Ketch's 10 Thoughts From The Weekend: 24 Hours Later...
- Thread starter Ketchum
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who says he is wrong? Sark himself is a former qb at BYU and the CFL. he knows the position because he's played it.
go with Card and the future. but play Thompson in meaningful situations. Thompson isn't the future because he's shorter on eligibility, he's a junior now, Card is a sophomore, Card has more seasons to give, and if he's the better player, start him.
John Mackovic was wrong with golden boy Shea Morenz and changed his mind, and Mack Brown was with Chrissy Simms and it cost us a conference championship. Let’s hope Sark likes winning more than he likes being “right” (quotes explicit).
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I dont think thats true. They are smart men and good coaches. They can both realize the situation and also realize that having a Tom Herman quality meltdown over it isnt going to change a thing this year. They have the offensive line they have for this year and theyll have to deal with it.
Card appeared to have trouble making decisions Saturday night. Hard to tell if his receivers were struggling getting open or he couldn’t figure out where to go with the ball. In any case, he struggled processing where to go with the ball and then when he did make a throw his accuracy was not good. All in all a bad night.
I thought Casey was much more decisive. Until Card improves his decision making, I think we have to roll with Casey.
I thought Casey was much more decisive. Until Card improves his decision making, I think we have to roll with Casey.
Yeah you do.
It wasn't anything but an educated guess to begin with. The actual game lights have now been turned on, and data is available. Use it.
Card will get the chance again, and hopefully he will be ready then.
Those same people have hired Chris Beard and gotten us into the SEC, both master strokes. No one bats 1.000 unfortunately.
Ok, let's talk about it.
As president of the Hudson Card Fan Club, the last thing I can do after my guy posted a quarterback rating nearly 100 points lower than his previous game is bury the discussion down a few sections. In the face of the hottest kitchen Card has ever entered, he didn't so much as blink when the flame got near him as he simply allowed himself to become engulfed into flame over the course of nearly three quarters of action.
While he wasn't throwing the ball into dangerous areas that led to turnovers, that can't be the best part of your performance. We can't come out of a game and say that the best part of a quarterback's performance is that he didn't have too many disasters. Card wasn't good enough on Saturday. He missed throws that should have put points on the scoreboard. His eyes never seemed to find what they wanted to look for and he didn't lead the offense to remotely enough success.
At halftime, Card was 4 of 8 for 39 yards and he simply wasn't giving the offense enough. Even the president of his fan club can admit that Sarkisian looked like Rocky Balboa refusing to throw the towel while Ivan Drago was seconds away from killing Apollo Creed because of a need to protect the ego of his guy.
It's hard to believe that Sarkisian's old boss Nick Saban would have hesitated to make a switch at halftime, considering we've seen him pull the plug on much more accomplished players than Card when the moment calls for it.
At 16-0, the moment was screaming for a change, all in the name of doing what was best for the team in the next 30 minutes of action. That the hook didn't come until the game was effectively over at 33-7 is completely on Sarkisian.
Perhaps it's unfair to suggest that Sarkisian hesitated because he didn't want to create a quarterback debate with a switch six quarters into the season, but it's hard to fathom what else he could have been thinking in not making the switch. Sometimes a guy just doesn't have it and Card didn't have it on this night. Leaving him in did Card and the team about as many favors as Balboa not throwing the towel in did for Creed.
Ironically, if Sarkisian was trying to avoid a debate at the most important position on the field, he failed because that's where we absolutely are heading into the Rice game this week after Casey Thompson outperformed Card in his limited time to a large enough degree that many of those reading this article might riot at DKR is a change isn't made.
What Sarkisian does next is fascinating on multiple fronts. Consider the following:
* Making a switch after two games would essentially translate to Sarkisian admitting that he not only hitched his saddle to the wrong guy, but that he's been wasting a lot of important time and reps since the first scrimmage of August when he positioned Card to take the overwhelming majority of the reps in each practice outside of the one that occurred on the day before he actually told the quarterbacks of his decision.
* In choosing Card as his starter in August, Sarkisian unofficially announced that Card was his quarterback for the future. One of the elements of Sarkisian's decision that was discussed all season was that the winner of the job in 2021 might set the winner up to be the long-term answer at the position, meaning that Sarkisian would need to be prepared to lose the loser of the battle to a transfer at some point. There's been so much discussion about Thompson leaving immediately, but there's little question that both players would likely have a big issue with sitting through the 2022 season. If Sarkisian makes a switch in the third game of the season, it's fair to wonder exactly where the long-term future of the position stands.
* Few will watch the Rice game and believe that the result of the game means much after what happened on Saturday night, but it's exactly the kind of game that could provide a platform for whomever he chooses to begin the process of building momentum that would allow him to keep the job moving forward.
* Sarkisian's team is watching all of this closely. They'll know that Thompson outplayed Card in Fayetteville. They'll know that if it had been any other position on the field, such a thing would matter with regards to future playing time.
Bottom line - Sarkisian has a lot to think about. Either decision has implications that go beyond who gives the team the best chance to win against Rice.
Is he ready to make it?
His actions suggested the answer is yes, and that the answer was Card. His actions also suggest that confidence in his decision-making among the Texas fan base has been shaken in less than 90 minutes of action as the coach.
Whatever happens, the eyes of Texas are watching and ready to render some judgments based on what happens next.
It's never easy around this place, is it?
No. 2 - For the record ...
I'm torn on what I think should happen at the quarterback decision.
On one hand, I'm not a fan of giving up on the guy you thought was the quarterback of the future after 2 1/2 quarters of bad football because it screams of a panic move by a coach that doesn't know what he's doing.
On the other hand, I'm not a fan of suggesting that what happened on Saturday night shouldn't matter at all.
If I had a third hand, I'd also say I'm not a fan of a decision being made on what happens in practice this week.
At the end of the day, Sarkisian needs to trust himself, but if it were me, I'd probably treat a Rice team that just got worked 44-7 by Houston as a platform for both to decide what happens next on the field in actual games. Both would play in the first quarter and throughout the game.
It's far from ideal, but nothing about where things stand is ideal. I'd probably start Card because I'm not going to quit on Card after one miserable half of football, but Thompson doesn't deserve to simply slide back into the kind of back-up role he's been in the first two games.
No. 3 - Discussing Kyle Flood ...
There are three things that I believe represent a bit of an early indictment on the coach that was supposed to be the answer of the offensive line problems that just won't go away.
1. The choice to stand with a pat hand throughout the off-season and not really make any effort to improve the starting options in the transfer portal was just a terrible decision and it's one that everyone that has followed the program closely knew was a terrible decision.
2. Flood's recruiting in the 2022 class hasn't been good enough at this point. There's still room to change this before the 2022 class puts pen to paper, but up until now, it hasn't been good enough.
3. There's not a single starter on the offensive line that I can tell with my naked eye has made progress from last year to this year, which is the single biggest indictment of all at this early stage of the season. The offensive line actually played pretty well in the final two games of the 2020 season with almost the same exact personnel that exists this year and the results from this group right now are borderline horrifying.
I'm not saying that Flood warrants being on the hot seat or anything like that, but we also can't ignore what has actually happened right now just because Flood came from Alabama, is making a ton of money and is Sarkisian's guy.
No. 4 - More randomness with a day to chew on things ...
... It is less incredibly worrisome that Sarkisian is 0-19 in games when his teams have fallen behind by 10+ at halftime than it is that he has been behind by 10+ at halftime in more than 20-percent of the games he's put together as a head coach. The math says what happened last night won't be the last time it happens this season. Hell, the math says it might happen more than once before this season is complete.
... What exactly what Sarkisian's plan in this game? When you look at the early scripting of the offense, I can't tell who he thought needed to get the ball. Where we the screens and short throws that might have allowed his quarterback to get into some kind of groove? Why are they not finding a way to get the ball into Xavier Worthy's hands with end arounds, screens and other plays that can get him in space? Why did it take nearly three quarters for Joshua Moore to get a target? I just don't have any idea what the plan was.
... The defense deserves credit for keeping the Longhorns in the game through the second quarter, but there were some guys that stopped giving maximum effort in the second half and that just can't happen.
... We've talked about the pass rush being a question mark all off-season and there never really appeared to be anyone that was getting close to K.J. Jefferson when he dropped back to pass, as the Longhorns finished as a team with zero sacks and two quarterback hits. This is going to be a problem all year.
... Joshua Moore can't go catchless over 60 minutes. It feels like that's the kind of thing that happened last season after he'd catch a couple of touchdowns the previous week. How are we not beyond that kind of thing happening?
... There were five players I thought could hold their heads up high on Sunday ... Bijan Robinson, Casey Thompson, DeMarvion Overshown, Anthony Cook and B.J. Foster.
... Cook is very quietly having an excellent start to the season. Whatever success is occurring against the Longhorns in the passing game isn't occurring on his watch so far.
... Luke Brockermeyer's lack of athleticism and speed felt like a problem on Saturday night. He'll have better days moving forward, but he just seemed a tick slow in getting to the football for a lot of the game.
No. 5 – ICYMI ...
It's year seven of our post-game show and I'm pretty sure we've never had more people watching than we did in the aftermath of Saturday night.
No. 6 - A little love for the Texas volleyball team ...
The No.1-ranked Longhorns moved to 7-0 on Sunday with a four-set win over Notre Dame, which followed a four-set win over Arizona on Friday night.
So far this season, the only question has been whether the Longhorns will lose a game, not whether they'll lose a match.
If only it could be like this in football.
No. 7 – BUY or SELL …
(Sell) Sadly, I've done so many of these after awful losses over the last decade-plus that I'm just numb to it all. No dread.
(Sell) I don't know many coaches that are willing to admit being terribly wrong after just two games. It might be the wrong decision, but changing quarterbacks at this stage would make Sarkisian look like he doesn't know what he's been doing for the last month.
(Sell) Exactly as Tom Herman did, Sark overestimated the level of talent on the current coaching staff.
(Buy) I'll just let the facts speak for themselves. In my 25 years of doing rankings, all six of the quarterbacks I've ever ranked as five-stars that have finished their eligibility have played in the NFL and five of the six were drafted by NFL teams. If we extend the list to quarterbacks I've rated as high four-stars, the numbers are eight of 11 of the highest-ranked quarterbacks I've ever evaluated have played in the NFL. If we extend the data to include all mid four-star quarterbacks, the numbers turn into 11 of the 20 highest-ranked quarterbacks I've ever ranked have turned into NFL players.
You let me know a single person on the planet that has a better track record than that with evaluating high school players and I'll let you talk all the mess you want.
(Sell) Largely, the realistic expectations for this program centered on an 8-4 or 9-3 season. No one on Orangebloods picked this team to make the Big 12 Championship game.
(Sell) The schedule outside of Oklahoma the rest of the way is full of a bunch of crap. Just don't get overly excited when Texas potentially proves to be less crappy than the rest of the teams in the Big 12.
(Sell) lulz.
(Sell) Last night was an abomination in all three phases of the game, the coaching staff, the overall effort and intensity.
(Buy) He's real good. Just ask Sarkisian.
(Sell) There have been teams in the last decade that didn't have any NFL-level draftable players on the roster. That's not the case with this team. I mean ... 2014-16 happened.
(Sell) Texas is still in the running with Campbell, but this was a damaging loss in the pursuit of Stewart IMO.
(Buy) Decent might be good enough in the Big 12 this season.
(Sell) Texas has a bunch of four-star players on the roster that are marginally more valuable than three stars. It has too few five-stars and high four-star level talent.
(Sell) All of the above.
(Sell) I'll take the under.
(Sell) I'm not sure average helps change what happened last night at all.
(Sell) Part of what will make this game miserable in future weeks will be seeing Arkansas exposed as just an ok team over 12 games. Rice was more competitive last week than Texas was this week.
(Sell) I don't really understand this question at all. Ash's sophomore season in 2012 is probably the best quarterback season of the last decade, unless you want to argue that Sam Ehlinger in 2018 was better. Regardless, Ash's career was sidetracked by injuries, which isn't an issue with Card. Maybe put some respect on Ash's name.
(Sell) No, the early returns do not suggest that yet.
(Buy) Bingo. We were supposed to be beyond this team getting its ass kicked to such levels that Charlie Strong's worst teams get mentioned as comparisons.
(Sell) Let me introduce you to Arsenal TV. (NSFW)
(Buy) Of course. He's one of the best coaches in the history of college football. He might be an awful human being that would have hired a racist strength coach and tolerated all sorts of felonies from the players on his roster, but he wouldn't get skull-banged on national television at this level.
(Sell) This was settled last night. Kayla wore a watch last night.
No. 8 - Scattershooting on the sports weekend ...
... The moment when you knew Ohio State was in trouble.
... Iowa State returned 20+ senior just so that it could get thrashed at home and have its starting senior quarterback benched against its in-state rival. Woof.
... I have to believe Florida State fans felt worse on Saturday night than Texas fans. Someone ask @DustinMcComas for an opinion.
... My fantasy football team's first three picks combined for less than 15 points and I likely lost my fifth round pick (Jerry Jeudy) for the entire season after a third quarter injury.
... Are the Texans any good or is Urban Meyer about to flame out in Jacksonville in historic fashion?
... If you had the 49ers at -8.5, I'm really sorry for your weekend.
... Chandler Jones is a damn monster.
... Daniil Medvedev shut down Novak Djokovic's run for history. I didn't see that coming at all.
... Emma Raducanu is going to be a superstar tennis player that crosses over into the public mainstream in a big way. Huge talent. Magnetic personality. Let's hope the British tabloids don't ruin her.
... My first mention of cricket in 20 years of Orangebloods...
No. 9 - Top 10 Most Believable Actors as Athletes in Movies ...
Two weeks ago, Michael J. Fox topped the least of the least believable actors in sports movies, which means this week we'll look at the actors that were the most believable.
Rule: Actors that played the sport that they are nominated in at the professional level were not eligible for the list.
10. Hilary Swank as Maggie Fitzgerald (Million Dollar Baby)
9. Maris Valainis as Jimmy Chitwood (Hoosiers)
8. Kurt Russell as Reno Hightower (Best of Times)
7. William Zabka as Johnny Lawrence (The Karate Kid)
6. Kevin Coster as Roy McAvoy (Tin Cup)
5. Robert DeNiro as Jake LaMotta (Raging Bull)
4. Charlie Sheen as Rick Vaughn (Major League)
3. Cuba Gooding, Jr. as Rod Tidwell (Jerry MaGuire)
2. Jamie Foxx as Willie Beaman (Any Given Sunday)
1. Carl Weathers as Apollo Creed (Rocky, Rocky II, Ricky III and Ricky IV)
No. 10 - And Finally ...
This video deserves its own section and this cat now has one less life to use up on its path towards nine.
scattershooting some of ketch's post .. great homage to the late great Blackie Sherrod btw a true Texas sports legend.
agree completely with Carl Weathers. a former NFL player, along with Kurt Russell probably the only two real athletes in the list. Russell had a potential pro baseball career derailed by a rotator cuff injury. his dad Bing Russell was a pro baseball payer.
Weathers was great as Apollo Creed. possibly the best Rocky movie .. other than the first one .. was Rocky III where Apollo taught Rocky how to really box so he could defeat Clubber Lang (Mr. T) in his rematch.
they caught the cat! awesome!!!
Arsenal fans .. lol
Barry Odom probably didn't get a fair shake at Missouri, not an easy place to win. they might have given up on him too soon, and don't have a lot to show for it since.
Gary Patterson is probably loving what he saw.
Aggy and ou have transfer OL starting on their OLs, both programs are very far ahead of us in terms of OL development IMO.
Texas & its fans (including me) got fat heads after last week- which is always Texas’ fatal flaw. Our team and fan base get fat heads quicker than any other team & fan base in college football. We were overconfident and & not ready for a jacked-up Piggy team. If you didnt hate Piggy, you do now with all the flagrant uncalled fouls tonight.
Sarkisian is a level-headed head coach, kind of Tom Landry-ish, he doesn’t get too high or too low, some thing that our fans who are very emotional will criticize him for. Card has the same personality. Fans will be upset about our team not showing any “fire”, especially because teams take on the personality of their head coach.
Arkansas almost lost to Rice last week, seriously had something to prove, and HATES Texas. That pure hatred & SEC physicality are things our team just started understanding tonight.
Emotion in the college game carries an outsized weight. Perfect buzzsaw. Hope we learn and improve- the fat head will be gone & all of our weaknesses have been exposed, so we know exactly what we need to work on.
I’m glad we have some time left in the Big 12 before we enter the SEC to work on some things & recruit more on the OL.
Gawd, I hate losing to Piggy…
Sarkisian is a level-headed head coach, kind of Tom Landry-ish, he doesn’t get too high or too low, some thing that our fans who are very emotional will criticize him for. Card has the same personality. Fans will be upset about our team not showing any “fire”, especially because teams take on the personality of their head coach.
Arkansas almost lost to Rice last week, seriously had something to prove, and HATES Texas. That pure hatred & SEC physicality are things our team just started understanding tonight.
Emotion in the college game carries an outsized weight. Perfect buzzsaw. Hope we learn and improve- the fat head will be gone & all of our weaknesses have been exposed, so we know exactly what we need to work on.
I’m glad we have some time left in the Big 12 before we enter the SEC to work on some things & recruit more on the OL.
Gawd, I hate losing to Piggy…
Aggy and OU put guys in the league. We don't. The questions I asked him still stand
That’s part of the data point, both schools consistently put OL into the league and saw a deficiency in their current situation and sought to remedy it with Tennessee transfers.
Agree with all this. Don’t know if Sark can suck up his ego Tomrw and do right thing. I doubt it
Umm @Ketchum don’t take this personally but I’m going to have strongly disagree with just about everything you mentioned in this thread.
1.) One on hand you would have liked to see Hudson benched halfway through the game but on the other hand, somehow it would be a “woeful” decision to start Casey? So Thompson is good enough to come in and save the day but hasn’t shown enough to start the game? How is bringing Thompson in at halftime after openly admitting both will play before both games not at least a slight admission that the QB battle might not be over? Yet playing the first quarter instead of the 3rd quarter is? That just doesn’t make any sense.
2.) Then you basically doubled down and said that Thompson hasn’t shown enough while alluding to the past 9 months…. when Casey has the best QB play in a single half we’ve seen in recent memory and has continued to play well given his opportunities including the first game. I’m not going to fault Casey for playing when he does, the fact is when his number is called he has 9 out of 10 drives scoring points. On top of that, it wasn’t like Card took the job from the beginning of spring ball. Sark named his starter right before game week so it was close up until the end. Some way, some how Card has shown enough to be the starter and play for *checks notes * …..two quarters. I mean even Vince Young who infamously had a perfect rivals rating lost starts to guy with even less history of college success than Casey Thompson. I just don’t understand the logic here. I don’t believe it’s there case at all but this type of reasoning is why some people believe there is a hidden agenda to push Card.
3.) And the “do you trust your coach” comment in the same thread as this team doesn’t have 5 star talent it needs comment is bananas. How can you even make a judgment on Sark after two games when the talent is this bad? So what if he switches the QB after a couple of games (where they have both played in each) to find out what he has? The offensive line is worse from last year and they have been trending downward for over 10 years now lol. There’s not one draft pick on it. Our WR room is also average, outside of worthy eventually and a hurt Omiere, maybe not a draft pick there either. The QB room is completely unknown. The defense has one bonafide stud on it in overshown with a couple of solid but inconsistent players. We don’t have a pass rush and for as good as the DL is supposed to be we just saw Sark recruit 6 DL and edge players in this upcoming class not to mention go head over heels for any LB he could get in the transfer portal. Plus Jamison, Thompson and to some degree Foster (and I really want to like them) have been a part of some of the worst defenses statistically and mental breakdowns in recent years…. all the while we were talking ourselves up in schooler a guy who hasn’t played defense let alone the position in 3 years. Even dicker has regressed to the mean. We drink the kool aid (myself included) every year but we’ve seen the same results from the same tier of recruits we’ve been able to bring in across 3 coaching staffs now. It’s really on Sark to bring in true top 5 classes (not these feaux top 10 classes that fall apart and don’t have any 5 star lineman or QBs) year after year. You did say something I am willing to agree with, probably looking back on the players in the recruiting classes that actually stayed at Texas and comparing it to those on other teams, we’d realize our talent advantage is not all that great.
4.) For heavens sake we are going to discuss the OL transfer portal decision this past offseason to death. You can’t say we need 5 star talent but Sark should have went after avg transfer OL targets and not get an eye roll from me. We should just bring in OL just for the hell of it and yet we wonder how we ended up in this situation. As many years as you’ve been doing this and the amount of transfers you’ve seen, you should know most of them don’t amount to Jack shit. There wasn’t an iron sharpening iron type of potential in the portal and certainly not one good enough worth a potential early enrollee class counter number.
5.) Last but not least the QB evaluation thing. That’s all well and good that those QBs you listed and “hit” on went to the league but none of that makes a shit and I’ll tell you why. Which one of those QBs helps Texas win a National or even conference title? Probably 2? Playing in the league on the practice squad and as a backup is great, few ever sniff coming close…. but their college careers is much more relevant to Texas and they were
(outside of Young and Luck) very meh.
I appreciate the insightful discussion here and don’t want to seem like I’m attacking you, it’s just in this thread we have very different viewpoints here.
1.) One on hand you would have liked to see Hudson benched halfway through the game but on the other hand, somehow it would be a “woeful” decision to start Casey? So Thompson is good enough to come in and save the day but hasn’t shown enough to start the game? How is bringing Thompson in at halftime after openly admitting both will play before both games not at least a slight admission that the QB battle might not be over? Yet playing the first quarter instead of the 3rd quarter is? That just doesn’t make any sense.
2.) Then you basically doubled down and said that Thompson hasn’t shown enough while alluding to the past 9 months…. when Casey has the best QB play in a single half we’ve seen in recent memory and has continued to play well given his opportunities including the first game. I’m not going to fault Casey for playing when he does, the fact is when his number is called he has 9 out of 10 drives scoring points. On top of that, it wasn’t like Card took the job from the beginning of spring ball. Sark named his starter right before game week so it was close up until the end. Some way, some how Card has shown enough to be the starter and play for *checks notes * …..two quarters. I mean even Vince Young who infamously had a perfect rivals rating lost starts to guy with even less history of college success than Casey Thompson. I just don’t understand the logic here. I don’t believe it’s there case at all but this type of reasoning is why some people believe there is a hidden agenda to push Card.
3.) And the “do you trust your coach” comment in the same thread as this team doesn’t have 5 star talent it needs comment is bananas. How can you even make a judgment on Sark after two games when the talent is this bad? So what if he switches the QB after a couple of games (where they have both played in each) to find out what he has? The offensive line is worse from last year and they have been trending downward for over 10 years now lol. There’s not one draft pick on it. Our WR room is also average, outside of worthy eventually and a hurt Omiere, maybe not a draft pick there either. The QB room is completely unknown. The defense has one bonafide stud on it in overshown with a couple of solid but inconsistent players. We don’t have a pass rush and for as good as the DL is supposed to be we just saw Sark recruit 6 DL and edge players in this upcoming class not to mention go head over heels for any LB he could get in the transfer portal. Plus Jamison, Thompson and to some degree Foster (and I really want to like them) have been a part of some of the worst defenses statistically and mental breakdowns in recent years…. all the while we were talking ourselves up in schooler a guy who hasn’t played defense let alone the position in 3 years. Even dicker has regressed to the mean. We drink the kool aid (myself included) every year but we’ve seen the same results from the same tier of recruits we’ve been able to bring in across 3 coaching staffs now. It’s really on Sark to bring in true top 5 classes (not these feaux top 10 classes that fall apart and don’t have any 5 star lineman or QBs) year after year. You did say something I am willing to agree with, probably looking back on the players in the recruiting classes that actually stayed at Texas and comparing it to those on other teams, we’d realize our talent advantage is not all that great.
4.) For heavens sake we are going to discuss the OL transfer portal decision this past offseason to death. You can’t say we need 5 star talent but Sark should have went after avg transfer OL targets and not get an eye roll from me. We should just bring in OL just for the hell of it and yet we wonder how we ended up in this situation. As many years as you’ve been doing this and the amount of transfers you’ve seen, you should know most of them don’t amount to Jack shit. There wasn’t an iron sharpening iron type of potential in the portal and certainly not one good enough worth a potential early enrollee class counter number.
5.) Last but not least the QB evaluation thing. That’s all well and good that those QBs you listed and “hit” on went to the league but none of that makes a shit and I’ll tell you why. Which one of those QBs helps Texas win a National or even conference title? Probably 2? Playing in the league on the practice squad and as a backup is great, few ever sniff coming close…. but their college careers is much more relevant to Texas and they were
(outside of Young and Luck) very meh.
I appreciate the insightful discussion here and don’t want to seem like I’m attacking you, it’s just in this thread we have very different viewpoints here.
We lost, they won. It happens...
Card's the obvious starter against Rice.
If, for some reason, Card implodes by halftime, then insert Thompson and never look back.
In Sark I trust.
Hook'em!
Card's the obvious starter against Rice.
If, for some reason, Card implodes by halftime, then insert Thompson and never look back.
In Sark I trust.
Hook'em!
Good grief, this is so dramatic. Coaches have to reevaluate decisions all the time. Mackovic was thought of as an offensive guru and eventually he was forced to realize that James Brown was the guy over the golden boy Shea Morenz. It happens; you never know what’s really going to play out until the lights come on.
Seems obvious to me. Can't coach or play from fear though. Has Casey tanked yet?
VY had a solid to very good offensive line in front of him
This line is playing on a flag football level
Can’t believe two weeks into the Sark era and things feel eerily similar to the last two coaching staffs. Absolutely depressing and a bit unbelievable considering the pedigree of many of these coaches.
Ok, let's talk about it.
As president of the Hudson Card Fan Club, the last thing I can do after my guy posted a quarterback rating nearly 100 points lower than his previous game is bury the discussion down a few sections. In the face of the hottest kitchen Card has ever entered, he didn't so much as blink when the flame got near him as he simply allowed himself to become engulfed into flame over the course of nearly three quarters of action.
While he wasn't throwing the ball into dangerous areas that led to turnovers, that can't be the best part of your performance. We can't come out of a game and say that the best part of a quarterback's performance is that he didn't have too many disasters. Card wasn't good enough on Saturday. He missed throws that should have put points on the scoreboard. His eyes never seemed to find what they wanted to look for and he didn't lead the offense to remotely enough success.
At halftime, Card was 4 of 8 for 39 yards and he simply wasn't giving the offense enough. Even the president of his fan club can admit that Sarkisian looked like Rocky Balboa refusing to throw the towel while Ivan Drago was seconds away from killing Apollo Creed because of a need to protect the ego of his guy.
It's hard to believe that Sarkisian's old boss Nick Saban would have hesitated to make a switch at halftime, considering we've seen him pull the plug on much more accomplished players than Card when the moment calls for it.
At 16-0, the moment was screaming for a change, all in the name of doing what was best for the team in the next 30 minutes of action. That the hook didn't come until the game was effectively over at 33-7 is completely on Sarkisian.
Perhaps it's unfair to suggest that Sarkisian hesitated because he didn't want to create a quarterback debate with a switch six quarters into the season, but it's hard to fathom what else he could have been thinking in not making the switch. Sometimes a guy just doesn't have it and Card didn't have it on this night. Leaving him in did Card and the team about as many favors as Balboa not throwing the towel in did for Creed.
Ironically, if Sarkisian was trying to avoid a debate at the most important position on the field, he failed because that's where we absolutely are heading into the Rice game this week after Casey Thompson outperformed Card in his limited time to a large enough degree that many of those reading this article might riot at DKR is a change isn't made.
What Sarkisian does next is fascinating on multiple fronts. Consider the following:
* Making a switch after two games would essentially translate to Sarkisian admitting that he not only hitched his saddle to the wrong guy, but that he's been wasting a lot of important time and reps since the first scrimmage of August when he positioned Card to take the overwhelming majority of the reps in each practice outside of the one that occurred on the day before he actually told the quarterbacks of his decision.
* In choosing Card as his starter in August, Sarkisian unofficially announced that Card was his quarterback for the future. One of the elements of Sarkisian's decision that was discussed all season was that the winner of the job in 2021 might set the winner up to be the long-term answer at the position, meaning that Sarkisian would need to be prepared to lose the loser of the battle to a transfer at some point. There's been so much discussion about Thompson leaving immediately, but there's little question that both players would likely have a big issue with sitting through the 2022 season. If Sarkisian makes a switch in the third game of the season, it's fair to wonder exactly where the long-term future of the position stands.
* Few will watch the Rice game and believe that the result of the game means much after what happened on Saturday night, but it's exactly the kind of game that could provide a platform for whomever he chooses to begin the process of building momentum that would allow him to keep the job moving forward.
* Sarkisian's team is watching all of this closely. They'll know that Thompson outplayed Card in Fayetteville. They'll know that if it had been any other position on the field, such a thing would matter with regards to future playing time.
Bottom line - Sarkisian has a lot to think about. Either decision has implications that go beyond who gives the team the best chance to win against Rice.
Is he ready to make it?
His actions suggested the answer is yes, and that the answer was Card. His actions also suggest that confidence in his decision-making among the Texas fan base has been shaken in less than 90 minutes of action as the coach.
Whatever happens, the eyes of Texas are watching and ready to render some judgments based on what happens next.
It's never easy around this place, is it?
No. 2 - For the record ...
I'm torn on what I think should happen at the quarterback decision.
On one hand, I'm not a fan of giving up on the guy you thought was the quarterback of the future after 2 1/2 quarters of bad football because it screams of a panic move by a coach that doesn't know what he's doing.
On the other hand, I'm not a fan of suggesting that what happened on Saturday night shouldn't matter at all.
If I had a third hand, I'd also say I'm not a fan of a decision being made on what happens in practice this week.
At the end of the day, Sarkisian needs to trust himself, but if it were me, I'd probably treat a Rice team that just got worked 44-7 by Houston as a platform for both to decide what happens next on the field in actual games. Both would play in the first quarter and throughout the game.
It's far from ideal, but nothing about where things stand is ideal. I'd probably start Card because I'm not going to quit on Card after one miserable half of football, but Thompson doesn't deserve to simply slide back into the kind of back-up role he's been in the first two games.
No. 3 - Discussing Kyle Flood ...
There are three things that I believe represent a bit of an early indictment on the coach that was supposed to be the answer of the offensive line problems that just won't go away.
1. The choice to stand with a pat hand throughout the off-season and not really make any effort to improve the starting options in the transfer portal was just a terrible decision and it's one that everyone that has followed the program closely knew was a terrible decision.
2. Flood's recruiting in the 2022 class hasn't been good enough at this point. There's still room to change this before the 2022 class puts pen to paper, but up until now, it hasn't been good enough.
3. There's not a single starter on the offensive line that I can tell with my naked eye has made progress from last year to this year, which is the single biggest indictment of all at this early stage of the season. The offensive line actually played pretty well in the final two games of the 2020 season with almost the same exact personnel that exists this year and the results from this group right now are borderline horrifying.
I'm not saying that Flood warrants being on the hot seat or anything like that, but we also can't ignore what has actually happened right now just because Flood came from Alabama, is making a ton of money and is Sarkisian's guy.
No. 4 - More randomness with a day to chew on things ...
... It is less incredibly worrisome that Sarkisian is 0-19 in games when his teams have fallen behind by 10+ at halftime than it is that he has been behind by 10+ at halftime in more than 20-percent of the games he's put together as a head coach. The math says what happened last night won't be the last time it happens this season. Hell, the math says it might happen more than once before this season is complete.
... What exactly what Sarkisian's plan in this game? When you look at the early scripting of the offense, I can't tell who he thought needed to get the ball. Where we the screens and short throws that might have allowed his quarterback to get into some kind of groove? Why are they not finding a way to get the ball into Xavier Worthy's hands with end arounds, screens and other plays that can get him in space? Why did it take nearly three quarters for Joshua Moore to get a target? I just don't have any idea what the plan was.
... The defense deserves credit for keeping the Longhorns in the game through the second quarter, but there were some guys that stopped giving maximum effort in the second half and that just can't happen.
... We've talked about the pass rush being a question mark all off-season and there never really appeared to be anyone that was getting close to K.J. Jefferson when he dropped back to pass, as the Longhorns finished as a team with zero sacks and two quarterback hits. This is going to be a problem all year.
... Joshua Moore can't go catchless over 60 minutes. It feels like that's the kind of thing that happened last season after he'd catch a couple of touchdowns the previous week. How are we not beyond that kind of thing happening?
... There were five players I thought could hold their heads up high on Sunday ... Bijan Robinson, Casey Thompson, DeMarvion Overshown, Anthony Cook and B.J. Foster.
... Cook is very quietly having an excellent start to the season. Whatever success is occurring against the Longhorns in the passing game isn't occurring on his watch so far.
... Luke Brockermeyer's lack of athleticism and speed felt like a problem on Saturday night. He'll have better days moving forward, but he just seemed a tick slow in getting to the football for a lot of the game.
No. 5 – ICYMI ...
It's year seven of our post-game show and I'm pretty sure we've never had more people watching than we did in the aftermath of Saturday night.
No. 6 - A little love for the Texas volleyball team ...
The No.1-ranked Longhorns moved to 7-0 on Sunday with a four-set win over Notre Dame, which followed a four-set win over Arizona on Friday night.
So far this season, the only question has been whether the Longhorns will lose a game, not whether they'll lose a match.
If only it could be like this in football.
No. 7 – BUY or SELL …
(Sell) Sadly, I've done so many of these after awful losses over the last decade-plus that I'm just numb to it all. No dread.
(Sell) I don't know many coaches that are willing to admit being terribly wrong after just two games. It might be the wrong decision, but changing quarterbacks at this stage would make Sarkisian look like he doesn't know what he's been doing for the last month.
(Sell) Exactly as Tom Herman did, Sark overestimated the level of talent on the current coaching staff.
(Buy) I'll just let the facts speak for themselves. In my 25 years of doing rankings, all six of the quarterbacks I've ever ranked as five-stars that have finished their eligibility have played in the NFL and five of the six were drafted by NFL teams. If we extend the list to quarterbacks I've rated as high four-stars, the numbers are eight of 11 of the highest-ranked quarterbacks I've ever evaluated have played in the NFL. If we extend the data to include all mid four-star quarterbacks, the numbers turn into 11 of the 20 highest-ranked quarterbacks I've ever ranked have turned into NFL players.
You let me know a single person on the planet that has a better track record than that with evaluating high school players and I'll let you talk all the mess you want.
(Sell) Largely, the realistic expectations for this program centered on an 8-4 or 9-3 season. No one on Orangebloods picked this team to make the Big 12 Championship game.
(Sell) The schedule outside of Oklahoma the rest of the way is full of a bunch of crap. Just don't get overly excited when Texas potentially proves to be less crappy than the rest of the teams in the Big 12.
(Sell) lulz.
(Sell) Last night was an abomination in all three phases of the game, the coaching staff, the overall effort and intensity.
(Buy) He's real good. Just ask Sarkisian.
(Sell) There have been teams in the last decade that didn't have any NFL-level draftable players on the roster. That's not the case with this team. I mean ... 2014-16 happened.
(Sell) Texas is still in the running with Campbell, but this was a damaging loss in the pursuit of Stewart IMO.
(Buy) Decent might be good enough in the Big 12 this season.
(Sell) Texas has a bunch of four-star players on the roster that are marginally more valuable than three stars. It has too few five-stars and high four-star level talent.
(Sell) All of the above.
(Sell) I'll take the under.
(Sell) I'm not sure average helps change what happened last night at all.
(Sell) Part of what will make this game miserable in future weeks will be seeing Arkansas exposed as just an ok team over 12 games. Rice was more competitive last week than Texas was this week.
(Sell) I don't really understand this question at all. Ash's sophomore season in 2012 is probably the best quarterback season of the last decade, unless you want to argue that Sam Ehlinger in 2018 was better. Regardless, Ash's career was sidetracked by injuries, which isn't an issue with Card. Maybe put some respect on Ash's name.
(Sell) No, the early returns do not suggest that yet.
(Buy) Bingo. We were supposed to be beyond this team getting its ass kicked to such levels that Charlie Strong's worst teams get mentioned as comparisons.
(Sell) Let me introduce you to Arsenal TV. (NSFW)
(Buy) Of course. He's one of the best coaches in the history of college football. He might be an awful human being that would have hired a racist strength coach and tolerated all sorts of felonies from the players on his roster, but he wouldn't get skull-banged on national television at this level.
(Sell) This was settled last night. Kayla wore a watch last night.
No. 8 - Scattershooting on the sports weekend ...
... The moment when you knew Ohio State was in trouble.
... Iowa State returned 20+ senior just so that it could get thrashed at home and have its starting senior quarterback benched against its in-state rival. Woof.
... I have to believe Florida State fans felt worse on Saturday night than Texas fans. Someone ask @DustinMcComas for an opinion.
... My fantasy football team's first three picks combined for less than 15 points and I likely lost my fifth round pick (Jerry Jeudy) for the entire season after a third quarter injury.
... Are the Texans any good or is Urban Meyer about to flame out in Jacksonville in historic fashion?
... If you had the 49ers at -8.5, I'm really sorry for your weekend.
... Chandler Jones is a damn monster.
... Daniil Medvedev shut down Novak Djokovic's run for history. I didn't see that coming at all.
... Emma Raducanu is going to be a superstar tennis player that crosses over into the public mainstream in a big way. Huge talent. Magnetic personality. Let's hope the British tabloids don't ruin her.
While Saturday’s effort was among the worst I recall, under any Texas coach, it is unrealistic to judge this coaching staff and team based upon 8 quarters of football. After Louisiana, some were already predicting 10 wins, which was a premature call. After Arkansas, many are forecasting a dismal season. Also premature, IMHO. We will know what time of team we have after game 5, back to back games against TCU and OU. Time will tell if this is a good coaching staff; but, time is not 8 quarters.
Saban changed QB’s at halftime in a Natty. So, there’s that.
