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Ketch's 10 Thoughts From The Weekend (Time for Sark to earn some damn respect)

I’m not going to say he’s amazing, but I do think Hayden is misjudged a bit. What isn’t widely known is that he purposely spoke in a stilted monotone voice because he was trying to match the cadence of how James Earl Jones spoke as Vader. Once I learned this, I saw Hayden’s performance in a whole new light
That doesn't really bother me. It's more about him trying to work through the various emotions.

I would contend, though, he's not a good enough actor to be worrying about stilted monotones.
 
While I agree that will be a goal for the coaches and players, and not making it would be a failed goal, it is ridiculous to suggest 8 regular season wins is not an improvement and a huge step forward.
To be fair, he wasn't hired to win 8 games in year two when the previous guy was already doing that.

You can't be so bad that the expectations bar has to drop just to be able to treat you with kid gloves.
 
Ask Dave Aranda? Why? Aranda had all of one season as a HC prior to ‘21. Sark had 7.
Because he went from being perceived as the worst coach in the conference to the very best.... by being really good at his job in a pretty emphatic way.
 
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If you think Sunday was boring you should turn on the Tour de France in the morning. Listen to it in the background and then watch the last hour. It has been riveting and yesterday had a very exciting breakaway win.

It's been An amazing first week
That's another event that just isn't for me.
 
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Don't just beat the dead-weight teams in this conference that aren't worthy of the Big 10 or SEC, humiliate them by dropping 70 on the scoreboard.
AMEN!!! PREACH!!!
if Nebraska transfer quarterback Adrian Martinez is any good at all, it might prove to be very tricky.
Nebraska is a program I've followed my whole life. After four years of Adrian Martinez, I think those guys are going to be thrilled with a healthy Casey Thompson.

Martinez is a guy who looks great on paper, and makes some really pretty plays when there's not much on the line. For folks who watch his highlight reels, you'd think he was a legitimate pro prospect. But historically he turns into something different - in a bad way - in crunch time. In my opinion he's been a big piece of Nebraska's "snakebit" string of close losses, and I expect more of the same from him at KSU.
 
AMEN!!! PREACH!!!

Nebraska is a program I've followed my whole life. After four years of Adrian Martinez, I think those guys are going to be thrilled with a healthy Casey Thompson.

Martinez is a guy who looks great on paper, and makes some really pretty plays when there's not much on the line. For folks who watch his highlight reels, you'd think he was a legitimate pro prospect. But historically he turns into something different - in a bad way - in crunch time. In my opinion he's been a big piece of Nebraska's "snakebit" string of close losses, and I expect more of the same from him at KSU.
That's completely fair on Martinez. This is a big "prove it" year for him.
 
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To be fair, he wasn't hired to win 8 games in year two when the previous guy was already doing that.

You can't be so bad that the expectations bar has to drop just to be able to treat you with kid gloves.
I agree that he wasn’t hired for a longer term rebuild, yet here we are. Had Tom stayed our head coach, I think most would agree we’d be worse off talent-wise than we are now and what is setting up as part of that rebuild.

I understand that 5 wins last year was a failure, but the horrendous nature of our OL was a HUGE player in that, along with an ineffective front 7 on defense. Sark is addressing those weaknesses very well. He could have done a better job addressing the OL through the portal last year, and I think his biggest mistake was thinking the DL was elite in how they manhandled an average OL, when reality it was a below average DLdominating an absolute crap OL.

I feel he has done an excellent job addressing the weaknesses since then, and to place unrealistic expectations of a conference championship game, on a team that still has a crap OL, in front of a qb that hasn’t started a game since his junior year of high school, just because he was hired to be better than Tom, is foolish. We have to look at the big picture of long term relevance rather than a myopic view of this season, in my opinion.
 
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I agree that he wasn’t hired for a longer term rebuild, yet here we are. Had Tom stayed our head coach, I think most would agree we’d be worse off talent-wise than we are now and what is setting up as part of that rebuild.

I understand that 5 wins last year was a failure, but the horrendous nature of our OL was a HUGE player in that, along with an ineffective front 7 on defense. Sark is addressing those weaknesses very well. He could have done a better job addressing the OL through the portal last year, and I think his biggest mistake was thinking the DL was elite in how they manhandled an average OL, when reality it was a below average DLdominating an absolute crap OL.

I feel he has done an excellent job addressing the weaknesses since then, and to place unrealistic expectations of a conference championship game, on a team that still has a crap OL, in front of a qb that hasn’t started a game since his junior year of high school, just because he was hired to be better than Tom, is foolish. We have to look at the big picture of long term relevance rather than a myopic view of this season, in my opinion.
Tom wouldn't have gone 5-7 last year IMO.
 
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Tom wouldn't have gone 5-7 last year IMO.
I don’t disagree. That said, Worthy would not have been on the team, we wouldn’t have Quinn Ewers, we wouldn’t have the influx of OL talent that we’ve desperately needed since 2006, and we wouldn’t have Arch along with the solid ‘23 class we are building.

Again, focusing on last and this years results is too myopic, IMO.
 

No. 10 - And Finally ...

Until the passing of Caan, my plan this week was to rank the Star Wars movies/TV shows in a Top 10, mainly because I watched Phantom Menace at 3am earlier this week and came away with a newfound appreciation for it.

Therefore, prepare yourself for next week. There's a very good chance that Phantom Menace will be ranked higher than you ca stomach.

May the force be with me.
It is not possible that the Phantom Menace can be in the top 10 list of Star War's Movies/TV Shows.

I'm not saying that because the Phantom Menace is bad. I'm saying that because there are (at least) 10 things better.
 
I don’t disagree. That said, Worthy would not have been on the team, we wouldn’t have Quinn Ewers, we wouldn’t have the influx of OL talent that we’ve desperately needed since 2006, and we wouldn’t have Arch along with the solid ‘23 class we are building.

Again, focusing on last and this years results is too myopic, IMO.
What's not myopic is that Steve needs to be as good on the field as he is off of it.
 
It is not possible that the Phantom Menace can be in the top 10 list of Star War's Movies/TV Shows.

I'm not saying that because the Phantom Menace is bad. I'm saying that because there are (at least) 10 things better.
I'm not so sure.
 
Tom wouldn't have gone 5-7 last year IMO.
We had a handful of players who looked like they quit about halfway through last season. I think if Tom had stayed it might have been more than a handful. And we still would have had no OL talent. I'm not sure the season wouldn't have imploded under Herman just like it did for Sark.
 
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We had a handful of players who looked like they quit about halfway through last season. I think if Tom had stayed it might have been more than a handful. And we still would have had no OL talent. I'm not sure the season wouldn't have imploded under Herman just like it did for Sark.
disagree.
 
disagree.
I also think Tom would have had a better record, but not to the point of playing in the conference championship game. I think Joshua Moore would have stayed and been very good.

How do you think he would have handled the qb situation?
 
I also think Tom would have had a better record, but not to the point of playing in the conference championship game. I think Joshua Moore would have stayed and been very good.

How do you think he would have handled the qb situation?
Card would have started all 12 games, barring injury.
 
God help us if they go 7-5. ;)
7-5 means they have lost to at LEAST 2 teams they should not of. There is nothing good about that.

Just because they were terrible last year at 5-7 doesn't mean 7 or 8 wins is a huge improvement. Now 9 wins is something to talk about.

Look at the schedule. Alabama and then what? Which Big 12 team is improved from last year? OK st defense will not be near as good. Baylor? OU? Neither are as good as last year are they?
 
7-5 means they have lost to at LEAST 2 teams they should not of. There is nothing good about that.

Just because they were terrible last year at 5-7 doesn't mean 7 or 8 wins is a huge improvement. Now 9 wins is something to talk about.

Look at the schedule. Alabama and then what? Which Big 12 team is improved from last year? OK st defense will not be near as good. Baylor? OU? Neither are as good as last year are they?
Like I said... God help us.
 
Great point. Sarkisian has a lot of critics. Last season didn't help. However, this season is a great opportunity for him to shed that 7-win label. There's enough talent on offense to make it happen.
It is all set up for TX to have a good year. They play one team this year with better talent. Just 1. What more can they ask for? Hell, The defense just has to be average or close to average. The O-line just needs to be average and not a open gate to the QB this year.

Who in the Big 12 has improved this year? OK st, Baylor or OU? Any of them better than last year?
 
It is all set up for TX to have a good year. They play one team this year with better talent. Just 1. What more can they ask for? Hell, The defense just has to be average or close to average. The O-line just needs to be average and not a open gate to the QB this year.

Who in the Big 12 has improved this year? OK st, Baylor or OU? Any of them better than last year?
Texas probably doesn't have better defensive talent than all but one team on the schedule.
 
That doesn't really bother me. It's more about him trying to work through the various emotions.

I would contend, though, he's not a good enough actor to be worrying about stilted monotones.
I thought he did great with the emotions. He's a teenager who's been raised by monks
 
I agree that he wasn’t hired for a longer term rebuild, yet here we are. Had Tom stayed our head coach, I think most would agree we’d be worse off talent-wise than we are now and what is setting up as part of that rebuild.

I understand that 5 wins last year was a failure, but the horrendous nature of our OL was a HUGE player in that, along with an ineffective front 7 on defense. Sark is addressing those weaknesses very well. He could have done a better job addressing the OL through the portal last year, and I think his biggest mistake was thinking the DL was elite in how they manhandled an average OL, when reality it was a below average DLdominating an absolute crap OL.

I feel he has done an excellent job addressing the weaknesses since then, and to place unrealistic expectations of a conference championship game, on a team that still has a crap OL, in front of a qb that hasn’t started a game since his junior year of high school, just because he was hired to be better than Tom, is foolish. We have to look at the big picture of long term relevance rather than a myopic view of this season, in my opinion.
On the O-line did they not see just how bad they were in the spring? I mean Flood is getting paid $1.1 million a year right? Maybe they could have gotten someone that wasn't a swinging gate to the QB. Just 1 guy.

There are no excuses this year. 8 wins should be the bare minimum. 7 wins means they lost to at least 2 teams they shouldn't have. There aren't 4 teams on their schedule who are better than them this year talent wise.

I would argue there is 1 team in Alabama no one else.
 
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Texas probably doesn't have better defensive talent than all but one team on the schedule.
So.. How many teams will have a better defense that they play besides Bama? Can they not play close to average? Just anything better than last year? MAYBE?

On offense who besides Alabama has more talent? Can the O-line just give the QB 3 seconds. ( Well besides the Bama game:))

My biggest worry is the kicking game.
 
Card would have started all 12 games, barring injury.
And who starts at LB, DE & Safety, because those positions killed us, too. What would your hypothetical O/U on wins on 2021 have been if Herman had stayed? Because I'm pretty sure our offense would have stalled with Mensa calling plays behind that OL, and our defense was clearly going to be bad, too. Maybe we catch a break or two (hell, Sark seems to have caught zero breaks) but we'd have still been a bad team.

ps, forgot to mention above, but great 10TFTW this week.
 
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