Am I the only one not totally despondent over the game last night? This isn't meant as some glowing review of Sark or anything, but it kinda feels like everyone is using the loss as a conduit to spew whatever preconceived criticisms they had in the chamber, regardless of whether or not they actually applied to the performance.
Objectively, we were facing a team that will finish (and start next season) as one of the ten best in the country. Objectively, we were a run heavy team without our top two RBs. Objectively, we were facing a QB who was starting games in college before our QB had ever taken a snap in high school. Objectively, we were missing the QB of our defense, a dude who will be only the third Longhorn LB to get drafted in a decade, against the top passing team in the nation. I know what the line said, but objectively, we were the underdog going into last night. Anyone acting like this is an inexplicable loss (of which admittedly Sark has plenty!) to a garbage team is just venting and not dealing with reality.
A valid criticism of Sark has been that he develops a great script to start the game and cannot adjust after that. That was not true last night, our second half offense was much more effective than how we started. I'm not smart enough to know if it was simply Quinn playing better or if there was a material difference in the play-calling, but either way this was a welcome development that we did not see earlier this season. The Quinn/offense we saw in the second half wins the Oklahoma State and TCU games, period.
There were obviously some negatives. The sense of urgency in the fourth quarter was not good. I'm tempted to chalk that up to a freshman QB, but that will need to improve. We also need to hire a football nerd purely to figure out why we can't stop 3rd and long. Xavier Worthy's stock is falling faster than Tesla. I don't know who was out there in the 41 jersey last night, but I hope someone has an update on Jaylan Ford's whereabouts.
You can argue that the performance on the field is below whatever you consider the standards of Texas football to be, and... sure, whatever. But that's the kind of thinking that results in a new coach every 3 years and a decade and a half of shit. Last year we had an abomination of a defense and were blown out in almost as many games as we won. This year, our defense is legitimately a strength and we never lost by more than a score. There are signs of improvement with both the coaching staff and some of the key pieces for next year. These are the kinds of seasons that, historically, exist between a team going from dogshit to contender and now it's up to Sark to take the next step.
If we still look like this in a year, then sign me up for your pity party.