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Ketch's 10 Thoughts From the Weekend (Don't fall for the spring football okey-doke ...)

Way way way to early for Ojomo. He is 16 turning 17 this year. He will make an impact play and take 10 plays off, he doesn’t even know his potential yet. If we are counting on him being useful this year we are in trouble.
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Couple points seem to miss the mark to me.

Yes, we would all love for one of the QBs to take control and be named the starter. Will that happen? Extremely unlikely. Neither of these guys is that much better than the other, period. It is not even clear which one is better - that pretty much ends the possibility that one of them takes control in the next 15 days. Plus, you can't discount how much 4-5 months means to these guys. Colt McCoy was Sam's exact age and only a year younger than Shane when he used the summer to catapult himself into the starting lineup after an uneven spring QB battle. Heck, Shane has looked like a different person physically in recent photos.

But, your premise why we need a named starter is off base, as well. The reason their wasn't as much leadership out of the QBs last summer (if that's accurate) is that they were still young as hell. That has changed. Shane is now a 3rd year player, and he has the respect of his teammates, and Sam is an Alpha male (accurate, despite being overused) who certainly won't shy from telling people to get their asses to 7 on 7.

What is most important, and what gives me hope, is this is the first spring practice for Shane and Sam where they are practicing the SAME offense from the prior year. I expect both guys to shine this spring. There will be some bad plays, as neither is perfect (far from it), but I think both will be able to play freely with confidence from day 1 simply because they know the plays, know the coaches and know their teammates.

Your point about Shaka having a fine season is comical. His grade this year is a C- (and that takes into account losing Jones). You are one stubborn SOB (takes one to know one).
 
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Couple points seem to miss the mark to me.

Yes, we would all love for one of the QBs to take control and be named the starter. Will that happen? Extremely unlikely. Neither of these guys is that much better than the other, period. It is not even clear which one is better - that pretty much ends the possibility that one of them takes control in the next 15 days. Plus, you can't discount how much 4-5 months means to these guys. Colt McCoy was Sam's exact age and only a year younger than Shane when he used the summer to catapult himself into the starting lineup after an uneven spring QB battle. Heck, Shane has looked like a different person physically in recent photos.

But, your premise why we need a named starter is off base, as well. The reason their wasn't as much leadership out of the QBs last summer (if that's accurate) is that they were still young as hell. That has changed. Shane is now a 3rd year player, and he has the respect of his teammates, and Sam is an Alpha male (accurate, despite being overused) who certainly won't shy from telling people to get their asses to 7 on 7.

What is most important, and what gives me hope, is this is the first spring practice for Shane and Sam where they are practicing the SAME offense from the prior year. I expect both guys to shine this spring. There will be some bad plays, as neither is perfect (far from it), but I think both will be able to play freely with confidence from day 1 simply because they know the plays, know the coaches and know their teammates.

Your point about Shaka having a fine season is comical. His grade this year is a C- (and that takes into account losing Jones). You are one stubborn SOB (takes one to know one).
hear hear
 
As far as Spring practice is concerned, the only thing I'm interested in is the progress of the two freshmen QBs who enrolled early. I have very little confidence Ehlinger or Buechele.

Ketch's main point, to expect only small improvements in the spring, was well taken. Unfortunately, you can't name a starting QB if you can't see he's improved enough, and that could be the case with the returning QBs this spring.

The OL who most needs to show he's got the stuff is the senior Vahe. Okafor is a great prospect at G, not T, which he's been playing because there was no one else athletic enough. However, Vahe's a senior, 3-year starter whose deficiencies on pull plays and against stunts have been too glaring to ignore.
 
Texas played NINE teams in the Sweet 16 this season, including A&M.

It won games against West Virginia, Tech and A&M.

It lost in overtime to Duke, Gonzaga and Nevada.

It was in a position to win games that it lost against Tech on the road, Kansas State at home and pushed Kansas both times they played...one with an extremely short-handed line-up.

It is intellectually dishonest to suggest that good coaching didn't occur with this team. The make-up of the team was Smart's issue and he has to own that, which is part of why this season wasn't a true success. However, with the players that he had? Good coaching took place.

Good lord...have you become an aggy??? This sounds like every aggy fan's description of their team..."we played a really hard schedule", "we played some really good teams close", "we almost won", "we got in a position to win some games...but didn't". But we had a TON of moral victories.....

We paid a guy top 10 money to compete for conf titles, Sweet 16's, and an occasional Final 4. He has had 3 entire seasons to re-stock the roster (in a state loaded with talent) and improve the team. He has been a shocking failure so far, by any metric available. To suggest otherwise is completely ridiculous.
 
Last year, the players in the program participated in fewer seven-on-seven workouts than just about any team I can ever remember covering in the last two decades. Part of that is the lack of quarterback leadership the program had a year ago. It's the quarterbacks who get the keys to the practice field. It's the quarterbacks who organize the entire workout schedule. It's the quarterbacks who hold everyone accountable for getting their ass to practice.

Chris Simms made people show up because of his personality. Vince Young made people show up with his mere presence. Colt McCoy made sure people showed up by driving around and picking up his teammates, personally.

This team will not win 9+ games this season if it coasts through June and only busts its ass in seven-on-seven workouts for three weeks in July because the internal leadership inside the program is lacking and/or being placed on training wheels.

Look, if there's really not an answer at the quarterback position by the spring game, then you hold off. However, if one guy is clearly ahead of the other, to the point that he is taking the overwhelming volume of reps with the first-team offense, then I would contend that there's just as much good out there to be had than bad when making an announcement.

It's time for someone to spread some wings at that position, if at all possible.

Otherwise, someone needs to tell someone on the defense to take the lead in off-season organizing because the players expect the quarterbacks to take the lead ... and when that doesn't happen, the least-active summer workout schedule in the last 20 years occurs.

My understanding is that the coaches cannot organize the workouts, but does that mean they cannot light a fire under the QBs or have any idea how many 7 on 7s are taking place? Seems like the coaches and the QBs let this one fall through the cracks last season, that cannot be acceptable. Though he was a true freshman, one of the QBs is always described as a true Alpha, seems like there should have been 2 QBs vying to lead an excess of 7 on 7s, instead of a lack of leadership of 7 on 7s.

I don't remember you or the OB staff bringing this issue up on the board last summer. Were you all aware of it and did you bring it up on the board at the time? Did I just miss it?

Thanks for taking the questions @Ketchum!
 
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We reported it last summer. They didn't really even start 7 on 7 on a regular basis until after the 4th.
i guess my question wasn't very clear, because i do remember you reporting this and focusing on it a lot more than most people did last year. it surprised me then. what i am trying to figure out is that gonna happen again? Are the coaches gonna step in? Do the QBs really understand how bad it was?
 
I am going to wait to see how bought in Nelson is. I personally think one of the main reasons the defense was truly elite was Poona. If Nelson doesn’t buy in all the way, there will be a hole in the middle of the defense. Because of that the quote, “The defense is ahead of the offense.” May just not be true.


I hope it is said and it is true though.

You're wrong about Poona being the reason this defense was truly elite. I love Poona but that is an incorrect statement. Hell, we had Malcolm Brown in the middle and we weren't truly elite, and you've seen what he has done in the league. This defense being truly elite was much more than about 1 guy. I think we all saw that in the bowl game. How many people were we missing? This defense will be elite once again next season, Nelson will be a part of that. But just a part...
 
Is it a little dishonest to count a preseason scrimmage as a win? It wasn't a real game and I assume was not used by the committee. I would also assume both coaches didn't coach exactly the same as they would in a real contest.

Do you think Shaka will the the HC in 2019-2020?

Would you compare/contrast Shaka/Chuck after three seasons?
If Texas would have lost, it would have counted.;)

I included A&M because it reinforced the point of how competitive this team was against the best competition it faced this season.

That doesn't happen without good coaching.

Your last question is one that's impossible to answer. 50-50?
 
Couple points seem to miss the mark to me.

Yes, we would all love for one of the QBs to take control and be named the starter. Will that happen? Extremely unlikely. Neither of these guys is that much better than the other, period. It is not even clear which one is better - that pretty much ends the possibility that one of them takes control in the next 15 days. Plus, you can't discount how much 4-5 months means to these guys. Colt McCoy was Sam's exact age and only a year younger than Shane when he used the summer to catapult himself into the starting lineup after an uneven spring QB battle. Heck, Shane has looked like a different person physically in recent photos.

But, your premise why we need a named starter is off base, as well. The reason their wasn't as much leadership out of the QBs last summer (if that's accurate) is that they were still young as hell. That has changed. Shane is now a 3rd year player, and he has the respect of his teammates, and Sam is an Alpha male (accurate, despite being overused) who certainly won't shy from telling people to get their asses to 7 on 7.

What is most important, and what gives me hope, is this is the first spring practice for Shane and Sam where they are practicing the SAME offense from the prior year. I expect both guys to shine this spring. There will be some bad plays, as neither is perfect (far from it), but I think both will be able to play freely with confidence from day 1 simply because they know the plays, know the coaches and know their teammates.

Your point about Shaka having a fine season is comical. His grade this year is a C- (and that takes into account losing Jones). You are one stubborn SOB (takes one to know one).
You are probably right about the quarterbacks not being good enough to separate yet.

Buechele failed the leadership test last year. It's been a major question mark about him since he arrived.

I'd give Shaka a B. His players developed almost across the board and he kept the team above water when it had reason to sink numerous times.

The roster having holes is his created issue.
 
He was the best coach available fora program that didn't want to truly flex.

Not true Ketch, the people in power truly felt and still feel that he was the best coach period for the Texas Program. Youth played a part but they weren't going to take anyone over CTH. They were that sold on him.
I think Herman will turn out to be much like Smart is at Georgia. Year two will bear this out...
 
We paid a guy top 10 money to compete for conf titles, Sweet 16's, and an occasional Final 4. He has had 3 entire seasons to re-stock the roster (in a state loaded with talent) and improve the team. He has been a shocking failure so far, by any metric available. To suggest otherwise is completely ridiculous.
No one is arguing otherwise against this set of points.
 
Not true Ketch, the people in power truly felt and still feel that he was the best coach period for the Texas Program. Youth played a part but they weren't going to take anyone over CTH. They were that sold on him.
I think Herman will turn out to be much like Smart is at Georgia. Year two will bear this out...
I agree.

But, I also remember taking calls in that 24-hour period when there was thought that Texas would pass on him and there weren't any fresh ideas floating around from a back-up plan standpoint.

He was the ONLY candidate.
 
i guess my question wasn't very clear, because i do remember you reporting this and focusing on it a lot more than most people did last year. it surprised me then. what i am trying to figure out is that gonna happen again? Are the coaches gonna step in? Do the QBs really understand how bad it was?
They better. Someone has to step in.

My fear for last season in real time was that they didn't know what it takes to be great and thought that was acceptable.
 
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They better. Someone has to step in.

My fear for last season in real time was that they didn't know what it takes to be great and thought that was acceptable.

i had the same worry when i read about it. i guess i tried to blow it off, but it was one of many signs causing concern
 
i had the same worry when i read about it. i guess i tried to blow it off, but it was one of many signs causing concern
It was very concerning when you consider how much time Herman spent trying to instill some championship mindset within the program.

No one wanted to panic at the time, but it reminded me of 2010 when Texas lost to Texas State in 7 on 7.

While you don't want to make a huge deal out of something like that, it was as it was actually screaming "This shit ain't right!"
 
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I agree.

But, I also remember taking calls in that 24-hour period when there was thought that Texas would pass on him and there weren't any fresh ideas floating around from a back-up plan standpoint.

He was the ONLY candidate.

Name 5 candidates that Texas could/should have realistically pursued that would've sent shockwaves across the college football landscape.
 
Name 5 candidates that Texas could/should have realistically pursued that would've sent shockwaves across the college football landscape.
Realistic is probably like "damn good". Everyone will have a different opinion of what it means.
 
I agree.

But, I also remember taking calls in that 24-hour period when there was thought that Texas would pass on him and there weren't any fresh ideas floating around from a back-up plan standpoint.

He was the ONLY candidate.
Was there literally no other name out there from the University's side?
 
Well he's not counting a scrimmage as a win against a sweet 16 team. ;)
Was there a scoreboard? Did they use it?

All I'm saying is that if A&M had won that game, you better believe they would have said it counted.
 
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Was there literally no other name out there from the University's side?
Let's set up a call with your old man. I'll tell you the "other candidate" story over the phone. I can't tell it on the board.
 
It would sure be a lot easier to get excited about next year if we all were more confident about either Sam or Shane being able to bring their level of play up another notch or two. The O-line will be better, but will the coaching & play calling be? More than likely, right...with Hand on board, and Herman being more involved, not to mention having Beck on a very short leash come Aug./Sept. Therefore, we do have good reasons to be cautiously optimistic.
Nevertheless, here we are....once again... {Ground Hog Day Syndrome} going into Spring & Summer wondering, wishing, hoping and praying that someone {a vet or even a dam freshman} would just take the damn "Bull by the Horns" and begin in earnest the process of bringing The Horns back to glory!
 
Was there a scoreboard? Did they use it?

All I'm saying is that if A&M had won that game, you better believe they would have said it counted.
Was there a scoreboard? Did they use it?

All I'm saying is that if A&M had won that game, you better believe they would have said it counted.
Exactly and all the more reason Texas should not. It wasnt a real game.
 
It would sure be a lot easier to get excited about next year if we all were more confident about either Sam or Shane being able to bring their level of play up another notch or two. The O-line will be better, but will the coaching & play calling be? More than likely, right...with Hand on board, and Herman being more involved, not to mention having Beck on a very short leash come Aug./Sept. Therefore, we do have good reasons to be cautiously optimistic.
Nevertheless, here we are....once again... {Ground Hog Day Syndrome} going into Spring & Summer wondering, wishing, hoping and praying that someone {a vet or even a dam freshman} would just take the damn "Bull by the Horns" and begin in earnest the process of bringing The Horns back to glory!
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Exactly and all the more reason Texas should not. It wasnt a real game.
Don't lose the forest through the trees. It's not important in the bigger piece of discussion that the point was making.
 
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