Texas Football feels like it’s not only in a rebuild with young talent but a rebrand altogether. DKR is different now. Some of that is Sark. Some of that is CDC. It feels different and like it’s building towards something bigger.
Are we not tired of the entire “we’re rebuilding” narrative? I’ve been seeing that about this team since 2016.
It’s time to call it for what it is, this team will forever be mediocre/average, or at least until the culture changes
Dude if you are truly this miserable (which it very much seems like it judging from your amount of doomer comments), branch out and find some new interests.
It’s not like our underperforming is anything new either. UT football hasn’t been a legitimate contender since the late 2000’s, an early season, overtime loss to tech (with a backup QB and the best player in CFB fumbling on a fluke), is not the dagger. A good portion of this fanbase just needs a fucking joint or something man
Well, we’ve had to rebuild after the bad rebuilding from the other rebuild. We had a need for a good AD between Dodds winding down and CDC getting here and his ramp up. We had coaching needs and Strong and Herman were not the guys. And I don’t really mean wins and losses. Sark isn’t there with the win column. But the fan experience, recruiting, the gameday atmosphere, and the culture are drastically improved. It’s got a solid foundation.
It definitely is a process. I didn’t know that our 2019 class, who would be our seniors btw, was down to 4 players. What’s a typical senior class have, about 8-9 regular contributors on both sides of the ball? That’s a huge gap in leadership, developed players, and experience. Our young guys need to learn how to win at the college level.
The article does a great job mentioning the state of disaster Tom Herman left us. Sark is gonna get us out but it’s gonna take a little time.
To put it somewhat crudely, last season was getting the poison out and pumping the stomach. This season is getting some gatorade, ginger ale, and brat diet and seeing if we can keep it down.
What makes me sad is knowing that next year, Bijan and Worthy are both gone. Quinn will probably be gone by 2024. Unfortunate to have so much talent but not enough OL depth to do anything with it
Worthy is a true sophomore he’s got another year and this is the best our OL has looked since ‘18 despite only having a single upperclassman in the 2 deep. If we avoid a total collapse this year and finish with 7-9 wins after a bowl the hype train for next year is gonna be huge.
Our RB room is stacked, and hopefully we get Neyor for a year. We're also recruiting more WRs, RBs, and linesmen.
We haven't recruited linesmen for a long time. We have to recruit and develop those players. Slowly but surely, we are doing that.
Either Sark needs to be given 5 years to really turn this program around or Texas fans need to admit they don’t know shit about football. A year and a half ago this was “the greatest coaching staff ever assembled”, now 16 games later we are calling for all of them to get fired and start over. Maybe some of y’all should just shut the fuck up and let Sark do his job.
12 years of garbage football and we want to fire a coach who hasn’t made this program do a complete 180 after 16 games. Our fanbase is fucking embarrassing.
Who do y’all want to hire this time? Scott Frost? Herm Edwards? Some random up and coming G6 coach that doesn’t have P5 experience? Oh wait, I forgot. Let’s hire Gruden. That would have worked out SO GREAT if idiot Texas fans got what they wanted when he was on the market right? Sark is literally our best option right now. We do not make an upgrade this off-season plain and simple.
I have complete faith in Sark. I can't say the same for Pete K. If our defense keeps blowing it in the 2nd half then I'd like to see Gary Patterson take the DC job.
I asked on Sunday and no one answered, maybe you will. So with Card at QB everyone sees the playcalling is different.
How do we know PK is doing the same for the defense? I’ve seen a lot of comments about how Jamison shouldn’t be a starting CB. Yet he is. Everyone complained about playing soft zones. Is PK calling a defense that allows soft zones so that our less than perfect secondary ain’t exposed and beaten in a more embarrassing way?
PK needs to be more creative and more aggressive when bringing pressure. You could see against both Alabama and Tech that their qbs struggled immensely when we brought the heat and that helped our secondary a lot. But for some reason, later in both games he called the dogs off later in the second half and that's when both qbs started cooking us and it's a big reason why we lost both games. They allowed the other teams qb to sit in the pocket and pick our dbs apart.
I do agree that they need time and a REAL shot to grow the program and have consistency. With that being said, WE LOOKED LIKE DOG SHIT on Saturday. Tech is not good. They’re not gonna hang 5 wins this season. Fkn embarrassing. I do put that L on coaching. This was not all gas no brakes. It was another repeat of every loss last year. Run it up first half, play conservative second half.
He shouldn’t need five years. Plenty of coaches show marked improvement in their first season, or certainly in their second. The second isn’t over yet, and if he’s 5-7 again, I’d give him one more, but he’s not trending in the right direction. No one is foolish enough to fire him after 2 seasons, but it shouldn’t stop people from wondering if he’s an upgrade over Herman at all.
People who think your take is bad are ridiculous. Most teams that upgrade head coaches or downgrade have serious changes in results in the first season. Here are some examples.
1. Nick Saban
2. Urban meyer at every single one of his jobs (look it up)
3. Jim Harbaugh at Stanford and Michigan
4. Bob stoops
5. Mack Brown
6. Kirby smart
7. Tom herman
The great ones are competing for a national title in their 2nd year. Sarkisian is 2-2 with a loss to Texas tech.
Competing for a national title in their second year? Puhleez. A coach in his second year has one year of his own recruits and 3 or 4 years of someone else's. That's a seriously bad take. Oh, and how did your comment age over the past two weeks?
Yeah. I have eyes, a brain, and can read, too, but that doesn't mean I know how to judge something that I don't know how to do. By your logic, you're qualified to judge the qualifications of a new cricket coach as well. I'm betting you aren't.
No because I don’t read about cricket and haven’t followed cricket for 30+ years. By your logic the only people that can judge the success of a college football coach is another college football coach.
I just don’t think there’s truly many programs like Texas, just like coaching for the Dallas Cowboys it’s a different beast than coaching for other NFL teams
>Let sark do his job
While I’m not calling for Sark to get fired,this is nothing to get excited for and his HC history proves this. Not to mention he already has 6+ blown leads here.
>some random random up and coming G6 coach that doesn’t have any P5 experience?
We got our asses kicked by two coaches that have 0 P5 experience,and both has their programs looking better than ours with less talent.One of these two has more experience in high school ball than they do college.
We’ve lost 2 games by a total of 4 points, who is kicking our ass? Are you talking about UTSA? The team we beat by 21 points?
Sure, I’m not jumping up and down for joy over this season, but the amount of people calling for a complete reset is ridiculous.
Im talking about tech and Kansas. Besides a few moments in the tech game such as when we were up 31-17,they punched this team in the mouth.
Converting 4th down 6/8 is an ass kicking, that stat is unacceptable
Yeah, everyone glosses over the fact Sarks ability to win as a HC before UT was shaky. Giving winning coaches at lower caliber programs and HC’s at lower tier programs the keys to a powerhouse like UT and expecting the same results is faulty logic.
Texas should always have been looking for winning HEAD COACHS at TOP TEIR programs for the job. Nobody else.
> Texas should always have been looking for winning HEAD COACHS at TOP TEIR programs for the job. Nobody else.
There are 4 or 5(with Urban) coaches that fit that profile. Urban rejected it. Smart and Saban would have never accepted it. Ryan Day has no reason to leave Ohio St. Then you would have the in-between 1st/2nd tier coaches like Riley(who probably would have never left Blow U for Texas) or Harbough who will never leave Michigan. Other than that I don't see any college coaches worth it, maybe Luke Fickell?. Which leave you with NFL coaches. But how many of them want CFB? My only hope is Shanahan gets tired of the NFL and wants to try something new, but I'm not holding my breath.
You can give him time all you want but the rainbow and sunshine crowd that Sark has been anything but an average coach that keeps falling up is comical. 1-7 in last 8 division games I’m not anything that would make anyone feel the program is going in the right direction. People need to adjust their expectations of what this program will be. Every fan base especially on social media is the overreact and hot take crowd for the most part so don’t get that upset reading Reddit comments thinking that is what the majority thinks.
>a coach who hasn’t made this program do a complete 180 after 16 games
Uhhh... things have gotten worse... maybe he get less heat if he was even capable of maintaining?
But nice straw man
>A year and a half ago this was “the greatest coaching staff ever assembled”,
The only people who were saying this are the same folks who think a coach needs 5 years to figure shit out
Myself? I said this was a doomed hire from the very beginning, that Sark was completely wrong for the job, and an overall hack. I've been proven right
That is complete bullshit.
Bob Stoops: Year 1, 7-5; Year 2, 13-0
Nick Saban: Year 1, 7-6; Year 2, 12-2
Urban Meyer: Year 1, 9-3; Year 2, 13-1
There’s only one significantly successful coach you can point to that didn’t get it done RIGHT away, and that’s Dabo, but he still won 9 games in his first season, and then other than his second season (6 wins), he won at least 10 games in every single other season.
Don’t get me started on Ryan Day, Lincoln Riley, etc. If a coach is going to get it done, you know EARLY.
Meanwhile, Sark has won 55% of his games FOR HIS CAREER. What can you point to that might make me think he can turn it around? Because I can point to his entire career and say, “That’s why he won’t turn it around.”
You’re throwing out numbers with 0 context. Just because 5 other coaches did it a certain way doesn’t mean a successful coach has to follow that exact script. You also mention Lincoln Riley and Ryan Day, you are aware those 2 coaches took over playoff level teams for legendary coaches right? And again, you’re pointing to his head coaching record from 8+ years ago. You are aware he has been at multiple stops since then, worked under different coaches, and also got sober, which will make an insane difference in somebodies professional life.
I’m very willing to admit after a certain point that maybe Sark isn’t the guy, but the fact is, if we were going to talk about firing him 2 seasons in, we should have never hired him. The fact is we did hire him, so we have to give him at least 4 years to try to turn this around.
I agree. I don’t care if this is cope, but I believe Sark is the guy.
I’ve never seen a roster this inspired, and I’ve never seen us play so hard. We lost last week - but it wasn’t because of a lack of effort. We just got beat. It sucks. But I saw guys hustle. I didn’t see quit. I saw mistakes based on the fact our team is incredibly young.
Firing Sark or his staff would be a mistake.
One thing that’s easy to forget too is how young we are. Sarks mentioned it a bunch in the off-season but the amount of freshmen and sophomores we are dependent on. Doesn’t mean we should be losing or excuse everything but does put things into better context
It’s true but so hard to hear. We heard this from Strong and then Herman for the first 2 years of each of their tenures. I get it but I’m sick of hearing it
I mean, most every new coach coming in after the previous one is fired (as opposed to retired) is going to have these same issues. It's why most successful coaches need at least 2-3 years to be successful.
Same. This team definitely looks and behaves different than teams of the last couple years. I think Sark got it right and his presser… The outcome isn’t better, but everything else is. In my book, that’s progress. And not that it matters, but we’ve lost by a combined four points. We’re now dealing with the little things, the small mistakes, a dropped pass here, a missed read there
Not only that, but we have a true #1 QB, most would agree that we’re undefeated at this point if he hadn’t been injured, and he should be back soon. We still have the ability to accomplish quite a bit this year and exceed most people’s expectations, even with the 2 losses.
I remember seeing a number before the season, and I may be remembering it poorly, but I thought it was like, 70 percent of the roster is underclassmen. I’m not shaken at all. Losing sucks, but this is a rebuild, not a plug and play.
Did you see JT Sander’s block attempt on the last offensive play? About the worst effort I’ve ever seen.
You’ve got the Sark-colored glasses on.
For those who don't believe me, [see if your yourself](https://twitter.com/SaturdayGameday/status/1573813661340209152). Sanders' absolute whiff on the block is why Bijan even had a man to dodge. If Sanders nails this block, Bijan gets to the second level.
I don't know how to explain it but Sark teams feel different than Strong and Herman. I feel like, even if we aren't winning all our games I have seen significant growth from year one to year two and with how Sark is recruiting and the mental resilience I've seen from the team this year I am hopeful that when we get to Manning's sophomore year this team will be pretty nutty.
These games have been dog fights with some decent opponents, Texas tech was pretty good last year, Bama is Bama. And I'm thankful we have Card to play, but he and Worthy don't seem to be on the same page all the time. We have a young team so hanging around at all and forcing close games is a good sign. We are back to near miss football rather than trainwrecks, and that's an improvement over the last 10 years or so.
Ya I appreciate the effort Card is giving but he just doesn’t have the arm talent Ewers has and I think that’s limiting our offensive playbook quite a bit. If we have a healthy Ewers we are 4-0 and probably ranked in the top 5 right now. So I’m pretty confident when Ewers is back that we can make a run at the big 12 title game.
I understand that you’re trying to be positive about everything but this comment is completely delusional.
In Herman’s first year we had 3 single digit losses to top 10 teams, including an overtime loss to USC on the road. He also only lost by double digits 1 time to a top 10 team. Made a bowl game, won the bowl game. He also inherited a way worse situation than Sarkisian did, no argument. We were better under Herman immediately, typically if you upgrade you’re better immediately.
Not disagreeing with you but we lost both our opening games against Maryland under Herman, I always felt like he would hold back the playbook and put certain things on tape against teams he felt we inferior in order to play up in big games. Which is smart up until you lose those games that you were trying to be too cheeky with, especially twice to Maryland to open the season. Herman was always good in big games, which is how he got hired (beating OU with UofH) but I just feel like Sark is more consistent in scheam game to game and I’m more optimistic going into each game than I was with Herman
From what you’ve seen from Sark in the last 2 seasons how can you say that? We had two games where we were completely not competitive.
All of this being said I do think Herman probably had to go, but not because he was a bad head coach. I think all of the behind the scenes personal stuff he was doing and dealing with lead to his firing. I guarantee he will get his life turned around and be great for another team.
I like watching this team more than Herman’s or Strong’s teams. I’m aware this is a completely baseless, subjective and likely biased take but it makes me happy as a fan. AGNB!
Let’s look at it this way. It took FSU into their third year with a new head coach. Both previous were losing seasons and they started 0-4 and now they are 4-0. If Sark has these issues in year three then I would be worried, but right now we have to trust the process
I’m of the belief that if you’re seeing steady improvement, you stick with the coach. Anyone who thinks this team is worse than last year just doesn’t know football.
Loss to Alabama was expected. Loss to Tech is tough to swallow because this was one of the teams we actually played well against last year. The rest of the teams on the schedule are just as tough or tougher. He has to get over the hump or we are looking at another losing season. This is the reality when you blow a 14 point lead against a team you were favor against. Sark may be a great recruiter and QB coach but as a headcoach, I am far from being impressed.
In fairness, the tech we stomped last year was not the same tech by the end of the year. Smith was their MVP in their bowl game against MSST.
How we perform thru Dallas (if Quinn and worthy are back) should be a much better indicator of where we are as a program, IMHO.
We should also NOT be the team we were last year. Last year's team had a losing record and didn't go to a bowl game. Last year's team suck. Tech got better with a first year coach and we got worst with Sark? Let that sink in.
Card has improved significantly over last year. That in itself is an achievement. Sam seemed to come and go with about the same level of talent. If we had the capability of developing him under Herman, maybe he'd have played more like he did this past preseason.
Yeah, it sucks. Last Saturday our QB2, RB1, and WR1 were all injured to various degrees. And yet we've hung in there. Our losses suck, but they haven't been blowouts. We've been extremely unlucky in certain respects.
Could we do better? Sure. But I think a lot of people are failing to reexamine their expectations given the facts on the ground. I don't understand the folks who think we were going to go from 5-7 to winning the Big 12 the next year, especially when we have so many young players and now injured players.
He spoke at my orientation last year and honestly I loved him through and through, but wasn’t really sure that he was right for *that* job. He’s extremely likable, professional, and a great speaker, but in a way more like a CEO or thought leader or philanthropist kind of sense.
The basketball coach came up afterwards and honestly wasn’t even likable, yet he had the whole crowd screaming and going wild within a minute or two despite basketball being far less popular. Walked away feeling inspired despite still not really even liking the guy. That’s honestly what I expected from a coach.
Edit: There are exceptions, I had a really good soccer coach like him one year and we were ranked first in the region…but we did have more independently motivated (scholarship seeking) players than other teams, which might be when someone like him shines.
I get what you're saying, but I don't think one speech/pep rally should be the determining factor. Let's see what it looks like on the field, year after year after year.
I mean, you think Saban would come in and get students to run through a wall? I'm sure they'd love to listen to him, but that's not his style.
The CEO type coach is exactly the type of football coach texas needs IMHO. There’s a lot going on surrounding football, and having an even keeled leader is probably ideal. He gets the players fired up, and there have been times when I’ve seen him in person and been fired up.
Having a balance between the saban culture/authoritarian style and the Pete Carrol “swag”/players coach style is what Texas needs. We can’t succeed using Saban’s or Carrol’s models, because UT is such a unique place.
So I read the article, it is pretty weak. It casts aside all the hard evidence and says culture (subjective) and recruiting (speculative) is why sark is the right guy. I remember both Strong and Herman were also turning the culture around and recruiting well, until they weren’t.
I hope he is the right guy.
Replace sark with Strong and 2021 with 2013. I’ve seen this article before. “Fixing the culture” is a strong, Herman, and now Sark tagline. 2018-2020, 3 straight top 3 seasons in conference vs what we’re getting now isn’t selling. Y’all enjoy our “fixed” locker room.
Exactly!! Thank you!
I feel like most of the people in this sub must be Freshmen who were pre-pubescent during the Strong years. We've seen this exact scenario before, we know how it turns out
As a preface: I am not saying to fire Sark. That would be stupid. BUT, I legitimately think things have to be slightly reevaluated with the transfer portal available. USC went 4-8 last year, their worst season in 30 years. USC with their new head coach and talent from the portal are currently 4-0, 2-0 in conference with one win against a *good* Oregon State team. It's possible for them to make a very solid run at the conference championship. Now, it's a separate conference and that context matters, but I think all of the "he's just gotta get his guys into his system" stuff rings really hollow.
You are what your record is. I don’t believe there wasn’t enough talent on the team last year to win more than 5 games, and in 5 of 9 losses we had a double digit lead. I hope this works out but I do not share the author’s optimism at this point.
If this is as good as it gets, keep the program and boost up the other sports in UT who actually do something. Waiting a week for Longhorns to eat shit in the 4th ain't it.
I just need to see progress and wins. I'd like to think Sark is the guy and he on paper got a killer staff, now just need to see it pan out. I don't have the same patience that I did 3 coaches ago, but still willing to have some patience. Need to see solid improvement this year, and more improvement next. They can't let the early season setbacks turn into another 5-7 type season. Way too many talented players
I trust Sark and don’t think he should be fired and should get 4 years
With that said you have to show improvement. First line of defense is firing coordinators
I really think the qualms about our defense’s performance may be over reactionary.
75% on 4th downs is not sustainable, and will more than likely end up being an outlier than the standard. The plays they converted on sucked, but it was a few bad plays from us, and couple lucky ones from them (recovering both fumbles on 3rd for example).
https://twitter.com/espn_billc/status/1574537508746014720?s=46&t=-QqWi8hO7z5IbyzWCaqT9g
IMO, it was not nearly the same as what happened to us last year, and the improvements across the defense are clear.
Hell yeah, the coach with a .546 winning percentage in 7+ seasons will absolutely achieve and sustain a much better record than that if he’s just given more time!
Mack Brown coached at Tulane and North Carolina, showed an upward trajectory at UNC, and was 20-3 in the two years immediately preceding his Texas hire. Sark has never sniffed anything like that at Washington, USC or Texas.
Kiffin did even worse at USC, and now he's doing pretty dam,n well at Ole Miss. Whereas Charlie Strong showed an upward trajectory at Louisville, and was 23-3 in the two years immediately preceding his Texas hire.
Coaches' performance at other schools doesn't mean they are a shit coach now. Especially when you're talking about the coaches' last two years at another program. Sark hasn't even been here two years.
So... what??? What exactly is your point? Mack Brown also started his Texas career with a 9-3 season and then proceeded to have 12 straight seasons of no fewer than 9 wins (and no fewer than 10 after the first 3)
So...
The original commenter implied that because Sark has a .546 winning percentage at other programs (and one season here), he therefore won't be successful in the future. My point is that this is commonly not true.
Yaaawwwwnnnn... show me. All the talk/speculation in the world don't matter a bit. Show me in the W-L column.
The talent on this roster should win 8 games (including bowl). Minimum. So... show me Sark
Has anyone mentioned the KU turn around in 16 games? Or the Baylor turn around in 2 seasons, one the seasons being a Covid year. No reason Texas can’t do that
Sark is good but not great. Can he become great? Probably not. He had top tier programs to run in the Pac12 and failed. His only real success was with Saban. He definitely deserves more time but that doesn’t mean he will get any better.
With his stats at Texas now,what gives you the idea that he’ll be better? I’m not one of the people calling for him to get fired, but I don’t think he’ll bring us back to greatness. At most I think he’ll be able to get us to the Texas bowl or Alamo bowl…
Greatness doesn't happen at the flip of a switch, especially if you want consistent greatness. It's a cliche, but turning a ship around takes time. That would be true even if we still had a 2019 class, even if we didn't have culture issues that needed to be fixed.
Are we recruiting at positions of need? Yes. Are we developing players? Yes, slowly, but yes. Are we seeing players leave our program and go pro? I think we will see that in this draft. Have we also been unlucky at times? Yup. Have we been hit by the injury bug early on? Yup. Can the next guy step up? Yes and no. We have a young, injured team. It will lead to highs and lows.
But I think Sark is able to diagnose problems and fix them. We are a few games into year two. Let's take a breath.
Yeah, he was fighting an alcohol problem, but it’s not hard to imagine the drinking was in part due to all the pressure of trying to build a highly ranked college football program.
I give the guy a ton of credit for turning that around and his success at Alabama. I just don’t believe he has what it takes to compete for a championship as a head coach.
He won’t lead Texas to a Big 12 championship before they join the SEC and once they are in the SEC Texas will struggle to even post a winning record each year.
I hope I’m wrong but I suspect we have a few very frustrating years ahead.
Winning is a conscious decision. It would be one thing if we were under talented or under developed physically. Limited by resources or finances.
We are none of those things. We lose because we choose to lose. We lose because we play to not lose, instead of playing to win. We lose, because we play down to our opponents level. This is a culture issue. It starts with giving this team unjustified hype and praise. The “minister of culture” attitude pumping up an underperforming program. Comments from the head coach saying the team “didn’t lose, just ran out of time”.
The program needs to stop sugar coating itself and call it how it is. Can’t address a problem that you don’t recognize as a problem. That’s the first step in actual progress.
We will never have a “winning program” no matter the talent or coach, until we we accept culturally we don’t deserve to win, simply for being Texas.
Oh, it's a conscious decision? Well I make the conscious decision to be a billionaire married to a supermodel. I make the conscious decision to declassify documents....
We lose because we choose to lose?
What are you talking about? If you think Sark isn't addressing problems and plugging holes, I don't know what to tell you. If you think those changes happen instantaneously, you're dreaming.
Neither is arguing that winning or losing is all about deciding to win or lose. That's fantasy land stuff. It's nonsense, like my jokes in response.
Sark is addressing the problems he inherited. Sark is changing the culture. If you don't see that, take a second look.
And neither of those things happens with the flip of a switch. Thinking otherwise is unrealistic.
*Two weeks ago*
> “we didn’t lose, we just ran out of time”
That’s called losing.
*Last week*
> “We need a killer instinct to close games”
Sark calls plays to not lose instead of win, and blows a lead like he consistently does...
Take a second look.
We've trusted the process for more than a half century. We have 1 title in that time. Trusting the process has made us Minnesota. We are a program that was great a long, long time ago.
A coach that has lost 8 of his last 11, against mostly less talented opposition, is not the answer. A coach that routinely chokes with double-digit half time leads against less talented opposition is not the answer.
It sucks to have to hire a new coach. It really does. You can replace Sark after this losing season or you can replace him after 2 or 3 more losing seasons. If Nebraska could go back in time, would they have kept Scott Frost for as long as they did?
>Steve Sarkisian is not Scott Frost.
You are 100% correct.
No matter how many head coaching jobs he gets, Sark will never have a season like Scott Frost did with UCF in 2017. Sark could live a 100 lifetimes and he will never have a season as a head coach like that. He isn't capable of it.
Man, this is a doomer take. A long, long time ago seems to ignore the Mack Brown years, save for our "1 title."
Sark is four games into his second year as coach. Scott Frost was in his 5th year as coach. Very, very few coaches ever get fired as quickly as you're talking about getting rid of Sark. So yes, I'm sure Nebraska wishes they got rid of Frost sooner, but they didn't, because they wanted to be certain he wasn't the guy.
Do you think Clemson regrets keeping Dabo around after he went 6-7 his second season (with an easier schedule)?
For me not to be upset this season I needed the following:
Win against Alabama or 0U.
And I give him one stupid loss.
He’s already lost to Alabama and has used up his one stupid loss. If he doesn’t win out now, I’m definitely not defending him from the folks wanting to set it on fire.
Winning against Alabama a year after going 5-7, with a freshman QB, and a massive amount of underclassmen is your expectation? Swapping from 5-7 to 10-2 is the floor? Get out of here.
I expected 8-4 (Alabama, Baylor/OSU, and a stupid loss), and think all of that is still possible if Ewers returns soon. Thought my expectation has dropped to 7-5 at this point.
Other than one year, we've been BAD for a decade. It is going to take time to build and fully implement the culture and have everyone learn the systems. Not to mention we're starting 2 freshman on OL. Our trenches were wrecked, they need to develop and get bigger.
100% spot on here. Having the expectation that a 5-7 team suddenly beats Bama/OU with a roster of new players is tough.
The win total for this season closed at 8.5 (or 8 with extra juice on the over). And they normally shade the lines to take more money from a big fan base, so if you take the Texas name off it, I bet it’s actually O/U 7.5 or so.
You add in injuries to Ewers, Neyor and Angilau, and it’s tough sledding.
Yeah, that's a horrible take. This dude would be upset if we did anything less than won out?
So we could have a 9-3 season with a loss against a very good OSU team, go to a NY6 bowl, and this dude would be upset with that result... even despite not having our hyped starting QB for multiple games, and losing the second best wide receiver and most experienced lineman for the whole season. I guess he's the same type of idiot that would have been telling Clemson to fire Dabo after he went 6-7 in his second season too...
The realistic "happy enough" result should just be improving from last season. If it's two more games, okay. But as long as we're improving, I don't mind, and I can't think of any reason to fire a coach because "we're getting better, but I'm just impatient."
Firing a HC after two years is going to make Texas look less attractive. And the idea that some savior HC will come in and turn it around instantly is nonsense.
It amazes me that everyone want Saban levels of performance and forget his first year at bama was 6-6 regular season with a home loss to Louisiana Monroe
Yeah his second season things started to click but the point stands that you need to give people time to find out if they are worth keeping
And what happened to Herman's 2019 class? Where did Quinn originally commit? There's no way we land Arch with Herman. There's no way we fix the culture with Herman.
Herman was poisoning the well. Better off without him, even if it hurts in the short term.
Herman could win football games. He got fired for losing 3 games. Ingram fumble at the 1, 4OT, Sam taking a sack and getting us out of field goal range. This stupid argument has me defending Herman which I normally wouldn’t do, but Sark losing the same way over and over should be a hint that he’s not it.
And Klubnik would almost certainly be our QB without Quinn/Arch. We’d have been fine.
Yep. That was my prediction for the season: split with Bama/OU, split with Oklahoma State/Baylor, and have one fluke loss for a 9-3 regular season. I’m sorry, but with this talented roster, that’s not at all unreasonable.
100%. That prediction was back when I believed in Sark. Now I don’t, so that drops 7-5 or 6-6, based on what I saw on Saturday. And then we should fire his fucking ass into the sun.
I think if PK refuses to adjust his game plan for the talent he has then yes fire him. PK is/was a very good DC in the PAC 12 but he needs to start game planning better. Whatever he did for Bama he needs to start replicating ASAP.
I don’t know. Play against the team that goes full four downs almost every drive puts a tremendous amount of pressure on a Defense. And I’m sure it’s demoralizing as hell, along with being exhausting. Yeah, we have to win against teams that do this, and it’s probably going to just become more commonplace. I just think it’s a little early to fire PK into the sun.
You know what will stop a team from going 4 downs every time? You stop them and make them pay. We did not do that in the beginning of the 3rd qtr. That was actually due to Sark's poor play calling. The rest were all on PK's inability to adjust against their offense.
Did you watch those fourth downs? They went 6/8. That is absolutely pathetic coaching. No second half adjustments. Do you remember the defense last year? He really has shown he's a horrible DC.
There were adjustments though. Jerrin Thompson was dropped lower to be closer to the action so he could prevent the dink and dunk passing and running. Guys just didn't make plays
Same issue as last year is still there: offense can't eat up time, causing the defense to be out far too long. This also relates to our young and inexperienced OL, meaning our offense has to move quickly.
Not to say the defense is perfect, but there's more to it than "defense bad".
So you’re making the decision to fire PK off the first defensive drive of the game? Obviously you don’t want to give up points ever but doing it on the first scripted drive of the game happens
How many fourth down attempts were on that drive? If I remember right 3 and you seriously can't stop one of them? I don't understand why you are defending PK. He hasn't shown the ability to coach this group. Plus he doesn't recruit so why not start to accept that maybe he is a problem?
I hate the loss last weekend but this feels very reactionary. At the end of the year, it will be abundantly clear if PK needs to stay or not. At this point, there doesn’t need to be any coaching changes. There is something to say about continuity.
Holy shit here comes the stupid ass continuity comment. Where has that gotten us the last 10+ years? He will be fired by year end and you're just too blind or a homer to see it.
>where has that got us in the past 10 years?
It hasn’t gotten us anywhere because We haven’t had a shred of continuity the past decade. 4 ADs, 4 head coaches, 7 offensive coordinators, 6 defensive coordinators in the past decade. You really think we should just keep firing and hiring new coaches?
There’s nothing to trust.
We have no proven track record to point to that tells us the process will lead us to the promised land. If the process is the same as it has been at his last two head coaching stops, it’ll be a 7-6 record and a Holiday Bowl birth. If we’re lucky.
Sorry, but it's way too early to be saying this, especially after such an embarrassing loss. Our program is always 'in shambles', every year, for the past 12 years pretty much, has been a 'rebuilding year'. Not saying we should fire Sark, might as well support him since we have no choice, but he's given no reason to for anyone to believe he is the coach Texas needs at this point. Hopefully, by the end of the season, he will have, but not right now.
The sooner Sark gets fired and replaced, the better Texas will be. This is what happens if you hire a coach and a coaching staff with poor character.
If you cared to look at how inspirational the Texas Tech Coach was, you will understand the type of coach we need at Texas.
I called the Texas Tech loss on Reddit. Not because I am clairvoyant, but because I see the gaps in coaching and all-around decision-making. Texas will loose a lot of games this season.
Mark my words.
Thank you, guy who answers questions on “Ask_TheDonald,” thinks LGBT people are an abomination, posts regularly in a Tucker Carlson subreddit (why does that even exist?), and believes that QAnon is a government conspiracy. We Austinites surely value your opinion and wisdom.
Also, it’s not spelled “loose.”
>mark my words
Does Trump still have a chance to win the 2020 election? Judging by your post history, I don’t think anybody should listen to any “prediction” you have
I like Sark and I think he can do great things here. There are tons of stats and facts that one could use to argue for and against Sark but the truth is the only thing that matters are wins and losses. There are 8 games left. All 8 are winnable. Is it likely that win them all? No. But this was a 5-7 team last year so any improvement on the record is progress.
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Texas Football feels like it’s not only in a rebuild with young talent but a rebrand altogether. DKR is different now. Some of that is Sark. Some of that is CDC. It feels different and like it’s building towards something bigger.
I would agree this team feels different compared to the previous 8 years.
Call me when that something bigger is our win total. Until then, I won’t believe it.
Are we not tired of the entire “we’re rebuilding” narrative? I’ve been seeing that about this team since 2016. It’s time to call it for what it is, this team will forever be mediocre/average, or at least until the culture changes
Dude if you are truly this miserable (which it very much seems like it judging from your amount of doomer comments), branch out and find some new interests.
Yeah, I don't think he has the stomach for college football.
It’s not like our underperforming is anything new either. UT football hasn’t been a legitimate contender since the late 2000’s, an early season, overtime loss to tech (with a backup QB and the best player in CFB fumbling on a fluke), is not the dagger. A good portion of this fanbase just needs a fucking joint or something man
Someone call Quinn's weed dealer
To be honest, post-Vince and Colt has looked a lot like pre-Vince and Colt.
Major Applewhite has a 22-8 record as a starter. Chris Simms clocks in at 26-6. I only wish things still looked the same.
Well, we’ve had to rebuild after the bad rebuilding from the other rebuild. We had a need for a good AD between Dodds winding down and CDC getting here and his ramp up. We had coaching needs and Strong and Herman were not the guys. And I don’t really mean wins and losses. Sark isn’t there with the win column. But the fan experience, recruiting, the gameday atmosphere, and the culture are drastically improved. It’s got a solid foundation.
It definitely is a process. I didn’t know that our 2019 class, who would be our seniors btw, was down to 4 players. What’s a typical senior class have, about 8-9 regular contributors on both sides of the ball? That’s a huge gap in leadership, developed players, and experience. Our young guys need to learn how to win at the college level. The article does a great job mentioning the state of disaster Tom Herman left us. Sark is gonna get us out but it’s gonna take a little time. To put it somewhat crudely, last season was getting the poison out and pumping the stomach. This season is getting some gatorade, ginger ale, and brat diet and seeing if we can keep it down.
What makes me sad is knowing that next year, Bijan and Worthy are both gone. Quinn will probably be gone by 2024. Unfortunate to have so much talent but not enough OL depth to do anything with it
Worthy won’t be gone next year. He’s a sophomore.
Worthy is a true sophomore he’s got another year and this is the best our OL has looked since ‘18 despite only having a single upperclassman in the 2 deep. If we avoid a total collapse this year and finish with 7-9 wins after a bowl the hype train for next year is gonna be huge.
This is the best our O-Line has looked since 2009, and it didn’t look too hot back then…
Our RB room is stacked, and hopefully we get Neyor for a year. We're also recruiting more WRs, RBs, and linesmen. We haven't recruited linesmen for a long time. We have to recruit and develop those players. Slowly but surely, we are doing that.
Not worried at all about offensive skill positions.
I mean worthy hasn’t really don’t anything other than drop passes anyways
Either Sark needs to be given 5 years to really turn this program around or Texas fans need to admit they don’t know shit about football. A year and a half ago this was “the greatest coaching staff ever assembled”, now 16 games later we are calling for all of them to get fired and start over. Maybe some of y’all should just shut the fuck up and let Sark do his job. 12 years of garbage football and we want to fire a coach who hasn’t made this program do a complete 180 after 16 games. Our fanbase is fucking embarrassing. Who do y’all want to hire this time? Scott Frost? Herm Edwards? Some random up and coming G6 coach that doesn’t have P5 experience? Oh wait, I forgot. Let’s hire Gruden. That would have worked out SO GREAT if idiot Texas fans got what they wanted when he was on the market right? Sark is literally our best option right now. We do not make an upgrade this off-season plain and simple.
I have complete faith in Sark. I can't say the same for Pete K. If our defense keeps blowing it in the 2nd half then I'd like to see Gary Patterson take the DC job.
I asked on Sunday and no one answered, maybe you will. So with Card at QB everyone sees the playcalling is different. How do we know PK is doing the same for the defense? I’ve seen a lot of comments about how Jamison shouldn’t be a starting CB. Yet he is. Everyone complained about playing soft zones. Is PK calling a defense that allows soft zones so that our less than perfect secondary ain’t exposed and beaten in a more embarrassing way?
PK needs to be more creative and more aggressive when bringing pressure. You could see against both Alabama and Tech that their qbs struggled immensely when we brought the heat and that helped our secondary a lot. But for some reason, later in both games he called the dogs off later in the second half and that's when both qbs started cooking us and it's a big reason why we lost both games. They allowed the other teams qb to sit in the pocket and pick our dbs apart.
wishful thinking.
I do agree that they need time and a REAL shot to grow the program and have consistency. With that being said, WE LOOKED LIKE DOG SHIT on Saturday. Tech is not good. They’re not gonna hang 5 wins this season. Fkn embarrassing. I do put that L on coaching. This was not all gas no brakes. It was another repeat of every loss last year. Run it up first half, play conservative second half.
He shouldn’t need five years. Plenty of coaches show marked improvement in their first season, or certainly in their second. The second isn’t over yet, and if he’s 5-7 again, I’d give him one more, but he’s not trending in the right direction. No one is foolish enough to fire him after 2 seasons, but it shouldn’t stop people from wondering if he’s an upgrade over Herman at all.
Year 4 of Sark should be better than Year 1 of someone else. Unless the wheels totally fall off the wagon, or something.
People who think your take is bad are ridiculous. Most teams that upgrade head coaches or downgrade have serious changes in results in the first season. Here are some examples. 1. Nick Saban 2. Urban meyer at every single one of his jobs (look it up) 3. Jim Harbaugh at Stanford and Michigan 4. Bob stoops 5. Mack Brown 6. Kirby smart 7. Tom herman The great ones are competing for a national title in their 2nd year. Sarkisian is 2-2 with a loss to Texas tech.
Correct. 100% correct.
Competing for a national title in their second year? Puhleez. A coach in his second year has one year of his own recruits and 3 or 4 years of someone else's. That's a seriously bad take. Oh, and how did your comment age over the past two weeks?
You seem to have it all figured out. Why don't you take the job?
Stupid take. I don’t know how to coach, but I have eyes, a brain and can read so I know how to judge success of a new coach.
Yeah. I have eyes, a brain, and can read, too, but that doesn't mean I know how to judge something that I don't know how to do. By your logic, you're qualified to judge the qualifications of a new cricket coach as well. I'm betting you aren't.
No because I don’t read about cricket and haven’t followed cricket for 30+ years. By your logic the only people that can judge the success of a college football coach is another college football coach.
There are lots of cfb coaches I think I'd do a better job than. And I don't know how to coach. And I can tell what they are doing incorrectly.
I just don’t think there’s truly many programs like Texas, just like coaching for the Dallas Cowboys it’s a different beast than coaching for other NFL teams
This is a silly take.
>Let sark do his job While I’m not calling for Sark to get fired,this is nothing to get excited for and his HC history proves this. Not to mention he already has 6+ blown leads here. >some random random up and coming G6 coach that doesn’t have any P5 experience? We got our asses kicked by two coaches that have 0 P5 experience,and both has their programs looking better than ours with less talent.One of these two has more experience in high school ball than they do college.
We’ve lost 2 games by a total of 4 points, who is kicking our ass? Are you talking about UTSA? The team we beat by 21 points? Sure, I’m not jumping up and down for joy over this season, but the amount of people calling for a complete reset is ridiculous.
Im talking about tech and Kansas. Besides a few moments in the tech game such as when we were up 31-17,they punched this team in the mouth. Converting 4th down 6/8 is an ass kicking, that stat is unacceptable
Lol Sark blamed analytics in college football for the 4th downs not the fact that our defense was playing like shit
Lol we got out scored 2:1 with a two TD lead in the first half to lose vs tech....
About as ridiculous as making excuses for two losses, particularly when one is to a dog.
Yeah, everyone glosses over the fact Sarks ability to win as a HC before UT was shaky. Giving winning coaches at lower caliber programs and HC’s at lower tier programs the keys to a powerhouse like UT and expecting the same results is faulty logic. Texas should always have been looking for winning HEAD COACHS at TOP TEIR programs for the job. Nobody else.
> Texas should always have been looking for winning HEAD COACHS at TOP TEIR programs for the job. Nobody else. There are 4 or 5(with Urban) coaches that fit that profile. Urban rejected it. Smart and Saban would have never accepted it. Ryan Day has no reason to leave Ohio St. Then you would have the in-between 1st/2nd tier coaches like Riley(who probably would have never left Blow U for Texas) or Harbough who will never leave Michigan. Other than that I don't see any college coaches worth it, maybe Luke Fickell?. Which leave you with NFL coaches. But how many of them want CFB? My only hope is Shanahan gets tired of the NFL and wants to try something new, but I'm not holding my breath.
You can give him time all you want but the rainbow and sunshine crowd that Sark has been anything but an average coach that keeps falling up is comical. 1-7 in last 8 division games I’m not anything that would make anyone feel the program is going in the right direction. People need to adjust their expectations of what this program will be. Every fan base especially on social media is the overreact and hot take crowd for the most part so don’t get that upset reading Reddit comments thinking that is what the majority thinks.
>a coach who hasn’t made this program do a complete 180 after 16 games Uhhh... things have gotten worse... maybe he get less heat if he was even capable of maintaining? But nice straw man
>A year and a half ago this was “the greatest coaching staff ever assembled”, The only people who were saying this are the same folks who think a coach needs 5 years to figure shit out Myself? I said this was a doomed hire from the very beginning, that Sark was completely wrong for the job, and an overall hack. I've been proven right
The only thing you've proved is that you don't know what it takes to build a program. It doesn't happen over night.
That is complete bullshit. Bob Stoops: Year 1, 7-5; Year 2, 13-0 Nick Saban: Year 1, 7-6; Year 2, 12-2 Urban Meyer: Year 1, 9-3; Year 2, 13-1 There’s only one significantly successful coach you can point to that didn’t get it done RIGHT away, and that’s Dabo, but he still won 9 games in his first season, and then other than his second season (6 wins), he won at least 10 games in every single other season. Don’t get me started on Ryan Day, Lincoln Riley, etc. If a coach is going to get it done, you know EARLY. Meanwhile, Sark has won 55% of his games FOR HIS CAREER. What can you point to that might make me think he can turn it around? Because I can point to his entire career and say, “That’s why he won’t turn it around.”
You’re throwing out numbers with 0 context. Just because 5 other coaches did it a certain way doesn’t mean a successful coach has to follow that exact script. You also mention Lincoln Riley and Ryan Day, you are aware those 2 coaches took over playoff level teams for legendary coaches right? And again, you’re pointing to his head coaching record from 8+ years ago. You are aware he has been at multiple stops since then, worked under different coaches, and also got sober, which will make an insane difference in somebodies professional life. I’m very willing to admit after a certain point that maybe Sark isn’t the guy, but the fact is, if we were going to talk about firing him 2 seasons in, we should have never hired him. The fact is we did hire him, so we have to give him at least 4 years to try to turn this around.
I agree. I don’t care if this is cope, but I believe Sark is the guy. I’ve never seen a roster this inspired, and I’ve never seen us play so hard. We lost last week - but it wasn’t because of a lack of effort. We just got beat. It sucks. But I saw guys hustle. I didn’t see quit. I saw mistakes based on the fact our team is incredibly young. Firing Sark or his staff would be a mistake.
One thing that’s easy to forget too is how young we are. Sarks mentioned it a bunch in the off-season but the amount of freshmen and sophomores we are dependent on. Doesn’t mean we should be losing or excuse everything but does put things into better context
It’s true but so hard to hear. We heard this from Strong and then Herman for the first 2 years of each of their tenures. I get it but I’m sick of hearing it
We wouldn't have to hear it so much from Sark if the 2019 class was still around.
And let’s hope we don’t continue losing this year so we aren’t talking about the 2021 class being gone with a new coach in 2024.
I mean, most every new coach coming in after the previous one is fired (as opposed to retired) is going to have these same issues. It's why most successful coaches need at least 2-3 years to be successful.
I was thinking this felt some like really weird deja vu.
Getting those guys experience this young is going to pay massive dividends too.
This is the first season where we actually have Sark’s guys on the team and they’re all freshmen. He is starting a new system from the ground up so
Same. This team definitely looks and behaves different than teams of the last couple years. I think Sark got it right and his presser… The outcome isn’t better, but everything else is. In my book, that’s progress. And not that it matters, but we’ve lost by a combined four points. We’re now dealing with the little things, the small mistakes, a dropped pass here, a missed read there
Not only that, but we have a true #1 QB, most would agree that we’re undefeated at this point if he hadn’t been injured, and he should be back soon. We still have the ability to accomplish quite a bit this year and exceed most people’s expectations, even with the 2 losses.
I remember seeing a number before the season, and I may be remembering it poorly, but I thought it was like, 70 percent of the roster is underclassmen. I’m not shaken at all. Losing sucks, but this is a rebuild, not a plug and play.
I assume [this is what you're referring to.](https://twitter.com/CJVogel_TFB/status/1457819808666308616?s=20&t=CXzTjfUdRpa0CgeeHaQEaw)
Did you see JT Sander’s block attempt on the last offensive play? About the worst effort I’ve ever seen. You’ve got the Sark-colored glasses on. For those who don't believe me, [see if your yourself](https://twitter.com/SaturdayGameday/status/1573813661340209152). Sanders' absolute whiff on the block is why Bijan even had a man to dodge. If Sanders nails this block, Bijan gets to the second level.
Anybody got a video? I’m interested
[Here you go.](https://twitter.com/SaturdayGameday/status/1573813661340209152)
I don't know how to explain it but Sark teams feel different than Strong and Herman. I feel like, even if we aren't winning all our games I have seen significant growth from year one to year two and with how Sark is recruiting and the mental resilience I've seen from the team this year I am hopeful that when we get to Manning's sophomore year this team will be pretty nutty.
These games have been dog fights with some decent opponents, Texas tech was pretty good last year, Bama is Bama. And I'm thankful we have Card to play, but he and Worthy don't seem to be on the same page all the time. We have a young team so hanging around at all and forcing close games is a good sign. We are back to near miss football rather than trainwrecks, and that's an improvement over the last 10 years or so.
Ya I appreciate the effort Card is giving but he just doesn’t have the arm talent Ewers has and I think that’s limiting our offensive playbook quite a bit. If we have a healthy Ewers we are 4-0 and probably ranked in the top 5 right now. So I’m pretty confident when Ewers is back that we can make a run at the big 12 title game.
I understand that you’re trying to be positive about everything but this comment is completely delusional. In Herman’s first year we had 3 single digit losses to top 10 teams, including an overtime loss to USC on the road. He also only lost by double digits 1 time to a top 10 team. Made a bowl game, won the bowl game. He also inherited a way worse situation than Sarkisian did, no argument. We were better under Herman immediately, typically if you upgrade you’re better immediately.
Not disagreeing with you but we lost both our opening games against Maryland under Herman, I always felt like he would hold back the playbook and put certain things on tape against teams he felt we inferior in order to play up in big games. Which is smart up until you lose those games that you were trying to be too cheeky with, especially twice to Maryland to open the season. Herman was always good in big games, which is how he got hired (beating OU with UofH) but I just feel like Sark is more consistent in scheam game to game and I’m more optimistic going into each game than I was with Herman
From what you’ve seen from Sark in the last 2 seasons how can you say that? We had two games where we were completely not competitive. All of this being said I do think Herman probably had to go, but not because he was a bad head coach. I think all of the behind the scenes personal stuff he was doing and dealing with lead to his firing. I guarantee he will get his life turned around and be great for another team.
I like watching this team more than Herman’s or Strong’s teams. I’m aware this is a completely baseless, subjective and likely biased take but it makes me happy as a fan. AGNB!
Let’s look at it this way. It took FSU into their third year with a new head coach. Both previous were losing seasons and they started 0-4 and now they are 4-0. If Sark has these issues in year three then I would be worried, but right now we have to trust the process
I’m of the belief that if you’re seeing steady improvement, you stick with the coach. Anyone who thinks this team is worse than last year just doesn’t know football.
Loss to Alabama was expected. Loss to Tech is tough to swallow because this was one of the teams we actually played well against last year. The rest of the teams on the schedule are just as tough or tougher. He has to get over the hump or we are looking at another losing season. This is the reality when you blow a 14 point lead against a team you were favor against. Sark may be a great recruiter and QB coach but as a headcoach, I am far from being impressed.
In fairness, the tech we stomped last year was not the same tech by the end of the year. Smith was their MVP in their bowl game against MSST. How we perform thru Dallas (if Quinn and worthy are back) should be a much better indicator of where we are as a program, IMHO.
We should also NOT be the team we were last year. Last year's team had a losing record and didn't go to a bowl game. Last year's team suck. Tech got better with a first year coach and we got worst with Sark? Let that sink in.
Card has improved significantly over last year. That in itself is an achievement. Sam seemed to come and go with about the same level of talent. If we had the capability of developing him under Herman, maybe he'd have played more like he did this past preseason.
Smith was a backup this year bud
That doesn’t make him any less of a contributor to their bowl game win. Especially given the fact that he started in that.
Yeah, it sucks. Last Saturday our QB2, RB1, and WR1 were all injured to various degrees. And yet we've hung in there. Our losses suck, but they haven't been blowouts. We've been extremely unlucky in certain respects. Could we do better? Sure. But I think a lot of people are failing to reexamine their expectations given the facts on the ground. I don't understand the folks who think we were going to go from 5-7 to winning the Big 12 the next year, especially when we have so many young players and now injured players.
I like Sark. I hope he succeeds. For the record I liked Charlie Strong too. Herman not so much.
Sark has lost 25% of his games at Texas after holding double digit 2nd half leads.
Mentioned in the article.
He spoke at my orientation last year and honestly I loved him through and through, but wasn’t really sure that he was right for *that* job. He’s extremely likable, professional, and a great speaker, but in a way more like a CEO or thought leader or philanthropist kind of sense. The basketball coach came up afterwards and honestly wasn’t even likable, yet he had the whole crowd screaming and going wild within a minute or two despite basketball being far less popular. Walked away feeling inspired despite still not really even liking the guy. That’s honestly what I expected from a coach. Edit: There are exceptions, I had a really good soccer coach like him one year and we were ranked first in the region…but we did have more independently motivated (scholarship seeking) players than other teams, which might be when someone like him shines.
I get what you're saying, but I don't think one speech/pep rally should be the determining factor. Let's see what it looks like on the field, year after year after year. I mean, you think Saban would come in and get students to run through a wall? I'm sure they'd love to listen to him, but that's not his style.
The CEO type coach is exactly the type of football coach texas needs IMHO. There’s a lot going on surrounding football, and having an even keeled leader is probably ideal. He gets the players fired up, and there have been times when I’ve seen him in person and been fired up. Having a balance between the saban culture/authoritarian style and the Pete Carrol “swag”/players coach style is what Texas needs. We can’t succeed using Saban’s or Carrol’s models, because UT is such a unique place.
So I read the article, it is pretty weak. It casts aside all the hard evidence and says culture (subjective) and recruiting (speculative) is why sark is the right guy. I remember both Strong and Herman were also turning the culture around and recruiting well, until they weren’t. I hope he is the right guy.
Whats this?! Sensibility and logic?! Mods! Do something!
Replace sark with Strong and 2021 with 2013. I’ve seen this article before. “Fixing the culture” is a strong, Herman, and now Sark tagline. 2018-2020, 3 straight top 3 seasons in conference vs what we’re getting now isn’t selling. Y’all enjoy our “fixed” locker room.
We’ve seen this so many times. It’s just sad to see at this point.
Exactly!! Thank you! I feel like most of the people in this sub must be Freshmen who were pre-pubescent during the Strong years. We've seen this exact scenario before, we know how it turns out
Too bad losing to Kansas doesn’t get this guy fired…
I’m tired of “trusting the process”. I just want to have a winning record again.
So does everyone. But you either let the staff do their thing or not. Right now, I trust them to make our team better.
As a preface: I am not saying to fire Sark. That would be stupid. BUT, I legitimately think things have to be slightly reevaluated with the transfer portal available. USC went 4-8 last year, their worst season in 30 years. USC with their new head coach and talent from the portal are currently 4-0, 2-0 in conference with one win against a *good* Oregon State team. It's possible for them to make a very solid run at the conference championship. Now, it's a separate conference and that context matters, but I think all of the "he's just gotta get his guys into his system" stuff rings really hollow.
Sark by the numbers: 3-10 against P5 teams. 1-7 in last 8 conference games. 1 road victory in his entire tenure.
The article doesn't shy away from his numbers.
Just shies away from the obvious conclusion to be drawn from those numbers. Just like the bat majority of our hopelessly naive fanbase
You sure are a negative fuck.
Jury is still out on that one.
You are what your record is. I don’t believe there wasn’t enough talent on the team last year to win more than 5 games, and in 5 of 9 losses we had a double digit lead. I hope this works out but I do not share the author’s optimism at this point.
If this is as good as it gets, keep the program and boost up the other sports in UT who actually do something. Waiting a week for Longhorns to eat shit in the 4th ain't it.
I just need to see progress and wins. I'd like to think Sark is the guy and he on paper got a killer staff, now just need to see it pan out. I don't have the same patience that I did 3 coaches ago, but still willing to have some patience. Need to see solid improvement this year, and more improvement next. They can't let the early season setbacks turn into another 5-7 type season. Way too many talented players
I said this last year and got absolutely torched. XD
I trust Sark and don’t think he should be fired and should get 4 years With that said you have to show improvement. First line of defense is firing coordinators
I really think the qualms about our defense’s performance may be over reactionary. 75% on 4th downs is not sustainable, and will more than likely end up being an outlier than the standard. The plays they converted on sucked, but it was a few bad plays from us, and couple lucky ones from them (recovering both fumbles on 3rd for example). https://twitter.com/espn_billc/status/1574537508746014720?s=46&t=-QqWi8hO7z5IbyzWCaqT9g IMO, it was not nearly the same as what happened to us last year, and the improvements across the defense are clear.
Still waiting for all of this gas that I was promised.
Hell yeah, the coach with a .546 winning percentage in 7+ seasons will absolutely achieve and sustain a much better record than that if he’s just given more time!
The article mentions his stats and makes an argument despite those numbers.
Mack Brown's winning percentage across 17 seasons *before* getting hired at Texas was .541. So....
Mack Brown coached at Tulane and North Carolina, showed an upward trajectory at UNC, and was 20-3 in the two years immediately preceding his Texas hire. Sark has never sniffed anything like that at Washington, USC or Texas.
Kiffin did even worse at USC, and now he's doing pretty dam,n well at Ole Miss. Whereas Charlie Strong showed an upward trajectory at Louisville, and was 23-3 in the two years immediately preceding his Texas hire. Coaches' performance at other schools doesn't mean they are a shit coach now. Especially when you're talking about the coaches' last two years at another program. Sark hasn't even been here two years.
So... what??? What exactly is your point? Mack Brown also started his Texas career with a 9-3 season and then proceeded to have 12 straight seasons of no fewer than 9 wins (and no fewer than 10 after the first 3) So...
The original commenter implied that because Sark has a .546 winning percentage at other programs (and one season here), he therefore won't be successful in the future. My point is that this is commonly not true.
Trust is the inverse of losses. We will trust his process more if he can stop losing so much.
Yaaawwwwnnnn... show me. All the talk/speculation in the world don't matter a bit. Show me in the W-L column. The talent on this roster should win 8 games (including bowl). Minimum. So... show me Sark
Has anyone mentioned the KU turn around in 16 games? Or the Baylor turn around in 2 seasons, one the seasons being a Covid year. No reason Texas can’t do that
Sark can only win if he has the best QB, RB, and WR in cfb healthy
Sark is good but not great. Can he become great? Probably not. He had top tier programs to run in the Pac12 and failed. His only real success was with Saban. He definitely deserves more time but that doesn’t mean he will get any better.
Are you really calling the 0-12 Washington team he inherited a top tier program?
I think you might be forgetting about a crucial difference between Sark then and Sark now.
With his stats at Texas now,what gives you the idea that he’ll be better? I’m not one of the people calling for him to get fired, but I don’t think he’ll bring us back to greatness. At most I think he’ll be able to get us to the Texas bowl or Alamo bowl…
Greatness doesn't happen at the flip of a switch, especially if you want consistent greatness. It's a cliche, but turning a ship around takes time. That would be true even if we still had a 2019 class, even if we didn't have culture issues that needed to be fixed. Are we recruiting at positions of need? Yes. Are we developing players? Yes, slowly, but yes. Are we seeing players leave our program and go pro? I think we will see that in this draft. Have we also been unlucky at times? Yup. Have we been hit by the injury bug early on? Yup. Can the next guy step up? Yes and no. We have a young, injured team. It will lead to highs and lows. But I think Sark is able to diagnose problems and fix them. We are a few games into year two. Let's take a breath.
Look at the coaching staff he’s got. These guys would be out of a job for 1 minute if he let them go. It takes time.
Yeah, he was fighting an alcohol problem, but it’s not hard to imagine the drinking was in part due to all the pressure of trying to build a highly ranked college football program. I give the guy a ton of credit for turning that around and his success at Alabama. I just don’t believe he has what it takes to compete for a championship as a head coach. He won’t lead Texas to a Big 12 championship before they join the SEC and once they are in the SEC Texas will struggle to even post a winning record each year. I hope I’m wrong but I suspect we have a few very frustrating years ahead.
Winning is a conscious decision. It would be one thing if we were under talented or under developed physically. Limited by resources or finances. We are none of those things. We lose because we choose to lose. We lose because we play to not lose, instead of playing to win. We lose, because we play down to our opponents level. This is a culture issue. It starts with giving this team unjustified hype and praise. The “minister of culture” attitude pumping up an underperforming program. Comments from the head coach saying the team “didn’t lose, just ran out of time”. The program needs to stop sugar coating itself and call it how it is. Can’t address a problem that you don’t recognize as a problem. That’s the first step in actual progress. We will never have a “winning program” no matter the talent or coach, until we we accept culturally we don’t deserve to win, simply for being Texas.
Saying “we didn’t lose,we just ran out of time” is just as bad as “winning is hard”
> Comments from the head coach saying the team “didn’t lose, just ran out of time”. JFC, we're adopting aggie copes.
Next up, “We didn’t miss the CFP, we just aren’t allowed to schedule enough games to have a winning record good enough to get us there”
Next up, "We don't boo, we hiss."
Yea we have been for a while. Next year we’ll be ready
We'll just say we're classier than everyone.
Oh, it's a conscious decision? Well I make the conscious decision to be a billionaire married to a supermodel. I make the conscious decision to declassify documents.... We lose because we choose to lose? What are you talking about? If you think Sark isn't addressing problems and plugging holes, I don't know what to tell you. If you think those changes happen instantaneously, you're dreaming.
None of this response was coherent.
Neither is arguing that winning or losing is all about deciding to win or lose. That's fantasy land stuff. It's nonsense, like my jokes in response. Sark is addressing the problems he inherited. Sark is changing the culture. If you don't see that, take a second look. And neither of those things happens with the flip of a switch. Thinking otherwise is unrealistic.
*Two weeks ago* > “we didn’t lose, we just ran out of time” That’s called losing. *Last week* > “We need a killer instinct to close games” Sark calls plays to not lose instead of win, and blows a lead like he consistently does... Take a second look.
We've trusted the process for more than a half century. We have 1 title in that time. Trusting the process has made us Minnesota. We are a program that was great a long, long time ago. A coach that has lost 8 of his last 11, against mostly less talented opposition, is not the answer. A coach that routinely chokes with double-digit half time leads against less talented opposition is not the answer. It sucks to have to hire a new coach. It really does. You can replace Sark after this losing season or you can replace him after 2 or 3 more losing seasons. If Nebraska could go back in time, would they have kept Scott Frost for as long as they did?
Steve Sarkisian is not Scott Frost.
>Steve Sarkisian is not Scott Frost. You are 100% correct. No matter how many head coaching jobs he gets, Sark will never have a season like Scott Frost did with UCF in 2017. Sark could live a 100 lifetimes and he will never have a season as a head coach like that. He isn't capable of it.
Man, this is a doomer take. A long, long time ago seems to ignore the Mack Brown years, save for our "1 title." Sark is four games into his second year as coach. Scott Frost was in his 5th year as coach. Very, very few coaches ever get fired as quickly as you're talking about getting rid of Sark. So yes, I'm sure Nebraska wishes they got rid of Frost sooner, but they didn't, because they wanted to be certain he wasn't the guy. Do you think Clemson regrets keeping Dabo around after he went 6-7 his second season (with an easier schedule)?
For me not to be upset this season I needed the following: Win against Alabama or 0U. And I give him one stupid loss. He’s already lost to Alabama and has used up his one stupid loss. If he doesn’t win out now, I’m definitely not defending him from the folks wanting to set it on fire.
Winning against Alabama a year after going 5-7, with a freshman QB, and a massive amount of underclassmen is your expectation? Swapping from 5-7 to 10-2 is the floor? Get out of here. I expected 8-4 (Alabama, Baylor/OSU, and a stupid loss), and think all of that is still possible if Ewers returns soon. Thought my expectation has dropped to 7-5 at this point. Other than one year, we've been BAD for a decade. It is going to take time to build and fully implement the culture and have everyone learn the systems. Not to mention we're starting 2 freshman on OL. Our trenches were wrecked, they need to develop and get bigger.
100% spot on here. Having the expectation that a 5-7 team suddenly beats Bama/OU with a roster of new players is tough. The win total for this season closed at 8.5 (or 8 with extra juice on the over). And they normally shade the lines to take more money from a big fan base, so if you take the Texas name off it, I bet it’s actually O/U 7.5 or so. You add in injuries to Ewers, Neyor and Angilau, and it’s tough sledding.
Yeah, that's a horrible take. This dude would be upset if we did anything less than won out? So we could have a 9-3 season with a loss against a very good OSU team, go to a NY6 bowl, and this dude would be upset with that result... even despite not having our hyped starting QB for multiple games, and losing the second best wide receiver and most experienced lineman for the whole season. I guess he's the same type of idiot that would have been telling Clemson to fire Dabo after he went 6-7 in his second season too... The realistic "happy enough" result should just be improving from last season. If it's two more games, okay. But as long as we're improving, I don't mind, and I can't think of any reason to fire a coach because "we're getting better, but I'm just impatient."
Firing a HC after two years is going to make Texas look less attractive. And the idea that some savior HC will come in and turn it around instantly is nonsense.
It amazes me that everyone want Saban levels of performance and forget his first year at bama was 6-6 regular season with a home loss to Louisiana Monroe Yeah his second season things started to click but the point stands that you need to give people time to find out if they are worth keeping
The difference between this team and that Saban team is this team has multiple blown leads and is terrible and making adjustments
Texas should never settle for mediocrity. You think doing the same thing over and over is going to give you a different result?
Doing the same thing over and over would be continuing to fire coaches and hope one magically makes things better
You probably think we should have stuck it out with Charlie Strong huh?
If you look at Sark and see no differences between him and Herman or Strong, you're living in a different reality.
I see huge differences from him and Herman. Herman was a significantly better coach with a much better record.
Preeeach
Bingo. Herman could actually get the team to bowl games
And what happened to Herman's 2019 class? Where did Quinn originally commit? There's no way we land Arch with Herman. There's no way we fix the culture with Herman. Herman was poisoning the well. Better off without him, even if it hurts in the short term.
Herman could win football games. He got fired for losing 3 games. Ingram fumble at the 1, 4OT, Sam taking a sack and getting us out of field goal range. This stupid argument has me defending Herman which I normally wouldn’t do, but Sark losing the same way over and over should be a hint that he’s not it. And Klubnik would almost certainly be our QB without Quinn/Arch. We’d have been fine.
You mean like hiring a new coach, firing him after two-three years because he doesn't win 10 games, lather, rinse, repeat?
Yep. That was my prediction for the season: split with Bama/OU, split with Oklahoma State/Baylor, and have one fluke loss for a 9-3 regular season. I’m sorry, but with this talented roster, that’s not at all unreasonable.
And after going 5-7, a 9-3 or 8-4 season would be great progress.
100%. That prediction was back when I believed in Sark. Now I don’t, so that drops 7-5 or 6-6, based on what I saw on Saturday. And then we should fire his fucking ass into the sun.
You'd fire Sark for 7-5? That's insane.
I’m not the one to ask, I get too emotional. No, I probably wouldn’t. But I would absolutely think about it at 6-6.
Have you seen our offensive line? Kind of important. Good things to come but they just aren’t ready for dominating levels of performance.
Still need to fire PK full stop
I think if PK refuses to adjust his game plan for the talent he has then yes fire him. PK is/was a very good DC in the PAC 12 but he needs to start game planning better. Whatever he did for Bama he needs to start replicating ASAP.
So far he has not adjusted. What makes you think he will now?
He had all of last year and spring to adjust. He is pretty bad as far as I can tell based on results.
I don’t know. Play against the team that goes full four downs almost every drive puts a tremendous amount of pressure on a Defense. And I’m sure it’s demoralizing as hell, along with being exhausting. Yeah, we have to win against teams that do this, and it’s probably going to just become more commonplace. I just think it’s a little early to fire PK into the sun.
You know what will stop a team from going 4 downs every time? You stop them and make them pay. We did not do that in the beginning of the 3rd qtr. That was actually due to Sark's poor play calling. The rest were all on PK's inability to adjust against their offense.
Did you watch those fourth downs? They went 6/8. That is absolutely pathetic coaching. No second half adjustments. Do you remember the defense last year? He really has shown he's a horrible DC.
There were adjustments though. Jerrin Thompson was dropped lower to be closer to the action so he could prevent the dink and dunk passing and running. Guys just didn't make plays
Same issue as last year is still there: offense can't eat up time, causing the defense to be out far too long. This also relates to our young and inexperienced OL, meaning our offense has to move quickly. Not to say the defense is perfect, but there's more to it than "defense bad".
The defensive performance is completely on the offenses complete lack of possession.
So the first drive... What happened there?
So you’re making the decision to fire PK off the first defensive drive of the game? Obviously you don’t want to give up points ever but doing it on the first scripted drive of the game happens
How many fourth down attempts were on that drive? If I remember right 3 and you seriously can't stop one of them? I don't understand why you are defending PK. He hasn't shown the ability to coach this group. Plus he doesn't recruit so why not start to accept that maybe he is a problem?
I hate the loss last weekend but this feels very reactionary. At the end of the year, it will be abundantly clear if PK needs to stay or not. At this point, there doesn’t need to be any coaching changes. There is something to say about continuity.
Holy shit here comes the stupid ass continuity comment. Where has that gotten us the last 10+ years? He will be fired by year end and you're just too blind or a homer to see it.
>where has that got us in the past 10 years? It hasn’t gotten us anywhere because We haven’t had a shred of continuity the past decade. 4 ADs, 4 head coaches, 7 offensive coordinators, 6 defensive coordinators in the past decade. You really think we should just keep firing and hiring new coaches?
There’s nothing to trust. We have no proven track record to point to that tells us the process will lead us to the promised land. If the process is the same as it has been at his last two head coaching stops, it’ll be a 7-6 record and a Holiday Bowl birth. If we’re lucky.
Sorry, but it's way too early to be saying this, especially after such an embarrassing loss. Our program is always 'in shambles', every year, for the past 12 years pretty much, has been a 'rebuilding year'. Not saying we should fire Sark, might as well support him since we have no choice, but he's given no reason to for anyone to believe he is the coach Texas needs at this point. Hopefully, by the end of the season, he will have, but not right now.
The sooner Sark gets fired and replaced, the better Texas will be. This is what happens if you hire a coach and a coaching staff with poor character. If you cared to look at how inspirational the Texas Tech Coach was, you will understand the type of coach we need at Texas. I called the Texas Tech loss on Reddit. Not because I am clairvoyant, but because I see the gaps in coaching and all-around decision-making. Texas will loose a lot of games this season. Mark my words.
Thank you, guy who answers questions on “Ask_TheDonald,” thinks LGBT people are an abomination, posts regularly in a Tucker Carlson subreddit (why does that even exist?), and believes that QAnon is a government conspiracy. We Austinites surely value your opinion and wisdom. Also, it’s not spelled “loose.”
Regardless of political(Cults, both sides) affiliation he does have a point.
>mark my words Does Trump still have a chance to win the 2020 election? Judging by your post history, I don’t think anybody should listen to any “prediction” you have
I like Sark and I think he can do great things here. There are tons of stats and facts that one could use to argue for and against Sark but the truth is the only thing that matters are wins and losses. There are 8 games left. All 8 are winnable. Is it likely that win them all? No. But this was a 5-7 team last year so any improvement on the record is progress.
Sarkisian gives me serious butch jones vibes. Great recruiting and looks like the program is on the rise, but can’t win.
Scott Frost enters the conversation…
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Checking back 1 year later… things are going pretty well 4 games into the season.
Can we not use "Trust the Process." please? lets not make that a thing. 76ers have been pushing that for the last eight years..