits are better than what we have now.

Fuck no. While I can't explain the pad level and standing up from the D-linemen, it's not his fault there isn't a plus pass rusher on the entire roster. And look at his fucking recruiting class he has put together. It's easily, EASILY the best best recruited position group on the team this class, and probably better than the next two position groups combined.

[Skipper 6411]

9 minutes ago, Tex-19 said:

Fair point. The D has actually done well in the first half of pretty much every game. Second half has been yikes. 

Well against OSU, they ran 2X as many plays in the 2nd half not to mention missing Overshown.  Not trying to excuse the D but our O did absolutely nothing after that TD drive to start the 3rd.  Our D flat out ran out of gas at the end.   The last L is 100% on the offense in my opinion.

[Skipper 6411]

3 minutes ago, SydneyCarton said:

I mean, I guess you missed it when I said it on the last page:

 

 

 

I did.  But was trying to say from what I understand it was more his wife wanted him to take a break AND be close to their son while they had the chance vs. just taking a break part.  I'm guessing if their son didn't play ball he's at Texas right now.

[Skipper 6411]

2 hours ago, ClubWhatever said:

We're about to play one.  Baylor's starting Center, who grades out better than ours, portaled from Buffalo this year.

 

Baylor has 2 portal OL starters on the "all portal team" per an Athletic article I read earlier today.  TCU and WVU each had 1 as well.   

[SydneyCarton 49504]

3 minutes ago, Skipper said:

Baylor has 2 portal OL starters on the "all portal team" per an Athletic article I read earlier today.  TCU and WVU each had 1 as well.   

One wonders if it might be coaching...

[golfclap 6903]

37 minutes ago, Burt Macklin said:

Our talent on defense isn’t great, but it’s nowhere near as bad as the D is performing right now. That’s on coaching.  

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. 

Edited October 21, 2021 by golfclap

[Chili dog 1810]

6 hours ago, SydneyCarton said:

Uh, we attempted to money whip Muschsmp. He opted to go to his alma mater where his kid is playing instead. 

Uh, I literally said we tried to money whip Muschamp. I felt my post was already long enough without the need to retell the story everyone already knows about why Muschamp didn’t accept the offer. 

[Schulz2.0 29280]

13 minutes ago, Skipper said:

Baylor has 2 portal OL starters on the "all portal team" per an Athletic article I read earlier today.  TCU and WVU each had 1 as well.   

We also hired Sark in mid-January. A good portion of the available transfers had already portaled and enrolled elsewhere.

[Longhorn94 2501]

40 minutes ago, Tex-19 said:

Fair point. The D has actually done well in the first half of pretty much every game. Second half has been yikes. 

same for the offense (other than Arkie). its a team issue at this point. we either cant make adjustments on either side of the ball or we are not conditioned properly. or both.

[Tex Pete 21488]

1 hour ago, WinningIsHard said:

That FEI table shows we are better than oklahoma, clemson, notre dame, and kentucky. It's going based solely on stats and possessions against average opponents. We aren't in the same stratosphere talent wise as clemson or notre dame. When herman was fired there was a story ran about how he used his influence to add stars to players in the rankings. Our team is full of jags just like kansas, except we have the best player in the country in our backfield who has almost 1,000 yard rushing already. You take his stats away and give those carries to RoJo we have significantly less stats and then our passing game is worse for it also. You think we got manhandled by arkansas and ok state because we are full of "blue chip" recruits. I guess I'm dumb. Sorry. 

This is way exaggerated.

We do have plenty of average players. We have a couple of great players. It would be great if we could just get average production in the second half of games. 

[Atticus 4216]

38 minutes ago, SydneyCarton said:

Fuck no. While I can't explain the pad level and standing up from the D-linemen, it's not his fault there isn't a plus pass rusher on the entire roster. And look at his fucking recruiting class he has put together. It's easily, EASILY the best best recruited position group on the team this class, and probably better than the next two position groups combined.

Finkley, Tapp and maybe Jones are in PK's position group, no? 

[victory88 5765]

Lots of good posts in this thread.  We are basically Tennessee but with more money and bigger ego.  Mack completely left this program in shambles and deficient in talent.  We hired a "football coach" instead of a CEO with Strong.  Strong is good at talent evaluation, and his strengths stop right there.  He didn't bother to recruit until December and he cared more about being a good role model and father figure to his players than a football coach.  That was a terrible football hire, he was probably 5th on our list of candidates that would even show up to an interview.  

Strong was probably fired too late and those 3 years of fighting for bowl eligibility took this program from mediocre under Brown to the gutter.  I don't care what anyone says, the 3 years Strong was here was the worst football I've seen at Texas.  We were getting blown out game after game in the first quarter and the team would give up.  We had  5 scholarship OL one spring.  We didn't even have enough OL to field a 2nd team in our spring game. 

Then we go on to Tom Herman.  Herman, believe it or not, isn't a bad coach.  He took a dumpster fire from Strong and made us at least competitive.  He recruited well.  His downfall was being a fucking douche and thinking he was the smartest guy in the room.  He also had no idea how to develop players once they got here.  As someone pointed out, look at those recruiting rankings and look at the elite talent that never was developed.  There is a reason we have the lowest blue chip development of all power 5 programs.  This program is where good players destroy their careers. 

Now we have Sark.  A guy that has never proven to be an "elite head coach".  He's one of the best offensive minds, but he has clear issues as a head coach.  He's taken over a program that is fundamentally flawed, entitled, and lacks elite talent and depth.  He knows this.  We need an infusion of talent on this roster.  We will not get this talent unless we show wins or we start paying them like UGA, aggy, Oregon, LSU, Bama does.  Until we get them, we are at the talent level of TCU, okie state, Baylor.  Firing Sark and company isn't going to fix this.  This athletic department needs to look at themselves in the mirror and figure out if they only care about dollars or if they want a winning program.  If they want a winning program and want to be competitive in the SEC and beat our rival, then we need to fundamentally change how this program is run from recruiting, to coaching, and to how entitled and coddled these players are.  The fact that Jerrin Thompson is still playing meaningful downs after straight up giving up on tackles twice against ou that both resulted in long TD runs should tell you what we are... soft team with no depth.    

 

[RGBIII 23015]

Hey guys, why didnt we just go after Muschamp? He got a kid somewhere or something?

[Longhornlove 5211]

People questioning the talent level on this team should be reminded that the two pretty much unquestioned most talented players on this team are a True freshman wide receiver and a sophomore  RB. Do the coaches get some blame? Of course. That is why they get paid so much money. But for the most part, IMHO, these coaches are trying to make chicken salad out of chicken shit with a few exceptions.

[victory88 5765]

Just now, Longhornlove said:

People questioning the talent level on this team should be reminded that the two pretty much unquestioned most talented players on this team are a True freshman wide receiver and a sophomore  RB. Do the coaches get some blame? Of course. That is why they get paid so much money. But for the most part, IMHO, these coaches are trying to make chicken salad out of chicken shit with a few exceptions.

You can pick countless plays this season where we have the right play call and the players simply completely fail to execute.  Last week, I saw Sark call the perfect play where Joshua Moore ran a slant.  He beat his man there wasn't a single defender in front of him.  Ball was thrown perfectly, it hit his hands, and he dropped an easy catch.  If he catches that, that results in a 70 yard TD.  Every game, we have plays like this where it's a great call and the players either false start, drop a pass that hits their hands, QBs overthrow a wide open WR by 5 yards, we miss an easy tackle or we get called for a personal foul after stopping the opposing offense on an important 3rd down.  The title of this season should be self inflicted wounds.  How much are the coaches to blame?  I have no idea.  But at some point, these players need to look at themselves in the mirror.

[Tex Pete 21488]

8 minutes ago, Longhornlove said:

People questioning the talent level on this team should be reminded that the two pretty much unquestioned most talented players on this team are a True freshman wide receiver and a sophomore  RB. Do the coaches get some blame? Of course. That is why they get paid so much money. But for the most part, IMHO, these coaches are trying to make chicken salad out of chicken shit with a few exceptions.

We lost to Arkansas and Oklahoma State. Those teams do not have more talent than we do. They may have more talent in a position group or two, but not overall.

[Blackcat00 769]

I truly believe things will get better under Sark. We have to give this guy time. 

[victory88 5765]

1 minute ago, Blackcat00 said:

I truly believe things will get better under Sark. We have to give this guy time. 

Absolutely.  But Sark isn't going to fix this on his own.  It's clear that we are at a talent disadvantage.  We will not be competitive running this program clean.  The college football landscape has changed.  Our AD, coaches, and alumni need to figure out how to get the elite top players in here quick... and it starts with the OL.

[RomaVicta 30592]

16 hours ago, Mother mopar said:

Is there a recruiting thread or is everyone going to continue with the urinary olympics.

[Burt Macklin 19230]

20 minutes ago, Longhornlove said:

People questioning the talent level on this team should be reminded that the two pretty much unquestioned most talented players on this team are a True freshman wide receiver and a sophomore  RB. Do the coaches get some blame? Of course. That is why they get paid so much money. But for the most part, IMHO, these coaches are trying to make chicken salad out of chicken shit with a few exceptions.

If the standard the staff was being held to was 7-0 and being in the top 10, then sure they would have to make chicken salad out of chicken shit, but when the standard is just being better than 8-4 and 3 losses in conference, which is the realistic ceiling at this point,  then they have more than enough to work with. 
 

Anyone who thinks this team isn’t talented enough to go at least 9-3 doesn’t have a good grasp on our personnel. Part of the reason this team doesn’t look talented is because this staff has shown they don’t understand our personnel and they’re not getting the most out of our players. 

Edited October 21, 2021 by Burt Macklin

[SarkAfterDark 1745]

I don't think pointing to recruit rankings is proof this team is talented. Do we have some good players? Yes, but we also have a bunch of average to jaggish players as well. The RB room is the most talented group on this team. WR room with Whittington wasn't as bad as we feared in the offseason. I'm not even sure how to judge the QB room at this point. But after that please tell me what position group you've watched over 7 games that makes you feel like its a talented room. The DL group was supposed to be the foundation of this team and for the defense. Some of them flash here and there but none of them makes plays consistently. We struggle stopping the room and getting pressure on the QB. Hard to be bad at both. The LB room is bad, we have Overshown but even he has his flaws, Ford is showing some promise. CBs are marginal, kind of hard to gauge them when they are constantly playing 10 yards off the ball, they have flashed at times and we have also watched balls be thrown over there heads and they get beat on every 50/50 ball. The safeties are just bad, really bad. The OL is absolutely awful and can only execute a handful of run blocking schemes, can't really pass protect at all. TE's are allergic to blocking, mainly Wiley. They are probably better pass catchers, but unless Sark instructs Casey to make them the first read on pass plays, Casey will never have the time to get the ball to them. So ignoring recruit rankings, the eyetest tells me this team isn't talented, and on both sides of the ball aren't executing what they are being asked to do. The zero sum game in the offense probably hid a lot of issues that weren't realized until game action. I too would like Sark to be able to make adjustments to the offense but honestly I don't think the OL is capable.

[Longhornlove 5211]

6 minutes ago, Burt Macklin said:

If the standard the staff was being held to was 7-0 and being in the top 10, then sure they would have to make chicken salad out of chicken shit, but when the standard is just being better than 8-4 and 3 losses in conference, which is the realistic ceiling at this point,  then they have more than enough to work with. 
 

Anyone who thinks this team isn’t talented enough to go at least 9-3 doesn’t have a good grasp on our personnel. Part of the reason this team doesn’t look talented is because this staff has shown they don’t understand our personnel and they’re not getting the most out of our players. 

I disagree, this offensive line is an embarrassment to offensive lines across the country. The pass blocking is as bad as I have ever seen here. Gone are the days of run only offenses dominating. Our WR room as a whole is as bad as ever. Our running backs make the line look much better than they are.

[Longhornlove 5211]

21 minutes ago, Tex Pete said:

We lost to Arkansas and Oklahoma State. Those teams do not have more talent than we do. They may have more talent in a position group or two, but not overall.

Their lines are better than ours, this game is often won or lost in the trenches. Those losses were great examples of getting your ass whooped on the line of scrimmage.

[Burt Macklin 19230]

You can’t just look at production and then conclude it’s solely a talent issue, like so many people on this thread are doing. You have to take into account this staff’s development and utilization, which is lacking. 
 

23 minutes ago, SarkAfterDark said:

The DL group was supposed to be the foundation of this team and for the defense.

Ojomo, Coburn, Collins, and Sweat are all playing worse, including playing noticeably higher and softer, than they did last year. Did they all suddenly become less talented over the offseason? I doubt it. 

On top of that, we’ve been giving a ton of reps to Jett fucking Bush at the 4i and watching him get pancaked game after game. We also keep running our third team DL consisting of a true freshman Murphy and soft as Charmin Broughton out as our two DTs on critical drives for no fucking reason. Guess who the two DTs were on TCU’s 99 yard drive that made it a one score game. We owned time of possession that game. There’s no way all of our better DTs were too tired to play. They’ve played crucial drives against every team this year for some inexplicable reason. 

23 minutes ago, SarkAfterDark said:

The OL is absolutely awful and can only execute a handful of run blocking schemes, can't really pass protect at all.

Our OL without Cosmi and starting 2 true freshman looked better at the end of last year than it has this season. On top of that, Flood/Sark completely overestimated our OL and didn’t seriously pursue a single OL transfer. There were at least 5 guys who certainly would’ve upgraded our OL. That’s on the coaches. 
 

Poor coaching, lack of understanding of personnel, and playing guys out of position obscures talent. This team has the talent to be better than 4-3 right now and better than 8-4 by the end of the season, and 8-4 is the hope right now. 

Edited October 21, 2021 by Burt Macklin

[Tex Pete 21488]

25 minutes ago, Blackcat00 said:

I truly believe things will get better under Sark. 

Potentially. He has to understand this isn't Alabama. We cannot coast with a comfortable lead. Until we stockpile talent, we have to continue finding ways to score or at least keep moving the ball.

At Alabama, he could take his foot off the gas and still move the ball while the defense got stops. The sheer talent differential allowed that. We have very little talent differential. We have to stay creative. Honestly, I think two offensive gameplans (first and second half) are necessary. Keep the opponent off balance. Coaches are extremely stubborn with their gameplans.

[Tex Pete 21488]

6 minutes ago, Longhornlove said:

Their lines are better than ours, this game is often won or lost in the trenches. Those losses were great examples of getting your ass whooped on the line of scrimmage.

We have what we have right now.

You don't hear Iowa State or Kansas State bitch about talent, and they are truly at a deficit to the OUs of the world. They often line up and whip their opponent because that's what they are determined to do.

[Burt Macklin 19230]

7 minutes ago, Longhornlove said:

I disagree, this offensive line is an embarrassment to offensive lines across the country. The pass blocking is as bad as I have ever seen here. Gone are the days of run only offenses dominating. Our WR room as a whole is as bad as ever. Our running backs make the line look much better than they are.

 

4 minutes ago, Longhornlove said:

Their lines are better than ours, this game is often won or lost in the trenches. Those losses were great examples of getting your ass whooped on the line of scrimmage.

If our OL performance was strictly due to talent and not any fault of coaching, then you’d have a point, but it’s not. Oklahoma State does not have more talent on the OL and DL than us, especially with Ford out at DE for them. They might have played better, but that doesn’t mean they’re more talented.

Against Arkansas, playing light boxes against a heavy run team with Jett Bush at 4i and our OL not being coached well enough to even execute the play or handle a 3 man rush with 5 made the talent gap seem way bigger than it actually is. 

[Longhornlove 5211]

Oh, so our offensive line dominated a fucking terrible Colorado team and a KSU defense that was decimated by injuries and covid so that means they are talented.........BS. I'm not saying this is all on the players or coaches but let's not pretend this team is talented because it isn't on the line of scrimmage and that is where it starts. PK was left with shit LB talent and no pass rush. Sark and flood overestimated the talent available on the OL and now he is paying the price. Not much he can do about either this season. DL has definitely under performed, that is on the coaches. I think few thought the O line would be stellar but believed the last 2 games showed promise. That was bad opponents leading to false hope.

Edited October 21, 2021 by Longhornlove

[Reynolds Woodcock 5098]

2 hours ago, Burt Macklin said:

1 yard in the fourth quarter against OSU is a coaching deficiency, not a talent deficiency. 

The entire OSU game is a massive fucking red flag for the Sark era.

Arkansas sucked, but I could talk myself into forgiving the performance since it was the second game of his tenure, on the road at night, and he made a quarterback changed that seemed to pay dividends.  OU, I was fucking pissed, but the offense looked so fucking incredible in the first half, I was willing to concede that perhaps our offensive line is so bad that there is only so much smoke and mirrors to help us score.  But OSU is clearly a worse team than us in almost every respect, and losing that game at home in the fashion we did (on our biggest recruiting weekend no less) is just indefensible. 

Maybe he learns from the losses and it works out. I hope so for my own sanity, but also because he seems like a nice guy and this offense when clicking is beautiful to watch. But there are bright, flashing warning signs at the moment. 

[Gut Wagon 8219]

It's quite possible to be somewhat lacking in talent AND haphazardly coached. Which I where I see us right now. 

[Longhornlove 5211]

The coaching sucks and so do the players, there, it's over. Yay us, lets move on.

[elguapo 4620]

6 minutes ago, Burt Macklin said:

 

If our OL performance was strictly due to talent and not any fault of coaching, then you’d have a point, but it’s not. Oklahoma State does not have more talent on the OL and DL than us, especially with Ford out at DE for them. They might have played better, but that doesn’t mean they’re more talented.

 

Sure our OL has more raw talent than the OSU DL, but not sure why that is even relevant at this point. It's clear from watching our OL perform this season that the talent hasn't been developed at all. So who is mostly to blame for that? Sark and Flood who have been here all of ~10 months, or the previous staff that had years to recruit and develop these players?

[Michael Knight 13224]

2 hours ago, SydneyCarton said:

No, we told you to STOP saying dumb shit. You're basing the above statement on...what, exactly? It certainly isn't the myriad of assignment busts we've seen, bad situational playcalling we've seen, or the fact that these players don't seem to be noticeably improving (being coached up)...so tell me again why the coaching can't be that fucking bad, again?

Lots of guys can have great coaching resumes, go somewhere, and suck. Also we can suck for multiple different reasons at once that come together and combine an epic shit stew of suckery. It doesn't have to be "just coaching" or "just talent." 

Personally, I think our players are shitty because of a combination of multiple shitty coaches over multiple years creating soft mental toughness and just general roster ruin, COMBINED with the fact that the coaching thus far...has not been fucking stellar. If we'd finished off 2 of the last 3 games, I bet players would have bought in and maybe be improving. But we didn't, much of it due to really bad coaching choices, and you know what? The same roster of guys who've literally seen this shit before (IT'S A PATTERN!) are probably tapping out yet again. And while I won't go so far to say I don't blame them, I can kind of understand it. You ask guys to buy into something new only lasts so long as the results are actually, you know, are new results.

I mean we literally have 0 linebackers on the team, that seems like it would impact the defense especially the run defense. Our DBs are overall bad but the DL is getting almost no pressure. We've recruited good players on DL in the past but 0 pass rushers.

[Tex-19 3013]

People keep equating “talent” to recruiting (ie ability coming out of hs). On that front, yeah only OU matched us.

But what really matters is recruiting talent AND developing it. Herman’s staff failed badly at the second part. Elite high school talent is worthless if they don’t get better. It’s why true freshman almost never do shit anywhere. 

So idk but it’s very possible that the individual players at Ark or OSU are truly better than ours. They’ve been developed. Ex: Foster was a 5 star “talent” but does anyone think he’s better than Jalen Catalon? Nope. 

Oh and development takes years. This staff has shown plenty of issues but it’s too soon to pin lack of development on them. That’s Herman. 

Edited October 21, 2021 by Tex-19

[Michael Knight 13224]

19 minutes ago, Reynolds Woodcock said:

The entire OSU game is a massive fucking red flag for the Sark era.

Arkansas sucked, but I could talk myself into forgiving the performance since it was the second game of his tenure, on the road at night, and he made a quarterback changed that seemed to pay dividends.  OU, I was fucking pissed, but the offense looked so fucking incredible in the first half, I was willing to concede that perhaps our offensive line is so bad that there is only so much smoke and mirrors to help us score.  But OSU is clearly a worse team than us in almost every respect, and losing that game at home in the fashion we did (on our biggest recruiting weekend no less) is just indefensible. 

Maybe he learns from the losses and it works out. I hope so for my own sanity, but also because he seems like a nice guy and this offense when clicking is beautiful to watch. But there are bright, flashing warning signs at the moment. 

Casey Thompson lost that game for us. He didn't get much help but he lost that game.