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

Nah, Texas was never really in that game. 

I think Texas was in the game at 14-10.  I'm merely noting a couple bounces the other way and they could have won.  The 21 4th quarter points make it appear to be a blow out.

Now, I'm saying if they played 100 times, I think Texas wins maybe 35, in Athens.

I'll be "fine" if UGA doesn't make the CG, which I think basically means Auburn has to upset Bama, which is possible.  It does seem like their inherent right to be there though.

Personally I think UGa is the best team in the conference. The Bama loss is between the ears, nothing else.  Some kind of mental voodoo that only happens when they play Bama.  

The Dawgs look good for a couple of games and folks might tend to forget some of their earlier close wins where they didn't look great.

On the other hand, this is a very young team, so perhaps they are getting better.

Stockton clearly is a very good QB for this team.

Whenever Stoops played Mack Brown, the game could be somewhat even - usually with the Sooners just sort of marginally ahead. Then, Bob would do something completely foolhardy at a calculated time, and it would work! Sooners fans will tell you that he'd try that stuff against other teams besides Texas and it'd blow up in his face.

Against Texas, though, it would be enough to tilt a tight contest.

Saturday, Texas dropped too many passes for its own good. For a team that's having to squeeze all it can out of that dimension (the OL just isn't run oriented), that can't happen against a contender.

Then, of course, the onside kick that effectively stole the 4th quarter was genius because it worked. I'm hoping Sark keeps his talent around him long enough to benefit from the education.

I think we've hit the ceiling of what Sarkisian can do.  And to be fair, it's a high ceiling.  He won the B12 going away in his final year there, and made the playoffs twice.  He's beaten some pretty good teams, but lost to the elite teams every time they've played, other than @Alabama in 2023.

Does that mean I think Texas should move on?  I guess not.

Does it mean I think the Horns are not ever going to win the SEC or CFP with Sarkisian?  Definitely.

I kinda sorta knew what schadenfreude meant but I had to look up twitterpated, I thought it was a twitter term. 

tbf I used it wrong.  My wife deliberately misuses the word frequently and it rubbed off on me.  

I think we've hit the ceiling of what Sarkisian can do.

Yes, agree. After enough years on the sideline coaches reach a maximized improvement where they will develop no further. Their strengths are their strengths, and their weaknesses are their weaknesses. With Sark, there are more than enough results to make clear his wins come from having the talent advantage most of the time. To be fair, Sark recruits his way into this talent advantage whether at Washington, USC, or now Texas. But going back all the way to Washington, it's difficult to come up with examples where he out-schemes the opposing coaches. At Alabama in 2023? His 2010 Washington team upset a better Oregon State team, and I'm not sure how much his wins against Oklahoma can count as out-coaching Venables. And more often Sark is woefully outcoached by the same few characters like Kirby Smart.

I always like comparing Sark with Kiffin; their similarities include age, cutting their teeth under Pete Carroll's USC dynasty, parlaying USC coordinator gigs to head coaching jobs, recruiting well but underperforming at those jobs, and rehabilitating themselves under Saban's staff until second chances came calling.

IMO, Kiffin is what Sark is except Kiffin has become a better game-planner and in-game adjustor as he's kept coaching. Kiffin's work this year with a rebuilt Ole Miss team and uphill schedule deserves COY consideration right alongside the impressive season Kirby Smart is having.