The SEC Forum at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

The question against BYU is how many headlocks will they be allowed to put the Longhorn DL in? 

1-5 -- should be fine
6-10 -- harder to overcome
11+ -- getting into the equivalent of -2 in TO margin

I'd recommend a wrestling pro be brought in to give a seminar on how to escape sleeper holds.  

This oughta do it.

I mean, some of BYU's holds were more blatant that this, but this should be a good primer to get the DL started.  


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fITANAywSS8

I only got to see about half the game in between tasks whilst volunteering with my daughter's band.  Defense looked good overall, aside from giving up some yardage in mostly prevent formations.

Maalik looked... like he needs a lot of polish.  He seems to have a good head for the game though.  

I sure hope we get Ewers back soon though, it's a different team without him.

Yup the B12 ref fuckery continues.

This is not a hold (unless Texas were on offense):

My take on the game has two main themes

thank goodness our defense showed up as they saved our bacon several times

Our coaches kinda tied Murphy into a handoff role when in the red zone
not sure why
this is a very talented kid and can score if given a chance
he will be better each additional game

This is not a Longhorn rant only, but it was a good example of something I see a lot of which I don't like. 

Twice down at the goal line Sark went for it on 4th down got stuffed for no points.  This is the world of analytics.  Don't even get me started on that.  Nevertheless, assuming coaches aren't using analytics incorrectly or making narrow, specific decisions based on generalized metrics, there's still something to be said for game management. 

I didn't really care the first time.  Don't want to kick a FG?  Fine, go for it.  Maybe you get it and BYU loses all hope.  If you get stopped, oh well.  The second time was different.  It's 21-6 with less than 2:00 to go in the 3rd quarter.  At this point I don't care what the analytics say, you kick the FG to make it a 3-possession game.  Given the game flow, whatever your chances of success are, it's still less than BYU scoring on 3 consecutive possessions.  And it almost certainly needs to be consecutive possessions, because there's not that much time left.  And, given that they stuffed you before, you can't just "play the odds," you have to recognize that something is going on out there that caused you not to pick up the yardage, and saying "F it, our percentages go up this time because we didn't make it last time" is tempting, but flat wrong.  

But the risk/reward is the main thing.  The reward is almost certain, and severe...meaning, you go a long, long way toward guaranteeing victory.  The risk is....not immense, because again, your defense has been playing well, but you're still passing up a sure thing for style points.  Get stopped again, awesome, now it's still a 2 score game.  The fact BYU couldn't score is irrelevant, it was the wrong call.  The more time winds down, the more important taking points becomes if you can increase the number of possessions required for a team to come back and beat you. 

I've seen this so much, and then it goes on to bite the team in the butt enough times to make me wonder why not incorporate some good ol' fashioned game management along with those fancy analytics.  Not a ton, mind you.  Texas is case in point....it didn't hurt them at all.  But why even put yourself at risk for being one of those more rare times when it does indeed bite you?  

I don't think Sark was using analytics-- I think he's being overly emotional.  He's allowing the passion and intensity of the moment to influence his decision making.

Thankfully it didn't cost Texas the BYU game.

Arguably, it did cost Texas the OU game, or at least significantly harmed Texas' chances at winning.

Regardless I don't like it and I want it to stop.