Game Thread: #12 Oklahoma State @ #25 Texas Longhorns

[North Texas Golfer]

Even though I agree overall, there is one aspect which can't be true... We haven't seen everything Card can do after two games. By the end of the season I'd like to have them both get a good amount of starts to know what we have going into next season. We almost needed Card anyway on Saturday, and he's barely seen the field since week 2. 

Sark should treat our porous oline as if defenses are going to blitz *every* play. We either don't have hot routes/safety valves, or neither QB knows who they are. There are ways to get the ball out quicker than relying on either QB to run for their life.

There used to be a poster, rpongetti, who would break down stuff like this back in the day... be nice to have it now. Actually that's not a bad idea for the site owners if they are looking for value adds that folks would pay for.

Exactly. Card has only played 6 quarters of football for Texas. Bottom line, no one knows yet exactly how good Card is or isn't.   

 

[J.B. TexasEx]

Texas (and I’m sure most schools) have such a sophisticated film system that players and coaches can get so much more of what they need to see faster.  
 

For example:  We’re are playing Baylor next.  They can pull up all of Baylor’s pass plays for whatever time frame you want.  They can look with the click of a button all of Baylor’s 3rd down plays for this year or farther back if you want.  They can watch all of their 1st plays.   In other words they can query exactly what they want to see and get really specific about it so you don’t have to sit through a bunch of stuff that you don’t want to see.  If it’s a new coach like Arnada,  they can watch what LSU’s defense was doing on 3rd downs since Aranda was there.  It’s on a huge screen like a home theater screen.  Each position has their own room where they get into what they want to see.  They can see any team in the country and any situation they want.  They chart percentages on every situation there is.  
It’s really a hell of a system.  Better than when I played and they had on old film on a reel and they would rewind it about 50 times for each play.  
Hudl may do alot of the same stuff but what they have at the field house is amazing.  They aren’t pulling plays out of a hat………..everything has been looked at enormously during the week.  
 

We still had the reel-to-reel in the mid-eighties. 

No easy accessibility or searches for formations/plays by down and distance. We had to watch a lot of boring film. A few of us took naps when the lights went out. TXHSFB was much less sophisticated back then.

 

[Johnny Depp]

 We lost 2 winnable games against undefeated ranked teams now where our offense has failed us in the 2nd half (leading to the collapse of the previously adequate D). The play calling appeared to be directed to run, run, pass and there were a bevy of 3 and outs. It appears that Sark thinks he could run out the clock with Bijan, and we failed to follow a game plan that had gotten us big leads. The coaching staffed failed to respond to the loss of momentum by trying anything that had previously worked, or something new, or trickeration or weapons off the bench.

 No Tight end plays, no 4 headed monster, no QB substitution (after fumbles likely caused by injury), no creative playbooks usage. We seem to be willing to accept our slow death fate willingly. That is not on the team's mental outlook. I suspect most of the team is frustrated with this coaching staff's lack of creativity.

 If our coaching staff has a pulse, we are in the College playoff conversation right now.

I can assure you the Manning's know that.

 

[longhorn_mig]

Sir... I think you meant it’s going to take more than a decade to fix it.  Serious problems with this team started in 2010.  And I’d kind of like to see definite movement in the right direction.  And I, with dillhorn, am also driving off a proverbial cliff.  

Agreed, these issues go back to the end of the Mack Brown Era. At that point, Mack was burned out and didn't care enough to fix it. Chuck was too clueless to fix it. Tomcat was to immature and stubborn in his ways to fix it. As a result, it's continued to fester year after year. The true question is if Sark can fix it. Like I said, it's going to take more than a season to fix it.

 

[longhorn_mig]

I'll drive off a cliff if I want to...........?

LOL, fair enough. I guess I'm going to wait and see what Sark does with this mess. I'll be interested to see what we look like coming out of the bye week. In general though, if this is happening in year 2, there is no argument we have a problem.

 

[zion3d]

Solving the Texas Longhorn riddle.  I have read so many comments on the reasons why we cannot seem to win close games, complete for Big12 championships, and return to our former glory of being in the national championship race. It's the OL, no the DL, no the QB, no the play calling, no the conditioning, no the coaching, no its the BMD's, etc...  The truth, maybe its a confluence of them all.  

We have everything that we need to succeed but have failed over and over.  As of this moment I cannot say with absolute certainty but when I look at the past 8 years I think the biggest cause for our failure post Mac Brown is the head coaching choices.  Due to recent history and the high profile nature of UT football it does take someone that is very good at managing all aspects of the program.  Having truck loads of money and elite facilities has not been able to produce anything close to a championship team.  You have to acquire quality players but to a greater degree they MUST be developed in all aspects of football.  

How is it that a Baylor can be loaded with 2 and 3 star players then lose their head coach because of a scandal and right now they are sitting at 6-1?  Have we ever seen that type of thing at Texas?  The point is that Texas needs to find their Dave Aranda, the coach that fits exactly what we need.  I am not saying that coach Sarkesian is not that man but I am not saying that he is.  No doubt he is a great OC and proved as much last year with a national championship but that alone does not mean he will have that same success as a head coach.  If we look at his head coaching record up to this point we would all agree that he is average at best. Time will provide the answers as to whether or not he is the man.  I do believe that this is the key for Texas to achieve.  I think that this is how we solve the riddle.   

Everyone looks back at the Saban hire and wonders what could have been.  Most would agree that we would not be the mediocre team that we have been over the past 10 years.  Saban has a proven record of winning no matter the school or environment minus his NFL career.  He just wins.  He makes everyone around him bend to his will and his vision.  So we need hope that Sark can do just that because if he cannot we will most assuredly continue to fuel the perception that the whole college world has of us, spoiled losers that are irrelevant to college football and should only be known for horns down.  

 

[Soldierhorn]

Do players really need to hang out in the film room with HUDL being accessible everywhere? Unless, of course, Casey is dissecting film with Sark and/or Milwee. Just saying.

no, they dont.... IF they are good students of the game.

Serious "film" room work almost always should include chalk/white board dissection. The film study is to put two dimensional into context. Without good parameters, watching film is just watching videos.  

 

[TexCoyote]

Solving the Texas Longhorn riddle.  I have read so many comments on the reasons why we cannot seem to win close games, complete for Big12 championships, and return to our former glory of being in the national championship race. It's the OL, no the DL, no the QB, no the play calling, no the conditioning, no the coaching, no its the BMD's, etc...  The truth, maybe its a confluence of them all.  

We have everything that we need to succeed but have failed over and over.  As of this moment I cannot say with absolute certainty but when I look at the past 8 years I think the biggest cause for our failure post Mac Brown is the head coaching choices.  Due to recent history and the high profile nature of UT football it does take someone that is very good at managing all aspects of the program.  Having truck loads of money and elite facilities has not been able to produce anything close to a championship team.  You have to acquire quality players but to a greater degree they MUST be developed in all aspects of football.  

How is it that a Baylor can be loaded with 2 and 3 star players then lose their head coach because of a scandal and right now they are sitting at 6-1?  Have we ever seen that type of thing at Texas?  The point is that Texas needs to find their Dave Aranda, the coach that fits exactly what we need.  I am not saying that coach Sarkesian is not that man but I am not saying that he is.  No doubt he is a great OC and proved as much last year with a national championship but that alone does not mean he will have that same success as a head coach.  If we look at his head coaching record up to this point we would all agree that he is average at best. Time will provide the answers as to whether or not he is the man.  I do believe that this is the key for Texas to achieve.  I think that this is how we solve the riddle.   

Everyone looks back at the Saban hire and wonders what could have been.  Most would agree that we would not be the mediocre team that we have been over the past 10 years.  Saban has a proven record of winning no matter the school or environment minus his NFL career.  He just wins.  He makes everyone around him bend to his will and his vision.  So we need hope that Sark can do just that because if he cannot we will most assuredly continue to fuel the perception that the whole college world has of us, spoiled losers that are irrelevant to college football and should only be known for horns down.  

biggest cause for our failure post Mac Brown— I’ve talked about this a lot, but Mack Brown was 30-21 after losing in the championship game to Alabama.  He changed a lot after that game but stayed on another 4 years.  We probably would have had a deal with Saban but it pissed Mack off and he “held” on until Saban signed an extension with Alabama.  His last 4 years really set us back and then they hire Charlie Strong and it sets us back farther.  I actually think we were showing improvement with Herman but he got into all that protesting and being the player’s best buddy.  When CDC told all sports that the teams will stay on the field for the Eyes of Texas and Herman didn’t make them do it…….it was over right there for him.  Remember Sam and the punter were the only ones that stayed?  This and I think Herman’s sometimes childest ways……remember the end of the Missouri game…….remember flipping off the LHN camera that the world saw???   You just don’t/can’t do that at the University of Texas.  Arkansas you can but not Texas.  So all this to say we have been in a tailspin since 2010.  Like I said the other day,  I’m not smart enough to figure out what it takes to win at Texas.  I hope Sark is it.  I hope CDC can figure this out but it goes way back.  

 

[Johnny Depp]

All this talk about the past is a waste of time. We could have won the last 2 games easily. Once again we got the wrong coach. I like LSU making a move mid season.

 

[Soldierhorn]

Solving the Texas Longhorn riddle.  I have read so many comments on the reasons why we cannot seem to win close games, complete for Big12 championships, and return to our former glory of being in the national championship race. It's the OL, no the DL, no the QB, no the play calling, no the conditioning, no the coaching, no its the BMD's, etc...  The truth, maybe its a confluence of them all.  

We have everything that we need to succeed but have failed over and over.  As of this moment I cannot say with absolute certainty but when I look at the past 8 years I think the biggest cause for our failure post Mac Brown is the head coaching choices.  Due to recent history and the high profile nature of UT football it does take someone that is very good at managing all aspects of the program.  Having truck loads of money and elite facilities has not been able to produce anything close to a championship team.  You have to acquire quality players but to a greater degree they MUST be developed in all aspects of football.  

How is it that a Baylor can be loaded with 2 and 3 star players then lose their head coach because of a scandal and right now they are sitting at 6-1?  Have we ever seen that type of thing at Texas?  The point is that Texas needs to find their Dave Aranda, the coach that fits exactly what we need.  I am not saying that coach Sarkesian is not that man but I am not saying that he is.  No doubt he is a great OC and proved as much last year with a national championship but that alone does not mean he will have that same success as a head coach.  If we look at his head coaching record up to this point we would all agree that he is average at best. Time will provide the answers as to whether or not he is the man.  I do believe that this is the key for Texas to achieve.  I think that this is how we solve the riddle.   

Everyone looks back at the Saban hire and wonders what could have been.  Most would agree that we would not be the mediocre team that we have been over the past 10 years.  Saban has a proven record of winning no matter the school or environment minus his NFL career.  He just wins.  He makes everyone around him bend to his will and his vision.  So we need hope that Sark can do just that because if he cannot we will most assuredly continue to fuel the perception that the whole college world has of us, spoiled losers that are irrelevant to college football and should only be known for horns down.  

The comparison to Baylor is humbling. They are on their 4TH head coach (Briles, Grobe, Rhule, Aranda) since 2015 and they are almost as good or better than Texas - certainly competitive - and Texas rolls the dice on Sark. I like Sark and think he will be a good head coach if he can keep his demons under control.  

I'm giving Sark a huge pass this year and next (coaches deserve about 3 yrs to get their players & system in place) but one thing that really annoys me this year is the fact that he is constantly staring at his play chart. Hopefully he hires a dedicated offensive coordinator to mentor to do that and think through play progression; he needs to pay attention to game what is going on on the field. For example, if there's a defensive substitution, Sark needs to see that and possibly exploit that change but he cant do that if the is staring at a play chart.  

 

[zion3d]

All this talk about the past is a waste of time. We could have won the last 2 games easily. Once again we got the wrong coach. I like LSU making a move mid season.

The reason that you said we have the wrong coach is because of what has happened in the past few weeks.  The past is not a waste of time but a reminder of what has been and what needs to be changed. 

 

[Johnny Depp]

The reason that you said we have the wrong coach is because of what has happened in the past few weeks.  The past is not a waste of time but a reminder of what has been and what needs to be changed. 

Do you think there is any chance that Lincoln Riley, Mike Gundy, Gary Patterson or Dave Aranda put up 2 abysmal 2nd half's in a row like that?

The problem is the Cigar's making the head coaching decisions. As always. Probably telling Sark who to play also.

 

[zion3d]

I totally agree that Riley and Patterson would not allow that kind of collapse.  What has happened in the last two games is totally unacceptable and I lay that at the feet of Sarkesian.  When I look at him during the times when the momentum shifts to the opponent he looks totally lost.  None of the coaches seem to have an idea how to stop the crumbling offense and defense.  You might be correct that Sark is not the coach we need but I can guarantee you that minus some tpye of scandal he will be the coach we have for the next 3-4 years.   

 

[Johnny Depp]

I totally agree that Riley and Patterson would not allow that kind of collapse.  What has happened in the last two games is totally unacceptable and I lay that at the feet of Sarkesian.  When I look at him during the times when the momentum shifts to the opponent he looks totally lost.  None of the coaches seem to have an idea how to stop the crumbling offense and defense.  You might be correct that Sark is not the coach we need but I can guarantee you that minus some tpye of scandal he will be the coach we have for the next 3-4 years.   

Augie got away with 8 DWI's. I don't think Sark will. Maybe we can find some old emails.

 

[zion3d]

Emails will not be needed if he keeps losing this way.  The pressure will be so great on him that he might pop, the top that is.

 

[Soldierhorn]

The comparison to Baylor is humbling. They are on their 4TH head coach (Briles, Grobe, Rhule, Aranda) since 2015 and they are almost as good or better than Texas - certainly competitive - and Texas rolls the dice on Sark. I like Sark and think he will be a good head coach if he can keep his demons under control.  

I'm giving Sark a huge pass this year and next (coaches deserve about 3 yrs to get their players & system in place) but one thing that really annoys me this year is the fact that he is constantly staring at his play chart. Hopefully he hires a dedicated offensive coordinator to mentor and do that and think through play progression; he needs to pay attention to game what is going on on the field. For example, if there's a defensive substitution, Sark needs to see that and possibly exploit that change but he cant do that if the is staring at a play chart.  

This is the type of stuff I was talking about..



I was yelling at the screen!  Picking up a QB in the process of throwing the ball and spearing him with the crown of the helmet into the turf is EXACTLY why the rule was made.  This was the original definition of unnecessary roughness on a defenseless player that got expanded later to include receivers.  

Why wasnt Sark out on the field getting in the face of the refs and protesting?!?  Because he was in his kimchee squat staring at his play card.  This is the type of stuff that can fire up a team but the coaches didnt seem to care

 

[Captain Hookem]

Sark is in his first season trying to rebuild a program that's been stagnant for 10 years. Any talk of replacing Sark is silly talk. It's the verbal equivalent of throwing a beer at the TV. We've seen how this system can work when he gets the right players. 

The ironic thing is had we lost by the same amount, without having led earlier in the game, there would be no talk of coaching failures. All we'd be talking about is how we're starting to see the Bama offense take shape. 

Losing sucks. Losing for 10 years sucks a lot. Continually thinking a better coach is out there leads to sucking for 10 years. If there's a problem with football culture at Texas it starts with that mindset.

 

[longhorn_mig]

Sark is in his first season trying to rebuild a program that's been stagnant for 10 years. Any talk of replacing Sark is silly talk. It's the verbal equivalent of throwing a beer at the TV. We've seen how this system can work when he gets the right players. 

The ironic thing is had we lost by the same amount, without having led earlier in the game, there would be no talk of coaching failures. All we'd be talking about is how we're starting to see the Bama offense take shape. 

Losing sucks. Losing for 10 years sucks a lot. Continually thinking a better coach is out there leads to sucking for 10 years. If there's a problem with football culture at Texas it starts with that mindset.

 

[Soldierhorn]

 It's the verbal equivalent of throwing a beer at the TV.

 

[Johnny Depp]

Sark is in his first season trying to rebuild a program that's been stagnant for 10 years. Any talk of replacing Sark is silly talk. It's the verbal equivalent of throwing a beer at the TV. We've seen how this system can work when he gets the right players. 

The ironic thing is had we lost by the same amount, without having led earlier in the game, there would be no talk of coaching failures. All we'd be talking about is how we're starting to see the Bama offense take shape. 

Losing sucks. Losing for 10 years sucks a lot. Continually thinking a better coach is out there leads to sucking for 10 years. If there's a problem with football culture at Texas it starts with that mindset.

No, if we never had a lead it would be even worse. It's already apparent he's not a game manager, having to suffer through 2-3 more years is like water boarding the fans and alumni.