SL Xpress
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Recruiting - 2020
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Texas Football 2025 - Seven Win Steve Rides Again
SL Xpress replied to closetojumping's topic in Football
No. If you watch the media availability where he said that, he was referring to going to the portal right now. "I'd be better off going to the co-op." He wasn't referring to the portal in general. He could very well believe that. Maybe him and Kyle Flood simply don't think there's a good payoff for a quality OL in the portal. But that's not what he said. Or at least, not the complete context for it. I will say this. The biggest issue as much as anything else since Mackovic was fired, is that the head coaches simply don't bring in enough bodies at OL. Certainly not enough quality bodies. The quality part almost goes without saying. But also not enough bodies period. OL is the hardest position group IMO to give a projected evaluation. Sarkisian and Flood reversed that quickly when they got here, but now we're moving towards the same dynamic. We're simply not bringing in enough OL in our recruiting classes. I thought we were going to have a group of 5 or 6 in this class, and maybe we still will. But our tackle group in particular is very thin. I'm not exactly a lone wolf on this. I see plenty of other posters making comments on it, so I'm not out here saying I'm seeing something other people aren't. I'm simply saying I agree with posters who look at our roster and depth chart and think there's something amiss with our talent acquisition strategy in terms of sheer numbers. -
Texas Recruiting Notes 2026: Boulevard of Broken Bagmen
SL Xpress replied to texifornia's topic in 🤫$9.95🤫
That's Groce. -
Texas Recruiting Notes 2026: Boulevard of Broken Bagmen
SL Xpress replied to texifornia's topic in 🤫$9.95🤫
I mean, we don't know what the scheme is going to be when he gets to Norman, nor who will be running it. -
Texas Football 2025 - Seven Win Steve Rides Again
SL Xpress replied to closetojumping's topic in Football
There's the old joke about the two friends trying to run from a bear when one person takes the time to put on his running shoes, and the other guy screams at him that he can't out run the bear. "I don't have to outrun the bear. I just have to outrun you." Texas doesn't have to be amazing at all facets of the game. They just need to be a little better than Ohio State. This game won't be played in a vacuum. Whatever UT's weaknesses, OSU will have some as well. As amazing as their WRs are - and they're truly amazing - they'll have a starting quarterback with virtually no starting experience. Much like Texas, they have a lot of new pieces on the OL that they're hopeful about, especially at tackle. That group will be facing their biggest challenge in their season opener. I like our chances in this game. -
Sub-Educated Cretins: The SEC screenshot mega-thread
SL Xpress replied to SimkinsMan's topic in 🤫$9.95🤫
One of the things I've learned in life is that you can tell someone else, "See the red glowing stove top? It's really hot. Don't touch it." For some people, they think, "Okay, I'm not going to touch it, then." But there are always those folks who say, "I mean, how hot could it be?" It doesn't mean you don't give warnings or instruction. It does mean that sometimes it doesn't have the kind of impact you hoped for until after mistakes are made. The most effective culture is when they're not just getting it in a class. The people around them are constantly reinforcing the message. It can go the other way, too. If you have a culture of rule breakers and living on the edge, no advice from outsiders is going to erase that. That's a big part of why all the effort they're putting into out of state recruiting is so important. It's not about being highest bidder. It's about knowing who is worth being highest bidder on. You don't know that from throwing a bag down. You know that by getting to know the HS coaches, the family, and the player. Preferably by establishing some kind of long term relationship with the HS coaches, so it's not based on a single recruitment, but on a long term trust that they mean what they say, rather than just selling you on the player they have right then. -
Texas Football 2025 - Seven Win Steve Rides Again
SL Xpress replied to closetojumping's topic in Football
I'm getting sucked into your retardedness, and that's on me. -
Texas Football 2025 - Seven Win Steve Rides Again
SL Xpress replied to closetojumping's topic in Football
I mean, he did kick more field goals than any one at Texas ever. He didn't always suck at it. Sarkisian likes to go for it on fourth down. -
Texas Football 2025 - Seven Win Steve Rides Again
SL Xpress replied to closetojumping's topic in Football
I don't understand. There's a big part of Sarkisian that simply doesn't like to kick field goals when the ball is around the 35 yard line. Maybe that changes, but I doubt it. He considers it a part of his all gas no brakes identity. -
Texas Football 2025 - Seven Win Steve Rides Again
SL Xpress replied to closetojumping's topic in Football
You made it through a season of Silas Bolden fielding punts. Whoever is back there this year is going to drop the pucker factor several notches simply by not being Silas Bolden. I understand having worries about turning the ball over with muffed punts, but that's going to be a risk regardless. If I could rank the points of emphasis in terms of positions we need to win this year to reach our goals, there's a good chance punt returns would rank last on that list. Just catch the ball. Anything beyond that is golden. -
Texas Football 2025 - Seven Win Steve Rides Again
SL Xpress replied to closetojumping's topic in Football
Yeah, Gerry mentioned that in their podcast. Too early to be conclusive, but not too early to be interesting. I do think we're a bit behind in numbers on the OL. Especially tackle. Early on in this cycle I drank the kool-aid and thought we'd be bringing in a 5 or even 6 person class filled with 4 and 5 star studs from across the country ("we're getting errybody!"). I'm hoping for some flips prior to signing day. We've refrained from going to the portal for OL so far. I wonder if that changes this year. -
Texas Football 2025 - Seven Win Steve Rides Again
SL Xpress replied to closetojumping's topic in Football
It feels like it's going to have to be 4th and 20 or the end of the half/winning kick for Sarkisian to even attempt one from that distance. -
Texas Recruiting Notes 2027: I remember watching his dad play
SL Xpress replied to BornAndRaised's topic in 🤫$9.95🤫
We'll see. This seems like the iffiest commitment possible for a 2027 class player. I think the main thing is the rest of college football has to wait and see where the market goes for college players. Texas Tech out there like a speed horse opening up fast at the gate. Maybe they maintain the lead until signing day, but I don't believe that. It's my opinion if someone gets in the ball park he's going somewhere else. That said, his QB teammate is committed for 2026, so maybe that helps end up getting him across the finish line. One thing's for sure. Texas Tech/Double Eagle Boys out there turning heads with NIL money. -
Texas Football 2025 - Seven Win Steve Rides Again
SL Xpress replied to closetojumping's topic in Football
We have a lot more of these before kickoff guys. This is how it is every year. For every team. Every practice report makes the team you root for look like world beaters with vague statements on how amazing everyone looks. The difference is this year I don't have to read the practice reports. This is the best I've felt about a team entering the season outside of 2005 and 1983. I don't know how well we'll do. Maybe my heart gets broken. That's okay. I'd rather have a muffed punt, an interception dribble through a DBs hands followed by a TD catch by a dominant WR, an injury to the starting QB when it looks like we're the better team, etc. over the drivel we all put up with from 2010 to 2022. All of this is fun to me. Heck, making fun of the practice reports is fun. I'm so excited about this season I can't stand it. It all feels like heroin being injected into my veins. August 30 can't get here fast enough.- 8050 replies
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Texas Football 2025 - Seven Win Steve Rides Again
SL Xpress replied to closetojumping's topic in Football
I was told privately the injury to Brooks is no big deal. Also no details.- 8050 replies
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Texas A&M gets pile driven by the national media and various fan bases so much. It's crazy how well known they are for going 8-4.
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Uh, wut? I've heard more talk about Texas this offseason than I have my entire life. That was before the #1 ranking in the coaches' poll came out. This week I've seen a whole slew of talk about Texas all over again. Not everyone has Texas #1, but even when they don't there's a need to explain it, and an acknowledgement that Texas is going to be really good this year. The SEC talking heads, even when they're doing so reluctantly, consistently put Texas in the top tier with either Alabama and Georgia, or many talking heads will throw LSU in there. Sometimes there will be a fifth. One guy put A&M in the top category, and another put South Carolina in there, but those are outliers, and the people picking them admit they're not the same caliber as the other 4. One thing I can say with certainty. We're not coming in under the radar this year. There's no way someone can make a credible argument around that.
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Texas Football 2025 - Seven Win Steve Rides Again
SL Xpress replied to closetojumping's topic in Football
I get where you're coming from. I often feel the same way about you as a poster on this site. -
Texas Football 2025 - Seven Win Steve Rides Again
SL Xpress replied to closetojumping's topic in Football
I'd add Michael Terry in there, who never played WR in high school. I'm really excited about him long term. -
The Solid Verbal podcast goes over the SEC. They'll have two more shows where they do deep dives on each team. They also have a deep dive on Ohio State they put up a couple of days ago. To me they sound like writers who are passionate about college football covering the game...which is what they are. Ty Hildenbrandt is a Penn State grad and Notre Dame fan. Dan Rubenstein is a grad of Oregon. The podcast started in 2008, so many of you are likely already familiar with it. I only recently started listening to it. They are literate. Listening to them feels like listening to fantasy football people analyze teams/players. It's not my favorite. I find myself getting bored by them at times. But I find myself jonesing for college football content right now. They try to do a good job in covering all of college football. They obviously watch a bunch of games. I feel like they refrain from click bait/hot take shenanigans the way so much of the rest of the internet gravitates towards, so that's my biggest endorsement. Hildenbrandt's take on the Aggies is unintentionally hilarious in this show, but again, so much of what they do is a paper analysis. They don't shy away from that admission. I can't say I learn a whole lot from them, but I don't feel like my intelligence is insulted, either, which is what happens with most college football content. Anyway, here's the link:
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Well, there should be a caveat there that it's less about Stanford slipping than it is they changed the rules to only count the top 20 sports. Stanford still gets an advantage because they have more opportunities to earn points because they have more programs that can finish high, but prior to the rule change all their sports counted, while Texas only fielded 20 teams (now 21 with beach volleyball). If Stanford alumni fully committed to supporting athletics through NIL, they could make the rest of college athletics look like the minor leagues. But it doesn't appear that any of their many whales wants to do that. Their biggest athletic supporter, John Arrillaga, who played on the basketball team class of 1960, made a huge amount of money investing in real estate around the area. It's not just the money he gave, but he had the gravitas to organize other wealthy donors for causes he supported. He died in 2022 before NIL became a big deal, and no one else has really stepped up to fill his shoes in quite the same way. For all I know no one will. They have some obvious institutional issues in terms of their academic requirements - high school athletes can't be offered until they're admitted to Stanford, and as you can imagine that's not exactly a slam dunk. They don't get any waivers like Notre Dame, UCLA, or Cal. They have started accepting a very small amount of transfers, but it's a really big deal because Stanford only accepts 1% of their student body as transfers from one year to the next, so any athletes taking up those spots means someone else isn't being accepted. Also, spring enrollment hasn't been possible previously. That's a big advantage for other fall sports Stanford doesn't have. I'm not throwing a pity party for those cock suckers. But they have difficult decisions to make in the future about how they want to run their athletic department, and the answers aren't exactly obvious. What I do know is I don't see how it's remotely possible they'll be competitive in football in a way they were under Harbaugh or David Shaw's first 8 years. But it's not like I care other than as a curiosity. I will say it's interesting they were one of the big naysayers on allowing Texas into the Pac 12 because in their eyes Texas wasn't good enough academically. They weren't the only ones, but they were the loudest voice in those discussions.
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Texas Recruiting Notes 2026: Boulevard of Broken Bagmen
SL Xpress replied to texifornia's topic in 🤫$9.95🤫
Yeah, didn't mean to insult your intelligence. You get it. I was just honestly answering the question. -
Texas Football 2025 - Seven Win Steve Rides Again
SL Xpress replied to closetojumping's topic in Football
Did I miss the Sarkisian sledgehammer clips? I feel like I did. How do we get new locker rooms without a proper demo montage? -
Texas Recruiting Notes 2026: Boulevard of Broken Bagmen
SL Xpress replied to texifornia's topic in 🤫$9.95🤫
As far as flipping targets, I'm curious how the season goes. Disruptions in head coaching jobs whether because of poor performance or the coach took a better opportunity are gold mines for sniping their best commitments and/or portal targets. Texas is an apex predator taking advantage of chaos in other systems. Never know where new options are going to pop up. I don't think of Oregon as particularly vulnerable, but I thoroughly enjoyed getting Sharma last cycle. Just like Wesley a month ago. I'd love to strip any of their top targets away from them. -
Texas Recruiting Notes 2026: Boulevard of Broken Bagmen
SL Xpress replied to texifornia's topic in 🤫$9.95🤫
In general the emphasis on long arms has a lot more to do with the OL not being able to get their hands on you than it does batting down passes. It's kind of like reach being emphasized in boxing. It's not an end all measurement, but DEs who can keep separation from their OT counterparts - where arm length is also emphasized in talent evaluation - are at an advantage compared to shorter armed DEs who constantly have to make up for it in other ways. But Mike Tyson was pretty good, and he didn't have a lot of arm reach. Same thing with DEs. If the player can use leverage and strength to get the OL off balance, a disadvantage in arm length isn't as big of a deal. I'm not a fan of Kreul as a prospect. I'm not saying don't take him. We just have an embarrassment of riches at that position, and I'm greedy. I want more Simmons/Jackson types, and that's not who he is. OTOH, the prospect of punking OU in this recruitment makes me giddy.
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