Welcome to College football Hater Report: An analysis of some players, teams and trends in sports that deserve ire. If you are not a pessimist, proceed with caution. This is inspired by Brad Botkin. NBA Haters Report.
Steve Sarkisian thinks we're stupid
During Monday's press conference, Texas coach Steve Sarkisian was asked why his 7-3 team hasn't been successful this season. Halfway through the question he intervened.
“According to WHO?”
To be fair, it's not Sarkisian's job to worry about the preseason AP Poll, which ranked Texas No. 1 for the first time in program history. It's not his job to pay attention to expectations for his offense, which ranks 13th out of 16 teams in the SEC in yards per game since the conference began. It's not his job to read what people said about his program after the 35-10 loss to Georgia. And he was the day before exploring Texas will fall from Ranked 10th to 17th in the latest College Football Playoff rankings.virtually quelling any potential playoff argument for Austin should the Longhorns win.
But this is Sarkisian's job is to know that he took a first-time rookie quarterback and preseason Heisman contender and built a passing offense that ranks in the bottom half of the conference. Seeing his program's offensive line collapse the second All-American tackle Calvin Banks left. To implement it, teams must accumulate 83 yards against Georgia in three games in the last 13 months. Realize that something is wrong with his vaunted defense, which has been exposed in the air in recent weeks.
Sargsyan receives a salary $10.8 million a year to diagnose and fix all of these problems. The decision in the off-season, according to the author, will include hiring an offensive coordinator. He will be given every opportunity to return this program to the CFP (and, by the way, he adamantly stated: He won't leave on Wednesday). But there are more problems in Austin than at any time since Sarkisian got Texas going again, and that shouldn't be the case. Why pretend to be a fool?
If the only expectations Sarkisian cares about are his own, how would he even define underachievement? Well, the intrepid social media user went back to November 22, 2021 — almost four years ago to the day — when Sarkeesian laid out the expectations for his program pretty clearly.
“If I was in my fourth year of our program and I had three or four losses right now, and I was beating the drum about where we would be in three or four years and we still weren't there, then I would be worried,” Sarkisian said then. “…in my fourth year, if I was sitting here with three or four losses, I would probably be more concerned.”
Less than four years later, Texas is 7-3 and has a 25-point loss to No. 5 Georgia. Just a month ago, Sarkisian acknowledged the new reality for Texas, which reached the CFP in 2023 and 2024.
“We've raised the bar from where we were when I came here to where we are now,” Sarkisian said in October. “We are a playoff team. This is what we are now. When this becomes the standard, we will all have to hold ourselves to that standard.”
On Monday, however, Sarkissian laid the burden of all failed expectations on those “who voted for us No. 1.”
Sarkisian doesn't have to ignite his fans. It's a shame that the season was disappointing. But he's had enough success in recent years that it hasn't killed him, and he admits the bar deserves to be higher than 7-3 (with two games left) after fielding one of the highest-invested lineups in college football history.
Julian Sayin he doesn't have a real Heisman case.
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No. 1 Ohio is the best team in college football, and it's not that close. The Buckeyes are destroying opponents at every stage and are in great shape to join Georgia as the only back-to-back national champions in the playoff era.
Following their success, quarterback Julian Sain became the program's Heisman Trophy candidate. Wide Receiver Jeremiah Smith is the consensus best player in America, but his numbers are lackluster as the Buckeyes distribute the ball. So, according to FanDuelSain only tropes Indiana's Fernando Mendoza in Heisman odds.
Frankly, there is good reason to believe Sain is America's best defenseman. The former five-star recruit is completing 80.1 percent of his passes for 2,675 yards, 25 touchdowns and just four interceptions. Sain is close to breaking Bo Nix's record for completion percentage. When called upon, he shines at his best.
The fact is that Sayin is almost never called.
For a second, let's look at Ohio State's biggest games: No. 1 Texas, No. 17 Illinois and Washington. The Buckeyes approached all three games the same way: they relied heavily on the pass!
In those three games, Sain threw the ball just 25 times per game with an average depth of 6.6 yards. Against all other FBS opponents, Sain threw the ball 31.3 times per game for 9.4 yards per attempt. Sain threw for just 166.7 yards per game in those three wins, compared to 311.5 in the other six.
That doesn't mean there's anything wrong with it. We thank Coach Ryan Day and his team for helping Sain succeed. When it comes time for the College Football Playoff, this kind of game management will pay off, just as it did during last season's dominant CFP. But of course, there aren't many Heisman Trophy winners a team has hidden in places with high levels of leverage.
Moreover, Sahin is at best the third best player in his team. Smith and security Caleb Downs better by a wide margin. Recipient Carnell Tate and midfielder Bill Reese were amazing and could be selected in the early 2026 NFL Draft.. Things can be done for defensive linemen Kayden Curry And Kayden McDonaldand midfielder Sonny Stiles too much.
The Heisman Trophy means becoming the nation's most outstanding player and taking the program to new heights. While Sain is a budding star, he is a luxury rather than a necessity at Ohio State. There is time to change your mind here. Michigan in the season finale and then most likely Indiana in the Big Ten Championship would give the Buckeyes two important opportunities for Sayin to lose high-leverage positions – if they end up in one at all.
