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Texas will make a playoff run next year


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54 minutes ago, sushihorn said:

I'm a lot less worried about the DL than I was before the Sugar Bowl.  Graham and Ossai were studs.  McCullough gave us good snaps at DE.  So did Roach, who even played some NT also in pass rushing situations.  At one point, the front was Shark, Roach (NT) and Omenihu.  Wilbon showed he could hold the point against a really good OL and Coburn got some play there as well.

It's the OL that is more of a concern.  Cosmi and Shack return but 3 starters graduate.  Kerstetter can fill one spot and Okafor is likely at the other after a RS year.  But that 5th spot and especially depth are big issues in my mind.

Coburn was mauling dudes. Excited about him next season. 

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14 minutes ago, ChickenSandwich said:

Coburn was mauling dudes. Excited about him next season. 

Coburn didn't get his name called that much but the traffic jam inside when he was on the field spoke volumes.  Everybody who contributed to 72 yds on 30 attempts for the best rushing attack in the secsec deserves praise.

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36 minutes ago, ChickenSandwich said:

1-2 impact Juco Transfers on each line would go a long way towards depth. 

Whats the word on Hudson?  Medical retirement or giving it a go?

Depth, shit, we need a JUCO/Transfer for OT, OG, TE, and a Tre Watson replacement for Offense. 

We need a starting DE for defense. 

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I tried to look at the numbers of who was playing DL during the game after I saw Coburn was in early. Couldn't really see all that well who got how much playing time. What I did see was what we used to see with Poona, where rushers would get stuck three yards behind the LOS with nowhere to go. DL ain't gonna be the problem. Linebacker won't be the problem. Depth maybe, but we should be back to doing what Orlando does, which is dominate. We have athletes.

Big concern isn't even O-line for me. Average is good enough, as we just saw in New Orleans. Depth a concern obviously. But Sam is like Colt with his pocket presence and ability to move the ball when the pocket breaks down. We move the ball easily enough, even sacks don't really hurt most of the time.

Main concern is this fucking way we give up leads every single game. Two touchdowns and the team just fucking quits. Some of it is Herman, he turtled bad a couple times. But some is the players not giving it 100%. We should be running up the score, not sitting on a lead. If it doesn't change, we'll lose games we shouldn't. That OU comeback was embarrassing. We let Kansas score 17 in the 4th quarter. That shit has to stop. 

Maybe the team has "learned to win" but they haven't learned to win the big one yet IMO. We physically dominated Georgia, so against anyone other than those stupid toilet paper people we can win. Georgia showed that we really have great coaches.

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Corner and o-line will be biggest question marks next year.  If we want to get through the season we will need to pick up a grad transfer or two on the line just for sufficient depth in case of an injury or general wear and tear. If Jones comes back our safety depth should be good enough to help offset some of the growing pains of having inexperienced corners.

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I think Texas will be in the discussion later in the year than we were this year.

Concerning is Herman led teams' propensity to serve up a real stinker out of nowhere(Maryland, OSU) and their tendency to  gravitate towards close games in an offensive conference.

Also, until I see otherwise, Texas is not going to get a favorable selection committee bounce that OU always seems to get.

I think conference championship is the goal.

At this point I am just glad we have actual football to discuss and debate along with a consistent program vision, as opposed to the complete confusion of the later Mack years and CS tenures.

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4 hours ago, Gene Parmesan said:

Are heat exhaustion issues chronic or compounding like concussions? 

Not a doctor, but from personal experience it seems to me that there is a lot of variability from person to person, probably based on genetic inclinations. Some people handle extreme temperatures better than others, and even they occasionally succumb. They are less likely to have repeat occurrences than folk who can't handle them at all to start with.

This information is not to be used for wagering purposes. Mileage may vary.

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1 hour ago, Jiggy-Z said:

At this point I am just glad we have actual football to discuss and debate along with a consistent program vision, as opposed to the complete confusion of the later Mack years and CS tenures.

Beats the hell out of trying to figure out another different way to say "well that was disappointing."

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4 hours ago, Thetexashammer said:

I tried to look at the numbers of who was playing DL during the game after I saw Coburn was in early. Couldn't really see all that well who got how much playing time. What I did see was what we used to see with Poona, where rushers would get stuck three yards behind the LOS with nowhere to go. DL ain't gonna be the problem. Linebacker won't be the problem. Depth maybe, but we should be back to doing what Orlando does, which is dominate. We have athletes.

Big concern isn't even O-line for me. Average is good enough, as we just saw in New Orleans. Depth a concern obviously. But Sam is like Colt with his pocket presence and ability to move the ball when the pocket breaks down. We move the ball easily enough, even sacks don't really hurt most of the time.

Main concern is this fucking way we give up leads every single game. Two touchdowns and the team just fucking quits. Some of it is Herman, he turtled bad a couple times. But some is the players not giving it 100%. We should be running up the score, not sitting on a lead. If it doesn't change, we'll lose games we shouldn't. That OU comeback was embarrassing. We let Kansas score 17 in the 4th quarter. That shit has to stop. 

Maybe the team has "learned to win" but they haven't learned to win the big one yet IMO. We physically dominated Georgia, so against anyone other than those stupid toilet paper people we can win. Georgia showed that we really have great coaches.

this is all on the coaches and is by far the #1 macro issue.  Why do they go soft? Some sort of insecurity? Playing not-to-lose can be very destructive and it's not about conditioning or depth since this occurred vs. Kansas and Tulsa. 

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Texas has not yet learned how to play strong after gaining a decent lead.  They also have at times played down to their competition a little too much.  I have mild concerns about the trenches and maybe depth at a few positions, but with a healthy Sam and generally good health, I think this will be a pretty good team.  I would say Top 10 should be a very realistic goal,  and getting a playoff slot would likely take a little luck in avoiding a bad loss and/or winning a game that should have been lost but for some breaks.

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Lack of explosive plays hurts as well. Easier to keep your foot on the throat when you don’t have to rely on 7+play drives to score. 

Zero plays above 50 yards speaks volumes. They got the max out of this offense this year and maximized the strengths and limited the weaknesses. 

Really a great job by the coaching staff. Many mocked Herman at the Maryland postgame press conference for swearing this was a completely different team even though the result was the same. Then he was pressured about his decision to stick with Sam after the Tulsa game. Again he said he knew something we didn’t. Remember Chip Brown saying if the off-season comp was close, why not give Shane a shot?

The staff bought into themselves and showed what they believed to be true. 

Future is bright. Go recruit. 

Edited by ChickenSandwich
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3 minutes ago, Dr. Beeper said:

They’ll be better than Hager and Omenihu and we will be fine without Nelson. I’m not worried about D line or D backs. I’m marginally worried about linebackers, and really worried about OL and running backs. 

Mmmm Omenihu was big for us this year... but Bimage will be an overall upgrade to Hager. I also think if Coburb has a good Spring we won’t miss Nelson quite as much. What will suck is if Graham doesn’t take the next step. He got abused some against the run. 

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9 hours ago, gmr548 said:

I don't think we're going to have enough depth on both lines to get through the schedule unbeaten or with one loss. 9 regular season wins and a B12 CCG appearance should be the floor though. We'll see, should be fun.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk
 

Agreed.  Look at the recruiting.  We were around #20 Mack's last year with a small class (which Strong mostly ran off).  Strong was a #25 or so, then a #9 based on 3 big name Florida players, two of which never showed up for the first day of class, then a #25 or so.  We had one good class by Hermann.  Next year we will have a 2nd.  So our depth will be very young.

Its possible.  We could get lucky and avoid injuries.  It could be an odd year like this year where there aren't a lot of teams at the top tier.  Its like Alabama, Clemson and a bunch of 3 and 4 loss teams and Notre Dame who would have had 3 or 4 losses if their opponents didn't all seem to be down this year (USC, FSU, etc.).

But the odds are we'll lose one or two or three and not get in the playoffs.  2020 could be a very good year though.

 

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30 minutes ago, Dr. Beeper said:

This is kinda what I’m talking about. Omenihu was good this year. He’s nowhere near the level of Robison, Orakpo, Kindle or Okafor. If you want to make the playoffs, upgrade the talent on each line. We will not lose much with him gone and we will improve with Hager being gone. 

Hager was DL only because we were so thin there.  He was out of position.  Should have been playing linebacker.  We really need depth there.

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7 hours ago, Neonmoon said:

Will Herman break his lose to a team he really shouldn’t lose to curse?

I don't think he is a Richt clone. First off, no one will accuse him of being too nice or humble.

He is young and developing, like his team. The coaching was way different at the end of the season than it was at the beginning or even the middle.

Then again, he had more time to prepare, and it was a different offensive style that Georgia played vs  the  more talented QBs the B12 presents to him in the regular season.

Fromm didn't really test/expose our secondary like most B12 decent QBs and receivers do.

 

 I want to believe Herman is learning and adapting despite his own strong-willed persona.

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Also -- Texas plays to their competition. In fact the better the competition, the better they look. What I gather from that is they have the talent and attitude, they just don't have the depth and identity. Now, they have identity. All they lack is depth, and by next year after the new class gets hardened a little, they will not lack that.

This is textbook 3 year plan stuff, and I see them either right on schedule or a little ahead.

They're a top 5 team now. Yearly.

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The hope in my mind long-term is when Alabama is visiting us in 2022, we will be a program that is ready to fight them with fairly equal talent across the board.  Build towards that type of consistency over the next few years as 4-5 straight recruiting classes start to cycle some depth all around.

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1 hour ago, ADHD said:

Also -- Texas plays to their competition. In fact the better the competition, the better they look. What I gather from that is they have the talent and attitude, they just don't have the depth and identity. Now, they have identity. All they lack is depth, and by next year after the new class gets hardened a little, they will not lack that.

This is textbook 3 year plan stuff, and I see them either right on schedule or a little ahead.

They're a top 5 team now. Yearly.

As @Needs More Bourbon wrote on Twitter - lose small, win small, win big

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12 hours ago, Whatever said:

^^^^^^^This is what my head is telling me.

My heart wants to agree with the OP though.

Honestly I think we are 2-3 years of top 10 recruiting classes away from having the necessary depth and athletes.

We could catch lightning in a bottle next year, though as we will have the best QB & WR tandem in the league to begin the season.

 

We seem to be ahead of schedule, so a playoff run isn't out of the question. What is questionable is if we can win our first playoff game.

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I suppose there could be several explanations for playing to competition and losing WTF games.  But I would like to see Herman win decisively against sentient 'dogs like LaTech to show that he and the team have moved past that.  As I believe Huck noted, it's not just important for our record, it develops the youngsters and saves wear and tear on the vets. 

 

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26 minutes ago, Spider2YBanana said:

We seem to be ahead of schedule, so a playoff run isn't out of the question. What is questionable is if we can win our first playoff game.

it's probably going to be Alabama #1 if UT makes the playoffs where the Horns will be #4 (my guess).

Other than Bama, Herman preps like a true MENSA when he has 3 or 4 weeks, so they'll beat anyone - including Clemson, but not Saban. It's when Herman has only 1 week or doesn't focus that UT loses.

2019 college football is shaping up to be weak since Notre Dame will not make it and the Pac12 is trash. OU is out.  I'll put UT's chances to make the CFP at 75%.  Look at LSU at home and them on the road, 2 different teams. UT will be sky high for that game, injury free and the LSU QB is garbage. We'll stuff the run, their offense is nothing really and Texas will prevail Barring injury, Texas will see the CFP. 

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Well we just won the Sugar Bowl in year 2 in dominating fashion against a team within an eyelash (2 years running) of Bama. Which puts us on that very same stage. Anything less at this point is underachieving.

In Mack Brown's 2nd year we got smoked in the Cotton Bowl.

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4 minutes ago, Dr. Beeper said:

We are not ahead of schedule. We are likely a little behind because of the deplorable QB situation Charlie left us in. 

Most significantly successful coaches have a program humming by year 2. 

Saban was 10-3 and won the Sugar Bowl in year 2 at LSU.  Year 3 was worse.  In 5 years at Michigan State he never hit the 10 win mark.  Only at Alabama did he turn a program around faster than Herman has.

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17 minutes ago, Dr. Beeper said:

We are not ahead of schedule. We are likely a little behind because of the deplorable QB situation Charlie left us in. 

Most significantly successful coaches have a program humming by year 2. 

True. I guess I was thinking since Charlie didn't leave Hon with a bunch of plus players that he made the best out of a bad situation. Hence why Foster, Cook, and Sterns were are starters. 

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9 minutes ago, NowThis said:

it's probably going to be Alabama #1 if UT makes the playoffs where the Horns will be #4 (my guess).

Other than Bama, Herman preps like a true MENSA when he has 3 or 4 weeks, so they'll beat anyone - including Clemson, but not Saban. It's when Herman has only 1 week or doesn't focus that UT loses.

2019 college football is shaping up to be weak since Notre Dame will not make it and the Pac12 is trash. OU is out.  I'll put UT's chances to make the CFP at 75%.  Look at LSU at home and them on the road, 2 different teams. UT will be sky high for that game, injury free and the LSU QB is garbage. We'll stuff the run, their offense is nothing really and Texas will prevail Barring injury, Texas will see the CFP. 

I honestly think Herman can beat anyone with whatever he has at his disposal. It's the terrible teams that he has trouble against, for whatever reason.

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37 minutes ago, Spider2YBanana said:

I honestly think Herman can beat anyone with whatever he has at his disposal. It's the terrible teams that he has trouble against, for whatever reason.

he loses focus, doesn't take it dead seriously, the minor games. It's a kind of arrogance that leads to laziness and poor results. 

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5 minutes ago, DreadHead said:

I want to beat OU twice and get Big 12 championship... that is all I'm hoping for, anything better is a bonus. Expecting to be in the playoffs is crazy talk. 

I don't think anyone truly expects to be in the playoffs, but it's a real possibility that we make it. We have to learn to beat osu and ou on the regular first, though.

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57 minutes ago, Spider2YBanana said:

I honestly think Herman can beat anyone with whatever he has at his disposal. It's the terrible teams that he has trouble against, for whatever reason.

I think it's allocation of resources.  Herman clearly understands the importance of Texas-OU.  He devotes extra resources to that game and they have to come from somewhere.  Definitely extra staff time and probably practice time as well  But also Sam's carries were allocated to the most important games.  15 vs USC, 18 in Dallas, 14 at Jerryworld and 19 in the Sugar Bowl.  Very few other games reached double digits. 

Against Maryland Sam had only 6 carries (not counting the 1 sack).  He had no keepers on ZR looks and only 1 designed QB run until the 4th Q.  That sure looks to me like an attempt to minimize the number of hits on Sam against a lesser opponents and it backfired.  Texas had a better scheme and slightly more talent than Maryland.  That was not enough to overcome a (-3) turnover margin.

You see exactly the opposite in Texas-OU and the Sugar Bowl.  Hopefully acquiring more resources, especially recruits will allow Herman to allocate appropriate resources to big games without starving the rest too badly.

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1 hour ago, Spider2YBanana said:

We seem to be ahead of schedule, so a playoff run isn't out of the question. What is questionable is if we can win our first playoff game.

I’ll settle for winning our first game of the fucking season and starting 1-0 for the first time under Herman first.....

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4 minutes ago, sushihorn said:

I think it's allocation of resources.  Herman clearly understands the importance of Texas-OU.  He devotes extra resources to that game and they have to come from somewhere.  Definitely extra staff time and probably practice time as well  But also Sam's carries were allocated to the most important games.  15 vs USC, 18 in Dallas, 14 at Jerryworld and 19 in the Sugar Bowl.  Very few other games reached double digits. 

Against Maryland Sam had only 6 carries (not counting the 1 sack).  He had no keepers on ZR looks and only 1 designed QB run until the 4th Q.  That sure looks to me like an attempt to minimize the number of hits on Sam against a lesser opponents and it backfired.  Texas had a better scheme and slightly more talent than Maryland.  That was not enough to overcome a (-3) turnover margin.

You see exactly the opposite in Texas-OU and the Sugar Bowl.  Hopefully acquiring more resources, especially recruits will allow Herman to allocate appropriate resources to big games without starving the rest too badly.

God I hope this happens sooner rather than later 

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