chefbeezy

Texas 45-14

PFF doesn't factor the quality of competition, so the main takeaway is just how impressive the level of pass protection is. It is also through two games including against Texas State, where the run blocking was actually not good. I haven't rewatched the OSU game but the run game dramatically improved towards the end of the game. The run blocking scores aren't bad, per say, but are definitely not on the same tier as the pass blocking. It is something that stands to improve down the stretch as the OL becomes more cohesive. They are just plain numbers and we still have a lot of season left, I think it just more so shows how dramatic the improvement is from last year and how Sikorski has overperformed expectations by a landslide.

I don't know if it was already mentioned but I found some crazy stats regarding our OL currently through two games on PFF. One being that a Dylan Sikorski is currently rated #2 in the entire country for his pass blocking grade. Goosby follows shortly after at #16. The other being that the Texas OL is rated #1 in the entire country, cumulatively, for pass blocking so far. Sikorski was a consensus three star portal prospect, ranking anywhere from the 50s to the 100s at IOL and anywhere from the 500s to the 1000s overall. Seems to be an actual snipe of a target and even better that he has two years (I believe) of eligibility left, although if he keeps playing like this we might struggle to keep him from the draft funnily enough. Our run blocking, no surprise, is significantly worse. But, we could all see it do far better in the second half against OSU. Jordan Coleman is rated the best run blocker on our OL currently (although he so far has the worst pass blocking grade by a significant margin). However, we can all tell that Jordan is a dog and I'm very excited about his future. Regardless, an extreme turn around for our OL. It seems like throwing the kitchen sink at portal targets over the off season has helped us a lot and might need to be more of a norm moving forward. That was also spurned by a large crop failure of OL recruits beforehand, and we have a lot to look forward to past Jordan in Jackson Christian, John Turntine and now Ismael Camara. Yet, a steady dose of deeper OL portal targets cannot hurt (considering that high level OL seems to be the hardest to get out of the portal and with mixed results).

55-20

Yeah I thought we could get by with fewer at LB but this is untenable. Need to beat everybody and flip their LBs. No way aggy can hold all of their 3 blue chip LBs from us after we whoop their ass in Kyle Field come November. I would imagine Gouda is added to Nelson and Hammons as potential targets.

At this point just bulk up Bishop and throw him at LB because apparently he can do anything

Hopefully the path to meaningful playing time for Atkinson gets him locked in and he 180s from the underwhelming Spring. Would be really cool.

Interesting...

Our WR and DL rooms are just nuts. Completely overflowing with talent.

I'll admit, I'm not the most knowledgeable, so if I missed something or you disagree please feel free to stick it to me. We are nearly through Summer. While they are staggered, we have gotten through much of the off-season for Football, Basketball and Baseball. In each of these, we've seemingly had astounding success, albeit slightly differently in their approach. Basketball: A+ Portal: Major attention, major gains (247 4t, on3 2nd) Recruiting: Less attention, standout additions (Spears Jr.) Retention: Very little, but we only really needed Vokietaitis For the experts, have we ever put a team this talented on the hardwood? I don't think we could've had a better off season for Basketball. Football: A Portal: Moderate amount (most in portal history so far), major wins relative to their necessity (247 3rd, on3 10th) Recruiting: Consistently amazing Retention: Moderate amount in tandem with portal needs With Meredith reclassifying, have we had back to back #1 classes? And, so far, steadily heading to seemingly another top 5 finish. It seems to me that Sark's team building skills have only been improving and that he is very good at adapting with the times in terms of juggling portal, recruiting and retention. Of course he then needs to prove it on the field with this caliber of team, but this is still extremely underrated aspect from a coach and is largely overlooked when evaluating coaches currently. We have not hit the portal as hard as this, and while it didn't fill out the team relative to Basketball, it seems like it will have great ROI regardless in terms of evaluation and need. Baseball: A- (?) Portal: Few additions, great success Recruiting: Personally uninitiated to this Retention: Major Less bombshells from the Baseball side of things with the portal. Although now with Lugo and previously with Armstrong, we have added fantastic talent onto a team we pretty much retained from last season who finished top 5. It isn't in my wheelhouse, but it seems we've done similarly great on baseball if not better than what I've estimated. Each sport attacked this off season differently. Basketball went portal heavily, Baseball retained a lot, Football balanced the two in between. Regardless, it seems that each sport will be set up to be at least top 10 preseason nationally based on talent alone. Of course, we must prove this talent on the field. But man, has there been a better outlook for the next year? Seemingly, each of these teams have reasonable paths to see hardware. Whether that is achieved, I'm sure they will all have damn good seasons anyhow. CDC has got us rockin, all that's left to do is get it done. Hook'em!

I remember watching the 3rd and Longhorn interview with Lance Jackson and one of his immediate answers involved Muschamp specifically as the "head coach of the defense." Going to the open practice this Spring, Muschamp was one of the first coaches on the field and was fired up immediately. The defense showed high levels of teamsmanship, they wanted to win as a unit no matter who it was against. I was slightly concerned with Muschamp coming off his head coaching career and his more laid back role with Georgia (I assumed I don't actually know what his role was) but I'm loving everything I've seen from him this off season, think this was a home run hire. Lance Jackson also mentioned how he thinks we got the best edge room in the country. I'd agree. I think we actually just have maybe the best DL in the country and it's not being talked about enough. I like a lot of these answers. Either from Muschamp about aggression, man coverage, havoc and winning at the line of scrimmage or from Sark about getting the team older (yes!), the 5 for 5 rule, recruiting and character. Great stuff!

You can still judge these things individually. The Sorsby case was absolutely insane, even the Trinidad case doesn't sit right with me. However, this is very benign. If Hutson enrolled even one year earlier in 2021 he cannot make this argument. It's totally reasonable for him to ask to be grandfathered in to a rule change that happened this off season. Or the Heinecke thing with OU. Obviously hate OU but that guy should be playing football, him being barred for playing lacrosse is dumb.

Yeah "vibes based" means absolutely dick. And its a "60%" vibes based prediction. What does that even mean? Complete nothing burger.

Steve said it was a "vibes based" prediction. Royal hasn't been talking to him. He isn't omniscient. It's July. There's no use worrying about this. Again, he might flip, he might not, he could always flip back. Just handle business this season like we should and he'll be signing here. Just makes me want us to thump those tigers on their head in November even more.