Here for the Wins

We would have been national champ contenders without portal additions. There’s only one position group that looks to be substantially better than it would otherwise be without the impact of the portal. And that’s conceivable that the two best players are homegrown. Biles is a top addition, but it’s not as though Lefau was insignificant. Now, if you say took us to the top of the list, maybe.

And is it all they got sports-wise?

Unless the wheels come off, our biggest challenge comes in the super regional. Using these last two weeks as an example, if we close on Friday, we’ve won the series before Sunday. And another possibility is lose in 2 with us never seeing Volantis. There is a decision to make, but guys do need to be given opportunities to work thru things. Volantis needs to consistently go 7 as a starter for that to be worthwhile. The early season schedule was not ideal for building the bullpen. There weren’t many challenges and too many run rules.

Leonard Davis is the largest human I’ve been next too. Probably not a fair comparison since it was many years later, but he was larger than T Sweat. Maybe not weight-wise but just massive person.

Did his jacked up pinky scare you?

Tell me more…… At Michigan. There were two dipshit Texas fans. Probably students, weighing in at about 125 pounds each, were running their mouths talking trash. It detracted from the game. Texas-Michigan fans alike. I’m there to take in the game, the environment not some person seeking attention.

No, it’s chickenshit. What makes college sports great is playing your butt and giving all you’ve got. It’s fans celebrating their school not being mouthy to their opponents. The occasional, emotional outburst is understandable and acceptable

You being 11 explains a few things.

Volantis as a 5 inning guy is not worth the trade off from closer.

Family. You can’t live without ‘em, and they can’t pee standing up. A baseball movie reference modified for my personal enjoyment. Yes, I know it makes no sense.

Sonny Alvarado?

Unfortunately, my interest has really faded. The 80s were it though. The Never Nervous Pervis Ellison championship was pretty cool. Hated Georgetown so the Villanova win was nice. Big Syracuse fan with Stevie Thompson and Derrick Coleman. The Runnin’ Horns were fun. Certainly the NC State win over Phi Slamma Jamma was memorable. The Dean Smith over John Thompson in 1982 may have been the start. 1982-87 must have been it. Luke Jackson from Oregon may have been my last must see player.

Are the finals always in San Antonio now or will it rotate?

Gotcha. I know you’d have to report a 77 as a non-oline guy but not sure if you could plop a 34 in at guard without declaration. I’d assume do

What number did you wear? Fullback and guard don’t jive in that sense.

I think practice and hitting time constraints impact this, but I’d say the depth and quality on the defensive side has changed too. Not just players but coaches too. At the high school level it may be too easy to create mismatches so the focus is on skill guys. Defenses are quicker and faster so those targets are harder to hit. And with the portal, there is continuity being lost.

CJ made available some good data the other day regarding pressure rates. Within that data there a number of variables. Give or take some adjustments, we were pressured at the following rates: 2023 - 23.1% 2024 - 27.1% 2025 - 35.6% Now some individual QB passing grades. I’m going highest and lowest by year. 2023 - Ewers was 90.6 versus Bama with a 15% pressure rates. Lowest was Wyoming at 50.2 with a 8.7% pressure rate. 2024 - Ewers was 87.9 versus UGa in the championship with a 32.7% pressure rate. Lowest was 54.5 versus OU with a 28.1% pressure rate. Arch actually had the highest grade with 91.7 versus MSU with a 17.1% pressure rate. 2025 - Arch was 93.9 versus SHSU with a 26.1% pressure rate. 2nd Lowest was 50.1 versus UF with a 61.9% pressure rate. Lowest was UTEP at 43.9 at 22.2% pressure rate. Now Arch in 2025. He had 5 games with pressure rates in the 20% (or less) range. They resulted in his 3 highest passing grades, Michigan and UTEP. He had 6 games with a pressure rate of 40% or above. 4 of his 6 worst passing grades were found here. The anomaly was that UTEP game. OU was the outlier on the good side, but that was because his average depth of target was 50% lower than any other game resulting his 4th best passing grade at a 46.7% pressure rate. 2024 Ewers was a bit more all over the board. He had 9 games with pressure rates in 20% range or better. Three in the 30s and one in the 40s. There were 3 sub-20% with passing grades ranked 2nd, 5th and 7th. The 40% game was 10th highest grade. The 30s were 1st, 3rd, 6th and last. 2023 Ewers had 9 games in 20s or lower and 3 in 30% range. Four games were sub 20% and resulted in 1st, 7th, 11th and 12th graded passing games. The 3 in the 30s were 2nd, 3rd and 10th. Of note in the 4 starts Ewers missed in 2023 and 2024, three were sub 20% pressure rates and the other in the 20s. If you were to simply take 2023 and 2025, of the 10 highest pressure rates, the 6 worst games were from 2025 and 8 of the 10 worst. It’s a bit more balanced for 2024 and 2025, but 6 of the 7 worst were from 2025. Only 6 of the top 10 were from 2025. Now of the top 10 lowest pressure rates, there were 8 of 10 from 2024. Over the 3 years, six of the 7 worst pressure rates were from 2025 with the other being national champion OSU. Arch seems to be well correlated to pressure rates. For me, there are logical reasons for the two outliers. Ewers on the other hand seems more volatile. With Arch you could argue he’d do just with good to better than good pass protection.

Gotta be Filsaime.

Where’d School Colors go?

I’m pure Longhorn but interested in NFL news.

Quite possibly, but it’s not a legit comparison.

Labor Day weekend is an ideal week to kick off college football. Not only that but for many schools you increase the odds of more hot games because everything is moved up a week.

True. True. This Notre Dame fascination is fascinating. ESPNs SP+ had them 5th. FEI has them 4th, with offense and defense individually in the top 6. Even PFF has them with an overall grade in the top 5 with offensive and defensive units each top 5. The committee did not even put them in the field of 12 this year. I know it’s cause they get “beneficial” treatment if they finish in top 12, then they get an invite to a 12 team tournament.

I might view Coleman and Wingo as 1A and 1B. It probably doesn’t matter. Competition is good. Wingo is an interesting player. He’s a big play waiting to happen but has bouts in which his instincts fall short.

If I annoy you with my commentary, I apologize for my tendencies to take different stances than most. The UF game. We blitzed at slightly over 40% of dropbacks. LSU blitzed UF 45% of dropbacks. Now Lagway had a PFF grade 40 points higher versus LSU when Blitzed than when he was not blitzed. All 6 turnover worthy plays were on non-blitzed plays. Let’s keep in mind UF had a very capable C, a very capable T. Against Texas Lagway threw the ball on average at 2.05 seconds when blitzed. Against LSU that was 2.42. The depth of target versus Texas was 10.4 versus 4.8 against LSU. The website is bogging down so can’t get specifics, but our blitz rate was similar to the season average against UF. I have read complaints about our gameplan because we didn’t mimic LSUs pressure. A couple of things - UF had two weeks to prepare for us, and they were at home as compared to on the road versus LSU. Those are two significant factors. Now the numbers. You aren’t getting home a ton in 2.05 seconds. I’m not sure whether we blitzed, but the 55 yard TD was on press coverage. The other TD pass had no safety help over the top. There were maybe two other conversions on 3rd down in which we blitzed. The long completion to Brown also may have been a blitz. Lagway only threw 10 passes beyond 10 yards. We pressured on half, got 1 pick but gave up 2 TDs. Let’s not forget D Wilson was not available versus LSU. My point is that game was not conducive to being more aggressive because when we were it was often ineffective. There were factors present in this game that made it different than other UF played as well. OSU scored 14. One score was because a penalty extended the drive then we whiffed on 4th and goal from the 1. One can argue they played conservatively so they didn’t show us all they had. Maybe, but still only 14 and 200 yards.