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closetojumping last won the day on September 23
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Transfer Cycle 2025-2026 - Full Roster Weaponization
closetojumping replied to closetojumping's topic in 🤫$9.95🤫
Time will tell, but part of the shift in the recruiting landscape has been an actual focus on grassroots evaluation. This has always been a fantasy for most recruitniks for big schools and a reality for developmental schools. Whether Sarkisian or Smart or Heupel or Riley or any other name at a big program, they all fall victim to starfucking and walled garden recruiting analysis among their staffs. They can claim to be turning over every rock, and that's bullshit. They're by and large fed names and film by the same sources every cycle, and that's the pool of players that they decide to choose from on the recruiting trail. Now, with an expanded payroll for staff, should someone desire, they could really start turning over rocks. Can't go everywhere on that front, so you start locally and tap your extended high school coaching network, should you have one. This is part of what Texas decided to do in this last cycle because the ground was continuing to shift on the recruiting landscape and prices/values kept escalating into the stratosphere. So, not only was Texas hamstrung out of the gate for 2026 because of Sarkisian's personal bullshit, which put them behind on a lot the 4 star talent that they'd normally build a class with, but the House Settlement created a flood of money for schools that previously didn't have much, and that began driving up everything. Texas made the choice to do what they had to do when it came to the highest priorities, continue to recruit guys they believed in who weren't interested in renegotiating throughout the process, and then dig into the hard part that schools like Texas often get to ignore. The outcome is barbelled. Texas signed multiple prized recruits that they believe to be best bets in panning out early. They also signed a bunch of guys that literally chose Texas for the free ride and otherwise old school recruiting things like staff, tradition, guys going to the NFL, etc. Not a ton of in between guys who have the rankings on paper but still represent a mixed bag of questions. Each player either has very few open questions or a shit ton of questions about their upside at Texas. Do we see more of this for Texas? I don't know. Texas isn't being dumb about just rev-share for NIL and they have a hell of a lot of corporate interest. They're not going to be cheap, but they cannot afford to be stupid. Does the market stay ridiculous? No clue. I guess I'm hopeful that the hard work side of things pays off, but we may not know that for a few years. Continuing that approach might be really smart or fail miserably. Texas isn't the only top 5/top 10 recruiting school that had to look at all of this and edit their way forward, btw. Ohio State tried to take the "we're Ohio State and only rev-share will supply our NIL" approach and they were castigated for months by their fans online for doing so. Georgia looked at things similar to Texas and stood on their business in multiple recruitments. While we mock Nagy's hype and bullshit, OU also pragmatically looked at their circumstances and made choices accordingly. Meanwhile, USC, Tennessee, Miami, Florida and LSU all kind of went nuts in various ways for various reasons. When Oregon or Michigan throw Knight and Ellison money around, that's sustainable. Is what USC is doing sustainable? It is whispered around the recruiting circles and allegedly by other coaching staffs that much of the almost $10M allocated for this incoming class is currently unfunded. That wouldn't be the first time Riley pulled that move and then had to scramble to make good on his deals. Florida and LSU were just flat out desperate to hang on to their talent and considering PSU as an alternative route, they probably made the right choices. I'm kind of just waiting for the bottom to fall out of Miami's NIL. It's not all coming from the same source, but they do not have the same resources across their base that many of the rest in the upper tier do.- 1069 replies
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Buck up, good sir! We need to improve our record against NC State and we owe Stanford. Notice I made no mention of UCLA? I’m thoughtful like that. The only monetary risk for schools like Texas in not scheduling ND and instead scheduling weaker P4 programs is around attendance and ticket prices. I doubt it’s a whole lot. The other thing worth considering is what games like that does for a conference tv deal in the long term, but that’s the kind of thing that’s almost too esoteric to factor into a single school’s scheduling choices. I think Texas and a few other programs schedule tough OOC because it’s core to their identity and alumni expectations, not because there’s a big monetary difference. The whole “what’s in for me?” premise with the Big 10 and the SEC is not something I can answer myself. Not sure how that dance would work. This is similar to the bullshit people float about “no new conference would take Texas” that aggies would tell anyone right up until July of 2021. If Notre Dame told the Big 10 they were ready to join as a full member, the Big 10’s response would be “how soon can you start?!” 💯
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Transfer Cycle 2025-2026 - Full Roster Weaponization
closetojumping replied to closetojumping's topic in 🤫$9.95🤫
Baker had to throw a shit fit to get a better allocation, also. Thinking about DT, specifically, there is a case to be made that the ground has simply shifted into new terrain from here forward. Outside of the truly special guys, most HS recruits aren't ready for significant rotational snaps until they are in year 2, and arguably year 3. Investing in HS recruits, like OL, winds up being a long term, low reward play. Unlike OL, DTs can be prima donnas and they expect to be playing from day 1, see Mitchell, Sydir, without putting in the work. They're more likely to transfer just as the investment from the program starts to pay off, see Kanu, Hero. Focusing the majority of the positional NIL spend on seasoned DTs in the portal, especially if they have multiple years left of eligibility, looks like a moneyball play. I don't have a problem if Texas banks on landing 1-2 DTs from the portal every cycle, one expected to play immediately and one who probably can, but who also has multiple years left.- 1069 replies
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On the ND 247 board, their mods are saying that the word they're hearing is that ND thinks the way forward is to dim down the ACC agreement to 2 games per year, and then cut the same deal with the Big 10, SEC and Big 12. Keep the Navy game, of course, and one other G6, like Rice next year, as an example, and then mix in 2 random home and homes with teams not in the rotation during each year from the P4. Move all of the non-revenue to the Big East. That's from people at ND talking to them off the record, it seems. There isn't a single poster on that board that wants to stick with the ACC deal they have. They appear to actually hate it. For the first in any of our lives, there are also more than a few folks on their end advocating for joining a conference. Not the majority of the posters, but other times I've read their boards, if someone mentions such a thing, they're shouted down by a chorus of haters. Not right now. It's pretty interesting. I fully expect Texas to announce that they're pulling out of the ND series and replacing it with a Stanford or NC State series any day now. What happens when others follow suit? That seems like it would force ND to get real about a future with a conference.
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Transfer Cycle 2025-2026 - Full Roster Weaponization
closetojumping replied to closetojumping's topic in 🤫$9.95🤫
HOLY FUCKING SHIT!!! Also, "Lacy" is like Kewan Lacy, Ole Miss RB. "Lacey" would be KJ Lacey, tiny backup QB powerhouse at Texas. There's a shot everyone needs to bone up on the proper spelling for these two.- 1069 replies
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Transfer Cycle 2025-2026 - Full Roster Weaponization
closetojumping replied to closetojumping's topic in 🤫$9.95🤫
The thing about Lacey that's concerning is how diminutive he is. It's not like they didn't know that in recruiting, but now it's suddenly the "but" part of anything said about the guy. Great arm, knows the game, mobile, good leadership skills, can allegedly read a defense pretty well, but he's Herve Villechaize in stature. Can he sit on a tall TE or OT's shoulders and take snaps? -
Transfer Cycle 2025-2026 - Full Roster Weaponization
closetojumping replied to closetojumping's topic in 🤫$9.95🤫
Deboer straight up told Sayin that he wasn't the kind of QB that performed well in his system. He brought Mack with him and sent Sayin packing. Those were like 2 of his first moves. -
Transfer Cycle 2025-2026 - Full Roster Weaponization
closetojumping replied to closetojumping's topic in 🤫$9.95🤫
I guess every OL entering the portal is going to have multiple posts here salivating over the player, irrespective of whether anyone knows a fucking thing about his competence and capabilities. So we have that going for us, which is nice.- 1069 replies
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Transfer Cycle 2025-2026 - Full Roster Weaponization
closetojumping replied to closetojumping's topic in 🤫$9.95🤫
Baxter got hurt early on, not injured. He never figured out the difference, and that's also part of why he's gone. -
Transfer Cycle 2025-2026 - Full Roster Weaponization
closetojumping replied to closetojumping's topic in 🤫$9.95🤫
Maybe Ffrench and Wisner actually got some decent advice. Or IT is just making shit up as they go. Can never be sure. I don't expect Clark back, so we'll see on that one. Same for Deandre Moore. I view Hills and Santana Wilson as locks for the portal, same as with Clark. JJR will get more in the market than Texas prefers to pay, but they'd keep him if they could. That's the same story with Wisner. I'll be surprised if Black isn't back. I've seen you and others apply this logic of "well, if we're not paying much, having player X on the roster doesn't hurt anything" and that's simply false in various situations, including Baxter's. The guy wants to play. If you're playing him, you're benching someone else. The odds are highly likely at this point that the guy getting benched is better. It's like having a mediocre employee in a critical position that everyone likes. It's easier to let that person continue to put a low ceiling on his/her area's output because shedding him/her might upset some folks and, well, maybe that person actually gets better. Nope, once you know, you know. Fire that person and go get the best candidate to replace them that you can recruit. And don't wait to have that candidate before making the seat empty, because you just might not ever actually make that seat empty. Baxter is a year 4 player with a busted knee and a shaken confidence. If he goes to West Virginia or South Florida and has a rebirth on the field, awesome. Texas doesn't have room at the inn for rehab projects in this cycle. Up or out.- 1069 replies
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I wouldn't expect Cruz to be starting any games at Texas any time soon, or ever, personally.
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The number is over $40M, but that also includes corporate. The Texas counter to the lunatic billionaire is that Texas is getting more corporate money than anyone and that is expected to grow. That helps in terms of being able to retain or go after non-corporate NIL guys looking at other big offers. Texas is going bigger on the portal than ever before, allegedly. To that point, some folks are willing to put their hand on the bible and say the multiple IOL are already locked up from the portal. We’ll see. Regardless, anyone handwringing over NIL isn’t paying attention. That’s not an issue. That doesn’t mean Texas won’t get outbid by random shit every cycle. They will. So will Oregon or whomever. Sometimes crazy happens and you just have to tip your cap.
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This thing is going to be uglier than Mike Elko in a speedo. Go Duke!
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Rev share enabled a higher level quality and quantity of competition, for everyone, but Texas is in the upper echelon. You do realize that Texas has the highest payroll this cycle in which they went 9-3, correct? Your post seems to indicate no clue on that front. What no school can prevent is finding itself in a position where some random other school shows up and offers a mid level 4 star some over the top value. Roughly 100 schools can now pull that stunt and it impacts blue bloods across the land.
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2025 Texas Coaching/Support Staff Thread
closetojumping replied to RaysBoomBoomRoom's topic in 🤫$9.95🤫
I would have to ask a lot of questions to know anything like that and I don’t ask a lot of questions.
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