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closetojumping

Burnt Ends
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Everything posted by closetojumping

  1. The guy just doubled down in his latest response to me, educating me about TPF and telling me it's basically the last post in which he is going to play nice. Holy fucking shit. I swear to God that if this is one of you motherfuckers from over here trolling me that I will take my Internet revenge to the ends of the earth. I'll also laugh my ass off.
  2. Guys that hang out in the walled gardens like OB, 247, and IT are not exposed to a great deal of alternative, dissenting, original or engaging dialogue. That's my thought, at least. I literally had a higher hit rate on targets to commitments, neverminding player reviews and evaluations, than EJ Holland or Jeff Howe while I was a poster on 247. I would get regularly mobbed by groups of posters when I'd challenge a take from either guy, and Howe and I got along fine and he didn't mind the discussion. If I just posted a thread with my own thoughts on it, people would climb over themselves to tell me I was a moron and a know-nothing and to leave the boards. This wasn't me ranting, this was me doing stuff like "why isn't Mack Brown recruiting Houston?" and "taking one OL in single class is going to be a problem" and "Shawn Watson being hired is an early indicator of trouble in the Strong regime". Then I'd post my thoughts around those subjects, cite data and history, and then people would go apeshit. That's different than a site like this one where, sure, there are a lot of disagreements and petty arguments, and I no doubt participate gleefully, but you don't see people shrieking and then running to immamac or blacklab to complain and ask for me to banned. At least not daily. It's a very foreign dynamic compared to over in those forums.
  3. I just had a guy over there "correct me" regarding background on The Pancake Factory. It's like the Theater of the Absurd sometimes.
  4. Do you understand the differences in the situations when addressing this topic with me here? 1) You can't find a post of mine on this site where I was telling the board that Jones or Majors would be replaced. I'm sure, like damned near everyone here paying attention, I bitched about their play at times. I don't think I did, but it wouldn't surprise me. I know I never said either would be replaced. 2) Umeozulu is already getting the starter reps at LG. You don't have to believe my "sources", just believe Bobby and Gerry and what they are telling they are seeing with their own eyes and being told by staff. This isn't some "time honored tradition" of wishcasting. This shit is happening in real time, whereas nothing came of any movement in your prior two cases. Past performance is not indicative of future returns and shit. 3) Even if a younger player is coming on in practice, the act of replacing a starter, late in a successful season, as part of a high functioning unit, would be disruptive in ways that jeopardize team chemistry. I am not sure how this is an elusive concept. Rooting for a player over another player is goofy shit unless they're a friend or family member. Best guy wins. If the staff deems Umeozulu to be the best fit at LG, I'm rooting for him to kickass. If it winds up being Conner somehow, I'll cross my fingers that a light has clicked on in his head and hope for the best but will be grounding expectations in the reality of what I have seen for consecutive seasons. If I didn't value you your opinion in some form, and your outlook, I wouldn't bother to interact with you on a regular basis.
  5. I wouldn't be surprised by the S out of Pearland or wherever. Same for Stewart. More than 2 or 3 before June would kind of surprise me though.
  6. Lights go on for younger players. It's weird how, you know, guys develop into better ballplayers as they gain reps and experience. Umeozulu has outclassed Conner in practices for the second half of 2023 and all of the spring practices in 2024. This is from people at the practice and from people conversing with the staff who know the game. I know you will have a hard time believing any of that until he's looked good for the first 6 games of 2024, but that works for me and others. As to Conner, just generally, the guy was abysmal in the running game last year. He was abysmal late in the year there. He's now deep into his tenure at Texas. He shouldn't be outright whiffing on players constantly. This has now been discussed ad nauseum, but yeah, culture, STs, and short yardage/goal line. He was extremely inexpensive. He's a one year guy. The idea that he's being discussed this much tells me that Texas is fucking loaded.
  7. I get enough action from this board for that. The guru boards are oriented around the gurus. The posters on those boards are super sensitive if you take them to task. They wind up complaining to the gurus, almost like they're mad for being called out in front of them or something. No win situation.
  8. Listen, I understand your condition and don't like picking on you about this kind of behavior, but come on, man. You cannot be this literal when considering the fluidity and strategic requirements of roster management. Black and white certainties, the kind of way Tom Herman thought about such matters, get managers in trouble. They limit their own ceilings or get peter principled into clear failure and get fired. No one is literally arguing that Blackshire is at Texas solely to mange other LBs. Get a grip. As to the old school Mike desires, good luck with it. That wouldn't suit Texas' needs in 2024 and that is true for most/all other P4s and Notre Dame. If I have to choose in terms of giving a scholarship to a kickoff specialist or a situational Mike, I am taking the kickoff guy. Michigan's TEs and TBs would go for 300+ yards against the Texas defense with a MLB standing flat footed on the 50.
  9. Gideon and Haines sucked. Taafe gives people flashbacks because he's white. That's a simple and legitimate psychological thing that many idiots can't fathom being reasonable and therefore get themselves into a twist over. The human brain primitively seeks analogs when comparing a current item/situation/person/group. Mykelle Thompson (I don't care about his NFL career), BJ Foster, and Jerrin Thompson all were mediocre at Texas at S and all get run over regularly on this board. They are all black. I think this place is an equal opportunity ridiculer. Now, as to the "they were the starters for a reason" premise, the only player with a valid reason for being a starter, who has only been a starter in a limited manner, is Taafe. Gideon had better players behind and around him, and the coaching staff was idiotic in playing him as their teacher's pet. Haines was objectively so bad that whoever was behind him should have been getting looks. Only you are taking a POV on Blackshire that he needs to "babysit" the LB room, and that that is a waste of a roster spot for one cycle. That's your own whining idiocy because in your mind, while playing EA Sports NCAA Football 2024, you convinced yourself that he'd be a great plug and play solution at MLB for rush-oriented teams. Bringing a guy in that is a known quantity to the staff, who is mature and positive and supportive with coaches and team members, and who can contribute in a limited scope on defense and more than that on special teams, is a perfectly fine portal addition as one of the last guys on the roster. BTW, also while costing the program virtually nothing in NIL. What the fuck is going on here? How is this even debatably a bad thing worth worrying about in multiple posts?
  10. I'm hoping that, yeah, it's just good management that they probably discussed with him before the spring or before they moved him for snaps at C. I will be surprised if some of us don't start hearing about who is likely to be portaling from different position groups. I'm assuming 2-3 OL, 1 WR, 1 TB, 1 TE, 1-2 Edge, 1 LB, 2-3 DBs, 1 K. I'm sure not all of those will come to fruition, but none of those moves would surprise me. More than that somewhere would surprise me. I'm guessing another 2-3 portal additions as well. Should wind up around 83-85 scholarship players. Likely a little pain from the exits, particularly potentially at OL and LB.
  11. I've been to Bludorn twice and the results were the same - the food was solid but super overpriced. I'm wondering if Bar Bludorn is any different. My view of Bludorn is that I can go elsewhere for similar vibe and food and pay 2/3's of what I'd pay at Bludorn, therefore feeling like less of an idiot. But did you have "the coldest martini on earth"? 4 of us went there in December and enjoyed it, but it wasn't a place where we said "man, we have to go back".
  12. The Hayden Conner news is irritating. Umeozulu is a clear upgrade. Let the charade of a battle end. I am sick and fucking tired of watching Conner flat out miss guys on critical downs.
  13. It's pretty funny reading the ATM 247 board regarding this one. They're twisting themselves into a logic knot calling this a recruiting "win" over Texas even though Texas wasn't in Rink's final 4. Apparently one of the idiots at Orangebloods said that Texas led for Rink a month ago or something and they've hanging their hat on it. It's pretty obvious what went down on this one, but none of them are willing to consider it.
  14. There is no slap fight. I don't read that imbecile's word salad posts of nothingness or respond to them. The only time I even remember this guy exists is when he's voluminously clogging a thread with some of the hawtest takes in Internet history. Just put him on ignore and you'll never think about him again either.
  15. It is only a complete mystery because of the way your brain works. You dismiss that absolute reason as to why he was brought in, like right in front of your face, because you've decided that that reason can't exist. It's pretty amusing to witness. I'm not even speculating. They told folks he was a great culture fit. You don't just work and agonize to create a great program culture with high character players and then say "well, okay, we did that. onward and upward to the next challenge. the culture is frozen where we want it."
  16. Other guys have addressed it, but to be clear, this isn't revisionist history from us regulars on the recruiting board. We didn't give a shit when he originally committed to Bama, other than losing another Texas kid to Bama. He's apparently a high character and team guy who profiles really well for creating/maintaining a positive and resilient locker room. That plus some special teams and goal line contributions made him a take for guys who had been around him in college. Nonetheless, he's the same guy he's always been - looks a ton better than he plays in terms of being a linebacker. To be clear, Blackshire didn't get any kind of big NIL package. We can all be happy to have him on this roster and not worry about opportunity cost for NIL, and, I suspect, playing time as well. Burrell is a transfer risk because Texas is simply loaded at LB, not because someone like Blackshire might get snaps. Burrell has starter potential for good P4 programs, just not this season at Texas. Here's hoping he sticks, though. I think Mukuba might wind up being one of the sneaky best pickups from the portal in the entire country. He was played in a weird role last year that I never really figured out as to why. He was really good as a freshman and sophomore, if memory serves. Texas playing him at S and not getting cute about it might be a part of taking the defense into the range of elite. Also @Doc Sam Beckett for his thoughts on Mukuba.
  17. Here is today's Carter Karels article on their defense, spoilered as a courtesy. There is a lot going on there. Here are some of my thoughts: At DT, they have some talent on paper. Regis has looked good when healthy. Hicks may wind up being really good. GBD is rumored to be portal-bound and can't stay healthy if not. It's a thin group until several guys do more than flash. I would happily take Hicks and Regis and insert them into the DT rotation at Texas. They are loaded at DE. They are probably too loaded. I assume they're going to lose a guy or two in the portal. This position will clearly be a team strength for this team. Karels tries to spin the LB set up, but the loss of Cooper means a massive talent dropoff with this group. They think highly of York and that reminds me of the gurus and posters who often spoke well of Dusty Renfro. Yeah, the guy knows the playbook and is decent at reading offenses, but he's slow and small. A linebacker "making plays" 8-10 yards downfield isn't much of a linebacker. If you're having to spin Martrell Harris Jr positively, you're probably fucked. There isn't a LB on their roster that I would add to UT's roster. This is the jaggiest group of JAGs on their defensive roster. ATM has 10 CBs on their roster. Chappell had a terrible 2023 season after being talked up as a draft target following 2022. Oregon offered Chappell $300k after the 2022 season to join them and ATM posted something in that range to keep him. None of that happened this cycle. Maybe that guy rebounds? I don't know. The rest of this group is a mixture of transfer trash and/or very young. This is a serious area of concern for their staff, apparently. Anderson is moving full time to S and the Vandy starting S is going back to Vandy accordingly. They have talent at S with Anderson there and the younger guys. The aggies have 5 scholarship ST players, which is hilarious. They're over the 85 man limit by 4 and they're going to be aggressive in the upcoming portal cycle, so they have a lot of guys to cut unless they get crushed again with portal attrition. I assume they'll lose at least 3 guys from the ST side. One of those guys is the punter they took in 2022. If that guy and GBD leave this spring, that's 14 of 30 signed players from the vaunted greatest class of all time who have vanished into thin air before their JR year on campus. I assume the ATM defense, with Elko knowing what he's doing on that side of the ball, will carry the team to a mediocre winning record given their weak schedule.
  18. FYI, a lot of this data predates the additions of UW and Oregon, which caused the Big 10 to reshuffle schedules again. USC is no longer traveling to NW, Purdue or PSU. They're no longer even playing NW or Purdue. They go @Vegas, @Michigan, @Minnesota, @Maryland, and @UW. @UCLA as well, but there's no travel for that one. So it's still a lot, but not as much as previously assumed.
  19. That is some wishcasting shit right there, Codaxx. It's a good new look for you, so have at it.
  20. LSU did a whole bunch of idiotic things last season on defense. They used Perkins as a spy multiple times to their detriment. They basically took him out of games. Using him as a spy against FSU rendered him irrelevant. Frankly, if you take out the Arkansas 2022 and Arkansas 2023 games, where Perkins went apeshit, his stats in both seasons are otherwise pedestrian. Maybe the new staff gets it right with him. If you believe the Nansen hype, Hill is going to be all over the field as a 3 down LB this season. Here's hoping. They didn't want him coming in at 260. I think expectations on Blackshire are unrealistic. He was never an excellent player in HS or at Bama, even though he looked the part. I'd be stunned if, outside of special teams, Blackshire was getting more than 10% of the snaps in any single game unless there are injury issues.
  21. I think the problem for Klein this year is similar to the problem Sarkisian had when he arrived at Texas. He doesn't have some of the dudes he's going to need in order to get the results they'll want. He moves guys around and varies his sets as much as Sarkisian does, even though they're very different playcallers. Klein has a lot more Tom Herman in him but adapted well when having to use Will Howard. You look at their roster and they don't have a Silas Bolden or Xavier Worthy at WR. Those guys would probably get 20-25 carries (combined) in an optmized Klein offense over a 12 game regular season. That wouldn't be fun for opponents. They don't have that guy at WR this season. They'll probably try to wedge Campbell in there somewhere if he's as quick as he's billed to be, but that's a lot to ask of a freshman. Daniels is rumored to be heading to the portal at TB. He's a JAG, but he's at least a reliable JAG. Moss is a flake and he may be gone too. Then you've got Owens, who has talent, but he made Cedric Baxter look tough and seasoned this past year. They can't do ground and pound with their TB depth, especially if they lose either or both of Daniels and Moss. Smith is a big nothing. They basically, unbelievably, don't have anybody else. Maybe they buy someone like Savion Red from the portal or something. They almost have to do something like that. Or go buy a midget from somewhere. Who is the smallest starting TB in CFB heading into 2024? That guy. Klein loves to use a TE. Unfortunately for him, while they carry 6 on the roster, the talent consists of a recovering triad blowout, a Swedish dude resembling Lurch, and a bunch of guys named Bob. The offensive line has a future draft pick at LT in Zuhn, a dude who doesn't want to play football at C, another one at RT, an incompetent at RT who has been moved inside because maybe he won't be used like a whore in the pass rush at RG, and a bunch of nobodies outside of that. The OL is going to be a problem for any playcaller at ATM for the next few years, at least. We know how that goes. I think Klein is going to be forced to use the QB in the running game. That is going to lend itself better to Henderson than Weigman, and that will be funny to witness unless a Weigman injury simply forces that outcome. The irony is that the Fisher set up of trying to keep every game close, lose inside the spread or pull things off in the fourth quarter using turnover momentum in their favor, is probably how Klein and The Elk are able to get this offense on this team to 8-5 with that schedule and the support on defense.
  22. Nope. You have to do both. "ill advised" is sitting on the sidelines of either route for talent acquisition. Christ. Texas sat on the sidelines of paying players during the Great Bag Era of college football. That, along with profoundly pathetic behaviors from two HCs (late stage Mack and Herman) and absolutely terrible hires at HC and AD (Chuckles, Patterson, Perrin) sent us wandering in the wilderness for 13 seasons. Tell me how things are working out for Stanford now that the portal has been a one-way direction for their program while stacking some mediocre to poor HS classes on top of one another for years. We are witnessing the active destruction of the Clemson program by their head coach right now as he continues to be a vocal portal denier. Programs not excelling in both recruiting and the portal going forward will not be top 10 programs. Both include a foundation with NIL.
  23. Soccer has patrons and has been discussed in meaty parts of the NIL working groups. People care. Just not enough for the juice to be worth the squeeze. I think, due to lack of program success, women's soccer is the absolute fringiest* sport in the UT portfolio, even if women's soccer overall is continuing to grow in national interest. Good place to hang out as a coach if you can get that gig. You certainly cannot hide as a coach in any other sport on campus. *Beach Volleyball was brought on during CDC's time. They suck as a fledgling program right now, but the stud coach's remit for that group is to start winning in 2025 and winning big from there.
  24. To this point, I was reading the article from Carter Karels, spoilered below, about their scholarship allocations on the offensive side of the ball. The article is well done. Frankly, I don't envy Carter Karels' job. He's constantly producing content for a dwindling subscriber base that generally hates itself. They're too self-aware to be on texags but they are too aggified to allow an On3 site to survive because of them durn sip founders, so they just sit on 247 and pummel Karels and Tarp repeatedly for anything resembling negative insights or news. Anyway, just read through the offensive players on the roster and ask yourself, objectively, how many of them you'd take on the Texas roster, which Texas player you'd cut for the ATM replacement, and where they'd fit on the org chart. Now, I am not saying that Weigman isn't a potentially decent QB. He's extremely overrated for the hype he gets, but we haven't seen enough to believe much of anything about the guy. That considered, I'd take him over Trey Owens as the 3rd string guy. I wouldn't touch any of their other QBs. At TB, I would take Owens over Red at 6th string. That's it, and that's stretchy. I would take Muhammad over Niblett in the 8 hole at WR. Give me Donovan Green over Juan Davis at 3rd string TE if he's recovered well from ACL surgery. Give me Zuhn or Dewberry over Max Merrill at OL. That's it. I legitimately do not think there are more than 5-6 on the offensive roster at ATM that would crack the 3 deep at Texas right now. They are dogshit on that side of the ball in both talent and depth.
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