This is who Steve Sarkisian is.

[bschoolprof 6252]

6 minutes ago, closetojumping said:

Development, strategy, recruiting, personnel management - none of those are less important in coaching than calling plays. I didn’t say he should be separated from the team and working in a lab with smoking beakers. Your take is a lazy red herring and you should try harder before responding again. Nothing I said resembles vaguely the bullshit associated to the Strong equivocating.

Oh, I agree mostly with your sentiment - I think it would be a big net positive.  I just don't think it will happen. 

[Tex Long 4382]

Sark is his own worst problem. He is failing at trying to be HC and OC at the same time. That's the number one thing that needs to be changed. Find an OC and fire Milwee, or at least reassign him. The sideline gameday note-scribbling idiot who has allowed several games that appear clearly winnable to slip away... That Sark, he needs to be 100% HC, all strategy, and not be involved in the tactical considerations of planning and calling the games. I'd like to see what Marion could do, but his own go-go game requires one of the things Sark won't allow, so Marion's not likely to get that chance. On the other hand, TCU's OC has shown some stuff, and he appears to have some of the talents of his big brother - nothing else considered (real life and all that) I'd go for backing up the Brinks Truck at Riley Minor's house.

[B00M 6413]

I think he's fucked. 

My pregame prediction was an L if Sanders started but I was picturing us losing the whole game then making it competitive late.

This conference was there for the taking and we blew a double digit lead... Again

The offense came out good then collapsed... Again. The defense can't cover anyone and fell apart late... Again. I just can't shake the sinking feeling that this loss was the beginning of the end for sark. 

[Sir Ulrich 5187]

Sark is obviously an unfinished product and after what he came back from I have faith he is open to needed change to his philosophy. 

[bschoolprof 6252]

7 minutes ago, Sir Ulrich said:

Sark is obviously an unfinished product and after what he came back from I have faith he is open to needed change to his philosophy. 

Maybe, but at 50 years old and 3 head coaching stops, the cake may also be baked.  

[Brisketexan 105064]

Hey, is “bye” a home bye or away bye? Cuz if it’s an away bye…add another L.

[Stunns38 3460]

Sark is obviously an unfinished product and after what he came back from I have faith he is open to needed change to his philosophy. 

He’s almost 50 and has been around coaching for over 20 years. It’s not like he has a choice now. He must adapt or find himself back with Saban.

[David Dennison 18849]

36 minutes ago, ALexusTexus7 said:

If we asked Red McCombs what he thought about Sarkisian, he’d say "I don't have any doubt that Steve is a fine coach. I think he would make a great position coach, maybe a coordinator. But I don't believe he belongs at what should be one of the three most powerful university programs in the world right now at UT-Austin. I don't think it adds up."

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Other than Saban, Meyer, and Smart, who qualifies?

[bullet 1596]

38 minutes ago, Red Five said:

I'm sure this has been pointed out in one of these threads, but he's coached 20 games here. We've lost five games where we held double digit second half leads. 25% of the time he's blown 10+ point second half leads. That is actually impressive.

Especially considering it only happened 3 times in the 15 years before we got here.  And it only happened 3 times in that time span by the rest of the Big 12 combined.

Just now, bullet said:

Especially considering it only happened 3 times in the 15 years before he got here.  And it only happened 3 times in that time span by the rest of the Big 12 combined.

Before "he" got here

[Sir Ulrich 5187]

3 minutes ago, Stunns38 said:

He’s almost 50 and has been around coaching for over 20 years. It’s not like he has a choice now. He must adapt or find himself back with Saban.

 

6 minutes ago, bschoolprof said:

Maybe, but at 50 years old and 3 head coaching stops, the cake may also be baked.  

He may not be the guy but he has had his team in positions to be undefeated and just needs the execution. If Worthy makes that play in the endzone or pick any play vs Tech and this isn't a conversation. With Herman just never felt like we had a chance late in games from coaching down to anybody not named Sam. All he has to do is work out his second half planning and build more depth and we'll be on the upswing. 

[bullet 1596]

2 hours ago, Tex-19 said:

Sark will get at least one more year, probably 2, no matter what happens. We've seen some real improvement this year on defense (esp against the run) and the offense is insanely young. You have to at least give him year 2 of Ewers and the OL. 

The most concerning thing to me is the 2nd half Offensive disappearing act. 31 points in the first half and 3 in the second?? How does that happen? And that shit's been happening a lot under Sark. For all the blame we give the D, we'd have like 4 extra wins under Sark if the offense could've done anything in the 2nd half (including both OSU games). I still think Sark needs to basically just be an OC on gameday and let the defensive coaches handle their shit.

The biggest positive is the upgrade in talent.  Mack got complacent and bad at evaluation.  Strong was lazy.  Herman couldn't keep his people.  Maybe next year we will have the best talent in the Big 12 and a good base for the next coach if Sark doesn't get it done then.

[nnm 36347]

8 minutes ago, Sir Ulrich said:

 

He may not be the guy but he has had his team in positions to be undefeated and just needs the execution. If Worthy makes that play in the endzone or pick any play vs Tech and this isn't a conversation. With Herman just never felt like we had a chance late in games from coaching down to anybody not named Sam. All he has to do is work out his second half planning and build more depth and we'll be on the upswing. 

I’m confused. Is this a Texags discussion about Jimbo?  Looks remarkably similar. 

[The Earl of Texas 3132]

I didn’t expect us to win - OSU is pretty good and Stillwater is tough - but the way we lost was brutal. In the end, if Ewers played like we have seen him capable of playing, we win. He’s a freshman, and there’s going to be some pains. But we need to keep him plugged in there so he can become the man.

Gutted, but a lot can be salvaged out of this season as is. Sucks that we will lose some major talent but Greta programs are able to do that, and I hope we can be a great program again.

[WhatTheBuck 28775]

5 hours ago, Thatguy said:

Ron Zook was at Florida for 3 years. Lol. Don't be a dumbass. His initial recruiting class wasn't even seniors before he left. 

Okay, this time I read through the rest of the thread to make sure this point wasn’t already made.

Zook was only at Florida for three years because he got fired. You make it sound like they just didn’t give him enough time. The guy could recruit but he wasn’t a good coach. He lost five games in the Swamp during those three years going winless against ranked teams at home. Spurrier only lost five games at home his entire career. In his final season in Gainesville, Zook lost five games including losing to 1-5 Miss St. in Starksville. That’s when they fired his ass. Urban Meyer came in and won his first National Championship with Zook’s players. Urban added Tebow but he was just a role player in 2006.

Zook went on to Illinois where he recruited well (some of the other coaches in the conference and at ND suggested he might be cheating but that was never proven). He was fired after seven seasons in Champaign having only made three bowl appearances. He managed to make it to the Rose Bowl after the 2007 season but not as a conference champ. tOSU was playing LSU in New Orleans for the BCS Championship.

2007 was a weird year in the Big Ten. Michigan asked Lloyd Carr to delay his retirement another year. Their season (and BTN) kicked off with a home loss to Div I-AA Appalachian St. They wound up going 8-4. Penn State also went 8-4 with losses to Illinois, Michigan, OSU and MSU. It was Mark Dantonio’s first year at MSU and he finished 7-5. (Everyone would be blessed by Rich Rodriguez taking the Michigan job the next year...some people have argued incorrectly that he wasn’t given enough time in Ann Arbor.) Illinois handed the Buckeyes their only loss of the season. Don’t get me started on that. But one of the officials in that game was investigated on suspicion of gambling due to calls made or not made in that game and in the Purdue-PSU game. Illinois went 9-3 that year then got hammered by USC 49-17 in Pasadena.

Zook is currently an assistant coach at Maryland coaching special teams and outside linebackers.

[MonkeyDoughnut 10227]

"Ninety-five percent of fans are some of the best people you'd ever meet in the world. Just great people. Then there are 5 percent of them who, Lord have mercy, it's just crazy. … There are certainly people who expect the team to show up every week, lay it on the line, play with passion, play with toughness, win every game, and as soon as something doesn't go the way they want, they turn and run and quit and cry and fire the coach and fire this guy and fire this player and all that stuff."

--- Dabo Swinney after losing to South Florida in a no name bowl going 6-7 on the year in his second full season at Clemson.

Fans opening said he was the wrong hire and wanted him gone.

[DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt 12301]

3 minutes ago, MonkeyDoughnut said:

"Ninety-five percent of fans are some of the best people you'd ever meet in the world. Just great people. Then there are 5 percent of them who, Lord have mercy, it's just crazy. … There are certainly people who expect the team to show up every week, lay it on the line, play with passion, play with toughness, win every game, and as soon as something doesn't go the way they want, they turn and run and quit and cry and fire the coach and fire this guy and fire this player and all that stuff."

--- Dabo Swinney after losing to South Florida in a no name bowl going 6-7 on the year in his second full season at Clemson.

Fans opening said he was the wrong hire and wanted him gone.

We’re skipping “but Saban” and going straight to “but Dabo”

I like it.

[closetohumping 17434]

6 minutes ago, MonkeyDoughnut said:

"Ninety-five percent of fans are some of the best people you'd ever meet in the world. Just great people. Then there are 5 percent of them who, Lord have mercy, it's just crazy. … There are certainly people who expect the team to show up every week, lay it on the line, play with passion, play with toughness, win every game, and as soon as something doesn't go the way they want, they turn and run and quit and cry and fire the coach and fire this guy and fire this player and all that stuff."

--- Dabo Swinney after losing to South Florida in a no name bowl going 6-7 on the year in his second full season at Clemson.

Fans opening said he was the wrong hire and wanted him gone.

It's the mantra of every fan of a crappy coach. Charlie/Tom/Steve are building a program.  Dabo was 6-7 his second year. 

[UncleCharlie 334]

IMO Sark simply tries to justify his salary by outsmarting himself.

If he would have gone 60% run 40% pass yesterday Bijan runs for 200+ and Johnson probably has close to 150.

Other than promises made to Ewers I can see no reason to not completly ride the backs of the RB's for this team.

[gmr548 16576]

I'm sure this has been pointed out in one of these threads, but he's coached 20 games here. We've lost five games where we held double digit second half leads. 25% of the time he's blown 10+ point second half leads. That is actually impressive.

He’s .500 in conference play with a two score second half lead. 5-5. For that advantage to be a literal coin flip with a sample of this size is… I’ve never seen anything like it.

It’s undeniably an impressive indicator of his ability to manufacture points given that Texas has achieved such leads in the majority of conference games. But to only be .500 with that advantage is a damning indicator of how badly he and his staff are getting outcoached in this league. I have a very difficult time believing he is going to meaningfully improve on game day at this point in his career.

[closetohumping 17434]

18 minutes ago, DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt said:

We’re skipping “but Saban” and going straight to “but Dabo”

I like it.

Well it's really unrealistic to compare our guys to Saban.  Dabo, yes of course.

[lilMAC25 3788]

10 minutes ago, closetohumping said:

Well it's really unrealistic to compare our guys to Saban.  Dabo, yes of course.

Dabo is a top 5 coach of his era. I don’t think I agree that you can compare any of our coaches to Dabo.

[Levi 2585]

10 minutes ago, longhornmatt said:

We can also mention Coach K took several years to get rolling at Duke.  Oh yeah, and then we can mention the 3,478,568 coaches on the flip side who started badly and continued to be bad.

Yep, this. There’s also the board’s favorite in Aranda and the quick turnaround he had. Now he’s looking at finishing worse than Texas in the big12 after going 12-2 in year 2. This Texas team is volatile week to week, but still could finish 9-3 with outside chance for the big12 title. Who the fuck knows at this point. 8-4 would be nice at this point tho. 

[Royale with cheese 1466]

All (supremely justified) bitching aside, we'll be stuck with 7WS for '23 and probably '24. The only really good thing I can say at this point is that after the season is over I fully expect him to be forced to play the HC's old tried and true get-out-of-jail-free card, firing the coordinators. Obviously, there's only one coordinator to fire and God knows it's past time. Therefore, the silver lining to the season is that we should be getting rid of Quitakowski. Maybe the new DC will even know how to identify and recruit complementary talent and use the portal. So, be thankful for small blessings. I guess. 

[Stunns38 3460]

Lol

https://www.latimes.com/sports/story/2022-10-23/usc-texas-expansion?fbclid=IwAR1QtUczD2YZ3OBbzKwgk-wQ97ChwtsFRQ2Zuks1GaIqtTJkYZDvb4_GXjc

[Rickylovesweed 14262]

Gundy is 20X the coach Sark is. 

We should fire Sark and money whip Gundy but it will never happen. Gundy would win here with our talent. 

[utexas8 1436]

[ALexusTexus7 114]

"Ninety-five percent of fans are some of the best people you'd ever meet in the world. Just great people. Then there are 5 percent of them who, Lord have mercy, it's just crazy. … There are certainly people who expect the team to show up every week, lay it on the line, play with passion, play with toughness, win every game, and as soon as something doesn't go the way they want, they turn and run and quit and cry and fire the coach and fire this guy and fire this player and all that stuff."
--- Dabo Swinney after losing to South Florida in a no name bowl going 6-7 on the year in his second full season at Clemson.
Fans opening said he was the wrong hire and wanted him gone.

Swinney didn’t suck shit through a straw as a head coach anywhere else because Clemson is his first HC position. If this was Sark’s first stop, I’d more than give him the benefit of the doubt. Sarkisian has been a middle of the road coach that even got fired mid season at USC, who went on to compete for the Pac-12 championship without him.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[MonkeyDoughnut 10227]

2 minutes ago, ALexusTexus7 said:

Swinney didn’t suck shit through a straw as a head coach anywhere else because Clemson is his first HC position. If this was Sark’s first stop, I’d more than give him the benefit of the doubt. Sarkisian has been a middle of the road coach that even got fired mid season at USC, who went on to compete for the Pac-12 championship without him.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yeah, Sark is different than Strong and Herman hires as they didn't work out.

That unicorn hire isn't easy and somehow being Texas somehow seems to make it harder.

[Tex-19 2872]

4 hours ago, closetojumping said:

Beyond that, and due to the positives I alluded to, I find myself in the weird spot personally of feeling like he’s got a shot to figure it out. I think if the dude takes the Patterson role for the offense, where he is really involved in the strategy and planning and then let’s someone else call the plays, it could be a breakthrough. I think he is a wizard strategically on offense but he is prone to ineptitude on the tactical side when the opponent makes adjustments. If someone like Marion were actually calling plays and Sarkisian could watch the defense make it’s adjustments to their plan, it might actually be a strength. 

That’s probably far fetched as it’s part of his identity, I know. I see his personality type being more likely to do something like that than Fisher’s type, however. Whatever the case, if the guy doesn’t figure out how to overcome his clear mediocrity in handling the offense after good defensive staffs make their adjustments with their teams around the half, it will be his undoing. More than the defense or personnel, the offense going from the team strength in the first half to a team weakness in the second half is what is destroying outcomes on the schedule both this year and last. 

Good post. I think figuring out the 2nd half offense is actually his biggest issue right now. This is an interesting option although fairly risky for him since playcalling is kinda his thing (and unlike Jimbo, he has historically been very good at it). One thing is for sure - the 2nd half playcalling looks way less creative than the 1st half.

Instead of giving up playcalling, maybe he could step back from the defense and special teams? He handled strategy/planning+playcalling duties extremely well at Bama didn't he? I suspect he's just not able to focus on it as much now while also thinking about the defense, ST, etc. I'd love to see him hire a DC or co-DC with head coach experience (GP, Muschamp, etc) and then let that DC handle everything related to the defense, both before and during games. 

For example - I've noticed during games that Sark is always right along the sideline. When you watch other games you very frequently see "offensive minded" head coaches like Lincoln and even Jimbo over by the bench talking to their QBs even when the defense is on the field. I would love to see Sark over on the bench talking through plays with Ewers while PK, GP and co. manage the defense on the field. 

Edited October 23, 2022 by Tex-19

[lilMAC25 3788]

4 hours ago, Valmy77 said:

I said it was remote. We have tried it three times and failed. Maybe next time we succeed. But it's mostly just luck and timing.

But I don't know if either of those hires is necessarily on the track surefire success even so.

I think it’s unquestionable that Riley has already improved USC from last season. Now, will he win championships (conference or national)? That remains to be seen.

Edited October 23, 2022 by lilMAC25

[Nicole44 22057]

He’s got to understand that while he has all the tools of a great HC he can’t be both the OC and HC. It’s why our second half performance sucks. Yesterday I wanted to slap that playbook out of his hands since his face was buried in it. Look up. Look at the field. Look at your QB. Talk to him. He needs to relinquish some of that control and realize that not being sober wasn’t the only reason he failed as a HC. He’s got to manage both sides or the ball and the coordinators for both sides. He can’t be in the booth and on the sideline. I want him to succeed. He does have a lot that translates to success here. Don’t be stubborn like Jimbo. Let someone else make the adjustments and call the plays at the half. He can still script away the first half to an extent. But pay attention to the defense. He’ll have far better results if he does more HC than OC stuff. Pay attention to what’s happening on the damn field in the second half. I’m still pissed but like @closetojumping I do see some promise here with Sark if he can relinquish most of the control of the offense to an OC and not follow the Jimbo path. We could be top 10 type team if he’ll just do that. If he doesn’t…well we’ve seen that crappy movie… too many times. 

[Rickylovesweed 14262]

5 hours ago, dcar00 said:

I'd kick the tires on Gundy after this year.  maybe he wants to coach in the SEC.

That and he just lost one of the best defensive coordinators in the country because it's Oklahoma State. 

His ceiling at Oklahoma State is really good but never national championship caliber because of talent and inability to retain his best assistants. This should be such an obvious choice but of course we won't do it. This is a Beard level obvious hire. 

[ClubWhatever 12120]

This game is not a great example to throw on the pile of second half collapses.  Ok State won the game because they stacked the line and dared our QB to beat them when it was obvious he couldn’t.  The only meaningful change Sark could have made was to change QBs.  It had little to do with play calling.  Running Bijan and Rojo into the pile wasn’t going to get it done. One glaring difference in the programs was at DE.  They have some grown men and we don’t.   Those dudes made our freshmen look like freshmen.  So you go into a game with a huge disparity in experience and track record on the edges and at QB and you expect a 4 quarter win?   No.  They are a better program right now   They got that way through relentless consistency in approach.  And through all that Gundy has won a grand total of one Big12 title in 16 years.  

[Saint Tacky 1614]

Is it time to vote?

[Cairn Horn88 8260]

9 minutes ago, Saint Tacky said:

Is it time to vote?

[Rickylovesweed 14262]

17 minutes ago, ClubWhatever said:

 And through all that Gundy has won a grand total of one Big12 title in 16 years.  

With average talent. 

If you gave Gundy....OU or Texas talent he would win a bunch of Big 12 championships. 

[Rockethorn1978 6072]

We’re in phase 1

phase 2- rearrange the titanic deck chairs

phase 3- coaching search

rinse, repeat.

[Rickylovesweed 14262]

"Average talent" might even be a stretch with Gundy. This was from a couple years ago but it's still the same point. Oklahoma State recruits on par (or even below) TCU and Baylor. 

The win percentage has even improved since this was posted. Only thing holding Gundy back is he can't recruit at Oklahoma State. 

 

[lilMAC25 3788]

49 minutes ago, ClubWhatever said:

This game is not a great example to throw on the pile of second half collapses.  Ok State won the game because they stacked the line and dared our QB to beat them when it was obvious he couldn’t.  The only meaningful change Sark could have made was to change QBs.  It had little to do with play calling.  Running Bijan and Rojo into the pile wasn’t going to get it done. One glaring difference in the programs was at DE.  They have some grown men and we don’t.   Those dudes made our freshmen look like freshmen.  So you go into a game with a huge disparity in experience and track record on the edges and at QB and you expect a 4 quarter win?   No.  They are a better program right now   They got that way through relentless consistency in approach.  And through all that Gundy has won a grand total of one Big12 title in 16 years.  

The screens and swing passes to the WRs disappeared as well.

 

where has the diamond formation gone?

[TreatyOak 16311]

[cochamps 1879]

20 hours ago, SarkAfterDark said:

On the 4th down play there were easier high percentage throws that could have been made, particularly to Sanders. Ewers latched on to Bijan and didn’t come off of it because he didn’t even bother to read the safety. The call looked low percentage because of the QBs decision not because of the play call. 

Thanks Mrs. Sark.

[Hagbard Celine 10850]

6 hours ago, longhornmatt said:

He still basically runs the BYU offense that Lavell Edwards and Norm Chow ran for 20 years in the 80s and 90s and that he learned as a player.  He does it from the pistol instead of under center and the FB is now a second TE, but otherwise that’s about it.  We don’t even really run many RPOs even though he talks about it since that has become the trendy thing, but it’s more lip service than anything.  

I don’t think Sark is the most flexible, open to change guy in the world.  

he is a fantastic play designer/caller but once adjustments are made and the yips set in he is buried in his giant chart and he misses shit like the altercation between worthy and ewers behind him on the bench

the first 3 drives of the 2nd half, it was like the HC stayed in the locker room, and all we had was an OC with instructions to pass no matter what

[UTEE97 3512]

Are there examples of head coaches who became great after giving up their playcalling duties? 

[troph 24781]

7 hours ago, ALexusTexus7 said:

If we asked Red McCombs what he thought about Sarkisian, he’d say "I don't have any doubt that Steve is a fine coach. I think he would make a great position coach, maybe a coordinator. But I don't believe he belongs at what should be one of the three most powerful university programs in the world right now at UT-Austin. I don't think it adds up."


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I really don’t give a fuck what a rich, old fat man thinks.  He and his type are the problem. 

[Rimbo 25911]

7 hours ago, Tex Long said:

an OC and fire Milwee,

I think firing the guy who recruited Ewers and Arch would be a mistake, but that's just me.

[hobbes2702 13029]

6 hours ago, UncleCharlie said:

IMO Sark simply tries to justify his salary by outsmarting himself.

If he would have gone 60% run 40% pass yesterday Bijan runs for 200+ and Johnson probably has close to 150.

Other than promises made to Ewers I can see no reason to not completly ride the backs of the RB's for this team.

Bijan and Rojo are both underused extremely. I know they say they want 22-25 touches for Bijan but he needs the ball more. Especially in the passing game. He’s averaging 20 carries and 2 receptions. If we really don’t want him more than that then Roschon needs to average more than 9 touches a game. 35-40 per game should come from those two guys

[troph 24781]

Sark really seems to be a mix of his old self - drunk and mediocre, and his new self sober and a Saban disciple.  It’s no wonder we want to fire him and give him a chance all at the same time. We see good things, we see bad things and they seem to be irreconcilable. He’s a tough one to evaluate. Looks like a loser against Tech, then demolishes OU in a way we have not ever seen.  Then eeks one out against the clones then shits the bed against oSu. First half amazing, second half looks like a dud. Year one was a dumpster fire, recruiting and infrastructure takes off. Evaluates well, seems to use the portal, players getting better mostly, on the field performance sometimes bewildering. Tough one. Kirby smart took a long while, needed a bag game too, we have one now, totally legit too. Not sure firing him makes a lot of sense. Dunno, seems like there’s no appetite to do anything but ride wit him. So let’s go. 

Edited October 24, 2022 by troph

[cochamps 1879]

23 minutes ago, hobbes2702 said:

Bijan and Rojo are both underused extremely. I know they say they want 22-25 touches for Bijan but he needs the ball more. Especially in the passing game. He’s averaging 20 carries and 2 receptions. If we really don’t want him more than that then Roschon needs to average more than 9 touches a game. 35-40 per game should come from those two guys

Carries need to increase for Roschon and catches for Bijan.  This would level the work load and increase productivity.  Well, imo.

[cochamps 1879]

7 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

Hey, is “bye” a home bye or away bye? Cuz if it’s an away bye…add another L.

So the question for this week is "can we beat off"?

[Rimbo 25911]

36 minutes ago, cochamps said:

So the question for this week is "can we beat off"?

unzips I mean, I'm gonna; you do you...