I think they will have to give up the Longhorn network whenever the rights come up again, because that gets worse ratings than Al Gore’s network. It’s ESPN’s version of our medical program.
Texas game thread
- Thread starter TU 1978
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I think they will have to give up the Longhorn network whenever the rights come up again, because that gets worse ratings than Al Gore’s network. It’s ESPN’s version of our medical program.
I saw that Herman said this was a marquee win over one of the top three programs in Oklahoma. I think if we have that title as well as Arkansas state champs, it was a pretty good year.
There is no way Texas wins 5 games this year. 5 is too high. Perhaps Herman is kissing his players the wrong way.
I have a different take on how Texas will do this year than those predicting 5 or less wins. They have talent all over the field. Their D line made it difficult for us to run and we have a solid O line and excellent running backs. They have speed at the skill positions. They are young and as the season progresses they will continue to improve.
Fun fact, LHN isn’t even an option on Houston’s biggest cable platform.
I rarely miss a game for either squad. Neither team has a player with the leg strength to be a division 1 kicker. In fact, two of our kickers arguably have enough soccer talent to make our nationally ranked soccer team. One of them would likely start ... if he was 2 inches taller.
Romo has a big time leg. Wonder if Monty could make a call to Staurovsky to come in and work with him. With his leg he could hit 55 yards w/o a problem. The biggest issue I see with Romo is timing. His KO routine takes a long time and probably helps him generate his power. A FG action is much quicker and has to be timed right with the snap and placement of the ball.
Exactly. There is more to kicking than accuracy and power.
In the 80s and 90s, soccer style kickers were more accurate than the old school straight on kickers. The linemen were shorter and the rushing less sophisticated. So it made sense to give up 5 to 10 yards in power to get someone more accurate out there. So you could go troll the best goal keepers on elite soccer teams and find somebody that had the leg to put a ball into a trash can at 75 yards. Those guys were significant more accurate at 45 yards with a football than any straight kicker. Further complicating things, soccer styles have changed in the last 15 years and kids are now taught to play the ball out of the back. So you don’t have as many kids from age 10 to 18 learning how to boot the ball as far and as accurate as possible. You can get away with playing a talented (and/fearless) keeper whose kicking power is suspect if need be and many programs are doing that if the keeper is tall, has large hands, or has good instincts or leaping ability. So the pool of kids you can find on soccer pitch who can really kick is lower than it was 25 years ago.
Now, with the improvements in rush techniques, better athleticism when rushing from the edge and taller linemen, your quickness, strength, and accuracy are all distilled down into a much narrower window. A window that few people have and even with that natural talent, it takes practice and real reps. So these kids are not unicorns, but it’s hard to pick a reliable kicker out of the crowd, even with all the recruiting services and evaluation camps. It’s one of the reasons coaches try tell them to walk on andbpractice for two years. And also why a lot of parents resist that plan if their kid is scholarship worthy and they don’t know for sure based on depth that he is going to play.
In our case, our kickers just haven’t had many real reps.
It isn’t an easy process to analyze why kicks are missed. The psychology of the kicker is important but overblown. It takes years for a snapper to adjust their snap so the precise number of revolutions happens on the ball before it arrives at the holder’s hands at the precise speed necessary to avoid disrupting the kickers wind up. Precision in some cases down to the 1/8 of a revolution. Similarly, whether your holder is new to the snapper, which is the case here, can make a difference. Some like it high, others low, others it doesn’t matter. And if either kid is left handed and the kicker is a righty and never kicked with lefties the whole thing can become 6s and 7s. Angle of the kick, position of the ball on the field, near the ppponents bench or near the TU sideline, how far away the crowd is from the kick, these all affect the complex mechanics of kicking. I’ve heard visiting kickers have trouble kicking into our north end zone because the Case Center screws up their depth perception and thus their wind up to the kick.
There’s a lot more going on than just talent and even the very best often struggle early on.
In the 80s and 90s, soccer style kickers were more accurate than the old school straight on kickers. The linemen were shorter and the rushing less sophisticated. So it made sense to give up 5 to 10 yards in power to get someone more accurate out there. So you could go troll the best goal keepers on elite soccer teams and find somebody that had the leg to put a ball into a trash can at 75 yards. Those guys were significant more accurate at 45 yards with a football than any straight kicker. Further complicating things, soccer styles have changed in the last 15 years and kids are now taught to play the ball out of the back. So you don’t have as many kids from age 10 to 18 learning how to boot the ball as far and as accurate as possible. You can get away with playing a talented (and/fearless) keeper whose kicking power is suspect if need be and many programs are doing that if the keeper is tall, has large hands, or has good instincts or leaping ability. So the pool of kids you can find on soccer pitch who can really kick is lower than it was 25 years ago.
Now, with the improvements in rush techniques, better athleticism when rushing from the edge and taller linemen, your quickness, strength, and accuracy are all distilled down into a much narrower window. A window that few people have and even with that natural talent, it takes practice and real reps. So these kids are not unicorns, but it’s hard to pick a reliable kicker out of the crowd, even with all the recruiting services and evaluation camps. It’s one of the reasons coaches try tell them to walk on andbpractice for two years. And also why a lot of parents resist that plan if their kid is scholarship worthy and they don’t know for sure based on depth that he is going to play.
In our case, our kickers just haven’t had many real reps.
It isn’t an easy process to analyze why kicks are missed. The psychology of the kicker is important but overblown. It takes years for a snapper to adjust their snap so the precise number of revolutions happens on the ball before it arrives at the holder’s hands at the precise speed necessary to avoid disrupting the kickers wind up. Precision in some cases down to the 1/8 of a revolution. Similarly, whether your holder is new to the snapper, which is the case here, can make a difference. Some like it high, others low, others it doesn’t matter. And if either kid is left handed and the kicker is a righty and never kicked with lefties the whole thing can become 6s and 7s. Angle of the kick, position of the ball on the field, near the ppponents bench or near the TU sideline, how far away the crowd is from the kick, these all affect the complex mechanics of kicking. I’ve heard visiting kickers have trouble kicking into our north end zone because the Case Center screws up their depth perception and thus their wind up to the kick.
There’s a lot more going on than just talent and even the very best often struggle early on.
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