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Ketch's 10 Thoughts From the Weekend (I attempt to explain what happened...)

It's simple, for the love of God, learn how to defend 3rd and long!!!! That will cover the rest of the shit show!

I effing cringe in that situation!
Texas got Maryland in a 3rd and 19 late in the game and I thought, "Maryland has Texas right where they want them."
 
Texas got Maryland in a 3rd and 19 late in the game and I thought, "Maryland has Texas right where they want them."

Are you going to tell your employees to fkn question this shit? That is what a large portion of your subscribers would like to see.
 
Are you going to tell your employees to fkn question this shit? That is what a large portion of your subscribers would like to see.
We ask tough questions and we report on hard to report things, or do you not remembering the Anwar/Herman hug session at Big 12 media day?
 
I'm not disagreeing. But they put that whole game on his shoulders by abandoning the run and having him sling it, what, 50-60 times? And it seemed like half of those were to Garrett Gray. If they can't find a way to win without a transcendent QB then they just won't win this year. Throwing a true freshman in there and leaning on him as heavily as they seem to want to lean on a QB would show me that the finger is far from the pulse on this one.

What I'm trying to say is if they really don't believe in Shane then why are they asking him to do so much? And if they need to put games almost entirely on a QBs shoulders to get a W then we are in deep chit.
Quick question, but what if that QB can take off and run better than SB? Do you use him, because if you do, you give Heard another shot.
 
Quick question, but what if that QB can take off and run better than SB? Do you use him, because if you do, you give Heard another shot.
Maybe I'm not being clear. I don't think a change at QB is the answer. There were so many problems in this game that were more troubling than QB play that simply changing the QB seems superficial and somewhat desperate. Maybe Heard would do better in this offense but from what I saw the strength of this offense is the WR room. I'm afraid their production would take a major hit...
 
I felt that the real weaknesses for Texas were the offensive and defensive lines. Shane was having to avoid Maryland defenders as much as he was trying to make plays. The defense could not seem to find a way to plug the holes in the line and stop Maryland's running game.
I felt that the receivers played very well in this game.
The coaches have to emphasize avoiding penalties. Self discipline is very important.
 
Was is just my imagination or did Locke and Kris has atrocious games?
 
Maybe I'm not being clear. I don't think a change at QB is the answer. There were so many problems in this game that were more troubling than QB play that simply changing the QB seems superficial and somewhat desperate. Maybe Heard would do better in this offense but from what I saw the strength of this offense is the WR room. I'm afraid their production would take a major hit...
Ok, fair point, and I actually agree with you. Change the QB per say is not the answer this week. Now if you fix the other problems and we are still having QB issues then ok. But SB didn't commit over 100 yards in penalties, and penalties in the red zone.
 
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The biggest thing it did to the media is that it created a force of push-back to reporting anything that wasn't pretty. In order to believe the team was going to go 9-3 or better, there needed to be enough pieces fitting together to justify that opinion. Throughout the last two weeks of camp, I've tried to be very slick in reporting that the offense had a very poor camp by dropping little snippets without giving the appearance that I was pissing on everyone's good-feel excitement.

Instead of trying to be slick, I needed to be screaming from the mountaintops, "This offense has looked like a hot mess!" I should have been more direct, but perhaps I let the potential push-back that I knew would come from reporting the struggles of the offense/quarterback (because it was significant throughout the off-season) impact the way I tried to be unassuming when dropping some of these hints (see my column from two weeks ago). I don't know what the exact answer is, but in retrospect I should have taken the heat at the expense of loud and clear disclosure.


So you knew the offense was a hot mess, tried to be slick and drop hints without pissing everyone off, but also predicted 9-3?

Ok, giving you the benefit of the doubt on that one, but maybe I'm in the minority but if that is really true then you missed what I want from you guys. I want the truth. I know it isn't cut and dried simple to report, but tell us what is going on. If part (or all for gods sake) of the team looks shitty then let us know.

I will say I have bought into the hype on here year after year and this year I said I hope they are right but it sounds like more of our shitty O making D look strong and poor tackling making our skill guys look like game breakers. I still let y'all get my hopes up but it is really getting old.
 
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I may be alone but I thought Shane played fine, considering he was running for his life all the time. He has some things to work on and obviously needs to get better. I really don't see how putting Heard in at QB as some have suggested does anything. Remember how poorly he threw the ball. I feel like the offense will come around, but the defense.....good Gawd that is an awful defense.

I also feel like we got great talkers, and high guys that look good on paper and in their uniform, but can't play. I mean some of these guys haven't developed at all since being on campus.

Lastly, the coaches need to be better.
 
Not certain I get your logic the offense that scored 41 is bad...okay? And the defense that gave up 51 (to Maryland?)?
 
"I wrote a 99 reasons to be excited column as a direct response to people claiming I was being too negative about the team."

How'd that work out for you?
 
I may be alone but I thought Shane played fine, considering he was running for his life all the time. He has some things to work on and obviously needs to get better. I really don't see how putting Heard in at QB as some have suggested does anything. Remember how poorly he threw the ball. I feel like the offense will come around, but the defense.....good Gawd that is an awful defense.

I also feel like we got great talkers, and high guys that look good on paper and in their uniform, but can't play. I mean some of these guys haven't developed at all since being on campus.

Lastly, the coaches need to be better.
I agree, but do you remember that one series when you could just tell he was winded and had nothing on his passes on an important drive early in the 4th? It was like you could feel him giving up in a way. I'm not one to judge a 19 year old qb, but it felt the same as last year when he was hurt. That series was important, but the red light on the gas gauge was low.
 
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I am thinking that Beck is what we thought he was coming in from OSU; a terrible play caller. Urban knew what he was sending South.
Regarding Shane...remember what happened with Vince Young? Mack finally let him be Vince and quit trying to over coach him? Maybe, Tom and Tim should take that same approach and let him be Shane by first naming him their starter. Shane didn't look over his shoulder last year and look at the performances he put on. It is apparent Shane is constantly looking over his shoulder now and, as Anwar stated, Tom sees himself in Same and hasn't bought into Shane. When Shane threw two short passes down on the goal line, it was pretty apparent he was worried about following the coaches play calling. Last year, Shane would have found an open receiver in the end zone. I am not sure he even looked to the end zone. Everything we hear and read is that Tom won't hesitate to replace him and he is their starter for "today".
 
i can't help but wonder if those that tom speaks highly of aren't turning the corner as great players but rather those that are buying in the most, doing the things he likes, hustling in practice, peeing at a championship level...etc.

hughes is not good. poona, many of us love him but that has more to do with the rudy factor than anything else. he's pretty limited on the field. #11 really missed on some early series and in one play misplayed the ball carrier and ended up blocking #45. it appeared 11 was like Forest Gump...just running towards the LOS without a real idea of concept or "fit" to use tom's term.

the single most alarming tom issue is that he focused a full 7 months on making losing miserable, improving the effort, supposedly building them physically and mentally and NONE OF THAT was on display yesterday. all that talk was simply that, words, formed more concisely, in full sentences as opposed to his predecessor but none the less, just air.

i did something last night and today i haven't done since 09...i rewatched the film. rewinding every play, stopping, slo mo...etc. it was really, really bad.
Not real sure how you were able to rewatch that...I had to listen on radio and I certainly won't watch what I heard. God bless you.
 
I thought it was well described, overall. Combination of factors, but the fact is, as football players, these guys are losers (not as people, as players -- three losing seasons will do that to you).

Watching snippets of football this weekend, I saw players playing with a passion, hitting ball carriers hard, and making confident plays -- exactly the opposite from what I saw from TH's bunch. "You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear" comes to mind, but then again, I think the play calling on both sides of the field (along with ST) exacerbated a negative situation. I have no answers -- we'll see if Herman does. I wish him well.

Hook 'em!!!
 
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How exactly did we get here?

For the better part of Saturday night and Sunday morning, I spent a lot of time giving that question serious thought.

I mean ... in the aftermath of Tom Herman's insane-in-retrospect hyperbole, this team actually being ranked coming off of a 5-7 season, non-stop 9-3 or better predictions and discussions on the Fox pre-game show about Texas being in the playoff within three seasons ...

How did we get here? Exactly.

I have a multi-part theory on how it all happened.

Part I: The overrating of the Texas talent.

All of this is connected to a slippery slope of connected parts, but let's start with this ... the Texas running backs, tight ends and offensive line are below average parts in reality, even more below average than Tom Herman could have imagined.

The trickle down was that when Herman saw a guy like Poona Ford make a play, there was a lot of fool's gold to be found in overvaluing what making that play really meant. At every layer of the defense, it was controlling its competing counterparts consistently and a couple of options for what it meant appeared.

a. The defense is really damn good.

b. The offense is so poor that it is making the defense appear to be much better than it really is.

Herman chose to believe the first option, in part because admitting that the second option was true was essentially an admission of multiple failures on the coaching staff in its quest to develop players over the course of the last eight months.

The coaches looked at all of those pretty players in pretty uniforms and underestimated how far the disease in the Texas program has spread in the last decade. Never in a million years did they think the players would blink like they did on Saturday in an actual game. It has rendered everything the coaches thought they knew about the team moot going into week two of the season.

Part II: The Media Got Drunk

Oh yeah, we played a role.

After seven straight seasons of failed benefits of the doubt, the media went all-in in giving Herman the benefit of the doubt before he had earned it in his new job.

Myself included (see my 9-3 season prediction, despite all of my admitted reasons for pause).

Herman hit the right note so many times on so many things during the off-season that we all just assumed anyone with his profile would lift this program above what it was a season ago.

The biggest thing it did to the media is that it created a force of push-back to reporting anything that wasn't pretty. In order to believe the team was going to go 9-3 or better, there needed to be enough pieces fitting together to justify that opinion. Throughout the last two weeks of camp, I've tried to be very slick in reporting that the offense had a very poor camp by dropping little snippets without giving the appearance that I was pissing on everyone's good-feel excitement.

Instead of trying to be slick, I needed to be screaming from the mountaintops, "This offense has looked like a hot mess!" I should have been more direct, but perhaps I let the potential push-back that I knew would come from reporting the struggles of the offense/quarterback (because it was significant throughout the off-season) impact the way I tried to be unassuming when dropping some of these hints (see my column from two weeks ago). I don't know what the exact answer is, but in retrospect I should have taken the heat at the expense of loud and clear disclosure.

Every media member let his or her confirmation bias kick in. We WANT to cover a good football team. It's great for business when the team is good.

Herman can sell a ketchup Popsicle to a room full of people wearing white coats and the media wasn't nearly as jaded with the handling of his first team as it has been for much of the last five years.

Point blank.

Part III: Herman drank the Kool-Aid

There's no reason to trace back over all of his commentary from the last month because I think most can remember at least one occasion when Herman said something about this team that expressed extreme confidence.

With practices closed and Herman providing near-daily updates, everyone trusted him when he spoke about the team because we all believe that he's a straight shooter when it comes to talking about his team. He had been so low on them in the spring, so when he started creating some hyperbole, it seemed to underscore his true thoughts on the team, even if a literal interpretation of what he was saying could be taken.

I think Herman significantly believed in this team going into Saturday. Because he seemed to believe so strongly, it made believing in his believing very easy to do.

Conclusion: When you add those three things together to create a super chaos baby, that's how the events of Saturday unfolded the way they unfolded from a perception standpoint from within.

That's my theory.

No. 2 – Putting Humpty Dumpty back together again ...

Tom Herman is going to earn his paycheck this week.

If there's anything Texas fans know after all of these years is that a loss like that can impact team psyche to the point that it can impact an entire season. I have to think Texas fans actually know that more than Tom Herman would.

You guys have seen it repeatedly. He hasn't.

As soon as that game ended, Herman's chops as an elite coach became much-needed because you have to believe some confidence was shaken on Saturday inside that locker room.

There's just too much football for one loss to help create another and another, so Herman and his staff have to be at their best this week in re-drawing the starting point of what can still be a very good season with substantial improvement across the board.

It starts in practice this week. This was the part of the job that Mack Brown did better than anyone else in the history of college football. It'll be fascinating to see how much Herman has learned from the old hound that never used to lose the follow-up to the Oklahoma game no matter what the circumstances were.

No. 3 - Three for three: Let's not forget the few positives ...

It wasn't all terrible on Saturday. Here are a few guys that deserve shout outs:

1. Reggie Hemphill-Mapps: Suchomel's lust over his favorite player could have only increased on Saturday, as he flashed all over the field throughout the game. The Texas punt return game was dreadful all year in 2016 and he changed that note in 2017 right away.

2. Collin Johnson: 7 for 125 and a touchdown. Get used to stat lines like this one.

3. Charles Omenihu: He's the one defensive player that deserves some love. He's turning into an impact player.

No. 4 – Stop me if you've heard this before ...

The four guys that Texas named as season-long captains a week ago were Connor Williams, P.J. Locke, Poona Ford and Naashon Hughes.

Each of those guys will have better moments ahead, but how many played at a high-enough level to warrant anyone caring about what they think from a leadership department?

Exactly.

No. 5 – Buy or Sell …

BUY or SELL: We are dramatically overreacting?

(Sell) I don't know that I have seen overreactions. I think what I've seen is a fan-base snapped quickly back to reality. Personally, I've seen tons of meltdowns over the years that were unwarranted. That is not what happened yesterday.

BUY or SELL: We will finish 5-7 again this year?

(Sell) I'm going top preach caution at this point. Let's see a little more football before we go there. I've said all along that this team'sbest football won't be played in September.

BUY or SELL: Gary Johnson plays at least 20 plays next game?

(Sell) He doesn't do any of the things well that the Texas linebackers didn't do on Saturday. He has problems getting off blocks, taking on blockers and avoiding critical run-game errors, just like everyone else.

BUY or SELL: More than 2 assistants are changed at year end?

(Sell) More so than Charlie Strong, Herman comprised this staff with his b-o-y-s. More so than Strong, Herman seems like a ride-or-die guy with his boys.

BUY or SELL: Herman inherited a more talented roster at UH than at Texas?

(Sell) I simply do not believe that.

BUY or SELL: The staff gives J.Heard more reps at QB since the offensive scheme seems better tailored to a true dualthreat QB?

(Buy) It might not happen in game settings yet, but I think Heard takes more reps in practice this week.

BUY or SELL: Outside of the new lockers, weight room, and social media, CTH is much more like CFS than any of us wanted to admit. Both had success at mid-major schools. Both had confidence in how they construct a winning team. Both brought in comfort hires to implement that vision rather than utilizing Texas money to bring in the top coaches in college football.

(Sell) I need a larger sample-size before completely changing what I thought about Herman a week ago. I'd tell you not to go too far.

No. 6 – Texas Football Tweet of the Weekend...



A few days later...



No. 7 – Marcus Johnson in Philly...

I think karma is about to bite me in the ass.

As someone who famously dismissed him as a college prospect following his junior season, it has occurred to me while watching his role in Philly grow that payback might be coming in the form of the most painful kind of payback .... scoring touchdowns against the Cowboys.

I'm bracing myself.

No. 8 – Five more sports things ...

a. My goodness, Alabama. The Tide didn't just beat on a very, very good Florida State team, it physically imposed its will in a way that will change the entire FSU season. Yes, Bama has my attention.

b. Michigan pretty much did a poor man's version of what Bama did to FSU in its game against Florida.

b. Just like Maryland beating Texas wasn't an accident, Liberty beating Baylor wasn't an accident.

c. Holy, smokes! Texas A&M... I see you. Wow. Well done (Edited: Never mind.)

d. Attaboy, Howard.

e. It felt like Costa Rica absolutely exposed the US men's national team on Friday night. Time to rally the troops on Monday night.

No. 9 – Game of Thrones Review: Season 7 (The Season Finale)...

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With season seven in the books, I thought I would walk through what I think next season's opener might look like after processing last week's season-finale.

So, let's do this. My guesses for the first episode sometime in the next 18 months or so.

*SPOILER ALERT!*

*SPOILER ALERT!*

*SPOILER ALERT!*

... The episode begins with a shot of Tormund and Beric. Both are burried under ice and snow, but they are alive. As they emerge from the mess, they look over to the right and it looks like something out of a disaster movie. Within five feet of them is the edge of the Wall and beyond those five feet is nothing but air, as the rest of the wall has fallen to ground. Below them is an army of dead walking through.

Tormund mentions to Beric that this is the second time they deserved to die at the hands of the army of the dead and he's not sure why they are still around.

"This must mean that I am meant to be with the giant woman," Tormund jokes.

... We shift directions to a scene with Dany and Missandei.

Dany: "I think I'm in love. He did things I have never experienced."

Missandei."Did he do the thing with his tongue that Grey Worm does?"

Dany: "What tongue thing?"

Missandei leans and whispers into Dany's ear, causing a blush.

Dany: "You know nothing, Jon Snow."

... The next scene involves Jon and The Onion Knight. Jon isn't pouting. wait, is that a smile? He's totally giving away that he got laid and the Onion Knight remarks, "You know every man that has made love to her is dead with the exception of you. I would have targeted Melisandre."

At that moment, Sam and Bran show up on a boat... because... why the hell not? Time Travel is possible these days it seems based on season seven.

... Cersei is drinking in the next scene. Jamie asks in the presence of Bronn if she should be doing that since she;'s prego. She tells him, "Shut up, your traitor bitch."

As they walk away, Bronn tells Jamie, "I know you lost a hand, but I didn't know you also lost your balls."

... Hey, there's the ice dragon. He's just flying around destroying stuff, while the Night King rides him like he's Gene Wilder in Stir Crazy.

... We go back to Jon, Sam and Bran. Before Sam can delicately tell Jon that he;s related to his girlfriend, Bron snaps, "You slept with your Aunt! BTW, I'm the Three-Eyed Raven."

Jon: "What is he talking about?"

Sam: "Don't worry, he says that a lot. He's a different kind of dude, Jon. He's hell to take a long-distance trip with. That being said, I have good news and bad news.

Jon: "What's the bad news?"

Sam: "You are related to your girlfriend and your dad isn't who you thought it was.

Jon: "What's the good news?"

Sam: "You can probably ride a dragon."

Bran: "I have to go find a tree. I'll be back."

... Final scene of the episode. Beric and Tormund are surrounded and it looks bad for them. They start fighting there way out of the army when they find themselves standing in front of the Night King.

At that moment, both men wield weapons and prepare for the fight. Just then, all of the members of the army of the dead drop their weapons and an opening presents itself for both men to escape through. Confused, both men begin to run through the path created and they eventually leave the army of the dead behind them, while the Night King watches on, having allowed it all to happen.

As the camera zooms into his face and into his eyes, it zooms back out quickly and you see Bran's face. He is the Night King.

*END OF SPOILER ALERT!*

*END OF SPOILER ALERT!*

*END OF SPOILER ALERT!*

No. 10 – And finally …

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I just wanted to give a special shout out to @OBRob for putting together an amazing event at the Jeff Dillard tailgate, especially when you consider it all came together in the final days and hours. If you want to profile your business on the board/site moving forward, send him a PM.
What your basically saying is that Maryland is an average team at best and Herman and staff don't know the level of talent they are coaching! Maybe Maryland is pretty good and Herman should look at some of his forth down decisions and should adjust his offense to his talent.
 
c. Holy, smokes! Texas A&M... I see you. Wow. Well done.

Perfection

Everyone here long enough knows what this site is. It's a fan site. It's entertainment. No one gives an impartial take on the team. No one has special insight or a crystal ball.

We've seen this time and time again, yet still buy in. Because we're fanatics.

I'm more upset with myself for believing it for the nth time.
 
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