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2020 Texas Offseason Thread: Herman's Hail Mary

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texifornia
texifornia

Jesus, y'all win a title and still have tissue-thin skin to even gentle joking around. Woof.

honolulu horn
honolulu horn

Apex, take it somewhere else. This is a football thread, not a "don't be a pussy, my racist jokes are actually harmless and hilarious" thread.

Vertigo
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mr. sunshine

mr. sunshine 2827

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8 minutes ago, Goodman said:

That's right Bob, go get your shine box.

Now is it still Dodd’s’ job to arm Bowlsby with all the info he needs or was that passed on to Del Conte? I’m assuming Patterson lost that responsibility after that time he accidentally locked the necessary info in the glove compartment of his Pontiac Fiero

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atomheartbevo

atomheartbevo 89735

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1 hour ago, mr. sunshine said:

Now is it still Dodd’s’ job to arm Bowlsby with all the info he needs or was that passed on to Del Conte? I’m assuming Patterson lost that responsibility after that time he accidentally locked the necessary info in the glove compartment of his Pontiac Fiero

That fucker drove a Pontiac Aztek and you know it.

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texifornia

texifornia 57016

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Phil Steele Big XII preview: https://247sports.com/college/texas/LongFormArticle/Big-12-order-of-finish-predictions-Oklahoma-Texas-Oklahoma-State-TCU-Phil-Steele-149634258/#149634258_9

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2. TEXAS

Phil Steele's Take: "This year they return 16 starters including QB [Sam] Ehlinger, a deeper stable of RB's and a defense that is even more [experienced] than 9 [returning starters] with a lot of players having experience due to '19's injuries."

What 247Sports says: Few teams will be better equipped to run the ball. Ehlinger and a group of running backs that now includes 247Sports Composite five-star Bijan Robinson behind one of the Big 12's better offensive lines is a nice formula. And as Steele wrote, Texas suffered through an avalanche of injuries on defense last year that should lead to a deep, talented group on that side of the ball this year.

 

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LTtxfan

LTtxfan 49274

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https://247sports.com/college/texas/Article/Texas-Longhorns-Football-What-12-game-schedule-looks-like-after-2020-LSU-Tigers-game-canceled-149703128/

According to multiple reports, the preference of the Big 12 and commissioner Bob Bowlsby has been to play a full 12-game regular season. Marcello reported earlier Thursday that the conference was looking at multiple schedule models: 

  • nine-game conference schedule
  • 10-game conference schedule 
  • nine-plus-1 schedule 
  • 10-plus-1 schedule  
  • full 12-game schedule

Howe mentioned that UTSA already lost their Grambling game so TEXAS might be able to pick up another game by scheduling UTSA.

Now that LSU game is off, TEXAS has other options to reschedule games for that Sept 12th date

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LTtxfan

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(Full article)

What a 12-game schedule could look like for Texas in 2020

ByJEFF HOWE 14 hours ago
Quote

Texas head coach Tom Herman now has to deal with Longhorns have an open date on Sept. 12. The SEC going to a 10-game, conference-only schedule has taken the return bout of a scheduled home-and-home series with the LSU off of the slate and it’s probably going to be a while before Texas locks up with the Bayou Bengals again.

A 12-game schedule is said to be the Big 12’s preferred scheduling model. Even with LSU dropping off of the schedule, there’s a way the Longhorns can make it work, but it’s going to take some maneuvering on the part of the powers that be on the Forty Acres.

The Big 12 isn’t typically proactive on anything. As the last Power Five league to make a decision on scheduling, Texas needs to take it upon itself and revise the schedule.

And there’s a way it can work and 12 games can be scheduled in a COVID-19 world.

It starts with moving the opener to Aug. 29. The opponent ideally won’t be USF, but Herman’s team getting an extra week to test student-athletes and figure out whatever ramifications playing a game might have on player safety would be huge, to say the least.

Who would Texas play in Week 0 in this scenario? If I’m Herman, I would get with Chris Del Conte and see if at the very least the USF game can be moved to Sept. 12 (USF has an open date that week due to the cancellation of their scheduled game with Bethune-Cookman since the MEAC has postponed football in the fall).

That would give the Longhorns time to judge the COVID-19 situation in the state of Florida to see if it’s the best thing to get a group of student-athletes from a hotspot for the virus on a plane to play a game in Austin. It’s possible (due to travel concerns and not wanting to run the risk of potentially putting the integrity of conference games in jeopardy in ensuing weeks in due to the potential spread of the virus) Texas could pay USF the contracted $1.9 million to not play the game or move it to a future date down the road.

Since UTSA lost a regular-season game against Grambling on Sept. 19 due to the SWAC’s decision to postpone fall sports, Del Conte should call UTSA athletic director Lisa Campos and see if first-year head coach Jeff Traylor and the Roadrunners would want to travel up IH-35 at the end of August to play a game. Not only is UTSA in the University of Texas system (meaning UT would have a much better feel for the protocols the Roadrunners are working with daily), but the unknown variable of the impact of a game on the potential spread of COVID-19 seems much more controllable with UTSA as the opponent since the UT brass would, in theory, have a much better idea of what’s happening in San Antonio as opposed to Tampa, Fla.

Adding to the intrigue is UTSA is expected to lose a $1.4 million payday due to the SEC’s decision since the Roadrunners were due to play LSU in Baton Rouge on Sept. 5.

Those things add up to Texas playing a non-conference home schedule where it would host UTSA (Aug. 29), USF (Sept. 12) and UTEP (Sept. 19) in this worst-case hypothetical scenario if the Big 12 gives the green light for teams to schedule three non-conference games. No matter what the conference decides, the Longhorns need to have their ducks in a row and follow the lead of Kansas (added an Aug. 29 game with Southern Illinois) and Oklahoma (Missouri State game moved to Aug. 29), who didn’t wait on the Big 12 to make a decision regarding the structure of their respective non-conference schedules.

 

I believe a 9 game B12 conference schedule plus 2 non-conf games is most likely...

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LTtxfan

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Bowlsby SUCKS!!!

https://247sports.com/college/texas/LongFormArticle/Texas-Longhorns-Football-COVID-19-Big-12-indecision-2020-season-SEC-conference-only-schedule-BYU-Cougars-plus-one-model-149713870/#149713870_9

Big 12 indecision leaves Texas, others facing unsavory options

ByJEFF HOWE 11 hours ago

When the ACC appeared to change course Wednesday by putting off a decision as to what to do with football schedules only to unveil an 11-game slate for the league’s 14 members (10 conference games with one non-conference game to be played within the state of the member institution) later in the day, the SEC acted. Blindsided by the ACC’s move, as Brandon Marcello of 247Sports reported, the SEC announced Thursday that the league would go to a 10-game, conference-only schedule in 2020.

Through it all, the Big 12 stood by and waited.

And waited…

And waited…

And waited…

The end result has been the loss of every significant non-conference game the Big 12 had left on the docket.

Texas doesn’t get a trip to Baton Rouge to potentially get revenge in a grudge match with LSU.

Oklahoma’s blockbuster non-conference battle where it was to host Tennessee won’t happen.

Kansas State won’t welcome Vanderbilt to town and Baylor’s meeting in Houston with Ole Miss is off. The possibility of a potential Southwest Conference revival with Arkansas, TCU, Texas A&M and Texas Tech needing non-conference games is no longer in the cards either.

The Big 12, as usual, couldn’t be bothered to treat an urgent situation proactively. 

As of Thursday morning, the conference was intent on waiting until Monday to sort things out, all while sending out materials to media members ahead of Big 12 media day, which was to take place the same day. The one-day online event has since been canceled, but commissioner Bob Bowlsby went on the Paul Finebaum Show following the SEC’s announcement to say the Big 12, in essence, remains in no hurry to come to a conclusion as to what the 2020 season will look like for the conference’s 10 members.

Bowlsby said the Big 12 doesn't have to make a scheduling decision Monday, which comes three days after league members Kansas and Oklahoma begin preseason practice.   “We’ll have a board meeting next Monday, which we do every two weeks,” Bowlsby said. "And the board has everything in front of them that they need to consider schedule formats and some other things relative to the season. But whether or not they choose to act at this next meeting is not known at this point, that’s gonna be up to their discretion. They’re going to have questions about the materials that are unanswered at the time of the meeting. So we’ll work our way through it. There’s a lot happening and we think that it’s important to get the regular season, conference-portion of our schedule absolutely right, and we’ll see what happens with the rest of it.”

The indecision in this situation hurts the perception of the conference as much or more than any verdict that’s failed to have been rendered since things settled down following conference realignment a decade ago. The ACC and Big Ten (the first Power Five league to announce a conference-only schedule format in early July) were proactive adapting to a college football landscape changing rapidly due to the COVID-19 pandemic and while the Pac-12 and SEC reacted to those decisions, those leagues looked out for themselves at the end of the day.

What the Big 12 is left with now is nothing but trying to figure out which bad idea is the best one to go with moving forward. Not that the other leagues are in ideal situations, but the Big 12 is in a position where no amount of lipstick slapped on the snout of this pig will change the growing negative perception of how things unfolded.

It’s a stretch to even suggest it’s a pipedream that Texas or any of the league’s other members might be able to connect on a Hail Mary and get an ACC program on the books for a non-conference game. While the Longhorns having never faced Clemson or Florida State would make for potentially intriguing meetings in a one-off scenario, traveling to South Carolina or Florida seems counterproductive to taking all precautions necessary when it comes to following health protocols and doing what it takes to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

A hypothetical 12-game schedule for Texas is feasible, but like what the rest of the Big 12 is forced to try and make work, it would be three games with Group of Five foes. Even though everyone in the Lone Star State is chomping at the bit for football, there’s no sex appeal (and nothing that will move the needle in the eyes of the College Football Playoff selection committee) to be found in a schedule featuring USF, UTEP and a Conference USA program such as Rice or UTSA currently in search of a game lost due to the SEC’s reshuffling (the Owls and Roadrunners, like the Longhorns, were scheduled to play LSU in 2020).

One scenario being kicked around message board and social media is adding BYU to the Big 12 for one year, similar to what the ACC did with Notre Dame to give everyone 10 conference games without playing someone twice. The Cougars, however, don’t bring all that much juice with them since they aren’t on the same level as the Fighting Irish when it comes to their status as an FBS independent in addition to the Kalani Sitake era producing only a 27-25 record, which includes a 7-12 mark in games against P5 opponents.

Perhaps it would be the most on-brand act for the Big 12 if a 10-game conference schedule (even if there’s a plus-1 included with a G5 opponent to match the ACC’s 11 games) included completing the league’s nine-game round-robin and then playing someone twice. For Texas, playing Baylor twice would make sense from a travel perspective, but what if the league decides in a strange year for the sport that the Red River Showdown should be played twice (potentially three times) with one game in Norman and one in Austin?

As crazy as that sounds, that scenario is probably being kicked around since all the Big 12 has left to do is grab bag for something of substance. From the time the pandemic derailed everyone’s spring plans, the Big 12 has felt a step behind, beginning in March when the league was late to the party to give conference members the green light to conduct virtual meetings and direction on what materials they could send student-athletes off on their own with campuses closed.

Oklahoma’s Lincoln Riley didn’t agree with the decision (or lack thereof) and Tom Herman was right there with him in voicing his displeasure for how slow the conference office was to act.

“I think when we look back on this in the fall, hopefully, if we are able to play a season, a week or two in March is not going to be that big of a deal,” Herman said on a March 30 teleconference with reporters. “But I do wish that our conference had been in line with the other conferences that were allowing that.”

“The one thing that has me and other coaches in the Big 12 a little bit upset and a little bit confused is the ability to send your players workout equipment and tracking devices, things of that nature,” he added. “They've really restricted that moving forward, but yet other conferences have had two weeks of shipping that stuff out to their players. Are they going to make those players send it back? So we've got to figure out how to level the playing field as far as that's concerned.”

The Big 12 had a chance to put the league in a prime spot to be ready to roll in the fall, but Kansas and Oklahoma, for instance, will begin preseason practice Friday with no earthly idea what things will look like beyond the day on the practice field.

Consider the inaction par for the course for a league that always seems to be a step behind everyone else. 

 

 

Edited by LTtxfan
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