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closetojumping

Burnt Ends
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Everything posted by closetojumping

  1. 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."
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. That is some wishcasting shit right there, Codaxx. It's a good new look for you, so have at it.
  6. 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.
  7. 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.
  8. 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.
  9. 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.
  10. 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.
  11. Everyone here has PTSD from Gideons dropped easy pick likely costing us a shot at the NCG in 08, and the Dylan Haines human hurdle experience. Michael Taafe has proven he doesn't drop the easy picks and is somehow more physical than Haines. Taafe will most likely still be in the rotation, but safety will be fine if Mukuba is as advertised and some of our young studs make their expected leaps. It's not "most likely" that Taafe is in the rotation if he is healthy. I just tried to put this discussion to bed but some of you motherfuckers are more obtuse than Warden Norton. Taafe is going to make really good money this cycle to be on the field, in the rotation, making plays. That is Level One information for you. Fuck.
  12. That's reductive. This isn't the 1950's. Items 1a and 1b in recruiting in this era are: 1a) NIL 1b) Can you put me into the league? Tradition, location, coaching staff, style of play, conference, all of that stuff matters if items 1a and 1b are checked off clearly. USC is now under pressure to show that they can live up to 1a and then that they can make a dent in getting back to level, on defense, with 1b. If USC is on another bullet train to mediocrity as the 2024 season unfolds and Riley is letting NFL teams flirt with him, his roster and his recruiting class fall apart on him.
  13. That's how I see it. They brought in the DB coach from UH, the HC from SDSU, the DC from UCLA and the Rams DL coach. Maybe those guys kill it, but maybe Riley continues to be Riley and tells them to make it work however they need to do so. Lynn was at UCLA for one season and he had some mature players to work with on the roster. Maybe he's really good, there's no way to really know until we see their season under way. Riley seems to want to become an NFL guy, so I'm not sure any of this shit even matters. Another thing going on with USC is their schedule. They open in Vegas against LSU. Both of those teams have issues on offense. USC has a genius in Riley and LSU lost their acclaimed OC. Advantage Riley, but this could be an ugly game offensively. They then play Utah State, a bowl team for 6 of the last 7 seasons (corona did them in in 2020). Should be a gimme, but it isn't Portland State or UC Davis. Off week, then they go @Michigan, Wisconsin, @Minnesota, PSU, @Maryland in consecutive weeks. Woof. That is some asswhipping in travel. They also have to play Rutgers, @UW, Nebraska, UCLA, and close with ND. Rutgers is tough and well-coached and the same will be said for Nebraska, if I had to guess. ND is allegedly a top 10 team. There are likely a number of losses packed into that shitpile of a schedule. Finally, beyond all of that, it looks like they will be starting 11 transfers on defense, the majority of whom will be new to the program. Mercenaries can come in handy, we know a little bit about that, but in this case, you have an entire group of them coming together with an entirely new defensive coaching staff, with that schedule, and an offense that wants to score really quickly. Holy shit. Mercenaries, NFL distractions, weak offensive skill replacements for QB and TB, new potpourri of coaching talent and a nasty schedule. A lot will have to tip in USC's favor for them to be any better than 8-5.
  14. Maybe we can kidnap her the way we kidnapped Kevin Mar and keep her holed up in a hotel room for 4 months during the women's soccer team run to the title? One thing I view as certain with "Angie" is that the only way she's getting fired is if Plonsky retires. No matter how stacked next year's team is, a simple round of 32 visit keeps the seat from being hot.
  15. Regarding S, they didn't bring Mukuba in for free. Williams and Filsaime aren't solely at Texas because, gee whiz, they just fell in love with the darned place. Taafe is held in the same regard, which is a bit eye opening. I don't think it will matter who is starting (other than to the four players) because they're all going to be rotating heavily. If anyone else works their way into the rotation, unrelated to injury, kudos to that player and to the program for finding that value. Taafe is a good instinctual player who also happens to be slower than preferred. While he's not Gideon or Adimora mediocre, I'd like to think that the other 3 guys are getting 90% of the snaps in 2024.
  16. This is a terrible post and you should feel bad. People who show up occasionally on the boards with the “wouldn’t it be funny if ATM won a bunch of games?!” take are out of their fucking minds. This is similar to when people show up and start advocating for OU winning in something because they have some sort of naive belief that it might benefit Texas. Get a fucking grip.
  17. Never seen this gif before but well done. Marcellus Wallace won’t replace the John C. Reilly version, but there is a place for him here for sure.
  18. Why was this expected? Because Wiltfong put in a pick? The Texas staff wasn’t expecting it. USC is doing the same LSU frontrunning nonsense and showing all of these guys their first looks on NIL. Let’s see how it all works out during this cycle.
  19. I think it is 5 digits, but don't call me a liar if I am low there.
  20. I like it. This year's 2025 loser of "The closetojumping Honorary Last Place Finish Award" is again ... closetojumping.
  21. I'm going to go to Samuel Adams' brewery while wearing a white tank top and my Red Sox hat, on backwards. I'll be chugging boring Boston lager bottle after bottle while hammering stale dunkin' donuts by the handful until I'm vomiting uncontrollably and being rushed to a hospital for mediocrity poisoning.
  22. Is there any payout for dead last? Like getting their money back? Somehow, with my second bracket, I did the exact opposite of winning.
  23. I'm heading up to Boston for three nights this weekend with my wife for a little belated birthday weekend for me. I have been to Boston once, for two nights, to pitch a potential investor on a business a group of us had started. The investor told us "no thanks" and gave us his Fenway tickets and we got to see a Red Sox game as a consolation prize. We took the game in for a bit, left after Sweet Caroline and then we went to some Italian place where I drank my sorrows away to the tune of 7 dirty martinis. Flew out the next morning on the worst hangover flight I have ever had. BTW, dude should have invested in that one as we had a fun exit. Anyway, that all considered, looking for newer recs or confirmations since that was my only visit and my wife has never been. We have reservations at: Yvonne's, Sorellina Boston, and Ostra I know nothing of these restaurants. My wife picked them based off of recs from friends and stuff she read online. I've read the two Boston threads here and don't see these places mentioned which makes me nervous. Got a lunch reservation at Omni Parker House for the chowder, Boston cream pie, and parker house rolls, since I've seen them all on Food Network shows at times and it seems fun. Doing the Freedom Trail. Will do plenty of snacking and drinking and walking. If there are any must-dos or if we've made mediocre dining choices, any help from the locals is appreciated.
  24. Who is the dumbest in this group of options?: 1) The spider2y idiot, who has 17 posts out of 50 on the prior page and will likely blow through that with already 4 out of the first 8 on this page, no doubt completely tied to a losing effort in some idiotic topic in which people are just slapping him around the way an orca slaps a seal around. 2) The idiots engaging with his word salad stupidity. 3) Eric Nahlin for thinking that Kitan Crawford was going to get drafted and play many years in the NFL. 4) Me, for clicking on this thread occasionally and thinking that there'd actually be a 2024 spring camp discussion.
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