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Twilight In T-Town: The End of the Nick Saban Era


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1 hour ago, Atticus said:

Disagree. Milroe is a fine leader when things are going well. He looked shook for most of the game Saturday. The one shot that stood out to me was after a TD pass, he stood there in disbelief, then crossed his arms trying to give off a "yea, i'm that dude" appearance. His face still showed complete disbelief and fear.

He had the same look in his eyes and generally poor body language last year when he played extensive minutes against Arkansas and A&M.

I gotta get me a new tv, I didn't see that at all, dude's body language didn't change at all during the game, after good or bad plays.

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Yes read in the voice of Cletus


“My kids at school are clowning me man, Texas had better athletes than us man, it’s over. When was the last time Alabama didn’t score a touch down in the first half? I’m so depressed, it’s over man.” - Dominic 

“Dominic flat out nailed it. Ain’t no more dynasty. All you can do is go vomit. It’s wrong on too many levels. I believe it now and I ain’t no dummy. NIL killed his ability to dominate.” - Jim

Not a Cletus …

that was an absolute physical beat down. I said the portal and NIL would be the death of Saban. - Augie

another Cletus…

“Alabama took that steer up the rear” - JK

geez this shit is gold Jerry!! 
 

Animated GIF

 

Edited by troph
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21 hours ago, C-Man said:

If CTJ didn't already convince you, the fact that Helobious is saying tap the brakes makes me even more certain that we are witnessing the beginning of the end of Bama's dominance under Saban.

 

 

I had a long screed written out blasting the OP for being a got damn idoit, then I read this, reflect for a moment, and am now like "yeah, probably right, OP, pos rep."

 

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Not disagreeing with op at all but it’s seemed to me the last handful of years Bama goes according to their OC. Joey Freshwater and Sark kicked ass. The other guys not so much.

Also I miss murderball. I liked it. But I’d also go back to the rotary phone if I could so don’t go by what I think.

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16 minutes ago, longhornmatt said:

They clearly don’t have the same type of talent they used to have.  They used to have 4 first round WRs at the same time for a few years, have had at least two 1st round RBs plus another NFL back or two on most of their rosters, giant LBs and DLs that live in the backfield, etc.  Now they just have good players at most positions instead of Julio Jones, Quinnen Williams and Derrick Henry type freaks.

On the coaching and game planning side, though, it’s weird that they don’t run more zone reads and option type offense with Milroe.  He’s a better runner than their RBs, and he can’t operate a drop back passing game very well.  He ended up with a decent number of carries only because he scrambled so many times on passes and got sacked so many times.  If Saban was serious about playing murderball, and knowing who they have at QB, they should be in full Urban Meyer mode this year calling QB power and zone reads one after the other.  Instead, they just kind of ran a drop back offense and watched their QB bail out of the pocket all game.

He's basically doing what Mack did at the very end. Kiffen and then Sark showed Saban the way on offense and they were so damn good with the video game offense. They'd just take teams to the woodshed. Now they're trying to get back to smashmouth, murderball with a young OC that's likely just there to do what Nick tells him to do. Perhaps it's not having the right triggerman on campus -- they did have a hell of a run with Mac Jones-Tua-Bryce Young at QB.

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27 minutes ago, C-Man said:

He's basically doing what Mack did at the very end. Kiffen and then Sark showed Saban the way on offense and they were so damn good with the video game offense. They'd just take teams to the woodshed. Now they're trying to get back to smashmouth, murderball with a young OC that's likely just there to do what Nick tells him to do. Perhaps it's not having the right triggerman on campus -- they did have a hell of a run with Mac Jones-Tua-Bryce Young at QB.

Starring Tommy Rees in the role of Bryan Harsin 

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22 hours ago, Helobious said:

Does Bama not win that game with a QB that can actually pass? We might want to tap the brakes on all this. They’re not as good as they usually are but there’s no reason they won’t reload.

No.

Imagine the Texas pash rush without having to account for Milroe’s running. They may have killed someone. 

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Bama may not be competing in the national championship game every year or making it to the playoffs every year but they will still be an elite team while Saban is there.  He puts a ton of talent into the NFL and he will continue to attract elite talent

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12 minutes ago, C-Man said:

I feel like Harsin had a little more autonomy than Rees likely does. (Though he was pinned with Major as his co-OC. Speaking of Major, where is he now?)

He's the OC at South Alabama, he was an offensive analyst at Alabama when Sarkisian was there.

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27 minutes ago, EuroHorn said:

Bama Florida State may not be competing in the national championship game every year or making it to the playoffs Orange Bowl every year but they will still be an elite team while Saban Bowden is there.  He puts a ton of talent into the NFL and he will continue to attract elite talent

 

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23 hours ago, Helobious said:

Does Bama not win that game with a QB that can actually pass? We might want to tap the brakes on all this. They’re not as good as they usually are but there’s no reason they won’t reload.

Well I wasn't really a believer before but this seals it- Bama is officially fucked. 

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24 minutes ago, EuroHorn said:

Bama may not be competing in the national championship game every year or making it to the playoffs every year but they will still be an elite team while Saban is there.  He puts a ton of talent into the NFL and he will continue to attract elite talent

What is "elite" if not competing in the playoffs? It's going to be a 12 team CFP starting next season. Every single blue blood and near blue blood program would be completely reasonable to expect their teams to make the CFP every four out of five seasons. If Bama isn't doing that, they won't be anywhere close to "elite". I assume they're due for a few CFP visits over the backend of Saban's tenure based on talent acquisition alone. 

That all considered, Bowden's final stretch is interesting as a measuring stick for someone 70+ and still "going strong". 

Final Ranking:

2001 - AP 15th

2002 - AP 21st

2003 - AP 11th

2004 - AP 15th

2005 - AP 22nd

2006 - Unranked

2007 - Unranked

2008 - AP 21st

2009 - Unranked

After making a hypothetical 12 team CFP (or even a 4 team CFP) for 14 consecutive seasons, he would have made the 12 team CFP once in his final 9 years, barely.

Joe Paterno's final 14 seasons are a little different, from age 71-84, that old rape-enabling fuckhead had 6 unranked finishes, but also 4 finishes that would have gotten his team into a 12 team CFP. His last team finished ranked 12th, but he'd been forcibly removed during the season for allowing a monster to run amok inside his program, raping little boys for decades. 

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33 minutes ago, Gravy Train said:


They would have dinked and dunked down the field for more FG attempts if they could finsih drives. Officials allowed their OL to hold all game, just one holding flag was drawn on them.

Yeah usually the cure for a tenacious pass rush is quick passes and screens/draws. I was surprised to not see Bama do much of that 

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8 minutes ago, Helobious said:

Yeah usually the cure for a tenacious pass rush is quick passes and screens/draws. I was surprised to not see Bama do much of that 

Given that the rush was already somewhat restrained in deference to better containing Milroe’s running, it’s not entirely certain draws would’ve done much. As slow as they looked relative to Texas in the OL, maybe WR screens or something, but Texas has gotten much better at defending that stuff.

It didn’t take long to get from “Texas is going to lose” to “Alabama is down” to “Alabama’s coaching seems poor,” though. 

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1 hour ago, closetojumping said:

What is "elite" if not competing in the playoffs? It's going to be a 12 team CFP starting next season. Every single blue blood and near blue blood program would be completely reasonable to expect their teams to make the CFP every four out of five seasons. If Bama isn't doing that, they won't be anywhere close to "elite". I assume they're due for a few CFP visits over the backend of Saban's tenure based on talent acquisition alone. 

That all considered, Bowden's final stretch is interesting as a measuring stick for someone 70+ and still "going strong". 

Final Ranking:

2001 - AP 15th

2002 - AP 21st

2003 - AP 11th

2004 - AP 15th

2005 - AP 22nd

2006 - Unranked

2007 - Unranked

2008 - AP 21st

2009 - Unranked

After making a hypothetical 12 team CFP (or even a 4 team CFP) for 14 consecutive seasons, he would have made the 12 team CFP once in his final 9 years, barely.

Joe Paterno's final 14 seasons are a little different, from age 71-84, that old rape-enabling fuckhead had 6 unranked finishes, but also 4 finishes that would have gotten his team into a 12 team CFP. His last team finished ranked 12th, but he'd been forcibly removed during the season for allowing a monster to run amok inside his program, raping little boys for decades. 

Elite could be every other year. Or in the mix every year.  With the playoff expansion I could see Alabama being top 12 and making the playoffs but not always going to the championship game.  Or even missing the playoffs in a given year 
 

I think Texas baseball is an elite program and we certainly don’t make it to Omaha every year (top 8).  Let alone the championship game 

Edited by EuroHorn
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Texas cannot be "back" after one game. Texas is "back" when we're all bitching about only winning 10 games a season and being #5 at the end of the regular season.

Re: Alabama and Saban's dotage

Kyle Flood works for us now. His big boys kept parted the Tide and kept them off Quinn. If holding hadn't been allowed, Saban wouldn't be discussing Milroe's growth. He'd be discussing his recovery.

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On 9/11/2023 at 1:03 PM, Duane Moore said:

 

I’m not ready to shovel dirt on the Alabama program just yet, and they may make a 12 team playoff a few times if he sticks around, but these comments I quoted above track with something I noticed as well on Saturday. Compare his demeanor on the sideline as we made big plays against them, or when they had TD’s wiped out by penalties, or gave us the first down jumping offsides to ice the game, to his reaction just last year when they were having a tough time with Tennessee:

 

I think he knows the end is near for him  

 

 

 

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On 9/11/2023 at 2:08 PM, Neonmoon said:

If a Texas head coach won 6 football championships in a 10 year period, I wouldn't care if he didn't field a team, showed up every Saturday, walked to the middle of the field by himself and took a giant shit before passing out with his pants around his ankles for 5 years straight.

Shit man, we dealt with that the last 4 years of Mack’s tenure after only 1 championship….

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7 hours ago, Doc Daneeka said:

It didn’t take long to get from “Texas is going to lose” to “Alabama is down” to “Alabama’s coaching seems poor,” though. 

Yeah. It's college football. Sometimes teams show on Saturday and just play like shit. Every team -- including Alabama -- has played games where they get beat by teams that are less impressive than Texas was last Saturday.

I don't read too much into one game, especially against a quality opponent.

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9 minutes ago, FirstTimeCaller said:

Yeah. It's college football. Sometimes teams show on Saturday and just play like shit. Every team -- including Alabama -- has played games where they get beat by teams that are less impressive than Texas was last Saturday.

I don't read too much into one game, especially against a quality opponent.

Bama hasn't lost by double digits at home in 19 seasons. 

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On 9/11/2023 at 12:01 PM, Tex Long said:

The real question is, will Nick walk away, or will he demand - and get - the Mack treatment and get three more years?

Either way, if he wants to stay, they can't - or at least, won't - fire him. Not even if he follows Mack even more by losing six or seven games. 

If and when he goes, who's the replacement? Surely not Sark... he wouldn't leave Texas, we're Texas. Right? 

Who would Bama get? There is absolutely one else that they could get that could be better than Saban with or without the new CFB landscape. If Saban can’t keep Bama relevant and in the championship mix there is not much chance anybody else could. If it’s over for Bama, then I guess it doesn’t matter either way, but there isn’t anyone else that can be an improvement given the new world going forward. JMO.

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On 9/11/2023 at 1:23 PM, Wulaw Horn said:

Yeah dude- welcome to the bandwaggon- I've got a seat saved for you- knew you were going to show up eventually-

I would presume that the axis of college football power going forward will be Oregon (Nike- as long as Knight is alive), USC, Texas, aggy, Ohio State, Michigan, Georgia, Florida and Domers.  I think Clemson, LSU and Bama are the biggest losers as they are backwater locales with poverty fanbases out in the middle of nowhere that no longer have the competitive advantage cheating.  We saw what happened to OU when they lost the competitive advantage of blatantly cheating and that's good not great program that needed Lincoln Rileys brilliance to prop them up.  I look for Bama post Saban to settle into something like that.  So, better than Nebraska but a lesser light than Texas in it's rise. 


Last year was probably the inflection period between the 2 teams but a Ewers injury made people not realize it until this year.  We kicked their ass in the portal, we beat them for Arch, and their #1 class saw them take 3 or 4 guys that we were like- no thanks- yall can have them.  

College football just became about demographics as much as anything and Texas hit the absolute jackpot.  Can't hardly wait to watch the next 20 years play out.  

 

100.00% hit Wulaw.  Thank you for your consistent support and measured reaction to so many things.

Welcome to the bandwaggon ..., oops, not yet, guys. I will wait patiently for a few months, and after I volcano on all the "Seven win Steve posters", and there are a lot of you, then I will welcome you back into the fold.  

I agree with the axis tilt, that things will change towards the more traditional powers. I think Alabama will still be in the picture, as they can always point to skins on the wall, and that will always matter.  (I went to an OU game in Norman in the 80's, and I got goose bumps walking into the stadium.  I imagine recruits feel the same way sometimes. I think Sark felt that way when he first walked into DKR-TMS.) Alabama won't run shit anymore, but I think with prudent hires, they should still compete at a high level.

Last year as the inflection point? Yeah, buddy, my thoughts exactly. The massive changes in direction v. late Mack, Strong & Herman were there, but so many dogged Sark & Quinn because they failed to deliver immediate results. Yes, I was disappointed, but I also know that a supertanker cruising at top speed doesn't change direction like a jet ski.

Listen to Josh Pate's Late Kick...He talks about the difference in building a team and building a program.  Texas, CDC & Sark have built a program. (That takes time, considering the starting point of Sark's tenure; assistant coaches, culture, talent, scholarship distribution, recruiting, bloated administration, leaks to the press, tolerance of F*ck Chip Brown and Kirk Bohls, etc.) Whether or not Texas wins out or not, Texas is going to be here and be elite again for a long while. The Death Star in operational.

Spoiler; First word out of his mouth, "WOW!

 

 

On 9/11/2023 at 1:35 PM, closetojumping said:

I think Milroe is a damned fine option at QB if you have one of either a dynamic TB or a 1st round caliber WR. Might need both, but Bama has had both together in the past. Milroe is a beast on the ground and he's got quality leadership skills. He needs help. 

Milroe is not the biggest problem, just the most visible. Reese called some good plays, that "forced" Texas to react, that Milroe executed. He is a 4.4 40-guy that spent all night running for his life. Kinda like Quinn last year. It's amazing how different the guy with the clean jersey looked compared to the guy digging grass out of his facemask.  He can hit the long throws. The shorter stuff, seeing the field, and making the right decisions, is heavily dependent on coaching. Quinn has it, Milroe doesn't. (BOB was your mentor? Who wouldn't be f*cked up?) 

Milroe won't face the NFL talent like Texas has again, unless Alabama makes it to the SEC Championship game.  They also won't face an offense like ours.

On 9/11/2023 at 11:55 AM, Chili dog said:

Saban’s last great coaching staff now coaches at Texas, save for an upgrade at DC over Golding. 

Sark, Flood, Davis & Milwee are difference makers. Sark gave a shout out to Milwee for settling Quinn down in the 2nd Qtr. It's been so long since we had good coaches I forgot what it looked like.

On 9/11/2023 at 4:46 PM, Rimbo said:

Seeing us get a sack when only rushing 4 during the 3rd quarter... haven't seen us do that in a long time, and that's when I felt we were going to win.

😉

I thought the Texas DL match up against the huge Alabama OL (fatties!!! 🤣) was a big Texas advantage. We have a lot of big, talented guys that somebody lit a fire under. Playing next too, or behind  T'Vondre Sweat has to be inspiring (Broughton? Collins?).  Getting a consistent push makes the world go round.  

On 9/11/2023 at 8:00 PM, Not a cat said:

I think you folks saying Milroe sucks don't realize how good our D played.  I thought he was going to suck and he impressed me.  He was the only reason they were even in it, IMO.

As many mentioned, a drop back QB would have got sacked 10 times, if he made it that long. 

12 hours ago, C-Man said:

He's basically doing what Mack did at the very end. Kiffen and then Sark showed Saban the way o... Now they're trying to get back to smashmouth, murderball ...with a young OC that's likely just there to do what Nick tells him to do. Perhaps it's not having the right triggerman on campus -- they did have a hell of a run with Mac Jones-Tua-Bryce Young at QB.

I hope for Alabama's sake, this is taking advantage of Milroe's skill set, and not a program change. Mack reluctantly let Vince play his game, changed the offense, and got the results. Colt covered up a lot of shortcomings, and Mack taking a HUNH team and trying to turn it into smashmouth football was tragic for Texas.

Edited by PTINS
typo. text.
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8 hours ago, FirstTimeCaller said:

Yeah. It's college football. Sometimes teams show on Saturday and just play like shit. Every team -- including Alabama -- has played games where they get beat by teams that are less impressive than Texas was last Saturday.

I don't read too much into one game, especially against a quality opponent.

Well, I mean, define “too much.”

Minimizing or rationalizing the result of one game can be just as misleading as reading too much into it. 

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1 hour ago, Doc Daneeka said:

Well, I mean, define “too much.”

Minimizing or rationalizing the result of one game can be just as misleading as reading too much into it. 

Look, when we lost to Kansas, it was just a fluke. RIght?! Right?!

Oh god, right?!

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