ADVERTISEMENT

Ketch's 10 Thoughts From the Weekend (My prom, Charlie Strong and Tom Herman)

Earl Thomas is great but once there was this guy named Jerry Gray

He is the goat DB @ DBU.
 
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.
Charlie had to re-recruit those two. D'Onta goes down as a Charlie recruit.
 
On one hand, a bunch of highly-ranked three stars won’t trigger any parade-planning, yet on the other hand is the comfort of knowing that the high-three star prospect is the biggest strength of the Lone Star State in recruiting because the players ranked in that area of the rankings often historically perform better than the four stars in front of them when it comes to developing into drafted NFL players.

Interesting quote Ketch. It would be interesting to see the data behind this.
 
Earl Thomas is great but once there was this guy named Jerry Gray

He is the goat DB @ DBU.
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.
 
Charlie had to re-recruit those two. D'Onta goes down as a Charlie recruit.

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.
 
Mack Brown is a Hall of Fame college coach.

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.
 
Jerry Gray was a great player. He was not a better player than Earl.

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.
 
  • Like
Reactions: harrylime
BUY or SELL: The roster Herman inherits from CS is not significantly better than the one CS inherited from Mack? The commits at the time of the coaching change should be included as part of the inherited roster. Before you snap out the standard answer of it is, do a position by position evaluation.

(Buy) ...

The sheer amount of young talent in the program is much better.

Ironically, Mack Brown left Charlie Strong with a better group of seniors than Strong leaves Herman.

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.
 
  • Like
Reactions: harrylime
Never heard that one before. There's a first for everything. I used to get Chris Farley.
Maybe it's the hair cut? Or the sh!t eating grin?

johncandy2.jpg
 
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.
 
  • Like
Reactions: harrylime
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.
Perfectly timed=Suspiciously timed

This is the reason Urban Meyer will always be an A-Hole weasel in my mind.
 
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.
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.
 
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.
He didn't win enough conference titles, but his stretch from 2000-09 is only matched by the elite of the elite.
 
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.
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.
 
@Ketchum Any word on DC candidates or getting Brewster back on staff? I've been out of pocket.
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, especially with the turnover at the position in the conference.

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.
 
I don't know that I would say life support.

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?
 
Last edited:
Because no one else in the country pushes the pedal to the medal like he does.

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.
 
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.
An off-season will help. He needs to get stronger and the coaches knew that before the season started.
 
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 8 seats with maybe one 5 star, four 4 stars and the rest three stars. That would appear to be beyond comprehension. Is he really that good?
images
 
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.
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 ****.
 
  • Like
Reactions: MATF
Liked the prom story Geoff.

I was an awkward kid in high school. I always like hearing a story involving a member of the non cool crowd coming up in the world and having professional success.
 
Guess you probably never watched Jerry Gray run down Bo Jackson.

He played in a different era than Earl...it was not a pass happy time.

I'll still take Gray.
 
  • Like
Reactions: harrylime
Liked the prom story Geoff.

I was an awkward kid in high school. I always like hearing a story involving a member of the non cool crowd coming up in the world and having professional success.
I wasn't a member of the non-cool crowd, I was just a disaster at prom.

I'd say I was very socially active in almost every crowd that existed at McCallum.
 
Guess you probably never watched Jerry Gray run down Bo Jackson.

He played in a different era than Earl...it was not a pass happy time.

I'll still take Gray.
Gray was a great player, he just wasn't what Thomas is... which is possibly the greatest safety in the history of the sport.
 
ADVERTISEMENT