A Comment on 2022 and the Future

I know that we are all disappointed in last night and what was a very winnable game against a top five opponent at home. It is that very disappointment though that requires a realistic view of what 2022 was, is, and still can be. Last year the Texas offensive line was a shambles and the defense was historically bad. The Horns were fortunate to go 5-7 and not 4-8 or even 3-9. The culture was as bad as we have seen in decades and going into the recruiting period in December things were not pretty. But a fortunate head coach change at Oregon followed by some key pickups and portal transfers created a very strong recruiting class particularly on the offensive line. The recruiting success over this past summer and the Manning commitment just added to the hopes for 2022 and beyond. Then Oklahoma being in a down year led to some hopes for a chance at a conference title. Sadly those went by the wayside last night, but that doesn't mean all is lost.

Let's be clear Texas has won 10 games ONE time in the last 13 years. ONE time. The Horns have 5 losing seasons in those 13 years and have exactly one appearance in the conference title game with no conference titles. Texas wasn't going to get it all back this year, it just wasn't, that sucks and its hard but its also reality. That is what was and is but what still can be has such a high upside.

The core of this team is still freshman and sophomores. Think back to how much roster turnover happened in the last 12 months, its extraordinary. For crying out loud Texas starts two true freshman on the OL, a freshman at QB and a ton of youngsters on both sides of the ball. People hate the we are young excuse but it absolutely applies to this team. They say you get a loss for each freshman you start and by any metric that was always going to hold back this team. At the beginning of the year I thought 9 regular season wins was the ceiling for this team and they could end up with as few as five. If you had said before the year began they would finish the regular season 8-4 I would have taken it without hesitation. In a particularly strong Big XII this was always going to be a learning year for this young team and they have had some tough lessons in Lubbock, Stillwater and at home last night. They can still get to 8 regular season wins and even nine with the bowl. Texas is on track to get another huge recruiting class and continue to build a roster that a year ago was a total mess. Think back 12 months from today and you can see how different things are.

Look I get that it sucks that we had maybe the fourth or fifth best RB in Texas history in Bijan (behind Earl and Ricky and competitive with Ced and Jamaal Charles) and couldn't take advantage of it but he is running behind a young line still learning and timing sucks because next year and the years to come that line is going to make stars of some younger backs already on the roster or who will be joining this team in the next few classes. Ewers is learning and in what is effectively his true freshman year he has also shown a ton of upside with a lot of room for growth. The defense is also improving in leaps and bounds.

So all of this is to say that while I am truly disappointed about last night and the stumbles we saw particularly for me in Lubbock against a far inferior Tech team, I do see the improvements, I do see the growth and I do see what still can be the rest of this year and in the years to come. This is not a team to start sniping at and tearing down. Yes there is legitimate criticism and room for growth but lets not lose sight of the improvement made in one short year and the potential for so much more in the years to come.

 

Excellent post FW. My only real issue is Sark's handling of Ewers. When he gets that deer in headlights look, he becomes more than useless. Card should have played the second half of this game. He was so detached in the first half that there should never have been a thought that he was going to perform better in the second half.

What are Kansas and Baylor (games Texas should win with ease) going to do? They are going to put 9 men within 5 years of the LoS and dare Ewers to find and hit the open 2 or 3 running down the field with LB's 5 to 10 yards behind them.

 

I am broken. I am old, I will not see my beloved "horns be relevant again in my lifetime.

I hope we do not see any more posts delighted at the problems in aggy land.
We have our own issues.

 

I agree with you all the way. I said I would be happy with 7-5 and I will stick to that. All the stuff wrong with last years team is not gonna get fixed in one off-season. Still, 3 total points from your offense at home is pretty hard to swallow.

 

When you keep putting the ball in a QB who misses every read 3 weeks in a row when you have a great Backup is ridiculous. When you keep putting the ball in a QB's hands who is completing 49% of passes vs. handing the ball to your best player is stupid. 12 freaking carries. The offense is a disaster. 6 points in last 18 possessions.

It's obvious we need to hire and OC who calls plays.

 

I'm sick and tired of the excuses. Look what Sunny Dikes did in a year. Sark is in year 2. There are plenty of other examples.

It's not just that we lost these games, but how we lost. Our team is so lacking in discipline they keep committing penalties a good middle school team doesn't commit. Over and over again. Good coaching is don't beat yourself priority #1. This team does not have good coaching.

And don't even get me started on the failure to replace a QB having a historical bad day, twice.

 

Your sensible post has sobered me up. I don’t believe in Sark but he will probably prove me wrong.

So much this. It was a very winnable game for us last night against a top 5 team.

 

While I’m trying to agree with the sensibility of your post, I’m still left wondering how Stoops, Saban, Tressel and Carroll were able to turn around and win MNC in their 2nd/3rd seasons with historical programs who were in the dumps, some like OU and Bama for well over a decade

 

My take is not as optimistic. We have plenty of talent — more than any team we have played except Alabama, and plenty of upperclassmen. No need to name them.

The glaring issue (not the only issue) is coaching and in particular, Sark. His play-calling is suspect at best, and his ability to adjust seems nonexistent. But perhaps most troubling is that we are fundamentally unsound. Critical errors — penalties and drops — often at the worst times — suggests a lack of discipline and coaching. The three plays (mistakes) that doomed us in the 2nd half last night were all committed by seniors, Overshown, Tucker-Dorsey & Cook.

Back to offense, aside from the drops, calling long passes early in the game when their is a critical need to build the confidence of your young QB simply baffles me. Clearly Sark has a script and it seems as though, regardless of how the game is evolving, he cannot or will not adjust. Almost like a deer in the headlights.

The dude has now lost much of Longhorn Nation and perhaps some critical recruits as well. The opportunity squandered last night was epic. We didn’t just lose, we were completely inept. This, from a celebrated offensive guru.

At 11-11 through 22 games, Sark is simply a more hyped version of Charlie Strong.

I sincerely hope he can right the ship but frankly, unless he makes some radical changes including passing the play-calling duties to someone else, it simply may not happen.

 

Good opinions. I have opinions, but I’m just too tired of it all to type them out.

 

Great post FW. It’s what I needed to read this AM.
Question is are we going to witness GP land a right cross on the OC?
Not exactly the same scenario but the resemblance of GP to BR is there.

 

You were still drunk the morning?

 

I don't know. Expectations can and do reasonably change. TCU being the prime example. I'll guess their fans figured 7-5, 8-4, something like that. Well, when you get to 9-0, the expectations change. Had we won, none of our their fans would be saying well, aw shucks, we sure did play over our heads this year, who cares that we now are out of the CFP picture?

So, we play Mama tight, we destroy OU, we finally win a road game against a good opponent. Texas plays well at home. Supposedly we have a great running back. So, it is reasonable to expect a good offensive performance and to win a game where the defense played like it was 1981.

So, yeah, a bunch of people predicted 8-4 or 7-5 for Texas this year. So what? It is disappointing to once again, like FW said, not win 10 games and be out of the conference title picture without a miracle.

Edit: Bama, not Mama. The jokes write themselves.

 

I’m sorta with duke on this one.

This team is talented enough to win 10 games. Last year, they had 8 wins within grasp - led 3 games from the word go until the 4th quarter. It wasn’t luck attaining those leads. If anyones projection was 8 wins, that’s fine. That’s the bare minimum for it being an ok season.

We do have quite a few freshmen and sophomores, but those guys are one-two great years from leaving. Worthy likely has one more year. Sanders maybe just one more. Banks two more.

We are losing many of the guys from that defense last night. This defense is built because of the interior lineman. They’re gone. DMO gone. Cook gone. Ovie gone. Bijan, Whitt, Roschon gone most likely.

The Oline is most certainly not better than last year. It has its moments, but this season to date it hasn’t been. I’d like to think next year it may be. Maybe Angilau comes back.

I am not certain that Sark is a great OC. He absolutely has some great plays and makes some great calls. It seems his short to intermediate play designs are lacking. He’s tabled some great formations/plays - 1 trick play all season, play action out of diamond formation, jet sweeps. The wildcat could be great for us, but not on 1st down when we haven’t established the run. Whitt is vastly underutilized. Don’t expect a 3rd WR to step up when they aren’t given opportunities. In college, some QB run game has to be included. It’s a must.

I’m always hopeful for every game, every season. Unfortunately, when I look back on seasons, they are more often than not disappointing because of what was there for the taking.

 

All this talk about our superior talent always baffles me. I didn't see superior talent on the field last night. Far from it. It was very equal with one glaring exception: quarterback. Theirs was way better. So was their OL. So were their receivers. So exactly where was our talent so superior to theirs? Because the guys who rate high schoolers say so? I don't buy the Texas has better talent argument. Our talent is good, don't get me wrong. But in the games I've watched this year I don't see superior.

 

Yo mama maybe not my mama

 

Me fail English? That's unpossible.

 

I get the philosophical contextual point of view completely. We can only hope the recruits see it too. However, the coaching on offense seemed to take a step back. BUT... is it, as has been posed before, just a problem of a quarterback having played in less than ten games in the past 2.5 years and appears to not be a dual threat with his legs? Is it a still young offensive line that will be a road grader hopefully by next year? Was it Bijan not reading the hole properly on a short 3rd down run? Was it wide receivers dropping passes that were drive killers? Was it a wide receiver who broke off his route before the first down marker?

How much of that is coaching or players who are not champions in the mind?

We CAN'T have the penalties such as the now infamous desire to block punts. What a crusher that was. I don't understand how Sark failed to grasp the context of the momentum change. BUT... was he already cynically thinking his offense had no chance of making a drive for a touchdown? If so, he had given up on that side of the ball and relied on special teams to win the game.

If so then, why did he not opt for an onside kick? Was he burned by the penalty on the punt? Was he not feeling lucky. Or is it that his kicker is not capable of a recoverable bounce?

TCU is a very good team. No shame in losing. But this program once again seems to watch while others change coaches and quickly become competitive. We are in a rut.

The NIL $$$ will help us retain some who might throw up their hands. We just have to hope that if we sign a top five class that Sark will know what to do with them. Until then, we get what we got.

 

What are we in, year 12 now? Another season, another litany of reasons why we still underperform. Like a horror movie…on a runaway roller coaster and nobody can jump off.

 

I know Sark isn’t going anywhere but can you imagine Patterson as head coach? He would have the defense, like last night, on lock! And he would hire a great offensive play caller.

 

We are basically South Carolina with a larger alumni/fan base

 

And our own network where Longhorn Legends are celebrated ad nauseam!!!

 

Above all disappointed Sark showed (to my mind) a lack of confidence in the team. Holding the ball with 37 seconds to go in the half was weak. He was scared we wouldn’t make the first down and afraid of turning over the ball - at least that’s my only explanation. Then 1st and goal from the 2 1/2 or 3 and no Bijan? Again no confidence in his players, his star player in fact.
Heck even Herman was unafraid to run Sam into the Ga defense on the goal line over and over till he got it in. I didn’t agree at the time btw, I thought Sam was getting killed.
So pissed at our offensive genius but proud as heck at our “work your a** off defense!

 

Maybe the question should be, what would other coaches in the league be doing with this roster, coaches like Dykes, Gundy, Kliemam, Aranda, even Traylor of UTSA? I can’t imagine that we would be talking about an 11-11 record over the first 22 games.

 

I will say this. As craptastic as that game was last night, I saw something afterwards I haven't seen in quite some time. Several players looked dejected. Yes, they actually appeared to care that they played the way they did. Sounds crazy, perhaps, but maybe that will help them turn things around next year.

Next year....

 

How did you feel about TCUs talent last year? How did you feel about Duggans talent when he lost his starting job? How did you feel about Wiley last year?

They are 10-0 for reasons. We are 6-4. It’s not that we lost last night. It’s that we have lost 40% of games to their none. And it’s the manner in which we lost.

Their offensive line was way better? Hell no. That long run. I don’t think they blocked either LBer. The play before. Massive hold. Their other TD. Blown coverage. We missed Bijan on similar blown coverage. They absolutely got critical non-calls.

Their WRs are more talented. Worthy is a tough cover. Whitt is probably the most physical. Our TE is way more talented. Their RBs are very good but ours are more talented.

Their defense is not good. Until yesterday.

No way is Tech more talented. OSU nope. But ultimately talent levels aren’t that disparate. Experience does matter. If you don’t bring it, you can lose.

 

Last year was an anomaly for many reasons. Let’s consider next year to be year 2 for Sark. Plus the players will be more experienced at WR, OL and QB.

 

Well, hell, why didn't you say this before now?

 

I did in a way when I and many others predicted 8-4 this season mainly due to inexperience at WR, QB, and OL.

 

Damn, I thought the trophy guy emoji would have denoted the sarcasm. Oh well.