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Ron Swanson

Certifiably Surly
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Posts posted by Ron Swanson

  1. 7 hours ago, USNALonghorn said:

    After taking some time to digest last night's loss, and the whole season at large, there are a few things that seem very clear. 

    Steve Sarkisian is a great head coach.

    He is a Saban/Smart level roster builder. He has proven to be incredibly savy in not only recruiting, but also the rapidly evolving transfer portal era. Twenty five months prior to hoisting the Big-12 trophy over Yormark bitter bitch ass, we were getting buttfucked by ISU and losing to Kansas at home. At the time, we had a roster full of losers and JAGs like J Moore, Casey Thompson, BJ Foster, and Brockermeyer, all sandbaggging on the field. Sixteen football games later, Sark fielded a roster that walked into Bryant Derry Stadium and spanked his old boss by ten points, winning in the trenches on both sides of the ball. That is a legendary roster turnaround.

    I don't know Sark personally, but he genuinely seems like a good person, leader, and role model for the players. This isn't the over inflated "gud guy Charlie Strong" and a far cry from Tom Herman's idiotic clown show. Sark understands what a good organization culture is and his players believe in it 100%. We are very lucky to have him as our head coach and our trajectory looks very promising as we head into the SEC.

    He, of course, still has a few weaknesses.

    What got him this far in his career and in his recovery, is his ability to self-asses and make the changes that will him better. This is critical to remember as we dissect his weaknesses and vulnerabilities. Sark is an absolute genius when it comes to play design and attacking a defense's vulnerabilities in the pre-game planning phase. The isn't a single poster on this message board that can challenge him at this skill, unless LR or Shanahan have accounts the we don't know about. However, as neutral observers, we can see how this gets him into trouble during games. 

    Going into last night's game, everyone knew that Washington's deep passing attack, combined with the speed with which Penix gets the ball out was the absolute worst possible match up for our defense. There was a chance that we could lean on our stout front six to bring pressure and get him to throw under duress, but it became very evident early on that we weren't going to get to him in time to make a difference. It also became very evident that their defense was going to take away Worthy and Mitchell with numbers in coverage, while taking advantage of Quinn's low throw angle at the LOS. Washington's defensive staff knew that we have a running game more than capable of beating them. They also knew that Sark likes to script the first 40 plays of his offense and to distribute the ball to all four of X, Mitchell, Sanders, and J Whitt. While Sark isn't directly responsible for Baxter's and Blue's untimely fumbles, there are things he could have done to place more pressure on Washington early in the game. He had to deviate from his script and commit to the run game. Doing so would have helped both the offense and the defense. The best defense against Penix and his WR corps is to keep them on the sidelines for 6-8 minutes of play clock at a time. The best advantage we could have given our front six is to have to be on the field for less than 25 minutes of the game. Our big DL and LBs desperately needed every ounce of their strength and endurance to slow Washington down. In a game with match ups like we had last night, there was very little time to experiment offensively. Losing the coin toss and not scoring on the first possession put us behind, but we could have recovered from it by committing to the run and sticking with it until they stopped it. 

    Sark's next big leap as a play caller will be realizing when it's time to deviate from the script.   

     

    This.  So much this.  Would have loved to see more of the run game last night since success there was coming more frequently than in the passing game.

    • Hook 'Em 1
  2. 6 hours ago, TexasPride10 said:

    One thing I’d love to see in the second half of the season is a better package for short yardage situations. The QB sneak is the one of the best plays for those situations, but I can understand why we’re not eager to do it with a 195 pound quarterback. I’d love to see us run Malik out to take those snaps, and I think we could have a very successful “tush push” formation (even though I hate that name) with our big bodies. Plus opposing defenses would always have to respect the possibility that we could roll Malik out of that formation for an RPO. Either that, or I’d love to see us try that trick play we tried against Bama (snap the ball through Quinn’s legs to Sanders). Our inability to move the ball 1 yard on 4 tries was obviously a glaring reason we lost to OU, so I think it’s likely Sark will draw up something new for those situations in the second half of the season. 

    I'm still not sure how that failed so miserably, being so close and with huge bodies leading the way.  Other than on a second viewing it appeared as though Brooks wasn't following closely enough behind the blockers and that allowed defenders to wrap around behind the blockers to make the tackle behind the line.

    • Like 1
  3. 14 minutes ago, Vertigo said:

    I am in an airport and I am cranky and just want to see someone kick the shit out of a jayhawk AND I DONT NEED YOUR JUDGEMENT!

    Same. I'm finally back in the States after 2 weeks in France. Sitting in ATL airport watching the game.

  4. Looking forward to the start of our farewell tour of domination.  However, I'm in Europe for two weeks and will be trying to stream this thing in the middle of the night in Paris (#humblebrag).  I know it's on ABC so maybe that helps?  I've got a couple of fairly reliable sites bookmarked just in case, but I also may be checking here for tips if I get desperate.

  5. On 12/17/2022 at 12:34 PM, Dbeasy said:

    It wasn’t coaching related. I’ll leave it at that. If you Google Barnes and YouTube, he talks about his issues. 

    On 12/17/2022 at 12:47 PM, jimmyjazz said:

    You could just provide the link.

    I googled it, didn't find anything about "issues".  Gonna need something more concrete.  A link, perhaps (as requested above)?

     

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