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Ketch's 10 Thoughts From The Weekend (Sark Might Just Be Mack 2.0)

I like the Mack Brown parallels you drew. Mack is an interesting case study, b/c on one hand, he was a better coach than we give him credit for....but at the same time....he still wasn't an elite coach. Had OU rolled the dice & hired darn near anyone but Stoops, Mack probably has 5-7 conference championships & 2 NCs. Mack was a tremendous recruiter, but merely a "pretty good" gameday coach. And it's why great gameday coaches, like Snyder & Stoops, had his number, despite Mack having a talent advantage.

That feels a lot like what we have with Sark. He's a dynamic recruiter that doesn't seem to shine as bright on game day. The one thing that gives me pause in accepting the "he is what he is" label though, is the fact that he spent 3 seasons with Saban, winning 1 National Championship. If you read up on Kirby Smart's program at Georgia, people that have spent time in Saban's & Smart's say you can't tell them apart. Smart has perfectly replicated Saban's routine, regimentation, organization, process, etc. And, that approach has put UGA in the driver's season to potentially win back-to-back NCs. It's very possible that, despite seeming not to be a great gameday coach, ala Mack, if Sark implements enough of what Saban does, that he can build a program that wins b/c of the process & system, rather than the genius of the HC himself.

Outstanding article, Ketch. Topics aside, I really thought the writing was excellent.

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Lol. This is when you get strange. Like it’s some sort of shot at you that someone knows more than you do. Plain and simple, I’m hearing it from the horses mouth. There are times you may just want to listen.
 
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Lol. This is when you get strange. Like it’s some sort of shot at you that someone knows more than you do. Plain and simple, I’m hearing it from the horses mouth. There are times you may just want to listen.
who is the horse?

What players matter?
 
B/S: Quinn realizes who’s coming in January and that will lead him to work and study his tail off this spring…
I'd say it's even deeper than that. Ewers is between a rock & a hard place. He reclassified after his junior season in HS, so he could enter college a year early, b/c he was so convinced of his greatness, he wanted to start the clock on his NFL eligibility in order to get into the NFL a year earlier. So, he burned his redshirt season in what would've been his senior HS season. Then, after that redshirt year, he used his 1 free transfer to come to Texas. The thinking, of course, was that he'd play like a 1st round draft pick for two years, and after the 2023 season, head to the NFL. But, he bombed in his 1st season as a starter. The "rock" in this story is that Manning has all but been promised the starting job in 2024 if he comes in and checks all of the appropriate developmental boxes. That means Ewers has one season to turn himself into a high NFL draft pick or he's going to have to transfer. That's the "hard place" part of this story, b/c if he transfers again, he's going to have to sit out a season without a waiver (and waivers are VERY hard to get due to changes in the application process). That means if he doesn't perform like an elite QB next season, he'll have to transfer to a 3rd school and will have just 1 season left to turn himself into a quality draft pick.....all b/c he reclassified, enrolled early, then immediately transferred.

So....I'd like to think the largest fire in the universe is burning under his butt, b/c he realizes how royally he is screwed if he doesn't light it up next season!
 
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I agree with the 15 minutes...it's the truth. I told my kids when they went into the workplace after college that one mistake with booze, for example, and your friends will never forget it no matter your character. Make the same mistake socially in the workplace and it will impact your career times 2. The perception is permanent. Having said that, no one knows what went on that night with Beard. Only two people know, and anything else is speculation based on a Complaint given to the Police by his fiance, and the Report and arrest that followed it. The officer was not a detective--he recorded what he was told and what was pointed out to him and, based on that, he arrested Beard. Now she seems to have regrets and is changing her story. I don't know where the truth is, and neither does anyone else.

However, it doesn't matter in the end....Beard will have to leave. The perception will never change...I mean, can you imagine when he loses it on the sideline and gets a tech or, worse, gets tossed? Not a good look! Call the Police! He's dangerous!! No, in my opinion, we are watching a 25mm Settlement Dance. No witness, no charges...School cannot hold him accountable for something that she claims never happened. Less wiggle room for the employer...he'll get a substantial going away gift. It's too bad too...he--we-- had a great thing going.
 
Morris v. Beard DV incidents. There are differences, and there are similarities. How much weight should be given to the fact that Morris is still a teenager? How do assess the difference in the degree of violence between the two assaults? Or do you? IMO, Morris was handled too lightly, should have been at the very least suspended from game play until the situation is resolved. He should have been immediately required to begin counseling. (Maybe he has, we don't know). Is there that much of a gap between the two incidents that one deserves a third degree felony charge and one is a misdemeanor?

One of the great problems with DV response is that it often depends on the very quick judgment of police officers who do not have the training and/or the temperament in many/most/almost all cases to deal with what are often life-altering events. It reiterates why there has been a call for trained social workers/psychologists to accompany police on DV calls. (There are many obvious problems with this, starting with logistics, budget issues, and finding the trained professionals who would be willing to take on the role).

What has bothered me most about the Beard situation is that the denial, the excuses, the attempts to recast the events in a less unfavorable light for Beard started almost immediately. When I saw the fiancée's rollback attempt (hers, Beard's or his team's), I felt nauseous. It's classic DV syndrome 101, and one points to one of the reasons DV is such a difficult issue to address. She clearly has a vested interest in making this go away, which makes you wonder if that were not a factor, what would she be saying? Her statement distills down to "I started it, I was the aggressor, he was just defending himself," whatever evidence to the contrary there may be. It's the victim saying, "It was all my fault." She is enabling his denial.

The best response from Beard would have been, "I lost control, I did it, I'm sorry, I'm going to get help, I'm going to become an advocate for DV victims, my future career as a coach is secondary, and I have learned from this." But his "team" has gone the other direction in trying to minimize the seriousness of Beard's actions and help him wriggle out a side door. Arrogance is toxic. Greed, too, of course.
 
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I'd say it's even deeper than that. Ewers is between a rock & a hard place. He reclassified after his junior season in HS, so he could enter college a year early, b/c he was so convinced of his greatness, he wanted to start the clock on his NFL eligibility in order to get into the NFL a year earlier. So, he burned his redshirt season in what would've been his senior HS season. Then, after that redshirt year, he used his 1 free transfer to come to Texas. The thinking, of course, was that he'd play like a 1st round draft pick for two years, and after the 2023 season, head to the NFL. But, he bombed in his 1st season as a starter. The "rock" in this story is that Manning has all but been promised the starting job in 2024 if he comes in and checks all of the appropriate developmental boxes. That means Ewers has one season to turn himself into a high NFL draft pick or he's going to have to transfer. That's the "hard place" part of this story, b/c if he transfers again, he's going to have to sit out a season without a waiver (and waivers are VERY hard to get due to changes in the application process). That means if he doesn't perform like an elite QB next season, he'll have to transfer to a 3rd school and will have just 1 season left to turn himself into a quality draft pick.....all b/c he reclassified, enrolled early, then immediately transferred.

So....I'd like to think the largest fire in the universe is burning under his butt, b/c he realizes how royally he is screwed if he doesn't light it up next season!

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I'd say it's even deeper than that. Ewers is between a rock & a hard place. He reclassified after his junior season in HS, so he could enter college a year early, b/c he was so convinced of his greatness, he wanted to start the clock on his NFL eligibility in order to get into the NFL a year earlier. So, he burned his redshirt season in what would've been his senior HS season. Then, after that redshirt year, he used his 1 free transfer to come to Texas. The thinking, of course, was that he'd play like a 1st round draft pick for two years, and after the 2023 season, head to the NFL. But, he bombed in his 1st season as a starter. The "rock" in this story is that Manning has all but been promised the starting job in 2024 if he comes in and checks all of the appropriate developmental boxes. That means Ewers has one season to turn himself into a high NFL draft pick or he's going to have to transfer. That's the "hard place" part of this story, b/c if he transfers again, he's going to have to sit out a season without a waiver (and waivers are VERY hard to get due to changes in the application process). That means if he doesn't perform like an elite QB next season, he'll have to transfer to a 3rd school and will have just 1 season left to turn himself into a quality draft pick.....all b/c he reclassified, enrolled early, then immediately transferred.

So....I'd like to think the largest fire in the universe is burning under his butt, b/c he realizes how royally he is screwed if he doesn't light it up next season!
Lots of inaccurate info here. Ewers reclassified for NIL. It was not to start the NFL clock early. That has become a common misconception that somehow became “fact.”

Ewers future is as bright as ever. If he continues to improve (this poster certainly thinks he will) he may head to NFL or be the starter for UT in ‘24. I’d say the latter is far more likely. I don’t see him turning pro after this year, unless he takes a massive jump.

It will all come down to who is better next year and in ‘24 between Arch and QE. Pretty nice problem for us if you ask me.
 
Who matters more than Banks?
If the word is that Worthy wasn’t willing to do any extra throwing with the QUARTERBACK and continued to leave immediately when practice finished, who might that matter to? Especially when the QUARTERBACK and Worthy weren’t on the same page often.

Get that little Rivals hamster running and see if you can figure it out.
 
If the word is that Worthy wasn’t willing to do any extra throwing with the QUARTERBACK and continued to leave immediately when practice finished, who might that matter to? Especially when the QUARTERBACK and Worthy weren’t on the same page often.

Get that little Rivals hamster running and see if you can figure it out.

So, you're suggesting that the player who the coaches want to see work out his issues with work ethic issues is pointing the finger at other's work ethic issues?
 
So, you're suggesting that the player who the coaches want to see work out his issues with work ethic issues is pointing the finger at other's work ethic issues?
That’s one way to look at it I suppose.
 
Of course, as a possibility. It was part of it.
Good grief. It was like a bonus. As in if things work out I can turn pro a year early - great. It was NOT why he reclassified. You own this site and you continue to give misinformation.
 
Good grief. It was like a bonus. As in if things work out I can turn pro a year early - great. It was NOT why he reclassified. You own this site and you continue to give misinformation.
You struggle at a lot of things, reading comprehension, included.

Your straddling the fence of it was a bonus, but not a reason is funny.
 
You struggle at a lot of things, reading comprehension, included.

Your straddling the fence of it was a bonus, but not a reason is funny.
You’re the fence straddler. Comically so by saying he reclassified to enter the draft early. That is simply 100% wrong.
 
You’re the fence straddler. Comically so by saying he reclassified to enter the draft early. That is simply 100% wrong.

I didn't say he reclassified to enter the draft early.

I said that was a part of it...a "bonus" if you will.
 
Does the current starting quarterback at Texas need to improve his work habits?
That’s irrelevant to our conversation. Worthy was a malcontent the whole year. I knew it all along, I just didn’t want to say it because he is too valuable to the team. As I’ve said, players that matter thought he had poor work habits and didn’t seem to care.

Did he have a worse second year or not? It was borderline terrible compared to his freshman season.
 
I didn't say he reclassified to enter the draft early.

I said that was a part of it...a "bonus" if you will.
So you agree with me. It was @Iceman that said it. I corrected him and you seemingly tried to correct me. A bonus is exactly what it was. He left for NIL. Period. Other things, if they presented themselves, like the NFL were simply gravy.
 
It's really not if context matter at all.
It’s 100% irrelevant. We are talking about Worthy. Why he played poorly this year. Why he entered the portal. That is the context that matters.

If you want to talk about Ewers - we weren’t - then we can talk about work habits.
 
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