Leaderboard

The Hispanic Titanic is having perhaps the best offensive season in Texas baseball history. He is also leading across numerous NCAA offensive categories and will be a strong contender for the Dick Howser (5th for Texas - Scott Bryant, Brooks Kieschnick x2, Jungman) and Golden Spikes Awards (1st for Texas). Current NCAA ranks - HRs 1st, 7th batting avg (2nd among major colleges), 4th on base percentage (2nd among major colleges), 2nd RBIs, 2nd slugging percentage, 1st total bases. Without a doubt, the best slugger in the league. All Time Texas ranks - 2nd batting average, 1st slugging%, 1st on base%, 2nd in HRs (on pace for #1 with 30) , 9th RBIs (on pace for #3 with 89), 8th Total Bases (on pace for #1 with 202). If he continues at his current pace, you'd be hard pressed to name a Texas batter who had a better season at the plate (predicted finishes are assuming Texas goes 0-2 in Big 12 and regional, more games and more stats are more likely).

Horns down karma

Sark mentioned he would be meeting with Sean Mcvay during a trip to California in order to "find a few more touchdowns". In other words, talk shop with one of the best offensive minds in the game to try and take away a few new schemes. I'm not sure what else there is to say about it.

A couple things on Pitt transfer WR Jordan Addison from IT... - Texas is being ultra aggressive in an attempt to get him locked down before he makes any other visits, especially to USC. - he does not have a firm date set to visit USC, it's either this week or "at some point" which is curious considering all the talk that they're the clear frontrunner (my opinion is Addison/USC may be letting things cool off a bit there temporarily due to tampering accusations). - Coach Marion is huge here, and if Addison has concerns about Ewers being unproven, then he's the guy to calm those fears. - Texas has "drastically" improved their chances, and they hope to know something by tomorrow or Thursday.

You take him, period. You take him again because Whittington can't stay healthy and Hall is a wildcard.

Controversial ex-Oklahoma coach suspects tampering.

View from the Cheap Seats-Spring Game So full disclosure, more a very controlled scrimmage than an actual game. And never forget, spring games are largely zero sum games. If the offense looks good, that then highlights potential problems with the D and vice versa. What we often can glean is insight into specific players and this spring game was very interesting from that standpoint. Clearly the #1 concern for most is the QB race. Spoiler alert, All World wunderkid Quinn Ewers is QB1 for TEXAS in 2022. Sark is being polite (and smart) claiming Card has a shot but that ship sailed the day Ewers committed. Barring Ewers completely melting down or injury of course. Sorry not sorry if we are bursting any bubbles or providing any spoilers. Still, Card will spend 2022 as QB2 and is one heart beat away from taking the reins. Both QBs had their moments, just based on this performance, neither took the job. Ewers had some great completions (the best likely a pass to J Sanders with a defender in his face) but an ugly/never should have been thrown INT. Card has a very nice arm and is more a threat in the running game than Ewers. He recorded some nice completions as well So other than seeing some specific players in action, we will learn little to nothing from the Spring Game though ANY chance to see the Horns on the field is a great excuse to write a Cheap Seats. Will start focusing on players who stood out to us, our view of Sark and 2022 then break down our thoughts on the offensive position groups. Honestly, the D is such a question mark right now, not sure we’ll know much until we are deeper into the season. They gotta be better than last year but will they be good enough to keep an offense that will score lots points from winning? And if it starts rough, how long does Sark wait to turn it over to Gary Patterson? Top players Biggest head turner to the Cheap Seats was Isaiah Neyor who showed why he was so highly touted as a transfer kid. Recorded the 1st catch of the game where he caught a pass in the flat and juked a DB for a 17 yard gain. He also would record a beautiful slant TD from Ewers. A very lightly recruited 2 star coming out of Ft Worth (boy did Rivals miss on this one), he showed he has serious game. He would be our Offensive Player of the Game. Roschon Johnson- Stop us if you have heard this before but the young man is simply a beast. Biggest play was a 55 yard run for a TD through the middle of the D. As we said, often a zero sum game. Enjoy him now, this senior will be drawing an NFL paycheck this time next year. Xavier Worthy-Picking up where he left off as the top freshman WR in TEXAS history, he showed why he’s on the Biletnikoff watch list as a soph. Our WR group looks stout. Keilen Robinson-Another Bama transfer who showed a few flashes last year, showed off his speed in the spring game. Johnathan Brooks-Not to be outdone by his fellow RBs, JB opened with a nice 20 yard run. RB room is loaded. Mo Blackwell-on a day where it was really hard to judge defensive play, this LB now converted to Safety made 3 BIG plays. Huge hit on Xaiver along the sidelines, big stop of J Sanders after a catch then a 3rd and goal stuff in the backfield of a RB. We confess, Mo was a pet cat of the Cheap Seats when he was recruited. 1st team OL-they looked good against the 1st team D. True freshman Cole Hutson started at right guard, Soph Hayden Conner at LT with Senior Junior Angilua at left guard, Soph Majors at Center and Senior Christian Jones at RT. Soph Andrej Karic was held out. Thoughts on the upcoming season In the history of TEXAS football, only 3 Head Coaches have losing seasons. Jack Chevigney of Norte Dame fame. We would lose him on Iwo Jima in World War II, Charlie “CFS” Strong who rivaled Johnny Makovic as the worst head coach in my lifetime (though Johnny Mon gave TEXAS some great moments including the 1st BigXII title in the new league’s history) and Sark. Sark needs to go 7-5 to have a career .500 record at TEXAS. Someone else said, Sark’s an easy guy to like and cheer for, he is clearly an excellent recruiter and has raised the talent level of the Horns. The #1 question, is he a championship level Head Coach? We know his reputation as an excellent Offensive Coordinator though out biggest concern about him was play calling breakdowns in the 2nd half of 4 of our 6 losses in a row. We held halftime leads in those 4 games, we simply could not sustain drives to close out the games. Yes, the defense shares in some of that blame but when you stop running plays that work, when your best players are 2 outstanding RBs and a 3rd “change of pace type and you cannot get them into a position to succeed, questions are raised. Not to belabor a year we'd like to forget but vs OU outscored 35-10 in 2nd half 3 of 6 non scoring 2nd half drives were 3 and outs. Sustain drives and we win OSU outscored 19-7 in the 2nd half, 6 of 7 drives 4 and out Baylor outscored 21-10, 2 of 5 drives 3 and outs/turnovers It has been said, the last time the “culture” on the 40 was changed was 2004 with the arrival of Greg Robinson and Dick Tomey. Gene Chizik got the ring but those two changed the culture. Can Sark bring about that level of change? Barring another 5-7 season, this recruiting class gives him 2023 for sure. But TEXAS needs to show year over year improvement. And one key recruitment left and he could seriously impact the play of the D in 2022, Ochaun Mathis. TEXAS needs a Joseph Ossai level disruptor and OM can be that guy who makes everyone around him better. We see this season as 8-4. Way too early projections: La-Monroe Win Bama LOSS UTSA, the mighty Road Runners Win @TT Win but it’s in Lubbock WVU Win OU Toss up ISU Win as they lost a ton @OSU LOSS They are likely the conference favorite pre season @KSU Win TCU Toss up @Kansas Win Baylor Toss Up/leaning loss Oddly scheduled as a Sat game so T+1 maybe over Offensive Position Group breakdown QBs Well we have loads of talent. The most talent om the QB room since the VY days? Possibly though very little experience. Ewers, Card Maalik Murray and Charles Wright, simply the greatest name in TEXAS football history, make for a nice 4 headed QB room with walk on Ben Ballard. Charles Wright appears to be QB3 this year as he was the 3rd QB off the bench. We assume MM shirts. And do we land a Manning for 2023? RBs The most loaded position for the Longhorns in 2022 highlighted by Heisman candidate BiJion Robinson, backed up by Roschon Johnson who would start for every other team in the BigXII save KSU. RB1 & RB2 likely in their last season in Burnt Orange. The spring game featured the future at the position. Keileen Robinson, Jonathan Brooks and Jayden Blue. KR is EXPLOSIVE and Jonathan Brooks off for 20 on his 1st carry. WR Arguably the 2nd most loaded position group on the team lead by Belitnikoff candidate Soph Xavier Worthy. Marcus Washington has had an excellent spring but is in a serious battle for his spot with portal transfer Isaiah Neyor, one of the top portal recruits available. They are joined by slot receiver Jordan “if he can stay healthy then he’s a star” Whittington. Neyor with the 1st catch of the spring game and he showed why he was so coveted. Juked a DB to gain 17 off a pass to the flat. Nor would that be his last grab. There is also a unicorn on the team and rumors are that Troy Omeire may or may not be available in the fall. TE This is one of the more interesting stories coming out of spring drills. The position is wide open this year with the departure of Cade Brewer and transfer of Jared Wiley. Reports are that Ja’Tavion Sanders has shown his star potential this spring and that Bama transfer Jaheel Billingsley is quickly learning the system. Both could be weapons in the passing game and both had catches in the spring game. Sark has used TEs heavily in the past but last year our 3 TEs combined for just 32 catches. Juan Davis is the only returning TE to record a catch and he only had 1. He and Gunnar Helm back up SJ & JB and give the Horns a very athletic TE room. OL Now we come to the biggest question mark on the offense. The good news, there is an abundance of talent arriving on campus. Bad news, ZERO experience comes with them. We have 7 inbound OLs, we are predicting that 2 of them are starters by the Red River War and that 3 more are solidly in the 2 deep this year. Growing pains ahead for sure but in 2023 and 2024 we should see serious dividends. Hope you enjoyed our takes, 5 months till real football. Spring game highlights

Struggled with the decision to enter the portal not where he was going, imo. I honestly never thought he was coming here and was ok with that The part I don't like is that someone like Riley will never have to really "coach" and develop players which, imo, would show him to be a fraud.

Best of luck to the young man Hope he shines there.

IT seems pretty confident on CB Malik Muhammed.

IT had an update this morning on Pitt transfer WR Jordan Addison. After things had cooled off a bit after leaving Austin, they're back to watching this recruitment with "extreme interest", even after his official visit to USC. They say there's a good chance he'll visit Alabama in the coming days, but Texas is squarely in the recruitment and they're "buckling up for a potentially interesting week."

I think you are being very generous with your assessment. I think PK’s resume grants a little patients. Though last year darn near caused me to knee-jerk. I wish offensive minded Texas head coaches would just hire DCs that play traditional defense. PK’s scheme has a slight Orlando scent. Act like a blue blood! I really wanted Ash to stay! But PK has had considerable success... so I’ll sit back and expect tons of improvement in 2022. If not, then a hefty knee-jerk!

We had 2,600 yards passing last year. Bama had 4,800 and in 2020 they had 4,600. LSU in 2019 5,900. It’s tough to divide up 2,600 yards to multiple players but 5,000 to 6,000 yards would give everyone not named Addison a career year. If we are going to be an elite program it requires a roster where Coaches must find enough touches to keep stars happy. That’s much easier than scheming our one good receiver open or creating opportunities for one dynamic RB. Addison on the team would make Worthy our second best receiver. That’s scary

IT saying Addison has been in Austin for more than just today. He's scheduled to leave in the morning.

An Ole Miss On3 mod put in a Texas pick for QB Arch Manning.

Anytime. Won't be here tomorrow due to Mother's Day activities and my value of my own life.

We don't need Addison. The WR room is already top heavy. Besides, with the tampering allegations flying, it's best to fly low on this one.

There you go. Get the government to legislate college football. They'll get it straightened out.

Hard to really support college football near as much as I used to. Before, I had a common bond with a UT football player as we both fell in love with UT and wanted to be a part of of it. Now you don’t know if a player loves UT the way you do (or did) or is it all because of a paycheck? College teams won’t earn a NC anymore. It will simply go to the highest bidder.

If it's any consolation, there are very few tweets that I don't need translated. But I'm not convinced that I'm missing anything either. Put it another way, I do better with English than I do with Tweets.

College football is now a de facto NFL2.0 where players can play for whatever team they want and teams can pay whatever they want for talent. All this means is there will be a few mega teams that can honestly compete and all the rest may very well drop out and form a true amateur athletics conference or drop football all together. I am finding college football less and less different from the NFL. Not going to be as much fun and may just find something else to do Saturday if this continues on its present course.

If you ever need a sheep breeder, College Station has an entire campus.

Pot meet kettle. https://www.texasfootball.com/article/2022/05/18/nick-saban-accuses-texas-a-m-of-buying-entire-2022-recruiting-class?ref=article_preview_title&fbclid=IwAR3yiF6CJh56mI1i9mYIy-75yd5JRnNLwmN-KGyrb27Kwgc0k4Zx3-8nad0

More like

It’s difficult to believe that as highly ranked as some of the recent classes have been that they were not very talented. Seems to me that there has not been any talent development for most of the last decade. That is the area I am most interested to see if this staff can change. Texas attracts talent. Just doesn’t seem like they have been able to do anything with it in quite a while.

Regardless of where Addison goes I believe we already pulled the best thing Pitt had going. In all of this recruitment drama I started doing a little research on Coach Marion. He is the REAL DEAL. Mark my words he is going to be a super star in the coaching world in the near future. Sark was a genius to get him to Austin.

A trio of Burrell, Gullette and Hill would certainly get your LB depth fixed.

T9 Nixon works around a leadoff IF single, Ks two and Horns win 12-2

B9 Hansen retires first two, gives up a double, and Pierce goes to the pen Stevens in, WP moves runner to 3B, walks the first batter for runners on the corners. F9 ends it Horns win

Just useless (perhaps) musings with my coffee. With the understanding that relying on freshman out of high school to start (particularly on the OL) is risky business.... if I were to place a top 3 priority list for portal pick-ups to be competitive in 2022, based on last year’s performance, it would look something like this: 1. DE / Edge - Desperate measures to pick up 2 competent edge players. It looked like we had 1 good one, but ultimately struck out. 2. Left OT - Even a competent grad transfer filler to keep a true freshman from lining up against BAMA to protect our prize QB’s blind side. Now I may be wrong here... but I didn’t sense any type of urgency whatsoever. Maybe kicked the tires on Mimm? Struck out. 3. Inside linebacker - one scouting service had our 2 LBs ranked last and second last in the Big 12. Ford looked decent to good, and tallied 3rd most tackles on the team but for some reason couldn’t unseat either starter. Zero added. Maybe coaches don’t want one year stop-gaps. Maybe I don’t know squat (good possibility here).... maybe my musings are just wrong.... but based on priority needs, I don’t see us utilizing the Wild Wild West portal system - to our clear advantage. Disclaimer: We did add quality players at positions of need (of which we have many). My musings are based on my subjective priority list. Be gentle.

So if we don't get Addison, the #1 ranked player and #1 WR, do we go after the #2 ranked player and #2 WR on that list? Seems like I've heard of the guy before, Bru McCoy

Except that they're right (except Riley, who is as dishonest as they come). At this current trajectory, college football will be ruined in short order. When you have to recruit your own players to stay because other teams are trying to pry them away from you – the system is broken. USC laid out a 6-figure deal for Xavier Worthy. USC does this because the NCAA is toothless. It is clear to me that whoever dreamed this stuff up didn't think it through very well and we'll be lucky if they act quick enough to save this American past time.

Not sure I get all the hand wringing. Saban lost players to the portal, Day lost the highest rated QB in the 2021 class to, wait for it....Texas. Players come and go. Sark and Texas are not for everyone. I'm sure there will be others that signed this year that don't work out and likely some from others places that find their fit here. My guess is the NIL and portal will continue to generate consistent ups and downs in player movement.

Other than our pitching & hitting, this team is pretty good! @joeywa, you're a better fan than me. I have to clip my toenails or something like that. Maybe we can salvage a game at home tomorrow.

Technically Addison's name is not in the portal yet, but USC already has a NIL deal for him. How in the F does that happen and not be tampering?

"Ewers was the backup to Stroud." If Ewers was the backup to Stroud, I'm sure there is a logical explanation for why 2 other QB's played in front of him when Stroud was not playing

Call me around signing day in Dec. . . .

I just want Sark to pick the best QB. But all I really care about is that the good guys (the ones in Burnt Orange) win on Saturdays.

We're 8 months and a football season out from signing day. A little early to be disappointed.

Did we win?