I'm still willing to give Sark a chance to prove it this year.
There are enough positives - offensive scheme, recruiting, first half performance in most of our games - to hold out hope that last year's problems were some combination of personnel, team chemistry, fixable coaching deficiencies, and bad luck.
But this is the year that those problems need to be addressed.
The personnel issues might not be fully solved (the DL, OL, LB holes are still glaring), but at least it looks like he knew enough to recruit the DL & OL heavily.
The team chemistry - he brought in younger coaches and is trying to instill player accountability. Will it be enough or are we too dysfunctional to have a turnaround this soon?
Fixable coaching mistakes - He didn't replace PK. Is one bad season over the last 10 years an indication of a shitty coach, or personnel issues? I guess we'll find out. Was the terrible offense in second half of games due to poor coaching/poor playcalling? Was it out of shape players? Poor team psyche? Those are things that can be fixed.
Bad Luck - 3 or 4 little things in the OU game could have gone different and we win (out of bounds catch for OU, out of bounds no-catch for UT, missed QB tackle). Winning that game likely plasters over some team culture issues, and maybe we don't have PTSD vs OK State & Baylor and we win those games?
Right now, Sark's Texas report card is one big Incomplete.
If you want to put all of the blame on Sark, and say "he mis-evaluated the roster, doesn't know how to motivate the team, didn't fix the defensive scheme issues, didn't make good second half adjustments, didn't fire PK, etc.", I understand where you're coming from. There are plenty of negatives to choose from and say "He's not gonna work out".
I think he can turn most of those things around this year. We'll have better skill players, much improved QB play, possibly better OL play (if the freshman contribute well). On defense, perhaps Fat Gare can bring about improved LB play, better secondary, and we can cobble together some sort of DL that's not bottom 100 in Div1. If a possibly lethal offense and a slightly improved defense can bring about some early success and the team chemistry turns around, it could be a solid season.
There are enough examples of second year coaches making the leap (Saban at Bama, Aranda at Baylor, etc.). Maybe our luck will turn around and we can see a similar improvement.
Or, I'm just a sucker and Lucy is gonna pull the football out from under me one more time.