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Texas Recruiting Notes 2022 - Idiotic Slapfights Unrelated To 2022 Recruiting


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51 minutes ago, 6th Street said:

Can't fault anyone for choosing NFL factories like Bama or OSU over Texas after Strong and Herman have driven this program into the ground. These recruits have watched years of underperformance and humiliating losses to TCU, Baylor, Kansas, Maryland etc while watching Alabama and Ohio State play in big games and send guys to the NFL.

I feel like this should start with Mack Brown coasting his last few years before Strong and Herman drove the program into the ground.

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4 hours ago, deech said:

I feel like this should start with Mack Brown coasting his last few years before Strong and Herman drove the program into the ground.

Absolutely. Mack turned into hot garbage as a coach and recruiter after '09.

Trey Hopkins having to drive to Austin to beg for an offer

offering Taylor Doyle in a wheelchair

offering two Heisman trophy winning QBs at Safety

about the only good thing he did was recruit Justin Tucker in those final years

 

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Holy shit. Definitely the worst competition level I’ve ever seen, but he’s literally dominating at every position on both sides of the ball. He has tape on punt team, housing both punts and kickoffs, sacks off the edge, 4 different routes with good hands and pretty decent speed, and safety where he demolished a rb on a good screen read.
He’s absolutely going to blow up, as was recently floated. We’ll be lucky to pull him, and for me, he’s really a Sanders type prospect with less offensive polish or quality opponents on tape. He would really need to be developed, no matter where he ends up. Ideally edge, but we said that with Sanders as well.
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23 minutes ago, closetojumping said:

One thing going on, and take this fwiw but it will be interesting/irritating to watch but, apparently, the job might be bigger than Brandon Harris at this point in his career. He’s getting lapped by the same guys at other programs, per some folks. 

Are you able to clarify a bit?  Do you mean in the “everyone has an uncle” part of recruiting or just straight up connecting with the players and families?

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8 hours ago, RomaVicta said:

My friend, that post could be lifted from Texags. Just lacks "he's skeered of the SEC." No offense intended, but it tastes of sour grapes.

I suppose it could be lifted from Texags, but unlike Texags, we/I don't go posting that shit about every recruit who chooses to go elsewhere. I've never said it about a Texas recruit leaving for another school, and I wasn't too shocked or disappointed that he chose OSU over us. I didn't think he was that incredible or even the best QB on the field in the one game I saw him play in (State Championship) ... though admittedly that's a very small sample.

We'll be fine. He'll be fine, and that's all I really thought about it until I saw his comment. It's an honest impression, regardless of how aggy you might think it is. I've said it about numerous athletes who choose to just go add more talent to already talent-rich programs or franchises to rack up rings, rather than trying to build something. Like LeBron giving up on Cleveland and going to Miami, for example.

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15 minutes ago, closetojumping said:

The latter. 

This is a little surprising, but he was previously in a position where he mainly talked to one position group (RB’s). Visits will probably be huge for him in relationship building with some of these guys he isn’t as close with.

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1 hour ago, closetojumping said:

One thing going on, and take this fwiw but it will be interesting/irritating to watch but, apparently, the job might be bigger than Brandon Harris at this point in his career. He’s getting lapped by the same guys at other programs, per some folks. 

Hey @golfclap, you won't be shocked by this one.

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5 hours ago, closetojumping said:

One thing going on, and take this fwiw but it will be interesting/irritating to watch but, apparently, the job might be bigger than Brandon Harris at this point in his career. He’s getting lapped by the same guys at other programs, per some folks. 

So we've gone from 'we won't need Carrington'/'we're replicating the Saban model' to this. Encouraging.

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(Ari Wasserman and Bruce Feldman) College football recruiting is ‘about to explode’: NIL, new evaluation rules and the most hectic month ever

Spoiler

Pat Fitzgerald didn’t wait until May to warn his wife they were going to be strangers for an entire month. He gave her ample preparation to figure out what she was going to do with herself in June.

“It will be the worst month in the history of college football coaching,” Fitzgerald said. “It’s going to be wild. It’s going to be crazy. I told my wife that I’ll see her in July. We’re going to go on vacation. Somewhere warm.”

Stacy Fitzgerald should use the next 30 days to plan the most amazing vacation possible. Her husband promised her that. It’s a nice olive branch because while she’s planning the trip, Pat Fitzgerald is going to be so busy he may not even make it home some nights. As he said, this is going to be the worst month in the history of college football coaching.

Why?

After a dead period that spanned more than a year, the college football recruiting world is returning to normal. And it’s not a small step toward normalcy — it’s a cannonball into the pool of official visits, evaluation camps and a new NCAA rule that allows for head coaches and their assistants to evaluate prospects one-on-one on campus. At the same time, coaches are having to formulate recruiting plans while considering the impact of the new one-time transfer rule and the looming name, image and likeness legislation. It’s all happening at the same time. There will be more official visitors than ever before, larger camps than ever and now, for the first time, NFL combine-like one-on-one evaluations with prospects eager to earn scholarships by doing what they haven’t been able to do for more than a year — showcase their talent and development.

Get ready for 30 days of nonstop in-person recruiting action after more than 12 months of doing everything from in front of a computer screen.

“We’re fitting it all into one month,” a MAC recruiting coordinator said. “It’s going to really suck for our staff, but that’s kind of how it is when coaches haven’t been on the road in a year and kids haven’t been able to come for visits in a year. It’s been a ticking time bomb for so long, and it’s been getting bigger and bigger as people were tired of being cooped up at home. Now it’s about to explode.”

This could wind up being the June that changes the sport for good. College football is evolving in front of our eyes.


In a normal recruiting cycle not altered by a pandemic, Ohio State typically hosts around 50 official visitors. Mark Pantoni, the Buckeyes director of player personnel, said last week that the program is expecting that many in June alone this year.

This isn’t unique to Ohio State. Another Big Ten recruiting coordinator said he anticipates his visits to double in June from what he’d expect in a typical month. The reason is simple. Prospects have spent 15 months talking to coaches on video calls and have gathered more than enough information to narrow down their respective lists to roughly five schools. The last remaining piece of recruitment is experiencing a campus and program in person, and after having little-to-no in-person activity since last March, people are eager to travel.

“The 2022 class skipped the unofficial visit process,” the Big Ten recruiting coordinator said. “It was all done on Zoom. So now they can get visits, they already have their top groups and just want to get out and see places. These kids have known for a long time where they want to official visit. In the past, they would maybe take a few in the spring and then gather more information and take a few more in the fall. These guys are completely overloaded with information because they haven’t gotten off the phone with coaches in a long time. They are looking for answers now that can only be found by seeing places, so they are going to do it. Nobody wants to wait any longer.”

This is putting a strain on staffs because many programs, depending on size and resources, aren’t accustomed to hosting this many prospects. On top of that, these schools are also hosting their own camps. This is going to be a logistical nightmare for a lot of places that don’t have the infrastructure to manage all of these visitors. Will there be enough coaches on hand to give prospects a good experience? Are there enough golf carts to transport people around campus? How do you feed all of the players and their families? Can you have a home run visit if your staff is stretched too thin?

To add even more to these staffs’ plates, a lot of prospects have a month to take five visits. With only four weekends in June, that means there will be midweek official visits. That’s not ideal, and it requires a strategy of how to work through the logjam of players hoping to visit your campus.

“Usually you have kids come in Friday and leave Sunday,” the Big Ten recruiting coordinator continued. “In our case, we have some midweek visitors because their weekends are taken. So it just doubles down how crazy it is.”

Some programs are declining to host midweek visits.

“They are a waste of time,” a Big 12 recruiting coordinator said. “It’s not a good visit. We have done it in the past, and it is pointless. You’re clearly No. 5 (on their list) if you’re the one getting a midweek visit. It’s just not worth it for us. And what you’re going to see is a lot of June commitments this year because of all the official visits, but then a lot of them won’t have a true game day official visit experience, so will those commitments hold? It’s all new territory that we all are trying to work through because this is the first time we all are going to go through a month like this.”

These coaches are all going to be pushed to the brink in terms of logistics and scheduling this month. But there is a much bigger cloud hanging over their heads — the looming world in which players are going to be compensated for their name, image and likeness.

The toughest part? You guessed it — uncertainty, especially in a climate in which each state is operating on its own in terms of legislation and when that legislation will be passed. As things are ramping back up in the world of recruiting, these programs are trying to figure out how to sell NIL and how to adjust to what things are going to look like. It’s all being done blindly.

“Nobody knows what in the hell the rules are gonna be,” a Big 12 head coach said. “Everybody is worried about what these states might do. We can tell (the players) how to build their brand, but where the rubber meets the road is who is getting paid. We’re five weeks away from July 1 (when NIL becomes law in many states), and I don’t know how you prep for it. I can manage all this June stuff, but it’s hard to plan for it if you don’t understand what’s coming.”

Being a head coach in college football today is like being a CEO. These coaches have to perform the duties of their own job but also must manage a staff of assistant coaches and recruiting personnel and make sure the entire organization is running smoothly. Doing that during a hectic month while the sport is evolving could prove to be very challenging — far more challenging than making an in-game decision about whether to go for it on a critical fourth down.

“You’re gonna go from 0 to 60,” the Big 12 coach said, adding that he thought it will be vital for the 2023 and 2024 prospects to get on campus and attend camps as well. “We’ve been over a year since we’ve had kids on campus. You’re gonna have recruits on unofficial or officials all the way till the dead period. I think that’s a positive for the kids. What we’ve got to do a good job from a coaching perspective is keeping some sense of balance. You’re talking about an extended period of time for coaches and families. We’re going to have some issues if we’re not real cognizant of time. I don’t think we can be blind to that.

“We’re going to have way more officials (visits) during the summer than have ever been hosted. You always have a large number of commits in June, but way more kids will commit because there are less commits (at this point) than in a normal year.”

If you thought the recruiting process was starting to look more and more like the NFL Scouting Combine, this year it’s being taken to a new extreme.

Because coaches haven’t been able to go on the road and evaluate prospects in person, the NCAA passed a rule that allows unofficial visitors to go through hourlong workouts with one coach during their visits in June. The recruiting staff isn’t allowed to be on the field when a prospect is working out, so it’s added pressure on the coaches and assistants to be judicious with their time.

On one hand, you want to put in as much effort as possible to seal the deal with big-time official visitors who are priorities on your board. But on the other, you want to devote as many hours of in-person evaluation as possible to determine whether fringe prospects are worth a scholarship. Many times, these diamonds in the rough turn out to be All-Americans, so it’s all about balancing time between the two types of visitors.

“It’s something that’s going to be head coach driven,” the Big 12 recruiting coordinator said. “What is your staff philosophy? If it’s an open-door policy that you (conduct the workouts) whenever you want, that’s going to exhaust resources really fast. It’s not just the kid showing up and working out. There has to be a plan, medical clearance, the proper coaches have to be available. You have to have the indoor or outdoor practice facility, and the team can’t be there. There is a lot that goes into it. If you go Wild Wild West with it, it will become exhausting and turn into a shit show.

“If whatever kid you’re referencing doesn’t want to pay for camp and the coach wants to work him out individually, it’s a benefit, but it’s a matter of whether the head coach has the discipline to stand his ground and not let it get out of control.”

This type of access for coaches is unprecedented. The NCAA’s heart was in the right place because it wanted to give programs the ability to properly evaluate prospects when that has been borderline impossible for the past year, but there is also so much room for interpretation for how these workouts are going to be executed.

“It’s going to be eye-opening,” an ACC recruiting coordinator said. “The NCAA does these on-campus evals and doesn’t really set up clear parameters for how they’re going to be organized or the full process of them. They aren’t letting the recruiting staff present at the on-campus evals. We evaluate these kids, we talk to these kids, we get them on campus and then we can’t see them work out live? It’s nonsensical.

“The coaches can work out the kids, but if you’re working out a wide receiver, the coach has to throw the football. We can’t even have a current player throw it for a more complete evaluation. I don’t know if it’s the right or the wrong thing. I like testing things and seeing how they are going to work. I just want clear parameters, not just saying, ‘We did it with basketball, now we’ll do it with football.'”

The majority of recruiting staffers The Athletic spoke with are in favor of the change. But the introduction of this rule during a month that will feature a record number of visits is just another thing these staffs have to account for when time is already at a premium.

“There are going to be no days off this month,” Pantoni said.

There is a common word almost every college coach uses to describe what is about to happen this summer in college football — chaos. It’s typically in regard to what June is shaping up to be from a recruiting standpoint, but there are so many other factors that also are looming — NIL, plus the one-time transfer rule kicking in at a time in which player evaluations and decisions will have to occur at warp speed.

“Question: Why would you not sign the entire class with (transfer) portal kids because at least you know that they have used their one-time transfer and you will have them without threat of going in portal?” one former Power 5 head coach texted The Athletic last month. “I heard a situation yesterday about a guy that is shopping players, and the players don’t even know it. He is calling people and arranging scholarships and then he contacts the kid and says how (they’re) not playing there, (and these other schools) have got a scholarship for (them). I mean it’s crazy.”

The coach made the point that the biggest unintended consequence of the change in transfer rules is that high school players could account for only 15 to 20 percent of the scholarship lot per year at some schools.

“If you have a kid in high school and he’s not one of the top 100 guys, it is very likely (he) will be left out and I’m not sure where he goes because I believe there are enough kids in the portal to fill all of Division I and all Division II,” he said. “So my guess is that junior colleges may not be for bad grade guys anymore. They may be the minor leagues now for high school players. As you think about this, it only makes sense for coaches to fill their rosters with portal guys because that way your players can’t leave, and now you have no surprises when a guy has a good year. He can’t leave because he’s already used his one-time transfer. It also gets you a team full of more physically ready guys.”

Nobody knows how this is all going to work out, both in the month of June and overall. Rules get introduced and the evolution happens naturally based on how programs react to adapting to those rules.

So what you have are a bunch of coaches and recruiting staffers trying to figure stuff out. As has always been the case in college football, each program is subject to its own set of circumstances. Some programs have great geography and some have to fill out their rosters by thinking outside of the box.

“Anybody that tells you they’ve got all this figured out is bullshitting you,” said one SEC assistant. “Kids want to come in (to your facilities), but they don’t want to work out. I don’t want to sound like the old cranky man, but all of the power has shifted to the player now. Why would they want to come to (a certain school) and work out, when you have some of these other programs saying, ‘Why don’t you come here and just hang out.’

“If you’re Nebraska or Tennessee (where you don’t have a lot of in-state blue-chip players or have been struggling on the field), you’re doing whatever you can to get those kids on your campus.”

That’s why you have some programs welcoming midweek visitors and some that aren’t. You have some programs that are going to rely heavily on the one-on-one evaluations and others that are far more interested in making sure they have the best possible official visit experience for the player who is on campus. But how each program utilizes the next 30 days will likely have an immense impact on how the 2022 class shakes out, particularly because many recruiting coordinators are hoping these official visits will give prospects enough information to feel comfortable issuing a commitment.

The stakes are high, and the times are unprecedented.

Some staffers feel stress. Some feel nerves. But most of them are generally excited about this month because hectic months are why they sign up for this job.

“It’s not going to be easy, but nothing worth doing well is,” a Pac-12 recruiting coordinator said. “There’s gonna be some challenges. And yeah, we’re bringing in a lot more people than we ever have in the month of June. But so is everyone else.”

If there’s anything these coaches and recruiting staffers can take solace in, it’s that everyone is in the same position.

“It’s a lot to handle, there’s no question about that,” the Big Ten recruiting staffer said. “There’s no question that it is going to take a lot of time, energy, planning and forethought to get through all of this the right way. But when you look back at the place we were all in a few months ago in this sport, who isn’t excited to hit the ground running in June and recruit our asses off?”

 

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(Super K) Bryan Allen | Bama Visit

Spoiler

As you know, Texas DB commit, Bryan Allen recently picked up an offer from Alabama.

I was able to confirm that Allen plans on heading to Tuscaloosa this upcoming weekend. He says his younger brother is camping at Alabama, though I have little doubt they will be doing a tour, as well.

When Allen first committed and perhaps earlier we had noted Bama would be a real threat if they decided to enter the picture.

That has not changed, in my opinion. Prior to his commitment, folks around Allen and even Allen himself were pretty clear that Bama was the offer he wanted. Will the fact that it took so long and the relationship that he’s built with coach Gideon and company be enough to hold off Saban and the Tide?

I’d put it at a coin toss but we should know more after the visit.

 

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8 hours ago, satyanash said:

So we've gone from 'we won't need Carrington'/'we're replicating the Saban model' to this. Encouraging.

To be clear, any conclusions being drawn on a staff member's ability to do work in recruiting during the prolonged dead period is probably folly in the first place. The vibe and impression someone gives off in person is ultimately a lot more important. 

Hell, Tim Brewster, as good as he is considered to be in recruiting, is notorious for turning off certain personalities once they meet him personally on visits. There's a list of big time players that decided UNC/UT/FSU weren't right for them after leaning towards those schools early, and most of it is a by-product of Brewster on both sides of the before and after. DJ Williams is one famous example with UT. 

Maybe Harris absolutely crushes his end of the on-campus interactions. 

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9 minutes ago, Machinator said:

As you know, Texas DB commit, Bryan Allen recently picked up an offer from Alabama.

I was able to confirm that Allen plans on heading to Tuscaloosa this upcoming weekend. He says his younger brother is camping at Alabama, though I have little doubt they will be doing a tour, as well.

When Allen first committed and perhaps earlier we had noted Bama would be a real threat if they decided to enter the picture.

That has not changed, in my opinion. Prior to his commitment, folks around Allen and even Allen himself were pretty clear that Bama was the offer he wanted. Will the fact that it took so long and the relationship that he’s built with coach Gideon and company be enough to hold off Saban and the Tide?

I’d put it at a coin toss but we should know more after the visit.

But they were so late to offer and he was offended by the late offer, right? <vince vaughn gif>

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Wells

Spoiler

DL Justice Finkley, Hewitt-Trussville (Trussville, AL) - 2022

Even as a four-star .94 composite, Finkley isn't satisfied.

At 6-foot-2, 255 pounds, the defensive lineman is a lot of what you want in the position; mean, nasty, strong, violent. Finkley checks the boxes.

He has a great idea of what he's looking for in a college, and two parents determined that he get there.

“The things I look for in a college are a mix of good academics with good football," said Finkley. "They'll have great recovery, strength and conditioning program, and a great nutritional program.”

You hear prospects mention academics all the time, but in a few cases it really does matter. This is one of those cases.

“I have a good relationship with Texas, Alabama, Michigan, Colorado, and Stanford just to name a few," said Finkley.

Austin definitely has his attention and he's eager to see what UT has to offer.

“I'm ready for the visit and all the things (Austin) has to offer," said Finkley. "I’ve talked to Bijan (Robinson) and Ray Thornton about hanging out when I get down there.”

Scheduled sites include Colorado, Alabama, Michigan, and Florida possibly in July. He's at Stanford today, then Austin on June 25th-227th. His timeline?

Decision date: “After all my officials.”

Texas might be in this more than we anticipated. Stay tuned.

LB Niuafe Tuihalamaka, Bishop Alemany (Mission Hills, CA) - 2022:

The 6-foot-1.5, 238-pound four-star from Cali changed his visit dates.

Instead of June 18th-20th, he'll be in the ATX this weekend, June 4th-6th. He's still scheduled to take his official to Notre Dame on June 11th-13th.

With 20 offers in tow including Texas, Oregon, Stanford, and Arizona State, our intel says the South Bend Fightin' Brian Kellys hold the advantage today.

Right now, Texas has a weekend to change his mind.

 

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31 minutes ago, closetojumping said:

To be clear, any conclusions being drawn on a staff member's ability to do work in recruiting during the prolonged dead period is probably folly in the first place. The vibe and impression someone gives off in person is ultimately a lot more important. 

Hell, Tim Brewster, as good as he is considered to be in recruiting, is notorious for turning off certain personalities once they meet him personally on visits. There's a list of big time players that decided UNC/UT/FSU weren't right for them after leaning towards those schools early, and most of it is a by-product of Brewster on both sides of the before and after. DJ Williams is one famous example with UT. 

Maybe Harris absolutely crushes his end of the on-campus interactions. 

Having followed recruiting closely for a long time, something doesn’t feel quite right about UT recruiting right now. Just a bunch of tiny data points adding up to hopefully nothing. 

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Question about this competition. Is it just chuck the ball as far as you can? Or do they have to put the ball in a certain spot to show there’s some accuracy as well? Because somebody who can send it 79 yards with zero accuracy isn’t as good as someone who can throw it 55 and hit a receiver in stride

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  • closetojumping changed the title to Texas Recruiting Notes 2022 - Idiotic Slapfights Unrelated To 2022 Recruiting

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