Daniel Cruz 💀

[Oskies1279]

I was hoping we got an upgrade at center. I'm not a fan or Robertson. Felt like he got beat a lot. Was hoping that we got an entire new interior linemen in the portal. That's the confusing part when it comes to Cruz, I guess he wasn't good enough to man the line even after having 2 years to develop. Had really high hopes for the kid.

[ClubWhatever]

4 minutes ago, Oskies1279 said:

Had really high hopes for the kid.

And why was that?  Who told you he was going to be good?  Or did you see it with your own eyes.

[Bobbers]

2 hours ago, Thanos72 said:

I mean this sincerely with no shade. Dissertations aside, did you watch the line play? One class has done okay. Banks started as a frosh so unicorn talent was there. The others stayed about the same level of play. Maybe he gets credit for c jones? Other than Banks, all the others were meh to average. Majors stayed about the same. The line has never been able to get a run game sans a Bijan level player. This year we were awful. Well below average, heavily penalized, with ZERO bench strength. No one was ready to play. Bizarre Neto situation. 

I’ll never get the need to defend someone when objective tape, play, and lack of development exists. Football is a present day meritocracy. Other than one class that still underperformed against ranking and expectations, he has literally cratered the room. Why would you want the person that created this mess to continue to lead it? What would it take to see he is not the fit to get us to elite? I sincerely don’t get it. His on field and recruiting results are objectively subpar for a Texas level team. There’s no portal line waiting to get to be coached by him so even the market has spoken. It’s not primarily nil, other teams can put on tape of this year alone and point out we don’t develop. Cmon now. Objectively you should want better for Texas. 🤘🏽

 

I honestly think the 2024 line was one of the best in the country, and the 2025 line started the year with serious problems and improved to he point that they could have competed with any defensive line in the country by the Aggy game.  The improvement over the 2025 year was actually impressive.  Good coaches get kids to work hard, never give up, and improve.

I also think that offensive line coach is the hardest job of any position coach on the team.  No other coach has a bigger development window for young kids who sometimes need 3 full years before they contribute.  The margin of error is larger for OL than any other position.

Lastly, I think fans have lots of opinions and most of them are uninformed or ignorant.  If you are correct about Flood then Sark literally does not know what he is doing.  You can't have it both ways- you can't say that Sark should keep his job but Sark has no idea how to judge his OL coach.

Sark, Flood and Texas are arguably one of the five most successful programs in CFB over the last three years.  I think we should be thankful Flood is with the program.  We can agree to disagree on this one.

[thatdude2]

Other programs probably reached out telling him that he would start next year.

[thatdude2]

2 hours ago, Oskies1279 said:

I was hoping we got an upgrade at center. I'm not a fan or Robertson. Felt like he got beat a lot. Was hoping that we got an entire new interior linemen in the portal. That's the confusing part when it comes to Cruz, I guess he wasn't good enough to man the line even after having 2 years to develop. Had really high hopes for the kid.

They probably don’t want any lineman making their first career start next season.

[Austalgia]

15 minutes ago, Bobbers said:

I honestly think the 2024 line was one of the best in the country, and the 2025 line started the year with serious problems and improved to he point that they could have competed with any defensive line in the country by the Aggy game.  The improvement over the 2025 year was actually impressive.  Good coaches get kids to work hard, never give up, and improve.

I also think that offensive line coach is the hardest job of any position coach on the team.  No other coach has a bigger development window for young kids who sometimes need 3 full years before they contribute.  The margin of error is larger for OL than any other position.

Lastly, I think fans have lots of opinions and most of them are uninformed or ignorant.  If you are correct about Flood then Sark literally does not know what he is doing.  You can't have it both ways- you can't say that Sark should keep his job but Sark has no idea how to judge his OL coach.

Sark, Flood and Texas are arguably one of the five most successful programs in CFB over the last three years.  I think we should be thankful Flood is with the program.  We can agree to disagree on this one.

Sark, Flood, whoever, it’s not uninformed or ignorant to see that there is objectively a problem at O line.  When you have to rely on the portal, while at the same time lose all your floor and future at the position, there is something bad in the water.  These guys measurables and athleticism are such that they ought to be better by year 3 in a college program.  Too many of the young guys aren’t panning out (I could understand a couple ) Maybe it’s S&C , but this has to be identified and corrected.  Sark and Flood can still be good coaches, and have blind spots.  If you are married to your concepts and can’t adapt, sometimes you get stubborn.  Maybe these pro style blocking concepts  are too difficult to learn for these college kids in a couple of years.  We need a more plug and play system? But something isn’t working, and it needs to be fixed.  

[FootLaw]

5 hours ago, Califashorn75 said:

These guys must not realize, unless you are Kelvin Banks, it takes three years to be a decent lineman. It's sad they don't have patience. 

Flood has skins on the wall, but something is up. In the new portal era, players move more and earlier than you'd think. It's free agency without the constraints like the pros. These are young adults. Not everyone will make NFL money so they are getting what they can in college. Some have good agents, some have bad ones, and some have none or get bad family advice.

The willingness to wait and develop on OL needs to be hammered home as absolutely necessary at Texas (and in a majority of P4 D1 programs). There are some exceptions like Banks. He could lose out on a few more 4 and 5 star recruits, but he might get a higher ratio of players willing to stay and develop. Maybe he's already doing that, and they are still in this position. My concern is we are seeing a sizable OL depth exodus without current upgrades/replacements. Hope they can get cooking in the portal soon.

[Thanos72]

50 minutes ago, Bobbers said:

I honestly think the 2024 line was one of the best in the country, and the 2025 line started the year with serious problems and improved to he point that they could have competed with any defensive line in the country by the Aggy game.  The improvement over the 2025 year was actually impressive.  Good coaches get kids to work hard, never give up, and improve.

I also think that offensive line coach is the hardest job of any position coach on the team.  No other coach has a bigger development window for young kids who sometimes need 3 full years before they contribute.  The margin of error is larger for OL than any other position.

Lastly, I think fans have lots of opinions and most of them are uninformed or ignorant.  If you are correct about Flood then Sark literally does not know what he is doing.  You can't have it both ways- you can't say that Sark should keep his job but Sark has no idea how to judge his OL coach.

Sark, Flood and Texas are arguably one of the five most successful programs in CFB over the last three years.  I think we should be thankful Flood is with the program.  We can agree to disagree on this one.

I appreciate the thoughtful response. We disagree on this. They caught a great 2022 class that had a stud and 4 solid floors. There wasn’t much change from freshman to senior for most. The real problem is it appears he simply leaned on that class and did almost nothing for the ‘23 and ‘24 classes. Not a single person was ready to step up at guard or center. Not one. 52 was very uneven to be a sr. Neto. Hopefully Brooks wasn’t broken. Slide protections were keystone and robotic. You sound like you know line play so it’s confounding that you see hm so effectively when we literally had zero folks ready to step up from the ‘23/‘24 classes. There’s no excuse for it. 

BTW, I disagree with you but im not arguing with you. You seemed centered in this so I’m really curious what I’m missing.

As for Sark, all humans have blind spots and weaknesses. I think Sark is overly loyal and also stubborn to his detriment. His intelligence is what makes him great but it also creates blind spots. I don’t doubt that Flood knows the job but knowing something and effectively teaching or transferring that knowledge is another. Alabama weren’t his players so good or bad, attribution to him is suss. I think last summer when Sark was away with a critical life event, he learned about his staff. I think he was surprised that some couldn’t hold their mud. 

What I also don’t know, which is a lot, is if there is someone in mind he wants but isn’t available. Flood isn’t awful though this year was. You don’t dump Flood unless you upgrade. Maybe there’s a Muschamp equivalent. 🤷🏽‍♂️

[Bobbers]

9 minutes ago, Thanos72 said:

I appreciate the thoughtful response. We disagree on this. They caught a great 2022 class that had a stud and 4 solid floors. There wasn’t much change from freshman to senior for most. The real problem is it appears he simply leaned on that class and did almost nothing for the ‘23 and ‘24 classes. Not a single person was ready to step up at guard or center. Not one. 52 was very uneven to be a sr. Neto. Hopefully Brooks wasn’t broken. Slide protections were keystone and robotic. You sound like you know line play so it’s confounding that you see hm so effectively when we literally had zero folks ready to step up from the ‘23/‘24 classes. There’s no excuse for it. 

BTW, I disagree with you but im not arguing with you. You seemed centered in this so I’m really curious what I’m missing.

As for Sark, all humans have blind spots and weaknesses. I think Sark is overly loyal and also stubborn to his detriment. His intelligence is what makes him great but it also creates blind spots. I don’t doubt that Flood knows the job but knowing something and effectively teaching or transferring that knowledge is another. Alabama weren’t his players so good or bad, attribution to him is suss. I think last summer when Sark was away with a critical life event, he learned about his staff. I think he was surprised that some couldn’t hold their mud. 

What I also don’t know, which is a lot, is if there is someone in mind he wants but isn’t available. Flood isn’t awful though this year was. You don’t dump Flood unless you upgrade. Maybe there’s a Muschamp equivalent. 🤷🏽‍♂️

You could be correct.  I think the missing component here is that the kids at Texas might not be considered "misses" at other programs.  The bar is set so high (as it should be) that decent players are just getting pushed out.  Next year will be very telling.  Arch has one more year and Sark and Flood have 8 months to produce an OL worthy of this QB.

[Itsamystery]

10 hours ago, Bobbers said:

Thank goodness it is so easy to find linemen that develop into pros.  Have you offered your services?

Anyway, here is what Flood has accomplished in his career- 

 

Below is the updated list of his developed linemen, categorized by All-American and All-Conference (1st or 2nd Team) honors.

University of Texas (2021–Present)

The Texas front under Flood has been defined by the development of highly-rated recruits into elite college starters and NFL prospects.

Kelvin Banks Jr. (OT): Consensus First-Team All-American (2024); First-Team All-Big 12 (2023); Second-Team All-Big 12 (2022).

Trevor Goosby (OT): First-Team All-SEC (2025).

Jake Majors (C): Second-Team All-Big 12 (2023).

Christian Jones (OT): Second-Team All-Big 12 (2023).

Hayden Conner (OG): Honorable Mention All-Big 12 (2023); drafted in the 6th round of the 2025 NFL Draft.

DJ Campbell (OG): Third-Team All-SEC (2025).

University of Alabama (2019–2020)

Flood coached the 2020 unit that won the Joe Moore Award. Nearly every starter on that line earned elite individual honors.

Alex Leatherwood (OT): Unanimous First-Team All-American (2020); First-Team All-SEC (2019, 2020); Outland Trophy winner.

Landon Dickerson (C): Unanimous First-Team All-American (2020); First-Team All-SEC (2020); Second-Team All-SEC (2019); Rimington Trophy winner.

Evan Neal (OT): Freshman All-American (2019); First-Team All-SEC (2020). Note: Went on to be a Consensus All-American the year after Flood left.

Jedrick Wills Jr. (OT): Second-Team All-American (2019); First-Team All-SEC (2019).

Deonte Brown (OG): First-Team All-SEC (2020).

Rutgers University (2005–2015)

During Flood’s 11-year stint (as OL Coach/OC and later Head Coach), Rutgers produced some of the most decorated linemen in school history.

Anthony Davis (OT): Second-Team All-American (2009); First-Team All-Big East (2008, 2009). Highest draft pick in Rutgers history (11th overall).

Kaleb Johnson (OT/OG): Freshman All-American (2011); First-Team All-Big East (2012); Second-Team All-Big Ten (2014).

Art Forst (OG): First-Team All-Big East (2011).

Jeremy Zuttah (OT): First-Team All-Big East (2007).

Darnell Stapleton (C): First-Team All-Big East (2006). Super Bowl XLIII starter.

Desmond Wynn (OG): Second-Team All-Big East (2011).

Cameron Stephenson (OT): Second-Team All-Big East (2006).

Ryan Blaszczyk (C): Second-Team All-Big East (2008, 2009).

University of Delaware (2002–2004)

While coaching at the FCS level, Flood helped build the line for the 2003 National Championship team.

Chris Steiner (C): First-Team All-Atlantic 10 (2004).

Jason Nerys (OG): First-Team All-Atlantic 10 (2003).

Hofstra University (1997–2001)

Dan Gangi (OT): First-Team All-Atlantic 10 (2001).

Kareem Huggins (OG): Second-Team All-Atlantic 10 (2000, 2001).

How dare you sir, bring facts to an emotional argument.

[Thanos72]

4 hours ago, Oskies1279 said:

I was hoping we got an upgrade at center. I'm not a fan or Robertson. Felt like he got beat a lot. Was hoping that we got an entire new interior linemen in the portal. That's the confusing part when it comes to Cruz, I guess he wasn't good enough to man the line even after having 2 years to develop. Had really high hopes for the kid.

IMO, this is on S&C. Robertson is often in position but gets pushed around. Several of our large humans on the Oline seem to lack functional strength. It’s on Becton to shore it up.

[Ronnie Barnhardt]

7 hours ago, Bobbers said:

I know what you are thinking.  You are wondering what Gemini, Grok, Chat gpt think.  You are wondering what would happen if I took those three opinions, fed them to Claude, and told Claude that he is the world's greatest offensive line coach.  What would Coach Claude say???

Coach Claude?

 

Let me tell you something about Kyle Flood.

I've been in rooms with a lot of offensive line coaches. I've seen the guys who talk a good game, draw pretty plays on the whiteboard, and can't teach a 19-year-old how to set his anchor. I've seen the recruiters who bring in five-stars and watch them get bull-rushed into the quarterback's lap. And I've seen the rare ones - the ones who can actually build men.

Kyle Flood is a builder.

What I Know From Watching His Work

When I study tape on his linemen - and I mean really study it - I see something you don't see often: fundamentals that hold up under pressure.

His guys don't panic. When a defensive end hits them with a late move, when a tackle game catches them between assignments, when the pocket's collapsing and the quarterback's eyes get big - Flood's linemen recover. That's coaching. That's thousands of reps in practice where he put them in bad situations on purpose.

You can't fake that. You either teach it or you don't.

The Resume Speaks

Let me walk through this, because people forget:

Delaware - He helped build the offensive line for a national championship team. FCS, sure. But championships are championships. You learn how to win there.

Rutgers - Took a program with no offensive line tradition and produced Anthony Davis, an 11th overall pick. That's not recruiting. Rutgers wasn't out-recruiting anybody. That's development.

Alabama - The 2020 Joe Moore Award. You know what that means? It means five guys playing as one unit. It means technique, communication, trust, and violence. That unit had Leatherwood (Outland Trophy), Dickerson (Rimington Trophy), Evan Neal, Jedrick Wills. Four future NFL starters. On one line. Under one position coach.

Texas - Kelvin Banks Jr., consensus All-American. Trevor Goosby, first-team All-SEC. He's doing it again, in the NIL era, with portal chaos, with fans screaming for his head every time a quarterback takes a sack.

Here's What People Get Wrong

They look at one bad game, one bad season, one young tackle getting beat on a twist, and they say "Fire Flood."

That tells me they don't understand offensive line play.

Offensive lines are not assembled. They're grown. It takes two, three years to build real cohesion. You need guys who've taken thousands of reps together, who know each other's tendencies, who communicate without talking.

Flood builds that. But it takes time. And modern football - with the portal, with NIL, with roster churn - works against everything he does well.

When people blame him for a rebuilding year, they're blaming a farmer for not having a harvest in March.

The NFL Translation - This Is What Matters To Me

Here's why I'd hire Flood's linemen in a heartbeat:

They're not projects. They come in knowing how to pass protect. Vertical sets, hand placement, anchor technique - it's already there. My coaches aren't starting from scratch.

They handle mental load. Flood's guys call protections, adjust to fronts, handle games and stunts. That's NFL readiness. Most college linemen show up and have to learn our language. Flood's guys already speak it.

They're built right. Functional mass, flexibility, balance. They don't flame out after two seasons because their bodies can't handle the grind.

Dickerson. Leatherwood. Wills. Neal. Banks. These aren't flukes. That's a pattern.

My Honest Assessment

As an offensive line coach: Top five in the country. Maybe top three. His track record across four programs, three decades, and multiple levels of competition is undeniable. He's not a scheme guy - he's a fundamentals guy. And fundamentals win championships.

As a head coach: Different job. He struggled with the organizational side at Rutgers - discipline, culture, off-field stuff. That's real. But failing as a head coach doesn't diminish what he is in the trenches.

In today's game: He's fighting an uphill battle. The portal rewards quick fixes. NIL rewards stars. Flood's method - recruit, develop, build over years - is out of fashion. But it's not wrong. It's how you build dynasties, not one-year wonders.

The Lombardi Standard

Here's my final word on Kyle Flood:

If I'm building a program to win in January - not September, not the portal rankings, not Twitter - I want him coaching my offensive line.

Because when it's third and short, when the game's on the line, when some 280-pound defensive tackle is trying to wreck everything you've built...

I want five men up front who've been taught by someone who understands what this game is really about.

Kyle Flood understands.

stands up, taps the table

That's my evaluation. Now let's get back to work.

Hell of a response, Coach Claude

[Here for the Wins]

14 hours ago, Thanos72 said:

. 🤘🏽

 

Am I remembering correctly that your dad and brother coached Oline?

[Thanos72]

52 minutes ago, Here for the Wins said:

Am I remembering correctly that your dad and brother coached Oline?

No but I did stay at a holiday inn…

[Pound Town]

12 hours ago, Bobbers said:

I honestly think the 2024 line was one of the best in the country, and the 2025 line started the year with serious problems and improved to he point that they could have competed with any defensive line in the country by the Aggy game.  The improvement over the 2025 year was actually impressive.  Good coaches get kids to work hard, never give up, and improve.

I also think that offensive line coach is the hardest job of any position coach on the team.  No other coach has a bigger development window for young kids who sometimes need 3 full years before they contribute.  The margin of error is larger for OL than any other position.

Lastly, I think fans have lots of opinions and most of them are uninformed or ignorant.  If you are correct about Flood then Sark literally does not know what he is doing.  You can't have it both ways- you can't say that Sark should keep his job but Sark has no idea how to judge his OL coach.

Sark, Flood and Texas are arguably one of the five most successful programs in CFB over the last three years.  I think we should be thankful Flood is with the program.  We can agree to disagree on this one.

Did you watch the UGA game??