Daily Short #99, November 10th, 2017: Live Chat Column
presented by the Dental Offices of Wendy Swantkowski, DDS
The Absolute BEST in family and cosmetic dentistry for the Houston-Memorial Area
Now Accepting New Patients --- 281-293-9140
I'll answer your questions here for the next hour to make a community chat column. When answering the questions, I'll copy and paste them here in the OP to make it an easer-to-read column once the chat has ended. Ask me anything for the next hour. I'll make a note in the thread when the chat portion is over after an hour or so.
I find it extremely hard to give this team credit for finding enough offense to generate three straight wins. The OL is regressing and the play-calling/offensive game plan remains stagnant at best. I think it is entirely possible to win out, but so is losing two of the last three.
Nickelson will be addition by subtraction. That leaves Okafor with some experience under his belt as well as Kerstetter who'll hopefully add GOOD weight this offseason. I don't think it's necessary he puts on 20-25 pounds, but would like to see 15 pounds of solid muscular mass added a la Connor coming into his sophomore season. Hudson back will fortify the middle of the OL in a much more sustainable way for depth than Cuney has -- at least that's the hope and projection. Elijah Rodriguez provides a level of player the staff saw as a starter and he'll push at either tackle position. He is capable of providing competition at literally all five OL positions. (People forget he's seen game action at all five as a reserve). All of these factors coupled with another year of experience for guys like Vahe, Shack and McMillon make for a very improved group, clearly.
There's always basketball, right? We're all praying for Shaka to raise the spirits around here a bit. I have no idea. Dustin's been talking the kid up -- I'll say he goes for a double-double with my completely uneducated perspective.
On a scale of 1-10, I'd say to peg it around 4 by kickoff. If Texas hasn't scored 10 points by halfway through the second quarter, boost that up to 7 or 8 then head to forums at Orangebloods.com and let your inner thoughts and feelings flow free.
Let's see... Next 2-3 years means a sophomore or a freshman. None of the young WRs get reliable enough snaps to step up and take over games like that. Brewer is not involved enough in the passing game to make a big impact but I do think he's going to be a leader moving forward. As for defense, most of the key contributors are juniors and seniors. That leads me to say Daniel Young -- he's going to be around for 3 more seasons and is getting the volume needed to have an opportunity to step up and truly make a difference in games by asserting himself in this way.
I think that preseason, I was under the false impression that Herman and his offensive system would cure all. I didn't in my wildest dreams imagine everything would go so sideways with the play calling, and complete lack of identity in game planning. I would have said that Herman has won with lesser OL pieces than even that at UH and that Herman is a winner who knows how to scheme around deficiencies, especially in a wide-open, spread-offense conference like the Big 12. I would have said "put 11 guys on a football field with Tom Herman and they'll score points, I don't care who they are."
I would have said that he's won national championships as a play caller with a third-stringer at the most important position in all of football. I'd say back then, as I continue to say now, that 7 wins should never be acceptable at Texas and I think Herman would agree with that even today.
So my prediction would have been 8 wins and I would have been wrong.
1) Falling prey to recency bias in sit/start and trade decisions.
2) Not understanding that your most important goal at all times and sole focus should be winning THE WEEK AT HAND.
3) Evaluating matchups based on fantasy points allowed and other factors which completely lack context.
4) Not being active enough on the waiver wire. If you aren't recycling 1-2 spots a week at the bottom of your roster until you've accumulated enough pieces to "trade up" with two of those players for a more premium one, you are losing a massive edge.
Hate to sound like a Debbie Downer, but it's probably going to be significant. Whether it's Davante Davis or Josh Thompson (I expect we see both) neither is 2017 Holton Hill who has been fantastic.
I don't expect Hill to return to Texas, so it may be best just to get things going with Thompson -- I think in the long run, Thompson has a similar upside to Hill although he's a little bit of a different player from a physical size and length perspective.
Lots of questions about next season -- it's been like clockwork around here in November recently. Hope that changes in 2018.
Piggy backing on the last post, I'll take a wild guess on Josh Thompson. I have a lot of conviction that he's going to be a plus-player and if the staff gives him run (which I still don't know if that will be the case or not), I could see him making some waves down the stretch. I don't really see anyone else "coming out of the blue," we've had a good look at most of the roster at this point.
He must be an awful practice player because McMillon at center and Anderson at guard would have been much, much better than Cuney at center and McMillon at guard based on everything I've witnessed. Another head-scratcher personnel-wise from the offensive staff. I don't have an answer to it despite getting asked with great frequency. It's as confusing to me as anyone else. There has to be something behind the scenes I would imagine.
presented by the Dental Offices of Wendy Swantkowski, DDS
The Absolute BEST in family and cosmetic dentistry for the Houston-Memorial Area
Now Accepting New Patients --- 281-293-9140
I'll answer your questions here for the next hour to make a community chat column. When answering the questions, I'll copy and paste them here in the OP to make it an easer-to-read column once the chat has ended. Ask me anything for the next hour. I'll make a note in the thread when the chat portion is over after an hour or so.
I find it extremely hard to give this team credit for finding enough offense to generate three straight wins. The OL is regressing and the play-calling/offensive game plan remains stagnant at best. I think it is entirely possible to win out, but so is losing two of the last three.
Nickelson will be addition by subtraction. That leaves Okafor with some experience under his belt as well as Kerstetter who'll hopefully add GOOD weight this offseason. I don't think it's necessary he puts on 20-25 pounds, but would like to see 15 pounds of solid muscular mass added a la Connor coming into his sophomore season. Hudson back will fortify the middle of the OL in a much more sustainable way for depth than Cuney has -- at least that's the hope and projection. Elijah Rodriguez provides a level of player the staff saw as a starter and he'll push at either tackle position. He is capable of providing competition at literally all five OL positions. (People forget he's seen game action at all five as a reserve). All of these factors coupled with another year of experience for guys like Vahe, Shack and McMillon make for a very improved group, clearly.
There's always basketball, right? We're all praying for Shaka to raise the spirits around here a bit. I have no idea. Dustin's been talking the kid up -- I'll say he goes for a double-double with my completely uneducated perspective.
On a scale of 1-10, I'd say to peg it around 4 by kickoff. If Texas hasn't scored 10 points by halfway through the second quarter, boost that up to 7 or 8 then head to forums at Orangebloods.com and let your inner thoughts and feelings flow free.
Let's see... Next 2-3 years means a sophomore or a freshman. None of the young WRs get reliable enough snaps to step up and take over games like that. Brewer is not involved enough in the passing game to make a big impact but I do think he's going to be a leader moving forward. As for defense, most of the key contributors are juniors and seniors. That leads me to say Daniel Young -- he's going to be around for 3 more seasons and is getting the volume needed to have an opportunity to step up and truly make a difference in games by asserting himself in this way.
I think that preseason, I was under the false impression that Herman and his offensive system would cure all. I didn't in my wildest dreams imagine everything would go so sideways with the play calling, and complete lack of identity in game planning. I would have said that Herman has won with lesser OL pieces than even that at UH and that Herman is a winner who knows how to scheme around deficiencies, especially in a wide-open, spread-offense conference like the Big 12. I would have said "put 11 guys on a football field with Tom Herman and they'll score points, I don't care who they are."
I would have said that he's won national championships as a play caller with a third-stringer at the most important position in all of football. I'd say back then, as I continue to say now, that 7 wins should never be acceptable at Texas and I think Herman would agree with that even today.
So my prediction would have been 8 wins and I would have been wrong.
1) Falling prey to recency bias in sit/start and trade decisions.
2) Not understanding that your most important goal at all times and sole focus should be winning THE WEEK AT HAND.
3) Evaluating matchups based on fantasy points allowed and other factors which completely lack context.
4) Not being active enough on the waiver wire. If you aren't recycling 1-2 spots a week at the bottom of your roster until you've accumulated enough pieces to "trade up" with two of those players for a more premium one, you are losing a massive edge.
Hate to sound like a Debbie Downer, but it's probably going to be significant. Whether it's Davante Davis or Josh Thompson (I expect we see both) neither is 2017 Holton Hill who has been fantastic.
I don't expect Hill to return to Texas, so it may be best just to get things going with Thompson -- I think in the long run, Thompson has a similar upside to Hill although he's a little bit of a different player from a physical size and length perspective.
Lots of questions about next season -- it's been like clockwork around here in November recently. Hope that changes in 2018.
Piggy backing on the last post, I'll take a wild guess on Josh Thompson. I have a lot of conviction that he's going to be a plus-player and if the staff gives him run (which I still don't know if that will be the case or not), I could see him making some waves down the stretch. I don't really see anyone else "coming out of the blue," we've had a good look at most of the roster at this point.
He must be an awful practice player because McMillon at center and Anderson at guard would have been much, much better than Cuney at center and McMillon at guard based on everything I've witnessed. Another head-scratcher personnel-wise from the offensive staff. I don't have an answer to it despite getting asked with great frequency. It's as confusing to me as anyone else. There has to be something behind the scenes I would imagine.
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