Just a Bit Outside: Look at what Sark is building
- By Travis Galey
- Inside the 40 Acres
- 51 Replies
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The late, great, Dick Tomey used to tell coaches, “you’re either putting a team together, keeping a team together or putting it back together.”
Texas football head coach Steve Sarkisian arrived in Austin and immediately began putting the Longhorns back together following the often times dysfunctional tenure of Tom Herman’s era and a 5-7 first season.
“Trauma forms bonds,” linebacker Jaylan Ford told the media prior to this year’s Big 12 Championship Game. “Sark always talks about the love that each player has for each other. That year (2021) is definitely a highlight for us bonding. When Sark got here, it was hard for everyone to buy in because, respectively, he wasn’t the guy that recruited all of these players.
“We (the seniors who stayed in the program) kind of had to be leaders and we kind of had to believe in Sark. We pushed the other guys to have a standard, or start creating a new standard. I think for everyone who bought into it – you look up and here we are 11-1. It was a lot of clawing and digging, a lot of blood, sweat and tears, but it was all worth it.”
Having survived that first season, Sark went immediately into build mode, bringing in an elite recruiting class, including Quinn Ewers who transferred in from Ohio State and of course, that incredible offensive line class which has already made its mark.
Last season was all about keeping the team together. Sark introduced the “culture Wednesdays” focusing more on the players and what they’ve gone through in their personal lives. It was all about building those deep, lasting bonds that tie the guys together.
“He’s around us a whole lot more, which is really cool to see,” Ewers said at the end of the season when asked about how Sarkisian has changed since he got to Austin. “You can tell he really cares about us as people, not just as players on the field. He wants us to grow as young men. He talked about it before Senior Night, how he wants us to leave this program better men than how we came. He wants us to be that strong father and leader of our household.”
Sark himself has said he became a better coach when it stopped being only about the X’s and O’s and he began to focus more on the players as humans.
The team building and culture building paid off with a 12-2 season, Big 12 Championship title and one play away from playing for a national championship.
Now, Sark is right, smack dab in the middle of putting his 2024 team together, and I think he’s having fun doing it.
The Longhorns have added a number of significant additions through the portal.
Just this week, Texas added wide receiver Silas Bolden from Oregon State and linebacker Kendrick Blackshear from Alabama.
That’s on top of the previous portal additions:
WR - Isaiah Bond, Alabama
WR - Matthew Golden, Houston
EDGE - Trey Moor, UTSA
SAFTEY - Andrew Mukuba, Clemson
And of course, the Horns are still in it for CB Jabbar Muhammad from Washington (via Oklahoma State).
FROM QUESTION MARK TO STRENGTH
Losing all of your starting wide receivers would normally lead to some concern. Texas is losing roughly 80 percent of its offensive pass catching production with the loss of Xavier Worthy, Adonai Mitchell, Jordan Whittington and tight end Ja’Tavion Sanders (please don’t double check my math … it’s probably wrong but I don’t care).
It was critical that Sark added veteran experience to the wide receiver room, and he did just that.
Isaiah Bond steps in as the WR1 for Texas on day one. He has incredible speed and great hands. He’s also a better ball tracker than Worthy ever really was. Bond is going to force defensive coordinators to account for him on every play.
Matthew Golden is another speedster who logged a 10.93 100-meter dash while in high school. He WILL be a starter for Texas and has a chance to excel. Golden was one of the receivers that gave Texas the most fits this season and you know Sark is very happy to have him on UT’s sideline now.
Golden has already won over Texas receiving coach Chris Jackson. This is what Jackson had to say about Golden when @Anwar Richardson asked him about the new receiver prior to the Sugar Bowl.
Silas Bolden visited Texas and shut it down after that. The former Oregon State receiver is explosive with the ball in his hands. I’m not entirely sure yet how he will fit in with the receiver rotation but I know this, he is going to turn some heads when Texas fans get to see him on the field.
Bolen is explosive with the ball in his hands as both a receiver and a runner. The Beavers gave him the ball many times on jet sweeps and motions, adding two rushing touchdowns. It’s pretty easy to see him running the screens that Xavier Worthy perfected under Sark.
I mentioned Golden’s 10.91 100-meter dash in high school? Well Bolden ran a 10.61 100. He’s fast.
And of course, then there’s Johntay Cook. The young wide receiver is ready to explode onto the scene. Having Golden and Bond out there with him will help on the field and off.
On the field, Golden and Bond must be accounted for which should help ease some of the pressure off Cook.
Off the field, these guys can help show him how they work and prepare, which Cook and the other young WR’s on the Texas roster can learn from.
Once again, I will lean on the incomparable reporting from Anwar. This nugget about the wide receivers on the message board this morning was incredible.
The only question I have is how fast can Quinn Ewers build chemistry with these guys? Ewers’ connection with Worthy was so much better in year two than it was in their first year together. If he can create that kind of bond with Bond, Golden and Cook then the sky is the limit for the Texas passing game in 2024.
THE HAPPIEST MAN ABOUT THE NEW ADDITIONS …
Jeff Banks is beyond thrilled to see the new additions to the wide receiver room because he’s about to grab them and use them in special teams as well.
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Bolden, Golden, Banks and current freshman Johntay Cook II all have clocked a 40-yard dash time around 4.4.
Golden can step right in as the kick returner and make a real difference. Golden had nine kickoff returns last season and took two of them to the house. Oh, and he averaged 35.7 yards per return overall.
Bolden can also return kicks, averaging 23.1 yards per return for his 17 kick returns this season. But he is probably even better as a punt returner. Bolden took four punt returns this season for 105 yards (26.3 per return), with one touchdown.
Return yards can make a big difference for a team. Picking up an extra five to ten yards per punt or kick return can be the difference between getting bogged down at midfield or making it into field goal range. Anything you can do to pick up points is a good thing.
TWEETS OF INTEREST:
Our old friend “Nino’s Corner” from the Get Your Horns Up” show had this excellent tweet about the new Texas Longhorn receiver room.
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I couldn’t help but notice Matthew Golden posted this shortly after Bolden committed.
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For all of the talk about the portal and the new players coming in, Texas returns a lot of outstanding players.
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Quinn Ewers was the biggest piece returning for 2024. But the most exciting returning unit for me is the offensive line. Yes, Christian Jones is off to the NFL, but I actually think Cam Williams is going to be an upgrade. Add Williams and another year of experience for everyone else on that line and it’s going to be a fun, fun season.
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Do you agree?
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I don’t know what happened with Chryst and Iowa, but it’s a good thing for Texas to continue to have him working behind the scenes. Still, hopefully he’ll find a new job sometime soon.
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Texas wins again!
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Congratulations to Major Applewhite on getting another shot at being a head coach. I’ll be cheering for him to succeed at South Alabama.
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Arizona got a good one in its new coach Brent Brennan.
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Brennan’s 34-48 record at San Jose State won’t blow you away, but it is incredibly hard to win at that school. He turned the Spartans around and did a good job in a tough environment.
But he also learned something that took Sark a long time to grasp – he cares about his players.
Take a look at this speech he gave during Dick Tomey’s funeral (and the spark that led to this column).
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Contrast that with outgoing Arizona coach Jedd Fisch who took the Washington job and then spent all of three minutes saying goodbye to his Wildcat players.
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It’s ok to find a new job and try to improve your situation, but to basically blow off the players who got you there is pretty crappy.
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I don’t care what Florida’s AD says, Billy Napier is absolutely on the hot seat in 2024. I wouldn’t at all be surprised if he gets fired right after the Georgia game (the week before the Gators play Texas in Austin), or the week after his trip to Austin. That guy isn’t going to last in Gainesville.
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Finally … just because it’s so sad.
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YOU!
Now is your chance to sponsor the column. Our previous sponsor paid for more than three months of sponsorship fees in the first two weeks of signing up. That can be you! Contact @BlakeSkaggs if you want that kind of successful promotion for your business. Don't miss out on this amazing opportunity!
===========================================================================
The late, great, Dick Tomey used to tell coaches, “you’re either putting a team together, keeping a team together or putting it back together.”
Texas football head coach Steve Sarkisian arrived in Austin and immediately began putting the Longhorns back together following the often times dysfunctional tenure of Tom Herman’s era and a 5-7 first season.
“Trauma forms bonds,” linebacker Jaylan Ford told the media prior to this year’s Big 12 Championship Game. “Sark always talks about the love that each player has for each other. That year (2021) is definitely a highlight for us bonding. When Sark got here, it was hard for everyone to buy in because, respectively, he wasn’t the guy that recruited all of these players.
“We (the seniors who stayed in the program) kind of had to be leaders and we kind of had to believe in Sark. We pushed the other guys to have a standard, or start creating a new standard. I think for everyone who bought into it – you look up and here we are 11-1. It was a lot of clawing and digging, a lot of blood, sweat and tears, but it was all worth it.”
Having survived that first season, Sark went immediately into build mode, bringing in an elite recruiting class, including Quinn Ewers who transferred in from Ohio State and of course, that incredible offensive line class which has already made its mark.
Last season was all about keeping the team together. Sark introduced the “culture Wednesdays” focusing more on the players and what they’ve gone through in their personal lives. It was all about building those deep, lasting bonds that tie the guys together.
“He’s around us a whole lot more, which is really cool to see,” Ewers said at the end of the season when asked about how Sarkisian has changed since he got to Austin. “You can tell he really cares about us as people, not just as players on the field. He wants us to grow as young men. He talked about it before Senior Night, how he wants us to leave this program better men than how we came. He wants us to be that strong father and leader of our household.”
Sark himself has said he became a better coach when it stopped being only about the X’s and O’s and he began to focus more on the players as humans.
The team building and culture building paid off with a 12-2 season, Big 12 Championship title and one play away from playing for a national championship.
Now, Sark is right, smack dab in the middle of putting his 2024 team together, and I think he’s having fun doing it.
The Longhorns have added a number of significant additions through the portal.
Just this week, Texas added wide receiver Silas Bolden from Oregon State and linebacker Kendrick Blackshear from Alabama.
That’s on top of the previous portal additions:
WR - Isaiah Bond, Alabama
WR - Matthew Golden, Houston
EDGE - Trey Moor, UTSA
SAFTEY - Andrew Mukuba, Clemson
And of course, the Horns are still in it for CB Jabbar Muhammad from Washington (via Oklahoma State).
FROM QUESTION MARK TO STRENGTH
Losing all of your starting wide receivers would normally lead to some concern. Texas is losing roughly 80 percent of its offensive pass catching production with the loss of Xavier Worthy, Adonai Mitchell, Jordan Whittington and tight end Ja’Tavion Sanders (please don’t double check my math … it’s probably wrong but I don’t care).
It was critical that Sark added veteran experience to the wide receiver room, and he did just that.
Isaiah Bond steps in as the WR1 for Texas on day one. He has incredible speed and great hands. He’s also a better ball tracker than Worthy ever really was. Bond is going to force defensive coordinators to account for him on every play.
Matthew Golden is another speedster who logged a 10.93 100-meter dash while in high school. He WILL be a starter for Texas and has a chance to excel. Golden was one of the receivers that gave Texas the most fits this season and you know Sark is very happy to have him on UT’s sideline now.
Golden has already won over Texas receiving coach Chris Jackson. This is what Jackson had to say about Golden when @Anwar Richardson asked him about the new receiver prior to the Sugar Bowl.
“Matthew Golden is going to be very big for us. Number one, because we lose the production with those top three guys, and Johntay (Cook) is the only one with eight catches coming into next year. Knowing that we don't have the experience, I’m going to lean heavily on Matthew Golden to come in here. I've already had a long discussion with him. I need you to bust your ass. I need you to work hard. I need you to lead these young men. They need to do a good job kind of getting underneath his weight because he does have the experience and production, and he's going to be the next one on that same path that we've done there.”
Silas Bolden visited Texas and shut it down after that. The former Oregon State receiver is explosive with the ball in his hands. I’m not entirely sure yet how he will fit in with the receiver rotation but I know this, he is going to turn some heads when Texas fans get to see him on the field.
Bolen is explosive with the ball in his hands as both a receiver and a runner. The Beavers gave him the ball many times on jet sweeps and motions, adding two rushing touchdowns. It’s pretty easy to see him running the screens that Xavier Worthy perfected under Sark.
I mentioned Golden’s 10.91 100-meter dash in high school? Well Bolden ran a 10.61 100. He’s fast.
And of course, then there’s Johntay Cook. The young wide receiver is ready to explode onto the scene. Having Golden and Bond out there with him will help on the field and off.
On the field, Golden and Bond must be accounted for which should help ease some of the pressure off Cook.
Off the field, these guys can help show him how they work and prepare, which Cook and the other young WR’s on the Texas roster can learn from.
Once again, I will lean on the incomparable reporting from Anwar. This nugget about the wide receivers on the message board this morning was incredible.
"We have a ton of faith in the young guys," one source told me. "They all need to continue to develop.
"Transfers create healthy competition, provide experience, depth, and roster stability."
In addition, I was told something else worth sharing.
"What, (you think) we were going to play seven receivers with zero experience?" a person inside the building jokingly asked me.
Finally, I was told everyone should relax.
"Trust me, Sarkisian kinda knows what he's doing," is the final message I received.
The only question I have is how fast can Quinn Ewers build chemistry with these guys? Ewers’ connection with Worthy was so much better in year two than it was in their first year together. If he can create that kind of bond with Bond, Golden and Cook then the sky is the limit for the Texas passing game in 2024.
THE HAPPIEST MAN ABOUT THE NEW ADDITIONS …
Jeff Banks is beyond thrilled to see the new additions to the wide receiver room because he’s about to grab them and use them in special teams as well.
Login to view embedded media
Bolden, Golden, Banks and current freshman Johntay Cook II all have clocked a 40-yard dash time around 4.4.
Golden can step right in as the kick returner and make a real difference. Golden had nine kickoff returns last season and took two of them to the house. Oh, and he averaged 35.7 yards per return overall.
Bolden can also return kicks, averaging 23.1 yards per return for his 17 kick returns this season. But he is probably even better as a punt returner. Bolden took four punt returns this season for 105 yards (26.3 per return), with one touchdown.
Return yards can make a big difference for a team. Picking up an extra five to ten yards per punt or kick return can be the difference between getting bogged down at midfield or making it into field goal range. Anything you can do to pick up points is a good thing.
TWEETS OF INTEREST:
Our old friend “Nino’s Corner” from the Get Your Horns Up” show had this excellent tweet about the new Texas Longhorn receiver room.
Login to view embedded media
##############################
I couldn’t help but notice Matthew Golden posted this shortly after Bolden committed.
Login to view embedded media
##############################
For all of the talk about the portal and the new players coming in, Texas returns a lot of outstanding players.
Login to view embedded media
Quinn Ewers was the biggest piece returning for 2024. But the most exciting returning unit for me is the offensive line. Yes, Christian Jones is off to the NFL, but I actually think Cam Williams is going to be an upgrade. Add Williams and another year of experience for everyone else on that line and it’s going to be a fun, fun season.
##############################
Do you agree?
Login to view embedded media
##############################
Login to view embedded media
I don’t know what happened with Chryst and Iowa, but it’s a good thing for Texas to continue to have him working behind the scenes. Still, hopefully he’ll find a new job sometime soon.
##############################
Texas wins again!
Login to view embedded media
##############################
Congratulations to Major Applewhite on getting another shot at being a head coach. I’ll be cheering for him to succeed at South Alabama.
Login to view embedded media
##############################
Arizona got a good one in its new coach Brent Brennan.
Login to view embedded media
Brennan’s 34-48 record at San Jose State won’t blow you away, but it is incredibly hard to win at that school. He turned the Spartans around and did a good job in a tough environment.
But he also learned something that took Sark a long time to grasp – he cares about his players.
Take a look at this speech he gave during Dick Tomey’s funeral (and the spark that led to this column).
Login to view embedded media
##############################
Contrast that with outgoing Arizona coach Jedd Fisch who took the Washington job and then spent all of three minutes saying goodbye to his Wildcat players.
Login to view embedded media
It’s ok to find a new job and try to improve your situation, but to basically blow off the players who got you there is pretty crappy.
##############################
Login to view embedded media
I don’t care what Florida’s AD says, Billy Napier is absolutely on the hot seat in 2024. I wouldn’t at all be surprised if he gets fired right after the Georgia game (the week before the Gators play Texas in Austin), or the week after his trip to Austin. That guy isn’t going to last in Gainesville.
##############################
Finally … just because it’s so sad.
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Happy Friday
- By Guy Smiley
- Inside the 40 Acres
- 9 Replies
Biggest weekend visits to watch..
- By Adam Gorney
- Inside the 40 Acres
- 1 Replies
Should be really busy in Austin:
n.rivals.com
Rivals.com - Rivals recruiting buzz: Ten most intriguing visits this weekend
Five-star receiver Ryan Williams is making a key visit to Alabama this weekend.
n.rivals.com