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Just something that I was kind of surprised to hear with Sark and his offense at Texas....

Posted on 4/18/24 at 11:58 am
Posted by koreandawg
South Korea
Member since Sep 2015
8997 posts
Posted on 4/18/24 at 11:58 am
I play dynasty fantasy football and it's important (just like the NFL) to hit on rookies as you have a rookie draft every year. Unlike most fantasy leagues, in dynasty you don't start over each year. You keep the players and draft rookies in a rookie draft.

There's a guy that known pretty well in fantasy for telling you who is good and who is not at WR, specifically when it comes to route running and getting open.

He's been doing it for years. He was one of the few that said Jeudy was overrated and he was right on that at least what we've seen so far. Loved D. Smith and said he was not worried at all about his size.

Never heard him describe Bama's offense as gimmicky at all whether Sark was the OC or not.

Listened to him talk about AD Mitchell and X. Worthy this week. He thinks X. Worthy is okay. He's kind of average at route running, but says WRs like him have learned to do it well in the league and improve. Really likes Mitchell. Thinks he's good at it, and still can improve in other parts of his game.

But while talking about those guys described the offense as gimmicky. Said there were quite a few plays where the QB is only reading one side of the field and Worthy or Mitchell know he's never going to throw it to them on the play and they just stop running.

He said the same thing about Tennessee's offense and Heupel last year when looking at Hyatt and Tillman. Now I will say that he also said Tennessee's route trees were very simplistic and neither of those WRs were running a route tree nearly as complex as what they'd have to run at the NFL level. He did not say this about the Texas guys and seemed to have a good sampling of the kind of routes they could run.

But still, just figured Sark was running things pretty similar as he did at Bama, but that's not the case. He just released his opinion on Burton and it was very favorable. He also said that Burton's film gives a great look at what you can expect him to be asked to do at the NFL due to Bama's offense. And as I've said, I've never heard him complain about Bama's offense when reviewing their other WRs which have been quite a few.

For the record, he likes Deboer's offense.
Posted by BigBro
Member since Jul 2021
7939 posts
Posted on 4/18/24 at 12:06 pm to
quote:

But still, just figured Sark was running things pretty similar as he did at Bama, but that's not the case.

I think this falls on Ewers.. He doesn't see the whole field and has a tendency to lock onto a target.. he got better in the 2nd half of 2023, but he will have to do better in 2024 if he wants to get drafted high next year. He also dances way to much in the pocket.

I haven't seen the All 22 tape, but apparently it is common for at least one of our guys to be running wide open.. but QE has a hard time finding those guys.. Either way, he is a pretty good college QB. That won't work in the NFL though.
This post was edited on 4/18/24 at 12:09 pm
Posted by SneezyBeltranIsHere
Member since Jul 2021
2451 posts
Posted on 4/18/24 at 12:08 pm to
quote:

Said there were quite a few plays where the QB is only reading one side of the field and Worthy or Mitchell know he's never going to throw it to them on the play and they just stop running.


There were times where Worthy and Mitchell, who I think both can be quality NFL WRs, would not give maximum effort. I don't think them slowing or stopping routes is by design. Also, I have yet to see Sark have a route tree that, by design, surrenders half the field. I have never seen that.

Here is what I think your friend was picking up on.....Ewers had an epihany last year when he came back from his injury, and I think things FINALLY clicked for him (mentally) in Sark's offense starting with the Texas Tech game (and in the conference title game). Remember, we have been talking about him since he was a high school junior, but the young man just turned 21 a month ago.

By all accounts, Ewers has been in command of the offense this spring like never before. He had good moments against Bama last year, but he will be an elite QB this season. Heisman level.
Posted by paperwasp
11x HRV tRant Poster of the Week
Member since Sep 2014
23070 posts
Posted on 4/18/24 at 12:09 pm to
That is actually pretty interesting, and I don't believe I've heard that about Sark before.

Where I will say he excels is identifying a mismatch or tendency, and then taking advantage of it. And I don't mean at halftime, I mean like going back to it and hitting it for an explosive gain a few plays later.

I've never seen anyone match his speed in terms of in-game management.

But I'm not sure why he would've changed schemes, unless Saban was imposing something offensively that he didn't like.
Posted by Dallaswho
Member since Dec 2023
811 posts
Posted on 4/18/24 at 12:18 pm to
quote:

I think this falls on Ewers


It was weird seeing him get rated as the best QB in a decade then ditching high school. I just figured the kid was groomed as a QB since he was a baby and was not going to show the level of improvement you’ll see with less coached QBs.
Not that it has worked out poorly for him or anything, but the 1.000 or whatever was a little much. Also worked out that our guy got another year of experience and almost pulled a 6a championship this last year.
Posted by koreandawg
South Korea
Member since Sep 2015
8997 posts
Posted on 4/18/24 at 12:20 pm to
quote:


I think this falls on Ewers.. He doesn't see the whole field and has a tendency to lock onto a target.. he got better in the 2nd half of 2023, but he will have to do better in 2024 if he wants to get drafted high next year. He also dances way to much in the pocket.

I haven't seen the All 22 tape, but apparently it is common for at least one of our guys to be running wide open.. but QE has a hard time finding those guys.. Either way, he is a pretty good college QB. That won't work in the NFL though.


I get it, but doesn't this make you concerned about Arch? I mean if Sark is wanting to run an offense where the guy is scanning the whole field and has a QB that can't do that, would seem that Manning (if he's what he's cracked up to be) would be better at it at this point.

Just a little more context, part of this is due to the hash marks leaving the field with a very wide and narrow side. Heupel's offense is predicated on trying to stretch you out and get players in space and just outrunning you for the most part. There's a difference in what Texas does as you don't have your WRs nearly out of bounds on the LOS, which narrows a route tree significantly as all you can run then is a nine or something cutting back inside. No outs, curls, etc. at least from your X and Y. Your WRs run all of those, which Hyatt and Tillman rarely did. But he still says there were lots of times where the narrow side of the field, you guys didn't even bother with. And I'm quite sure that Bama's QB wasn't scanning the whole field as from what I could gather that was a problem for him and why they kind of changed his reads and such after the Texas game to make it simpler. But whatever they did, the WRs were still running out their routes.

And I want to say this. I'm not dissing Heupel or Sark here. They are great offensive minds and know what they're doing. Their no. 1 goal is to win football games and not run an NFL style offense. I just figured the offense was more like what he did at Bama. It's been said that everyone that goes to Bama, learns the offense from what Saban and Lane put together after he hired Lane. So maybe getting away from Bama, he put stuff back in that he ran before. I'm sure he still runs things he learned there too.
Posted by koreandawg
South Korea
Member since Sep 2015
8997 posts
Posted on 4/18/24 at 12:25 pm to
Here is what I think your friend was picking up on

He's not my friend. Don't know the guy at all. He does that for a living as a fantasy football analyst. I have to say that he's pretty good at what he does.

He'd been saying for two years before last season that Nico Collins would be great if he had a good QB. He's also said Michael Pittman and Brandon Aiyuk are excellent at running routes and would eventually break out as big WRs in the league. Finally happened for both of them this past year.

Watch out for Drake London this next year. He's really high on him.
This post was edited on 4/18/24 at 12:26 pm
Posted by BigBro
Member since Jul 2021
7939 posts
Posted on 4/18/24 at 12:36 pm to
quote:

I get it, but doesn't this make you concerned about Arch? I mean if Sark is wanting to run an offense where the guy is scanning the whole field and has a QB that can't do that, would seem that Manning (if he's what he's cracked up to be) would be better at it at this point.

Concerned about Arch? No.
Sark has enough skins on the wall to figure out the best way to make it work.. He will either open it back up with Arch or he will run something more modified until he finds a QB to do it differently.

Sark is trying to learn how to win games.. perhaps he tweaked his offense a little bit to help accomplish this goal. Scoring too quick can really put a lot of stress on your defense.. see Lincoln Riley.

He didn't have that worry as much at Alabama. Perhaps he will open it up more when we have a better defense.. or better depth..

It's a valid question though.. I just don't know the answer.
Posted by SneezyBeltranIsHere
Member since Jul 2021
2451 posts
Posted on 4/18/24 at 12:53 pm to
quote:

I mean if Sark is wanting to run an offense where the guy is scanning the whole field and has a QB that can't do that


Sark would tell you than Ewers can do anything required in his offense. He greatly improved from his Freshman to Soph year and will likely have a bigger leap this year as a Junior. Again, if feels like we have been talking about Ewers forever, but he just recently turned 21. He has grown gotten stronger and psychologically matured.

There is no reason or excuse for Ewers not to be a top 5 quarterback this season. If he were to regress (which I don't expect) then it will be Arch's show.
Posted by BSherrill
Member since Nov 2015
1804 posts
Posted on 4/18/24 at 12:57 pm to
Its not gimmicky if it works lol.

Reading half the field isn't new. Sark does a fantastic job of identifying favorable matchups and developing ways to attack them. If that is gimmicky then every OC should strive to be gimmicky.
Posted by koreandawg
South Korea
Member since Sep 2015
8997 posts
Posted on 4/18/24 at 12:58 pm to
quote:

Sark would tell you than Ewers can do anything required in his offense. He greatly improved from his Freshman to Soph year and will likely have a bigger leap this year as a Junior. Again, if feels like we have been talking about Ewers forever, but he just recently turned 21. He has grown gotten stronger and psychologically matured.

There is no reason or excuse for Ewers not to be a top 5 quarterback this season. If he were to regress (which I don't expect) then it will be Arch's show.


He may have improved late. I don't know. But one of the things that does come up time and time again when I hear guys talk about these Texas WRs in the draft is Ewers and him limiting them. Early production tends to be a really good indicator if a WR is gonna be a success or bust. This is why a lot of fantasy guys like Worthy over Mitchell. Worthy is concerning though because his best year was his first and usually you see some improvement. Most apologists are saying that's due to Ewers. And the strictly film guys don't like him at all at least so far. That can change of course with a good season this year.
This post was edited on 4/18/24 at 12:59 pm
Posted by TexasOnTop
Member since Nov 2023
1381 posts
Posted on 4/18/24 at 1:08 pm to
Sark had to change up his offense a lot since he got to Texas. Sark loves the deep ball, but since he has gotten to Texas he hasn't had a QB that can throw it consistently with accuracy (hopefully Ewers improves on that this year). This forces him to remove a staple in his offense that he has to replace.

Arch is where this should improve in 2025 as it is his guy from day 1 and you should see more traditional Sark offense.


As for your dynasty, don't sleep on AD (I'm sure you already know that as a Georgia fan)
Posted by BigBro
Member since Jul 2021
7939 posts
Posted on 4/18/24 at 1:09 pm to
quote:

Worthy is concerning though because his best year was his first and usually you see some improvement. Most apologists are saying that's due to Ewers. And the strictly film guys don't like him at all at least so far. That can change of course with a good season this year.

Worthy played hurt a little bit during his Soph year. He was also double teamed a lot in his Soph and Junior year..

But Worthy was also wide open A LOT and Ewers just couldn't hit with the deep ball..

Worthy is a great receiver in space.. and I actually think he is a pretty good route runner.. but Worthy does have one gigantic flaw..

He is one of the worst I have ever seen at high pointing a ball.. No lie, I felt like my fat arse could do a better job sometimes.. AD on the other hand was a God in this category..

I have thought a lot about which one I would take in the draft and I truly think it's a coin flip as I think it could go either way.. forced to choose, I think I would pick AD first. The dude is clutch and just catches a shitload of touchdowns..
Posted by Longhorn Actual
Member since Dec 2023
918 posts
Posted on 4/18/24 at 1:24 pm to
quote:

Ewers

quote:

Either way, he is a pretty good college QB. That won't work in the NFL though.


His arm talent alone makes him a good college QB, but it won't translate to the next level very well unless he can learn to be an actual QB.
Posted by theballguy
Colorado Springs, CO
Member since Oct 2011
1941 posts
Posted on 4/18/24 at 3:41 pm to
quote:

But I'm not sure why he would've changed schemes, unless Saban was imposing something offensively that he didn't like.



Sark was one of the few assistants who Saban never seemed to second-guess. I could see Saban chewing Kiffin's arse non-stop but not Sark. He seemed to respect Sark about as an equal at times.

Sark's pretty dynamic. I think he's changed to suit what works best for the current situation/lineup where he is.
Posted by theballguy
Colorado Springs, CO
Member since Oct 2011
1941 posts
Posted on 4/18/24 at 3:43 pm to
quote:

He was one of the few that said Jeudy was overrated and he was right on that at least what we've seen so far. Loved D. Smith and said he was not worried at all about his size.


My opinion on Jeudy? He has the same talent just about as Devonta but his heart is not in the same league. Same with Calvin Ridley before him.
Posted by ColoradoAg
Colorado
Member since Sep 2011
21903 posts
Posted on 4/18/24 at 3:51 pm to
Ewers isn’t very accurate, and is kind of lazy. Always has been. Had an elite arm but that is a criticism dating back to his high school days.
Posted by Tideroller
Lower Alabama
Member since Jan 2022
2295 posts
Posted on 4/18/24 at 4:01 pm to
I love Sark, no doubt. His 2020 Bama team had D. Smith, Metchie, and Waddle plus Najee Harris and a great O line. The offense looked to me like the football equivalent of "hit 'em where they ain't". He was masterful at getting the defense to overload somewhere and then go somewhere else. But let's face it, no one was going to cover those receivers plus Najee out of the backfield. It wasn't what I'd call gimmicky, but that was a very special team talent wise.
Posted by theballguy
Colorado Springs, CO
Member since Oct 2011
1941 posts
Posted on 4/18/24 at 10:06 pm to
And yet nicholas and sidewalk will insist 2019 Bama was better

Posted by The Orange Bull
Austin, Texas
Member since Nov 2010
82 posts
Posted on 4/19/24 at 1:57 am to
Ewers has suffered injuries in both of his seasons at Texas and missed multiple games. I think Manning will have opportunities to show what he can do.
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