Assistant Regional Manager

Ole Miss and LSU had NET rankings in the 90’s. That is basically an automatic disqualifier for any team wanting an at large berth. Mississippi State was 31st. Texas is currently 32nd.

I think the important part of the remaining schedule is all the road games are fairly manageable (by SEC standards) and pretty much every road game in this conference is a Q1 opportunity. You steal a couple of those and you are sitting pretty.

Arkansas may be the worst team in the league and we still get them twice + OU at home who we’ve owned. It would be a pretty big collapse to not get to 7 wins. If we get to 8 conference wins, that probably means 6 or 7 Q1 wins which combined with our strong NET will have us in easily. Probably a seed or two higher than some may expect. The fact we were very competitive against Tennessee and Auburn in losses actually slightly improved our NET ranking.

I don’t get the people who are that high on Nico. Maybe he takes a big step but I was not impressed this year.

Whether you like it or not, this sport now operates with a de facto salary cap. You can't pay up for the #1 recruiting class and also pay up for 10 great portal players because you are worried about inexperience. It doesn't work both ways. You'll notice the schools who typically load up in the portal (Ole Miss, Tech, etc.) aren't also signing top 10 HS classes. If you just take a portal player at every spot you feel you are inexperienced at, you are basically flushing money down the toilet for all the guys at that position you invested in, some for multiple years as they developed as backups. Sure, there are certain spots where a portal guy is needed but just because you are losing your starting LG doesn't automatically mean you have to take one from the portal. What if the backup LG was making 300k the last 2 years? Are you cool with continuing to pay him back for a third year in a row and also paying a guy in the portal? Decisions have to be made about where to allocate resources and cost/benefit analysis has to be run at various spots. Guys don't play for free.

You wouldn't say this if you knew the payroll Texas was carrying into next year.

This isn't 2022 Texas anymore. The roster is in a much better spot and we don't have to be as reckless in the portal to try to backfill holes. Ohio State has taken 6 guys out of the portal, Georgia has taken 6 (really 5 plus the Branch brother who won't play there) and Texas has taken 4. Outside of DT, punter and kicker, pretty much every other positional need falls in the "would probably be nice to add someone" category. It would be nice if we could add another CB, it would be nice if we could add another quality TE, it would be nice if we could add another WR, it would be nice to add another RB. None of those are program-crippling needs, though, like in 2021 or 2022 when we looked at the roster and said, "holy crap, we are starting Ovie and Jett Bush at Edge with Casey Cain at receiver and Kitan Crawford at safety."

Didn’t you mention the other day you preferred Lincoln Riley to Sark? I’m assuming you are hoping he departs?

Can we please take 5 seconds to research the source of tweets before running to a message board with them

Also had a patented Tyrese Hunter turnover where he jumped in the air for no reason when we were holding for the final shot in a tie game.

A lot more freedom at private schools. No interference from the capitol.

It was 24-8 with 10 minutes left. What was the coaching matchup like at that point? It was far from our best gameplan and the coaches deserve criticism for certain aspects of the game but we also love to praise other teams after we lose and I’ve ever once seen someone say Texas outcoached an opponent after a loss. I thought ASU dialed up good calls at critical moments and had a good plan defensively but they also did some dumb stuff like running into the teeth of the defense on 4th and short after what happened to A&M and Clemson. Dillingham taking a timeout in the first overtime to run a QB sneak also prevented him from being able to call a timeout on the 4th and 13. It works both ways.

I call back-to-back final four appearances getting a whole heck of a lot out of your talent. If we were so bad at second-half adjustments, why have we been a good 4th quarter/OT team the last month or so?

Garbage posts like this are so useless and unnecessary.

I mean, we didn’t even have a chance today. We ran 5 plays in the third quarter and one was when we were on our own 1 yard line.

Congrats to ASU for out-coaching Texas in a loss. When was the last time someone posted Texas outcoached a team after a loss?

Here is my shocked face that college teams are tampering.

Correct. OU has played a non-con SOS similar to ours. Good for them for going 13-0 but their best wins are Michigan and Arizona, both of which are not top 25 teams. We actually rank higher than OU in both KenPom and NET. A&M also is far from unbeatable. They can really struggle to put the ball in the basket at times. We are also playing them while school is out so the atmosphere may not be what it could be.

Well when you are shooting 41.5% from 3 as a team I’d shoot them too.

Sounds like you just wanted to brag you played varsity as a freshman

1) This game was put on the calendar a week ago. Very short turnaround time for people to make plans 2) It is 4 days before Christmas 3) Some fans have ticket buying fatigue. They went to the SEC title game and now have to buy another game + any additional games we play in the playoff? 4) Two Austin area HS teams playing in Arlington doesn’t help but I don’t think that matters too much considering how many people come in from Dallas and Houston for games. I’m sure it will be a sellout or very close to it but there are some things working against Texas.

That sounds like a poor allocation of resources considering the other needs on the team.

Kelby Collins is an edge rusher. My overall point stands. Schools like Georgia and Bama aren’t letting serviceable defensive lineman with no baggage walk away. If Payne had any hope of being a productive player moving forward for Bama he would still be there. He has made very little impact in 3 years. We are in day 8 of the portal. Throwing Hail Mary’s isn’t necessary yet.

5 tackles this year with a fumble recovery against Mercer. I have no interest in taking players who haven’t done anything. I don’t care if other SEC teams are taking our scraps. If Payne was worth pursuing he wouldn’t be leaving a school like Alabama.