What are his weaknesses? Not trying to be a smart ass but seriously what are they in your opinion? I think he has a few and I agree they are coachable.
Ketch's 10 Thoughts From the Weekend (Nipping this weekend's hypocrisy in the bud...)
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What are his weaknesses? Not trying to be a smart ass but seriously what are they in your opinion? I think he has a few and I agree they are coachable.
I don't think that was a smart ass question at all. IMO, deep ball accuracy is definitely something that needs work. I remember it was also Aikman's weakness coming into the NFL. Accuracy probably in general could be seen as a bit of a weakness. Pocket awareness also. But like you say, coachable things.
Yea I know but some would have been like F U for questioning me so I had to throw that in. Accuracy is the biggest weakness for Sam imo.
A four-year starter at Texas with Westlake roots? He will be fighting off agents who want to represent him.
You mention six teams. We beat two of them last year. With just two draft picks.
There are 129 teams in major division college football (FBS). 123 of those operate outside of the top six. UT is one of them. Of course the top six teams, over time, will generally have more draft picks than the others, but it is only a broad, general indicator of talent. It isn't as easy as just saying, "They only had 2 draft picks, therefore they weren't as talented as those who had more draft picks."
Do you think Texas can consistently compete for national titles with 1 or 2 NFL draft picks every year? Yes or no?
He was the 2nd highest rated quarterback in the country last year on downfield throws.
No way in the wide world of sports that "Landslide is #6! If it ain't #1 then it is #2!! Geez dude.
Let's face facts, we're all at least a little bit hypocritical.
It's hard damn work being perfect all the time, so much so that all you can do is try to limit to the hypocritical stuff to a minimum, but it's next to impossible to eliminate it all.
However, as it relates to 2018 Texas football, the 2019 NFL Draft and to 2019 Texas football, I got sick enough of the hypocrisy that I feel compelled to rage against it a little.
So, here's my beef.
Based on informal polling in the last few months and just general observation of fan expectations going into the 2019 season, it's pretty clear that the consensus among the Texas fan-base is that the 2019 Longhorns will be better than the 2018 Longhorns. I'm one of those people that believes this to be true.
However, if you're one of those people that believes this, you were not allowed to demonstrate some form of shock or disbelief as a reaction this weekend when the Longhorns had a relatively church quiet three days of the NFL Draft. Of course, the selection of Charles Omenihu in the fifth round was a reality check to some degree, mostly because Texas doesn't really have anyone poised to fill his shoes in 2019.
The rest of them, though? Yeah, the reason why we like this 2019 Longhorns over the 2018 Longhorns is our belief that the Longhorns will be upgrading across the board from departing talent that the NFL evaluated and collectively thought, "Meh" about.
We think the running back position in 2019 is better than it was in 2018. We think the wide receiver position in 2019 is better as a whole than it was in 2018. We think the offensive line position in 2019 is better than it was in 2018. We think the defensive back position in 2019 is better than it was in 2018.
Generally speaking, we think the defensive line position in 2018 is superior to the 2019 group appears to be.
The jury is out on linebacker and tight end, but the Longhorns aren't replacing anyone at those positions that any judger of NFL talent believed was worth selecting in seven full rounds.
This simply couldn't have been a shock to anyone. Texas lost three first-team All-Big 12 players from last season - Omenihu, Kris Boyd and Andrew Beck. The first two names represent all of the Texas NFL Draft representation for the year. Gary Johnson was a second-team All-Big 12 player. All of the optimism is built on young players in the program that us optimists believe represent upgrades through mere turnover alone, which NFL evaluations in real time would seem to confirm to be, at least in terms of NFL-level talent, a wash at worst.
One of the reasons why I love leaning on NFL Draft results as a way of evaluating college player development is that the confirmation bias we all carry to some degree, along with any lingering hypocrisies, get thrown out the window. These NFL teams don't care if you're a horrible person, so if you don't get drafted, it's because 32 different teams of people with no moral compass believed as a piece of talent, you weren't worth drafting.
It is what it is. It's not ideal, but in this case the lack of it being ideal might unintentionally be the thing that launches this program to the next step. The future of Tom Herman at Texas hinges on this young talent soaring way beyond what the departing upperclassmen ever produced as a group.
You know this. Therefore, spare us all of the hyperbolic dramatic reenactments from a boring draft weekend.
Mini-rant over.
No. 2 - About Lil'Jordan ...
Lil'Jordan Humphrey enjoyed one of the greatest individual seasons at the wide receiver position in the history of the Texas football program in 2018, but will almost certainly be more remembered by the next generation of Texas football players and fans for the cautionary tale his NFL Draft situation has turned out to become.
There's no getting around Humphrey's decision being anything but an absolute disaster inside the context of where Humphrey thought he might get drafted and what actually occurred. He'll be the example that all future Texas coaches point at after each season, while warning, "You better damn know what you're doing!"
Of course, sometimes guys just don't want to play for football for free anymore and if that's the case with Humphrey, hey, I get it. It's just going to require a different set of self-awareness moving forward than what appears to have been around when this important decision was made in the first place.
Making an NFL team as an undrafted rookie can be an impossible task, but it happens every year, so Humphrey ultimately needs to go out and do the damn thing. Assuming that happens, perhaps it'll still be him with the last laugh one day, but we're a long way from there at this moment.
Good luck. Lil'Jordan.
No. 3 - I guess I'm just biased ...
I get why teams were cool on Kris Boyd. I know why Lil'Jordan wasn't drafted. Same with everyone else.
Charles Omenihu lasting to the fifth round?
Consider me absolutely baffled. The measurables are more than fine. The production was on par with so many of his contemporaries that were drafted earlier. We're talking about a guy with 33 starts under his belt and a Big Defensive Lineman of the Year Award under his belt.
Maybe the answer is that the NFL just doesn't like Big 12 defensive linemen because there weren't many taken this year or in the last couple of years.
Put me down as going on the record as saying Omenihu over-performs against is fifth-round status moving forward.
No. 4 - Elephants in the Room ...
Man, if we didn't know how good that Oklahoma offensive line was in 2018 when it rated as the best in the nation, we should have a pretty good idea after this weekend when all four of Oklahoma's departing starters were drafted by middle of the fourth round.
Seriously, tip of the cap to those dudes because that is not something that routinely happens from year to year. Not even the much-celebrated 2005 offensive line had four players drafted that highly.
As much as we know it'll be tough for Texas to replace Omenihu's talent and productivity with a like for like replacement, everyone in Norman . must know that the overhaul of the group that just left is easier created in the mind than it is executed in reality. Just ask Texas fans after the members of that 2005 line departed the following season. Special is special and there's a reason why special exists.
When it comes to quarterbacks, the Sooners keep replacing special with special, which in turn has been pretty special. Can they do the same thing with the offensive line? Is that even possible?
What would a Kyler-Murray-led Oklahoma team looked like without that offensive line? What would that offensive line have looked like without having elite of the elite NFL quarterback playing behind it? What does possibly only having one special position group worth of play (or potentially none) to do the dynamic of Oklahoma's output in offense from the last couple of years to this one?
Talking about four guys that were all just pretty good, but perhaps not elite, isn't a very sexy mainstream national conversation piece, but I would contend that what happens with the Oklahoma this year in adjusting from established greatness to unestablished unknown is the single most important off-season talking point in the Big 12 this season.
No. 5 - Pretty much out of words...
Things are just rough for the Texas baseball team right now.
Against a good West Virginia team that is almost certainly going to play in the post-season, a team without much certainty of post-season baseball probably played par over the weekend in taking one out of three.
That's the current state of reality for a team scrapping with Kansas to avoid last-place in the league.
The Longhorns are running out of ways and weekends to find a switch to flip the current run of momentum and the sum of this weekend's parts added up to a feeling that an opportunity had been lost.
No. 6 – BUY or SELL …
BUY or SELL: Texas beating OU last year looks more impressive than ever.
RD 1) K. Murray (1) M. Brown (25)
RD 2) C. Ford (38)
RD 3) B. Evans (97)
RD 4) D. Samia (114) B. Powers (123)
RD 5) S. Seibert (170) R. Anderson (211)
Jalen Hurts will be good but there’s no way he puts up Kyler Murray numbers, plus OU must replace 3 starter who were drafted on the OL. You gotta like our chances of beating OU in 2019.
(Buy) However, it must be said that I thought the same thing a year ago.
BUY or SELL: LJH would have been drafted in the 2020 draft if he came back?
(Sell) I don't think we can say that for certain, not unless we knew for certain he'd test better in a year from now and I'm not sure we know that would happen.
BUY or SELL: The draft is going to hurt our recruiting since it gives teams some negative recruiting ammo?
(Sell) The events from this weekend won't help, but I'm not sure they will hurt recruiting. This staff has a track-record beyond this weekend.
BUY or SELL: Texas has a 1st Round draft pick next year?
(Sell) Not unless Sam has a monster season and goes pro.
BUY or SELL: Bru McCoy gets his waiver from the NCAA?
(Buy) The NCAA doesn't want the smoke from a potential lawsuit.
BUY or SELL: The O/U on the next time Texas has a first round draft pick (football) is 2.5 years, and the smart money is on the over.
(Sell) The over/under should be 1.5.
BUY or SELL: Smart’s Texas Basketball wins in second round of NCAA Tournament before Pierce’s Texas Baseball hosts a regional again?
(Sell) Nope, not taking that bait.
BUY or SELL: Given the lack of depth at LB and the overabundance of top safety talent, Orlando's base package this year will be a 3-2-6 dime?
(Buy) Absolutely. I'm not sure it'll officially be the base defense, but I expect to see a lot of this in 2019.
BUY or SELL: Keaontay Ingram runs for 1,000+ yards in 2019?
(Buy) It'll be close, but I'm going to say that playing in at least 14 games gets him there.
BUY or SELL: Other than on Thanksgiving, turkey meat doesn't excite you?
(Sell) I l-o-v-e smoked turkey. I search all over town for the places that do it the best.
No. 7 – Eternal Randomness of the Spotty Sports Mind …
... In general, I thought the Cowboys had a perfectly ok draft, but I'm concerned by the reality of not being able to point to anyone selected in rounds two through seven and knowing with certainty that anyone projects as a sure-fire potential impact contributor. I suppose Penn State lineman Connor McGovern could end up being that kind of player, but as a whole Dallas' draft kind of screamed future "whole bunch of nothing significant". There's not much you can say to make me feel better about a second round pick being used on a guy that couldn't start for Central Florida... for whatever the damn reasons.
... This draft as a whole felt very "meh" to me. I confess to watching all of it, but I never really felt impressed with the players being drafted.
... The Rockets let the worm off the hook on Sunday against a Golden State team that wasn't firing in top gear. I still think I like the Rockets in this series, but that's the last get out of jail card that they can probably afford for the series. In a series that could feature slight margins as a deciding point, these games where the Warriors flash wobbly knees are the ones Houston have to snatch.
... Kawhi Leonard needs to chill the hell out or my Sixers ain't gonna make it through five games.
... Milwaukee and Philadelphia both have some things to talk about going into game twos.
... It's a hell of a thing to see a long-ass NBA season come to an end because in a game seven, my players didn't have high basketball IQ in the closing moments. Sorry, Spurs fans.
... Sports are so very cruel.
No. 8 - Game of Thrones... Season Eight, Episode Three (Three more remain)
You guys know the drill, it's about to get bloody around here.
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I feel like the countdown for this episode has been like waiting for an important football game to start in prime-time. This is an episode that we're going to be counting score on, which is pretty damn abnormal. It's about to get hard-core up in here.
Adrenaline is flowing.
1. Episode MVP: Arya Stark
Let's be 100-percent clear... the Night King pulled a Oberyn Martell. He got to the one-yard line and channelled his inner-DeSean Jackson. Nope, he had to take his sweet ass time getting to Bran and out of nowhere he got shanked by Arya, who pulled his little drop the knife and stab your ass with the other hand trick. The Night King did not trust his scouting reports and he paid the price. He played with the cheat codes for almost the entire battle and then couldn't help by high-step a few yards too early.
2. Until Arya became the real King-slayer, that battle looked a lot like Nebraska pounding Florida in the national championship game with Tommie Frazier.
3. Unsung Hero of the Night: The Lord of Light kept the living in the game a few times. If I wasn't a man of faith at Winterfell before this night, I'd sure as hell would be now. The Red Woman played like she was Vinnie Johnson coming off the bench. Even Ser Davos was like, "game respects game.
4. The score for the entire episode made me think I was watching Sicario 3.
5. The Dothraki deserved better than to be scratched from the face of the earth in about 10 seconds.
6. Lyanna Mormont... called that one. Pretty gangsta of her to take out an ice giant on the way out the door, though.
7. "Theon, you're a good man." That was a good way for him to go out.
8. Jorah died in the arms of the woman he loved. He kept Dany alive. It was a good way for him to go out as well.
9. Tweet of the Night
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No. 9 - The List: Top 10 Stevie Nicks songs...
With the latest Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductions ceremony having aired over the weekend, I thought I would dedicate this week's list to an artist almost everyone loves... Stevie Nicks.
10. After the Glitter Fades
9. Stand Back
8. Talk to Me
7. Gold Dust Woman
6. Landslide
5. Gypsy
4. Leather and Lace
3. Rhiannon
2. Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around
1. Edge of Seventeen
No. 10 – And Finally ...
Over the last few weeks, we've heard you. More than that, we've listened.
A lot of you really liked the Orangebloods letter-jacket, but even more would like it with a lighter price point.
@OBJuan is offering a "buy one, get another one for free" special. Just go to the website and enter the promo code "OBBOGO".
Feel free to check any list on the Internet of Stevie Nicks songs that has Landslide ranked No.1 or No.2.
I'll hang up and listen.
We are going by my ears and not the Internet. Hell, the internet doesn't even have ears!
I can relate to that but I still hate your SJWness but you run a great site for Texas fans.
Geoff, if you haven't, do yourself a favor. Order a smoked turkey from Greenberg smoked turkey inc. www.gobblegobble.com Turkey farm in Tyler. All they do is smoked turkey and the price is right.
@CS
Come on. This was a perfectly fine column with a variety of things to chime in on. To focus on the intro to a column that was absolutely supported by numerous examples or posts and tweets from Texas fans overreacting to this weekend's draft results is a lot of things....curious and weak among them.
What did I do to warrant the nitpick and slam?
