2023 Spring Practice to Fall Camp Thread - Just hook it to my veins!

[Fud 9552]

Where the fuck are the practice reports 

[Red Five 40847]

All of our players are smooth and fast now. In prior seasons, some were fast but not smooth, and vice versa. That has been corrected. 

Murphy threw a pass the other day that sailed high, and no one could find it for a long time, until someone spotted it on top of the Erwin Center. "here it is", said a WR. The coaches are said to be excited about his arm.

 

 

[ClubWhatever 12120]

22 minutes ago, Fud said:

Where the fuck are the practice reports 

You subscribe to those rags.  You tell me. 

[Hookem2147 21200]

I guess this is what happens when the biggest storylines of spring practice center around a 3rd string QB returning from injury and which of our 5 returning OL may not start

[mwaadeeb 1209]

39 minutes ago, immamac said:

You will never convince me that with Sarklostagain at the helm that this team will win anything important, because to do that you have to outcoach someone.

Good thing you're not selling subscriptions.

[Fondren & Main 6703]

45 minutes ago, immamac said:

Last years team was a 10 win minimum team talent wise, maybe even 11. Shithead Steve decided that J Brooks should ride the pine because he's a braindead fucking moron.

You will never convince me that with Sarklostagain at the helm that this team will win anything important, because to do that you have to outcoach someone. 

 

[gmr548 16576]

Stop being a pussy. DMO, Bijan and RoJo play in that game we win by 10. We were relegated to essentially a 4th string scat back on offense. If Quinn and the passing attack wasn't so good we would have been boat raced. The team last year was dramatically improved from the year before but still inconsistent. This was a 9 win talent team last year. That doesn't mean they were good. It could have been a 10 or 11 win team. Low end was 7. 

Good thing DMO, Bijan and RoJo are back next season then, right?

[BurntOrange&White 39930]

16 minutes ago, Hookem2147 said:

I guess this is what happens when the biggest storylines of spring practice center around a 3rd string QB returning from injury and which of our 5 returning OL may not start

2nd string 🤓

[BurntOrange&White 39930]

4 minutes ago, gmr548 said:

Good thing DMO, Bijan and RoJo are back next season then, right?

We should have a much improved offesnive line due to experience as well as a much improved QB play so hopefully we don't get to a point where we have to rely on heroics of a RB like Bijan. That is how you know your program is truly improving.

[Longhornlove 4810]

58 minutes ago, immamac said:

Last years team was a 10 win minimum team talent wise, maybe even 11. Shithead Steve decided that J Brooks should ride the pine because he's a braindead fucking moron.

You will never convince me that with Sarklostagain at the helm that this team will win anything important, because to do that you have to outcoach someone. 

Did Brooks not have a sports hernia? He rode the pine because he was injured.

[crash_davis 23103]

16 hours ago, Rimbo said:

To be completely fair to @immamac, that team lost to Tech, too...

🤬

[Longhornlove 4810]

7 minutes ago, gmr548 said:

Good thing DMO, Bijan and RoJo are back next season then, right?

JFC dude, broaden your perspective. Ton of returning offensive linemen and all the starters. A healthy Brooks hopefully and the Top HS RB in the country on the roster. A year older Blue and Robinson. RB room will be fine. Improved WR room. TE room a year older. QB should drastically improve. DMO was overrated IMO but a solid player. The backups last year were terrible and or unproven. 

[Huckleberry 32850]

1 hour ago, HenryJames said:

Now do our opponents.

They're 7 feet tall and shoot fireballs from their eyes and lightning bolts from their arses.

[Rimbo 25915]

4 hours ago, Burt Macklin said:

We are still a very, very long ways away from reaching this point. 

Agreed.

2 hours ago, Had Enough said:

This team should have won 10 last year.

Oh good Lord. Anyone who believes this, their opinions on football can be immediately discounted and rejected because they obviously don't know what they're talking about.

2 hours ago, Had Enough said:

In Sarks favor, I think he’s strategically seeking higher end talent than Mack particularly NFL type Olinemen.

Not at first. With Tim Nunez, we had all the talent at OL, but then Nunez couldn't coach the position for shit. McWhorter was the opposite; he recruited guys like Chris Hall, but was a great coach. It's no accident we won a national title after McWhorter had a couple years coaching Nunez's recruits.

Flood is good at both, with significant assistance from the Pancake Factory.

2 hours ago, gmr548 said:

t’s also plainly obvious that Sark hasn’t shown to be capable of maximizing his team’s potential in roughly a decade as a HC.

Your sentence is missing one critical word: YET. He hasn't shown it yet. I say this not to be an optimist suggesting that he eventually will, but to be a nit-picky asshole.

The basketball board right now will remind you, for better or worse, that "yet" is the most important word when discussing a coach's past career. Sometimes it's just a matter of a coach maturing, or being in the right place, or both.

1 hour ago, immamac said:

The talent last year was more than good enough and arguably it was better because it was upper classman laden talent that left and Bijan. 

There's that mistake again: People thinking we had experienced talent because we had it at one skill position or another, rather than looking at the two positions on the field that actually matter the most: quarterback, and offensive line.

And I'll say it again: If you didn't recognize our issues at those positions before and how they literally define the ceiling of the team on offense, you don't know shit about football and your opinion can be ignored.

THIS year, we will be better. We now no not only have talent at these positions; we have great depth and a wee tiny bit of experience. It's not good enough to win it all, and I'm also ignoring defensive line.

But yeah, if you looked at our OL and QB and saw anything more than 7-8 wins LAST season; or, if you're looking at it now and see and FEWER, you're being a dipshit.

All that said, Sark remains the issue. BUT, he has largely surrounded himself with good to great coaches (jury's still out on PK) and the right kind of talent. That's how Mack won here. Though I think Mack was a better GameDay coach and Sark has a better selection of assistants and players.

[Park Gothic 5016]

33 minutes ago, mwaadeeb said:

Good thing you're not selling subscriptions.

Personally, I appreciate that this board is run by temperamental, miserable fans of the program who are willing to embrace an unrelentingly bleak outlook. It's better than the alternative, where you pay a chin-pubed mouthpiece to blow smoke up your ass and ban anyone who disagrees with the party line. 

[mwaadeeb 1209]

2 minutes ago, Park Gothic said:

Personally, I appreciate that this board is run by temperamental, miserable fans of the program who are willing to embrace an unrelentingly bleak outlook. It's better than the alternative, where you pay a chin-pubed mouthpiece to blow smoke up your ass and ban anyone who disagrees with the party line. 

Agreed, I think it's funny, like overboard in the other direction.

[Hookem2147 21200]

Team notes from Thursday's practice (IT)

Notes from Thursday’s practice

On Thursday, Texas skill players worked a lot of 1-on-1 passing situations. On offense, AD Mitchell and Ja’Tavion Sanders stood out. Quinn Ewers looked really comfortable and one person who saw Arch Manning for the first time stated he’s bigger than expected. He also said regarding Ewers and Manning, “the ball just comes out different with those two.”

The same source mentioned Ryan Watts‘ size. The source has seen Watts through the years and mentioned, “He just gets bigger and bigger, almost looks like a linebacker.” We don’t know if that’s a good thing for an already big corner but it’s further proof the players are hitting the iron. 

Anthony Hill stood out. One source saw less hesitation and stated Hill is growing from reacting to striking. Often freshmen are usually a second or two slower because their head is swimming. Hill gets better each day. Not a bad sign considering they’re only five practices in.

The coaches began to ramp up the ‘team’ portion of practice on Thursday. This includes scrimmaging, often in situational work like red zone, short yardage, or two minute. Ramping up is likely in anticipation of scrimmage on Saturday in front of a sideline filled with high-end recruits. 

New transfer Gavin Holmes had an interception, we believe off Ewers. Sanders caught a touchdown from Ewers. “Savion Red had a nice run and adds something to the back field. Good burst through the line of scrimmage.”

We asked about Cameron Williams. The sophomore offensive lineman has only worked at tackle as far as we know. If he’s played guard our sources haven’t noticed. He has struggled a bit against the more athletic Edges, but that could be a positive sign of Edge improvement. His run blocking has been pretty good so guard isn’t totally out of the question, we just have no evidence of him playing there.

Edited March 24, 2023 by Hookem2147

[speed817 19256]

5 minutes ago, Park Gothic said:

Personally, I appreciate that this board is run by temperamental, miserable fans of the program who are willing to embrace an unrelentingly bleak outlook. It's better than the alternative, where you pay a chin-pubed mouthpiece to blow smoke up your ass and ban anyone who disagrees with the party line. 

[Red Five 40847]

We have a $9.95-off with Williams at guard. 

[Wulaw Horn 19068]

2 hours ago, Had Enough said:

I feel confident in saying he’s never had a roster like this. At some point, you amass enough talent (it’s not that easy to do obviously) that there are only 1-2 teams that could legitimately beat you then there there 1-2 who are prime for upsetting you. Just winning half of those gets you to 10. It’s probably only Bama talent wise this year then 2 conference opponents that have a shot at upsetting us. Probably OU. I don’t even know who else. ISU maybe.

Mack couldn’t win a conference championship until he did. Unfortunately his shortcomings meant those were too few over the years. Sark can win 10 and likely will. It just needs to happen consistently. In Sarks favor, I think he’s strategically seeking higher end talent than Mack particularly NFL type Olinemen.

This is exactly correct. It's why Mack always won 9 games (and really 10 plus once he got it rolling) b/c with  the talent differential we are about to have on the rest of our schedule there is only 3 loseable games on there barring disaster.  If you lose all of them you are an incompetent ninny that needs to be fired. If you don't lose all of them then that's 10 or 11 wins and in the CCG.  

[Fud 9552]

1 hour ago, ClubWhatever said:

You subscribe to those rags.  You tell me. 

Your mom’s credit card expired 

[oldhorn2 430]

1 hour ago, immamac said:

Last years team was a 10 win minimum team talent wise, maybe even 11. Shithead Steve decided that J Brooks should ride the pine because he's a braindead fucking moron.

You will never convince me that with Sarklostagain at the helm that this team will win anything important, because to do that you have to outcoach someone. 

I concede that you know much more about this game than I ever will, but with all respect....We did not have Bijan...or Rojo...or agent O and several others along the D line. I agree that we could have won the Washington game, but I also know we did  not get to "Dance with the ones that brung us".  As for Brooks.....he had hernia issues. We were going with our 4th string RB....

[Had Enough 2079]

But yeah, if you looked at our OL and QB and saw anything more than 7-8 wins LAST season; or, if you're looking at it now and see and FEWER, you're being a dipshit.
All that said, Sark remains the issue. BUT, he has largely surrounded himself with good to great coaches (jury's still out on PK) and the right kind of talent. That's how Mack won here.

We won 8. Another game (a loss) we had a 2-TD lead late into the 3Q. Up 7 halfway thru the 4th. Another loss, we were up double digits late into 3Q, up 7 into the 4th. That doesn’t include the close Bama game. 10 wins was there for the taking.

I don’t give a shit about how inexperienced your QB is 19-49 should not happen. I’m not saying that’s all the QB either.

Only Bama had more talent than us. OU, BU, and OSU lost a lot of talent (and many of their playmakers) from the prior year when largely our same guys led them each all the way into the 4th. You could throw ISU into that heap of losing a lot of talent too. When you lose that kind of talent, you most likely lose a shit ton of experience too. TCU could be considered more talented, but it was their experience that made the difference. You sure as hell wouldn’t have predicted their success coming off the prior year.

It’s not always about who you have but also, and sometimes more importantly, it’s about who your opponents have.

[pyrofiend 63]

I would love to see how many 10 and 11 win teams had 2 true freshmen and a sophomore with limited experience starting on the offensive line.
How many 10 and 11 win teams had fewer than 30 upperclassmen scholarship players?

Nearly all predictions for 2022 involved a win total between 7 and 9. And that was before Neyor tore his ACL or the realization that Agiye Hall and Jahleel Billingsly were busts.

[Bigbend1812 12915]

 

[Park Gothic 5016]

46 minutes ago, speed817 said:

[Magus Ossis 2797]

One of the things that Sark said in his presser recently was extrapolating from the importance of players continuing to improve. He stated that coaches including himself had to continue to improve. I am willing to grant sobering up as one improvement. I am curious what if anything he is doing this offseason to improve himself as a game-day coach. There is some truth to dividing opponents into those who can beat us, those that can upset us, and the "safe" games, but that scheme depends not only on not losing key talent but also on a solid team culture. Losers lose games that winners never would. I am not sure whether we are winners. I hope that we are.

[Foosters 17843]

Some of you people don't understand how the offseason Kool-Aid drinking process is supposed to shake out. You're supposed to drink to your fill, and then realize the error of your ways sometime in mid September. What you're not supposed to do, is refuse to acknowledge you've been had once again, and loudly proclaim that the team really was one of the best in the country all along.

[Rimbo 25915]

2 hours ago, immamac said:

You will never convince me that with Sarklostagain at the helm that this team will win anything important, because to do that you have to outcoach someone. 

49-0

[Foosters 17843]

2 minutes ago, Magus Ossis said:

 Losers lose games that winners never would. I am not sure whether we are winners.

I'm not sure there's a single coach in CFB history that would be in the "winners" category using your definition,

 

[Rimbo 25915]

19 minutes ago, Had Enough said:

We won 8. Another game (a loss) we had a 2-TD lead late into the 3Q. Up 7 halfway thru the 4th. Another loss, we were up double digits late into 3Q, up 7 into the 4th. That doesn’t include the close Bama game. 10 wins was there for the taking.

Yes. We won 8. We won one more game than a reasonable person should've expected given our talent level at critical positions, experience, and depth.

Quote

I don’t give a shit about how inexperienced your QB is

Then your opinion is worthless and can basically be ignored. You don't know enough about the sport to speak about it.

[Foosters 17843]

25 minutes ago, Had Enough said:

 TCU could be considered more talented, but it was their experience that made the difference.

 

 

You're so close to seeing it...

[Magus Ossis 2797]

5 minutes ago, Foosters said:

I'm not sure there's a single coach in CFB history that would be in the "winners" category using your definition,

 

I was talking more about a team culture of never lying down, always expecting to win, that generally protects from losing winnable games when there is adversity. One example that comes to mind is Bama. Granted they are talented, but they haven't lost to a team with a losing record in I don't know how long. I think aggy at Kyle in '21 is the only unranked loss over the last five years. I would like to see Texas develop the kind of culture that helps our players always expect to win. VY was more than a physical freak-- he was a winner, and the team around him were winners.

[Pato del Muerto 52487]

53 minutes ago, oldhorn2 said:

I concede that you know much more about this game than I ever will

Nobody on this board should concede this point. And there are some objectively weak posters here. 

[hook me 2092]

30 minutes ago, Had Enough said:

It’s not always about who you have but also, and sometimes more importantly, it’s about who your opponents have.

 

 

OSU, TCU, & Bama all lose a ton. KSU returns a lot but loses their RB which is the end of the world to some people around here - we get them at home though. OU sucked shit last year, I'm sure they'll be better but not sure just how much better they'll be. There's not a whole lot on our schedule that scares me. @Bama, OU, KSU, & @ISU are the only real games that I'm looking at as potential losses this year. I think we're better than all of those teams to different degrees, but those are the ones that I'm not sure about. As always, the key will be staying healthy. Ewers missed 3-3/4 games last year & had an injured finger in another. We went 2-3 in those games. You can't predict injuries & weather, but there's not team on this schedule that I'd trade our starting 22 for. Maybe a piece here or there, but the whole 22 is better than anyone we'll play.

[markstanco 12573]

3 hours ago, MonkeyDoughnut said:

And to think that 1604 hasnt weighed in yet. 

[Had Enough 2079]

Then your opinion is worthless and can basically be ignored. You don't know enough about the sport to speak about it.

Interesting.

Arrogance is interesting thing.

But do remember HenryJames post above. Don’t forget to do the other guys.

[Bobby_Batronic 1994]

1 hour ago, Huckleberry said:

They're 7 feet tall and shoot fireballs from their eyes and lightning bolts from their arses.

How much does playing in kilts effect the spread?

[closetojumping 62568]

Some of you bean counting accountants, code-writing dorks and risk averse lawyers posting as roster experts here can't project for shit, because forecasting scares you, since they're inherently incorrect in some form from the beginning.

-The idea that this 2023 WR room doesn't factor into both the QB and the OL magically looking markedly better is laughable.

-Some of you dipshits hedging the concept of improvement from players entering into their second season, at complex positions, must squat to pee. Of course guys playing together, with more experience, surrounded by more talent, are going to play better. It is a fucking given. Jesus.

"Oh but the UW game happened, BRO!" No shit? The relevance of non-playoff bowl games associated to program trajectory is debatable, at best. Remember that time we beat the shit out of a more talented UGA team and announced that we were back? Yeah. 

[BurntOrange&White 39930]

1 minute ago, closetojumping said:

Some of you bean counting accountants, code-writing dorks and risk averse lawyers posting as roster experts here can't project for shit, because forecasting scares you, since they're inherently incorrect in some form from the beginning.

-The idea that this 2023 WR room doesn't factor into both the QB and the OL magically looking markedly better is laughable.

-Some of you dipshits hedging the concept of improvement from players entering into their second season, at complex positions, must squat to pee. Of course guys playing together, with more experience, surrounded by more talent, are going to play better. It is a fucking given. Jesus.

"Oh but the UW game happened, BRO!" No shit? The relevance of non-playoff bowl games associated to program trajectory is debatable, at best. Remember that time we beat the shit out of a more talented UGA team and announced that we were back? Yeah. 

Say it louder for @immamac in the back!

[Blotto 23491]

23 hours ago, TexTexTex said:

We are definitely trending in the right direction with the roster, but we've heard the same spring football shit since the Florida Five days.  

And we will hear it every year moving forward. If you like sniffing jocks as the owner of any of these bullshit sites, and you like getting paid to sniff jocks, you print the shit that your readers want to hear. No different than chin pubes. They are full of shit when it comes to "objective takes" on the upcoming season. 

23 minutes ago, Magus Ossis said:

One of the things that Sark said in his presser recently was extrapolating from the importance of players continuing to improve. He stated that coaches including himself had to continue to improve. I am willing to grant sobering up as one improvement. I am curious what if anything he is doing this offseason to improve himself as a game-day coach. There is some truth to dividing opponents into those who can beat us, those that can upset us, and the "safe" games, but that scheme depends not only on not losing key talent but also on a solid team culture. Losers lose games that winners never would. I am not sure whether we are winners. I hope that we are.

Kansas 2021. The hope is that Sark can eventually overwhelm our opponents with superior talent, but he sure as fuck failed that test against a team that had lost its previous two games 90-13 and whose only win up to that point was a 3 pt drubbing of an FCS team. That was all I had to see to confirm we hired a clown. A competent coach simply doesn't lose that game. A pants shitter cant change his stripes, he just buys a dark suit.

[Foosters 17843]

Nice. Spring football 2023 thread breaking down the 2021 Kansas game. 

[Wulaw Horn 19068]

52 minutes ago, Foosters said:

Some of you people don't understand how the offseason Kool-Aid drinking process is supposed to shake out. You're supposed to drink to your fill, and then realize the error of your ways sometime in mid September. What you're not supposed to do, is refuse to acknowledge you've been had once again, and loudly proclaim that the team really was one of the best in the country all along.

All the number dorks had Texas as a top 10 team. Connelley had the Tech game as like 98% Texas win. In a lot of ways Texas really was among the best teams in the country if we are talking about something like true talent level.  
Didn't get many breaks.  Didn't do a good job coaching in a couple games. Had a few injuries that really were a problem on offense and had a lot of youth.  The defense was really good and it was much older and didn't have any major injuries. Who knew.  We actually saw some evidence of the coaches improving later in the year. Sark got really stubborn with the run in Kansas and Baylor in a good way when it was working and they gave Quinn an offense he was better off running against Washington.  
But yeah- you are what your record says and the numbers can say that Tech was a 2% loss b/c the numbers don't understand that we were playing large cushion and watching them pitch and catch easily on 3rd and 4th down b/c we didn't understand what they were doing to us during the game.  The numbers didn't understand we were going to keep throwing deep routes to a guy with a broken thumb and the ball awareness of a non athlete into a fierce wind when we have the Doak Walker winner at RB.  Those were games that we absolutely lost for ourselves thru stupidity. But Vegas had us as a favorite in every game other than Bama and the computers loved us b/c in a lot of ways it was a very good team. 

[Wulaw Horn 19068]

18 minutes ago, Blotto said:

And we will hear it every year moving forward. If you like sniffing jocks as the owner of any of these bullshit sites, and you like getting paid to sniff jocks, you print the shit that your readers want to hear. No different than chin pubes. They are full of shit when it comes to "objective takes" on the upcoming season. 

Kansas 2021. The hope is that Sark can eventually overwhelm our opponents with superior talent, but he sure as fuck failed that test against a team that had lost its previous two games 90-13 and whose only win up to that point was a 3 pt drubbing of an FCS team. That was all I had to see to confirm we hired a clown. A competent coach simply doesn't lose that game. A pants shitter cant change his stripes, he just buys a dark suit.

Counterpoint: Any team that relies upon Casey Thompson to QB them isn't actually talented.  It was a cripple fight. The biggest cripple was our defensive coordinator. Our offense also failed to cover itself in glory.  Holy shit I have no idea why we love to do this to our selves and dig up the worst memories of something we allegedly like.  

[Slacks 6819]

On 3/23/2023 at 1:03 PM, BurntOrange&White said:

body types and physique are important. NFL measurables isn't a term for no reason. 

For instance, our OL recruits are the easiest example of this. Look at the body types, frames, and size of the guys Flood recruits vs the guys we've landed the previous 10-12 years. Also look at our draft for those positions.

I've been bitching about OL for ever ever....

[Blotto 23491]

4 minutes ago, Wulaw Horn said:

Counterpoint: Any team that relies upon Casey Thompson to QB them isn't actually talented.  It was a cripple fight. The biggest cripple was our defensive coordinator. Our offense also failed to cover itself in glory.  Holy shit I have no idea why we love to do this to our selves and dig up the worst memories of something we allegedly like.  

I'm not particularly fond of Sark, just like you weren't particularly fond of Shaka. Its a message board, we cheer/bitch about our coaches. 

[Park Gothic 5016]

4 minutes ago, Foosters said:

Nice. Spring football 2023 thread breaking down the 2021 Kansas game. 

Yeah fuck this noise. Losing that game was inexcusable and it's one of several things that makes me doubt the future with Sark, but you can't ignore how much fucking quit that 2021 team had in its heart.

Seriously, look at NU with Casey Thompson - see anything familiar? Where is Josh Moore playing now? Did BJ Foster tear it up or SHSU last season? No, he fucking sucked again. They all sucked again. Half the roster was guys who were weaker than wet dog shit and the Kansas game was the absolute low point. I'd normally heap more blame on the coaches but my impression is that their real mistake was assuming that nobody would let themselves get embarrassed as badly as that team let itself be embarrassed. They got blinded by the talent and couldn't see how little those guys cared. And to the coaches' credit they cut all their asses and replaced them with better players. 

The team in 2022 wasn't the team in 2021, and the next year certainly won't be either. Look at how badly Texas dad-dicked a much better KU team, at their house, in 2022. I don't know how much improvement the team will actually see but the trajectory is clearly pointing up. Why the fuck are people still wallowing in 2021 when there's absolutely no indication that the team will be anything close to that bad again? Why keep kicking yourself in the dick? If you don't like Sark or don't think he's the guy, then I don't necessarily disagree. But move on. 

[Wulaw Horn 19068]

3 minutes ago, Blotto said:

I'm not particularly fond of Sark, just like you weren't particularly fond of Shaka. Its a message board, we cheer/bitch about our coaches. 

OH it wasn't a shot. I meant Texas football in general. It wasn't aimed at you- we do this all the time on all sorts of threads bringing up worst moments around. It's funny.

[BornAndRaised 12281]

[Nuge 1966]

The 2023 Texas team will be better than the 2022 Texas team.  As others have said, just the improvement in the offensive line and qb will make a huge difference.