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2022 Off-Season Thread: No Kool-Aid, Just Flavor-Aid

BurntOrange&White

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BurntOrange&White

BurntOrange&White 39934

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IT Scoop:

 

There was a team meeting held this morning but it was mainly to vote on team awards. I know, I know, hold the jokes.

The staff asked the players to stay in town through finals but then they’re free until mid-January.

Before the players depart, Steve Sarkisian will meet with each one individually. From what IT has heard, these will be very frank and candid discussions centered around expectations. Sark wants to know who is in and just as importantly who is not. It will be conveyed that this offseason will be much more difficult than the previous one. He is going to run a much more tighter, more disciplined program. These discussions will be designed to be difficult to see who really is bought in.

We’ve heard Sark is re-examining every aspect of the program, which should go without saying. We have yet to hear granular details of how he’s going about it, but these exit interviews are part of it.

We can’t overstate enough how much institutional support Sark has. And yes, this includes financial support if he deems it necessary to make a big move.

Other sorts of support is coming around as well in the form of NIL. There are two grand NIL programs we’re currently tracking. No. 1 should be unveiled in time to help recruiting ahead of Signing Day. No. 2 may not be ready for public consumption in time to help recruiting but that is surely the goal. No. 2 would also help with attracting qualified portal candidates. Both programs would help with NIL, but you’ll understand what I mean in time.

Of course NIL could help keep players in the program as well. This time of year we’re tracking Texas players closely. There are two, maybe three players, that you wouldn’t like to see leave. One player considering departing has talented players nipping at his heels, so it wouldn’t be the biggest loss.

There are numerous guys further down the depth chart who will likely transfer.

IT is feeling more and more confident D’Shawn Jamison and Anthony Cook will return.

#####

IT talked to the parent of an OU player, and man, that is one pissed off program. The players are furious with how Riley and the coaches who followed him handled this. Essentially, “keep your grades up, we can’t contact you anymore, deuces.” It was mentioned if starting quarterback Caleb Williams enters the portal, you will see a ton of players following him. He’s the glue holding things together right now.

IT has heard similar to others: Riley wanted no part of life in the SEC. From that you can surmise he was never going to LSU, though it provided great cover.

One source acknowledged it’s a great hire for USC, though he’s not the greatest “culture” coach and USC needs a culture reset in a major way.

Edited by BurntOrange&White
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Hermanator
Hermanator

Texas football is the repu****ans of the football world. Fuck everything up then promise to make it better with grand promises and bullshit then next time fuck it all up again. Rinse, repeat. 

Vertigo
Vertigo

Not sure where to put this, so putting it here. Just got a cold call from Korn Ferry. Here is how the conversation went down.  Korn Ferry Guy: Hi this is X with Korn Ferry, do you have a moment t

Tex Pete
Tex Pete

Keep the politics off the board, you goat fucking moron. 

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  • BurntOrange&White changed the title to 2022 Off-Season Thread: No Kool-Aid, Just Flavor-Aid
BrazilHorn

BrazilHorn 6620

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Texas is in Flint, Michigan water territory right now. Ain't no taste at all to this, just a lot of lead shavings and mercury.

Let's see if Sark can lean into the chaos going on and sell 1) a FUCKLOAD of playing time for portal players 2) Clean house of all of the dead weight/turds on current roster 3) poach some of ND & OU's incoming recruits

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UncleSonny

UncleSonny 6573

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34 minutes ago, RaysBoomBoomRoom said:

Yeah the twitter is pretty gloomy though. Not a single Texas thing and hes pretty active on there. Its probably worth monitoring

I don't think you are looking at the right Twitter. He's not active at all, he has like 3 tweets since September. One is wishing Brewer the best and one is about Burnt Ends.

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Pescado_Rojo

Pescado_Rojo 19426

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Lets see what Sark learned from Saban in the roster management department. Saban flipped the entire Alabama roster in 3 years. (29, 30, and 26 players in 2006,2007, and 2008). Rules have changed, but I believe someone said with the covid transfer rule this year we could probably squeeze a maximum of 35 into this class which would be a good start. 

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LTtxfan

LTtxfan 49304

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The Longhorns will have head coach Steve Sarkisian, quarterbacks coach A.J. Milwee, and defensive passing game coordinator Terry Joseph visiting with Manning on Thursday.

Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian has consistently preached how important genuine relationships with players and recruits are, and this is one of the small details that separates him from the rest.

 

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Had Enough

Had Enough 2083

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6 minutes ago, immamac said:

Ja'Tavion isn't going anywhere you fucking moron. 

I don’t know Jack about his state of mind, but he seemed pretty engaged at the KState game.  Maybe the increased looks for Brewer late in the season were for his benefit.  And he’s a dude with some ability who is on campus and didn’t contribute this year.  Shore up the Oline a bit, do a better job of spreading the ball around, and, we’ll……..winning record here we come.

 

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LTtxfan

LTtxfan 49304

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Thanks for this @Getafix  

 

The Insider: Latest on Texas football player evaluations, what's next --  FUCK CHIP BROWN

Quote

Amid all the recruiting updates coming from our Horns247 hounds Mike Roach and Nick Harris heading into the Dec. 15 early signing period, Steve Sarkisian and his staff have been doing one-on-one player evaluations this week.

According to a team source, the evaluations have been “a blunt discussion with current players about how the staff views their football futures at Texas.”

Without going into specifics, we expect more players - on both sides of the ball - (in addition to receiver Al’Vonte Woodard and linebacker Ayodele Adeoye) to be appearing in the transfer portal in the coming days and weeks, or - like junior receiver Kai Money did Wednesday night - posting farewell announcements on social media.


According to team sources, Sarkisian’s plan coming into the week was to bring in a veteran quarterback from the portal to provide competition and depth for returning QBs Casey Thompson and Hudson Card - as well as two high school recruits.

Obviously, 4-star 2022 quarterback Maalik Murphy is already committed to Texas.

The Longhorns were hoping the other 2022 quarterback would be 4-star Devin Brown, the nation’s No. 5-rated signal caller, No. 59 player nationally and No. 1 in the state of Utah, per the 247Sports Composite rankings.

But Brown decided to join the already-overflowing quarterback room at Ohio State, which currently has two redshirt freshmen (C.J. Stroud and Jack Miller) and two true freshmen (Quin Ewers and Kyle McCord) by committing to the Buckeyes on Wednesday.

As we said, the plan going into the week was to sign two high school quarterback prospects. Whether that remains the plan or not - stay tuned to Mike Roach and Nick Harris for the latest.

As far as portal quarterbacks, we continue to hear the staff is evaluating a couple who are already in the portal and a few who could end up in the portal.

 

***

 

Steve Sarkisian said two of his top goals for the off-season are to generate a better pass rush and to improve depth on the offensive line.

To help achieve the first goal, Sarkisian has eight defensive linemen, including four likely edge rushers, committed in the 2022 class.

On the offensive line, look for Texas to bring in seven to nine new linemen for the 2022 season - a combination of high school recruits and transfers.

With redshirt sophomore Tyler Johnson’s future in doubt after getting crossways with the coaching staff (Johnson wasn’t even practicing with the team the final month of the season) and with redshirt junior Rafiti Ghirmai walking on Senior Day, signaling his departure, Texas’ O-line numbers could be bare-bones for spring ball without a January infusion of new talent.

On Wednesday, we heard redshirt sophomore offensive lineman Isaiah Hookfin (6-5, 299), a player the coaching staff would like to have next season, might have an injury that could impact his availability for spring football.

We are trying to get more details.

Hookfin, a 2019 signee who picked Texas over Baylor, appeared to be on the rise within the program until a shoulder injury suffered just before the 2020 season ended up requiring season-ending surgery. This season, Hookfin saw action in one game (garbage time against Rice).

If Hookfin isn’t available for spring football (and Johnson and Ghirmai move on), the current scholarship offensive linemen available for spring ball would be: Jake Majors, Junior Angilau, Andrej Karic, Christian Jones, Logan Parr, Hayden Conner, Jaylen Garth and Max Merril as well as walk-ons Christian Rizzi, Michael Balis and Chad Wolf.

If you’re counting, that’s eight scholarship linemen and three walk-ons for a total of 11. Sarkisian likes to run the first- and second-team offense on opposite ends of the practice field at the same time. It takes 10 linemen to do that. Preferably, 10 scholarship offensive linemen so plays don’t resemble a fire drill. You get the picture.

When Sarkisian mentions it’s puzzling Texas only signed two offensive linemen in 2021 (Conner and Merril), what he’s really trying to say is @#?%!!

When he talks about being surprised at the makeup of the roster from a numbers standpoint, he’s talking about inheriting a roster that had 12 scholarship receivers (half of whom were non-factors and four of whom - Joshua Moore, Woodard, Money and Montrell Estell - have already moved on) and only 14 scholarship offensive linemen in 2021.

Needless to say, the Longhorns will be desperate to find O-line help in the portal, from early-enrollee freshmen - you name it - (and UT can certainly promise opportunities to compete for starting jobs right away) once the Dec. 15 signing day period is over.

Make no mistake, beefing up the offensive line is THE biggest roster concern heading into 2022.

 

***

 

Don’t look for Texas to get aggressive in the portal until after the Dec. 15 signing period. Obviously, most all of the focus has been on getting the 2022 recruiting class finalized.

 

***

We’ve heard the murmurs about a potential staff change or two, but nothing confirmed at this point.

And if anything along those lines is going to happen, it’s not likely to happen until after the Dec. 15 signing period for obvious reasons.

While some fans might be fixated on guys they think Steve Sarkisian should/could change out, I’ve been told there’s one staff member who could be in the mix for a head-coaching job. We’re not going to go any further on that right now unless the situation heats up or becomes imminent. We’ll keep you posted.

***


The knee injury we reported suffered by redshirt junior linebacker Luke Brockermeyer in the team’s last contact practice of the season - the Tuesday before the Longhorns’ victory over Kansas State - turned out to be a torn ACL.

It was a brutal way for the team’s second-leading tackler who also posted two interceptions in 2021 to end the season.

Brockermeyer will wait until after finals to have surgery to repair the knee injury and will miss spring football with a timetable to return for fall camp.

In the spring, coaches will get a good look at juniors-to-be Jaylan Ford and Devin Richardson at middle linebacker.

Coaches are waiting on leading tackler DeMarvion Overshown to decide if he’ll stay for a COVID-19 redshirt season in 2022 or enter the NFL Draft. If Overshown returns, Texas will have depth at weak side linebacker with junior-to-be David Gbenda and sophomore-to-be Morice Blackwell returning.

 

***

 

Had an interesting conversation with a high-ranking official at a Big 12 school about Lincoln Riley’s decision to leave Oklahoma for USC.

The source said, “Brilliant move by Texas taking Oklahoma to the SEC. It’s resulted in the Longhorns taking down their biggest rival. OU will not hire someone as good as Lincoln (Riley). There are only a few in his league.

“The fallout could make OU a mere shadow of the program Lincoln inherited from Bob Stoops. The new coach will have a much tougher job.”

All eyes in Norman are on OU freshman quarterback Caleb Williams, who’s waiting to find out who the Sooners’ next coach will be.

Williams single-handedly turned around a three-touchdown deficit in the Texas game, when he replaced Spencer Rattler (who is now in the transfer portal). Williams completed 62.5 percent of his passes with 18 touchdowns and four interceptions while running 72 times for 408 yards (5.7 ypc) and six TDs for the 10-2 Sooners.

(Williams’ lowlights came against two of the best defenses in the country: Two interceptions in OU’s loss at Baylor, and getting sacked six times in a 37-33 loss at Oklahoma State.)

So far, the only reaction from Williams about the news of Riley leaving for USC came in a Nov. 28 tweet:

“I appreciate all the concerns about the situation but I am also happy for Coach Riley, mama Riley, Sloan and Stella for that huge opportunity ahead. That’s all I plan to say right now! #boomer”

There’s a lot of speculation about Clemson defensive coordinator Brent Venables possibly returning to OU (where he served as defensive coordinator under Bob Stoops from 1999-2011) with Ole Miss offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby, an OU alum, possibly taking over Riley’s offense.

Venables’ defenses at Clemson have helped win two national titles, and the Tigers are currently second in points allowed per game (15.0) to Georgia (6.9). Ole Miss’ offense is No. 18 nationally in scoring (35.9 points per game) after finishing No. 14 last season (39.2 ppg) under Lebby and head coach Lane Kiffin.

Would a ticket of Venables and Lebby be enough to keep Caleb Williams in Norman?

The next coach’s ability to keep and continue to develop Williams could determine if OU remains an elite program or is thrust into rebuild mode.

Tailgate Trivia: Joe Castiglione, who has been OU’s athletic director since 1998, has only hired coordinators as the Sooners’ head football coach. He hired Stoops, then Florida’s defensive coordinator under Steve Spurrier, in 1999 and then replaced Stoops after the 2016 season with Riley, who was OU’s offensive coordinator.

 

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C-Man

C-Man 27235

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Mac Engel, who likes to throw a bunch of shit up on the wall and see what sticks, wrote today that Gary Patterson has engaged in talks with Texas about joining the coaching staff, perhaps as an analyst. Mac also said there's been talk of Patterson becoming OU's defensive coordinator if Stoops 2.0 decides to stick around as HC longer than the bowl game.

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TexArcher

TexArcher 37988

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I mean, I guess I'm glad that Sark is "re-examining every aspect of the program" instead of trying to blow smoke, but he's also the same guy who examined the offensive line he inherited and didn't upgrade it.

I don't doubt the man's acumen in designing an offense and calling plays, but I'm legit concerned about his ability to evaluate talent.

Edited by TexArcher
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Slacks

Slacks 6823

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17 hours ago, TexArcher said:

I mean, I guess I'm glad that Sark is "re-examining every aspect of the program" instead of trying to blow smoke, but he's also the same guy who examined the offensive line he inherited and didn't upgrade it.

I don't doubt the man's acumen in designing an offense and calling plays, but I'm legit concerned about his ability to evaluate talent.

When was he supposed upgrade it?

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