“Trying too hard” and “caring or pressing too much” are usually hollow platitudes used to describe shitty play. A holding penalty is usually the result of poor fundamentals or execution resulting in a player being out of position. Not because he simply cares too much.
Tripping and falling down while pulling on a counter at the goal line is just bad footwork and fundamentals. Players just need to practice and be better.
All fair points but I disagree with one thing. Continuity is less important if you simply have bad players. Neto has been in this program how long exactly and we cannot trust him to start at Ohio St? Florida State and Auburn completely retooled their line in one offseason. I mean from the bottom of the league to whipping Alabama’s ass in one offseason from the portal. We did not have to start Stroh and Hutson this year to achieve some mythical continuity award. That was a choice. Hutson will not suddenly become strong halfway through his what fourth year here? Stroh and Neto are just not good enough football players to start at Texas. That is us just simply choosing to settle. And if that means they hit the portal and we lose the continuity, so be it.
We justified our lack of offense against elite defenses in the past as a by product of Ewers not being able to threaten the defense downfield allowing the Georgia’s of the world to run blitz our offense into oblivion. Now we have gone full circle to our expectations of an Arch led Sark offense opening up our run game. Against pretty good defenses Sark could scheme up open shots and enough running plays. But once a defense is good enough to have complete contempt for an aspect of our offense (Georgia passing game Ohio State running game) it was lights out for us.
We addressed the defensive line with a sense of urgency this offseason that was missing on the offensive line. Presumably because Sark and Flood thought that the players that have been in the program have developed well enough to play at a high level. What is painfully obvious now is that Stroh and Hutson (and by extension Neto since Stroh beat him out) are not anywhere near the standard we are holding our roster management on defense at.
That doesn’t mean Flood needs to get fired or that Baker is a bust this early in his career but we failed to recognize that 3rd and 4th year players are not nearly as good as we need them to be. That’s a failure of Flood’s part and pointing that out isn’t wrong IMO.
Neto and Stroh have been in the program long enough for Flood to know he needed to go to the portal for at least two players this offseason. It was mentioned briefly by the 9.95’ers this offseason but not enough. If Texas misses the playoffs we are going to look back at that roster mismanagement as one of the main reasons.
Next year the line is a full on emergency situation if Goosby goes pro. They will have to go for 3-5 players in the portal.
That was the most Bears game ever. Get a lead, screw around with penalties and sloppy play and lose a game that should have been out of reach at halftime. And that’s after barely getting a playable field surface down in time.
If it were just that throw, that would make a lot of sense. Someone posted a video on twitter that showed him making the same face on half a dozen other throws in the game. Apparently that’s part of his throwing ritual. To look like someone just jabbed a fork into his eye socket.
Rewatched most of the game to focus on the offensive line in case my knee jerk reaction was wrong. Hutson, Stroh and Campbell made the 2010 Texas line look like the 1992 Dallas Cowboys. They were routinely blown off the ball by SJSU. Watching Hutson on running downs in that game should come with a parental warning. It was absolutely brutal to watch. San Jose State has a much better line than Texas right now.
The offensive line is by far the worst unit on the team and outside of QB development that should concern everyone. San Jose St won the battle at the line. San Jose Mother Fucking St.
The offensive line is a real problem. I’m not sure what the in season fix is but we need to sign 3-4 guys in the portal in January. That position needs the urgency that defensive tackle got this past offseason.