closetojumping

This is known and has been discussed in the media for years now. The biggest issue with your argument is the notion that most people will care about who gets in at #11, since the G6 team will most likely be 12 due to much lower ranking. No one will care but one whiny fanbase. The fanbase of Ole Miss or Iowa will wail and gnash their teeth that they were left out and the rest of us will all just point our fingers at them and laugh.

"I am not ready to call this a strength" should be how you open every post, on here and on Surly. I read that line in your post and laughed out loud. The next time you're willing to put a stake in the ground on a position group that you are comfortable calling a team strength heading into the next season will be the first time. Oh, and TB is absolutely a team strength heading into next season for anyone that isn't handwringing. It doesn't matter if that is due to the playcaller being able to take advantage of the groups strengths and exploit them (which is the case at Texas with Sarkisian) or if it is due to terrific talent outplaying the opponent, TB should not be a concern for Texas fans heading into 2024.

I don't understand what you're saying. There are now 4 major conferences. A 5th conference from the G6 conferences will get a team into the tournament. Where is the uproar coming from on this? I have a hard time believing that many folks will truly care who the 12th team should be. This won't be anything like FSU getting left out unless I am missing something.

That was high comedy to read. Thanks for linking it.

Are we basing "best backfield in the country" on recent history, or what players did several years ago? Ohio State's OL is pedestrian and a reflection of Day and Co.'s complete neglect of the position in recruiting. The rankings for Ohio State in recruiting are flat out comical when you dig in and look at how they've managed their roster. Is Quinshon Judkins going to play some OG this year? Can Emeka Egbuka handle RT responsibilities for a bit? Will Howard is going to actively attempt to lose multiple games for OSU. This is a guy beat out twice at his former program due in large part to his propensity to turn into a turnover machine, hellbent on avoiding the end zone. He's going to be playing behind a worse OL than he had at KSU. Treveyon Henderson will be "hurt" and playing sporadically by conference play, and Quinshon Judkins had his bags packed for him by his teammates because they couldn't get him out of town fast enough. OSU's rankings are a byproduct of them ginning up their own hype this postseason. It's been comical to watch the dialogue evolve from "Boy, OSU just looked like hammered poo against Misssouri and finished the season on a two game losing streak. Ryan Day is on the hot seat" to "Ohio State has to be considered a top 2 team in the country." mostly because of some pulls from the portal and another WR heavy recruiting class. Somehow, a C that Bama couldn't wait to push out the door, a QB that was told he'd be fighting for snaps at KSU, a TB that was absolutely despised by the locker room at a school known for deft handling of the portal, and a S that OSU paid a cool $1M to bring across have transformed the outlook for OSU next year. It's absurd. Also, the Ohio State non-con in 2024 is a laughable shame that they should be mocked for regularly. Akron, Western Michigan and Marshall is flat out pathetic. I guess we all see what we want to see with this stuff, but it would be interesting to hear who you would put over that schedule. They play 11 P4 teams and most of them are ranked. They also have to leave the state of Florida a few times, which they don't handle well. I've looked at most of the schedules and there isn't one that comes close to that unless you are really squinting to diminish some of the opponents.

Great list, Gerry. Solid read. I am glad Marsh and Byron Washington aren't on the list. I am hoping we are hard pass on the former and play nice on the latter and fill up at OL without him.

How big of a sooner lean is he?

That all makes sense and I'm in the same spot you are on it. I just recoil when Saban is floated, for reasons previously espoused. It's no big deal when a poster here brings it up, but they're talking seriously about it in the media football circles and that gives me anxiety.

I hear this drumbeat constantly on the boards, ESPN, and XM 84. It blows my mind. Nick Saban leveraged a huge competitive advantage to achieve greatness. He had an amazing bag game infrastructure at Bama and had built one before that at LSU. There were 8-10 schools that operated within that closed game, as they were willing to cheat with impunity, and that led the majority of the national titles following the Texas title in 2005. The minute that structure was torn asunder by everyone suddenly being able to participate with paying players for NIL, and Saban realized that there was no more blood to squeeze from the stone from his alumni base or congress, he quit. Now people want that guy to oversee the future of college football? At 72? Nope. No thanks.

It's good info, but he's not really involved with the things that are fundamental to what we'd like to see in a GM role. NIL + roster management, personnel evaluations, etc. Regardless of how all of this ultimately gets spun, this was a surprise move. There was some important stuff being worked with Glasscock lately. Like, really lately, and now he's thrown a smokebomb and disappeared.

Some folks are already painting this as a positive for Texas. I'm pretty surprised by that, given everything I've heard about what Glasscock has helped enable over the past recruiting & transfer cycle.