The B12 (XII) Forum, home of the 'Front Porch, y'all' at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

https://stassen.com/cgi-bin/records/calc-wp.pl?start=2000&end=2021&rpct=30&min=5&se=on&by=Win+Pct

P5 - Worst to less than worse

Kansas
Duke
Vandy
Indiana
Illinois
Colorado
Syracuse
Arizona
Rutgers
Iowa State
Purdue

the Hoosiers have had a few good seasons lately, but obviously not enough to overcome the 20 terrible seasons

The underperformers in my mind are Washington, North Carolina, Virginia, Missouri, and Colorado.  Maybe Texas is edging into the group.  Flagship universities in decently sized states should have decent CFB programs.  Cal Berkeley.

Texas is a good coach away from being good.

So we keep hearing.
The two guys previous to Sark came with good reputations and left with those reputations in severely damaged.
Sark came with a so-so reputation, and so far, he's lived up/down to that rep.
Maybe there's something about Texas that really good coaches shy away from.
The Austin malaise, the green fog, the sense of entitlement, the ganja, the meddling boosters, whatever.
We need Hooky back to get his take on this.

maybe Texas needs a great coach to be good?

Be honest. You kinda had to squint and pretend to say that the previous coaches (everything since Mack's dotage) had good reputations. What they had was potentially good reputations. Neither had any experience running a program anywhere near the size of Texas. At best, they'd been close to people who'd run programs of that caliber.

Texas offended Mack and ran him out because they thought Saban was on the hook. While it was likely time for Mack to retire, Saban most definitely wasn't on the hook. When Dodds left, too, the administration had to scramble. They blew it. Big time. In every sense. Nobody was in agreement, and everyone left disappointed. I think, given proper support and time, Charlie could have produced. Texas gave him neither.

Herman got hired as "the next big thing". He was always a Texas guy. Charlie had underwhelmed. The fear was that LSU was gonna cut Orgeron loose (they should have), Herman was gonna take that opportunity, and Texas would once again have failed to act on the home town boy. Turns out standing next to Urban Meyer and winning at Houston doesn't make you the man. Worse, Herman didn't have a Rolodex. He hired assistants that were looking for work. There's a reason they were looking for work.

If there's a guy made for the Texas situation (and I'm not swearing there is such a guy), it's Sark. He's been at the top. He's screwed it up and destroyed himself. He went and put it back together. He did his time, learned, and decided to give it another go. Best yet, he made calls to top notch guys who could have stayed where they were for life, but agreed to join him. It's taken a decade, but Texas has an AD that got the BMDs to align.

Texas had to play ball last season. They had to do it with the roster on campus. They had a new coaching staff that had to evaluate players via ZOOM due to COVID restrictions. There just wasn't much time to fix the four year mistakes that got the previous staff fired. I'm not guaranteeing success. I'm just once again reiterating reasons how Texas ended up as they are. For all their history and resources, they've spent the last ten years with a crummy AD and a dysfunctional donor base bickering. Problems have been identified and solutions presented. We'll see what happens.

By the same notion, last season just gives Sark an "incomplete". The things he's doing make sense, seem to resonate, and have worked elsewhere. Ultimately, games need to be won. That didn't really happen last season. We can offer reasons why, but it's time to start posting W's.

I'm currently eyeing the LT spot. I believe Kyle Flood is the best OL coach out there. I'm just wondering if Texas has the guy on the team needed to play LT. I see a lot of Texas fans arguing, "Don't worry! We signed absolutely dominant freshman OL players! They'll be here in the summer to fix it!". There's no sense in debating them, but this is NOT HAPPENING. These are truly talented OL players, and one day (perhaps quickly) one of them will be the future LT at Texas. However, a true freshman used to abusing high school defenders just won't hold up against 22 year old collegiate players used to the weight room, the play book, and stunting.

The Texas offense, with top talent QBs, RBs, and WRs, will go as far as the OL takes them. The OL is as good as its weakest link. Right now, that link is tied to the ability to play LT. If a large land mammal currently on the roster gets angry enough, Texas can be a transformative team. Until that happens, we won't really know how Sark could operate.

Be honest. You kinda had to squint and pretend to say that the previous coaches (everything since Mack's dotage) had good reputations. What they had was potentially good reputations. Neither had any experience running a program anywhere near the size of Texas. At best, they'd been close to people who'd run programs of that caliber.

Mr. Tulip:


How many programs are there "nearly the size of Texas"?  Half a dozen?

If having successfully run a program that big is a requirement, then Texas would not hire a Mack Brown or a Darrell Royal.  Nor a Bud Wilkinson, Barry Switzer, Bob Stoops, Lincoln ("Muleshoe") Riley, or Brent Venables.

A coach who is having success at one of the few programs that is UT's size might want to stay where he is for reasons that have been discussed here many times.  Nick Saban decided to stay at Bama, a smaller program with less money than UT has.  None of the other big names (I think I remember that Urban Meyer was one of them) who were discussed at the end of Herman's tenure came.

One could note that Steve Sarkesian has never run a program nearly as big as Texas.  And his two head-coaching stints--both at programs smaller than Texas'--were not roaring successes. 34-29 at U-Dub and 12-6 at USC.

All of this is not to say that Sarkesian is the wrong guy.  But his track record as an HFC is undistinguished, and his 1st year at Texas was a step not in the right direction, at least in terms of the scoreboard--from 7-3 to 5-7.