The evolution of the Texas football team continued this weekend.
By the time the Longhorns open the season against Louisiana-Monroe on September 3, they will have used 15 spring practices, another 15 practices in August training camp, and finally another 3-4 in the opening game week.
That's a total of 34 practices, which means that the Longhorns aren't even a quarter of the way through their off-season preparation under the eyes of the current Texas coaching staff, which also happens to be one of the most expensive coaching staffs ever comprised in the history of college football, including three assistants that are making more than a million dollars a year.
To put that into perspective, the Alabama team that Sarkisian was a part of featured only two members of the staff making more than $800,000.
Whatever Texas fan needs to know about the 2022 Longhorns in April is that the program is a major work in progress and that the work in progress is being supervised by what should rate as one of the best coaching staffs in the country on paper.
From my perspective, the outcome of the 2022 season is completely connected to the work that Sarkisian's staff is able to pull off in the coming months. For the first time in what feels like forever, there's rock-solid stability within the staff from top to bottom. There are no scheme changes this season. Or terminology changes.
Unlike a season ago, this staff knows its team and its team knows these players, which has me thinking that there's not a single reason in the world that we shouldn't see an elevated performance collectively from the entire staff in 2022.
While this might be a team that's still missing some pieces needed to become an elite team, it is still a squad that has a few elite players and coaches at its disposal.
Frankly, the thing that makes me most optimistic about this season isn't Quinn's arm or Bijan's legs, or Xavier's everything. It's the quality of the coaching staff and what it should be able to create if it is truly one of the best, most-complete staffs that money can buy.
It wasn't a year ago.
Sarkisian wasn't exactly the famed quarterback whisperer that history has shown him to be. Same for defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski, who arrived at Texas with a reputation as a defensive mastermind of sorts. Same with Kyle Flood. And Jeff Choate. And so on and so on.
In a season when it didn't come together at all, we know that a 5-7 season can occur. Yet, what happens if Sarkisian starts quarterback whispering with real success and Kwiatkowski can create a defense that is more in line with his overall vision for defensive football? What about Flood? What happens when he gets better talent?
For all of the improvement we've discussed the players on this team making, very little has been said about what better coaching across the board might be able to help produce in the standings.
Now is the time to find out and the next five to eight months will tell us a lot about what Sarkisian has compiled in the way of his coaching staff.
Better play + better coaching = a Big 12 title-contending team?
It should.
If this staff is truly elite, it should be able to rival just about anything Dave Arranda and his staff were able to pull off in their second season in Waco.
No. 2 - Taking a moment to celebrate Xavier Worthy ...
Can we just take a moment to celebrate one of the biggest gifts that have ever fallen out of the sky and into the possession of the Texas football program?
It's an incredibly lucky set of events that even landed Xavier Worthy in Austin, which is why I described him as having fallen out of the sky.
That he's an incredible player on the verge of becoming the best wide receiver in school history is one thing. That he's thrown himself into the kind of "don't talk about it, just do it" leadership style that would make the members of the 2005 national championship team proud is another.
From the moment the 2021 season ended, it feels from my perspective that he's thrown his entire mind, body, and soul into helping this program climb out of the abyss. When the coaches were trying to lock down Quinn Ewers, Worthy was out there changing his Twitter avatar to Ewers and involving himself in whatever ways were possible. That was just the first step. From one recruiting visit after another to supporting the women's athletic programs to supporting future Texas athletes, he's just been everywhere.
More so than any player in the program, he's the guy I'd point to more than anyone else to say you'd want 84 more just like him on the roster.
The kid from Fresno embodies what The University of Texas football program should be about.
No. 3 - Texas running game mirage ...
An interesting topic of discussion on Orangebloods this weekend occurred in the War Room thread and it centered around the idea that the run blocking in 2021 was less of a problem than the pass blocking.
Personally, I'm of the frame of mind that both areas of the offensive line play need to improve significantly, but there's no denying that the Longhorns finished the 2021 season with the 11th-best yards per rush in the country, which is borderline elite.
Hell, that 5.3 yards per carry average as a team is only 0.6 behind the 2005 Texas Longhorns, which had one of the best offenses in the history of the sport.
Yet, if you dig just a little beneath the surface of the numbers, you'll see that there's a lot of fool's gold baked into the data. For instance, consider these running game numbers from four of the seven losses on last year's schedule:
3.39 at Arkansas
4.18 vs Oklahoma State
3.52 vs. Baylor
2.97 vs. Iowa State
The truth of the matter is that the season's average was aided significantly by the 763 yards on 93 carries (8.20) in two games against Rice and Texas Tech. If you take the games against those two minnows out of the equation, the average drops almost an entire yard, and suddenly the running game numbers become very average.
As almost everyone realizes, there's work to be done everywhere with the offensive line.
No. 4 - Four things from this weekend's scrimmage ...
a. Sophomore Jameir Johnson was a guy that I've heard is impressing veteran players. If you're looking for a player that might just have a big impact that folks have been sleeping on (in general), Johnson might just be the guy. He's making a lot of plays on the ball.
b. Another team source told Orangebloods that Jaylan Ford, Keilan Robinson, and Jerrin Thompson were the three players that stood out the most from the scrimmage.
c. If Jordan Whittington can stay healthy, he's going to have a year that launches him into a potentially high NFL draft slot (top three rounds). He told Serenity Douglas that he's feeling "like the high school version" of himself this month.
d. Sark is telling the players that he loves their energy and passion throughout the spring thus far. Just for the record.
No. 5 - Read it and weep ...
Last week, someone wondered in the comments of this very column what the prediction records of the Orangebloods staff looked like involving Texas games, both straight up and against the spread.
Being the nerd that I am, I looked it up ... game by game ... from the 2015-2021 seasons.
Surprisingly, there weren't any sites that I could find that had a deep set of historical gambling lines, but oddsshark was the one site where I could find the year-by-year data needed to check the ATS records.
Here's how the standings look.
Overall seven-season records:
Jason 55-31 (64.0)
Dustin 45-29 (60.1)
Geoff 51-35 (59.3)
Alex 50-36 (58.1)
Anwar 50-36 (58.1)
Overall records against the spread
Geoff 44-39-3
Jason 42-38-6
Anwar 43-40-3
Dustin 34-35-5
Alex 39-46-1
Moral of the story: We're not much better than the quarter predicting this schizophrenic program.
No. 6 - Winning a series is still enough ...
The Texas baseball team has played three Big 12 series and has five left to play.
That's 15 games.
At some point, the Longhorns are going to need to bring the brooms out for a series or two if this team is going to win the Big 12 regular-season title, but taking two out of three against TCU this weekend means that the Longhorns are only two games back in the standings of Texas Tech and Oklahoma State (and percentage points behind TCU).
There's still a lot of baseball to be played, so this weekend registers as a success, but there's still a level that this team isn't hitting that seemed so easy earlier in the year.
So, with that being said, let's just turn the focus to Pete Hanson and give the young man from El Dorado Hills, California a lot of love after the best performance of the season on Friday night.
Very quickly, Hanson is emerging as one of the best pitchers in the history of the school, having compiled a 2.06 career ERA in 135 innings for the Longhorns. That's Taylor Jungmann territory (1.86) and his number is about to be retired.
Obviously, his place in history will be determined in the coming months, but he was so good this weekend that he needed an extra loud shout-out. HE WAS FREAKING AWESOME!
No. 7 - Get Franklin BBQ in touch with Augusta National ...
It's time for some brisket to be back on the menu of the Master's Champions Dinner.
Seven years after Jordan Spieth became the second Longhorn to ever win the Masters, Scottie Scheffler put himself in the same rarified air this weekend.
The world's No. 1 player basically did the damn thing this weekend in a way that has everyone wondering what exactly he has in store in the future because the last four days felt more like a continued launching pad than a one-off.
Scheffler just owned the tournament and was better than everyone else, mostly by quite a bit. We're either watching a great young golfer emerge as a superstar in front of our very eyes or we're watching one of the greatest two-month heaters that any golfer has ever enjoyed (not named Tiger or Jack).
Either way, it's historic.
Bring on the PGA on my birthday weekend in May. Maybe a bunch of us need to connect with @BucketList and make the trip together.
No. 8 – BUY or SELL …
(Sell) We all know how this is going to end, but the competition itself is good for all of the quarterbacks. The last thing he needs is to feel completely safe and comfortable.
(Sell) I don't know that running around for your life because of constant jailbreaks is a "great" way to train a young quarterback, but anything is probably better than what they did a year ago when they were completely unprepared for the weaknesses of the quarterback position still owned going into the season.
(Buy) You can feel it coming a mile away.
(Buy) That's kind of where my head is. Anything less than that means the Longhorns hired the wrong person because it would mean a two-year record that is way closer to Charlie Strong than anyone would ever have guessed.
(Buy) I'm down for that.
(Buy) Based on his current form, it's hard to say otherwise. I just wish we didn't have to wait another two months for the next major.
(Buy) What this team truly needs upfront (quality experience and plus-play) is hard to get from true freshmen, even if it's not impossible.
(Sell) That's not a benefit of the doubt that has been earned yet.
(Sell) I'm not sure I'm seeing that at this point, with all due respect to the track program that just won an indoor natty.
(Sell) I could go either way on the first question (I'd probably rank them between 5th-8th), but I don't see that group being a top 3 OL in the conference this season. That feels wildly hopeful.
(Sell) "One helluva football game" is mighty subjective and specifically undefined, but I think Bama wins by three touchdowns at a minimum at this point. I think everyone really needs to understand where this team that went 5-7 is in its evolution. Perhaps by the end of the season, it could give a helluva performance, but in week two? You do remember what happened in week two last season, don't you?
(Buy) It's been a long time since I've had a Twinkie, but I don't think I've ever had a HoHo. I was always more of a mini-powdered donut guy.
(Sell) There's a linebacker out there somewhere with UT's name on it.
No. 9 - Scattershooting on the sports weekend ...
... Cade Klubnik looked every bit the quarterback that Clemson needs him to be in its spring game this weekend. It's going to be fun watching Klubnik and Ewers do their thing in the next few years.
... Rest in peace and power, Dwayne Haskins. It sounds like the world was a better place for you having been in it, which is what all of us should strive for.
... Rest in peace, Rayfield Wright. I wish I had been lucky enough to see you play.
... Tiger Woods making the cut this weekend and finishing all four rounds of golf is among the most incredible things he's ever done.
... Joel Embiid is my very confirmation biased pick for NBA MVP.
... Let the NBA playoffs begin. It's going to be a two-month blood bath.
... Good luck topping this first pitch.
... CR7 is gonna be suspended from attending the Oscars for 10 years after this.
.... A whole mess of words on Man City/Liverpool's 2-2 draw on Sunday: Holy hell, those two teams are incredible. Believe me, I made sure to truly appreciate what we watched on Sunday because it's impossible to know how long these two teams can both compete at levels never before seen in the Premier League. Maybe I just haven't seen enough footy with my fandom going back to 2014, but my eyes tell me that I've never seen anything like it and the data tells me that you haven't either. As for what happened in the game, I thought Man City was sensational, maybe the best big-game performance I've ever seen from them. They are just a sensational team. Shout out to Kevin de Bruyne, Cancelo, Rodri and Kyle Walker. They were really good. AS for my beloved Reds, I thought we gave a B- performance, but gave A+ grit and determination, twice coming from behind against a team that hadn't dropped points from a lead position in a league game all season. So, the season plays on. My goodness, the schedule of big games never stops this month.
No. 10 - The List: Top 10 John C. Reilly movies ...
If you're not watching Winning Time on HBO, which stars John C. Reilly as former Lakers owner Dr. Jerry Buss, you're missing out because it's one hell of an entertaining watch.
It got me to look at Reilly's IMDB page this week and he's very quietly putting together one hell of a Hall of Fame resume.
Here's my Top 10 Reilly list. I doubt many will agree on the order.
10. The Perfect Storm
9. The Aviator
8. For the Love of the Game
7. Chicago
6. Wreck-It Ralph
5. Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
4. Magnolia
3. Gangs of New York
2. Boogie Nights
1. Step Brothers
youtube.com/watch?v=1YuyDcySbiA
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