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.