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I love the post, @mymy32 I'm going to disagree with you a bit. I have a lot of conversations about parity, especially on volleytalk. I do not believe there is that much parity in the main women's sports, whether it's basketball, softball, or volleyball. In volleyball, there are rarely any upsets in the first two rounds among the top 12 teams. You'll see a #4 seed lose to a #5 seed every now and then, but that's about it. You almost never see a #1 seed lose in the Sweet 16 round, partly because they're playing on their home floor, but not entirely. So to get to a Final Four a #1 seed primarily needs to beat one team in the Elite Eight round, and the #2/#3 seeds need to beat two very good to elite teams, the way Texas did when they edged out Tennessee then stomped Stanford in 2023. I don't think that's possible without good to great serving. To your point, I do think the teams are evenly matched up enough, that if you can't get the opponent out of system on your serve on a regular basis, you simply can't score enough during your service rotations to keep up. So Texas last year, which was a very good team, with good serve receive, elite back row defense, the best OH in college volleyball, a freshman phenom at opposite, and a barely adequate 2nd OH, with terrible middle blocker production in both attack and on the block, ended up earning a #1 seed and faced Wisconsin in the Elite 8. But I posted at the time Texas had no chance of winning at that level, because regardless of their strengths and weaknesses, they couldn't get the other team out of system with the serve, so they were putting pressure on their own defense to side out at a 70% or better rate, because anything worse they couldn't outscore the opponent. When Texas surprised everyone in 2023 to win the national championship it was primarily on the back of their serve. When A&M upset 3 teams in a row last year, including a juggernaut in Nebraska on their home floor, it was because they found a new gear for their serving. At an elite level if you can't get the other team out of system with the serve you'll lose, because other elite teams will be able to. It's why you hear every coach talk about how every match really comes down to serve/pass. Now, serving isn't everything. Indiana is annually one of the most fearsome serving programs in the country, because Steve Aird preaches it. But he doesn't have the talent at the other positions because he can't recruit at that level at Indiana. But Gary, who was a great libero for Indiana, didn't even serve for them. Aird had another libero sub for her on the serving rotation because to put it bluntly, Gary is awful. Or in the SEC, the best serving team this year isn't Kentucky or Florida or A&M. It's Alabama. They were eating our lunch. But truthfully, they're eating everyone's lunch from the service line. But it's not enough because they don't have the players at other positions to take advantage of it, because they can't recruit at that level. There is absolutely a big difference in an elite pin hitter versus a great one, IMO. I watch Babcock at Pitt, and it's jaw dropping what she's able to do. Or Skinner her junior year. Or Eggleston the 3 years prior to that. Or Eva Hudson last year at Kentucky. There is a big gap this year in competitiveness between the top 5 teams in Nebraska/Louisville/Kentucky/Pitt/SMU and the rest of the field. And that's normal most years. Louisville has issues because they have traditionally counted on 6 rotation shorter OHes, but they've certainly made them work enough to get to championship matches, and maybe that will be the case this year. Kentucky has Deleye and then Gaerte at the opposite. SMU has Suli Davis. Nebraska is basically a juggernaut at every position. If you took away their top 5 players, the remaining players would be Final Four contenders. But one thing all of those teams have in common is that they're good to great at serving and serve receive. Which means whoever beats them in the tournament is going to have to perform better in that regard. And Texas hasn't been in a position to do that either last year or this year. Which puts a ceiling on what they can accomplish until they get it fixed.

Evidence? Like I'm a prosecuting attorney or something? Good luck getting people to go on record regarding such matters, particularly since the era is now past. People in sports media, including people who cover recruiting, all know what the bag game was and who played it. There is zero incentive for any of them to go out and publicly start naming names and explaining the machine. I don't have a problem with that, either. I have a problem with ESPN, who has many people working there that damned well know how it all worked, publishing a hagiography on the worst perpetuator of the cheating machine, however. Beyond that, I had friends who worked for years on Saban's staff. I've also listened to assistants of his tell stories about all of it. A famous WR from the Houston area was bought by Bama for what would look like nothing now from a street agent running an auction. Bama missed on a Houston DT at the same school because Jimbo and FSU had more money to throw at the spot. Same is true for when a Mississippi DT went to play for Fisher at ATM. Stories about the ones who got away are bizarrely easier and more common to hear those involved recount. Like I said, you don't have to believe me, but I'm not just wistfully projecting fantasy. I've been doing what I can to shine a light on the cheating game since Chip Kelly bought Lache Seastrunk for $25k and Yahoo!, with help, later ran a story on it with literal receipts as part of their evidence. Also, Saban accidentally admits that the bag game no longer worked in the freaking documentary. He says he retired because of all of the money that entered the space in NIL and he wasn't ready to compete with that. "Now everyone is paying players!" What he's saying without saying it is that things were a lot easier when only a few teams, his included, were paying players.

Be serious. Any OC with a pulse runs the 2020 Alabama offense to a NC. What do you think Kiffin, DeBoer, W. Stein, Ryan Day, etc do with that Alabama 2020 offense as OC? They’d produce at least what Sark did as OC. Think through the causality.

exactly. It can still be Sarks offense and influence in the scheme, but there needs to be a true play caller that can handle offense prep, game day calls, and mid game offensive adjustments while Sark Manages the whole team. Heck Sark could even still call plays on gameday, but he needs that help. Andy Reid, Sean McVay, and Joe Brady have “OCs” but still call plays. But those OCs actually have more of an OC role. I think Gundy was the same.

I do think Elliott changed his approach to littles... at least somewhat. He has said several times that he feels you need 3 good back row defenders to win a championship. He had that in the back to back years, then didn't in 24. He made sure to bring in good little for last year, but then mostly just played Emma and Ramsey. He didn't really play Callie, but she was there and available, and Anya was really only there for her serve. This year they have the new Emma and everyone else back. Which is why I was super surprised when they went with the 6-2 this season and essentially didn't have much use for them. Recently, they've been using all of the littles, and they're actually doing a really good job. At least, they haven't been a liability. But even they can't get under the missles coming from the other team when there's barely any block to slow them down. That overview of setters is something else, man. Someone posted a shorter version of that on another site, and while I had known that Texas wasn't managing the position well, I didn't realize it looked that bad. Something is going wrong there and it needs to get fixed. I don't know why Elliott has managed the position like he has. Is he searching for perfection? Or does he think his hitters are athletic enough that they should be able to do well without perfect sets? It's very confusing. As I said on another board, I think that Elliott might be used to having more talent than 98% of other teams, and just being able to let his attackers take over the match. The problem is that the game has grown so much that the gap between elite pins and great pins is smaller than ever. And the gap between great pins and really good pins is even tinier. Texas can't rely on just having more talent because the talent gap with many teams is now too small. So that leaves development. And while Texas seems to have had great development in the past, I can't say I've seen much in the most recent season and a half. It's worrisome.

I feel like he's done pretty well with littles in the last four years. 2024 was an exception, but 2022 had Fleck/Halter/Akana. 2023 had Halter/Barnes/Akana. Last year had Halter/Gary. This year the passing is terrific. Henley Anderson is one of the best serve receive players in the country. Not just as a freshman. Not just as an outside hitter. Period, among all players. Tell me when we've EVER had that from a 6 rotation OH. Krueger hasn't done that great in that regard, but Gary is an elite libero, and Cugino has been okay. And Binney is pretty good defensively in the back row. I don't think serve receive is that much of a problem this year. Frankly, I think it's a strength. The problem is this team isn't terminal, they're not good in transition, and they're woeful serving. When I say woeful, I mean that Texas is one of the worst serving teams in all of P4. Early on it was because of an absurd number of serving errors, and even when the ball went in only Vander Wal and Spears' top spin serves were effective. Stafford had no business utilizing a top spin jump serve out there when her hybrid float was already outstanding. That's just a clear failure on the coaching staff. Kujundzic and Gary regularly serve a 3.0 pass and a first ball side out. It's especially bad if Binney is on the front row, but it doesn't have to be that. The only truly decent servers we have right now on a consistent basis are Binney and now Stafford since she moved away from the top spin jump serve. We might see Anderson and Harris return to the serving rotation, but neither one of them have exactly covered themselves in glory up there. Too many errors and not enough velocity on their top spin. Easy peazy to return. Without Bunton our middle blocker attack is lacking, although I continue to see progress from Harvey. What we're doing counting on Collins and Pressley on this roster is beyond me. It's like we purposefully only go after Nebraska's middle blocker targets and are continually getting our heads handed to us. We beat them out for Harvey and Ames, but then ended up losing Ames to Creighton. Where she's an OH of all things. Losing Singletary was the killer. She's one of the best middle blockers in the country. On the other hand she's guaranteed the opportunity to serve at UCLA, where she's literally one of the top 3 worst servers in the country. It reminds me of Skylar Fields who transferred to USC so she could be guaranteed to play 6 rotations, and ended up being one of the worst back row serve receive and defenders in the country. But we don't have a middle blocker recruit committed for either 2027 or 2028. I sure hope we can do something in the portal, because it's somewhat dire. For middle blocker U, of all places.

It has been reported - or at least hinted at - elsewhere that this is exactly how Sark would view it. I'm hoping he can evolve, grow, change his mind, because I agree with you that he should not view it that way. Frankly, I'm surprised he doesn't view it as the next logical step in his path towards being a great HC. It seems odd to me that Sark can't recognize that going against the grain of what the GOAT (Saban) and another HOF/all-timer (Carroll) did is probably not the ideal direction to go.

He and Harbaugh never seemed like they’d be much of a fit…

Your terms are acceptable.

He really exposes how weak we are at center.

Solid points. My only guess can be that Elliott doesn't put emphasis on the setter position just like he does not emphasize getting quality littles even after seeing what a back row of stud littles can do for you with Fleck, Akana, and Halter and the following year with Halter, Akana, and the other transfer I forget. Getting the top setting recruits does nothing if they don't develop them. Swindle isn't as fast to chase poor defensive receives to put up a good ball on those, but when she gets too 2nd balls, her sets are pretty good. To me that's more an issue with the serve receive that needs to be fixed. Ironically both the Texas volleyball and football are seeing some of the worst offenses statistically in while.

This is exactly the answer but Sark is too busy trying to be OC. He talks about culture but it's hard to do when you can't chew gum and walk at the same time. He needs an OC so he can focus on those types of things.

"Winning is hard" is the last thing I want to hear from a head coach at Texas again.

Unfortunately, I think Sark will promote Milwee to OC and Sark will still call the plays behind the scenes

If you replace him as the OC, you will need to replace the OL coach as well.

I heard the delay was caused by a Ukrainian special forces mission.

Perfectly stated imo ! 🤘🏻

It's not that baffling. Elliott has never believed in Swindle as the setter. It's why he brought in Averi Carlson in Swindle's sophomore season after winning the national championship. That move completely disrupted team chemistry and ended with an abomination of a season. He puts Swindle back in as a starter and we end up with a #1 seed, regional host, come within inches of beating Kentucky in the SEC tournament and lose to Wisconsin because our serving sucks. True, Swindle was never a world beater as a setter, but she regularly set a hittable ball to the pins to the tune of a .300+ hitting percentage (some of that was due to Binney's contributions on the double sub - on Swindle's sets the team hit around .285). More importantly, she has intangibles as a leader this team needs, especially with Elliott doing his best Tom Landry impression on the bench. But Elliott is famous for making changes to his setters if he feels like it gives him the best chance at winning a national championship, and that's what he did in the offseason. I never liked it. I never liked bringing in Carlson, either, although I hoped for the best. But I absolutely loathe the 6-2 as a system for a program like Texas. A mid tier P4 or a program outside of the P4, sure. There aren't that many tall setters around because most of them are forced into other positions at a young age, just like there aren't that many tall point guards. But if you're Texas, you can basically go get anyone you want that Nebraska doesn't covet, and we even beat the Cornhuskers in talent acquisition every now and then. You shouldn't ever be forced into a situation where you depend on 5'6 setters like we do with Binney currently. Or Gabriel. But let's look at what we've done with the setter position over the last decade. After very short Chloe Collins ran out of eligibility (who was short but could jump out of the gym - still a liability on the block) Elliott decided he was done with short setters and brought in Ashley Shook. Shook did not just not enroll in January like most premier players. She decided she owed it to her summer club teammates to participate with them to give them the best shot at scholarship opportunities, and so literally didn't enroll at Texas until right before fall camp started. She was the #1 setter for that recruiting cycle and ended up being a bust. Gabriel took over as a walk on from Hawaii. She was a spit fire who was about 5'6 but set for an incredibly talented team, including Butler, O'Neal, Eggleston, White, and Fields. We eventually made it to the national championship with her leading the team during the Covid spring season, and had Kentucky on the ropes until they made it a point to abuse her when she rotated to the front row. We simply couldn't get out of those rotations. The next year Elliott brings in Saige Ka'aha'aina-Torres who was the 6' starter at Utah. However, because of some problems with the transfer paperwork, she's not able to enroll or practice with the team until several weeks into the season. In the Elite 8 match against Nebraska that year, Nebraska ended up upsetting Texas in Gregory Gym. Gabriel was benched during that match and she and Elliott exchanged words. Watching that match I don't have to guess very hard at what that exchange might have been, because Gabriel wasn't really the problem for that match. It wasn't Nebraska abusing Gabriel's ineffectual block that led to their victory. It was one of the worst showings of Texas receiving serve I've ever seen, and that's always been a traditional Texas weakness since Elliott never valued quality littles through much of his tenure. Gabriel had to run around with her hair on fire simply to set anything. In the offseason Gabriel announced her retirement from volleyball for mental health reasons, later became a volunteer assistant with Dawn Sullivan at UNLV, then decided she wanted to play for her last year of eligibility and did a slam bang job leading the Rebels to a surprise NCAA tournament appearance. She later went on to join Sullivan's staff at Missouri (Marina Crownover joined her after transferring from Texas) but it looks like Sullivan cleaned house with her staff, and Gabriel ended up with a promotion at Arizona, where she currently coaches. In the meantime, Elliott also recruited Naomi Cabello, the #1 ranked 6'1 setter in her class who later transferred to NC State along with Madison Williams as part of the purge that allowed Elliott to bring in the transformational transfer class that led to the 2022 national championship. Her younger sister, btw, is currently the starting setter at top 5 Louisville this year. Cabello was the second setter in a 6-2 for the Wolfpack, and never did put up the numbers her recruiting ranking coming out of high school would lead one to anticipate. Then he brought in Ella Swindle. Swindle and Nebraska's Bergen Reilly were the two top setters in their recruiting class. Allegedly Nebraska would have taken either one, but Reilly was the first one to raise her hand and commit, so that's who John Cook took. Swindle then defaulted to Texas. I'm not saying Swindle wouldn't have chosen Texas anyway, but Reilly was never an option. Swindle led Texas to their second national championship, including walking around in a boot and not participating in practices for the last 3 weeks of the year. She didn't even jump when she was on the court setting during the tournament. The next offseason he brough in Carlson, the top setter in the portal after transferring from Baylor. She lasted one year, then transferred to SMU after a tumultuous season at Texas. Not that it was anyone's fault necessarily. Everything I've been told is that Carlson and Swindle both handled the dynamics as well as possible, but the way Elliott managed the two created divisions within the team and natural tensions arose which affected their overall competitiveness and the effectiveness of both setters. BTW, while Carlson is likely the best pure setter Elliott has ever coached, she too was abused on the block - at Baylor, at Texas, and then again at SMU. It's not always about the setting. While Texas didn't land her, I should note that Texas went HARD after Campbell Flynn, who ended up committing to Nebraska and is still there waiting her turn behind Reilly, and might very well wait even another year if Reilly uses her new 5th year of eligibility. Even after the commitment Texas tried to flip her, which is unusual in volleyball, although it does happen (see Ayden Ames flipping from Nebraska to Texas late in the process). Flynn would undoubtedly be the current starter if that had worked out. She's good friends with both Vander Wal and Krueger from that class, so there was hope something could happen, but it didn't. This past year we went after Genevieve Harris, a 5'11 setter out of the state of North Carolina who was the top setter in her class. She is close friends with Henley Anderson from the national teams, which was a big factor in her recruitment. Oh, and while we don't have a setter for the 2027 class, we yet again have a commitment for the #1 setter in the 2028 class, Taimane Ainu’u, a 5'11 setter out of Hawaii. So to recap, we've brought in Shook (#1 setter) Cabello (#1 setter) Ka'aha'aina-Torres (#1 portal setter), Swindle (#1a or #1b setter), Carlson (#1 portal setter), and now Harris (#1 setter) and yet none of those other than Ka'aha'aina-Torres has left the program as the starting setter. So far. We chased off Gabriel. We used walk on Binney as a situational double sub last year, then promoted her to co-starter in the 6-2 with Harris, then abandoned that after the Vander Wal injury, with Binney running all 6 rotations with infrequent subs of Swindle in the front court. After the OU 3rd set I fully anticipate a return to the 6-2 with Harris and Spears/Gaido swapping out on the right side. I don't have any confidence that's going to work out that great, but there aren't any good options in my opinion, since Binney can't be spending a lot of time in the front row. The obvious solution to me would have been to keep Swindle as the starter in the offseason. Allow her and the hitters to perfect their timing, which includes adjusting to less than ideal sets from Swindle the way the team did the year before. But that's not what the coaches decided to do, and so here we are. What I don't think is a solution is to put Swindle in at this point. Stick a fork in her. She's done. They basically spent all offseason sabotaging her as a player, teammate, and team leader. They exclusively prepared all spring, summer and fall for a 6-2 with Binney and Harris as the setters. And again, it was because Elliott has never believed in Swindle as his starting setter. The times she's in there she has looked terrible as a setter. I'm sure she feels incredible pressure to perform, because it's obvious she has a very short hook. She doesn't have the reps with the starters. It's basically setting her up to fail. The bigger question I feel like we should be asking ourselves - and in any event I'm certainly asking myself - is what the heck are we doing at the setter position anyway? Of the 5 positions on the court - OH, MB, Opp, Libero, Setter - even DS if you want to include that - the setter position is far and away the biggest disaster over the last 10 years. And it hasn't been because of a failure in talent acquisition. Texas is basically getting anyone they want that isn't going to Nebraska. It's either a failure in evaluation or a failure in development, take your pick.

I get the premise, but flagging 50+ yard missed fg's is not it

McDaniel is the offensive coordinator for the Chargers. At the rate they’re going, he might be available soon.

It’s simple Brady Sarkisian. He knows the team, he knows Texas, he knows his dad’s offense, and he’s cheap. I kid I kid, what’s Mike McDaniel doing these days?!

That's exactly how he sees it. He thinks he can win a title like Jimbo & is set out to do so to prove all the naysayers wrong. Or until CDC tells me to hire an OC

Hey, easy now, @Grant Ward. Winning is hard!