SL Xpress
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Negative Recruiting Your Own School: The aggy Screenshot Megathread
SL Xpress replied to texifornia's topic in 🤫$9.95🤫
I don't know, man. I think Stoops might be available for a pretty decent price if they wait long enough. -
Negative Recruiting Your Own School: The aggy Screenshot Megathread
SL Xpress replied to texifornia's topic in 🤫$9.95🤫
"After Texas scored the final touchdown to go up 50-14, a reporter asked Steve Sarkisian why he went for a two point conversion. 'Because I couldn't go for three,' Sarkisian replied." -
Texas Recruiting Notes 2026: Boulevard of Broken Bagmen
SL Xpress replied to texifornia's topic in 🤫$9.95🤫
They have this NIL thing figured out. Nagy is a secret weapon. He's going to moneyball this whole process. He has a team of top men - TOP MEN - doing independent evaluations that are 4th dimension compared to recruiting services' 2d model. All he needs to do now is get Venables fired because the man can't coach his incredible talent evaluations into a championship level team. I'm excited to see who that happens to be, and if he can get that guy fired, too, or if he's finally swept out with a broom when it's proven his model is dogshit. While I want both Nagy and Venables there for a long time, if I had to choose one, it's Nagy with a bullet. Care a little bit but still fucked OU, so don't care. Not a big Kreul fan. -
Texas Recruiting Notes 2026: Boulevard of Broken Bagmen
SL Xpress replied to texifornia's topic in 🤫$9.95🤫
7 out of 8 out of states transferred out. The one out of state still on the roster is the deep snapper. That's not meant as an indictment on recruiting out of state. What I'd argue is it emphasizes how important going out to these high schools, establishing relationships, and making long term investments in these players and families is. I don't think of any of these cats as character issues, but we needed some bodies. I think the evaluation process is a lot deeper now, and we can swing a bit for the fences in ways we didn't have the cache to do so for the 2022 class. I forgot Terrance Brooks was John Mateer's teammate in high school. Mostly because I didn't care who John Mateer was at the time. I think my biggest takeaway is to cement how big of a boon it has been to have the combination of the portal and NIL in terms of transforming the roster. Not just in terms of upgrading the talent, but in terms of creating a natural attrition where players who wouldn't have been able to be productive SEC players at a high level are encouraged to find playing time elsewhere. Those can be uncomfortable conversations. Better to be able to have a realistic evaluation where we're pointing out the guy next to you is simply better than you, than to simply say you're not good enough and we need to recruit someone better to take your place. -
Howard? Are you referring to Ryan Day?
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I'm having fun! I doubt it will go on for long. I joined when it was announced that Texas would join the SEC, but I didn't have any desire to post until Georgia fans and talking heads lost their collective minds after the Atkinson, Johnson, Cooper commitments. Yes, it is trash, though.
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It doesn't stop there. And then you look at the results of the rest of those seasons, and you come to a quick understanding there was something between the ears of those Texas teams. And it started with Mack. Then you go back and look at how badly his teams shit the bed against Florida State, and you realize there's a pattern. I'll never forget touring the facilities the week after the Nebraska win in '98. The administration had images from that game plastered everywhere like a new covering of wallpaper. I'm not exaggerating. It was everywhere. Like Mack had got some kind of monkey off his back. Nope. The monkey was still there. It would just take a couple of years to manifest. But let's face it. All of those wins over Nebraska were hilarious. And that was Mack, too. He beat Sherrill. He beat Saban. We beat a great Michigan team, beat USC, regardless of how much of an impact VY had on those teams. James Franklin's ineptitude and puckered ass syndrome is on a different level entirely.
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Heck, I felt like I predicted the Notre Dame game accurately. I'll say this. That SMU game could have been a lot closer than it ended up being. The SMU defense was giving Penn State all they could handle, early. The SMU defensive front in particular weren't exactly getting road graded. But the offense completely imploded. It was like our first game against Georgia, except worse. Finally it just felt like the defense gave up, either for being on the field too long or hopelessness. Whatever feather James Franklin was able to put in his cap because of that win, sure feels like a mirage to me. I'll also say that while I wasn't exactly rooting for Penn State, I sure enjoyed the crying from SMU boosters who were late to the game because of the horrendous local airport situation in Happy Valley. By the time they got there after spending millions putting together that roster, the game was over. That was awesome. In any case, thanks in advance for your research, @BurntEyes. I appreciate it. You don't have to do it, and I don't take it for granted. I can't believe how much I've enjoyed Joel Klatt over the years. He's outstanding in the broadcast booth and in his general comments about college football as a whole. It helps that he always seems to give Texas the benefit of the doubt in different ways. I hated him as a QB at Colorado. I got such a kick when we knocked him out of the conference championship game. But in this role he's absolutely one of my favorites. He has some great breakdown videos I've thoroughly enjoyed, which just covers some basics of the game. I've sent links to a lot of those to people I know.
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It's a lot to ask if you have any more specifics on where I could find that video. I'll try searching for it, but if I had any more information it would be helpful. I'd like to hear what Klatt has to say about it.
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I hate watching James Franklin teams in big games. I've got a buddy who is a huge Penn State fan, so while my inclination is to root against them every game, for his sake I'd watch with a fan-by-proxy interest. Their offensive coordinator is shit on a stick. I hate his play calling. I hate how quickly he abandons a dominant run game. I hate their neanderthal passing offense. They do a terrible job building off their play calls. I know they're high on Khalil Dinkins, but man I loved to watch Tyler Warren. That guys seems really hard to replace. I'm not sold on Allar, although in his defense it may be the OC. Franklin coaches scared, IMO, and his team takes on the same personality trait. It's like an even worse version of Mack Brown. They start the season with four home games, including Nevada, FIU, and Villanova before having to put their big boy pants on for the rematch with Oregon in their famed White Out game. For all I know Dan Lanning is going to have extras dressed up in Ku Klux Klan outfits at Oregon practices in some kind of effort to paint this as good versus evil. Oregon isn't exactly running a gauntlet, but Montana State, Oklahoma State, Northwestern (in Evanston) and Oregon State is a mite more challenging than the cream puffs PSU has slated. And then Frankin's manhood is challenged with that game in Columbus November 1. The whole Penn State narrative is that they can't beat Michigan or Ohio State. I assume they can make it to the playoff even losing to both Oregon and OSU if they win the rest of their games, but I don't know how they'd have the confidence to win against an elite team if that were to be the case. People can talk about how Texas hasn't won anything all they want, but road wins against Alabama two years ago, Michigan last year, and then beating teams that some of the best programs in the SEC managed to lose to (Alabama to Vanderbilt/OU, Ole Miss to Kentucky/Florida), plus dominating A&M and their little wanna be jihad, says that Texas can get it done in tough environments. I'll say this. I'd love to match up against Penn State in the playoffs, regardless of the round.
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Texas Football 2025 - Seven Win Steve Rides Again
SL Xpress replied to closetojumping's topic in Football
I've watched a lot of Caleb Downs the last couple of years, both at Bama and OSU. To me he's just an average future NFL hall of fame safety. Nothing special.- 8050 replies
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Personally, I think it's great. More hype. More attention. More talk about us. More hate. It used to be a bigger deal than it is now. When the whole thing was a beauty contest it was absolutely a benefit to be ranked high early. But season ending goals aren't at stake because of the poll. Ohio State, Texas, and Penn State all lost late in the season and still got to the semi finals, and Notre Dame lost to Northern Illinois at home for goodness sakes. If we drop out of the top of the poll because of a loss somewhere along the way it's not the end of the world. I think it's fun!
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Texas Football 2025 - Seven Win Steve Rides Again
SL Xpress replied to closetojumping's topic in Football
I feel like the answer is to perfect the body's ability to heal to practically mutant levels and then surgically enhance the skeletal structure with adamantium. I read about that procedure in a medical journal.- 8050 replies
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Texas Football 2025 - Seven Win Steve Rides Again
SL Xpress replied to closetojumping's topic in Football
The good news is it's only one. Remember last year when we lost two running backs back to back to season ending injuries? It could be worse. My hope is that Cojoe returns next year better than ever. -
The point is not that Texas would have beaten OU if Benson had played. The point is that he didn't play at all. Not a single snap. And then he was the workhorse the rest of the season. And no offense to Ivan Williams, but he was never in the class of Benson. He was fool's gold. If he wasn't the very picture of chopped liver as a running back, I don't think we use that term in the same way.
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Phil Fulmer. Lloyd Carr. Gene Chizik. Ed Orgeron. Jimbo Fisher. There are several mediocre coaches I'd take Mack Brown over when it comes to running a program that also won a national championship. Before Mack Brown came along I thought the administration might be indifferent to Texas football for the rest of my life. Whatever faults Mack Brown may have, he is one heck of a salesman. He galvanized the campus and got all the BBs in one box. The other candidate at the time was Gary Barnett, who was demanding autonomy from the athletic department because the environment was toxic and not conducive to a winning program at all. Which was true, but would not have created a long term healthy environment. And for all his faults he brought Vince Young to campus and gave us 2005. That Rose Bowl will forever be my favorite moment as a sports fan. Regardless of Mack Brown's faults, I do not believe that moment occurs with someone else in charge. In any case, he did make the decision to recruit Cedric Benson, even if it was reluctantly. He did eventually play him, and Benson had a great career. And Mack Brown did share a special story about Benson's grief after the Rose Bowl win against Michigan, when he voiced the tearful realization he would never put on the Longhorn uniform for a game ever again. There's a lot of things to like about Mack Brown. I can feel two emotions simultaneously. I can feel gratitude mixed with some irritation. If I don't share the gratitude I'm being churlish, and if I don't share the irritation I'm inauthentic, so I share both. I am sorry it caused the thread to be about Mack Brown versus being about Cedric Benson, but Mack Brown can be a polarizing figure on this board in some respects, and that's just the way it is. In any case, here's to you, Cedric Benson.
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I'm thankful for Mack Brown, but I'm not his biggest fan. He's just not my kind of guy. But I will say he is very effective in these kinds of moments, and I'm very appreciative of him sharing this story. I was, however, a HUGE fan of Cedric Benson. I remember watching him play for Midland Lee, particularly in the state championships. I didn't see all three, but I saw two of them. Remember that during their entire history Midland Lee had always been overshadowed by Odessa Permian. But Midland Lee was a powerhouse for Benson's 3 years on varsity, and Benson was a huge reason for it. We all remember Benson as this big hulking back, but he wasn't that at all at Midland. I don't want to say he was skinny, but he was certainly lean. I don't think he ever got above 195 lbs. while playing varsity. Especially as a sophomore. He was deceptive in everything he did. He didn't look like he had a lot of wiggle. He never looked like Barry Sanders or Bijan Robinson. And yet, defenders could never seem to get a clean shot at him. He could make people miss in the hole as well as any running back I ever saw. He never had breakaway speed, but he often seemed to run just fast enough to score. He had the most incredible forward body lean I've ever seen in a running back. I felt like he lost a little bit of that as he bulked up, but maybe that was an optical illusion. He definitely had it as a freshman at Texas when he was still a little leaner compared to how he looked later on. But in high school his torso looked like it was literally parallel with the ground as he ran. And he always went forward. He showed that too, at Texas, but in high school it was even more remarkable. I cannot tell you how often it looked like the defense had him tackled, and he'd somehow squirt through with that forward lean of his, and somehow make 5, 6, 7, 8 yards out of the carry. Sometimes more. It wasn't just once. He seemed to do that every time he carried the ball. And he saved his biggest moments for the big time. He scored 5 touchdowns in each of those 3 state championships (13 runs and 2 passes). I loved watching Benson play in high school. One of my favorite players I ever got to see. I wanted to pull my hair out with his recruitment. He wanted to go to Texas. Everyone knew he wanted to go to Texas. But Mack Brown didn't like his measurables. At a time when Texas was often offering kids earlier than anyone else, he wouldn't extend an offer to the most celebrated back in the state, even with a lot of alumni pressure to do so. Mack just didn't feel like Benson was good enough. It wasn't like Mack offered him right before signing day or anything. I believe Benson came to a camp to prove himself, even though he was a little indignant that was necessary. Finally Mack Brown reluctantly offered the guy that summer, bowing to pressure and the knowledge if he didn't offer him and Benson went on to be a star somewhere else there would be hell to pay. Benson immediately accepted. Then he gets to campus and Mack Brown does his usual deal of not playing freshman. He often did the same thing. I remember pulling my hair out with Derrick Johnson when he got the same treatment. The famous 2001 game against OU Cedric Benson didn't get a single carry. We had Ivan Williams as our starting running back. It's the only game that season where he didn't have a carry. The next week against Oklahoma State he ran the ball 31 times for 131 yards (he'd run for 100 yards or more in the next 4 games, too) before finishing with his first of 4 1000 yard seasons. I'm not saying Cedric Benson was the greatest human being on Earth. I didn't know the guy personally. I know there were issues there. But he loved Texas, and he was a gamer. That guy could smell the end zone, just like Ricky Williams could. I'm glad I got to watch him both in high school and at Texas. I'm grateful he's a Longhorn.
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Sub-Educated Cretins: The SEC screenshot mega-thread
SL Xpress replied to SimkinsMan's topic in 🤫$9.95🤫
Is this kind of encouragement necessary or warranted? Methinks not. -
I think it's hilarious. My favorite horn downs moments include: Texas isn't even playing. Horns down is basically the OU hand sign. They sell a TON of merchandise licensed from UT. A&M fans are constantly using the horns down sign, too. I think it's great! Teams we don't play on a regular basis. The horns down sign - started by OU fans in the 70s but it's grown because of television and various stupid controversies - is so universally recognized you'll see opponents like Michigan fans throw the horns down sign for the television cameras because it's such expected behavior. Why would anyone get upset about that? That's terrific! Texas is crushing the opponent. It is so fun to see the horns down hand signal when we're beating the other team like a drum. Any time Texas is mentioned, and the first reaction is to throw the horns down sign. Especially when it's done to me personally, but not just then. My least favorite horns down moments are when Texas fans make a big deal out of it, like it's some kind of sacrosanct gesture being defiled by heathens. Give me a break. It IS sacrosanct to me, but I don't expect others to feel the same way about it. Rodney Terry in particular needed to STFU. He later apologized, which I'm glad for, but no coach or administrator should be making any kind of deal out of it. It's embarrassing. It's embarrassing when fans get offended, but at least they're not official representatives. I guess if I was at a funeral and we were all singing the eyes and then some goober threw the horns down I'd have to kill him, but I wouldn't be angry when I did it. It's just something that would have to be done. But if Aggies or Sooners had a wedding cake with the horns down on it, I'd just laugh. Have at it! Give me a slice. Let me eat a piece of your obsession with us.
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Texas Football 2025 - Seven Win Steve Rides Again
SL Xpress replied to closetojumping's topic in Football
Embrace it? I never let it go. I always felt that's a part of what made us unique. We're arrogant regardless of on field results. I just wish it was going to be a prime time game. Oh wait. No I don't. I don't care. I'm happy the Ohio State meth tweakers are so upset about it. I hope we hear more about it after we soundly beat them the same way we did to Alabama in Tuscaloosa and Michigan in Ann Arbor. Let's bring the spirit of 2005 back and win again in the Horseshoe. -
Texas Recruiting Notes 2026: Boulevard of Broken Bagmen
SL Xpress replied to texifornia's topic in 🤫$9.95🤫
I think as much as anything Lanning is getting the benefit of the doubt. He's only been a head coach for 3 years, but he's gone 10-3, 12-2, and 13-1. He has an intense style which is appealing. I loved his pregame speech before the Colorado game, and the way he prepared his team to go into Wisconsin with the Jump Around song was pretty hilarious. Although the way Oregon played overall in that game was underwhelming, even if they did come out with the victory. But then again, I'm a big Dan Lanning fan. He's a bit of an asshole inside the program in terms of he has a bit of Bill Snyder in him. If football isn't everything to you, he doesn't really want to have much to do with you. He makes extreme demands on his staff and players in terms of the priority they put on football. But for me that's not a bug. It's a feature. He's great with alumni in ways Cristobal couldn't be bothered. He sees fundraising and alumni relations as a big part of his job. I don't know what kind of season they're going to have. I'm with CTJ in that I see a lot of holes. But I've also been underwhelmed with some of their personnel at the beginning of a season - last year particularly the offensive line - but they still find ways to get the job done. I feel like losing Evan Stewart for 2025 was a big blow. They have a huge resource in Phil Knight for NIL. They have a bunch of boosters along with him, but no one approaches Knight's impact. Even outside of NIL, he'll meet with recruits and players. It's a blinding glimpse of the obvious to say, but Knight has done more for an athletic program as a single person than anyone else in college athletics. But even still, they are extremely organized in how they handle NIL. They work with a budget. They prioritize players. They value the dynamic between keeping a roster and bringing in new talent. I don't feel like they're as allergic to character issues as maybe Texas is. They'll make exceptions if the player is talented enough and count on their culture to rein bad tendencies in. Not sure how that will work out for them in the long run, but it's definitely a difference I see. I'll be rooting for Oregon unless they play us, so I'm biased. I could certainly see a fall off. But right now it's mostly a "In Lanning we trust" kind of mindset. -
Sub-Educated Cretins: The SEC screenshot mega-thread
SL Xpress replied to SimkinsMan's topic in 🤫$9.95🤫
We are doing the SEC a favor. As human beings we think we bond together based on what we have in common. And that is true to an extent. But the most powerful bonding agent is the concept of the outsider. We are bringing the rest of the SEC together by being a common enemy. Everyone can hate us. They can give examples of how much they hate us. Why they hate us worse than the next person hates us. They can all link arms, do the horns down sign, talk about how we're entitled, overrated, have more money than God, think we're God's gift to football, and all the other "aspersions" fans of other schools love to throw at us. To you, the rest of the SEC, my reply is, "You're welcome." -
Texas Football 2025 - Seven Win Steve Rides Again
SL Xpress replied to closetojumping's topic in Football
I'm with you. What would really make this board enjoyable for me is a complete lack of humor and everyone feeling like they're posting on railroad tracks. I think the big problem is a lack of consequences. If we could chop off a finger for violating one of SarkAfterDark's very reasonable guidelines for having the ideal message board, this place would be waaaaaay better.- 8050 replies
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Negative Recruiting Your Own School: The aggy Screenshot Megathread
SL Xpress replied to texifornia's topic in 🤫$9.95🤫
Yeah, apparently it's a big deal for Colorado, too. I'm sure you're right on Boston College. I just couldn't find anything on it with a quick 10 second search. I just know I saw it referenced all over the place in Eugene. They should make up a myth around it. Some dying football player as he's being carried off the field with collapsed lungs he wheazes out his last breath, only he's not able to force out "Let's Go Ducks" but instead a whispery "...s'go Ducks" then he dies, and it becomes a rallying cry. Kind of like Bear Down Cats for Arizona.
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