OTF Video: Sarks Tabs DL Coach

Interesting hearing he coached for Mercer here in Macon Ga. He’s definitely aware of the talent in the Deep South 

Baker's unit helped Mercer rank 21st in the FCS in red zone defense (74.5 percent
 

defensive line ranked among SoCon’s best against the run under Baker, allowing 171.3 yards per game
 

I like the hire 

Someone posted, on another site, that Sark may have caught lightening in a bottle. A young enthusiastic coach from the hotbed of recruiting that no one has heard of. If he works out, it will be several years before someone tries to poach him to be a DC or whatever. So we have a bright, motivated, personable young man (with a religious school background which moms seem to love) locked in for upwards of five years. Recruiting is want to and personality. Baker seems to have both. 
 

I have a feeling coach Baker is going to be another great hire by Sark, but we have very little information.  Since he comes as a relative unknown, does anyone know if our new LB coach and/or PK played a role in the finding and selection of Kenny Baker?  I have a feeling many will want to take credit for discovering him, so it would be good to know who had input before the cheering begins!

In Sark I trust. 

2 hours ago, Robert Gilbert said:

Someone posted, on another site, that Sark may have caught lightening in a bottle. A young enthusiastic coach from the hotbed of recruiting that no one has heard of. If he works out, it will be several years before someone tries to poach him to be a DC or whatever. So we have a bright, motivated, personable young man (with a religious school background which moms seem to love) locked in for upwards of five years. Recruiting is want to and personality. Baker seems to have both. 
 

I just hope he’s one of those guys that’s not scared to tell it like it is. One good thing about Davis is he could light a fire under you.

I’ll be honest….. I don’t know if I could name 10 defensive line coaches to begin with! Sark has done a great job with second generation hires, and I’m sure he did his evaluations properly.  Hopefully, this guy will be a stud!

Remember when Sark hired Choice and Jackson they weren't considered home run hires 😏 how have they turned out🔥 I watched this last night on Baker and man does this guy have 🔥 and passion💯💯💯 (https://t.co/XRlQ1TQKy2) 🤘🤘🤘

11 hours ago, Chewie said:

I’ll be honest….. I don’t know if I could name 10 defensive line coaches to begin with! Sark has done a great job with second generation hires, and I’m sure he did his evaluations properly.  Hopefully, this guy will be a stud!

 

This is accurate.

Historically, people overvalue what they know than the unknown.

There are a lot of good DL coaches out there. Some just need a chance, a bigger platform.

If an NFL team will nap a defensive analyst who was formerly an assistant DB coach for a on the field coaching position, then I don't see an issue with Texas doing it.  

I think it’s going to be fine. Just a shock that TEXAS didn’t hire the big splash. We are all surprised at the hire but we are not spending our days trying to poke holes in it. He said he is in support of it and then spends three days trying to poke holes in it. I get it it may or may not work. We are sitting in living rooms, bars, restaurants, but we don’t have an inkling of who or who not this guy is. 

I don't know what to think of the hire. Don't know much about him, but that doesn't mean it's a bad thing. From what I've read and heard about him from people like you guys at OTF, he sounds like a real up and comer. A guy that is waiting to be unleashed, so to speak. We all assumed it would be someone like Rod Wright, but it seems like Coach Sark was doing his homework, looking for some youth.

This guy seems to exude energy and having Georgia ties is great, so many good players come out of the state of Georgia. We could certainly use the connections/ties. One thing we need to do is start hitting on big time recruits at that position. Coach Davis did a great job of developing what we had, but lacked heavily in recruiting. No problem with 3 star guys, but nothing wrong with grabbing some high 4 star and 5 star guys if we can.

Development I'm not worried about, as he seems to do well at that from what I've read. We'll see what he can do with recruiting. 

If anything, I think Coach Sark has gained some trust/leeway in what he's done at Texas so far, after nuking the roster in 2021 or after 2021 and where he took the program to where it's on the current trajectory.

Just my unwanted 2 cents. 

Agree with a lot of the thinking in this thread.

I’m in line with the thinking that people can overthink hires like this.

The key for me is that I think Sark wanted someone he felt could improve recruiting while also being able to develop players.

Baker has mentored two NFL guys at a smaller school. That shows he has that tool in his tool belt.

Then all he has to do is be as good or better as a recruiter and it’s a net win for Texas.