Ketch's 10 Thoughts From The Weekend (I'm out of benefit of the doubt)

[Ketchum]

Can the rooster play oline?

That got me. 😂 😂 😂 😂

 

[Ketchum]

Silk Sonic is the truth. Don’t know what either does from here. Wife and I have been sitting in the dark drinking wine and just bobbing. Lol.

The world is their oyster. Keep doing what they are doing.

 

[MB-HORNS]

We want our athletes to enjoy the experience and he wasn't. In a 4-6 season, I get it.

Yeah his body language on recent videos was not great.

 

[Ketchum]

I also would check on Kevin Steele’s interest. His defenses always seemed to play hard and were fundamentally sound.

Re culture, part of me wonders if Sark’s previous 5 seasons (3 with Bama, 2 with the Falcons) made him (mistakenly) assume he could just treat the players like pros and they would do their jobs.

In retrospect, the Alabama experience is so unique that you'd want to be careful treating kids from day one the way they are treated at Alabama. It's not the same.

 

[Ketchum]

Regarding the locker room. With all due respect that’s all touchy feely stuff. Players are either alfa dogs that love football or they aren’t. If they are concerned about petty BS, then they aren’t the kind of players TX needs. Worthy is the type of player we need. He realized the NIL was a distraction for him so he canceled it. As for Card, I can’t blame the fumble on him. It was a blindside hit from his O line protection breakdown. He hasn’t played enough to get a feel for what his O linemen are or aren’t capable of executing. Casey has also fumbled under the same scenario.

Time and situation matter.

Your best quarterback needed to be on the field at 28-14 and with two minutes left in the half. Perod.

 

[Ketchum]

@Ketchum It’s ok to admit you got it wrong again, Hudson Card and Garrett Gilbert are busts, regardless of their arm talent. Let it go… You aren’t paid to evaluate QBs, but doubling down everytime you get it wrong isn’t a good look.

I'm just not the kind of person that gives up on someone when they are so young. Maybe you are. I'm not.

 

[Ketchum]

You got it all right, including don't be concerned about the Gonzaga game. They return their best players from a NC finals game last year, the key word being "return", in that they have been playing together for a long time. Most of our guys are still learning everyone's name. They will be much better. But not taller.

exactly

 

[Ketchum]

Regarding your comment on... Caleb Williams will be ok. Momma always said there would be days like this for young quarterbacks.

Agree 100% with this, but those days never seem to happen with the opponent is Texas. Kansas with their 3rd string QB (57)

That kid impressed me as much as anyone Texas has played all season. Crazy.

 

[PhoenixKnightForever00]

Also what alot of people don't understand is that losing to Kansas in the last decade twice but this one at home being the worse is gonna cause DKR to be empty for a little while. What the next HC needs to say is to just be honest that this is gonna take time

 

[Ketchum]

Im confused about the Monkey story. A monkey got loose and lightly bit a kid. What exactly was the big deal? Did they want Banks suspended for that?

It's way more complicated than that. There's more to all of it behind the scenes and it's not all for public consumption. The video of him partying after the Baylor game at the same time as Monkey-Gate was an issue to go with it.

 

[Ketchum]

When I played, it would’ve never gotten to where a coach needed to say anything. We would’ve dealt with it ourselves.

Different times, different place, different dynamics.

 

[Ketchum]

If Herman had navigated 2020 better, he would still be here regardless of the W/L.

correct.

 

[TX44]

One family member told me this past week that the players love Bo, but they didn't want to hear from him or anyone else at that moment. "Not even Bo," this source said.

Well sorry unidentified family member but someone had to say something. What exactly did this unidentified family member want, complete ****ing silence for the rest of the season?

 

[Ketchum]

That might all be true....don't know...but if he let the player who recorded Bo play....that tells me all I need to know about Sark.

I didn't see him in the participation chart from Saturday night.

 

[Ketchum]

Uh . . . maybe during the delay and the euphoria of an epic win, someone reminded Aranda that margin of victory still mattered?

lol.

suuuuuuure.

 

[Ketchum]

Hey Ketch, what happens if we lose to Kansas?

heads from pets start falling off.

 

[TX44]

... Attaboy, Marcus Washington. That's quite a step forward for him. Here's hoping he can keep that level of production in these last two weeks.

Dude deserved praise from the start but people kept saying that he wasn’t a good option. He wasn’t getting chances that is why he wasn’t viewed that way. They were not throwing him the damn ball. Hot take but he has way more potential at WR than Whittington. Washington already runs better routes and is more of a natural fit at WR. Watch the tape. If you disagree, please explain.

 

[Ketchum]

It’s interesting that the guy who balled the Fck out on Saturday (Worthy), was rocking with Bo Davis and the rest of the locker room wasn’t.

I found it even more interesting that there were only a couple of players that changed their social media avatars to Bo.

Zay was one.

 

[Ketchum]

Jadan Blue has my interest. He was insane in 2019. Caught 95 balls for 1096 yards and 4 tds. Looks like he would instantly start at WR.

Casey is a better QB than he has played with.

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At linebacker, Strong and Jennings look promising. And we need experienced bodies to replace overshown.

Just not sure if they are Ray Thornton/Devin Richardson type, or real game changers.

Gotta have eyes on everything that comes in. The support staff focused on the Portal is critical.

 

[Ketchum]

(Sell) It's hard to imagine that Card will stick around knowing that it's going to be tough for Sarkisian to give him trust moving forward after this season. That leaves Thompson, who might also leave if he feels like he's walking into a situation where any portal target is being brought in to replace him. Your scenario could happen, but Sark has to make sure Thompson sticks around, right?

So if Sark tries to bring in a portal QB then Casey might bail or threaten to again like this past summer. If Texas doesn’t bring in a portal QB then they are looking at true freshman Malik Murphy as the backup QB. This seems like Casey is holding the program hostage again.

What would you do @Ketchum if you were Sark?

Yes, I think Thompson would probably be leery of being asked to go through a competition that he lost this past summer all over again.

What would I do?

It kind of depends on what my exact options are, I suppose.

 

[Ketchum]

The attendance number from the KState game has the potential to be shocking.

4-7 Texas (on a 6 game losing streak) playing 7-4 KState at 11AM the Friday after Thanksgiving.

well, when you put it like that...

 

[Ketchum]

I completely understand wanting this to be a positive for the players and the program and not wanting to be an undo burden on student athletes who already have a ton on their plate. However, you have to understand that the circumstances surrounding the end of this are going to be viewed negatively. We will probably never know what caused this, but it's going to be viewed with strong "everyone gets a trophy" vibes.

For someone, maybe the only one, who showed some heart on the field, im hoping this isn't simply he didn't want to answer hard questions.

There were a lot of little elements involved. I don't believe it was any one specific thing.

It just wasn't working for him and given that this is all new and we're inventing this on the fly, I understand wanting to take a step back.

 

[Ketchum]

@Ketchum Help me understand how Baylor has rebuilt better than Texas twice since a devastating rape scandal. In that same vein, is there room for hope considering Aranda’s current state in Waco and his record last year? How did he get his team to buy in after last season, and is that a template for us to follow?

Aranda seems very good at what he does and he had a very good plan following year one.

Sark's plan needs to be better moving forward.

 

[Ketchum]

I'm not sure I understand you correctly. You're possibly saying that monkeygate may have played a bigger role in Moore leaving than him getting his ass chewed out for his shitty game changing drops? That's seems like beyond a stretch of the imagination.

I'm really pointing to the entire context of what happened with Banks.

* everything prior to that behind the scenes
* the social media buzz from the story
* the video of him partying after Baylor

 

[Ketchum]

Sucks that he had to switch to RB. He was great in HS. The injury was really unfortunate & set him back.

When he was at Texas, the conventional wisdom was that he would never beat out Card. Then the position coach that recruited him was let go & replaced by a guy that was not a fan.

Bunch of bad beats for JQJ.

 

[Ketchum]

Buy or Sell.. Texas never should have been a 31 point favorite.

That's an excellent point. The answer is Buy.

Buy

 

[Ketchum]

Listen I'm sorry but I need to get some things off my chest. First of all, Sark may not be the right man for the job and this may be officially CDCs first bad hire. I'm not looking at the W's and L's. I'm looking at what got us there. Hence my epic rant on Ketch's article last.

Couple of thoughts
-If Sark survives, Pete has got to go. The defense is literally playing with No Heart. Literally leaving guys wide open on the field almost 90 percent of the time. Zone defense is garbage
-O-Line did ok but still not good enough
-Steven really needs to take a long look at himself In the mirror. This is a disgrace and for the love of God take accountability for your bullshit calls
- Hudson may have had some nice plays but then he followed it up with what were used to seeing from him. A scared puppy dog with his tail tucked between his legs. I have no idea with what sark sees in Hudson Card but I've seen enough and what I've seen, Hudson sucks. I'm sorry he just does.
-This next one is going to be unpopular but it needs to be said. Alot of people never liked Tom Herman but he never should've been fired. Dude was a winner the minute he walked into the door. Yes I know he's 0-1 in B12 title games. Yes I know he only made it once yes I know all of that but dude at least produced winning seasons and won 4 bowl games. One of them a NY6 bowl. It's not his fault sometimes B12 refs suck ass. It's not his fault our first real QB in a long time jinxed us with the whole "We're back!!!!!" Thing (Sorry Sam still love ya).
-ill say it again, Urban would've been a terrible hire. Scandals and distractions follow him everywhere he goes. He's a quitter when things get rough. And the dude is a massive hypocrite. Case and point, Zach Smith scandal.

If Sark survives the year, I'll give him more time. Not alot but I will. But the bottom line is this, this football team is broken and the program is broken and a dead mess. The boosters cant stay the hell out of the way. Someone needs to tell them to stay the hell out the way for yet the next hire because this program is broken and dead. We cannot keep doing this coach rotation. Just can't. We as a fan base and you the media need to shut up and just accept the fact that the next hire if we're out on sark (I'm 70 percent out on him) that it's gonna take time. Just Chill man

That's it that's all I got but thank you football for making me waste 70 dollars on this garbage to get humiliated by the worst team in the conference

wooooooo-saaaaaah

 

[Ketchum]

Yeah his body language on recent videos was not great.

He's a private dude and the videos are asking a lot of him, in retrospect.

 

[Ketchum]

Well sorry unidentified family member but someone had to say something. What exactly did this unidentified family member want, complete ****ing silence for the rest of the season?

I think some players felt like he should clean up the coaching staff's focus before yelling at them.

 

[Ketchum]

Dude deserved praise from the start but people kept saying that he wasn’t a good option. He wasn’t getting chances that is why he wasn’t viewed that way. They were not throwing him the damn ball. Hot take but he has way more potential at WR than Whittington. Washington already runs better routes and is more of a natural fit at WR. Watch the tape. If you disagree, please explain.

He does not have more potential than Whittington. He is a better blocker, though.

 

[MB-HORNS]

He's a private dude and the videos are asking a lot of him, in retrospect.

He just wants to ball.. I can respect that... Good kid..

 

[Ketchum]

The real, main problem this coaching staff is facing has yet to reveal itself. I’ll give this column another week or so to catch up.

cool story.

 

[duqu]

I posted this earlier today in the Sunday Pulpit, but feel it needs to seen by a larger group to understand Sark.

To better understand Sark and how he is operating , you need to understand 12-Step Recovery. and much of that is not in line with what you and maybe the team fully understands.

Sark has humility which is rare in P5 college football, but is an essential part of the foundation for recovery. Unfortunately, often people see humility as weakness, which is not the case. I make up that many of the current UT players who see Sark that way will rue the day they did.

Humility means treating players as grown up adults and expecting them to do what they are suppose to do which is the 'next right thing'....and guess what?....a lot on this team have not done so; but it also means that Sark will in all likelihood not flinch in practicing tough love by cutting someone loose who is not doing what they need to do so that the released player may find his bottom.

The culture he is creating is a mature culture of accountability, honesty and community. It is also a culture that takes time to come together, but once it does, it is rock solid.

Sark might not make it in Austin; I truly hope he does; and his players will be better men for having played for him.

sorry, but this is nothing more than wishful thinking.

Sark’s alcoholism started over 20 years ago. He has not been around long enough to know what kind of rock solid culture he can build, he hasn’t been personally rock solid long enough. His sober track record is +/- 6 years.

I’ve thought all along a recovering alcoholic isn’t built for this job. I do not believe any alcoholic can manage this kind of pressure.

 

[TX44]

He does not have more potential than Whittington. He is a better blocker, though.

A 7 am hot take best thing to start your morning lol how’s it going? I feel like Whittington projects as a safety in the league. I obviously love him but he doesn’t feel like a WR sometimes. I know Washington played defense in HS but I feel like he was born to play receiver.

 

[TheAngryHammer]

There were a lot of little elements involved. I don't believe it was any one specific thing.

It just wasn't working for him and given that this is all new and we're inventing this on the fly, I understand wanting to take a step back.

I look at it as sort of a positive. He wanted to focus more on what is important and didn’t want the optics out there of him trying to be bigger than the team at this point.

I’m thinking/hoping his internal conversation was something like, “If we start winning and everything becomes fun, okay give it another shot, but right now we’ve got work to do.”