re: Kevin Sumlin has as many losses at Kyle Field as R.C. Slocum does

Again, this team didn't quit. Losing three games down the stretch on a failed final possession is not the mark of a team that quit. If they had quit they never would kept trying to keep up with LSU and never would have even been in the game vs KState.

We lost those Miss games b/c our starting QB (who isn't that great to begin with) was hurt which neutered the offense. The offense was already boom and bust w/Knight at QB b/c he stinks at completing short passes. If he could have completed his passes at a 60% rate the offense would have been much better at long sustained drives which would have been HUGE in helping the defense stay fresh. This doesn't even begin to get into issues like a line undergoing a complete rebuild and WRs like Speedy and RSJ dropping easy passes or drawing huge drive killing penalties.

Our lack of defensive depth was exposed once a few injuries to key players occurred. We all knew going into the year that the defensive depth was average at best so I don't know why everyone is suddenly surprised when it ended up biting us in the arse. Couple that with the offense sputtering due to Knight's poor passing and Hubes poor everything and they got stuck on the field WAY too long for far too often.

Now, people point to those defensive stands vs Arky as proof the defense should have been better down the stretch BUT that ignores several key points. First off, that was done with a healthy roster. Garrett's injury in the second half of that game CANNOT be emphasized enough. It's no surprise that the pass rush went to poop with him being unable to explode off the snap like he normally can. Also, Arkansas just wasn't as good as everyone thought they were at the time. They finished 7-6, weren't anywhere near as good at rushing the ball as they have been in years past, and had a nasty habit of completely falling apart in the second half of games all season long.

Then people will go BUT OUR RECRUITING RATINGS ARE SO HIGH!!!! THE DEPTH SHOULDN'T STINK. Well ok, but as we have discussed all year, the defensive talent coming out of Texas just flat out isn't very good overall. Sure, there are the few top end 5 star freaks that beast on the field but your average 3 and 4 star? I'm sorry they aren't equipped to play SEC ball. shite, a lot of them might not even get graded at 3-5 w/o an offer from a school like A&M. People whine about Ketch giving Texas players better grades but that works in A&M's favor as well. A kid who is listed as a two but is getting offers from an SEC or Big 12 school is almost always going to get a bump up even though they have probably barely seen play. In reality, those kids are getting offers b/c they are in our (and many Big 12 schools) recruiting base.

If those same kids on D were coming out of Colorado or Oklahoma would they be getting the same grades? Would they even be starting in states like Louisiana or Mississippi? In many cases I doubt it. It doesn't help that we have had to kick out several guys who would have been difference makers on defense the last few years. (sometimes for things that wouldn't have even drawn a suspension from the schools in our own division)

You can say we have to coach em up all you want but at the end of the day the best players in Texas are on the offensive side of the ball now. Making things worse, the offenses that are run here are so far from what we deal with that damn near all of our players are already 4 years behind when they set foot on campus. I also don't want to hear "well so and so is a 3-4 star and did ok at LSU or Bama" b/c that complete ignores they aren't having to play with almost entirely comprised of Texas players. It's a shite load easier to adjust to something you've never done before when the vast majority of the guys you are playing with grew up in that system and can make up for your mistakes.

It's really not all that different than when Nebraska hired that idiot Callahan who thought he could turn NU into a pro style team even though the ENTIRE HS scene in Nebraska was running option. His in state players just could not catch up to where they needed to be for what he wanted to do and in the end that inability of his kids to adjust fast enough got him fired.

Another thing, let's not forget, we were in the QB position we were in b/c BMAs forced that little shite Kyler on Sumlin all b/c his bitter arse daddy (who never made the NFL b/c he was a massive cokehead and not b/c he was black or had injury issues like he deludes himself into believing) was at one point A&M's GOAT QB. No Kyler and his helicopter father mucking things up means (the already fragile minded who was wanting to transfer when Kenny was the starter) Kyle Allen is still here. You can complain that it wasn't handled well all you want but the fact of the matter is a kid that the staff knew would be a problem if they had him on the team became a problem. That problem NEVER would have been forced on the staff if so many Ags (be it BMAs or normal online shmoes) hadn't flipped their thin skinned shite over the idea of a legacy QB decommitting and going to Texas at the last moment. Had it been any other school he and Kyler likely wouldn't have ended up here. But b/c it was Texas everyone pitched a shite fit and demanded he be reeled back in. Never mind that the very fact that he waited until the last minute to flirt w/Texas of all schools should have been reason enough to cut bait w/his entitled arse.


Now, I know I am in TLDR territory and it might sound like I am full on pumping for Sumlin but that isn't the case. I'm not happy w/how the season ended at all. Depending on how the season goes another 8-5 next year will probably be the end of Sumlin. HOWEVER, I also do not believe in the sky is falling notion that so many here have at all. It's nowhere near as bad as many of you proclaim it to be and if you take a full view w/o maroon kool-aid bias it becomes apparent that there are many legitimate reasons why we haven't performed as well as we'd like and quite a few of them really have little to do with coaching and more to do with bad luck, BMA interference, and a dearth of worthwhile defensive players in our main recruiting base.

Even so, our team really isn't that far off from being really good to great. Can Starkel or another QB come in and be a 60-65% passer w/moderate running ability that can keep the chains moving which will help keep the D fresh over the course of the year? Can Turner improve the o-line in his second year like we all think he should be able to? Can Chavis get some more incremental improvement from the defense and hopefully have better depth now that he has the strength program going the way he wants it? I don't know. But if that happens (and most of it really isn't that crazy to think will happen) this is a 9-10 win team that might do better w/the right breaks next year. If it doesn't, well many of you will get your wish and Sumlin will be gone. But be careful what you wish for b/c a school is always far more likely to get a Fran than it is a Saban, Meyer, or Fisher.