2021 Texas spring football thread

[victory88 5,669]

Put Bijan in gawd damn bubble wrap.  I saw enough from his break out run where he spun, juked, and stiff armed a defender in one run.  Some guys have elite traits and Bijan and Jordan Whittington both have it.  Put them in bubble wrap because I'm worried what this offense will look without those two players

[Askew 362]

2 minutes ago, victory88 said:

Put Bijan in gawd damn bubble wrap.  I saw enough from his break out run where he spun, juked, and stiff armed a defender in one run.  Some guys have elite traits and Bijan and Jordan Whittington both have it.  Put them in bubble wrap because I'm worried what this offense will look without those two players

I can agree with Bijan (although sounds like his vision is getting better and better).

But it's pretty clear now that Whit has been on a longer timeline in regaining his HS athleticism after the multiple hernia surgeries and the meniscus tear last year. Pretty stiff last year. He needs every live rep he can get at this point just to keep recovering his fast-twitch muscle and his instinctual athleticism when people are flying around. Offseason conditioning cant really replicate that. 

 

 

[Texasrocks 2,134]

3 hours ago, Machinator said:

(Super K) Casey Thompson | Starting to Stand out | Sourced

  Reveal hidden contents

***We had been hearing that things were pretty even on the quarterback battle front. In fact, if anything I had heard Hudson may have been a bit better.

***But I’m told in the scrimmage, this past Saturday, Casey Thompson, “looked the best, by far”.

***Told that Hudson threw a pick-six. Also, of note was told the pick-six was thrown to another Thompson…Josh Thompson. Word is he has been incredible in spring ball.

***Basically source said that if Casey continues where he left off Saturday, he will be the dude.

***I think it is interesting that throughout the time Casey has been at Texas, you never really hear him standing out as a practice guy. But, man, it seems when the bullets are live, something happens and he shows out.

***Also, was told Bijan Robinson has taken another step. Was told “instincts are unreal. It’s like he is able to see where a defender is going to be before the defender has made a decision to be there”.

 

[takes a swig of koolaid]... Big deal. Who cares that Card has to wait until the second quarter to play?

[Bevo14 8,334]

3 hours ago, Machinator said:

(Super K) Casey Thompson | Starting to Stand out | Sourced

  Hide contents

***We had been hearing that things were pretty even on the quarterback battle front. In fact, if anything I had heard Hudson may have been a bit better.

***But I’m told in the scrimmage, this past Saturday, Casey Thompson, “looked the best, by far”.

***Told that Hudson threw a pick-six. Also, of note was told the pick-six was thrown to another Thompson…Josh Thompson. Word is he has been incredible in spring ball.

***Basically source said that if Casey continues where he left off Saturday, he will be the dude.

***I think it is interesting that throughout the time Casey has been at Texas, you never really hear him standing out as a practice guy. But, man, it seems when the bullets are live, something happens and he shows out.

***Also, was told Bijan Robinson has taken another step. Was told “instincts are unreal. It’s like he is able to see where a defender is going to be before the defender has made a decision to be there”.

 

Seems like RBs usually make a huge leap from year 1 to year 2.

 

 

[Fud 9,552]

Fwiw, an insider elsewhere is saying that Wright actually threw the pick-six to Josh Thompson, not Card, and that neither Card nor Casey threw an INT

[closetojumping 62,746]

 

2 hours ago, Askew said:

I can agree with Bijan (although sounds like his vision is getting better and better).

But it's pretty clear now that Whit has been on a longer timeline in regaining his HS athleticism after the multiple hernia surgeries and the meniscus tear last year. Pretty stiff last year. He needs every live rep he can get at this point just to keep recovering his fast-twitch muscle and his instinctual athleticism when people are flying around. Offseason conditioning cant really replicate that. 

 

 

Maybe less medical help and a little bit more body fat will serve Whittington well. He's not competing for bodybuilding competition, so it seems to make sense that he shouldn't be training that way. 

[BigHorn'13 3,369]

The running game should be ridiculous this season. Bijan is Bijan. Thompson has wheels. Johnson will be channeling his inner Cody and delivering "faces full of Johnson." Young, who'd start for more than half the conference, excels in short yardage and is far from a liability, should he have to come in. You add in the kid from Halletsville and the D2(or 3?) leading rusher from 2 years ago, who hasn't even put Burnt Orange on yet, and our running game should look unfair in more than half the games. 

If we start hearing about another receiver steadily adding to Whittington's threat as a playmaker, I'll be keg standing koolaid.

10 wins is absolutely the minimum and I would go insofar as to say conference championship appearance.

'20s are about to FAAFO.

[Red Five 40,862]

16 minutes ago, Fud said:

Fwiw, an insider elsewhere is saying that Wright actually threw the pick-six to Josh Thompson, not Card, and that neither Card nor Casey threw an INT

I saw the clip somewhere and it was definitely Wright. 

[Eugene11 379]

5 minutes ago, Red Five said:

I saw the clip somewhere and it was definitely Wright. 

so does that mean that whomever is paying $9.95 gets a refund for the month?.....

[Bevo14 8,334]

2 minutes ago, Eugene11 said:

so does that mean that whomever is paying $9.95 gets a refund for the month?.....

I'm still riding out the free extension they gave me.  Does that mean they're going to pay me 9.95? Does that make me a 995er?

 

[Bevo 13,579]

8 minutes ago, BigHorn'13 said:

The running game should be ridiculous this season. Bijan is Bijan. Thompson has wheels. Johnson will be channeling his inner Cody and delivering "faces full of Johnson." Young, who'd start for more than half the conference, excels in short yardage and is far from a liability, should he have to come in. You add in the kid from Halletsville and the D2(or 3?) leading rusher from 2 years ago, who hasn't even put Burnt Orange on yet, and our running game should look unfair in more than half the games. 

I wonder if Sark has put some crazy wrinkles into his standard offense. I would laugh my ass off if we marched down the field against OU running the option with Thompson at QB. We have the RB, QB and OL to do it but to do it well requires a lot of practice. So it won't happen unfortunately: Great fantasy though.

 

7 minutes ago, Red Five said:

I saw the clip somewhere and it was definitely Wright. 

Reverse Katfid - Fatkid.

[Hank_Hill 18,879]

24 minutes ago, closetojumping said:

 

Maybe less medical help and a little bit more body fat will serve Whittington well. He's not competing for bodybuilding competition, so it seems to make sense that he shouldn't be training that way. 

Generally I think this point is overplayed as there are many rocked up dudes in football that aren't made of glass. But yea in his case flexibility is clearly a problem, you can just see it in the way he runs. Losing a bit of muscle mass would definitely help. 

[Machinator 32,099]

Andre Coleman coaching up the receivers: https://www.instagram.com/p/CNkkinJB_k_/

[Machinator 32,099]

 

[Askew 362]

1 hour ago, closetojumping said:

 

Maybe less medical help and a little bit more body fat will serve Whittington well. He's not competing for bodybuilding competition, so it seems to make sense that he shouldn't be training that way. 

Yeah I am pretty much operating under the assumption that Whit has gotten the correct medical help, and S&C is putting him in the right place to avoid further injury and compete next year (both body composition and conditioning). 

With that assumption, my main point is just that Whit needs live reps to get his athleticism and confidence back. Judging by how he looked last year, his body has either not gotten its full athleticism back, or he's in self-protection mode and is holding himself back to avoid further injury. So to overcome these things, he just needs to be out there playing full speed.

If he needs bubble wrap just to survive an offseason where he's not dealing with any type of nagging injury, then he might be too snake bit to be a football player. 

 

[Askew 362]

Are we still doing look-alikes? 

 

[TexMexBuddha 988]

Are we still doing look-alikes? 
 

Winner, winner, chicken dinner!

[TexMexBuddha 988]

Are we still doing look-alikes? 
 

He was in that movie Push.
We can have fun with below though...

[Coach pop a bitch 5,471]

Is that the dude that had his shit pushed in? 

[BornOrange 1,441]

1 hour ago, Bevo said:

I wonder if Sark has put some crazy wrinkles into his standard offense. I would laugh my ass off if we marched down the field against OU running the option with Thompson at QB. We have the RB, QB and OL to do it but to do it well requires a lot of practice. So it won't happen unfortunately: Great fantasy though.

The best part of that would be Charles Thompson's son running the option against OU.

[Askew 362]

I also like Cliff Curtis because--setting aside Training Day being a top-10 movie--I like to think of the bathroom scene as a tidy little metaphor for Sark running Herman out of town.      

[Rimbo 25,976]

On 4/10/2021 at 10:40 AM, Machinator said:

 

Inject this directly into my veins.

On 4/10/2021 at 10:41 AM, Machinator said:

 

The last time we did this regularly, we won a national title. You get better at practice if you're working against your best teammates. This is a shibboleth of sorts to me, a sign of things to come...

On 4/10/2021 at 10:46 AM, Machinator said:

 

YES.

On 4/10/2021 at 6:03 PM, Machinator said:

I don't know what this is supposed to mean. Herman had a lot of faults but his teams never failed to play hard.

They absolutely failed to play hard. They played hard in the Sugar Bowl, for sure, and in a lot of games they played hard for at least 3 quarters. But you don't get a nickname like Turtle Tom if your teams are playing hard for four quarters every game.

 

[Machinator 32,099]

3 minutes ago, Rimbo said:

They absolutely failed to play hard. They played hard in the Sugar Bowl, for sure, and in a lot of games they played hard for at least 3 quarters. But you don't get a nickname like Turtle Tom if your teams are playing hard for four quarters every game.

To me, that's a reflection of playcalling and program philosophy, not individual player effort level.

[Hmmm 155]

Exactly.

[UncleSonny 6,573]

Yeah, you don't even have to give Herman any credit. Maybe it was the team leaders, assistant coaches, or we happened to have a group of guys who just generally give a shit but I never felt like our MENSA years problems were because of a lack of effort.

We constantly fought our way back into games where our own fuckups put us in huge holes. Over and over we put individual players and the team in general in positions to fail and we always seemed to fight as hard as we could to overcome our dumbass game plans and whoever our opponent happened to be. It's not lost on me that the comebacks always started when we were most desperate and just had Sam play hero ball instead of working within the confines of Tom's offense.

 

[Coelenterate Fuccboi 13,116]

19 minutes ago, Rimbo said:

They absolutely failed to play hard. They played hard in the Sugar Bowl, for sure, and in a lot of games they played hard for at least 3 quarters. But you don't get a nickname like Turtle Tom if your teams are playing hard for four quarters every game.

This is... fucking stupid. His players never quit, despite the installed governor (not enough gas throughout the game) and him (heavy braking) and Orlando shoving their heads up their asses in the 4th quarter. 

[honolulu horn 6,164]

20 minutes ago, Machinator said:

To me, that's a reflection of playcalling and program philosophy, not individual player effort level.

Agreed. Our teams had plenty of grit under Herman. Just not enough coaching and direction. 

[jdhorn92 1,552]

8 minutes ago, honolulu horn said:

Agreed. Our teams had plenty of grit under Herman. Just not enough coaching and direction. 

I credit the QB for that as much as anyone.  One thing for sure during Mensa years is we had good leadership.  Sam was/is a great leader and I think they played hard for him, he led by example. 

[Nope 3,114]

2 hours ago, Askew said:

Are we still doing look-alikes? 

 

Congrats on the very first legit comparison

[Mitch Cumsteen 18,550]

I never thought effort was a problem with Herman. I thought they played too tight. I thought they played stupidly. I thought the players weren't ever in the best position to succeed. But they played hard for Herman and I never thought they quit. 

[Tex48 840]

5 hours ago, Red Five said:

I saw the clip somewhere and it was definitely Wright. 

Is cole lourde in camp or is he a summer enrolle?

[Machinator 32,099]

2 minutes ago, Tex48 said:

Is cole lourde in camp or is he a summer enrolle?

Summer enrollee

[westexhorn 2,020]

Here we go

Edited April 13, 2021 by westexhorn

[Machinator 32,099]

wrong thread

Edited April 13, 2021 by Machinator

[Sgt Hulk 13,786]

4 hours ago, Askew said:

Are we still doing look-alikes? 

 

That’s actually his brother Reeve. Reeve sarkisian

[westexhorn 2,020]

 

[Machinator 32,099]

(Eric Nahlin) Monday Sundry

Spoiler

Hopefully you read @UTexasfootball and @Bobby Burton over the last 24 hours. I wanted to touch on some what they have written.

First, Coach V (UTexasfootball) makes the type of savvy inferences you’d expect from someone who has been there and done that.

The fact that we are providing real answers to our players make the game much easier for them to be successful. Teaching any given player not only how to get the job done but to emphasize ‘why’ gives him leverage in understanding any given situation. The ability to correct a problem in real time could easily save a flaw in a scheme. We are flying in practice and correcting in the film room. The game/position makes more sense when the player knows where to go and better yet, how to best proceed to that location.
 

The players are improving within practices, not just between them. Previously we were hoping to see a season-long trend line that showed improvement. Per sources, this is noticeably occurring along the offensive line and at linebacker.

The days of coaching through the four-letter word are done at Texas. There’s always a time and place for that, but it was far too common in recent years. Over time, players become deaf to that instrument, especially when they aren’t improving or experiencing success.

Part of the enthusiasm right now is rooted in them learning.

I guess it's impossible to avoid discussing the O-line in any notes from scrimmage post. I may be in the minority but I see the value in play action and motion being our friend in the passing game. It's the when and why that steadies my thinking. There is a proven track record for coach Flood taking OL above the point where he inherited them. The ability of coach Sark's to help in weak areas that give me hope and Flood is aggressive and persuasive that players buy-in to. I see more good than bad this year. We ain't barefoot in talent---we may just be slow learners in both conditioning and strategy

Play-action and motion was mentioned post-scrimmage. It’s a bit of a neutralizer between the more experienced D-line and less experienced offensive line. Ahead of the scrimmage I opined Sark might game plan a bit and he did indeed run some plays the defense hadn’t seen yet.

There are ways to help the O-line, we just didn’t see it much last year. There is a lot more bootleg action than previously, as well as RPO’s and play-action. The coaches like both quarterbacks in the boot game, though Card has impressed onlookers a bit more in this facet.

Bootlegs/RPO’s/misdirection is how an offensive line missing Christian Jones and Isaiah Hookfin can still keep its head above water in a scrimmage. Well, that and 1s vs 2s, but I digress.

From Bobby:

The defense continues to create pressure on the QB. That’s good news for the defense and bad news for the offense. The OL, at least in pass protection, has not been up to snuff at this stage. There is definite room for improvement.

Kyle Flood has been belaboring patience from the pass protectors. Let the defensive lineman come to you and don’t give him your arms. This is where Jaylen Garth might struggle but Andrej Karic is tougher to beat. Karic also has a more aggressive punch.

Garth has been working at left tackle exclusively and they like the raw materials, but raw is being used accurately.

The practice went long on Saturday, so some fatigue was setting in and play got a little sloppy at times near the end. Sark again emphasized everyone has to not let their mental game slide when they’re battling fatigue.

My guess is when Sarkisian broke down each game from last year, he didn’t see a team that quit when things got hard, but one that made game losing mistakes when it was tired.

This point Bobby mentioned is something Sark has discussed multiple times with the team.

Tangential: The players love his brutal honesty. He has told them they were a good team last year, but they could have been better and will be this year if they do the small things right in crunch time. The sentiment is, “you guys are great when you’re fresh, but show me who you are when you’re not.”

Just an aside, Sark and his staff’s internal approval rating is still through the roof.

 

[Rimbo 25,976]

12 minutes ago, Machinator said:

Just an aside, Sark and his staff’s internal approval rating is still through the roof.

yeah cuz they're actually good coaches

[jinx 2,635]

4 hours ago, Askew said:

I also like Cliff Curtis because--setting aside Training Day being a top-10 movie--I like to think of the bathroom scene as a tidy little metaphor for Sark running Herman out of town.      

Now if Steve can master the ever changing look like his predecessor, he can come with this look for the games when the team needs that gangster boost 

[UncleSonny 6,573]

29 minutes ago, Machinator said:

I may be in the minority but I see the value in play action and motion being our friend in the passing game. It's the when and why that steadies my thinking

I’m not sure this is a very controversial opinion. 

Who is Coach V? I don’t remember him being one of the posters or mods over there. Anonymous former coach/supposed amalgamation like “the big cigar” or is he a known guy?

 

[RollLeft 5,045]

5 hours ago, Askew said:

I also like Cliff Curtis because--setting aside Training Day being a top-10 movie--I like to think of the bathroom scene as a tidy little metaphor for Sark running Herman out of town.      

Dude can act. I'm sure he fooled quite a few essays and homies.  

[RollLeft 5,045]

What's the word on Casey?  Is he continuing where he left off in the bowl game?  A bit excited to see him perform.  

[Machinator 32,099]

26 minutes ago, UncleSonny said:

Who is Coach V? I don’t remember him being one of the posters or mods over there. Anonymous former coach/supposed amalgamation like “the big cigar” or is he a known guy?

 

Retired coach Mike Venable. He does the individual player grades (didn't do them in 2020).

[Rimbo 25,976]

2 hours ago, Machinator said:

My guess is when Sarkisian broke down each game from last year, he didn’t see a team that quit when things got hard, but one that made game losing mistakes when it was tired.

 

Seems like Nahlin agrees with y'all, @Machinator and @Coelenterate Fuccboi.

I am probably mistaken.

[ousux 5,597]

Fwiw, an insider elsewhere is saying that Wright actually threw the pick-six to Josh Thompson, not Card, and that neither Card nor Casey threw an INT

Thats like my friends mom accidentally adding an extra half cup of sugar to the kool aid

[ousux 5,597]

Reverse Katfid - Fatkid.

Closed practice in the bubble during bloU week...I like it.

[lazygringo 369]

9 hours ago, Red Five said:

I saw the clip somewhere and it was definitely Wright. 

So that insider report is actually complete crap and can be thrown out entirely, along with that "source".

[Napoleon 8,689]

8 hours ago, Machinator said:

 

 

I am double vaxxed and will still wear two masks... PROPERLY!

I want in the fucking spring practice!

 

 

4 hours ago, Tex48 said:

Is cole lourde in camp or is he a summer enrolle?

 

4 hours ago, Machinator said:

Summer enrollee

Cole must be a rooooyyyyyaaaaalllllll...

[JFKFC 4,890]

7 hours ago, Machinator said:

The OL, at least in pass protection, has not been up to snuff at this stage.

[Newy25 7,692]

1 hour ago, JFKFC said:

If I understood correctly, Hookfin and Jones were not in the scrimmage. Only one of the top three tackles were available.