Forget about the Alabama game.
Bunch of fool's gold.
Like a person who tells their family on Thanksgiving Day that they can't go crazy with the spread because they are dieting, it doesn't do any good to watch your calories during the Cowboys game if you eat like a pig on leftovers in the days that follow.
If we're trying to determine the real state of the diet, ignoring the larger sample size in the name of pointing out how well things went on the day when few would have expected you to do well probably isn't the best way of evaluating the state of things.
See the Alabama game.
For 60 minutes against the Tide, Orangebloods everywhere saw the version of the program that they'd been dying to see. The physicality that day was off the charts. The defense was suffocating. The coaches seemed to do a better job on the whole than the greatest coach of all time. Ridiculous mistakes were mostly omitted from the proceedings.
On a week-by-week basis, that's just not who the 2022 Texas Longhorns are. It's who they can be on any given day when it all comes together, but it's not who they are every day.
Instead, this is a team full of uncertainty. From week to week on offense, it doesn't know what it wants to be once Steve Sarkisian's opening script ends. A defense that lacks playmakers has a hard time getting to the quarterback, creating turnovers or getting off the field when it has a chance to do so. Meanwhile, it struggles to finish games in the fourth quarter, win on the road, beat Power 5 programs and avoid the kind of costly boneheaded penalties that can lead to losing games.
Diets aren't built in a day. Neither was Rome. Neither will Sarkisian's football program be.
Moving forward through the rest of the season with eight games to go, the list of areas of needed improvement is plentiful.
There's one coach on the staff whose job it is to ensure that all of these areas become less problematic ... Sarkisian.
1. The offense going into funks after the early script ... that's on Sark.
2. The struggle to close out games in the fourth quarter ... that's on Sark.
3. The inability to play well on the road ... that's on Sark.
4. Not consistently beating Power 5 programs ... that's on Sark.
5. The boneheaded mistakes that kill the team ... that's on Sark.
Don't get me wrong, Pete Kwiatkowski owns some of the responsibility for improving the defense, but the 30,000-foot view of the franchise shows that the buck stops with Sark.
It doesn't mean that he can't recruit like gangbusters. It doesn't mean that the team isn't on the page that Sarkisian wants it to be on. It also doesn't mean that this team can't go on a big run.
What it means is that Sark still has a lot of work to do. If that wasn't clear to everyone before Saturday's demise in Lubbock, it is now.
No. 2 - Let's talk about the quarterbacks ...
It feels like there are two pieces of good news for the Longhorns at the quarterback position.
1. Quinn Ewers has to be close to returning. I suppose it's not out of the realm of possibilities that he could still need another week of rest when you consider how inactive he was in pre-game warm-ups on Saturday in Lubbock, but the hope is that this is the week he'll return.
The sooner he gets back, the better. He's still an incredibly young player that has a mere four quarters of experience under his belt entering week five. There will be highs and some lows, with each moment he experiences making him a better player in the process.
2. Hudson Card is improving. All of the experience he's accumulated in the last 11 quarters has made him more of a player that the Longhorns can depend on when needed. His ability to climb in the pocket, while picking out receivers in the passing game is something we hadn't seen before. Those throws he made in the final seconds to set up a game-tying field goal? Again, new stuff. Progress. A 141.1 rating isn't worth throwing a parade over, but you can see that he's maturing through this experience, slowly but surely.
No. 3 - The Xavier Worthy concern ...
It goes without saying that the Longhorns need their sophomore playmaker back on the field as soon as possible.
In fact, as much as this team needs Ewers to return, it might need Worthy back with even more urgency.
With Isaiah Neyor out for the season, the loss of Worthy on Saturday meant that the Longhorns didn't have a single player on the field in the second half that the Tech defense really had to worry about blowing the top off the defense. Once you add in a quarterback in Card that has struggled throwing the ball down the field when Worthy was actually on the field, the Texas offense became an offense mostly trapped in a phone booth.
What it leaves is a Texas wide receiver unit that has so many questions that the Texas staff could never quite figure out how to use its assortment of parts. Should Jordan Whittington play inside or replace Worthy on the outside? Not being able to figure that out left Card trying to win the game with Tarique Milton, Agiye Hall and Casey Cain in the passing game.
After Worthy and Jordan Whittington had combined for 7 catches for 103 yards and a touchdown in the first half, the entire group of Texas receivers combined for three catches for 49 yards and almost all of that yardage occurred on Milton's catch along the sideline while the Red Raiders were in a prevent defense.
What looked like one of the best receiver units in college football two months ago is suddenly just a pile of players as long as Worthy isn't on the field.
Get well, Xavier. Soon is possible.
No. 4 - The offensive line issue ...
It's a good news/bad news situation with the offensive line.
The good news is that the tackle combo of Kelvin Banks and Christian Jones continues to play anywhere between excellent and pretty good. I'm not sure I remember Banks taking a step wrong on Saturday, while Jones wasn't quite as good against the Red Raiders as he had been the previous week against UTSA.
The bad news is that the interior of the offensive line continued its regression against Tech. The trio of Hayden Conner, Jake Majors and Cole Hutson struggled both in the run game and in pass protection, especially in the second half.
From my perspective, I'm really not sure what the Longhorns can do. There have been calls for freshman DJ Campbell to take some of Hutson's reps, but the coaches have done nothing in the games to suggest they are thinking that's a solution or to prepare Campbell for more playing time.
Meanwhile, it feels like Majors and Conner are simply locked in fixtures at this point. Barring an injury, the five that keep playing each week and taking all the snaps are the five that are going to need to eventually be the solution.
These are issues the team is simply going to have to work around.
No. 5 - You can't panic if you're Sark ...
A week ago, many of you yelled at me when I pointed out that the defense wasn't yet a truly top-level defense and that there were areas of concern that I felt like were impossible to ignore.
A week later, some of you want Sarkisian to fire defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski after the defense struggled against Texas Tech.
Just stop. Sarkisian might very well need to replace his defensive coordinator after this season is over, but it would be nothing more than a panic move and a sign that he doesn't have the decision-making chops to achieve success at Texas.
Firing your DC in week five means that it should have happened nine months ago.
Kwiatkowski has eight games to continue to improve this side of the ball. In each of the last two weeks, the defense has looked nothing like what it looked like against Alabama. Instead of attacking from all angles, we've seen more bend but don't break.
The problem is that if you bend enough, you will eventually break. What we witnessed against Tech is kind of the stuff we witnessed throughout the 2021 season.
It's flat out not good enough, but we're not at a stage where an upheaval needs to occur.
That was his mulligan. I'm not sure how many more he has.
No. 6 - Football Scattershooting ...
... I'm not one of those people that automatically equates making a lot of tackles with playing well. If the defense is on the field for 100 snaps, yeah ... a few guys are probably going to have a lot of tackles. Other than Jahdae Barron in the first half, DeMarvion Overshown in the fourth quarter and Byron Murphy on a few snaps in the fourth quarter, I didn't really think anyone played well on defense.
... The Texas defense has forced two turnovers in two games. That ranks tied for 124th in the nation. Only two teams out of 130 across the country are worse at creating turnovers. Meanwhile, Texas ranks 71st in the nation in total sacks.
... Some good news? Only three starting quarterbacks in the Big 12 have a worse passing efficiency than Card, but one of them is West Virginia's J.T. Daniels (139.4), who is on deck this weekend at DKR.
... How is it even possible that the Longhorns’ rushing offense ranks seventh in the Big 12? Worse than that, the Longhorns are more than 40 yards per game away from sixth place.
... Texas ranks seventh against the run, seventh against the pass and fifth in pass defense efficiency.
... It might be time to have Ethan Burke take some of the timeshare away from Barryn Sorrell, who recorded one assisted tackle against Tech on Saturday. That La-Monroe appearance was almost a month ago ...
... Ovie Oghoufo is playing better than Ray Thornton did a year ago, but still not good enough.
... Attaboy, Bert Auburn.
No. 7 – BUY or SELL …
(Sell) When push comes to shove, I think Sark sticks with Kwiatkowski through the end of the season. I don't expect Kwiatkowski to return in 2023.
(Sell) I had Texas going 8-4 this season with a 2-2 start through four games before the season and I'm sticking with it.
(Buy) This kind of says it all at the moment.
(Buy) I don't care who he recruits at quarterback, if you're .500 or worse through two seasons in Austin, the seat gets warm.
(Buy) He's solid.
(Sell) I'm not sure what personnel moves are really possible at this point. Maybe Burke for Sorrell, but I doubt they would do that. No one seems ready to push for more snaps at the Edge. There's no one available at linebacker. It is what it is.
(Buy) His in-game adjustments have been poor since he's been here. Period.
(Sell) The coaches have been telling us for weeks that they don't believe anyone else is even remotely ready to play with the lack of rotation.
(Buy) I think, but I'm tired of guessing his return.
(Sell) You think the team gave up because of Card? I don't know what you're watching.
(Buy) Without question.
(Sell) I'm tired of waiting on the jet sweeps. I've just assumed they've been taken out of the offense at this point. I've been waiting for it all season.
(Sell) Like I said earlier, I consider him solid.
(Buy) It's a baby buy, but Ewers will return and the team should be better because of it.
(Buy) I'm still on the 8-4 train.
No. 8 - Scattershooting on anything and everything ...
... The best thing that happened in the sports world this weekend was this...
... If I had a vote that mattered...
1. Georgia
2. Ohio State
3. Alabama
4. USC
5. Michigan
6. Clemson
7. Kentucky
8. Penn State
9. Ole Miss
10. Tennessee
.... KU quarterback Jalon Daniels is the most exciting player in college football. He makes watching KU football a doable thing.
... Shoutout to Adrian Martinez. That was one hell of a performance in Norman.
... I wonder if OU fans feel like they still got the better end of the coaching change?
... It kind of felt like A&M broke Arkansas on Saturday night. Maybe they also broke Miami.
... Damn, Lamar Jackson is good at playing football. Nothing quite like him. Imagine cheering for that dude every week.
... That Miami/Buffalo game was must-watch stuff. It even gave us a butt-punt.
... I don't know if Trevor Lawrence has arrived, but the Jags as a team might have.
... The Eagles are really good and I don't like it.
... Bring back the Premier League, please!
No. 9 - The List: Top 10 Van Halen ...
Per request from last week.
Last five songs out: Everybody Wants Some!, Mean Street, And The Cradle Will Rock …, Jamie's Cryin' and When It's Love
10. Atomic Punk
In their four-decade evolution as a band, the group has gone through a number of different sounds, but in the very beginning their roots were made with some punk/metal roots and you can feel the raw power of their early sound in this track off their debut album.
9. Little Dreamer
This song gets my vote for most underrated song in their entire catalog.
8. Unchained
It pretty much HAS to be on the list because it has been a band staple for more than 30 years. I'm going to catch some grief from folks who believe this song should be higher.
7. Jump
The combination of the song/video turned me into a Van Halen fan at the age of eight. It's a little synthesized for me to slot it in the No. 1 slot, but in a lot of ways it is my favorite track for sentimental reasons.
6. Hot For Teacher
1984 is one of the great rock albums of all time and it came along at a very interesting time in rock history with the evolution of MTV into the mainstream. This video is iconic as any in rock and roll history. The band absolutely knew how to choose the talent that participated in their videos. Oh, and the song is a monster rock jam.
5. Eruption
Eddie is a freak.
4. Right Now
This might be more Sammy Hagar than a true Van Halen song, but a case can be made that this is the greatest song that the band ever recorded, which makes for a hell of an irony for those that believe the band doesn't exist without David Lee Roth. Give Sammy some credit because the song is an all-timer. Flame away.
3. Runnin' With The Devil
The soul and DNA of the band can be found in this track from their very first album. It's David Lee Roth at his wild-ass best and Eddie blazes a hell of a trail for those that had never heard their sound before.
2. Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love
Van Halen came out of the gates swinging for the fences with the first few albums and this is the masterpiece from the debut album Van Halen.
1. Panama
You can make a case for three different songs from the 1984 album that receive consideration for the top spot on the list, but there might not be a more Van Halen song that was ever recorded because Eddie was absolutely ferocious on the guitar and David Lee was never better than when he says the words, "Yeah, we're runnin' a little bit hot tonight. I can barely see the road from the heat comin' off of it. Ah, you reach down between my legs. Ease the seat back."
No. 10 - And Finally ...
Shoutout to the No. 1-ranked Texas volleyball team.
After being pushed to the brink of a loss by Kansas in mid-week, the Longhorns responded by pummeling Oklahoma in three sets.
Now the team gets a week off before playing Texas Tech in Lubbock.
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