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Texas recruiting notes 2019


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EJ after dark: New defensive line recruits on UT's radar

— Texas is taking a hard look at four-star Chandler (AZ) defensive lineman Matthew Pola-Mao. There are a couple of ties here as Pola-Mao is a teammate of Texas tight end commit Brayden Liebrock. He is also the cousin of Texas safety target Noa Pola-Gates. Pola-Mao holds offers from Arizona State, BYU, Michigan, Oregon, USC and a handful of other major programs. Texas has had plenty of success in Arizona, so it wouldn’t be surprising to see the Longhorns jump in the mix.

— Four-star St. Francis De Sales (OH) defensive lineman Rodas Johnson is another name to know upfront. Johnson has ties to the state of Texas and is looking to visit at some point in the near future. Johnson holds offers from Michigan, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Penn State, Wisconsin and several other major programs. Like with Pola-Mao, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Texas throw its hat in the ring.

— Looking for a sleeper defensive lineman to file away? Armwood (Fla.) defensive lineman Justin Williams is a prospect on the rise and has had recent contact with Oscar Giles. A three-star recruit, Williams has offers in hand from Maryland, Ohio, Syracuse, Toledo, Western Michigan and a few others. He has high interest in the program and hopes to hear more from Giles.

— JUCO defensive end Kuony Deng was a maybe to visit Texas this weekend. However, he will not be able to make it due to team activities. Deng visited UT last month for the Heat Wave event and hopes to get back on campus at some point in the fall. Texas has not offered, but Deng remains firmly on the radar.

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12 minutes ago, satyanash said:

EJ after dark: New defensive line recruits on UT's radar

 

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— Texas is taking a hard look at four-star Chandler (AZ) defensive lineman Matthew Pola-Mao. There are a couple of ties here as Pola-Mao is a teammate of Texas tight end commit Brayden Liebrock. He is also the cousin of Texas safety target Noa Pola-Gates. Pola-Mao holds offers from Arizona State, BYU, Michigan, Oregon, USC and a handful of other major programs. Texas has had plenty of success in Arizona, so it wouldn’t be surprising to see the Longhorns jump in the mix.

— Four-star St. Francis De Sales (OH) defensive lineman Rodas Johnson is another name to know upfront. Johnson has ties to the state of Texas and is looking to visit at some point in the near future. Johnson holds offers from Michigan, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Penn State, Wisconsin and several other major programs. Like with Pola-Mao, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Texas throw its hat in the ring.

— Looking for a sleeper defensive lineman to file away? Armwood (Fla.) defensive lineman Justin Williams is a prospect on the rise and has had recent contact with Oscar Giles. A three-star recruit, Williams has offers in hand from Maryland, Ohio, Syracuse, Toledo, Western Michigan and a few others. He has high interest in the program and hopes to hear more from Giles.

— JUCO defensive end Kuony Deng was a maybe to visit Texas this weekend. However, he will not be able to make it due to team activities. Deng visited UT last month for the Heat Wave event and hopes to get back on campus at some point in the fall. Texas has not offered, but Deng remains firmly on the radar.

 

Wonder why no interest in Ty Robinson out of Arizona?

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1 hour ago, satyanash said:

EJ after dark: New defensive line recruits on UT's radar

 

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— Looking for a sleeper defensive lineman to file away? Armwood (Fla.) defensive lineman Justin Williams is a prospect on the rise and has had recent contact with Oscar Giles. A three-star recruit, Williams has offers in hand from Maryland, Ohio, Syracuse, Toledo, Western Michigan and a few others. He has high interest in the program and hopes to hear more from Giles.

 

Par for the course. He has high interest in the program. You fucking think? That's pretty surprising considering the academic excellence that emanates from the Toledo.

Edited by SydneyCarton
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Scipio Tex: Want To See California Recruiting Market Inefficiencies At Work?

I think I may have converted a majority of my Texas readers to the idea that there are easy pickings out West and that the easiest bang for your buck in out of state recruiting is in the state of California (and it's Southwestern satellite cities).

Hey, it only took me a decade.

Judging from our current 2019 class composition, our staff has done some of the same due diligence combined with a tougher row to hoe in-state. Eric Nahlin does a nice job of breaking that dynamic down in Thinking Texas Football. Don't be surprised if out-of-staters-make up 40% of the 2019 class.

With respect to California, there's still a lot more meat left on the bone. If you're not fully bought in yet, this might do it.

Talent Parity Makes For Easy Comps

A convenient aspect of California recruiting is that in most years the total talent level is about the same as the state of Texas. A quick and dirty proof of this fact are the raw NFL numbers by origin state. If you prefer more immediate proof of equivalence, in the 2019 24/7 composite state recruit rankings, the top 45 players in California are ranked 4 stars. The Top 42 in Texas are 4 stars.

Apples to apples. Or California oranges to Texas peaches, if you prefer.

The Opportunity 

But there is one stark difference between these two comparable hunting grounds: commitment.

In the 2019 state of Texas prospect class, 34 of the Top 50 players are already committed. Including 18 of the Top 25 and 9 of the Top 10. So the Top 50/25/10 commitment percentages are 68/72/90. A lot of full dance cards for the state's elite. The Longhorns will work to cut in on a few, but it will take some doing.

In the 2019 state of California prospect class, just 22 of the Top 50 players are already committed. Only 11 of the Top 25 and 5 of the Top 10. So the Top 50/25/10 percentages are 44/44/50. Contrast that with 68/72/90 in Texas.

A lot of still open dance cards.

It gets better.

Of the available Top 28 uncommitted players in California (out of 50), six of them are defensive linemen, five are linebackers and two of them are highly ranked offensive tackles. They also have some good uncommitted cornerback and tight end talent if you want to kick the tires on our committed three stars there, but I digress.

All six defensive linemen are better prospects than Taurean Carter, who is a useful in-state comparison for what some are arguing we settle for.

Five viable 4 star linebacker prospects in California is four more than the state of Texas has this year. We've offered one of them in Daniel Heimuli.

Two uncommitted top 11 in California offensive tackles need no sell over our current prospects.

This year, California matches up strengths to Longhorn needs and Texas in-state weaknesses pretty nicely.

But who do we have to beat out?

The Local Competition 

Here are the current national recruiting rankings and raw numbers for the major California in-state schools and traditional California-heavy recruiting neighbors (all eight are Pac 12).

They're kind of amazing.

#5 Oregon: 15 recruits, eleven 4 stars
#32 Washington: 12 recruits, six 4 stars
#35 USC: 10 recruits, five 4 stars
#38 California: 15 recruits, 0 4 stars
#45 Stanford: 8 recruits, five 4 stars
#52 Arizona St: 11 recruits, 0 4 stars
#71 Arizona: 8 recruits, 1 4 star
#76 UCLA: 6 recruits, 0 4 stars

Oregon is killing it in California (they have 5 of the California Top 20 committed), exploiting the huge vacuum that I've been urging us to fill. Oregon has a good recruiting staff and a legitimate football culture, but they're not Alabama or Ohio State. Their success is a product of opportunity. 

Washington is a highly selective recruiter that looks for "our kinda guys." They love Polynesian players (they comprise half of their current commits) and Chris Petersen has three Pacific Islander origin coaches on his staff. Petersen knows his niche. And that's the only recruit type where they'd give Texas problems.

USC will finish strong late, much to the irritation of USC fans who wish they'd do their work earlier. Their current ranking is deceptive. Maybe the lack of competition has the Trojan staff confident they don't need to press for commitments. They also recruit nationally. Outside of their stronghold Cali high schools, they're not any more potent to counter recruit than any other good school.

California isn't competing with Texas for athletes.

Stanford is perceived as a California player, but they're a national recruiter. They're also extreme narrowcasters. They're as likely to plague us in Texas as they are in California when it comes to certain academic profile athletes.

Arizona State and Arizona haven't landed a single Top 50 player in California. Herm Edwards is a nice guy that's failing and Sumlin is stumblin'. Neither is competing with Texas in California for talent. They can't even hold down their own state.

UCLA. They should sign a Top 15-20 class every year without much effort, but Chip Kelly is proving every rumor about his disinterest in recruiting correct. Unfortunately, he may have hired a staff that shares his instincts. A huge void in SoCal. Currently ranked behind Old Dominion and Nevada.

**

It's no coincidence that Oregon and Washington are having success. Each school has a football culture and competent recruiting staffs. So sun-loving Californians are sucking it up and jumping on a plane headed north to endure some rain and gray. But most are biding their time and waiting for other options.

Texas could be that option.

So that's California recruiting. If you can find a state with comparable talent, better opportunity, and more scarce - if not largely irrelevant - competition, make your case.

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Looking at the 247 composite for California shows some odd looking numbers. There are several 4-star Cali players with very few offers for being so highly ranked. The only uncommitted DT in the Top 50 is #15 Jacob Bandes who only has 17 offers. (You have to go well down the list of uncommitted Texas 4-stars before you find anyone with less than 20 offers.) No OU or UT offers, much less USC or UCLA. Seems odd for a Top 20 player. Sean Rhyan, the top ranked OT at #9 has only 16 offers but those include USC, UCLA, and Stanford and most of other Pac 12, along with Bama and ND. There are several other 4-star players with offer lists that say 3-star. There are even four 4-star guys with less than 10 offers. Either these guys are steals or they are ranking misses.

As for the Top 10, everyone of note has offered Thibodeaux and McCoy, but neither us nor OU have offered ILB To'ot'oo (are our juvenile coaching staffs too busy laughing at his name? he has offers from a lot of big time programs), WR Ford (neither of us needs to look far for WRs) or OT Rhyan (who I am guessing is a USC lock). 

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2 minutes ago, TankedBevo said:

Shepard tweeted out he's committing soon with a #shockthemedia hashtag, then promptly deleted it. Either he committed to the ags while on his visit today or they did enough to push him our way. 

That would be some high-grade shenanigans if it happened.

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3 minutes ago, TankedBevo said:

Shepard tweeted out he's committing soon with a #shockthemedia hashtag, then promptly deleted it. Either he committed to the ags while on his visit today or they did enough to push him our way. 

Shepherd didn't visit College Station, I don't think.

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3 minutes ago, TankedBevo said:

Shepard tweeted out he's committing soon with a #shockthemedia hashtag, then promptly deleted it. Either he committed to the ags while on his visit today or they did enough to push him our way. 

it's called creating suspense. Almost everyone thinks he's going to be Longhorn. 

I have no clue where he's committing but this screams a kid trying to build up his commitment announcement. 

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Yeah, if Shepherd is visiting this weekend like Horns247 reported I would be surprised if he isn't committing this weekend. 

The "shockthemedia" stuff is a good sign Shepherd knows most people think he's committing to Texas. These kids want this stuff to be a "shocker" when reality is most already know where they are going. 

Until Shepherd actually makes a shocking decision I'm rolling with the idea this is simply to build suspense for a commitment most knew was coming weeks ago. 

Edited by texasstrong12
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2 hours ago, rickyspub said:

Looking at the 247 composite for California shows some odd looking numbers. There are several 4-star Cali players with very few offers for being so highly ranked. The only uncommitted DT in the Top 50 is #15 Jacob Bandes who only has 17 offers. (You have to go well down the list of uncommitted Texas 4-stars before you find anyone with less than 20 offers.) No OU or UT offers, much less USC or UCLA. Seems odd for a Top 20 player. Sean Rhyan, the top ranked OT at #9 has only 16 offers but those include USC, UCLA, and Stanford and most of other Pac 12, along with Bama and ND. There are several other 4-star players with offer lists that say 3-star. There are even four 4-star guys with less than 10 offers. Either these guys are steals or they are ranking misses.

As for the Top 10, everyone of note has offered Thibodeaux and McCoy, but neither us nor OU have offered ILB To'ot'oo (are our juvenile coaching staffs too busy laughing at his name? he has offers from a lot of big time programs), WR Ford (neither of us needs to look far for WRs) or OT Rhyan (who I am guessing is a USC lock). 

Don't take offer lists on 247 as some sort of gospel, there's no heavy duty reporting around it, most of it is just what the kids self-report.

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1 hour ago, Lonestar88 said:

Don't take offer lists on 247 as some sort of gospel, there's no heavy duty reporting around it, most of it is just what the kids self-report.

But why report offers from G5 schools and not blue bloods? I am sure guys like McCoy and Thibodeaux haven't bothered reporting all the G5 schools they have gotten offers from, but I doubt any Cali kid wouldn't report a USC or UCLA offer.

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People are going to hate it because we are not getting Leal and Mowry is all aggie but we will again end up with a very good DL class. I don't care how we land it as long as we end up with some studs like we did last year. I love both our takes so far, neither as immediate contributors and that is just fine.

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2 minutes ago, ClubWhatever said:

Aw come on.  He exists.  He moves.  He doesn't (always) run the wrong way.  Check, check, check.

You guys watching his soph. year film or junior film?  His OL play in his junior year film shows a pretty good meanstreak and decent footwork (although his pad level is atrocious).

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9 minutes ago, Katfid54 said:

You guys watching his soph. year film or junior film?  His OL play in his junior year film shows a pretty good meanstreak and decent footwork (although his pad level is atrocious).

I agree with this. He reaches a lot but he is big and doesn't give up on plays (in highlights).

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22 minutes ago, Goodman said:

People are going to hate it because we are not getting Leal and Mowry is all aggie but we will again end up with a very good DL class. I don't care how we land it as long as we end up with some studs like we did last year. I love both our takes so far, neither as immediate contributors and that is just fine.

giphy.gif

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2 minutes ago, satyanash said:

Andrew Ellis CBed Elijah Higgins to Ohip State.

He's an OSU writer, but he's up there with Wiltfong wrt CB accuracy.

I guess it is better to have no coach than 2 coaches. And yes I know tOSU has an interim coach who will get replaced by an unknown.

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1 minute ago, satyanash said:

Just let Giles know and we should be golden.

Meh, we all know what type of recruiter he is. He'll lose guys like Leal and never be a strong enough personality to attract a guy that already likes aggie but if we continue to evaluate well and he continuous to get help on key targets we will always have a good DL. He can develop. Is that good enough? He's already here and we have 2 or 3 coaches ahead of him on a PIP. 

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19 minutes ago, Goodman said:

Meh, we all know what type of recruiter he is. He'll lose guys like Leal and never be a strong enough personality to attract a guy that already likes aggie but if we continue to evaluate well and he continuous to get help on key targets we will always have a good DL. 

The fact that we've already begun to accept that Giles will lose guys like Leal and be unable to sway Aggie leans... it's not a great sign. Should never be content with excuses for missing out on the top guys, no matter how well Giles does with someone else's players, because eventually he'll run out of those players that were recruited for him by someone else.

Edited by satyanash
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2 minutes ago, satyanash said:

The fact that we've already begun to accept that Giles will lose guys like Leal and be unable to sway Aggie leans... it's not a great sign.

Somehow, reading your continuous bitching is even more of a beating than having to hear about our futility in recruiting highly ranked DL.

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2 minutes ago, Goodman said:

I hear you but so far we have not had that problem. Our class that just signed is outstanding. I think we end up with another great class this year.

Yeah he needs to actually finish a cycle with a mediocre class before I complain very hard. *cue ctj rant*

Edited by texifornia
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