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statsman

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  1. OU Deep DivePart 2:

    Wilkinson quit and was replaced by his chief assistant, Gomer (yep) Jones. By year two, it was clear that Jones didn’t have it, so OU shitcanned him (university president Cross was a big football fan and he wasn’t having it). 
     
    They made a run at Royal, who listened out of courtesy to his alma mater, and turned him down. They hired Jim MacKenzie, Broyles’ chief assistant, and he accepted. He brought a pretty terrific staff- Chuck Fairbanks, Barry Switzer, Homer Rice, Galen Hall, Larry Lacewell, all young and ambitious. Under the new management, OU recommitted to integration and recruiting Texas. They beat Texas their first year, for the first time since 1957. 
     
    MacKenzie died of a heart attack and was replaced by Fairbanks. They took two major steps:

    1. They got aggressive in recruiting, highlighted by winning the bidding war  for Texas HS QB Jack Mildren. 
    2. In 1970, they adopted the Wishbone offense. The story of how Royal told Bellard to teach it to OC Switzer, out of misguided coaching camaraderie and trying to do a solid for his alma mater, wasn’t told until years after Switzer’s autobiography came out. In his book, Switzer describes it as if he figured the offense out on his own, taking full credit. Of course, because that’s the kind of narcissist Switzer is. 
     
    OU won big in the ‘70s, propelled by elite talent and easy Big 8 schedules. The Sooners would have three challenging games per year- Texas, Nebraska and a bowl opponent or non-conference game. 
     
    Fairbanks (yes, he is the owner of DFW Chevy dealership “Chuck Fairbanks Chevrolet”) left for the NFL and was replaced by Switzer, who felt even less restrained by NCAA rules (as well as common standards of decency). 
     
    OU got in trouble with the NCAA for cheating and academic fraud to get players eligible. Royal called them out for spying on closed Texas practices, which Switzer denied, but confronted years later by the spy’s confession, admitted to while laughing at Toyal for getting upset. That was Switzer- he cheated, won and laughed about it. The school didn’t care- Criss was the Chancellor and there was still very much an attitude that if the program got in trouble, it was the program’s problem, not the school’s. 
     
    A few things to note, to close out the ‘70s and early ‘80s-

    We all know that Texas lost the MNC in 1977, losing to ND. Did you know that OU could have won it, if they had beaten heavy underdog Arkansas in the Orange Bowl? They lost and the story is that in large part it was due to the inattention of DC Lacewell. Switzer was banging Lacewell’s wife and when Lacewell found out, he lost focus on his job. Lacewell left the next year. 
     
    Switzer was arrested for DWI, which really wasn’t a surprise (well, the arrest may have been a surprise, but that he would drive drunk wasn’t). He pled to a misdemeanor. 
     
    Switzer was arrested for insider trading on an energy company that was purchased by another. In his book, Switzer describes it as a totally bogus charge, which is funny. It’s funny because the Switzer insider trading case became a major precedent for understanding insider trading. Switzer made up a bullshit story that he didn’t know he was trading in an insider tip, and the success of that defense became a major part of case law. 
     
    Finally- OU’s reliance on the wishbone was wearing out. It worked fine against Big 8 competition, but Texas defenses, coordinated by Fuller and MacWilliams, were playing assignments football and shutting it down. Their lack of success against even pedestrian Longhorn teams (Texas lost one RRS between 1977 and 1981) and Switzer’s legal issues were starting to cause him problems. 
     
    Could Switzer coach his way out of this?

    Could Switzer cheat his way out of this?

    Stay tuned. 

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  2. 6 hours ago, closetojumping said:

     

     

    What's coming is worse than any of this. This motherfucker is about to be an even bigger cancer for UT athletics than he always has been.

    Oh, shit. He’s not going to try to be a journalist, is he?

  3. Here is a great explainer article about Iran’s nuclear program, and how it was structured to show compliance while still progressing to nukes. It was written before Saturday’s strike. Don’t waste your time reading it if you are pre-set to believe and argue a position on either side. 
     

    https://www.wsj.com/opinion/iran-is-down-but-not-yet-out-nuclear-development-program-tehran-915d683d?st=hj4W47&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

  4. The CFP byes were almost three weeks, whereas the NFL byes are one week. In the NFL, bodies get healthier in a week. In the CFP, a three week bye made rust a factor. Didn’t every CFP bye team lose their first game?

  5. 20 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

    If they don’t use that ordnance, they may have to dump it in the ocean rather than trying to land with it and putting the wear and tear on the airframe, which is a lot of expensive toys wasted.

    My guess is they are either going to use it, or the aircraft are empty and they are putting misinformation/disinformation out there making it look like we will bomb.

    I have to interject. 
     
    On aerospace design projects, there are several different teams of structural analysts. One team is called “The Loads Group”. This is the team that determines the flight loads to design to, based on flight cases. 
     
    Example: the vertical tail front spar for a twin engine airliner is typically sized by this load case- “one engine goes out when the airplane is 50 feet off the tarmac, requiring full thrust from the other engine, and full rudder to compensate, while the airplane ascends enough to return to land”. The spar must have a positive Margin of Safety (MS) for that load case. 
     
    I can assure you, there is a load case for the STRATEGIC NUCLEAR BOMBER to land with a full complement of undelivered weapons. They will dump fuel. They will not dump weapons. 
     
    Back to your scheduled programming. 

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  6. I think FBS, and especially P4 FBS playoff games, is a more physical sport. If physicality of Texas 5A playoffs is a 1, and NFL playoffs is a 10, FBS CFP could be a 7 or 8. FCS playoffs would be a 5. 

  7. On 6/19/2025 at 7:06 PM, nnm said:

    Was it because Jimbo or was it because Texas 8&4?  They are what they are. 

    Didn’t they have some very late commits for some of their highest rated recruits in that class? Where they didn’t even visit the campus?

    That’s a sign that the recruitment is an our bag drop and it should be a sign of a bad evaluation. If the kid is serious at all about doing the work to reach his potential, he’s going to take a real visit. 

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  8. 1 hour ago, deech said:

    Honestly, this might be one of our "worst" weeks in recruiting this year or last year.  And you know what, I give zero fucks.  We are in on lots of big names.  We get some.   Some chose to go elsewhere for various reasons.  The NIL rules this year is going to result in even more fuckery right now than there has been in prior years. 

    I have faith that Sark and his support staff and the alumni who are contributing to NIL will do just fine by the end of the year.  I have faith they will close just fine come December.   

    This isn't Mack Brown where we "need a win" in recruiting because he is working so hard on the trail and we don't have a big name recruit on board yet.  

    Would I prefer some of the promising football players commit here instead of other schools?  Sure.  Do I care because Aggie got a player or two ?  Or (in my best coke head Luicci) Fat Elko won head to head against Sark for the two bestest high school players in the history of ever these last few weeks sending shockwaves through the entire universe that Aggie football is back to where it never left.   

    Win some lose some.  We will be just fine.

    Here is a thought- all recruitniks get excited about the blue chips, because great teams are built with blue chips, and we want great teams. 
     
    I was remembering a couple of big blue chips from 15 years ago, DTs. Malcom Brown and Taylor Bible. I remember Brown being more sought after, but that could be my memory exercising a bias because Brown panned out big time and Bible didn’t. They were both major blue chips (google tells me that Bible was the #26 Texas schoolboy, all positions). 
     
    In today’s environment, how much would Brown be worth to sign? Low seven figures? High six? How about Bible? Because the “market” of 15 years ago had them valued similarly out of HS. 
     
    What happens when a big amount of money is allotted to a HS signee, and he busts? That has to be a miserable conversation with the player and parents, but it has to be had, because it’s worse to have dead money in the locker room. 
     
    How to play it? I think that to pay big money to a HS kid to sign, you better be damned sure he’s worth it, and that you are ready to manage it if he busts. If Texas is using the senior year to gain data on the kid and make a better evaluation, that’s probably the right way to play it. 

  9. 4 hours ago, futureman said:

    your dad never hit you?  how nice. 

    I’m going to guess you never saw the photo that the tyke’s mom posted, with  almost 20 lines of welt scars from switch strokes. 

  10. William CowperBrann, although I don’t mean to defend him. He would have been just find with the horrible Waco lynching of Jesse Washington 

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  11. Yeah, I get (like Texas does, I think) having a staff to sift through all the HUDL video to provide a slate of recruits for the assistant coaches to review, after basic minimal physical and athletic traits are vetted. That saves a ton of time (so the assistant can actually coach) and allows a wider net. 
     
    But, having a personnel staff prepare the list of offers? In a properly working system, the assistant actually should be a value-add in scouting, more than just a recruiting-monkey. They should be able to tell qualitatively if the player has traits that make them more or less coachable, objective metrics aside. (And it helps in signing a kid if he and his parents can tell that the assistant really wants him). 
     
    It’s like if you have ever worked for an organization that only hires “A” students. Eventually, you meet the “B” candidate that works a full time job at night while going to school, to support a family, and you pull your hair out trying to get the organization to hire this kid that you know would be a tremendous asset. Or to not hire the “A” candidate with a great resume that flippantly admits he really just wants to bide his time with your company until he can get into the industry he really wants. 

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  12. I’ve been following Texas recruiting for forty years. Which means nothing, because this environment is different from what we’ve seen before and Sark’s recruiting approach is different from any Texas coach we’ve seen before. 
     
    For example- Mack Brown used recruiting to get talent into the program, and he was good at it. For Sark, recruiting is just the first step of amassing talent. The next steps- the conditioning, the coaching, the drill work- Brown never had it like this. He is Saban-like in how he recruits guys that have the potential to be NFL guys, and are willing to work to be NFL players. 
     
    The funny thing is g about recruiting is how many blue chips miss. Nationwide, about half the five stars (the “sure things”) make the NFL (and at Texas, from about 2009-2020, it was a lot less than half), about 1/4 of the four stars, and so on. Sark is outperforming those percentages. 
     
    Some of you know more about what’s going on inside the program. I wonder if the long period between summer and NSD is an evaluation time for Texas? Is Sark using that time to figure out who is serious about doing the work to develop their potential (and is worth setting a market for), and who (like so many blue chips Brown, Strong and Herman signed) just wants to parlay athletic potential into a fun college experience? I think it’s very telling that, unlike Mack’s most talented teams (the “family environment”), and like Saban’s, Sark’s guys leave for the draft as soon as they can (too much work at Texas to do for Anything less than the best pay you can get). The players like it here, but a big part of the sell is that Texas will work you hard, but it’s worth it because Texas will get you to the league. 
     
    Texas wants to sign the best, and some blue chips are worth setting a market for, and others aren’t, and I don’t think Sark is in a rush to figure out which are which. 

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  13. Much like the fictional Derry, Maine, there is an ancient and powerful evil under the surface of Waco, Texas. Occasionally it bubbles up and manifests in the physical world- a gunning down of an editorialist, a murder by a spirit group at halftime of a Baylor/A&M game, Branch Davidians, Dotson murder, Baylor football rapes, Twin Peaks shoot out,…

    I don’t know how the story of Chip and Joanna Gaines ends, but it will be horrific. 

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  14. So many of us old timers fear a return to the 1980’s, when SMU, OU and TAMU were setting the market, UH, TT and others were participating, the Texas coaches knew exactly what was needed and the word from the Tower to Bellmont was “thou shalt not”. 
     
    I don’t think the UT administration will take the same attitude now. We have Eltife leading the regents, and we have a lot of supportive regents. I don’t think they will allow athletics to do anything to embarrass the university, but otherwise will be supportive of competing. 
     

  15. Clark really needs to get a team together for an off season Euro tour. I remember when the Oklahoman had that headline after a bad Durant game- “Mr. Unreliable”. LeBron said, “Do they not realize he can be a free agent?”

    The WNBA needs to have it shoved in their face that their most marketable player has options. 

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  16. The league has to decide what it wants to be. Does it want to be a game of skill and athleticism? Or a hard-nosed brutal test of aggression? Ice hockey has dealt with that question for decades, without really resolving it. 
     
    The “mean girls” aspect is something new, though. 

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  17. 9 hours ago, satyanash said:

     

    So,…looking at SEC staying at eight conference games? And a 5-11 model for CFP?

    Last year, that would have put five SEC teams in the CFP, and one B12 team. Why wouldn’t the B12 and ACC sign up for two AQs?

    I have a theory- those two leagues need good media contracts, so they need good ratings. With 11 at large bids in play, they (and their networks) can market a ton of November games as having “playoff impact”, even if they really don’t. Any team with two or fewer losses can be called a CFp contender. Last November, weren’t their six teams with a possible path to the one B12 AW spot?

  18. That’s a good explanation of the Sooner defense. I do fear that OU will be able to replicate their 2023 RRS performance. I remember listening to IT podcasts before, and discussions of how Texas was just demonstrably better (true), Gabriel wasn’t a threat to run (he had not been), and how OU didn’t run tempo (they had not). 
     
    That RRS was OU’s first challenging game and they broke all those tendencies while playing with a maniacal fervor. Even then, Texas probably wins if Majors doesn’t get hurt in the first quarter. Or if a number of other breaks don’t go OU’s way. 
     
    OU laid it all out there, glories and gloated in the win, and was unable to approach that level of play for the rest of the season, losing to OSU and KU. Still, the Okie fans were happy and enjoyed a full year of “Texas really isn’t any better than us”. 
     
    I expect them to to treat this RRS similarly, but they have to play a decent Michigan team and a (perhaps) good Auburn team first. Auburn is a game they can’t look past, because the Venables regime may not be able to weather a loss at home to Jackson Arnold.

    Hopefully, Texas takes OU very seriously, too, and takes care of business. 
     
    A final thought- OU’s schedule is backloaded, with @Bama, Ole Miss, LSU, Mizzou, @Tennessee and @S. Carolina following Texas. Expend too much at the RRS and they will have to pay later, much as they did in 2023. 

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  19. 50 minutes ago, RockyMountainHighHorn said:

    I’m still confused on this brown situation. We got development from a few players we thought were jags, this year we are relying on a peg leg Tar Heel and transfers. Getting a 5 star to have for multiple years seems like a massive need. Same with Bowman? I understand not being able to pay everyone what they want to the max but when are we going to start swinging our big Texas D and saying F it, an extra million won’t hurt. He went from loving our visit to now it’s over? 

    We have learned that players know what each other are making, roughly. Jimbo’s ag team fell apart, in large part, because there was a disconnect between compensation and performance (starters wondered why they were supposed to give it their all, when their freshman backup was getting paid five times as much). 
     
    Texas has a salary structure that is aligned with contribution and understands that you don’t revise it for just one recruit or player. 

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  20. 3 minutes ago, TonyTexas said:

    Imma should change the FAFO emoji to ✡️

    Iran provided Hamas with material and training support for Oct 7, per a WSJ article linked 19 months ago. Arguably, they set this whole thread off. They have been offered many exit ramps, wrt Houthi support and their nuke program, and they have passed on all of them. 
     
    FAFO, indeed. 
     
     

    • Fuck Around and Find Out 2
  21. 8 minutes ago, Hermanator said:

    Has there been any more info on the house settlement and how that will or won't screw up our ability to out talent 99.5% of CFB?

    I saw a ticker scroll the other day saying it had been completed or accepted by the judge but haven't heard anything since. 

    I think we will get real time input into what it means by watching what Oregon does. 

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