Down with the God King Steve Sarkisian

[whereiend]

From my vantage point there is a clear root cause of the downfall of the football program. It is Sark being the God King (simultaneously HC, GM, and OC).

I would argue he has clearly failed in all three capacities.

- As a GM he turned one of the largest NIL budgets into an exceptionally mediocre roster, particularly on offense

- As an OC he has presented an offense that can't run the ball, can't consistently protect the passer, can't score in the red zone, and can barely pick up first downs against top level opponents

- As a HC he has a team that is extremely penalty and mistake prone and incapable of complimentary football

I don't think Sark is bad at coaching football, but he is just trying to do way too much. And this is with having some family/personal dynamics that likely prevent the level of workaholism seen in some coaches. The solution is pretty obvious: he needs to shed at least one of these responsibilities and ideally two.

We need a real NFL style GM that makes NIL decisions independent of the coaching staff. We need a real offensive coordinator that calls plays and ideally even runs his own system and game planning. Sark needs to be a leader that leads and delegates, not micro manage (poorly) every aspect of the program.

Is there any hope of this happening? Is the guy introspective enough to recognize these deficiencies and make changes? Will CDC force his hand? Will he go to the NFL and give us a chance to rebuild the program with a new model (and if so would we take that chance, or just hire a new God King?).

[drag worm]

I agree hiring an OC with similar philosophies around offense as Sark would help take some things off his plate. And I agree with all three of the issues plaguing each level of responsibility you outlined above. I disagree that an independent GM would help. That sounds like a Dallas Cowboys level recipe for disaster. 

[DanielOnorato]

If they win the final 2 games there should be serious conversations about Texas being a playoff team imo. Scheduling a game at Ohio State really did them no favors. If they had played Kent State that week and won 63-3 and were sitting with two losses we'd be right where we need to be. 

Scheduling was brutal this year. A month away from home, at Ohio State, at Georgia ... Finish strong with two games at DKR and see where the chips fall. If 9-3 is a down year, I can live with it.  🤘🏼 kick some ass to finish strong

[NothinButDaHorns34]

29 minutes ago, whereiend said:

From my vantage point there is a clear root cause of the downfall of the football program

Downfall? 😂🤣 Those TWO back to back playoff appearances were so long ago, Huh? Stupid, spoiled “what have you done for me lately” fanbase man. 

Edited 2 hours ago by NothinButDaHorns34

[Jaybird]

25 minutes ago, whereiend said:

Will CDC force his hand? Will he go to the NFL and give us a chance to rebuild the program with a new model (and if so would we take that chance, or just hire a new God King?).

I think the CDC thing showed itself after the Kentucky game and before Miss. State. It's like we are in a cold war style standoff between Sark and an OC.

[whereiend]

8 minutes ago, DanielOnorato said:

If they win the final 2 games there should be serious conversations about Texas being a playoff team imo. Scheduling a game at Ohio State really did them no favors. If they had played Kent State that week and won 63-3 and were sitting with two losses we'd be right where we need to be. 

Scheduling was brutal this year. A month away from home, at Ohio State, at Georgia ... Finish strong with two games at DKR and see where the chips fall. If 9-3 is a down year, I can live with it.  🤘🏼 kick some ass to finish strong

The problem with this for me is the way we have looked on the field. Struggled vs UTEP. Extremely lucky to win vs MSU and Kentucky. Ass kicked by Georgia and Florida.

If we were last year's Ole Miss team that would be one thing, but to me we look like a team that actually has actually over achieved in the W/L column, we just aren't very good.

[hookem1014]

18 minutes ago, DanielOnorato said:

If they win the final 2 games there should be serious conversations about Texas being a playoff team imo. Scheduling a game at Ohio State really did them no favors. If they had played Kent State that week and won 63-3 and were sitting with two losses we'd be right where we need to be. 

Scheduling was brutal this year. A month away from home, at Ohio State, at Georgia ... Finish strong with two games at DKR and see where the chips fall. If 9-3 is a down year, I can live with it.  🤘🏼 kick some ass to finish strong

I think playoff hopes went down the drain with how badly Georgia whooped Texas. They needed to go 9-3 with a close loss to either Georgia or A&M to have a decent chance. Now it’s near impossible. Only thing that could bring those chances back up would be a blowout of A&M. Recency bias is a big factor in the CFP poll

[jkates]

How many Sark threads do we need? 

[Rocky P]

[Jaybird]

22 minutes ago, jkates said:

How many Sark threads do we need? 

 

[Longhornlove]

24 minutes ago, jkates said:

How many Sark threads do we need? 

All of them.

[hookemrj13]

Idk, Mods have been too quiet today. Not enough Articles from them...

something is brewing...

[Texas fan in Georgia]

Sark has said himself they’ll never be a GM over him as long as he’s the head coach. 

[Texas fan in Georgia]

7 minutes ago, hookemrj13 said:

Idk, Mods have been too quiet today. Not enough Articles from them...

something is brewing...

Came across a clip from another site in video form. Apparently there’s some friction behind the scenes. I don’t think anything will happen during the season. After Black Friday? Anything is possible .

[Jedi Master Bevo]

57 minutes ago, NothinButDaHorns34 said:

Downfall? 😂🤣 Those TWO back to back playoff appearances were so long ago, Huh? Stupid, spoiled “what have you done for me lately” fanbase man. 

Exactly.  His play calling was just fine the last two years.  It was "Quinn's fault". Yeah, it's his play calling that is causing communication break downs in the secondary, causing a 5 star WR to drop passes that hit him in the hands, his fault the same player gets called for holding on every big KO return.  A typical post by a typical fair weather fan.  It is amazing how many people who have no knowledge of coaching think they know everything about coaching.  

[Califashorn75]

Like most head coaches, he is a control freak. But surely there has to be someone who could be our play caller so he can focus on the big picture. Hopefully he can do this soon. 

[selfdm]

Downfall…we’ve lost to two top 5 teams. Lost to a talented Florida team in the swamp. Ya there’s a host of things this year that have been terrible don’t get me wrong : but Do we remember what the decade was like before sark ? 7-3 and the program is down fallen after two years of being in national semifinal?

Edited 54 minutes ago by selfdm

[whereiend]

7 minutes ago, Jedi Master Bevo said:

Exactly.  His play calling was just fine the last two years.  It was "Quinn's fault". Yeah, it's his play calling that is causing communication break downs in the secondary, causing a 5 star WR to drop passes that hit him in the hands, his fault the same player gets called for holding on every big KO return.  A typical post by a typical fair weather fan.  It is amazing how many people who have no knowledge of coaching think they know everything about coaching.  

I actually can't tell if you are being serious or sarcastic here.

I mean Sark is the god king of the program (HC, OC, GM), so he is responsible for all of these on some level. He built the roster. He called the plays and designed the scheme for the offense. He hired the assistant coaches on defense He coaches the team.

The offense has been very mediocre from two straight seasons, and never was really a great unit under Sark. There is zero evidence that he is a particularly great OC as HC at Texas. Greg Davis had much better offenses here than Sark has. The personnel (his work as GM) looks downright bad when you consider where we rank in terms of NIL budget. The team is ridiculously penalty and mistake prone game after game, year after year.

The guy is failing at every role he is doing. Again, I don't think he is a bad coach, just delusional. He isn't capable of doing three jobs at once at a high level. There is a reason nobody in the NFL runs the team this way.

[Beldar]

1 hour ago, whereiend said:

The problem with this for me is the way we have looked on the field. Struggled vs UTEP. Extremely lucky to win vs MSU and Kentucky. Ass kicked by Georgia and Florida.

If we were last year's Ole Miss team that would be one thing, but to me we look like a team that actually has actually over achieved in the W/L column, we just aren't very good.

We did beat OU and Vandy, both probable playoff teams. 

 

[Jedi Master Bevo]

6 minutes ago, whereiend said:

I actually can't tell if you are being serious or sarcastic here.

I mean Sark is the god king of the program (HC, OC, GM), so he is responsible for all of these on some level. He built the roster. He called the plays and designed the scheme for the offense. He hired the assistant coaches on defense He coaches the team.

The offense has been very mediocre from two straight seasons, and never was really a great unit under Sark. There is zero evidence that he is a particularly great OC as HC at Texas. Greg Davis had much better offenses here than Sark has. The personnel (his work as GM) looks downright bad when you consider where we rank in terms of NIL budget. The team is ridiculously penalty and mistake prone game after game, year after year.

The guy is failing at every role he is doing. Again, I don't think he is a bad coach, just delusional. He isn't capable of doing three jobs at once at a high level. There is a reason nobody in the NFL runs the team this way.

Not surprised you can't tell.  First of all, he isn't the GM.  You're saying no head coach in the NFL calls plays?  Back to back playoffs and national semi-final appearance and he is failing?  I guess you bought into the unrealistic expectations for a team that had to basically replace it's entire offense outside 3 returning starters.  Your right, the assistants tell the DBs to screw up coverage calls, ST tells players to hold on KOR.  Players have to play. But hey, you seem very knowledgeable.  So when Sark does decide to pursue his "God King" ego somewhere else, why don't you apply and send in your resume so you can fix all these issues.  Hook 'em

[whereiend]

5 minutes ago, Jedi Master Bevo said:

Not surprised you can't tell.  First of all, he isn't the GM.  You're saying no head coach in the NFL calls plays?  Back to back playoffs and national semi-final appearance and he is failing?  I guess you bought into the unrealistic expectations for a team that had to basically replace it's entire offense outside 3 returning starters.  Your right, the assistants tell the DBs to screw up coverage calls, ST tells players to hold on KOR.  Players have to play. But hey, you seem very knowledgeable.  So when Sark does decide to pursue his "God King" ego somewhere else, why don't you apply and send in your resume so you can fix all these issues.  Hook 'em

Sark is absolutely the effective GM. He is the one who decides how much of the NIL budget to allocate to each player.

There are very few NFL teams that put the HC in charge of this. And then Sark is also the OC and play caller on top of this. It's absurd. No successful professional organization would work this way.

[Texas fan in Georgia]

4 minutes ago, Jedi Master Bevo said:

Not surprised you can't tell.  First of all, he isn't the GM.  You're saying no head coach in the NFL calls plays?  Back to back playoffs and national semi-final appearance and he is failing?  I guess you bought into the unrealistic expectations for a team that had to basically replace it's entire offense outside 3 returning starters.  Your right, the assistants tell the DBs to screw up coverage calls, ST tells players to hold on KOR.  Players have to play. But hey, you seem very knowledgeable.  So when Sark does decide to pursue his "God King" ego somewhere else, why don't you apply and send in your resume so you can fix all these issues.  Hook 'em

*sigh* the back to back semi final appearance argument has run its course. Did u forget the main reason Texas was in its first playoff was bc Jordan Travis got hurt? Had that injury not happened, Texas could’ve gotten left out. One could argue we shouldn’t have even made the semis last year bc Arizona st came all the way back and even took the lead and had it not been for a missed targeting call on Michael taffe, Arizona st probably wins that game. Now imagine how everyone would be feeling had we lost to Arizona st. After being up 17 points. Lets not even bring up the blown leads that has happened every year sarks been here. He’s hit his ceiling here. He’s too stubborn to change who he’s been his entire career. The expectations fans had this year is partly due to sarks own words. The man talked national championship and SEC championship on more than one occasion during the offseason, even 2 weeks ago mentioned how this is a playoff team. Which is exactly how Kirk bohls should’ve responded yesterday. 

[Rocky P]

47 minutes ago, Texas fan in Georgia said:

Sark has said himself they’ll never be a GM over him as long as he’s the head coach. 

Brandon harris is literally the GM

[HornsInAmarillo]

50 minutes ago, Jedi Master Bevo said:

Exactly.  His play calling was just fine the last two years.  It was "Quinn's fault". Yeah, it's his play calling that is causing communication break downs in the secondary, causing a 5 star WR to drop passes that hit him in the hands, his fault the same player gets called for holding on every big KO return.  A typical post by a typical fair weather fan.  It is amazing how many people who have no knowledge of coaching think they know everything about coaching.  

How many of the 5 stars that sark got are really panning out like everyone thought?? A lot of the big players the last 2 years were brought in by Herman. sark and his staff are terrible at player development or evaluations. No other to look at it.

[whereiend]

4 minutes ago, Rocky P said:

Brandon harris is literally the GM

He has the GM title but everyone knows Sark is the real GM, in the professional sports sense of that word.

My key point is that someone has to do the job of deciding exactly how much NIL should be spent on Deandre Moore (as a random example) as opposed to going out and getting someone from the portal. It's obviously Sark doing this right now. This is an incredibly important role in the NIL era, and it's a lot of work.

Doing this, being the head coach, and also coordinating the offense is absurd. It's no surprise that we look bad on all three of those fronts.