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2024 Off-Season Thread


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It's still insane how slow Atlanta made them look that year.

I can’t speak to that specifically.

If I had to label a program as underachieving through the years, Marlin would probably rank fairly high. Course part of my experience with that is from years ago. The smaller schools around Waco produce some good athletes.
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31 minutes ago, Had Enough said:


I can’t speak to that specifically.

If I had to label a program as underachieving through the years, Marlin would probably rank fairly high. Course part of my experience with that is from years ago. The smaller schools around Waco produce some good athletes.

Marlin's best comp would probably have been Mart in how they should have performed. 

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54 minutes ago, Had Enough said:


I can’t speak to that specifically.

If I had to label a program as underachieving through the years, Marlin would probably rank fairly high. Course part of my experience with that is from years ago. The smaller schools around Waco produce some good athletes.

Marlin is a shit show from top to bottom. I'm glad those guys made it out.

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Marlin's best comp would probably have been Mart in how they should have performed. 

Yeah maybe. Marlin was a classification or maybe two above Mart, but they did have similar type guys. Not sure when Marlin dropped down. We’re talking a span of 30 years or so in my mind so things are a bit distorted.
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Freshman Notes - Catching My Eye (Bobby)

Spoiler

Here are the freshmen that truly caught my eye yesterday.

Couple of things before I get to the list:

First, I did not pick a certain number of players here. I didn't say only the top 5 or top 10. That's not an honest assessment of who caught my eye. These are truly the ones that got my attention.

Second, if a player didn't make this list, it's not an indictment on them. Far from it. I just didn't see enough of them athletically that really caught my eye on day one. For example, Christian Clark and Jerrick Gibson both looked good physically, but I didn't see them do anything other than "look good" to really single either of them out.

The List

WR Ryan Wingo - early leader for most impressive true freshman IMO. Fluid, plus-sized athlete with excellent separation speed downfield (similar to AD Mitchell) and natural hands.

WR Aaron Butler - quick, lots of short space burst and decent long speed, too. Natural pass catcher, even when hands are low and away from the body. An interesting mix between say Xavier Worthy and Johntay Cook IMO.

TE Jordan Washington - this is how you want to draw up long-term TE prospects. Lanky, good athleticism, good ball skills, ability to add smart weight. Seemed focused mentally and coachable.

OL Brandon Baker - clear-cut elite prospect. Not sure if he's super-sized to be a first-round pick but he's an NFL OL at either tackle spot IMO or even guard if he wanted. Excellent feet and body control. Naturally thick frame in both upper and lower body.

OL Daniel Cruz - he "looks" different than every other OL on campus, which is saying something. He looks like he swallowed an oak barrel. Surprisingly quick for that type of body build.

DL Alex January - attentive and focused in practice; good muscle mass, nice body weight for plus-sized player early in his career; abnormally quick with his hands for someone this early in their career.

DE Colin Simmons - he's chiseled from different clay than most. One drill he showed quickness no one else on the edge has. Time will tell if he can play with the requisite toughness to get on the field early.

DE Zina Umeozulu - his arms are looooooooooong. Also athletic. I know some have questioned his toughness out of the gate. But if he can overcome that, he has an elite tool set with length, quickness and speed.

S Xavier Filsaime - I knew he had the speed and frame but he showed some advanced route/ball awareness on one play in particular.

 

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Unless there’s a major light bulb that flicks on, I don’t think anybody should be too invested in blackshire being a contributor. Even in HS he was Tarzan/jane per my buddy who coached him, just couldn’t get him to turn the corner. 

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6 minutes ago, bluto said:

Unless there’s a major light bulb that flicks on, I don’t think anybody should be too invested in blackshire being a contributor. Even in HS he was Tarzan/jane per my buddy who coached him, just couldn’t get him to turn the corner. 

Not saying it will but no better incentive than an NFL draft “contract” year to make it happen.

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Posted (edited)
23 hours ago, closetojumping said:

What would one do with a Geography degree? I think I'm kind of stunned that that degree exists these days. I have a 10 year old who is quite gifted in geography and I always tell him that that talent will be worthless outside of trivia night at his local dive bar.

I believe it's become a data analysis type of degree.  I have a frat brother who started off as an EE major and eventually graduated with a geography degree back in the late 90s. He eventually got a job dealing in Geographical Information Systems and ultimately did really well for himself.  I had the same thoughts as you at the time when he made the switch,  but it worked out for him.  Of course he eventually got an MBA, but he was doing really well before he went the upper management route.  

Edited by Catdaddyhorn
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On 3/19/2024 at 2:12 PM, closetojumping said:

What would one do with a Geography degree? I think I'm kind of stunned that that degree exists these days. I have a 10 year old who is quite gifted in geography and I always tell him that that talent will be worthless outside of trivia night at his local dive bar.

Geographist?

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On 3/19/2024 at 2:12 PM, closetojumping said:

What would one do with a Geography degree? I think I'm kind of stunned that that degree exists these days. I have a 10 year old who is quite gifted in geography and I always tell him that that talent will be worthless outside of trivia night at his local dive bar.

Okay but trivia pulls mad hoes tho. Speaking of trivia, Texas State of all places has one of the top applied geography programs in the country. One of my best UT geography professors once told us, regarding graduate school "if you want to toil in academia, UT is good. If you want a job, go to Texas State."

Depending on what track you take there are some legit career opportunities out of a geography program. I know folks in environmental/natural resource management, energy, GIS, urban planning/landscape architecture, and commercial real estate. You can of course go teach K-12 social studies too.

My early career path looked like Case McCoy at Kyle Field, but I ended up in commercial real estate and ended up on a solid track. Was coming out of a contract GIS gig when I was hired as an entry level analyst and that technical element was a differentiator. Now that I've moved up I rarely use GIS or my geography major in an explicit sense, but I'll say spatial intelligence in general seems pretty rare and the amount of people who struggle to think spatially in an industry where the number one rule is "location, location, location" consistently surprises me. 

All that said there's definitely a fluffy liberal arts degree element to it though. That's absolutely a track to take too.

22 hours ago, bluto said:

UT geography grad here… GIS is really the main thing in terms of hard career path. Mix some GIS with computer science/data management and you can be valuable in corporate world. Quite a bit of GIS is natural resource/energy related. 
 

as for me, I’m in real estate and the degree/GIS background has actually been a decent ‘in’ for my career. With that said GIS programming something a smart person could pick up on the side. 

+1 geography to CRE. We're a minority but anecdotally I'd guess geography or urban planning is the most common non-finance degree in the field. Seems like lots of GIS folks want to stay in that box, and that's how you max out at like $75kyear. But when you branch out into development, database management, etc. you can make some real money on that side of things. And of course there are opportunities in real estate.

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Texas Pro Day Thoughts

Bobby

- Great stuff in here

Spoiler

Quinn Ewers looked like a potential 1-1 pick today.

**

The Texas practice bubble was littered with NFL scouts this afternoon. And I overheard two of them from different teams talking about Quinn at the end of the throwing session.

One scout said of Ewers, "he threw one bad pass the whole workout." And the scout said that in an admiring and surprising tone - he's probably seen some stinker performances in his day.

The other scout's response was just two words: "Natural thrower."

Quinn looked THAT good, that smooth, that in command and that confident.

For me, and as someone who has seen Quinn throw numerous times, it was Quinn's confidence that seemed even more improved. He was out there throwing to five different future NFL players. And the QB was not overmatched, AT ALL.

After the workout, Dolphins coach Mike McDaniels and others talked to Quinn.

I'm not sitting here saying that Quinn is going go No. 1 overall next year. Far from it. But I am saying that he has that chance if he keeps improving his body, his footwork and stays as confident as he was today throwing the football. It was an excellent performance, no question about it.

**

Who improved their stock considerably today?

Christian Jones, Keilan Robinson, Ryan Watts, T'Vondre Sweat.

I felt like K-Rob and Watts probably improved theirs the most. K-Rob showcased his elite acceleration multiple times in passing drills. Watts had a warrior-like workout. Not only did he go 11-1 in the standing broad jump, he also was relentless and tireless in DB drills. He will absolutely get bonus points from some teams for how hard he competed today IMO.

With Jones and Sweat, any team that questioned their quickness - true football quickness - had those questions answered today. Yes, both players have warts (Sweat is likely not a three-down DT in the NFL and Jones is probably not an elite pass protector in the league either) but both showed quickness and power IMO.

JT Sanders and Jaylan Ford had mixed results IMO.

JT is simply not a great tester. That's just not his m.o. But man, once he starts running routes and effortlessly snatching the ball, the narrative changes quickly. I can see some teams who will ding him for his lack of explosiveness and some teams not worry about it as much because he never has to slow down to catch the ball like some tight ends have to.

Ford looked the part overall, especially in true LB drills. But he didn't blow anyone away with his testing. Again, I think he's a better player than tester. What will that mean? The great thing about the draft, you only need one team to fall in love with you.

**

Biggest surprise of the day? Keilan Robinson putting up 20 reps on the bench press.

**

Other thoughts:

- That was by far the most attended pro day in at least 15 years. Just crazy the amount of NFL personnel hanging out inside the bubble.

- I think Xavier Worthy may have made himself a little more money today. Very clean day running routes and he caught the ball cleanly.

- At least 40+ current Longhorns showed up to support the team. The current Texas roster absolutely passes the eyeball test.

 

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Yall joke, but UT Geography Prof Kirk Goldsberry was a major catalyst for the Spurs decision to start emphasizing the corner 3 and the development of a lot of their strategies and tactical alignment was based off of the spatial data he collected and the analysis he did for them. 

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On 3/20/2024 at 8:40 AM, Had Enough said:


I can’t speak to that specifically.

If I had to label a program as underachieving through the years, Marlin would probably rank fairly high. Course part of my experience with that is from years ago. The smaller schools around Waco produce some good athletes.

It's ingrained there. If they could ever get their shit together, they would be formidable because they have great athletes.

I know a former MISD Superintendent, a former Marlin AD/HC, several former Marlin coaches, and a handful of people who grew up there years ago. That place is just a generational cesspool. They fuck everything up from their water to their streets to their police department to their schools to their sports.

I have never seen anything like it. The good people who take jobs there to "fix" things tend to get out as quickly as they can.

 

 

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2 hours ago, Catdaddyhorn said:

Yall joke, but UT Geography Prof Kirk Goldsberry was a major catalyst for the Spurs decision to start emphasizing the corner 3 and the development of a lot of their strategies and tactical alignment was based off of the spatial data he collected and the analysis he did for them. 

image.png.3261e52a40aa1ff7cb7aa991822d476e.png

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16 hours ago, Slacks said:

Geographist?

Geographer...  FYI - lots of GIS specialists in O&G mainly for well and facility plots that are submitted to governmental agencies and data used in interpretation software. I remember a story years ago of one of the super majors drilling multiple 30MM dry development wells in the North Sea because the pre-drill plats were using magnetic North instead of True North... (I think it was a 14deg. difference... doh!)

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2 hours ago, Grimas said:

Geographer...  FYI - lots of GIS specialists in O&G mainly for well and facility plots that are submitted to governmental agencies and data used in interpretation software. I remember a story years ago of one of the super majors drilling multiple 30MM dry development wells in the North Sea because the pre-drill plats were using magnetic North instead of True North... (I think it was a 14deg. difference... doh!)

got damnit @closetojumping , see all this shit you started? (only quoted Grimas because avatar)

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4 hours ago, kevwun said:

The good news is that he and Gerry were doing the same thing last year and it ended up being true.

Bobby liked last year's team, but he was always pretty measured in his optimism.  Definitely feels like he's higher on this year's team (which everyone should be IMO).

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Texas Pro Day Thoughts

Bobby
- Great stuff in here
Spoiler

Quinn Ewers looked like a potential 1-1 pick today.
**
The Texas practice bubble was littered with NFL scouts this afternoon. And I overheard two of them from different teams talking about Quinn at the end of the throwing session.
One scout said of Ewers, "he threw one bad pass the whole workout." And the scout said that in an admiring and surprising tone - he's probably seen some stinker performances in his day.
The other scout's response was just two words: "Natural thrower."
Quinn looked THAT good, that smooth, that in command and that confident.
For me, and as someone who has seen Quinn throw numerous times, it was Quinn's confidence that seemed even more improved. He was out there throwing to five different future NFL players. And the QB was not overmatched, AT ALL.
After the workout, Dolphins coach Mike McDaniels and others talked to Quinn.
I'm not sitting here saying that Quinn is going go No. 1 overall next year. Far from it. But I am saying that he has that chance if he keeps improving his body, his footwork and stays as confident as he was today throwing the football. It was an excellent performance, no question about it.
**
Who improved their stock considerably today?
Christian Jones, Keilan Robinson, Ryan Watts, T'Vondre Sweat.
I felt like K-Rob and Watts probably improved theirs the most. K-Rob showcased his elite acceleration multiple times in passing drills. Watts had a warrior-like workout. Not only did he go 11-1 in the standing broad jump, he also was relentless and tireless in DB drills. He will absolutely get bonus points from some teams for how hard he competed today IMO.
With Jones and Sweat, any team that questioned their quickness - true football quickness - had those questions answered today. Yes, both players have warts (Sweat is likely not a three-down DT in the NFL and Jones is probably not an elite pass protector in the league either) but both showed quickness and power IMO.
JT Sanders and Jaylan Ford had mixed results IMO.
JT is simply not a great tester. That's just not his m.o. But man, once he starts running routes and effortlessly snatching the ball, the narrative changes quickly. I can see some teams who will ding him for his lack of explosiveness and some teams not worry about it as much because he never has to slow down to catch the ball like some tight ends have to.
Ford looked the part overall, especially in true LB drills. But he didn't blow anyone away with his testing. Again, I think he's a better player than tester. What will that mean? The great thing about the draft, you only need one team to fall in love with you.
**
Biggest surprise of the day? Keilan Robinson putting up 20 reps on the bench press.
**
Other thoughts:
- That was by far the most attended pro day in at least 15 years. Just crazy the amount of NFL personnel hanging out inside the bubble.
- I think Xavier Worthy may have made himself a little more money today. Very clean day running routes and he caught the ball cleanly.
- At least 40+ current Longhorns showed up to support the team. The current Texas roster absolutely passes the eyeball test.

 

This is the geography thread, get that football stuff out of here.

Seriously though, watched the video of X and AD catching...both look great, but X looked a bit smoother and more comfortable out there. If I were an NFL GM and needed another receiver badly I would have zero qualms spending a first round pick on either one of these dudes.
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2 hours ago, ousux said:

This is the geography thread, get that football stuff out of here.

Seriously though, watched the video of X and AD catching...both look great, but X looked a bit smoother and more comfortable out there. If I were an NFL GM and needed another receiver badly I would have zero qualms spending a first round pick on either one of these dudes.

They are both going to be fantastic pros. Marvin Harrison JR, okay, but after that I don't see a huge delta between them and guys like Odunze or the LSU pair that are getting mocked well above them.

Someone is going to get a fucking steal with Worthy in the second round if these mocks are right.

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Bobby liked last year's team, but he was always pretty measured in his optimism.  Definitely feels like he's higher on this year's team (which everyone should be IMO).
We're losing so much production on both sides of the ball I'm cautiously optimistic. On paper we have just as much or more talent than last season...but much of it unproven.
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On 3/20/2024 at 5:12 AM, Viper said:

 

My college roommate graduated with a GIS degree. He works in HR now. 

Mine too! He bought a one way ticket to Honolulu after he graduated so he could surf. He's got a successful business that works on urban planning now. 

Geography talk not going away.

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Posted (edited)
On 3/20/2024 at 6:50 PM, Nope said:

Whatever weight Red is, it doesn’t look sloppy at all so I no longer give a shit about the number 

Forgot Zac Swanson was on the roster but he still looks pretty JAGgy

He has a nice little pouch. Compared to Surly posters he is fit as hell, but compared to P5 RB not so much.  Sark said specifically mentioned Red, Sydir, and Blackshire as guys that came in weighing more than the staff wanted. 

 

image.png.32bd8689490a8e56ac36501326875862.png

Edited by Codaxx
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Practice Notes from Thursday

Bobby

Spoiler

What I've learned from Thursday's practice...

- It's very early, but Billy Walton has looked very active, very smart and could be one of the guys from the class of 2023 ready to take the next step, according to sources. Not the name many of you probably expected to hear first, but he's closer to playing significantly than some may expect.

- Jaray Bledsoe was described as perhaps the most athletic player in the entire program, despite being a defensive tackle. The team has yet to start hitting, but Bledsoe has quietly been taking the right steps behind the scenes for a while now. As someone told me, Bledsoe "has a level of maturity we're starting to see more of". This year could be a real coming out party for him.

- Texas worked extensively on special teams yesterday, much more than their normal period or two in practice. Johntay Cook and Isaiah Bond continue to be 1-2 in the punt return game. Matt Golden and Jaydon Blue are primaries at kick return. Ryan Wingo and Aaron Butler are also taking reps there.

- Gunners are a mix, both Manny Muhammad and Gavin Holmes are working at the position, as well as Tre Wisner.

- Speaking of Muhammad, more than one person has singled out the sophomore from South Oak Cliff as a player particularly poised to take his game to the next level. Muhammad may not be the fastest or the biggest corner, but he is the one who spends the most time in the film room. And he has the ability to take what he sees on film and let it translate to his work on the field.

- DJ Campbell lists at 332. But he may have lost more weight than that. Or at least the weight loss is affecting his quickness. Apparently, he is already looking quicker than a year ago in practice.

- Many thought Cook, Golden, Bond, Silas Bolden and maybe Ryan Wingo would be the top five receivers on the team this year. While that may still be a decent bet, do not sleep on DeAndre Moore and Aaron Butler. The two Californians continued to make their presence known in practice No. 2.

- Amari Niblack moved up in the TE rotation at times on Thursday. Niblack started off Tuesday as the no. 5 TE, behind Gunnar Helm, Juan Davis, Spencer Shannon and Will Randle. I was not told how far up he moved, just "up some" in that rotation.

 

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45 minutes ago, Codaxx said:

He has a nice little pouch. Compared to Surly posters he is fit as hell, but compared to P5 RB not so much.  Sark said specifically mentioned Red, Sydir, and Blackshire as guys that came in weighing more than the staff wanted. 

 

image.png.32bd8689490a8e56ac36501326875862.png

He also mentioned they'll get that off them come summertime.

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57 minutes ago, Codaxx said:

He has a nice little pouch. Compared to Surly posters he is fit as hell, but compared to P5 RB not so much.  Sark said specifically mentioned Red, Sydir, and Blackshire as guys that came in weighing more than the staff wanted. 

 

image.png.32bd8689490a8e56ac36501326875862.png

Showing up to Spring ball that out of shape when you’re in a loaded RB room and will have to fight for every carry you get is certainly a choice. 

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"ChatGPT, please write 6 months' worth of very positive blurbs about a young WR that we definitely recruited over this offseason but would like to keep around anyway"

Bobby working smarter, not harder

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