What other current head coach started 4-7?

Mike Gundy at Okie Light.. They stuck with him, and he’s won over there, more often than not.. Does Sark have that in him? Will we give him the chance?

 

He'll get the time he needs. The admin and AD have his back. And so do I.

 

I like Sark but I’m not so sure. I would speculate that 7-6 next year would be very troubling to those same people, and 8-5 wouldn’t necessarily have them doing somersaults either.

 

Depends. Who is coming in? If he lands Arch (for example), then Sark is here for a long time.

 

You really think Arch could make much difference with this supporting cast? Drops kill any qb and 1.5 seconds to release the ball are not enough regardless of who is back there. That plus they do not play defense. I guess I’m just saying we need a lot more change than just one player.

 

If our defense was good as our offense, we would be 9-2.

 

It’s not just Arch though. If this kid comes then there will be a lot of talent that will follow him. If he would pull the trigger now, it could positively effect the 22s also.

 

Wow....MC..I just do not see things this way at all.
As I've pointed out many times...the D has failed plenty...but the O has been hanging them out to dry in virtually every game except Rice, Louisiana, TTU, parts of TCU, first half of ou, and second half of KU.
That leaves ISU, Baylor, osu, and crucial parts of others including WVU.
I put 3-4 losses securely on the O.
You cant ask your D to stay strong when the O is leaving them on the field too long and not doing their part.

 

I hear you but you’re missing the part that our offense has been really good at times. Thus, you are missing what if our defense was really good at times (not just merely good). I have never seen our defense being really good - only okay and collapse.

 

Interesting subject.
I just started a thread on it lol...

 

Yo

U don't think the D was good first half vs isu, first half bu, first half osu, 2nd-5th WVU drives when O couldnt get a first down??
The D practically shut down osu, isu, and mostly Baylor the first halves.
How long do you think a D can hold up when the O keeps putting them back out there?
I dont see how our D was any iess good during these^^^^stretches than our O has been at times you allude to...save Rice and porous D TTU

 

You are also missing the synergistic effect of both sides being good. It’s greater than the sum of the parts. I see that happening with our opponents: Baylor, OSU, ISU, etc.

 

Rain,

I cannot defend either the offense or the defense. That said, in eleven games, how many sustained drives have we had? I'm too lazy to look it up, but we are a "homerun" offense - big play or no play. Most of that is because our OL cannot or will not block well enough to sustain long drives, rest the defense, and wear out the opponent's defense.

 

Texas would be in better shape, but I am curious which game other than Arkansas would you have as a Texas loss?

 

I do not think I am missing that...On the contrary It (the synergistic effect) is very much at the heart of the points I am attempting to make. Many here are underestimating the offenses effect on the D....I do see it happening both ways and am not saying the converse isnt true at times also. Ill say again I believe the O has put the D in very bad spots in at least 3 very key games which were otherwise winnable. I'm sure the D has done the same at times to the O...I've noted a few in the OffensevsDefense thread

 

ISU

 

To sort of get back on track of the OP, I don't know.

I do know that Sark can win only 5 games this year if Texas wins Friday. That is the lowest total wins by a first year head coach at Texas since Dana X. Bible in 1937.

Bibles' first two seasons were 2-6-1 and 1-8.

Then, he went:
5-4
8-2
8-1-1
9-2
7-1-1
5-4
10-1
8-2

Bible also won 3 SWC Titles.

Much different times, but maybe Sark needs a few years. Maybe he can turn it around.

 

Mack was 1-10 his first two years at UNC then once he got his kids that program took off. Patience is hard but Texas fans are going to have to learn it because we are at least three years away and the kids who will make Texas relevant again are in HS right now and hopefully Sark can convince them to come to Austin because that is only way Texas turns this around.

 

We've been saying this for the past 10+ years. I admit that I have consistently bought into the hype surrounding the program prior to each season and am consistently disappointed. While I do like Sark, that ends in 2022. I am setting my bar low, as I do not expect this team to even compete for a title regardless of the conference in which we are playing.

 

The thing that worries me about Sark is I can't think of anything we are really better at now than at the first of the year. The offense started out pretty good, but I haven't seen any real improvement, and given QB play may actually may have regressed.
Good coaches pay attention to detail and get things corrected. Sark talks about that in pressers, but I sure haven't seen any results. You can blame it on the past coaches for not having the right players for the new guy's system, but the new guy has to coach what he's got and make them better. So far Sark and his staff haven't done that.

 

Yes, and we never make it to the third year before we're firing coordinators or head coaches. I think that's the point. When you reset the staff, you reset that counter, too.

 

Dave Aranda only won two games last year ... he is doing pretty good in year 2

 

Granted, Gundy had slightly less to work with (less overall talent at that point, 57% wins over prev 4 vs 64%), but then again his 4-7 was also wmuch orse than our current 4-7 since almost all their losses were blowouts and they only had one good win vs our two. But are you saying that if we too stick it out with Sark for the long-haul than we too might beat Oklahoma twice in the next 16 years?

Seriously though, the main difference to me is that Gundy was a blank slate as a head coach at this point. He'd done ok to good as a position coach and coordinator but hadn't been HC before - anywhere, even at lower levels. Sometimes that works out well (Bob Stoops) and sometimes it doesn't (Randy Shannon). Ditto for hiring a guy who did well as a head coach at G5/FCS. Sometimes it works out great (Jim Tressel) and other times it doesn't (Charlie Strong).

The key in both cases is that if the guy hasn't been a P5 / Blue Blood coach you are, you're guessing. The chances to get a guy who already has been one before and done well at it are very rare.

When you get a guy who already has been one before and hasn't done well at it - you're now dealing with a known commodity and not a blank slate. He might do significantly better or worse than at previous jobs, but you don't have any big reasons to think that'll be case. Most likely you'll get what everyone else has gotten. In our case, that's a 46-35 (57%) pace with an occasional bowl win and not really ever competing for the conference title. That's worse than Herman's tenure at UT (64%) and the same as the mediocrity from 2010-2020 (also 57%) that we were sick of!

Sark might turn out to be superior to Strong and Herman in the end, but at least those hires made sense based on their prior history. Sark really didn't to me - but firing a guy after 1 year and being on our 5th HC in a 10 year span obviously is no good either, so now we're here with a reasonable expectation of continued mediocrity and just stuck hoping for something to happen that very rarely happens. Though it actually happened to us with DRK, who was only 17-13 (also 57%!) at Miss St & Washington, let's also note things were different 70 years ago.

Sark is now a 54% winner as a head coach over his three stops. The guy we just fired could take over a new team next year and go 1-11 twice and he'd still have a better overall record than where Steve Sarkisian is now. So from where I sit, it looks like we've got a wolf by the ears - forced to hold on tight because we know what happens if we let go.

 

Statalyzer-—-But he got to be in football meetings with Nick Saban and Pete Caroll—So he learned how they do it….lol