I view this game as being the first must win game of Herman's tenure at Texas. I feel there have been 3 other big games for him - B12 game, Sugar Bowl, LSU game. All were chances to move the program to the next step. Telling that only 1 of 3 of those were wins. But, all were thought of as chances to elevate the program, not to stop the crash. As such, losses in two of those did not affect Herman's position. The Baylor game is different. Texas was picked by most to win the B12 this year - instead it's in 8th place so far, with the only win against conference win-less TT. Here's of what a loss to Baylor means: 1. Three straight losses. 2. Two straight losses at home, 1-2 home record. 3. Almost certainly finished for B12 title contention. 4. Strong indicator of a losing season for the year (tough games still with OSU, W VA, ISU, and KSU) 5. Sign that the team has tuned Herman out, and doesn't care what he or anyone else says or thinks. 6. Two straight losses to Baylor, against a brand new head coach. 7. 2-2 record by Herman against a Baylor team with its (I belive) 3rd coach in 4 years, and 3 years removed from going 1-11. 8. Even more unpleasantness at the Eyes of Texas. After a loss, will the players just run off the field, ready to be done with this day? Will the Boo Birds serenade them on the way to the locker room? It gets ugly, early, with a loss to Baylor. Winning the game is hardly like bringing home a title either. There will still be hard games as mentioned above - 4 of them, the season record only improves to 3-2, and Texas will still be in the bottom of the conference, needing 1 net win compared to TCU / OU to pass them for a spot in the B12 game. But it's a necessary part to salvaging the season. I think if Texas loses to Baylor then Herman's finished as coach. Are there any golf courses that UT is building than need another manager (that's what Mackovitch did for a few years to keep drawing his salary). Who knows, he may have done a better job at that than being coach.
The latest ESPN bowl predictor puts us in the Cactus Bowl, which seems somewhat appropriate, against Big Red Also, the ESPN FPI still has us in the top 12 2020 College Football Power Index | ESPN
Here's latest fpi Big12 projections disagreeing with human sentiment on Horns. Surprisingly having 2nd best Conference Championship appearance odds if I am reading this correctly. Never put much into fpi, but.....
Texas offensive stats are skewed with 5 OT's. 4 TD's in those 5 OT's to add quite a few points, plus the total chump hired team for the first game. Currently Texas is in 8th position in the B12, so a lot of ground to make up to make the B12 game. TCU and OU are each a game up (same 1-2 record but have H2H). But they play each other so one will lose and fall back. If Texas wins out (ha!) then I suppose the B12 game is there - would have a 7-2 record in conference, and while a couple of teams are undefeated so far, that won't last - one loss would be at Texas in this scenario, and you know that ISU / KSU will lose at least another game. Doubtful Texas makes the B12, but let's say they do - would a win against OU salvage the season and Herman's tenure? Hard to say otherwise. But what if it's another loss - two losses in one year to OU would be a bitter pill to swallow.
Hell NO! This is not and has not been about W-Ls since he lost control of his team to puppeteers. He is beyond a major liability. If you and your incompetence are costing and going to cost your employer 30+ times your annual salary, the future is clear,
Humor for the day yesterday was seeing that we were opened as a 14-point favorite in this game...along with K-State only giving 17 against Kansas.
Where's that dude who plunked down 5 grand on Texas against OU and congratulated himself on his good fortune? Is is on the run from Vinny Four Fingers?
Agreed. Any realistic path for UT to CCG must mean winning out. I do believe doing so and defeating ou in the CCG would shift the narrative and likely quell postseason shakeup. I, for one, see ou 62.5% not being there, so.....
With 3 minutes to go against Oklahoma, who does not have a quality defense, we had 17 points despite getting the ball in OU territory twice. We had five or six three and outs during the game and didn't pick up a single first down in the 3rd quarter. We had zero running game all day, outside of Sam saving broken plays on his own. We switched up the offense in desperation and scored twice in quick succession, then for some reason switched back for overtime. Announcers even called it out, asking "Why so often do coaches find something that works when they are behind, and then stop doing it again once they catch up?" Other than those two drives at the end of regulation, our passing game generally did not play to the strengths of Sam and of our WRs.
On at least one of the 3rd possessions, as well as in the last OT, Texas committed a holding penalty to make it a long way for a 1st. Once behind on down and distance Texas could not recover and make the first (or TD in the case of the OT). Texas has no running game except for the QB keeper. And it’s difficult for them to recover from even 1st and long. The average per game is skewed by 3 TD’s in OT plus the batch of points at the end of both TT and OU, when their defenses went into the turtle formation.
We’re leading the nation in points per game, yet still some fans are constantly bitching about the offense. Some things never change. We’re the number one scoring offense in college football folks. Granted, Sam is largely carrying us, and the OL is underperforming, but we’d still have to go back a long time to find another Longhorn team leading the nation in scoring after the OU game. The defense needs help.
As above, the point number are skewed by Texas playing 5 OTs. Considering where you get the ball, that’s an extra game of scoring chances. Not hard to be the leader in scoring with an extra, unaveraged game. The offense was shut out for 25 of 30 minutes in the second half of OU. 30 rushing yards. Terrible pass protection. Gave up 6 sacks. Without a Herculean effort by Sam the final score in that game is 31-17. This is not the second coming of the Texas 2008 offense. No whining, just facts.
Leading in offense fails the sniff test when you realize it took two overtime games and a win against a junior high team. And one of the OT games was against a team that damned near lost to a school that just started playing D1 ball a few years back...
