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48 minutes ago, Vertigo said:

Joseph is the guy that I feel like needs to go. Gideon actually has developed Taafe into a serviceable player and has brought Williams along in a nice way this season into being the unquestioned starter heading into next year. Taafe, Thompson, and Crawford are a mixed bag of massive limitations either athletically or mentally, and Thompson was just dog shit this year. I think PK had to alter his defense to hide the safeties almost all season, but our technique on balls in the air from our defensive backs is just inexcusable. There is no reason long corners like Watts and Brooks cant turn around to make plays on the ball in the air. 

100%.  Taafe had some pretty good plays this year, but Texas should be able to do better than that.  Honestly though, we were fairly lucky that he stepped up, so thanks Taafe.

I got tired of watching yet another play go well for Washington, and seeing Thompson standing there.  I've had my issues with Brooks all season and was actually looking forward to Watts coming back off injury at one point.  I don't know what happened to Watts, but you are right about him not turning around at all.  Am I wrong that he looked really good early in the season - before his injury (I've slept since then)?  Unless he is not yet 100% I'm not sure what happened.

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38 minutes ago, tokamak said:

One aspect that's interesting to me is that Sark has gotten a lot of credit, and rightly so, for rebuilding our lines quickly and to an SEC standard. But Washington by and large won the LOS on both sides last night. Not sure what to make of that.

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They are a far more experienced line than us with not just classification but playtime. That matters especially with their center being the youngest of the bunch with the fewest starts.

41 minutes ago, tokamak said:

One aspect that's interesting to me is that Sark has gotten a lot of credit, and rightly so, for rebuilding our lines quickly and to an SEC standard. But Washington by and large won the LOS on both sides last night. Not sure what to make of that.

I’m not sure they did. We got pressure nearly had 3-4 sacks, Penix is NFL caliber at evading the rush. We stuffed the run. Our DL played well. On the OL Ewers was confused all night. Their blitz / no blitz packages were money.  They know Ewers isn’t great at going to 3-4 progressions as a sophomore and that’s what they made him do or they brought overloaded blitzes that require a quick read. He just never got in sync. 

37 minutes ago, WelfareBuysMyWeed said:

We're Rocky I right now. Rocky II is next season.

 

rockyv.jpg

2 hours ago, UTEE97 said:

I put a lot of blame on Gideon and Joseph for our DB play all year. I know we are lacking talent there, but the position coaches should be able to develop the talent they have and our DBs have not showed any improvement throughout the year. We play with bad technique, which to me, is the coaching. When was the last time our secondary looked nack to track the ball? I won't mind seeing one or both of these coaches getting replaced.

 

Gideon and. Joseph should have been gone yesterday, but I'll give them credit for getting Filsame + JJR + Jelani Mcdonald and Muhammed + Warren Roberson + Wardell Mack + Kobe Black (Sark gets credit for Santana Wilson). After NSD2 Sark should show them the door and go make a high level hire. Those two are holding us back. In 3 years we have not seen any improvement. That's fireable. 

 

The bolded would be Akina

Edited by Spider2YBanana

54 minutes ago, WelfareBuysMyWeed said:

Before the season started, I saw some stat about 4 and 5 stars that Georgia and Alabama had, vs Texas, at every position. And the take away from the article was that, while Texas is recruiting extremely well lately, it's only really a recent trend that it's bearing fruit on the field. Texas always recruited well, but our players would usually be big busts from their hype, and thus would eventually fall out of rotation. Alabama and Georgia were treated as the gold standards, as they basically had two-deep of 4 and 5 stars at every position. The point of the article was that it would take Texas a few more recruiting rounds before they could bully anybody in the country all day and night like Georgia and Bama normally can. I think that's what we saw last night, the limits of our current depths.

Like, imagine what this game would have looked like had we had, say, Jonathan Brooks available.

He was at the game.

49 minutes ago, Zeus said:

Does Steve lose 2 fumbles?

Offense played great, defense was not good on the back end or pass rush. 

Prior to the game, I never thought that the pass rush was going to get home against UW, and not because of great blocking or poor defensive execution.

UW usually just gets the ball out very fast and picks their spots for the slower developing stuff. Think OU, only faster and with a better line.

Very difficult to defend with our scheme and personnel in the secondary.  UW style allows them to play their game when they want to.

54 minutes ago, horn4life said:

First let's talk about the game-    Here's the deal. Sometimes the other guys are really good and they can make plays as well.  Penix was making great throws, and to be honest our coverage was tight most of the time early, but the receivers were making fantastic catches!  Hell if you look at our players offensively the stats are good individually but not cumulatively. Running Blue 6.6 ypc, Baxter 7.1 ypc, passing Sanders 12.5, Whittington 17.5, Worthy 22.5, Blue 11.3 with Baxter 19.5 yard per catch.  The anomaly is Mitchell at 5 ypc.

But Ewers completes only 55% of his passes.  The complete ones were solid, the running game was solid, what was weak was completion percentage and fumbling the ball away. Even then you have to remember that one of Washington's TD's was a tip, And one 3rd down completion was a tip that took heat off a ball that would would have been overthrown.  We also got lucky with the early muff.

But let's talk about Sark. Bottom line is we nearly won a game with our QB only completing 55% of his passes against an undefeated #2 team in the country.  The fact we came back at the end was a testament to the type of mentality this team has developed!  The most difficult thing for a head coach to do is build a culture.  At first coaches have to come in and be not only the coach, but the head disciplinarian and head motivator.  And it's never, ever, ever successful... at least at first.  Winning coaches develop a culture within the team where team leaders are the motivators, and largely take over the role of disciplinarian of the players producing accountability to the team and each other.  THIS is the secret sauce to success over time.  Sark has added this secret sauce to our team and now we are in a good position moving forward from an accountability and team unity perspective.  And that my friends is light years from where we were, at 5-7 with us finding a way to lose and players not looking past the tips of their own noses in many cases.

Today we have a solid two deep at every position like we have not seen in decades.  OF course there are some holes to fill, but it's been a long time since we had backups of a high enough quality level to step up and step right in.   Sark has in essence rebuilt the program. In his own image no less.  I think that one of the things that I like most about Sark is his relationship with the players.  You hear time and again how he genuinely takes an interest in their lives beyond football, and that's how he spends most of his time interacting with players on an individual basis.  His past very public missteps also make hime more relatable to kids.  As opposed to the dishonest "just be perfect" mindset so many coaches project, despite the reality.  I think this makes Sark approachable and makes players and equally as importantly a player's parents comfortable with him.  This has allowed him to kick ass high school recruiting.  The other thing I LOVE about Sark is he realizes that continuity is so very, very important in maintaining a culture.  He has been very selective in bringing in portal players, because he understands how one or two very talented bad apples can start a rot in the whole barrel.  This is perhaps the most overlooked quality that I think Sark possesses.  

We had disappointment last night. But Sark has earned his money and we are in a very good spot going into the SEC in 2024.  Imagine what might have been with 58% completions and only one fumble... If you are not happy with Sark you are a fucking moron.

 

I’m a fucking moron and I am still happy with Sark!

26 minutes ago, Spider2YBanana said:

Brooks isn't coming back. Bobby said he's headed to the NFL. It sucks, but we have a stable of capable backs. And you and I are in agreement regarding the 10-wins. They absolutely should win 10 games with our schedule, and we will beat Michigan. They're losing almost all of their upperclassmen. I believe we can beat Georgia, especially with Carson Beck starting. Ewers should be significantly better next season. I'm going with 11 wins with a loss to some mid like Kentucky, but we win against UM and Georgia with Beck starting. 

Bobby is probably right, but it means Bobby knows more than Brooks knows. Brooks wants to see how his recovery is going and how the NFL views him, now.

1 minute ago, Jiggy-Z said:

Prior to the game, I never thought that the pass rush was going to get home against UW, and not because of great blocking or poor defensive execution.

UW usually just gets the ball out very fast and picks their spots for the slower developing stuff. Think OU, only faster and with a better line.

Very difficult to defend with our scheme and personnel in the secondary.  UW style allows them to play their game when they want to.

Yes, this was the main concern before the game and played out pretty much exactly as expected. Washington has a sixth year QB and 3 veteran WRs all of whom are ready to play in the NFL right now. Taafe, who has produced better than you should expect for a walk on, and Thompson will be working in cubicles. We were a very good team this year but there's still work to do to raise the talent level of the roster - next year should be better in that regard. 

30 minutes ago, Spider2YBanana said:

Brooks isn't coming back. Bobby said he's headed to the NFL. It sucks, but we have a stable of capable backs. And you and I are in agreement regarding the 10-wins. They absolutely should win 10 games with our schedule, and we will beat Michigan. They're losing almost all of their upperclassmen. I believe we can beat Georgia, especially with Carson Beck starting. Ewers should be significantly better next season. I'm going with 11 wins with a loss to some mid like Kentucky, but we win against UM and Georgia with Beck starting. 

yeah I know JB is likely gone.  He hurts less than Quinn would given our depth at RB.  Baxter seems glassy though.  WR is going to be interesting.

I love Sark. I loved this hire from the very beginning. But he makes some bone-headed decisions in game. The bright side is that he admits his mistakes and he is willing to learn. 

My hope is that in the coming years Sark becomes as great of a game day coach as he is a program builder.

 

57 minutes ago, Bevo said:

Sark, definitely should have moved away from the script.

Was just looking for an opportune place to make this point.

Sark needs to learn the difference between a script and a flowchart.

He has a Surly reputation for being stubborn, and it is pretty well deserved. The question is, is it purely so or is it a steadfast following of a Game Plan Script regardless of results?

 

our oline was so over rated it's crazy

Nah, it’s just that our best players are still young. Majors and Jones while improved were not the answers. We will improve with experience, S&C, and proper recruiting which we haven’t seen in almost 20 years(the NC class) on the O line.
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1 minute ago, Tex Long said:

Was just looking for an opportune place to make this point.

Sark needs to learn the difference between a script and a flowchart.

He has a Surly reputation for being stubborn, and it is pretty well deserved. The question is, is it purely so or is it a steadfast following of a Game Plan Script regardless of results?

 

The "script" IS a flow chart.  It isn't "run this place first, run this play second, run this play third, run this play fourth" it is a set of plays for down and distance.  The script thing is so overblown.  

With the talent we're accumulating, 8-9 wins would be a letdown. Top classes shouldn't just win 8-9 games a year. That's for Ole Miss to do. We better be better than that. 10 wins should be mandatory with our talent. We're only behind Bama and Georgia currently in recruiting , and we've shown we can beat Bama. I believe we can beat Georgia as well. I'm sure we'll lose a few games in year 1, but year 2 I expect 10 win seasons. 8-9 ain't going to cut it. Aggy wins 8 games, we should be better than that with Sark. That's when recruits start looking away. We have the talent to win 10 games. If we start dropping off, so do the recruits to Bama, LSU, Georgia, and even Ole Miss. 

The only two teams that have run through the SEC at consistent 10+ win clips are Bama and Georgia. Recruiting at a top 5-10 level hasn’t stopped A&M or LSU from failing to hit that mark plenty of times. Especially adding a ninth league game (I’m assuming this happens here in the next couple years), when these elite recruiting programs are going to play each other more often and simple math tells you there’s more Ls to go around, I would not expect to be the Bama and Georgia of recent history. That much more so with the likes of Ohio State and Michigan on non conference schedules, and I’m sure more upper tier programs to come. If you expect consistent 10-win seasons that’s great but that’s on you when you’re disappointed.

And that’s okay The sport is changing man. 9-3 is going to be a coin flip for a playoff appearance. If one of those Ls is to a marquee OOC opponent you’re in the mix for a CCG spot. Competing for championships is the bar for me.
1 hour ago, Dahobbs said:

Yeah, no one was biting on the play action there. In hind sight, I don't think a run on 3rd or 4th down would have been that crazy. 

PA was a waste but a designed pass to the boundary would not have been a bad call. Again, 2nd from the 12 yard line is much harder than 2nd from the 5-6 yard line. 
 

I wouldn’t run it from the 5-6 yard line but the defense has to at least account for it. From the 12 yard line it’s idiotic to run with no TOs.

plus from the 5 you can go AD on the slant, the come back to the pylon or the out way more easily with less concern about pressure because it’s a quicker throw.

the more I think about it you use first to get 5-6 yards they would give it. Then you have 2 shots from a manageable spot - basically a two point conversion. 

Edited by troph

One aspect that's interesting to me is that Sark has gotten a lot of credit, and rightly so, for rebuilding our lines quickly and to an SEC standard. But Washington by and large won the LOS on both sides last night. Not sure what to make of that.

That good lines exist outside of the SEC and always have? I wouldn’t think much about it.

I also don’t think Washington won the LOS handily. They won in a critical area - pass blocking - and that was the single most important subset of the LOS battle given what Washington was bringing in terms of passing offense and what Texas was bringing in the back end. Texas defended the run well, ran the ball very well (not enough most would say), and while Washington did get home a couple times it’s not like Ewers was running for his life all night.
14 minutes ago, Tex Long said:

Was just looking for an opportune place to make this point.

Sark needs to learn the difference between a script and a flowchart.

He has a Surly reputation for being stubborn, and it is pretty well deserved. The question is, is it purely so or is it a steadfast following of a Game Plan Script regardless of results?

 

It’s a flowchart. It’s situational. He’s not running on third and 10 because it’s the 4th play and god dammit that’s the call. He has some number of plays he wants to run to start the game based on the situation. 

7 minutes ago, gmr548 said:


The only two teams that have run through the SEC at consistent 10+ win clips are Bama and Georgia. Recruiting at a top 5-10 level hasn’t stopped A&M or LSU from failing to hit that mark plenty of times. Especially adding a ninth league game (I’m assuming this happens here in the next couple years), when these elite recruiting programs are going to play each other more often and simple math tells you there’s more Ls to go around, I would not expect to be the Bama and Georgia of recent history. That much more so with the likes of Ohio State and Michigan on non conference schedules, and I’m sure more upper tier programs to come. If you expect consistent 10-win seasons that’s great but that’s on you when you’re disappointed.

And that’s okay The sport is changing man. 9-3 is going to be a coin flip for a playoff appearance. If one of those Ls is to a marquee OOC opponent you’re in the mix for a CCG spot. Competing for championships is the bar for me.

Until I see them really take SOS into account vs. how many losses you have, I don't think Marquee OOC juice is worth the squeeze.  It only worked this time because we beat Bama and Bama beat Georgia.  It hasn't really helped us before and has never hurt anyone from the SEC previously.

1 hour ago, Dahobbs said:

Dude, the first down call wasn't supposed to go to blue. That was a check down under pressure. 

It was supposed to go to J-Whitt, I believe. 

4 minutes ago, gmr548 said:


That good lines exist outside of the SEC and always have? I wouldn’t think much about it.

I also don’t think Washington won the LOS handily. They won in a critical area - pass blocking - and that was the single most important subset of the LOS battle given what Washington was bringing in terms of passing offense and what Texas was bringing in the back end. Texas defended the run well, ran the ball very well (not enough most would say), and while Washington did get home a couple times it’s not like Ewers was running for his life all night.

I really wanted the play he runs where we are tight/bunch to the left side and the RB flares out to the left.  It is usually wide open.  we've run it multiple times.

3 minutes ago, BevoAbyss said:

The football gods lined up the stars for Sark, Ewers, and Company. Sadly, they blew it at the end. 

1. Title game in Houston, making it like a de facto home game. The UT crowd energy would have been through the roof after a miraculous comeback.

2. Bama chokes, meaning Horns don't have to beat Saban twice in a season (not impossible, but surely a tall task).

3. Washington's massive gaffes on last drive literally gift us a chance to snatch the game.

4. The football gods then give us two epic completions, followed by 4 shots from inside the 15. None even close to being a score. Mind-boggling bad calls from Sark, bad passes from Ewers. We all saw it.

-- If we score a TD pass, Sark/Ewers are instant eternal Longhorn legends. If we score, I think the title game would be in the bag vs. Harbaugh's crap offense.

That's why this game had a f*cking catastrophic ending! 

The ending of this game will trigger misery for Longhorns for decades. I think this game exceeds the Simms collapse/Colorado loss in 2001 Big 12 title game, when the stars lined up for a title chance and Mack/Simms blew it. 

It is what it is. A lost chance to play for CFP title in Houston. 

And a chance to inflict apocalyptic Aggy misery! 

I agree with a lot of this, and it seemed like the football gods actually threw us a bone in this game and we fucked it up at the end. It definitely exceeds 2001 because we would have gotten rolled by Miami in 2001 if we did win.  That Miami team was one of the most talented teams in college football history.  If we win last night, I think we match up very well with Michigan.  Unfortunately, Washington or Oregon would have been the worst match ups for us because our secondary is so bad, and those teams can throw the ball really well and it played out that way last night. It was a team loss last night with almost everyone screwing up just a little bit at different times.  You add up the mistakes by Sark, Ewers, fumbles, penalties (the refs did screw us also) and how good Penix and their WR's were it was a miracle we had a chance to win.  

6 minutes ago, BevoAbyss said:

The football gods lined up the stars for Sark, Ewers, and Company. Sadly, they blew it at the end. 

1. Title game in Houston, making it like a de facto home game. The UT crowd energy would have been through the roof after a miraculous comeback.

2. Bama chokes, meaning Horns don't have to beat Saban twice in a season (not impossible, but surely a tall task).

3. Washington's massive gaffes on last drive literally gift us a chance to snatch the game.

4. The football gods then give us two epic completions, followed by 4 shots from inside the 15. None even close to being a score. Mind-boggling bad calls from Sark, bad passes from Ewers. We all saw it.

-- If we score a TD pass, Sark/Ewers are instant eternal Longhorn legends. If we score, I think the title game would be in the bag vs. Harbaugh's crap offense.

That's why this game had a f*cking catastrophic ending! 

The ending of this game will trigger misery for Longhorns for decades. I think this game exceeds the Simms collapse/Colorado loss in 2001 Big 12 title game, when the stars lined up for a title chance and Mack/Simms blew it. 

It is what it is. A lost chance to play for CFP title in Houston. 

And a chance to inflict apocalyptic Aggy misery! 

Preach. All true.

Really could have used a "w" here in light of afformentioned 2001 big 12 championship game, 2008 screw job and 2009 Pistolas McCoy injury against Bama.

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7 minutes ago, BevoAbyss said:

 

The ending of this game will trigger misery for Longhorns for decades. I think this game exceeds the Simms collapse/Colorado loss in 2001 Big 12 title game, when the stars lined up for a title chance and Mack/Simms blew it. 

 

Strongly disagree. We were obviously the better team in the 2001 game and gift wrapped it for Colorado by repeatedly tripping over our own dicks. Last night, we lost to a great team with an unbelievable quarterback. Does it hurt and suck that we didn't get that last score? Yes. Would it have been awesome to play for it all in Houston? Yes.  But frankly, Washington outplayed us for the large majority of the game and deserved to win. Misery is not something I will ever associate with last night's game - that is reserved for 2001 Colorado, Colt getting hurt against Bama, etc.

9 minutes ago, dcar00 said:

I really wanted the play he runs where we are tight/bunch to the left side and the RB flares out to the left.  It is usually wide open.  we've run it multiple times.

Oh I like that call there

30 minutes ago, gmr548 said:


The only two teams that have run through the SEC at consistent 10+ win clips are Bama and Georgia. Recruiting at a top 5-10 level hasn’t stopped A&M or LSU from failing to hit that mark plenty of times. Especially adding a ninth league game (I’m assuming this happens here in the next couple years), when these elite recruiting programs are going to play each other more often and simple math tells you there’s more Ls to go around, I would not expect to be the Bama and Georgia of recent history. That much more so with the likes of Ohio State and Michigan on non conference schedules, and I’m sure more upper tier programs to come. If you expect consistent 10-win seasons that’s great but that’s on you when you’re disappointed.

And that’s okay The sport is changing man. 9-3 is going to be a coin flip for a playoff appearance. If one of those Ls is to a marquee OOC opponent you’re in the mix for a CCG spot. Competing for championships is the bar for me.

This is a good point. NFL fans don't give a shit about going 17-0. It's all about making it to the playoffs and seeing what happens.

28 minutes ago, dcar00 said:

yeah I know JB is likely gone.  He hurts less than Quinn would given our depth at RB.  Baxter seems glassy though.  WR is going to be interesting.

Yeah, WR worries me. Even though it shouldn't, but they're so inexperienced, but also very talented with Cook, Moore, Wingo, Golden, and Niblett. We need at least 1-2 more transfer WR'S (either special player(s) or productive upperclassman). 

 

TE is dire - Helm, Shannon Randle (Who won't be 100%). We need another big, strong receiving TE who can block. 

46 minutes ago, dcar00 said:

yeah I know JB is likely gone.  He hurts less than Quinn would given our depth at RB.  Baxter seems glassy though.  WR is going to be interesting.

I forgot to add that we also have Wisner and Red, too. We should have used both last night in some capacity at the very least. Wisner has that juice, and Red is a tough SOB. 

I don't think Baxter is made of glass, he's just a frosh who needs to add muscle, and he was dinged up because of use. I would trade Baxter for Justice Haynes of Bama in a heartbeat. That kid is thick and electric. 

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24 minutes ago, BevoAbyss said:

The football gods lined up the stars for Sark, Ewers, and Company. Sadly, they blew it at the end. 

1. Title game in Houston, making it like a de facto home game.

2. Bama chokes, meaning Horns don't have to beat Saban twice in a season (not impossible, but surely a tall task).

3. Washington's massive gaffes on last drive literally gift us a chance to snatch the game.

4. The football gods then give us two epic completions, followed by 4 shots from inside the 15. None even close to being a score. Mind-boggling bad calls from Sark, bad passes from Ewers. We all saw it.

-- If we score a TD pass, Sark/Ewers are instant eternal Longhorn legends. If we score, I think the title game would be in the bag vs. Harbaugh's crap offense in Houston. The UT crowd energy would have been through the roof after a miraculous comeback.

That's why this game had a f*cking catastrophic ending! 

The ending of this game will trigger misery for Longhorns for decades. I think this game exceeds the Simms collapse/Colorado loss in 2001 Big 12 title game, when the stars lined up for a title chance and Mack/Simms blew it. 

It is what it is. A lost chance to play for CFP title in Houston. And title game chances are rare and must be taken when presented, especially when given by the football gods.

(And a chance to inflict apocalyptic Aggy misery!)

Convenient to attribute the good things that happened to the "football gods" but then blame Sark and QE for coming up short at the end.   

Texas was outplayed last night and had a very fortunate set of events occur along with some great plays to have a chance at the end.  It took a damn good/borderline PI play by the DB to keep that pass out of Mitchell's hands.  The other team has a say in the end result and the better team last night won. 

This game isn't close to the pain of '01 Colorado/'08 Tech/'10 Bama.  Those are games we should have won and didn't.  This is one that we could have won and didn't  Huge difference.

Don't wallow in what could have happened.

Just now, Surly Bevo said:

The "script" IS a flow chart.  It isn't "run this place first, run this play second, run this play third, run this play fourth" it is a set of plays for down and distance.  The script thing is so overblown.  

The "set of plays for down and distance" IS a script... or at least call it a scriptlet. Maybe it's just that there are so many parameters beyond merely down and distance. 

No problem. We'll have tablets on the sideline soon, and we can just put he entire binder in and add code to update and use every parameter we can find and let it select plays for us.

 

15 minutes ago, Guadaloopy said:

Convenient to attribute the good things that happened to the "football gods" but then blame Sark and QE for coming up short at the end.   

Texas was outplayed last night and had a very fortunate set of events occur along with some great plays to have a chance at the end.  It took a damn good/borderline PI play by the DB to keep that pass out of Mitchell's hands.  The other team has a say in the end result and the better team last night won. 

This game isn't close to the pain of '01 Colorado/'08 Tech/'10 Bama.  Those are games we should have won and didn't.  This is one that we could have won and didn't  Huge difference.

Don't wallow in what could have happened.

high quality post right here.

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After taking some time to digest last night's loss, and the whole season at large, there are a few things that seem very clear. 

Steve Sarkisian is a great head coach.

He is a Saban/Smart level roster builder. He has proven to be incredibly savy in not only recruiting, but also the rapidly evolving transfer portal era. Twenty five months prior to hoisting the Big-12 trophy over Yormark bitter bitch ass, we were getting buttfucked by ISU and losing to Kansas at home. At the time, we had a roster full of losers and JAGs like J Moore, Casey Thompson, BJ Foster, and Brockermeyer, all sandbaggging on the field. Sixteen football games later, Sark fielded a roster that walked into Bryant Derry Stadium and spanked his old boss by ten points, winning in the trenches on both sides of the ball. That is a legendary roster turnaround.

I don't know Sark personally, but he genuinely seems like a good person, leader, and role model for the players. This isn't the over inflated "gud guy Charlie Strong" and a far cry from Tom Herman's idiotic clown show. Sark understands what a good organization culture is and his players believe in it 100%. We are very lucky to have him as our head coach and our trajectory looks very promising as we head into the SEC.

He, of course, still has a few weaknesses.

What got him this far in his career and in his recovery, is his ability to self-asses and make the changes that will him better. This is critical to remember as we dissect his weaknesses and vulnerabilities. Sark is an absolute genius when it comes to play design and attacking a defense's vulnerabilities in the pre-game planning phase. The isn't a single poster on this message board that can challenge him at this skill, unless LR or Shanahan have accounts the we don't know about. However, as neutral observers, we can see how this gets him into trouble during games. 

Going into last night's game, everyone knew that Washington's deep passing attack, combined with the speed with which Penix gets the ball out was the absolute worst possible match up for our defense. There was a chance that we could lean on our stout front six to bring pressure and get him to throw under duress, but it became very evident early on that we weren't going to get to him in time to make a difference. It also became very evident that their defense was going to take away Worthy and Mitchell with numbers in coverage, while taking advantage of Quinn's low throw angle at the LOS. Washington's defensive staff knew that we have a running game more than capable of beating them. They also knew that Sark likes to script the first 40 plays of his offense and to distribute the ball to all four of X, Mitchell, Sanders, and J Whitt. While Sark isn't directly responsible for Baxter's and Blue's untimely fumbles, there are things he could have done to place more pressure on Washington early in the game. He had to deviate from his script and commit to the run game. Doing so would have helped both the offense and the defense. The best defense against Penix and his WR corps is to keep them on the sidelines for 6-8 minutes of play clock at a time. The best advantage we could have given our front six is to have to be on the field for less than 25 minutes of the game. Our big DL and LBs desperately needed every ounce of their strength and endurance to slow Washington down. In a game with match ups like we had last night, there was very little time to experiment offensively. Losing the coin toss and not scoring on the first possession put us behind, but we could have recovered from it by committing to the run and sticking with it until they stopped it. 

Sark's next big leap as a play caller will be realizing when it's time to deviate from the script.   

 

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The football gods lined up the stars for Sark, Ewers, and Company. Sadly, they blew it at the end. 
1. Title game in Houston, making it like a de facto home game.
2. Bama chokes, meaning Horns don't have to beat Saban twice in a season (not impossible, but surely a tall task).
3. Washington's massive gaffes on last drive literally gift us a chance to snatch the game.
4. The football gods then give us two epic completions, followed by 4 shots from inside the 15. None even close to being a score. Mind-boggling bad calls from Sark, bad passes from Ewers. We all saw it.
-- If we score a TD pass, Sark/Ewers are instant eternal Longhorn legends. If we score, I think the title game would be in the bag vs. Harbaugh's crap offense in Houston. The UT crowd energy would have been through the roof after a miraculous comeback.
That's why this game had a f*cking catastrophic ending! 
The ending of this game will trigger misery for Longhorns for decades. I think this game exceeds the Simms collapse/Colorado loss in 2001 Big 12 title game, when the stars lined up for a title chance and Mack/Simms blew it. 
It is what it is. A lost chance to play for CFP title in Houston. And title game chances are rare and must be taken when presented, especially when given by the football gods.
(And a chance to inflict apocalyptic Aggy misery!)

Y’all responding in agreement to this are making me think I’m crazy. This seems like bait from a texags user fantasizing about past Texas failures.

Texas went 12-2 and won the Big 12 going away (literally and figuratively). First Texas team to win any hardware in 14 years. Qualified for the CFP and was a top four team any way you slice it. Will probably finish top 3 in the AP poll. Put up a 10 point road win against Nick Saban’s SEC champion Alabama. That is what this group will be remembered for, not what could have been.

They lost a national semifinal game as a 4 point favorite, where a lot of people (accurately as it turns out) outside of Texas fans/media thought the wrong team was favored. Oh well. This is nothing like 2001 Colorado. Good lord. If 01 Texas had beaten Colorado again and got wrecked by an all time Miami team, would re remember that as a failure or tip the cap and be proud of the conference championship? Honestly purely on the morning after scale last night is not even the most frustrating loss this year. OU was way harder to swallow.
4 minutes ago, USNALonghorn said:

 

Sark's next big leap as a play caller will be realizing when it's time to deviate from the script.   

 

The dreaded script rears its head. Okay, then: Game Plan, more like. 

But, yeah, when the plan isn't working, it needs to be at least modified. And mostly it eventually has been.

As long as Sarkisian is convinced that he is able to be both OC and HC, we're going to see difficulties there, and at least occasionally they'll lead to an unfortunate loss. I don't think the problems are so much in recruiting, training, and Game Planning as in game management. Someone pointed out that we don't ride the refs enough, and that is a function for the HC to carry out... but he is already busy being OC.

 

2 hours ago, Helobious said:

If I was our coach we would’ve won last night.

And thrown the football over them thar mountains.

1 hour ago, gmr548 said:


The only two teams that have run through the SEC at consistent 10+ win clips are Bama and Georgia. Recruiting at a top 5-10 level hasn’t stopped A&M or LSU from failing to hit that mark plenty of times. Especially adding a ninth league game (I’m assuming this happens here in the next couple years), when these elite recruiting programs are going to play each other more often and simple math tells you there’s more Ls to go around, I would not expect to be the Bama and Georgia of recent history. That much more so with the likes of Ohio State and Michigan on non conference schedules, and I’m sure more upper tier programs to come. If you expect consistent 10-win seasons that’s great but that’s on you when you’re disappointed.

And that’s okay The sport is changing man. 9-3 is going to be a coin flip for a playoff appearance. If one of those Ls is to a marquee OOC opponent you’re in the mix for a CCG spot. Competing for championships is the bar for me.

It's the dismal tide.

I'm going to enjoy this matchup of undefeateds Monday.  It may become more and more rare in the nfl lite.

1 hour ago, BevoAbyss said:

The football gods lined up the stars for Sark, Ewers, and Company. Sadly, they blew it at the end. 

1. Title game in Houston, making it like a de facto home game.

2. Bama chokes, meaning Horns don't have to beat Saban twice in a season (not impossible, but surely a tall task).

3. Washington's massive gaffes on last drive literally gift us a chance to snatch the game.

4. The football gods then give us two epic completions, followed by 4 shots from inside the 15. None even close to being a score. Mind-boggling bad calls from Sark, bad passes from Ewers. We all saw it.

-- If we score a TD pass, Sark/Ewers are instant eternal Longhorn legends. If we score, I think the title game would be in the bag vs. Harbaugh's crap offense in Houston. The UT crowd energy would have been through the roof after a miraculous comeback.

That's why this game had a f*cking catastrophic ending! 

The ending of this game will trigger misery for Longhorns for decades. I think this game exceeds the Simms collapse/Colorado loss in 2001 Big 12 title game, when the stars lined up for a title chance and Mack/Simms blew it. 

It is what it is. A lost chance to play for CFP title in Houston. And title game chances are rare and must be taken when presented, especially when given by the football gods.

(And a chance to inflict apocalyptic Aggy misery!)

Star Trek Kirk GIF

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40 minutes ago, USNALonghorn said:

This isn't the over inflated "gud guy Charlie Strong" and a far cry from Tom Herman's idiotic clown show.

Triggered 

 

Jackwad.jpg

2 hours ago, Tex Long said:

Was just looking for an opportune place to make this point.

Sark needs to learn the difference between a script and a flowchart.

He has a Surly reputation for being stubborn, and it is pretty well deserved. The question is, is it purely so or is it a steadfast following of a Game Plan Script regardless of results?

 

it's scripted based on down and distance, the 40 play thing is being way overblown.

Sark has made a name for himself as a fantastic playcaller, and for his game-starting "script"/"flowchart"/whatever.  And regardless of whether we all agree he deserves that acclaim, the fact is: it got us to the CFP.  So, I'm not sure expecting him to deviate from that is realistic, or a good idea.

That being said, serious question...how would we even know if he did deviate from the script?

[edit] Also, "fuck yeah, Steve!!!!"  Great season, way exceeding expectations!!

Edited by morehornsepower

Well maybe you’d see him run a play that worked over and over until it got stopped, like stoops used to do with that little midget running back back in the day.

1 minute ago, tbone_ said:

Well maybe you’d see him run a play that worked over and over until it got stopped, like stoops used to do with that little midget running back back in the day.

Too soon.

1 hour ago, TreatyOak said:

Triggered 

 

Jackwad.jpg

Where’s the one where’s he’s giving the finger to the camera on national signing day because his buddies thought it was funny? 

57 minutes ago, tbone_ said:

Well maybe you’d see him run a play that worked over and over until it got stopped, like stoops used to do with that little midget running back back in the day.

Legit this is truly one of the things Stoops was a master at. When he found something that worked, he used it until you stopped it. The fucking stretch and the toss to Adrian Peterson in 04 is another example of this.

 

So much has to go right for you to be in position to win it all. You have to have some coin flip moments go your way, get some luck and receive a favorable bounce or two. 

That’s what sucks about this journey being over. This team was right there with a chance. And while I am no doubt excited about the future, there are no guarantees in football. I’d like to think this program will be back in this position soon but damnit each season takes on a life of its own and this one felt special.

Sark seems to be building this the right way. All you can ask for is a chance to get in the playoff and let the chips fall where they may. I’m hopeful we won’t have to wait long for our next chance. 

1 hour ago, hookem48 said:

it's scripted based on down and distance, the 40 play thing is being way overblown.

Sadly that shit will never go away

29 minutes ago, longhornmatt said:

Another example of this was losing BCS bowl games.

Thats kinda what happened though. People started to figure out that if you make them have to continually adjust they struggle on both sides. It started with Leach who has notoriously a guy who ran very few different plays.

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