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Posted
On 6/24/2025 at 5:30 PM, Sgt Hulk said:

Fuck north shore 

On 6/24/2025 at 1:01 PM, LebongJames said:

North Shore can fuck right off. We used to be able to pull recruits from there and Cory Redding is a Longhorn legend but it feel a decade since we’ve got a top player from NS.

What is in the water at that godforsaken school?

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Posted

Eric Nahlin: Kosi Okpala's recruitment tells an interesting evaluation story

Quote

On Thursday, Texas received a commitment from Kosi Okpala from Katy Mayde Creek. Because he was largely viewed as a long-term Longhorn lock, we probably have not discussed him enough. What better time to offer some important detail into the player than now? There are elements of Okpala that remind of Malik Jefferson. Both had abnormal builds, even in a sport of abnormal builds.

At 6-foot-2.5, 220 pounds, Okpala is about the same size as Jefferson, but with longer arms. In addition, both spent most of their time at Edge in high school, though a deeper dive into film would show their ability to play different positions. At times this past season, Okpala got snaps at safety. The obvious similarity is Okpala will need to transition to full-time off ball linebacker and everything that accompanies it.

That’s why, when his trainer, former A&M linebacker Donnie Baggs mentioned his student is “a true student of the game,” it brought a smile to my face. That’s what it will take and if Okpala has that drive, well, he has pretty much everything else: length, speed, pass rush ability, athleticism to drop in space, etc. Given his often single-dimension tape, it’s no surprise people have slept on his versatility, but Baggs put all my questions to bed with one stylistic comparison. “Play-style wise, nobody I have trained before, but if I had to compare him to an LB it would probably be Jaime Collins. You remember that guy? He played for the Patriots.”

Yes, I do remember Collins and just as important I remember Bill Belichick loves versatile linebackers. Baggs replied, “He did EVERYTHING in the Pats defense.” With this exchange heating up with good football talk, Baggs called to discuss further. It quickly became clear why the comp was made to Collins. Collins is currently the inside linebackers coach for North Carolina, and of course, Belichick. Collins, a former NFL All-Pro, has been recruiting Okpala with his own run off success in Belichick’s defense as a selling point.

Collins saw the same potential to add weight and play multiple spots in the GOAT’s defense as he had. Given Anthony Hill’s success as a modern, hybrid linebacker who offers significant value as a pass rusher, you can see what the staff is aiming for. At minimum, Okpala offers value-add as a pass rusher, but if he can build his game out more fully, like Hill, and Collins, he could become a three-down weapon.

Guys like Okpala make evaluation fun. Given his size and length advantages, it’s easy to see a path to the field in multiple ways and in multiple stages of his career.

 

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Posted
1 hour ago, utfan87 said:

Where are these schools getting the money to pay players because according the USA Today revenue only something like 30 schools made money and that was not anywhere near an extra 20.5 million. 

I guess you haven't been paying attention. This is having a drastic impact on our Olympic/non-revenue sports.  Over a 1000  roster spots have been eliminated across D1 athletics.  For example SFA shut down their Beach, Bowling and Tennis programs.  UTEP got rid of their tennis program.  Cal Poly got rid of swim and dive I believe.  There's a lot more if you care to look.  UT is uniquely positioned to fund all of this, most are not going to be capable.  Also, just because you CAN share $20MM doesn't mean you will.  Most non-P4 and even some P4 will have much smaller revenue sharing capabilities.

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Posted
2 hours ago, Js1 said:

Sure Jan GIF
 

Like anyone believes Hugh Freeze, and especially the institution of Auburn, is playing by the rules 

anyone who feels the need to publicly profess their innocence and compliance has gone full bag

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Posted
43 minutes ago, tokamak said:

I really like Okpala's tape. Sorry for going off topic.

https://www.hudl.com/profile/15261697/Kosi-Okpala

Mayde Creek has him on the edge mostly but he looks athletic enough to move side-to-side. If he can learn the position, he's going to be a real menace playing MLB at about 6'2", 230.

I want that kid to move in with Derrick Johnson and learn everything he can, he seems to already have the tomahawk chop. Thanks for the link to his Hudl, very impressive player 

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Posted
21 hours ago, Chili dog said:

Not at all, no. But I may go check it out for comparison’s sake. If I’m masochistic enough to be on this thread, how much worse could the Cloakroom be?

IMG_2066.gif.73dd1e8297ee9642de8dbd6b37b17451.gif

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Posted
2 minutes ago, closetojumping said:

He’s a small LB that didn’t make it past initial evaluations with the Texas staff. 

I follow this stuff closer than I should and I hadn’t heard of him as a target.

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Posted
4 hours ago, tokamak said:

I know this is a website for Texas fans, and specifically we're on a thread dedicated to Texas football recruiting, and we're supposed to be rooting for only what's best for Texas football and yadda, yadda, yadda. But one thing that really fucking pisses me off is that it seems like everyone, from the ADs, to the conferences, to the NCAA, to apparently even the federal government is absolutely bound and determined to prevent college football players from receiving what the free market determines that they're worth.

So your saying the people that control the money are against the common man?

Hard to believe

Texas Reaction GIF by Black Rifle Coffee Company

 

Posted
4 hours ago, immamac said:

How many NIL deals have you done or been a part of or read or seen anything about other than the news? 

Compliance has always existed, just because it's delloite who can torpedo the deal doesn't mean there hasn't always been someone who could torpedo the deal. 

What you are seeing now is SCHOOLS being able to offer money in addition to the collectives that were already going, and in many cases in lieu of the collective (many have been shuttered or combined with the internal AD) the reason a lot of the parity is happening now is because schools that didn't have their NIL shit together all of the sudden have millions to throw around. Its going to be terrible for them, they are going to mismanage rosters, overpay for players that aren't high enough impact, do really stupid shit to be part of the Joneses etc. 

Texas already has a machine, it has discipline, it has a roster retention plan, it has depth, and it has the resume for a program developing players into NFL players. 

A handful. 

Beyond all that, rules are being broken. Rules are going to be broken. And then how it's dealt with will determine how well the House settlement holds up in the short term. In the long term there's going to be some other dynamic in place because there are going to be more lawsuits, more settlements, more judgements, and then eventually, some sort of federal legislation. 

I'm not terribly concerned about Texas. We'll be fine. 

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Posted
11 minutes ago, Babytime said:

I follow this stuff closer than I should and I hadn’t heard of him as a target.

247 apparently has him at 6.05 and 205. That dude must have been wearing lifts and a ruck vest when they measured him. 

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Posted
4 hours ago, WBT said:

You must have missed roughly 2007-2022.  It sucked.

Lol. It did suck. So did 1984-1997.

Mack Brown got lazy. Charlie Strong and Tom Herman were terrible hires. The worst thing that could have happened is that Texas brings more talent in to waste on those bozos. Yes, it sucked, but maybe we had to go through all that to get to where we are now. 

Posted
5 hours ago, BurntOrange&White said:

The cap is revenue sharing provided by school, not NIL. 

 

 

The school is signing NIL deals with athletes. It's still NIL.

The terminology is confusing. 

Posted
34 minutes ago, campcrunk said:

I'd imagine Elko or whoever asked him to do that so they can declare yet another big head-to-head "win" over us

i don't have the money to burn but if i did i would pay every nationally prominent recruit to put an aggy logo on their feed and then on signing day TWO aggy hats on their table

Posted

The breadcrumbs OTF seems to be dropping are that things are looking good for Turntine and not so good for Ojo, and Gerry in particular doesn't seem to be too upset by that. He seems to have some strong opinions about Ojo being ranked way too high. 

Posted
28 minutes ago, SL Xpress said:

The school is signing NIL deals with athletes. It's still NIL.

The terminology is confusing. 

Is that correct? I thought the schools signed rev share agreements with the athletes. NIL is still NIL. 

Posted
5 minutes ago, Hookem2147 said:

The breadcrumbs OTF seems to be dropping are that things are looking good for Turntine and not so good for Ojo, and Gerry in particular doesn't seem to be too upset by that. He seems to have some strong opinions about Ojo being ranked way too high. 

I’m sorry sir. You’ve mistaken this for the recruiting thread…. 

Posted

Oregon just got their third commit at the safety position. Just thought that was interesting in regards to Davon Benjamin. Oregon could be recruiting some of their commits or Benjamin at CB because I'm just going off their 247 page positions.

Posted

Gerry doesn’t like Ojo’s behavior relative to his current ability and he’s been fanboying JT3 for nearly 2 years now. 

Turntine is the much safer bet between the two. 
Ojo will look good on signing day, and will possibly leave before providing actual value on the investment. 

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Posted
1 minute ago, Atticus said:

Gerry doesn’t like Ojo’s behavior relative to his current ability and he’s been fanboying JT3 for nearly 2 years now. 

Turntine is the much safer bet between the two. 
Ojo will look good on signing day, and will possibly leave before providing actual value on the investment. 

The ol' Javonne Shepherd.

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Posted
2 hours ago, satyanash said:

What is in the water at that godforsaken school?

There's obviously some super-negative story/idea/made-up-hatred, true or not, that they keep telling each other and pass down through their underclassmen about Texas.

If we knew what that was, we could refute it to them on social media at the very least.

Posted
12 minutes ago, Atticus said:

Gerry doesn’t like Ojo’s behavior relative to his current ability and he’s been fanboying JT3 for nearly 2 years now. 

Turntine is the much safer bet between the two. 
Ojo will look good on signing day, and will possibly leave before providing actual value on the investment. 

I think there is something to be said for the way Turntine has handled things, considering how long he has been on recruiting radars and is now being nitpicked to death, vs how Ojo seems to be handling things. 

Posted
The breadcrumbs OTF seems to be dropping are that things are looking good for Turntine and not so good for Ojo, and Gerry in particular doesn't seem to be too upset by that. He seems to have some strong opinions about Ojo being ranked way too high. 

Wasn’t ojo the one who didn’t look good at the camp recently?
Posted
28 minutes ago, HenryJames said:

Ojo resorted to crab blocking people at a recent camp.

This is a highly skilled and time-honored technique, sir. I once saw an A-back shut down All State DE, and future aggie, Steve McKinney in a high school game. Baller shit. 

49 minutes ago, Hookem2147 said:

The breadcrumbs OTF seems to be dropping are that things are looking good for Turntine and not so good for Ojo, and Gerry in particular doesn't seem to be too upset by that. He seems to have some strong opinions about Ojo being ranked way too high. 

Gerry has always had a low opinion of him as a prospect for a multitude of reasons. His behavior as a recruit and attitude about where he is in his development are part of it. 

With Tech putting an offer out there of roughly double what Texas has discussed with the Ojos, maybe it’s a bullet dodged. Paying major money for a guy who won’t see the field for several years is always a dangerous gamble. 

18 minutes ago, utfan87 said:

Apparently mom is worse than the son. Likes to be the center of it all image.thumb.jpeg.f81631d01b2726c9736349d094cc865a.jpeg

What a stunning development for a North Shore recruit. 

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