What's the cause of the massive unrest of the players

^^^
I also fail to see the point of more practices as long as we have no OC.
Until Tom makes a business decision there, we’re just honing our ineptitude.

 

We've also seen some coaches let go before the season ended so the schools can get a jump on signing their new guy. The game is ruthless. It has nothing to do with the academic mission of the University. It only has the school name attached to it.

It will be very interesting to see if Sumlin's guys get run off by Fisher. I will be keeping an eye on that because it is an interesting phenomenon to see the saviour arrive and watch players bail in the face of all they hype and assumption of greatness to come.

 

The cult part of aggy and the lure of free crab legs and shoes probably keeps most in the fold.

 

Fair point. I wonder what the specifics are with regard to a scholarship player’s obligations in these cases. I would guess there is something in their scholly paperwork but I don’t know.

What if the season were in the crapper and someone decided to sit out, say, the last two or three games to get ready for the NFL. Is there a penalty of some kind? Can they be compelled to suit up and play?

 

I'd skip the Texas Bowl too if I was entering the draft, and for good reason. It's meaningless, and after what happened to Jaylon Smith it makes total sense. I try to not judge in general, and certainly not when there's legitimate reasons.

It's really a win-win. If we lose, the coaches tell recruits we didn't have our best players and emphasize the chance at early PT. If we win, well then we win.

 

An old and honored tradition in Tallahassee. For decades, players would go to that store. pick up whatever they wanted, and leave. Not sure Charlie Butt will be on board with that arrangement.

FWIW, that store manager is likely manager of a Valero stop n steal, but not in Tallahassee.

 

A loss is a loss. It is never good when your coach is having to explain a losing record (which is what Herman will be done if Texas loses the Bowl game.)

 

If you are a walk-on....fine...skip the bowl. But, if you got paid to play via scholarship, then you owe us all the games....not just the ones you want.

 

Skipping the bowl game is not mutiny and as other have stated, has been a recent trend. Christian Mccaffrey skipped the bowl game last year and Stanford had a pretty solid team that ended up in the Sun Bowl. Guys have to do what makes the most sense for their future.

 

Most of us here had to use our degree to get a job. I wish it was required for college kids to have a degree to play in the NFL. Maybe that extra year or two would help give the kids a little more time to mature before going to play ball for millions of dollars. I think VY could have used another year.

 

Apparently our business school is very good, or very bad. It seems like no other school, including TTU and K State, has players making "business decisions". They are all choosing to play in their bowls.

 

People are going to have to get on board with this recent phenomenon. Look at what happened to Hodges Mitchell in the 2000 Holiday Bowl. I think we need to help the guys leaving achieve their professional goals too. As long as coaches are allowed to bolt whenever, I think players are ok skipping their final game at the university.

 

Maybe it would have helped VY. One thing I do know, it would have helped UT if VY would have come back for another year.

 

This is a very tricky issue. Especially now that there are so many meaningless bowls. The plethora of bowl games are here to make money for ESPN. Many teams lose money going to their bowl, and the tv audience ratings are poor for the majority of bowls. This, along with the extended seasons that kids are now playing, Adds to the problem. 12 games!! That has not always been the case. 10 plus the bowl for a total of 11 games was the standard when DKR coached. And not many teams went to bowls. about 1/5 as many as do now. Now we are asking everyone at all divisions (those teams in the lower division have playoffs) to hit the field up to 14 games. When Jim brown played, 12 games was a full pro season.

Extra games put wear and tear on the body, the head, everything. it wears on players. Bigger, stronger, faster players run increased risk of serious injuries. Not to mention Chronic Brain trauma that occurs due to repetitive hits.

The way kids are trained now, many are told to commit to one sport and train for it year round. This is relatively a new idea. Its becoming a "job" for the kids at too early an age. They are being talked to about pro potential in junior high. Who can blame them if they are bought in to the business aspect. Its what they've been indoctrinated to focus on. Even the HS coaches are fired way too frequently now for losing the close ones. Kids are exposed to the cut throat business nature of the game when they are very young.

I don't know the answer, but I do have a lot of questions about the length of seasons, protecting players against injury, and "keeping the game in the game" that we love.

 

This ^^

 

That would wipe out about 90% of the players in the NFL.

 

Maybe 90% less thuggery as well. Maybe no kneeling too.

 

Or maybe more.

 

Don't get me started on that kneeling BS! Oh my what a pile of steaming crap that is. Kneeling during the anthem does nothing for the cause they appear to be kneeling for. I wonder if there is shared ideology in College Football and in the NFL.
In the past I always thought CFB was more pure, I wonder if these issues are culminating into the NFL and College Football being more similar than different.

Times are changing. Caryhorn is saying similar things in his post above, but about the length of the season and the pressure on young players today. It all makes for good fodder.

 

Back in the old NFL that would have been considered cowardice and cost you on draft day. The new NFL player is more into inventing a new themed TD celebration or sack than respecting the game and playing hard every game.
I think I will be devoting my pro sports watching to professional rugby which is coming soon to the USA.

 

As others have suggested, I think that there is a Herman factor here. Probably unlike at Houston, this team has a number of very talented players that have viable transfer options, like Warren, Buechele and the Duvernays. I buy the premise that there is unrest and perhaps a lack of buyin, particularly after Herman's approach failed to yield the expected results.

My guess is that if the team was fully on board with the coach, we might not be having this discussion.

 

39 post-season contests now.
40 years ago, when I was a college freshman, there were but 13.
https://www.sports-reference.com/cfb/years/1977-bowls.html

 

Thank you for the link. When I was a freshman in 1966 there were nine Bowl games. It was a real honor for your team to be invited to play in a bowl. Totally different mentality then. No one, absolutely no one would have declined to play in the bowl game. It would have been unthinkable. Not saying that's good or bad.

Had anyone declined, they would have been shamed unmercifully, and it would have damaged their draft day prospects. That's just the way it was.

 

We are on the cusp of 4 consecutive losing seasons. F 'em if they don't want to play. What the hell have they done for Texas besides LOSE?

 

Looking forward through this, at least the players who will be here next year will get more practice/game time together - instead of coaching up folks with one foot out the door. This year has been at least somewhat snakebit. I’m really ready to get players prepared to move forward.

And while I don’t often post, I commonly lurk...and clearly we fans love to fire folks- especially coordinators. Perhaps we give Herman a bit more time to keep his staff together (not that we have anything to do with it).

 

I kinda agree with this. I am really sick of players who cannot make plays for Texas.

 

Couldn't agree more. Move on and forget the last 4 excruciating, miserable years.

 

Maybe Tech held practices during the year also?

That's my issue with this "bowl games are meaningless" stuff. I mean yes, the bowl system is stupid and extending it to 6-6 teams is kind of dumb too. But still, it says something about one's competitiveness if you have in it you to skip out on a game when the chips are down and you're 100% healthy.

Sure, OTOH, lots of high school and D3 guys who will never make a cent off sports manage to do it.

I agree with this.

 

If you dont follow recruiting, the recruit mentioned is the #1 JUCO OT for this class

 

There's no doubt in my mind that Herman is persuading a lot of these guys to sit out that won't be here next year and that are transferring; which I completely agree with that move. The sooner these type of guys disappear and the sooner he puts together 3-4 more ACTUAL top ranked recruiting classes like he's doing the better.

I'd be real surprised that in 4-5 years any of "his" guys would sit out a bowl game. Screw them.