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The University of Texas is light years better academically than LSU. It's a much better school all the way around. Much better.
Did those people cite academic reasons? I would think it would have to be a pretty long list to find the major where LSU > Texas... Anyway, I think you're right overall. Maybe, LSU did a much better job of laying out their academic support system for athletes, etc... On top of that, as things stand today, LSU is a better football program. You only get to play college football once, so why risk going to an unknown like Texas when you have options like LSU that send players to the NFL and compete for championships. That's a perfectly valid argument. Nope. It doesn't.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>RT <a href="https://twitter.com/insidetroy">@insidetroy</a>: Former <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23USC&src=hash">#USC</a>*QB Max Wittek told me he plans to visit <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Texas&src=hash">#Texas</a>. No other visits planned as of now.</p>— Bryan Fischer (@BryanDFischer) <a href="https://twitter.com/BryanDFischer/statuses/431149958935236609">February 5, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Erin Hogan is probably my favorite Austin sports journalist. He has hosted a radio show here for over a decade. In his opinion, David Ash will not play another game for Texas. It's just his opinion but I put a lot of stock into it. The hits that took Ash out weren't that extreme and it caused severe brain impairment. How many people are knocked out for a season because of a concussion? He couldn't walk outside without glasses for months. In Hogan's opinion, Ash and his family will decide that it's not worth it. As a father, he could not imagine parents sending their kid out to a football field with his who life ahead of him given the prior problems. This is not based on inside information. The general attitude toward Ash is, "I'll believe it when I see it." Seeing him at the spring game would be significant. I still hope we redshirt the new kid and maybe Wittek can take the reins next year.
Doubt it. Ash has been cleared to practice this spring, and is the likely starter this year. Wittek is garbage
I really, really hope David Ash will not be taking any more snaps for this team. It's time to move on.
I have a friend that taught Ash in high school. She told me that, while he's a very nice kid, the parents are pushy. I wouldn't count on them asking him to hang it up if they haven't already.
For his health or for football reasons? If health, I tend to agree. 1 concussion is scary and shouldn't be taken lightly, but multiple seems like a real warning sign. If there is any potential for long-term damage at all, he/his doctors need to call it quits. If football reasons, I disagree. He's honestly a pretty good player. It's painfully obvious that he shouldn't have played until this past season at the earliest, but he looked fine at the beginning of last season. On top of that, he's simply better than everyone else that will be on campus (Wittek included). He's not Colt McCoy, but if he's healthy and some other pieces fall into place, Texas could definitely win 10 games next season.
It seems to me that many longhorn fans like the sort of attitude that Patterson and Strong have instilled into the program. To me, the list of requirements that Strong supposedly gave out to all the students epitomizes that. It wasn't only the requirements but the tone. That seems to be the kind of change the fans and then the regents wanted which is why Patterson was hired. Ziggy makes jokes every now and then about how A&M with the Swag Copter is the fun college for football and now UT is sort of the bleed out of your ass bootcamp. Both hyperboles. I think it a big way he is right. It would seem that UT fans are happy with that change to a more hard nose disciplined approach. When happens when that Swag copter continues to get the best recruits in the state? How long will the fans with their love of the change in culture if A&M stays a top 10 recruiting school and Texas falls to a top 25? I suppose yes, Strong can coach the hell out of the kids and make more with kids who might not have been evaluated well enough. That doesn't change the fact that acquiring better players still helps make a better team. It's not the only factor but a greater percentage of overall 5 star players become good starters than the percentage of overall 3 stars. As the aggs have said, the city of Austin doesn't matter. Very few good programs are in great cities. Players go where they want to go. I feel like that argument implies that athletes would come to UT in spite of the program simply because they want to go to Austin. (Or possibly because Forbes Magazine wrote an article about UT I don't know. We'll see. If we can take what we have and turn the program into a winning juggernaut like Saban did then I don't think it will matter. Until then, I don't know why a 5 star would want to go to UT over A&M. I said the same thing about the last guy to go from UT to A&M and reasons i got in response like the Red River Rivalry were obviously not enough to keep him with the program.
I know where you are coming from. I would like to note that Rudy T developed a reputation as a Players Coach. He wasn't a hard nose discipline guy at all. BUT, different sport and it's with professionals. Glad you have faith.
Probably a little of both. But I'm just ready to see someone new at the helm. They could probably win 10 games next season IF he stays healthy which is starting to become a big if with him. I also agree that he was put out there too early, he was pretty hard to watch at first.
The appeal of it is installing disipline and healthy processes into the system. Process is important - but Mack Brown wasn't remotely a process person (there was a great BC article about this). He just looked at results - that's what caused him to blow up everything that made him succcessful when he lost a fluke game to Alabama. You can tell with Charlie Strong that he has a solid process-driven mind. The specifics of the process are secondary and probably overblown as to how strict it really is. Rick Barnes did the same when he got to UT. He cleaned up the way the program was running, eliminating the "Runnin' Horns" concept, stopping players from wearing headphones around campus, etc. The reaction was similar that he was taking all the "fun" away from the team. He also started out horribly his first season - and then proceeding to kick ass for the next decade, recruiting star after star. Bottom line is that if UT wins, he'll get the recruits. Strong wasn't anywhere close to my first choice, but between him and Mack Brown, I'd much rather have a coach that hopefully takes 3 star players and makes them play like 4 stars than a coach that takes 5 star players and makes them play like 4 stars. There are lots of good players out there - there's no reason UT and A&M can't both be successful. When they are in the same conference, it's much harder because one is always "better" than the other, but when they aren't on the same playing field, there's no reason they can't both do well - you see this with the big Florida schools for the last few decades. The biggest thing that will hold UT back, in my opinion, is the dumbass decisions they made with regard to the Big12 - first, trying to save it in the first place, and then opposing expansion. When you replace national brands with TCU, the result is a new SWC - a conference with no real exciting core teams outside of UT and OU with any national appeal. Recruiting a player into the B12 in general is going to be harder as a result. As bad as UT's recruiting class was, I believe it was still the best in the Big12. That bodes badly for the future of the conference. 4 of the top 6 national classes were SEC West teams, I believe. Competition breeds excellence which breeds competition. The real challenge for Strong will be to overcome that problem.
Rudy T was favorable to his star players but he did have a dog house. A good relationship between coach and best player is needed for success.
http://www.cbssports.com/collegefoo...ie-strong-we-not-going-to-be-a-gadget-program Since it doesn't look like we'll be seeing Texas and Texas A&M facing off on the field any time soon, we'll all just have to settle for recruiting battles between the schools. And if Charlie Strong and Kevin Sumlin want to take small shots at one another along the way, even better. During his signing day press conference on Wednesday, Strong was asked about competing with Kevin Sumlin and Texas A&M on the recruiting trail. The subject of Texas A&M's Swagcopter -- the helicopter Sumlin uses on some recruiting trips -- also came up, and it drew an interesting response from Strong. "The university speaks for itself," said Strong. "We don't need gadgets. We're not going to be a gadget program."
To add to my previous post, here's an article about Barnes and what went wrong the last few years: http://www.usatoday.com/story/sport...nghorns-basketball-coach-rick-barnes/5264209/ He's self-aware, identified problems, took responsibility, made moves to fix them, etc. It's very much a process-driven approach. I can't imagine ever reading something similar about Mack Brown.
I wouldn't say Texas has kicked ass on a national level but it is certainly the most successful era of horns basketball. The best thing we have to show is a single final 4 appearance more than 10 years ago. This. If he just wins then I think the recruits will follow but I feel like we are going to see more competition for Texas recruits from out of state schools than we ever have before. I was really shocked with how well LSU did and I'm sure more will follow in the next few years. It would have been nice to see Florida St. and Clemson join the conference but I'm still skeptical as to the validity of the claims that they were ready to come and Texas said No. They were eventually locked up by the ACC. I think OU will bounce back next year and they would be my favorite to win the conference. Sadly for Texas, I think Baylor will be there with them. The program is opening up a beautiful stadium and is gaining popularity within the state. Texas is facing more battles from schools within the state and from out side. We will see.
