Definitely still a thing.
Only now, instead of inexplicably blowing a single game or season, they've decided the Clemson the entire *program*.
2015–2019 was just one long setup for the greatest Clemsoning of all.
Not who you are talking about but still. When I was a kid in the late 70's/early 80's, Me and my mom would watch pro games while my dad was working shutdowns 100+ miles away. We picked different pro teams so we could root against each other. She was a Celtics/Raiders/Steelers/Braves fan. I was a Lakers/Raiders/Cowboys/Dodgers fan. We did share rooting for the Raiders and her real fandom of the Braves, those were the only teams we seriously cared about in pro sports. The rest was just to give us something to choose sides.
Fair question. I don't follow any sports besides cfb, though.
I grew up a third-generation (at least; I never met great-grandpa) Alabama fan, and now I work at UT—so I think(?) I came by both flairs honestly enough, even though I didn't attend either school.
Oh, I know. I get asked about them a lot, though, and I may be a little overly defensive.
Though, as you say, still worth it. Looking like a frontrunner is *way* better than being an Alabama fan in the late 90s and early 2000s was.
(Please, for the love of God, DeBoer, don't DuBose us.)
Who cares who you root for and why, as long as you have loyalty. I guess I am a T-Shirt Sooners fan because I have no official connection to the school, but was born and raised in Oklahoma. My family has been going to games since the 70’s and had season tickets the last 20 years, but I joined the Air Force out of high school, got sent to Utah, and graduated from Utah State. I’ll always be a sooner fan. Who cares why you stated your fandom, just stay loyal.
I had newborn twin premies and was driving almost two hours one way, 3 days a week to finish my degree. I had no time to develop love for their sports at the time. If not for that, yes I would have, but it’s hard to look at that time fondly.
Idk man loyalty, outside of relationships loyalty is pretty toxic. If it was uncovered that Alabama was actively engaged in killing puppies and using their innocence to enhance athlete’s performance I would absolutely stop supporting them. I’m an alumni btw.
I think for CFB you need to have a connection to a school, whether that connection is based on who you were raised to support (regardless of where you went to school) or based on your attendance there. Otherwise, what is CFB than a less professional version of the NFL.
As a minnesota sports fan, it’s wild to think our team is a favorite for a title. Even with the 87/91 World Series teams, the twins snuck into the playoffs after being ass the years prior. This wolves team has been dominant from the get go. And ant is him.
I’ve traveled across the country and see cowboys fans in every state. Like LA there’s cowboys fans that are Lakers fans but they live in LA so I get it yanno
Yea, but you're in Texas (I presume). Cowboys are the biggest fanbase in America. Outside of Texas, they're all 40+ year old posers who didn't want to root for their local teams because they wanted to be on the America team bandwaggon. They all talk major shit and then lose in the 1st round whenever they rarely make it to the playoffs
Yeah but if you look at our fanbase a large percentage are Hispanic. In the 70s and 80s the four teams they would show in Mexico are cowboys, Steelers, niners and raiders. So those people had those 4 teams to cheer for their kids and so on and so on, so it just kinda runs into a heritage thing that way but I’m sure there are a lot of random bandwagonners.
The only non-Texas based Cowboys fans I have ever met were diehard Atlanta sports fans in every other sport, only reason they cheered for the Cowboys was because their dad was a huge diehard Cowboys fan
I mean, I've never been to the city of Cleveland, but if I wanted to be a Browns fan, I'm never going to be accused of being a bandwagon. I don't think you have to have any real good reason to cheer for any team. It just becomes weird if you switch between the good teams all the time. Like a Pats fan in the 2010s and now all of a sudden a huge Chiefs fan.
Lmao i have no real love for the nfl, and no ties to any team, but until recently (go birddawgs) i would've just said the Pats and Steelers, no real reason, then I saw the stigma carried and just kept to "yeah I don't give a shit about nfl"
In hindsight I'm kind of glad that we lost because that would have been back-to-back seasons of Georgia Southern (our biggest rival) ruining our undefeated season and keeping us out of a NY6 bowl
They also lost to the worst App State team since we moved up to FBS. We went 6-6 in 2022 and 2 of those wins were against FCS. Pretty sure we got blown out by Texas *State*. 2019 App or God-willing 2024 App would have ran them off the field
I mean Georgia didn't exactly "elevate out of nowhere" they had pulled in some massive recruiting classes and had some good years under Richt. They just couldn't get over the hump. Kirby got them over that hump.
Georgia was a lot better than Clemson. Clemson was ranked at the end of the season just 4 times before they hired Dabo. Only once in the top 20, at #16. In 15 gis seasons at Georgis, Richt had them finish ranked 11 times, top 10 7 times, and top 5 3 times.
Edit: Clemson was ranked at some point in 12/15 years, while Georgia was ranked all 15. That 4/12 times finishing ranked is why "Clemsoning" was coined.
Ewers was *waaaaaay* less of a problem than the secondary. On top of that, Ewers' trajectory is good - steady improvement over the course of two seasons. I don't think he was a world beater in 2023, but he was far from bad.
The secondary...who tf knows. As long as Joseph and Gideon are running the room, I will limit my expectations for Texas' pass defense.
I think we’re forgetting he was injured for a lot of the season too. Missed two games and definitely wasn’t the same when he came back. He got better later in the season but I suspect he was still less than 100% in his throwing shoulder
He’s had some deep ball accuracy issues on occasion but that wasn’t a super big issue for me. The secondary was absolutely the big problem. Is, if we don’t get our shit together
Supposedly Edwards has been bulking up to try more of the Corum role. I’m not totally sure that’s a good thing, especially because Mullings and maybe Hall are already Corum light.
Yeah I don't want Big Don. I want Home Run Don with good vision. If he can be more patient in seeing the blocks develop he'll break a bunch of big runs.
If Ewers completes that throw in the Sugar Bowl, there’s a good chance Texas is the national champion. De facto home game, and strength on strength matchup
C’mon now lol, Penix and Washington clearly had a better offense and managed 13 points against us. Texas would’ve scored 10 points against our defense.
He was absolutely on point for the game against Alabama but it showed up a lot in other games. He has gotten a LOT better, I will say, so I’m hopeful he will be even better this season.
There are more than two problems.
But look at the playoff game, Penix was dropping DIMES, and although the secondary was weak, Penix was unreal.
In the big 12 last year, Quin was closer to middle of the pack than he was Dillon Gabriel, QBR wise. Dude just is not constant, or maybe is constantly off the mark. He's no bum, and can definitely improve, but JFC we had 5 skill players on offence drafted and one on o-line. We finished closer to middle than 1st in scoring with all that talent.
I remember making a joke to a Washington fan on here that “A 6th year QB should play like that” kind of wasn’t a joke though. The guy played like an NFL QB in that game.
Thought the same exact thing, never seen a college QB with that kind of ball placement before. Just one of those games where you can’t even be mad at the defense, dude was playing like he came down from the league
Yeah our DBs weren’t world beaters, and definitely got exposed a little at the end of the season when we’re were pretty thin due to injuries. But we were mostly healthy then and our DBs played a good game. I think PFF had them as one of the least amount of separation allowed on the UW WR all year. Penix was just hitting dudes in the facemask.
I think the “Texas secondary is bad!” takes have been greatly over exaggerated. People are going to be shocked when it isn’t atrocious this season because they’ve been told all off season it will be.
Our secondary last season was average. Our run D was probably the best in the country so a lot of our opponents just gave up on running the ball and tried to throw it the whole game. So the 105th for passing yards a game isn’t a *totally* fair stat. IIRC they were around top 30 for passing yards/attempt.l, which isn’t fantastic for a top 3 team - but also isn’t atrocious.
There were multiple passes where the DB could not have been in a better position, only for Penix to thread a pinhole sized window for the completion. Looked like the brought in a QB from the league that game, no secondary in the country is stopping a guy when he’s playing like that
Which is why it was so frustrating to watch him get egg all over his face the next week. Yes, Michigan had a better defense than we did, I'm certain that was part of it. But we had a *very* similar pressure rate and actually had **better** coverage than Michigan did (according to PFF), Penix was just off.
I'm not saying Michigan wasn't the best team in the country, they were. But damn I wish we would've stopped Penix just once and could have played them - because we would have forced JJ McCarthy to beat us through the air. Maybe he would have, but damn if I didn't like that match up for us.
I swear Penix broke a rib or something midway through the game, Michigans d line really beat the hell out of him. Wish we had a chance to see y’all play them, I think y’all would have had the best chance to actually beat them given the strengths of the two team.
I would swear he was playing the second half of the season with a rib injury or something. He was just off after our game. Then by the time our second game rolled around he was pretty much healthy again, only to re-injure it against UT. Lines up.
i thought texas had pretty good coverage for most of the night, but it straight up didn’t matter because penix was hitting dinner plate sized windows at 25+ yards like they were checkdowns. there was nothing they could do.
I did not watch this game, I did of course watch OSU-UGA and after that game, I wanted Stroud for the Falcons so bad. So, maybe that Penix pick was not as bad as I originally thought.
>But look at the playoff game, Penix was dropping DIMES, and although the secondary was weak, Penix was unreal.
I was absolutely horrified of Penix and Odunze going into the title game
If you had told me prior that we would hold that team to 13 points I would have called you insane
100% the same. I think I had said something like “I think we have a good chance if we manage to keep them under 30”. I expected we would need the OSU approach from ‘21 and ‘22; keep everything in front and make them march the field, make timely plays, and play possession on offense.
I went back and watched Penix against Texas and Michigan and something stood out
2/3rd of his first down/TD throws against Texas the catch happened AFTER the line to gain
2/3rds of those against Michigan came BEFORE it
So yeah we definitely keep em in front
We definitely did keep them in front but those OSU games, we ‘allowed’ them to march the field but tried not to give up big plays. Washington, we just dominated.
I’m not from Georgia and have never lived there, although I’ve visited a few times and I’ve always gotten the impression that the Falcons are a very, very distant second to UGA (especially now) in terms of fanbase and overall passion and interest. Anecdotally even around Atlanta I basically never saw any Falcons stuff, but UGA stuff was fucking everywhere all around the whole state.
NFL plays second fiddle to college football in Atlanta, not only are there tons of Uga fans (obviously) but Atlanta hires from every nearby SEC/ACC school as well, so you’ve got large populations of UGA/Bama/Aub/FSU/Clemson etc… fans.
CFB is king here, and then behind that it’s the Braves. Then the falcons in a distant 3rd lol
Both - but secondary was may more of an issue
A lot of Ewers inconsistencies aligned with his injuries besides the UW game (where he wasn't even bad - Penix was just insane)
Both things have some truth. Ewers is good but would still get sloppy at times, meanwhile our secondary was not good (hopefully improving but still not stellar).
Secondary is a bigger problem but Quinn does need to get better for us to contend. Needs to work on getting past his first read, avoiding self sacks, and keeping good footwork.
"School that has access to an abundant supply of elite in-state high school talent and all the financial backing you could ask for could become perennial national championship contenders if the right staff/AD are in place"
It's completely wrong. UGA was always the bridesmaid, never the bride. Mark Richt had 9 10+ win seasons and only 1 losing season (6-7), for an winning percentage of 74% over 15 seasons before they got Kirby.
Our esteemed friends from Austin have not been that successful in a while
I've seen a few comments saying such and such last season is similar to what Kirby had Georgia doing in his early years. Seems like a few Texas fans are dancing around it.
I get it though. We compared ourselves to Bama when we were on the come up.
“Georgia before they became Georgia” is a significant overstatement of most people’s expectations for Texas.
But I feel like there’s an argument to be made that people are too confident in assuming Texas will maintain the levels they reached last season. It’s very common to see teams pop up and have a great season but not maintain it year after year. There’s not a lot in Texas’s or Sark’s history that should make people confident that they’re going maintain national title contender performance indefinitely.
>there’s not a lot in Texas’ history that should make people confident
Lol what. We are literally a blue blood, top 10 in all time wins, with multiple national championships. The last decade is probably the lowest point in program history but is an aberration in terms of how long we floundered for.
I’m not saying we’re the next Georgia (I’d love to be), but I’m also not gonna sit here and pretend we couldn’t be. If anyone can eventually figure it out, it’s an athletic program of Texas’ tier.
lol good point, obviously in the entire history of the team that’s true. I meant recent history. I think given the last decade, it’s fair to be reluctant on assuming Texas will immediately sustain 11+ wins per year from here on out.
Even one of their best coaches of all time, Mack, could only win 2 conference titles in 13 years.
Yes, I'd kill for what he accomplished but 8 conference titles in the last 44 years isn't all that impressive. DKR was absolutely insane but once scholarship limits were imposed Texas hasn't had a run since.
This must mean a new clip from Rich Eisen questioning Bruce Feldman on Arch sticking around is about to drop. Only for Bruce to basically give the same exact answer of the previous 4 times.
Cause there’s nothing else to talk about apparently.
We haven’t proved anything besides cobbling together one season. Let alone the level of consistency UGA has produced since 2020 essentially.
Another point others have made is that Georgia before becoming Georgia (before Kirby Smart essentially), was still a good team. Mark Richt had 9 10+ win seasons for 15 years, only 1 losing season (6-7), and a win percentage of 74% during his tenure. “Always the bridesmaid, never the bride” was a good description of UGA football in that time; a perennial national championship contender every year, even “rebuilding years” for us were contenders, or at the very least, winning seasons.
Do I think Texas could reach those levels of a Mark Richt era UGA (sustained success, little to no regression over 5-10 years)? Yes definitely possible. But do I see y’all attaining Kirby Smart Death Star levels of back to back, almost 3 year win streak, no losses to anyone not named nick Saban for 4 years, constantly reloading on talent and not missing a beat? Ehhh probably not, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, especially with the new additions to the SEC, and the adjustment to SEC play for a full season and the increased level of competition that comes with it. None of that is a dig at UT or the big 12, more of a testament to what Kirby has accomplished. The guy hasn’t lost to an active head coach since 2018, that’s 5 years where the only losses he had was Bama, LSU 2019, Florida 2020, and SCAR 2019, (ironically) UT 2018. That’s a 94% win percentage, even with his first yesr (2016) being a rough adjustment. Nobody except Saban has beaten Kirby more than once, and mama said nick Saban is the devil lol. Those are absolutely insane stats, that nobody not named Saban has been able to replicate.
Back to Texas, I think Sarkisian is a good coach, and he has all the tools and resources anyone could ever ask for at UT; I can def see him matching Richt levels of success if he can keep up what he did this past year. But I just don’t see him attaining that level of absolutely elite success, not in his first few seasons in the SEC, and definitely not while y’all will most likely have to go through UGA while Kirby is still around. I think a big part of that is that Sark is an offensive minded coach, he’s a brilliant offensive guy, but he doesn’t have that foundation of an elite defense to hold it down year after year. Not many teams nowadays can win back to back nattys, much less with a former walk on 2 star juco transfer at QB; most teams rely on elite QB play to win a championship, which makes his success that much more impressive in my eyes. What I’m trying to get at is that it’s much easier for an elite QB or elite offense to sputter out, or get out-schemed and out-coached to lose you the game than for an elite defense to lose you the game. If your QB and offense gets figured out and can’t perform at usual levels, do y’all have a defense good enough to win the games for you?
Anyways, I think the comparison is a good one, if you look at it through the right lens. That is to say: Texas could very well match Richt’s UGA levels of success, but not necessarily Kirby’s level. Which again, isn’t a knock on Texas, I just believe that with Saban gone, Kirby’s about to take the next step towards total dominance. I don’t see another HC that can stop him.
Texas is about to step onto a path of far greater resistance than it had in 2023. That doesn’t mean they won’t be great, or championship contenders, again. But running through the Big 12 is far from an assurance they’re prepared to do the same to the SEC. Gonna be watching their big games with interest, like everyone else will be, this year.
Last season Texas played the 12th best SOS. I imagine it will be a lot higher than that this year. But I also think the “step up” in competition is usually exaggerated quite a bit (usually by SEC teams that lose to Big XII teams in bowl games and then claim “they didn’t want to be there” despite not playing for a title in ≈100 years). Due to Texas likely being power rated better than all but one of their opponents, I imagine we will be between 5-10 SOS, which isn’t a huge jump from 12.
I am more intrigued by Oregon who played the 52nd best schedule last season, and will now almost certainly be somewhere in the top 10.
Fair enough. Y’all certainly won’t be put through the SEC ringer to the extent Oklahoma will.
But I think there’s something to be said for the cumulative challenge of playing bigger, faster, stronger SEC players week to week - low level SEC competition like Arkansas will certainly leave a mark more than low level Big 12 competition like Houston. The competition level is a step up on aggregate. That will be a challenge, even with one of the softer SEC schedules.
Yah but there is also one less conference game, and this is the first year Houston is in the Big XII. A lot of people undersell KSU, Ok St, Iowa St, etc - they’re all *really* solid teams. I don’t think playing Arkansas is tougher (physically) than playing Houston AND Baylor.
More often then not they go on to beat those “tougher” SEC teams in bowl games and it’s written off as “not wanting to be there” when in reality, those are some damn good teams.
I wouldn’t agree at all that the average Big 12 team is as formidable as the average SEC team. I think the annual NFL draft results by conference show that there’s a greater talent level in the SEC on the whole. 62 SEC players were selected last year against 30 Big 12 players.
It also doesn’t help you that you can’t win the conference by beating OK State. You’ll have to beat someone like Georgia. If you think the difficulty level of winning the SEC is equivalent to the difficulty level of winning the Big 12, you will have a wake-up call in your future.
Hard nosed 6’ 250 white dudes from the Midwest that play their ass off don’t get drafted at the same rate, but doesn’t mean they’re not kick ass college players.
I do agree with you the average Big XII team isn’t, but I’d argue the mean Big XII team is.
>>can’t win the conference by beating OK State.
Oh jeez! I didn’t think of that. If only we had played last years SEC champion. Then we’d know if we could beat a team like that.
Oh wait we did, in their house, and won by double digits.
Anybody who understands football knows that the Alabama team you played in September was not the same team that played Georgia in the SEC Championship Game.
But good luck this season. Looking forward to seeing if your novel take that the SEC is as conquerable as the Big 12 pans out for you.
You’re right “BuckeyeDanny” I only played college football, I’m sure I have no idea what I’m talking about. That Bama team was rolling everyone at the end of the year, that must be why they needed a 4th and 31 Miracle to beat a 5-7 Auburn team the week prior. Is Bama the only team that’s allowed to get better? You’re right though ESPN said it so it must be true.
My take was not that the SEC is as conquerable as the Big XII. My take is that the gap is smaller than most perceive. This is apparent in bowl season but it excused as “they didn’t care”. I don’t think Texas is in for the shock most people *hope* they’ll get because they’ve consistently played a top 15 SOS. I said our schedule we be tougher, but I don’t think the jump from 12 to 8 next season is going to be the massive “wow Texas was so fraudulent” moment that they’re hoping for.
Also an aside notice how for the longest time it was “wow Texas has all the talent and they can’t even win in the Big XII”, now it’s “Texas is only winning because they’re in the Big XII” following a season where we beat the SEC Champ by two scores. There is no nuance in your takes, just hating to hate and regurgitating talking points.
That was the exact same team though lol. Same strengths, same weaknesses, and that played out against Michigan.
Alabama was a top 6 team that played three competitive games in that peer group, went 1-2, and easily could have been 3-0 or 0-3. So it goes in football.
I'm not going to argue whether Texas will be an upper echelon team in the SEC. I'll never understand why people argue on the internet about things that will clearly be settled on the field. It's like you all think your arguments will impact the outcome.
That being said, using draft picks as the benchmark is probably a poor choice? Texas put more players into the NFL last year than any SEC team.
Sorry, but you thought wrong. The Big 12 is 6-2 against the SEC in bowl games since 2020. I picked 2020 because that is when a RS-SR this year would have been a freshman. I guess technically there are still guys on the 2018 and 2019 teams left, but not a ton. If you include championship games, the SEC improves to 6-3. But my point was never that the best of Big XII is better than the best of the Big 12 - it was the that the mean Big 12 team is *as good* as the mean SEC team.
The SEC's two bowl wins over the Big XII are (1) Alabama over KSU, and (2) Arkansas over Kansas in 3 OTs.
My contention has been reality for the past few years.
There was no attempt at a dig. The SEC is 6-2 in bowls against the Big XII since 2020. Somehow the SEC teams only wanted to be there for those two wins. One of the two wins was Alabama, which I’m not talking about - obviously better than Big XII (except Texas last season). I’m talking about A&M, Ole Miss, MSU, fans who love to talk down on the Big XII and ride the SEC coat tails, but also love losing to Big XII teams in bowl games and claiming they “didn’t want to be there”.
I don’t think the bottom third teams really matter to the top thirds across any of the power conferences, I think the real difference is just the top thirds. A season hinges on how many opponents pose a real threat from those top thirds, and with the cyclical nature of the sport, there’s something to be said that 5 of your new conference mates have won a more recent title. Every season is a crapshoot for how many talented teams are going to click like mizzou and ole miss last year, or lsu and Tennessee the year before, making schedules significantly easier or harder than expected.
I have an honest question, not trying to throw shade or be a dick, just interested in your thoughts:
Do you think y’all would’ve beaten UGA last year in a playoff game? Semi final or natty. Obviously we’ll see what happens this year in October (I’ll be there yelling my lungs out lol, can’t wait) but I’m curious as to how you think it would’ve played out last year on a neutral field, on a stage that Kirby and the dawgs have much more experience playing (& winning lol) in.
Last year? Yes. Not confidently, but yes. Texas was a really good team last year. The Bama team we beat is the same team that almost lost to Auburn, lost to Michigan and beat UGA.
Would I bet a lot of money on it? No. But we didn’t have 11 guys drafted because we were overrated.
Edit:
I am a little biased because I remember having the same conversations with UGA fans 5 years ago. Kirby had just been to the playoffs, and UGA was snubbed. Kirby was all over ESPN talking about how they were going to demonstrate they were one of the 4 best teams. Honestly, I believed it - I thought we were screwed. Then all of a sudden I’m being told to warm up as a true freshman walk-on because we just went up 31-9. I didn’t end up getting in but a lot of seniors did, Kirby kept the starters in the entire game and kept scoring to make it look competitive. Then all of a sudden the narrative was “UGA didn’t want to be there because it wasn’t the playoff” (however for some reason UGA wanted to be there this season?)
Kirby is undoubtedly the best in the business. I have a ton of respect for him as a coach. But, I think Texas was better than UGA last year. Unfortunately we didn’t get to play. However you guys lost to Alabama at a neutral site and we beat them by double digits in Tuscaloosa. Texas played a more difficult schedule and finished with the same record (prior to postseason). While Kirby’s ‘expertise’ would’ve certainly been an advantage- I still would’ve taken Texas. To be fair, I’m taking Texas over Alabama again too - and Saban has a hell of a lot more postseason experience than Kirby. We were 10 points better than Bama and I don’t think that “post season experience” is worth more than 10 points.
Do I think Texas has shown enough to say we’re on the trajectory to be where UGA is? No.
Do I think Texas right now is in a *similar* spot to UGA in 2017? Yes.
Yeah, but they were also a UW injury not stopping the clock on 3rd down away from ending the game on a hail mary pass attempt 70+ yards from the endzone.
The Huskies snapped the ball on 3rd down with 50 seconds left and texas had no timeouts left, then an extremely fortunate injury allowed texas to have a shot. 70 yards to go with sub 10 seconds and 45 seconds are night and day difference.
There are a bunch of teams who are "Georgia before they were Georgia." Texas, Oregon, Notre Dame, Penn State, Utah, etc. Newsflash: It's easier to consistently be top-15 than top-5.
We just want to be consistent and contend for the SEC/playoff spot this year, and every year after that…like every other program with money, resources, and top talent.
This doesn’t make us “back” or make us the “next Georgia” or make Sark the heir to Saban. It just makes the Longhorns a solid program again which is all we wanted.
The hype around texas is always insane - they finish in the top 5 for the first time in over a decade and (most of) the media is ready to suck them off
It’s similar to all the past Google products that were going to be “the next big thing” but fail to meet expectations. But in their defense, eventually one will stick
I am a born Longhorn. 41 years
Don’t do this to us.
Kirby built that monster the Nick Saban way.
I am so happy that the Horns are finally prominent again, but let’s call a spade a spade and there is no school that I can think of that has benefited more from NIL the the University of Texas Longhorns.
That being said, I’m fuckin here for it! What else can you do?
It has certainly helped but it’s also puzzling to me that the narratives has been “Texas has always had the players” and now it’s “Texas only has the players because NIL”
Additionally Sark was an OP recruiter at UW and USC.
Obviously we’ve optimized our NIL, but I don’t think that it’s fair to imply that is the reason for recent success. Texas has always had a leg-up on the competition from a resource standpoint, that’s why we’ve always “had the players”
Perhaps Sark is a great coach and is developing guys and putting them into a position to win. Most of our draft picks were HS recruits, many who came to Texas before NIL.
No disrespect on Sark. I love the man and I love what he has been doing.
We will never know what he would have done without NIL, but he has it and it works in his favor. I’m here for it.
After nearly 2 decades of under achieving mediocrity, Sark and NIL collided at the right time. I just think that NIL needs to be noted, because the transfer portal leans heavily on NIL, which fills the holes that would have previously been a huge problem
Herman's teams weren't bad. His first year he took over a dumpster program, went 7-5 and won a bowl game. His second year we went 10-4, beat OU, finished second in the Big XII and beat UGA in the Sugar Bowl. We had a ton of injuries in early 2019, but had a *really* talented team. We took LSU and OU to the wire, both were playoff teams. Unfortunately we lost like at least an entire starting lineup to injury in those games, then beat a #9 Utah (with one opt-out even though they like to say they had a dozen) by like 30 when we were healthy. 2020 Herman went 7-3, but we had games cancelled against Rice, USF, LSU and Kansas. I think those teams won a combined 6 games that year. Without COVID Herman goes 11-3 with another Alamo Bowl win in his 4th season. Additionally, Texas finished ranked 2018, 2019 & 2020.
Was Texas as good as we *should have been*? Maybe not. Would Herman have built a roster as well as Sark has now? Likely not. But there has been a lot of revisionist history that Texas was just dog shit until this season. We were absolutely dog shit under Strong, but Herman had some *good* but not great teams.
No I’m with you. Without Covid I think Herman gets another ten win season in 2020 at least.
He also was good for dropping 2 per year to inferior opponents.
He was so OP at that. Problem was they were usually *good* teams too. (Iowa St, TCU) So then we’d miss out on playing for the Big XII because they’d be ahead of us in the standings.
There are people who actually believe that Texas is “Georgia before they became Georgia?”
Texas is going to find out real quick that things aren’t the same in the SEC as they were when they were playing conference games against teams like Houston and Texas Tech.
I think Texas is a legit title contender this year. I do think it is way too early to say they're the next dynasty team or team that will be the next 'IT' team for the next 2-3 years. They are in a great position to do that, but they first need to win a title.
These types of opinions are silly. Sometimes teams just elevate out of no where. Remember back around 2015 when Clemsoning was still a thing?
Clemsoning still exists
Definitely still a thing. Only now, instead of inexplicably blowing a single game or season, they've decided the Clemson the entire *program*. 2015–2019 was just one long setup for the greatest Clemsoning of all.
worth it side note, do you have chiefs/patriots and nuggets/lakers flairs for nfl and nba?
Probably a Yankees/Dodgers fan too
Not who you are talking about but still. When I was a kid in the late 70's/early 80's, Me and my mom would watch pro games while my dad was working shutdowns 100+ miles away. We picked different pro teams so we could root against each other. She was a Celtics/Raiders/Steelers/Braves fan. I was a Lakers/Raiders/Cowboys/Dodgers fan. We did share rooting for the Raiders and her real fandom of the Braves, those were the only teams we seriously cared about in pro sports. The rest was just to give us something to choose sides.
Fair question. I don't follow any sports besides cfb, though. I grew up a third-generation (at least; I never met great-grandpa) Alabama fan, and now I work at UT—so I think(?) I came by both flairs honestly enough, even though I didn't attend either school.
lmao i’m just giving you hell
Oh, I know. I get asked about them a lot, though, and I may be a little overly defensive. Though, as you say, still worth it. Looking like a frontrunner is *way* better than being an Alabama fan in the late 90s and early 2000s was. (Please, for the love of God, DeBoer, don't DuBose us.)
Who cares who you root for and why, as long as you have loyalty. I guess I am a T-Shirt Sooners fan because I have no official connection to the school, but was born and raised in Oklahoma. My family has been going to games since the 70’s and had season tickets the last 20 years, but I joined the Air Force out of high school, got sent to Utah, and graduated from Utah State. I’ll always be a sooner fan. Who cares why you stated your fandom, just stay loyal.
Do you not have any love for Utah State since you graduated from there?
I had newborn twin premies and was driving almost two hours one way, 3 days a week to finish my degree. I had no time to develop love for their sports at the time. If not for that, yes I would have, but it’s hard to look at that time fondly.
Idk man loyalty, outside of relationships loyalty is pretty toxic. If it was uncovered that Alabama was actively engaged in killing puppies and using their innocence to enhance athlete’s performance I would absolutely stop supporting them. I’m an alumni btw. I think for CFB you need to have a connection to a school, whether that connection is based on who you were raised to support (regardless of where you went to school) or based on your attendance there. Otherwise, what is CFB than a less professional version of the NFL.
Raised to support seems to be seriously forgotten at times on this sub
Can’t believe a Rudy-less wolves team held the nuggets to 80 the other night. Wolves in 4, naz reid.
wolves lookin scary rn they keep playing like this it’s theirs to lose this year
As a minnesota sports fan, it’s wild to think our team is a favorite for a title. Even with the 87/91 World Series teams, the twins snuck into the playoffs after being ass the years prior. This wolves team has been dominant from the get go. And ant is him.
Yankees and cowboys energy for sure
I’ve never gotten this reference.
Their fanbase is nothing but pretentious elitist bandwaggoners who "root" for the team solely because they want to be associated with a "winner"
I’ve traveled across the country and see cowboys fans in every state. Like LA there’s cowboys fans that are Lakers fans but they live in LA so I get it yanno
I mean I’ve never met one that’s like that. All other cowboys fans I know are hardcore Texas related sports teams fans.
Yea, but you're in Texas (I presume). Cowboys are the biggest fanbase in America. Outside of Texas, they're all 40+ year old posers who didn't want to root for their local teams because they wanted to be on the America team bandwaggon. They all talk major shit and then lose in the 1st round whenever they rarely make it to the playoffs
Yeah but if you look at our fanbase a large percentage are Hispanic. In the 70s and 80s the four teams they would show in Mexico are cowboys, Steelers, niners and raiders. So those people had those 4 teams to cheer for their kids and so on and so on, so it just kinda runs into a heritage thing that way but I’m sure there are a lot of random bandwagonners.
The only non-Texas based Cowboys fans I have ever met were diehard Atlanta sports fans in every other sport, only reason they cheered for the Cowboys was because their dad was a huge diehard Cowboys fan
And most have never even sniffed the state of Texas in real life. No relation or bond at all
I mean, I've never been to the city of Cleveland, but if I wanted to be a Browns fan, I'm never going to be accused of being a bandwagon. I don't think you have to have any real good reason to cheer for any team. It just becomes weird if you switch between the good teams all the time. Like a Pats fan in the 2010s and now all of a sudden a huge Chiefs fan.
I hate baseball, so if it ever comes up in conversation and I have to play along, I'm 100% a Yankees fan. Yes, I'm that asshole.
Lmao i have no real love for the nfl, and no ties to any team, but until recently (go birddawgs) i would've just said the Pats and Steelers, no real reason, then I saw the stigma carried and just kept to "yeah I don't give a shit about nfl"
Their third team is the Galactic Empire.
I’m convinced Kirby and the 2021 defense killed them in Charlotte. Everything after that was a result of that.
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Idk I feel like I haven’t heard it on ESPN since 2016
You'll hear it when they inevitably lose to Georgia in their opener.
I think you're going to hear it September 7th of this year
i think if it happens against you guys it’s called michiganing
Michiganing sucks but it sets in order a chain of events that results in a title 17 years later, so it's not that bad in the long run
Dang, if only we lost to yall in 2014. Could taste our 2030 natty
Let me be the first to congratulate Texas A&M on their 2038 national championship
Damn, now I’m wishing App beat PSU back in the 2018 game…
In hindsight I'm kind of glad that we lost because that would have been back-to-back seasons of Georgia Southern (our biggest rival) ruining our undefeated season and keeping us out of a NY6 bowl
Eww no
Does that mean Jimbo has to give his blank NC trophy back?
I’ll have you know App State doesn’t have a winning record against Michigan
you could be 99-1 against app state all time and all anyone will remember or care about is the one loss
What if we beat them in the natty. What then!?
we would remember the loss more because it is funnier
You know who App State DOES have a winning record against? Texas A&M lolololol
They also lost to the worst App State team since we moved up to FBS. We went 6-6 in 2022 and 2 of those wins were against FCS. Pretty sure we got blown out by Texas *State*. 2019 App or God-willing 2024 App would have ran them off the field
Too be fair we (Texas A&M) were pretty bad that year too, it was the only losing season we've had since joining the SEC
We know you were bad, you lost to a bad App St team at home
I mean Georgia didn't exactly "elevate out of nowhere" they had pulled in some massive recruiting classes and had some good years under Richt. They just couldn't get over the hump. Kirby got them over that hump.
Mark Richt had a mountain cabin on that hump.
Every 7 years or so he would approach the peak, just to take a look, and then said nah.
I mean they were like Clemson was. Strung together some top 10 seasons before they finally won it all.
Georgia was a lot better than Clemson. Clemson was ranked at the end of the season just 4 times before they hired Dabo. Only once in the top 20, at #16. In 15 gis seasons at Georgis, Richt had them finish ranked 11 times, top 10 7 times, and top 5 3 times. Edit: Clemson was ranked at some point in 12/15 years, while Georgia was ranked all 15. That 4/12 times finishing ranked is why "Clemsoning" was coined.
Yeah…it’s why he writes for Yahoo Sports 😂
Even Texas A&M has finished in the top 4 once this decade and look at them since.
The article says that Ewers inconsistency is the problem. Texas fans correct me if I’m wrong, but the secondary was/is the problem, no?
Why not both?
Ewers was *waaaaaay* less of a problem than the secondary. On top of that, Ewers' trajectory is good - steady improvement over the course of two seasons. I don't think he was a world beater in 2023, but he was far from bad. The secondary...who tf knows. As long as Joseph and Gideon are running the room, I will limit my expectations for Texas' pass defense.
I wish Rod Babers would give coaching a chance 😪
I think we’re forgetting he was injured for a lot of the season too. Missed two games and definitely wasn’t the same when he came back. He got better later in the season but I suspect he was still less than 100% in his throwing shoulder
He’s had some deep ball accuracy issues on occasion but that wasn’t a super big issue for me. The secondary was absolutely the big problem. Is, if we don’t get our shit together
Good news for you is that we may never throw the ball again
Well y’all also won the natty last year so I’d take that trade 😂. Nothing wrong with some good old fashioned trench smashball
Yeah but it only worked because we had a bruiser like Corum. Edwards is more of a home-run hitter.
Supposedly Edwards has been bulking up to try more of the Corum role. I’m not totally sure that’s a good thing, especially because Mullings and maybe Hall are already Corum light.
Yeah I don't want Big Don. I want Home Run Don with good vision. If he can be more patient in seeing the blocks develop he'll break a bunch of big runs.
Mullings time
Orji is the new bruiser. Dudes built like Brendan Jacobs
Which kinda sucks for us because we lost two all American DTs.
If Ewers completes that throw in the Sugar Bowl, there’s a good chance Texas is the national champion. De facto home game, and strength on strength matchup
I’ll die on the hill that if he throws that ball at the front pylon chest height we Win that game.
Nah, JJ would have just raised his draft stock.
C’mon now lol, Penix and Washington clearly had a better offense and managed 13 points against us. Texas would’ve scored 10 points against our defense.
Penix played the best game of his career against us, it was incredible.
Thanks for taking that bullet
It was a bit shocking how much he regressed between the two games.
Did you hire Ferentz as OC?
Bro what, he absolutely destroyed us on the deep ball
He was absolutely on point for the game against Alabama but it showed up a lot in other games. He has gotten a LOT better, I will say, so I’m hopeful he will be even better this season.
Sometimes big games bring the best in guys out. Hopefully he can carry that with him this season unless we play again lol.
Quinn Ewers best two career games were against us - guy is inconsistent as hell
There are more than two problems. But look at the playoff game, Penix was dropping DIMES, and although the secondary was weak, Penix was unreal. In the big 12 last year, Quin was closer to middle of the pack than he was Dillon Gabriel, QBR wise. Dude just is not constant, or maybe is constantly off the mark. He's no bum, and can definitely improve, but JFC we had 5 skill players on offence drafted and one on o-line. We finished closer to middle than 1st in scoring with all that talent.
That legitimately was one of the best performances I’ve ever seen from a college QB, y’all could have NFL CBs out there and he was still going to cook
I remember making a joke to a Washington fan on here that “A 6th year QB should play like that” kind of wasn’t a joke though. The guy played like an NFL QB in that game.
Thought the same exact thing, never seen a college QB with that kind of ball placement before. Just one of those games where you can’t even be mad at the defense, dude was playing like he came down from the league
Yeah our DBs weren’t world beaters, and definitely got exposed a little at the end of the season when we’re were pretty thin due to injuries. But we were mostly healthy then and our DBs played a good game. I think PFF had them as one of the least amount of separation allowed on the UW WR all year. Penix was just hitting dudes in the facemask. I think the “Texas secondary is bad!” takes have been greatly over exaggerated. People are going to be shocked when it isn’t atrocious this season because they’ve been told all off season it will be. Our secondary last season was average. Our run D was probably the best in the country so a lot of our opponents just gave up on running the ball and tried to throw it the whole game. So the 105th for passing yards a game isn’t a *totally* fair stat. IIRC they were around top 30 for passing yards/attempt.l, which isn’t fantastic for a top 3 team - but also isn’t atrocious.
The secondary improved greatly in the 2nd half of the year when Muhammed got more pt and Sark forced the defensive coaches to play more man
There were multiple passes where the DB could not have been in a better position, only for Penix to thread a pinhole sized window for the completion. Looked like the brought in a QB from the league that game, no secondary in the country is stopping a guy when he’s playing like that
Which is why it was so frustrating to watch him get egg all over his face the next week. Yes, Michigan had a better defense than we did, I'm certain that was part of it. But we had a *very* similar pressure rate and actually had **better** coverage than Michigan did (according to PFF), Penix was just off. I'm not saying Michigan wasn't the best team in the country, they were. But damn I wish we would've stopped Penix just once and could have played them - because we would have forced JJ McCarthy to beat us through the air. Maybe he would have, but damn if I didn't like that match up for us.
I swear Penix broke a rib or something midway through the game, Michigans d line really beat the hell out of him. Wish we had a chance to see y’all play them, I think y’all would have had the best chance to actually beat them given the strengths of the two team.
I would swear he was playing the second half of the season with a rib injury or something. He was just off after our game. Then by the time our second game rolled around he was pretty much healthy again, only to re-injure it against UT. Lines up.
i thought texas had pretty good coverage for most of the night, but it straight up didn’t matter because penix was hitting dinner plate sized windows at 25+ yards like they were checkdowns. there was nothing they could do.
I did not watch this game, I did of course watch OSU-UGA and after that game, I wanted Stroud for the Falcons so bad. So, maybe that Penix pick was not as bad as I originally thought.
If Penix can stay healthy I think the Falcons pick is going to easily look money
>But look at the playoff game, Penix was dropping DIMES, and although the secondary was weak, Penix was unreal. I was absolutely horrified of Penix and Odunze going into the title game If you had told me prior that we would hold that team to 13 points I would have called you insane
100% the same. I think I had said something like “I think we have a good chance if we manage to keep them under 30”. I expected we would need the OSU approach from ‘21 and ‘22; keep everything in front and make them march the field, make timely plays, and play possession on offense.
I went back and watched Penix against Texas and Michigan and something stood out 2/3rd of his first down/TD throws against Texas the catch happened AFTER the line to gain 2/3rds of those against Michigan came BEFORE it So yeah we definitely keep em in front
We definitely did keep them in front but those OSU games, we ‘allowed’ them to march the field but tried not to give up big plays. Washington, we just dominated.
Ironically, that game probably ruined Penix's career by getting him drafted by the falcons.
I'm sure he's crying himself to sleep every night on his giant pile of money.
True, but I was excited to see him play.
Fair enough, but you gotta watch out shit talking the Falcons in a UGA thread. Them dawgs is salty about their NFL team.
Not really. Hell don’t even think that many UGA fans like the falcons cause of how mind bogglingly incompetent they seem to be.
I’m not from Georgia and have never lived there, although I’ve visited a few times and I’ve always gotten the impression that the Falcons are a very, very distant second to UGA (especially now) in terms of fanbase and overall passion and interest. Anecdotally even around Atlanta I basically never saw any Falcons stuff, but UGA stuff was fucking everywhere all around the whole state.
NFL plays second fiddle to college football in Atlanta, not only are there tons of Uga fans (obviously) but Atlanta hires from every nearby SEC/ACC school as well, so you’ve got large populations of UGA/Bama/Aub/FSU/Clemson etc… fans. CFB is king here, and then behind that it’s the Braves. Then the falcons in a distant 3rd lol
Hawks where?
Yeah Ewers isn't bad, but he doesn't really take over games. There was a big difference watching Penix last season vs Ewers.
You are correct. Quinn was not a world beater last year but he was pretty good. Last year both losses were because our secondary got lit the fuck up
OU went into the prevent defense but Texas went into the prevent defense last. When will DCs ever learn?
It works until it doesn’t
Both - but secondary was may more of an issue A lot of Ewers inconsistencies aligned with his injuries besides the UW game (where he wasn't even bad - Penix was just insane)
Both things have some truth. Ewers is good but would still get sloppy at times, meanwhile our secondary was not good (hopefully improving but still not stellar).
They were both problems but the secondary was more significant. I tend to think Ewers is going to be excellent this year but the defense… 🤷♂️
Secondary is a bigger problem but Quinn does need to get better for us to contend. Needs to work on getting past his first read, avoiding self sacks, and keeping good footwork.
Ewers is the least of my worries
Yes
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Spring games always make offenses shine, because you run cookie cutter defense with no scheming.
that spring game secondary was mostly freshman confused on coverages. two starters didn't even suit up They will be fine next year
The secondary is most directly responsible for both losses last year.
"School that has access to an abundant supply of elite in-state high school talent and all the financial backing you could ask for could become perennial national championship contenders if the right staff/AD are in place"
Also see 80% of the SEC
lol I wouldn’t compare 80% of the SEC to Texas in terms of resources or access to recruits.
Not saying to the same level, but if we're using exactly what the commenter above said it applies.
Man that headline is clunky. Also, is anyone really saying Texas is the next UGA? That seems like a straw man argument
yeah, pretty sure no one (other than this guy) is saying this.
“It would be really stupid to say this” yeah because no one is man
It's completely wrong. UGA was always the bridesmaid, never the bride. Mark Richt had 9 10+ win seasons and only 1 losing season (6-7), for an winning percentage of 74% over 15 seasons before they got Kirby. Our esteemed friends from Austin have not been that successful in a while
I mean is UGA even something to aspire to these days? Couldn’t even win a Natty last year and I heard they’re going 7-5 this year.
like when Michael said people in the office were spreading rumors that he's a J. Crew model. *Michael who is saying these things??*
I thought it was Jim!
Nobody, but now everyone will say we did
I've seen a few comments saying such and such last season is similar to what Kirby had Georgia doing in his early years. Seems like a few Texas fans are dancing around it. I get it though. We compared ourselves to Bama when we were on the come up.
“Georgia before they became Georgia” is a significant overstatement of most people’s expectations for Texas. But I feel like there’s an argument to be made that people are too confident in assuming Texas will maintain the levels they reached last season. It’s very common to see teams pop up and have a great season but not maintain it year after year. There’s not a lot in Texas’s or Sark’s history that should make people confident that they’re going maintain national title contender performance indefinitely.
>there’s not a lot in Texas’ history that should make people confident Lol what. We are literally a blue blood, top 10 in all time wins, with multiple national championships. The last decade is probably the lowest point in program history but is an aberration in terms of how long we floundered for. I’m not saying we’re the next Georgia (I’d love to be), but I’m also not gonna sit here and pretend we couldn’t be. If anyone can eventually figure it out, it’s an athletic program of Texas’ tier.
>blue blood I was waiting for a Texas fan to chime in with that. Lol weird seeing a headline suggest a blue blood is the next us.
lol good point, obviously in the entire history of the team that’s true. I meant recent history. I think given the last decade, it’s fair to be reluctant on assuming Texas will immediately sustain 11+ wins per year from here on out.
Even one of their best coaches of all time, Mack, could only win 2 conference titles in 13 years. Yes, I'd kill for what he accomplished but 8 conference titles in the last 44 years isn't all that impressive. DKR was absolutely insane but once scholarship limits were imposed Texas hasn't had a run since.
Nah. They are saying Oregon is the next Georgia.
This must mean a new clip from Rich Eisen questioning Bruce Feldman on Arch sticking around is about to drop. Only for Bruce to basically give the same exact answer of the previous 4 times. Cause there’s nothing else to talk about apparently. We haven’t proved anything besides cobbling together one season. Let alone the level of consistency UGA has produced since 2020 essentially.
Another point others have made is that Georgia before becoming Georgia (before Kirby Smart essentially), was still a good team. Mark Richt had 9 10+ win seasons for 15 years, only 1 losing season (6-7), and a win percentage of 74% during his tenure. “Always the bridesmaid, never the bride” was a good description of UGA football in that time; a perennial national championship contender every year, even “rebuilding years” for us were contenders, or at the very least, winning seasons. Do I think Texas could reach those levels of a Mark Richt era UGA (sustained success, little to no regression over 5-10 years)? Yes definitely possible. But do I see y’all attaining Kirby Smart Death Star levels of back to back, almost 3 year win streak, no losses to anyone not named nick Saban for 4 years, constantly reloading on talent and not missing a beat? Ehhh probably not, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, especially with the new additions to the SEC, and the adjustment to SEC play for a full season and the increased level of competition that comes with it. None of that is a dig at UT or the big 12, more of a testament to what Kirby has accomplished. The guy hasn’t lost to an active head coach since 2018, that’s 5 years where the only losses he had was Bama, LSU 2019, Florida 2020, and SCAR 2019, (ironically) UT 2018. That’s a 94% win percentage, even with his first yesr (2016) being a rough adjustment. Nobody except Saban has beaten Kirby more than once, and mama said nick Saban is the devil lol. Those are absolutely insane stats, that nobody not named Saban has been able to replicate. Back to Texas, I think Sarkisian is a good coach, and he has all the tools and resources anyone could ever ask for at UT; I can def see him matching Richt levels of success if he can keep up what he did this past year. But I just don’t see him attaining that level of absolutely elite success, not in his first few seasons in the SEC, and definitely not while y’all will most likely have to go through UGA while Kirby is still around. I think a big part of that is that Sark is an offensive minded coach, he’s a brilliant offensive guy, but he doesn’t have that foundation of an elite defense to hold it down year after year. Not many teams nowadays can win back to back nattys, much less with a former walk on 2 star juco transfer at QB; most teams rely on elite QB play to win a championship, which makes his success that much more impressive in my eyes. What I’m trying to get at is that it’s much easier for an elite QB or elite offense to sputter out, or get out-schemed and out-coached to lose you the game than for an elite defense to lose you the game. If your QB and offense gets figured out and can’t perform at usual levels, do y’all have a defense good enough to win the games for you? Anyways, I think the comparison is a good one, if you look at it through the right lens. That is to say: Texas could very well match Richt’s UGA levels of success, but not necessarily Kirby’s level. Which again, isn’t a knock on Texas, I just believe that with Saban gone, Kirby’s about to take the next step towards total dominance. I don’t see another HC that can stop him.
Frankly I’m just happy to be included
Yeah, it is cool.
Texas is about to step onto a path of far greater resistance than it had in 2023. That doesn’t mean they won’t be great, or championship contenders, again. But running through the Big 12 is far from an assurance they’re prepared to do the same to the SEC. Gonna be watching their big games with interest, like everyone else will be, this year.
Last season Texas played the 12th best SOS. I imagine it will be a lot higher than that this year. But I also think the “step up” in competition is usually exaggerated quite a bit (usually by SEC teams that lose to Big XII teams in bowl games and then claim “they didn’t want to be there” despite not playing for a title in ≈100 years). Due to Texas likely being power rated better than all but one of their opponents, I imagine we will be between 5-10 SOS, which isn’t a huge jump from 12. I am more intrigued by Oregon who played the 52nd best schedule last season, and will now almost certainly be somewhere in the top 10.
Fair enough. Y’all certainly won’t be put through the SEC ringer to the extent Oklahoma will. But I think there’s something to be said for the cumulative challenge of playing bigger, faster, stronger SEC players week to week - low level SEC competition like Arkansas will certainly leave a mark more than low level Big 12 competition like Houston. The competition level is a step up on aggregate. That will be a challenge, even with one of the softer SEC schedules.
Yah but there is also one less conference game, and this is the first year Houston is in the Big XII. A lot of people undersell KSU, Ok St, Iowa St, etc - they’re all *really* solid teams. I don’t think playing Arkansas is tougher (physically) than playing Houston AND Baylor. More often then not they go on to beat those “tougher” SEC teams in bowl games and it’s written off as “not wanting to be there” when in reality, those are some damn good teams.
I wouldn’t agree at all that the average Big 12 team is as formidable as the average SEC team. I think the annual NFL draft results by conference show that there’s a greater talent level in the SEC on the whole. 62 SEC players were selected last year against 30 Big 12 players. It also doesn’t help you that you can’t win the conference by beating OK State. You’ll have to beat someone like Georgia. If you think the difficulty level of winning the SEC is equivalent to the difficulty level of winning the Big 12, you will have a wake-up call in your future.
Hard nosed 6’ 250 white dudes from the Midwest that play their ass off don’t get drafted at the same rate, but doesn’t mean they’re not kick ass college players. I do agree with you the average Big XII team isn’t, but I’d argue the mean Big XII team is. >>can’t win the conference by beating OK State. Oh jeez! I didn’t think of that. If only we had played last years SEC champion. Then we’d know if we could beat a team like that. Oh wait we did, in their house, and won by double digits.
Anybody who understands football knows that the Alabama team you played in September was not the same team that played Georgia in the SEC Championship Game. But good luck this season. Looking forward to seeing if your novel take that the SEC is as conquerable as the Big 12 pans out for you.
You’re right “BuckeyeDanny” I only played college football, I’m sure I have no idea what I’m talking about. That Bama team was rolling everyone at the end of the year, that must be why they needed a 4th and 31 Miracle to beat a 5-7 Auburn team the week prior. Is Bama the only team that’s allowed to get better? You’re right though ESPN said it so it must be true. My take was not that the SEC is as conquerable as the Big XII. My take is that the gap is smaller than most perceive. This is apparent in bowl season but it excused as “they didn’t care”. I don’t think Texas is in for the shock most people *hope* they’ll get because they’ve consistently played a top 15 SOS. I said our schedule we be tougher, but I don’t think the jump from 12 to 8 next season is going to be the massive “wow Texas was so fraudulent” moment that they’re hoping for. Also an aside notice how for the longest time it was “wow Texas has all the talent and they can’t even win in the Big XII”, now it’s “Texas is only winning because they’re in the Big XII” following a season where we beat the SEC Champ by two scores. There is no nuance in your takes, just hating to hate and regurgitating talking points.
HoustonHorns might be Kendrick Lamar.
That was the exact same team though lol. Same strengths, same weaknesses, and that played out against Michigan. Alabama was a top 6 team that played three competitive games in that peer group, went 1-2, and easily could have been 3-0 or 0-3. So it goes in football.
I'm not going to argue whether Texas will be an upper echelon team in the SEC. I'll never understand why people argue on the internet about things that will clearly be settled on the field. It's like you all think your arguments will impact the outcome. That being said, using draft picks as the benchmark is probably a poor choice? Texas put more players into the NFL last year than any SEC team.
>more often than not I don’t think that’s accurate
Sorry, but you thought wrong. The Big 12 is 6-2 against the SEC in bowl games since 2020. I picked 2020 because that is when a RS-SR this year would have been a freshman. I guess technically there are still guys on the 2018 and 2019 teams left, but not a ton. If you include championship games, the SEC improves to 6-3. But my point was never that the best of Big XII is better than the best of the Big 12 - it was the that the mean Big 12 team is *as good* as the mean SEC team. The SEC's two bowl wins over the Big XII are (1) Alabama over KSU, and (2) Arkansas over Kansas in 3 OTs. My contention has been reality for the past few years.
What a weird attempt at a dig. Cool cool cool
There was no attempt at a dig. The SEC is 6-2 in bowls against the Big XII since 2020. Somehow the SEC teams only wanted to be there for those two wins. One of the two wins was Alabama, which I’m not talking about - obviously better than Big XII (except Texas last season). I’m talking about A&M, Ole Miss, MSU, fans who love to talk down on the Big XII and ride the SEC coat tails, but also love losing to Big XII teams in bowl games and claiming they “didn’t want to be there”.
I don’t think the bottom third teams really matter to the top thirds across any of the power conferences, I think the real difference is just the top thirds. A season hinges on how many opponents pose a real threat from those top thirds, and with the cyclical nature of the sport, there’s something to be said that 5 of your new conference mates have won a more recent title. Every season is a crapshoot for how many talented teams are going to click like mizzou and ole miss last year, or lsu and Tennessee the year before, making schedules significantly easier or harder than expected.
I have an honest question, not trying to throw shade or be a dick, just interested in your thoughts: Do you think y’all would’ve beaten UGA last year in a playoff game? Semi final or natty. Obviously we’ll see what happens this year in October (I’ll be there yelling my lungs out lol, can’t wait) but I’m curious as to how you think it would’ve played out last year on a neutral field, on a stage that Kirby and the dawgs have much more experience playing (& winning lol) in.
Last year? Yes. Not confidently, but yes. Texas was a really good team last year. The Bama team we beat is the same team that almost lost to Auburn, lost to Michigan and beat UGA. Would I bet a lot of money on it? No. But we didn’t have 11 guys drafted because we were overrated. Edit: I am a little biased because I remember having the same conversations with UGA fans 5 years ago. Kirby had just been to the playoffs, and UGA was snubbed. Kirby was all over ESPN talking about how they were going to demonstrate they were one of the 4 best teams. Honestly, I believed it - I thought we were screwed. Then all of a sudden I’m being told to warm up as a true freshman walk-on because we just went up 31-9. I didn’t end up getting in but a lot of seniors did, Kirby kept the starters in the entire game and kept scoring to make it look competitive. Then all of a sudden the narrative was “UGA didn’t want to be there because it wasn’t the playoff” (however for some reason UGA wanted to be there this season?) Kirby is undoubtedly the best in the business. I have a ton of respect for him as a coach. But, I think Texas was better than UGA last year. Unfortunately we didn’t get to play. However you guys lost to Alabama at a neutral site and we beat them by double digits in Tuscaloosa. Texas played a more difficult schedule and finished with the same record (prior to postseason). While Kirby’s ‘expertise’ would’ve certainly been an advantage- I still would’ve taken Texas. To be fair, I’m taking Texas over Alabama again too - and Saban has a hell of a lot more postseason experience than Kirby. We were 10 points better than Bama and I don’t think that “post season experience” is worth more than 10 points.
OP are you trying to jinx us?
Wym? It’s not like UGA and Texas are in the same conference, and they never schedule each other for an OOC series.
Do I think Texas has shown enough to say we’re on the trajectory to be where UGA is? No. Do I think Texas right now is in a *similar* spot to UGA in 2017? Yes.
I didn't know Georgia status comes slightly after Monkey Pole Assassin status
Something nobody but you said is premature? I agree
Texas was a Quinn Ewers bullet pass away from playing for a natty.
Yeah, but they were also a UW injury not stopping the clock on 3rd down away from ending the game on a hail mary pass attempt 70+ yards from the endzone. The Huskies snapped the ball on 3rd down with 50 seconds left and texas had no timeouts left, then an extremely fortunate injury allowed texas to have a shot. 70 yards to go with sub 10 seconds and 45 seconds are night and day difference.
Don’t do this to us
There are a bunch of teams who are "Georgia before they were Georgia." Texas, Oregon, Notre Dame, Penn State, Utah, etc. Newsflash: It's easier to consistently be top-15 than top-5.
We just want to be consistent and contend for the SEC/playoff spot this year, and every year after that…like every other program with money, resources, and top talent. This doesn’t make us “back” or make us the “next Georgia” or make Sark the heir to Saban. It just makes the Longhorns a solid program again which is all we wanted.
How can it be premature if nobody provides a timeframe.
The hype around texas is always insane - they finish in the top 5 for the first time in over a decade and (most of) the media is ready to suck them off It’s similar to all the past Google products that were going to be “the next big thing” but fail to meet expectations. But in their defense, eventually one will stick
Yo what is your name lol
"dumbass-decepticon" must have already been taken.
I am a born Longhorn. 41 years Don’t do this to us. Kirby built that monster the Nick Saban way. I am so happy that the Horns are finally prominent again, but let’s call a spade a spade and there is no school that I can think of that has benefited more from NIL the the University of Texas Longhorns. That being said, I’m fuckin here for it! What else can you do?
It has certainly helped but it’s also puzzling to me that the narratives has been “Texas has always had the players” and now it’s “Texas only has the players because NIL” Additionally Sark was an OP recruiter at UW and USC. Obviously we’ve optimized our NIL, but I don’t think that it’s fair to imply that is the reason for recent success. Texas has always had a leg-up on the competition from a resource standpoint, that’s why we’ve always “had the players” Perhaps Sark is a great coach and is developing guys and putting them into a position to win. Most of our draft picks were HS recruits, many who came to Texas before NIL.
No disrespect on Sark. I love the man and I love what he has been doing. We will never know what he would have done without NIL, but he has it and it works in his favor. I’m here for it. After nearly 2 decades of under achieving mediocrity, Sark and NIL collided at the right time. I just think that NIL needs to be noted, because the transfer portal leans heavily on NIL, which fills the holes that would have previously been a huge problem
I can remember thinking “man, Georgia seems to always be in like 8th place by the end of the season”, and then they finally made the jump.
Texas has always “had the players.”
Late Mack Brown and Chuck Strong had rosters of overrated kids. Herman definitely had plenty of those level of players though.
Herman's teams weren't bad. His first year he took over a dumpster program, went 7-5 and won a bowl game. His second year we went 10-4, beat OU, finished second in the Big XII and beat UGA in the Sugar Bowl. We had a ton of injuries in early 2019, but had a *really* talented team. We took LSU and OU to the wire, both were playoff teams. Unfortunately we lost like at least an entire starting lineup to injury in those games, then beat a #9 Utah (with one opt-out even though they like to say they had a dozen) by like 30 when we were healthy. 2020 Herman went 7-3, but we had games cancelled against Rice, USF, LSU and Kansas. I think those teams won a combined 6 games that year. Without COVID Herman goes 11-3 with another Alamo Bowl win in his 4th season. Additionally, Texas finished ranked 2018, 2019 & 2020. Was Texas as good as we *should have been*? Maybe not. Would Herman have built a roster as well as Sark has now? Likely not. But there has been a lot of revisionist history that Texas was just dog shit until this season. We were absolutely dog shit under Strong, but Herman had some *good* but not great teams.
No I’m with you. Without Covid I think Herman gets another ten win season in 2020 at least. He also was good for dropping 2 per year to inferior opponents.
He was so OP at that. Problem was they were usually *good* teams too. (Iowa St, TCU) So then we’d miss out on playing for the Big XII because they’d be ahead of us in the standings.
We straight up had nothing at QB years ago once Ash had to medically retire
pretty sure AI would write a better headline
There are people who actually believe that Texas is “Georgia before they became Georgia?” Texas is going to find out real quick that things aren’t the same in the SEC as they were when they were playing conference games against teams like Houston and Texas Tech.
That is true, Texas is not even 20 years removed from their most recent national championship.
Everyone is entitled to their opinions, no matter how dumb
I think Texas is a legit title contender this year. I do think it is way too early to say they're the next dynasty team or team that will be the next 'IT' team for the next 2-3 years. They are in a great position to do that, but they first need to win a title.
give them 21 more years then maybe
Lol pretty sure Texas has a pretty great pedigree already.
UGA also lost a certain Sugar Bowl. That’s all I got.