Here are a few thoughts about, and reactions to Steve Sarkisian's bye week press conference, coming off a Top-25 SEC road win in Nashville where -- most importantly -- the Horns got away with a W, but certain questions about the offense continue to linger:

- Sark starts out by remarking about the team's ninth-straight road win. Said it was not always perfect, but was proud of the team's mental fortitude and toughness to get the win. ALEX'S THOUGHTS: I'll take it over what happened to Alabama, for sure.

- Sark talked about 10 penalties in the game and 7 of them were really impactful. Four on offense that negated 4 explosive runs, the holding on the KO return and you have to start inside your own 10, 2 penalties on defense -- DPI on Manny on 4th and 7 that resulted in 7 points and then Broughton's roughing the passer that negated Kobe Black's pick six. 18 penalties in the last two ball games. ALEX'S THOUGHTS: I'll have more about this in the Deep Dig but even outside of the would-be pick 6, he played really awesome on limited snaps. Future looks good at outside CB as far as immediate depth.

- "Thought Quinn had a tremendous game," Sark said. ALEX'S THOUGHTS: I thought he played pretty well, but I'm not sure I'd call it "tremendous." I still need to watch back the offense and will have better thoughts about it after the offensive Deep Dig.

- Sark says that nobody is operating at 100% at this point in the season, so the bye comes at a good time before the last four-game stretch. ALEX'S THOUGHTS: It comes at a good time for me too with no Deep Dig to do next week and whitetail season opening up

- Danny Davis asked about Deandre Moore: "I thought Deandre did something very mature last season." He realized he was not a front line guy and literally just tried to emulate J Whitt every day. ALEX'S THOUGHTS: You can see it in Deandre Moore's blocking effort. Probably the WR room's biggest asset in that area. Johntay Cook could probably get on the field more often if he was as good at doing the dirty work as Moore is.

- Joe Cook asked about recruiting to a 105-scholarship player class. "I think we have to operate as if things are as they are." Doesn't want to over-offer and then have to turn kids away. ALEX'S THOUGHTS: Man, that's an interesting take. I think it's honorable but not all schools will take the high road here I'm 100% sure.

- Anwar asked about eliminating OL penalites in practice: Sark said that sometimes the simulated noise in practice is louder than the stadium. Said it wasn't just the OL, it was OL, TE and RB issues in protection. ALEX'S THOUGHTS: Yeah, but the OL, especially the right side, really need to clean it up.

- On Bond: He said giving him that time, 3 weeks to get healthy for UF, that's a lot better than 2. ALEX'S THOUGHTS: He mentioned Wingo starting for him and that Wingo was "nicked up" in pregame which is interesting to know.

- On Jelani McDonald: "His best football is ahead of him. He was a HS QB who moonlighted on defense." ALEX'S THOUGHTS: I'll never forget him at the Army AA practices at corner. That guy can play anywhere and he played his best game on defense yet at Texas on Saturday.

- Josh Newman asked about QE changing plays mid-motion: "we give the QBs tools to alter route combinations, some games more than others. In practice, we'd practiced him signaling that, in the game, he just voiced it to him as he was running by. Which was a pretty veteran move." ALEX'S THOUGHTS: Man, that's crazy. For both Quinn and Moore. High level communication on the fly.

- On the support staff: "We're going through that now, there's a lot bigger supports staffs in the SEC than our is now. More man power and money allocation, more doesn't always mean better, but we're going through a bit of a self-audit. ALEX'S THOUGHTS: Everything is bigger in Texas, CDC will get that fixed if it is being looked at I'm sure.

- Jeff Jones asked about the screen game: Quinn is elite, he can get the ball out of his hands so quickly and so accurately. Screen game, shallow cross game, checkdowns are so big to what we do. We don't throw it deep all the time but all the teams we play think we do so they back up and give us that underneath space." ALEX'S THOUGHTS: Makes Cody's X post today about QE's lowest average depth of target in the Power 5 make a little more sense.

- Ced Golden asked about Marcel Reed and the Aggie offense (great question Ced!): Sark said he napped during the game. ALEX'S THOUGHTS: Man, I don't know if Marcel Reed can keep it up like THAT as a starter and not just an in-game-spark-type but he sure looks like a major upgrade on Weigman.

- On the first bye versus second: Today meetings only, weights, light practice TUES, practice WED, THU in game plan mode for FLA, weight workout friday, then the rest of the day off and the weekend. About getting the younger players up to speed will be a priority. Will hit the road Friday for recruiting. A lot to get done this Friday as a staff. ALEX'S THOUGHTS: Sark said they're going to be very intentional with their visits, so pay close attention to what high schools they head to this week.

- On the Wingo collision pre-game, Roger Wallace says "it was crazy." Sark didn't see it. ALEX'S THOUGHTS: This is wild to just now be hearing about this. Is there video out there of it?

- Kirk Bohls asked if you can have two losses and get to the playoffs and how far off from "the standard" he's set that the team is: "We're so close. This past game, if you would have said the game was 45-10 it didn't surprise me, yet we have things that are happening to have it closer than you would have liked." Said Texs will have to play "closer to perfect" to get to where they want to eventually get, though. He said he doesn't know about the losses because things are so crazy in CFB and there's so much time that it's hard to tell. ALEX'S THOUGHTS: It's also about who that second loss would be to and when it happens. Impossible to predict.

- On all the sub-5 yard passes against Vandy - they played man-to-man underenath on one snap not in the red area and that was a TD pass. Tell teams to move up and we'll throw over them. ALEX'S THOUGHTS: Hey I mean I guess it's fair, but people will point to the fact that in the same offense where Quinn Ewers is ranked last in aDOT among the Power 5, Arch Manning is in 27th place with nearly double the average target distance. It's an interesting disparity.

- Chip asked about players maybe being banged up who are not playing much? Gibson: you're the third RB with how the game goes you just don't get the carries you'd like. Johntay getting him back rolling hopefully will be good for him, good for us. The 2 DL (Mitchell and Bledsoe) is about consistency. I used to say those same things about Alfred Collins. Assignment, effort, consistency day in and day out. ALEX'S THOUGHTS: That's true. Sydir Mitchell doesn't seem too engaged when you see shots of him on the sidelines. He's a talented guy, I hope he can turn it on.

- On Trey Moore and Colin Simmons: Trey actually had a heck of a game this weekend. We're asking a lot of him, I thought he pressured the QB in this game. Colin has had a good year so far, but this was not a drop back game. Uncommon stuff, sprint outs, etc. ALEX'S THOUGHTS: This was never going to be a Colin Simmons game. Wait until we see more traditional dropbacks in a game and he'll pop back on the map big time.

- Brian Davis asked about NFL experience and a 16 game season: beneficial to play the NFL schedule, I also tried to tap into Belichick, Reid, McVay, guys accustomed to the playoffs. ALEX'S THOUGHTS: Man, Sark has some heavy hitters in his iPhone contacts list.

Blue Advantage Bronze HMO 204 for private insurance for myself and my wife:

10.86% monthly premium increase — $1,792/month.

Out of pocket maximums down slightly to $9200 individual and $18,400 family.

Unreal this game is even close. Penalties and turnovers will keep this team from reaching it's full potential.

Still coaching with priorities in proper perspective

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Not trying to start any conspiracy theories, just thought it was interesting there has been zero discussion about it on the site.

Anyone has been able to listen in to helmet communications between coaches and players with a scanner app on a phone/computer the first couple of months of the season. The company GCS (Texas Tech rivlas site suggests GCS works communications for all games in North and Central Texas) and conferences knew this was an issue dating back to the a&m vs Arkansas game but it was not communicated to all programs until yesterday after Texas Tech raised concern. Big 12 asked for all of their teams to send in their helmet communication systems so they could be encrypted moving forward.

Crazy thing here, Texas Tech rivals is saying that audio files of coaches talking to players audio files were discovered on betting sites recently too, that is not reported in the ESPN article.

The last part of the article where a Big 12 staff member said there is no advantage when teams can listen into other teams frequencies, Rick Neuhisel just laughed at that on his radio show a minute ago. Said this was a big deal and conferences just trying to blow it over sound ridiculous. Give a college coach/player/staff an opportunity to listen in to the other teams plays and changes can be made almost immediately.

Interesting stuff, imo.

@Califashorn great news! This is a powerful space for you to share your thoughts without the trouble of creating a new thread to do so. It's super simple, fast, and convenient. Let me give you some examples:

• When you have a thought about the WNBA, you can post it here!
• When you take up bird watching and want to tell us about your discoveries, right in here bud!
• Anytime you have an inappropriate thought about a young college athlete, put that thought where it belongs!
• Whenever you have a minor life update that we all need to know about, it should shine right in this dedicated forum.

Most people don't get their own threads man, but you do. And if you agree to this special opportunity, here's what I promise will happen:

• Tons of people will read and follow this thread to support you. You will actually get better discourse than your current strategy of creating 2-3 new threads a day and them just getting lost in the wind.
• If you can't figure out how to post a relevant picture despite being told how 45 times, I promise people in this thread will have your back and post it up. Such service.

There are only a few threads that consolidate things so well. Think of the Looch thread, or the Luka a bust thread, or the market dip thread. All of those are among the most viewed threads because they combine everything into one space. That's what you can do man, I believe in you.

Let me know.

Hook em!

too little too late and an obvious tack to more moderate reporting in advance of Trump 2.0

I don't want NFL teams sniffing around to make him an offer he can't refuse. I would like to see everyone on his staff get a 15 percent raise and three year extension. Sark will keep us in the higher echelon as long as he's here.

Note: This is from Harris, not Dementia Joe.

"We are here because we are fighting for a democracy. Fighting for a democracy. And understand the difference here, understand the difference here, moving forward, moving forward, understand the difference here." "What we are looking at is a difference in this election, let’s move forward and see where we are because on the issue, for example, freedom of choice," Harris continued.

Now close your eyes and imagine this mind sitting across the table from Putin, Xi or Un when our nation's security is at stake. Biggest national security risk from a president in our history if she is elected.


Next Salad coming today.

“Don’t count the days, make the days count.” —Muhammad Ali

Growing up I would count down the days to special days like Christmas, birthdays, and school holidays.

I never really thought about the current day I woke up to, except the things I HAD to do such as school work, chores around the house, and my paper route. Most of my thoughts were about the latter as well as sports and girls who I liked in my classes.

As the title of these daily threads implies, TODAY is a GIFT to all of us. When we wake up, we have a choice on how we want to spend our day. Some things we have to do, work, school, etc., but the free time we have can make a big difference for ourselves and others.

Let’s make them count!

Take care my friends.

Psalm 90:12 & Ephesians 5:15-17

TSK

P.S. Happy Halloween, be careful out there!

I host a trivia contest on Thursday nights. Looking for some good general knowledge trivia questions. History, Geography, Entertainment, Science, Pop Culture, Animals, etc. Nothing too difficult or too easy. Thanks in advance and I look forward to all the smart-ass replies that this board is known for.

had enough yet?

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Michigan/Minnesota may burn to the ground tonight in disappointment.

Because It Didn't Secure the Border


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Question for the Trump supporters. Can Trump improve on this without triggering the Fed to start jacking up rates again?

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i don't expect any of the "enlightened" people to be motivated to augment their positions of the bias
but this simple but clear and present example demonstrates what goes on constantly

you Liberals live with, and are comfortable with , the moral disconnect ...
you have become, or always were, blind cult members of a destructive force , always braying it is the other way around ( with no examples of course)

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whats more alarming is most of you won't acknowledge it and believe (feel) somehow that this bias somehow will never darken your porch ,,,you are the perfect useful idiot

@A-10HORN


Looks pretty "Bad-Ass" to me!

A-12 Warthog New Concept

Been a great day for me. Blanton's SFTB barrels 50 and 52 arrived and I picked up a bottle of Old Forester Statesman.

No bourbon for me tonight, but this week will be fun!

What's hunting brought for the rest of you?

NM

I really need 7 but I get the whole odd number thing.

My newly engaged son's future in-laws are going to visit and I foolishly want to take everyone to the game.

Updated the recruiting board. Not a ton of truly uncommitted guys remaining.

Moving forward, I may have to put a category for "potential flips" or something.

Speaking of that, I'll go position by position on this sucker for the War Room tonight and will list potential flips and my thoughts on those guys separately.

Link: 2025 Recruiting Board

Saw it last night with the fam and loved it. Tim Burton at the top of his game and Michael Keaton was so good with the one liners. Round of applause in the theatre afterwards.