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closetojumping

Burnt Ends
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Everything posted by closetojumping

  1. Yeah, not to sniff our own farts here, but I feel like this forum has a consensus of posters who understand this premise regarding the trenches. It plays well across the board, but the rankings aren't nearly as bad as the positions expand away from the ball. You mention the aggie 2023 class and we all absolutely lampooned what they were doing with the OL during that cycle. I don't know how we could have been more accurate and how Fisher's crew could have been more wrong. The opposite of "trust the coaches", which Liucci and the aggie poster-base were absolutely parroting to each other. -Chase Bisontis: A top 100 recruit from NJ being ignored by regional powers like PSU, OSU, and Michigan. We felt he was slow-footed and bad bodied. ATM talking heads touted him as an OT. We laughed. Also, one of the aggiest looking aggies to have ever aggied. Results so far? Had one of the worst performances at OT in all of D1 last season. People posted clips of his ineptitude on Twitter to drive follower engagement because of the comedic value they created. Tried to transfer immediately, aggies just overpaid to keep him. Elko immediately moved him to guard, where he may or may not ever see the field again. -Colton Thomasson: A 6'8" 350 OG prospect that only ATM ever pushed for and the guy committed almost two years ahead of signing day. The classic aggie diehard bust. Shockingly, a 6'8" guard had some issues, the guy never cracked the depth chart and now he's in the portal, probably landing somewhere like Texas State or UTEP. -TJ Shanahan: This guy finished that class ranked as the #19 player in the nation on Rival's list. We laughed hard then and I laugh hard now. Every major program did what they could to avoid taking this guy without alienating the HS staff, UT more than anyone. Early in his recruitment, when all lists had him in the top 100 for some absurd reason, he was telling recruiting media that he was heading out of state to one of the major programs in the southeast, maybe Miami. Cristobal is a starfucker and an imbecile, but he knows OL and, despite Shanahan being really, really interested in committing, wouldn't take his commitment. Shanahan held his nose and committed to ATM. Someone good at it should find the Liucci takes on this recruitment from that cycle because when they took his commitment, the smugness in which that dipshit touted the take was both hilarious and nauseating. Results: per their gurus, the guy is "a few years away". I'm kind of surprised he isn't portaling this cycle. -Naquil Bertrand: An OT prospect that no program within his regional vicinity cared much for, and the aggies took because, hey, they needed some bodies on the OL. Never did anything and subsequently transferred with the coaching change, somehow winding up at Bama. I guess they needed a body too or something. 2 transfers, 1 completely lost former starter, and 1 guy buried on a weakly talented OL depth chart. That is the kind of shit that blows a hole through the middle of a roster. If anyone wants to be entertained, they should go back and look at that entire recruiting class. It's not been very long and you can still tell it is going to be an albatross on that program. That cycle's transfers in are also really piss poor. It's glorious.
  2. Michigan was on him hard when Harbaugh was running things. UW was on him hard when Daboer was there. Those programs had the best OLs in the last 3 years. Cal is down the street so that is ignorable. Rhule's evaluation skills are as good as anyone's. When his crew is on someone, you can rest assured that the player is fucking tough and loves football.
  3. What 11u team? We are usually at a ballpark almost every weekend. Others here have kids playing 9,10 and 11. The Bull Sharks, either Black or Blue unless they're playing on the same weekend and then he's with the Blue.
  4. The least correlated rankings to actual collegiate performance and NFL draft picks are on the OL, with IOL being worse than OTs. I look at the schools fighting over this guy versus his ranking and then compare it to someone like TJ Shanahan, the polar opposite situation, and kind of roll my eyes. Last I heard, Texas really wants this guy. I've never been a big "trust the coaches" guy when it comes to recruiting, but there's something similar that I've been following for years now when it comes specifically to the LOS. Who is Texas competing with for any of their DT, OT, C or OG targets? If the competition consists of programs and/or staffs putting guys in the NFL and regularly in the playoffs, okay, good, that's a strong sign that a low ranking can be ignored and a high ranking is confirmed. If that isn't the case, your program is heading towards late-stage Mack and could wind up careening towards Tom Herman/Derek Warehime/Herb Hand catastrophe.
  5. My son is usually picking up with the CBA Cubs 10U when we encounter their team. His normal select team is an 11U team for whom he plays up, so it's random when he's free and feels like playing "down" but he likes those kids. We also run into them in District play and I assume that will be the case this year on the 10U level.
  6. You would think. Are they too dumb to realize that? Or too full of their own feels to think that they’ll do it anyway and say “screw league rules, this is like a gentlemen’s agreement”.
  7. She’s hot in person. I see her at select ball tournaments regularly. Not like a 10 on the milf spectrum but one of several regulars who are in the 8 or higher range. We pitched Cal McNair on NIL help in the early days. He took it seriously enough to get an opinion around participating and his counsel came back that the conflict of interest was basically inherent and that it was a “no go”. That said, he’s also willing to play ball on some stuff that could be fun between the orgs and I wouldn’t be surprised to see something come to fruition on a schedule soon enough.
  8. You are an entertaining poster and the best of the pedants scampering around this site. This is a silly hill you’re trying to take with the schtick though. Their branding of that slot has been an absolute success and offends mostly no one.
  9. Many of the opinions here about Baby Reindeer are from posters whose opinions I respect. Plus I heard about it from some real life humans that normally make good recs, so my wife and I sat down to watch it last night. We made it midway through the second episode and then clicked out. I found myself cheering for the disgusting tub of goo in dark ways because I despised the main character so much. Once I realized that my preferred ending, one in which she murders him violently and then commits seppuku in front of hundreds of appalled onlookers on a comedy standup stage, couldn’t happen because the dude is still alive, I lost all interest.
  10. Yeah, but he’s a giant and that isn’t viewed as a bad thing. I said that before various other guys transferred. 1-2 more is my view. Mitchell is one.
  11. Worth nothing that by the end of this window, if you showed up to spring camp unexpectedly overweight, you were eventually told this by the staff:
  12. No clue. I wouldn't hear much on stuff like that until it was on the very brink of happening. I don't believe either guy's job was in any kind of jeopardy this cycle.
  13. Everyone on the Texas end, besides I guess a few of us observers, was more confident about Jordan than they should have been. Make of that what you will regarding the "knowing your room" aspect of being a coach for Terry Joseph and Blake Gideon.
  14. They've been focused on other sports besides football. The Hunt Family and the Stephens people are important to mention. Part of why Musselman left is that allegedly the NIL backers went to austerity on him for 2025. Calipari negotiated a healthy pot to work with, if you believe the rumbings and such. When Pittman is hoisted by an industrial crane and dropped on his hippo-sized fat ass just beyond campus property lines, I assume the enthusiasm for the next guy will spur some significant pressure in NIL for a cycle or two in football.
  15. Carter Karels with the paradoxical position: Carter Karels "The Bryce Foster conversation has always been a little uncomfortable. He had so much promise early, but he did not show enough commitment to football and fell off a cliff as a player. I don't see him being good anywhere else, unless he goes the Group of Five route/completely changes his mindset. Anyway, think we need to move on and give him a little grace. Sometimes, things just don't work out." Strong work. I don't know if Karels is actually an aggie, but he disguises well as one if he isn't.
  16. I don't know who "Trilly" is but them coming out and declaring that isn't conducive for preventing something stupid at the end of that recruitment.
  17. I think a "Draft 20XX: Booms, Mehs, & Busts" would be a good thread every year where people log their picks. Problem is that I might be the only one thinks that, I guess. Anyway, in lieu of that, here are my thoughts on booms and busts, based on watching many of these guys for years and not giving a shit what NFL scouts think: Busts: - Malik Nabers - I've been mocking the views on this guy for years. That probably makes me an idiot since he's been so productive, especially this past year. I think that's a byproduct of his QB more than this guy being a uniquely talented player. I heard a draft guru this morning say that Nabers is the most explosive player in this draft with amazing stop and start skills. He's assumed to be a top 10 pick and I don't see Jamarr Chase. I think this guy posts pedestrian numbers in the pros. - Brian Thomas - Whatever my biases are against the hype for Nabers, they're more exaggerated for his teammate. This guy should not be a first round pick. - JJ McCarthy - We've hashed it up thread, but I think the idea of this guy going in the first round, much less the top 5, is absolutely absurd. He's a byproduct of hype from his former coach, the silly notion of the Next Tom Brady, and being a game manager of a national title winner. Jay Barker has to be nearly comatose in a state of shock that he missed his window by 32 years. AJ McCarron has to be seething somewhere. Greg McElroy was recently seen handing out his resume and highlight tapes at a scouting happy hour. - Dallas Turner - Take a look at his sophomore year and those are the numbers I expect for his first 3 years in the league. This guy is a loafing piece of shit unless he needs to get paid or he has a defenseless QB in his line of sight. I have to assume suspensions are going to impact his output as well. - Terrion Arnold - The Saban Effect is the primary driver for the love affair for this guy. I have heard scout after scout laud his willingness to get involved in the running game and his pass deflections while poo-pooing the fact that he spent his entire career getting picked on at Bama while McKinstry patrolled the other side of the field. - Xavier Legette - He can't run routes for shit. He has injury issues. He had one good season in college as one of the oldest guys on the field. Him being mentioned near the first round is a joke. Booms: - Caleb Williams - I think he puts his off-field baby bullshit aside and gives the Bears the dominant QB player they have need for so long. - Marvin Harrison Jr - This guy is getting knocked more than Jack Tripper's front door and it makes no sense. This is the best WR in the draft and will be an annual pro bowler. - Brock Bowers - I think he's the purest football player in the draft. He's tough, fast, hard-working, has great hands and will be a force against conventional match-ups. - Jared Verse - The opposite of Dallas Turner in every way. I think he'll be a standout. - Jer'Zhan Newton - Maybe it's because I only watched 3-4 Illinois games last year, but in each one this guy was a disruption on the field on damned near every drive. He should be drafted around Murphy's pick yet I've seen him much lower. - Payton Wilson - Similar to Newton, I felt like every game I saw with this guy in it, he was making plays and the offense had to worry about him constantly.
  18. This thread is fine. Other threads here and in the football forum right now? Not so much.
  19. TOF is run by people who are not paid a dime. There is one very competent employee who is paid competitively. Anything else that doesn't go to athletes is vendor-related or marketing-related. I haven't seen numbers in a while but the percentage was well above 90%. Frankly, that's like not fully sustainable, at least the only one employee part. These are two groups with two completely different agendas. What is now TOF is the culmination of a small bunch of people from a few different groups who put a shit ton of work, risk and money into organizing something that Texas sports could gain leverage out of for the purposes of winning titles and building a sustainable engine that would repeatedly unlock that across sports. It isn't perfect, it has warts and flaws, and it has a long way to go, but it's out there about as far as NIL programs can get so far and that is all driven by one simple force - a collective love of UT and its athletic programs. The aggie thing has always had one other important factor involved with it - people finding ways to get paid. That's the problem that a lot of these collectives have repeatedly run into - What's In It For Me? and also bureaucracies not understanding how to build things from scratch and handing those responsibilities off to vendor cronies. To be clear in terms of folks' understanding regarding moving parts everywhere as it pertains to the corporate side of NIL - a fuckton of that money isn't going to the players. There are agencies, agents, etc., involved and they're getting theirs. That is different. Unscrupulous agents, and I am not saying they all are because that's not true, but there are those out there who are allegedly getting more money from the endorsements than their players. @RGBIII if I am missing something or wrong. He's closer to some of this stuff than I might be.
  20. I think Calipari and the Hunts and whomever will pay what it takes on this one.
  21. Bush sued the NCAA for defamation late last year. They're getting their heads beat in across the board with lawsuits. They collaborated with the Heisman people to give the trophy back, and the NCAA will recognize the Trojan title in 2004, and Bush drops the lawsuit. That's what various folks in the media and around different programs seem to believe.
  22. That one still wouldn't surprise me. I expect between 4-6 announcements within the next 24 hours and likely sooner.
  23. So on the aggie 247 site, they're having a discussion about the staff changes within the AD. Some guys come on and start talking negatively about the changes that actually need to be made in order for their culture to grow out of the dark ages it has been stuck in since forever. In the spoiler, I did not change to plain text so that you can get the payoff of the image. We've discussed this previously, but it is becoming clear to me as I get a feel for the various posters that there is a real undercurrent of disdain for Liucci in some aggie booster corners. @Tex Pete and I, among others but us very loudly, have been complaining and pointing to the Texags/12thMF/Aggie AD connections for years. These fuckers are intertwined and Texags is used in a number of ways by the school. Texags was allegedly involved with the money laundering going on in order to pay players during the bag game run, but I don't know if that is true or not. The problem is that I could see it happening, which speak to the incestual corruption. Here are other guys with some added thoughts. These quoted posters seem like they're at least functioning adults with less myopia than others around them.
  24. Was Jerry Gray a thing here? I remember the $9.95er fanboys all wanted him a decade ago, but that’s about it.
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