Alamo Bowl Game Thread: UT v UW

What’s the deal with Sark’s wife on the sideline with a sideline pass,walking with Sark to the dressing room at halftime? Dressed to kill. Don’t recall any former HC’s wives doing that except being down on the field after a Longhorn win. Very strange.

 

Sark made a major error favoring Keilan over Brooks last night.
Use Keilan in space. Use Brooks as your primary RB to batter the defense and wear them down.
It was obvious even before they tried Keilan on the 3rd quarter critical 4rd and 1 to no avail. I was already telling my son I was surprised there wasnt more JB and that it was a mistake. And then he made our best play of the game and didn't touch the ball again for over a quarter.

 

Good points but bottom line is they had better players. Some of this is because of youth and some because we need a couple more good recruiting years. The positive is that they played hard and were competitive. Without a couple of the Texas studs it made the imbalance more difficult to overcome. WU just had better personnel and they played well.

Based on what I saw, i am very optimistic.

 

I believe the defense was using the “bend then break” strategy in the 2nd half.

you certainly cannot criticize Ewers this game.

 

People need to relax and be patient.
This team needs experience, TCU's team has only two underclassman starting. If you were to look at all the CFP teams, i imagine its very similar. You are not going to compete at the highest level with the majority of your team freshman and sophomores. Having said that, we need to hang on to our talent so that we can develop that experience. Hope like hell Jaylan Ford returns, some of you guys are all excited about A. Hill and the incoming linebackers but those guys do not need to start, the more freshman start the less chance you have of winning. They will make mistakes. Hoping Derrick Brown and Trevell Johnson are ready to start getting time, they were highly rated too coming out of h.s. last year but they've been practicing with the team and working out for a year now, would be great if they were ready to be starters in two years as juniors.

You can criticize QE if you want but if the guy keeps working on his craft, he's going to be a hell of a QB his junior year. If he continues, HE will be the reason we have an outstanding season either of the next two years. Worthy will be a junior, Neyor will be a senior, Whittington will be a senior, Sanders will be a junior. We will still have some youth along the OL and at the RB position, still going to have some rough patches because of it. And when QE is a junior there will be experience and depth replacing those receivers that are departing, Red, Cain and Thompson have already started to develop experience and will be increasing their role next year and taking over the year after that as upper classmen. The OL in two years will start developing depth, they will all be sophomores or Juniors, I can almost guarantee that we run the ball ALOT better coupled with QE the offense will be about as efficient an offense as you've ever seen, no joke, the talent and hunger is there and I see alot of upside. Just try to sit back and enjoy the process of development cause its coming. Keep these guys together and this team will be unbelievable 2024.

 

Ewers was the best QB on the field last night. He would have over 400 yds if Worthy had caught one of those two chunk passes. He did that with the inferior OL on the field and zero running game primarily because of the inferior OL play.

give him the credit he deserves for this game.

 

OFFENSE
– Sark made a big mistake in simply dropping Keilan Robinson in Bijan Robinson's role. What should have happened was plugging Brooks into that role and keeping Keilan in his same role, perhaps slightly expanded.

Put it this way – Brooks touched the ball 8 times. He scored on two of those touches. What the hell was Sark thinking?

– OL is going to be fine. Campbell should be your starting OG now. I'd like to see Cam get a shot at that RT spot. Maybe Connor to C?

DEFENSE
– Considering how well Washington scouted us, I thought we did a pretty good job. Held them to well below their offensive numbers. Their QB had a less than desirable game, stat-wise, going 32 of 54 for only 287 yards. He had two TDs and one INT. Where their QB hurt us was on 3rd and 4th downs. He was clutch there.

– The secondary played better than I expected. I thought we'd get more INTs due simply to how many times Penix threw bad passes.

– I did not expect to get gashed in the run game. That surprised me. Washington isn't a good run offense but we made them look good.

 

Their run game was successful because they always fell forward - extending just beyond the marker after being first hit well before the first down. It was quite amazing actually. Almost like they were to a man just a little stronger than the tackler.

 

For most of today, The Horn 104.9FM has been pretty positive about things, echoing what some of us heard last night on the post-game show. Right now, Rod Babers and Mike Hardge are *roasting* Sark (by comparison anyway) over not using Jonathon Brooks more, a lot more. Also griping (rightly so) about trying to plug KR into the BJ role. You would think I wrote their program notes. Finally somebody on the house organ telling the truth about last night.

 

Quinn was back to pre injury form last night. Perhaps he came back too soon in October? He will keep improving! Patience. Worthy too, he wants to get better. Hope he stays at Texas!

 

They had stout backs.

 

If Terrance Brooks snagged that INT, the game result would have been a 50/50 tossup.

 

He may look a bit strange but Rattler is a good qb and I thought we’d run against W like Pitt is doing against UCLA, darn it.

 

And a better blocking OL, that helps

 

Your thoughts and prayers are appreciated.

 

I appreciate your kindness.

 

Thanks for your thoughts for all.

 

I support both of our RBs and hope they each develop into hard-charging starters. But let's take a harder look at the stats for all those criticizing Sark for not featuring Jonathan Brooks at RB in last night's game.

First, we generated 51 rushing yards total all game. Paltry.

Keilan had 27 yards on 8 carries, for 3.4 yards per carry average.
Jonathan had 18 yards on 6 carries, for 3.0 yards per carry average.
* Keilan had more total yards rushing and a slightly higher per carry average.

Keilan had 40 hards on 6 catches, for 6.7 yards per catch average.
Jonathan had 37 yards on 2 catches, for 18.5 yards per catch.
* Keilan had 2 more total yards receiving, but Jonathan scored on a screen pass scamper giving him a TD and higher per catch average

Keilan generated 67 yards in production.
Jonathan generated 55 yards in production, plus a touchdown.

Not a large statistical sample, but the stats show they are fairly evenly matched. Jonathan gets big time props for an electric TD catch and score.

But this doesn't justify the harsh criticism of Sark for splitting time between the RBs, especially when it comes to straight up rushing.

 

Excellent post @El Torito

 

Total agreement.

 

We were 8-5 this year. Every coach gets a pass year 1. So let's give Sark some partial credit for 8-5. Should have been better but it's not .500. It was a step in the right direction. About what I thought with a RS freshman QB and 2 pure freshman on the OLine. And missing your 3 best players for the bowl game. Everybody was blaming BR last night, but what about RJ and Overshown. They didn't play either and BR was risking probably 10M+ more than either of those guys would have risked. Even with RJ in there we probably convert those 3rd and 1s and win the game. Non playoff or NY6 bowl games are going to be a crap shoot. Too much risk for NFL bound players so I don't put a lot of stock in them one way or another. Herman won his bowl games and that never translated into the next year.

 

We have 3 receivers in the top 100. I'm not too worried about Worthy one way or another. With Neyor back we should be better in the WR room regardless and start to close the gap on a team like Washington.

 

Yeah, we always took more out of these than they proved to be. But they sure were nice.

 

I just hope Worthy is gone. He will be about our 5th or sixth best receiver next year but will start.

 

The critique of Sark over Robinson or Brooks seems like splitting hairs that probably made little difference.

Could Brooks have picked up the First downs on 3rd and 4th and 1? I do not think of Brooks as being a tough inside runner.

we could have had B. Robinson and R Johnson and our rushing yardage would not have been much better. Yes, I think we would have picked up the first down, but the OL did not open ANY rushing lanes the entire game.. WU won both the defensive and offensive line of scrimmage.

I believe that we missed Overshown more than we missed Robinson and Johnson. Where was the LB’s on all those WU runs in the 2nd half. there is a huge drop off between Overshown and his backup.

 

Robinson and Johnson carried the ball 17 times for 43 yards vs TCU. Why? Because the OL didn't open any holes for them. Just like they didn't open any last night. It's fool's gold to think those two are Supermen. To paraphrase George Bush, it's the OL, stupid.

 

Keep in mind that Bijan Robinson had 12 carries against TCU for 29 yards, and a YPC of 2.4. So Brooks’ stats against Washington don’t really tell us much except that the same size was insufficient to draw any conclusions.

I suspect that Washington’s D strategy, like that of TCU, was to take away the run and force us to pass. It certainly worked, particularly in the first half.

Conversely, many have criticized our run defense last night. I suspect that PK, picking his poison, choose to limit the damage in the passing game. He was successful, holding Penix and Washington to well below their season average. Yes, they we proficient on the ground. But 158 yards is hardly a juggernaut.

Given the massive TOP disparity — 24 minutes vs. almost 36 — I really cannot fault the defense for allowing just 27 points.

 

This, yards after contact were killers.

 

Great post. Not sure why Poms doesn’t like it?

 

I both like and appreciate the balancing out here, Tor. Thats a good thing.
I, too, support both backs...and Sark.
However, stats are nice but those dont really impress...at least from my perspective.
Takes some time to get backs going...
Not like Keilan was tearing it up...looked pretty pedestrian. Brooks, whom most fans and virtually all Texas media and most national pundits expected to see a heavy dose of...got 6 touches....6.
That is certainly not enough to get the man going.
Now, KR only got 8, so theres that....
But it is very possible Brooks comes out with a different trajectory on the night if featured more early. As I said before....I was asking to see more Brooks before Keilan got stuffed on 3rd and 1.
There is a reason most expected Brooks would be next man up at the position.....
Brooks is quick AND powerful...a prototypical RB1.....Keilan is a space guy (not saying he isnt tough) who can ocassionally spell as RB1. That isn't a stat but I believe it to be fact.

I surely hope I do not sound harsh...not my intent.
Just a guy here who is a fan...an educated one...but just a fan...who, like many others... both fan and media/insiders alike, expected Brooks to be the obvious next man up at RB1 and were surprised the game wasnt approached in this manner. Many were expecting JB to get 15-20 touches.
I like KR...alot.....and have asked for alot more Keilan, myself...just not as we saw him last night...the primary RB1.
Also, I am not one of the HFers here known for going out of my way to bash coaching thought or moves.
I just know the run game takes patience to establish and backs, blockers, and the offensive rushing attack takes consistency and dedication more times than not to establish. They had a poor approach vs TCU and a very poor approach last night. Whatever they did wasnt working and I, for one, am suggesting an alternative....and one that was presumed by many to be the obvious course for the night.
Bottom line is....we will never know what Brooks could have done if given more consistent feeds/touches because they barely tried.