I'm going to say something out loud in this column that is going to make the message boards north of the Red Rivers.
Hell, some of you will certainly suggest that I'm tempting fate.
An assortment of folks from all parts will mention something about "the worm is turning," which is one of the all-time "Ketch was actually right but we're going to ignore reality" because ... hey ...
Here goes ...
Lost in all of the discussion this week about the hire that Oklahoma made at its general manager position is the cold, hard, insulting reality that Oklahoma is no longer the bar that Texas uses to measure itself. Once upon a time in a galaxy that wasn't that far from the one we are currently living, the Sooners were the bar that the Longhorns couldn't touch.
But, that was in a Big 12 galaxy that the Sooners ruled when they could typically count on everyone else getting out of the way for them while the Longhorns stepped on their own feet for half a generation.
That was then. The SEC is now. After back-to-back national semifinalist seasons and a piling up of super blue chip prospects that have the Longhorns knocking on the door of the penthouse with regard to college football talent accumulation, the new bar for the Longhorns is Georgia and Ohio State of the right now and the best Alabama teams under Nick Saban.
Consequently, Texas really isn't the bar for the Sooners anymore. The Texas program shops at Neiman Marcus. The Oklahoma program mostly shops at Dollar Tree. All you have to do is look at the last two recruiting classes for the Sooners, which featured a total of three Rivals super blue chips (5 stars and high 4 stars), while the Longhorns have signed four times as many in the same time frame.
When the Sooners hired Jim Nagy ... a move that I really love ... it was a confession in its hire of a general manager that they needed the best possible person to look under every rock for talent because they just aren't going to consistently get the best Jimmies and Joes, not in recruiting and not in the transfer portal.
In case you hadn't noticed, the Sooners have added 11 players in the Portal before the start of the spring Portal and eight of them rank between No. 228- No. 1377 in the Rivals Portal rankings. That includes players from the likes of Western Carolina, Arkansas Pine-Bluff, Southern Illinois and two from Kennesaw State.
Folks, this is not the behavior of a serious football program. This isn't how Georgia and Ohio State are winning titles. This isn't how anyone is winning titles.
It's the type of thing a football program does when it doesn’t have better options. Therefore, if your head coach can't produce better talent acquisition, you have to hire someone that can, especially if you're going to be in the business of guessing lottery pick numbers with players from non-power programs as true foundation pieces.
Remember when Texas pulled Jay'vion Cole out of San Jose State last season? He was one of the best players in the Mountain West. Well, he couldn't remotely get on the field for a program with true NFL talent all over the place. I love the idea of taking a few flyers like this each season, but they are always going to be bets with longer odds of hitting the higher up the competition ladder they attempt to climb.
The blueprint that worked for Oklahoma in the Big 12 isn't going to work in the SEC. Not against Georgia. Not against Alabama in most seasons. Not against Texas outside an occasional one-off.
I'm not saying that the Sooners are suddenly going to be like Nebraska from the last 15 years. Their talent acquisition issues could be altered significantly with a special head coach. But, a total JAG like Brent Venables? Even if he was very good, they live in a world where very good gets you anywhere between a fourth-seventh place finish in the conference ... and Venables isn't very good.
He's basically the Rodney Terry of college football, a guy that took over a program that was bigger when he arrived and because he's only pretty good, the standards have dropped to hoping to make a bowl game ... er ... the NCAA Tournament
The Sooners made a very good hire. Jim Nagy improves that program. When you HAVE to shop at Dollar Tree, having someone that can FIND the best value buys is probably the most paramount need you can fill.
But, that level of program is none of Texas' business moving forward outside of one single Saturday every 365 days of the year.
The Longhorns are bigger than OU. You don't have to believe me, just ask the head coach at Kennesaw State. That guy can't keep the Sooners from raiding his program.
No. 2 - Scattershooting on the Jim Nagy/Brandon Harris debate ...
With no real rhyme or reason, here's a collection of thoughts centered on all of the discussion about OU's hire of Jim Nagy and the choices that Steve Sarkisian has made behind the scenes with regard to his support staff.
... As a follow-up on the War Room reporting on Brandon Harris, my best sourcing raved about Harris on Thursday night. "Works like 18 hours a day grinding on this shit," the source said. "I will tell you that he is a very hard-working GM."
... There's too much focus on job titles this week and not on skill sets. Every Dallas Cowboys fan that truly keeps up with the team knows that Will McClay is the key man behind the scenes when it comes to the Draft and he's earned a ton of respect for what he's produced in the Draft. I doubt few of those fans actually know that his official job title is "Vice President of Player Personnel" and that the actual Director of Player Personnel is Stephen Jones. From my perspective, a school's GM probably needs to center around the biggest needs that program has. OU's big need was finding an ace specialist from a college scouting standpoint. That was his specialty at the Senior Bowl. Texas doesn't quite have the same needs at the top of its food chain. Brandon Harris fits the needs that Texas has more than Nagy does in a GM role.
... In an ideal world, you're not forced to make choices if you're Texas, Ohio State and Georgia ... you can't afford not to place elite pieces of the support system infrastructure in each area of the program. If you want to stay on top of the food chain, I would offer that being on the front foot in all of these areas is critically important. Would having an A+ college talent evaluator help the Longhorns with their work in the Portal? Of course. How could it not? The answer would appear to be no if the response to this question is for sources to remark that Harris is pretty good in this role and that it doesn't take some sort of expert to watch film.
... Honestly, what I would have hoped to have heard from sources this week is that new Director of Scouting Errin Joe or Director of Player Personnel John Michael Jones are the guys that Sarkisian feels like are the Texas answer to someone of Nagy's expertise as a trusted evaluator of talent behind the scenes that Sarkisian can lean on unconditionally in the Portal. There's no reason to expect Harris to be an elite evaluator of talent when you consider that he has a number of other A+ skills that represent the primary reason he's in the role that he's in.
... It would be really interesting to hear Sarkisian give an example at his press conference on Monday on how the system works behind the scenes. Who first looks at a player? How much film does he watch when it's time to act in the Portal? Whose voice does he trust without hesitation? How did the recruitment of someone like Cole from San Jose State work last year?
... The Longhorns currently have 13 assistant coaches on staff, including an assistant quarterback coach, an edge coach, a nickels coach. Outside of having someone that specifically works as an assistant slot receivers coach or an offensive line coach who specializes in tackles or interior linemen, the Longhorns have a specialist at every single position on offense and defense. It's curious to me that they haven't hired anyone to serve as a coaching specialist on special teams. Jeff Banks is the only coach on the roster with a title connected to special teams. Why isn't there a kicking specialist to work with Bert Auburn? Why don't they have a punting specialist? Or a return game specialist? Or a coverage specialist? How can you sell that special teams is as important as the other two phases, but not treat it that way with the building of your coaching infrastructure? Jeff Banks couldn't use any help? The special teams are so good that no added help would make the program better?
... By my count, the Longhorns have 50 people working in the football department according to the updated football staff directory, a number that has nearly doubled since the days of Tom Herman and Charlie Strong. Hell, someone can correct me, but I don't think Alabama ever cracked 50 when Nick Saban was there. I know you're wondering ... I counted ... Alabama currently has 51. Ohio State lists 57. Georgia lists ... wait for it ... 75 people in its football staff directory. Three of those hires have titles that mention special teams.
No. 3 - About Sark's role in all of this ...
Let me set the stage for this part of the conversation by setting the table in what I hope is a proper way because when we talk about the current state of the Texas program, it's really important to acknowledge that the Longhorns are a Top 3 program in college football right now and just landed the No. 1 recruiting class in the country.
Things are very good around the 40 Acres in the football program. Dare I say, things are damn good? Yes ... yes, I do dare.
This is a program with some rock star on it, but none are bigger rock stars than Sarkisian. Honestly, given his absolute control of things, he's probably more like Prince than a Mick Jagger when it comes to his presence in any band. There's no Keith Richards in this band.
"Sark is in full and complete control of every facet of that program," a Texas source told me this weekend. "He doesn’t get into the administrative stuff once he has delegated it, but every decision regarding personnel or players is solely him."
Considering things are going so well with Sarkisian's methods of building his band, the conversation around whether it is the optimal long-term approach is a bit nuanced.
So, let's go back to December and discuss where I think Sarkisian's instincts when it comes to control might have been potentially problematic.
Starting with the Texas A&M game in late November, the Longhorns played five of their six biggest games of the season at a time that coincided with Texas putting the final touches on a No. 1-ranked recruiting class (remember that Justus Terry decision?) and the Portal window both opening and closing. Sark IS the best recruiter on the staff and IS in complete control over every Portal decision.
But, he's also the team's offensive coordinator and play caller. In a stretch of games against Texas A&M, Georgia, Clemson, Arizona State and Ohio State, the Texas offense broke the 20-point mark in 60 minutes of regulation just once. If we include the first Georgia game, the Texas offense didn't score 20+ points in five of the six biggest games of the season, despite having a three-year starter at quarterback and nine offensive players at this year's NFL combine.
That's all on Sark. It's HIS offense. The buck stops with him.
Yet, the way the scheduling works in college football, the single busiest and stressful time of the year from a future personnel standpoint occurs at the same exact time as the most important games of each season are taking place. Can you imagine the Patriots asking Bill Belichick to watch film of players in the Draft during the week of an AFC Championship game when he was taking on Peyton Manning in his prime? It's a ridiculous notion, but it's exactly the kind of juggling act that Sark requires of himself.
While Texas kicked ass in high school recruiting, we can have a long conversation about whether Texas was properly prepared to fill its needs in the Portal or whether Sarkisian was able to be the best version of himself as an offensive mastermind in the biggest games of the season. We can also debate the proper rankings order of those responsibilities because I would contend that being able to be the best version of an offensive mastermind is most important during the exact time when Sark has to also be the best version of himself in those areas.
Sarkisian is asking so much of himself ... like Prince in any band he ever created ... but when Prince went into the studio to record an album, he wasn't robbing Peter to pay Paul with regard to the time committed to working in the recording studio. The music mattered most when it was time to make an album. I'm not sure that Sarkisian is able to do anything remotely close to dedicating all of himself to actual football when the actual football is in its album-recording stage of the season.
Is this sustainable over the next 12 months? Next five years? Should Sarkisian truly want to sustain this model?
When you heard me say this week that Nagy or someone with a similar profile would be an excellent addition to the Texas program, it's not because I think Sarkisian isn't good at the role. It's because having someone handle things like making big calls on the right targets in the Portal would allow Sarkisian to more likely be the best version of himself in other critical areas. Consequently, when you hire someone like Nagy, you don't ask them to fundraise, recruit or coach ... you just have them specialize in their specialty.
Again, how many fine-margin advantages can you provide for your program? Once you identify an area where you can create one, why wouldn't you create it?
I know this sounds like nitpicking to some. To that response, I would merely state that I'm only in favor of Texas reaching optimal levels of performance in all critical areas of the program and we can have a healthy debate about whether that is happening.
The fact that Sarkisian announced pretty loudly last summer that the No. 1 area of focus in the 2024 offseason was improving the red zone performance on offense and improvement in that area did not materialize, one could argue that those optimal levels aren't being reached everywhere. One could argue it's the thing that cost this team a chance to play for a national championship.
Let's hope for the sake of everyone in burnt orange all over the world that this isn't a lesson that ever needs to be taught twice.
No. 4 – About the Xavier Worthy situation ...
I don't know that I really know what to say about this situation or whether it's any of my business to have an opinion.
Based on what happened this weekend (Worthy was arrested in a domestic dispute) and what didn't happen (the Williamson County DA decided not to pursue charges), what's left would appear to be a very complicated situation that might include some level of adultery amid a pregnancy ... and yeah ... I'm out.
Here's hoping that everyone involved ends up ok and in a better place than wherever they were this weekend. Ultimately, all that matters is that everyone involved can end up in the best place mentally, emotionally and physically.
Maybe some changes are needed, but Williamson County is telling us that it's none of our business and I'm inclined to follow its lead.
The one thing I will say is that when I was in my 20s, I came up with a basic golden rule with regard to relationships, which was inspired by a friend of mine who was stationed in Colorado Springs. He once told me a story about getting into an argument with his wife that reached levels that required the police to come to his house, which led him to running barefoot in the snow in his underwear down the street because he thought he might be arrested. It was at that moment that I came up with the following rule ... if the police are ever required to come to your home because of a domestic dispute, you have to break up with that person.
No exceptions. I told my friend that if you find yourself making excuses for the police needing to come to your home after a domestic disturbance, you're saying the quiet part out loud and just can't hear yourself.
For those that think that I'm being judgy, maybe so. I know this ... my friend took my advice (maybe the only time it has ever happened) and he got divorced. My friend and his ex-wife both eventually remarried and have been involved in 20-year relationships that have never required the police to come to their homes ever again. Their beautiful son ended up turning into a wonderful human being, largely because he was raised by good parents that decided that the best versions of themselves didn't exist in a world where the cops ever needed to be involved.
It feels like a pretty basic, but important ground floor rule for any relationship.
No. 5 - Just in case you needed it as a reference point ...
I moved a piece or two around with the announcement that Ryan Niblett has moved to the other side of the ball.
No. 6 – South Carolina's Not-So-Gentle Reminder ...
At the end of the day, this Texas Longhorns women's basketball team is a sensational team, one capable of making a serious Final Four run, regardless of who might be in its region.
However, this Texas team can struggle to score outside of the paint or mid-range, and the three-point line sometimes feels like a high-wire act every time a shot goes up. Shay Holle can't go 0-for-7 from the floor against a team like South Carolina ... or else. The bench can’t combine for four points on a day when the starting line-up was 15-of-47 from the floor. Those failures have consequences in the highest of high-stakes games.
The season is going to come down to games against teams like South Carolina in the Tournament and the Longhorns will either need to play above their mean from outside or win in spite of it.
It's really that simple.
No. 7 - 0 for effing 14 ...
Barring a significant SEC Tournament run, it feels like the Texas basketball team's season unofficially ended on Saturday night at home at the hands of an OU basketball program that felt like it was on the verge of firing its coach a few weeks ago.
That its best player (and the best offensive scorer the program has seen since Kevin Durant) went 0-for-14 from the floor in what was both the final home game of his career and perhaps the most important game of the season feels beyond harsh.
It literally felt like Rodney Terry's career in Austin died the moment that Tre Johnson missed his 13th and almost final shot of the game on a wide-open layup with 31 seconds remaining in the game. If a picture is worth 1,000 words, the image of Johnson lobbing that ball high off the glass with no one around him with the team trailing by four is worth what ... 10,000 words?
It's worth at least 10 emojis.
🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮
No. 8 – BUY or SELL …
(Sell) This is me ...
(Sell) I think they have a Final 4 run in them, but not the outside shooting/perimeter playmaking to win it all.
(Sell) One way or another, a better option has to materialize. I don't think you can win a national title with this level of player in your starting offensive line.
(Sell) No matter what, the schools do not want to think of the athletes as employees and unless the players unionized, there's no way a collective bargaining agreement can be made. Plus, I don't think it would be legal to restrict the amount of money a player can earn. These all just sound like things that will land the NCAA in court.
(Sell) Try ever.
(Buy) Pass me some Kool-Aid!
(Sell) I love writing in the off-season. It's when my creativity can come out.
(Sell) Come on. Do you remember those teams/games?
(Buy/Buy) Tre Wisner has already proven he can be a 1,000-yard running back. As for the line, in Kyle Flood I'm going to trust.
(Sell) That feels too high at this point ... to me.
(Buy) If this happened to be a trade, it would look like this:
Texas Trades: RB coach Tashard Choice, Passing game coordinator/Secondary coach Terry Joseph and Safeties coach Blake Gideon
Texas Receives: RB coach Chad Scott, Passing game coordinator Duane Akina, cornerbacks coach Mark Orphey, nickel coach Keynodo Hudson, assistant quarterback coach Michael Bismonte and edge coach LaAllan Clark
Strength in numbers, am I right?
No. 9 – Scattershooting all over the place …
... An Alabama/Auburn NCAA regional final or Final Four match-up would be a hell of a lot of fun.
... Nikola Jokic dropping the NBA's first 30-20-20 game in an overtime when over the Suns on Friday night was just stupid. That guy is so ridiculous that he made a 29/9/5 game from Kevin Durant and a 34/6/7 line from Devin Booker look like child's play.
... About the NBA MVP race ...
... Ovechkin Watch: 10 goals needed in the final 19 games of the regular season to break Wayne Gretzky's all-time goals record before the end of the season.
... It turns out that Myles Garrett's relationship with the Browns wasn't anything that the biggest deal ever given to a non-quarterback has ever received couldn't fix. Money talks and everything else walks.
... This kid can scoot.
... ESPN graded UFC 313 fight card as a D+. Woof. Sorry if you paid for that.
... Premier League Musings: 16 more points needed for the Reds to clinch title No. 20. Just keep getting those three points. Here's the truth about Arsenal ... the Gunnars are averaging less than 2.0 points per match and is on pace to record 75 points and at no point this season (even when they were fully healthy) have they produced points at a rate of an expected champion in the era of Man City/Liverpool greatness. Through the first three months of the season (first 9 games), the Gunnars averaged 2.0 points per game. The best stretch of football the Gunnars played were the games in November and December (9 games), but even the near 89-point pace (2.33 points per match) for two months runs behind the pace that Liverpool has played at all season (2.41). Inject those dudes giving us a guard of honor for the second time in Arteta's career at Arsenal. As for the Top 4/5 race, this is where the real interesting elements of this season are going to play out, as five teams are within five points of Man City in fifth place with 9-11 games left for each team. Bournemouth might end up missing Europe because they lets Spurs force a draw after taking a 2-0 lead. Man City has turned into such a tough watch. Next week's Must-See games Man City/Brighton (10am Saturday), Bournemouth/Brentford (12:30pm) Saturday and Arsenal/Chelsea (8:30am Sunday).
... Imagine The Godfather without Al Pacino ...
No. 10 - Top 10: Bob Dylan
It's been more than a decade since I first tackled doing a Bob Dylan list, but after watching A Complete Unknown last week in the leads up the Academy Awards, it feels like the perfect time to give it another go.
I can't say that I'm always in a mood for Dylan, but I have been for the last week.
So, let's get on with it.
Honorable Mention: I Shall Be Released, It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding), Every Grain of Sand, It's All Over Now, Baby Blue, Subterranean Blues, Simple Twist of Fate, Positively 4th Street, Ballad of a Thin Man, Idiot Wind
Last 5 Out: Tangled Up in Blue, Pledging My Time, Just Like A Woman, Highway 61 Revisited and Desolation Row
10. Hurricane
It's just a fantastic song. Love the violin play
9. Blind Willie McTell
According to Dylan biographer Clinton Heylin, the song is regarded by many as "Dylan's one indisputable masterpiece of the early eighties."
8. Visions of Johanna
Rolling Stone said that Dylan never seemed lonelier in any other song more than he did in this song cut on a single take on Valentine's Day in 1966.
7. All Along The Watchtower
Yes, Hendrix's version is the definitive version of this song (even Dylan admits it), but the original is pretty great in its own right.
6. Mr. Tambourine Man
Both versions of this song - Dylan's and The Byrds' - ranked near the Top 100 of its 500 Greatest Songs of All-Time.
5. Rainy Day Woman #12 and 35
This song doesn't seem to make many of the Top 10 lists that I've seen this weekend, but it's probably my favorite Dylan song to just jam out to. It makes my Top 10.
4. The Times They Are A-Changin
Released a few months after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, this is a song that spoke to and for an entire generation.
3. Blowin' in the Wind
It's the protest song of all protest songs.
2. A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall
In No Direction Home, Martin Scorsese's documentary on Dylan, the Beat poet Allen Ginsberg talked about the first time he heard Dylan's music: "When I got back from India, and got to the West Coast, there's a poet, Charlie Plymell - at a party in Bolinas — played me a record of this new young folk singer. And I heard 'Hard Rain,' I think. And wept. 'Cause it seemed that the torch had been passed to another generation. From earlier bohemian, or Beat illumination. And self-empowerment."
1. Like a Rolling Stone
Ranked in 2004 and 2010 as Rolling Stone's No. 1 song of all-time. Bono told Rolling Stone about this song: "For some, the Sixties was a revolution. But there were others who were erecting a guillotine in Greenwich Village not for their political enemies, but rather for the squares. Bob was already turning on that idea, even as he best embodied it, with the corkscrew hair Jimi Hendrix imitated. The tumble of words, images, ire and spleen on "Rolling Stone" shape-shifts easily into music forms 10 or 20 years away, like punk, grunge or hip-hop. Looking at the character in the lyric, you ask, "How quickly could she have plunged from high society to 'scrounging' for her 'next meal'?" Perhaps it is a glance into the future; perhaps it's fiction, a screenplay distilled into one song.
