Texas' roster rehabilitation nearing full bill of health
Steve Sarkisian finds himself at an interesting point in his rebuild, not just with the schedule stiffening in competition in the next two weeks, but with his roster makeover.
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We see it frequently where a new coach wins with the preceding coach’s players. Dave Aranda did that in his second year following Matt Rhule at Baylor, and Sonny Dykes is doing it now after following Gary Patterson at TCU. Some coaches sustain success after following the previous coach which highlights the previous staff’s deficiencies with development and/or schemes. But then some coaches fall off after players they inherited depart. Over time this exposes their inability to evaluate and recruit, and perhaps sustain culture. Some times we see a slow, gradual decline even the smart people at Stanford are slow to recognize.
Sark didn’t have success in his first year, and 8 games in, his second season is still to be determined. That’s in line with inheriting players who hadn’t been adequately developed yet still had untapped talent remaining. The players Sark inherited have largely improved under the new coaching staff, as evidenced by this write-up. Development and schemes appear to be in place, even if wins and losses don’t affirm that to the degree we’d like. (That isn’t to say schemes are perfect, but UT’s issues appear more situational than schematic, combined with lack of experience at key positions.)
Transitions don’t often happen over night, but whether Sark wins or not this season, let’s say 8-4 or better, his roster overhaul will continue at the speed of light.
By the time spring ball starts in March, it’s possible only David Gbenda will remain from the 2019 class. A handful of 2020 players will have key roles: Jerrin Thompson, Jahdae Barron, Jaylan Ford, Alfred Collins, Vernon Broughton and Jake Majors immediately come to mind. Looking at the 2021 class, there are about 10 surefire contributors next season.
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Attrition is a bit of a touchy subject, though increasing traffic into the portal is beginning to normalize transfer discussion. Still, we won’t speculate on names of players who will depart, but we will see a wave similar to last season when a number of players decided to transfer. That’s simply part of the roster life-cycle, as is losing key players to the NFL, which hasn’t happened enough of the last decade. However, UT’s losses to the NFL will likely come in numbers we aren’t accustomed to of late. That speaks to development, and also reminds us Tom Herman did recruit decently well.
Despite those losses, Texas is barreling towards the best roster health we’ve seen in quite some time.
What’s a healthy roster?
– A quarterback of the present and a quarterback of the future to develop.
– Talent at space force positions (QB, OT, WR, CB, Edge). Talent at Edge is there, experience is not
– Fairly even talent distribution across entire roster. The offense is further along in this regard, but we are seeing Texas stockpile legitimate talent on defense
– Future starters as depth, not just depth as depth. This is key to building a plug and play machine
Some of these can be argued as incomplete, which is why I stated the roster is barreling towards health. One factor that may be lacking by the time this team kicks off next year is experience, but the program is earning that the hard way this season and should be better for it next.
