CHorn427

There is no chance on God’s green earth that LSU will be ranked higher than us in preseason. Oregon maaaybe, but probably not. I believe they’re losing 9 of 11 on defense and key pieces on O.

I would be shocked if OU’s offense isn’t better next year with Mateer, barring injuries. Their defense might take a step back

Vast overstatement. The only two other programs in the SEC that have recruited to Texas’ level the past three cycles have been Bama and UGA. Texas, Bama and UGA all will have first year starters at QB. I like Arch Manning to be the most successful of the three. UGA is losing at least 8 of 11 starters on defense and 4 of 5 OL. tOSU will likely be losing at least 9 of 11 starters on defense. On offense, they’ll be losing Howard, Egbeka, Judkins and Henderson, plus possibly both OTs. Florida is the only other opponent on our schedule that should be able to challenge us next year.

I think it’s highly probable that we’ll be preseason #1 or #2 and the Ohio State game will be an early #1 vs #2 matchup. The winner will certainly be #1 after the game. I think your assessments of the defense are pretty spot on. My take on the offense: OL- I think we could actually be better next season, particularly on interior run blocking. By all accounts Neto Umeozulu is a mauler. I’m hoping the Neto, Robertson and Campbell combo on the interior can be an upgrade to our run game and up our physicality. I think Goosby and Baker should be above average to good in pass pro, and it will hopefully be less of an issue with Arch’s enhanced mobility relative to Quinn. TE- Gunner was undeniably great, but we’ve been recruiting very well. TE could be a position that surprises next season. WR- Like you said, don’t think it can be worse. If we can somehow get both Golden and Bolden back next season, I think we could actually be substantially better.

👍 good for you. Obviously a lot more is done on fan message boards than just looking at scoreboards.

On a positive note, yesterday was the only game this season an Ohio State WR didn’t catch a TD

Wisner- Got us hard yards and key conversions in critical moments Helm- Coming up big in the 4th Q when his best was needed (and in 2 OT last week). Arguably the best TE in Longhorn history Makuba- Setting the tone vs Jeremiah Smith and the tOSU WR corps early Barron- Solidifying his legacy as one of the best DBs to ever play for the Longhorns by locking up the best WR and passing game in the country Taafe- Being the heart and soul of the defense/team and the embodiment of a Texas Longhorn Muhammad- Correcting course from the first two playoff games and playing very well against his best competition of the season

Alfred Collins- Stepped up and shored up the interior of the defense when there were major question marks. The leader of the D line that came up strong for us time and time again.

He might be able to come back I think

Officially on the Mount Rushmore of dumbest college football play calls of all time. Should be in a textbook, high on a list of what not to do on the one yard line. Unfortunately, Sark now shares in his mentor Pete Carroll’s ignominy on goal line play calling. In goal to go situations, he should definitely try to think more like Saban and less like Carroll.

We were 100% sunk by hideous lapses of judgement by the coaches. 1. Being that aggressive on D at the end of 2nd quarter. Zero reason to blitz Guilbeau 2. Horrendous goal line debacle Proud of the players, including Quinn. Quinn was lights out on that final drive until Sark sabotaged the drive. You can’t put your QB in that situation on 4th down, high pressure against the best defense in the country. Just can’t do it

Beat me to it. There can be no question given the results of either situation this season. Conversely, Texas has started on defense 6 times. Allowed one TD (Clemson), One FG (ASU after 3 and out block punt debacle). Texas is 4 TDs for 6 attempts when getting the ball 2nd to start the game and 1 TD for 9 attempts while throwing 4 INTs (Arch threw one too vs ULM) when getting the ball 1st. Anyone advocating for us to get the ball first is insane or has had their head buried in the sand.

I have a feeling he’s just trying to spin that into a big raise. However, in either Lanning or Sarkisian’s case, they could always leave college on a high note, try out the NFL and easily come back to the college ranks as a highly desirable candidate

I don’t personally care. The win was there to be had the second time we played them. We definitely progressed in the two game series from being mostly non-competitive in the first game to going toe to toe and outgaining UGA in the second game. I did not expect us to beat UGA or win the SEC this year. That would have been phenomenal and exceeding expectations for me. Us winning the SEC would have been the first time a newcomer won the conference since the first year of the SEC (when everyone was a newcomer). That clearly would have been exceeding expectations. Still an unmitigated success, especially since we made the final 4 and UGA did not. Not to mention we will finish as the only program to beat two P4 champs no matter what.

You’re essentially saying that you would have liked it to have been prettier for us this year. Of course I agree with that. However, I’m encouraged that we can actually win ugly. Every CFB dynasty I’ve ever seen starts with winning ugly first before the talent really starts filling out and things start getting pretty. I think we’re at the stage where we’re not losing to teams we shouldn’t lose to, now we just need to get to the level where we’re playing polished enough games where we can beat the really good teams that have equal or somewhat better talent than us. And dominate the teams that we clearly outmatch. With Arch and the #1 2025 class in the nation on deck I don’t think we could be more primed to take that next step next year.

By trade places with us, do you mean a place in the final 4, mostly healthy team, starting QB with a shot against tOSU? Chances of winning the national title still on the line? If UGA wouldn’t want to trade places with us, they have adopted a loser’s mentality and their time at the top is truly over

I’m not forgetting about 2014. Finishing this season with a choking loss to ASU would have been a much more embarrassing end to the season than 2014 because of expectation and context. We were not expected to amount to anything in 2014 and amount to anything we did not. Winning an exhibition vs Arkansas to move to 7-6 rather than 6-7 is incredibly low stakes. This year we were expected to compete for a national title while ASU was expected to finish last in the Big12 (a conference we just left while THINKING we got the last laugh). If we would have lost that game it would have been catastrophic. That is the type of loss that would stick with us til the end of time. I bet the vast majority of people that aren’t Texas fans don’t remember how 2014 ended for us off the top of their head. EVERYONE would have remembered that we lost to ASU in 2024 if that happened. Would have probably shot to #1 on the highest profile loss of the season.

Even if we lose to Ohio State, the only teams we will have lost to this season are teams that just have a higher talent composite than us. Per 247 talent composite, Alabama (1), UGA (2) and tOSU (3) are currently the only teams with a higher composite than us. This could be the first season since 2009 that we don’t lose to a team that has a lower talent composite than us (i.e. “teams we should beat”) and I consider that a success. However, there is still the possibility that we beat Ohio State and lose to the winner on the other side, in which case we will have lost to a team with a lower composite. I would still consider that a success from showing improvement in making it to the finals. The outlook from here is win-win in my eyes. Before we can be the team that can beat everyone, we need to be a team that can at least not succumb to less talented teams. And we will likely achieve that this year.

When will our early enrollees be officially enrolled?

It’s amazing that you are on here and know so little about our program. We played in the Big12 championship game 9 times. You literally forgot about those two years we played in the national championship game?? Seem like a true Colorado fan on here in disguise with that lack of knowledge lmao Every year we were in the Big12, we either played in the title game, or lost to the Big12 champion in the regular season (typically OU). Once again, Colorado completely avoided the 3 best teams in conference this year. If Texas didn’t have to play the 3 best teams in conference, we would have easily made the conference championship game every year.

Texas had one of the easier schedules in the hardest conference in college football. Colorado had the easiest schedule in one of the easiest P4 conferences in college football. That’s the difference. Even the “lesser” teams in the SEC have notable former highly touted recruits and NFL talent. The current SEC member schools accounted for 73 NFL draft picks in 2024. Big 12: 17 picks across 16 schools. The talent in the conferences is not close. And again, the talent that there is this year in the Big12 Colorado dodged or lost to!

Regarding the Big12: 1. Texas played like absolute cheeks vs ASU for most of the game and still won. Being able to play a D- to F game and still beating the Big12 champ doesn’t speak highly of that conference. You realize that, right? 2. Before CU got to the Big12, Texas and OU were a part of the Big12. Two blue bloods with a combined 11 national titles. The Big12 as it stands now has a combined 3 national titles all time (TCU 1939, BYU 1984, CU 1990) 3. CU played the 2nd worst regular season SOS of P4 teams, ahead of only UNC. Dodged the three best teams, played one ranked team all season (and lost). When they finally did play a top 3 Big12 team in their bowl, they had their worst game all season (go figure).

All of these examples are straw men. Of all of the guys you listed, I definitely do not like Rodgers or Cutler either. Jerks with bad attitudes. I’m not a a Brady fan, but I’ve never seen him throw a critical INT and then throw his teammates under the bus. There’s a saying about leaders: “In a win it’s “we”, in a loss it’s “me””. It very often seems the opposite for Shedeur Sanders, with the incident vs Nebraska being a clear example.

Think about it if the shoe was on the other foot. Dillingham went for it on 4th twice in field goal range, left 3-6 pts on the board that could have been the difference in what wound up being a tied game at the end of regulation. To do that and then collapse in OT like ASU did- I highly doubt people would be lauding Sark for out coaching Dillingham in that situation.