Here's what I keep coming back to- EVERYTHING in this program is built upon the idea that Sark is an elite offensive coach, playcaller, and QB coach.
The wheels have completely fallen off of his offense.
His star QB is a deer in headlights.
His game plans are confounding.
His clock management is consistently poor.
His offensive stats against ranked teams are objectively bad.
All of this with a top 3 NIL payroll and consistently high recruiting classes. Meanwhile, PK is putting out an elite product on defense and his side of the ball is clearly the thing thats keeping our heads barely above water. The stark difference is a very tough look for Sark. It feels like we are starting to enter the territory where we are forced to ask the question- What is the overall value that Sark brings to the program?
I have a hard time believing Sark could get a HC job in the NFL. His body of work as an OC in Atlanta was not good. Now the wheels are coming off of his program at a spot where he has every imaginable advantage. His body language is very strange right now. Im afraid things are about to spill over for him.
I dont think he ever sees it pre snap. He might see it half the time post snap. Even when he does see it, he usually sees it too late. And even when he does see it, he misses way too often.
Asswater.
Surely the coaches are still feeling the aftershock from the UF loss. It's hard for me to imagine the staff isn't locked in. The question for me is can they take the OU offensive adjustments and travel with them? Can the defense impose its will on a significantly outgunned SEC road opponent? Can we play a clean game on special teams? Can Arch keep building one brick at a time? Can Wisner give us enough juice in the running game to keep the chains moving?
I don't feel confident answering any of those questions yet. This feels like a major check up game for us. I loved seeing us play up to our potential against OU, I still cant believe what I saw against UF. I don't know what we have with this team. My best guess is we take care of business but some of our warts resurface and we will be asking many of these same questions for the Miss St game.
24-13 Texas.
I was super confident we got Florida at a horrible time for them last season. It takes a lot out of a team to get on a plane and go into a different time zone. If you add that up with other timing considerations, I believe it can be a real factor. I loved USC over Michigan last weekend. Put them in a bowl game at a neutral site and I think its totally different.
I'm trying to think of a single Big 12 away game better than Lexington.
Only thing I have is Arizona/Utah to even compete and of course that never applied to us.
Keeneland as a tailgating spot and precursor to the game is so good. I hope as many Texas fans make it out there as possible because they will definitely want to go back. Thats a very elite Saturday.
Yea at some point theres not a lot you can take from it as a fan. You just hope the staff sees the film and says, damn, we have to make some changes.
I also suspect Florida has our number as a staff, and they showed sme really good stuff against us on the interior last season. We just blew them off the field on the outsides.
I always wondered about him when he jumped from Waco to DeSoto. Thats a big jump and he was a star for DeSoto. Feels like we used to miss those guys consistently. Now he's a bully in the RRS.
We would have beaten Florida if our o line performance was marginally better. We are good, Florida is not. I dont think our performance there is who we are, but I think what happened is what happened. My guess is Sark took the attitude of we are the thermostat and not the thermometer, and he didnt change anything leading up to the Florida game. We get smoked on the lines, he makes the adjustments, and we play much better against OU. But thats a capitulation of the team identity, we choose what happens.
Dude we got buttfucked in the trenches against Florida. I watched the tape many times. It was so bad I felt like it was at least partially an aberration and that we would rebound, and we did. I picked us to beat OU. But our O Line got destroyed, and our D line got neutralized.
I also think the people on here who have noticed a lack of leadership in the locker room are correct, and I think Baxter is the guy thats missing. If he hadnt been injured and was out doing his thing, I think the offense as a whole would be more cohesive not just from his production but from his attitude and presence in the huddle and on the field. Him on the sidelines is a major loss for Sark.
Whittington is such a great story. So much potential and he showed great maturity throughout the rehab process. It really does sound like Baxter is cut from similar fabric mentally, just a matter of his body rebounding. I don't think anyone knows with these athletes, some people can heal and some people either cant heal their injury or it leads to weakness in another area that sidelines them further.
I don't think anyone has the full picture with Baxter yet, but it seems obvious we cant count on him being who we recruited. I think its a guarantee we go big game hunting for a rb in the portal for next season.
I think they are better than OU and there's a reasonable chance (still less than 50%) they come into Austin with a trip to the SECCG on the line. I think we will be out of it after a loss to UGA, but that we will finish this season by completely rocking them defensively like last year.
They did what they could in the offseason. They are limited. It's going to be a joy watching the rest of this season play out for them. I think we get Brad Vegetables one more time.
We got Swamped in that game too. They were saving up for Arch just as others will. Very difficult place to play when they're on the same page. My hope is that the team saw Arch give it everything he had in the face of a very hostile environment and ruthless media. They played like it against OU, but it remains to be seen if that was the rivalry game effect or if the team as a whole is ready to play with their hair on fire.
UF was a program wide failure that very well could cost us the playoffs. The question is will we see another grenade go off like that in a game we are favored in. I'm personally not convinced we are ready to take care of business yet. I think we are about to see the wheels come off for OU.
These next three weeks are huge. I don't believe we are close to where we need to be yet, this team still has to go out and decide who they are. With a full octane effort we can smother UK and MSU, and should have the horses to outlast Vanderbilt. That gets us into the bye week with everything on the table for us going into Georgia. If we fool ourselves into thinking we can just show up to a single one of these games and win on the road, we will see another Florida.