Reason For DC Switch?

[SpaceCityWrangler]

Texas has been sooooo bad on offense, I would hate to call defense the last three seasons.  14-7 at Ohio State.  6-3 at halftime in Dallas.  13-13 at Kentucky going to OT.  That’s last year alone. 

Oh, thE Mississippi State game… we gave a Lebby offense 9 possessions in the first half.  Mainly because we had 5 possessions less than 90 seconds.  That’s the kind of stuff that made Buddy Ryan go over and smack Kevin Gilbride.  Literally, Texas would have been better off taking three knees and punting.  It would have shortened the half. 

Then Georgia… 14-10 and Texas has forced 4 straight three and outs all less than 10 years to start the 3rd and our offense can’t do anything after the D came up big in ten first four Georgia drives  after halftime.

The good news… Texas should be vastly improved on offense.  The defense in turn will play less minutes and be able to take more chances.  A year ago or even the season before, you could lose a game taking chances.  
 

 

[GQ03]

4 minutes ago, SpaceCityWrangler said:

Texas has been sooooo bad on offense, I would hate to call defense the last three seasons.  14-7 at Ohio State.  6-3 at halftime in Dallas.  13-13 at Kentucky going to OT.  That’s last year alone. 

Oh, thE Mississippi State game… we gave a Lebby offense 9 possessions in the first half.  Mainly because we had 5 possessions less than 90 seconds.  That’s the kind of stuff that made Buddy Ryan go over and smack Kevin Gilbride.  Literally, Texas would have been better off taking three knees and punting.  It would have shortened the half. 

Then Georgia… 14-10 and Texas has forced 4 straight three and outs all less than 10 years to start the 3rd and our offense can’t do anything after the D came up big in ten first four Georgia drives  after halftime.

The good news… Texas should be vastly improved on offense.  The defense in turn will play less minutes and be able to take more chances.  A year ago or even the season before, you could lose a game taking chances.  
 

 

I agree but in that Georgia game once the offense finally got into the endzone, the defense immediately goes out and gives a score back. Then the special teams falls asleep and the defense gives up another score. Complimentary football was anything but that last year.

[GQ03]

5 hours ago, Bdub12 said:

Thank you!   Another person who watches the games.  If Sark’s offense was anywhere near our defense we have a natty.  Hopefully this is the year

Would you say the same for the '23 season when PK's secondary was getting carved up by OU, Washington and (checks notes) Houston??

[Here for the Wins]

3 hours ago, GQ03 said:

Would you say the same for the '23 season when PK's secondary was getting carved up by OU, Washington and (checks notes) Houston??

 

[Here for the Wins]

Disregard for context.  The offense threw a pick on possession 1 versus OU.  Very short field.  Texas had 1st and 10 on the OU 30 or so with roughly 3 minutes to go.  One more first down and chances OU scores go down significantly.  That didn’t happen.

Now OU’s TD drive started with the LBers being attacked.  First down, stoppage of clock.  2nd play, Manny misses tackle first diwn.  Starting corner Watts out the whole game.  The big play was the 28 yarder in which the pass rush helped cause the issue.  I believe the TD was a LB miss.  So blaming the secondary is not completely accurate.
 

As for Washington, that was a boatload of offensive talent.  I’m not even sure that the entire regular season in 2024 schedule included as many first round picks as this UW team.  Maybe not even as many NFL guys as that UW team.  I don’t think that’s true cause Georgia.  But no sacks.  Penix had several great throws with pretty solid coverage.  And still the offense had 4 shots inside the 20 in the final minute.

Houston wasn’t good, but Barron and I think Watts were hurt.  M Golden was better than given credit.  And Houston only scored 20- something points.  And one of their TDs came when PK dialed up a free blitzer that missed.

Maybe the defense wasn’t great, but it absolutely gave the offense a chance.  And in the two losses, there were 4 turnovers that impacted the scoreboard.

[SarkFiction]

On 7/22/2026 at 2:31 PM, Bobby Burton said:

The Vanderbilt game reached a boiling point IMO. The front and the secondary just wasn't playing together and there was some chaos on the sidelines.

Bobby,

I don't recall the chaos on the sidelines during the Vandy game. Can you expound on this point?

[Bdub12]

7 hours ago, GQ03 said:

Would you say the same for the '23 season when PK's secondary was getting carved up by OU, Washington and (checks notes) Houston??

Have to go back to 2023?  We gave up 31 (wash), 24 (Houston) and 34 (OU).  All games with a better offense we win.  I’m not a PK lover but his unit largely performed - his late game defense was frustrating but not as much as Sark’s zero point halves.  

[GQ03]

4 hours ago, Bdub12 said:

Have to go back to 2023?  We gave up 31 (wash), 24 (Houston) and 34 (OU).  All games with a better offense we win.  I’m not a PK lover but his unit largely performed - his late game defense was frustrating but not as much as Sark’s zero point halves.  

You said with better production we would have a national title. The defense, most notably the secondary, let us down in 2023 and kept us from a national title. The offense (mostly due to injuries) let us down in 2024. 2025 was a bit of both. Lack of personnel on Offense & bad coaching on Defense imo.

The defense was not good against Florida & Mississippi State while the offense was hot garbage against Ohio St, UTEP & Kentucky. Then they took turns being inept vs Vanderbilt & Georgia. 

Overall, I liked PK but I prefer a DC that can call the entire defense so that we don't have to worry about this "front not being married to the back" nonsense that we dealt with in '23 & '25. Also, looking at last year's defense, I had high expectations due to the great talent we had but in looking back I don't believe we maximized that talent. Ant Hill should've been put in position to have been much more disruptive and I still can't figure out why we took a great Edge in Trey Moore and moved him to LB while taking a good LB in Brad Spence and moved him to Edge? The result was that both Moore & Spence (along with Hill) had disappointing seasons.

[Califashorn75]

He wanted a guy who would coach with passion, recruit, and understand how to call defensive coverages. He got tired of the bend but don't break style that the former coach employed. How many times did our defense blow 3rd and 8? Too many. That cushion our corners gave was sickening.  

[thatdude2]

7 minutes ago, Califashorn75 said:

He wanted a guy who would coach with passion, recruit, and understand how to call defensive coverages. He got tired of the bend but don't break style that the former coach employed. How many times did our defense blow 3rd and 8? Too many. That cushion our corners gave was sickening.  

He wanted a DC that could command all the defensive coaches without him having to do it. I think it came down to Sark giving up his offense and becoming an overseer of both, or finding someone that could be in totally control of defense.

[Bdub12]

1 hour ago, GQ03 said:

You said with better production we would have a national title. The defense, most notably the secondary, let us down in 2023 and kept us from a national title. The offense (mostly due to injuries) let us down in 2024. 2025 was a bit of both. Lack of personnel on Offense & bad coaching on Defense imo.

The defense was not good against Florida & Mississippi State while the offense was hot garbage against Ohio St, UTEP & Kentucky. Then they took turns being inept vs Vanderbilt & Georgia. 

Overall, I liked PK but I prefer a DC that can call the entire defense so that we don't have to worry about this "front not being married to the back" nonsense that we dealt with in '23 & '25. Also, looking at last year's defense, I had high expectations due to the great talent we had but in looking back I don't believe we maximized that talent. Ant Hill should've been put in position to have been much more disruptive and I still can't figure out why we took a great Edge in Trey Moore and moved him to LB while taking a good LB in Brad Spence and moved him to Edge? The result was that both Moore & Spence (along with Hill) had disappointing seasons.

Great offense will beat great defense so the Washington game doesn’t bother me.  Their QB was on that night - we didn’t hold up our side of the”great offense” against their not so great defense.  The fact we can’t run on anyone with a pulse is deflating.  I’m ok with a new DC that forces more of the action to the offense but until sark lives up to his billing we aren’t winning a natty 

[LTWOTIMES]

Sark hinted again at it during SEC Media days. Not only does he want Champ to be the 'HC' of the D, he wanted someone who was closer with the players and recruits.