re: Serious Response about Jawja

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Thanks for the input and thoughts, I’ll try to be as objective as I can as a diehard Longhorn (c/o 2007, so the glory VY and McCoy transformative years) in my response. I was very vocal almost immediately after 10/19 that I wanted to see Georgia again. I wanted a rematch the next day if it was possible. That’s because it just felt like one of those games that wouldn’t be repeated again. And I was a little sore about getting thoroughly outplayed in the first half and even in the second half though to a lesser degree. With the benefit of a couple of months now, I have some mixed thoughts and emotions: 1) Watching Georgia struggle against mediocre talent and lose to inferior talent is both befuddling and infuriating as a Longhorns fan. We had the opportunity to really put our boot on the throat of this conference in our first year but showed up completely unprepared for the moment. We allowed and have had to put up with the crowing of “easy schedule, can’t beat the one good team” by not taking care of business. A rematch shuts that narrative up, if Texas can win. The more decisive fashion the better. 2) I find it hard to believe Sark will make the same mistake twice and have his team come out flat and sloppy. Maybe Georgia just matches up horribly for us, and football is a game of match ups so be it, but I think Sark has this team ready to win. I think you saw glimpses of that with Texas minimizing mistakes and “winning” the second half but of course the game was not very close and moral victories are for minor league coaches. At the end of the day Sark can scheme and prep and do everything with the whiteboard correct but he can’t go out there and make the throws and catches and hang on to the football for the guys. 3) Speaking of Sark, I think he’s the right man to bring us back to the promised land. I know there are benefits to the laser focus and blinders to “just win” with the authoritarian (e.g. Saban) and unethical (e.g. Urban) and say what you will about his past as a drunk, but if you ask folks who’ve been around recovering addicts and alkys, these folks who have hit rock bottom and found their way back up again have a powerful, 360 degree perspective. It’s less X’s and O’s and more about developing and getting the most out of your Jimmy’s and Joe’s. He reminds me of Mack Brown in that way, who had incredible success here (until he didn’t), and you see traces of his trying to impart the right behaviors and focus with stopping his guys from planting a flag (and trying to win with humility and respect) and imploring fans to stop throwing bottles, etc. which raises the question of Ewers: 4) No question Ewers is not having the season he nor the fans have wanted. Despite the national media attempts to hype, he’s had about an up-and-down and injury riddled season as I can recall from someone who it was supposed to be his year. That said, Arch is not an automatic upgrade either. He’s shown flashes of brilliance here and there but he’s also looked young at times as well. The hypothesis could be made that Arch, with more game experience could be transcendent in a way that Quinn looks to not be able to reach as a ceiling, but that would be betting your season on it. Quinn (like Beck at Georgia) could be the very definition of “good is the enemy of great” and damning with the faint praise that he’s just a “good QB”, or he (like Beck) could be the optimal QB in their QB room to a maximize the supporting cast around him and do enough to win it all, if can stay mistake free. This is the ultimate “hindsight is 20/20” and Sark will either get lionized for sticking with Ewers and trusting him if they win it all or the ire of fans everywhere for not having the conviction and frankly the balls to do the needful and bench Quinn for Arch. The TX/GA game will set this ball in motion depending on how Ewers plays. 5) This Texas team seems to be growing in confidence and strength. Maybe some unintended consequences of playing a weak schedule and rattling off wins (and avoiding upsets), but they played (the defense in particular) as if they felt like they were the best in the business. If they can take that attitude along with some pride about redeeming how they played in the first matchup, maybe they come out with their hair on fire. 6) Georgia is the opposite. They’ve been trending downward since the Longhorn game. Inconsistent and frustrating. Maybe the Longhorn game was their peak and they don’t have it in the tank to match that effort again or maybe another Longhorn game is just what Georgia needs to get the best out of their team and show up to play inspired football— especially on the defensive side which was a masterclass of a game. 7) I didn’t know “Jawja” was pejorative or a slur. I thought y’all leaned into the regional dialect thing here and embraced the slack jaw thing like with “Pee-cans”. Sorry for the offense. Bark bark go dawgs!

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