Against ULM, Arch Manning was 15 of 29 for 258 yards, two touchdowns, and two interceptions. He showed good self-awareness by giving his performance a C+, which is what it was. The main reason he completed only 52% of his throws was that he attempted numerous long throws, resulting in completions of 56 and 46 yards and also several incompletions. I dislike getting into modern metrics, but Paul Wadlington of Inside Texas highlighted an interesting statistic. Manning’s average depth of target was 14.8 yards per throw. Quinn Ewers’ average depth of throw this season is 8.4 yards.
Arch probably enjoyed attempting several deep shots, but he didn’t decide to do that unilaterally. Steve Sarkisian said after the game he regretted making the deep ball such a significant component of the ULM game plan. In hindsight, he lamented not calling for more easy completions for Manning in his first start. I don’t have a problem with Manning making like Curtis Lemay and bombing away. When else will Manning and his receivers get to practice the timing of deep balls, if not against the likes of ULM? I hope we don’t hear regrets about the game plan from Sarkisian in a future post-mortem.
Mack Brown Meltdown
You probably know Mack’s Tarheels lost to James Madison last Saturday 70-50. JM scored 53 points in the first half. Did Brown rehire Manny Diaz as defensive coordinator? In the locker room after the game, Brown asked his players if he should resign because of the team’s embarrassing performance. Not a good move. Not a good look. Later, Mack said, I wasn’t there to quit. I was walking there to say, ‘Hey, we stunk. If this isn’t working, man, help me. I’ll get out of here.’ That’s what my purpose was. It didn’t turn out well. We shouldn’t be talking about me. We should be talking about the kids.”
Ah yes, Mack and his kids. What’s being underreported is that while Mack was taking responsibility for the loss, out of the other side of his mouth, he blamed his coaching staff for not having the team ready. During Texas’ 5-7 season in 2010, Brown threw his staff under the bus, saying he couldn’t trust them. I heard from an inside source during that season that Brown was playing golf on Friday afternoons of home games with big-money donors leaving his assistants to make final preparations for the upcoming game.
In 2011, I wrote a little read story about Mack Brown’s legacy at Texas https://willieearl.com/the-unfinished-odyssey-of-mack-brown/
In it, I quoted a vaudevillian performer who said, “A seasoned performer knows when to leave the stage.”
Welcome to the SEC
The SEC laid out a nice welcome mat for Texas’ first season in the SEC. The last time I looked, Texas was favored by 38 points over Mississippi State. In addition to Mississippi State, Texas gets the rest of the bottom of the SEC this season, with Florida and Vanderbilt on the schedule.
On the other hand, Oklahoma opened SEC play with a loss to #5 Tennessee. They also have #4 Alabama and #6 Ole Miss this season.
Paul Finebaum
On a drive to San Antonio a couple of years ago, I was flipping around SiriusXM and landed on the Paul Finebaum show. I had never listened to the show before, but it’s quite entertaining. Finebaum takes calls from SEC fans. Most of them have strong southeastern accents—so strong that with my poor hearing, sometimes I can’t understand what they’re saying. What’s entertaining is that callers criticize and malign the opinions of other callers from rival programs with vitriol. Paul just politely listens. Many callers are men 50-80 years old and talk smack about their team’s upcoming opponents like adolescents.
Sometimes, callers are mad at Finebaum. This week, Jim from Tuscaloosa wished a heart attack on Finebaum. The first day I listened to the show, a caller called Finebaum a “Yankee lover” because he said good things about Ohio State. That got me hooked.
Mississippi State
As I mentioned above, Texas is a 38-point favorite. Mississippi State lost last week to a bad Florida team 45-28. They are 1-3 on the season. On offense, they run the Veer N Shoot, whatever that is. Their quarterback, Michael Van Buren, is a true freshman. He replaced starter Blake Shapen last week when Shapen went down with an injury.
In the ESPN power ranking, MSU is 72nd. Their defensive success rate is 130th. I believe that’s as low as you can go.
*******
This column is coming to you early this week because I’m headed to Vestal, New York, for the 1974 Vestal High School 50th class reunion, of which I’m an honorary member. Why am I not an actual member? Well, it’s not because I’m not a high school graduate. I am. If you’re curious about my honorary status, you should read these.
The rest of the story is coming soon.
Hook “Em,
W.E.
Songs of the week
I need aTV when I’ve got T-Rex haha
I’ve been trying to resist but it’s futile.
Perfect game last week from Arch. Good enough to whet the appetite but enough bad to keep the bench Ewers fans at bay.
Thanks for the redux on All the Young Dudes. Can’t get enough of that one.