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Kay Adams was in town Thursday morning to record her FanDuel podcast "Up and Adams" live from the Moody Center and she interviewed Coach Sark and Charles Omenihu. Here are a few immediate thoughts and reactions to what Coach Sark had to say:
- Sark talked about how he is a giant Lakers fan. He talked about how excited he was to get Luka Doncic. He was in California at the time the trade went down and at first thought it had to be a joke. He can't believe that the Lakers got Luka without giving up Lebron. He said he was not as surprised about that as he was about Bill Belichick and Mike Lombardi heading to UNC. ALEX'S THOUGHTS: Belichick becoming Chapel Bill was certainly more shocking than the Luka trade.
- On NFL interest: "I really think I have the best job in America." He said he told his dad 30 years ago the same thing when he got into coaching. Talked about how "poor" year one at Texas was and how far the program has come. 14 players at the combine. A Texas record. 25 in the last two years, two years of semifinals "and I get to live in Austin, Texas." ALEX'S THOUGHTS: I can't believe he didn't mention the craft BBQ scene and the Tex Mex but I'll let it slide.
- On "a culture of vulnerability" at Texas. "The least vulnerable group of people you can imagine are 18-20 year old men." He said the only way to tap into those relationships is to be vulnerable with them. In the end, he wants the players to go on to be great men and he has to show them what that is like -- but that culture has won Texas some football games; Sark mentioned the ASU game as an example of players trusting one another so much in a tough spot. He said that the X's and O's are easy, but that bit is the hard part. ALEX'S THOUGHTS: Those X's and O's aren't easy for everyone! That's why Sark teaches coaching clinics.
- On Arch Manning: "It was the most normal recruiting process." He said they can be difficult, but not with Arch. Just another freshman trying to earn his way. Nobody works harder, weight room, field and classroom. He's got way more swag than his uncles, the athleticism of his Grandpa. A QB's real job is to instill belief in his teammates, coaches and fanbase and Arch does that.
- On managing the expectations of him: The good thing is he's a grounded young man. Doesn't do much social media and isn't on his phone a lot. Leaning into my experience of coaching Heisman winners and Heisman hopefuls. I've had a handful of Top 10 picks. "We chose this. Everything is bigger in Texas ... nobody forced us to do this so let's make the best experience out of it." ALEX'S THOUGHTS: Feels like a really healthy, logical and reasonable way to look at it.
- On if he will officially be the starter: "It's pretty hard for me to say he's not going to be the starter." He later admitted that Arch Manning is indeed the starter. ALEX'S THOUGHTS: BREAKING NEWS!
- On if the offense will change: "He gives us a little more versatility. You see what Jayden Daniels did this last year, you saw Jalen Hurts, you see Lamar Jackson and what Josh Allen is doing, so people are incorporating the QB more but keeping the NFL style offense with it." ALEX'S THOUGHTS: My gosh are they going to run Arch this fall. It's gonna be awesome.
- On Quinn Ewers' NFL - "what he's shown is a level of perseverance." ALEX'S THOUGHTS: I mean, Quinn was a great player at Texas, but it's a little bit of a tough sell to the NFL to say the first thing that comes to your mind about him is that he was good at coming back from injuries.
- On the 14 NFL combine invites and who will beat his 4.97 40-time from his own combine (lol): He's excited to see what Jaydon Blue and Bond run in the 40. When asked who will have a big moment at the combine, he said the speed always jumps out at everybody and he thinks Blue and Bond are going to run really fast times. ALEX'S THOUGHTS: He said he thinks Bond and Blue both think they have a shot to break Xavier Worthy's record, but Sark said he thought that would be tough to do. Sounds like we should be taking the LOWER on PrizePicks for both Blue and Bond when their 40 times go up next week.
- On which Manning he hears from the most: "Cooper." All of the Manning family have a great sense of humor, but Cooper is the funniest of all of them and Arch has a lot of that, too. ALEX'S THOUGHTS: I love that Sark talks about Arch and his swag and sense of humor so much. He's going to be a really fun player to watch and cover at Texas.
- On recruiting Worthy: I was recruiting him since 10th grade. It was weird recruiting during COVID. Things came together when he got to Texas after working on him for so long. ALEX'S THOUGHTS: You forget how weird COVID was sometimes. Imagine having to recruit during that. Honestly, it probably aided in Zoom/virtual meetings becoming a fixture in the lives of coaches just like it did for basically all the other industries.
- On his recruiting style: Relationship-based. We have an NFL model with evaluating talent. But at the end of the day it's different because we're not picking the player, they're picking us. You have to show them how they'll be developed and now we have living examples of that. ALEX'S THOUGHTS: There's a list of guys who've been developed that is really mounting up. Quite an arsenal coming into Year 5 to point to.
- There will not be a spring game. ALEX'S THOUGHTS: That is the big breaking news from the show as much as Kay Adams wanted it to be the "news" that Arch Manning is the starter. Sark said he thinks he can get more out of the series of practices without using one for the spring game.
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MORE BOOK REVIEWS
With some travel coming up, I'll be lucky to have the new CJ Box/Joe Pickett installment (Battle Mountain) coming out next week -- but, unfortunately, the new installment of the Gray Man series (Midnight Black) which went on sale on Tuesday will not be available on audiobook until 3/25 and I really like to listen to that one on my daily hikes. I'm in a little bit of a pickle about deciding whether to order the book or wait. I'm not so sure I can hold out for a month. While I've been waiting for these two new editions in two of my favorite 5-star series' of books, I've taken in a couple of good ones in the last few weeks, though:
Wolf Trap by Connor Sullivan
FROM THE PUBLISHER: Set a trap… See who comes.
Under the direction of the Special Activities Center in the Operations Directorate of the CIA, over three hundred highly trained agents operate in the darkest shadows of the country’s covert wars. Plucked from the highest echelons of America’s special mission units, these individuals go through rigorous training by the Agency to perfect the arts of assassination, sabotage, infiltration, and guerrilla warfare.
According to the United States government, this Ground Branch of the CIA does not exist. But when diplomacy and military intervention fails, the President of the United States calls upon it to handle America’s most dangerous crises.
Brian Rhome, a former Ground Branch paramilitary officer, thought his time within this elite group was over. But now, he’s on an “action-packed, country-hopping” (Lisa Gardner, #1 New York Times bestselling author) race against time around the globe as he confronts the traumas of his past and unravels a deadly conspiracy that threatens the highest levels of American democracy.
ALEX'S THOUGHTS: Brian Rhome is an interesting protagonist -- certainly a total sicko -- and the book, in general, is a page-turning thriller once it gets going. The main plot is a little bit political (it involves Rhome coming into this assignment on behalf of a group who is dead-set on not allowing the progressive U.S. President's "Global Green Accord" signing in Davos to be disrupted by Iranian terrorists) and I generally don't really like too much of a partisan political angle in my novels. With that said, the author never really takes a stand one way or the other and you would never know whether he (or the lead character) even care about the politics of it. It's more of just a setting for how the action plays out. Rhome is in this to kill and torture the people who killed some of his fellow operators last year in Syria out of revenge. Along the way, there are very surprising plot twists and conspiracies at the highest levels of U.S. and Middle Eastern government. IT IS WORTH READING AND I GIVE IT 3.5 STARS.
The Texas Murders by James Patterson and Andrew Bourelle
FROM THE PUBLISHER: In this thrilling novel from a #1 New York Times bestselling author, the great Texas Rangers go on a no-holds-barred pursuit of the most dangerous killer ever to terrorize Texas.
Texas Ranger Rory Yates protects his home state wearing a five-pointed silver badge and carrying a Sig Sauer.
When a native woman disappears on the summer solstice, clues point to a cold case.
Yates, a quick-draw champion, partners with expert archer Ava Cruz of the Tigua Tribal police.
The investigation leads to the edges of Texas’s most unforgiving landscape, where the officers take dead aim with every shot in their arsenals.
ALEX'S THOUGHTS: Another James Patterson novel co-written by someone else ... the guy obviously has a method. When I saw there was a new novel of his about the Texas Rangers, I had to give it a try not realizing it was the third in a series about Ranger Rory Yates. You would never know, though. The book has a standalone feel to it and it's totally enjoyable to read as a one-off. When Yates and one of his fellow Rangers travel to El Paso to investigate an alarming trend of young Native American women going missing, they team up with Ava Cruz, a tribal police officer and an archer who is as badass with a bow and arrow as Yates is as a quick-draw shooting champion. Spoiler alert: they end up needing those skills as the case unfolds. Often. I love the Texas-centric vibe of this one even if some parts of the novel (especially regarding Yates' complicated issues with his love life) can feel a little hokey. IT IS A GREAT BOOK AND I GIVE IT 3.75 STARS.
- Alex's Daily Short Reading List (updated 2-20-2025)
Books I've read or listened to on Audiobook since I've been sharing these reviews on OB (this list is not encompassing of all of my favorite books although it certainly includes a few of them - books I recommend reading/listening to start at 3.5 stars - I will review every book I read, but only list those that I awarded 3.5 stars and up here).
ALL Books Are Linked Below !!!!!!
Lonesome Dove (5 stars)
Joe Pickett Series (5 stars)
The Undoing Project (5 stars)
The Accidental Superpower (5 stars)
I Am Pilgrim (5 stars)
Empire of the Summer Moon (5 stars)
Gridiron Genius (5 Stars)
The Cartel (5 stars)
Disunited Nations (5 stars)
Lone Survivor (5 stars)
The Terminal List Series (5 stars)
The Gray Man Series (5 stars)
The Year of the Locust (5 stars)
The Shepherds Series (5 stars)
The Son (4.75 stars)
Seasons of Man Series (4.75 stars)
The Lincoln Highway (4.75 stars)
The 4-Hour Work Week (4.75 stars)
Astroball (4.75 stars)
Project Hail Mary (4.75 stars)
Tier One Series (4.75 stars)
Armored Series (4.75 stars)
Sons of Valor Series (4.75 stars)
Shantaram (4.5 stars)
Dueling With Kings (4.5 stars)
Wanderers (4.5 stars)
Damascus Station (4.5 stars)
American Assassin (4.5 stars)
Back of Beyond (4.25 stars)
Blue Heaven (4.25 stars)
The Border (4.25 stars)
Wrath of the Khans - Dan Carlin Podcast Series (4.25 stars)
The Time it Never Rained (4.25 stars)
Hard Country (4.25 stars)
This Tender Land (4 stars)
Supermarket (4 stars)
Ready Player Two (4 stars)
When Christmas Comes (4 stars)
Hollywood Park (4 stars)
Fields of Fire (4 stars)
Terminal Rage (4 stars)
Eruption (4 stars)
Orphan X (3.75 stars)
The Great Alone (3.75 stars)
Hunting El Chapo (3.75 stars)
The President is Missing (3.75 stars)
The First Conspiracy (3.75 stars)
REAMDE (3.75 stars)
American Wolf (3.75 stars)
The End is Always Near (3.75 stars)
Second Wind (3.75 stars)
The End of the World is Just the Beginning (3.75 stars)
A Strange Habit of Mind (3.75 stars)
The River (3.75 stars)
The House of Love and Death (3.75 stars)
The Sandbox (3.75 stars)
This Side of Night (3.75 stars)
Four Minutes (3.75 stars)
A Woman Underground (3.75 stars)
Julian's Numbers (3.75 stars)
The Texas Murders (3.75 stars)
A Bright Shore (3.5 stars)
The Lost City of the Monkey God (3.5 stars)
The Summer That Melted Everything (3.5 stars)
The North Water (3.5 stars)
Deep Survival (3.5 stars)
The Boy From the Woods (3.5 stars)
The Frackers (3.5 stars)
Arliss Cutter Series (3.5 stars)
The Drifter (3.5 stars)
Worst Case Scenario (3.5 stars)
Wolf Trap (3.5 stars)
AS ALWAYS, PLEASE LET ME KNOW ANY BOOKS YOU WOULD RECOMMEND, PREFERABLY THAT ARE AVAILABLE ON AUDIOBOOK. MANY OF THE BEST BOOKS ON THIS LIST HAVE COME VIA RECOMMENDATIONS ON ORANGEBLOODS.
