HookemTexas

It helps a lot when you can field the most expensive roster in college football according to many reports. Apparently not enough to be truly elite of the elite, up to this point anyway. Georgia and Bama are the only two teams that really look elite.

Deer in the headlights look.

I know the world already knows but man is Texas’ oline bad.

I'm really envious of how quickly and how well Georgia just dominates a game both offensively and defensively.

Yea I don't trust anything out of the government. There was likely an issue and they just don't want the public to go into a frenzy. Call me a conspiracy theorist, I've seen enough behind the scenes stuff when I lived in the Middle East and Africa to know better.

I fully agree that the management of Swindle has been botched imo. She’s a winner and has proven it as you noted. The issue I have is with Elliot’s hypocrisy when it comes to size and effectiveness. He won’t play undersized pins because they have a lower block, but will play undersized setters all day long - Collins Gabriel, Carlson, Binney … Yet refused to play Parra who was elite as an attacker, above average as a defender, decent enough with the block, and above average to elite with her serve. Only reason I can guess at is that Melanie was recruited fairly young and he probably thought she would grow taller than she settled out to be by the time she made it to campus. Anyway my point was that the fans love Swindle. She’s handled her situation with as much class as anyone could ask for. No drama at all.

Swindle has reached Melanie Parra status - fan favorite that doesn't get the playing time the fans want to see. She gets a huge pop when she enters a match.

Under CDC, every sport that he's hired a coach in is ranked and expects to compete late into the post season (championships), which is what the standard is at a school like Texas. There's only a few sports left that aren't consistently highly ranked (T&F) but CDC did not hire those coaches . . . yet. Outside of a few forced moves due to circumstances, his method has been to let the contract run out, not renew, and be ready with a new hire that's basically been in the works and ready to be announced the next day. He could teach a course on how to handle succession planning.

I'm a bit surprised at how good Vandy's women's sports are - they don't have the same NIL or resources as many of the powerhouse programs, but their volleyball, soccer, and women's bball teams are all pretty good.

Ohio St's decline shows how good Sayin is and how vital he was to their success. They still have studs all over the field yet have struggled since Sayin went down.

I don't think it's the end yet, but it's trending that way. Of course it depends on what we're defining as the trending down and the end. For me, the trending down is against the expectations that (again we've been spoiled) Texas is hosting until it gets to weekend where they have no choice but to travel, and really expect to be in the final four. While this is an absurdly high bar, it's one that Texas has achieved consistently. I disagree with the comparison to Stanford due to your point on NIL - the Stanfords of the world won't decide to compete in NIL and that's their choice. Texas has the resources where NIL should not be a factor - they may not be the best a la Nebraska, but they'll certainly be in the top tier. My personal expectation (whether realistic or not) is that Texas is a top 4 volleyball program year in and year out with Nebraska being the other one that has the same expectation. This might be because I started watching Texas volleyball when it was the Haley and Baily show and so have pretty much been spoiled with an elite program.

Vandy in year 2 of a program I believe. We’ve been spoiled as fans with Texas being elite for so long, it was bound to come to an end. I just thought it would be when Elliot retired. Nebraska got lucky in that DBK is an alumni, Cook’s retiring timing, and that’s basically her dream job after showing she was an elite coach at Louisville. I don’t think any of Texas’ program alumni are at her level so even if Elliot were to retire I don’t know where cdc would turn to. Sullivan maybe but he said he didn’t want to be head coach when he was at Texas. Maybe they steal Morris from A&M.

Texas under Sark on the road has not been good at night. Massive difference between night and day, literally. Vegas probably factoring that in.

I also believe Texas has to win out to be in; dropping a third game puts Texas in the same position last year in hoping the committee gives them credit. The bad losses will again hurt Texas because OU and Florida have shown to be absolute bottom feeders. Had the losses happened to ranked teams, that would have been different, but they were against completely winnable games. And Florida was playing a backup QB.

Texas with the 10th ranked class . . . they are usually in the top 5 easily every year. LSU, Clemson, and Michigan St. should not be out recruiting Texas in volleyball.