This is who Steve Sarkisian is.

[David Dennison 18854]

Just now, troph said:

They are on the we have to have 4-5 years of stability either way side. There is an argument for that. You can’t coaching carousel 3 coaches in a row under 4 years each. I think the idea is if he builds something that underperforms the next coach can benefit from some of the stability. Plus if we bail on coaches even for good reason every 3-4 years the other programs will use it against us.

Barring a complete collapse, I think we are going to give Sark more time than many on this board are comfortable with or used to.

[tx 3 putt 76905]

4 hours ago, Sgt Hulk said:

We also fired Mack after 8-4 lol 

maybe saban and his agent will want to pinch Bama for a huge raise. They’ll need a pigeon /  ut board of regents to play along again

 

If only terry saban could find a house in Austin !!!

Edited December 30, 2022 by tx 3 putt

[Hank Chinaski 6314]

16 minutes ago, RoyalBevo21 said:

Which really is the problem at Texas, since on paper it's only Oklahoma that has equal talent..... At least on paper. Even next year, our roster is the most talented than everyone in the Big 12. Yet, the expectation is 8 wins. Wtf is that? 

I think it comes down to what we mean when we say “talent”. We throw it out there like it’s an objective thing, but I think it is nuanced and fuzzy and don’t know how to best quantify it.

Many people are really only referring to recruiting rankings from the roster. That’s an indicator, but experience also matters. QE may be more “talented” than Duggan, for example, but he was also a freshman who did a bunch of freshman shit. Worthy may seem more “talented” based on his speed, etc, but that means fuckall if he can’t catch.

We had zero players from last year’s team drafted, indicating a dearth of upper-classman talent - which you could think of as the intersection of talent and experience. Some on here act like this year’s roster was like one of Mack’s teams in terms of talent - IMO it’s not in the same galaxy as those 00s teams in terms of depth, experience, ability, etc.

Sark’s path to success depends on amassing a significant talent advantage. He can’t miss on many evals, his staff will need to develop players, and he’ll need good QB play. That’s his only shot, because he’s not going to consistently out-strategize opponents. It is doable but his margin for error isn’t wide.

Edited December 30, 2022 by Hank Chinaski

[tx 3 putt 76905]

1 hour ago, closetohumping said:

DeBoer could be good.  Traylor over McGuire for me.  

Why traylor over mcguire ?

 

mcguire is building up a nice resume and is highly highly connected to Texas hs football coaches 

[Bobby_Batronic 1994]

6 minutes ago, tx 3 putt said:

Why traylor over mcguire ?

 

mcguire is building up a nice resume and is highly highly connected to Texas hs football coaches 

At this point one has won 30 games and a conference championship at his school and the other beat Texas and won his only bowl game. Traylor is the obvious choice today. Maybe not the right one, but the obvious one. 

[Poe It Up 126]

22 minutes ago, RoyalBevo21 said:

Which really is the problem at Texas, since on paper it's only Oklahoma that has equal talent..... At least on paper. Even next year, our roster is the most talented than everyone in the Big 12. Yet, the expectation is 8 wins. Wtf is that? 

Yeah, I’m not really sure about expecting 8 wins. Bijan covered up a lot of warts. 

[satyanash 14481]

1 hour ago, Chuckie Finster said:

See, this is the type of shit that proves that this board just wants to bitch and moan without any understanding of how things really work.  Sark has personally recruited an elite swiss army knife in Keilan, arguably the top RB in Texas in Blue, and the best RB in the country in Baxter (not to mention holding on to Brooks right after getting hired).  There are conclusions to be drawn from last night, but "Sark has not recruited players talented enough to immediately resemble the two most talented football players on the roster" is... exactly what I would expect from you.

Keilan is not an 'elite' swiss army knife, and you might want to rewatch his plays this year if you're overrating him that highly. He's a pass-catcher out of the backfield and in the slot, good for not much more than 2-3 catches a game. Brooks, Blue and Baxter are the guys who will have to replace Bijan and Rojo next year, and last night wasn't much of an audition for any of them.

[Rockethorn1978 6077]

Last year: this isn’t his roster just wait!

this year: he has a freshman qb and freshman lineman!!

next year: arch is having to start and wasn’t ready cut him some slack!

the following year: arch left him and that wasn’t nice so he has a transfer portal guy it’s not his fault!!!

 

he will be gone after year 4. Book it.

[troph 24783]

25 minutes ago, David Dennison said:

Barring a complete collapse, I think we are going to give Sark more time than many on this board are comfortable with or used to.

Yep.

[ATXhorn17 1617]

I shudder to think about a Sarkisian-led team playing in Tuscaloosa in primetime next year…

[closetohumping 17438]

6 minutes ago, Rockethorn1978 said:

Last year: this isn’t his roster just wait!

this year: he has a freshman qb and freshman lineman!!

next year: arch is having to start and wasn’t ready cut him some slack!

the following year: arch left him and that wasn’t nice so he has a transfer portal guy it’s not his fault!!!

 

he will be gone after year 4. Book it.

6-7 wins likely gives him year 4.  Maybe 5 wins does.  

[troph 24783]

2 minutes ago, ATXhorn17 said:

I shudder to think about a Sarkisian-led team playing in Tuscaloosa in primetime next year…

Why? His teams keep it close. All his losses are by 7 or less points this year. It’s why it’s so maddening. His ceiling will be right on the cusp. It’s why he likely gets more than 4 years because well, he’s on the cusp.

[troph 24783]

1 minute ago, closetohumping said:

6-7 wins likely gives him year 4.  Maybe 5 wins does.  

Yeah I wouldn’t even think about hopes up for a termination at all next year. Theoretically at 4-5 wins it should be on the table but it’s a 0% chance unless maybe he is arrested for beating his wife. 

[6th Street 6392]

Unless half that recruiting class he brought in transfers out, Sark is here thru 2024

[Hookem2147 21208]

Maybe this is a shitty take or maybe some might agree, but I remember watching an interview with Joel Klatt earlier this year after the Alabama game. He said that he's met with Texas coaches and players dozens of times now since he started doing Texas games regularly. He said the talk has always been about getting Texas "back". About winning an important game so Texas can be "back where they belong". He's heard it from coaches and players and everyone through the years.

He said when he met with the coaches and players this year before the Alabama game, it was the first time he had heard them talk about the process of getting back to where they want to be and not just arriving there. Not just hoping a switch flips and they all of sudden are where they want to be. He mentioned they were continually talking about the work required to be great instead of just focusing on the end result.

Like I said earlier, I am not 100% sold on Sark and I'm not sure how anyone can be. This thing could end 12 months from now and it would not surprise me one bit. But one thing I've always known because I've been guilty of it myself is that we all get caught up in wanting to be "back". We want to skip everything inbetween, jump over the years of shit that dug us a hole and just get back to where we think we should be. We all see TCU go from 5-7 to 12-1 and think that is the norm instead of the outlier. We ignore that they are who they are this year partly because 80% of his starters went through a lot of shit the last few years as they were losing games they should have been.

All this to say, I want to win. Losing is losing and as Augie Garrido would say this world treats winners a lot different than it treats losers. I don't want this to come across as some "trust the process" bullshit because I know next year there needs to be better results than this year. But I will say that progress is not always linear. We had ups and downs this season, but the overall trend line pointed up. We seemed to clean up a lot of what plagued up last year. Our players seem to have the right mindset. They seem to want to build something that will last instead of being a flash in the pan.

Maybe that happens under this current staff or maybe it doesn't, but it's been 13 years of this shit now and it ain't getting fixed by a flip of a switch. We should know that by now.

[ATXhorn17 1617]

1 minute ago, 6th Street said:

Unless half that recruiting class he brought in transfers out, Sark is here thru 2024

At least Sark is relatively cheap?

[Hookem2147 21208]

7 minutes ago, ATXhorn17 said:

I shudder to think about a Sarkisian-led team playing in Tuscaloosa in primetime next year…

This sounds like the same stuff we heard all last offseason.

"omg Will Anderson is going to murder Christian Jones"

"omg there is not a spread big enough for this game."

"Have you seen PK? Imagine what Saban is going to do to him"

Glad we decided to show up to the game and play. We accidentally almost won. Maybe we'll finish the job next year.

[troph 24783]

4 minutes ago, Hookem2147 said:

Maybe this is a shitty take or maybe some might agree, but I remember watching an interview with Joel Klatt earlier this year after the Alabama game. He said that he's met with Texas coaches and players dozens of times now since he started doing Texas games regularly. He said the talk has always been about getting Texas "back". About winning an important game so Texas can be "back where they belong". He's heard it from coaches and players and everyone through the years.

He said when he met with the coaches and players this year before the Alabama game, it was the first time he had heard them talk about the process of getting back to where they want to be and not just arriving there. Not just hoping a switch flips and they all of sudden are where they want to be. He mentioned they were continually talking about the work required to be great instead of just focusing on the end result.

Like I said earlier, I am not 100% sold on Sark and I'm not sure how anyone can be. This thing could end 12 months from now and it would not surprise me one bit. But one thing I've always known because I've been guilty of it myself is that we all get caught up in wanting to be "back". We want to skip everything inbetween, jump over the years of shit that dug us a hole and just get back to where we think we should be. We all see TCU go from 5-7 to 12-1 and think that is the norm instead of the outlier. We ignore that they are who they are this year partly because 80% of his starters went through a lot of shit the last few years as they were losing games they should have been.

All this to say, I want to win. Losing is losing and as Augie Garrido would say this world treats winners a lot different than it treats losers. I don't want this to come across as some "trust the process" bullshit because I know next year there needs to be better results than this year. But I will say that progress is not always linear. We had ups and downs this season, but the overall trend line pointed up. We seemed to clean up a lot of what plagued up last year. Our players seem to have the right mindset. They seem to want to build something that will last instead of being a flash in the pan.

Maybe that happens under this current staff or maybe it doesn't, but it's been 13 years of this shit now and it ain't getting fixed by a flip of a switch. We should know that by now.

that's the thing, I think a lot of quality posters here think Sark is doing everything up to game day right. But then he puts on those stupid suits and starts calling plays instead of being the HC.

3 minutes ago, Hookem2147 said:

This sounds like the same stuff we heard all last offseason.

"omg Will Anderson is going to murder Christian Jones"

"omg there is not a spread big enough for this game."

"Have you seen PK? Imagine what Saban is going to do to him"

Glad we decided to show up to the game and play. We accidentally almost won. Maybe we'll finish the job next year.

I'll be shocked if it isn't really close.

[immamac 42839]

55 minutes ago, PostGameOrangeSlices said:

You guys are a sensitive bunch and wouldn't last a day at hardcorehusky.com

Go ahead and ban me for talking some shit. No one gives a fuck.

You are being a cunt no one here is going to hardcore huskies and being a cunt. You aren't being funny or even talking shit in a creative way. You are just here clearly soaking in the misery and trying to pile on. I would suggest that you at least contribute something funny. 

[Hookem2147 21208]

1 minute ago, troph said:

that's the thing, I think a lot of quality posters here think Sark is doing everything up to game day right. But then he puts on those stupid suits and starts calling plays instead of being the HC.

Well, going out and actually winning the games is the biggest part of coaching. Like any coach he has had some forgettable games and also some games where he thoroughly outcoached good coaches. We'll see if we see more of the latter and less of the former as he continues to build.

And like any OC we've had in the history of ever, message boards will always find something to bitch about in regards to playcalling. Just the way it goes.

[TexArcher 37774]

49 minutes ago, PostGameOrangeSlices said:

I'm not even trolling. I'd love nothing more than to see Texas run a train on the SEC 

Sark just aint it and it's bizarre your great program took a waiver on his third act

We get it, dude.  You think we hired the wrong guy.  A lot of us do, too.  

But it's important to note that exactly zero people here give half a shit what you think.

You may go now.

[gmr548 16576]

If herman was going 7-3 with a shitty culture and coke problem, what does that tell you about sark at 5-7

He should try coke?

[ClubWhatever 12129]

Watching that UW OC work last night was a stark contrast to how Sark appears to work.  Their guy was in the bubble with 8 guys around him feeding him information.  It looked like they had guys tracking all relevant information like who’s in the game for us and all the mundane game situation stuff and he was sitting there processing it in the bubble.  On the other hand Sark is doing the kneel thing with little ol AJ Milwaukee in the booth going “how about that TE cross now”.  And then it all gets interrupted by the need to make a game management decision.  I still think he is a good play caller and schemer.  But so was DeBoer before he got to UW. 

[BevoAbyss 2058]

59 minutes ago, troph said:

They are on the we have to have 4-5 years of stability either way side.

Like I said, HOPE always has various extenuating circumstances to keep Sark: "stability" is one of them. 

57 minutes ago, David Dennison said:

Barring a complete collapse, I think we are going to give Sark more time than many on this board are comfortable with or used to.

I am on the FATE side and I agree 100%. I would not be surprised at 5-6-7 years for Sark (barring a meltdown 3-9 season or two).

Wins enough to inspire HOPE. A few big wins (like over OU), perhaps a big upset, all countered by inexplicable losses and dismal big game performances (like TCU) and no titles. We are somewhere between McWilliams and Mackovic, minus the conference titles. 

Edited December 30, 2022 by BevoAbyss

[satyanash 14481]

13 minutes ago, Hookem2147 said:

We all see TCU go from 5-7 to 12-1 and think that is the norm instead of the outlier. We ignore that they are who they are this year partly because 80% of his starters went through a lot of shit the last few years as they were losing games they should have been.

It's not so much of an outlier in this day and age. Kalen DeBoer, the first-year head coach who just beat us last night, took Washington from 4-8 to 11-2. Like Sark, he brought in his own QB from Indiana instead of inheriting one at Washington. McGuire went 8-5 in his first season at Tech, also beating us in the process.

We all thought our patience would pay off in 2019 after we beat Georgia and won the Sugar Bowl. Ehlinger was just a sophomore, we had staff continuity and brought back a lot of key players on the offense. But that 'patience' was just us pulling the wool over our eyes and ignoring the staff's very apparent flaws in recruiting and in-game coaching. We didn't realize that the defense would nosedive once Strong's inherited players left. Similarly, Bijan and Roschon are gone now and can no longer paper over the glaring weaknesses of our O-line. There are just too many roster holes and portal needs coming out of year 2, for this staff to get 12 wins next year.

[gmr548 16576]

Probably nothing giant, but getting back to 10 wins will be nice. 

That qualifies as a giant leap for a coach that’s never done it and a program that’s done it once in 12* seasons.

Now, there’s a viable path to that. I’m not exactly a sunshine pumper and even I see that. But I the most likely outcome for year is a record within a game this year’s, either way.

*I’m excluding 2020.

[Tex Pete 20342]

12 hours ago, ATXhorn17 said:

Tonight featured several baffling clock management, play calling, and personnel decisions… Sark will ALWAYS drop at least ~3-4 games a year based off that alone.

Sarkisian is too busy with his head in his playsheets. He is not coaching the team, he is coaching the offense. It shows.

He looks so lost at times, and cannot even realize how blind he is in regards to his own playcalling. Our losses this season had a lot of similarities, and I do not understand how he cannot see that.

[Hookem2147 21208]

5 minutes ago, satyanash said:

There are just too many roster holes and portal needs coming out of year 2, for this staff to get 12 wins next year.

I mean, yes, if your expectation is 12 wins next year then I regret to inform you on day 1 of the offseason that you will be disappointed.

The roster holes are much less glaring than they were last year.

[Tex Pete 20342]

5 hours ago, Dbeasy said:

There is a weird inconsistency to Sark coached teams. Every few games the offense grinds to a halt and the defense allows long, sustained life sucking drives all game long.

And the other team just seems to hammer away at the defense, being physical and mixing up the pass and run. It’s the same weird pattern over and over. The games look similar. No shootout losses. No wipeout losses. Just listless farts in the wind. 

It has to do with our refusal to control the ball (TOP, pace of play) and inability to convert third downs to sustain drives. The defense cannot withstand that for a whole game.

It bit us repeatedly this season, and was almost our fate against Baylor until he just had Bijan run the ball every play in the second half. Someone clearly got in his ear at halftime of that game, but they failed to do so last night.

[6th Street 6392]

That play sheet resulted in a whopping 3 first half points and an abysmal 3rd down conversion rate.

[FORTY NINE TO ZERO 2652]

Still just so frustrated by the time Managment.  Everything else can be glossed over as our “perpetually” young team excuse.  Not that.  It’s 100% on coaching 

[Chuckie Finster 22694]

41 minutes ago, satyanash said:

Keilan is not an 'elite' swiss army knife, and you might want to rewatch his plays this year if you're overrating him that highly. He's a pass-catcher out of the backfield and in the slot, good for not much more than 2-3 catches a game. Brooks, Blue and Baxter are the guys who will have to replace Bijan and Rojo next year, and last night wasn't much of an audition for any of them.

I think all we learned is that Keilan for sure isn't RB1.  Brooks was good and Baxter was at a high school all star game last night.  Yes, none of them were as good as Bijan, but expecting any of them to look like Bijan in their first game as a starter is a Message Board Genius level hot take.

[Hookem2147 21208]

3 minutes ago, FORTY NINE TO ZERO said:

Still just so frustrated by the time Managment.  Everything else can be glossed over as our “perpetually” young team excuse.  Not that.  It’s 100% on coaching 

What was so bad about time management? The clock starts when the ball is spotted ready for play after a player goes out of bounds unless it is under 2 minutes in either half.

That isn't new. And if you are referencing the timeout on the punt, Washington was about to run a fake.

[BurntOrange&White 39931]

10 minutes ago, Hookem2147 said:

I mean, yes, if your expectation is 12 wins next year then I regret to inform you on day 1 of the offseason that you will be disappointed.

The roster holes are much less glaring than they were last year.

In year 3 if we aren't in a big 12 title game with minimum of 10 wins I think that is a failure on Sark's part. If it wasn't for his coaching blunders this years against Tech and Oklahoma State we should have won 10. Also RIP my IT account. Apparently you can't bash Sarkisian or meme on Eric's year before the year bullshit.

Edited December 30, 2022 by BurntOrange&White

[Doc Daneeka 6769]

8 minutes ago, gmr548 said:

That qualifies as a giant leap for a coach that’s never done it and a program that’s done it once in 12* seasons.

Now, there’s a viable path to that. I’m not exactly a sunshine pumper and even I see that. But I the most likely outcome for year is a record within a game this year’s, either way.

*I’m excluding 2020.

I don't know that it's a giant leap, but we'll see.

Sarkisian's past record, or Texas' record over the last 12* seasons won't increment or decrement next season's win total, though.

Even so, one more win may be enough for a conference championship game berth and two swings at a 10th win.

[Doc Daneeka 6769]

Just now, BurntOrange&White said:

In year 3 if we aren't in a big 12 title game with minimum of 10 wins I think that is a failure on Sark's part. If it wasn't for his coaching blunders this years against Tech and Oklahoma State we should have won 10.

There's a not very outrageous path to 11 wins and a would-have-been rematch with TCU this season.

Whether one sees that as evidence of a frustrating shitshow or as an encouraging step that the a few playmakers and more experience can build on depends, I suppose, on one's point of view.

[Tex Pete 20342]

2 hours ago, PostGameOrangeSlices said:

Yeah, just like Chris Petersen was?

What? You know nothing about nothing.

You're a parrot. And an imbecile.

[closetohumping 17438]

2 minutes ago, Tex Pete said:

What? You know nothing about nothing.

You're a parrot. And an imbecile.

Exactly. I don’t remember us making a run at Petersen but I seem to remember he had a special needs child so he couldn’t just pick up and move

[ruitxn 296]

59 minutes ago, closetohumping said:

6-7 wins likely gives him year 4.  Maybe 5 wins does.  

You are probably right about another year, but it also gives you aggy like recruiting and departures. I doubt a year five.

[troph 24783]

10 minutes ago, Doc Daneeka said:

There's a not very outrageous path to 11 wins and a would-have-been rematch with TCU this season.

Whether one sees that as evidence of a frustrating shitshow or as an encouraging step that the a few playmakers and more experience can build on depends, I suppose, on one's point of view.

That’s the story of his career so far. On the cusp during his “good years”. 

[lilMAC25 3792]

1 hour ago, Duane Moore said:

When we hired Sark, I was immediately disappointed. Then my fan powers of rationalization kicked in and I worked to come up with the rationale for being optimistic to get me through the next few years. 
 

What I came up with was that Sark has shown he can put together some formidable offenses when he has a talent advantage over everyone else like he did at Bama. I thought, “Texas is always able to recruit a talent advantage relative to the rest of the Big 12,” so if he is able to recruit reasonably well and hires a competent DC, we could win a lot of games with that formula, even if we would likely lose a majority when the talent was even with our opponents. Basically, the Mack Brown, Phillip Fulmer, Mark Richt formula of winning 9-10 games a year by getting the best Jimmies and Joes on campus. You do that long enough, and every once in a while you get lucky and break through. 
 

Two years in, I think that optimistic scenario is still on the table. Sark has recruited better than I had expected, and is building the team the right way, by stacking up blue chips on the lines and at QB. These are also the positions that take the longest to mature and develop, so we should all expect (and insist upon) improvement next year and 2024. Sark seems to have the disposition that will serve him well in the portal era, his players seem to like him, and his approach should attract and retain talent in a way that a Harry Hard-Ass like Tom Herman would not. We are stepping up in competition going to the SEC, but with that comes access to better athletes in recruiting who want to play in that league. 
 

I don’t have much hope of consistently beating teams like UGA and Bama at their current levels, or LSU or Florida if those programs get things rolling again. But a Texas program winning 10 games a season will almost always make a 12 team playoff field, even if we don’t advance beyond the first or second round very often. Maybe Arch or some generational player down the road comes in and takes us further. 
 

IDK. TLDR: last night didn’t crush all my hopes and dreams, which weren’t stratospheric to begin with. 

Sark winning 10 games would absolutely be a breakthrough in his coaching career because he’s only won 9 games 1x.

 

Counting on Sark to win 10 games a year is foolishness to the nth degree.

[austintiger 111]

1 minute ago, lilMAC25 said:

Sark winning 10 games would absolutely be a breakthrough in his coaching career because he’s only won 9 games 1x.

 

Counting on Sark to win 10 games a year is foolishness to the nth degree.

As is assuming the powers that be will finally hire a great coach after Sark is canned (and he will be canned)

[PostGameOrangeSlices 135]

12 minutes ago, Tex Pete said:

What? You know nothing about nothing.

You're a parrot. And an imbecile.

Yeah, you guys can hire anyone you want with your money bags.

Which is why your last 3 coaches are G5, G5, and Sark.

DeBoer is not going to Texas. Deal with it.

[Tex Pete 20342]

1 hour ago, PostGameOrangeSlices said:

When did you guys stop being ShaggyBevo?

When we all got crabs and had to shave after fucking your mother. That nasty bitch.

Edited December 30, 2022 by Tex Pete

[Doc Daneeka 6769]

4 minutes ago, troph said:

That’s the story of his career so far. On the cusp during his “good years”. 

Yeah, it is. A lot of coaches spend time not quite there and then getting there. Some never get there. I get the "we're fucked, how long will this last" take. I had it from the day Strong was hired.

[4th&Five 41525]

1 minute ago, PostGameOrangeSlices said:

Yeah, you guys can hire anyone you want with your money bags.

Which is why your last 3 coaches are G5, G5, and Sark.

DeBoer is not going to Texas. Deal with it.

You’re terrible at this. None of us are happy with him and none of us wanted him here in the first place. Offer something humorous or gtfo. 

[TreatyOak 16313]

[PostGameOrangeSlices 135]

Just now, 4th&Five said:

You’re terrible at this. None of us are happy with him and none of us wanted him here in the first place. Offer something humorous or gtfo. 

Oh I disagree. There is plenty of humor to be found here.

 

Just don't act like you guys are big dicking programs for football coaches. Because you aren't.

[lilMAC25 3792]

1 hour ago, Rockethorn1978 said:

Last year: this isn’t his roster just wait!

this year: he has a freshman qb and freshman lineman!!

next year: arch is having to start and wasn’t ready cut him some slack!

the following year: arch left him and that wasn’t nice so he has a transfer portal guy it’s not his fault!!!

 

he will be gone after year 4. Book it.

Unfortunately, we’re already seeing the excuses roll in.

[PostGameOrangeSlices 135]

3 minutes ago, Tex Pete said:

When we all got crabs and had to shave after fucking your mother. That nasty bitch.

Did you at least make her cum?