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2021 Texas Offseason: Sark Attacks Austin

texifornia

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texifornia

texifornia 57162

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The staff is still being sewn up, but we need a spot to put non-coaching staff news as well as all the fresh, delicious burnt orange kool-aid we need to tide us over until Spring Practice starts.

Will Torre Becton instill a new, tougher mentality in the players, that along with a new advanced strength training and conditioning paradigm means everyone is tougher, stronger and faster than the 9.95ers have ever seen?

Will our offense be more multiple, more electric, and more thoughtfully designed to create big plays?

Will our defense be acting more and thinking less? Will they be hard-nosed and ready to crash down on the football?

The answer throughout the period this thread covers will be an emphatic "yes, as far as any of us know". So let's get to it.

 

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Just leaving this here for posterity.

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There are longstanding rumors that Chip Brown is your typical old school sports reporter. By that, I mean he's allegedly a degenerate gambler and alcoholic. There's a longstanding rumor that Chip

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mr. sunshine

mr. sunshine 2833

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2 minutes ago, texifornia said:

The staff is still being sewn up, but we need a spot to put non-coaching staff news as well as all the fresh, delicious burnt orange kool-aid we need to tide us over until Spring Practice starts.

Will Torre Becton instill a new, tougher mentality in the players, that along with a new advanced strength training and conditioning paradigm means everyone is tougher, stronger and faster than the 9.95ers have ever seen?

Will our offense be more multiple, more electric, and more thoughtfully designed to create big plays?

Will our defense be acting more and thinking less? Will they be hard-nosed and ready to crash down on the football?

The answer throughout the period this thread covers will be an emphatic "yes, as far as any of us know". So let's get to it.

 

TexasCheers_1.JPG?itok=UA0Y4p_X

After removing the “ifs” and question marks from your post I’ve decided it’s never too early to chug preseason koolaid.

Also never noticed all the camel toe on the pom squad but I won’t make that mistake going forward 

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BigHorn'13

BigHorn'13 3387

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22 hours ago, A’Dam Psycho said:

Something feels different about this hire. I can’t really put my finger on it. Maybe because Sark is not the media darling coaching prophet hire like the last two. I’m drinking the koolaid

At the very least, it's nice to be somewhat reasonably hopeful again. Twas only a season for me but feels more like the continuation of the past decade it was. 

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Jimbaround

Jimbaround 975

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Something feels different about this hire. I can’t really put my finger on it. Maybe because Sark is not the media darling coaching prophet hire like the last two. I’m drinking the koolaid

I am encouraged by the fact we’re not hiring a head coach from a smaller program. With both Strong and Herman they brought their small program coaches and waited too long to cut bait when they didn’t work out. Sark can’t just take all of Saban’s guys so he’ll have to build up his staff from scratch (for the most part).

Hopefully we won’t have to deal with loyalty to a fault like in the recent HC hires.
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satyanash

satyanash 14638

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Ian Boyd: The Sark clinic

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A Sark clinic I think many of us have seen some clips from has now been posted in full on YouTube.

Some key nuggets I noticed. First of all, me and Sark are clearly simpatico on the nature of modern offense and the current state of the give and take with offense and defense. The foundation of his offense is the RPO game. Defenses respond to that by playing safeties shallower and sitting on the runs and quick passes, so they have a collection of play-action passes (play-pass is the preferred nomenclature today) designed to look like RPOs but actually intended to give longer protection so they can throw double moves and post routes.

Defenses inevitably react by playing more man coverage to deny easy RPO releases or guys running free, so they have drop back passes designed to beat man coverage. They run mesh, smash, and constantly have guys running crossing routes underneath to punish man coverage. A couple of Sark quotes from this clinic illustrate the thinking here:

"Not everything has to be vertical, vertical, vertical. I will say, I'm a firm believer, and sometimes people will laugh at me...I don't like throwing the ball to a stationary target. Because I'm as slow or I'm as fast as Julio Jones at that moment."... "You're trying to defend RPOs. How are you gonna defend RPOs? Play man-to-man. Okay, if you're going to play man to man I'm going to run away from you."..."I haven't called a curl route all year. Why would I?"

Notre Dame tried to play them in Cover 3, which he notes is a rarity today, and Bama did exactly what he said back in this clinic they'd do against such an approach. They threw RPOs underneath all day to wide open guys and wore the Irish out because they couldn't close and tackle Devonta Smith in space. Defenses have been employing man and tight match coverage over the course of this decade because they realized you can't survive allowing a team to throw bubble and now screens to a guy like Devonta Smith, it's way too easy for the offense.  But the lethality of Sarkisian's play-pass concepts throwing down the field forced Notre Dame to say "well...we're going to have to try."

The other option is to sit in Cover 2, which Sark promised to attack by staying consistent with the run game. This is the potential weak spot in the offense and where tonight's matchup will be interesting. Against both of these teams, just like against Southlake Carroll in the 6A semi-final this weekend, the inevitable conclusion is to make the offense beat you by sustaining drives with the run game. As Sark himself notes in this clinic,

"The game is about explosive plays, if you can't create explosive plays it is really hard on offense. I don't care if it's in little league or in the NFL. To put 10 to 12 plays together successfully in a row without one of your guys screwing it up is really hard to do."

It's a good thing Texas has some young athletes on the offensive line and Bijan Robinson. Sark's goal will obviously be to establish RPOs in the Texas offense along with their play-pass shots and drop back plays in order to make it extremely difficult for opponents to do anything but sit back and hope Bijan can't beat them all day long. This is game theory and something I suggested would be the foundation of the Texas offense back in 2019, and it was to a point but Texas clearly didn't trust or develop their receivers enough to lean into it. Tom Herman's fallback was always the quarterback run game and having the extra numbers in the box to run the ball. Sark is the polar opposite here.

"We are not a running quarterback team, we will not ever be that way. We believe in throwing the football and protecting the quarterback." Obviously with guys who could run like Tua Tagovailoa and Jake Locker, Sark would use the quarterback run game at times. I doubt he completely fails to utilize Casey Thompson or Hudson Card, both of whom are dangerous runners on the edge. However, it will never be the offense's go to solution and don't expect Sark to make dual-threat attributes a priority in recruiting.

He mentions in the clinic how his programs dove into the RPO game back at Washington after Locker graduated because the next man up was Keith Price. Sark explains how Price was a phenomenal high school point guard who could distribute and make quick decisions, so they installed the RPO game to lean into his strengths. Now it's the foundation of the offense because the run game is still the foundation of the Sark offense and RPOs are the most efficient way to run the football on a down to down basis.

Now here's the rub. He pauses at one point in the clinic to diss defensive coaches for emphasizing base defense and stopping two-back power as the foundation of their systems when those are not plays or systems they really need to worry about. Yet he also repeatedly emphasizes football will always be a physical game and clearly understands the modern RPO/spread world as being similar to nuclear armament. You make your attacks as "nuclear" as possible and eventually conflict just turns back into gritty, mano a mano ball in the trenches and the mud again because it's too dangerous to do things the new way.

That's fine as far as it goes, but eventually defenses will set traps and "defend in depth" like Iowa State does with their 3-3-5 "flyover defense." What happens when the defense wants you to run the football and are building their strategy around the assumption you will do so while utilizing and developing tactics designed to stymie your ability to score while running the ball? Now you either need to be able to throw the ball anyways or you need to still have the power run game in your back pocket to consistently win across the field and punch the ball in when you reach the red zone. I think Sark understands this and will always want to have the power run game as a trump card. The Big 12 will do its damndest to challenge him on this point.

One thing I'll be watching tonight is whether or not Ohio State properly understands this new reality and has a plan to make Alabama beat them down the field in the run game and then finish drives with points. A couple of other nuggets:

- I'm learning from hearing multiple pronunciations now when the letter "a" is followed by the letter "g" in these Polynesian names that it creates an "ong" sound. So Tagovailoa sounds like Tonga-vai-loa and Uiagalelei like You-ong-a-la-lay. Maybe this is already obvious to everyone else, I don't consistently listen to broadcasts when I watch games so I might be late here. If I'm still a little off someone let me know but I found that helpful in mastering these new names. Kinda like a few years back when we were all figuring how to handle the silent N's at the beginning of Nigerian names.

- Sark runs a fairly simple drop back passing system. He emphasizes it's true progression-based passing. Route one: Open? Throw. Not open? Go to route two. Route two: Open? Throw. Not open? Go to route three."

- He also mentions back in this clinic before the season how Tagovailoa is an absolute maestro on RPOs and could signal adjustments of his own accord to the wide receivers but wasn't as effective in true progressions whereas Mac Jones was good at consistently going through his options. Personally I had a lot of doubts about how Tagovailoa would translate to the NFL where drop back passing is a bigger deal. It's' hard to know how Mac Jones will respond here when he isn't getting so much time to throw but he's a different guy.

- Part one of the quarterback battle this spring will be who handles the RPO game best. Then who can hurt teams throwing down the field on the play-pass concepts. Obviously Casey Thompson flashed more potential against Colorado than many of us (certainly me) really anticipated. My guess though is he may win the job initially but I wonder if he'll hold off Hudson Card down the line. Thompson has some background with RPOs that will help him, Card is theoretically great at most anything but we haven't seen much of it yet in burnt orange. We'll see how things go.

- Power is essential at running back these days, not explosiveness. The nature of the game now is having a running game that can consistently move the chains when teams are playing off to stop deep passing. Like I've noted, this is pro-style Briles. The Briles Bears would regularly field bruisers who could power downhill off tackle like Terrance Ganaway. Najee Harris excels at subtle movements and making the right reads and consistent gains, Stan Drayton excels at teaching this. Bijan Robinson will excel there as well, even though he obviously has some explosiveness to him Texas won't discourage.

Even if Texas uses a scat back in the future I expect them to always maintain a power back in the stable, much like the dynamic USC had with Reggie Bush and LenDale White.

- Their play-pass blocking scheme is pretty terrific and a key to their success there. They basically start like they're blocking the run only to back off into protection and use the running back to pick up any blitzer the run blocking assignments don't account for.

- Sark seems to have a nice blend of confidence and firm conviction in who he is and what he teaches but countered by a touch of humility resulting from his fall from grace at USC combined with a coaching career in which he's sat at the feet of people like Norm Chow, Pete Carroll, Norv Turner, and Nick Saban. He mentions he tells his kid to go to Mater Dei and play at the highest level, whether he's able to start there or not. Sark comes across as a guy who believes in being tempered by fire and competing at the highest level, which you certainly like to see from someone taking a job like Texas.

 

 

 

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satyanash

satyanash 14638

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(Bobby Burton) Monday: The Alabama offense

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Texas fans will surely be watching the Alabama offense with careful attention tonight during the national championship game. Bama is loaded with skill talent, from running back to receiver and quarterback, and even to the tight end position. Then there's an offensive line that some are describing as the best ever in Alabama history. The Bama offensive play-caller, of course, is Steve Sarkisian, who is expected to land in Austin on Tuesday to begin his duties as Longhorns coach full-time. Just how prolific is this Alabama offense that Sarkisian led?

- Bama finished No. 6 in total offense averaging 535 yards per game.

- Bama scored the most touchdowns of any offense in college football, with 72.

- Bama ranked No. 1 in the country in third-down conversion percentage at 59.3%.

- Alabama led the nation in passing efficiency.

- Alabama led the nation in first downs.

Here are a few deeper stats with what I think are interesting comparisons.

- Mac Jones had the highest completion percentage in the country at 77% and finished second in passing yardage (4,036). By comparison, OU's Spencer Rattler threw for 1,000 yards less than Jones this season (3,031).

- Tide running back Najee Harris finished the year No. 1 in the country in rushing yards with 1,572 on 229 attempts. Harris' 229 attempts is more than all three Texas running backs of Bijan Robinson, Roschon Johnson and Keaontay Ingram (the group combined for 219 carries).

- Heisman winner Devonta Smith led the nation in receptions (105), receiving touchdowns (20), and receiving yardage (1644). But Bama is far from a one-man receiving show. Three Alabama receivers had more catches than the highest Longhorn (Josh Moore had 30 receptions to lead the Longhorns), including Smith (105), John Metchie (47), and Harris (36).

- Alabama's red zone offense No. 9 in the country. But the numbers are actually more impressive than that. Bama scored a TD 77% of the time they entered an opponents red zone. For comparison, OU scored a TD 67% of the time and Texas scored a TD 66% of the time.

**

Despite all of those impressive stats for Alabama, I fully expect Ohio State to put up some serious offensive numbers tonight, too. The Buckeyes have impressive receivers, an impressive quarterback and a solid group along the offensive line. And running back Trey Sermon, a transfer from Oklahoma, is eating up yardage in the run game. This will be the most complete offense that Alabama's defense faces this season.

Alabama's defense meanwhile has been up and down this season. And remember, Florida scored 46 points against this Alabama D less than a month ago. If I knew Justin Fields were 100-percent healthy, I'd even be inclined to pick Ohio State in this game. Likewise, if I knew for sure that Alabama receiver Jaylen Waddle would be 100-percent for the Crimson Tide, I'd stick with Bama.

I don't know which way tonight's game will go. I lean toward Alabama. They have more experience and more of an identity of who they are on both offense and defense, whereas Ohio State seems to just be figuring that out based on the number of games they have played this season. However, one thing is for sure, there will be a lot of firepower on both sides. So enjoy watching Steve Sarkisian in action tonight, and enjoy college football's final game of this weird season.

 

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jinx

jinx 2635

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1 hour ago, LTtxfan said:

 

Agree you're chugging, and it's a good article...

 

So starting your first meeting with "Sit the fuck up!" may not be the best way to start your tenure as a coach with today's college football players?  Who knew?

Seems like Sark has the right attitude for the job.  Maybe he can bring his own version of "the process."

I never, ever, ever root for Bama unless they are playing aggy.  But I will root for Sark.

I've blown off my steam for this coaching search, and I'm ready to be optimistic that this is the right coaching staff.  It is better than the alternative.  We are due to win this conference at some point.  Herman stockpiled the talent to do it.  Now we just need a coaching staff.  I sure as hell hope Sark is bringing that to the 40.

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jinx

jinx 2635

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2 hours ago, satyanash said:

- Tide running back Najee Harris finished the year No. 1 in the country in rushing yards with 1,572 on 229 attempts. Harris' 229 attempts is more than all three Texas running backs of Bijan Robinson, Roschon Johnson and Keaontay Ingram (the group combined for 219 carries).

- Heisman winner Devonta Smith led the nation in receptions (105), receiving touchdowns (20), and receiving yardage (1644). But Bama is far from a one-man receiving show. Three Alabama receivers had more catches than the highest Longhorn (Josh Moore had 30 receptions to lead the Longhorns), including Smith (105), John Metchie (47), and Harris (36).

Both of these stats are absolutely infuriating as a Texas fan, especially the first one.  Foreman is the only Longhorn to break the 1,000 yard rushing barrier in the last decade.  Sarkisian has had one every year as a head coach.  Let's get back to that instead of running our QB 20 times a game.

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UncleSonny

UncleSonny 6573

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God dammit, I wish we were put in a position to overachieve over preseason expectations as opposed to get clowned for being overrated again. At least until we actually prove it on the field.

https://watchstadium.com/brett-mcmurphys-top-25-college-football-rankings-for-2021-01-11-2021/

That said, once you get past about the top 5 you can put the rest of the list in pretty much any order and justify it. Insane how top heavy college football has gotten.

 

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Lhorn

Lhorn 4968

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God dammit, I wish we were put in a position to overachieve over preseason expectations as opposed to get clowned for being overrated again. At least until we actually prove it on the field.
 

I hear ya. The difficult truth is we’ve frequently been judged preseason on almost a best case scenario and haven’t lived up to it at all. I believe Bijan to be everything we’ve seen of him and with a staff that tailors the offense to him, he’ll meet and exceed expectations. I’m not convinced Casey is the guy we saw in the last game not because I question his ability but just because he’s only done it one game and who really knows how good Colorado was. Can he make those throws against OU in a shootout? Upside is that hopefully the run game will make his life easier than Sam had it.
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