Ketch's 10 Thoughts From the Weekend (My prom, Charlie Strong and Tom Herman)
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Because no one else in the country pushes the pedal to the medal like he does.
No, Charlie developed D'Onta into that kind of player. He wasn't ready made when he arrived. Hell, he wasn't even on campus.
D'Onta is going to be an All-American. Charlie left a few guys with that kind of upside behind, including one at left tackle and quarterback.
Mack had D'Onta commitment prior to Charlie's arrival.
We would not have had the Foreman if it wasn't for Mack, due to the sheer fact that Strong had ZERO recruiting ties to the state of Texas and knew nothing of the Foreman's.
When Thomas goes into the NFL Hall of Fame, we'll revisit this.
Jerry Gray's best season at Texas: 7 interceptions and 7 pass break-ups (no passes defended listed)
Earl Thomas in 2009: 8 interceptions, 16 pass break-ups and 24 passes defended.
That doesn't include the two punt returns earl had for touchdowns.
Jerry Gray as a pro - 4 pro bowls, no all-pro teams
Earl Thomas as a pro - 5 pro bowls, 4 first-team all pro teams, 1 second-team all-pro teams.
Earl Thomas is/was the better player.
Had to "re-recruit" but had already committed to Texas.
Strong had never recruited the Foreman's prior to arriving at Texas which makes it a Mack recruit.
You are wrong on this one.
Just like one-hit wonders in show business, you have to figure that every coach who has a NC gets into the CFB Hall of Fame, regardless of how less impressive the rest of his career may have been. Only 2 conference championships in a 31-year head coaching career is far from stellar.
We can try to fool ourselves about Mack, but the ugly reality is that Texas coaches over the past 50 years haven't put enough champhionship trophies in the case.
Maybe not as a pro, but in college I don't know, Ketch. Gray was better in '82 than Thomas was in '08 and then Gray put up 2 seasons in '83 and '84 roughly equivalent to Thomas in '09. In BOTH '83 and '84 Gray was a consensus all-American and SWC defensive player of the year.
I feel like I'm living in a fantasy land in the way that Herman is accepted as a hire so much more than Strong is. I'm clearly in the minority, but I'm more meh on Herman than I ever was on Strong. Not that I am less confident in Herman's chances of success -- I'm possibly more confident due to the out-of-their-control factors.
I guess I don't mind shooting for the stars and going with the backup plan when the top choices don't work out, which is what the Strong hire seemed like. Hiring Herman seems more like settling on the fourth-choice prom date before even asking others. It doesn't *upset* me because I don't think the others would have said yes, but I just can't get excited about it, either. At this point, I'll need to see the success on the field first.
I guess I don't mind shooting for the stars and going with the backup plan when the top choices don't work out, which is what the Strong hire seemed like. Hiring Herman seems more like settling on the fourth-choice prom date before even asking others. It doesn't *upset* me because I don't think the others would have said yes, but I just can't get excited about it, either. At this point, I'll need to see the success on the field first.
While I supported that Charlie needed to go, these last two points should change that "Buy" into a "Sell". That sheer amount of young talent are all of Charlie's guys. There are relatively few seniors because that was Charlie's first year trying to keep and get new commits.
100%. Kind of reminds me of how perfectly timed Ohio St's hire of Urban Meyer seemed to be. He takes a year off just as Tressel is fired and they play a year with an interim first time HC.
How about this, "Conference Championships matter, IF you have the same number of losses as everyone else. Penn St lost to Pitt and got throttled by Michigan. They got beat by a great team and a decent team. Ohio St lost to a great Penn St and didn't lose again. Ipso Facto: Ohio St > Penn St
And if this were expanded to 8 teams, we'd all be bitching about why a white-hot USC got left out.
It's sportstalk radio fodder and the Heisman has the exact same problem. The ideal result is undefined. Who deserves the Heisman? Not the best player in College Football, but maybe the Best Player on a winning team? Best player who plays on offense? Best player who isn't an underclassman (before Johnny Trainwreck). It's purposefully undefined with no published requirements so it can be anyone they want it to be. Same with the playoff. If they just gave us the formula we wouldn't need a committee, but we tried that and nobody liked it.
Someone will always feel left out, don't get trolled by the process. It's intentional.
And if this were expanded to 8 teams, we'd all be bitching about why a white-hot USC got left out.
It's sportstalk radio fodder and the Heisman has the exact same problem. The ideal result is undefined. Who deserves the Heisman? Not the best player in College Football, but maybe the Best Player on a winning team? Best player who plays on offense? Best player who isn't an underclassman (before Johnny Trainwreck). It's purposefully undefined with no published requirements so it can be anyone they want it to be. Same with the playoff. If they just gave us the formula we wouldn't need a committee, but we tried that and nobody liked it.
Someone will always feel left out, don't get trolled by the process. It's intentional.
Perfectly timed=Suspiciously timed
This is the reason Urban Meyer will always be an A-Hole weasel in my mind.
Strong not having Texas ties has nothing to do with this situation. He signed Foreman. Period.
Mack can have co-ownership of it, I suppose, but he's a Charlie Strong guy.
He didn't win enough conference titles, but his stretch from 2000-09 is only matched by the elite of the elite.
Earl Thomas should have won the Heisman in 2009. I just don't think Gray best tops Thomas' best, even if he had more great seasons.
It's Orlando's job if Houston doesn't name him HC.
Brewster is still potentially in the cards, but he'll have to finish out a timeline subject to FSU's wishes IMO.
I agree if he can recover from his injury. He was playing at that level (adjusted and given credit for being a true freshman), until his injury. After that, he was playing several notches down. If he can fully recover and get back to what he was, plus develop as expected from true freshman to season two, look out. My fingers are crossed that he gets his mojo back.
CS left with only 7 recruits with only 5 weeks to go. 65ish of the 100 top recruits are already signed. How much blood does the patient have to lose before you dial 911?
Granted, with only 20 seats to fill, I agree that a top 15 finish should be considered great success, but does TH have a fighting chance to fill those 13 seats with maybe one 5 star, six 4 stars and the rest three stars. That would appear to be beyond comprehension. Is he really that good?
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First, I agree with Ketch's assessment that Texas won't go there, but I question why not, in principle; and it is a little disheartening to agree with the cold assessment that we don't have the cahones to try. Saban, unquestionably IS the Gold Standard, and it would seem prudent to evaluate that Gold Standard and put together a plan to implement all the "best practices" that would bring value.
The problem is that TH has taken over a cesspool. The Texas program is the lowest that it has ever been in its 130? year history. TH has to wench it out of the septic tank, pressure wash off all the sh1t and spend the first level of effort just getting the wheels back on and the engine running. It will be at least a season or two before we can worry about emulating the "lilly gilding" of Nick Saban.
I am amazed that people actually believed CS's whiny plea that he could win 10 games and a national championship if given one more year. For God's sake, this program went 6-7, 5-7, 5-7 and lost to Kansas. We had a running back that put up 2200 yards this season, and couldn't win over 5 games. We ran 300 yards on Kansas and lost. For those of you not paying attention, that is BAD. TH will need to repair a lot of damage to get this fixed.
An off-season will help. He needs to get stronger and the coaches knew that before the season started.
The answer is that Texas isn't committed (or hasn't been committed) to using its full power as a college heavyweight.
Optics and perceptions matter, where as at Alabama they don't give a ****.
