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Texas Recruiting Notes 2024: Bags Don't Beat Bankrolls


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17 minutes ago, texifornia said:

 

On 2/15/2023 at 9:09 PM, Elmer_Fudd said:

If you are a 6'4" TE, out of state, and white - Texas is going to send you an offer. 

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This would be nice.

Fong, on Jerrick Gibson.

 

image.thumb.png.acdda3796838cea8b20d1a15a5a375a8.png

 

His note on Gibson's Texas/other visits.

Nation's No. 1 RB Jerrick Gibson locking in his official visit dates
STEVE WILTFONG

Spoiler

 

Nation's No. 1 RB Jerrick Gibson locking in his official visit dates
STEVE WILTFONG


Bradenton (Fla.) IMG Academy 247Sports Composite five-star running back Jerrick Gibson has four official visits on the radar for June, his father Victor Jenkins tells 247Sports.

The No. 1 back in the land plans at Georgia the weekend of June 2. They’re aiming to be at Alabama the weekend of June 9. Tennessee is on the radar for June 16. Texas would wrap up the month June 24.

In addition to those trips, the Gibson camp is working on scheduling trips to Oklahoma, Ohio State and Tennessee for spring practices.


The 5-foot-10, 200-pound Gibson ranks as 247Sports No. 19 prospect regardless of position.

Recent visits for Gibson included stops at Florida, Texas and Texas A&M.

 

 

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9 hours ago, RollingPresidential said:
9 hours ago, LTtxfan said:

 

The NCAA dead period ends February 28. That means that the Texas Longhorns can once again host unofficial visitors beginning March 1. 

 

Dark mode: 

Spoiler

The NCAA dead period ends February 28. That means that the Texas Longhorns can once again host unofficial visitors beginning March 1. 

The month of March is going to be a busy one for Steve Sarkisian and staff. March 25 is going to be the Longhorns second Junior Day weekend for the 2024 cycle with an emphasis on out of state visitors. 

And the 2023 class may not be done yet either. Sarkisian and the offensive staff continue to swing away at On3 Consensus 5-star Duce Robinson. 

Here are some Sunday thoughts to get the week going with a busy month ahead on the recruiting trail. 

Duce Robinson and 2024 TE’s

As of late last week the communication between Duce Robinson, his family and Texas remained. And the same can be said for Georgia and USC. There hasn’t been any major changes in the recruitment from what IT has heard. A decision is still expected on April 1, or prior. Even if Robinson had decided to wait until June and just sign scholarship papers, the Longhorns would have continued to recruit him. That speaks volumes to how much he is coveted by the Texas staff. 

Jeff Banks extended February offers to three 2024 tight end prospects. Carter Nelson is pound-for-pound one of the most gifted athletes in the country, period. This one feels like a long shot for the Horns, but a spring or summer visit is possible to likely. There will be a lot of pressure on the On3 Consensus 4-star to stay in Nebraska with the excitement around Matt Rhule being in Lincoln. But Nelson does currently plan to make some visits, and weigh his options.

Laguna Beach’s Ryner Swanson and South Florida’s Colton Heinrich both told IT last week they plan to make visits to Texas. When those visits will be is still in the balance. 

All three 2024 TE’s offered have a skill set I like. They are smooth movers with high-end body control. 

Jerrick Gibson and Texas

On3’s Chad Simmons published a story with the latest on nation’s No. 1 ranked running back Jerrick Gibson late last week. 


 

Tashard Choice continues to have a great relationship with the IMG Academy standout. There is a growing consensus that the Longhorns will enter March in the best position with Gibson. If my hand was forced today, I would enter an On3 RPM pick for Texas. With that said, there are four June official visits that will very likely decide this recruitment. Florida State, Florida and Miami remain in the mix too. 

The June 23-24 weekend is shaping up to be the Longhorns’ huge official weekend of the summer. Gibson and top offensive tackle target Daniel Calhoun will be in town that weekend. Calhoun’s four June OV’s are Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee and Texas. 

Texas’ wide net at defensive line 

The Longhorns have cast a very wide net on the defensive line in the 2024 cycle, and I love the strategy. Texas has offered prospects from California, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Connecticut, Missouri and Illinois. The states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and Florida are a must for the future with the move to the SEC in 2024. Texas must engage in many heavy hitter recruiting battles in the future. And they are more than willing. 

Thus far, there have been several prospects step foot on campus among the offers. Those were D’Antre Robinson, Dominick McKinley, Isaia Faga, Melvin Hills, Jeffery Rush and Kendall Jackson from out of state January 21. Robinson is a Tashard Choice/Bo Davis combo recruitment, and the 6-foot-3, 305-pounder said he will make an OV. McKinley and Faga have also told IT in the last couple of weeks they intend to officially visit. 

March and April will add to the out of state prospects that will make stops in Austin. Those include Omar White, Caleb Moore and likely Malik Blocton. Texas is working hard to get Kamron Beavers, Terrance Hibbler and Jayden Jackson on campus. They would also like to get T.J. Lindsey to Austin. 

Texas is casting a wide net to get two by December. That’s the end game. 

The total defensive line number will be three or four. There are two in-state prospects that can pick up the phone and commit right now. They are Alex January and Joseph Jonah-Ajonye. Don’t under estimate how high the 6-foot-3.5, 260-pound Oak Ridge versatile defensive line prospect is on the board. The Texas staff is way higher on him as a prospect than the industry. And at the end of the day, the Texas staff will be correct.

 

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247 Recruiting Stampede:

There are some good notes about recruiting spending and visit feedback.

Spoiler

The Stampede: Assessing the state of the program heading into year three

Steve Sarkisian heads into year three of his tenure as Texas head coach. Year two represented an improvement on the field over year one, but there’s still much more work to do. This spring will be big when it comes to figuring out how the roster will stack up.

The Longhorns should get a big boost from the 2023 class as several of the impact freshmen are already on campus. Since Mack Brown left Austin, the Longhorns have lacked stability and have been mired in a cycle of promising rises before plummeting into mediocrity again. If Sarkisian is going to break the cycle, he will need wins on the field and a healthy program that continues to grow stronger each day.

Last year, I wrote an assessment on the state of the program off the field. We looked at recruiting spending, staff size and what the Longhorns could do better in year two. More than a year later, I looked into all of those same areas to see where there was an improvement and what remains.

In this week’s edition of The Stampede, Horns247’s weekly gathering of recruiting intel, we conduct our yearly assessment of the state of the Texas program.

The Year That Was

Year two saw some improvements on the field. Though the 8-4 regular season with a bowl loss isn’t the standard for a program of this stature, it represented a step forward on the field. On the positive side, the Longhorns competed at a much higher level than Sarkisian’s first year on the field.

The highlight was a 49-0 dismantling of Oklahoma in the annual Red River Shootout along with a few other impressive victories. The lowlights included frustrating losses against Oklahoma State, Texas Tech and a botched performance in primetime against an eventual national title finalist in TCU.

Their regular season losses came by a total of 18 points, they count as losses all the same. Even a one-point loss to Alabama at home stings more knowing that the game was winnable in the final moments. On the plus side, the defense performed much better holding 8 opponents to 21 points or fewer throughout the year.

The offense had fits and starts as Quinn Ewers flashed spectacularly at times but struggled with consistency. It was a banner year on the recruiting front as well. Texas signed the nation’s No. 3 overall class headlined by top players like Arch Manning, Anthony Hill, Cedric Baxter and Johntay Cook.

The staff also did some nice work in the Transfer Portal adding defensive backs Gavin Holmes and Jalen Catalon and receiver Adonai Mitchell. Texas is also set to get Isaiah Neyor back who was making waves before suffering a season-ending knee injury. With a year of starting experience under his belt and improvement at the skill positions, Quinn Ewers should be set for a better year on the field

Comparing the class to the national landscape

The jump from the 2022 class to 2023 was big. Last year, the Longhorns finished with a Top 5 class for a total of 289.04 points. Though Top 5 is a good benchmark, Texas finished 10 points behind No. 4 Ohio State and over 40 points behind No. 1 Texas A&M. In 2023, Texas finished much closer to the nationally elite group with a score of 306.32.

Georgia and Alabama were the only schools that finished better and the Longhorns had a 17-point advantage over No. 4 Oklahoma. The average rating of 92.96 was good for fourth in the country behind Alabama (94.78), Georgia (94.06) and Ohio State (93.62). By all metrics, this class was part of the nationally elite groups in the country and that should improve the overall roster talent.

Recruiting Spending

Last year, Texas ranked 13th in the country with a budget of 1.275 million. That figure has them significantly behind Georgia ($3.6M), Alabama ($2.6M), Tennessee ($2.24M), and Clemson ($2.23M). It also puts them behind Arkansas ($1.9M), Texas A&M ($1.67M), LSU ($1.6M) and several other schools including Florida State, Michigan, Nebraska and Oklahoma.

To put matters in more simple terms, Texas was ranked closer to Minnesota ($1.19M) and Utah ($1.17M) than they were to the upper level. Did that change in 2022?

According to USA Today, Texas spent $2.44 million ranking No. 4 behind Tennessee ($2.92M) Texas A&M ($2.98M) and Georgia who blew everyone out of the water with a budget of $4.5 million.

The NCAA defines recruiting spending to include, “input transportation, lodging and meals for prospective student-athletes and institutional personnel on official and unofficial visits, telephone call charges, postage and such. Include value of use of institution’s own vehicles or airplanes as well as in-kind value of loaned or contributed transportation.”

It was an important step forward for the Longhorns and they must continue to spend with the best to see the best results.

While not directly related to recruiting spending or the inner workings of the program, it should also be mentioned that the NIL game for Texas is working at a high level. Feedback we hear from recruits and their families have been good and the collectives in place seem to be working well to serve the athlete.

Room for Improvement

After two years, the staff seems to be working at a high level. Both the on-field staff and recruiting support staff have been strong. The results in recruiting support that along with the fact that several staffers were hired away in the last few months. The evaluations, recruiting execution and visits have been better in year two than they were in year one.

That’s not to say there weren’t still some issues with logistics at times, but it didn’t end up hurting the Longhorns.

There is always room for improvement on the recruiting front and we think the Longhorns can continue to sharpen their recruiting skills in a few areas

Maximize the staff

Texas took an important step last year hiring Gary Patterson as a Special Assistant to the Head Coach, and there’s no reason why they can’t continue to add minds like that to the room. There were positions posted by UT a few months ago and we heard they were close with an intriguing name before the deal fell apart.

Georgia and Alabama have both gone to any means to expand their staff and add more valuable voices to the staff for game planning. Whether it be a former college or NFL coach or an up-and-coming high school coach, more sounding boards can be a good thing for both sides of the ball.

On that subject, adding more in that department is good thinking by the staff with so many high school coaches wanting to transition to the college game. It could also be a potential recruiting advantage depending on who they bring in. While those types of positions aren’t recruiting based, they can always be present during on-campus visits. The Longhorns made a good move hiring Jahmal Fenner to replace Chris Gilbert and we’d heard that a second high school coach could be joining the staff as an assistant Director of High School Relations.

Change up the yearly recruiting events

There’s no problem with the current Junior Day format, and the March recruiting event that coincides with spring ball is a nice touch. The underclassman elite camp in the summer has also been good, but there are some events that are getting stale.

When Tom Herman’s staff introduced the Texas pool party in the summer, it was a big hit and a fresh take on how to do summer visits. Since that time, the event has become stale and it’s met with mixed reactions from recruits and parents we speak with.

A pool party makes sense to beat the summer heat, but there has to be some new spin they can put on it. The last few times we covered the event, several recruits skipped the pool. One source we spoke with felt that the pool party works if you have the right personalities keeping everyone involved and into it.

The feedback from the last few events hasn’t necessarily been bad, but it hasn’t been glowing either.

When Charlie Strong introduced the Under The Lights camp in late July, it became a big hit. Tom Herman continued the trend with his Stars at Night camp. The elite camp in June serves the underclassmen, but a late July event following the dead period could be good for getting prospects back on campus before the season starts.

Win and win more

A program can spend all of the money they want, but the bottom line is, kids want to play for a winner. Sure, the last decade has been complicated at times, but the recurring theme of the last decade has been the program being its own worst enemy thanks to the results on the field.

Regardless of the money spent or the staff hired, the program will only be able to go as far as success takes it. In my time covering this program, there have been several times where the next step looked to be there for the taking only to see the team fall back.

This might be listed last, but nothing else happens without that success. The optimist would look at the 2022 season and say Texas was awfully close to winning 10-11 games in Sark’s second year. Maybe that indicates that the program is closer to making a big jump in year three. As we’ve seen in the past, a Texas program playing at a high level is incredibly difficult to stop.

 

Edited by MuellerHorn
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(Justin Wells) Inside Scoop: New visitors headed to Austin, athlete targets, and a list of prospects to visit UT

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Inside Texas with the latest on visitors headed to Austin soon, details on a pair of 2024 athletes, and more prospects that might take official visits in late June in Monday’s Inside Scoop.

Derrick McFall, ATH, Tyler (Texas) High

The On3 Industry Ranked four-star athlete is set to see Texas and Texas A&M this weekend. At 5-foot-10, 175 pounds, McFall will be in Austin on March 3rd and College Station on March 4th. McFall is connecting with Tashard Choice and Blake Gideon, and has been told he’s an athlete take in the 2024 cycle. McFall dropped his top seven schools in November – Texas, Alabama, Auburn, Miami, Penn State, TCU, and Texas A&M. Since then, he’s added offers from Colorado and Washington, and he’s considering a trip to Boulder this spring or summer. After a solid season on the gridiron and hardwood, McFall is headed to the track this spring where he’ll run the 100, 4×100, and 4×200 for the Lions.

Dozie Ezukanma, WR, Fort Worth (Texas) All Saints

At 6-foot-3, 180 pounds, Ezukanma is one of the top wide receiver prospects in-state for the 2024 cycle. After Texas offered last fall, Dozie took an unofficial to Austin. Now, he’s coming back. Ezukanma will be in Austin on March 25th for the Horns’ Junior Day, he tells Inside Texas. He just took a trip to Miami in late January and came away with an offer from the Hurricanes. Texas, TCU, Penn State, Houston, and Baylor are the programs standing out today. But for Ezukanma, he wants to build a strong relationship with new Texas wide receiver coach Chris Jackson. The younger brother of NFL wideout Erik Ezukanma, Dozie moved from Keller Fossil Ridge to Fort Worth All Saints last month.

Terry Bussey, ATH, Timpson (Texas)

After unofficial trips to Texas A&M and Baylor, the 5-foot-10.5, 180-pound On3 Industry Rated No. 5 athlete in the Class of 2024 is looking to nail down a date in Austin now. In the last month, Bussey has received offers from Texas, Alabama, Oklahoma State, and Arizona State, in addition to LSU, Oregon, Oklahoma and Nebraska. As he builds the relationship with UT corners coach Terry Joseph, Bussey believes he’ll be in Austin next month, possibly on March 25th, he tells Inside Texas. After a junior season where he accumulated over 4,700 total yards and 76 touchdowns (26 passing, 46 rushing, four interception returns), it’s hard to ignore his athleticism and play-making ability. One school making a strong impression on Bussey is Baylor. Bussey and his Timpson Tigers face Tenaha in the regional quarterfinal round of the basketball playoffs tonight at Central Heights.

June 24 Official visit weekend

June 24th will be the big visit weekend for the Longhorns this summer. On3 Consensus No. 1 RB Jerrick Gibson (Gainesville, Fla./IMG Academy) and top offensive tackle Daniel Calhoun (Roswell, Ga./Walton) are already publicly locked in for the 24th. Nyier Daniels, OL, (Oradell, N.J./Bergen Catholic) is also expected on June 24. In state prospects that Texas is for sure targeting for June 24:

Daniel Cruz, IOL, North Richland Hills (Texas) Richland

Micah Hudson, WR, Temple (Texas) Lake Belton

Corian Gipson, CB/DB, Lancaster (Texas) High

Kobe Black, CB, Waco (Texas) Connally

Justin Williams, LB, Conroe (Texas) Oak Ridge

Joseph Jonah-Ajonye, DL/EDGE, Conroe (Texas) Oak Ridge

D’Antre Robinson, DL, Orlando (Fla.) Jones

Dominick McKinley, DL, Lafayette (La.) Acadiana

Alex January, DL, (Duncanville (Texas)

There are a number of others that will be targeted for June official visits. Some of that will be impacted by March 25 unofficial visits by several out of state targets. The timeline of prospects could adjust when Texas brings in prospects for official visits. On3 Consensus 4-star KingJoseph Edwards (Hoschton, Ga./Mill Creek) told IT last week that he would likely make an OV during the season to be on hand for a game weekend.

Dead period ends February 28

That means visits begin March 1. Texas will host dozens of prospects next month in the classes of 2024 and 2025. Look for more 2025 invites to go out this week for the March 25th weekend. One prospect Texas is working to get on campus next month is 2025 defensive tackle Dilan Battle (Mansfield, Texas/Timberview). Battle will be joined by a number of others.

March 25th 2024 Visitor List

Christian Clark, RB/ATH, Phoenix (Ariz.) Mountain Pointe
On3 Consensus Ranking: N/R

Kedren Young, RB, Lufkin (Texas) High
On3 Consensus Ranking: No. 255

Dozie Ezekanma, WR, Fort Worth (Texas) All Saints
On3 Consensus Ranking: N/R

Brandon Baker, OT, Santa Ana (Calif.) Mater Dei
On3 Consensus Ranking: No. 50

Omar White, DL, Valdosta (Ga.) High – Colorado commit
On3 Consensus Ranking:  No. 172

Eric Brantley Jr., DL, Valdosta (Ga.) High – Colorado commit
On3 Consensus Ranking: No. 469

Zina Umeozulu, EDGE, Allen (Texas) High
On3 Consensus Ranking: No. 69

Dylan Williams, LB, Long Beach (Calif.) Poly
On3 Consensus Ranking: No. 79

Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa, LB, Bellflower (Calif.) St. John Bosco
On3 Consensus Ranking: No. 90

TyAnthony Smith, LB, Jasper (Texas) High
On3 Consensus Ranking: No. 378

Selman Bridges, CB, Temple (Texas) Lake Belton
On3 Consensus Ranking: No. 102

2025s scheduled to visit March 25th

Kelden Ryan, QB, Fort Worth (Texas) All Saints

Zion Williams, DL, Lufkin (Texas) High

Kevin Oatis, DL, Hattiesburg (Miss.) High

 

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46 minutes ago, Bolero88 said:

So these services have 6 of the top 19 players in the nation coming from Florida? Somehow I fucking doubt that's true. 

Good news is that appears to be dated and he's currently ranked 5th in the state of FL and 20th nationally. And 3 of the 5 attend IMG. I grant you permission to calm your tits

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  • texifornia changed the title to Texas Recruiting Notes 2024: Bags Don't Beat Bankrolls

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