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HoustonHorn

Burnt Ends
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Everything posted by HoustonHorn

  1. Well, if your players are limited, inexperienced, and have only been in a system for a few months, its quite a bit easier to use the week leading up to the game to take the limited number of things the players do well and develop a game plan to maximize those. Our coaches seem to do that pretty well with the notable exception at Arkansas in which they were unprepared for Card's meltdown. Even when the team isn't consistently moving the ball, there are still a lot of plays out there to be made that aren't being made. Then the other team makes adjustments at half to stop what we are doing well. Ideally, you also make adjustments and your players are able to execute the adjusted game plan to counter the other team. Our players can barely do one thing well after being drilled on it in practice all week. They have no chance to make adjustments on the fly and be effective. Everyone wants a magic bullet, but there isn't one. We need better players in a consistent environment where they can learn all of the intricacies of the offense/defense and be able to effectively execute all of it. That allows the coaches flexibility to make on the fly adjustments and have those actually be effective.
  2. This should be required reading. You should post it in the Bo Davis thread if hit haven't already.
  3. Agreed. Portal this year will be the deciding factor in whether or not we are hiring a new head coach 2 to 3 years from now.
  4. Bo Davis certainly seemed concerned about his livelihood.
  5. Agreed and I believe I said that I wish he was a little more flexible to make adjustments based on available personnel. That said, I also don't know if any of them truly understood the dumpster fire they were walking into.
  6. For a healthy program with a reasonable succession plan from one coach to the next 2-3 years is plenty of time. We are the opposite of that and it will take more time. I think they should get 5 years unless they display incompetence or are an asshole as long as their are signs of improvement year over year. See our last two coaches. I'd say 4 years now with the portal without coordinators being dumped after a year or two. And I'm not discounting the fact that the previous two coaches made their bed with horrendous staffs from the outset. Those needed overhauls. I don't think that's the case now. Sark can call an effective offense and PK was widely considered a homerun because he had been successful for years at UW. Sark the head coach is an unknown despite some people's insistence that getting sober and working under Saban couldn't possibly provide an opportunity to improve on his previous stints as head coach. If we can really take advantage of the portal and overhaul the roster this year then Sark has a chance. If not we can continue this discussion with the next coach. Because you're right, 4-5 years isn't going to happen in the world today. This year is on the players, imo. And I think that's pretty clear based on recent developments. Let's see what years 2 and 3 bring without overhauling the staff assuming things are moving in the right direction. Year 4 should be very good 10+ wins and if not then make changes.
  7. Agreed, and for the short term that worked. Manny's scheme worked originally as well. But can it hold up after coaches have a year or two of film to scheme around? Manny's obviously didn't. We don't know about Robinson's defense because he was let go with Mack. PK went for years fielding a pretty salty defense with Washington. I don't think he forgot how to coach and unlike Manny Diaz, he actually had an extended history of success prior to being hired meaning offensive coordinators knew his scheme. Is he maybe too stubborn in sticking to his scheme instead of adjusting to his personnel...maybe that's the case, maybe it isn't. But that also depends on whether you take a short term fix view or a long term view and whether you think the problems are all coaching or at least in part on the players. If he wants his scheme to be effective, the players have to live it and practice it and learn how to execute it under live fire. That takes time (more than a few months of practice and 9 games). Unfortunately a lot of our fanbase is like asking a 7 year old if they want a ice cream now or a bicycle in a week. They'll take the ice cream. Do what's best right now, right now, right now. Not tomorrow, right fucking now. You never get the bike if you can't have the least bit of patience. You don't build a culture like that, you don't build build consistency like that, you don't develop player leadership like that. So I'll give PK the benefit of the doubt for now, no matter how frustrating it is (and I was screaming how much he sucks in this last game). If we aren't seeing the benefits of learning the same system towards the end of next season, then maybe its a different discussion we're having.
  8. A bandaid. Sure, it would be easy to simplify the scheme and it probably would help some right now. Do we want a bandaid or do we want to actually fix the problem? I'd prefer to get players in and keep them in the same system for a few seasons to see what they can do once they truly grasp the system. I realize in this day and age of instant gratification, that's an unpopular opinion, but its the only way to truly fix things. It will be painful. Depending on who portals after the season, next years' defense may be just as bad as this year. But if the system works (and PK has a pretty good track record that it does), then for me its worth the short term pain to get it right.
  9. What if a player is running wide open and they don't throw his way or they throw his way and its out of bounds or its on target and he fails to catch it. I'd say that primarily is what is happening in the pass game. Which in turn kills the run game because it isn't much of a threat if we can't execute consistently. We make any one or two of those during the last 4 games and we likely win because it completely changes the dynamics of the game. It opens up the run, it puts the opponent further down and makes them one dimensional. And again, how many different assignments have these players had over the last 6 years. Someone posted above that Okafor has had 5 oline coaches in 6 years. WTF do you expect when he's learning something different every year? Instead of consistency and working on identifying the correct assignment and making the play, they stand there looking confused as shit. You think that's on the coaches. I think that's the result of a turnstile of coaches. You don't teach during the season, you execute what you have been taught. These guys haven't had enough time to learn and practice and practice and practice until it becomes routine. And with the OL especially, it only takes 1 of 5 guys to miss their assignment to blow the play up. Repetition is the key. Dump the bad, non-motivated players and start the rebuild with continuity for the next 2-3 years and it will pay off.
  10. Did they not? What did they say in the locker room and at practice the last few weeks? Seems like Sark got into it with J. Moore before this. I doubt he was the only one he was riding hard. This wasn't Bo Davis just being mad. This was a coaching staff decision to send a message in a different manner because players weren't getting it. I've seen a lot of jokes about this being 4D chess and this leak being orchestrated. I actually don't doubt that. The players may not care if the staff calls them out in practice, but now they see it going public and seeing the response from the media, fans, and most importantly former players. They know whose side EVERYONE is on. Hopefully that's enough motivation for some of these guys. The rest can leave. I hope the staff is following up on this and meeting with each player individually to deliver the message and either get buy in, or tell them to pack their bags. That simple. If its 5 guys that leave, great. If its 25, even better. Get rid of the anchor that is unmotivated players and lack of player leadership. Painful in the short term, yes. Critical to the long term success of the program, absolutely.
  11. But the point is some players are not motivated and we seem to have a very high percentage of those. It has been a systemic issue for a long time. So blaming a first year coach for them not being hungry isn't really the correct focus. The players have been in a turnstile for the better part of the last decade. There is no consistency. We have a long standing culture of being soft. Is Sark the answer? Maybe, maybe not. But I see progress on offense with respect to the system. Players are not executing. That may ultimately be on the coaches, but there's no way to tell at this stage. You yourself just provided an example that your highly motivated group had a lot of success because the players knew what success looked like and how to work to achieve that success. Your second group of players wasn't motivated and didn't have success. Players. Is it on the coaches to get them motivated, yes. But if you're handed a lot of players who aren't motivated, which appears to be the case, just how much can you do to motivate them? There's only so much. Our team doesn't have motivated players and they don't have any motivated leaders to help implement the change in culture. So is the "regression" as you call it due to Sark and staff's inability to motivate as well as Tom Herman or is there a chance that its due to the fact that the actual player leaders that Tom Herman had (see Sam E, Sam C, and Ossai) are no longer with the program and that lack of leadership while implementing a new system is why the team isn't performing as well? Our talent level is down across the board at very key areas. If those three players are on the team, I think this team looks better than last year's Herman team and as a result they would magically look more motivated. These coaches have not had long to teach their system, teach individual responsibilities for the position and change the culture. Those things take time, especially with a group of players that haven't had much in the way of coaching consistency since they arrived on campus. Any system is going to look like shit at first. We have some talent (possibly overrated), but not as much as the recruiting rankings would otherwise suggest. Especially critical juniors and seniors who should be providing leadership to the younger players and helping to establish the culture needed to effectively implement new schemes and a new system. In fact, recent events have shown that we seem to have the opposite of leadership. It is counterproductive to simply blame coaching when those other deficiencies are so prevalent. Give them some time. Sark knows what a healthy lockerroom and 2-deep roster looks like. On offense he's already showing signs of scheming players open. I see a LOT of lack of execution on the players parts - and not deficiencies in the scheme. You can't scheme around players not making plays, you can only scheme to put them in a position to make plays. Its up to the players to execute. They aren't. On defense, the players are clearly confused, standing around, whiffing on tackles. EXACTLY what you would expect with players attempting to implement a new system without ANY player leadership. Our coaches clearly care. Bo Davis is a very good coach and recruiter. He cares immensely as we've seen. There's no way that message was delivered in a Bo Davis bubble. That message has been discussed amongst all the coaches, including Sark, and they know what they are faced with and know they need a roster overhaul. Bo Davis was just the one delivering the message the ENTIRE staff wanted to deliver. Fundamental changes to the culture of a program are tough and painful. They are time consuming. They require buy in. We keep trying something new every few years because we are impatient. I have no problem with Strong or Herman being fired. If a position group isn't getting it done (WRs), then maybe consider a change there. But saying PK can't coach defense is incredibly short sighted. He's proven he can do it over an extended period of time at a very high level. He was considered a homerun hire by pretty much everyone. He didn't forget how to coach. WRs running wide open game after game despite our lack of O-line and QB shows me Sark can scheme an offense. Constantly bitching about seven win Steve or Steve Quitkowski just a few games in does nothing but seed doubt within the program, resulting in the coach feeling like they are on the hot seat and making dramatic changes to coordinators/staff which only continue the cycle of inconsistency.
  12. Can I like this post and give you the finger at the same time? This is my concern dude.
  13. You seem like you'd be a Mike Stoops fan. You don't know what or how often or in what manner Sark says anything to the players. He's coaching the team and running the offense, he doesn't need to spend time berating every player all the time (which he would be with this group). It loses its effectiveness if all he's doing is screaming all the time. It also wouldn't make a bit of difference when its obvious we have a large group of players who don't give much of a shit. I don't know if Sark was on that bus or not, but he sure as shit didn't shut Bo Davis down and tell him not to invite players to leave the program. I very much believe that message was delivered with Sark's full knowledge. It also helps when you can replace that player with someone just as good - a luxury Saban has that we don't.
  14. It would be great if more of the former players would follow Babers' lead here. The more pressure on this group of players the better - Give a shit or get the fuck out. I've seen more receivers running open this season than in the last 30 years combined. That tells me that despite a shit OL and JAG QB, the staff is scheming for some success and the players aren't executing. Not to say the staff is blameless, they've had some bad performances themselves, but its hard to continually make chicken salad out of chicken shit. On defense, I'd hope PK would try to better scheme around the player deficiencies. But he's shown that his system can be effective with the right players. We don't have those players right now, so the system is going to fail spectacularly as we've seen. Roster turnover is needed. Not sure he survives unless a portal miracle happens. I think Sark and the rest of the staff completely underestimated the rot and stench dragging this program down (starting from the very top). He was probably too green to see it. Urban saw it and passed despite an enormous offer. The culture of this team is only going to change with massive turnover. Start playing young, hungry players who may not be as good this season, but care enough to continue to work their asses off to get better for next year. Anyone on the team who doesn't have that fire should be directly (one on one) invited to leave immediately. Sell the immediate playing time to HSers and go Chris Beard on the portal with a focus on personality/drive/fire/motivation over straight talent. Changing the culture is more important than simply increasing the talent level. Otherwise we'll keep rotating coaches every 3-4 years and never change regardless of the recruiting rankings.
  15. Getting slightly less stupid by the day. FAFO
  16. Also, pretty sure I posted a review of my Gorilla watch previously, but I really like it. Very unique design. I dig squarish watches It's quite large but wears very comfortable. I have 7.5" wrists and while it doesn't overhang it isn't far off. Love the auto-themed hour markers actually being the minutes up to 60 like a speedometer. Absolutely has a presence and will get comments. Mine is the Fastback Galaxy Blue. They have released quite a few new options since I got this one. The Wandering hours versions are definitely something I'd consider in the future. Such a cool complication. Also has a great website that you can easily select the watch and rotate through strap options.
  17. I can't vouch for these but I'm thinking about getting one. Apparently based in Austin. Saw it on the Gorilla Watches website. The guys who started Gorilla both came from AP, so hopefully they aren't promoting complete shit. Pricing seems to be mid range Wolf. 3 watch winder is 899. https://juvoluxury.com/products/juvo-a3 Review from a few years ago is very positive. https://wornandwound.com/hands-juvo-a4-watch-winder/ They look very nice and are apparently well built.
  18. I have come to accept the lyrics are never going to be great. And I generally dislike Pitchfork, but this statement rang particularly true and sums up why I don't care that much. [quote]Instead of sitting at the front of the music, Grandcuiel’s words drape over his songs like a thin film so that they essentially disappear. [/quote] On this album the lyrics are a little more distinguishable because of the reasons you stated. But overall, its more the tone than the actual lyrics that works so well with the music. I'll also give you that some of the songs are slightly more "boring" than previous albums, but in addition to the 3 songs I mentioned, there are several others that are really good. Nothing I would consider a clunker and I can certainly listen to the entire album front to back. Overall, its pretty damn great and even if it falls short of other WoD albums for some.
  19. And Wasted and Change are almost as good.
  20. No shit. Occasional Rain may be one of my favorite songs of all time. Cannot wait to see them in January. Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk
  21. Sorry man, I can't help you. Been on a hiatus for a while Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk
  22. Awesome. AT will be my next watch I think. Incredible value for a great watch. IMO it's the best all around everyday watch. Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk
  23. Watched the first episode with my daughter. She enjoyed it. Big bonus, no laugh track. It isn't groundbreaking but decidedly better than most of the one liner laugh track garbage in that genre. Cute puppy. I think most kids 10 or 11 and under would enjoy it. Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk
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