The 2023 season of Willie Earl was a great one featuring new readers, new Over/Under Players, a new website with a very cool Over/Under Leaderboard, and most importantly a Big 12 Championship and a berth in CFP. It was my all-time favorite Willie Earl season.
Over/Under Outstanding Players
Mark Adams is the overall season winner with 94.3 points. Helen Frink finished second and she was the first half of the season winner. Clayton Frink finished in third overall but was first in Over/Under victories with three or was it four? Whichever the case he had the most wins. Steve Holstead finished fourth and Reed Ramlow finished fifth. Steve finished just .6 points ahead of Reed.
One of the big stories of the season was the emergence of John Spafford as an elite Over/Under player. John is your second half season winner with 56.3 points. John won twice and finished second at least once. John won the Moneyball game three times. John accomplished these feats after missing the first five games of the season. Mark Adams and Clayton Frink finished the second half second and third respectively.
See the final standings linked below.
https://keepthescore.com/board/tppmnybxcnxsr/
https://keepthescore.com/board/nysvvckvsbpmr/
Confession
It’s nice to have a Longhorn coach going into his fourth season who is not on the hotseat. I’m glad Sarkisian proved me wrong in not believing he could deliver championships and bring the program back to national prominence. I have a confession though. It’s easier to write columns from a critical perspective than a positive one. At least for this writer it is. I hope Sark keeps making my task a hard one.
Steve Sarkisian’s reality
I expect he will keep Texas in the top ten nationally and I’ll predict right now that Texas will qualify for CFP next season when it expands to 12 teams. I’m guessing they’ll be seeded fourth, fifth, or sixth. Fourth would be great because it would earn the Horns a first round bye.
There is a catch to this success in my opinion. I think the reality Texas faces under Sarkisian is that he will be outcoached four or five times a season. I don’t think they’ll lose four or five times a season. Some of those games Sarkisian to his credit will have too much talent to lose. But at this point in his career, he’s not a great gameday coach. We just witnessed that in the Sugar Bowl.
Advice
I think Sarkisian needs to hire the best offensive coordinator he can find with whom he is compatible with and delegate the play calling to him. This would allow him to manage the team and the program more effectively.
I think Sarkisian also needs to find his “Coach Boom.” Pete Kwiatkowski ain’t him.
Parting shot
For years I’ve been threatening to write off-season columns. These threatened columns would not be Texas Football related.
Right here and now I’m turning that threat into a promise because I’ve got a series of columns (stories) mostly written. They may or may not be of interest to most of you, but I hope they’ll be entertaining to some of you.
Good luck to us all in 2024 and beyond.
Hook ‘Em,
W.E.
Bill, it was a great season and your over/under provided lots of intrigue. I genuinely enjoyed your columns and information about the teams playing the horns! Keep it up.
Thanks Dave. Will do. We need to schedule a golf outing this winter/spring,
Well done on the year. Your blend of football analysis with songs of the week (always great picks), and the over/under, make your column something we all forward to very week in the fall. Look forward to the non-football story columns.
Thanks Reed. I appreciate your particiapation always. Any plans to visit Austin in ’24?
Bill – I have really enjoyed your columns and participating in the over/under games each week. I appreciate the call out – the word elite is rarely associated with my name so i will accept it despite the fact that it’s based on blind luck. It’s been fun to reconnect with you and see some of the other names from our glory days at UT, keep up the good work and i look forward to the off season reading. See you soon i hope.
Thanks John. Blind luck can get somebody one win but it can’t account for multiple first and second place finishes. It absolutely has been fun to be reconnected. Hope to see you at Frank’s place in July if not sooner.